The golden bough; a study in comparative religion

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Division X3 I— • •C) I O

Number V, „<_

THE GOLDEN BOUGH

THE

GOLDEN BOUGH

A STUDY
IN COMPARATIVE RELIGION

V

J. G. FRAZER, M.A.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II

MACMILLAN AND CO.

AND LONDON
1894

^11 rights rtser-ved

CONTENTS

CHAPTER III {continued)

KILLING THE GOD, pp. 1-2 2 2

lo. The corn-spirit as an animal

I

II. Eating the god ....

. 67

12. Killing the divine animal .

. 90

13. Transference of evil

. 148

14. Expulsion of evils ....

.•157

15. Scapegoats .....

. 182

16. Killing the god in Mexico .

. 218

CHAPTER IV

THE GOLDEN BOUGH, pp. 2 2 3-3 7 I

1. Between heaven and earth .

2. Balder

3. The external soul in folk-tales

4. The external soul in folk-custom

5. Conclusion .

223

244
296

327
359

NOTE

Offerings of first-fruits
Index

373
38s

CHAPTER III —{continued)

\ lo. — The corn-sph'ii as an animal

In some of the examples cited above to establish
the meaning of the term " neck " as applied to the last
sheaf, the corn -spirit appears in animal form as a
gander, a goat, a hare, a cat, and a fox. This intro-
duces us to a new aspect of the corn-spirit, which we
must now examine. By doing so we shall not only
have fresh examples of killing the god, but may hope
also to clear up some points which remain obscure in
the myths and worship of Attis, Adonis, Osiris,
Dionysus, Demeter, and Virbius.

Amongst the many animals whose forms the corn-
spirit is supposed to take are the wolf, dog, hare, cock,
goose, cat, goat, cow (ox, bull), pig, and horse. In
one or other of these forms the 'corn-spirit is believed
to be present in the corn, and to be caught or killed in
the last sheaf. As the corn is being cut the animal
flees before the reapers, and if a reaper is taken ill
on the field, he is supposed to have stumbled un-
wittingly on the corn-spirit, who has thus punished the
profane intruder. It is said " The Rye-wolf has got hold
of him," "the Harvest-goat has given him a push."
The person who cuts the last corn or binds the
last sheaf gets the name of the animal, as the Rye-

" VOL. II B

THE CORN-SPIRIT

wolf, the Rye-sow, the Oats-goat, etc., and retains the
name sometimes for a year. Also the animal is fre-
quently represented by a puppet made out of the last
sheaf or of wood, flowers, etc., which is carried home
amid rejoicings on the last harvest waggon. Even
where the last sheaf is not made up in animal shape, it
is often called the Rye- wolf, the Hare, Goat, and so on.
Generally each kind of crop is supposed to have its
special animal, which is caught in the last sheaf, and
called the Rye -wolf, the Barley -wolf, the Oats -wolf,
the Pea- wolf, or the Potato -wolf, according to the
crop ; but sometimes the figure of the animal is only
made up once for all at getting in the last crop of the
whole harvest. Sometimes the animal is believed to
be killed by the last stroke of the sickle or scythe.
But oftener it is thought to live so long as there is
corn still unthreshed, and to be caught in the last sheaf
threshed. Hence the man who gives the last stroke
with the flail is told that he has got the Corn-sow,
the Threshing-dog, etc. When the threshing is
finished, a puppet is made in the form of the animal,
and this is carried by the thresher of the last sheaf to
a neighbouring farm, where the threshing is still going
on. This again shows that the corn-spirit is believed
to live wherever the corn is still being threshed.
Sometimes the thresher of the last sheaf himself repre-
sents the animal ; and if the people of the next farm,
who are still threshing, catch him, they treat him
like the animal he represents, by shutting him up in
the pig - sty, calling him with the cries commonly
addressed to pigs, and so forth. ^

These general statements will now be illustrated
by examples. We begin with the corn -spirit con-

1 W. Mannhardt, Die Komddmomn^ pp. i-6.

AS A DOG OR WOLF

cefved as a wolf or a dog. This conception is
common in France, Germany, and Slavonic coun-
tries. Thus, when the wind sets the corn in wave-
like motion, the peasants often say, "The Wolf
is going over, or through, the corn," " the Rye -wolf
is rushing over the field," " the Wolf is in the corn,"
" the mad Dog is in the corn," " the bio- Doe is

1 ) o o

there.' ^ When children wish to go into the corn-
fields to pluck ears or gather the blue corn-flowers,
they are warned not to do so, for "the big Dog sits
in the corn," or " the Wolf sits in the corn, and will
tear you in pieces," "the Wolf will eat you." The
wolf against whom the children are warned is not
a common wolf, for he is often spoken of as the
Corn-wolf, Rye-wolf, etc. ; thus they say, "The Rye-
wolf will come and eat you up, children," "the Rye-
wolf will carry you off," and so forth.^ Still he has all
the outward appearance of a wolf. For in the neigh-
bourhood of Feilenhof (East Prussia), when a wolf
was seen running through a field, the peasants used to
watch whether he carried his tail in the air or
dragged it on the ground. If he dragged it on the
ground, they went after him, and thanked him for
bringing them a blessing, and even set tit-bits before
him. But if he carried his tail high, they cursed him
and tried to kill him. Here the wolf is the corn-
spirit, whose fertilising power is in his tail.^

Both dog and wolf appear as embodiments of the
corn-spirit in harvest-customs. Thus in some parts

1 W. Mannhardt, Rcggenwolf tmd "■■ W. Mannhardt, Roggenwolfii. Rog-

Roggenhund (Danzig, 1865), p. 5 ; id., gaikimd, p. 7 sqq. ; id., A. W. F. p.

A7itike Wald-imd Feldkulte, p. 318 j-^.; 319.

id., Mythol. Forsch. p. 103 ; Witz- 3 w. IMannhardt, Roggenwolf, etc. p.

schel, Sagen, Sit ten tmd Gebrduche mis 10.
Thiiringejt, p. 213.

THE CORN-SPIRIT

of Silesia the person who binds the last sheaf is
called the Wheat-dog or the Peas-pug/ But it
is in the harvest-customs of the north-east of France
that the idea of the Corn -dog comes out most
clearly. Thus when a harvester, through sickness,
w^eariness, or laziness, cannot or will not keep up with
the reaper in front of him, they say, " The White
Dog passed near him," "he has the White Bitch," or
"the White Bitch has bitten him." ^ In the Vosges
the Harvest- May is called the "Dog of the har-
vest."^ About Lons-le-Saulnier, in the Jura, the
last sheaf is called the Bitch. In the neighbourhood
of Verdun the regular expression for finishing the
reaping is, "They are going to kill the Dog;" and
at Epinal they say, according to the crop, " We will
kill the Wheat-dog, or the Rye-dog, or the Potato-
dog."* In Lorraine it is said of the man who cuts the
last corn, " He is killing the Dog of the harvest."^
At Dux, in the Tyrol, the man who gives the last
stroke at threshing is said to " strike down the Dog;"''
and at Ahnebergen, near Stade, he is called, according
to the crop, Corn-pug, Rye-pug, Wheat-pug.^

So with the wolf. In Germany it is said that " The
Wolf sits in the last sheaf." ^ In some places they call
out to the reaper, " Beware of the Wolf;" or they say,
" He is chasing the Wolf out of the corn."^ The last
bunch of standing corn is called the Wolf, and the
man who cuts it " has the Wolf" The last sheaf is
also called the Wolf ; and of the woman who binds
it they say, " The Wolf is biting her," " she has the

1 W. Mannhardl, M. F. p. 104. ■* lb. p. 105. ^ //'. p. 30-

2 Jb, " Il>. pp. 30, 105. " y/;. p. 105 sq,

3 lb. p. 104 sq. On the Harvest- * A. IV. F. p. 320 ; Roi^gcnwolf, p.
May, see above, vol. i. p. 68. 24. '-^ Roggenwolf, p. 24.

AS A WOLF

Wolf," "she must fetch the Wolf" (out of the corn).^
Moreover, she is herself called Wolf and has to bear
the name for a whole year ; sometimes, according to
the crop, she is called the Rye -wolf or the Potato-
wolf." In the island of Riigen they call out to the
woman who binds the last sheaf, " You're Wolf ; " and
when she comes home she bites the lady of the house
and the stewardess, for which she receives a large
piece of meat. The same woman may be Rye-wolf,
Wheat-wolf, and Oats-wolf, if she happens to bind the
last sheaf of rye, wheat, and oats.^ At Buir, in the
district of Cologne, it was formerly the custom to
give to the last sheaf the shape of a wolf. It was
kept in the barn till all the corn was threshed. Then
it was brought to the farmer, and he had to sprinkle
it with beer or brandy.^ In many places the sheaf
called the Wolf is made up in human form and dressed
in clothes. This indicates a confusion between the
conceptions of the corn - spirit as theriomorphic (in
animal form) and as anthropomorphic (in human
form).^ Generally the Wolf is brought home
on the last waggon, with joyful cries. *^

Again, the Wolf is supposed to hide himself
amongst the cut corn in the granary, until he is
driven out of the last bundle by the strokes of the
flail. Hence at Wanzleben, near Magdeburg, after
the threshing the peasants go in procession, leading
by a chain a man, who is enveloped in the threshed out
straw and is called the Wolf He represents the
corn -spirit who has been caught escaping from the
threshed corn. In Trier it is believed that the Corn-

1 Roggen-wolf, p. 24, •* Roggemuolf, p. 25. ^ //'. p. 26.

2 lb. p. 25. <5 //;. p. 26 ; A. W. F. p. 320.

3 lb. p. 28; A. IV. F. p. 320. ' A. W. F. p. 321.

THE CORN-SPIRIT

wolf is killed at threshing. The men thresh the last
sheaf till it is reduced to chopped straw. In this way
they think that the Corn-wolf who was lurking in the
last sheaf, has been certainly killed.^

In France also the Corn -wolf appears at harvest.
Thus they call out to the reaper of the last corn,
" You will catch the Wolf." Near Chambery they form
a ring round the last standing corn, and cry, " The
Wolf is in there." In Finisterre, when the reaping
draws near an end, the harvesters cry, " There is
the Wolf ; we will catch him." Each takes a swath
to reap, and he who finishes first calls out, " I've
caught the Wolf." ^ In Guyenne, when the last corn
has been reaped, they lead a wether all round the
field. It is called " the Wolf of the field." Its horns
are decked with a wreath of flowers and corn -ears,
and its neck and body are also encircled with gar-
lands and ribbons. All the reapers march, singing,
behind it. Then it is killed on the field. In this
part of France the last sheaf is called the cotijoulage,
which, in the patois, means a wether. Hence the
killing of the wether represents the death of the corn-
spirit, considered as present in the last sheaf; but
two different conceptions of the corn-spirit — as a wolf
and as a wether — are mixed up together.^

Sometimes it appears to be thought that the Wolf,
caught in the last corn, lives during the winter in the
farmhouse, ready to renew his activity as corn-spirit in
the spring. Hence at midwinter, when the lengthening
days begin to herald the approach of spring, the Wolf
makes his appearance once more. In Poland a man,
with a wolf's skin thrown over his head, is led about
at Christmas ; or a stuffed wolf is carried about by

1 A. IV. F. p. 321 sq. 2 ^. ^, /r. p. 320. 3 A. IV. F. p. 320 sq.

Ill AS A COCK 7

persons who collect money.^ There are facts which
point to an old custom of leading about a man
enveloped in leaves and called the Wolf, while his
conductors collected money.^

Another form which the corn -spirit often assumes
is that of a cock. In Austria children are warned
against straying in the corn-fields, because the Corn-
cock sits there, and will peck their eyes out.^ In
North Germany they say that " the Cock sits in
the last sheaf ; " and at cutting the last corn the
reapers cry, " Now we will chase out the Cock."
When it is cut they say, " We have caught the Cock."
Then a cock is made of flowers, fastened on a pole,
and carried home by the reapers, singing as they go.*
At Braller, in Transylvania, when the reapers come to
the last patch of corn, they cry, " Here we shall catch
the Cock."^ At Fiirstenwalde, when the last sheaf is
about to be bound, the master lets loose a cock, which
he has brought in a basket, and lets it run over the
field. All the harvesters chase it till they catch it.
Elsewhere the harvesters all try to seize the last
corn cut ; he who succeeds in grasping it must crow,
and is called Cock.^ The last sheaf is called Cock,
Cock-sheaf, Harvest-cock, Harvest-hen, Autumn-hen.
A distinction is made between a Wheat-cock, Bean-
cock, etc., according to the crop.^ At Wiinschensuhl,
in Thiiringen, the last sheaf is made into the shape of
acock, and called Harvest-cock.^ A figure of a cock.

^ A. W. F. p. 322. 2 //'. p. 323. ^ G. A. Heinrich, Agrarische Sitten

3 Die Korndiimonen, p. 13. tind Gebrduche unter den Sachsen

* lb.; Sch.ra\X.z, Sitten und Sagen des Siebenbiirgens, p. 21.

EiJlerVolkes,i.'p.gi,;'K.\x\\i\,lVestfdlische ^ Die Kornddi/ioneti, p. 13. Cp.

Sagen, Mdrchen und Gebrduche, ii. p. Kuhn and Schwartz, I.e.

181 ; Kuhn und Schwartz, Norddeutsche '' Die Korndd/nonen, p. 13.

Sagen, Aldrchen und Gebrduche, p. * Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Ge-

398. brdiiche aus Thiiringen, p. 220.

THE CORN-SPIRIT

made of wood, pasteboard, or ears of corn, is borne in
front of the harvest-waggon, especially in Westphalia,
where the cock carries in his beak fruits of the earth
of all kinds. Sometimes the image of the cock is
fastened to the top of a May-tree on the last harvest-
waggon. Elsewhere a live cock, or a figure of one, is
attached to a harvest-crown and carried on a pole. In
Galicia and elsewhere this live cock is fastened to the
garland of corn-ears or flowers, which the leader of the
women-reapers carries on her head as she marches in
front of the harvest procession.^ In Silesia a live
cock is presented to the master on a plate. The
harvest supper is called Harvest-cock, Stubble-cock,
etc., and a chief dish at it, at least in some places, is a
cock.^ If a waggoner upsets a harvest -waggon, it is
said that " he has spilt the Harvest-cock," and he loses
the cock — that is, the harvest supper.^ The harvest-
waggon, with the figure of the cock on it, is driven
round the farmhouse before it is taken to the barn.
Then the cock is nailed over, or at the side of the
house door, or on the gable, and remains there till
next harvest.* In East Friesland the person who
gives the last stroke at threshing is called the
Clucking-hen, and grain is strewed before him as if
he were a hen.^

Again, the corn -spirit is killed in the form of

^ Die Komddmonen, p. 13 sq.', overthrowing a load at harvest is "to

Kwhn, Westfdlische Sage7t, Miirchemtiid lose the goose," and the penalty used

Gebraiiche, ii. p. 180 sq.; Pfannen- to be the loss of the goose at the harvest

%chm\(l, Germa7iische Erntefeste, p. no. supper (Burne and Jackson, Shropshire

2 DieKomdiimonm, p. 14; Pfannen- ^f'^'^'^^ P; 375) ; and in some parts
schmid, op. cit. pp. 1 1 ., 419 sq. "^, ^ngland the harvest supper was

•' called the Harvest Uosling, or the

3 Die Komddmonen, p. 15. So in Inning Goose (Brand, Popular Anti-
Shropshire, where the corn -spirit is (/?<;V/fc'5, ii. 23, 26, Bohn's ed.)
conceived in the form of a gander (see * Die R'oriiddmonen, p. 14.
above, vol. i. p. 407), the expression for ^ lb. p. 15.

Ill AS A COCK 9

a cock. In parts of Germany, Hungary, Poland,
and Picardy, the reapers place a live cock in the
corn which is to be cut last, and chase it over the
field, or bury it up to the neck in the ground ; after-
wards they strike off its head with a sickle or
scythe.^ In many parts of Westphalia, when the
harvesters bring the wooden cock to the farmer, he
gives them a live cock, which they kill with whips
or sticks, or behead with an old sword, or throw it
into the barn to the girls, or give it to the mistress
to cook. If the Harvest -cock has not been spilt —
that is, if no waggon has been upset — the harvesters
have the right of killing the farmyard cock by
throwing stones at it or beheading it. Where this
custom has fallen into disuse, it is still common
for the farmer's wife to make cockie - leekie for
the harvesters, and to show them the head of
the cock which has been killed for the soup.^ In
the neighbourhood of Klausenburg, Transylvania, a
cock is buried on the harvest- field in the earth, so
that only its head appears. A young man then takes
a scythe and cuts off the cock's head at a single
stroke. If he fails to do this, he is called the Red
Cock for a whole year, and people fear that next
year's crop will be bad.'^ In the neighbourhood of
Udvarhely, Transylvania, a live cock is bound up
in the last sheaf and killed with a spit. It is
then skinned. The flesh is thrown away, but the
skin and feathers are kept till next year ; and in
spring the grain from the last sheaf is mixed with
the feathers of the cock and scattered on the field
which is to be tilled.^ Nothing could set in a clearer

1 M. F. p. 30. 3 //,. p, 15 j.^,

2 j)ig Korndiwtonen, p. 15. ■* lb. p. 15 ; M. F. p. 30,

THE CORN-SPIRIT

light the identification of the cock with the spirit of
the corn. By being tied up in the last sheaf and
killed, the cock is identified with the corn, and its
death with the cutting of the corn. By keeping its
feathers till spring, then mixing them with the seed-
corn taken from the very sheaf in which the bird had
been bound, and scattering the feathers together with
the seed over the field, the identity of the bird with
the corn is again emphasised, and its quickening and
fertilising power, as the corn-spirit, is intimated in the
plainest manner. Thus the corn -spirit, in the form of
a cock, is killed at harvest, but rises to fresh life and
activity in spring. Again, the equivalence of the cock
to the corn is expressed, hardly less plainly, in the
custom of burying the bird in the ground, and cutting
off its head (like the ears of corn) with the scythe.

Another common embodiment of the corn-spirit is
the hare.^ In some parts of Ayrshire the cutting of
the last corn is called " cutting the Hare ; " ^ and in
Germany a name for the last sheaf is the Hare.^ In
East Prussia they say that the Hare sits in the last
patch of standing corn, and must be chased out by the
last reaper. The reapers hurry with their work, each
being anxious not to have "to chase out the Hare ;"
for the man who does so, that is, who cuts the last
corn, is much laughed at.^ At Birk in Transylvania,
when the reapers come to the last patch, they cry out,
" We have the Hare." ^ At Aurich, as we have seen,^
an expression for cutting the last corn is "to cut
off the Hare's tail." " He is killing the Hare " is

^ Die Kornddmonm, p. i. ^ G. A. Heinrich, Agrarische Sitten

2 Folk-lore Journal, vii. 47. tnid Gebrdnche nnter den Sachsen

^ Die Kornddinonen, p. 3. Sicbcnbiirgens, p. 21.

■• Lemke, Volksthiimliches in Ost- ** Above, vol. i. p. 40S.

preussen, i. 24.

Ill AS A HARE OR CAT ii

commonly said of the man who cuts the last corn
in Germany, Sweden, Holland, France, and Italy. ^
In Norway the man who is thus said to " kill the
Hare" must give " hare's blood," in the form of brandy,
to his fellows to drink." ^

Again, the corn-spirit sometimes takes the form of
a cat.^ Near Kiel children are warned not to go into
the corn-fields because " the Cat sits there." In the
Eisenach Oberland they are told " the Corn-cat will
come and fetch you," " the Corn-cat goes in the corn."
In some parts of Silesia at mowing the last corn they
say, " the Cat is caught ; " and at threshing, the man
who gives the last stroke is called the Cat. In the
neighbourhood of Lyons the last sheaf and the harvest
supper are both called the Cat. About Vesoul when
they cut the last corn they say, " We have the Cat
by the tail." At Brian9on, in Dauphine, at the
beginning of reaping, a cat is decked out with ribbons,
flowers, and ears of corn. It is called the Cat of
the ball-skin [le chat de peau de balle). If a reaper
is wounded at his work, they make the cat lick the
wound. At the close of the reaping the cat is again
decked out with ribbons and ears of corn ; then there
is dancing and merriment. When the dance is over,
the cat is solemnly stripped of its ornaments by the
girls. At Griineberg in Silesia the reaper who cuts
the last corn is called the Tom-cat. He is enveloped
in rye -stalks and green withes, and is furnished with
a long plaited tail. Sometimes as a companion he has
a man similarly dressed, who is called the (female) Cat.
Their duty is to run after people whom they see
and beat them with a long stick. Near Amiens the

1 M. F. p. 29. 2 M. F. p. 29 sq. ; Die Korndamonen, p. 5.

3 A. IV. F. pp. 172-174; M. F. p. 30.

12 THE CORN-SPIRIT chap.

expression for finishing the harvest is, " They are
going to kill the Cat ; " and when the last corn is
cut a cat is killed in the farmyard. At threshing,
in some parts of France, a live cat is placed under the
last bundle of corn to be threshed, and is struck dead
with the flails. Then on Sunday it is roasted and
eaten as a holiday dish.

Further, the corn-spirit often appears in the form of
a goat. In the province of Prussia, when the corn
bends before the wind, they say, " The Goats are
chasing each other," " the wind is driving the Goats
through the corn," " the Goats are browsing there," and
they expect a very good harvest. Again they say,
"the Oats-goat is sitting in the oats-field," "the Corn-
goat is sitting in the rye-field." ^ Children are warned
not to go into the corn-fields to pluck the blue corn-
flowers, or amongst the beans to pluck pods, because
the Rye-goat, the Corn-goat, the Oats-goat, or the
Bean-goat is sitting or lying there, and will carry them
away or kill them.^ When a harvester is taken sick or
lags behind his fellows at their work, they call out, "The
Harvest-goat has pushed him," " he has been pushed
by the Corn-goat. "^ In the neighbourhood of Brauns-
berg (East Prussia) at binding the oats every harvester
makes haste "lest the Corn-goat push him." At
Oefoten in Norway each harvester has his allotted
patch to reap. When a harvester in the middle has
not finished reaping his piece after his neighbours have
finished theirs, they say of him, " He remains on the
island." And if the laggard is a man, they imitate the
cry with which they call a he - goat ; if a woman, the
cry with which they call a she-goat.* Near Straubing

1 W. Mannhardt, A. W. F. p. 3 //,. p. j^g.

155 sq. 2 lb. p. 157 sq. * lb. p. 161 sq.

Ill AS A GOAT 13

in Lower Bavaria, it is said of the man who cuts
the last corn that " he has the Corn -goat or the
Wheat-goat, or the Oats-goat," according to the crop.
Moreover, two horns are set up on the last heap of
corn, and it is called " the horned Goat." At Kreutz-
burg, East Prussia, they call out to the woman who is
binding: the last sheaf, " The Goat is sitting: in the
sheaf." ^ At Gablingen in Swabia, when the last field
of oats upon a farm is being reaped, the reapers carve
a goat out of wood. Ears of oats are inserted in its
nostrils and mouth, and it is adorned with garlands
of flowers. It is set upon the field and called the
Oats -goat. When the reaping approaches an end,
each reaper hastens to finish his piece first ; he who
is the last to finish gets the Oats-goat.^ Again, the
last sheaf is itself called the Goat. Thus, in the valley
of the Wiesent, Bavaria, the last sheaf bound on the
field is called the Goat, and they have a proverb, " The
field must bear a goat.^ At Spachbriicken in Hesse,
the last handful of corn which is cut is called the Goat,
and the man who cuts it is much ridiculed.^ Some-
times the last sheaf is made up in the form of a goat,^
and they say, "The Goat is sitting in it." Again,
the person who cuts or binds the last sheaf is called
the Goat. Thus, in parts of Mecklenburg they call
out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, " You
are the Harvest-goat." In the neighbourhood of Uel-
zen in Hanover, the harvest festival begins with " the
bringing of the Harvest-goat ; " that is, the woman
who bound the last sheaf is wrapt in straw, crowned
with a harvest-wreath, and brought in a wheelbarrow

1 W. Mannhardt, A. IV. F. p. 162. 3 Panzer, op. at. ii. p. 22S sq. No.

2 Panzer, Beitrag zur deiitschen 422 ; A. W. F. p. 163.
Mythologie, ii. p. 232 sq. No. 426; * A. IV. F. p. 163.
A. IV. F. p. 162. ^ //^ p. 164.

14 THE CORN-SPIRIT chap.

to the village, where a round dance takes place.
About Liineburg, also, the woman who binds the last
corn is decked with a crown of corn-ears and is called
the Corn-goat/ In the Canton St. Gall, Switzer-
land, the person who cuts the last handful of corn on
the field, or drives the last harvest-waggon to the barn,
is called the Corn-goat or the Rye-goat, or simply the
Goat- In the Canton Thurgau he is called Corn-
goat ; like a goat he has a bell hung round his neck, is
led in triumph, and drenched with liquor. In parts of
Styria, also, the man who cuts the last corn is called
Corn -goat, Oats -goat, etc. As a rule, the man who
thus gets the name of Corn-goat has to bear it a whole
year till the next harvest.^

According to one view, the corn -spirit, who has
been caught in the form of a goat or otherwise, lives
in the farmhouse or barn over winter. Thus, each
farm has its own embodiment of the corn-spirit. But,
according to another view, the corn-spirit is the genius
or deity, not of the corn of one farm only, but of all
the corn. Hence when the corn on one farm is all cut,
he flees to another where there is still corn left stand-
ing. This idea is brought out in a harvest- custom
which was formerly observed in Skye. The farmer
who first finished reaping sent a man or woman with a
sheaf to a neighbouring farmer who had not finished ;
the latter in his turn, when he had finished, sent on the
sheaf to his neighbour who was still reaping ; and so
the sheaf made the, round of the farms till all the corn
was cut. The sheaf was called the zoabbir bkacao-fL
that is, the Cripple Goat.* The corn-spirit was prob-
ably thus represented as lame because he had been

1 A. IV. F. p. 164. 2 ji, p 1 5^ ^q^ 3 //; p i5^_

■• lirand, Popular Autiqtiitics, ii. 24, Bohn's ed. ; A. W. F. p. 165.

Ill AS A GOAT 15

crippled by the cutting of the corn. We have seen
that sometimes the old woman who brings home the
last sheaf must limp on one foot.^ In the Bohmer
Wald mountains, between Bohemia and Bavaria, when
two peasants are driving home their corn together,
they race against each other to see who shall get
home first. The village boys mark the loser in the
race, and at night they come and erect on the roof of
his house the Oats-goat, which is a colossal figure of a
goat made of straw."

But sometimes the corn-spirit, in the form of a
goat, is believed to be slain on the harvest- field by
the sickle or scythe. Thus, in the neighbourhood of
Bernkastel, on the Moselle, the reapers determine by
lot the order in which they shall follow each other.
The first is called the fore -reaper, the last the tail-
bearer. If a reaper overtakes the man in front he
reaps past him, bending round so as to leave the
slower reaper in a patch by himself. This patch is
called the Goat ; and the man for whom " the Goat
is cut " in this way, is laughed and jeered at by
his fellows for the rest of the day. When the tail-
bearer cuts the last ears of corn, it is said " He is
cutting the Goat's neck off"^ In the neighbourhood
of Grenoble, before the end of the reaping, a live goat
is adorned with flowers and ribbons and allowed to run
about the field. The reapers chase it and try to catch
it. When it is caught, the farmer's wife holds it fast
while the farmer cuts off its head. The goat's flesh
serves to furnish the harvest supper. A piece of the
flesh is pickled and kept till the next harvest, when
another goat is killed. Then all the harvesters eat

1 Above, vol. i. p. 380. 2 ^_ iy_ /r_ p_ ^(,^^

3 A. W. F. p. 166; M. F. p. 185.

1 6 THE CORN-SPIRIT

of the flesh. On the same day the skin of the goat is
made into a cloak, which the farmer, who works with
his men, must always wear at harvest-time if rain or
bad weather sets in. But if a reaper gets pains in his
back, the farmer gives him the goat- skin to wear.^
The reason for this seems to be that the pains in
the back, being inflicted by the corn-spirit, can also be
healed by it. Similarly we saw that elsewhere, when
a reaper is wounded at reaping, a cat, as the repre-
sentative of the corn-spirit, is made to lick the wound.^
Esthonian reapers in the island of Mon think that the
man who cuts the first ears of corn at harvest will get
pains in his back,^ — probably because the corn-spirit is
believed to resent especially the first wound ; and, in
order to escape pains in the back, Saxon reapers in
Transylvania gird their loins with the first handful
of ears which they cut.^ Here, again, the corn-spirit
is applied to for healing or protection, but in his
original vegetable form, not in the form of a goat
or a cat.

Further, the corn-spirit under the form of a goat is
sometimes conceived as lurking among the cut corn in
the barn, till he is driven from it by the threshing-flail.
For example, in the neighbourhood of Marktl in
Upper Bavaria the sheaves are called Straw-goats or
simply Goats. They are laid in a great heap on the
open field and threshed by two rows of men standing
opposite each other, who, as they ply their flails, sing a
song in which they say that they see the Straw-goat
amonest the corn-stalks. The last Goat, that is, the
last sheaf, is adorned with a wreath of violets and other

1 A. W. F. p. 1 66. * G. A. Heinrich, Agrarische Sitten

2 Above, p. II. «• Gcbrimche iintcr den Sachsen Sieben-

3 Holzmayer, Osiliana, p. 107. biirgcns, p. 19. Cp. B. K. p. 482 sqq.

in AS A GOAT 17

flowers and with cakes strung together. It is placed
right in the middle of the heap. Some of the threshers
rush at it and tear the best of it out ; others lay on
with their flails so recklessly that heads are sometimes
broken. In threshing this last sheaf, each man casts
up to the man opposite him the misdeeds of which he
has been guilty throughout the year.^ At Oberinntal in
Tyrol the last thresher is called Goat.^ At Tettnang
in Wurtemberg the thresher who gives the last stroke
to the last bundle of corn before it is turned goes by the
name of the He-goat, and it is said " he has driven the
He-goat away." The person who, after the bundle
has been turned, gives the last stroke of all, is called
the She-goat.^ In this custom it is implied that the
corn is inhabited by a pair of corn -spirits, male and
female. Further, the corn-spirit, captured in the form
of a goat at threshing, is passed on to a neighbour
whose threshing is not yet finished. In Franche Comte,
as soon as the threshing is over, the young people set
up a straw figure of a goat on the farmyard of a
neighbour who is still threshing. He must give them
wine or money in return. At Ellwangen in Wiirtem-
berg the efiigy of a goat is made out of the last bundle
of corn at threshing ; four sticks form its legs, and two
its horns. The man who gives the last stroke with the
flail must carry the Goat to the barn of a neighbour
who is still threshing and throw it down on the floor ;
if he is caught in the act, they tie the Goat on his back.^
A similar custom is observed at Indersdorf in Upper
Bavaria ; the man who throws the straw Goat into the
neighbour's barn imitates the bleating of a goat ; if they

1 Panzer, Beitrag ziir deutscheii 3 £_ Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitten
Mythologie, ii. p. 225 sqq. No. 421 ; und Geb7-dtuhe aus Schwahen, p. 445,
A. W. F. p. 167 sq. No. 162 ; A. W. F. p. 168.

2 A. W. F. p. 168. 4 A. IV. F. p. 169.

VOL. II C

THE CORN-SPIRIT

catch him they blacken his face and tie the Goat on his
back.^ At Zabern in Elsass, when a farmer is a week
or more behind his neighbours with his threshing,
they set a real stuffed goat (or fox) before his door.^
Sometimes the spirit of the corn in goat form is
believed to be killed at threshing. In the district of
Traunstein, Upper Bavaria, it is thought that the Oats-
goat is in the last sheaf of oats. He is represented by
an old rake set up on end, with an old pot for a head.
The children are then told to kill the Oats-goat.^ A
stranger passing a harvest -field is sometimes taken
for the Corn-goat escaping in human shape from the
cut or threshed grain. Thus, when a stranger passes
a harvest-field, all the labourers stop and shout as with
one voice " He-goat! He-goat!" At rape-seed thresh-
ing in Schleswig, which generally takes place on the
field, the same cry is raised if the stranger does not
take off his hat.*

At sowing their winter corn the Prussian Slavs
used to kill a goat, consume its flesh with many
superstitious ceremonies, and hang the skin on a high
pole near an oak and a large stone. Here it remained
till harvest. Then, after a prayer had been offered by
a peasant who acted as priest {IVeidtcliit), the young
folk joined hands and danced round the oak and the
pole. Afterwards they scrambled for the bunch of corn,
and the priest distributed the herbs with a sparing
hand. Then he placed the goat -skin on the large
stone, sat down on it and preached to the people about
the history of their forefathers and their old heathen
customs and beliefs.^ The goat-skin thus suspended

1 Panzer, op. cit. ii. p. 224 sq. No. 3 //;, p. 170. * lb. p. 170.
420; A .IV. F. p. 169. ^ Praeloi'ms, Deh'dae Frussicae, -p. 2^

2 J. W. F. p. 169. sq. ; B. K. p. 394 sq.

ni AS AN OX 19

on the field from sowing time to harvest represents the
corn-spirit superintending the growth of the corn.

Another form which the corn-spirit often assumes is
that of a bull, cow, or ox. When the wind sweeps
over the corn they say at Conitz in West Prussia, " The
Steer is running in the corn ; " ^ when the corn is thick
and strong in one spot, they say in some parts of East
Prussia, " The Bull is lying in the corn." W^hen a har-
vester has overstrained and lamed himself, they say in
the Graudenz district (West Prussia), " The Bull pushed
him ;" in Lothringen they say, "He has the Bull." The
meaning of both expressions is that he has unwittingly
lighted upon the divine corn-spirit, who has punished
the profane intruder with lameness." So near Cham-
b^ry when a reaper wounds himself with his sickle, it
is said that he has " the wound of the Ox." ^ In the dis-
trict of Bunzlau the last sheaf is sometimes made into
the shape of a horned ox, stuffed with tow and wrapt in
corn-ears. This figure is called the Old Man {der Alte).
In some parts of Bohemia the last sheaf is made up in
human form and called the Buffalo-bull.* These cases
show a confusion between the anthropomorphic and
the theriomorphic conception of the corn-spirit. The
confusion is parallel to that of killing a wether under
the name of a wolf^ In the Canton of Thureau,
Switzerland, the last sheaf, if it is a large one, is called
the Cow.^ All over Swabia the last bundle of corn on
the field is called the Cow ; the man who cuts the last
ears " has the Cow," and is himself called Cow or
Barley-cow or Oats-cow, according to the crop ; at the
harvest supper he gets a nosegay of flowers and corn-
ears and a more liberal allowance of drink than the rest.

1 M. F. p. 58. 3 ,1/ p_ p. 62. 5 Above, p. 6.

2 lb. * M. F. p. 59. 6 M. F. p. 59.

THE CORN-SPIRIT

But he is teased and laughed at ; so no one Hkes to be
the Cow.^ The Cow was sometimes represented by
the fio-ure of a woman made out of ears of corn and
corn-flowers. It was carried to the farmhouse by the
man who had cut the last handful of corn. The child-
ren ran after him and the neighbours turned out to
laugh at him, till the farmer took the Cow from him.'-
Here ao-ain the confusion between the human and the
animal form of the corn-spirit is apparent. In various
parts of Switzerland the reaper who cuts the last ears
of corn is called Wheat -cow, Corn -cow, Oats -cow, or.
Corn-steer, and is the butt of many a joke.^ In some
parts of East Prussia, when a few ears of corn
have been left standing by inadvertence on the last
swath, the foremost reaper seizes them and cries,
" Bull ! Bull ! "^ On the other hand, in the district of
Rosenheim, in Upper Bavaria, when a farmer is later
in getting in his harvest than his neighbours, they set
up on his land a Straw-bull, as it is called. This is a
gigantic figure of a bull made of stubble on a frame-
work of wood and adorned with flowers and leaves.
A label is attached to it containing doggerel verses in
ridicule of the man on whose land the Straw-bull is
placed.^

Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a bull or ox is
killed on the harvest-field at the close of the reaping.
At Pouilly near Dijon, when the last ears of corn are
about to be cut, an ox adorned with ribbons, flowers,
and ears of corn is led all round the field, followed by
the whole troop of reapers dancing. Then a man

1 E. Meier, Deutsche Sageti, Sitten ^ Panzer, op. cit. ii. p. 233, No.

und Gehiiiuche aus Schwaben, p. 440 427 ; M. F. p. 59.

sq. Nos. 151, 152, 153; Panzer, "^ M. F. ^^. i^c) sq.

Beitra^ zur deiUschen Mythologie, ii. * M. F. p. 58.

p. 234, No. 428 ; M. F. p. 59. ^ M. F. p. 58 sq.

Ill AS A COW 21

diseuised as the Devil cuts the last ears of corn and
immediately kills the ox. Part of the flesh of the animal
is eaten at the harvest supper ; part is pickled and kept
till the first day of sowing in spring. At Pont a
Mousson and elsewhere on the evening of the last day
of reaping a calf adorned with flowers and ears of corn
is led three times round the farmyard, being allured
by a bait or driven by men with sticks, or con-
ducted by the farmer's wife with a rope. The calf
selected for this ceremony is the calf which was born
first on the farm in the spring of the year. It is
followed by all the reapers with their implements.
Then it is allowed to run free ; the reapers chase it,
and whoever catches it is called King of the Calf.
Lastly, it is solemnly killed ; at Luneville the man
who acts as butcher is the Jewish merchant of the
village.^

Sometimes again the corn -spirit hides himself
amongst the cut corn in the barn to reappear in bull
or cow form at threshing. Thus at Wurmlingen in
Thliringen the man who gives the last stroke at
threshing is called the Cow, or rather the Barley-cow,
Oats-cow, Peas-cow, etc., according to the crop. He
is entirely enveloped in straw ; his head is surmounted
by sticks in imitation of horns, and two lads lead him
by ropes to the well to drink. On the way thither he
must low like a cow, and for a long time afterwards he
goes by the name of the Cow.^ At Obermedlingen in
Swabia, when the threshing draws near an end, each
man is careful to avoid giving the last stroke. He
who does give it "gets the Cow," which is a straw
figure dressed in an old ragged petticoat, hood, and

1 M. F. p. 60. tmd Gebrduche aus Schwaben, p. 444

2 E. Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sittejt sq. No. 162 ; M. F. p. 61.

22 THE CORN-SPIRIT chap.

Stockings. It is tied on his back with a straw-rope ;
his face is blackened, he is tied with straw-ropes to a
wheelbarrow, and wheeled round the village.^ Here,
again, we are met with that confusion between the
anthropomorphic and theriomorphic conception of the
corn-spirit, which has been already signalised. In
Canton Schaffhausen the man who threshes the last
corn is called the Cow ; in Canton Thurgau, the Corn-
bull ; in Canton Zurich, the Thresher-cow. In the
last-mentioned district he is wrapt in straw and bound
to one of the trees in the orchard.^ At Arad in
Hungary the man who gives the last stroke at thresh-
ing is enveloped in straw and a cow's hide with the
horns attached to it.^ At Pessnitz, in the district of
Dresden, the man who gives the last stroke with the
flail is called Bull. He must make a straw-man and
set it up before a neighbour's window.^ Here, appar-
ently, as in so many cases, the corn-spirit is passed on
to a neighbour who has not finished threshing. So at
Herbrechtingen in Thliringen the effigy of a ragged
old woman is flung into the barn of the farmer who is
last with his threshing. The man who throws it in
cries, "There is the Cow for you." If the threshers
catch him they detain him over night and punish him
by keeping him from the harvest supper.^ In these
latter customs the confusion between the anthropo-
morphic and theriomorphic conception of the corn-
spirit meets us again. Further, the corn-spirit in bull
form is sometimes believed to be killed at threshino-.
At Auxerre in threshing the last bundle of corn they
call out twelve times, "We are killing the Bull." In

1 Panzer, Beitrag zur detitschen 3 j/, /r p_ 52. * RI. F. p. 62.

Mythologie, ii. p. 233, No. 427. ^ £_ Meier, op, cit. p. 445 sq. Ko.

- M. /^. p. 61 sq. 163.

Ill AS AN OX 23

the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, where a butcher kills
an ox on the field immediately after the close of the
reaping, it is said of the man who gives the last stroke
at threshing that " he has killed the Bull."^ At Cham-
bery the last sheaf is called the sheaf of the Young Ox
and a race takes place to it, in which all the reapers
join. When the last stroke is given at threshing they
say that "the Ox Is killed;" and immediately there-
upon a real ox is slaughtered by the reaper who cut
the last corn. The flesh of the ox is eaten by the
threshers at supper.^

We have seen that sometimes the young corn-
spirit, whose task it is to quicken the corn of the
coming year, is believed to be born as a Corn-baby on
the harvest-field.^' Similarly in Berry the young corn-
spirit is sometimes believed to be born on the field in
calf form. For when a binder has not rope enough to
bind all the corn in sheaves, he puts aside the wheat
that remains over and imitates the lowing of a cow.
The meaning is that "the sheaf has given birth to a
calf."* In Puy-de-D6me when a binder cannot keep
up with the reaper whom he or she follows, they
say "He or she is giving birth to the Calf." ^ In
some parts of Prussia, in similar circumstances,
they call out to the woman, "The Bull is coming,"
and imitate the bellowing of a bull.'^ In these
cases the woman is conceived as the Corn-cow or
old corn-spirit, while the supposed calf is the Corn-
calf or young corn-spirit. In some parts of Austria a
mythical calf {Muhkdlbchen) is believed to be seen
amongst the sprouting corn in spring and to push the

1 M. F. p. 60. 2 M. F. p. 62. Legendes du Centre de la France, ii.

3 Above, vol. i. p. 343 sq. 135. ^ M. F. p. 62, ''II fait le veau."

* Laisnel de la Salle, Croyattces et ^ M. F. p. 62.

24 THE CORN-SPIRIT chap.

children ; when the corn waves in the wind they say,
"The Calf is going about." Clearly, as Mannhardt
observes, this calf of the spring-time is the same animal
which is afterwards believed to be killed at reaping.^

Sometimes the corn-spirit appears in the shape of
a horse or mare. Between Kalw and Stuttgart, when
the corn bends before the wind, they say, " There runs
the Horse.""^ In Hertfordshire, at the end of the
reaping, there is or was a ceremony called " crying
the Mare." The last blades of corn left standing on
the field are tied together and called the Mare. The
reapers stand at a distance and throw their sickles at
it ; he who cuts it through " has the prize, with
acclamations and good cheer." After it is cut the
reapers cry thrice with a loud voice, " I have her!"
Others answer thrice, " What have you } " — " A Mare !
a Mare ! a Mare ! " — " Whose is she ? " is next asked
thrice. " A. B.'s," naming the owner thrice. "Whither
will you send her ? " — " To C. D.," naming some neigh-
bour who has not all his corn reaped.^ In this custom
the corn-spirit in the form of a mare is passed on from
a farm where the corn is all cut to another farm where
it is still standing, and where therefore the corn-spirit
may be supposed naturally to take refuge. In Shrop-
shire the custom is similar. " Crying, calling, or
shouting the mare is a ceremony performed by the
men of that farm which is the first in any parish or
district to finish the harvest. The object of it is to
make known their own prowess, and to taunt the
laggards by a pretended offer of the ' owd mar' ' [old
mare] to help out their ' chem ' [team]. All the men
assemble (the wooden harvest-bottle being of course

^ M. F. p. 63. ^ Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 24,

2 M. F. p. 167. Bohn's ed.

AS A MARE

one of the company) in the stackyard, or, better, on
the highest ground on the farm, and there shout the
following dialogue, preceding it by a grand ' Hip, hip,
hip, hurrah ! '

1 ave er, 1 ave er, 1 ave er !

" ' Whad 'ast thee, whad 'ast thee, whad 'ast thee ? '

" ' A mar' ! a mar' ! a mar' ! '

" ' Whose is 'er, whose is 'er, whose is 'er ?'

"'Maister A.'s, Maister A.'s, Maister A.'s ! '
(naming the farmer whose harvest is finished).

" ' W'eer sha't the' send 'er ? w'eer sha't the' send
'er ? w'eer sha't the' send 'er ? '

" ' To Maister B.'s, to Maister B.'s, to Maister
B.'s ' (naming one whose harvest is not finished)."

The farmer who finishes his harvest last, and who
therefore cannot send the Mare to any one else, is
said " to keep her all winter." The mocking offer
of the Mare was sometimes responded to by a
mocking acceptance of her help. Thus an old man
told an inquirer, "While we wun at supper, a mon
cumm'd wi' a autar [halter] to fatch her away."
But at one place (Longnor, near Leebotwood), down
to about 1850, the Mare used really to be sent.
" The head man of the farmer who had finished
harvest first was mounted on the best horse of the
team — the leader — both horse and man being adorned
with ribbons, streamers, etc. Thus arrayed, a boy
on foot led the pair in triumph to the neighbouring
farmhouses. Sometimes the man who took the
' mare ' received, as well as plenty of harvest - ale,
some rather rough, though good-humoured, treatment,
coming back minus his decorations, and soon."^ In
the neighbourhood of Lille the idea of the corn-spirit

^ Burne and Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 373 sq.

26 THE CORN-SPIRIT chap.

in horse form Is clearly preserved. When a harvester
grows weary at his work, it is said, "He has the
fatigue of the Horse." The first sheaf, called the
" Cross of the Horse," is placed on a cross of box-
wood in the barn, and the youngest horse on the
farm must tread on it. The reapers dance round
the last blades of corn, crying, " See the remains
of the Horse." The sheaf made out of these last
blades is given to the youngest horse of the parish
(commune) to eat. This youngest horse of the parish
clearly represents, as Mannhardt says, the corn -spirit
of the following year, the Corn -foal, which absorbs the
spirit of the old Corn -horse by eating the last corn
cut ; for, as usual, the old corn -spirit takes his final
refuge in the last sheaf. The thresher of the last
sheaf is said to " beat the Horse." ^ Again, a trace
of the horse-shaped corn-spirit is reported from Berry.
The harvesters there are accustomed to take a noon-
day sleep in the field. This is called "seeing the
Horse." The leader or " King " of the harvesters
gives the signal for going to sleep. If he delays
giving the signal, one of the harvesters will begin
to neigh like a horse, the rest imitate him, and then
they all go "to see the Horse." ^

The last animal embodiment of the corn - spirit
which we shall notice is the pig (boar or sow). In
Thiiringen, when the wind sets the young corn in
motion, they sometimes say, " The Boar is rushing
through the corn."^ Amongst the Esthonians of the
island of Oesel the last sheaf is called the Rye-boar,
and the man who gets it is saluted with a cry of,

1 M. F. p. 167. 3 Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten imd

2 Laisnel de la Salle, Croyances et Gclrimche aus Thiiringen, p. 213, No.
Legendcs du Centre de la France^ ii. 1 33 ; 4.

M. F. p. 167 sq.

Ill AS A PIG 27

" You have the Rye-boar on your back!" In reply
he strikes up a song, in which he prays for plenty.^
At Kohlerwinkel, near Augsburg, at the close of the
harvest, the last bunch of standing corn is cut down,
stalk by stalk, by all the reapers in turn. He who
cuts the last stalk "gets the Sow," and is laughed at.-
In other Swabian villages also the man who cuts the
last corn " has the Sow," or "has the Rye-sow." ^ In
the Traunstein district, Upper Bavaria, the man who
cuts the last handful of rye or wheat "has the Sow,"
and is called Sow-driver.^ At Friedingen, in Swabia,
the thresher who gives the last stroke is called Sow —
Barley- sow. Corn -sow, etc., according to the crop.
At Onstmettingen the man who gives the last stroke
at threshing " has the Sow ; " he is often bound up
in a sheaf and dragged by a rope along the ground.^
And, generally, in Swabia the man who gives the last
stroke with the flail is called Sow. He may, however,
rid himself of this invidious distinction by passing on
to a neighbour the straw- rope, which is the badge of
his position as Sow. So he goes to a house and
throws the straw -rope into it, crying, "There, I
bring you the Sow." All the inmates give chase ;
and if they catch him they beat him, shut him up for
several hours in the pig -sty, and oblige him to take
the "Sow" away again.*' In various parts of Upper
Bavaria the man who gives the last stroke at threshing
must "carry the Pig" — that is, either a straw effigy of
a pig or merely a bundle of straw-ropes. This he

^ Holzmayer, Osiliana, p. 107; M. * I\L F. p. 112.

F. p. 187. s E. Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitten

2 Birlinger, A us Schwaben, ii. 328. iind Gebrciuche aus Schwaben, p. 445,

^ Panzer, Beitrag ziir detitschen No. 162.
Mythologie, ii. pp. 223, 224, Nos. 417, ^ Birlinger, Volksthiimliches aus

419. Schwaben, ii. 425, No. 379.

28 THE CORN-SPIRIT

carries to a neighbouring farm where the threshing
is not finished, and throws it into the barn. If the
threshers catch him they handle him roughly, beating
him, blackening or dirtying his face, throwing him into
filth, binding the Sow on his back, etc. ; if the bearer
of the Sow is a woman they cut off her hair. At the
harvest supper or dinner the man who " carried the
Pig " gets one or more dumplings made in the form of
pigs ; sometimes he gets a large dumpling and a number
of small ones, all in pig form, the large one being
called the sow and the small ones the sucking-pigs.
Sometimes he has the right to be the first to put
his hand into the dish and take out as many small
dumplings ("sucking-pigs ") as he can, while the other
threshers strike at his hand, with spoons or sticks.
When the dumplings are served up by the maid-
servant, all the people at table cry, " Sliz, siiz, sliz ! "
being the cry used in calling pigs. Sometimes after
dinner the man who " carried the Pig " has his face
blackened, and is set on a cart and drawn round the
village by his fellows, followed by a crowd crying,
" Siiz, siiz, sliz ! " as if they were calling swine.
Sometimes, after being wheeled round the village,
he is flung on the dunghill.^

Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a pig plays his
part at sowing-time as well as at harvest. At Neuautz,
in Courland, when barley is sown for the first time in
the year, the farmer's wife boils the chine of a pig along
with the tail, and brings it to the sower on the field.
He eats of it, but cuts off the tail and sticks it in the
field ; it is believed that the ears of corn will then grow
as long as the tail.^ Here the pig is the corn -spirit,

1 Panzer, Beitrag ztu- deiitschen Mythologie, ii. pp. 221-224, Nos. 409, 410,
411, 412, 413, 414, 415, 418. 2 yj/_ /r p. 186 i-r/.

Ill AS A PIG 29

whose fertilising power is sometimes supposed to
lie especially in his tail,^ As a pig he is put in the
ground at sowing - time, and as a pig he reappears
amongst the ripe corn at harvest. For amongst
the neighbouring Esthonians, as we have seen," the
last sheaf is called the Rye-boar. Somewhat similar
customs are observed in Germany. In the Salza
district, near Meiningen, a certain bone in the pig
is called "the Jew on the winnowing- fan" [der Jitd'
auf der Wanne). The flesh of this bone is boiled
on Shrove Tuesday, but the bone is put amongst
the ashes, which the neighbours exchange as presents
on St. Peter's Day (2 2d February), and then mix
with the seed-corn.^ In the whole of Hessen,
Meiningen, etc., people eat pea -soup with dried
pig - ribs on Ash Wednesday or Candlemas. The
ribs are then collected and hung in the room till
sowing -time, when they are inserted in the sown
field or in the seed -bag amongst the flax seed. This
is thought to be an infallible specific against earth-
fleas and moles, and to cause the flax to grow well
and tall.^ In many parts of White Russia people
eat a roast lamb or sucking-pig at Easter, and then
throw the bones backwards upon the fields, to pre-
serve the corn from hail.^

But the conception of the corn-spirit as embodied
in pig form is nowhere more clearly expressed than in
the Scandinavian custom of the Yule Boar. In Sweden
and Denmark at Yule (Christmas) it is the custom to
bake a loaf in the form of a boar-pig. This is called

1 Above, p. 3. pp. 189, 218; W. Kolbe, Hessische

2 Above, p. 26 sq. Volks-Sitten und Gebrdiiche (Marburg,

3 M. F. p. 187. 1888), p. 35.

* M.F.-p. iSy sq.; Witzschel, Sag-en, 5 ^/_ /r. p. igg ; Ralston, Songs of

Sitten tmd Gebrdnche aus Thiiringen, the Riissiati People, p. 220.

30 THE YULE BOAR

the Yule Boar. The corn of the last sheaf is often used
to make it. All through Yule the Yule Boar stands on
the table. Often it is kept till the sowing-time in spring,
when part of it is mixed with the seed-corn and part
given to the ploughmen and plough-horses or plough-
oxen to eat, in the expectation of a good harvest.^ In
this custom the corn-spirit, immanent in the last sheaf,
appears at midwinter in the form of a boar made from
the corn of the last sheaf; and his quickening influence
on the corn is shown by mixing part of the Yule Boar
wath the seed-corn, and giving part of it to the plough-
man and his cattle to eat. Similarly we saw that the
Corn -wolf makes his appearance at midwinter, the
time when the year begins to verge towards spring.-
We may conjecture that the Yule straw, of which
Swedish peasants make various superstitious uses,
comes, in part at least, from the sheaf out of which
the Yule Boar is made. The Yule straw is long
rye -straw, a portion of which is always set apart
for this season. It is strewn over the floor at
Christmas, and the peasants attribute many virtues
to it. For example, they think that some of it
scattered on the ground will make a barren field
productive. Again, the peasant at Christmas seats
himself on a log ; his eldest son or daughter, or the
mother herself, if the children are not old enough,
places a wisp of the Yule straw on his knee. From
this he draws out single straws, and throws them,
one by one, up to the ceiling ; and as many as lodge
in the rafters, so many will be the sheaves of rye he

1 A. IV. F. p. ig'js(/.; Vanzer, Bet'/ra^- Volkssage7i zind Volkslieder atis Schwe-

zur deiitschen Mythologie, ii. p. 491 ; dens dlterer und netierer Zeit, ubersetzt

Jamieson, Dictionary of the Scottish von Ungewitter, i. 9.

Language, s.v. "Maiden"; Afzelius, ^ Above, p. b sq.

THE YULE BOAR 31

will have to thresh at harvest.^ Again, it is only
the Yule straw which may be used in binding the
fruit-trees as a charm to fertilise them.- These uses
of the Yule straw show that it is believed to possess
fertilising virtues analogous to those ascribed to the
Yule Boar ; the conjecture is therefore legitimate that
the Yule straw is made from the same sheaf as the
Yule Boar. Formerly a real boar was sacrificed at
Christmas/ and apparently also a man in the character
of the Yule Boar. This, at least, may perhaps be in-
ferred from a Christmas custom still observed in
Sweden. A man is wrapt up in a skin, and carries a
wisp of straw in his mouth, so that the projecting
straws look like the bristles of a boar. A knife is
brought, and an old woman, with her face blackened,
pretends to sacrifice the man.*

So much for the animal embodiments of the corn-
spirit as they are presented to us in the folk-customs of
Northern Europe. These customs bring out clearly
the sacramental character of the harvest supper. The
corn-spirit is conceived as embodied in an animal ; this
divine animal is slain, and its flesh and blood are
partaken of by the harvesters. Thus, the cock, the
goose, the hare, the cat, the goat, and the ox are eaten
sacramentally by the harvesters, and the pig is eaten
sacramentally by ploughmen in spring.^ Again, as
a substitute for the real flesh of the divine being, bread
or dumplings are made in his image and eaten sacra-
mentally; thus, pig-shaped dumplings are eaten by the

1 L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden, * Afzelius, op. cit. i. 9 ; Lloyd, Peasant
pp. 169 j^., 1S2. On Christmas night Life in Sweden, pp. 181, 185.
children sleep on a bed of the Yule

straw [ib. p. 177). 5 Above, pp. 8 j^., 11, 12, 155^., 21,

2 Jahn, Deutsche Opfergebrduche, p. 23, 28. In regard to the hare, the sub-
215. Cp. above, vol. i. p. 60. stitution of brandy for hare's blood

3 Afzelius, op. cit. i. 31. is doubtless comparatively modem.

THE CORN-SPIRIT

harvesters, and loaves made in boar-shape (the Yule
Boar) are eaten in spring by the ploughman and his
cattle.

The reader has probably remarked the complete
parallelism between the anthropomorphic and the
theriomorphic conceptions of the corn -spirit. The
parallel may be here briefly resumed. When the
corn waves in the wind it is said either that the
Corn -mother or that the Corn -wolf, etc. is passing
throuQ:h the corn. Children are warned acjainst
straying in corn-fields either because the Corn-mother
or because the Corn-wolf, etc. is there. In the last corn
cut or the last sheaf threshed either the Corn-mother
or the Corn-wolf, etc. is supposed to be present. The
last sheaf is itself called either the Corn-mother or the
Corn- wolf, etc., and is made up in the shape either of a
woman or of a wolf, etc. The person who cuts, binds,
or threshes the last sheaf is called either the Old
Woman or the Wolf, etc., according to the name
bestowed on the sheaf itself. As in some places a
sheaf made in human form and called the Maiden,
the Mother of the Maize, etc. is kept from one
harvest to the next in order to secure a continuance
of the corn -spirit's blessing; so in some places the
Harvest- cock and in others the flesh of the goat is
kept for a similar purpose from one harvest to the
next. As in some places the grain taken from the
Corn-mother is mixed with the seed-corn in spring to
make the crop abundant ; so in some .places the
feathers of the cock, and in Sweden the Yule Boar
is kept till spring and mixed with the seed-corn for
a like purpose. As part of the Corn -mother or
Maiden is given to the cattle to eat in order that they
may thrive, so part of the Yule Boar is given to the

Ill IN ANIMAL FORM 33

ploughing horses or oxen in spring. Lastly, the death
of the corn-spirit is represented by killing (in reality or
pretence) either his human or his animal representative;
and the worshippers partake sacramentally either of
the actual body and blood of the representative (human
or animal) of the divinity, or of bread made in his
likeness.

Other animal forms assumed by the corn-spirit are
the stag, roe, sheep, bear, ass, fox, mouse, stork, swan,
and kite.^ If it is asked why the corn-spirit should be
thought to appear in the form of an animal and of
so many different animals, we may reply that to
primitive man the simple appearance of an animal
or bird among the corn is probably sufficient of itself
to suggest a mysterious connection between the animal
or bird and the corn ; and when we remember that in
the old days, before fields were fenced in, all kinds
of animals must have been free to roam over them, we
need not wonder that the corn-spirit should have been
identified even with laro-e animals like the horse and
cow, which nowadays could not, except by a rare
accident, be found straying among the corn. This
explanation applies with peculiar force to the very
common case in which the animal embodiment of the
corn-spirit is believed to lurk in the last standing corn.
For at harvest a number of wild animals — hares,
rabbits, partridges, etc. — are commonly driven by the
progress of the reaping into the last patch of standing
corn, and make their escape from it as it is being cut
down. So regularly does this happen that reapers
and others often stand round the last patch of corn
armed with sticks or guns, with which they kill the
animals as they dart out of their last refuge among the

^ Die Kornddino}ten, p. I.
VOL. II D

34 DIONYSUS

corn. Now, primitive man, to whom magical changes
of shape seem perfectly credible, finds it most natural
that the spirit of the corn, driven from his home
amongst the corn, should make his escape in the form
of the animal which is seen to rush out of the last
patch of corn as it falls under the scythe of the reaper.
Thus the identification of the corn -spirit with an
animal is analogous to the identification of him with
a passing stranger. As the sudden appearance of a
stranger near the harvest-field or threshing-floor is, to
the primitive mind, sufficient to identify him as the
spirit of the corn escaping from the cut or threshed
corn, so the sudden appearance of an animal issuing
from the cut corn is enough to identify it with the
corn-spirit escaping from his ruined home. The two
identifications are so analogous that they can hardly be
dissociated in any attempt to explain them. Those
who look to some other principle than the one here
suggested for the explanation of the latter identifi-
cation are bound to show that their explanation covers
the former identification also.

But however we may explain it, the fact remains
that in peasant folk-lore the corn -spirit is very com-
monly conceived and represented in animal form.
May not this fact explain the relation in which certain
animals stood to the ancient deities of vegetation,
Dionysus, Demeter, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris ?

To begin with Dionysus. We have seen that he
was represented sometimes as a goat and sometimes
as a bull. As a goat he can hardly be separated from
the minor divinities, the Pans, Satyrs, and Silenuses,
all of whom are closely associated with him and are
represented more or less completely in the form of
goats. Thus, Pan was regularly represented in

AS A GOAT

35

sculpture and painting with the face and legs of a
goat/ The Satyrs were depicted with pointed goat-
ears, and sometimes with sprouting horns and short
tails.- They were sometimes spoken of simply as
goats ; 3 and in the drama their parts were played by
men dressed in goat-skins.^ Silenus is represented in
art clad in a goat-skin.'^ Further, the Fauns, the
Italian counterpart of the Greek Pans and Satyrs,
are described as being half goats, with goat-feet and
goat-horns.*^ Again, all these minor goat-formed
divinities partake more or less clearly of the character
of woodland deities. Thus, Pan was called by the
Arcadians the Lord of the Wood.^ The Silenuses
associated with the tree -nymphs.^ The Fauns are
expressly designated as woodland deities ; ^ and their
character as such is still further brought out by their
association, or even identification, with Silvanus and
the Silvanuses, who, as their name of itself indicates,
are spirits of the woods.^*' Lastly, the association of
the Satyrs with the Silenuses, Fauns, and Silvanuses,^^
proves that the Satyrs also were woodland deities.
These goat-formed spirits of the woods have their
counterparts in the folk-lore of Northern Europe.
Thus, the Russian wood-spirits, called Ljeschie (from
Ijes, " wood,") are believed to appear partly in human
shape, but with the horns, ears, and legs of goats.
The Ljeschi can alter his stature at pleasure ; when he

1 Herodotus, ii. 46. ^ Pliny, N. H. xii. 3 ; Ovid, Metam.
- Preller, Gricchische Mythologie,^ i. vi. 392; id., Fasti, iii. 303, 309;

600; A. W. F. p. 138. Gloss. Isid. Mart. Cap. ii. 167, cited

3 A. IV. F. p. 139. by Mannhardt, A. W. F. p. 113.

* Pollux, iv. 118. 10 Pliny, N. H. xii. 3 ; Martianus
^ A. W. F. p. 142 sq. Capella, ii. 167; Augustine, Civ. Dei,
" Ovid, Fasti, ii. 361 ; iii. 312 ; v. xv. 23; Aurelius Victor, Oi-igo gentis

loi ; id., Heroides, iv. 49. Roinanae, iv. 6.

'' Macrobius, Sat. i. 22, 3. " Servius on Virgil, Ed. vi. 14 ;

* Homer, Hyimi to Aphrodite, 262 Ovid, Metam. vi. 392 sq. ; Martianus
sqq. Capella, ii. 167.

36 THE GOAT-DIONYSUS chap.

walks in the wood he is as tall as the trees ; when he
walks in the meadows he is no higher than the grass.
Some of the Ljeschie are spirits of the corn as well
as of the wood ; before harvest they are as tall as the
corn-stalks, but after it they shrink to the height of the
stubble.^ This brings out — what we have remarked
before — the close connection between tree -spirits and
corn -spirits, and shows how easily the former may
melt into the latter. Similarly the Fauns, though
wood-spirits, were believed to foster the growth of the
crops. ^ We have already seen how often the corn-
spirit is represented in folk-custom as a goat.^ On the
whole, then, as Mannhardt argues,^ the Pans, Satyrs,
and Fauns appear to belong to a widely diffused class
of wood-spirits conceived in goat-form. The fondness
of goats for straying in woods and nibbling the bark of
trees — to which it is well known that they are most
destructive— is an obvious and perhaps sufficient reason
why wood-spirits should so often be supposed to take
the form of goats. The inconsistency of a god of
vegetation subsisting upon the vegetation which he
personifies is not one to strike the primitive mind.
Such inconsistencies arise when the deity, ceasing to
be immanent in the vegetation, comes to be regarded
as its owner or lord ; for the idea of owning the
vegetation naturally leads to that of subsisting on it.
We have already seen that the corn -spirit, originally
conceived as immanent in the corn, afterwards comes
to be regarded as its owner, who lives on it and is
reduced to poverty and want by being deprived of it.^

Thus the representation of wood -spirits in goat-
form appears to be both widespread and, to the primi-

1 B. K. p. 138 sq.'. A, IV. F. p. 145. 2 Servius on Virgil, Georg. i. 10.

2 Above, p. 12 sqq. ■* A. W, F. ch. iii. ^ Above, vol. i. p. 379 sq.

THE BULL-DIONYSUS 37

tive mind, natural. Therefore when we find, as we
have done, that Dionysus — a tree-god — is sometimes
represented in goat form,^ we can hardly avoid con-
cluding that this representation is simply a part of his
proper character as a tree-god and is not to be explained
by the fusion of two distinct and independent cults, in
one of which he originally appeared as a tree-god and
in the other as a goat. If such a fusion took place in
the case of Dionysus, it must equally have taken place
in the case of the Pans and Satyrs of Greece, the
Fauns of Italy, and ih& Ljesckie of Russia. That such
a fusion of two wholly disconnected cults should have
occurred once is possible ; that it should have occurred
twice independently is improbable ; that it should have
occurred thrice independently is so unlikely as to be
practically incredible.

Dionysus was also represented, as we have seen,"
in the form of a bull. After what has gone before we
are naturally led to expect that his bull form must have
been only another expression for his character as a
deity of vegetation, especially as the bull is a common
embodiment of the corn-spirit in Northern Europe;^ and
the close association of Dionysus with Demeter and
Proserpine in the mysteries of Eleusis shows that he
had at least strong agricultural affinities. The other
possible explanation of the bull-shaped Dionysus would
be that the conception of him as a bull was originally
entirely distinct from the conception of him as a deity
of vegetation, and that the fusion of the two conceptions
was due to some such circumstance as the union of two
tribes, one of which had previously worshipped a bull-
god and the other a tree-god. This appears to be the
view taken by Mr. Andrew Lang, who suggests that

1 Above, vol. i. p. 326 sq. 2 Above, vol. i. p. 325 sq. 3 Above, p. 19 sqq.

38 OX REPRESENTS

the bull-formed Dionysus "had either been developed
out of, or had succeeded to the worship of a bull-totem."^
Of course this is possible. But it is not yet certain
that the Aryans ever had totemism. On the other
hand, it is quite certain that many Aryan peoples have
conceived deities of vegetation as embodied in animal
forms. Therefore when we find amongst an Aryan
people like the Greeks a deity of vegetation represented
as an animal, the presumption must be in favour of
explaining this by a principle which is certainly known
to have influenced the Aryan race rather than by one
which is not certainly known to have done so. In the
present state of our knowledge, therefore, it is safer to
regard the bull form of Dionysus as being, like his
goat form, an expression of his proper character as a
deity of vegetation.

The probability of this view will be somewhat
increased if it can be shown that in other rites than
those of Dionysus the ancients slew an ox as a repre-
sentative of the spirit of vegetation. This they appear
to have done in the Athenian sacrifice known as " the
murder of the ox " {boitplionia). It took place about
the end of June or beginning of July, that is, about the
time when the threshing is nearly over in Attica.
'According to tradition the sacrifice was instituted to
procure a cessation of drought and barrenness which had
afiflicted the land. The ritual was as follows. Barley
mixed with wheat, or cakes made of them, were laid
upon the bronze altar of Zeus Polieus on the Acropolis.
Oxen were driven round the altar, and the ox which
went up to the altar and ate the offering on it was sacri-
ficed. The axe and knife with which the beast was
slain had been previously wetted with water brought

^ A. Lang, Myth, Ritual, and Religion, ii. 232.

in THE SPIRIT OF VEGETATION 39

by maidens called " water-carriers." The weapons
were then sharpened and handed to the butchers, one
of whom felled the ox with the axe and another cut
its throat with the knife. As soon as he had felled the
ox, the former threw the axe from him and fled ; and
the man who cut the beast's throat apparently imitated
his example. Meantime the ox was skinned and all
present partook of its flesh. Then the hide was stuffed
with straw and sewed up ; next the stuffed animal was
set on its feet and yoked to a plough as if it were
ploughing. A trial then took place in an ancient law-
court presided over by the King (as he was called) to
determine who had murdered the ox. The maidens
who had brought the water accused the men who
had sharpened the axe and knife ; the men who had
sharpened the axe and knife blamed the men who
had handed these implements to the butchers ; the
men who had handed the implements to the butchers
blamed the butchers ; and the butchers laid the blame
on the axe and knife, which were accordingly found
guilty, condemned, and cast into the sea.^

The name of this sacrifice, — "the imirder of the
ox,"^ — the pains taken by each person who had a hand
in the slaughter to lay the blame on some one else,

1 Pausanias, i. 24, 4 ; id., i. 28, 10 ; of the knife. But from Porphyry's

Porphyry, De abstinentia, ii. 29 sq. ; description it is clear that the slaughter

Aelian, Var. Hist. viii. 3 ; Schol. on was carried out by two men, one

Aristophanes, Peace, 419; Hesychius, wielding an axe and the other a knife,

Suidas, and Etyniol. Magnum, s.v. and that the former laid the blame on

^oiKpovia. The date of the sacrifice the latter. Perhaps the knife alone

(14th Skirophorion) is given by the was condemned. That the King

Schol. on Aristophanes and the Etym. Archon (on whom see above, vol. i. p.

jMagn. ; and this date corresponds, 7), presided at the trial of all lifeless

according to Mannhardt {M. F. p. 68), objects, is mentioned by Pollux, viii.

with the close of the threshing in 90 ; cp. id, viii. 1 20.

Attica. No writer mentions the trial 2 The real import of the name

of both the axe and the knife. bouphonia was first perceived by Prof.

Pausanias speaks of the trial of the W. Robertson Smith. See his Religion

axe, Porphyry and Aelian of the trial of the Semites, i. 286 sqq.

40 OX REPRESENTS chap.

together with the formal trial and punishment of the
axe or knife or both, prove that the ox was here
regarded not merely as a victim offered to a god, but
as itself a sacred creature, the slaughter of which
was sacrilege or murder. This is borne out by a
statement of Varro that to kill an ox was formerly a
capital crime in Attica/ The mode of selecting the
victim suggests that the ox which tasted the corn was
viewed as the corn-deity taking possession of his own.
This interpretation is supported by the following
custom. In Beauce, in the district of Orleans, on the
24th or 25th of April they make a straw-man called
"the great mondai'dr For they say that the old
mondard is now dead and it is necessary to make a new
one. The straw-man is carried in solemn procession
up and down the village and at last is placed upon the
oldest apple-tree. There he remains till the apples
are gathered, when he is taken down and thrown into
the water, or he is burned and his ashes cast into water.
But the person who plucks the first fruit from the tree
succeeds to the title of "the great mondard.''^. Here
the straw figure, called "the great mondm-d" and
placed on the apple-tree in spring, represents the spirit
of the tree, who, dead in winter, revives when the
apple-blossoms appear in spring. The fact, therefore,
that the person who plucks the first fruit from the
apple-tree receives the name of " the great mondard''
proves that he is regarded as a representative of the
tree-spirit. Primitive peoples are, as a rule, reluctant
to taste the annual first-fruits of any crop, until some
ceremony has been performed which makes it safe and

^ Vano, De re rustica, ii. 5, 4. merely an inference drawn from the
Cp. Columella, vi. praef. § 7. Perhaps, ritual of the boiiphonia and the legend
however, Varro's statement may Le told to explain it. ^ £^ j^ p_ ^Qg_

Ill THE SPIRIT OF VEGETATION 41

pious for them to do so. The reason of this reluct-
ance appears to be that the first-fruits either are the
property of, or actually contain, a divinity. Therefore
when a man or animal is seen boldly to appropriate
the sacred first-fruits, he or it is naturally regarded as
the divinity himself in human or animal form taking
possession of his own. The time of the Athenian
sacrifice — about the close of the threshing — suggests
that the wheat and barley laid upon the altar were
a harvest offering ; and the sacramental character of
the subsequent repast — all partaking of the flesh of the
divine animal — would make it parallel to the harvest
suppers of modern Europe, in which, as we have seen,
the flesh of the animal who represents the corn-spirit is
eaten by the harvesters. Again, the tradition that the
sacrifice was instituted in order to put an end to drought
and famine is in favour of taking it as a harvest festival.
The resurrection of the corn-spirit, represented by
setting up the stuffed ox and yoking it to the plough,
may be compared with the resurrection of the tree-
spirit in the person of his representative, the Wild
Man.^

The ox appears as a representative of the corn-
spirit in other parts of the world. At Great Bassam,
in Guinea, two oxen are slain annually to procure a
good harvest. If the sacrifice is to be effectual, it is
necessary that the oxen should weep. So all the
women of the village sit in front of the beasts, chant-
ing, " The ox will weep ; yes, he will weep ! " From
time to time one of the women walks round the beasts,
throwing manioc meal or palm wine upon them, espe-
cially into their eyes. When tears roll down from the
eyes of the oxen, the people dance, singing, " The ox

^ See above, vol. i. p. 243.

42 ox REPRESENTS

weeps ! the ox weeps ! " Then two men seize the tails
of the beasts and cut them off at one blow. It is
believed that a great misfortune will happen in the
course of the year if the tails are not severed at one
blow. The oxen are afterwards killed, and their flesh
is eaten by the chiefs.^ Here the tears of the oxen,
like those of the human victims amongst the Khonds,
are probably a rain -charm. We have already seen
that the virtue of the corn-spirit, embodied in animal
form, is sometimes supposed to reside in the tail, and
that the last handful of corn is sometimes conceived as
the tail of the corn-spirit.^ Still more clearly does the
ox appear as a personification of the corn-spirit in a
ceremony which is observed in all the provinces and
districts of China to welcome the approach of spring.
On the first day of spring the governor or prefect of
the city goes in procession to the east gate of the city,
and sacrifices to the Divine Husbandman, who is
represented with a bull's head on the body of a man.
A large effigy of an ox, cow, or bufTalo has been pre-
pared for the occasion, and stands outside of the east
gate, with agricultural implements beside it. It is
made of differently-coloured pieces of paper pasted on
a framework either by a blind man or according to the
directions of a necromancer. The colours of the paper
indicate the character of the coming year ; if red pre-
vails, there will be many fires ; if white, there will be
floods and rain, etc. The mandarins walk slowly
round the ox, beating it severely at each step with rods
of various colours. It is filled with five kinds of grain,
which pour forth when the ox is broken by the blows
of the rods. The paper fragments are then set on fire,

1 Hecquard, Reise an die Kiiste uml in das lunere von West-Afrika, jDp.
41-43' ^ Above, p. 3, and vol. i. p. 408.

Ill THE SPIRIT OF VEGETATION 43

and a scramble takes place for the burning fragments,
as the people believe that whoever gets one of them is
sure to be fortunate throughout the year. A live
buffalo is then killed, and its flesh is divided among
the mandarins. According to one account, the effigy
of the ox is made of clay, and, after being beaten by
the governor, is stoned by the people till they break it
in pieces, "from which they expect an abundant
year."^ Here the corn-spirit appears to be plainly
represented by the corn -filled ox, whose fragments
may therefore be supposed to bring fertility with them.
We may compare the Silesian spring custom of burn-
ing the effigy of Death, scrambling for the burning
fragments, and burying them in the fields to secure a
good crop, and the Florentine custom of sawing the
Old Woman and scrambling for the dried fruits with
which she was filled.^

On the whole, then, we may perhaps conclude that
both as a goat and as a bull Dionysus was essentially
a god of vegetation. The Chinese and European
customs just referred to may perhaps shed light on
the custom of rending a live bull or goat at the rites of
Dionysus. The animal was torn in fragments, as the
Khond victim was cut in pieces, in order that the
worshippers might each secure a portion of the life-
giving and fertilising influence of the god. The flesh
was eaten raw as a sacrament, and we may conjecture
that some of it was taken home to be buried in the
fields, or otherwise employed so , as to convey to the
fruits of the earth the quickening influence of the god
of vegetation. The resurrection of Dionysus, related

1 China Review, i. 62, 154, 162, 203 sq. ; Doolittle, Social Life of the Chinese,
p. 375 sq., ed. Paxton Hood ; Gray, China, ii. 115 sq.

2 Above, vol. i. pp. 261, 267.

44 DE METER AND PROSERPINE chap.

in his myth, may have been represented in his rites by
stuffing and setting up the slain ox, as was done at the
Athenian bonphonia.

Passing next to the corn -goddess Demeter, and
remembering that in European folk-lore the pig is a
common embodiment of the corn-spirit,^ we may now
ask, may not the pig, which was so closely associated
with Demeter, be nothing but the goddess herself in
animal form ? The pig was sacred to her ; ^ in art she
was represented carrying or accompanied by a pig ; ^
and the pig was regularly sacrificed in her mysteries,
the reason assigned being that the pig injures the corn
and is therefore an enemy of the goddess.^ But after
an animal has been conceived as a god or a god as an
animal, it sometimes happens, as we have seen, that
the god sloughs off his animal form and becomes
purely anthropomorphic ; and that then the animal,
which at first had been slain in the character of the
god, comes to be regarded as a victim offered to the
god on the ground of its hostility to the deity ; in
short, that the god is sacrificed to himself on the
ground that he is his own enemy. This happened to
Dionysus, and it may have happened to Demeter also.
And in fact the rites of one of her festivals, the Thes-
mophoria, bear out the view that originally the pig
was an embodiment of the corn-goddess herself, either
Demeter or her daughter and double Proserpine. The
Thesmophoria was an autumn festival, celebrated by
women alone in October,^ and appears to have repre-

1 See above, p. 26 sqq. De nat. dear. c. 28 ; Macrobius, Sat.

2 Schol. on Aristophanes, Acharn. i. 12, 23 ; Schol. on Aristophanes,
747, Acharn. 747 ; id. on Progs, 338 ;

^ Overbeck, Gi'iechische Kunst- id. on Peace, 374 ; Servius on

mythologie, ii. 493 ; MUller-Wieseler, Virgil, Georg. ii. 380 ; Aehan, Nat.

Denkmdler d. alt. Kunst, ii. pi. viii. 94. Anim. x. 16.

* Hyginus, Pab. 277 ; Cornutus, ^ For the authorities on the Thes-

AS PIGS

45

sented with mourning rites the descent of Proserpine
(or Demeter) ^ into the lower world, and with joy her
return from the dead.^ Hence the name Descent or
Ascent variously applied to the first, and the name
Kalligeneia (fair-born) applied to the third day of the
festival. Now from a scholion on Lucian, first edited
in 1870,^ we learn some details about the mode of
celebrating the Thesmophoria, which shed important
light on the part of the festival called the Descent or
the Ascent. The scholiast tells us that it was cus-
tomary at the Thesmophoria to throw pigs, cakes of
dough, and branches of pine-trees into " the chasms of
Demeter and Proserpine," which appear to have been
sacred caverns or vaults.* In these caverns or vaults
there were said to be serpents, which guarded the
caverns and consumed most of the flesh of the pigs
and dough -cakes which were thrown in. Afterwards
— apparently at the next annual festival ^ — the decayed

mophoria and a discussion of some ■* The scholiast speaks of them as

doubtful points in the festival, I may niegara and adyta. Megara (from a

be permitted to refer to my article Phoenician word meaning "cavern,"

" Thesmophoria " in the ^«fyr/i!7/rt^^M "subterranean chasm," Movers, Die

Britannica, ninth ed. Phoeiiiziei-, i. 220) were properly sub-

1 Photius, s.v. aTT)via, speaks of the terranean vaults or chasms sacred to

ascent of Demeter from the lower '^^ S°^^- See Hesychius, quoted by

world; and Clement of Alexandria Movers,^ I.e. (the passage does not

speaks of both Demeter and Proserpine ''^PPear m M. Schmidt's minor edition

as having been engulfed in the chasm °^ Hesychius) ; Porphyry, De antra

{Protrept. ii. § 17). The original equi- "i'fA^- 6-

valence of Demeter and Proserpine '' ^^^ '"^^^ *^'S fro"" Pausanias, ix.

must be borne steadily in mind. ^' ^' though the passage is incomplete

9 -ni ^ , r • . ^ • • ^ T^, • ^""^ apparently corrupt. For iv

-. Plutarch, /«..^0«r^., 69; Photms, Aco5c6.„ Lobeck proposes to read

' avaovvcLi. or avaOoOrjvai.. At the sprmg

3 E. Rohde, ^ " Unedirte Lucians- and autumn festivals of Isis at Tithorea

scholien, die attischen Thesmophorien geese and goats were thrown into the

und Haloen betreffend," in Rheinisches adyton and left there till the following

Mtiseiim, N. F. xxv. (1S70) 548 festival, when the remains were re-

sqq. Two passages of classical writers moved and buried at a certain spot a

(Clemens Alex., i°ra/';r/i'. ii. § 17 and little way from the temple. Pausanias,

Pausanias, ix. 8, i) refer to the rites x. 32, 14 (9). This analogy supports

•described by the Scholiast on Lucian, the view that the pigs thrown into the

and had been rightly interpreted by caverns at the Thesmophoria were left

Lobeck {Aglaophamus, p. 827 sqq.) there till the next festival.

46 DE METER AND PROSERPINE chap.

remains of the pigs, the cakes, and the pine-branches
were fetched by women called " drawers," who, after
observing rules of ceremonial purity for three days,
descended into the caverns, and, frightening away the
serpents by clapping their hands, brought up the
remains and placed them on the altar. Whoever got
a piece of the decayed flesh and cakes, and sowed it
with the seed-corn in his field, was believed to be sure
of a good crop.

To explain this rude and ancient rite the follow-
ing legend was told. At the moment that Pluto
carried off Proserpine, a swineherd called Eubuleus
was herding his swine on the spot, and his herd was
engulfed in the chasm down which Pluto vanished
with Proserpine. Accordingly at the Thesmophoria
pigs were annually thrown into caverns in order
to commemorate the disappearance of the swine of
Eubuleus. It follows from this that the casting of the
pigs into the vaults at the Thesmophoria formed part
of the dramatic representation of Proserpine's descent
into the lower world ; and as no image of Proserpine
appears to have been thrown in, it follows that the
descent of the pigs must have been, not an accompani-
ment of her descent, but the descent itself; in short,
the pigs were Proserpine. Afterwards when Proser-
pine or Demeter (for the two are equivalent) became
anthropomorphic, a reason had to be found for the
custom of throwing pigs into caverns at her festival ;
and this was done by saying that when Proserpine was
carried off, there happened to be some swine browsing
near, which were swallowed up along with her. The
story is obviously a forced and awkward attempt to
bridge over the gulf between the old conception of the
corn-spirit as a pig and the new conception of her as

in AS PIGS 47

an anthropomorphic goddess. A trace of the older
conception survived in the legend that when Demeter
was looking for the lost Proserpine, the footprints of
the latter were obliterated by the footprints of a pig ; ^
originally, no doubt, the footprints of the pig were the
footprints of Proserpine and of Demeter herself A
consciousness of the intimate connection of the pig
with the corn lurks in the tradition that the swineherd
Eubuleus was a brother of Triptolemus, to whom
Demeter first imparted the secret of the corn. Indeed,
according to one version of the story, Eubuleus him-
self received, jointly with his brother Triptolemus, the
gift of the corn from Demeter as a reward for revealing
to her the fate of Proserpine.^ Further, it is to be
noted that at the Thesmophoria the women appear to
have eaten swine's flesh.^ The meal, if I am right,
must have been a solemn sacrament or communion,
the worshippers partaking of the body of the god.

As thus explained, the Thesmophoria has its ana-
logies in the folk-customs of Northern Europe which
have been already described. As at the Thesmo-
phoria— an autumn festival in honour of the corn-
goddess — swine's flesh was partly eaten, partly kept in
caverns till the following year, when it was taken up
to be sown with the seed-corn in the fields for the
purpose of securing a' good crop ; so in the neighbour-
hood of Grenoble the goat killed on the harvest-field
is partly eaten at the harvest supper, partly pickled
and kept till the next harvest ;* so at Pouilly the ox
killed on the harvest-field is partly eaten by the har-
vesters, partly pickled and kept till the first day of

1 Ovid, Fasti, iv. 461-466, upon - Pausanias, i. 14, 3.

which Gierig remarks, ''Sues melius 3 Schol. on Aristophanes, Frogs,

poeta omisisset ill Iiac narratio7ie" Such 338.
is the wisdom of the commentator. ■* Above, p. 1 5 sq.

48 DE METER AND PROSERPINE chap.

sowing in spring ^ — probably to be then mixed with
the seed, or eaten by the ploughmen, or both ; so at
Udvarhely the feathers of the cock which is killed in
the last sheaf at harvest are kept till spring, and then
sown with the seed on the field p so in Hessen and
Meiningen the flesh of pigs is eaten on Ash Wednesday
or Candlemas, and the bones are kept till sowing-time,
when they are put into the field sown or mixed with
the seed in the bag ;^ so, lastly, the corn from the last
sheaf is kept till Christmas, made into the Yule Boar,
and afterwards broken and mixed with the seed-corn
at sowing in spring.^ Thus, to put it generally, the
corn-spirit is killed in animal form in autumn ; part of
his flesh is eaten as a sacrament by his worshippers ;
and part of it is kept till next sowing-time or harvest as
a pledge and security for the continuance or renewal
of the corn-spirit's energies. Whether in the interval
between autumn and spring he is conceived as dead,
or whether, like the ox in the doitpkonia, he is supposed
to come to life again immediately after being killed, Is
not clear. At the Thesmophoria, according to Clem-
ent and Pausanias, as emended by Lobeck,^ the pigs
were thrown in alive, and were supposed to reappear
at the festival of the following year. Here, therefore,
if we accept Lobeck's emendations, the corn-spirit is
conceived as alive throughout the year ; he lives and
works under ground, but is brought up each autumn to be
renewed and then replaced in his subterranean abode.''

1 Above, p. 20 sq. - Above, p. 9. 6 j^ j^ vvorth noting that in Crete,

3 Above, p. 29. * Above, p. 29 si]. which was an ancient seat of Demeter

s In Clemens Alex., Protrept. ii. 17, worship (see above, vol. i. p. 331), the

for fj.fyapi^ovT€S xo^po^^ eK^dWovai pig was esteemed very sacred and was

Lobeck {Aglaophamus, p. 831) would not eaten, Athenaeus, 375 F-376 A.

read /ie7dpoij fwiras xo^poi^s eVjSdXXoi'crt. This would not exclude the possibility

Yox his emendation of Pausanias, see of its being eaten sacramentally, as at

above, p. 45. the Thesmophoria.

Ill AS FIGS 49

If it is objected that the Greeks never could
have conceived Demeter and Proserpine to be
embodied in the form of pigs, it may be answered that
in the cave of PhigaHa in Arcadia the Black Demeter
was represented with the head and mane of a horse on
the body of a woman.^ Between the representation of
a goddess as a pig, and the representation of her as a
woman with a horse's head, there is little to choose in
respect of barbarism. The legend told of the Phi-
galian Demeter indicates that the horse was one of the
animal forms assumed in ancient Greece, as in modern
Europe,- by the corn-spirit. It was said that in her
search for her daughter, Demeter assumed the form of
a mare to escape the addresses of Poseidon, and that,
offended at his importunity, she withdrew to the cave
of Phigalia. There, robed in black, she stayed so long
that the fruits of the earth were perishing, and man-
kind would have died of famine if Pan had not soothed
the angry goddess and persuaded her to quit the cave.
In memory of this event, the Phigalians set up an
image of the Black Demeter in the cave ; it represented
a woman dressed in a long robe, with the head and
mane of a horse.^ The Black Demeter, in whose
absence the fruits of the earth perish, is plainly a
mythical expression for the state of vegetation in
winter.

Passing now to Attis and Adonis, we may note a
few facts which seem to show that these deities of
vegetation had also, like other deities of vegetation,
their animal embodiments. The worshippers of Attis
abstained from eating the flesh of swine.* This fact is

1 Pausanias, viii. 42. Phigalian Demeter, see W. Mannhardt,

2 Above, p. 24 si/t/. M. F. p. 244 sqq.

3 Pausanias, viii. 25 and 42. On the * Above, vol. i. p. 296 sq.

VOL. II E

so ATTIS AND ADONIS chap.

certainly in favour of supposing that the pig was
regarded as an embodiment of Attis. And the legend
that Attis was killed by a boar^ points in the same
direction. For after the examples of the goat Diony-
sus and the pig Demeter it may almost be laid down
as a rule that an animal which is said to have injured
a god was originally the god himself. Perhaps the cry
of " Hyes Attes ! Hyes Attes!"^ which was raised by the
worshippers of Attis, may be neither more nor less than
" Pig Attis ! Pig Attis ! " — hyes being possibly a Phry-
gian form of the Greek hys, "a pig."

In regard to Adonis, his connection with the boar
was not always explained by the story that he was killed
by a boar. According to another story, a boar rent
with his tusk the bark of the tree in which the infant
Adonis was born.^ According to another story, he was
killed by Hephaestus on Mount Lebanon while he was
hunting wild boars.* These variations in the legend
serve to show that, while the connection of the boar with
Adonis was certain, the reason of the connection was
not understood, and that consequently different stories
were devised to explain it. Certainly the pig was
one of the sacred animals of the Syrians, At the great
religious metropolis of Hierapolis pigs were neither
sacrificed nor eaten, and if a man touched a pig he
was unclean for the rest of the day. Some people
said this was because the pigs were unclean ; others
said it was because the pigs were sacred.^ This differ-
ence of opinion points to a state of religious thought
and feeling in which the ideas of sanctity and unclean-
ness are not yet differentiated, and which is best

1 Above, vol. i. p. 296. ■* Cureton, Spidkgiiim Sy7-iacHm, p.

2 Demosthenes, De corona, p. 313. 44.

3 Above, vol. i. p. 281. 5 Lucian, Dc dea Syria, 54.

Ill AS PIGS 51

indicated by the word taboo. It is quite consistent
with this that the pig should have been held to be
an embodiment of the divine Adonis, and the analogies
of Dionysus and Demeter make it probable that the
story of the hostility of the animal to the god was only
a modern misunderstanding of the old view of the god
as embodied in a pig. The rule that pigs were not
sacrificed or eaten by worshippers of Attis and pre-
sumably of Adonis, does not exclude the possibility
that in these cults the pig was slain on solemn occa-
sions as a representative of the god and consumed
sacramentally by the worshippers. Indeed, the sacra-
mental killing and eating of an animal, that is the
killing and eating it as a god, implies that the animal
is sacred, and is, as a general rule, not killed.^

The attitude of the Jews to the pig was as
ambiguous as that of the heathen Syrians towards
the same animal. The Greeks could not decide
whether the Jews worshipped swine or abominated
them. On the one hand they might not eat
swine ; but on the other hand they might not kill
them.'^ And if the former rule speaks for the
uncleanness, the latter speaks still more strongly
for the sanctity of the animal. For whereas both
rules may, and one rule must, be explained on the
supposition that the pig was sacred ; neither rule
must, and one rule cannot, be explained on the
supposition that the pig was unclean. If, therefore,
we prefer the former supposition, we must conclude

1 The heathen Harranians sacrificed sacrificed in Cyprus on 2d April

swine once a year and ate the flesh ; (Joannes Lydus, De mensibiis, iv. 45)

En-Nedim, in Chwolsohn's Die Ssabicr represented Adonis himself. See his

mid der Ssabismus, ii. 42. My friend Religion of the Semites, i. 272 sq..

Professor W. Robertson Smith has con- 392.
jectured that the wild boars annually 2 piutarch, Qnaest. Conviv. iv. 5.

52

OSIRIS

that, originally at least, the pig was held to be sacred
rather than unclean by the Israelites. This is confirmed
by the fact that down to the time of Isaiah some
of the Jews used to meet secretly in gardens to eat
the flesh of swine and mice as a religious rite.^
Doubtless this was a very ancient rite, dating from
a time when both the pig and the mouse were
venerated as divine, and when their flesh was
partaken of sacramentally on rare and solemn
occasions as the body and blood of gods. And
in general it may be said that all so-called unclean
animals were originally sacred ; the reason why
they were not eaten was that they were divine.

In ancient Egypt, within historical times, the pig
occupied the same dubious position as in Syria and
Palestine, though at first sight its uncleanness is
more prominent than its sanctity. The Egyptians
are generally said by Greek writers to have abhorred
the pig as a foul and loathsome animal." If a man
so much as touched a pig in passing, he stepped
into the river with all his clothes on, to wash off
the taint. ^ To drink pig's milk was believed to cause
leprosy to the drinker.^ Swineherds, though natives
of Egypt, were forbidden to enter any temple, and
they were the only men who were thus excluded.
No one would give his daughter in marriage to a
swineherd, or marry a swineherd's daughter ; the
swineherds married amonof themselves.^ Yet once
a year the Egyptians sacrificed pigs to the moon
and to Osiris, and not only sacrificed them, but ate
of their flesh, though on any other clay of the year

1 Isaiah Ixv. 3, 4, Ixvi. 3, 17. ^ Herodotus, Lc.

2 Herodotus, ii. 47 ; Plutarch, Isis * Phitarch and Aelian, II. cc.
et Osiris, 8; Aelian, Nat. Aniiii. x. 16. ^ Herodotus, I.e.

Ill AS A PIG 53

they would neither sacrifice them nor taste of their
flesh. Those who were too poor to offer a pig on
this day baked cakes of dough, and offered them
instead.^ This can hardly be explained except by
the supposition that the pig was a sacred animal
which was eaten sacramentally by his worshippers
once a year. The view that in Egypt the pig was
a sacred animal is borne out by the very facts which,
to moderns, might seem to prove the contrary. Thus
the Egyptians thought, as we have seen, that to drink
pig's milk produced leprosy. But exactly analogous
views are held by savages about the animals and
plants which they deem most sacred. Thus in the
island of Wetar (between New Guinea and Celebes)
people believe themselves to be variously descended
from wild pigs, serpents, crocodiles, turtles, dogs, and
eels ; a man may not eat an animal of the kind from
which he is descended ; if he does so, he will become
a leper, and go mad.^ Amongst the Omaha Indians
of North America men whose totem (sacred animal or
plant) is the elk, believe that if they ate the flesh of
the male elk they would break out in boils and white
spots in different parts of their bodies.^ In the same
tribe men whose totem is the red maize, think that
if they ate red maize they would have running sores
all round their mouths.^ The Bush negroes of Surinam,
who have totemism, believe that if they ate the capiat

1 Herodotus, ii. 47 sq.; Aelian and the sacrifice to Osiris took place.

Plutarch, //.a-. Herodotus distinguishes Each man slew a pig before his door,

the sacrifice to the moon from that to then gave it to the swineherd, from

Osiris. According to him, at the whom he had bought it, to take away,
sacrifice to the moon, the extremity of ^ Riedel, De slidk-m kroesharige

the pig's tail, together with the spleen rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, pp.

and the caul, were covered with fat 432, 452.

and burned ; the rest of the flesh was ■* Thii-d Annual Report of the Bureau

eaten. On the evening (not the eve, of Ethnology ^?^%\'\VLig\.oxi), p. 225.
see Stein on the passage) of the festival ^ Ih. p. 231.

54 OSIRIS CHAP.

(an animal like a pig) it would give them leprosy ;^
probably the capim is one of their totems. In Samoa
each man had generally his god in the shape of some
species of animal ; and if he ate one of these divine
animals, it was supposed that the god avenged himself
by taking up his abode in the eater's body, and there
generating an animal of the kind he had eaten till it
caused his death. For example, if a man whose god
was the prickly sea-urchin, ate one of these creatures,
a prickly sea-urchin grew in his stomach and killed
him. If his god was an eel, and he ate an eel, he
became very ill, and before he died the voice of the
god was heard from his stomach saying, " I am killing
this man ; he ate my incarnation." ^ These examples
prove that the eating of a sacred animal is often
believed to produce skin -disease or even death ; so
far, therefore, they support the view that the pig
must have been sacred in Egypt, since the effect of
drinking its milk was believed to be leprosy.

Again, the rule that, after touching a pig, a man
had to wash himself and his clothes, also favours the
view of the sanctity of the pig. For it is a common
belief that the effect of contact with a sacred object
must be removed, by washing or otherwise, before
a man is free to mingle with his fellows. Thus the
Jews wash their hands after reading the sacred
scriptures. Before coming forth from the tabernacle
after the sin-offering, the high priest had to wash
himself, and put off the garments which he had worn
in the holy place.^ It was a rule of Greek ritual
that, in offering an expiatory sacrifice, the sacrificer
should not touch the sacrifice, and that, after the

1 J. Crevaux, Voyages dam VAmh-i- 2 Turner, Samoa, pp. 17 sq., 50 sq.

que nil Sud, p. 59. 3 Leviticus xvi. 23 sq.

Ill AS A PIG 55

offering was made, he must wash his body and his
clothes in a river or spring before he could enter
a city or his own house/ The Polynesians felt
strongly the need of ridding themselves of the sacred
contagion, if it may be so called, which they caught
by touching sacred objects. Various ceremonies were
performed for the purpose of removing this sacred
contagion. For example, in Tonga a man who
happened to touch a sacred chief, or anything per-
sonally belonging to him, as his clothes or his mat,
was obliged to go through the ceremony of touching
the soles of the chief's (or of any chief's) feet with
his hands, first applying the palm and then the back
of each hand ; next he had to rinse his hands in water,
or, if there was no water near, the sap of the plantain
or banana-tree mio^ht be used as a substitute. If he
were to feed himself with his hands before he per-
formed this ceremony, it was believed that he would
swell up and die, or at least be afflicted with scrofula
or some other disease.^ We have already seen what
fatal effects are supposed to follow, and do actually
follow, from contact with a sacred object in New
Zealand.^ In short, primitive man believes that what
is sacred is dangerous ; it is pervaded by a sort of
electrical sanctity which communicates a shock to,
even if it does not kill, whatever comes in contact
with it. Hence the savage is unwilling to touch
or even to see that which he deems peculiarly holy.
Thus Bechuanas, of the Crocodile clan, think it
" hateful and unlucky " to meet or see a crocodile ;
the sight is thought to cause inflammation of the

1 Porphyry, De abstin. ii. 44. For '^ Mariner, Tonga Islands, i. 434,

this and the Jewish examples I am note ; ii. 82, 222 sq.

indebted to my friend Prof. W. Robert- ^ Above, vol. i. p. 167 sqq.
son Smith

56 OSIRIS CHAP.

eyes. Yet the crocodile is their most sacred object ;
they call it their father, swear by it, and celebrate
it in their festivals.^ The goat is the sacred animal
of the Madenassana Bushmen; yet "to look upon
it would be to render the man for the time impure,
as well as to cause him undefined uneasiness."^ The
Elk clan, among the Omaha Indians, believe that
even to touch the male elk would be followed by an
eruption of boils and white spots on the body.^
Members of the Reptile clan in the same tribe think
that if one of them touches or smells a snake, it will
make his hair white.^ In Samoa people whose god
was a butterfly believed that if they caught a butterfly
it would strike them dead.^ Again, in Samoa the
reddish -seared leaves of the banana-tree were com-
monly used as plates for handing food ; but if any
member of the Wild Pigeon clan had used banana
leaves for this purpose, it was believed that he would
have suffered from rheumatic swellings or an eruption
all over the body like chicken-pox.*'

In the light of these parallels the beliefs and
customs of the Egyptians touching the pig are prob-
ably to be explained as based upon an opinion of
the extreme sanctity rather than of the extreme
uncleanness of the animal ; or rather, to put it more
correctly, they imply that the animal was looked on,
not simply as a filthy and disgusting creature, but as a
being endowed with high supernatural powers, and
that as such it was regarded with that primitive

^ Casalis, The Basntos, p. 211 ; ^ Third Afunial Report of the

Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Bureau of Ethnology (Washington), p.

Researches in South Africa, p. 255 ; 225.

John Mackenzie, Ten Years north of * //'. p. 27$.

the Orange River, p. 135 note. ^ Turner, Samoa, p. 76.

^ J. Mackenzie, I.e. ^ lb. p. 70.

Ill AS A PIG 57

sentiment of religious awe and fear in which the
feehngs of reverence and abhorrence are almost equally
blended. The ancients themselves seem to have been
aware that there was another side to the horror with
which swine seemed to inspire the Egyptians. For
the Greek astronomer and mathematician Eudoxus,
who resided fourteen months in Egypt and con-
versed with the priests/ was of opinion that the
Egyptians spared the pig, not out of abhorrence, but
from a regard to its utility in agriculture ; for, accord-
ing to him, when the Nile had subsided, herds of swine
were turned loose over the fields to tread the seed
down into the moist earth.^ But when a being is thus
the object of mixed and implicitly contradictory feel-
ings, he may be said to occupy a position of unstable
equilibrium. In course of time one of the contradictory
feelings is likely to prevail over the other, and accord-
ing as the feeling which finally predominates is that of
reverence or abhorrence, the being who is the object
of it will rise into a god or sink into a devil. The
latter, on the whole, was the fate of the pig in Egypt.
For in historical times the fear and horror of the pig
seem certainly to have outweighed the reverence and
worship of which he must once have been the object,
and of which, even in his fallen state, he never quite
lost trace. He came to be looked on as an embodi-
ment of Set or Typhon, the Egyptian devil and enemy
of Osiris. For it was in the shape of a boar that
Typhon menaced the eye of the god Horus, who
burned him and instituted the sacrifice of the pig, the
sun -god Ra having declared the pig abominable,^

1 Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philos, story is repeated by Pliny, Nat. Hist.
viii. 8. xviii. i68.

2 Aelian, Nat. Aiivn. x. i6. The ^ Lefebure, Le niyihe Osirien, i. 44.

58 OSIRIS CHAP.

Again, the story that Typhon was hunting a boar
when he discovered and mangled the body of Osiris,
and that this was the reason why the pig was sacrificed
once a year,^ is a transparent modernisation of an older
story that Osiris, like Adonis and Attis, was slain or
mangled by a boar, or by Typhon in the form of a
boar. Thus, the annual sacrifice of a pig to Osiris
might naturally be interpreted as vengeance inflicted
on the hostile animal that had slain or mangled the god.
But, in the first place, when an animal is thus killed
as a solemn sacrifice once and once only in the year, it
generally or always means that the animal is divine —
that he is spared and respected the rest of the year as a
god and slain, when he is slain, also in the character of
a god. 2 In the second place, the examples of Dionysus
and Demeter, if not of Attis and Adonis, have taught
us that the animal which is sacrificed to a god on the
ground that he is the god's enemy may have been, and
probably was, originally the god himself. Therefore,
the fact that the pig was sacrificed once a year to
Osiris, and the fact that he appears to have been sacri-
ficed on the ground that he was the god's enemy, go
to show, first, that originally the pig was a god, and,
second, that he was Osiris. At a later age the pig
was distinguished from Osiris when the latter became
anthropomorphic and his original relation to the pig
was forgotten ; later still, the pig was opposed as an
enemy to Osiris by mythologists who could think of no
reason for killing an animal in connection with the
worship of a god except that the animal was the god's

1 Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 8. Lefe- recognised by Prof. W. Robertson
liure (pp. cit. p. 46) recognises that in Smith. See his article " Sacrifice,"
this story the boar is Typhon himself. Eucycl. Britann. 9th ed. xxi. 137

sq. Cp. his Religion of the Semites,

' This important principle was first pp. 353 sq., 391 sq.

Ill AS A PIG 59

enemy ; or, as Plutarch puts it, not that which is dear
to the gods, but that which is the contrary, is fit to be
sacrificed.^ At this later stage the havoc which a wild
boar notoriously makes amongst the corn would supply
a plausible reason for regarding him as an enemy of
the corn -spirit, though originally, if I am right, the
very fact that the boar was found ranging at will
through the corn was the reason for identifying him
with the corn -spirit, to whom he was afterwards
opposed as an enemy. The view which identifies the
pig with Osiris derives not a little support from the
fact that the day on which the pigs were sacrificed
to him was the day on which, according to tradition,
Osiris was killed ; ^ for thus the killing of the pig was
the annual representation of the killing of Osiris, just
as the throwing of the pigs into the caverns at the
Thesmophoria was an annual representation of the
descent of Proserpine into the lower world ; and both
customs are parallel to the European practice of killing
a goat, cock, etc., at harvest as a representative of the
corn-spirit.

Again, the view that the pig, originally Osiris
himself, afterwards came to be regarded as an embodi-
ment of his enemy Typhon, is supported by the similar
relation of red-haired men and red oxen to Typhon.
For in regard to the red-haired men who were burned
and whose ashes were scattered with winnowing-fans,
we have seen fair grounds for believing that originally,
like the red-haired puppies killed at Rome in spring,
they were representatives of the corn -spirit himself,
that is, of Osiris, and were slain for the express
purpose of making the corn turn red or golden.

1 Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 3 1 .

2 Lefebure, Le mythe Osirien, p. 48 sq.

6o SACRED CATTLE

Yet at a later time these men were explained to be
representatives, not of Osiris, but of his enemy
Typhon,^ and the killing of them was regarded as an
act of vengeance inflicted on the enemy of the god.
Similarly, the red oxen sacrificed by the Egyptians
were said to be sacrificed on the ground of their
resemblance to Typhon ;^ though it is more likely that
originally they were slain on the ground of their
resemblance to the corn-spirit Osiris. We have seen
that the ox is a common representative of the corn-
spirit and is slain as such on the harvest-field.

Osiris was regularly identified with the bull Apis
of Memphis and the bull Mnevis of Heliopolis.^ But
it is hard to say whether these bulls were embodiments
of him as the corn-spirit, as the red oxen appear to
have been, or whether they were not rather entirely
distinct deities which got fused with Osiris by syn-
cretism. The fact that these two bulls were
worshipped by all the Egyptians,"* seems to put them
on a different footing from the ordinary sacred animals
whose cults were purely local. Hence, if the latter
were evolved from totems, as they probably were,
some other origin would have to be found for the
worship of Apis and Mnevis. If these bulls were not
originally embodiments of the corn-god Osiris, they
may possibly be descendants of the sacred cattle

1 Plutarch, his et Osiris, 33, 73; Pliny, iVa/. ^m/. viii. 184^(7(7. ; Solinus,
Diodorus, i. 88. xxxii. 17-21 ; Cicero, De nat. dear.

2 Plutarch, /sis et Osiris, 31 ; Dio- i. 29; Aelian, Nat. Anim. xi. \Osq.',
dorus, i. 88. Cp. Plerodotus, ii. 38. Plutarch, Quaest. Conviv. viii. i, 3 ;

3 ]Hutarch, Isis et Osiris, 20. id., I sis et Osiris, 5, 35 ; Eusebius,
29) 33, 43 ; Strabo, xvii. i, 31 ; Ih-aepar. Evang. iii. 13, l sq. ;
Diodorus, i. 21, 85 ; Uuncker, Pausanias, i. 18, 4, vii. 22, 3 sq.
Geschiclite des Alterthiims,^ i. 55 sqq. Both Apis and Mnevis were black
On Apis and Mnevis, see also bulls, but Apis had certain white
Herodotus, ii. 153, iii. 27 sq.'. Am- spots.

mianus Marcellinus, xxii. 14, 7; ^ Diodorus, i. 21.

IN EGYPT 6i

worshipped by a pastoral people.^ If this were so,
ancient Egypt would exhibit a stratification of the
three great types of religion corresponding to the three
great stages of society. Totemism or (roughly speak-
ing) the worship of wild animals— the religion of society
in the hunting stage— would be represented by the
worship of the local sacred animals ; the worship of
cattle— the religion of society in the pastoral stage-
would be represented by the cults of Apis and Mnevis;
and the worship of cultivated plants, especially of corn
— the religion of society in the agricultural stage-
would be represented by the worship of Osiris and
Isis. The Egyptian reverence for cows, which were
never killed,^ might belong either to the second or third
of these stages. The fact that cows were regarded
as sacred to, that is, as embodiments of Isis, who was
represented with cow's horns, would indicate that they,
like the red oxen, were embodiments of the corn-spirit.'
However, this identification of Isis with the cow, like
that of Osiris with the bulls Apis and Mnevis, may
be only an effect of syncretism. But whatever the
original relation of Apis to Osiris may have been, there
is one fact about the former which ought not to be
passed over in a chapter dealing with the custom of
killing the god. Although the bull Apis was worshipped
as a god with much pomp and profound reverence, he
was not suffered to live beyond a certain length of
time which was prescribed by the sacred books, and
on the expiry of which he was drowned in a' holy
spring.^ The limit, according to Plutarch, was twenty-

1 On the religious reverence of pas- 2 Herodotus, ii 41

toral peoples for their cattle, and the 3 ^Xmy, Nat. Hist, viii 18. •

possible derivation of the Apis and Isis- Solinus, xxxii. 18; Ammian^s Mar-

Hathor worship from the pastoral stage cellinus, xxii. 14, 7. The snrinP or

o society see W. Robertson Smith, well in which he was drowneTwas

Kehs^on of the Semites, 1. 277 sqq. perhaps the one from which his drink!

62 HORSES AND VIRBIUS chap.

five years ;^ but it cannot always have been enforced,
for the tombs of the Apis bulls have been discovered
in the present century, and from the inscriptions on
them it appears that in the twenty-second dynasty two
bulls lived more than twenty-six years.^

We are now in a position to hazard a conjecture —
for it can be little more — as to the meaning of the
tradition that Virbius, the first of the divine Kings of
the Wood at Aricia, was killed by horses. Having
found, first, that spirits of vegetation are not infre-
quently represented in the form of horses \'' and,
second, that the animal which in later leg^ends is said
to have injured the god was sometimes originally the
god himself, we may conjecture that the horses by
which Virbius was said to have been slain were really
embodiments of him as a deity of vegetation. The
myth that Virbius had been killed by horses was
probably invented to explain certain features in his
cult, amongst others the custom of excluding horses
from his sacred grove. For myth changes while
custom remains constant ; men continue to do what
their fathers did before them, though the reasons on
which their fathers acted have been long forgotten.
The history of religion is a long attempt to reconcile
old custom with new reason ; to find a sound theory
for an absurd practice. In the case before us we may
be sure that the myth is more modern than the custom
and by no means represents the original reason for
excluding horses from the grove. From the fact that
horses were so excluded it might be inferred that they
could not be the sacred animals or embodiments of the

ing water was procured ; he might not ^ Maspero, Histoire ancienne,'^ ■^. 31.

drink the water of tlie ]\'ile. I'lularch, Cp. Uuncker, Geschichte des Altcr-

Isis et Osiris, 5. thums,^ i. 56.

1 riutarcli, Jsis el Osiris, 56. ^ gee above, p. 24 sqq.

Ill HORSES AND VI RBI US 63

god of the grove. But the inference would be rash.
The goat was at one time a sacred animal or embodi-
ment of Athene, as may be inferred from the practice
of representing her clad in a goat-skin (aegis). Yet
the goat was neither sacrificed to her as a rule, nor
allowed to enter her great sanctuary, the Acropolis at
Athens. The reason alleged for this was that the goat
injured the olive, the sacred tree of Athene.^ So far,
therefore, the relation of the goat to Athene is parallel
to the relation of the horse to Virbius, both animals
being excluded from the sanctuary on the ground of
injury done by them to the god. But from Varro we
learn that there was an exception to the rule which
excluded the goat from the Acropolis. Once a year,
he says, the goat was driven on to the Acropolis for a
necessary sacrifice.^ Now, as has been remarked
before, when an animal is sacrificed once and once
only in the year, it is probably slain, not as a victim
offered to the god, but as a representative of the god
himself. Therefore we may infer that if a goat was
sacrificed on the Acropolis once a year, it was sacrificed
in the character of Athene herself; and it may be con-
jectured that the skin of the sacrificed animal was
placed on the statue of the goddess and formed the
aegis, which would thus be renewed annually. Similarly
at Thebes in Egypt rams were sacred and were not
sacrificed. But on one day in the year a ram was
killed, and its skin was placed on the statue of the god
Ammon.3 Now, if we knew the ritual of the Arician
grove better, we might find the rule of excluding
horses from it, like the rule of excluding goats from

1 Athenaeus, 5S7 a; Pliny, Nat. 2 Varro, De agri cti.lt. i. 2, 19 sq.

Hist. viii. 204. Cp. Encycl. Britann. 3 Herodotus, ii. 42.

9th ed. art. "Sacrifice," xxi. 135.

64 THE OCTOBER HORSE chap.

the Acropolis at Athens, was subject to an annual
exception, a horse being once a year taken into the
grove and sacrificed as an embodiment of the god
Virbius. By the usual misunderstanding the horse
thus killed would come in time to be regarded as an
enemy offered up in sacrifice to the god whom he had
injured, like the pig which was sacrificed to Demeter
and Osiris or the goat which was sacrificed to Athene
and Dionysus. It is so easy for a writer to record a
rule without noticing an exception that we need not
wonder at finding the rule of the Arician grove
recorded without any mention of an exception such as
I suppose. If we had had only the statements of
Athenaeus and Pliny, we should have known only the
rule which forbade the sacrifice of goats to Athene and
excluded them from the Acropolis, without being aware
of the important exception which the fortunate pre-
servation of Varro's work has revealed to us.

The conjecture that once a year a horse may have
been sacrificed in the Arician grove as a representative
of the deity of the grove derives some support from the
fact that a horse sacrifice of a similar character took
place once a year at Rome. On the 15th of October
in each year a chariot-race took place on the Field of
Mars. The right-hand horse of the victorious team
was sacrificed to Mars by being stabbed with a spear.
The object of the sacrifice was to ensure good crops.
The animal's head was cut off and adorned with a
string of loaves. The inhabitants of two wards — the
Sacred Way and the Subura — then contended with
each other who should get the head. If the people of
the Sacred Way got it, they fastened it to a wall of
the king's house ; if the people of the Subura got it.
they fastened it to the Mamilian tower. The horses

Ill THE OCTOBER HORSE 65

tail was cut off and carried to the king's house with
such speed that the blood dripped on the hearth of the
house/ Further, it appears that the blood of the
horse was caught and preserved till the 21st of April,
when it was mixed by the Vestal virgins with the
blood of the unborn calves which had been sacrificed
six days before. The mixture was then distributed to
shepherds, and used by them for fumigating their
flocks.'

In this ceremony the decoration of the horse's head
with a string of loaves, and the alleged object of the
sacrifice, namely, to procure a good harvest, clearly
indicate that the horse was killed as one of those
animal representatives of the corn-spirit of which we
have seen so many examples. The custom of cutting
off the horse's tail is like the African custom of cutting
off the tails of the oxen and sacrificing them to obtain
a good crop.2 In both the Roman and the African
custom the animal represents the corn -spirit, and its
fructifying power is supposed to reside especially in its
tail. The latter idea occurs, as we have seen, in
European folk-lore.^ Again, the custom of fumigating
the cattle in spring with the blood of the horse may be
compared with the custom of giving the Maiden as
fodder to the cattle at Christmas, and giving the Yule
Boar to the ploughing oxen or horses to eat in spring.^
All these customs aim at ensuring the blessing of the
corn -spirit on the homestead and its inmates and
storing it up for another year.

The Roman sacrifice of the October horse, as it

1 Festus, ed. Miiller, pp. 178, 179, ^ Qvid, Fasti, iv. 731 sqq., cp. 629

220; Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. 97; sqq.; Propertius, v. i, i<^ sq.
Polybius, xii. 4 B. The sacrifice is ■* Above, p. 41 sq.

referred to by Julian, Orat. 176 D. * Above, vol. i. p. 40S, vol. ii. p. 3.

^ Above, p. 30.
VOL. II F

66 THE OCTOBER HORSE chap.

was called, carries us back to the early days when the
Subura, afterwards a low and crowded quarter of the
great metropolis, was still a separate village, whose
inhabitants engaged in a friendly contest on the harvest-
field with their neighbours of Rome, then a little rural
town. The Field of Mars on which the ceremony took
place lay beside the Tiber, and formed part of the king's
domain down to the abolition of the monarchy. For
tradition ran that at the time when the last of the
kings was driven from Rome, the corn stood ripe for
the sickle on the crown lands beside the river ; but no
one would eat the accursed grain and it was flung into
the river in such heaps that, the water being low with
the summer heat, it formed the nucleus of an island.^
The horse sacrifice was thus an old autumn custom
observed upon the king's corn-fields at the end of the
harvest. The tail and blood of the horse, as the chief
parts of the corn-spirit's representative, were taken to
the king's house and kept there ; just as in Germany
the harvest -cock is nailed on the gable or over the
door of the farmhouse ; and as the last sheaf, in the
form of the Maiden, is carried home and kept over the
fireplace in the Highlands of Scotland. Thus the
blessing of the corn-spirit was brought to the king's
house and hearth and, through them, to the community
of which he was the head. Similarly in the spring
and autumn customs of Northern Europe the May-
pole is sometimes set up in front of the house of
the mayor or burgomaster, and the last sheaf at
harvest is brought to him as the head of the village.
But while the tail and blood fell to the king, the
neighbouring village of the Subura, which no doubt
once had a similar ceremony of its own, was gratified

1 Livy, ii. 5.

Ill THE OCTOBER HORSE 67

by being allowed to compete for the prize of the
horse's head. The Mamilian tower to which the
Suburans nailed the horse's head when they succeeded
in carrying it off, appears to have been a peel-tower or
keep of the old Mamilian family, the magnates of the
village.^ The ceremony thus performed on the king's
fields and at his house on behalf of the whole town
and of the neighbouring village presupposes a time
when each commune performed a similar ceremony On
its own fields. In the rural districts of Latium the
villages may have continued to observe the custom,
each on its own land, long after the Roman hamlets
had merged their separate harvest - homes in the
common celebration on the king's lands.^ There is
no intrinsic improbability in the supposition that the
sacred grove of Aricia, like the Field of Mars at Rome,
may have been the scene of a common harvest celebra-
tion, at which a horse was sacrificed with the same rude
rites on behalf of the neighbouring villages. The
horse would represent the fructifying spirit both of the
tree and of the corn, for the two ideas melt into each
other, as we see in customs like the Harvest-May.

§ 1 1. — Eating the god

We have now seen that the corn - spirit is re-
presented sometimes in human, sometimes in animal
form, and that in both cases he is killed in the person
of his representative and eaten sacramentally. To find
examples of actually killing the human representative
of the corn -spirit we had of course to go to savage

1 Festus, ed. Miiller, pp. 130, of an essay by Mannhardt {Mytholog.
131. Forsch. pp. 156-201), of which the

^ The October horse is the subject above account is a summary.

68 SACRAMENTAL EATING chap.

races ; but the harvest suppers of our European
peasants have furnished unmistakable examples of the
sacramental eating of animals as representatives of the
corn-spirit. But further, as might have been antici-
pated, the new corn is itself eaten sacramentally, that
is, as the body of the corn-spirit. In Wermland,
Sweden, the farmer's wife uses the grain of the last
sheaf to bake a loaf in the shape of a little girl ; this
loaf is divided amongst the whole household and eaten
by them.^ Here the loaf represents the corn -spirit
conceived as a maiden ; just as in Scotland the corn-
spirit is similarly conceived and represented by the
last sheaf made up in the form of a woman and bearing
the name of the Maiden. As usual, the corn-spirit
is believed to reside in the last sheaf; and to eat a
loaf made from the last sheaf is, therefore, to eat the
corn-spirit itself Similarly at La Palisse in France a
man made of dough is hung upon the fir-tree which is
carried on the last harvest-waggon. The tree and the
dough-man are taken to the mayor's house and kept
there till the vintage is over. Then the close of the
harvest is celebrated by a feast at which the mayor
bre'aks the dough-man in pieces and gives the pieces to
the people to eat.-

In these examples the corn-spirit is represented
and eaten in human shape. In other cases, though
the new corn is not baked in loaves of human
shape, still the solemn ceremonies with which it is
eaten suffice to indicate that it is partaken of sacra-
mentally, that is, as the body of the corn-spirit.
For example, the following ceremonies used to be

1 M. F. p. 179. the dough -man is made of the new

corn ; but probably this is, or once
- B. K. p. 205. It is not said that was, the case.

OF NEW CROPS 69

observed by Lithuanian peasants at eating the new
corn. When the harvest and the sowing of the new
corn were over, each farmer held a festival called
Sabarios, that is, "the mixing or throwing together."
He took a handful of each kind of grain — wheat,
barley, oats, flax, beans, lentils, etc. ; and each handful
he divided into three parts. The twenty -seven
portions of each grain were then thrown on a heap and
all mixed up together. The grain used had to be the
grain which was first threshed and winnowed and
which had been set aside and kept for this purpose.
A part of the grain thus mixed was used to bake little
loaves, one for each of the household ; the rest was
mixed with more barley or oats and made into beer.
The first beer brewed from this mixture was for the
drinking of the farmer, his wife, and children ; the
second brew was for the servants. The beer being
ready, the farmer chose an evening when no stranger
was expected. Then he knelt down before the barrel
of beer, drew a jugful of the liquor and poured it on
the bung of the barrel, saying, " O fruitful earth, make
rye and barley and all kinds of corn to flourish." Next
he took the jug to the parlour, where his wife and child-
ren awaited him. On the floor of the parlour lay bound
a black or white or speckled (not a red) cock and a hen
of the same colour and of the same brood, which must
have been hatched within the year. Then the farmer
knelt down, with the jug in his hand, and thanked
God for the harvest and prayed for a good crop next
year. Then all lifted up their hands and said, " O
God, and thou, O earth, we give you this cock and
hen as a free-will offering." With that the farmer
killed the fowls with the blows of a wooden spoon, for
he might not cut their heads oft. After the first prayer

70 SACRAMENTAL EATING chap.

and after killing each of the birds he poured out
a third of the beer. Then his wife boiled the fowls
in a new pot which had never been used before. A
bushel was then set, bottom upwards, on the floor, and
on it were placed the little loaves mentioned above
and the boiled fowls. Next the new beer was fetched,
together with a ladle and three mugs, none of which
was used except on this occasion. When the farmer
had ladled the beer into the mugs, the family knelt
down round the bushel. The father then uttered a
prayer and drank off the three mugs of beer. The
rest follo'wed his example. Then the loaves and the
flesh of the fowls were eaten, after which the beer
went round again, till every one had emptied each of
the three mugs nine times. None of the food should
remain over ; but if anything did happen to be left,
it was consumed next morninof with the same cere-
monies. The bones were then given to the dog to
eat ; if he did not eat them all up, the remains were
buried under the dung in the cattle - stall. This
ceremony was observed at the beginning of December.
On the day on which it occurred no bad word might
be spoken.^

Such was the custom about two hundred years
ago. At the present day in Lithuania, when new po-
tatoes or loaves made from the new corn are being
eaten, all the people at table pull each other's hair.-
The meaning of the latter custom is obscure, but a
similar custom was certainly observed by the heathen
Lithuanians at their solemn sacrifices.^ Many of the
Esthonians of the island of Oesel will not eat bread

1 Praetorius, Deliciae Prussicae, pp. ett (Gottingen, 1882), p. 89.

60-64 ; A. IV. F. p. 249 sqq. ^ Simon Giunau, PrcussiscJic Chron-

2 'BezztnhcxgQY,LJiatiischeForsc/nt)ig- ik, ed. Perlbach, i. 91.

OF NEW CROPS 71

baked of the new corn till they have first taken a
bite at a piece of iron.^ The iron is here plainly a
charm, intended to render harmless the spirit that is in
the corn.' In Sutherlandshire at the present day,
when the new potatoes are dug all the family must
taste them, otherwise " the spirits in them [the
potatoes] take offence, and the potatoes would not
keep."^ In one part of Yorkshire it is still the
custom for the clergyman to cut the first corn ; and
my informant believes that the corn so cut is used
to make the communion bread.-^ If the latter part
of the custom is correctly reported (and analogy is
all in its favour), it shows how the Christian com-
munion has absorbed within itself a sacrament which
is doubtless far older than Christianity.

At the close of the rice harvest in Boeroe, East
Indies, each clan (fenna) meets at a common sacra-
mental meal, to which every member of the clan is
bound to contribute a little of the new rice. This meal
is called "eating the soul of the rice," a name which
clearly indicates the sacramental character of the
repast. Some of the rice is also set apart and
offered to the spirits.^ Amongst the Alfoers of
Celebes the priest sows the first rice- seed and plucks
the first ripe rice in each field. This rice he roasts
and grinds into meal, and gives some of it to each
of the household.*^ Shortly before the rice harvest
in Bolang Mongondo, Celebes, an offering is made

1 Holzmayer, Osiliaiia, p. 108. ^ G. A. Wilken, Bijdrage tot de

o r\ ■ -u -^^f ^,.,-,.;t^ kennis der Alfoeren van het eiland

^ On iron as a charm aramst spuits, „ ^ J

, 1 • ,», Boeroe, p. 20.

see above, vol. 1. p. 175 so. „ ^' jFI ^,^.,, ,.■o■■^ * j. i

' .. •' P. N. Wilken, " Bijdragen tot de

3 Folk-lore Journal, vii. 54. kennis van de zeden en gewoonten der

* Communicated by the Rev. J.J. C. Alfoeren in de Minahassa," in Mede-

Yarborough, of Chislehurst, Kent. See deelingen van ivege het Nederlandsche

Folk-lore Journal, vii. 50. Zendelitiggenootschap,\\\. {12,6-^) -p. 12"].

72 SACRAMENTAL EATING chap.

of a small pig or a fowl. Then the priest plucks
a little rice, first on his own field and then on those
of his neighbours. All the rice thus plucked by him
he dries along with his own, and then gives it back
to the respective owners, who have it ground and
boiled. When, it is boiled the women take it back,
with an ^^"g, to the priest, who offers the ^gg in
sacrifice and returns the rice to the women. Of
this rice every member of the family, down to the
youngest child, must partake. After this ceremony
every one is free to get in his rice.^ Amongst the
Burghers, a tribe of the Neilgherry Hills in Southern
India, the first handful of seed is sown and the first
sheaf reaped by a Curumbar — a man of a different
tribe, whom the Burghers regard as sorcerers. The
grain contained in the first sheaf "is that day reduced
to meal, made into cakes, and, being offered as a
first- fruit oblation, is, together with the remainder of
the sacrificed animal, partaken of by the Burgher
and the whole of his family as the meat of a federal
offering and sacrifice."-

Amoncrst the Coorafs of Southern India the man
who is to cut the first sheaf of rice at harvest is
chosen by an astrologer. At sunset the whole house-
hold takes a hot bath and then goes to the rice-
field, where the chosen reaper cuts an armful of
rice with a new sickle, and distributes two or more
stalks to all present. Then all return to the thresh-
ing-floor. A bundle of leaves is adorned with a
stalk of rice and fastened to the post in the centre
of the threshing-floor. Enough of the new rice

1 N. P. Wilken en J. A. Schwarz, ^ j-j_ Harkness, Description of a

" Allerlei over het land en volk van Singular Ahorigiiial Race ijihabiting

Bolaang Mongondou," in Mededeel. v. the Summit of the Neilgherry Hills, p.

w. h. Nederl. Zendelinggen. xi. 369 sq. 56 sq.

OF NEW CROPS

is now threshed, cleaned, and ground to provide
flour for the dough cakes which each member of
the household is to eat. Then they go to the door
of the house, where the mistress washes the feet
of the sheaf- cutter, and presents to him, and after
him to all the rest, a brass vessel full of milk,
honey, and sugar, from which each person takes
a draught. Then the man who cut the sheaf
kneads a cake of rice meal, plantains, milk, honey,
seven new rice corns, seven pieces of cocoa-nut,
etc. Every one receives a little of this cake on
an Ashvatha leaf, and eats it. The ceremony is
then over and the sheaf-cutter mixes with the
company. When he was engaged in cutting the
rice no one might touch him.^ Among the Hindoos
of Southern India the eating of the new rice is the
occasion of a family festival called Pongol. The new
rice is boiled in a new pot on a fire which is kindled
at noon on the day when, according to Hindoo
astrologers, the sun enters the tropic of Capricorn.
The boiling of the pot is watched with great anxiety
by the whole family, for as the milk boils, so will the
coming year be. If the milk boils rapidly, the year
will be prosperous ; but it will be the reverse if the
milk boils slowly. Some of the new boiled rice is
offered to the image of Ganesa ; then every one
partakes of it.- At Gilgit, in the Hindoo Koosh,
before wheat -harvest begins, a member of every
household gathers a handful of ears of corn secretly at
dusk. A few of the ears are hung up over the door
of the house, and the rest are roasted next morning,

^ Cover, Folk-songs of Southern ^ Cover, "The Pongol Festival in

India, p. 105 sqq.; Folk-lore Journal, Southern India," Journ. R. Asiatic
vii. 302 sqq. Society, N. S. v. (1S7 1) p. 91 sqq.

.74 SACRAMENTAL EATING

and eaten steeped in milk. The day is spent in
rejoicings, and next morning the harvest begins.^

The ceremony of eating the new yams at Onitsha,
on the Quorra River, Guinea, is thus described :
" Each headman brought out six yams, and cut
down young branches of pahii- leaves and placed
them before his gate, roasted three of the yams,
and got some kola- nuts and fish. After the yam
is roasted, the Libia, or country doctor, takes the
yam, scrapes it with a sort of meal, and divides
it into halves ; he then takes one piece, and places
it on the lips of the person who is going to eat
the new yam. The eater then blows up the steam
from the hot yam, and afterwards pokes the whole
into his mouth, and says, ' I thank God for being
permitted to eat the new yam ; ' he then begins
to chew it heartily, with fish likewise."'-^ Amongst
the Kafirs of Natal and Zululand, no one may
eat of the new fruits till after a festival which
marks the beginning of the Kafir year. All the
people assemble at the king's kraal, where they
feast and dance. Before they separate the " dedi-
cation of the people " takes place. Various fruits
of the earth, as corn, mealies, and pumpkins, mixed
with the flesh of a sacrificed animal and with
"medicine," are boiled in great pots, and a little
of this food is placed in each man's mouth by the
king himself. After thus partaking of the sanctified
fruits, a man is himself sanctified for the whole year,
and may immediately get in his crops.'''

1 Biddulph, Tribes of the Hindoo West AfHcan Countries and Peoples, \yy

Koosh,^. 103. J. AfiicanusB. Horton(London, 1S6S),

- Crowther and Taylor, The Gospel p. 180 sq.
on the Banks of the Niger, p. 287 sq. 3 Speckmann, Die Hennannshurger

Mr. Taylor's information is repeated in Mission in Afrika, p. 150 sq. On the

OF NEW CROPS 75

Amongst the Creek Indians of North America, the
bicsk or festival of first-fruits was the chief ceremony
of the year/ It was held in July or August, when
the corn was ripe, and marked the end of the old
year and the beginning of the new one. Before it
took place none of the Indians would eat or even
handle any part of the new harvest. Sometimes
each town had its own busk ; sometimes several
towns united to hold one in common. Before cele-
brating the busk, the people provided themselves
with new clothes and new household utensils and fur-
niture ; they collected their old clothes and rubbish,
together with all the remaining grain and other old
provisions, cast them together in one common heap,
and consumed them with fire.' As a preparation for
the ceremony, all the fires in the village were extin-
guished, and the ashes swept clean away. In particular,
the hearth or altar of the temple was dug up and the

Zulu feast of first-fruits, see also N. Amet-katt Indians (London, 1775), pp.

Isaacs, Travels and Adventures in 96-111; W. Bartram, Travels throngh

Eastern Africa, ii. 291 sq.; Arbousset North and South Carolina, Georgia,

et Daumas, Voyage d' exploration, etc. East and West Flo7-idaiX-'^"'^^'^^-:'^19'^)->

p. 308 sq. ; Callaway, Religious System p. 507 sq. ; B. Hawkins, " Sketch of the

of the Amazulu, p. 389 note ; South Creek country," in Collections of the

Af-ican Folk-lore Journal, i. 135 sqq.; Georgia Historical Society, \\\.{^2iV2i\\vvz!n,

Yxiisch, Die EingeborenenSiid-Afrikas, 1848), pp. 75-78; A. A. M'Gillivray,

p. 143; Lewis Grout, Zulitland, p. in Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, v. 267

160 sqq. From Mr. Grout's description sq. Adair's description is the fullest

it appears that a bull is killed and its and has been chiefly followed in the

gall drunk by the king and people. text. In Obsen'ations on the Creek and

In killing it the men must use nothing Cherokee Indians, by William Bartram

but their naked hands. The flesh of (1789), with prefatory and supple-

the bull is given to the boys to eat me/itary notes, by E. G. Squier, p.

what they like and burn the rest; the 75, there is a description — extracted

men may not taste it. As a final cere- from an MS. of J. H. Payne (author

mony the king breaks a green calabash of Home, Szveet Ilome) — of the similar

in presence of the people, "thereby ceremony observed by the Cherokees.

signifying that he opens the new year, I possess a copy of this work in

and grants the people leave* to eat of pamphlet form, but it appears to be

the fruits of the season." If a man an extract from the transactions or

eats the new fruits before the festival, proceedings of a society, probably an

he will die or is actually put to death. American one. Mr. Squier's preface

1 The ceremony is described inde- is dated New York, 1851.

•ptndiQnily hy ]^m&s KAaXv, Histoiy of the - W. Bartram, Travels, p. 507.

76 SACRAMENTAL EATING chap.

ashes carried out. Then the chief priest put some
roots of the button-snake plant, with some green tobacco
leaves and a little of the new fruits, at the bottom of
the fireplace, which he afterwards ordered to be covered
up with white clay, and wetted over with clean water.
A thick arbour of green branches of young trees was
then made over the altar.^ Meanwhile the women at
home were cleaning out their houses, renewing the old
hearths, and scouring all the cooking vessels that they
might be ready to receive the new fire and the new
fruits.^ The public or sacred square was carefully
swept of even the smallest crumbs of previous feasts,
*' for fear of polluting the first-fruit offerings." Also
every vessel that had contained or had been used about
any food during the expiring year was removed from
the temple before sunset. Then all the men who were
not known to have violated the law of the first-fruit
offering and that of marriage during the year were
summoned by a crier to enter the holy square and
observe a solemn fast. But the women (except six
old ones), the children, and all who had not attained
the rank of warriors were forbidden to enter the
square. Sentinels were also posted at the corners of
the square to keep out all persons deemed impure and
all animals. A strict fast was then observed for two
nights and a day, the devotees drinking a bitter decoc-
tion of button-snake root " in order to vomit and purge
their sinful bodies." That the people outside the square
might also be purified, one of the old men laid down a

1 So amongst the Cherokees, accord- sacred scfiiare. Every man then pro-

ing to J. n. Tayne, an arljour of green vided himself with a green bough."

boughs was made in the sacred square ; ^ So Adair. Bartram, on the other

then "aljeautiful bushy-topped shade- hand, as we have seen, says that the

tree was cut down close to the roots, old vessels were burned and new ones

and planted in the very centre of the prepared for the festival.

OF NEW CROPS 77

quantity of green tobacco at a corner of the square ;
this was carried off by an old woman and distributed
to the people without, who chewed and swallowed it
" in order to afflict their souls." During this general
fast, the women, children, and men of weak constitution
were allowed to eat after mid-day, but not before. On
the morning when the fast ended, the women brought
a quantity of the old year's food to the outside of the
sacred square. These provisions were then brought
in and set before the famished multitude, but all traces
of them had to be removed before noon. When the
sun was declining from the meridian, all the people
were commanded by the voice of a crier to stay within
doors, to do no bad act, and to be sure to extinguish
and throw away every spark of the old fire. Universal
silence now reigned. Then the high priest made the
new fire by the friction of two pieces of wood, and
placed it on the altar under the green arbour. This
new fire was believed to atone for all past crimes
except murder. Then a basket of new fruits was
brought ; the high priest took out a little of each sort
of fruit, rubbed it with bear's oil, and offered it, together
with some flesh, " to the bountiful holy spirit of fire,
as a first-fruit offering, and an annual oblation for sin."
He also consecrated the sacred emetics (the button-
snake root and the cassina or black-drink) by pouring
a little of them into the fire. The persons who had
remained outside now approached, without entering,
the sacred square ; and the chief priest thereupon made
a speech, exhorting the people to observe their old
rites and customs, announcing that the new divine fire
had purged away the sins of the past year, and ear-
nestly warning the women that, if any of them had not
extinguished the old fire, or had contracted any im-

78 SACRAMENTS

purity, they must forthwith depart, "lest the divine fire
should spoil both them and the people." Some of the
new fire was then laid down outside the holy square ;
the women carried it home joyfully, and laid it on their
unpolluted hearths. When several towns had united
to celebrate the festival, the new fire might thus be
carried for several miles. The new fruits were then
dressed on the new fires and eaten with bear's oil,
which was deemed indispensable. At one point of the
festival the men rubbed the new corn between their
hands, then on their faces and breasts.^ During
the festival which followed, the warriors, dressed in
their wild martial array, their heads covered with
white down and carrying white feathers in their hands,
danced round the sacred arbour, under which burned
the new fire. The ceremonies lasted eight days, dur-
ing which the strictest continence was practised. To-
wards the conclusion of the festival the warriors fought
a mock battle ; then the men and women together, in
three circles, danced round the sacred fire. Lastly, all
the people smeared themselves with white clay and
bathed in running water. They came out of the water
" believing themselves out of the reach of temporal
evil for their past vicious conduct." So they departed
in joy and peace.

The solemn preparations thus made for eating the
new corn prove that it was eaten as a sacrament. In
the Boeroe and Creek customs, this sacrament is com-
bined with a sacrifice, and in course of time the sacri-
fice of first-fruits tends to throw the sacrament into
the shade, if not to supersede it. The mere fact of
having offered the first-fruits to the gods or ancestral
spirits comes now to be thought a sufficient prepara-

1 U. Hawkins, "Sketch," etc., p. 76.

Ill IN ANCIENT MEXICO 79

tion for eating the new corn ; the gods having received
their share, man is free to enjoy the rest. This
mode of viewing the new fruits impHes that they are
regarded no longer as themselves instinct with divine
life, but merely as a gift bestowed by the gods upon
man, who is bound to express his gratitude and hom-
age to his divine benefactors by presenting them with
a portion of the fruits of the earth. But with sacrifice,
as distinct from sacrament, we are not here concerned.^
The custom of eating bread sacramentally as the
body of a god was practised by the Aztecs before the
discovery and conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards.
Twice a year, in May and December, an image of the
great Mexican god Huitzilopochtli or Vitzilipuztli was
made of dough, then broken in pieces, and solemnly
eaten by his worshippers. The May ceremony is thus
described by the historian Acosta. " Two dales before
this feast, the virgins whereof I have spoken (the
which were shut up and secluded in the same temple
and were as it were religious women) did mingle a
quantitie of the seede of beetes with roasted Mays
[maize], and then they did mould it with honie, making
an idol of that paste in bignesse like to that of wood,
putting insteede of eyes graines of greene glasse, of
blue or white ; and for teeth graines of Mays set
forth with all the ornament and furniture that I have
said. This being finished, all the Noblemen came and
brought it an exquisite and rich garment, like unto that
of the idol, wherewith they did attyre it. Being thus
clad and deckt, they did set it in an azured chaire and
in a litter to carry it on their shoulders. The morning
of this feast being come, an houre before day all the
maidens came forth attired in white, with new orna-

1 See Note on " Offerings of first-fruits " at the end of the volume.

So MEXICAN SACRAMENTS chap.

ments, the which that day were called the Sisters of
their god Vitzilipuztli, they came crowned with garlands
of Mays rosted and parched, being like unto azahar
or the flower of orange ; and about their neckes they
had great chaines of the same, which went bauldricke-
wise under their left arme. Their cheekes were died
with Vermillion, their armes from the elbow to the
wrist were covered with red parrots' feathers." Young
men, crowned like the virgins with maize, then carried
the idol in its litter to the foot of the great pyramid-
shaped temple, up the steep and narrow steps of which
it was drawn to the music of flutes, trumpets, cornets,
and drums. "While they mounted up the idoll all the
people stoode in the Court with much reverence and
feare. Being mounted to the top, and that they had
placed it in a little lodge of roses which they held
readie, presently came the yong men, which strawed
many flowers of sundrie kindes, wherewith they filled
the temple both within and without. This done, all
the virgins came out of their convent, bringing peeces
of paste compounded of beetes and rosted Mays, which
was of the same paste whereof their idol was made
and compounded, and they were of the fashion of great
bones. They delivered them to the yong men, who
carried them up and laide them at the idoll's feete,
wherewith they filled the whole place that it could
receive no more. They called these morcells of paste
the flesh and bones of Vitzilipuztli." Then the priests
came in their robes of oflice, "and putting themselves
in order about these morsells and peeees of paste, they
used certaine ceremonies with singing and dauncing.
By means whereof they were blessed and consecrated
for the flesh and bones of this idoll. . . . The
ceremonies, dauncing, and sacrifice ended, they went

MEXICAN SACRAMENTS 8i

to unclothe themselves, and the priests and superiors
of the temple tooke the idoll of paste, which they
spoyled of all the ornaments it had, and made many
peeces, as well of the idoll itselfe as of the tronchons
which were consecrated, and then they gave them to
the people in maner of a communion, beginning with
the greater, and continuing unto the rest, both men,
women, and little children, who received it with such
teares, feare, and reverence as it was an admirable
thing, saying that they did eate the flesh and bones of
God, wherewith they were grieved. Such as had any
sicke folkes demaunded thereof for them, and carried it
with great reverence and veneration."^

Before the festival in December, which took place
at the winter solstice, an image of the god Huitzilo-
pochtli was made of seeds of various sorts kneaded
into a dough with the blood of children. The bones
of the god were represented by pieces of acacia wood.
This image was placed on the chief altar of the temple,
and on the day of the festival the king offered incense
to it. Early next day it was taken down and set on
its feet in a great hall. Then a priest took a flint-
tipped dart and hurled it into the breast of the dough-
image, piercing it through and through. This was
called "killing the god Huitzilopochtli so that his body
might be eaten." One of the priests cut out the heart
of the image and gave it to the king to eat. The
rest of the image was divided into minute pieces, of
which every man great and small, down to the male
children in the cradle, received one to eat. But no
woman might taste a morsel. The ceremony was
called teoqitalo, that is, "god is eaten."-

1 Acosta, Natural and Moral His- pp. 356-360 (Hakluyt Society, 1S80).
tory of the Indies, bk. v. c. 24, vol. ii. - ^■XTXzxoiX, Native Races of the Pacific

VOL. II G

82 MEXICAN SACRAMENTS chap.

At another festival the Mexicans made Httle
images in human shape to represent the cloud-capped
mountains. These images were made of paste of
various seeds and were dressed in paper ornaments.
Some people made five, others ten, others as many
as fifteen of these paste images. They were placed
in the oratory of each house and worshipped. Four
times in the course of the night offerings of food were
made to them in tiny vessels ; and people sang and
played the flute before them all night. At break of
day the priests stabbed the images with a weaver's
instrument, cut off their heads, and tore out their
hearts, which they presented to the master of the
house on a green saucer. The bodies of the images
were then eaten by all the family, especially by the
servants, " in order that by eating them they might be
preserved from certain distempers, to which those
persons who were negligent of worship to those deities
conceived themselves to be subject." ^

We are now able to suggest an explanation of the
proverb "there are many Manii at Aricia.'"' Certain
loaves made in the shape of men were called by the
Romans maniae, and it appears that this kind of loaf
was especially made at Aricia.^ Now, Mania, the
name of one of these loaves, was also the name of the
Mother or Grandmother of Ghosts,^ to whom woollen

5^rt:i'gJ, iii. 297-300 (after Torquemada) ; extended from 23d December to nth

Clavigero, History of Mexico^ trans, by January). At another festival the Mexi-

Cullen, i. 309 sqq. ; Sahagun, Histoirc cans made the semblance of a bone out

gcnerale des clioses de la Nouvelle- of paste and ate it sjfcramentally as the

Espag7ie, traduite et annotee par Jour- bone of the god. Sahagun, p. 33.

danet et Simeon (Paris, 1880), p. 203 2 ggg above, vol. i. p. 5 sq.

sq.;1. G. Miiller, Geschichie dcr amen- •* Festus, ed. Miiller, pp. 128, 129,

kanischcn Urreligioneii, p. 605. 145. The reading of the last passage

1 Clavigero, i. 311 ; Sahagun, pp. is, however, uncertain ("^/ Ariciae

74, I56 5((^. ; Miiller, p. 606 ; Bancroft, genus paniii fieri ; quod mamci\ appel-

iii. 316. This festival took place on ietur").

the last day of the i6th month (which '' Varro, De ling. lat. ix. 61 ;

A RICIA N SA CRA ME NT

effieies of men and women were dedicated at the
festival of the Compitaha. These effigies were hung
at the doors of all the houses in Rome ; one effigy
was hung up for every free person in the house, and
one effigy, of a different kind, for every slaVe. The
reason was that on this day the ghosts of the dead
were believed to be going about, and it was hoped
that they would carry off the effigies at the door
instead of the living people in the house. According
to tradition, these woollen figures were substitutes for
a former custom of sacrificing human beings.^ Upon
data so fragmentary and uncertain, it is of course
impossible to build with certainty ; but it seems worth
suggesting that the loaves in human form, which
appear to have been baked at Aricia, were sacramental
bread, and that in the old days, when the divine King
of the Wood was annually slain, loaves were made in
his image, like the paste figures of the gods in Mexico,
and were eaten sacramentally by his worshippers.^

Arnobius, Adv. nationes, iii. 41 ; (Similarly a North - American Indian

Macrobius, Saturn, i. 7, 35 ; Festus, p. dreamed that a sacrifice of twenty

128, ed. Miiller. Festus speaks of the elans was necessary for the recovery

mother or grandmother of the larvae; of a sick girl ; but the elans could not

the other writers speak of the mother be procured, and the girl's parents were

of the lares. allowed to sacrifice twenty loaves in-

1 Macrobius, I.e.; Festus, pp. 121, stead. Relations des Jesitites, 1636, p.

239, ed. Miiller. The effigies hung up 11, ed. 1858). Poor people who could

for the slaves were called pilae, not not afford to sacrifice real animals

maniae. Pilae was also the name offered dough images of them. Suidas,

given to the straw -men which were s.v. ^ovs e/35o,aos ; cp. Hesychius, j. z'ly.

thrown to the bulls to gore in the jSovs, e/35o/xos (3ous. Hence bakers made

arena. Martial, Epigr. ii. 43, 5 sq. ; a regular business of baking cakes in

Asconius, In Cornel, p. 55, ed. Kiess- the likeness of all the animals which

ling and Schoell. were sacrificed to the gods. Proculus,

^ The ancients were at least familiar quoted and emended by Lobeck, Agla-

with the practice of sacrificing images opiiaiiius, p. 1079. When Cyzicus was

made of dough or other materials as besieged by Mithridates and the people

substitutes for the animals themselves. could not procure a black cow to sacri-

It was a recognised principle that when fice at the rites of Proserpine, they

an animal could not be easily obtained made a cow of dough and placed it at

for sacrifice, it was lawful to offer an the altar. Plutarch, Liieiilhis, 10.

image of it made of bread or wax. In a Boeotian sacrifice to Hercules, in

Servius on Virgil, Aen. ii. 116. place of the ram which was the proper

ARICIAN SACRAMENT

The Mexican sacraments in honour of Huitzilopochtli
were also accompanied by the sacrifice of human
victims. The tradition that the founder of the sacred
grove at Aricia was a man named Manius, from
whom many Manii were descended, would thus be an
etymological myth invented to explain the name
maniae as applied to these sacramental loaves. A
dim recollection of the original connection of these
loaves with human sacrifices may perhaps be traced
in the story that the effigies dedicated to Mania at
the Compitalia were substitutes for human victims.
The story itself, however, is probably devoid of
foundation, since the practice of putting up dummies
to divert the attention of demons from living people
is not uncommon. For example, when an epidemic is
raging, some of the Dyaks of Borneo set up wooden
images at their doors in the hope that the demons of
the plague will be deceived into carrying off the images
instead of the people.^ The Minahassa of Celebes
will sometimes transport a sick man to another house,
leaving on his bed a dummy made up of a pillow and
clothes. This dummy the demon is supposed to take
by mistake for the sick man, who consequently re-
covers." Similarly in Burma it is thought that a patient
will recover if an effigy be buried in a small coffin.'
The custom of killing the god has now been traced

victim, an apple was regularly sub- were sacrificed. Schol. on Thucydides,

stituted, four chips being stuck in it to i. 126, quoted by Lobeck, I.e. We

represent legs and two to represent have seen above (p. 53) that the poorer

horns. Pollux, i. 30 sq. The Athenians Egyptians offered dough images of pigs

are said to have once offered to Hercules and ate them sacramentally.

a similar substitute for an ox. Zenobius, 1 p_ j_ y^^j^ ^^r;/<,'<,V Wester Af-

Cent. V. 22. And the Locrians, being ^^^,^^. -^^

at a loss for an ox to sacrifice, made

one out of figs and sticks, and ofiered ^ N. Graafland, De Minahassa, i.

it instead of the animal. Zenobius, 3-0-

Cent. V. 5. At the Athenian festival -^ Shway '^'oe, The Biinnan, ii.

of the Diasia cakes shaped like animals 13S.

STRONG FOOD 85

amongst peoples who have reached the agricultural
stage of society. We have seen that the spirit of the
corn, or of other cultivated plants, is commonly repre-
sented either in human or in animal form, and that a
custom has prevailed of killing annually* either the
human or the animal representative of the god. The
reason for thus killing the corn -spirit in the person of
his representative has been given implicitly in the
earlier part of this chapter. But, further, we have
found a widespread custom of eating the god sacra-
mentally, either in the shape of the man or animal who
represents the god, or in the shape of bread made in
human or animal form. The reasons for thus partaking
of the body of the god are, from the primitive stand-
point, simple enough. The savage commonly believes
that by eating the flesh of an animal or man he
acquires not only the physical, but even the moral and
intellectual qualities which were characteristic of that
animal or man. To take examples. The Creeks,
Cherokees, and kindred tribes of North American
Indians "believe that nature is possessed of such a
property, as to transfuse into men and animals the
qualities, either of the food they use, or of those objects
that are presented to their senses ; he who feeds on
venison is, according to their physical system, swifter
and more sagacious than the man who lives on the
flesh of the clumsy bear, or helpless dunghill fowls, the
slow-footed tame cattle, or the heavy wallowing swine.
This is the reason that several of their old men recom-
mend, and say, that formerly their greatest chieftains
observed a constant rule in their diet, and seldom ate
of any animal of a gross quality, or heavy motion of
body, fancying it conveyed a dulness through the whole
system, and disabled them from exerting themselves

86 EATING ANIMALS chap.

with proper vigour in their martial, civil, and religious
duties." ^ The Zaparo Indians of South America "will,
unless from necessity, in most cases not eat any heavy
meats, such as tapir and peccary, but confine them-
selves to birds, monkeys, deer, fish, etc., principally
because they argue that the heavier meats make them
unwieldy, like the animals who supply the fiesh, imped-
ing their agility, and unfitting them for the chase."-
The Namaquas abstain from eating the flesh of hares,
because they think it would make them faint-hearted
as a hare. But they eat the flesh of the lion, or drink
the blood of the leopard or lion to get the courage
and strength of these beasts.^ The Arabs of Eastern
Africa believe that an unguent of lion's fat inspires a
man with boldness, and makes the wild beasts flee
in terror before him.^ When a serious disease has
attacked a Zulu kraal, the medicine -man takes the
bone of a very old dog, which has died a natural death
from mere old age, or the bone of an old cow, bull, or
other very old animal, and administers it to the healthy
as well as to the sick people, in order that they may
live to be as old as the animal of whose bone they have
partaken.'' The Miris of Northern India prize tiger's
flesh as food for men ; it gives them strength and
courage. But "it is not suited for women; it would
make them too strong-minded." '^ Amongst the Dyaks
of North-west Borneo young men and warriors may

1 James Adair, History of the way, Religions System of the Amaziilii,
American Indians, p. 133. y>- 438 note.

2 Alfred Simson, Travels in the hi -dt t t- a^ ■
TTT-,, r -r. 7 ,T , on > Jcrome Becker, La I ic en Afrunie,
Wilds of Ecuador (London, 1887), p. ,-d ■ 1 t> 1 ,cc»\ •• Jc.^

£o -J • T , r , . I ' (Pans and Brussels, 1887), u. 366.

168 ; id. in Journal of the Anthrop. > / /> j

Institute, vii. 503. ^ Callaway, Nursery Tales, Tradi-

3 Theophilus Ilahn, Tsuni- \\ Goam, '''""•f. '^""' Histories of the Zulus, p. 1 75
the Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi, ''''''^''•

p. 106. Compare John Buchanan, '' Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p.

The Shire Highlands, p. 138 ; Calla- 33.

TO GET THEIR QUALITIES 87

not eat venison, because it would make them as timid
as deer ; but the women and very old men are free to
eat it.^ Men of the Euro and Aru Islands, East Indies,
eat the flesh of dogs in order to be bold and nimble in
war.- Amongst the Papuans of the Port Moresby and
Motumotu districts, New Guinea, young lads eat strong
pig, wallaby, and large fish, in order to acquire the
streno-th of the animal or fish/ In Corea the bones of
tigers fetch a higher price than those of leopards as
a means of inspiring courage. A Chinaman in Soul
bought and ate a whole tiger to make himself brave
and fierce.^ The special seat of courage, according to
the Chinese, is the gall-bladder; so they sometimes
procure the gall-bladders of tigers and bears, and eat
the bile in the belief that it will give them courage.^
In Norse history, Ingiald, son of King Aunund, was
timid in his youth, but after eating the heart of a wolf
he became very bold ; and Hialto gained strength and
courage by eating the heart of a bear and drinking its
blood." In Morocco lethargic patients are given ants
to swallow; and to eat lion's flesh will make a coward
brave.^ When a child is late in learning to speak,
the Turks of Central Asia will give it the tongues
of certain birds to eat.^ A North American Indian
thought that brandy must be a decoction of hearts and
tongues, "Because," said he, "after drinking it I fear no-
thing, and I talk wonderfully." •* The people of Darfur,

1 St. John, Life in the Forests of the North China Branch R, Asiatic Society,

Far East;^\. 186, 206. New Series, i. (Shanghai, 1865) p. 35

- Riedel, De shiik-en kroesharige sq.
rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, pp. « Miiller on Saxo Grammaticus,

10, 262. vol. ii. p. 60.

3 James Chahners, Piojieering in ' Leared, Morocco and the Moors, p.

New Guinea, p. 166. 281.

•* Proceedings Royal Geogr. Society, » Vambery, Das Tiirkenvolk, p.

N. S. viii. (1886) p. 307. 218.

5 J. Henderson, "The Medicine and ^ Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle

Medical Practice of the Chinese, "_/''"''"• France, vi. 8.

88 EATING MEN

in Central Africa, think that the liver is the seat of the
soul, and that a man may enlarge his soul by eating
the liver of an animal. " Whenever an animal is killed
its liver is taken out and eaten, but the people are
most careful not to touch it with their hands, as it is
considered sacred ; it is cut up in small pieces and
eaten raw, the bits being conveyed to the mouth on
the point of a knife, or the sharp point of a stick. Any
one who may accidentally touch the liver is strictly
forbidden to partake of it, which prohibition is re-
garded as a great misfortune for him." Women are
not allowed to eat liver, because they have no soul.^

Again, the flesh and blood of brave men are com-
monly eaten and drunk to inspire bravery. The Aus-
tralian Kamilaroi eat the heart and liver of a brave
man to get his courage." It is a common practice with
the Australian blacks to kill a man, cut out his caul-fat,
and rub themselves with it, "the belief being that all
the qualifications, both physical and mental, of the
previous owner of the fat were thus communicated to
him who used it."^ The Italones of the Philippine
Islands drink the blood of their slain enemies, and eat
part of the back of their heads and of their entrails
raw, in order to acquire their courage. For the same
reason the Efugaos, another tribe of the Philippines,
suck the brains of their foes.^ Amongst the Kimbunda
of Western Africa, when a new king succeeds to the
throne, a brave prisoner of war is killed in order that
the king and nobles may eat his flesh, and so acquire

1 Felkin, "Notes on the For tribe 3 Brough Smyth, Aborigines of
of Central Africa," in Proceedings of the Victoria, ii. 313.

/\oya! Society of Ediiilniro/i, -am. {iS?,^- * Bhimentritt, " Der Ahnencultus

1886) p. 218. und die religiosen Anschauungen der

Malaien des Philippinen-Archipels,"

2 W. Ridley, Kamilaroi, p. 160. in Mittheihiugen d. IViener Geogr.

Gesellschaft, 1882, p. 154.

TO GET THEIR QUALITIES

his Strength and courage.^ The Basutos cut off pieces
of their slain enemies and make them into a powder,
" which is supposed to communicate to them the cour-
age, skill, and grood fortune of their adversaries."^
The Zulus think that by eating the centre of the fore-
head and the eyebrow of an enemy they acquire the
power of looking steadfastly at a foe.^ In the Shire
Hipfhlands of Africa those who kill a brave man eat
his heart to get his courage.^ For the same purpose
the Chinese eat the bile of notorious bandits who have
been executed.^ In New Zealand "the chief was an
atua [god], but there were powerful and powerless
gods ; each naturally sought to make himself one of
the former ; the plan therefore adopted was to incor-
porate the spirits of others with their own ; thus, when
a warrior slew a chief he immediately gouged out his
eyes and swallowed them, the atua tonga, or divinity,
being supposed to reside in that organ ; thus he not
only killed the body, but also possessed himself of the
soul of his enemy, and consequently the more chiefs
he slew the greater did his divinity become."^

It is now easy to understand why a savage should
desire to partake of the flesh of an animal or man
whom he regards as divine. By eating the body of
the god he shares in the god's attributes and powers.
And when the god is a corn-god, the corn is his proper
body ; when he is a vine-god, the juice of the grape is
his blood ; and so by eating the bread and drinking

1 Magyar, Reisen in Siid-Afrika in ^ R. Taylor, Te Ika a Maid, or New
den Jahren 1849-1857, pp. 273-276. Zealand and its Inhahitaiits (London,

2 Casalis, The Basutos, p. 257 sq. 1870), p. 352. Cp. il>. p. I73 ; Ellis,

3 Ca\\zvi7)Ly,Nici-seiyTales,Traditio)is Polynesian Researches, i. 35^; J*
and Histories of the Zulus, \>. 16:^ note. Dumont D'Urville, Voyage autour du

* John Buchanan, The Shire High- Monde snr la coi'vette Astrolabe, ii.

lands, p. 138. 547 ; Journal of the Anthrop. Inst.

^ Journal of the North China Branch xix. 108.
Royal Asiatic Society, I.e.

90 CALIFORNIAN SACRIFICE chap.

the wine the worshipper partakes of the real body and
blood of his god. Thus the drinking of wine in the
rites of a vine -god like Dionysus is not an act of
revelry, it is a solemn sacrament.^

§ 12. — Killing the divine animal

It remains to show that hunting and pastoral tribes,
as well as agricultural peoples, have been in the habit
of killing their gods. The gods whom hunters and
shepherds adore and kill are animals pure and simple,
not animals regarded as embodiments of other super-
natural beings. Our first example is drawn from the
Indians of California, who, living in a fertile country"
under a serene and temperate sky, nevertheless rank
near the bottom of the savage scale. The Acagchemen
tribe of San Juan Capistrano adored the great buzzard.
Once a year, at a great festival called Panes or bird-
feast, they carried one of these birds in procession
to their chief temple, which seems to have been merely
an unroofed enclosure of stakes. Here they killed the
bird without losing a drop of its blood. The skin was
removed entire and preserved with the feathers as a
relic or for the purpose of making the festal garment
or paclt. The carcass was buried in a hole in the
temple, and the old women gathered round the grave
weeping and moaning bitterly, while they threw various
kinds of seeds or pieces of food on it, crying out, "Why

1 On the custom of eating a god, see wine as the blood of a god, see above,

also a paper by Felix Liebrecht, " Der vol. i. p. 183 sqq.
aufgegessene Gott,"inZ«;' Volksktindc,

pp. 436-439; and especially W. R. ^ This does not refer to the Cali-

Smith, art. "Sacrifice," Encycl. Bri- fornian peninsula, which is an arid and

tann. 9th ed. vol. xxi. p. 137 sq. On treeless wilderness of rock and sand.

OF THE BUZZARD 91

did you run away ? Would you not have been better
with us ? " and so on. They said that the Panes was
a woman who had run off to the mountains and there
been changed into .a bird by the god Chinigchinich.
They beHeved that though they sacrificed the bird
annually, she came to life again and returned to her
home in the mountains. Moreover they thought that
" as often as the bird was killed, it became multiplied ;
because every year all the different Capitanes celebrated
the same feast of the Panes, and were firm in the
opinion that the birds sacrificed were but one and the
same female."^

The unity in multiplicity thus postulated by the
Californians is very noticeable and helps to explain
their motive for killing the divine bird. The notion of
the life of a species as distinct from that of an individual,
easy and obvious as it seems to us, appears to be one
which the Californian savage cannot grasp. He is
unable to conceive the life of the species otherwise
than as an individual life, and therefore as exposed to
the same dangers and calamities which menace and
finally destroy the life of the individual. Apparently
he thinks that a species left to itself will grow old and
die like an individual, and that therefore some step
must be taken to save from extinction the particular
species which he regards as divine. The only means
he can think of to avert the catastrophe is to kill a
member of the species in whose veins the tide of life is
still running strong and has not yet stagnated among
the fens of old age. The life thus diverted from one
channel will flow, he fancies, more freshly and freely
in a new one ; in other words, the slain animal will

1 Boscana, in Alfred Robinson's Life 291 sq.; Bancroft, Native Races of the
in California (New York, 1846), p. Pacific States, iii. 168.

92 EGYPTIAN SACRIFICE chap.

revive and enter on a new term of life with all the
spring and energy of youth. To us this reasoning is
transparently absurd, but so too is the custom. If a
better explanation, that is, one more consonant with
the facts and with the principles of savage thought,
can be given of the custom, I will willingly withdraw
the one here proposed. A similar confusion, it may be
noted, between the individual life and the life of the
species was made by the Samoans. Each family had
for its god a particular species of animal ; yet the
death of one of these animals, for example an owl, was
not the death of the god, " he was supposed to be yet
alive, and incarnate in all the owls in existence." ^

The rude Californian rite which we have just
considered has a close parallel in the religion of ancient
Egypt. The Thebans and all other Egyptians who
worshipped the Theban god Ammon held rams to be
sacred and would not sacrifice them. But once a year
at the festival of Ammon they killed a ram, skinned it,
and clothed the imag^e of the grod in the skin. Then
they mourned over the ram and buried it in a sacred
tomb. The custom was explained by a story that
Zeus had once exhibited himself to Hercules clad in
the fleece and wearing the head of a ram.^ Of course
the ram in this case was simply the beast - god of
Thebes, as the wolf was the beast -god of Lycopolis,
and the goat was the beast -god of Mendes. In
other words, the ram was Ammon himself. On the
monuments, it is true, Ammon appears in semi-
human form with the body of a man and the head of
a ram.^ But this only shows that he was in the usual

1 Turner,.S'iTw^a, p. 21, cp. pp. 26, 6i. •' Ed. Meyer, Gesihichic dcs Alter-

- Herodotus, ii. 42. The custom M//;/.'.f, i.§ 58. Cp. Wilkinson, il/a^wwj

has been already referred to, above, and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,

p. 63. iii. I sqq. (ed. 1S78).

OF THE RAM

chrysalis state through which beast-gods regularly pass
before they emerge as full-fledged anthropomorphic
gods. The ram, therefore, was killed, not as a
sacrifice to Ammon, but as the god himself, whose
identity with the beast is plainly shown by the custom
of clothing his imao-e in the skin of the slain ram.
The reason for thus killing the ram-god annually may
have been that which I have assigned for the general
custom of killing the god and for the special Cali-
fornian custom of killing the divine buzzard. As
applied to Egypt, this explanation is supported by
the analogy of the bull-god Apis, who was not suffered
to outlive a certain term of years. ^ The intention ot
thus putting a limit to the life of the god was, as I
have argued, to secure him from the weakness and
frailty of age. The same reasoning would explain the
custom — probably an older one — of putting the beast-
god to death annually, as was done with the ram of
Thebes.

One point in the Theban ritual — the applica-
tion of the skin to the image of the god — deserves
special attention. If the god was at first the
living ram, his representation by an image must
have origrinated later. But how did it orimnate ?
The answer to this question is perhaps furnished by
the practice of preserving the skin of the animal which
is slain as divine. The Californians, as we have seen,
preserved the skin of the buzzard ; and the skin of the
goat, which is killed on the harvest-field as a repre-
sentative of the corn-spirit, is kept for various super-
stitious purposes.^ The skin in fact was kept as a
token or memorial of the god, or rather as containing
in it a part of the divine life, and it had only to be

1 Above, p. 6 1 sq. '^ Above, p. 15 sq.

94 KILLING THE

Stuffed or stretched upon a frame to become a regular
image of him. At first an image of this kind would
be renewed annually,^ the new image being provided
by the skin of the slain animal. But from annual
images to permanent images the transition is easy.
We have seen that the older custom of cutting a
new May - tree every year was superseded by the
practice of maintaining a permanent May-pole, which
was, however, annually decked with fresh leaves and
flowers and even surmounted each year by a fresh
young tree.- Similarly when the stuffed skin, as a
representative of the god, was replaced by a permanent
image of him in wood, stone, or metal, the permanent
image was annually clad in the fresh skin of the slain
animal. When this stage had been reached, the
custom of killing the ram came naturally to be inter-
preted as a sacrifice offered to the image, and was
explained by a story like that of Amnion and
Hercules.

West Africa furnishes another example of the
annual killing of a sacred animal and the preservation
of its skin. The negroes of Issapoo, in the island of
Fernando Po, regard the cobra -capella as their
guardian deity, who can do them good or ill, bestow
riches or inflict disease and death. The skin of one of
these reptiles is hung tail downwards from a branch of
the highest tree in the public square, and the placing
of it on the tree is an annual ceremony. As soon as

^ The Italmens of Kamtchatka, at Steller, Beschreibiing von dcin Lande

the close of the fishing season, used to KamtscJiatka, p. 327 sq. According

make the -figure of a wolf out of grass. to Hartknoch (Dissertat. histor. de

This figure they carefully kept the variis rebus Prtissicis, p. 163 ; Alt-

whole year, believing that it wedded prcussen, p. 161) the image of the old

with their maidens and prevented them Prussian god Curcho was annually re-

from giving birth to twins; for twins newed. But see Mannhardt, /)/« A'^;-;/-

were esteemed a great misfortune. dd/iio;icii,-p. 2^. ^ Above, vol. i. p. 81.

DIVINE ANIMAL 95

the ceremony is over, all children born within the past
year are carried out and their hands made to touch the
tail of the serpent's skin/ The latter custom is clearly
a way of placing the infants under the protection of
the tribal god. Similarly in Senegambia a python is
expected to visit every child of the Python clan within
eight days after birth ; ^ and the Psylli, a Snake clan
of ancient Africa, used to expose their infants to
snakes in the belief that the snakes would not harm
true-born children of the clan.^

In the Californian, Egyptian, and Fernando Po
customs the animal slain probably is, or once was, a
totem. At all events, in all three cases the worship of
the animal seems to have no relation to agriculture,
and may therefore be presumed to date from the
hunter or pastoral stage of society. The same may be
said of the following custom, though the people who
practise it — the Zuni Indians of New Mexico — are
now settled in walled villages or towns of a peculiar
type, and practise agriculture and the arts of pottery
and weaving. But the Zuni custom is marked by
certain features which appear to place it in a some-
what different category from the preceding cases. It
may be well therefore to describe it at full length in
the words of an eye-witness.

"With midsummer the heat became intense. My
brother \i.e. adopted Indian brother] and I sat, day
after day, in the cool under- rooms of our house, — the
latter [^7^] busy with his quaint forge and crude appli-
ances, working Mexican coins over into bangles,

1 T. J. Hutchinson, Impressions of '^ Revue d^Ethnographie, iii. 397.

Western Africa (London, 1S58), p. ^ Vano in Priscian, x. 32, vol. i.

196 sq. The writer does not expressly p. 524, ed. Keil ; Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii.

state that a serpent is killed annually, § 14. Pliny's statement is to be cor-

but his statement implies it. rected by Varro's.

96 ZUNI SACRIFICE

girdles, ear-rings, buttons, and what not for savage
ornament. . . . One day as I sat watching him, a
procession of fifty men went hastily down the hill, and
off westward over the plain. They w^ere solemnly led
by a painted and. shell -bedecked priest, and followed
by the torch -bearing Shu -lu- wit -si, or God of Fire.
After they had vanished, I asked old brother what it
all meant.

"'They are going,' said he, 'to the city of the
Ka-ka and the home of our others.'

" Four days after, toward sunset, costumed and
masked in the beautiful paraphernalia of the Ka-k'ok-
shi, or ' Good Dance,' they returned in file up the
same pathway, each bearing in his arms a basket filled
with living, squirming turtles, which he regarded and
carried as tenderly as a mother would her infant.
Some of the wretched reptiles were carefully wrapped
in soft blankets, their heads and forefeet protruding, —
and, mounted on the backs of the plume -bedecked
pilgrims, made ludicrous but solemn caricatures of
little children in the same position. While I was at
supper upstairs that evening, the governor's brother-
in-law came in. He was welcomed by the family as
if a messenger from heaven. He bore in his tremulous
fingers one of the much abused and rebellious turtles.
Paint still adhered to his hands and bare feet, which
led me to infer that he had formed one of the sacred
embassy.

"'So you went to Ka-thlu-el-lon, did you?' 1
asked.

" ' E'e,' replied the weary man, in a voice husky
with long chanting, as he sank, almost exhausted, on a
roll of skins which had been placed for him, and
tenderly laid the turtle on the floor. No sooner did

OF THE TURTLE 97

the creature find itself at liberty than it made off as
fast as its lame legs would take it. Of one accord the
family forsook dish, spoon, and drinking-cup, and
grabbing from a sacred meal -bowl whole handfuls of
the contents, hurriedly followed the turtle about the
room, into dark corners, around water-jars, behind the
grinding-troughs, and out into the middle of the floor
again, praying and scattering meal on its back as they
went. At last, strange to say, it approached the foot-
sore man who had brought it.

" ' Ha ! ' he exclaimed, with emotion ; ' see, it comes
to me again ; ah, what great favours the fathers of all
grant me this day,' and passing his hand gently over
the sprawling animal, he inhaled from his palm deeply
and long, at the same time invoking the favour of the
gods. Then he leaned his chin upon his hand, and
with large wistful eyes regarded his ugly captive as
it sprawled about, blinking its meal-bedimmed eyes,
and clawing the smooth floor in memory of its native
element. At this juncture I ventured a question :

" ' Why do you not let him go, or give him some
water ? '

"Slowly the man turned his eyes toward me, an
odd mixture of pain, indignation, and pity on his face,
while the worshipful family stared at me with holy
horror.

" ' Poor younger brother ! ' he said at last, ' know
you not how precious it is .-^ It die ? It will not die ;
I tell you, it cannot die.'

" ' But it will die if you don't feed it and give it
water.'

" ' I tell you it cannot die ; it will only change
houses to-morrow, and go back to the home of its
brothers. Ah, well ! How should you know ? ' he

VOL. II H

ZUNI SACRIFICE

mused. Turning to the blinded turtle again : ' Ah !
my poor dear lost child or parent, my sister or brother
to have been ! Who knows which ? Maybe my own
great-grandfather or mother ! ' And with this he fell to
weeping most pathetically, and, tremulous with sobs,
which were echoed by the women and children, he
buried his face in his hands. Filled with sympathy
for his grief, however mistaken, I raised the turtle to
my lips and kissed its cold shell ; then depositing it on
the floor, hastily left the grief-stricken family to their
sorrows. Next day, with prayers and tender beseech-
ings, plumes, and offerings, the poor turtle was killed,
and its flesh and bones were removed and deposited
in the little river, that it might ' return once more to
eternal life among its comrades in the dark waters of
the lake of the dead.' The shell, carefully scraped and
dried, was made into a dance-rattle, and, covered by a
piece of buckskin, it still hangs from the smoke-stained
rafters of my brother's house. Once a Navajo tried
to buy it for a ladle ; loaded with indignant reproaches,
he was turned out of the house. Were any one to
venture the suggestion that the turtle no longer lived,
his remark would cause a flood of tears, and he would
be reminded that it had only ' changed houses and
gone to live for ever in the home of " our lost
others." ' " ^

In this custom we find expressed in the clearest
way a belief in the transmigration of human souls into
the bodies of turtles.- The same belief in transmigra-

1 Mr. Frank H. Gushing, "My says, "Their belief, to-day, however,
Adventures in Zuni," in The Ceiihity, relative to the future life is spiritual-
May 1883, p. 45 sij. istic." But the expressions in the text

- Mr. Gushing, indeed, while he seem to leave no room for doubting

admits that the ancestors of the Zuni that the transmigration into turtles is a

may have believed in transmigration, living article of Zuni faith.

OF THE TURTLE 99

tion is held by the Moqui Indians, who belong to the
same race as the Zunis. The Moquis are divided into
totem clans — the Bear clan, Deer clan. Wolf clan,
Hare clan, etc. ; they believe that the ancestors of the
clans were bears, deer, wolves, hares, etc. ; and that at
death the members of each clan become bears, deer,
etc.^ The Zuni are also divided into clans, the totems
of which agree closely with those of the Moquis, and
one of their totems is the turtle." Thus their belief in
transmigration into the turtle is probably one of the
regular articles of their totem faith. What then is the
meaning of killing a turtle in which the soul of a kins-
man is believed to be present ? Apparently the object
is to keep up a communication with the other world in
which the souls of the departed are believed to be
assembled in the form of turtles. It is a common
belief that the spirits of the dead return occasionally to
their old homes ; and accordingly the unseen visitors
are welcomed and feasted by the living, and then sent
upon their way.^ In the Zuni ceremony the dead are
fetched back in the form of turtles, and the killing of
the turtles is the way of sending back the souls to the
spirit-land. Thus the general explanation given above
of the custom of killing a god seems inapplicable to
the Zuni custom, the true meaning of which is some-
what obscure.

Doubt also hangs over the meaning of the bear-
sacrifice offered by the Ainos, a primitive people

1 Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, iv. 86. 3 The old Prussian and Japanese
On the totem clans of the Moquis, see J. customs are typical. For the former,
G. Bourke, Snake-Dance of the Moquis see above, vol. i. p. 177. For the
of Arizona, pp. 116 sq., 334 sqq. latter, Charlevoix, Hiitoire et Descrip-

2 For this information I am indebted tion generate dii Japan, \. 12S sq. Thun-
to the kindness of Captain J. G. Bourke, berg, Voyages au Japan, etc. iv. 18 sqq.
3d. Cavalry, U.S. Army, author of the A general account of such customs must
work mentioned in the preceding note. be reserved for another work.

A I NO SACRIFICE

who are found in the Japanese islands of Yesso and
Saghalien, and also in the southern of the Kurile
Islands. It is not quite easy to make out the attitude
of the Ainos towards the bear. On the one hand
they give it the name of Kaimii or " god " ; but
as they apply the same word to strangers/ it probably
means no more than a being supposed to be endowed
with superhuman powers. Again, it is said *' the bear
is their chief divinity ; " ^ "in the religion of the Ainos
the bear plays a chief part;"^ "amongst the animals
it is especially the bear which receives an idolatrous
veneration ; " * " they worship it after their fashion.

There is no doubt that this wild beast

inspires more of the feeling which prompts worship
than the inanimate forces of nature, and the Ainos
may be distinguished as bear - worshippers." ^ Yet,
on the other hand, they kill the bear whenever they
can ; ^ " the men spend the autumn, winter, and
spring in hunting deer and bears. Part of their
tribute or taxes is paid in skins, and they subsist
on the dried meat ; " ^ bear's flesh is indeed one of
their staple foods ; they eat it both fresh and salted ; ^
and the skins of bears furnish them with clothing.*'
In fact, the " worship " of which writers on this subject
speak appears to be paid only to the dead animal.
Thus, although they kill a bear whenever they can,
" in the process of dissecting the carcass they

' B. Scheube, " Der Baerencultus dicn iiber die Ainos aiif der Insel

uiid die Baerenfeste der Ainos," in Yesso, p. 26.

MUtheiliingen der dctitschen Gesellschaft ^ Miss Bird, Unbeaten Tracks in

b. S. und S. Oslasiens (Yokama), Heft Japan (new ed. 1S85), p. 275.

xxii. p. 45. t* Trans. Ethnol. Soc. I.e.

2 Traftsactiojts of (he Ethnological '' ^iss Bird, op. cit. p. 269.

Society, iv. 36. ^ Scheube, Die Ainos, p. 4.

, „ . , . ^ ^ Scheube, "Baerencultus," etc. p.

•^ Kein, lapan, 1. 446. ., t ^ ■ 1^ 1 ji j n ,■

'-' ■' ' ^^ i^^; ]o&?,i,\x\ Perhandlii7tgend. Berliner

^ II. von ^\^o\i., Ethnologische Stu- Gesell. f. Anthropologie, 1882, p. 188.

OF THE BEAR

endeavour to conciliate the deity, whose representa-
tive they have slain, by making elaborate obeisances
and deprecatory salutations ; " ^ " when a bear is
trapped or wounded by an arrow, the hunters go
through an apologetic or propitiatory ceremony.""
The skulls of slain bears receive a place of honour
in their huts, or are set up on sacred posts outside
the huts, and are treated with much respect ; libations
of sake, an intoxicating liquor, are offered to them.^
The skulls of foxes are also fastened to the sacred
posts outside the huts ; they are regarded as charms
against evil spirits, and are consulted as oracles.'^
Yet it is expressly said, " The live fox is revered
just as little as the bear ; rather they avoid it as
much as possible, considering it a wily animal."''
The bear cannot, therefore, be described as a sacred
animal of the Ainos, and it certainly is not a totem ;
for they do not call themselves bears, they appear
to have no legend of their descent from a bear,*^
and they kill and eat the animal freely.

But it is the bear-festival of the Ainos which con-
cerns us here. Towards the end of winter a young
bear is caught and brought into the village. At first
he is suckled by an Aino woman ; afterwards he is
fed on fish. When he grows so strong that he
threatens to break out of the wooden cage in which
he is confined, the feast is held. But " it is a peculiarly

1 Trails. Ethnol. Soc. I.e. ^ Scheube, £>/e Aijios, p. i6.

2 Miss Bird, op. cit. p. 277.

3 Scheube, Die Ainos, p. 15 ; Sie- ^ Reclus (Nottvel/e Geographie Uni-
bold, op. cit. p. 26; Trails. Ethnol. z'e;-j-^//t', vii. 755) mentions a (Japanese?)
Soc. I.e. ; Rein, Japan, i. 447 ; Von legend which attributes the hairiness of
Brandt, "The Ainos and Japanese," the Ainos to the fact of their first
in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. iii. 134 ; ancestor having been suckled by a
Miss Bird, op. cit. pp. 275, 276. bear. But in the absence of other

* Scheube, Die Ainos, pp. 15, 16 ; evidence this is no proof of totemism.
Journ. Anthrop. Inst. iii. 134.

A I NO SACRIFICE

Striking fact that the young bear is not kept merely to
furnish a good meal ; rather he is regarded and
honoured as a fetish, or even as a sort of higher
being." ^ The festival is generally celebrated in
September or October. Before it takes place the
Ainos apologise to their gods, alleging that they
have treated the bear kindly as long as they could,
now they can feed him no longer, and are obliged
to kill him. A man who gives a bear-feast invites
his relations and friends ; in a small village nearly
the whole community takes part in the feast. One
of these festivals has been described by an eye-
witness. Dr. Scheube.^ On entering the hut he
found about thirty Ainos present, men, women, and
children, all dressed in their best. The master of
the house first offered a libation on the fireplace to the
god of the fire, and the guests followed his example.
Then a libation was offered to the house -god in his
sacred corner of the hut. Meanwhile the housewife,
who had nursed the bear, sat by herself, silent and
sad, bursting now and then into tears. Her grief
was obviously unaffected, and it deepened as the
festival went on. Next, the master of the house
and some of the guests went out of the hut and
offered libations before the bear's cage. A few
drops were presented to the bear in a saucer, which
he at once upset. Then the women and girls
danced round the cage, their faces turned towards
it, their knees slightly bent, rising and hopping on
their toes. As they danced they clapped their hands
and sang a monotonous song. The housewife and
a few old women, who might have nursed many
bears, danced tearfully, stretching out their arms to

1 Rein, ya/ffw, i. 447. 2 " Der Daeiencultus," etc. See above.

OF THE BEAR 103

the bear, and addressing it in terms of endearment.
The young folks were less affected ; they laughed
as well as sang. Disturbed by the noise, the bear
began to rush about his cage and howl lamentably.
Next libations were offered to the inabos or sacred
wands which stand outside of an Aino hut. These
wands are about a couple of feet high, and are
whitded at the top into spiral shavings.^ Five new
wands with bamboo leaves attached to them had
been set up for the festival. This is regularly done
when a bear is killed ; the leaves mean that the
bear may come to life again. Then the bear was
let out of his cage, a rope was thrown round his
neck, and he was led about in the neighbourhood
of the hut. While this was being done the men,
headed by a chief, shot at the bear with arrows
tipped with wooden buttons. Dr. Scheube had to
do so also. Then the bear was taken before the
sacred wands, a stick was put in his mouth, nine
men knelt on him and pressed his neck against a
beam. In five minutes the bear had expired without
uttering a sound. Meantime the women and girls
had taken post behind the men, where they danced,
lamenting, and beating the men who were killing
the bear. The bear's carcass was next placed on
a mat before the sacred wands ; and a sword and
quiver, taken from the wands, were hung round the
beast's neck. Being a she -bear, it was also adorned
with a necklace and ear-rings. Then food and drink
were offered to it, in the shape of millet -broth, millet-
cakes, and a pot of sake. The men now sat down
on mats before the dead bear, offered libations to

1 Scheube, " Baerencultus," etc. p. 46; id.. Die Ainos, p. 15; Miss Bird,

op. (it. p. 273 5(7.

I04 A I NO SACRIFICE

it, and drank deep. Meanwhile the women and
girls had laid aside all marks of sorrow, and danced
merrily, none more merrily than the old women.
When the mirth was at its height two young Ainos,
who had let the bear out of his cage, mounted the
roof of the hut and threw cakes of millet amonof
the company, who all scrambled for them without
distinction of age or sex. The bear was next skinned
and disembowelled, and the trunk severed from the
head, to which the skin was left hanging. The blood,
caught in cups, was eagerly swallowed by the men.
None of the women or children appeared to drink
the blood, though custom did not forbid them to
do so. The liver was cut in small pieces and eaten
raw, with salt, the women and children getting their
share. The tiesh and the rest of the vitals were
taken into the house to be kept till the next day
but one, and then to be divided among_ the persons
who had been present at the feast. Blood and
liver were offered to Dr. Scheube. While the bear
was being disembowelled, the women and girls danced
the same dance which they had danced at the begin-
ning— not, however, round the cage, but in front
of the sacred wands. At this dance the old women,
who had been merry a moment before, again shed
tears freely. After the brain had been extracted
from the bear's head and swallowed with salt, the
skull, detached from the skin, was hung on a pole
beside the sacred wands. The stick with which
the bear had been gagged was also fastened to the
pole, and so were the sword and quiver which had
been hung on the carcass. The latter were removed
in about an hour, but the rest remained standing.
The whole company, men and women, danced noisily

OF THE BEAR 105

before the pole ; and another drinking-bout, in which
the women joined, closed the festival.

The mode of killing the bear is described some-
what differently by Miss Bird, who, however, did
not witness the ceremony. She says : " Yells and
shouts are used to excite the bear ; and when he
becomes much agitated a chief shoots him with an
arrow, inflicting a slight wound which maddens him,
on which the bars of the cage are raised, and
he springs forth, very furious. At this stage the
Ainos run upon him with various weapons, each
one striving to inflict a wound, as it brings good
luck to draw his blood. As soon as he falls down
exhausted his head is cut off, and the weapons
with which he has been wounded are offered to it,
and he is asked to avenge himself upon them." At
Usu, on Volcano Bay, when the bear is being killed,
the Ainos shout, "We kill you, O bear! come back
soon into an Aino." ^ A very respectable authority, Dr.
Siebold, states that the bear's own heart is frequently
offered to the dead animal, in order to assure him
that he is still in life."^ This, however, is denied by
Dr. Scheube, who says the heart is eaten.^ Perhaps
the custom may be observed in some places, though
not in others.

The Gilyaks, a Tunguzian people of Eastern
Siberia,^ hold a bear festival of the same sort. "The
bear is the object of the most refined solicitude of an
entire village and plays the chief part in their religious

1 Miss Bird, op. at. p. 2']6sq. Miss ^ " Baerencultus," etc. p. 50 note.
Bird's information must be received witli * They inhabit the banks of the
caution, as there are grounds for believ- lower Amoor and the north of Sa-
ing that her informant deceived her. ghalien. E. G. Ravenstein, The Russians

2 Siebold, Ethnolog. Stiidien iiber on the Amur, p. 389.
die Ainos, p. 26.

io6 GILYAK AND GOLDI chap.

ceremonies." ^ An old she-bear is shot and her cub is
reared, but not suckled in the village. When the bear
is big enough he is taken from his cage and dragged
through the village. But first he is led to the bank of
the river, for this is believed to ensure abundance of
fish to each family. He is then taken into every house
in the village, where fish, brandy, etc. are offered to
him. Some people prostrate themselves before the
beast. His entrance into a house is supposed to bring
a blessing ; and if he snuffs at the food offered to him,
this also is a blessing. Nevertheless they tease and
worry, poke and tickle the animal continually, so that
he is surly and snappish." After being thus taken
to every house, he is tied to a peg and shot dead with
arrows. His head is then cut off, decked with shav-
ings, and placed on the table where the feast is set out.
Here they beg pardon of the beast and worship him.
Then his flesh is roasted and eaten in special vessels of
wood finely carved. They do not eat the flesh raw
nor drink the blood, as the Ainos do. The brain and
entrails are eaten last ; and the skull, still decked
with shavings, is placed on a tree near the house.
Then the people sing and both sexes dance in ranks,
as bears,^

1 "Notes on the River Amur and Malayische Archipel, p. 59 sq.; W.
the adjacent districts," translated from Kodding, "Die Batakschen Gotter,"'
the Russian, Journal Royal Geogr. in Allgemeiue Missions-Zeitschrift, xii.
Sac. xxviii. (1858) p. 396. (1885) 478 sq.; Neumann, "Het Pane-

2 Compare the custom of pinching the en Liila-stroomgebied op het eiland
frog before cutting off his head, above Sumatra," in Tijdschrift v. h. Nederl.
vol. i. p. 93. In Japan sorceresses Aardrijks Genootsch. ii. series, dl. iii.
bury a dog in the earth, tease him, Afdeeling : meer uitgebreide artikelen,
then cut off his head and put it in a No. 2, p. 306.

box to be used in magic. Bastian, Die 3 \v, Joest, in Scheube, Die Aiiws,

Cultiirldnder des alien A/nerika,\. 475 p. 17; Revue d'EtIuiographie,\\. ■^o'] sq.

note, who adds '■' ivie im ostindischett (on the authority of Mr. Seeland); /«-

Archipelago die ScJuttzseele gereizt wird.^'' tcrnationales Anhiv fiir Ethnologie, i.

He probably refers to the Batta Pang- 102 (on the authority of Captain

hulu- baking. See Rosenberg, Der Jacobsen). What exactly is meant by

SACRIFICE OF THE BEAR 107

The Goldi, neighbours of the Gilyaks, treat the
bear In much the same way. They hunt and kill it ;
but sometimes they capture a live bear and keep him
in a cage, feeding him well and calling him their son
and brother. Then at a great festival he is taken
from his cage, paraded about with marked considera-
tion, and afterwards killed and eaten. " The skull,
jaw-bones, and ears are then suspended on a tree, as
an antidote against evil spirits ; but the flesh is eaten
and much relished, for they believe that all who par-
take of it acquire a zest for the chase, and become
courageous." ^

In the treatment of the captive bear by these
tribes there are features which can hardly be distin-
guished from worship. Such in particular is the
Gilyak custom of leading him from house to house,
that every family may receive his blessing — a custom
parallel to the European one of taking a May-tree or
a personal representative of the tree-spirit from door
to door in spring, in order that all may share the fresh
energies of reviving nature. Again the expected
resurrection of the bear is avowedly indicated by the
bamboo leaves and by the prayer addressed to him to
" come back soon into an Aino." And that the eating
of his flesh is regarded as a sacrament is made
probable by the Gilyak custom of reserving special
vessels to hold the bear's flesh on this solemn occasion.
How is the reverence thus paid to particular bears to
be reconciled with the fact that bears in general are
habitually hunted and killed by these tribes for the
sake of their flesh and skins ? On the one hand, the

"dancing as bears" {'<■ tanzen beide Amur, p. 379 sq.; T. W. Atkinson,

Geschlechter Reigentiinze, wu Bdren,'" Travels in the Regions of the Upper and

Joest, I.e.) does not appear. Lower Amoor (London, i860), p. 482

1 Ravenstein, The Russians on the sq.

ro8 RELUCTANCE OF SAVAGE chap.

bear is treated as a god ; on the other hand, as a
creature wholly subservient to human needs. The
apparent contradiction vanishes when we place our-
selves at the savage point of view. The savage, we
must remember, believes that animals are endowed
with feelings and intelligence like those of men, and
that, like men, they possess souls which survive the
death of their bodies either to wander about as
disembodied spirits or to be born again in animal
form. To the savage, therefore, who regards all
living creatures as practically on a footing of equality
with man/ the act of killing and eating an animal must
wear a very different aspect from that which the same
act presents to us who regard the intelligence of
animals as far inferior to our own and deny them the
possession of immortal souls. Thus on the principles
of his rude philosophy the savage who slays an animal
believes himself exposed to the vengeance either of
its disembodied spirit or of all the other animals of the
same species, whom he considers as knit together, like
men, by the ties of kin and the obligations of the blood
feud, and therefore as bound to resent the injury done
to one of their number. Accordingly the savage
makes it a rule to spare the life of those animals which
he has no pressing motive for killing, at least such
fierce and dangerous animals as are likely to exact a
bloody vengeance for the slaughter of one of their
kind. Crocodiles are animals of this sort. They are
only found in hot countries where, as a rule, food is

1 A Bushman, questioned by the being a Narrative of a Second Journey

Rev. Mr. Campbell, "could not state in the Interior of that Country, ii. 34.

any difference between a man and a When the Russians first landed on one

brute — he did not know but a buffalo of the Alaskan islands the people took

might shoot with bows and arrows as them for cuttle-fish, "on account of

well as a man, if it had them." John the buttons on their clothes." Petroff,

Campbell, IVave/s in South Africa, Alaska, p. 145.

Ill TO SLAY WILD BEASTS 109

abundant and primitive man has therefore no reason to
kill them for the sake of their tough and unpalatable
flesh. Hence it is a general rule among savages to
spare crocodiles, or rather only to kill them in
obedience to the law of blood feud, that is, as a
retaliation for the slaughter of men by crocodiles. For
example, the Dyaks of Borneo will not kill a crocodile
unless a crocodile has first killed a man. " For why,
say they, should they commit an act of aggression,
when he and his kindred can so easily repay them ?
But should the alligator take a human life, revenge
becomes a sacred duty of the living relatives, who will
trap the man-eater in the spirit of an officer of justice
pursuing a criminal. Others, even then, hang back,
reluctant to embroil themselves in a quarrel which
does not concern them. The man-eating alligator is
supposed to be pursued by a righteous Nemesis ; and
whenever one is caught they have a profound convic-
tion that it must be the guilty one, or his accomplice."^
So the natives of Madagascar never kill a crocodile
" except in retaliation for one of their friends who has
been destroyed by a crocodile. They believe that the
wanton destruction of one of these reptiles will be
followed by the loss of human life, in accordance with
the principle of lex talio7iis.'' The people who live
near the lake Itasy in Madagascar make a yearly
proclamation to the crocodiles, announcing that they
will revenge the death of some of their friends by
killing as many crocodiles in return and warning all

1 Rev. J. Perham, "Sea Dyak voor Neirland's Indie, 1846, dl. iii.

V^eWgvon," Journal of the Straits Branch i6o; S. Miiller, Reizen en onderzoe-

of the Royal Asiatic Society, lAo. 10, p. kitigen in den Indischen Archipel, i.

221. Cp. C. Hupe, " Korte ver- 238; Perelaer, Ethnographische Be-

handeling over de godsdienst zeden, schrijving der Dayaks, p. 7.
enz. der Dajakkers," in Tijdschrift

no PROPITIATION OF chap.

well-disposed crocodiles to keep out of the way, as
they have no quarrel with them, but only with their
evil-minded relations who have taken human life.^
The Foulahs of Senegambia respect crocodiles on
similar grounds.^ The Seminoles, Sioux, and Iowa
Indians of North America spare the rattle-snake
because they fear that the ghost of the dead rattle-
snake would incite its kinsfolk to take vengeance.^
No consideration will induce a Sumatran to catch or
wound a tiger except in self-defence or immediately
after the tiger has destroyed a friend or relation.
When a European has set traps for tigers, the people
of the neighbourhood have been known to go by night
to the place and explain to the tiger that the traps are
not set by them nor with their consent.^

But the savage clearly cannot afford to spare all
animals. He must either eat some of them or starve,
and when the question thus comes to be whether he or
the animal must perish, he is forced to overcome his
superstitious scruples and take the life of the beast.
At the same time he does all he can to appease his
victims and their kinsfolk. Even in the act of killing
them he testifies his respect for them, endeavours to
excuse or even conceal his share in procuring their
death, and promises that their remains will be honour-
ably treated. By thus robbing death of its terrors he
hopes to reconcile his victims to their fate and to
induce their fellows to come and be killed also. For
example, it was a principle with the Kamtchatkans
never to kill a land or sea animal without first making
excuses to it and begging that the animal would not

1 Sibree, The Great African Island, 3 Bastian, Die Volker des dstlichen

p- 269. Asien, v. 65.

^ Kaffenel, V'oyage dans rAfrique * Marsden, History of Sumatra, p.

Occidentale (Paris, 1846), p. 84 sq. 292.

Ill SLAUGHTERED BEARS in

take it ill. Also they offered it cedar-nuts, etc. to
make it think that it was not a victim but a guest at a
feast. They believed that this prevented other animals
of the same species from growing shy. For instance,
after they had killed a bear and feasted on its flesh, the
host would bring the bear's head before the company,
wrap it in grass, and present it with a variety of trifles.
Then he would lay the blame of the bear's death on
the Russians, and bid the beast wreak his wrath upon
them. Also he would ask the bear to tell the other
bears how well he had been treated, that they too
might come without fear. Seals, sea-lions, and other
animals were treated by the Kamtchatkans with the
same ceremonious respect.^ When the Ostiaks have
hunted and killed a bear, they cut off its head and
hang it on a tree. Then they gather round in a circle
and pay it divine honours. Next they run towards
the carcass uttering lamentations and saying, " Who
killed you ? It was the Russians. Who cut off your
head? It was a Russian axe. Who skinned you?
It was a knife made by a Russian." They explain,
too, that the feathers which sped the arrow on its
flight came from the wing of a strange bird, and that
they did nothing but let the arrow go. They do all
this because they believe that the wandering ghost of
the slain bear would attack them on the first oppor-
tunity, if they did not thus appease it.^ Or they stuff
the skin of the slain bear with hay ; and after cele-
brating their victory with songs of mockery and insult,
after spitting on and kicking it, they set it up on its
hind legs, "and then, for a considerable time, they

1 Steller, Beschreibiing von dem durch verschiedene Provhizen des
Lande Kafiitschatka, TpV- ^^'^1 ^Z'^- russischen Reichs, iii. 64; Georgi,

2 Voyages au Nord (Amsterdam, Beschreibiing aller Nationeti des rttssi-
\T2.']), viii, 41, 416; Pallas, Reise schen Reichs, -p. i'^.

PROPITIATION OF

bestow on it all the veneration due to a guardian
god."^ When a party of Koriaks have killed a bear
or a wolf, they skin the beast and dress one of them-
selves in the skin. Then they dance round the skin-
clad man, saying that it was not they who killed the
animal, but some one else, generally a Russian. When
they kill a fox they skin it, wrap the body in grass,
and bid him go tell his companions how hospitably he
has been received, and how he has received a new
cloak instead of his old one.^ The Finns used to try to
persuade a slain bear that he had not been killed by
them, but had fallen from a tree, etc.^ When the
Lapps had succeeded in killing a bear with impunity,
they thanked him for not hurting them and for not
breaking the clubs and spears which had given him
his death wounds ; and they prayed that he would not
visit his death upon them by sending storms or in any
other way.* His flesh then furnished a feast.

The reverence of hunters for the bear whom they
regularly kill and eat may thus be traced all along the
northern region of the Old World, from Behring's
Straits to Lappland. It reappears in similar forms in
North America. With the American Indians a bear
hunt was an important event for which they prepared
by long fasts and purgations. Before setting out they
offered expiatory sacrifices to the souls of bears slain
in previous hunts, and besought them to be favourable
to the hunters. When a bear was killed the hunter

1 Erman, Travels in Sibe7-ia, ii. 43. * Scheffer, Lapponia (Frankfort,
For the veneration of the polar bear by 1673), p. 233 sq. The Lapps "have
the Samoyedes, who nevertheless kill still an elaborate ceremony in hunting
and eat it, see ib. 54 sq. the bear. They pray and chant to his

2 P^astian Der Meiisch in der Ge- "^""^^^^^ ^"'^ ^^"^ ^^^^^'"'^1 ^^X^ worship
, . ,^ •■• ' ^ before eating it." E. Rae, The White

schtchte, m. 26. c d • / /t 1 co »

Sea Fcmnsula (London, 1601), p.

3 Max Buch, Die Wotjdken, p. 139. 276.

Ill SLAUGHTERED BEARS 113

lit his pipe, and putting the mouth of it between the
bear's Hps, blew into the bowl, filling the beast's mouth
with smoke. Then he begged the bear not to be
angry at having been killed, and not to thwart him
afterwards in the chase. The carcass was roasted
whole and eaten ; not a morsel of the flesh might be
left over. The head, painted red and blue, was hung
on a post and addressed by orators, who heaped praise
on the dead beast.^ When men of the Bear clan in
the Otawa tribe killed a bear, they made him a feast
of his own flesh, and addressed him thus: "Cherish
us no grudge because we have killed you. You have
sense ; you see that our children are hungry. They
love you and wish to take you into their bodies. Is it
not glorious to be eaten by the children of a chief ?"^
Amongst the Nootka Indians of British Columbia,
when a bear had been killed, it was brought in and
seated before the head chief in an upright posture,
with a chiefs bonnet, wrought in figures, on its head,
and Its fur powdered over with white down. A tray
of provisions was then set before it, and it was invited
by words and gestures to eat. The animal was then
skinned, boiled, and eaten. ^

A like respect Is testified for other dangerous
animals by the hunters who regularly trap and kill
them. When Kafir hunters are in the act of showering
spears on an elephant, they call out, " Don't kill us,

1 Charlevoix, Histoire de la Noiivelle of the Hare, Carp, and Bear clans, to
France, v. 173 sq.; Chateaubriand, which may be added the Gull clan, as

Voyage en Amerique, pp. 172- 181 I learn from an extract from The

(Paris, Michel Levy, 1870). Canadian Journal (Torowio) for March

2 Lettres edijiantes et curicuses, vi. 1858, quoted in the Academy, 27th
171. Morgan states that the names of September 1884, p. 203.

the Otav^ra totem clans had not been ^ ^ Narrative of the Adventures and

obtained {Ancient Society, p. 167). Sufferings of John T. Jewitt, p. 117

From the Lettres edif antes, vi. 168- (Middletown, 1 820), p. 1 33 (Edin-

171, he might have learned the names burgh, 1824).

VOL. II I

114 PROPITIATION OF chap.

great captain ; don't strike or tread upon us, mighty
chief." ^ When he is dead they make their excuses to
him, pretending that his death was a pure accident.
As a mark of respect they bury his trunk with much
solemn ceremony ; for they say that " The elephant is
a great lord ; his trunk is his hand."^ Amongst some
tribes of Eastern Africa, when a lion is killed, the car-
cass is brought before the king, who does homage to
it by prostrating himself on the ground and rubbing
his face on the muzzle of the beast. ^ In some parts of
Western Africa if a negro kills a leopard he is bound
fast and brought before the chiefs for having killed
one of their peers. The man defends himself on the
plea that the leopard is chief of the forest and therefore
a stranger. He is then set at liberty and rewarded.
But the dead leopard, adorned with a chiefs bonnet,
is set up in the village, where nightly dances are held
in its honour.* " Before leaving a temporary camp in
the forest, where they have killed a tapir and dried
the meat on a babracot, Indians [of Guiana] invariably
destroy this babracot, saying that should a tapir passing
that way find traces of the slaughter of one of his kind,
he would come by night on the next occasion when
Indians slept at that place, and, taking a man, would
babracot him in revenge."^

But it is not merely dangerous animals with whom
the savage desires to keep on good terms. It is true
that the respect which he pays to wild beasts is in some

1 Stephen Kay, Travels and Re- burial of the trunk is also mentioned by
searches in Caffraria (London, 1833), Kay, I.e.

p. 138. ^ Jerome Becker, La Vie en Afrique

2 Alberti, De Kaffers aan de Zuid- (Paris and Brussels, 1S87), ii. 298 sq.
kust van Afrika (Amsterdam, 18 10), 305.

p. 95. Alberti's information is repeated * Bastian, Die detitsche Expedition

by Lichtenstein {Reisen im siidlichen an der Loango-A'iiste, ii. 243.

Afrika, i. 412), and by Rose [Four ^ Im Thurn, Atnong the Indians of

Years in Southern Afr-iea, ■p. ii)<)). The G7tiana, -p. 352.

SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS 115

measure proportioned to their strength and ferocity.
Thus the savage Stiens of Cambodia, beheving that
all animals have souls which roam about after their
death, beg an animal's pardon when they kill it, lest its
soul should come and torment them. Also they offer
it sacrifices, but these sacrifices are proportioned to
the size and strength of the animal. The ceremonies
observed at the death of an elephant are conducted
with much pomp and last seven days.^ Similar dis-
tinctions are drawn by North American Indians.
"The bear, the buffalo, and the beaver are manidos
[divinities] which furnish food. The bear is formidable,
and good to eat. They render ceremonies to him,
beo-ainp- him to allow himself to be eaten, although
they know he has no fancy for it. We kill you, but
you are not annihilated. Hi* head and paws are
objects of homage. . . . Other animals are treated
similarly from similar reasons. . . . Many of the
animal manidos, not being dangerous, are often treated
with contempt — the terrapin, the weasel, polecat, etc."^
The distinction is instructive. Animals which are
feared, or -are good to eat, or both, are treated with
ceremonious respect ; those which are neither formid-
able nor good to eat are despised. We have had
examples of reverence paid to animals which are both
feared and eaten. It remains to prove that similar
respect is shown for animals which, without being
feared, are either eaten or valued for their skins.

When Siberian sable-hunters have caught a sable,
no one is allowed to see it, and they think that if good
or evil be spoken of the captured sable, no more sables

1 Mouhot, Travels in the Central ^ Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, v.

Parts of Indo- China, i. 252 ; Moura, 420.
Le Royatime dii Cainbodge, i. 422. ^

ii6 PROPITIATION OF chap.

will be caught. A hunter has been known to express
his belief that the sables could hear what was said
of them as far off as Moscow. He said that the chief
reason why the sable hunt was now so unproductive
was that some live sables had been sent to Moscow.
There they had been viewed with astonishment as
strange animals, and the sables cannot abide that.
Another, though minor, cause of the diminished take of
sable was, he alleged, that the world is now much
worse than it used to be, so that nowadays a hunter
will sometimes hide the sable which he has got instead
of putting it into the common stock. This also, said
he, the sables cannot abide.^ Alaskan hunters preserve
the bones of sables and beavers out of reach of the
dogs for a year and then bury them carefully, " lest the
spirits who look after the beavers and sables should
consider that they are regarded with contempt, and
hence no more should be killed or trapped."" The
Canadian Indians were equally particular not to let
their dogs gnaw the bones, or at least certain of the
bones, of beavers. They took the greatest pains to
collect and preserve these bones and, when the beaver
had been caught in a net, they threw them into the river.
To a Jesuit who argued that the beavers could not
possibly know what became of their bones, the Indians
replied, " You know nothing about catching beavers
and yet you will be talking about it. Before the
beaver is stone dead, his soul takes a turn in the hut
of the man who is killing him and makes a careful note
of what is done with his bones. If the bones are
given to the dogs, the other beavers would get word of
it and would not let themselves be caught. Whereas,

1 J. G. Gmelin, Reise dtirch Sibirien, - W. Dall, Alaska and its Resources,

ii. 278. p. 89.

Ill SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS \\^

if their bones are thrown into the fire or a river, they
are quite satisfied ; and it is particularly gratifying to
the net which caught them."^ Before hunting the
beaver they offered a solemn prayer to the Great
Beaver, and presented him with tobacco; and when the
chase was over, an orator pronounced a funeral oration
over the dead beavers. He praised their spirit and
wisdom. "You will hear no more," said he, "the voice
of the chieftains who commanded you and whom you
chose from among all the warrior beavers to give you
laws. Your language, which the medicine-men under-
stand perfectly, will be heard no more at the bottom
of the lake. You will fight no more battles with the
otters, your cruel foes. No, beavers ! But your skins
shall serve to buy arms ; we will carry your smoked
hams to our children ; we will keep the dogs from
eating your bones, which are so hard." ^

The elan, deer, and elk were treated by the North
American Indians with the same punctilious respect,
and for the same reason. Their bones might not
be given to the dogs nor thrown into the fire, nor
might their fat be dropped upon the fire, because the
souls of the dead animals were believed to see what
was done to their bodies and to tell it to the other
beasts, living and dead. Hence, if their bodies were
ill used, the animals of that species would not allow

1 Relations des Jesintes, 1634, p. 24, Nouvelle France, v. 225 ; Chateau-

ed. 1858. Nets are regarded by the briand, Voyage en Aincriqiie, p. 140

Indians as living creatures who not only sqq.

think and feel but also eat, speak, and ^ Chateaubriand, Voyage en Aineri-

marry wives. '&z.^?ixA, Le Grand Voyage que, pp. 175, 178. They will not let

du Pays des Hiirons, p. 256 (p. 178 sq. the blood of beavers fall on the ground,

of the Paris reprint, Librairie Tross, or their luck in hunting them would be

1865) ; S. Hearne, Journey to the gone. Relations des Jestdtes, 1633, p.

Northern Oceaii, p. 329 sq.; Relations 21. Compare the rule about not

des Jesuites, 1636, p. 109; ib. 1639, allowing the blood of kings to fall on

p. 95; Charlevoix, Histoire de la the ground, above, vol. i. p. i']^ sqq.

1 1 8 PROPITIA TION

themselves to be taken, neither in this world nor in the
world to come.^ A sick man would be asked by the
medicine-man whether he had not thrown away some
of the flesh of the deer or turtle, and if he answered
yes, the medicine-man would say, "That is what is
killing you. The soul of the deer or turtle has entered
into your body to avenge the wrong you did it."^
The Sioux will not stick an awl or needle into a turtle,
for they are sure that, if they were to do so, the turtle
would punish them at some future time.^ The
Canadian Indians would not eat the embryos of the
elk, unless at the close of the hunting season ; other-
wise the mother -elks would be shy and refuse to be
caught.^ Some of the Indians believed that each sort
of animal had its patron or genius who watched over
and preserved it. An Indian girl having once picked
up a dead mouse, her father snatched the little creature
from her and tenderly caressed and fondled it. Being
asked why he did so, he said that it was to appease the
genius of mice, in order that he might not torment his
daughter for eating the mouse. With that he handed
the mouse to the girl and she ate it. ^

For like reasons, a tribe which depends for its
subsistence, chiefly or in part, upon fishing is careful
to treat the fish with every mark of honour and respect.
The Indians of Peru "adored the fish that they
caught in greatest abundance ; for they said that the
first fish that was made in the world above (for so they

^ Hennepin, Noiiveau voyage dhm the chase, lest any should escape to

pais plus grand que PEtirope (Utrecht, warn their fellows (Sagard, I.e.)

1698), p. \\isq.; Relations des Jhtiites, ^ Lett res edifiantes et curieuses, viii.

1636, p. 109; Sagard, Le Grand Voyage 339.

dii Pays des Hurons, p. 255 (p. 178 of 3 Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, iii. 230.

the Paris reprint). Not quite con- ■* Relations des Jesuites, 1634, p. 26.

sistently the Canadian Indians used to ^ Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle

kill every elan they could overtake in France, v. 443.

OF THE FISH 119

named Heaven) gave birth to all other fish of that
species, and took care to send them plenty of its
children to sustain their tribe. For this reason they
worshipped sardines in one region, where they killed
more of them than of any other fish ; in others, the
skate ; in others, the dogfish ; in others, the golden
fish for its beauty ; in others, the crawfish ; in others,
for want of larger gods, the crabs, where they had no
other fish, or where they knew not how to catch and
kill them. In short, they had whatever fish was most
serviceable to them as their gods,"^ The Otawa
Indians of Canada, believing that the souls of dead
fish passed into other bodies of fish, never burned
fish bones, for fear of displeasing the souls of the fish,
who would come no more to the nets.^ The Hurons
also refrained from throwing fish bones into the fire,
lest the souls of the fish should go and warn the other
fish not to let themselves be caught, since the Hurons
would burn their bones. Moreover, they had men
who preached to the fish and persuaded them to come
and be caught. A good preacher was much sought
after, for they thought that the exhortations of a clever
man had a great effect in drawing the fish to the
nets. In the Huron fishing village where the French
missionary Sagard stayed, the preacher to the fish
prided himself very much on his eloquence, which
was of a florid order. Every evening after supper,
having seen that all the people were in their places
and that a strict silence was observed, he preached
to the fish. His text was that the Hurons did not
burn fish bones. " Then enlarging on his theme

1 Garcilasso de la Vega, Royal Com- Society. Cp. id., ii. p. 148.
mentaries of the Yncas, First Part, bk. ^ Relations des /estates, 1667, p.

i. ch. 10, vol. i. p. 49 sq., Hakluyt 12.

PROPITIA TION

with extraordinary unction, he exhorted and conjured
and invited and implored the fish to come and be
caught and to be of good courage and to fear nothing,
for it was all to serve their friends who honoured them
and did not burn their bones." ^ The disappearance
of herring from the sea about Heligoland in 1530 was
attributed by the fishermen to the fact that two lads
had whipped a freshly -caught herring and then flung
it back into the sea.^ The natives of the Duke of
York Island annually decorate a canoe with flowers
and ferns, lade it, or are supposed to lade it, with
shell-money, and set it adrift to pay the fish for those
they lose by being caught.^ It is especially necessary
to treat the first fish caught with consideration in
order to conciliate the rest of the fish, for their conduct
may be supposed to be influenced by the reception
given to the first of their kind which is taken. Ac-
cordingly the Maoris always put back into the sea the
first fish caught, " with a prayer that it may tempt
other fish to come and be caught."^

Still more stringent are the precautions taken
when the fish are the first of the season. On salmon
rivers, when the fish begin to run up the stream in
spring, they are received with much deference by
tribes who, like the Indians of the Pacific Coast of
North America, subsist largely upon a fish diet. In
British Columbia the Indians used to go out to meet
the first fish as they came up the river. " They paid

1 Sagard, Le Grand Voyage du Pays * R. Taylor, Te Ika a Alaui; or, N'ew
des Hiirons, p. 255 sqq, (p. 178 sqq. Zealand and its Inhabitants, p. 200;
of the Paris reprint). A. S. Thomson, The Story of New

2 Schleiden, Das Salz, p. 47. For Zealand, i. 202; E. Tregear, "The
this reference I am indebted to my Maoris of New Zealand," y^z^rwa/ ^«-
friend Prof. W. Robertson Smith. throp. Inst. xix. 109.

3 W. Powell, Wanderings in a Wild
Country, p. 66 sq.

OF THE FISH

court to them, and would address them thus. ' You
fish, you fish ; you are all chiefs, you are ; you are all
chiefs.'" 1 Amongst the Thlinket of Alaska the first
halibut of the season is carefully handled, addressed as
a chief, and a festival is given in his honour, after
which the fishing goes on.- In spring, when the
winds blow soft from the south and the salmon begin
to run up the Klamath river, the Karoks of California
dance for salmon, to ensure a good catch. One of the
Indians, called the Kareya or God-man, retires to the
mountains and fasts for ten days. On his return the
people flee, while he goes to the river, takes the first
salmon of the catch, eats some of it, and with the rest
kindles the sacred fire in the sweating -house. "No
Indian may take a salmon before this dance is held,
nor for ten days after it, even if his family are
starving." The Karoks also believe that a fisherman
will take no salmon if the poles of which his spearing-
booth is made were gathered on the river-side, where
the salmon might have seen them. The poles must
be brought from the top of the highest mountain. The
fisherman will also labour in vain if he uses the same
poles a second year in booths or weirs, "because the
old salmon will have told the young ones about
them."^ Among the Indians of the Columbia River,
" when the salmon make their first appearance in the
river, they are never allowed to be cut crosswise,
nor boiled, but roasted ; nor are they allowed to be
sold without the heart being first taken out, nor to
be kept over night, but must be all consumed or eaten
the day they are taken out of the water. All these

1 Lubbock, Origin of Civilisation,^ p. 277, o^o'a.w^ Metlahkatlah, p. 96.

2 W. Dall, Alaska and its Resources, p. 413.

^ Stephen Powers, T7-ibes of California, p. 31 sq.

122 THE RESURRECTION

rules are observed for about ten days." ^ They think
that if the heart of a fish were eaten by a stranger
at the beginning of the season, they would catch no
more fish. Hence, they roast and eat the hearts
themselves.- There is a favourite fish of the Ainos
which appears in their rivers about May and June.
They prepare for the fishing by observing rules of
ceremonial purity, and when they have gone out to
fish, the women at home must keep strict silence or the
fish would hear them and disappear. When the first
fish is caught he is brought home and passed through a
small opening at the end of the hut, but not through
the door; for if he were passed through the door, "the
other fish would certainly see him and disappear."^
This explains the custom observed by other savages of
bringing game into their huts, not by the door, but by
the window, the smoke-hole, or by a special opening at
the back of the hut.^

With some savages a special reason for respecting
the bones of game, and generally of the animals which
they eat, is a belief that, if the bones are preserved,
they will in course of time be reclothed with flesh, and
thus the animal will come to life again. It is, there-
fore, clearly for the interest of the hunter to leave
the bones intact, since to destroy them would be to
diminish the future supply of game. Many of the Min-
netaree Indians "believe that the bones of those bisons
which they have slain and divested of flesh rise again

1 Alex. Ross, Adventures of the First the heart of the fish out before they sell
Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia it."

River, p. 97. 3 h. C. St. John, "The Ainos," in

Journ. Anthrop. Inst. ii. 253 ; id.

2 Ch. Wilkes, Narrative of the U.S. Notes and Sketches from the Wild Coasts
Exploring Expedition, iv. 324, v, 1 19, of Nipon, p. 27 sq.

where it is said, " a dog must never be * Schefifer, lapponia, p. 242 sq.',

permitted to eat the heart of a salmon ; Journ. Anthrop. Inst. vii. 207 ; Revue
and in order to prevent this, they cut d'Ethnographie, ii. 308 sq.

OF ANIMALS 123

clothed with renewed flesh, and quickened with Hfe,
and become fat, and fit for slaughter the succeeding
June."^ Hence on the western prairies of America,
the skulls of buffalos may be seen arranged in circles
and symmetrical piles, awaiting the resurrection.^ After
feasting on a dog, the Dacotas carefully collect the
bones, scrape, wash, and bury them, "partly, as it is said,
to testify to the dog-species, that in feasting upon one
of their number no disrespect was meant to the species
itself, and partly also from a belief that the bones of
the animal will rise and reproduce another."^ In
sacrificing an animal the Lapps regularly put aside the
bones, eyes, ears, heart, lungs, sexual parts (if the •
animal was a male), and a morsel of flesh from each
limb. Then, after eating the rest of the flesh, they
laid the bones etc. in anatomical order in a coffin and
buried them with the usual rites, believing that the
god to whom the animal was sacrificed would reclothe
the bones with flesh and restore the animal to life in
Jabme-Aimo, the subterranean world of the dead.
Sometimes, as after feasting on a bear, they seem to
have contented themselves with thus burying the
bones.* Thus the Lapps expected the resurrection of
the slain animal to take place in another world, resem-
bling in this respect the Kamtchatkans, who believed
that every creature, down to the smallest fly, would
rise from the dead and live underground.^ On the

1 James, Expedition frotn Pittsburgh up (paged separately) with the work of
to the Rocky Mountains, i. 257. C. Leem, De Lapponibus Finmarchiae

9 T. • . j\T si jr ^7 M ... u/^,.7j eorumgue lingua, vita, et religione

2 Brinton, Myths of the New World, ^ . ,.'' t 4- n o/;,, o„rino^;=>i\

c, p?-istinafom»ie>itatto(La.Un ana Uanisn),

P' ^7 Copenhagen, 1767. Compare Leem's

3 Keating, Expedition to the Source ^^^^^ pp_ 418-420 (Latin), 428 sq.,
of St. Peter's River, i. 452. ^j^^ Acerbi, Travels through Sweden,

* E. J. Jessen, De Finnorum Lap- Finnland, and Lapland, ii. 302.

ponumque Norwegicorum religione pa- ^ Steller, Beschreibung von dent

gana tractatus singulai-is, pp. 46 sq., 52 Lande Kamtschatka, p. 269 ; Kraschen-

sq., 65. The work of Jessen is bound nikow, Kamtschatka, p. 246.

124

RESURRECTION

Other hand, the North American Indians looked for
the resurrection of the animals in the present world.
The habit, observed especially by Mongolian peoples,
of stuffing the skin of a sacrificed animal, or stretching
it on a framework,^ points rather to a belief in a resur-
rection of the latter sort. The objection commonly
entertained by primitive peoples to break the bones of
the animals which they have eaten or sacrificed ^ may
be based either on a belief in the resurrection of the
animals, or on a fear of intimidating the other creatures

1 See Erman, referred to above, p.
Ill sq.; Gmelin, Reise durch Sibirien,
i. 274, ii. 182 sq., 214; Vambery, Das
Tiirkenvolk, p. 118 sq. When a fox,
the sacred animal of the Conchucos in
Peru, had been killed, its skin was
stuffed and set up. Bastian, Die Cul-
turlcinder des alien Atnerika, i. 443.
Cp. the Iwtipkonia, above, p. 38 sq.

^ At the annual sacrifice of the
White Dog, the Iroquois were careful
to strangle the animal without shedding
its blood or breaking its bones. The
dog was afterwards burned. L. H.
Morgan, League of the Iroquois, p.
210. It is a rule with some of the
Australian blacks that in killing the
native bear they must not break his
bones. They say that the native bear
once stole all the water of the river,
and that if they were to break his bones
or take off his skin before roasting him,
he would do so again. Brough Smyth,
Aborigines of Vicfo>-ia, i. 447 sqq. When
the Tartars whom Carpini visited killed
animals for eating, they might not break
their bones but burned them with fire.
Carpini, Historia Mongalorum (Paris,
1838), cap. iii. § i. 2, p. 620. North
American Indians might not break the
bones of the animals which they ate at
feasts. Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nou-
velle France, vi. 72. In the warfeast held
by Indian warriors after leaving home,
a whole animal was cooked and had to
be all eaten. No bone of it might be
broken. After being stripped of the'
flesh the bones were hung on a tree.

Narrative of the Captivity and Adven-
tures of John Tanner, p. 287. On
St. Olaf's Day (29th July) the Karels
of Finland kill a lamb, without using a
knife, and roast it whole. None of
its bones may be broken. The lamb
has not been shorn since spring. Some
of the flesh is placed in a corner of the
room for the house - spirits, some is
deposited on the field and beside the
birch - trees which are destined to be
used as May-trees next year. W. Mann-
hardt, A. IV. F. p. 160 sq. note. The
Innuit (Esquimaux) of Point Barrow,
Alaska, carefully preserve unbroken
the bones of the seals which they have
caught and return them to the sea,
either leaving them in an ice-crack far
out from the land or dropping them
through a hole in the ice. By doing
so they think they secure good fortune
in the pursuit of seals. Repoi-t of the
International Expedition to Point Bar-
row, Alaska (Washington, 1885), p.
40. In this last custom the idea prol^-
ably is that the bones will be reclothed
with flesh and the seals come to life
again. The Mosquito Indians of Central
America carefully preserved the bones
of deer and the shells of eggs, lest the
deer or chickens should die or disappear.
Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific
States, i. 741. The Yurucares of
Bolivia "carefully put by even small
fish bones, saying that unless this is
done the fish and game will disappear
from the country." Brinton, Myths of
the New World, p. 278.

IN FOLK-TALES 125

of the same species and offending the ghosts of the
slain animals. The reluctance of North American
Indians to let dogs gnaw the bones of animals^ is per-
haps only a precaution to prevent the bones from being
broken. There are traces in folk- tales of the same
primitive belief that animals or men may come to life
again, if only their bones are preserved ; not un-
commonly the animal or man in the story comes to life
lame of a limb, because one of his bones has been
eaten, broken, or lost." In a Magyar tale, the hero is
cut in pieces, but the serpent -king lays the bones
together in their proper order, and washes them with
water, whereupon the hero comes to life again. His
shoulder-blade, however, had been lost, so the serpent-
king supplied its place with one of gold and ivory.^
Such stories, as Mannhardt has seen, explain why
Pythagoras, who claimed to have lived many lives, one
after the other, was said to have exhibited his golden
leg as a proof of his supernatural pretensions.^ Doubt-
less he was reported to have explained that at one of
his resurrections a leg had been broken or mislaid,

1 Relations des Jesuites, 1634, p. be a way of transmitting the bones

25, ed. 1858 ; A. Mackenzie, Voyages to the spirit-land. The aborigines of

through the Continent of Atnerica, civ; Australia burn the bones of the animals

J. Dunn, History of the Oregon Tcrri- which they eat, but for a different

tory, p. 99 ; Whymper mjonrn. Royal reason ; they think that if an enemy

Geogr. Soc. xxxviii. (1868) p. 228 ; id. got hold of the bones and burned them

in Transact. Etiinolog. Soc. vii. 174; with charms, it would cause the death

A. P. Reid, "Religious Belief of the of the person who had eaten the animal.

Ojibois Indians," in Journ, Anthrop. Native Tribes of South Australia, pp.

Inst. iii. III. After a meal the In- 24, 196.

dians of Costa Rica gather all the bones - Mannhardt, Germanische Mythen,

carefully and either burn them or put pp. 57-74 ; ^'^-j ^- ^- P- "6; Cosquin,

them out of reach of the dogs. W. M. Contes populaires de Lorraine, ii. 25 ;

Gabb, On the Indian Tribes and Lan- Hartland, " The physicians of Myddfai,"

guages of Costa Rica (read before the Airhaeological Review, i. 30 sq. In

American Philosophical Society, 20th folk-tales, as in primitive custom, the

Aug. 1875), p. 520 (Philadelphia, blood is sometimes not allowed to fall

1875). The fact that the bones on the ground. See Cosquin, I.e.

are often burned to prevent the dogs ^ \v. Mannhardt, Gen/i. Myth. p. 66.

getting them does not contradict the * Jamblichus, Vita Tythag. §§ 92,

view suggested in the text. It may 135, 140; Porphyry, Vit. Pythag.%2^.

126 ABSTINENCE FROM chap.

and that it had been replaced with one of gold.
Similarly, when the murdered Pelops was restored
to life, the shoulder which Demeter had eaten was
replaced with one of ivory.^ The story that one of
the members of the mangled Osiris was eaten by fish,
and that, when Isis collected his scattered limbs, she
replaced the missing member with one of wood,^ may
perhaps belong to the same circle of beliefs.

There is a certain rule observed by savage hunters
and fishers which, obscure at first sight, may be
explained by this savage belief in resurrection. A
traveller in America in the early part of this century
was told by a half-breed Choctaw that the Indians
" had an obscure story, somewhat resembling that of
Jacob wrestling with an angel; and that the full-blooded
Indians always separate the sinew which shrank, and
that it is never seen in the venison exposed for sale ;
he did not know what they did with it. His elder
brother, whom I afterwards met, told me that they eat
it as a rarity ; but I have also heard, though on less
respectable authority, that they refrain from it, like the
ancient Jews. A gentleman, who had lived on the
Indian frontier, or in the nation, for ten or fifteen years,
told me that he had often been surprised that the
Indians always detatched the sinew ; but it had never
occurred to him to inquire the reason."^ James Adair,
who knew the Indians of the South Eastern States
intimately, and whose theories appear not to have dis-
torted his view of the facts, observes that "when in
the woods, the Indians cut a small piece out of the
lower part of the thighs of the deer they kill, length-

1 Pindar, Olymp. i. 37 sqq., with pious Herodotus (ii. 48) concealed and

the Scholiast. the pious Plutarch divulged.

■■^ Plutarch, Isis ct Osiris, 18. This ^ AAzmWoAgsou, letters fi-oin North

is one of the sacred stories which the America, i. 244.

"I THE SINEW OF THE THIGH 127

ways and pretty deep. Among the great number of
venison -hams they bring to our trading houses, I do
not remember to have observed one without it. . . .
And I have been assured by a gentleman of character,
who is now an inhabitant of South Carolina, and well
acquainted with the customs of the Northern Indians,
that they also cut a piece out of the thigh of every deer
they kill, and throw it away ; and reckon it such a
dangerous pollution to eat it as to occasion sickness
and other misfortunes of sundry kinds, especially by
spoiling their guns from shooting with proper force and
direction."^ In recent years the statement of Adair's
informant has been confirmed by the French missionary
Petitot, who has also published the "obscure story" to
which Hodgson refers. The Loucheux and Hare-skin
Indians who roam the bleak steppes and forests that
stretch from Hudson's Bay to the Rocky Mountains,
and northward to the frozen sea, are forbidden by
custom to eat the sinew of the legs of animals. To
explain this custom they tell the following "sacred
story." Once upon a time a man found a burrow of
porcupines, and going down into it after the porcupines
he lost his way in the darkness, till a kind giant called
"He who sees before and behind " released him by
cleaving open the earth. So the man, whose name
was "Fireless and Homeless," lived with the kind
giant, and the giant hunted elans and beavers for him,
and carried him about in the sheath of his flint knife.
"But know, my son," said the giant, "that he who
uses the sky as his head is angry with me, and has
sworn my destruction. If he slays me the clouds will
be tinged with my blood ; they will be red with it, prob-
ably." Then he gave the man an axe made of the

1 Adair, History of the American Indians, p. 137 sq.

128 THE SINEW OF THE THIGH chap.

tooth of a gigantic beaver, and went forth to meet his
enemy. But from under the ice the man heard a dull
muffled sound. It was a whale which was making this
noise because it was naked and cold. Warned by the
man, the giant went toward the whale, which took
human shape, and rushed upon the giant. It was
the wicked giant, the kind giant's enemy. The two
struggled together for a long time, till the kind giant
cried, "Oh, my son! cut, cut the sinew of the leg."
The man cut the sinew, and the wicked giant fell down
and was slain. That is why the Indians do not eat
the sinew of the leg. Afterwards, one day the sky
suddenly grew red, so Fireless and Homeless knew
that the kind giant was dead, and he wept.^ This
myth, it is almost needless to observe, does not really
explain the custom. No people ever observed a custom
because a mythical being was said to have once acted
in a certain way. But, on the contrary, all peoples
have invented myths to explain why they observed
certain customs. Dismissing, therefore, the story of
Fireless and Homeless as a myth invented to explain
why the Indians abstain from eating a particular sinew,
it may be suggested - that the original reason for observ-
ing the custom was a belief that the sinew in question
was necessary to reproduction, and that deprived of it
the slain animals could not come to life again and stock
the steppes and prairies either of the present world or
of the spirit land. We have seen that the resurrection

^ Petitot, Afoiiogi-aphie dcs Dene- of the Semites, first series, p. 360, note

Dindjie (Paris, 1867), pp. 77, 81 sq.; 2. The Faleshas, a Jewish sect of

id., Traditions indieiines da Canada Abyssinia, after killing an animal for

Nord-oitest (Paris, 1S86), p. 132 sqq., food, " carefully remove the vein from

cp. pp. 41, 76, 213, 264. the thighs with its surrounding flesh."

Halevy, "Travels in Abyssinia," in

^ The first part of this suggestion is Publications of tJie Society of Hebrew

that of my friend Prof. W. Robertson Literature, second series, vol. ii. p.

Smith. See his Lectures on the Relis;ion 220.

Ill VERMIN RESPECTED 129

of animals is a common article of savage faith, and that
when the Lapps bury the skeleton of the male bear in
the hope of its resurrection they are careful to bury
the genital parts along with it/

Besides the animals which primitive man dreads
for their strength, and ferocity, and those which he
reveres on account of the benefits which he expects
from them, there is another class of creatures which he
sometimes deems it necessary to conciliate by worship
and sacrifice. These are the vermin that infest the
crops. To rid himself of these deadly foes the farmer
has recourse to a thousand superstitious devices, of
which, though many are meant to destroy or intimidate
the vermin, others aim at propitiating them and per-
suading them by fair means to spare the fruits of the
earth. Thus Esthonian peasants, in the Island of
Oesel, stand in great awe of the weevil, an insect which
is exceedingly destructive to the grain. They give it
a euphemistic title, and if a child is about to kill a

1 It seems to be a common custom slain and preserves it as a token. The

with hunters to cut out the tongues of incident serves to show that the custom

the animals which they kill. Omaha was a common one, since folk-tales

hunters remove the tongue of a slain reflect with accuracy the customs and

buffalo through an opening made in the beliefs of a primitive age. For examples

animal's throat. The tongues thus re- of the incident, see Blade, Contes

moved are sacred and may not touch populaires recueillis en Agenais, pp. 1 2,

any tool or metal except when they are 14; Dasent, Tales from the Norse, p. 133

boiling in the kettles at the sacred tent. sq. {'Shortshanks ') ; Schleicher, Litau-

They are eaten as sacred food. Third ische Mdrchen, p. 58; Sepp, Altbayer-

Report of the Bureau of Ethnology ischer Sagcnschatz, p. 114; Kohler on

(Washington), p. 289 sq. Indian bear- Gonzenbach"s Sicilianische Mdrchen, ii.

hunters cut out what they call the bear's 230 ; Apollodorus, iii. 13,3 ; Mannhardt,

little tongue (a fleshy mass under the A.IV. F.^.<)i;Yo&iX\oVi,Lappldndische

real tongue) and keep it for good luck Mdrchen, p. 231 sq. It may be sug-

in hunting or burn it to determine from gested that the cutting out of the tongues

its crackling, etc., whether the soul of is a precaution to prevent the slain

the slain bear is angry with them or animals from telling their fate to the

not. Kohl, Kitschi-Gami, ii. 251 sq.; live animals and thus frightening away

Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle the latter. At least this explanation

France, v. 173 ; Chateaubriand, Voyage harmonises with the primitive modes

en Amerique,-^^. i^f) sq.,\%if. In folk- of thought revealed in the foregoing

tales the hero commonly cuts out the customs,
tongue of the wild beast which he has

VOL. II K

I30 VERMIN RESPECTED chap.

weevil they say, " Don't do it ; the more we hurt him,
the more he hurts us." If they find a weevil they bury
it in the earth instead of killing it. Some even put the
weevil under a stone in the field and offer corn to it.
They think that thus it is appeased and does less
harm.^ Amongst the Saxons of Transylvania, in order
to keep sparrows from the corn, the sower begins by
throwing the first handful of seed backwards over his
head, saying, "That is for you, sparrows." To guard
the corn against the attacks of leaf-fiies [ErdfloJie) he
shuts his eyes and scatters three handfuls of oats in
different directions. Having made this offering to the
leaf-flies he feels sure that they will spare the corn. A
Transylvanian way of securing the crops against all
birds, beasts, and insects, is this : After he has finished
sowing, the sower goes once more from end to end of
the field imitating the gesture of sowing, but with an
empty hand. As he does so he says, " I sow this for
the animals ; I sow it for everything that flies and
creeps, that walks and stands, that sings and springs,
in the nftme of God the Father, etc."^ The following
is a German way of freeing a garden from caterpillars.
After sunset or at midnight the mistress of the house,
or another female member of the family, walks all'
round the garden dragging a broom after her. She
must not look behind her, and must keep murmuring,
" Good evening, Mother Caterpillar, you shall come
with your husband to church." The garden gate is
left open till the following morning.^

Sometimes in dealing with vermin the farmer

1 Holzmayer, Osiliana, ^. lo^ no^e. ^ E. Krause, " Aberglaubische Kuren

2 Heinrich, Ag7'arische Sitten tmd und sonstiger Aberglaube in Berlin,"
Gebrdtiche unler den Sachsen Sicbcn- Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, xv. (1SS3)
biirgens, p. 15 sq. p. 93.

in VERMIN RESPECTED 131

resorts neither to unmitigated severity nor to un-
bounded indulgence, but aims at adopting a judicious
compromise between the two ; kind but firm, he
tempers severity with mercy. An ancient Greek
treatise on farming advises the husbandman who
would rid his lands of mice to act thus : " Take a
sheet of paper and write on it as follows : ' I adjure
you, ye mice here present, that ye neither injure me
nor suffer another mouse to do so. I give you yonder
field ' (here you specify the field) ; ' but if ever I
catch you here again, by the Mother of the Gods
I will rend you in seven pieces.' Write this, and
stick the paper on an unhewn stone in the field
before sunrise, taking care to keep the written side
uppermost." ^ Sometimes the desired object is
supposed to be attained by treating with high
distinction one or two chosen individuals of the
obnoxious species, while the rest are pursued with
relendess rigour. In the East Indian island of
Bali, the mice which ravage the rice -fields are
caught in great numbers, and burned in the same
way that corpses are burned. But two of the
captured mice are allowed to live, and receive a
little packet of white linen. Then the people bow
down before them, as before gods, and let them
go.^ In some parts of Bohemia the peasant, though
he kills field mice and gray mice without scruple,
always spares white mice. If he finds a white mouse
he takes it up carefully, and makes a comfortable bed
for it in the window ; for if it died the luck of the
house would be gone, and the gray mice would

1 Geoponica, xiii. 5. According to farmer's own land,

the commentator, the field assigned to - R. van Eck, " Schetsen van het

the mice is a neighbour's, but it may eiland Bali," in Tijdschrift voor Neder-

be a patch of waste ground on the landsch Indie ^ N.S. viii. (1879) p. 125.

132 VERMIN RESPECTED chap.

multiply fearfully in the house. ^ When caterpillars
invaded a vineyard or field in Syria, the virgins
were gathered, and one of the caterpillars was taken
and a girl made its mother. Then they bewailed
and buried it. Thereafter they conducted the
" mother " to the place where the caterpillars were,
consoling her, in order that all the caterpillars might
leave the garden." On the ist of September, Russian
girls "make small coffins of turnips and other vege-
tables, enclose flies and other insects in them, and
then bury them with a great show of mourning."^

In these latter examples the deference shown to
a few chosen individuals of the species is apparently
regarded as entitling a person to exterminate with
impunity all the rest of the species upon which he
can lay hands. This principle perhaps explains the
attitude, at first sight puzzling and contradictory, of
the Ainos towards the bear. The flesh and skin of
the bear regularly afford them food and clothing ; but
since the bear is an intelligent and powerful animal, it
is necessary to offer some satisfaction or atonement
to the bear species for the loss which it sustains
in the death of so many of its members. This satis-
faction or atonement is made by rearing young bears,
treating them, so long as they live, with respect, and
killing them with extraordinary marks of sorrow and
devotion. Thus the other bears are appeased, and do
not resent the slaughter of their kind by attacking the
slayers or deserting the country, and thus depriving
the Ainos of one of their means of subsistence.

1 Grohmann, Aberglauben umi Ge- I am indebted to my friend Prof. W.

hrdiuhe aiis Bohnien und Malircn, § Robertson Smitli, who kindly translated

405- it for me from the Syriac.

'^ l.zgz.X(\Q, Reliquiae jti lis eaiesiasiki 3 Ralston, Sotigs of the Russian

antiijuissimae,]}. i^i,. For this passage People, -p. 2^^.

TYPES OF ANIMAL WORSHIP I33

Thus the primitive worship of animals assumes
two forms, which are in some respects the converse of
each other. On the one hand animals are respected,
and are therefore neither killed nor eaten. Totemism
is a form of this worship, if worship it can be called ;
but it is not the only form, for we have seen that
dangerous and useless animals, like the crocodile, are
commonly revered and spared by men who do not
regard the animal in question as their totem. On the
other hand animals are worshipped because they are
habitually killed and eaten. In both forms of worship
the animal is revered on account of some benefit,
positive or negative, which the savage hopes to
receive from it. In the former worship the benefit
comes either in the positive form of protection, advice,
and help which the animal affords the man, or in the
negative one of abstinence from injuries which it
is in the power of the animal to inflict. In the
latter worship the benefit takes the material form
of the animal's flesh and skin. The two forms of
worship are in some measure antithetical : in the
one, the animal is not eaten because it is revered ;
in the other, it is revered because it is eaten. But
both may be practised by the same people, as we
see in the case of the North American Indians,
who, while they revere and spare their totem animals,
also revere the animals and fish upon which they
subsist. The aborigines of Australia have totemism
in the most primitive form known to us, but, so far
as I am aware, there is no evidence that they at-
tempt, like the North American Indians, to con-
ciliate the animals which they kill and eat. The
means which the Australians adopt to secure a
plentiful supply of game appear to be based not on

134 TYPES OF ANIMAL WORSHIP chap.

conciliation, but on sympathetic magic/ a principle
to which the North American Indians also resort
for the same purpose." If this is so, it would appear
that the totemistic respect for animals is older than
the other, and that, before hunters think of wor-
shipping the game as a means of ensuring an
abundant supply of it, they seek to attain the same
end by sympathetic magic. This, again, would show
— what there is good reason for believing — that
sympathetic magic is one of the earliest means by
which man endeavours to adapt the agencies of nature
to his needs.

Corresponding to the two distinct types of animal
worship, there are two distinct types of the custom of
killing the animal god. On the one hand, when the
revered animal is habitually spared, it is nevertheless
killed — and sometimes eaten — on rare and solemn
occasions. Examples of this custom have been
already given and an explanation of them offered.
On the other hand, when the revered animal is
habitually killed, the slaughter of any one of the
species involves the killing of the god, and is atoned
for on the spot by apologies and sacrifices, especially
when the animal is a powerful and dangerous one ;
and, in addition to this ordinary and everyday atone-
ment, there is a special annual atonement, at which
a select individual of the species is slain with extra-
ordinary marks of respect and devotion. Clearly the
two types of sacramental killing — the Egyptian and
the Aino types, as we may call them for distinction —
are liable to be confounded by an observer ; and,

^ Compare Amative Tribes of South - Catlin, 0-Kee-pa, Folium reser-

Anstralia, \>. 280, with the customs vatum ; Lewis and Clarke, Travels to
referred to in the following note. t/ic Source of the Missoini River {l^Qr\<\or\,

1S15), i. 205 s<].

in PASTORAL SACRAMENTS I35

before we can say to which type any particular
example belongs, it is necessary to ascertain whether
the animal sacramentally slain belongs to a species
which is habitually spared, or to one which is
habitually killed by the tribe. In the former case
the example belongs to the Egyptian type of sacra-
ment, in the latter to the Aino type.

The practice of pastoral tribes appears to furnish
examples of both types of sacrament. " Pastoral
tribes," says the most learned ethnologist of the day,
"being sometimes obliged to sell their herds to
strangers who may handle the bones disrespectfully,
seek to avert the danger which such a sacrilege would
entail by consecrating one of the herd as an object of
worship, eating it sacramentally in the family circle
with closed doors, and afterwards treating the bones
with all the ceremonious respect which, strictly speak-
ing, should be accorded to every head of cattle, but
which, being punctually paid to the representative
animal, is deemed to be paid to all. Such family
meals are found among various peoples, especially
those of the Caucasus. When amongst the Abchases
the shepherds in spring eat their common meal with
their loins girt and their staffs in their hands, this may
be looked upon both as a sacrament and as an oath of
mutual help and support. For the strongest of all
oaths is that which is accompanied with the eating of
a sacred substance, since the perjured person cannot
possibly escape the avenging god whom he has taken
into his body and assimilated."^ This kind of sacra-

1 A. Bastian, in Verhandliingeii der Abghazses (Abchases). It takes place

Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Aiithropologie, in the middle of autumn. A white ox

Ethnologie, umi Urgeschichte, 1870-71, called Ogginn appears from a holy

p. 59. Reinegg [Beschreibitng des cave, which is also called Ogginn. It

Katikasiis, ii. 12 sq.) describes what is caught and led about amongst the

seems to be a sacrament of the assembled men (women are excluded)

136 PASTORAL SACRAMENTS chap.

ment is of the Aino or expiatory type, since it is meant
to atone to the species for the possible ill-usage of
individuals. An expiation, similar in principle but
different in details, is offered by the Kalmucks to the
sheep whose flesh is one of their staple foods. Rich
Kalmucks are in the habit of consecrating a white
ram under the title of " the ram of heaven" or "the
ram of the spirit." The animal is never shorn and
never sold ; but when it grows old and its owner
wishes to consecrate a new one, the old ram must be
killed and eaten at a feast to which the neighbours are
invited. On a lucky day, generally in autumn when
the sheep are fat, a sorcerer kills the old ram, after
sprinkling it with milk. Its flesh is eaten ; the
skeleton, with a portion of the fat, is burned on a
turf altar ; and the skin, with the head and feet, is
hung up.^

An example of a sacrament of the Egyptian type
is furnished by the Todas, a pastoral people of
Southern India, who subsist largely upon the milk of
their buffaloes. Amongst them " the buffalo is to a
certain degree held sacred " and " is treated with great
kindness, even with a degree of adoration, by the
people." 2 They never eat the flesh of the cow buffalo,
and as a rule abstain from the flesh of the male. But

amid joyful cries. Then it is killed Kalmiicken, ii. 8o sqq., 122 ; Pallas,
and eaten. Any man who did not get Reise ditrch verschiedcne Frovhizejt dcs
at least a scrap of the sacred flesh n/ssisf/ien Ren/is, i. ;^ig, ^^S- Accord-
would deem himself most unfortunate. ing to Pallas, it is only rich Kalmucks
The bones are then carefully collected, who commonly kill their sheep or
burned in a great hole, and the ashes cattle for eating ; ordinary Kalmucks
buried there. do not usually kill them except in case
J Bastian, Die Vblket- des ostlicheii of necessity or at great merry-makings.
Asien, vi. 632 note. On the Kalmucks It is, therefore, especially the rich who
as a people of shepherds and on their need to make expiation,
diet of mutton, see Georgi, Beschreilntng

aller Natio7ien des russischen Reu/is, - W. E. Marshall, Travels amongst

p. 406 sq., cp. 207 ; B. Bergmann, the Todas, p. 129 sq. On the Todas,

A^ODiadische Strcifereien tinier den see also above, vol. i. p. 41.

Ill PASTORAL SACRAMENTS 137

to the latter rule there is a single exception. Once a
year all the adult males of the village join in the
ceremony of killing and eating a very young male
calf, — seemingly under a month old. They take the
animal into the dark recesses of the villaofe wood,
where it is killed with a club made from the sacred
tree of the Todas (the tude or Millingtonia). A
sacred fire having been made by the rubbing of sticks,
the flesh of the calf is roasted on the embers of certain
trees, and is eaten by the men alone, women being
excluded from the assembly. This is the only occasion
on which the Todas eat buffalo flesh. ^ The Madi or
Moru tribe of Central Africa, whose chief wealth is
their cattle, though they also practice agriculture,
appear to kill a lamb sacramentally on certain solemn
occasions. The custom is thus described by Dr.
Felkin. " A remarkable custom is observed at stated
times — once a year, I am led to believe. I have not
been able to ascertain what exact meaning is attached
to it. It appears, however, to relieve the people's
minds, for beforehand they evince much sadness, and
seem very joyful when the ceremony is duly accom-
plished. The following is what takes place : A large
concourse of people of all ages assemble, and sit down
round a circle of stones, which is erected by the side of
a road (really a narrow path). A very choice lamb is
then fetched by a boy, who leads it four times round
the assembled people. As it passes they pluck off
little bits of its fleece and place them in their hair, or
on to some other part of their body. The lamb is then
led up to the stones, and there killed by a man belong-
ing to a kind of priestly order, who takes some of the
blood and sprinkles it four times over the people. He

1 Marshall, op. cit. pp. So sq. 130.

138 PASTORAL SACRAMENTS chap.

then applies it individually. On the children he makes
a small rinof of blood over the lower end of the breast
bone, on women and girls he makes a mark above the
breasts, and the men he touches on each shoulder.
He then proceeds to explain the ceremony, and to
exhort the people to show kindness. . . . When this
discourse, which is at times of great length, is over,
the people rise, each places a leaf on or by the circle
of stones, and then they depart with signs of great joy.
The lamb's skull is hung on a tree near the stones,
and its flesh is eaten by the poor. This ceremony is
observed on a small scale at other times. If a family
is in any great trouble, through illness or bereavement,
their friends and neighbours come toijether and a lamb
is killed : this is thought to avert further evil. The
same custom prevails at the grave of departed friends,
and also on joyful occasions, such as the return of a
son home after a very prolonged absence."^ The
sorrow thus manifested by the people at the annual
slaughter of the lamb clearly indicates that the lamb
slain is a divine animal, whose death is mourned by
his worshippers,- just as the death of the sacred
buzzard was mourned by the Californians and the
death of the Theban ram by the Egyptians. The
smearing each of the worshippers with the blood of
the lamb is a form of communion with the divinity ; ^
the vehicle of the divine life is applied externally
instead of being taken internally, as when the blood is
drunk or the flesh eaten.

^ R. W. P'elkin, " Notes on the as a regular article of food (Felkin, op.

Madi or Moru tribe of Central Africa," cit. p. 307), is not inconsistent with

Proceedings of the Royal Society of the original sanctity of the sheep.
Edinburgh, xii. (1882-84) p. 336 sq. j

^ The fact that the flesh of sheep 3 See W. R. Smith, Religion of the

appears to be now eaten by the tribe Semites, i. p. 325 sq.

Ill COMMUNION WITH SNAKE i39

The form of communion in which the sacred
animal is taken from house to house, that all may
enjoy a share of its divine influence, has been
exemplified by the Gilyak custom of promenading the
bear through the village before it is slain. A similar
form of communion with the sacred snake is observed
by a Snake tribe in the Punjaub. Once a year in the
month of September the snake is worshipped by all
castes and religions for nine days only. At the end of
August the Mirasans, especially those of the Snake
tribe, make a snake of dough which they paint black
and red, and place on a winnowing basket. This
basket they carry round the village, and on entering
any house they say —

" God be with you all !
May every ill be far !
May our patron's (Gugga's) word thrive ! "

They then present the basket with the snake, saying —

" A small cake of flour :
A little bit of butter :
If you obey the snake,
You and yours shall thrive ! "

Strictly speaking, a cake and butter should be given,
but it is seldom done. Every one, however, gives
something, generally a handful of dough or some corn.
In houses where there is a new bride or whence a bride
has gone, or where a son has been born, it is usual to
give a rupee and a quarter, or some cloth. Sometimes
the bearers of the snake also sing —

" Give the snake a piece of cloth.
And he will send a lively bride."

When every house has been thus visited, the dough
snake is buried and a small grave is erected over it.
Hither during the nine days of September the women

I40 HUNTING THE WREN chap.

come to worship. They bring a basin of curds, a
small portion of which they offer at the snake's grave,
kneeling on the ground and touching the earth with
their foreheads. Then they go home and divide the
rest of the curds among the children. Here the
dough snake is clearly a substitute for a real snake.
This is proved by the fact that in districts where
snakes abound the worship is offered, not at the
grave of the dough snake, but in the jungles where
snakes are known to be. Besides this yearly worship
performed by all the people, the members of the Snake
tribe worship in the same way every morning after a
new moon. The Snake tribe is not uncommon in the
Punjaub. Members of it will not kill a snake and
they say that its bite does not hurt them. If they
find a dead snake, they put clothes on it and give it a
regular funeral.^

Ceremonies closely analogous to this Indian worship
of the snake have survived in Europe into recent
times, and doubtless date from a very primitive
paganism. The best-known example is the " hunting
of the wren." By many European peoples — the
ancient Greeks and Romans, the modern Italians,
Spaniards, French, Germans, Dutch, Danes, Swedes,
English, and Welsh — the wren has been designated
the king, the little king, the king of birds, the hedge
king, etc.,'- and has been reckoned amongst those
birds which it is extremely unlucky to kill. In
England it is thought that if any one kills a wren
or harries its nest, he will infallibly break a bone or

* Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. No. Fmaie populaire de la France, ii. 288

555. sqq. The names for it are ^o.aCki<jKo%,

'^ See Brand, Popular Antiquities, regitlus, rex avitttn (Pliny, Nat. Hist.

iii. I95.f;7., Bohn'sed.; Swainson, /i'/X'- viii. 90; x. 203), re di siepe, reyczitelo,

lore of British Birds,"^. 36 ; E. Rollanrl, roitelet, roi des oiseanx, Zaunkonig, etc.

Ill HUNTING THE WREN 141

meet with some dreadful misfortune within the year ; ^
sometimes it is thought that the cows will give bloody
milk.- In Scotland the wren is called "the Lady of
Heaven's hen," and boys say —

" Malisons, malisons, mair than ten,
That harry the Ladye of Heaven's hen ! " 3

At Saint Donan, in Brittany, people believe that if
children touch the young wrens in the nest, they will
suffer from the fire of St. Lawrence, that is, from
pimples on the face, legs, etc.* In other parts of
France it is believed that if a person kills a wren or
harries its nest, his house will be struck by lightning,
or that the fingers with which he did the deed will
shrivel up and drop off, or at least be maimed, or that
his cattle will suffer in their feet.^ Notwithstanding
such beliefs, the custom of annually killing the wren
has prevailed widely both in this country and in
France. In the Isle of Man last century the custom
was observed on Christmas Eve or rather Christmas
morning. On the 24th of December, towards evening,
all the servants got a holiday ; they did not go to bed
all night, but rambled about till the bells rang in all
the churches at midnight. When prayers were over,
they went to hunt the wren, and having found one
of these birds they killed it and fastened it to the top
of a long pole with its wings extended. Thus they
carried it in procession to every house chanting the
following rhyme—

" We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin,
We hunted the wren for Jack of the Can,
We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin,
We hunted the wren for every one."

1 Brand, Popular Antiquities, iii. * P. Sebillot, Traditions et Sufer-
154. stitions de la Haute Bretagne, ii. 214.

2 Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scot- ^ Rolland, op. cit. ii. 294 sq. ;
land^ p. 1 88. ^ lb. p. 1S6. Sebillot, I.e.; Swainson, op. cit. p. 42.

142 HUNTING THE WREN chap.

After going from house to house and collecting all the
money they could, they laid the wren on a bier " with
the utmost solemnity, singing dirges over her in the
Manks language, which they call her knell ; after
w^iich Christmas begins." After the burial the com-
pany outside the churchyard formed a circle and
danced to music. About the middle of the present
century the burial of the wren took place in the
Isle of Man on St. Stephen's Day (December 26th).
Boys went from door to door with a wren suspended
by the legs in the centre of two hoops which crossed
each other at right angles and were decorated with
evergreens and ribbons. The bearers sang certain
lines in which reference was made to boiling and
eating the bird. If at the close of the song they
received a small coin, they gave in return a feather of
the wren ; so that before the end of the day the bird
often hung almost featherless. The wren was then
buried, no longer in the churchyard, but on the sea-
shore or in some waste place. The feathers dis-
tributed were preserved with religious care, it being
believed that every feather was an effectual pre-
servative from shipwreck for a year, and a fisherman
would have been thought very foolhardy who had not
one of them.^

In Ireland the "hunting of the wren " still takes
place in parts of Leinster and Connaught. On
Christmas Day or St. Stephen's Day the boys hunt
and kill the wren, fasten it in the middle of a mass
of holly and ivy on the top of a broomstick, and on St.
Stephen's Day go about with it from house to house,
singing —

1 G. Waldron, Description of the Isle of Man (reprinted for the Manx Society,
Douglas, 1865), p. 49 sqq.; J. 'J'rain, Account of tlie Isle of Man, ii. 124 sqq. 141.

Ill HUNTING THE WREN I43

" The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze ;
Although he is little, his family 's great,
I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat."

Money or food (bread, butter, eggs, etc.) were given
them, upon which they feasted in the evening.
Sometimes in Ireland, as in the Isle of Man, the bird
was hung by the leg in the centre of two hoops
crossing each other at right angles.^ In Essex a
similar custom used to be observed at Christmas,
and the verses sung by the boys were almost identical
with those sung in Ireland.^ In Pembrokeshire a
wren, called the King, used to be carried about on
Twelfth Day in a box with glass windows surmounted
by a wheel, from which hung various coloured ribbons.
The men and boys who carried it from house to house
sang songs, in one of which they wished "joy, health,
love, and peace " to the inmates of the house." ^

In the first half of this century similar customs
were still observed in various parts of the south of
France. Thus at Carcassone, every year on the first
Sunday of December the young people of the street
Saint Jean used to go out of the town armed with
sticks, with which they beat the bushes, looking for
wrens. The first to strike down one of these birds
was proclaimed King. Then they returned to the
town in procession, headed by the King, who carried
the wren on a pole. On the evening of the last day
of the year the King and all who had hunted the wren
marched through the streets of the town with torches
and music. At the door of every house they stopped,

1 Brand, Popular Antiquities, iii. May 1884, p. 332 ; Dyer, British

195 ; Swainson, Folk-lore of British Popular Customs, p. 497.
Birds, p. 36 sq.', Rolland, Faune ^ Henderson, Folk-lore of the North-

populaire de la Fi-ance, ii. 297 ; Pro- em Counties, p. 125.
fessor W. Ridgeway in Academy, loth '^ Swainson, op. cit. p. 40 sq.

144 HUNTING THE WREN chap.

and one of them wrote with chalk on the door vive le
roi ! with the number of the year which was about
to begin. On the morning of Twelfth Day the King
again marched in procession with great pomp, wearing
a crown and a blue mantle and carrying a sceptre. In
front of him was borne the wren fastened to the top of
a pole, which was adorned with a wreath of olive, oak,
and mistletoe. After hearing high mass in the church,
surrounded by his officers and guards, he visited the
bishop, mayor, magistrates, and the chief inhabitants,
collecting money to defray the expenses of the royal
banquet which took place in the evening.^ At En-
traigues men and boys used to hunt the wren on
Christmas Eve. When they caught one alive they
presented it to the priest, who, after the midnight
mass, set the bird free in the church. At Mirabeau
the priest blessed the bird. If the men failed to catch
a wren and the women succeeded in doing so, the
women had the right to mock and insult the men, and
to blacken their faces with mud and soot, if they
caught them.^ At La Ciotat, near Marseilles, a largfe
body of men armed with swords and pistols used to
hunt the wren every year about the end of December.
When a wren was caught it was hung on the middle
of a pole which two men carried, as if it were a heavy
burden. Thus they paraded round the town ; the
bird was weighed in a great pair of scales ; and then
the company sat down to table and made merry,^

1 Rolland, op. at. ii. 295 sq. ; J. W. young. These they carry in a basket
\\hAi, Beiti-iige ziir deutscheji Mytkologie, from house to house in the village and
ii. 437 sq. show them to the housewives, while
'^ Rolland, op. cit. ii. 296 sq. one of the children sings some doggerel
3 Brand's Popular Antiquities, iii. lines containing a threat that, if a
198. The "hunting of the wren" present is not given, the hens, chickens,
may be compared with a Swedish and eggs will fall a prey to the mag-
custom. On the 1st of May children pie. They receive bacon, eggs, millc,
rob the magpies' nests of both eggs and etc., upon which they afterwards feast.

MAN IN COW-SKIN i45

The parallelism between this custom of "hunting
the wren " and some of those we have considered,
especially the Gilyak procession with the bear, and
the Indian one with the snake, seems too close to allow
us to doubt that they all belong to the same circle of
ideas. The worshipful animal is killed with special
solemnity once a year; and before or immediately after
death, he is promenaded from door to door, that each
of his worshippers may receive a portion of the divine
virtues that are supposed to emanate from the dead or
dying god. Religious processions of this sort must
have had a great place in the ritual of European
peoples in prehistoric times, if we may judge from the
numerous traces of them which have survived in folk-
custom. A well-preserved specimen is the follow-
ing, which survived in the Highlands of Scotland
and in St. Kilda down to the latter half of last
century. " On the evening before New Year's Day,
it is usual for the cowherd and the young people
to meet toeether, and one of them is covered with a
cow's hide. The rest of the company are provided
with staves, to the end of which bits of raw hide are
tied. The person covered with the hide runs thrice
round the dwelling-house, deiseil — i.e. according to the
course of the sun ; the rest pursue, beating the hide
with their staves, and crying [here follows the Gaelic],
' Let us raise the noise louder and louder ; let us beat
the hide.' They then come to the door of each

L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden, dead swallows and crows or effigies of

p. 237 sq. The resemblance of such them. In modern Greece it is said to

customs to the "swallow song" and be still customaiy for children on ist

"crow song" of the ancient Greeks (on March to go about the streets singing

which see Athenaeus, pp. 359, 360) is spring songs and carrying a wooden

obvious and has been remarked before swallow, which is kept turning on a

now. Probably the Greek swallow- cylinder. Qximm., Deutsche I\Iythologie,^

singers and crow-singers carried about ii. 636.

VOL. II L

146 MAN IX COW-SKIN chap.

dwelling-house, and one of them repeats some verses
composed for the purpose. When admission is granted,
one of them pronounces within the threshold the
beaiinachadtJmrlair, or verses by which he pretends to
draw down a blessing upon the whole family [here
follows the Gaelic], ' May God bless this house and
all that belongs to it, cattle, stones, and timber! In
plenty of meat, of bed and body-clothes, and health of
men, may it ever abound ! ' Then each burns in the
fire a little bit of hide which is tied to the end of the
staff. It is applied to the nose of every person and
domestic animal that belongs to the house. This, they
imagine, will tend much to secure them from diseases
and other misfortunes during the ensuing year. The
whole of the ceremony is called colluinn, from the
great noise which the hide makes." ^ From another
authority,-^ we learn that the hide of which pieces were
burned in each house and applied to the inmates was
the breast part of a sheep-skin. Formerly, perhaps,
pieces of the cow-hide in which the man was clad were
detached for this purpose, just as in the Isle of Man a
feather of the wren used to be given to each household.
Similarly, as we have seen, the human victim whom
the K bonds slew as a divinity was taken from house
to house, and every one strove to obtain a relic of
his sacred person. Such customs are only another
form of that communion with the deity which is
attained most completely by eating the body and
drinking the blood of the god.

1 John Ramsay, Scotland and Scots- Theodore," quoted by Kemble, Saxons

vien in the Eii^htcenth Century, ii. 438 /;/ England, i. 525 ; Elton, Origins of

s<j. ; cp. Chambers, Popular R]iy)iics English History, p. 41 1; '^ Si qiiis in

of Scotland, p. 166 sq.; Samuel John- Kal. Janiiar. in cervulo vel vitnlavadit,

son, Journey to the Westerti Islands of id est in fe7-aru!ii habitus se comnnini-

Scotland, p. 228 sq. (first American cant, et vestiuntur pcllilms pectidum ct

edition, l8io). The custom is clearly assuniunt capita bestiarum, etc.
referred to in the " Penitential of - Chambers, I.e.

in ANIMALS LED ABOUT I47

In the " hunting of the wren," and the procession
with the man clad in a cow -skin, there is nothing to
show that the customs in question have any relation
to agriculture. So far as appears, they may date from
the pre-agricultural era when animals were revered as
divine in themselves, not merely as divine because they
embodied the corn-spirit ; and the analogy of the
Gilyak procession of the bear, and the Indian proces-
sion of the snake is in favour of assigning the corre-
sponding European customs to this very early date.
On the other hand, there are certain European pro-
cessions of animals, or of men disguised as animals,
which may possibly be purely agricultural in their
origin ;^ in other words, the animals which figure in
them may have been from the first nothing but repre-
sentatives of the corn-spirit conceived in animal shape.
But it is at least equally possible that these processions
originated in the pre-agricultural era, and have only
received an agricultural tinge from the environment
in which they have so long survived. But the ques-
tion is an obscure and difficult one, and cannot be
here discussed.

1 Such are the Bohemian processions if the flax, the corn, and the vegetables
at the Carnival when a man called the are to grow well. The higher they
Shrovetide Bear, swathed from head to leap the better will be the crops. Some-
foot in peas - straw and sometimes times the women pull out some of the
wearing a bear's mask, is led from straw in which the Shrovetide Bear is
house to house. He dances with the swathed, and put it in the nests of the
women of the house, and collects money geese and fowls, believing that this will
and food. Then they go to the ale- make them lay well. Reinsberg-
house, where all the peasants assemble Diiringsfeld, Fest - Kalendei- aits B'uh-
with their wives. For at the Carnival, ;««/, pp. 49-52. On similar customs,
especially on Shrove Tuesday, it is see W. Mannhardt, ^. /F". A pp. 183-
necessary that every one should dance, 200.

148 TRANSFERENCE OF ILLS

§ 13. — Transference of evil

The custom of killing the god has now been
proved to have been practised by peoples in the hunt-
ing, pastoral, and agricultural stages of society, and the
various reasons for observing the custom have been
explained. One aspect of the custom still remains to
be noticed. The accumulated misfortunes and sins of
the whole people are sometimes laid upon the dying
god, who is supposed to bear them away for ever, leav-
ing the people innocent and happy. The notion that
we can transfer our pains and griefs to some other
being who will bear them in our stead is familiar to
the savage mind. It arises from a very obvious con-
fusion between the physical and the mental. Because
it is possible to transfer a load of wood, stones, or
what not, from our own back to the back of another,
the savage fancies that it is equally possible to transfer
the burden of his pains and sorrows to another, who will
suffer them in his stead. Upon this idea he acts, and
the result is an endless number of often very unamiable
devices for putting off upon some one else the trouble
which a man shrinks from bearing himself. Such
devices are amongst the most familiar facts in folk-
lore ; but for the benefit of readers who are not pro-
fessed students of folk-lore, a few illustrations may be
given.

It is not necessary that the pain or trouble should
be transferred from the sufferer to a person ; it may
equally well be transferred to an animal or a thing,
though in the last case the thing is often only a
vehicle to convey the trouble to the first person
who touches it. In some of the East Indian islands

in TRANSFERENCE OF ILLS 149

epilepsy is believed to be cured by striking the patient
on the face with the leaves of certain trees and then
throwing the leaves away. The epilepsy is believed
to have passed into the leaves, and to have been
thrown away with them/ To cure toothache some
of the Australian blacks apply a heated spear- thrower
to the cheek. The spear-thrower is then cast away,
and the toothache goes with it, in the shape of a black
stone called karriitch. Stones of this kind are found
in old mounds and sandhills. They are carefully
collected and thrown in the direction of enemies, in
order to give them toothache." When a Moor has
a headache, he will sometimes take a lamb or a goat
and beat it till it falls down, believing that the head-
ache will thus be transferred to the animal.^ After an
illness, a Bechuana king seated himself upon an ox
which lay stretched on the ground. The native
doctor next poured water on the king's head till
it ran down over his body. Then the head of the
ox was held in a vessel of water till the animal ex-
pired ; whereupon the doctor declared, and the people
believed, that the ox died of the king's disease, which
had been transferred to it from the king.^ Amongst the
Malagasy the vehicle for carrying away evils is called
2.faditra. " The faditra is anything selected by the
sikidy [divining-board] for the purpose of taking away
any hurtful evils or diseases that might prove injurious
to an individual's happiness, peace, or prosperity. The
faditra may be either ashes, cut money, a sheep, a

1 J. G. F. Riedel, De sheik-en kroes- ^ Dapper, Description de VAfrique,
harige 7-assen tiisschcn Selebes en Papua, p. 117.

pp. 266 sq., 305, 357 sq.; cp. id. pp.

141, 340. ■* John Campbell, Travels in South

2 J. Dawson, Australian Aborigines, Africa (second journey), ii. 207 sq.
P- 59-

ISO TRANSFEREiYCE OF ILLS chap.

pumpkin, or anything else the sikidy may choose to
direct. After the particular article is appointed, the
priest counts upon it all the evils that may prove
injurious to the person for whom it is made, and
which he then charges the faditra to take away for
ever. If the faditra be ashes, it is blown, to be
carried away by the wind. If it be cut money, it
is thrown to the bottom of deep water, or where
it can never be found. If it be a sheep, it is carried
away to a distance on the shoulders of a man, who
runs with all his might, mumbling as he goes, as if
in the greatest rage against the faditra for the evils
it is bearing away. If it be a pumpkin, it is carried
on the shoulders to a little distance, and there dashed
upon the ground with every appearance of fury and
indignation."^ A Malagasy was informed by a diviner
that he was doomed to a bloody death, but that
possibly he might avert his fate by performing a
certain rite. Carrying a small vessel full of blood
upon his head, he was to mount upon the back of a
bullock ; while thus mounted, he was to spill the
blood upon the bullock's head, and then send the
animal away into the wilderness, whence it might
never return.^

The Battas of Sumatra have a ceremony which
they call " making the curse to fly away." When
a woman is childless, a sacrifice is offered to the
gods of three grasshoppers, representing a head
of cattle, a buffalo, and a horse. Then a swallow
is set free, with a prayer that the curse may fall

1 Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. 2 gnig^ ^^_ ^jf_ \ ^^^ . Sibree, op.

422 s,/.; cp. zV/. pp. 232, 435, 436 j-</. ; a'L p. 304; Antananarivo Annual

Sibree, The Great African Island, p. and Madagascar Magazine, iii. 263.
303 -f'/-

Ill TRANSFERENCE OF ILLS 151

upon the bird and fly away with it.^ At the cleansing
of a leper and of a house suspected of being tainted
with leprosy, the Jews let a bird fly away.'"^ Amongst
the Miaotse of China, when the eldest son of the
house attains the age of seven years, a ceremony
called "driving away the devil" takes place. The
father makes a kite of straw and lets it fly away in
the desert, bearing away all evil with it.^ In Morocco
most wealthy Moors keep a wild boar in their stables,
in order that the jinn and evil spirits may be diverted
from the horses and enter into the boar,^ The Dyaks
believe that certain men possess in themselves the
power of neutralising bad omens. So, when evil
omens have alarmed a farmer for the safety of his
crops, he takes a small portion of his farm produce
to one of these wise men, who eats it raw for a small
consideration, "and thereby appropriates to himself
the evil omen, which in him becomes innocuous, and
thus delivers the other from the ban of the peniali
or taboo." ^ In Travancore, when a Rajah is danger-
ously ill and his life is despaired of, a holy Brahman
is brought, who closely embraces the King, and says,
"O King! I undertake to bear all your sins and
diseases. May your Highness live long and reign
happily." Then the sin-bearer is sent away from the
country, and never allowed to return.*^ Amongst the
Burghers or Badagas of the Neilgherry Hills in
Southern India, when a death has taken place, the

1 Kodding, "Die Batakschen ^ '^. Kn^s&e., Ethnographische Pa7-al-

Gotter," Allgenicine Missions - Zeit- lele mid Vergleiche, p. 29 sq.

schrift, xii. (1885) 478. * A. Leared, Morocco and the Moors,

P- 301.

- Leviticus xiv. 7, 53. For a similar ^ J. Perham, "Sea Dyak Religion,"

use ill Arabia see Wellhausen, Reste mjourn. Straits Branch Royal Asiatic

arabischen Heidentiiines, p. 156; W. Soc. No. 10, p. 232.

Robertson Smith, Religion of the Sem- ^ S. Mateer, Native Life in Travan-

ites, i. 402. core, p. 136.

152 TRANSFERENCE OF ILLS chap.

sins of the deceased are laid upon a buffalo calf. A
set form of confession of sins, the same for every one,
is recited aloud, then the calf is set free, and is never
afterwards used for common purposes. " The idea
of this ceremony is that the sins of the deceased enter
the calf, or that the task of his absolution is laid on it.
They say that the calf very soon disappears, and that
it is never after heard of."^

Similar attempts to shift the burden of disease and
sin from one's self to another person, or to an animal
or thing, have been common in ancient and modern
Europe. Grave writers of antiquity recommended
that, if a man be stung by a scorpion, he should sit
upon an ass with his face to the tail, or whisper in
the ear of the ass, "A scorpion has stung me"; in
either case, they thought, the pain would be trans-
ferred from the man to the ass.- A Roman cure for
fever was to pare the patient's nails, and stick the
parings with wax upon a neighbour's door before
sunrise ; the fever then passed from the sick man
to his neighbour.'^ Similar devices must have been
practised by the Greeks ; for in laying down laws
for his ideal state, Plato thinks it too much to expect
that men should not be alarmed at finding certain
wax figures adhering to their doors or to the tomb-

1 H. Haikness, Singular Aboriginal the latter case it is said that the animal

Race of the Neilghei-ry Hills, p. 133 ; is let loose "to become a pest." Per-

Metz, 77/1? Tribes Inhabiting t/ie Neil- haps the older idea was that the animal

gherry Hills, p. 78; Jagor, " Ueber carried away death from the survivors,

die Badagas im Nilgiri - Gebirge," The idea of sin is not primitive.
Verhandl. d. Berlin. Gesell. f. An- '^ Geoponica, xiii. 9, xv. i ; Pliny,

thropoL (1876), p. 196 Si]. For the Nat. Hist, xxviii. § 155. The auth-

custom of letting a bullock go loose orities for these cures are respectively

after a death, compare also Grierson, Apuleius and Democritus. The latter

Bihar Peasant Life, p. 409 ; Ibbetson, is probably not the atomic philosopher.

Settlement Report of the Panipat, Tahsil, See Archaeological Review, i. 180,

a7id Karnal Parganah of the Karnal note.
district (Allahabad, 1SS3) p. 137. In 3 piiny, Nat. Hist, xxviii. § 86.

TRANSFERENCE OF ILLS IS3

Stones of their parents, or lying at cross-roads/ In
modern Europe there is no end to such devices.
Thus the Orkney Islanders will wash a sick person
and then throw the water down at a gateway, in the
belief that the sickness will leave the patient and be
transferred to the first person who passes through the
gate.^ A Bavarian cure for the fever is to write
upon a piece of paper, " Fever, stay away, I am not at
home," and to put the paper in some person's pocket.
The latter then catches the fever and the patient is rid
of it.^ Another cure is for the patient to stick a twig
of the elder-tree in the ground without speaking. The
fever then adheres to the twig, and whoever pulls up
the twig will catch the disease.^ To get rid of warts,
take a string and make as many knots in it as you
have warts. Then lay the string under a stone.
Whoever treads upon the stone will get the warts,
and you will be rid of them.^ Gout may be transferred
from a man to a tree thus. Pare the nails of the
sufferer's fingers and clip some hairs from his legs.
Bore a hole in an oak, stuff the nails and hair in the
hole, stop up the hole again, and smear it with cow's
dung. If, for three months afterwards, the patient is
free of gout, then the oak has it in his stead.*^ A
Flemish cure for the ague is to go early in the
morning to an old willow, tie three knots in one
of its branches, say, "Good-morrow, Old One, I
give thee the cold, good -morrow, Old One," then
turn and run away without looking round." A cure

1 Plato, Latvs, xi. c. 12, p. 933 B. ^ Strackerjan, Aberglaiibemni Sagen

2 Ch. Rogers, Social Life in Scot- aiis dem Herzogthum Oldenburg, i. § 85.
land, iii. 226. ^ Carl Meyer, Dcr Aberglatibe des

3 G. Lammert, Volkmedizin tmd Mittelalters, p. 104.
medizinischer Aberglaube in Baye>-n, p. "^ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,'' ii.
264. 4 //,. p. 263. 979.

154 SIN-EATING

current in Sunderland for a cough is to shave the
patient's head and hang the hair on a bush. When
the birds carry the hair to their nests, they will
carry the cough with it. A Northamptonshire and
Devonshire cure is to put a hair of the patient's
head between two slices of buttered bread and eive
it to a dog. The dog will get the cough and the
patient will lose it.^ In the Greek island of Carpathus
the priest ties a red thread round the neck of a sick
person. , Next morning the friends of the patient
remove the thread and go out to the hillside, where
they tie the thread to a tree, thinking that they thus
transfer the sickness to the tree.^'

The old Welsh custom known as " sin-eating " is
another example of the supposed transference of evil
from one person to another. According to Aubrey,
" In the County of Hereford was an old Custome at
funeralls to hire poor people, who were to take upon
them all the sinnes of the party deceased. One of
them, I remember, lived in a cottage on Rosse-high way
(he was a long, leane, ugly, lamentable poor raskal).
The manner was that when the Corps was brought out
of the house and layd on the Biere ; a Loafe of bread was
brought out, and delivered to the Sinne-eater over the
corps, as also a Mazar-bowle of maple (Gossips bowle)
full of beer, which he was to drinke up, and sixpence in
money, in consideration whereof he took upon him
(ipso facto) all the Sinnes of the Defunct, and freed him
(or her) from walking after they were dead. ... I
believe this custom was heretofore used over all

1 Henderson, Folk - lore of the 7ucdicine, ch. ii. Cp. Grimm, Deutsche

Northern Counties, p. 143. CoUec- Mythologie,^ ii. c. 36.
tions of cures by transference will be

found in Strackerjan's work, cited above, -Blackwood's Magazine, February

i. § 85 sqq.', W. G. Black, Folk- 1886, p. 239.

SIN-EATING 155

Wales. ... In North Wales the Sinne-eaters are fre-
quently made use of; but there, instead of a Bowie
of Beere, they have a bowle of Milke." ^ According to
a letter dated February i, 17 14-5, "within the memory
of our fathers, in Shropshire, in those villages adjoyning
to Wales, when a person dyed, there was notice given
to an old sire (for so they called him), who presently
repaired to the place where the deceased lay, and stood
before the door of the house, when some of the family
came out and furnished him with a cricket, on which
he sat down facing the door. Then they gave him a
groat, which he put in his pocket ; a crust of bread,
which he eat ; and a full bowle of ale, which he drank
off at a draught. After this he got up from the cricket
and pronounced, with a composed gesture, the ease
and rest of the soul departed for which he would pawn
his own soul. This I had from the ingenious John
Aubrey, Esq." ^ In recent years some doubt has been
thrown on Aubrey's account of the custom.^ The
practice, however, is reported to have prevailed in
a valley not far from Llandebie to a recent period.
An instance was said to have occurred about forty
years ago.^ Aubrey's statement is supported by the
analogy of similar customs in India. When the Rajah

1 Aahxey, Remains of Centilisme and ■* The authority for the statement is

Judaisme (Folk-lore Society, 1881), p. a Mr. Moggridge, reported in Archae-
Tc sq. ologia Ca/nbrensis, second series, iii.

.> T. r ,, , ,. ■ T , J. /- / 330- But Mr. Moggridge did not

^ Bagford's letter nr Le and s Col- ^^^^^^ ^^.^^^^ ^^^^^^^ knowledge, and as

lectanea, 1. ^6, quoted by Brand, ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ .^ ^^^ ^^^^^^1

Fopu/ar Antiqznties, n. 246 sq., Bohn s ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^.^^ ^^ pl^^j^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^

' salt upon the breast of a corpse was a

3 In the Academy, 13th Nov. 1875, p. survival of the custom of " sin-eating,"

505, Mr. D. Silvan Evans stated that he his evidence must be received with

knew of no such custom anywhere in caution. He repeated his statement, in

Wales ; and Miss Burne knows no somewhat vaguer terms, at a meeting

example of it in Shropshire. Burne of the Anthropological Institute, 14th

and Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore, p. December 1875. 'ite/oitrii. Anthrop.

307 sq. Inst. V. 423 sq.

156 SIN-EATING

of Tanjore died in 1801, some of his bones and the
bones of the two wives, who were burned with his
corpse, were ground to powder and eaten, mixed with
boiled rice, by twelve Brahmans. It was believed that
the sins of the deceased passed into the bodies of
the Brahmans, who were paid for the service.^ A
Brahman, resident in a village near Raipiir, stated
that he had eaten food (rice and milk) out of the hand
of the dead Rajah of Bilaspur, and that in consequence
he had been placed on the throne for the space of
a year. At the end of the year he had been given
presents and then turned out of the territory and
forbidden apparently to return. He was an outcast
among his fellows for having eaten out of a dead man's
hand.- A similar custom is believed to obtain amonof
the hill states about Kangra, and to have given rise
to a caste of " outcaste " Brahmans. At the funeral
of a Rani of Chamba rice and ghi were eaten out
of the hands of the corpse by a Brahman paid for
the purpose. Afterwards a stranger, who had been
caught outside the Chamba territory, was given the
costly wrappings of the corpse, then told to depart
and never show his face in the country again. ^ In
Oude when an infant was killed it used to be buried
in the room in which it had been born. On the
thirteenth day afterwards the priest had to cook and
eat his food in that room. By doing so he was
supposed to take the whole sin upon himself and to
cleanse the family from it.^ At Utch Kurgan in
Turkistan Mr. Schuyler saw an old man who was said

1 Dubois, Moeiirs des Peiiples de ^ Paujah Notes and Queries, i. No.

rinde, ii. 32, 674 ; ii. No. 559. Some of these cus-

toms have been aheady referred to in a

- R. Richardson, in Punjab Notes different connection. See above, vol. i.
and Queries, i. No. 674. p. 232. * Op. cit. iii. No. 745.

EXPULSION OF EVILS i57

to get his living by taking on himself the sins of
the dead and thenceforth devoting his life to prayer
for their souls/

^ 14. — Expulsion of evils

These examples illustrate the primitive principle of
the transference of ills to another person, animal, or
thing. In the instances cited the principle is applied
for the benefit of individuals only. But analogous
proceedings are employed by barbarous peoples to
rid a whole community of all their troubles at a
blow. The frame of mind which prompts such whole-
sale clearances of evil may be described in the language
of Mr. Im Thurn, for though he wrote of the Indians
of Guiana in particular, his description is capable of a
much wider application. He says : " Thus the whole
world of the Indian swarms with these [spiritual]
beings. If by a mighty mental effort we could for
a moment revert to a similar mental position we
should find ourselves surrounded by a host of possibly
hurtful beings, so many in number that to describe
them as innumerable would fall ridiculously short of
the truth. It is not therefore wonderful that the
Indian fears to move beyond the light of his camp-fire
after dark, or, if he is obliged to do so, carries a
firebrand with him that he may at least see among
what enemies he walks ; nor is it wonderful that
occasionally the air round the settlement seems to
the Indian to grow so full of beings that a peaiman
[sorcerer], who is supposed to have the power of
temporarily driving them away, is employed to efiect a

1 E. Schuyler, Tiirkistan^ ii. 28.

158 OCCASIONAL EXPULSION chap.

general clearance of these beings, if only for a time," ^
Such general clearances of evil influences may be
divided into two classes, according as the expelled evils
are immaterial and invisible or are embodied in a
material vehicle or scapegoat. The former may be
called the direct or immediate expulsion of evils ; the
latter the indirect or mediate expulsion, or the expul-
sion by scapegoat. We begin with examples of the
former.

In the island of Rook, between New Guinea and
New Britain, when any misfortune has happened, all
the people run together, scream, curse, howl, and beat
the air with sticks to drive away the devil [Marsdda),
who is supposed to be the author of the mishap.
From the spot where the mishap took place they drive
him step by step to the sea, and on reaching the shore
they redouble their shouts and blows in order to expel
him from the island. He generally retires to the sea
or to the island of Lottin.'- The natives of New
Britain ascribe sickness, drought, the failure of crops,
and in short all misfortunes, to the influence of wicked
spirits. So at times when many people sicken and
die, as at the beginning of the rainy season, all the
inhabitants of a district, armed with branches and
clubs, go out by moonlight to the fields, where they
beat and stamp on the ground with wild howls till
morning, believing that this drives away the devils.^
When a village has been visited by a series of disasters
or a severe epidemic, the Minahassa of Celebes lay
the blame upon the devils who are infesting the village
and must be expelled from it. Accordingly, early one

1 E. F. im Thurn, Among the Indians der Insel Rook," Zeitschrift fiir allgc-
of Gtiiana, p. 356 sq. meinc Ei-dkunde, N. F. iv. 356.

3 R. Parkinson, I in Bismarck- Ar-

2 Paul Reina, " Ueber die Bewohner chipel, p. 142.

Ill OF EVILS 159

morning all the people, men, women, and children,
quit their homes, carrying their household goods with
them, and take up their quarters in temporary huts
which have been erected outside the village. Here
they spend several days, offering sacrifices and pre-
paring for the final ceremony. At last the men, some
wearino- masks, others with their faces blackened, and
so on, but all armed with swords, guns, pikes, or
brooms, steal cautiously and silently back to the
deserted village. Then, at a signal from the priest,
they rush furiously up and down the streets and into
and under the houses (which are raised on piles above
the ground), yelling and striking on walls, doors, and
windows, to drive away the devils. Next, the priests
and the rest of the people come with the holy fire and
march nine times round each house and thrice round
the ladder that leads up to it, carrying the fire with
them. Then they take the fire into the kitchen, where
it must burn for three days continuously. The devils
are now driven away, and great and general is the joy.^
The Alfoers of Halmahera attribute epidemics to the
devil who comes from other villages to carry them off
So, in order to rid the village of the disease, the
sorcerer drives away the devil. From all the villagers
he receives a cosdy garment and places it on four
vessels, which he takes to the forest and leaves at the
spot where the devil is supposed to be. Then with
mocking words he bids the demon abandon the place. -

1 [P. N. Wilken], " De godsdienst (1863) 149 sqq. ; J. G. F. Riedel,

en godsdienstplegtigheden der Alfoeren " De Minaljasa in 1825," Tijdschrift

in de Menahassa op het eiland Celebes," voor Indische Taal- Land en Volken-

Tijds.hrift voor Ncderlandsch Indie, hmde, xviii. (1872), 521 sq. Wilken's

December 1849, pp. 392-394; id., first and fuller account is reprinted

" Bijdragen tot de kennis van de in Graafland's De Minahassa, i. 117-

zeden en gewoonten der Alfoeren in 120.

de Minahassa," Mededeelingen v. w. 2 Riedel, "Galelaund Tobeloresen,"

/lef Neder/and. Zendelinggenootsch. vii. in Zeitschrift f. Ethnologic, xvii. (1885)

i6o OCCASIONAL EXPULSION chap.

In the Key Islands, south of New Guinea, when
sickness prevails, the people erect a stage on the
shore and load it with meat and drink. Then the
priest in presence of the people bans the spirits which
are causing the disease, whereupon the people run
back to the village at full speed, like fugitives.^

In the island of Nias, when a man is seriously ill
and other remedies have been tried in vain, the sorcerer
proceeds to exorcise the devil who is causing the ill-
ness. A pole is set up in front of the house, and from
the top of the pole a rope of palm-leaves is stretched
to the roof of the house. Then the sorcerer mounts
the roof with a pig, which he kills and allows to roll
from the roof to the ground. The devil, anxious to
get the pig, lets himself down hastily from the roof by
the rope of palm-leaves, and a good spirit, invoked by
the sorcerer, prevents him from climbing up again. If
this remedy fails, it is believed that other devils must
still be lurking in the house. So a general hunt is
made after them. All the doors and windows in the
house are closed, except a single dormer-window in the
roof. The men, shut up in the house, hew and slash
with their swords right and left to the clash of gongs
and the rub-a-dub of drums. Terrified at this onslaught
the devils escape by the dormer-window, and sliding
down the rope of palm-leaves take themselves off. As
all the doors and windows, except the one m the roof,
are shut, the devils cannot eet into the house aeain.
In the case of an epidemic the proceedings are similar.
All the gates of the village, except one, are closed ;
every voice is raised, every gong and drum beaten.

82; G. A. Wilken, Het Shamanisme ^ Riedel, De sluik-en kroesharigs

bij de Volken van de Indiscken Archipel, rassen Uisschen Selebes en Papua, p.
P- 58. 239.

Ill OF EVILS i6r

every sword brandished. Thus the devils are driven
out and the last gate is shut behind them. For eight
days thereafter the village is in a state of siege, no one
being allowed to enter it.^ When cholera has broken
out in a Burmese village the able-bodied men scramble
on the roofs and lay about them with bamboos and bil-
lets of wood, while all the rest of the population, old and
young, stand below and thump drums, blow trumpets,
yell, scream, beat floors, walls, tin-pans, everything to
make a din. This uproar, repeated on three successive
nights, is thought to be very effective in driving away
the cholera demons.^ When small-pox first appeared
amongst the Kumis of South -Eastern India, they
thought it was a devil come from Arracan. The vil-
lages were placed in a state of siege, no one being
allowed to leave or enter them. A monkey was killed
by being dashed on the ground, and its body was hung
at the village gate. Its blood, mixed with small river
pebbles, was sprinkled on the houses, the threshold of
every house was swept with the monkey's tail, and the
fiend was adjured to depart.^ At Great Bassam, in
Guinea, the French traveller Hecquard witnessed the
exorcism of the evil spirit who was believed to make
women barren. The women who wished to become
mothers offered to the fetish wine-vessels or statuettes
representing women suckling children. Then being
assembled in the fetish hut, they were sprinkled with

1 Nieuwenhuisen en Rosenberg, over de godsdienst, zeden, enz. der

Verslag ointrent het eiland Nias, Dajakkers " in Tijdschrift voor Neer-

p. 1165-^.; Rosenberg, Der Malayische land's Indie, viii. (1846) dl. iii. p. 149.

Archipel, p. 174 sq. Cp. Chatelin, 9 tt , d -.• 7 n

ii. n 1 r . u- I fj TVT- » rorbes, British Burma, p. 2"?^ ;

' Godsdienst en El geloof der JNiassers, „, .^ ' „, _ ■ e^ '' ■■

rr-j J -r. T ,■ 1 n' 1 T J anway \ oe, I ne Biirman, 1. 282, 11.

lijdschrift voor Indisclie J aal-Land-en ■' -r, • 7^ ■ rr-,7 7 ,■ ,

i^„ii / V • .,„ T^u -r. 1 'i-0^sqq.\h2&\.\-!iX\,DteVolkerdesosthchen

i otkenkiinde, xxvi. 139. 1 he Dyaks ..^^.. „ '

also drive the devil at the point of the ' ' -^ "

sword from a house where there is sick- ^ Lewin, Wild Tribes of South-

ness. See Hupe, " Korte verhandeling Eastern India, p. 226.

VOL. II M

1 62 EXPULSION OF EVILS chap.

rum by the priest, while young men fired guns and
brandished swords to drive away the demon. ^ When
sickness was prevalent in a Huron village, and all
other remedies had been tried in vain, the Indians had
recourse to the ceremony called Lonouyi^oya, "which
is the principal invention and most proper means, so
they say, to expel from the town or village the devils
and evil spirits which cause, induce, and import all the
maladies and infirmities which they suffer in body and
mind." Accordingly, one evening the men would
begin to rush like madmen about the village, breaking
and upsetting whatever they came across in the wig-
wams. They threw fire and burning brands about the
streets, and all night long they ran howling and singing
without cessation. Then they all dreamed of something,
a knife, dog, skin, or whatever it might be, and when
morning came they went from wigwam to wigwam
asking for presents. These they received silently, till
the particular thing was given them which they had
dreamed about. On receiving it they uttered a cry of
joy and rushed from the hut, amid the congratulations
of all present. The health of those who received
what they had dreamed of was believed to be assured ;
whereas those who did not get what they had set their
hearts upon regarded their fate as sealed."

The observance of such ceremonies, from being

^ Hecquard, Reise an die Kiiste und ably enigmas were originally a kind of

in das Innere von West Afrika, p. 43. divination. Cp. Vambery, Das Tiirketi-

2 Sagard, Le Grand Voyage du Pays volk, p. 232 sq. ; Riedel, De sluik-

des Hurons,-^. 2']() sqq. (195 sq. of the en kroesha^-ige rassen, etc. p. 267 sq.

Paris reprint). Compare Relations des In Bolang Mongondo (Celebes) riddles

Jesnites, 1639, pp. 88-92 (Canadian may never be asked except when there

reprint), from which it appears that is a corpse in the village. N. P.

each man demanded the subject of his Wilken en J. A. Schwarz, " AUerlei

dream in the form of a riddle, which over het land en volk van Bolaang

the hearers tried to solve. The pro- Mongondou," Mededeeli7ige7i van wege

pounding of riddles is not uncommon /letNederlandsch. Zendelinggenootschap,

as a superstitious observance. Prob- xi. (1867) p. 357.

BECOMES PERIODIC 163

occasional tends to become periodic. It comes to be
thought desirable to have a general riddance of evil
spirits at fixed times, usually once a year, in order
that the people may make a fresh start in life, freed
from all the malignant influences which have been long
accumulating about them. Some of the Australian
blacks annually expelled the ghosts of the dead from
their territory. The ceremony was witnessed by the
Rev. W. Ridley on the banks of the river Barwan. "A
chorus of twenty, old and young, were singing and
beating time with boomerangs. . . . Suddenly, from
under a sheet of bark darted a man with his body
whitened by pipeclay, his head and face coloured with
lines of red and yellow, and a tuft of feathers fixed by
means of a stick two feet above the crown of his head.
He stood twenty minutes perfectly still, gazing up-
wards. An aboriginal who stood by told me he was
looking for the ghosts of dead men. At last he began
to move very slowly, and soon rushed to and fro at full
speed, flourishing a branch as if to drive away some
foes invisible to us. When I thought this pantomime
must be almost over, ten more, similarly adorned, sud-
denly appeared from behind the trees, and the whole
party joined in a brisk conflict with their mysterious
assailants. ... At last, after some rapid evolutions in
which they put forth all their strength, they rested from
the exciting toil which they had kept up all night and
for some hours after sunrise : they seemed satisfied
that the ghosts were driven away for twelve months.
They were performing the same ceremony at every
station along the river, and I am told it is an annual
custom." ^

1 The Rev. W. Ridley, in J. D. Lang's Qtieensland, p. 441 ; cp. Ridley.
Kamilaroi, p. 149.

i64 PERIODIC EXPUISION chap.

Certain seasons of the year mark themselves natur-
ally out as appropriate moments for a general expulsion
of devils. Such a moment occurs towards the close of
an Arctic winter, when the sun reappears on the horizon
after an absence of weeks or months. Accordingly, at
Point Barrow, the most northerly extremity of Alaska,
and nearly of America, the Eskimo choose the moment
of the sun's reappearance to hunt the mischievous spirit
Tuna from every house. The ceremony was witnessed
a few years ago by the members of the United States
Polar Expedition, who wintered at Point Barrow.
A fire was built in front of the council-house, and an
old woman was posted at the entrance to every iglu
(Eskimo house). The men gathered round the council-
fire, while the young women and girls drove the spirits
out of every iglu with their knives, stabbing viciously
under the bunk and deer-skins, and calling upon Tuna
to leave the iglu. When they thought he had been
driven out of every hole and corner, they thrust him
down through the hole in the floor and chased him
into the open air with loud cries and frantic gestures.
Meanwhile the old woman at the entrance of the iorlu
made passes with a long knife in the air to keep him
from returning. Each party drove the spirit towards
the fire and invited him to go into it. All were by
this time drawn up in a semicircle round the fire, when
several of the leading men made specific charges against
the spirit; and each after his speech brushed his clothes
violently, calling on the spirit to leave him and go into
the fire. Two men now stepped forward with rifles
loaded with blank cartridges, while a third brought a
vessel of urine and flung it on the fire. At the same
time one of the men fired a shot into the fire ; and as
the cloud of steam rose it received the other shot,

Ill OF EVILS 165

which was supposed to finish Tuiia for the time being.^
In autumn, when heavy gales are raging, the Eskimo
of Baffin Land think that the female spirit Sedna dwells
amongst them, and the most powerful enchanter is
employed to drive her out. Beside a small hole in
the centre of the floor a line of seal-skin is coiled up.
Holding a sealing-spear in his left hand the enchanter
watches the hole in the floor. Another sorcerer
sits in the rear of the hut chanting songs to attract
Sedna. Now she is heard approaching under the floor
of the hut. When she reaches the hole the enchanter
strikes her with his harpoon and pays out the line. A
severe struggle ensues, but ultimately Sedna flies to
her country, Adlivun. The performance is cleverly
managed. When the harpoon is drawn out of the hole
it is covered with blood, and the heavy breathing of
Sedna can be distinctly heard under the floor.'

The Iroquois inaugurated the new year in January,
February, or March (the time varied) with a " festival
of dreams" like that which the Hurons observed on
special occasions. ^ The whole ceremonies lasted
several days, or even weeks, and formed a kind of
Saturnalia. Men and women, variously disguised,
went from wigwam to wigwam smashing and throwing
down whatever they came across. It was a time of
general licence ; the people were supposed to be out
of their senses, and therefore not to be responsible
for what they did. Accordingly, many seized the
opportunity of paying off old scores by belabouring
obnoxious persons, drenching them with ice-cold
water, and covering them with filth or hot ashes.

1 Report of the Intei'iiational Polar ceedings and Tj-ansadions of the Royal

Expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska Society of Canada for 1887, vol. v.

(Washington, 1885), p. 42 sq. (Montreal, 1888), sect. ii. 36 sq.

- Franz Boas, "The Eskimo," Pro- •* Above, p. 162.

1 66 PERIODIC EXPULSION chap.

Others seized burning brands or coals and flung them
at the heads of the first persons they met. The only
way of escaping from these persecutors was to guess
what they had dreamed of. On one day of the festival
the ceremony of driving away evil spirits from the
village took place. Men clothed in the skins of wild
beasts, their faces covered with hideous masks, and
their hands with the shell of the tortoise, went from
hut to hut making frightful noises ; in every hut they
took the fuel from the fire and scattered the embers
and ashes about the floor with their hands. The
general confession of sins which preceded the festival
was probably a preparation for the public expulsion of
evil influences ; it was a way of stripping the people of
their moral burdens, that these might be collected and
cast out. This New Year fes'tival is still celebrated
by some of the heathen Iroquois, though it has been
shorn of its former turbulence. A conspicuous feature
in the ceremony is now the sacrifice of the White Dog,
but this appears to have been added to the festival
in comparatively modern times, and does not figure
in the oldest descriptions of the ceremonies. We
shall return to it later on.^ A oreat annual festival
of the Cherokee Indians was the Propitiation,
" Cementation," or Purification festival. " It was cele-
brated shortly after the first new moon of autumn, and
consisted of a multiplicity of rigorous rites, fastings,
ablutions, and purifications. Among the most im-
portant functionaries on the occasion were seven

1 Charlevoix, Histoire de la Noiivelle Ethnology (Washington, 1883), p. 1 12

France, vi. 82 sqq.; Timothy Dwight, sqq.; Horatio Hale, " Iroquois sacrifice

Travels in New England and New of the White Dog," American An-

York, iv. 201 sq.', L. H. Morgan, tiquarian, vii. 7 sqq.; W. M. Beau-

Leagne of the Iroquois, p. 207 sqq. ; Mrs. champ, "Iroquois White Dog feast," ib.

E. A. Smith, " iVIyths of the Iroquois," p. 235 sqq.
Second Annual Report 0/ the Bureau of

Ill OF EVILS 167

exercisers or cleansers, whose duty it was, at a cer-
tain stage of the proceedings, to drive away evil, and
purify the town. Each one bore in his hand a white
rod of sycamore. ' The leader, followed by the others,
walked around the national heptagon, and coming to
the treasure or store-house to the west of it, they lashed
the eaves of the roofs with their rods. The leader
then went to another house, followed by the others,
singing, and repeated the same ceremony until every
house was purified.' This ceremony was repeated
daily during the continuance of the festival. In per-
forming their ablutions they went into the water and
allowed their old clothes to be carried away by the
stream, by which means they supposed their impurities
removed." ^

In September the Incas of Peru celebrated a
festival called Situa, the object of which was to banish
from the capital and its vicinity all disease and
troubles. The festival fell in September because the
rains begin about this time, and with the first rains
there was generally much sickness. As a preparation
for the festival the people fasted on the first day of
the moon after the autumnal equinox. Having fasted
during the day, and the night being come, they baked
a coarse paste of maize. This paste was made of two
sorts. One was kneaded with the blood of children
aged five to ten years, the blood being obtained by
bleeding the children between the eye-brows. These
two kinds of paste were baked separately, because
they were for different uses. Each family assembled
at the house of the eldest brother to celebrate the
feast ; and those who had no elder brother went to

^ Squier's notes upon Bartram's from the MS. of Mr. Payne. See above,
Creek and Cherokee Indians, p. 78, p. 75 note.

1 68 PERIODIC EXPULSION chap.

the house of their next relation of greater age. On
the same night all who had fasted during the day
washed their bodies, and takino^ a little of the blood-
kneaded paste, rubbed it over their head, face, breast,
shoulders, arms, and legs. They did this in order
that the paste might take away all their infirmities.
After this the head of the family anointed the
threshold with the same paste, and left it there as a
token that the inmates of the house had performed
their ablutions and cleansed their bodies. Meantime
the High Priest performed the same ceremonies in the
temple of the Sun. As soon as the Sun rose, all the
people worshipped and besought him to drive all evils
out of the city, and then they broke their fast with the
paste that had been kneaded without blood. When
they had paid their worship and broken their fast,
which they did at a stated hour, in order that all might
adore the Sun as one man, an Inca of the blood royal
came forth from the fortress, as a messenger of the
Sun, richly dressed, with his mantle girded round his
body, and a lance in his hand. The lance was decked
with feathers of many hues, extending from the blade
tO' the socket, and fastened with rings of gold. He
ran down the hill from the fortress brandishinof his
lance, till he reached the centre of the great square,
where stood the golden urn, like a fountain, that was
used for the sacrifice of chicha. Here four other Incas
of the blood royal awaited him, each with a lance in
his hand, and his mantle girded up to run. The
messenger touched their four lances with his lance,
and told them that the Sun bade them, as his mes-
sengers, drive the evils out of the city. The four
Incas then separated and ran down the four royal
roads which led out of the city to the four quarters of

iTi OF EVILS 169

the world. While they ran, all the people, great and
small, came to the doors of their houses, and with
great shouts of joy and gladness shook their clothes,
as if they were shaking off dust, while they cried,
" Let the evils be gone. How greatly desired has
this festival been by us. O Creator of all things, per-
mit us to reach another year, that we may see another
feast like this." After they had shaken their clothes,
they passed their hands over their heads, faces, arms,
and legs, as if in the act of washing. All this was
done to drive the evils out of their houses, that the
messeno-ers of the Sun mig^ht banish them from the
city. This was done not only in the streets through
which the Incas ran, but generally in all quarters of
the city. Moreover, they all danced, the Inca himself
amongst them, and bathed in the rivers and fountains,
saying that their maladies would come out of them.
Then they took great torches of straw, bound round
with cords. These they lighted, and passed from one
to the other, striking each other with them, and say-
ing, " Let all harm go away." Meanwhile the runners
ran with their lances for a quarter of a league outside
the city, where they found four other Incas ready, who
received the lances from their hands and ran with
them. Thus the lances were carried by relays of
runners for a distance of five or six leagues, at the end
of which the runners washed themselves and their
weapons in rivers, and set up the lances, in sign of a
boundary within which the banished evils might not
return.^

1 Garcilasso de la Vega, Royal Com- Yncas (Hakluyt Society, 1873), p. 20

mentaries of the Yncas, pt. i. bk. vii. ch. sqq.; Acosta, History of the Indies, bk.

6, vol. ii. p. 228 S(/c/., Markham's trans- v. ch. 28, vol. ii. p. 375 sc/. (Hakluyt

lation ; Molina, " Fables and Rites of Society, 1880). The accounts of

the Yncas," in Rites and Laws of the Garcilasso and Molina are somewhat

i7o PERIODIC EXPULSION chap.

The negroes of Guinea annually banish the devil
from all their towns with much ceremony. At Axim,
on the Gold Coast, this annual expulsion is preceded
by a feast of eight days, during which mirth and jollity
reign, and "a perfect lampooning liberty is allowed,
and scandal so highly exalted, that they may freely
sing of all the faults, villanies, and frauds of their
superiors as well as inferiors, without punishment, or
so much as the least interruption." On the eighth
day they hunt out the devil with a dismal cry, running
after him and pelting him with sticks, stones, and
whatever comes to hand. When they have driven
him far enough out of the town, they all return. In
this way he is driven out of more than a hundred
towns at the same time. To make sure that he does
not return to their houses, the women wash and scour
all their wooden and earthen vessels, "to free them
from all uncleanness and the devil." ^ At Onitsha,
on the Ouorra River, Mr. J. C. Taylor witnessed the
celebration of New Year's Day by the negroes. It
fell on 20th December 1858. Every family brought a
firebrand out into the street, threw it away, and
exclaimed as they returned, " The gods of the new-
year ! New Year has come round again." Mr.
Taylor adds, " The meaning of the custom seems to
be that the fire is to drive away the old year with its
sorrows and evils, and to embrace the new year with

discrepant, but this may be explained account is very brief. In the descrip-

by the statement of the latter that " in tion given in the text features have been

one year they added, and in another borrowed from all three accounts, where

they reduced the number of ceremonies, these seemed consistent with each

according to circumstances." Molina other,
places the festival in August, Garcilasso

and Acosta in .September. According ' Bosnian's "Guinea," in Pinkerton's

to Garcilasso there were only four Voyages and Travels, xvi. 402. Cp.

runners in Cuzco ; according to Molina Pierre Bouche, La Cote des Esclaves,

there were four hundred. Acosta's p. 395.

Ill OF EVILS 171

hearty reception." ^ Of all Abyssinian festivals that of
Mascal or the Cross is celebrated with the greatest
pomp. The eve of the festival witnesses a ceremony
which doubtless belongs to the world-wide class of
customs we are dealing with. At sunset a discharge
of firearms takes place from all the principal houses.
" Then every one provides himself with a torch, and
during the early part of the night bonfires are kindled,
and the people parade the town, carrying their lighted
torches in their hands. They go through their houses
too, poking a light into every dark corner in the hall,
under the couches, in the stables, kitchen, etc., as if
looking for something lost, and calling out, ' Akho,
akhoky ! turn out the spinage, and bring in the por-
ridge ; Mascal is come ! ' . . . After this they play,
and poke fun and torches at each other." -

Sometimes the date of the annual expulsion of
devils is fixed with reference to the agricultural
seasons. Among the Hos of North- Eastern India
the great festival of the year is the harvest home,
held in January, when the granaries are full of
grain, and the people, to use their own expression,
are full of devilry. "They have a strange notion
that at this period men and women are so over-
charged with vicious propensities, that it is absolutely
necessary for the safety of the person to let off steam
by allowing for a time full vent to the passions." The
ceremonies open with a sacrifice to the village god of
three fowls, two of which must be black. Along with
them are offered flowers of the Palas tree, bread made
from rice-flour, and sesamum seeds. These offerings
are presented by the village priest, who prays that

^ S. Crowther and J. C. Taylor. The - Mansfield Parkyns, Life in

Gospel on the Banks of the Nigei-, p 320. Abyssinia, p. 285 sqq.

172 PERIODIC EXPULSION chap.

during the year about to begin they and their children
may be preserved from all misfortune and sickness,
and that they may have seasonable rain and good
crops. Prayer is also made in some places for the
souls of the dead. At this time an evil spirit is sup-
posed to infest the place, and to get rid of it men,
women, and children go in procession round and
through every part of the village with sticks in their
hands, as if beating for game, singing a wild chant,
and shouting vociferously, till they feel assured that
the evil spirit must have fled. Then they give them-
selves up to feasting and drinking rice-beer, till they
are in a fit state for the wild debauch which follows.
The festival now " becomes a saturnale, during which
servants forget their duty to their masters, children
their reverence for parents, men their respect for
women, and women all notions of modesty, delicacy,
and gentleness ; they become raging bacchantes."
Usually the Hos are quiet and reserved in manner,
decorous and gentle to women. But during this
festival " their nature appears to undergo a temporary
change. Sons and daughters revile their parents in
gross language, and parents their children ; men and
women become almost like animals in the indulgence
of their amorous propensities." The Mundaris, kins-
men and neighbours of the Hos, keep the festival in
much the same manner. " The resemblance to a
Saturnale is very complete, as at this festival the farm
labourers are feasted by their masters, and allowed the
utmost freedom of speech in addressing them. It is
the festival of the harvest home ; the termination of
one year's toil, and a slight respite from it before they
commence ao-ain."^

o

' Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p. 196 sq.

Ill OF EVILS 173

Amono-st some of the Hindoo Koosh tribes,
as among the Hos and Mundaris, the expulsion
of devils takes place after harvest. When the last
crop of autumn has been got in, it is thought necessary
to drive away evil spirits from the granaries. A
kind of porridge called viool is eaten, and the head
of the family takes his matchlock and fires it into the
floor. Then, going outside, he sets to work loading
and firing till his powder horn is exhausted, while all
his neighbours are similarly employed. The next day
is spent in rejoicings. In Chitral this festival is called
"devil-driving."^ On the other hand the Khonds of
India expel the devils at seed-time instead of at
harvest. At this time they worship Pitteri Pennu, the
god of increase and of gain in every shape. On the
first day of the festival a rude car is made of a basket
set upon a few sticks, tied upon bamboo rollers for
wheels. The priest takes this car first to the house of
the lineal head of the tribe, to whom precedence is given
in all ceremonies connected with agriculture. Here he
receives a little of each kind of seed and some feathers.
He then takes the car to all the other houses in the
village, each of which contributes the same things.
Lastly, the car is conducted to a field without the
village, attended by all the young men, who beat each
other and strike the air violently with long sticks.
The seed thus carried out is called the share of the
"evil spirits, spoilers of the seed." "These are con-
sidered to be driven out with the car ; and when it
and its contents are abandoned to them, they are held
to have no excuse for interfering with the rest of the
seed-corn." Next day each household kills a hog over
the seed for the year, and prays to Pitteri Pennu.

^ Biddulph, Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh, p. 103.

174 rE RIO Die EXPULSION

The elders then feast upon the hogs. The young
men are excluded from the repast, but enjoy the privi-
lege of waylaying and pelting with jungle fruit their
elders as they return from the feast. Upon the third
day the lineal head of the tribe goes out and sows his
seed, after which all the rest may do so.^

The people of Bali, an island to the east of Java,
have periodical expulsions of devils upon a great scale.
Generally the time chosen for the expulsion is the day
of the "dark moon" in the ninth month. When the
demons have been long unmolested the country is said
to be " warm," and the priest issues orders to expel
them by force, lest the whole of Bali should be
rendered uninhabitable. On the day appointed the
people of the village or district assemble at the
principal temple. Here at a cross-road offerings are
set out for the devils. After prayers have been recited
by the priests, the blast of a horn summons the devils
to partake of the meal which has been prepared for
them. At the same time a number of men step
forward and light their torches at the holy lamp which
burns before the chief priest. Immediately afterwards,
followed by the bystanders, they spread in all direc-
tions and march through the streets and lanes crying,
"Depart! go away!" Wherever they pass, the
people who have stayed at home hasten by a deafening
knocking on doors, beams, rice-blocks, etc., to take
their share in the expulsion of devils. Thus chased
from the houses, the fiends flee to the banquet which

1 W. Macpherson, Memorials of them to go than as a vehicle in which

Service in India, p. 357 sq. Possibly they are actually carted away. Any-

this case belongs more strictly to the how it is convenient to take this case

class of mediate expulsions, the devils along with those other expulsions of

being driven out upon the car. Per- demons which are the accompaniment

haps, however, the car with its contents of an agricultural festival,
is regarded rather as a bribe to induce

m OF EVILS 175

has been set out for them ; but here the priest re-
ceives them with curses which finally drive them
from the district. When the last devil has taken his
departure, the uproar is succeeded by a dead silence,
which lasts during the next day also. The devils, it is
thought, are anxious to return to their old homes, and
in order to make them think that Bali is not Bali but
some desert island, no one may stir from his own
premises for twenty -four hours. Even ordinary
household work, including cooking, is discontinued.
Only the watchmen may show themselves in the
streets. Wreaths of thorns and leaves are hung at all
the entrances to warn strangers from entering. Not
till the third day is this state of siege raised, and even
then it is forbidden to work at the rice-fields or to buy
and sell in the market. Most people still stay at home,
striving to while away the time with cards and dice.^

In some parts of Fiji an annual ceremony took place
which has much the aspect of an expulsion of devils.
The time of its celebration was determined by the
appearance of a certain fish or sea-slug (balolo) which
swarms out in dense shoals from the coral reefs on a
single day of the year, usually in the last quarter of the
moon in November. The appearance of the sea-slugs
was the signal for a general feast at those places where
they were taken. An influential man ascended a tree
and prayed to the spirit of the sky for good crops, fair
winds, and so on. Thereupon a tremendous clatter,
with drumming and shouting, was raised by all the
people in their houses for about half an hour. This
was followed by a dead quiet for four days, during

1 R. van Eck, " Schetsen van het 60. Van Eck's account is reprinted
eiland Bali," Tijdschrift voor Neder- in J. Jacobs's Eeiiigen tijd onder de
landsch Indie, N. S. viii. (1879) 58- ^a/2>rj- (Batavia, 1883), p. \()0 sqq.

176 PERIODIC EXPULSION chap.

which the people feasted on the sea-slug. All this
time no work of any kind might be done, not even a
leaf plucked nor the offal removed from the houses. If
a noise was made in any house, as by a child crying, a
forfeit was at once exacted by the chief At daylight
on the expiry of the fourth night the whole town
was in an uproar ; men and boys scampered about,
knocking with clubs and sticks at the doors of the
houses and crying " Sinariba." This concluded the
ceremony.^

On the night before spring begins the Japanese
throw roasted beans against the walls and floors of
their houses, crying thrice loudly, " Away from here,
wicked spirit!" but adding softly, "Enter, O god of
riches ! " - Amongst some of the Hindus of the Pun-
jaub on the morning after Diwali or the festival of
lamps (at which the souls of ancestors are believed to
visit' the house) the oldest woman of the family takes
all the sweepings and rubbish of the family and throws
them out, with the words, " Let all dirt and wretched-
ness depart from here, and all good fortune come in.''^*
In Tonquin a tJieckydaiv or general expulsion of
malevolent spirits commonly took place once a year,
especially if there was a great mortality amongst men
or cattle, "the cause of which they attribute to the
malicious spirits of such men as have been put to death
for treason, rebellion, and conspiring the death of the
king, general, or princes, arid in that revenge of the
punishment they have suffered, they are bent to destroy

1 U.S. Exploring Expedition, Ethno- while the women and boys remained

graphyi ajtd Philology, by H. Hale, p. shut up in their houses.

67 sq.; Ch. Wilkes, Narrative of the 2 Bastian, Die Volker des ostlichen

U.S. Exploring Expedition, iii. 90 sq. Asien, v. 367.

According to the latter, the sea - slug 3 Punjab Notes and Queries, ii. No.

was eaten by the men alone, who lived 792 ; D. C. J. Ibbetson, Outlines of

during tlic four days in the temple, Pa72jab Ethnography, -p- "9-

OF EVILS 177

everything and commit horrible violence. To prevent
which their superstition has suggested to them the
institution of this theckydaw as a proper means to drive
the devil away, and purge the country of evil spirits."
The day appointed for the ceremony was generally the
25th of February, one month after the commencement
of the new year, which began on the 25th of January.
The intermediate month was a season of feasting,
merry-making of all kinds, and general licence. Dur-
ing the whole month the great seal was kept shut up in
a box, face downwards, and the law was, as it were,
laid asleep. All courts of justice were closed ; debtors
could not be seized ; small crimes, such as petty
larceny, fighting, and assault, escaped with impunity ;
only treason and murder were taken account of and
the malefactors detained till the great seal should
come into operation again. At the close of the
saturnalia the wicked spirits were driven away. Great
masses of troops and artillery having been drawn up
with flying colours and all the pomp of war, "the
general beginneth then to offer meat offerings to the
criminal devils and malevolent spirits (for it is usual
and customary likewise amongst them to feast the
condemned before their execution), inviting them to
eat and drink, when presently he accuses them in a
strange language, by characters and figures, etc., of
many offences and crimes committed by them, as to
their having disquieted the land, killed his elephants
and horses, etc., for all which they justly deserved to
be chastised and banished the country. Whereupon
three great guns are fired as the last signal ; upon
which all the artillery and musquets are discharged,
that, by their most terrible noise the devils may be
driven away ; and they are so blind as to believe

VOL. II N

178 PERIODIC EXPULSION chap.

for certain, that they really and effectually put them
to flight." '

In Cambodia the expulsion of evil spirits took place
in March. Bits of broken statues and stones, considered
as the abode of the demons, were collected and brought
to the capital. Here as many elephants were collected
as could be got together. On the evening of the full
moon volleys of musketry were fired and the elephants
charged furiously to put the devils to flight.^ In Siam
the banishment of demons is annually carried into
effect on the last day of the old year. A signal gun
is fired from the palace ; it is answered from the
next station, and so on from station to station, till the
firing has reached the outer gate of the city. Thus
the demons are driven out step by step. As soon as
this is done a consecrated rope is fastened round the
circuit of the city walls to prevent the banished demons
from returning. The rope is made of tough couch-grass
and is painted in alternate stripes of red, yellow, and
blue.^ The Shans of Southern China annually expel the
fire-spirit. The ceremony was witnessed by the English
Mission under Colonel Sladen on the 13th of August
1868. Bullocks and cows were slaughtered in the
market-place ; the meat was all sold, part of it was
cooked and eaten, while the rest was fired out of guns

1 Baron, " Description of the King- Asien, iii. -237, 298, 314, 529 sq.;
dom of Tonqueen," Yvc^&xVo^i, Voyages Pallegoix, Royatime Thai on Stain, i.
a7td Travels, ix. 673, 695 sq.; cp. 252. Bastian (p. 314), with whom
Richard, " History of Tonquin," ?7'. p. Pallegoix seems to agree, distinctly
746. The account of the ceremony by states that the expulsion takes place on
Tavernier (whom Baron criticises very the last day of the year. Yet both
unfavourably) is somewhat different. state that it occurs in the fourth month
According to him the expulsion of of the year. According to Pallegoix
wicked souls at the New Year is com- (i. 253) the Siamese year is composed
binedwith sacrifice to the honoured dead. of twelve lunar months, and the first
^e&Yia.xx\?,, Voyages ajid Ti-avels,\. 2>2T,. month usually begins in December.

2 Aymonier, Notice stcr le Cambodge, Hence the expulsion of devils would
p. 62. commonly take place in March, as in

3 Bastian, Die V'dlkcr des ostlichcn Cambodia.

OF DEVILS 179

at sundown. The pieces of flesh which fell on the
land were supposed to become mosquitoes, those which
fell in the water were believed to turn into leeches.
In the evening the chief's retainers beat gongs and
blew trumpets ; and when darkness had set in torches
were lit and a party, preceded by the musicians, searched
the central court for the fire-spirit, who is supposed to
lurk about at this season with evil intent. They then
searched all the rooms and the gardens, throwing the
light of the torches into every nook and corner where
the evil spirit might find a hiding-place.^

Annual expulsions of demons or of evil in-
fluences are not unknown in Europe at the present
day. Amongst the heathen Wotyaks, a Finnish
people of Eastern Russia, all the young girls of the
village assemble on the last day of the year or on New
Year's Day armed with sticks, the ends of which are
split in nine places. With these they beat every
corner of the house and yard, saying, "We are driving
Satan out of the village." Afterwards the sticks are
thrown into the river below the village, and as they
float down stream Satan goes with them to the next
village, from which he must be driven out in turn. In
some villages the expulsion is managed otherwise.
The unmarried men receive from every house in the
village groats, flesh, and brandy. These they take to
the field, light a fire under a fir-tree, boil the groats,
and eat of the food they have brought with them, after
pronouncing the words, " Go away into the wilderness,
come not into the house." Then they return to the
village and enter every house where there are young
women. They take hold of the young women and
throw them into the snow, saying, " May the spirits of

1 J. Anderson, Mandalay to Moiiiien, p. 308.

i8o PERIODIC EXPULSION chap.

disease leave you." The remains of the groats and
the other food are then distributed among all the
houses in proportion to the amount that each con-
tributed, and each family consumes its share. Accord-
ing to a Wotyak of the Malmyz district the young
men throw into the snow whomever they find in the
houses, and this is called " driving out Satan ; " more-
over some of the boiled groats are thrown into the
fire with the words, "O god, afflict us not with sick-
ness and pestilence, give us not up as a prey to the
spirits of the wood." But the most antique form of
the ceremony is that observed by the Wotyaks of the
Kasan Government. First of all a sacrifice is offered
to the Devil at noon. Then all the men assemble on
horseback in the centre of the village, and decide with
which house they shall begin. When this question,
which often gives rise to hot disputes, is settled, they
tether their horses to the paling, and arm themselves
with whips, clubs of lime-wood, and bundles of lighted
twigs. The lighted twigs are believed to have the
greatest terrors for Satan. Thus armed, they proceed
with frightful cries to beat every corner of the house
and yard, then shut the door, and spit at the ejected
fiend. So they go from house to house, till the Devil
has been driven from every one. Then they mount
their horses and ride out of the village, yelling wildly
and brandishing their clubs in every direction. Out-
side of the village they fiing away the clubs and spit
once more at the Devil. ^ The Cheremiss, another
Finnish people of Eastern Russia, chase Satan from
their dwellings by beating the walls with cudgels of
lime-wood. When he has fled to the wood, they pelt

1 Max Buch, Die Wotjdken, p. 153 sq.

OF WITCHES

the trees with some of the cheese-cakes and eggs which
furnished the feast. ^

In Albania on Easter Eve the young people light
torches of resinous wood and march in procession,
swinging them, through the village. At last they
throw the torches into the river, crying, " Ha, Kore !
we throw you into the river, like these torches, that
you may never return."" In some villages of Calabria
the month of March is inaugurated with the expulsion
of the witches. It takes place at night to the sound
of the church bells, the people running about the streets
and crying, " March is come." They say that the
witches roam about in March, and the ceremony is
repeated every Friday evening during the month. ^ In
the Tyrol the expulsion of witches takes place on the
first of May. On a Thursday at midnight bundles are
made up of resinous splinters, black and red spotted
hemlock, caper-spurge, rosemary, and twigs of the
sloe. These are kept and burned on May Day by
men who must first have received plenary absolution
from the church. On the last three days of April all
the houses are cleansed and fumigated with juniper
berries and rue. On May Day, when the evening bell
has rung and the twilight is falling, the ceremony of
'' burning out the witches," as it is called, begins.
Men and boys make a racket with whips, bells, pots,
and pans ; the women carry censers ; the dogs are
unchained and run barking and yelping about. As
soon as the church bells begin to ring, the bundles of
twigs, fastened on poles, are set on fire and the incense

1 Bastian, Der Alensch in der Ge- 3 Vincenzo Dorsa, La U-adizione
schichie, ii. 94. greco-latitia negli usi e nelle credenze

2 J. G. von Hahn, Albanesische popolari della Calabria Citeriore, p. 42
Stiidien, i. 160. Cp. above, vol. i. p. sq.

276.

1 82 EXPULSION OF

is ienited. Then all the house-bells and dinner-bells
are rung, pots and pans are clashed, dogs bark, every
one must make a noise. And amid this hubbub all
scream at the pitch of their voices,

" Witch flee, flee from here,
Or it will go ill with thee."

Then they run seven times round the houses, the
yards, and the village. So the witches are smoked
out of their lurking-places and driven away.^ At
Brunnen in Switzerland the boys go about in
procession on Twelfth Night, carrying torches and
lanterns, and making a great noise with horns, cow-
bells, whips, etc. This is said to frighten away the two
female spirits of the wood, Strudeli and Stratteli.^

§ 15. — Scapegoats

Thus far the examples cited have belonged to the
class of direct or immediate expulsion of ills. It
remains to illustrate the second class of expulsions, in
which the evil influences are either embodied in a
visible form or are at least supposed to be loaded
upon a material medium, which acts as a vehicle to

1 Von Alpenburg, I\Iythen tind Sagoi will be the consequence. The house

Tirols, p. 260 sq. A Westphalian will swarm with rats, mice, and other

form of the expulsion of evil is the vermin, the cattle will be sick, the

driving out the Siintevogel, Siuinett- butterflies will multiply at the milk-

vogel,ox So)ii»iervogel,i.e.,\heh\x\.iex?i.y. bowls, etc. Woeste, Volksiiberliefer-

On St. Peter's Day, 22d February, tmgen in der Grafschaft Mark, p. 24 ;

children go from house to house knock- J. W. Wolf, Beitrdge ztir deutschen

ing on them with hammers and singing Mythologie, i. 87 ; A. Kuhn, West-

doggerel rhymes in which they bid the fdlische Sagen, Gebrduche und Mdr-

Somtnei-vbgel to depart. Presents are chen, ii. g^ 366-374 ; Montanus, Die

given to them at every house. Or the deutschen Vo/ksfeste, Volksbniuche, etc.,

people of the house themselves go p. 21 sq.; Jahn, Die deutschen Opfer-

through all the rooms, knocking on gebrduche bei Ackerbau tmd Viehzticht,

all the doors, to drive away the Sun- pp. 94-96.

nenvogel. If this ceremony is omitted, 2 Usenet, " Italische Mythen," in

it is thought that various misfortunes Rheinisches Mziseum, N. F. xxx. 198.

EMBODIED DEVILS 183

draw them off from the people, village, or town. The
Pomos of California celebrate an exjDulsion of devils
every seven years, at which the devils are represented
by disguised men. "Twenty or thirty men array
themselves in harlequin rig and barbaric paint, and
put vessels of pitch on their heads ; then they secretly
go out into the surrounding mountains. These are to
personify the devils. A herald goes up to the top of
the assembly-house, and makes a speech to the multi-
tude. At a signal agreed upon in the evening the
masqueraders come in from the mountains, with the
vessels of pitch flaming on their heads, and with all
the frightful accessories of noise, motion, and costume
which the savage mind can devise in representation of
demons. The terrified women and children flee for
life, the men huddle them inside a circle, and, on the
principle of fighting the devil with fire, they swing
blazing firebrands in the air, yell, whoop, and make
frantic dashes at the marauding and bloodthirsty devils,
so creating a terrific spectacle, and striking great fear
into the hearts of the assembled hundreds of women,
who are screaming and fainting and clinging to their
valorous protectors. Finally the devils siTcceed in
getting into the assembly-house, and the bravest of
the men enter and hold a parley with them. As a
conclusion of the whole farce, the men summon courage,
the devils are expelled from the assembly-house, and
with a prodigious row and racket of sham fighting are
chased away into the mountains."^ In spring, as soon
as the willow leaves were full grown on the banks of
the river, the Mandan Indians celebrated their great
annual festival, one of the features of which was the
expulsion of the devil. A man, painted black to

1 S. Powers, Tribes of California, p. 159.

1 84 EXPULSION OF DEVILS chap.

represent the devil, entered the village from the
prairie, chased and frightened the women, and acted
the part of a buffalo bull in the buffalo dance, the
object of which was to ensure a plentiful supply of
buffaloes during the ensuing year. Finally he was
chased from the village, the women pursuing him with
hisses and gibes, beating him with sticks, and pelting
him with dirt.^ On the last night of the year the
palace of the Kings of Cambodia is purged of devils.
Men painted as fiends are chased by elephants about
the palace courts. When they have been expelled, a
consecrated thread of cotton is stretched round the
palace to keep them out." The Kasyas, a hill tribe of
Assam, annually expel the demons. The ceremony
takes place on a fixed month in the year, and part of
it consists in a struggle between two bands of men
who stand on opposite sides of a stream, each side
tugging at the end of a rope which is stretched across
the water. In this contest, which resembles the game
of " French and English," the men on one side prob-
ably represent the demons.^ At Carmona in Andalusia,

1 Q.Q.z.'CiYn, North American Indians, representing the demons are inclined
i. 1665'^^.; id., 0-kee-pa, a Religiotts to pull too vigorously, but a stick
Ceremony, and other -Ctistoms of the generally quells this unseemly ardour
JMandans. in the cause of evil." Lewin, Wild

2 Moura, Le Royaume du Cambodge, Ti-ibes of Soittli-Eastern India, p. 185.
i. 172. Cp. above, p. 178. The contest is like that between the

3 A. Bastian, in Verhandl. d. Berlin. angels and devils depicted in the frescoes
Gesellsch. f. Anthropol. 1 881, p. 151 ; of the Campo Santo at Pisa. In
cp. id. , Volkerstiimme am Brahmaputra, Burma a similar contest takes place at
p. 6 sq. Amongst the Chukmas of the funeral of a holy man ; but there
South-east India the body of a priest is the original meaning of the ceremony
conveyed to the place of cremation on appears to be forgotten. See Sanger-
a car; ropes are attached to the car, mano, Description of tlie Burmese Em-
the people divide themselves into two pire (ed. 1885), p. 98 ; Forbes, B}-itish
equal bodies and pull at the ropes in Burma, p. 216 sq.; Shway Yoe,
opposite directions. "One side re- The Bnrman, ii. 3345;/., 342. Some-
presents the good spirits ; the other, times ceremonies of this sort are
the powers of evil. The contest is so instituted for a different purpose. In
arranged that the former are victorious. some East Indian islands when the
Sometimes, however, the young men people want a rainy wind from the

DISEASE-BOATS 185

on one day of the year, boys are stripped naked and
smeared with glue in which feathers are stuck. Thus
disguised, they run from house to house, the people
trying to avoid them and to bar their houses against
them.^ The ceremony is probably a relic of an annual
expulsion of devils.

Oftener, however, the expelled demons are not
represented at all, but are understood to be present
invisibly in the material and visible vehicle which
conveys them away. Here, again, it will be con-
venient to distinguish between occasional and periodical
expulsions. We begin with the former.

The vehicle which conveys away the demons may
be of various kinds. A common one is a little ship or
boat. Thus, in the southern district of the island of
Ceram, when a whole village suffers from sick-
ness, a small ship is made and filled with rice,
tobacco, eggs, etc., which have been contributed by
all the people. A little sail is hoisted on the ship.
When all is ready, a man calls out in a very loud
voice, " O all ye sicknesses, ye small -poxes, agues,
measles, etc., who have visited us so long and wasted
us so sorely, but who now cease to plague us, we have
made ready this ship for you, and we have furnished
you with provender sufficient for the voyage. Ye
shall have no lack of food nor of siri nor of pinang
nor of tobacco. Depart, and sail away from us
directly ; never come near us again, but go to a land
which is far from here. Let all the tides and winds

west, the population of the village, kroesharige rassen tiisschen Selebes en

men, women, and children, divide into Papua, p. 282. The Cingalese per-

two parties and pull against each other form a ceremony like "French and

at the ends of a long bamboo. But the English " in honour of the goddess

party at the eastern end must pull the Patine. Forbes, Eleven Years in

harder, in order to draw the desired \\-ind Ceylon (London, 1840), i. 358.

out of the west. Riedel, De sluik-en ^ Folk-lore Journal, vii. 174.

i86 DISEASE-BOA TS

waft you speedily thither, and so convey you thither
that for the time to come we may hve sound and well,
and that we may never see the sun rise on you again."
Then ten or twelve men carry the vessel to the shore,
and let it drift away with the land - breeze, feeling
convinced that they are free from sickness for ever,
or at least till the next time. If sickness attacks them
again, they are sure it is not the same sickness, but a
different one, which in due time they dismiss in the
same manner. When the demon-laden bark is lost
to sight, the bearers return to the village, whereupon
a man cries out, " The sicknesses are now gone,
vanished, expelled, and sailed away." At this all
the people come running out of their houses, passing
the word from one to the other with great joy, beating
on gongs and on tinkling instruments.^

Similar ceremonies are commonly resorted to in other
East Indian islands. Thus in Timorlaut, to mislead the
demons who are causing sickness, a small prao, contain-
ing the image of a man and provisioned for a long
voyage, is allowed to drift away with wind and tide. As
it is being launched, the people cry, " O sickness, go
from here ; turn back ; what do you here in this
poor land ? " Three days after this ceremony a pig is
killed, and part of the flesh is offered to Dudilaa,
who lives in the sun. One of the oldest men says,
" Old sir, I beseech you, make well the grandchildren,
children, women, and men, that we may be able to
eat pork and rice and to drink palm -wine. I will
keep my promise. Eat your share, and make all
the people in the village well." If the prao is
stranded at any inhabited spot, the sickness will break

^ Fran90ts Valentyn, Oiid-en jn'eiiw Ost-Indicn, iii. 14. Backer, VArchipel
Indien, p. 377 sq., copies from Valentyn.

DISEA SE-BOA TS 1 87

out there. Hence a stranded prao excites much
alarm amongst the coast population, and they imme-
diately burn It, because demons fly from fire/ In the
island of Buro the prao which carries away the
demons of disease is about twenty feet long, rigged
out with sails, oars, anchor, etc., and well stocked
with provisions. For a day and a night the people
beat gongs and drums, and rush about to frighten
the demons. Next morning ten stalwart young men
strike the people with branches, which have been
previously dipped in an earthen pot of water. As
soon as they have done so, they run down to the
beach, put the branches on board the prao, launch
another prao in great haste, and tow the disease-
burdened prao far out to sea. There they cast it
off, and one of them calls out, "Grandfather Small-
pox, go away — go willingly away — go visit another
land ; we have made you food ready for the voyage,
we have now nothing more to give." When they
have landed, all the people bathe together in the
sea.'' In this ceremony the reason for striking the
people with the branches is clearly to rid them of
the disease -demons, which are then supposed to be
transferred to the branches. Hence the haste with
which the branches are deposited In the prao and
towed away to sea. So In the inland districts of
Ceram, when small -pox or other sickness Is raging,
the priest strikes all the houses with consecrated
branches, which are then thrown into the river, to
be carried down to the sea ; ^ exactly as amongst
the Wotyaks of Russia the sticks which have been
used for expelling the devils from the village are

1 Riedel, De sluik-cn kroesharige rassen tiisschen Selebes en Papua, p.
304 sq. 2 /^_ p. 25 sq. 3 //'. p. 141-

i88 DISEASE-BOATS

thrown into the river, that the current may sweep the
baleful burden away. In Amboina, for a similar
purpose, the whole body of the patient is rubbed with
a live white cock, which is then placed on a little
prao and committed to the waves ; ^ and in the Babar
archipelago the bark which is to carry away to sea
the sickness of a whole village contains a bowl of
ashes taken from every kitchen in the village, and
another bowl into which all the sick people have
spat.- The plan of putting puppets in the boat to
represent sick persons, in order to lure the demons
after them, is not uncommon.^

The practice of sending away diseases in boats is
known outside the limits of the East Indian Archi-
pelago. Thus when the people of Tikopia, a small island
in the Pacific, to the north of the New Hebrides, were
attacked by an epidemic cough, they made a little
canoe and adorned it with flowers. Four sons of
the principal chiefs carried it on their shoulders all
round the island, accompanied by the whole popu-
lation, some of whom beat the bushes, while others
uttered loud cries. On returning to the spot from
which they had set out, they launched the canoe on the
sea.* In the Nicobar Islands, in the Bay of Bengal,
when there is much sickness in a village or no fish
are caught, the blame is laid upon the spirits. They

1 Riedel, op. cit. p. 78. dl. iii. 150; Campen, " De godsdienst-

2 lb. p. 357. begiippen der Halmaherasche Al-
^ lb. pp. 266, 304 sq., 327, 357. foeren," Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-

For other examples of sending away Land -en Volkenkzinde, xxvii. (1882) p.

disease-laden boats in these islands, //'. 441 ; Journal of the Straits Bratich of

pp. 181, 210; Van Eck, " Schetsen the Royal Asiatic Society, ^o. 12, pp.

van het eiland Bali," Tijdschrift voor 229-231 ; Van Hasselt, Volksbesckrijv-

AWerlandsch Indie, N.S. viii. (1879) ing van ]\Iidden-Su7natra,^. 98.
p. 104; Bastian, Indonesien, i. 147; ^ '].Y)\xvaoxv\.Yy\}xv\\\Q,Voyageautour

Hupe, " Korte verhandeling over de dii. monde et a la recherche de La

godsdienst, zeden, enz. der Dajakkers," Terotcse, siir la corvette Astrolabe, v.

Tijdschrift voor Ncerland's Indie, 1 846, 311.

SCAPEGOATS 189

must be propitiated with offerings. All relations and
friends are invited, a huge pig is roasted, and the best
of it is eaten, but some parts are offered to the shades.
The heap of offerings remains in front of the house
till it is carried away by the rising tide. Then the
priests, their faces reddened with paint and swine's
blood, pretend to catch the demon of disease, and,
after a hand-to-hand struggle, force him into a
model boat, made ot leaves and decked with garlands,
which is then towed so far to sea that neither wind
nor tide is likely to drive it back to the shore.^

Often the vehicle which carries away the collected
demons or ills of a whole community is an animal or
scapegoat. In the Central Provinces of India, when
cholera breaks out in a village, every one retires after
sunset to his house. The priests then parade the
streets, taking from the roof of each house a straw,
which is burnt with an offering of rice, ghi, and
turmeric, at some shrine to the east of the village.
Chickens daubed with vermilion are driven away in
the direction of the smoke, and are believed to carry
the disease with them. If they fail, goats are tried,
and last of all pigs.^ When cholera is very bad
among the Bhars, Mallans, and Kurmis of India,
they take a goat or a buffalo — in either case the
animal must be a female, and as black as possible —
then they tie some grain, cloves, and red lead in a yellow
cloth on its back, and turn it out of the village. It
is conducted beyond the boundary, and is not allowed
to return.^ The people of the city and cantonments of

1 Roepstorff, " Ein Geisterboot der see Bastian, Die Vdlker des ostUchen

Nicobaresen," Verhandl. der Berlin. Asien, iii. 295 sq., 485 sq.
Gesellsch.f. Anthropologic {\%%\),^. /\.o\. '^ Punjab Notes and Queries, i. No.

For Siamese applications of the same 41 8.
principle to the cure of individuals, ^ Id. iii. No. 373.

igo SCAPEGOATS

Sagar being afflicted with a violent influenza, " I had
an aiDpHcation from the old Queen Dowager of Sagar
to allow of a noisy religious procession, for the purpose
of imploring deliverance from this great calamity.
Men, women, and children in this procession were
to do their utmost to add to the noise by ' raising
their voices in psalmody,' beating upon their brass
pots and pans with all their might, and discharging
firearms where they could get them. Before the
noisy crowd was to be driven a buffalo, which had
been purchased by general subscription, in order that
every family might participate in the merit. They
were to follow it out eight miles, where it was to be
turned loose for any man who would take it. If the
animal returned the disease must return with it, and
the ceremony be performed over again. ... It was,
however, subsequently determined that the animal
should be a goat ; and he was driven before the crowd
accordingly. I have on several occasions been re-
quested to allow of such noisy ceremonies in cases
of epidemics." ^ Once, when influenza was raging in
Pithuria, a man had a small carriage made, after a
plan of his own, for a pair of scapegoats, which were
harnessed to it and driven to a wood at some distance,
where they were let loose. From that hour the
disease entirely ceased in the town. The goats
never returned ; had they done so, " the disease
must have come back with them." - The idea of
the scapegoat is not uncommon in the hills of the
Eastern Ghats. In 1886, during a severe outbreak
of small -pox, the people of Jeypur made " puja " to
a goat, marched it to the Ghats, and let it loose on

1 Pattjab Notes and Queries, ii. No. 1127. - /(/. ii. No. 1123.

SCAPEGOATS 191

the plains.^ In Southern Konkan, on the appearance
of cholera, the villagers went in procession from the
temple to the extreme boundaries of the village,
carrying a basket of cooked rice covered with red
powder, a wooden doll representing the pestilence,
and a cock. The head of the cock was cut off at
the village boundary, and the body was thrown away.
When cholera was thus transferred from one village
to another, the second village observed the same
ceremony and passed on the scourge to its neighbours,
and so on through a number of villages.^ When the
Aymara Indians were suffering from a plague, they
loaded a llama with the clothes of the plague-stricken
people, and drove the animal into the mountains,
hoping that it would take the plague away with it.^
Sometimes the scapegoat is a man. Some of the
aboriginal tribes of China, as a protection against
pestilence, select a man of great muscular strength to
act the part of scapegoat. Having besmeared his face
with paint, he performs many antics with the view of
enticing all pestilential and noxious influences to attach
themselves to him only. He is assisted by a priest.
Finally the scapegoat, hotly pursued by men and
women beating gongs and tom-toms, is driven with
great haste out of the town or village.^ A Hindu
cure for the murrain is to hire a man of the Chamar
caste, turn his face away from the village, brand him
with a red-hot sickle, and let him go out into the
jungle, taking the murrain with him. He must not
look back.^

^ F. Fawcett, "On the Saoras (or ^ 'R. AnAx&e, Ethttographische Paral-

Savaras)," Journ. Anthrop. Soc. lelen jcnd Verghiche (first series), p. 30,

Bombay, i. 213 note. * J. H. Gray, China, ii. 306.

2 Journ. Anthrop. Soc. Bombay, i. ^ Panjab Notes and Queries, i.

37- 598.

192 PERIODIC EXPULSION chap.

The mediate expulsion of evils by means of a
scapegoat or other material vehicle, like the immediate
expulsion of them in invisible form, tends to become
periodic, and for a like reason. Thus every year,
generally in March, the people of Leti, Moa, and
Lakor send away all their diseases to sea. They
make a prao about six feet long, rig it v^^ith sails,
oars, rudder, etc., and every family deposits in it
some rice, fruit, a fowl, two eggs, insects that ravage
the fields, etc. Then they let it drift away to sea,
saying, " Take away from here all kinds of sickness,
take them to other islands, to other lands, distribute
them in places that lie eastward, where the sun
rises." ^ The Biajas of Borneo annually send to sea a
little bark laden with the sins and misfortunes of the
people. The crew of any ship that falls in with
the ill-omened bark at sea will suffer all the sorrows
with which it is laden." At the beginning of the
dry season, every year, the Nicobar islanders carry
the model of a ship through their villages. The
devils are chased out of the huts, and driven on board
the little ship, which is then launched and suffered to
sail away with the wind.^ At Sucla-Tirtha, in India,
an earthen pot containing the accumulated sins of the
people is (annually ?) set adrift on the river. Legend
says that the custom originated with a wicked priest
who, after atoning for his guilt by a course of austeri-
ties and expiatory ceremonies, was directed to sail
, upon the river in a boat with white sails. If the white
sails turned black, it would be a sign that his sins were
forgiven him. They did so, and he joyfully allowed

1 Riedel, De shiik-eii kroesharige 2 Bastian, Dcr jMensch in der

rassen tusschen Selebcs en Papua, p. Gcschichtc, ii. 93.
393. 3 Id. ii. 91.

Ill OF EMBODIED EVILS I93

the boat to drift with his sins to sea.^ Amongst many
of the aboriginal tribes of China, a great festival is
celebrated in the third month of every year. It is held
by way of a general rejoicing over what the people
believe to be a total annihilation of the ills of the past
twelve months. This annihilation is supposed to be
effected in the following way. A large earthenware
jar filled with gunpowder, stones, and bits of iron is
buried in the earth. A train of gunpowder, communi-
cating with the jar, is then laid ; and a match being
applied, the jar and its contents are blown up. The
stones and bits of iron represent the ills and disasters
of the past year, and the dispersion of them by the
explosion is believed to remove the ills and disasters
themselves. The festival is attended with much revel- -
ling and drunkenness." At Old Calabar, in Guinea,
the devils are expelled once every two years. A
number of figures called nabikejns are made of sticks
and bamboos, and fixed indiscriminately about the
town. Some of them represent human beings, others
birds, crocodiles, and so on. After three or four
weeks the devils are expected to take up their abode
in these figures. When the night comes for their
general expulsion, the people feast and sally out in
parties, beating at empty corners, and shouting with
all their might. Shots are fired, the nabikems are torn
up with violence, set in flames, and flung into the river.
The orgies last till daybreak, and the town is consi-
dered to be rid of evil influences for two years to come.^
Mr. George Bogle, the English envoy sent to Tibet
by Warren Hastings, witnessed the celebration of the
Tibetan New Year's Day at Teshu Lumbo the capital

1 Asiatic Researches, ix. 96 sq. 3 x. J. Hutchinson, Ivipressions of

2 J. H. Gray, China, ii. 306 sq. Western Africa, p. 162.

VOL. II O

194 SCAPEGOATS

of the Teshu Lama. " The figure of a man, chalked
upon paper, was laid upon the ground. Many strange
ceremonies, which to me who did not understand them
appeared whimsical, were performed about it ; and a
great fire being kindled in a corner of the court, it was
at length held over it, and being formed of combustibles,
vanished with much smoke and explosion. I was told
it was a figure of the devil." ^

On one day of the year some of the people of the
Western Himalayas take a dog, intoxicate him with
spirits and bhang or hemp, and having fed him with
sweetmeats, lead him round the village and let him
loose. They then chase and kill him with sticks and
stones, and believe that, when they have done so, no
disease or misfortune will visit the village durine the
year.^ In some parts of Breadalbane it was formerly
the custom on New Year's Day to take a dog to the
door, give him a bit of bread, and drive him out, say-
ing, "Get away you dog! Whatever death of men,
or loss of cattle would happen in this house to the end
of the present year, may it all light on your head ! " ^
It appears that the white dogs annually sacrificed by
the Iroquois at their New Year Festival are, or have
been, regarded as scapegoats. According to Mr. J.
V. H. Clark, who witnessed the ceremony in January
1841, on the first day of the festival all the fires in the
village were extinguished, the ashes scattered to the
winds, and a new fire was kindled with flint and steel.
On a subsequent day, men dressed in fantastic costumes

1 Bo.i^le and Manning, Tibet, edited the Asiatic Society of Bengal, liii. pt. i.
by C. K. Marldiam, p. 106 sq. (1884), p. 62.

3 Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eigh-

2 E. T. Atlvinson, "Notes on the teenth Century, from tlie MSS. of Jchn
History of Religion in the Himalaya of Ramsay of Ochtertyre, edited by Alex.
the North- West ^xo^\ViCt%,'' Jounial of Allardyce (Edinburgh, 1SS8), ii. 439.

Ill SCAPEGOA rS 195

went round the village, gathering the sins of the people.
On the morning of the last day of the festival, two
white dogs, decorated with red paint, wampum, feathers,
and ribbons were led out. They were soon strangled,
and hung on a ladder. Firing and yelling succeeded,
and half an hour later the dogs were taken into a
house, "where the peoples' sins were transferred to
them." The dogs were afterwards burnt on a pyre of
wood.^ According to the Rev. Mr. Kirkland, who
wrote last century, the ashes of the pyre upon which
one of the white dogs was burned were carried through
the village and sprinkled at the door of every house.^
Formerly, however, as we have seen, the Iroquois
expulsion of evils was immediate and not by scape-
goat.^ The Jews annually laid all the sins of the
people upon the head of a goat and sent it away into
the wilderness.^

The scapegoat upon whom the sins of the people
are periodically laid, may also be a human being. At
Onitsha, on the Ouorra River, two human beings are
annually sacrificed to take away the sins of the land.
The victims are purchased by public subscription.
All persons who, during the past year, have fallen into
gross sins, such as incendiarism, theft, adultery, witch-
craft, etc. are expected to contribute 28 ngugas, or a litde
over £2. The money thus collected is taken into the

1 W. M. Beauchamp, " The Iroquois father of the family knocks the cock
White Dog Feast," American An- thrice against his own head, saying,
tiqiiarian, vii. 237. " I-et this cock be a substitute for me,

., „ ^ T- 1-. • 1,* ^.„r.,„n Jet it take my place, let death be laid

2 lb. p. 2^6; T. Dwight, J ravels \ -. I ■< rr 1
11,. p. ^j , b , j^j^ ^Q^l ^^jj ^ happy life be-

?;? New Ens;la7id and New York, iv. 1 ' ^W ^ , „

'^ stowed on me and on all Israel.

^°^* Then he cuts its throat and dashes the

- Above, p. 165 sq. I^ij-^l violently on the ground. The

* Leviticus xvi. Modern Jews intestines are thrown on the roof of the

sacrifice a white cock on the eve of the house. The flesh of the cock was

Festival of Expiation, nine days after formerly given to the poor. Buxtorf,

the beginning of their New Year. The Synagoga Judaic a, z. xxv.

196 HUMAN SCAPEGOATS chap.

interior of the country and expended in the purchase
of two sickly persons "to be offered as a sacrifice for
all these abominable crimes — one for the land and one
for the river." A man from a neighbouring town is
hired to put them to death. The sacrifice of one of
these victims was witnessed by the Rev. J. C. Taylor
on 27th February 1858. The sufferer was a woman,
about nineteen or twenty years of age. She w^as
dragged alive along the ground, face downwards, from
the king's house to the river, a distance of two miles.
The crowds who accompanied her cried "Wickedness!
wickedness!" The intention was "to take away the
iniquities of the land. The body was dragged along
in a merciless manner, as if the weight of all their
wickedness was thus carried away."^ In Siam it was
formerly the custom on one day of the year to single
out a woman broken down by debauchery, and carry
her on a litter through all the streets to the music of
drums and hautboys. The mob insulted her and
pelted her with dirt ; and after having carried her
through the whole city, they threw her on a dunghill
or a hedge of thorns outside the ramparts, forbidding
her ever to enter the walls again. They believed that
the woman thus drew upon herself all the malign
influences of the air and of evil spirits.'-^ The people
of Nias offer either a red horse or a buffalo as a public
sacrifice to purify the land and obtain the favour of
the gods. Formerly, it is said, a man was bound to
the same stake as the buffalo, and when the animal
was killed, the man was driven away ; no one might

1 S. Crowther and J. C. Taylor, The {West African Countries and Teoples

Gospel on the Banks of t/ieA^ix'er,Y>Y>-?)'^2>- P- '^5 ^1-) '^ entirely from Taylor.
345. Cp. J. F. Schon and S. Crowther, ^ Turpin, "History of Siam," in

Journals, p. 48 sq. The account of the Pinkerton's Voyages and Ti-avels, ix.

custom by J. Africanus B. Horton 579.

Ill HUMAN SCAPEGOATS 197

receive him, converse with him, or give him food/
Doubtless he was supposed to carry away the sins and
misfortunes of the people.

In Tibet the ceremony of the scapegoat is marked
by some peculiar features. The Tibetan New Year
begins with the new moon, which appears about
15th February. For twenty -three days afterwards
the government of Lhasa, the capital, is taken out
of the hands of the ordinary rulers and entrusted to
the monk of the Debang monastery who offers to
pay the highest sum for the privilege. The suc-
cessful bidder is called the Jalno, and he announces
the fact in person through the streets of Lhasa,
bearing a silver stick. Monks from all the neigh-
bouring monasteries and temples assemble to pay
him homage. The Jalno exercises his authority
in the most arbitrary manner for his own benefit, as
all the fines which he exacts are his by purchase.
The profit he makes is about ten times the amount
of the purchase money. His men go about the streets
in order to discover any conduct on the part of the
inhabitants that can be found fault with. Every
house in Lhasa is taxed at this time, and the slightest
fault is punished with unsparing rigour by fines. This
severity of the Jalno drives all working classes out
of the city till the twenty -three days are over.
Meantime, all the priests flock from the neighbourhood
to the Machindranath temple, where they perform
religious ceremonies. The temple is a very large one,
standing in the centre of the city, surrounded by
bazaars and shops. The idols in it are richly inlaid
with gold and precious stones. Twenty -four days

1 Kodding, "Die Bataksche Gotter," AUgemeine Alissions-Zeitschrift, xii
(1885) pp. 476, 47S.

HUMAN SCAPEGOATS

after the Jalno has ceased to have authority, he
assumes it again, and for ten days acts in the same
arbitrary manner as before. On the first of the ten
days the priests assemble as before at the Machin-
dranath temple, pray to the gods to prevent sickness
and other evils among the people, "and, as a peace-
offering, sacrifice one man. The man is not killed
purposely, but the ceremony he undergoes often
proves fatal. ^ Grain is thrown against his head, and
his face is painted half white, half black." On the
tenth day, all the troops in Lhasa march to the temple
and form in line before it. The victim is brought
lorth from the temple and receives small donations
from the assembled multitude. He then throws dice
with the Jalno. If the victim wins, much evil is
foreboded ; but if the Jalno wins, there is great
rejoicing, for it is then believed that the victim has
been accepted by the gods to bear all the sins of
the people of Lhasa. Thereupon his face is painted
half white and half black, a leathern coat is put on him,
and he is marched to the walls of the city, followed
by the whole populace, hooting, shouting, and firing
volleys after him. When he is driven outside the city,
the people return, and the victim is carried to the
Same monastery. Should he die shortly afterwards,
the people say it is an auspicious sign ; but if not,
he is kept a prisoner at the monastery for a whole
year, after which he is allowed to return to Lhasa."
Human scapegoats, as we shall see presently, were

1 The ceremony referred to is prob- Journal Royal Geogr. Soc. xxxviii
ably the one performed on the tenth (1868) pp. 167, \']Osq.; " Four Years'
day, as described in the text. Journeying throught Great Tibet

by one of the Trans -Himalayan Ex

2 " Report of a Route Survey by plorers," Proceed. Poyal Geogr. Soc.
Tundit — from Nepal to Lhasa," etc., N.S. vii. (1885) p. 67 st/.

HI HUMAN SCAPEGOATS 199

well known in classical antiquity, and even in mediaeval
Europe the custom seems not to have been wholly
extinct. In the town of Halberstadt in Thiiringen
there was a church which was said to have been
founded by Charlemagne. In this church every year
a man was chosen, who was believed to be stained
with heinous sins. On the first day of Lent he was
brought to the church, dressed in mourning garb, with
his head muffled up. At the close of the service he
was turned out of the church. During the forty days
of Lent he perambulated the city barefoot, neither
entering the churches nor speaking to any one. The
canons took it in turn to feed him. After midnight he
was allowed to sleep on the streets. On the day
before Good Friday, after the consecration of the holy
oil, he was readmitted to the church and absolved
from his sins. The people gave him money. He
was called Adam, and was now believed to be in a
state of innocence.^ At Entlebuch in Switzerland,
down to the close of last century, the custom of
annually expelling a scapegoat was preserved in the
ceremony of driving " Posterli " from the village into
the lands of the neighbouring village. " Posterli "
was represented by a lad disguised as an old witch or
as a goat or an ass. Amid a deafening noise of horns,
clarionets, bells, whips, etc. he was driven out. Some-
times " Posterli " was represented by a puppet, which
was drawn in a sledge and left in a corner of the
neighbouring village. The ceremony took place on
the Thursday evening of the last week but one before
Christmas.'

Sometimes the scapegoat is a divine animal. The

1 Aeneas Sylvius, C/e;-a (Bale, 1 571), ^ Usener, " Italische Mythen,"

p. 423 sq. Rhei)iisches Museum, N. F. xxx. 198.

SCAPEGOATS

people of Malabar share the Hindu reverence for the
cow, to kill and eat which " they esteem to be a crime
as heinous as homicide or wilful murder." Never-
theless " the Bramans transfer the sins of the people
into one or more Cows, which are then carry'd away,
both the Cows and the Sins- wherewith these Beasts are
charged, to what place the Braman shall appoint." ^
When the ancient Egyptians sacrificed a bull, they
invoked upon its head all the evils that might other-
wise befall themselves and the land of Egypt, and
thereupon they either sold the bull's head to the
Greeks or cast it into the river.^ Now, it cannot be
said that in the times known to us the Egyptians
worshipped bulls in general, for they seem to have
commonly killed and eaten them.^ But a good many
circumstances point to the conclusion that originally
all cattle, bulls as well as cows, were held sacred by
the Egyptians. For not only were all cows esteemed
holy by them and never sacrificed, but even bulls might
not be sacrificed unless they had certain natural marks ;
a priest examined every bull before it was sacrificed ;
if it had the proper marks, he put his seal on the
animal in token that it might be sacrificed ; and if
a man sacrificed a bull which had not been sealed, he
was put to death. Moreover, the worship of the
black bulls Apis and Mnevis, especially the former,
played an important part in Egyptian religion ; all
bulls that died a natural death were carefully buried
in the suburbs of the cities, and their bones were after-
wards collected from all parts of Egypt and buried in a
single spot ; and at the sacrifice of a bull in the great

1 J. Thomas Phillips, Accmmt of ihc ^ Herodotus, ii. 38-41 ; Wilkinson,

Keligion, Matmers, and Learning of the Mamiers and Ciistoms of the Ancient

People of Malabar, pp. 6, 12 sq. Egyptians, iii. 403 sqq. (ed. 1878).

^ Herodotus, ii. 39.

SCAPEGOA TS

rites of I sis all the worshippers beat their breasts and
mourned.^ On the whole, then, we are perhaps
entitled to infer that bulls were originally, as cows
were always, esteemed sacred by the Egyptians, and
that the slain bull upon whose, head they laid the
misfortunes of the people was once a divine scapegoat.
It seems not improbable that the lamb annually slain
by the Madis of Central Africa is a divine scapegoat,
and the same supposition may partly explain the Zuni
sacrifice of the turtle.-

Lastly, the scapegoat may be a divine man.
Thus, in November the Gonds of India worship
Ghansyam Deo, the protector of the crops, and at
the festival the god himself is said to descend on
the head of one of the worshippers, who is suddenly
seized with a kind of fit and, after staggering about,
rushes off into the jungle, where it is believed that,
if left to himself, he would die mad. As it is, he is
brought back, but does not recover his senses for
one or two days. " The idea is, that one man is thus
singled out as a scapegoat for the sins of the rest of the
village."^ In the temple of the Moon the Albanians
of the Eastern Caucasus kept a number of sacred
slaves, of whom many were inspired and prophesied.
When one of these men exhibited more than usual
symptoms of inspiration and wandered solitary up
and down the woods, like the Gond in the jungle, the
high priest had him bound with a sacred chain and
maintained him in luxury for a year. At the end of
the year he was anointed with unguents and led forth
to be sacrificed. A man whose business it was to
slay these human victims and to whom practice had

1 Herodotus, I.e. '^ Patijab Notes and Queries, ii. No.

2 See above, pp. 95 sqq., 137 sq. 335.

202 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON chap.

given dexterity, advanced from the crowd and thrust
a sacred spear into the victim's side, piercing his
heart. From the manner in which the slain man fell,
omens were drawn as to the welfare of the common-
wealth. Then the body was carried to a certain spot
where all the people stood upon it as a purificatory
ceremony.^ This last circumstance clearly indicates
that the sins of the people were transferred to the
victim, just as the Jewish priest transferred the sins of
the people to the scapegoat by laying his hand on the
animal's head ; and since the man was believed to be
possessed by the divine spirit, we have here an
undoubted example of a man -god slain to take away
the sins and misfortunes of the people.

The foregoing survey of the custom of publicly
expelling the accumulated evils of a village or district
suggests a few general observations. In the first
place, it will not be disputed that what I have called
the immediate and the mediate expulsions of evil are
identical in intention ; in other words, that whether
the evils are conceived of as invisible or as embodied
in a material form, is a circumstance entirely sub-
ordinate to the main object of the ceremony, which is
simply to effect a total clearance of all the ills that
have been infesting a people. If any link were wanting
to connect the two kinds of expulsion, it would be
furnished by such a practice as that of sending the
evils away in a boat. For here, on the one hand, the
evils are invisible and intangible ; and, on the other
hand, there is a visible and tangible vehicle to convey
them away. And a scapegoat is nothing more than
such a vehicle.

1 Strabo, xi. 4, 7. For the custom of standing upon a sacrificed victim,
cp. Demosthenes, p. 642 ; Pausanias, iii. 20, 9.

Ill EXPULSION OF EVILS 203

In the second place, when a general clearance of
evils is resorted to periodically, the interval between
the celebrations of the ceremony is commonly a year,
and the time of year when the ceremony takes place
usually coincides with some well-marked change of
season — such as the close of winter in the arctic and
temperate zones, and the beginning or end of the
rainy season in the tropics. The increased mortality
which such climatic changes are apt to produce,
especially amongst ill-fed, ill-clothed, and ill-housed
savages, is set down by primitive man to the agency
of demons, who must accordingly be expelled. Hence,
in New Britain and Peru, the devils are or were
driven out at the beginning of the rainy season.
When a tribe has taken to agriculture, the time for
the general expulsion of devils is naturally made to
agree with one of the great epochs of the agricultural
year, as sowing or harvest ; but, as these epochs
themselves often coincide with changes of season, it
does not follow that the transition from the hunting or
pastoral to the agricultural life involves any alteration
in the time of celebrating this great annual rite.
Some of the agricultural communities of India and
the Hindoo Koosh, as we have seen, hold their
general clearance of demons at harvest, others at
sowing-time. But, at whatever season of the year it is
held, the general expulsion of devils commonly marks
the beginning of the new year. For, before entering
on a new year, people are anxious to rid themselves
of the troubles that have harassed them in the past ;
hence the fact that amongst so many people — Iroquois,
Tonquinese, Siamese, Tibetans, etc. — the beginning of
the new year is inaugurated with a solemn and public
banishment of evil spirits.

204 PERIODS OF LICENCE chap.

In the third place, it is to be observed that this
public and periodic expulsion of devils is commonly
preceded or followed by a period of general licence,
during which the ordinary restraints of society are
thrown aside, and all offences, short of the gravest, are
allowed to pass unpunished. In Guinea and Tonquin
the period of licence precedes the public expulsion
of demons ; and the suspension of the ordinary
government in Lhasa previous to the expulsion of
the scapegoat is perhaps a relic of a similar period
of universal licence. Amongst the Hos the period
of licence follows the expulsion of the devil. Amongst
the Iroquois it hardly appears whether it preceded or
followed the banishment of evils. In any case, the
extraordinary relaxation of all ordinary rules of con-
duct on such occasions is doubtless to be explained
by the general clearance of evils which precedes or
follows it. On the one hand, when a general riddance
of evil and absolution from all sin is in immediate
prospect, men are encouraged to give the rein to
their passions, trusting that the coming ceremony
will wipe out the score which they are running up
so fast. On the other hand, when the ceremony
has just taken place, men's minds are freed from
the oppressive sense, under which they generally
labour, of an atmosphere surcharged with devils ;
and in the first revulsion of joy they overleap the
limits commonly imposed by custom and morality.
When the ceremony takes place at harvest-time, the
elation of feeling which it excites is further stimulated
by the state of physical wellbeing produced by an
abundant supply of food.^

1 In the Dassera festival, as cele- another instance of the annual expulsion
brated in Nepaul, we seem to have of demons preceded by a time of licence.

DIVINE SCAPEGOATS

205

Fourthly, the employment of a divine man or
animal as a scapegoat is especially to be noted ;
indeed, we are here directly concerned with the
custom of banishing evils only in so far as these
evils are believed to be transferred to a god who is
afterwards slain. It may be suspected that the
custom of employing a divine man or animal as a
public scapegoat is much more widely diffused than
appears from the examples cited. For, as has
already been pointed out, the custom of killing a god
dates from so early a period of human history that
in later ages, even when the custom continues to
be practised, it is liable to be misinterpreted. The
divine character of the animal or man is forgotten, and
he comes to be regarded merely as an ordinary victim.
This is especially likely to be the case when it is a
divine man who is killed. For when a nation becomes

The festival occurs at the beginning of
October and lasts ten days. "During
its continuance there is a general holi-
day among all classes of the people.
The city of Kathmandu at this time is
required to be purified, but the puri-
fication is effected rather by prayer than
by water-cleansing. All the courts of
law are closed, and all prisoners in jail
are removed from the precincts of the
city. . . . The Kalendar is cleared,
or there is a jail-delivery always at the
Dassera of all prisoners." This seems
a trace of a period of licence. At this
time "it is a general custom for masters
to make an annual present, either of
money, clothes, buffaloes, goats, etc.,
to such servants as have given satisfac-
tion during the past year. It is in this
respect, as well as in the feasting and
drinking which goes on, something like
our ' boxing-time ' at Christmas." On
the seventh day at sunset there is a
parade of all the troops in the capital,
including the artillery. At a given
signal the regiments commence firing.

the artillery takes it up, and a general
firing goes on for about twenty minutes,
when it suddenly ceases. This prob-
ably represents the expulsion of the
demons. "The grand cutting of the
rice-crops is always postponed till the
Dassera is over, and commences all
over the valley the very day afterwards."
See the description of the festival in
Oldfield's Sketches from Nipal, ii. 342-
351. On the Dassera in India, see
Dubois, Moeiirs, Instihttions et Cere-
tnonies des Penples de I'Inde, ii. 329
sqq. Amongst the Wasuahili of East
Africa New Year's Day was formerly
a day of general licence, " eveiy man
did as he pleased. Old quarrels were
settled, men were found dead on the
following day, and no inquiry was
instituted about the matter. " Ch. New,
Life, Wanderings, and Labours in
Eastern Africa, p. 65. In Ashantee
the annual festival of the new yams is
a time of general licence. See the Note
on " Offerings of first fruits " at the end
of the volume.

2o6 DIVINE SCAPEGOATS chap.

civilised, if it does not drop human sacrifices altogether,
it at least selects as victims only such criminals as
would be put to death at any rate. Thus, as in the
Sacaean festival at Babylon, the killing of a god may
come to be confounded with the execution of a
criminal.

If we ask why a dying god should be selected to
take upon himself and carry away the sins and sorrows
of the people, it may be suggested that in the practice
of using the divinity as a scapegoat we have a combina-
tion of two customs which were at one time distinct
and independent. On the one hand we have seen
that it has been customary to kill the human or animal
god in order to save his divine life from being weakened
by the inroads of age. On the other hand we have
seen that it has been customary to have a general
expulsion of evils and sins once a year. Now, if it
occurred to people to combine these two customs, the
result would be the employment of the dying god as a
scapegoat. He was killed, not originally to take away
sin, but to save the divine life from the degeneracy of
old age ; but, since he had to be killed at any rate,
people may have thought that they might as well
seize the opportunity to lay upon him the burden of
their sufferings and sins, in order that he might bear
it away with him to the unknown world beyond the
grave.

The use of the divinity as a scapegoat clears up
the ambiguity which, as we saw, appeared to hang
about the European folk -custom of "carrying out
Death." ^ Grounds have been shown for believing
that in this ceremony the so - called Death was
originally the spirit of vegetation, who was annually

1 See above, vol. i. p. 275 .f(/.

Ill DIVINE SCAPEGOATS 207

slain in spring, in order that he might come to Hfe
again with all the vigour of youth. But, as we saw,
there are certain features in the ceremony which are
not explicable on this hypothesis alone. Such are the
marks of joy with which the effigy of Death is
carried out to be buried or burnt, and the fear and
abhorrence of it manifested by the bearers. But these
features become at once intelligible if we suppose that
the Death was not merely the dying god of vegeta-
tion, but also a public scapegoat, upon whom were laid
all the evils that had afflicted the people during the
past year. Joy on such an occasion is natural and
appropriate ; and if the dying god appears to be the
object of that fear and abhorrence which are properly
due not to himself, but to the sins and misfortunes
with which he is laden, this arises merely from the
difficulty of distinguishing or at least of marking
the distinction between the bearer and the burden.
When the burden is of a baleful character, the bearer
of it will be feared and shunned just as much as if he
were himself instinct with those dangerous properties
of which, as it happens, he is only the vehicle.
Similarly we have seen that disease-laden and sin-
laden boats are dreaded and shunned by East Indian
peoples.^ Again, the view that in these popular
customs the Death is a scapegoat as well as a repre-
sentative of the divine spirit of vegetation derives some
support from the circumstance that its expulsion is
always celebrated in spring and chiefly by Slavonic
peoples. For the Slavonic year began in spring ;^ and
thus, in one of its aspects, the ceremony of "carrying
out Death " would be an example of the widespread

^ Above, pp. 186 5(7. , 192.

2 H. Usener, " Italische 'bJiyXhtn," Rheiiiisches Musetitn, N. F. (iS75)xxx. 194.

2o8 THE OLD MARS

custom of expelling the accumulated evils of the past
year before entering on a new one.

We are now prepared to notice the use of the scape-
goat in classical antiquity. Every year on the 14th
of March a man clad in skins was led in procession
through the streets of Rome, beaten with long white
rods, and driven out of the city. He was called Mamurius
Veturius,^ that is, "the old Mars," ^ and as the ceremony
took place on the day preceding the first full moon of
the old Roman year (which began on ist March), the
skin-clad man must have represented the Mars of the
past year, who was driven out at the beginning of a
new one. Now Mars was originally not a god of war
but of vegetation. For it was to Mars that the
Roman husbandman prayed for the prosperity of his
corn and his vines, his fruit-trees and his copses;^ it
was to Mars that the priestly college of the Arval
Brothers, whose business it was to sacrifice for the
growth of the crops,* addressed their petitions almost
exclusively ; ^ and it was to Mars, as we saw,*^ that a
horse was sacrificed in October to secure an abundant
harvest. Moreover, it was to Mars, under his title of

1 Joannes Lydus, De mensibus, iii. scher, Apollon und Mars, p. 27 ;
29, iv. 36. Lydus places the expul- Preller, Roniische Mythologie,^ i. 360 ;
sion on the Ides of March, that is 15th Vanicek, Griechisch-lateinisches etymo-
March. But this seems to be a mis- logisches Worterbuch, p. 715. The
take. See Usener, "Italische Mythen," three latter scholars take Veturius
Rheinisches Musetini, xxx. 209 sqq. as = annuus, because veins is etymo-
Again, Lydus does not expressly say logically equivalent to ^tos. But, as
that Mamurius Veturius was driven Usener argues, it seems quite unallow-
out of the city, but he implies it able to take the Greek meaning of the
by mentioning the legend that his word instead of the Latin.

mythical prototype was beaten with 3 Q.2X0, De agri cult. 141.

rods and expelled the city. Lastly, . ,, n /• 1 .■ o

^ , , ' .. ^, TM Varro, De lins'tia latina, v. aq.

Lydus only mentions the name Mamu- ; a > j

rius. But the full name Mamurius ^ See the song of the Arval Brothers

Veturius is preserved by Varro, Ling. ir^ Ada Fratrum Arvalmm, eA.Utnzen,

Lat. vi. 45; Festus, ed. Miiller, p. P- 26 sq.; Wordsworth, Fragments

131 ; Plutarch, Numa, 13. and Specimens of Early Latin, p. 158.

2 Usener, op. cit. p. z\2 sq.; Ros- •* Above, p. 64.

THE OLD MARS 209

"Mars of the woods" {Mars Silvamts) that farmers
offered sacrifice for the welfare of their cattle/ We
have already seen that cattle are commonly supposed
to be under the special patronage of tree-gods.^ Once
more, the fact that the vernal month of March was
dedicated to Mars seems to point him out as the deity
of the sprouting vegetation. Thus the Roman custom
of expelling the old Mars at the beginning of the
New Year in spring is identical with the Slavonic
custom of "carrying out Death," if the view here
taken of the latter custom is correct. The simil-
arity of the Roman and Slavonic customs has been
already remarked by scholars, who appear, however, to
have taken Mamurius Veturius and the corresponding
figures in the Slavonic ceremonies to be representatives
of the old year rather than of the old god of vegeta-
tion.^ It is possible that ceremonies of this kind may
have come to be thus interpreted in later times even
by the people who practised them. But the personifi-
cation of a period of time is too abstract an idea to
be primitive. However, in the Roman, as in the
Slavonic, ceremony, the representative of the god
appears to have been treated not only as a deity of
vegetation but also as a scapegoat. His expulsion
implies this ; for there is no reason why the god of vege-
tation, as such, should be expelled the city. But it is
otherwise if he is also a scapegoat ; it then becomes
necessary to drive him beyond the boundaries, that he
may carry his sorrowful burden away to other lands.
And, in fact, Mamurius Veturius appears to have been

1 Cato, De agri cult. 83. 49 ; Usener, op. cit. The ceremony

2 Above, vol. i. p. 70 sqq. p. 105 sq. also closely resembles the Highland

3 Preller, Rbmische Mythologie,^ i. New Year ceremony described above,
360; Rosscher, Apollon und Mars, p. p. 145 sq.

VOL. II P

HUMAN SCAPEGOATS

driven away to the land of the Oscans, the enemies
of Rome.^

The ancient Greeks were also familiar with the use
of a human scapegoat. At Plutarch's native town of
Chaeronea in Boeotia, there was a ceremony of this kind
performed by the chief magistrate at the Town Hall, and
by each householder at his own home. It was called
the "expulsion of hunger." A slave was beaten with

1 Propertius, v. 2, 61 sq. ; Usener,
op. cit. p. 210. One of the functions
of the Salii or dancing priests, who
during March went up and down the
city dancing, singing, and clashing their
swords against their shields (Livy, i.
20 ; Plutarch, Numa, 13 ; Dionysius
Halicarn. Aiitiq. ii. 70) may have
been to rout out the evils or demons
from all parts of the city, as a prepara-
tion for transferring them to the scape-
goat Mamurius Veturius. Similarly,
as we have seen (above, p. 194 sq.),
among the Iroquois, men in fantastic
costume went about collecting the sins
of the people as a preliminary to trans-
ferring them to the scapegoat dogs.
We have had many examples of armed
men rushing about the streets and houses
to drive out demons and evils of all
kinds. The blows which were showered
on Mamurius Veturius seem to have
been administered by the Salii (Servius
on Virgil, Aen. vii. 188 ; Minucius
Felix, 24, 3 ; Preller, Rom. Myth."^
i. 360, 7iote I ; Rosscher, Apolloit iind
Mars, p. 49). The reason for beating
the scapegoat will be explained pre-
sently. As priests of Mars, the god of
agriculture, the Salii probably had also
certain agricultural functions. They
were named from the remarkable leaps
which they made. Now dancing and
leaping high are common sympathetic
charms to make the crops grow high.
See Peter, Volks/humliches aiis Oester-
reichisch Schlesicn, ii. 266 ; E. Meier,
Deutsche Sagen, Sit ten utid Gebriitiche
aiis Schwahen, p. 499, No. 333 ; Reins-
berg- Diiringsfeld, Fest - Kalender aus
Bohmen, p. 49 ; O. Knoop, Volkssa^en,
etc., aus detn ostlichen Hinterpommem,

p. 176, No. 197 ; E. Sommer, Sagen,
Mdyxhen tatd Gebrduche aus Sachsen
und Thiiringen, p. 148 ; Witzschel,
Sagen, Sitteti tind Gebrduche aus Thiir-
ingen, p. 190, No. 13 ; Woeste, Volks-
iiberlieferungeti in der Grafschaft Mark,
p. 56 ; Bavaria, ii. 298 ; id., iv. Abth.
ii. pp. 379, 382 ; Heinrich, Agrarische
Sitten u. Gebrduche unter den Sachsen
Siebenbiirgens, p. 1 1 sq. ; Schulenberg,
Wendische Volkssagen tutd Gebrduche,
p. 252 ; Wuttke, Der deutsche Volks-
aberglaube,'^ § 657 ; Jahn, Die deutsche
Opfergebrduche bei Ackerbau nnd Vieh-
zucht, p. 194 sq. ; cp. Schott, Walach-
ische iMdhrchen, p. 301 sq. ; Gerard,
The Land beyond the Forest, i. 264 ;
Cieza de Leon, Travels (Hakluyt Soc.
1864), p. 413. Was it one of the
functions of the Salii to dance and leap
on the helds at the spring or autumn
sowing, or at both? The dancing pro-
cessions of the Salii took place in
October as well as in March (Mar-
quardt, Sacralwesen,^ p. ^'^6 sq.), and
the Romans sowed both in spring and
autumn (Columella, ii. 9, 6 sq^ In
their song the Salii mentioned Saturnus
or Saeturnus the god of sowing (Festus,
p. 325, ed. Miiller. Saeturnus is an
emendation of Ritschl's. See Words-
worth, Fragynents and Specimens of
Early Latin, p. 405). The weapons
borne by the Salii, while effective
against demons in general, may have
been especially directed against the
demons who steal the seed corn or the
ripe grain. Compare the Khond and
Hindoo Koosh customs described
above, p. 173. In Western Africa the
field labours of tilling and sowing are
sometimes accompanied by dances of

IN ANCIENT GREECE

211

rods of the agnus castus, and turned out of doors with
the words, " Out with hunger, and in with wealth and
health." When Plutarch held the office of chief magis-
trate of his native town he performed this ceremony at
the Town Hall, and he has recorded the discussion to
which the custom afterwards gave rise.^ The ceremony
closely resembles the Japanese, Hindoo, and Highland
customs already described,^

armed men on the field. See Labat,
Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais en
Guinee, Isles voisines, et a Cayenne, ii.
p. 99 of the Paris ed., p. 80 of the
Amsterdam ed. ; Olivier de Sanderval,
De VAtlantique an Niger par le Fotclah-
Djallon (Paris, 1883), p. 230. In
Calicut (Southern India) "they plough
the land with oxen as we do, and when
they sow the rice in the field they have
all the instruments of the city continu-
ally sounding and making merry. They
also have ten or twelve men clothed
like devils, and these unite in making
great rejoicing with the players on the
instruments, in order that the devil
may make that rice very productive."
Varthema, Travels (Hakluyt Soc.
1863), p. 166 sq. The resemblance
of the Salii to the sword -dancers of
northern Europe has been pointed out
by K. Miillenhoff, "Ueberden Schwert-
tanz," in Festgaben fiir Gustav Homeyer
(Berlin, 1871). In England the Morris
Dancers who accompanied the proces-
sion of the plough through the streets
on Plough Monday (the first Monday
after Twelfth Day) sometimes wore
swords (Brand, Fopidar Antiquities,
i. 505, Bohn's ed.), and sometimes
they " wore small bunches of corn in
their hats, from which the wheat was
soon shaken out by the ungainly jump-
ing which they called dancing. . . .
Bessy rattled his box and danced so
high that he showed his worsted stock-
ings and corduroy breeches." Chambers,
Book of Days, i. 94. It is to be observed
that in the "Lord of Misrule," who
reigned from Christmas till Twelfth
Night (see Brand, Popular Antiquities,
i. 497 sqq.), we have a clear trace of

one of those periods of general licence
and suspension of ordinary government
which so commonly occur at the end
of the old year or beginning of the
new one in connection with a general
expulsion of evils. The fact that this
period of licence immediately preceded
the procession of the Morris Dancers
on Plough Monday seems to indicate
that the functions of these dancers
were like those which I have attributed
to the Salii. But the parallel cannot
be drawn out here. Cp. meantime
Dyer, British Popular Customs, pp.
31, 39. The Salii were said to have
been founded by Morrius, King of
Veii (Servius on Virgil, Aen. viii. 285).
Morrius seems to be etymologically the
same with Mamuriusa.nCi Mars(\]%ex\tx,
Italische Mythen, p. 213). Can the
English Morris (in Alorris dancers) be
the same? Analogy suggests that at
Rome the Saturnalia, which fell in
December when the Roman year began
in January, may have been cele-
brated in February when the Roman
year began in March. Thus at Rome,
as in so many places, the public ex-
pulsion of evils at the New Year would
be preceded by a period of general
licence, such as the Saturnalia was. A
trace of the former celebration of the
Saturnalia in February or the beginning
of March may perhaps be seen in the
Matronalia, celebrated on 1st March,
at which mistresses feasted their slaves,
just as masters feasted theirs at the Sa-
turnalia. Macrobius, Saturn, i. 12, 7 ;
Solinus, i. 35, p. 13, ed. Mommsen ;
Joannes Lydus, De tnensibus, iii. 15.

1 Plutarch, Quaest. Conviv. vi. 8.

2 See above, pp. 176, 194.

HUMAN SCAPEGOATS

But in civilised Greece the custom of the scapegoat
took darker forms than the innocent rite over which
the amiable and pious Plutarch presided. Whenever
Marseilles, one of the busiest and most brilliant of Greek
colonies, was ravaged by a plague, a man of the poorer
classes used to offer himself as a scapegoat. For a
whole year he was maintained at the public expense,
being fed on choice and pure food. At the expiry of
the year he was dressed in sacred garments, decked
with holybranches, and led through the whole city, while
prayers were uttered that all the evils of the people
might fall on his head. He was then cast out of the
city.^ The Athenians regularly maintained a number
of degraded and useless beings at the public expense ;
and when any calamity, such as plague, drought, or
famine befell the city, they sacrificed two of these out-
casts as scapegoats. One of the victims was sacrificed
for the men and the other for the women. The former
wore round his neck a string of black, the latter a
string of white figs. Sometimes, it seems, the victim
slain on behalf of the women was a woman. They were
led about the city and then sacrificed, apparently by
being stoned to death outside the city." But such
sacrifices were not confined to extraordinary occasions
of public calamity ; it appears that every year, at the
festival of the Thargelia in May, two victims, one for
the men and one for the women, were led out of Athens
and stoned to death. ^

1 Servius on Virgil, Acii. iii. 57, That they were stoned is an inference
from Petronius. from Harpocration. See next note.

2 Helladius, in Photius, Bibliotheca, ^ Harpocration, s.v. (papfxaKos, who
p. 534 A, ed. Bekker ; Schol. on Aristo- says 5vo dv8pas 'Xd-qv-qaLv i^rjyov
phanes, Frogs, 734, and on Knights, Kaddpaia eao/xevovs Ttjs TriXews ev tois
1 1 36; Hesychius, s.v. (papfiaKoi ; QapyqXloLs, 'iva fih inrep tQiv iv^pHbv, 'iva
cp. Suidas, s.vv. Kddap/j.a, 4>apfi.aK6s, 5^ i;7r^p tQv yvvaiKuiv. He does not
and 4>apfiaKovs ; Lysias, Orat. vi. 53. expressly state that they were put to

IN ANCIENT GREECE 213

From the Lover's Leap, a white bluff at the
southern end of their island, the Leucadians used
annually to hurl a criminal into the sea as a scape-
goat. But to lighten his fall they fastened live birds
and feathers to him, and a flotilla of small boats waited
below to catch him and convey him beyond the bound-
ary/ Doubtless these humane precautions were a
mitigation of an earlier custom of flinging the scapegoat
into the sea to drown. The custom of the scapegoat
as practised by the Greeks of Asia Minor in the sixth
century B.C. was as follows. When a city suffered
from plague, famine, or other public calamity, an ugly
or deformed person was chosen to take upon himself
all the evils by which the city was afflicted. He
was brought to a suitable place where dried figs, a
barley loaf, and cheese were put into his hand. These
he ate. Then he was beaten seven times upon his
genital organs with squills and branches of the wild
fig and other wild trees. Afterwards he was burned
on a pyre constructed of the wood of forest trees ; and
his ashes were cast into the sea." A similar custom
appears to have been annually celebrated by the Asiatic
Greeks at the harvest festival of the Thargelia.^

In the ritual just described the beating of the
victim with squills, branches of the wild fig, etc.,
cannot have been intended to aggravate his sufferings,
otherwise any stick would have been good enough to

death ; but as he says that the cere- the edge of the cliff, sometimes flung

mony was an imitation of the execution themselves down in this way.

of a mythical Pharmacus who was stoned 2 Xzetzes, Chiliades, v. 726-761.

to death, we may infer that the victims Tzetzes's authority is the satyrical poet

were killed by being stoned. Suidas Hipponax.

{sv. <pdpfj.aKos) copies Harpocration. ^ This may be inferred from the verse

1 Strabo, x. 2, 9. I do not know of Hipponax, quoted by Athenaeus,

what authority Wordsworth {Greece, 370 B, where for (pap/j-aKov we should

Pictorial, Historical, and Descriptive, perhaps read (papfiaKov with Schneide-

p. 354) has for saying that the priests win {Poelae lyr. Gr.^ ed. Bergk, ii.

of Apollo, whose temple stood near 763).

214 BEATING THE

beat him with. The true meaning of this part of the
ceremony has been explained by W. Mannhardt/ He
points out that the ancients attributed to squills a
magical power of averting evil influences, and accord-
ingly hung them up at the doors of their houses and
made use of them in purificatory rites.^ Hence the
Arcadian custom of beating the image of Pan with
squills at a festival or whenever the hunters returned
empty-handed,^ must have been meant, not to punish
the god, but to purify him from the harmful influences
which were impeding him in the exercise of his divine
functions as a god who should supply the hunter with
game. Similarly the object of beating the human
scapegoat on the genital organs with squills, etc., must
have been to release his reproductive energies from
any restraint or spell under which they might be laid
by demoniacal or other malignant agency ; and as the
Thargelia at which he was annually sacrificed was an
early harvest festival,'' we must recognise in him a
representative of the creative and fertilising god of
vegetation. The representative of the god was
annually slain for the purpose I have indicated, that
of maintaining the divine life in perpetual vigour,
untainted by the weakness of age ; and before he was
put to death it was not unnatural to stimulate his
reproductive powers in order that these might be
transmitted in full activity to his successor, the new
god or new embodiment of the old god, who was
doubdess supposed immediately to take the place of

1 See his Mytholog. Forschnngcn, p. 3 Theocritus, vii. io6 sqq. with the

"3 -f-?^-. especially 123 sq. 133. scholiast.

^ Pliny, Nat. Hist. xx. loi ;
Dioscorides, De mat. med. ii. 202 ; ■» Cp. Aug. Mommsen, Hcortologie,

Lucian, Necyom. 7; id., Alexander, a,\^ sqq.; W. Mannhardt, A. IV. F. p.

47; T\i^o^\\x7)&\.\x%, Stiperstitious Man. 215.

DIVINE SCAPEGOA T 215

the one slain. ^ Similar reasoning would lead to a
similar treatment of the scapegoat on special occasions,
such as drought or famine. If the crops did not
answer to the expectation of the husbandman, this
would be attributed to some failure in the generative
powers of the god whose function it was to produce
the fruits of the earth. It might be thought he was
under a spell or was growing old and feeble. Accord-
ingly he was slain in the person of his representative,
with all the ceremonies already described, in order
that, born young again, he might infuse his own
youthful vigour into the stagnant energies of nature.
On the same principle we can understand why
Mamurius Veturius was beaten with rods, why the
slave at the Chaeronean ceremony was beaten with
the agims castus (a tree to which magical properties
were ascribed),^ why the effigy of Death in north
Europe is assailed with sticks and stones, and why at
Babylon the criminal who played the god was scourged
before he was crucified. The purpose of the scourg-
ing was not to intensify the agony of the divine
sufferer, but on the contrary to dispel any malignant
influences by which at the supreme moment he might
conceivably be beset.

The interpretation here given to the custom of
beating the human scapegoat with certain plants
Is supported by many analogies. With the same
intention some of the Brazilian Indians beat them-
selves on the genital organs with an aquatic plant,
the white anmga, three days before or after the new

1 At certain sacrifices in Yucatan Bourbourg (Paris, 1864) p. 167. Was

blood was drawn from the genitals of a the original intention of this rite to

human victim and smeared on the face transfuse into the god a fresh supply of

of the idol. De Landa, Relation des reproductive energy ?
choses de Yucatan, ed. Brasseur de - Aelian, Nat. Anim. ix. 26.

2i6 BEATING PEOPLE

inoon.^ We have already had examples of the custom
of beating sick people with the leaves of certain plants
or with branches in order to rid them of the noxious
influences.^ At the autumn festival in Peru people
used to strike each other with torches saying, " Let all
harm go away."^ Indians of the Ouixos, in South
America, before they set out on a long hunting
expedition, cause their wives to whip them with
nettles, believing that this renders them fleeter and
helps them to overtake the peccaries. They resort to
the same proceeding as a cure for sickness.* At Mowat
in New Guinea small boys are beaten lightly with
sticks during December " to make them grow strong
and hardy." ^ In Central Europe a similar custom is
very commonly observed in spring. On the ist of
March the Albanians strike men and beasts with
cornel branches, believing that this is very good for
their health.^ On Good Friday and the two previous
days people in Croatia and Slavonia take rods with
them to church, and when the service is over they beat
each other "fresh and healthy."^ In some parts of
Russia people returning from the church on Palm
Sunday beat the children and servants who have stayed
at home with palm branches, saying, " Sickness into
the forest, health into the bones." ^ In Germany the
custom is widely known as Sc/wzeckostern, being
observed at Eastertide. People beat each other,

1 De Santa -Anna Nery, Folk-lore eqiiatoriali lungo il Napo ed il Jiume
Bresilien (Paris, 1889) p. 253. delle Amazzo}ii {W\\zxi, 1854), p. 118.

2 Above, pp. \\% sq. 187. Compare ^ Ed. Beardmore, Anthropological
Plutarch, Paralhla, 35, where a woman Notes collected at Mowat, Dandai, New
is represented as going from house to Guinea (1888) (in manuscript),
housestriking sick people with a hammer ^ Hahn, Albaiiesische Stitdien, i.
and bidding them be whole. 155.

3 Acosta, History of the Indies, ii. 7 F. S. Krauss, A'roatien tmd
375 (Hakluyt Soc. ) See above, p. 169. .S/aew;?t'« (Vienna, 1889), p. 108.

* Osculati, Esplorazione delle regioni » w^ Mannhardt, B. K. p. 257.

AS A CHARM 217

especially with fresh green twigs of the birch. The
beating is supposed to bring good luck ; the person
beaten will, it is believed, be free of vermin during
the summer, or will have no pains in his back or his
legs for a year,^

If the view here taken of the Greek scapegoat is
correct, it obviates an objection which might other-
wise be brought against the main argument of this
chapter. To the theory that the priest of Nemi was
slain as a representative of the spirit of the grove, it
might have been objected that such a custom has no
analogy in classical antiquity. But reasons have
now been given for believing that the human being
periodically and occasionally slain by the Asiatic
Greeks was regularly treated as an embodiment of a
divinity. Probably the persons whom the Athenians
kept to be sacrificed were similarly treated as divine.
That they were social outcasts did not matter. On
the primitive view a man is not chosen to be the
mouth-piece or embodiment of a god on account of his
high moral qualities or social standing. The divine
afflatus descends equally on the good and the bad, the
lofty and the lowly. If then the civilised Greeks of
Asia and Athens habitually sacrificed men whom they
regarded as incarnate gods, there can be no inherent
improbability In the supposition that at the dawn of
history a similar custom was observed by the semi-
barbarous Latins in the Arician Grove.

1 W. Mannhardt, 5. A', p. 258-263. pp. 251-303, and Myth. Forsch. pp.
See his whole discussion of such customs, 1 1 3" 1 53-

2i8 INCARNATE GODS

§ 1 6. — Killing the god in Mexico

But the religion of ancient Mexico, as it was found
and described by the Spanish conquerors in the six-
teenth century, offers perhaps the closest parallels to
the rule of the Arician priesthood, as I conceive that
rule to have been originally observed. Certainly
nowhere does the custom of killing the human repre-
sentative of a god appear to have been carried out
so systematically and on so extensive a scale as in
Mexico. "They tooke a captive," says Acosta,
" such as they thought good ; and afore they did
sacrifice him unto their idolls, they gave him the
name of the idoll, to whom hee should be sacrificed,
and apparelled him with the same ornaments like
their idoll, saying that he did represent the same idoll.
And during the time that this representation lasted,
which was for a yeere in some feasts, in others six
moneths, and in others lesse, they reverenced and
worshipped him in the same maner as the proper
idoll ; and in the meane time he did eate, drincke, and
was merry. When hee went through the streetes the
people came forth to worship him, and every one
brought him an almes, with children and sicke folkes,
that he might cure them, and bless them, suffering him
to doe all things at his pleasure, onely hee was accom-
panied with tenne or twelve men lest he should flie.
And he (to the end he might be reverenced as he
passed) sometimes sounded upon a small flute, that
the people might prepare to worship him. The feast
being come, and hee growne fatte, they killed him,
opened him, and eat him, making a solempne sacrifice

SLA IN IN MEXICO 2 1 9

of him."' For example, at the annual festival of the
great god Tezcatlipoca, which fell about Easter or a
few days later, a young man was chosen to be the
living image of Tezcatlipoca for a whole year. He
had to be of unblemished body, and he was carefully
trained to sustain his lofty role with becoming grace
and dignity. During the year he was lapped in luxury,
and the kincr himself took care that the future victim
was apparelled in gorgeous attire, "for already he
esteemed him as a god." Attended by eight pages
clad in the royal livery, the young man roamed the
streets of the capital day and night at his pleasure,
carrying flowers and playing the flute. All who
saw him fell on their knees before him and adored
him, and he graciously acknowledged their homage.
Twenty days before the festival at which he was
to be sacrificed, four damsels, delicately nurtured,
and bearing the names of four goddesses, were given
him to be his brides. For five days before the
sacrifice divine honours were showered on him more
abundantly than ever. The king remained in his
palace, while the whole court went after the destined
victim. Everywhere there were solemn banquets
and balls. On the last day the young man, still
attended by his pages, was ferried across the lake in
a covered barge to a small and lonely temple, which,
like the Mexican temples in general, rose in the form
of a pyramid. As he ascended the stairs of the temple
he broke at every step one of the flutes on which he
had played in the days of his glory. On reaching
the summit he was seized and held down on a block of
stone, while a priest cut open his breast with a stone
knife, and plucking out his heart, offered it to the sun.

1 Acosta, History of the Indies, ii. 323 (Hakluyt Soc. i

IXCARXATE GODS

His head was hung among the skulls of previous
victims, and his legs and arms were cooked and pre-
pared for the table of the lords. His place was
immediately filled up by another young man, who for
a year was treated with the same profound respect,
and at the end of it shared the same fate.^

The idea that the god thus slain in the person of
his representative comes to life again immediately, was
graphically represented in the Mexican ritual by
skinning the slain man-god and clothing in his skin a
living man, who thus became the new representative
of the godhead. Thus at an annual festival a woman
was sacrificed who represented Toci or the ]\I other
of the Gods. She was dressed with the ornaments,
and bore the name of the goddess, whose living
imap^e she was believed to be. After being;' feasted
and diverted with sham fights for several days, she
was taken at midnight to the summit of a temple, and
beheaded on the shoulders of a man. The body was
immediately flayed, and one of the priests, clothing
himself in the skin, became the representative of the
goddess Toci. The skin of the woman's thigh was
removed separately, and a young man who represented
the god Cinteotl, the son of the goddess Toci, wrapt
it round his face like a mask. \'arious ceremonies
then followed, in which the two men, clad in the
woman's skin, played the parts respectively of the god
and goddess.- Again, at the annual festival of the

1 Sahagun, Histoire des choses de la senting deities and slain in that char-

Noicvelle Espagm (Paris, 1880), pp. acter, see Sahagun, pp. 75, 116 sq.,

61 sq., 96-99, 103; Acosta, History 123, 158 sq., 164 sq., 585 sqq., 589;

of the Indies, ii. 350 sq.% Clavigero, Acosta, ii. 384 sqq.; Clavigero, i.

History of Mexico, trans, by CuUen, i. 312 ; Bancroft, li. 325 sqq., 337 sq.
300 ; Bancroft, Native Races of the

Pacific States, ii. 319 sq. For other - Sahagun, pp. 18 sq., b% sq., 133-

Mexican instances of persons repre- 139; Bancroft, iii. 353-359.

SLAIN IN MEXICO

god Totec, a number of captives having been killed
and skinned, a priest clothed himself in one of their
skins, and thus became the image of the god Totec.
Then wearing the ornaments of the god — a crown of
feathers, golden necklaces and ear-rings, scarlet shoes,
etc. — he was enthroned, and received offerings of the
first fruits and first flowers of the season, together with
bunches of the maize which had been kept for seed.^
Every fourth year the Ouauhtitlans offered sacrifices
in honour of the god of fire. On the eve of the
festival they sacrificed two slaves, skinned them, and
took out their thigh bones. Next day two priests
clothed themselves in the skins, took the bones in
their hands, and with solemn steps and dismal howl-
ings descended the stairs of the temple. The people,
who were assembled in crowds below, called out,
" Behold, there come our gods." -

Thus it appears that human sacrifices of the sort I
suppose to have prevailed at Aricia were, as a matter
of fact, systematically offered on a large scale by a
people whose level of culture was probably not
inferior, if Indeed it was not distinctly superior, to that
occupied by the Italian races at the early period to
which the origin of the Arician priesthood must be
referred. The positive and indubitable evidence of
the prevalence of such sacrifices in one part of the
world may reasonably be allowed to strengthen the
probability of their prevalence in places for which the
evidence is less full and trustworthy. Taken all
together, the evidence affords a fair presumption that
the custom of killing men whom their worshippers

1 Sahagun, p. 584 sq. For this festival see also id. pp. 37 sq. 58 sq. 60,
87 sqq. 93 ; Clavigero, i. 297 ; Baticroft, ii. 306 sqq.

2 Clavigero, i. 283.

KILLING THE GOD

regard as divine has prevailed in many parts of the
world. Whether the general explanation which I
have offered of that custom is adequate, and whether
the rule that the priest of Aricia had to die a violent
death is, as I have tried to show, a particular instance
of the general custom, are questions which I must now
leave to the judgment of the reader.

CHAPTER IV

THE GOLDEN BOUGH
" Und griin des Lebens goldner Baum." — Faust.

§ I , — Between heaven and earth

At the outset of this book two questions were proposed
for answer ; Why had the priest of Nemi (Aricia) to
slay his predecessor ? And why, before doing so,
had he to pluck the Golden Bough ? Of these two
questions the first has now been answered. The
priest of Nemi, if I am right, embodied in himself
the spirit, primarily, of the woods and, secondarily, of
vegetable life in general. Hence, according as he
was well or ill, the woods, the flowers, and the fields
were believed to flourish or fade ; and if he were to
die of sickness or old age, the plant world, it was
supposed, would simultaneously perish. Therefore
it was necessary that this priest of the woodlands, this
sylvan deity incarnate in a man, should be put to
death while he was still in the full bloom of his
divine manhood, in order that his sacred life, trans-
mitted in unabated force to his successor, might renew
its youth, and thus by successive transmissions through
a perpetual line of vigorous incarnations might remain
eternally fresh and young, a pledge and security that

224 ^'0T TO TOUCH THE GROUND chap.

the buds and blossoms of spring, the verdure of sum-
mer woods, and the mellow glories of autumn would
never fail.

But we have still to ask. What was the Golden
Bough ? and why had each candidate for the Arician
priesthood to pluck it before he could slay the priest ?
These questions I will now try to answer.

It will be well to begin by noticing two of those
rules or taboos by which, as we have seen, the life of
divine kings or priests is regulated. The first of the
rules to which I desire to call the reader's attention is
that the divine personage may not touch the ground
with his foot. This rule was observed by the Mikado
of Japan and by the supreme pontiff of the Zapotecs
in Mexico. The latter "profaned his sanctity if he so
much as touched the ground with his foot." ^ For the
Mikado to touch the ground with his foot was a
shameful degradation ; indeed, in the sixteenth century,
it was enough to deprive him of his office. Outside
his palace he was carried on men's shoulders ; within
it he walked on exquisitely wrought mats.^ The king
and queen of Tahiti might not touch the ground
anywhere but within their hereditary domains ; for
the ground on which they trod became sacred. In
travelling from place to place they were carried on
the shoulders of sacred men. They were always
accompanied by several pairs of these sacred men ; and
when it became necessary to change their bearers, the
king and queen vaulted on to the shoulders of their
new bearers without letting their feet touch the

^ Bancroft, Native Races of the Descriptio regni Japoniae, p. 1 1 ; Caron,
Pacific States, \i. 142. "Account of Japan," in Pinkerton's

Voyages and Travels, vii. 613 ;

2 Memorials of Japan (Hakluyt Kaempfer, " History of Japan," in ?V/.^
Society, 1850), pp. 14, 141; Varenius, vii. 716.

IV NOT TO SEE THE SUN 225

ground/ It was an evil omen if the king of Dosuma
touched the ground, and he had to perform an
expiatory ceremony.^ The king of Persia was never
seen on foot outside his palace,^

The second rule to be here noted is that the sun may
not shine upon the divine person. This rule was ob-
served both by the Mikado and by the pontiff of the
Zapotecs. The latter "was looked upon as a god whom
the earth was not worthy to hold, nor the sun to shine
upon." * The Japanese would not allow that the Mikado
" should expose his sacred person to the open air, and
the sun is not thought worthy to shine on his head." ^
The heir to the throne of Bogota in Colombia, South
America, had to undergo a severe training from the
age of sixteen ; he lived in complete retirement in a
temple, where he might not see the sun nor eat salt
nor converse with a woman. ^ The heir to the kingdom
of Sogamoso in Colombia, before succeeding to the
crown, had to fast for seven years in the temple, being
shut up in the dark and not allowed to see the sun or
light.^ The prince who was to become Inca of Peru
had to fast for a month without seeing light. ^

Now it is remarkable that these two rules — not to
touch the ground and not to see the sun — are observed
either separately or conjointly by girls at puberty in

1 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, iii. nimquam illustrabatur : in apertum
102 sq. ed. 1836 ; James Wilson, aerem tion procedeliat."

Missiojtary Voyage to the Southern ^ Waitz, Anthropologie der Natur-

Pacific Ocean, p. 329. v'dlker, iv. 359.

2 Bastian, Der Mensch in der '' Alonzo de Zurita, "Rapport sur
Geschichte iii 81 '^^ differentes classes de chefs de la

3 Athenaeus, 514 c. Nouvelle-Espagne," p. 30 in Ternaux-

■^ Compans s Voyages, Relations et

Bancroft, I.e. Metnoires originaux (Paris, 1840) ;

^ Kaempfer, " History of Japan," in Waitz, /.c; Bastian, Z?/« Culturldnder

Pinkerton's Voyages and Ti-avels, vii. des alien Amerika, ii. 204.
717; Caron, "Account of Japan," ^ (Zxqzz. A^ l^zow. Second Part of the

id. vii. 613 ; Varenius, Descriptio regni Chronicle of Peru (Hakluyt Soc. 1883),

Japoniae, p. ir, " Radiis soils caput p. 18.

VOL. II Q

226 GIRLS SECLUDED chap.

many parts of the world. Thus amongst the negroes
of Loango girls at puberty are confined in separate
huts, and they may not touch the ground with any
part of their bare body.^ Amongst the Zulus and
kindred tribes of South Africa, when the first signs
of puberty show themselves " while a girl is walking,
gathering wood, or working in the field, she runs to
the river and hides herself amonof the reeds for the
day so as not to be seen by men. She covers her
head carefully with her blanket that the sun may not
shine on it and shrivel her up into a withered skeleton,
assured result from exposure to the sun's beams.
After dark she returns to her home and is secluded "
in a hut for some time.'^

In New Ireland girls are confined for four or five
years in small cages, being kept in the dark and not
allowed to set foot on the ground. The custom has
been thus described by an eye-witness. " I heard
from a teacher about some strange custom connected
with some of the young girls here, so I asked the
chief to take me to the house where they were. The
house was about twenty-five feet in length, and stood
in a reed and bamboo enclosure, across the entrance
to which a bundle of dried grass was suspended
to show that it was strictly 'tabu! Inside the house
were three conical structures about seven or eieht
feet in height, and about ten or twelve feet in cir-
cumference at the bottom, and for about four feet
from the ground, at which point they tapered off to a
point at the top. These cages were made of the
broad leaves of the pandanus-tree, sewn quite close

1 Pechuel-Loesche, " Indiscretes aus 2 Rev. James Macdonald (Reay Free

'Lozin^o," Zeilschnft fiir Elknologie, x. Manse, Caithness), Manners, Customs,
(1S78) 23. Superstitions, and Religions of Soiii/i

African Tribes (in manuscript).

AT PUBERTY 227

together so that no light, and Httle or no air could
enter. On one side of each is an opening which is
closed by a double door of plaited cocoa-nut tree and
pandanus-tree leaves. About three feet from the
ground there is a stage of bamboos which forms the
floor. In each of these cages we were told there was
a young woman confined, each of whom had to
remain for at least four or five years, without ever
being allowed to go outside the house. I could
scarcely credit the story when I heard it ; the whole
thing seemed too horrible to be true. I spoke to the
chief, and told him that I wished to see the inside of
the cages, and also to see the girls that I might make
them a present of a few beads. He told me that it was
' tabit,' forbidden for any men but their own relations
to look at them ; but I suppose the promised beads
acted as an inducement, and so he sent away for some
old lady who had charge, and who alone is allowed to
open the doors. . . . She had to undo the door when
the chief told her to do so, and then the girls peeped
out at us, and, when told to do so, they held out their
hands for the beads. I, however, purposely sat at some
distance away and merely held out the beads to them,
as I wished to draw them quite outside, that I might
inspect the inside of the cages. This desire of mine
gave rise to another difficulty, as these girls were not
allowed to put their feet to the ground all the time
they were confined in these places. However, they
wished to get the beads, and so the old lady had to go
outside and collect a lot of pieces of wood and bamboo,
which she placed on the ground, and then going to one
of the girls, she helped her down and held her hand as
she stepped from one piece of wood to another until
she came near enough to get the beads I held out to

GIRLS SECLUDED

her. I then went to inspect the inside of the cage out
of which she had come, but could scarcely put my head
inside of it, the atmosphere was so hot and stifling.
It was clean and contained nothing but a few short
lengths of bamboo for holding water. There was
only room for the girl to sit or lie down in a
crouched position on the bamboo platform, and when
the doors are shut it must be nearly or quite dark
inside. The girls are never allowed to come out except
once a day to bathe in a dish or wooden bowl placed
close to each cage. They say that they perspire
profusely. They are placed in these stifling cages
when quite young, and must remain there until they
are young women, when they are taken out and have
each a great marriage feast provided for them." ^

In some parts of New Guinea " daughters of chiefs,
when they are about twelve or thirteen years of age,
are kept indoors for two or three years, never being
allowed, under any pretence, to descend from the
house, and the house is so shaded that the sun cannot

1 The Rev. G. Brown, quoted by idle. This distinction is sometimes

the Rev. B. Danks, "Marriage Customs expressly stated; for example, among

of the New Britain Group," Journ. the Goajiras of Colombia rich people

Anthrop. Institute, xviii. 284 sq. ; cp. keep their daughters shut up in

Rev. G. Brown, "Notes on the Duke separate huts at puberty for periods

of York Group, New Britain, and New varying from one to four years, but

Ireland," Joitni. Royal Geogr. Soc. poor people cannot afford to do so for

xlvii. (1877) p. 142 sq. Powell's more than a fortnight or a month,

description of the New Ireland cus- F. A. Simons, " An exploration of the

iovci vs, •ivix\\\'ax {Wanderings in a Wild Goajira Peninsula," Proceed. Royal

Country, p. 249). According to him Geogr. Soc. N. S. vii. (1885) p. 791.

the girls wear wreaths of scented herbs In Fiji, brides who were being tattooed

round the waist and neck ; an old were kept from the sun. Williams,

woman or a little child occupies the Fiji and the Fijians, i. 170. This

lower floor of the cage : and the con- was perhaps a modification of the

finement lasts only a month. Probably Melanesian custom of secluding girls

the long period mentioned by Mr. at puberty. The reason mentioned

Brown is that prescribed for chiefs' by Mr. Williams, "to improve her

daughters. Poor people could not complexion," can hardly have been the

afford to keep their children so long original one.

AT PUBERTY 229

shine on them."^ Among the Ot Danoms of Borneo
girls at the age of eight or ten years are shut up in a
Httle room or cell of the house and cut off from all
intercourse with the world for a long time. The cell,
like the rest of the house, is raised on piles above the
ground, and is lit by a single small window opening on
a lonely place, so that the girl is in almost total dark-
ness. She may not leave the room on any pretext
whatever, not even for the most necessary purposes.
None of her family may see her all the time she is shut
up, but a single slave woman is appointed to wait on
her. During her lonely confinement, which often lasts
seven years, the girl occupies herself in weaving mats
or with other handiwork. Her bodily growth is
stunted by the long want of exercise, and when, on
attaining womanhood, she is brought out, her com-
plexion is pale and wax-like. She is now shown the
sun, the earth, the water, the trees, and the flowers, as
if she were newly born. Then a great feast is made,
a slave is killed, and the girl is smeared with his
blood.2 In Ceram girls at puberty were formerly shut
up by themselves in a hut which was kept dark.^

Amongst the Aht Indians of Vancouver Island,
when girls reach puberty they are placed in a sort
of gallery in the house "and are there surrounded
completely with mats, so that neither the sun nor any
fire can be seen. In this cage they remain for several
days. Water is given them, but no food. The
longer a girl remains in this retirement the greater

1 Chalmers and Gill, Work and 632 sq. ; Otto Finsch, Neu Gidnea nnd
Adventure in Nezu Gtnnea, p. 159. sei7ie Bewohner, p. 1 16.

2 Schwaner, Borneo, Beschrijving

van het stroomgebied van den Barito, ^ Riedel, De shtik-en kroesharige

etc. ii. 77 sq.; Zimmerman, Die Inseln rassen tiisschen Selebes en Papua, p.

des Indischen und Stillen Meeres, ii. 138.

GIRLS SECLUDED

honour is it to the parents ; but she is disgraced for
life if it is known that she has seen fire or the sun
during this initiatory ordeal."^ Amongst the Thhnkeet
or Kolosh Indians of Alaska, when a girl shows
signs of womanhood she is shut up in a little hut
or cage, which is completely blocked up with the
exception of a small air-hole. In this dark and
filthy abode she had formerly to remain a year,
without fire, exercise, or associates. Her food was put
in at the small window ; she had to drink out of the
wing-bone of a white-headed eagle. The time has
now been reduced, at least in some places, to six
months. The girl has to wear a sort of hat with
long flaps, that her gaze may not pollute the sky ;
for she is thought unfit for the sun to shine upon,^
Amongst the Koniags, an Esquimaux people of
Alaska, girls at puberty were placed in small huts
in which they had to remain on their hands and
knees for six months ; then the hut was enlarged
enough to let them kneel upright, and they had
to remain in this posture for six months more.^

When symptoms of puberty appeared on a girl for
the first time, the Indians of the Rio de la Plata

1 Sproat, Scenes and Studies of of American Folk-lore, i. 169. For
Savage Life, p. 93 sq. caps, hoods, and veils worn by girls at

2 Erman, " Ethnographische Wahr- such seasons, compare G. H. Loskiel,
nehmungen u. Erfahrungen an den History of the Mission of the United
Kiisten des Barings- Mee res," Zeitschrift Brethren among the Indians, i. 56 ;

f Ethnologie, ii. 318 sq. ; Langsdorff, Journal Anthrop. Institute, vii. 206 ;

Heise tim die IVelt, ii. 11^ sq.; Holm- G. M. Dawson, Repoi-t of the Queen

berg, " Ethnogr. Skizzen iiber die Charlotte Islands, 1878 (Geological

Volker d. russischen Amerika," Acta Survey of Canada), p. 130 B; Petitot,

Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae, iv. Monographic des Denc-Dindjie, pp.

( 1 856) p. 3205^. ; Vi'ssizxoli, Native Races 72, 75; id., Ti-aditions indiennes du

of the Pacific States, i. wo sq.; Krause, Canada Nord-Ouest, p. 258.
Die Tlinkit-Indianer, p. 2 1 7 sq. ; Rev.

Slieldon Jackson, "Alaska and its ^ Holmberg, op. cit. p. 401; Ban-
Inhabitants," American Antiquarian, croft, i. 82 ; Petroff, Report on the
ii. Ill sq.) W. M. Grant, m Journal Population, etc. af Alaska, p. 143.

AT PUBERTY 231

used to sew her up in her hammock as if she were
dead, leaving only a small hole for her mouth to allow
her to breathe. In this state she continued so long
as the symptoms lasted.^ In similar circumstances
the Chiriguanos of Bolivia hoisted the girl in her
hammock to the roof, where she stayed for a month ;
the second month the hammock was let halfway down
from the roof; and in the third month old women,
armed with sticks, entered the hut and ran about
striking everything they met, saying they were
hunting the snake that had wounded the girl. This
they did till one of the women gave out that she
had killed the snake." Amongst some of the Brazilian
Indians, when a girl attained to puberty, her hair was
burned or shaved off close to the head. Then she
was placed on a flat stone and cut with the tooth of
an animal from the shoulders all down the back, till
she ran with blood. Then the ashes of a wild gourd
were rubbed into the wounds ; the girl was bound
hand and foot, and hung in a hammock, being
enveloped in it so closely that no one could see her.
Here she had to stay for three days without eating
or drinking. When the three days were over, she
stepped out of the hammock upon the flat stone, for
her feet might not touch the ground. If she had a
call of nature, a female relation took the girl on her
back and carried her out, taking with her a live coal
to prevent evil influences from entering the girl's body.
Being replaced in her hammock she was now allowed
to get some flour, boiled roots, and water, but might
not taste salt or flesh. Thus she continued to the end

1 Lafitau, Mocurs des Saiivages 333. On the Chiriguanos see Von
ameriquains, i. 262 sq. Martius, Zur Ethnographic Amerika's

2 Lettres edifimites et atrieitses, viii. sumal Brasiliem, p. 2 1 2 sqq.

232 GIRLS SECLUDED

of the first monthly period, at the expiry of which she
was gashed on the breast and belly as well as all down
the back. During the second month she still stayed
in her hammock, but her rule of abstinence was less
rigid, and she was allowed to spin. The third month
she was blackened with a certain pigment and began
to go about as usual. ^

Amongst the Macusis of British Guiana, when
a girl shows the first signs of puberty, she is hung
in a hammock at the highest point of the hut. For
the first few days she may not leave the hammock
by day, but at night she must come down, light a
fire, and spend the night beside it, else she would
break out in sores on her neck, throat, etc. So
long as the symptoms are at their height, she must
fast rigorously. When they have abated, she may
come down and take up her abode in a little com-
partment that is made for her in the darkest corner
of the hut. In the morning she may cook her food,
but it must be at a separate fire and in a vessel of
her own. In about ten days the magician comes
and undoes the spell by muttering charms and breath-
ing on her and on the more valuable of the things with
which she has come in contact. The pots and drinking
vessels which she used are broken and the fragments
buried. After her first bath, the girl must submit to
be beaten by her mother with thin rods without
uttering a cry. At the end of the second period she
is again beaten, but not afterwards. She is now
''clean," and can mix again with people.^ Other
Indians of Guiana, after keeping the girl in her

1 Thevet, Cosmographie Universelk ^ Schomburgk, Reisen in Britisch

(Paris, 1575) ii. 946 B sq. ; Lafitau, Guiana, ii. 315 sq.; Martins, Ztir
op. cit. i. 290 sqq. Ethnogi'aphie Amerika's, p. 644.

AT PUBERTY

233

hammock at the top of the hut for a month, expose
her to certain large ants, whose bite is very painful.^
The custom of stinging the girl with ants or beating
her with rods is intended, we may be sure, not as a
punishment or a test of endurance, but as a purifica-
tion, the object being to drive away the malignant
influences with which a girl at such times is believed
to be beset and enveloped. Examples of purification,
both by beating and by stinging with ants, have
already come before us.^ Probably, beating or scourg-
ing as a religious or ceremonial rite always originated
with a similar intention. It was meant to wipe off
and drive away a dangerous contagion (whether
personified as demoniacal or not) which was sup-
posed to be adhering physically, though invisibly,
to the body of the sufferer.^ The pain inflicted on

1 Labat, Voyage du Chevalier des
Marchais en Guince, Isles voisines, et a
Cayenne, iv. p. 365 sq. (Paris ed.), p. 17
sq. (Amsterdam ed.)

2 Above, p. 2 1 3 j^. , vol. i. p. 1 5 3 sq.

3 This interpretation of the custom
is supported by the fact that beating
or scourging is inflicted on inanimate
objects expressly for the purpose in-
dicated in the text. Thus the Indians
of Costa Rica hold that there are two
kinds of ceremonial uncleanness, 7iya
and bu-ku-rjl. Anything that has been
connected with a death is nya. But
Im-kii-ru is much more virulent. It
can not only make one sick but kill.
"The worst bu-ku-ri'c of all is that of
a young woman in her first pregnancy.
She infects the whole neighbourhood.
Persons going from the house where
she lives carry the infection with them
to a distance, and all the deaths or
other serious misfortunes in the vicinity
are laid to her charge. In the old
times, when the savage laws and customs
were in full force, it was not an un-
common thing for the husband of such
a woman to pay damages for casualities

thus caused by his unfortunate wife. . . .
Bu - kti - rii emanates in a variety of
ways ; arms, utensils, even houses
become affected by it after long disuse,
and before they can be used again
must be purified. In the case of
portable objects left undisturbed for a
long time, the custom is to beat them
with a stick before touching them. I
have seen a woman take a long walking
stick and beat a basket hanging from
the roof of a house by a cord. On
asking what that was for, I was told
that the basket contained her treasures,
that she would probably want to take
something out the next day, and that she
was driving off the bn-kn-rii. A house
long unused must be swept, and then
the person who is purifying it must
take a stick and beat not only the
movable objects, but the beds, posts,
and in short every accessible part of
the interior. The next day it is fit for
occupation. A place not visited for a
long time or reached for the first time
is bu-ku-rii. On our return from the
ascent of Pico Blanco, nearly all the
party suffered from little calenturas,

234 GIRLS SECLUDED

the person beaten was no more the object of the
beating than it is of a surgical operation with us ; it
was a necessary accident, that was all. In later times
such customs were interpreted otherwise, and the pain,
from being an accident, became the prime object of
the ceremony, which was now regarded either as a test
of endurance imposed upon persons at critical epochs
of life, or as a mortification of the flesh well pleasing
to the god. But asceticism, under any shape or form,
is never primitive. Amongst the Uaupes of Brazil
a girl at puberty is secluded in the house for a month,
and allowed only a small quantity of bread and water.
Then she is taken out into the midst of her relations
and friends, each of whom gives her four or five blows
with pieces of sipo (an elastic climber), till she falls
senseless or dead. If she recovers, the operation is
repeated four times at intervals of six hours, and it
is considered an offence to the parents not to strike
hard. Meantime, pots of meats and fish have been
made ready ; the sipos are dipped into them and then
given to the girl to lick, who is now considered a
marriageable woman. ^

When a Hindoo maiden reaches maturity she is
kept in a dark room for four days, and is forbidden to
see the sun. She is regarded as unclean ; no one is

the result of extraordinary exposure to object, and resents being disturbed ;

wet and cold and want of food. The but I have never been able to learn

Indians said that the peak was especi- from the Indians that they consider it

ally bti-ku-rii, since nobody had ever so. They seem to think of it as a

been on it before." One day Mr. Gabb property the objects acquires." W.

took down some dusty blow-guns amid M. Gabb, Indian Tribes and Lan-

cries of bu - kit - rii from the Indians. guagcs of Costa Rica (read before the

Some weeks afterwards a boy died, and American Philosophical Society, 20th

the Indians firmly believed that the August 1875), p. 504 sq.
bit-kii-ni of the blow-guns had killed

him. " P'rom all the foregoing, it 1 A. R. Wallace, Narrative of

would seem that btc-kji-ni is a sort of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro,

evil spirit that takes possession of the p. 496.

AT PUBERTY 235

allowed to touch her. Her diet is restricted to boiled
rice, milk, sugar, curd, and tamarind without salt.^
In Cambodia a girl at puberty is put to bed under
a mosquito curtain, where she should stay a hundred
days. Usually, however, four, five, ten, or twenty
days are thought enough ; and even this, in a hot
climate and under the close meshes of the curtain, is
sufficiently trying.- According to another account, a
Cambodian maiden at puberty is said to "enter into
the shade." During her retirement, which, according
to the rank and position of her family, may last any
time from a few days to several years, she has to
observe a number of rules, such as not to be seen by
a strange man, not to eat flesh or fish, and so on.
She goes nowhere, not even to the pagoda. But
this state of retirement is discontinued during eclipses ;
at such times she goes forth and pays her devotions to
the monster who is supposed to cause eclipses by
catching the heavenly bodies between his teeth.=^ The
fact that her retirement is discontinued during an
eclipse seems to show how literally the injunction is
interpreted which forbids maidens entering on
womanhood to look upon the sun.

A superstition so widely diffused as this might be
expected to leave traces in legends and folk -tales.
And it has done so. In a modern Greek folk -tale

1 Bose, The Hindoos as they arc, t^. " Schetsen van het eiland Bali,"

86. Similarly, after a Brahman boy Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie,

has been invested with the sacred N. S. ix. {1880) 428 j-^.
thread, he is for three days strictly o ^j^^^^^ Royaitme du Cambodge, i.

forbidden to see the sun. He may not ^

eat salt, and he is enjoined to sleep ^

either on a carpet or a deer's skin, ^ Aymonier, "Notes surles coutumes

without a mattress or mosquito curtain. et croyances superstitieuses des Cam-

Ib. p. 186. In Bali, boys who have bodgiens," Cochinchine Francaise, Ex-

had their teeth filed, as a preliminary cursions et Reconnaissances, No. 16

to marriage, are kept shut up in a dark (Saigon, 1883), p. 193 sq. Cp. id.

room for three days. Van Eck, Notice sur le Catnbodge, p. 50.

236 NOT TO SEE THE SUN chap.

the Fates predict that in her fifteenth year a princess
must be careful not to let the sun shine on her, for if
this were to happen she would be turned into a lizard.^
A Tyrolese story tells how it was the doom of a lovely
maiden to be transported into the belly of a whale if
ever a sunbeam fell on her.^ In another modern
Greek tale the Sun bestows a daughter upon a
childless woman on condition of taking the child
back to himself when she is twelve years old. So,
when the child was twelve, the mother closed the
doors and windows, and stopped up all the chinks
and crannies, to prevent the Sun from coming to
fetch away her daughter. But she forgot to stop
up the key -hole, and a sunbeam streamed through
it and carried off the girl.^ In a Sicilian story a seer
foretells that a king will have a daughter who, in her
fourteenth year, will conceive a child by the Sun. So,
when the child was born, the king shut her up in a
lonely tower which had no window, lest a sunbeam
should fall on her. When she was nearly fourteen
years old, it happened that her parents sent her a
piece of roasted kid, in which she found a sharp bone.
With this bone she scraped a hole in the wall, and a
sunbeam shot through the hole and impregnated her.*

^ B. Schmidt, Griechische Mdrchen, princess have no bones with her meat.

Sagemind Volkslieder, p. 98. Hahn, op. cit. No. 15; Gonzenbach,

2 Schneller, Mdrchen und Sagen aus Nos. 26, 27; Pentamerone, No. 23.

Wdhchtirol, No. 22. From this we should infer that it is a

^ J. G. von Hahn, Griechische und rule with savages not to let women

albanesische Mdrchen, 'iio. i^l. handle the bones of animals during

* Gonzenbach, Sici/i(7nischeA/dn-hen, their monthly seclusions. We have al-

No. 28. The incident of the bone ready seen the great respect with which

occurs in other folk -tales. A prince the savage treats the bones of game

or princess is shut up for safety in a (see above, p. 116 si/(/.) ; and women

tower and makes his or her escape by in their courses are specially forbidden

scraping a hole in the wall with a bone to meddle with the hunter or tisher, as

which has been accidentally conveyed their contact or neighbourhood would

into the tower ; sometimes it is expressly spoil his sport (see below, p. 238 sq(/.)

said that care was taken to let the In folk-tales the hero who uses the bone

IV NOT TO SEE THE SUN 237

The old Greek story of Danae, who was confined by
her father in a subterranean chamber or a brazen
tower, but impregnated by Zeus, who reached her
in the shape of a shower of gold, perhaps belongs
to the same class of tales. It has its counterpart in
the legend which the Kirgis of Siberia tell of their
ancestry. A certain Khan had a fair daughter, whom
he kept in a dark iron house, that no man might see
her. An old woman tended her ; and when the girl
was grown to maidenhood she asked the old woman,
" Where do you go so often ? " — " My child," said the
old dame, "there is a bright world. In that bright
world your father and mother live, and all sorts of
people live there. That is where I go." The maiden
said, " Good mother, I will tell nobody, but show me
that bright world." So the old woman took the girl
out of the iron house. But when she saw the bright
world, the girl tottered and fainted ; and the eye of
God fell upon her, and she conceived. Her angry
father put her in a golden chest and sent her floating
away (fairy gold can float in fairyland) over the wide
sea.^ The shower of gold in the Greek story, and the
eye of God in the Kirgis legend, probably stand for
sunlight and the sun. The idea that women may be
impregnated by the sun is not uncommon in legends,^
and there are even traces of it in marriage customs.^

is sometimes a boy ; but the incident circumstances used to drink out of the

might easily be transferred from a girl wing -bone of a white-headed eagle

to a boy after its real meaning had been (Langsdorff, Jieise urn die Welt, ii.

forgotten. Amongst the Hare - skin 114).

Indians a girl at puberty is forbidden ^ W. Radloff, Proben der Volks-

to break the bones of hares. Petitot, litterattir der tiirkischett Stdmme Siid-

Tt-aditions indiennes du Canada Nord- Sibiriens, iii. 82 sq.

ouest, p. 258. On the other hand, she ^ Bastian, Die Volker des dstlichen

drinks out of a tube made of a swan's Asien, 1. 416, vi. 25 ; Turner, Sai?ioa,

bone (Petitot, I.e. and id., Monographie p. 200 ; Faiijab Notes and Queries,

des Dene-Dindjie, p. 76), and we have ii. No. 797.

seen that a Thlinkeet girl in the same ^ Amongst the Chaco Indians of

238 WOMEN SECLUDED chap.

The ground of this seclusion of girls at puberty lies
in the deeply engrained dread which primitive man
universally entertains of menstruous blood. Evidence
of this has already been adduced,^ but a few more facts
may here be added. Amongst the Australian blacks
" the boys are told from their infancy that, if they see
the blood, they will early become gray -headed, and
their strength will fail prematurely." Hence a woman
lives apart at these times ; and if a young man or boy
approaches her she calls out, and he immediately
makes a circuit to avoid her. The men go out of
their way to avoid even crossing the tracks made
by women at such times. Similarly the woman may
not walk on any path frequented by men, nor touch
anything used by men ; she may not eat fish, or go
near water at all, much less cross it ; for if she did, the
fish would be frightened, and the fishers would have
no luck ; she may not even fetch water for the camp ;
it is sufficient for her to say Thajjia to ensure her
husband fetching the water himself. A severe beat-
ing, or even death, is the punishment inflicted on an
Australian woman who breaks these rules.^ The
Bushmen think that, by a glance of a girl's eye

South America a newly-married couple morning after marriage to lead the

sleep the first night on a skin with young couple out of the hut to greet

their heads towards the west ; " for the the rising sun. The same custom is

marriage is not considered as ratified said to be still practised in Iran and

till the rising sun shines on their feet Central Asia, the belief being that the

the succeeding morning." T.J. Hutch- beams of the rising sun are the surest

inson, "The Chaco Indians," Transact. means of impregnating the new bride.

Ethnolog. Soc.\\\. ;^2J. At old Hindoo Vambery, Das Turke7ivolk, p. 112.

marriages, the first ceremony was the ^ Above, vol. i. p. 170.

" Impregnation - rite " (Garbhddhdna). 2 Native Tfibes 0/ South Australia,

"During the previous day the young p. 186; E. J. Y.yxQ, Journals, ii. 295,

married woman was made to look 304; W. Ridley, Kamilaroi, ■^. 157;

towards the sun, or in some way ex- Journ. Anthrop. hist. ii. 268, ix. 459

posed to its rays." Monier Williams, sq. ; Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Vic-

Keligioiis Life and Thought in India, toria, i. 65, 236. Cp. Sir George

p. 354. Amongst the Turks of Siberia Grey, Journals, ii. 344 ; J. Dawson,

it was formerly the custom on the Aiistralian Aborigines, ci. sq.

IV WOMEN SECLUDED 239

at the time when she ought to be kept in strict
retirement, men become fixed in whatever position
they happen to occupy, with whatever they were
holding in their hands, and are changed into trees
which talk/ The Guayquiries of the Orinoco think
that, when a woman has her courses, everything
upon which she steps will die, and that if a man
treads on the place where she has passed, his legs
will immediately swell up.^ The Creek and kindred
Indians of the United States compelled women at
menstruation to live in separate huts at some distance
from the village. There the women had to stay, at
the risk of being surprised and cut off by enemies.
It was thought "a most horrid and dangerous pollu-
tion " to go near the women at such times ; and the
danger extended to enemies who, if they slew the
women, had to cleanse themselves from the pollution
by means of certain sacred herbs and roots.^ Similarly,
among the Chippeways and other Indians of the
Hudson Bay Territory, women at such seasons are
excluded from the camp, and take up their abode in
huts of branches. They wear long hoods, which
effectually conceal the head and breast. They may
not touch the household furniture nor any objects
used by men ; for their touch " is supposed to defile
them, so that their subsequent use would be followed
by certain mischief or misfortune," such as disease or
death. They may not walk on the common paths
nor cross the tracks of animals. They " are never
permitted to walk on the ice of rivers or lakes, or near
the part where the men are hunting beaver, or where

1 Bleek, Brief Account of Bushman Folk-lore, p. 14 ; cp. ib. p. 10.

^ Gumilla, Histoire de V Orenoque, i. 249.

3 James Adair, History of the American Indians, p. 123 sq.

240 WOMEN SECLUDED chap.

a fishing- net is set, for fear of averting their success.
They are also prohibited at those times from partaking
of the head of any animal, and even from walking in
or crossing the track where the head of a deer, moose,
beaver, and many other animals have lately been
carried, either on a sledge or on the back. To be
guilty of a violation of this custom is considered as of
the greatest importance ; because they firmly believe
that it would be a means of preventing the hunter
from having an equal success in his future excursions."^
So the Lapps forbid women at menstruation to walk
on that part of the shore where the fishers are in the
habit of setting out their fish,^

Amongst the civilised nations of Europe the super-
stitions which have prevailed on this subject are not
less extravagant. In the oldest existing cyclopaedia —
the Natural History of Pliny — the list of dangers
apprehended from menstruation is longer than any
furnished by savages. According to Pliny, the touch
of a menstruous woman turned wine to vinegar, blighted
crops, killed seedlings, blasted gardens, brought down
the fruit from trees, dimmed mirrors, blunted razors,
rusted iron and brass (especially at the waning of the
moon), killed bees, or at least drove them from their
hives, caused mares to miscarry, and so forth. ^
Similarly, in various parts of Europe, it is still
believed that if a woman in her courses enters a
brewery the beer will turn sour ; if she touches beer,
wine, vinegar, or milk, it will go bad ; if she makes

1 S. Yiea.rr\e, Journey to the A^orf kern niarchiaeeoriimquelinp(avitaetreligione
Ocean, p. 314 s<j.; Alex. Mackenzie, pristina (Copenhagen, 1767), p. 494.
Voyages throiii^^h the Continent of North ^ Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. § 64 sq.,

America, cxxiii. ; Petitot, Monographic xxviii. % ']'] sqq. Cp. Geoponica, xii.

lies Dhii-DindjiS, p. 75 sq. c. 20, 5, and c. 25, 2 ; Columella, xi.

2 C. Leemius, De Lapponibits Fin- 3, 50.

WOMEN SECLUDED 241

jam, it will not keep ; if she mounts a mare, it will
miscarry ; if she touches buds, they will wither ; if
she climbs a cherry-tree, it will die.^

Thus the object of secluding women at menstruation
is to neutralise the dangerous influences which are sup-
posed to emanate from them at such times. That the
danger is believed to be especially great at the first men-
struation appears from the unusual precautions taken
to isolate girls at this crisis. Two of these precautions
have been illustrated above, namely, the rules that the
girl may not touch the ground nor see the sun. The
general effect of these rules is to keep the girl suspended,
so to say, between heaven and earth. Whether en-
veloped in her hammock and slung up to the roof, as in
South America, or elevated above the ground in a dark
and narrow cage, as in New Ireland, she may be con-
sidered to be out of the way of doing mischief, since,
being shut ofT both from the earth and from the sun,
she can poison neither of these great sources of life by
her deadly contagion. In short, she is rendered harm-
less by being, in electrical language, insulated. But
the precautions thus taken to isolate or insulate the girl
are dictated by a regard for her own safety as well as
for the safety of others. For it is thought that the girl
herself would suffer if she were to neglect the prescribed

1 A. Schleicher, Volkstiimliches aits 35, 3 : Geoponica, xii. 8, 5 sq.; Aehan,

Sonnenherg, p. 134; B. Souche, Croy- Nat. Anivi. vi. 36. A similar remedy

ajices. Presages et Traditions diverses, p. is employed for the same purpose by

II; v. Fossel, Volksmedicin tind North American Indians and European

viedicini seller Aberglaube in Steier- peasants. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes,

mark (Graz, 18S6), p. 124. The v. 70; Wiedemann, Aits dem inneren

Greeks and Romans thought that a itnd ditssern Leben der Ehsten, p. 484.

field was completely protected against Cp. Haltrich, Zur Volkskunde der

insects if a menstruous woman walked Siebenbiirger Sachsen, p. 280 ; Hein-

round it with bare feet and streaming rich, Agrarische Sitten und Geb^'iiucke

hair. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvii. 266, unter den Sachsen Siebenbiirgens, p.

xxviii. 78; Columella, x. 358 sq., 14; Grimm, Deutsche Alythologie,^ \\\.

xi. 3, 64 ; Palladius, De re nistica, i. 468.

VOL. II R

242 SECLUSION OF chap.

regimen. Thus Zulu girls, as we have seen, believe
that they would shrivel to skeletons if the sun were to
shine on them at puberty, and in some Brazilian tribes
the girls think that a transgression of the rules would
entail sores on the neck and throat. In short, the girl
is viewed as charged with a powerful force which, if
not kept within bounds, may prove the destruction both
of the girl herself and of all with whom she comes in
contact. To repress this force within the limits neces-
sary for the safety of all concerned is the object of the
taboos in question.

The same explanation applies to the observance of
the same rules by divine kings and priests. The un-
cleanness, as it is called, of girls at puberty and the
sanctity of holy men do not, to the primitive mind,
differ from each other. They are only different mani-
festations of the same supernatural energy which, like
energy in general, is in itself neither good nor bad,
but becomes beneficent or maleficent according to its
application.^ Accordingly, if, like girls at puberty,
divine personages may neither touch the ground nor see
the sun, the reason is, on the one hand, a fear lest their
divinity might, at contact with earth or heaven, dis-
charge itself with fatal violence on either ; and, on the
other hand, an apprehension, that the divine being,
thus drained of his ethereal virtue, might thereby be
incapacitated for the future performance of those super-
natural functions, upon the proper discharge of which
the safety of the people and even of the world is be-
lieved to hang. Thus the rules in question fall under
the head of the taboos which we examined in the
second chapter ; they are intended to preserve the life

1 For an example of the beneficent application of the menstrual energy,
see note on p. 241.

DIVINE PERSONS

H3

of the divine person and with it the hfe of his subjects
and worshippers. Nowhere, it is thought, can his
precious yet dangerous Hfe be at once so safe and so
harmless as when it is neither in heaven nor in earth,
but, as far as possible, suspended between the two.^

1 The rules just discussed do not
hold exclusively of the persons men-
tioned in the text, but are applicable in
certain circumstances to other tabooed
persons and things. Whatever, in fact,
is permeated by the mysterious virtue
of taboo may need to be isolated from
earth and heaven. Mourners are taboo
all the world over ; accordingly in
mourning the Ainos wear peculiar caps
in order that the sun may not shine
upon their heads. Bastian, Die Volker
lies ostlichen Asien, v. 366. During a
solemn fast of three days the Indians
of Costa Rica eat no salt, speak as little
as possible, light no fires, and stay
strictly indoors, or if they go out during
the day they carefully cover themselves
from the light of the sun, believing that
exposure to the sun's rays would turn
them black. W. M. Gabb, Indian
Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica,
p. 510. On Yule night it has been
customary in parts of Sweden from
time immemorial to go on pilgrimage,
whereby people learn many secret
things and know what is to happen
in the coming year. As a preparation
for this pilgrimage, "some secrete them-
selves for three days previously in a
dark cellar, so as to be shut out alto-
gether from the light of heaven. Others
retire at an early hour of the preceding
morning to some out-of-the way place,
such as a hayloft, where they bury
themselves in the hay, that they may
neither hear nor see any living creature ;
and here they remain, in silence and
fasting, until after sundown ; whilst
there are those who think it sufficient
if they rigidly abstain from food on the
day before commencing their wander-
ings. During this period of probation
a man ought not to see fire." L. Lloyd,
Peasant Life in Sweden, p. 194. Dur-
ing the sixteen days that a Pima Indian
is undergoing purification for killing an

Apache he may not see a blazing fire.
Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific
States, i. 553. Again warriors on the
war - path are strictly taboo ; hence
Indians may not sit on the bare ground
the whole time they are out on a war-
like expedition. J. Adair, History of ^
the American Indians, p. 382; Narra-
tive of the Captivity and Adventures of
John Tanner, p. 123. The holy ark
of the North American Indians is
deemed "so sacred and dangerous to
be touched " that no one, except the
war chief and his attendant, will touch
it "under the penalty of incurring
great evil. Nor would the most
inveterate enemy touch it in the woods
for the very same reason." In carrying
it against the enemy they never place
it on the ground, but rest it on stones
or logs. Adair, History of the A nierican
Indians, p. 162 sq. The sacred clam
shell of the Elk clan among the Omahas
is kept in a sacred bag, which is never
allowed to touch the ground. E. James,
Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky
Mountains, ii. 47 ; J. Owen Dorsey,
" Omaha Sociology," Third Report of
the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington,
1884), p. 226. Newly born infants
are strongly taboo ; accordingly in
Loango they are not allowed to touch
the earth. Pechuel-Loesche, " Indis-
cretes aus Loango," Zeitschrift fiir
Ethnologic, x. (1878) p. 29 sq. In
Laos the hunting of elephants gives
rise to many taboos ; one of them is
that the chief hunter may not touch the
earth with his foot. Accordingly when
he alights from his elephant, the others
spread a carpet of leaves for him to
step upon. E. Aymonier, Notes siir le
Laos, p. 26. In some parts of Aber-
deenshire, the last bit of standing corn
(which, as we have seen, is very sacred)
is not allowed to touch the ground ;
but as it is cut, it is placed on the lap

244 BALDER

\ 2. — Balder

A god whose life might in a sense be said to be
neither in heaven nor earth but between the two, was
the Norse Balder, the good and beautiful god. The
story of his death is as follows : Once on a time
Balder dreamed heavy dreams which seemed to fore-
bode his death. Thereupon the gods held a council
and resolved to make him secure against every danger.
So the goddess Frigg took an oath from fire and water,
iron and all metals, stones and earth, from trees, sick-
nesses and poisons, and from all four-footed beasts, birds,
and creeping things, that they would not hurt Balder.
When this was done Balder was deemed invulnerable ;
so the gods amused themselves by setting him in their
midst, while some shot at him, others hewed at him,
and others threw stones at him. But whatever they
did, nothing could hurt him ; and at this they were all
glad. Only Loki, the mischief-maker, was displeased,
and he went in the guise of an old woman to Frigg,
who told him that the weapons of the gods could not
wound Balder, since she had made them all swear not
to hurt him. Then Loki asked, " Have all things
sworn to spare Balder } " She answered, " East of Wal-
halla grows a plant called mistletoe ; it seemed to me too

of the "gueedman." W. Gregor, Prof. J. E. Nourse (Washington, 1879),

" Quelques coutumes du Nord-Est du p. no; Gerard, The Land beyond the

Comte d'Aberdeen," Revue des Tradi- Forest, ii. 7. In Scotland, when water

tions popjilaires, iii. (1888) 485 B. was carried from sacred wells to sick

Sacred food may not, in certain cir- people, the water-vessel might not touch

cumstances, touch the ground. F. the ground. C. F. Gordon Gumming,

Grabowsky, " Der Distrikt Dusson Li the Hebrides, t^. zw. On the rela-

Timor in Siidost - Borneo und seine tion of spirits to the ground, compare

Bewohner," Aitsland (1884), No. 24, Denzil Ibbetson in Panjab Notes and

p. 474 ; Ch. F. Hall, iVarrative of the Queries, i. No. 5.
Second Arctic Expedition, edited by

BALDER' S DEATH 245

young to swear." So Loki went and pulled the mistle-
toe and took It to the assembly of the gods. There he
found the blind god Hodur standing at the outside of
the circle. Loki asked him, "Why do you not shoot
at Balder?" Hodur answered, "Because I do not
see where he stands ; besides I have no weapon."
Then said Loki, "Do like the rest and show Balder
honour, as they all do. I will show you where he
stands, and do you shoot at him with this twig." Hodur
took the mistletoe and threw it at Balder, as Loki
directed him. The mistletoe struck Balder and pierced
him through and through, and he fell down dead. And
that was the greatest misfortune that ever befel gods
and men. For a while the gods stood speechless, then
they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly. They
took Balder's body and brought it to the sea- shore.
There stood Balder's ship ; it was called Ringhorn,
and was the hugest of all ships. The gods wished to
launch the ship and to burn Balder's body on it, but
the ship would not stir. So they sent for a giantess
called Hyrrockin. She came riding on a wolf and gave
the ship such a push that fire flashed from the rollers
and all the earth shook. Then Balder's body was
taken and placed on the funeral pile upon his ship.
When his wife Nanna saw that, her heart burst for
sorrow and she died. So she was laid on the funeral
pile with her husband, and fire was put to it. Balder's
horse, too, with all its trappings, was burned on the
pile.^

The circumstantiality of this story suggests that it
belongs to the extensive class of myths which are in-

1 Die Edda, iibersetzt von K. Sim- length by Prof. Rhys, Celtic Heathen-
rock,8 pp. 286-288, cp. pp. 8, 34, 264. do7n, p. 529 sqq.
In English the Balder stoiy is told at

246 FIRE FESTIVALS

vented to explain ritual. For a myth is never so
graphic and precise in its details as when it is a simple
transcript of a ceremony which the author of the myth
witnessed with his eyes. At all events, if it can be
made probable that rites like those described in the
Balder myth have been practised by Norsemen and by
other European peoples, we shall be justified in infer-
ring that the ritual gave birth to the myth, not the
myth to the ritual. For while many cases can be
shown in which a myth has been invented to explain
a rite, it would be hard to point to a single case in
which a myth has given rise to a rite. Ritual may
be the parent of myth, but can never be its child. ^

The main incidents in the myth of Balder's death
are two ; first, the pulling of the mistletoe, and second,
the death and burning of the god. Now both these
incidents appear to have formed parts of an annual
ceremony once observed by Celts and Norsemen.
probably also by Germans and Slavs.

In most parts of Europe the peasants have been
accustomed from time immemorial to kindle bonfires
on certain days of the year, and to dance round them
or leap over them. Customs of this kind can be
traced back on historical evidence to the Middle Ages,^'
and their analogy to similar customs observed in anti-
quity goes with strong internal evidence to prove
that their origin must be sought in a period long

1 It is strange to find so learned and myth. "ItalischeMythen,"^^£/«wc//£'j-

judicious a student of custom and myth Miiseum, N. F. xxx. 228 sq. Surely

as H. Usener exactly inverting their the myth is the reflection of the custom,

trae relation to each other. After Men not only fashion gods in their

showing that the essential features of own likeness (as Xenophanes long ago

the myth of the marriage of Mars and remarked) but make them think and

Nerio have their counterpart in the act like themselves. Heaven is a copy

marriage customs of peasants at the of earth, not earth of heaven,

present day, he proceeds to infer that - See Grimm, Deutsche Mytholoi^ic,'^

these customs are the reflection of the i. 502, 510, 516.

IN EUROPE 247

prior to the spread of Christianity. Indeed the earHest
evidence of their observance in Northern Europe is
furnished by the attempts made by Christian synods
in the eighth century to put them down as heathenish
rites. ^ Not uncommonly effigies are burned in these
fires, or a pretence is made of burning a Hving person
in them ; and there are grounds for beHeving that
anciently human beings were actually burned on these
occasions. A brief review of the customs in ques-
tion will bring out the traces of human sacrifice, and
will serve at the same time to throw light on theii
meaning.^

The seasons of the year at which these bonfires
are most commonly lit are spring and midsummer, but
in some places they are kindled at Hallow E'en
(October 31st) and Christmas. In spring the first
Sunday in Lent (Quadragesima) and Easter Eve are
the days on which in different places the ceremony is
observed. Thus in the Eifel Mountains, Rhenish
Prussia, on the first Sunday in Lent young people
used to collect straw and brushwood from house to
house. These they carried to an eminence and piled
them up round a tall, slim, beech-tree, to which a piece
of wood was fastened at right angles to form a cross.
The structure was known as the "hut" or "castle."
Fire was set to it and the young people marched round
the blazing "castle" bareheaded, each carrying a
lighted torch and praying aloud. Sometimes a straw
man was burned in the "hut." People observed the
direction in which the smoke blew from the fire. If it
blew towards the corn-fields, it was a sio-n that the

1 Mannhardt,i?rt/^w/v^////j, p. 518^(7. hardt, Baiimkultus, kap. vi. p. 497
^ In the following survey of these sqcj. Compare also Grimm, Deutsche
fire-customs I follow chiefly W. Mann- Mythologie,^ i. 500 sqq.

248 FIRE FESTIVALS

CHAP.

harvest would be abundant. On the same day, in
some parts of the Eifel, a great wheel was made of
straw and dragged by three horses to the top of a hill.
Thither the village boys marched at nightfall, set fire
to the wheel, and sent it rolling down the slope. Two
lads followed it with levers to set it in motion again,
in case it should anywhere meet with a check.^ About
Echternach the same ceremony is called "burning the
witch."- At Voralberg in the Tyrol on the first Sunday
in Lent a slender young hr-tree is surrounded with a
pile of straw and fire -wood. At the top of the tree
is fastened a human figure called the "witch"; it is
made of old clothes and stuffed with gunpowder. At
night the whole is set on hre and boys and girls dance
round it, swinging torches and singing rhymes in which
the words " corn in the winnowing-basket, the plough
in the earth " may be distinguished.^ In Swabia on
the first Sunday in Lent a figure called the "witch"
or the "old wife" or "winter's grandmother" is made
up of clothes and fastened to a pole. This is stuck in
the middle of a pile of wood, to which fire is applied.
While the "witch " is burning the young people throw
blazing discs into the air. The discs are thin round
pieces of wood, a few inches in diameter, with notched
edges to imitate the rays of the sun or stars. They
have a hole in the middle, by which they are attached
to the end of a wand. Before the disc is thrown it is
set on fire, the wand is swung to and fro, and the
impetus thus communicated to the disc is augmented
by dashing the rod sharply against a sloping board.
The burning disc is thus thrown off, and mounting

1 Schmitz, Sitten itnd Sageii etc. des ^ B. K. p. 501.

Eifler Volkcs, i. pp. 21-25 ; B. K. p. 3 Vonbun, Beitrdge zur deutschen

501- Alythologie, p. 20; B. K. p. 501.

IV IN LENT 249

high into the air, describes a long curve before it
reaches the ground. A single lad may fling up forty
or fifty of these discs, one after the other. The object
is to throw them as high as possible. The wand by
which they are hurled must, at least in some parts of
Swabia, be of hazel. Sometimes the lads also leap
over the fire brandishing blazing torches of pine-wood.
The charred embers of the burned "witch" and discs
are taken home and planted in the flax-fields the same
night, in the belief that they will keep vermin from
the fields.^ In the Rhon Mountains, Bavaria, on the
first Sunday in Lent the people used to march to the
top of a hill or eminence. Children and lads carried
torches, brooms daubed with tar, and poles swathed in
straw. A wheel, wrapt in combustibles, was kindled
and rolled down the hill ; and the young people rushed
about the fields with their burning torches and brooms,
till at last they flung them in a heap, and standing
round them, struck up a hymn or a popular song.
The object of running about the fields with the blazing
torches was to "drive away the wicked sower." Or it
was done in honour of the Virgin, that she might
preserve the fruits of the earth throughout the year
and bless them."

It seems hardly possible to separate from these
bonfires, kindled on the first Sunday in Lent, the fires
in which, about the same season, the effigy called
Death is burned as part of the ceremony of "carry-
ing out Death." We have seen that at Spachendorf,

1 E. Meier, Detttsche Sagen, Sitten deittscheii Mythologie, i. p. 211, No.
iind Gebrditche aus Schwaben, p. 380 232, B. K. p. 501 sq.
sqq.; Birlinger, Volksthi'unliches aus 2 Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten tind Ge-

Schwaben, ii. 59 sq,, 66 sq.; Bavaria, brdiicheaus Thiiringen,-^. \?><^; Panzer,
ii. 2, p. 838 sq.; Panzer, Beitrag zitr Beitrag zur detttschen Mythologie, ii.

207 ; B. K. p. 500 sq.

250 FIRE FESTIVALS

Austrian Silesia, on the morning of Rupert's Day
(Shrove Tuesday ?) a straw-man, dressed in a fur coat
and a fur cap, is laid in a hole outside the village and
there burned, and that while it is blazing every one
seeks to snatch a fragment of it, which he fastens to
a branch of the highest tree in his garden or buries in
his field, believing that this will make the crops to
grow better. The ceremony is known as the " burying
of Death. "^ Even when the straw-man is not desig-
nated as Death, the meaning of the observance is
probably the same ; for the name Death, as I have
tried to show, does not express the original in-
tention of the ceremony. At Cobern in the Eifel
Mountains the lads make up a straw-man on Shrove
Tuesday. The effigy is formally tried and accused
of having perpetrated all the thefts that have been
committed in the neighbourhood throughout the
year. Being condemned to death, the straw-man is led
through the village, shot, and burned upon a pyre. They
dance round the blazing pile, and the last bride must
leap over it.^ In Oldenburg on the evening of Shrove
Tuesday people used to make long bundles of straw,
which they set on fire, and then ran about the fields
waving them, shrieking, and singing wild songs.
Finally they burnt a straw- man on the field. ^ In
the district of Diisseldorf the straw -man burned on
Shrove Tuesday was made of an unthreshed sheaf of
corn.* On the first Monday after the spring equinox
the urchins of Zurich drag a straw-man on a little cart
through the streets, while at the same time the girls

^ Th. Vernalcken, Mythen und Eijler Volkes, i. p. 20 ; B. K. p. 499.
Bi'diichedesVolkes in Oestcrreich,^. 2^'}, ^ Strackerjan, Aberglanbc u. Sagen

sq.', B. K. p. 498. See above, vol. i. ans detn Hei-zogthum Oldenburg, ii.

p. 267. 39, No. 306 ; B. K. p. 499.

2 Schmitz, Sitteii, it. Sagen des ^ B. K. p. 499.

AT EASTER 251

carry about a May -tree. When vespers ring, the
straw-man is burned/ In the district of Aachen on
Ash Wednesday a man used to be encased in peas-
straw and taken to an appointed place. Here he
sHpped quietly out of his straw casing, which was then
burned, the children thinking that it was the man who
was being burned.- In the Val di Ledro (Tyrol) on
the last day of the Carnival a figure is made up of
straw and brushwood and then burned. The figure is
called the Old Woman, and the ceremony " burning
the Old Woman."'

Another occasion on which these fire-festivals are
held is Easter Eve, the Saturday before Easter Sun-
day. On that day it has been customary in Catholic
countries to extinguish all the lights in the churches,
and then to make a new fire, sometimes with flint and
steel, sometimes with a burning-glass. At this fire is
lit the Easter candle, which is then used to rekindle all
the extinguished lights in the church. In many parts
of Germany a bonfire is also kindled, by means of the
new fire, on some open space near the church. It is
consecrated, and the people bring sticks of oak, walnut,
and beech, which they char in the fire, and then take
home with them. Some of these charred sticks are
thereupon burned at home in a newly-kindled fire, with
a prayer that God will preserve the homestead from
fire, lightning, and hail. Thus every house receives
" new fire." Some of the sticks are placed in the
fields, gardens, and meadows, with a prayer that God
will keep them from blight and hail. Such fields and
gardens are thought to thrive more than others ; the
corn and the plants that grow in them are not beaten

1 B. K. p. 498 sq. - B. K. p. 499-

3 Schneller, Mdrchen u. Sagen aus Wdhchtirol, p. 234 sq. ; B. K. p. 499 ^q-

FIRE FESTIVALS

down by hall, nor devoured by mice, vermin, and
beetles, no witch harms them, and the ears of corn
stand close and full. The charred sticks are also
applied to the plough. The ashes of the Easter bon-
fire, together with the ashes of the consecrated palm-
branches, are mixed with the seed at sowing. A
wooden figure called Judas is sometimes burned in the
consecrated bonfire.^

Sometimes instead of the consecrated bonfire a
profane fire used to be kindled on Easter Eve. In
the afternoon the lads of the village collected firewood
and carried it to a corn-field or to the top of a hill.
Here they piled it together and fastened in the midst
of it a pole with a cross-piece, all wrapt in straw, so
that it looked like a man with outstretched arms. This
figure was called the Easter-man, or the Judas. In
the evening the lads lit their lanterns at the new holy
fire in the church, and ran at full speed to the pile.
The one who reached it first set fire to it and to the
effigy. No women or girls might be present, though
they were allowed to watch the scene from a distance.
Great was the joy while the effigy was burning. The
ashes were collected and thrown at sunrise into run-
ning water, or were scattered over the fields on Easter
Monday. At the same time the palm branches which
had been consecrated on Palm Sunday, and sticks
which had been charred in the fire and consecrated on
Good Friday, were also stuck up in the fields. The
object was to preserve the fields from hail' In Miin-
sterland, these Easter fires are always kindled upon

^ B. K. pp. 502-505 ; Wuttke, 1289; Bavaria, i. i, p. 371.
Der deutsche Volksabcrglatibe,'^ § 81 ; 2 Panzer, Beitrag ziir deittschen

Zingerle, Sitten, Brduche tmd Meimin- Mythologie, i. p. 212 sq., ii. p. 78 sq. ;

gendes Tirokr Volkes,"^ p. 149, §§ 1286- B. K. p. 505.

AT EASTER 253

certain definite hills, which are hence known as Easter
or Pascal Mountains, The whole community assembles
about the fire. Fathers of families form an inner circle
round it. An outer circle is formed by the young men
and maidens, who, singing Easter hymns, march round
and round the fire in the direction of the sun, till the
blaze dies down. Then the girls jump over the fire in
a line, one after the other, each supported by two
young men who hold her hands and run beside her.
When the fire has burned out, the whole assemblage
marches in solemn procession to the church, singing
hymns. They march thrice round the church, and
then break up. In the twilight boys with blazing
bundles of straw run over the fields to make them
fruitful.^ In Holland, also, Easter fires used to be
kindled on the highest eminences, the people danced
round them, and leaped through the flames.' In
Schaumburg, the Easter bonfires may be seen blazing
on all the mountains around for miles. They are made
with a tar barrel fastened to a pine-tree, which is wrapt
in straw. The people dance singing round them.^
Easter bonfires are also common in the Harz Mountains
and in Brunswick, Hanover, and Westphalia. They
are generally lit upon particular heights and moun-
tains which are hence called Easter Mountains. In
the Harz the fire is commonly made by piling brush-
wood about a tree and setting it on fire, and blazing
tar barrels are often rolled down into the valley. In
Osterode, every one tries to snatch a brand from
the bonfire and rushes about with it ; the better it
burns, the more lucky it is. In Grund there are torch

1 Strackerjan, Aberglaube und Sagen 2 Wolf, ,Beitrage ziir deutschen

aits dein Herzogthum Oldenburg, ii. p. Alythologie, i. 75 sq.; B. K. p. 506.
43 sq.. No. 313 ; B. K. p. 505 sq. ^ Grimm, Deutsche ]\Iytho!ogie,^ i.

512 ; B. K. p. 506 sq.

254 EASTER BONFIRES chap.

races. ^ In the Altmark, the Easter bonfires are com-
posed of tar barrels, bee-hives, etc., piled round a pole.
The young folk dance round the fire ; and when it has
died out, the old folk come and collect the ashes, which
they preserve as a remedy for the ailments of bees.
It is also believed that as far as the blaze of the bon-
fire is visible, the corn will grow well throughout the
year, and no conflagration will break out.' In some
parts of Bavaria, bonfires were kindled at Easter
upon steep mountains, and burning arrows or discs of
wood were shot high into the air, as in the Swabian
custom already described. Sometimes, instead of the
discs, an old waggon wheel was wrapt in straw, set on
fire, and sent rolling down the mountain. The lads
who hurled the discs received painted Easter eggs
from the girls. ^ In some parts of Swabia the Easter
fires might not be kindled with iron or flint or steel ;
but only by the friction of wood.^ At Braunrode in
the Harz Mountains it was the custom to burn squirrels
in the Easter bonfire.^ In the Altmark, bones were
burned in it."^

In the central Highlands of Scotland bonfires,
known as the Beltane fires, were formerly kindled
with great ceremony on the ist of May, and the
traces of human sacrifices at them were particularly
clear and unequivocal. In the neighbourhood of
Callander, in Perthshire, the custom lasted down to

1 H. Vx6\^&,Harzhildey, p. 63 ; Kuhn Schwaben, ii. p. 82, No. 106 ; B. K. p.

unci Schwartz, Norddciitsche Sagen, 508.

Jlliiirhen und Gebrdiuhe, p. 373 ; i>. A' ^ B. A', p. 508 ; cp. Wolf, Beit rage ziir

p. 507. deiitsch. Myth. i. 74 ; Grimm, Deutsche

^ Kuhn, Mdrl'ische Sagen und Myth.^ '\. 512. The two latter writers

Mdrchen, p. 312 sq.; B. K. p. 507. only state that before the fires were

3 Panzer, Beitrag zitr deiitschen A/y- kindled it was customary to hunt

thologie, i. p. 211 sq.; B. K. p. 507 sq. squirrels in the woods.

* Birlinger, Volksthiimliches aits ^ Kuhn, I.e.; B, K. p. 50S.

BELTANE FIRES 255

the close of last century. The fires were lit by the
people of each hamlet on a hill or knoll round which
their cattle were pasturing. Hence various eminences
in the Highlands are known as "the hill of the fires,"
just as in Germany some mountains take their name
from the Easter fires which are kindled upon them.
On the morning of May Day the people repaired to
a hill or knoll and cut a round trench in the green
sod, leaving in the centre a platform of turf large
enough to contain the whole company. On this turf
they seated themselves, and in the middle was placed a
pile of wood or other fuel, which of old they kindled
with tein-eigin — that is, forced fire or need -fire. The
way of making the need-fire was this: "The night
before, all the fires in the country were carefully
extinguished, and next morning the materials for
exciting this sacred fire were prepared. The most
primitive method seems to be that which was used
in the islands of Skye, Mull, and Tiree. A well-
seasoned plank of oak was procured, in the midst of
which a hole was bored. A wimble of the same
timber was then applied, the end of which they fitted
to the hole. But in some parts of the mainland the
machinery was different. They used a frame of
green wood, of a square form, in the centre of which
was an axle-tree. In some places three times three
persons, in others three times nine, were required for
turning round, by turns, the axle-tree or wimble. If
any of them had been guilty of murder, adultery,
theft, or other atrocious crime, it was imagined either
that the fire would not kindle, or that it would be
devoid of its usual virtue. So soon as any sparks
were emitted by means of the violent friction, they
applied a species of agaric which grows on old birch-

256 BELTANE FIRES chap.

trees, and is very combustible. This fire had the
appearance of being immediately derived from heaven,
and manifold were the virtues ascribed to it. They
esteemed it a preservative against witchcraft, and a
sovereign remedy against malignant diseases, both in
the human species and in cattle ; and by it the
strongest poisons were supposed to have their nature
changed." For many years, however, before the close
of last century, the Beltane fires were kindled in the
usual way. The fire being lit, the company prepared a
custard of eggs and milk, which they ate. Afterwards
they amused themselves a while by singing and
dancing round the fire. Then " they knead a cake
of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a
stone. After the custard is eaten up they divide the
cake into so many portions, as similar as possible to
one another in size and shape, as there are persons in
the company. They daub one of these portions all
over with charcoal until it be perfectly black. They
put all the bits of cake into a bonnet. Every one,
blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the
bonnet is entitled to the last bit. Whoever draws
the black bit is the devoted person who is to be
sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to implore,
in rendering the year productive of the sustenance of
man and beast." The victim thus selected "was
called cailleach bealtine — i.e. the Beltane carline, a
term of great reproach. Upon his being known, part
of the company laid hold of him, and made a show of
putting him into the fire ; but, the majority inter-
posing, he was rescued. And in some places they
laid him fiat on the ground, making as if they would
quarter him. Afterwards he was pelted with egg-
shells, and retained the odious appellation during the

BELTANE FIRES 257

whole year. And, while the feast was fresh in people's
memory, they affected to speak of the cailleach bealtine
as dead." He had to leap thrice through the flames,
and this concluded the ceremony.^

Another account of the Beltane festival, written in
the latter half of last century, is as follows : " On the ist
of May the herdsmen of every village hold their Bel-
tien, a rural sacrifice. They cut a square trench on the
ground, leaving the turf in the middle ; on that they
make a fire of wood, on which they dress a large caudle
of eggs, butter, oatmeal, and milk, and bring, besides the
ingredients of the caudle, plenty of beer and whisky ;
for each of the company must contribute something.
The rites begin with spilling some of the caudle on
the ground, by way of libation ; on that every one
takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine
square knobs, each dedicated to some particular being,
the supposed preserver of their flocks and herds, or to
some particular animal, the real destroyer of them ;
each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a
knob, and, flinging it over his shoulder, says, ' This I
give to thee, preserve thou my horses ; this to thee,
preserve thou my sheep ; and so on,' After that they
use the same ceremony to the noxious animals : ' This
I give to thee, O fox ! spare thou my lambs ; this to
thee, O hooded crow ! this to thee, O eaqfle ! ' When
the ceremony is over they dine on the caudle ; and,
after the feast is finished, what is left is hid by two
persons deputed for that purpose ; but on the next
Sunday they reassemble, and finish the reliques of the

1 Brand, Popular Antiquities, i. 224 Eighteenth Centiay, from the MSS. of

sq., Bohn's ed., quoting Sinclair's John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, edited by

Statistical Account of Scotland, 1794, Alex. Allardyce, ii. 439-445 ; B. K.

xi. 620 ; Scotland and Scotsmett in the p. 508.

VOL. II S

.58 MIDSUMMER FIRES

first entertainment." ^ The ist of May is a great
popular festival in the more midland and southern
parts of Sweden. On the preceding- evening huge
bonfires, which should be lighted by striking two
flints together, blaze on all the hills and knolls.
Every large hamlet has its own fire, round which the
young people dance in a ring. The old folk notice
whether the flames incline to the north or to the south.
In the former case the spring will be cold and back-
ward ; in the latter mild and genial.^

But the season at which these fire- festivals are
most generally held all over Europe is the summer
solstice, that is. Midsummer Eve (23d June) or Mid-
summer Day (24th June). According to a mediaeval
writer the three great features of this festival were
the bonfires, the procession with torches round the
fields, and the custom of rolling a wheel. The writer
adds that the smoke drives away harmful dragons
which cause sickness, and he explains the custom of
rolling the wheel to mean that the sun has now reached
the highest point in the ecliptic, and begins thence-
forward to descend.^ From his description, which is
still applicable, we see that the main features of the
midsummer fire-festival are identical with those which
characterise the spring festivals. In Swabia lads and
lasses, hand in hand, leap over the midsummer bonfire,
praying that the hemp may grow three ells high, and
they set fire to wheels of straw and send them rolling
down the hill* In Lechrain bonfires are kindled on

1 Pennant, "Tour in Scotland," ^ £_ j^\ p, 509; Brand, Pop. Antiq.

Pinkerton's 'Voyages and Travels, iii. i. 298^(7.; Grimm, Z>. MA \. 516.

49 ; Brand, Popida7- Antiquities, i. * Birlinger, Volksthiimliches aiis

226. Schwaben, ii. p. 96 sqq. No. 128, p.

103 sq. No. 129; E. Meier, Deutsche

" L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in S-weden, Sagen, Sitten ntid Gebrduche atts

p. 233 sq. Schwaben, p. 423 sqq.; B. K. p. 510.

IV MIDSUMMER FIRES 259

the mountains on Midsummer Day ; and besides the
bonfire a tall beam, thickly wrapt in straw, and sur-
mounted by a cross-piece, is burned in many places.
Round this cross, as it burns, the lads dance ; and when
the flames have subsided, the young people leap over
the fire in pairs, a young man and a young woman
together. It is believed that the flax will grow that
year as high as they leap over the fire ; and that if a
charred billet be taken from the fire and stuck in a flax
field it will promote the growth of the flax.^ At Def-
fingen, as they jumped over the midsummer bonfire,
they cried out, " Flax, flax ! may the flax this year grow
seven ells high ! " ^ " In Bohemia bonfires are kindled
on many of the mountains on Midsummer Eve ; boys
and girls, hand in hand, leap over them ; cart-wheels
smeared with resin are ignited and sent rolling down
the hill ; and brooms covered with tar and set on fire
are swung about or thrown high into the air. The
handles of the brooms or embers from the fire are
preserved and stuck in gardens to protect the
vegetables from caterpillars and gnats. Sometimes
the boys run down the hillside in troops, brandishing
the blazing brooms and shouting. The bonfire is
sometimes made by stacking wood and branches round
the trunk of a tree and setting the whole on fire.^

In old farm-houses of the Surenthal and Winenthal
a couple of holes or a whole row of them may some-
times be seen facing each other in the door-posts of the
barn or stable. Sometimes the holes are smooth and
round ; sometimes they are deeply burnt and blackened,

1 Leoprechting, Aiis dem Lcchrain, 3 Reinsberg-Duringsfeld, Fest - Kal-
p. 182 sq.; B. K. p. 510. Cp. Panzer, ender aiis Bohmcn, pp. 306-311 ; B. K.
Beit rag ziir deittschen Mythologie, i. p. 510. For the custom of burning
210; Bavaria, iii. 956. a tree in the midsummer bonfires, see

2 Panzer, op. cit. ii. 549. vol. i. p. 79.

26o MIDSUMMER FIRES chap.

The explanation of them is this. About midsummer,
but especially on Midsummer Day, two such holes are
bored opposite each other, into which the extremities
of a strong pole are fixed. The holes are then stuffed
with tow steeped in resin and oil ; a rope is looped
round the pole, and two young men, who must be
brothers or must have the same baptismal name, and
must be of the same age, pull the ends of the rope
backwards and forwards so as to make the pole revolve
rapidly, till smoke and sparks issue from the two holes
in the door-posts. The sparks are caught and blown
up with tinder, and this is the new and pure fire, the
appearance of which is greeted with cries of joy.
Heaps of combustible materials are now ignited with
the new fire, and blazing bundles are placed on boards
and sent floating down the brook. The boys light
torches at the new fire and run to fumigate the pas-
tures. This is believed to drive away all the demons
and witches that molest the cattle. Finally the torches
are thrown in a heap on the meadow and allowed to
burn out. On their way back the boys strew the ashes
over the fields : this is supposed to make them fertile.
I f a farmer has taken possession of a new house, or if ser-
vants have changed masters, the boys fumigate the new
abode and are rewarded by the farmer with a supper.^
At Konz, on the Moselle, the midsummer fire-
festival used to be celebrated as follows. A quantity
of straw, contributed jointly by every house, was
collected on the top of the Stromberg Hill. Here,
towards evening, the men and boys assembled, while
the women and girls took up their position at a certain
well down below. On the top of the hill a huge
wheel was completely covered with a portion of the

1 Rochholz, Dcittscher Glaiibe tuid Branch, ii. 144 sqq.

IV MIDSUMMER FIRES 261

collected straw, the remainder of which was made into
torches. The mayor of Sierk, who always received a
basket of cherries for his services, gave the signal, the
wheel was ignited with a torch, and sent rolling down
the hill amid shouts of joy. All the men and boys
swung their torches in the air, some of them remained
on the top of the hill, while others followed the fiery
wheel on its course clown the hillside to the Moselle.
As it passed the women and girls at the well they raised
cries of joy which were answered by the men on the
top of the hill. The inhabitants of the neighbouring
villages also stood on the banks of the river and mingled
their voices with the general shout of jubilation. The
wheel was often extinguished before it reached the
water, but if it plunged blazing into the river the people
expected an abundant vintage, and the inhabitants of
Konz had the right to exact a waggon-load of white
wine from the surrounding vineyards.^

In France the midsummer customs are similar. In
Poitou a wheel enveloped in straw is set on fire, and
people run with it through the fields, which are supposed
to be fertilised thereby ; also, the people leap thrice over
the fire, holding in their hands branches of nut-trees,
which are afterwards hung over the door of the cattle-
stall. At Brest torches are brandished, and hundreds of
them flung up into the air together."^ In Britanny mid-
summer fires blaze on the hills, the people dance round
them, singing and leaping over the glowing embers.
The bonfire is made by piling wood round a pole
which is surmounted by a nosegay or crown.^

1 Grimm, D. M.^ i. 515 sq.; B. K. ^ Sebillot, Coiittimes popiilai)-es de la
p. 510 sq. Haute Bretagne, p. 193 sq.; Wolf, op.

2 ^o\{,Beitrage zitr deiitschenJMytho- tit. ii. 392 sq.
logic, ii. 393; Grimm, D. J/.* i. 517;

B. AT. p. 511.

262 MIDSUMMER FIRES chap.

Sometimes, instead of rolling fiery wheels, discs of
wood are ignited in the midsummer fires and thrown
into the air in the manner already described.^ At
Edersleben, near Sangerhausen, a high pole was planted
in the ground and a tar barrel was hung from it by a
chain which reached to the ground. The barrel was
then set on fire and swung round the pole amid shouts
of joy. -

In our own country the custom of lighting bonfires
at midsummer has prevailed extensively. In the
North of England these fires used to be lit in the open
streets. Young and old gathered round them ; the
former leaped over the fires and engaged in games,
while the old people looked on. Sometimes the fires
were kindled on the tops of high hills. The people also
carried firebrands about the fields." In Herefordshire
and Somersetshire people used to make fires in the
fields on Midsummer Eve "to bless the apples."* In
Devonshire the custom of leaping over the mid-
summer fires was also observed."" In Cornwall
bonfires were lit on Midsummer Eve and the people
marched round them with lighted torches, which they
also carried from village to village. On Whiteborough,
a large tumulus near Launceston, a huge bonfire
used to be kindled on Midsummer Eve ; a tall summer
pole with a large bush at the top was fixed in the
centre of the bonfire.*^ At Darowen in Wales small
bonfires were lit on Midsummer Eve." On the same

1 Zingerle, Sit ten, etc. des Tiroler sq., 318, cp. pp. 305, 306, 308 sq.;

Volkes,^ p. 159, No. 1354; Panzer, B. K. p. 512.

Beitrag, i. 210 ; i?. A', p. 511. * Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme

9T^i. ci. <. HT jj ^ J and Iitdaisme, p. 96, cp. id. p. 26.

^ Kuhn u. bcnwartz, JVorddeiitsche b v.- A ti t ' ->

Sasren, Mdrchen und Geh'ciuche, p. a tj •' " ' o " t-v

■^ ' ' ^ <^ Id. 1. 303, 318, 319; Dyer,

British Popular Custo??is, p. 315.

390; B. K. 511.

3 Brand, Popular Antiquities, i. 300 " Brand, op. cit. i. 318.

IV MIDSUMMER FIRES 263

day people in the Isle of Man used to light fires to the
windward of every field, so that the smoke might pass
over the corn ; and they folded their cattle and carried
blazing furze or gorse round them several times.^

In Ireland, "on the Eves of St. John Baptist
and St. Peter, they always have in every town a
bonfire late in the evening, and carry about bundles
of reeds fast tied and fired ; these being dry, will
last long, and flame better than a torch, and be a
pleasing divertive prospect to the distant beholder ;
a stranger would go near to imagine the whole country
was on fire."^ Another writer says of the South of
Ireland : " On Midsummer's Eve, every eminence,
near which is a habitation, blazes with bonfires ; and
round these they carry numerous torches, shouting and
dancing."^ An author who described Ireland in the
first quarter of last century says : " On the vigil of St.
John the Baptist's nativity, they make bonfires, and
run along the streets and fields with wisps of straw
blazing on long poles to purify the air, which they
think infectious by believing all the devils, spirits,
ghosts, and hobgoblins fly abroad this night to hurt
mankind." * Another writer states that he witnessed
the festival in Ireland in 1782 : " Exactly at midnight
the fires began to appear, and taking advantage of
going up to the leads of the house, which had a widely
extended view, I saw on a radius of thirty miles, all
around, the fires burning on every eminence which the
country afforded. I had a further satisfaction in learn-
ing, from undoubted authority, that the people daitced

1 J. Train, Accomit of the Isle of ^ Brand, I.e., quoting the author of
Alan ii. 1 20. the Survey of the South of Ireland.

'^ Brand, i. 305, quoting the author

2 Brand, i. 303, quoting Sir Henry of the Comieal Pilgrwi's Pilgrimage
Piers's Description of Westmeath. into Irela^id.

264 MIDSUMMER FIRES chap.

rotind the fires, and at the close went through these
fires, and made their sons and daughters, together with
their cattle, pass through the fire ; and the whole was
conducted with religious solemnity." ^ That the custom
prevailed in fiill force as late as 1867 appears from a
notice in the Liverpool Mercury, 29th June 1867, which
runs thus : "The old pagan fire-worship still survives
in Ireland, though nominally in honour of St. John.
On Sunday night bonfires were observed throughout
nearly every county in the province of Leinster. In
Kilkenny fires blazed on every hillside at intervals of
about a mile. There were very many in the Queen's
county, also in Kildare and Wexford. The efiect in
the rich sunset appeared to travellers very grand.
The people assemble and dance round the fires, the
children jump through the flames, and in former times
live coals were carried into the corn-fields to prevent
blight." 2

In Scotland the traces of midsummer fires are
few. In reference to the parish of Mongahitter it is
said: "The Midsummer Eve fire, a relic of Druidism,
was kindled in some parts of this country."^ Moresin
states that on St. Peter's Day (29th June) the Scotch
ran about with lighted torches on mountains and high
grounds ; ^ and at Loudon in Ayrshire it appears that
down to the close of last century the custom still pre-
vailed for herdsmen and young people to kindle fires
on high grounds on St. Peter's Day.^ In the Perth-
shire Highlands on Midsummer Day the cowherd used
to go three times round the fold, according to the

1 Brand, i. 304, quoting The Gentle- ^ Brand, i. 311, quoting Statistical

man's Magazine, February 1795, p. Accojiiit of Scotland, w\. 145.

- Quoted by Dyer, British Popular ' ' i^' ^

Customs, p. 321 sq. '" Brand, i. 337.

IV MIDSUMMER FIRES 265

course of the sun, with a burning- torch in his hand.
This was beheved to purify the flocks and herds and
prevent diseases.^

In Slavonic countries also the midsummer festival
is celebrated with similar rites. In Russia fires are
lighted and young people, crowned with flowers, jump
through them and drive their cattle through them. In
Little Russia a stake is driven into the ground on St.
John's Night, wrapt in straw, and set on fire. As the
flames rise the peasant women throw birch-tree boughs
into them, saying, " May my flax be as tall as this
bough ! " - "In Ruthenia the bonfires are lighted by
a flame procured from wood by friction, the operation
being performed by the elders of the party, amid the
respectful silence of the rest. But as soon as the fire
is 'churned,' the bystanders break forth with joyous
songs, and when the bonfires are lit the young people
take hands, and spring in couples through the smoke,
if not through the flames, and after that the cattle in
their turn are driven through it." ^ In many parts of
Prussia and Lithuania great fires are kindled on the
Eve of St. John (Midsummer Eve). All the heights
are ablaze with them, as far as the eye can see. The
fires are supposed to be a protection against thunder,
hail, and cattle disease, especially if next morning the
cattle are driven over the places where the fires
burned.^ In some parts of Masuren it is the custom
on the evening of Midsummer Day to put out all the
fires in the village. Then an oaken stake is driven
into the ground, a wheel is fixed on it as on an axle

1 J. Ramsay and A. Allardyce, Scot- ^ Ralston. I.e.

land and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth ■* Tettau und Temme, Die Volks-

Centioy, ii. 436. sagen Ostpreussens, Litthaziens und

2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian Westprcussens,^^. 2-]-] ; (^xxxava, D. M.^
People, Y>. 240; Grimm, D. MM. 519. i. 519-

266 MIDSUMMER FIRES chap.

and is made to revolve rapidly, till the friction produces
fire. Every one takes home a light from the new
fire and rekindles the fire on the domestic hearth.^
In Bohemia the cows used to be driven over the
midsummer fires to protect them from witchcraft."
In Servia on Midsummer Eve herdsmen light torches
of birch bark and march round the sheepfolds and
cattle-stalls ; then they climb the hills and there allow
the torches to burn out.^

In Greece the women light fires on St, John's Eve
and jump over them crying, "I leave my sins behind
me."* Italy must also have had its midsummer bon-
fires, since at Orvieto they were specially excepted
from the prohibition directed against bonfires in
general. ° We have seen that they are still lighted in
Sardinia.*^ In Corsica on the Eve of St. John the
people set fire to the trunk of a tree or to a whole
tree, and the young men and maidens dance round the
blaze, which is called fticaraja? Midsummer fires
are, or were formerly, lighted in Spain.^ Even the
Mohammedans of Algeria and Morocco are reported
to have kindled great midsummer bonfires of straw,
into which they kept throwing incense and spices
the whole night, invoking the divine blessing on their
fruit-trees.^

It remains to show that the burning of efifigies
of human beings in the midsummer fires was not
uncommon. At Rottenburg in Wurtemberg, down

1 T'6^'^en,Al>e}'glatibenajisMasiirei!,- '' Gnheinatis, Myi/io/ogz'e des F/atites,
p. 71. i. 1S5.

2 Grimm, I.e.; Reinsberg-Diiiings- * Bra.x\d, Popular Antiquities,!. 2,17 ;
feld, Fest-Kalendcr aits Bdhmeu,Y>- 307, Grimm, I.e.

note. ^ G. Ferraro, Superstizioni, iisi e

^ Grimm, I.e. ^ Grimm, I.e. p)-overhi Monfei-rini,^. 34 ^ry. , referring

^ Grimm, D. J\I.^ i. 51S. to Alvise da Cadamosto, Relazion del

^ Above, vol. i. p. 291. viaggi d\4frica, in Ramusio.

IV MIDSUMMER FIRES 267

to the beginning of the present century, a ceremony
was observed on Midsummer Day which was called
"beheading the angel-man." A stump was driven
into the ground, wrapt with straw, and fashioned into
the rude likeness of a human figure, with arms, head,
and face. This was the angel-man ; round about him
wood was piled up. The boys, armed with swords,
assembled in crowds, covered the figure completely
over with flowers, and eagerly awaited the signal.
When the pile of wood was fired and the angel -man
burst into a blaze, the word was given and all the boys
fell upon him with their swords and hewed the burning
figure in pieces. Then they leaped backwards and
forwards over the fire.^ In some parts of the Tyrol a
straw-man is carted about the village on Midsummer
Day and then burned. He is called the Lotter, which
has been corrupted into Luther.^ In French Flanders
down to 1789 a straw figure representing a man was
always burned in the midsummer bonfire, and the
figure of a woman was burned on St. Peter's Day, 29th
June.^ At Gratz on the 23d June the common people
used to make a puppet called the Tatermann, which
they dragged to the bleaching-ground, and pelted with
burning besoms till it took fire.* In some parts of
Russia a figure of Kupalo is burned or thrown into
a stream on St. John's Night.^ The Russian custom
of carrying the straw effigy of Kupalo over the mid-
summer bonfire has been already described."

The best general explanation of these European

1 Birlinger, Volksthiiinliches aiis ^ Wolf, Beitriige ziir deutschen My-
Sckwaben, ii. lOO sq.; B. K. p. 513 thologie, ii. 392; B. K. p. 513.

sq. * B. K. p. 513.

2 Zingerle, Sittcn, etc., des Tiroler ^ Ralston, Songs of the Russian
Volkes,^ p. 159, No. 1353, cp. No. People, p. 240.

1355 ; ^. A^ p. 513. ^ Above, vol. i. p. 272 sq.

268 FIRES AS chap.

fire-festivals seems to be the one given by Mannhardt,
namely, that they are sun-charms or magical ceremonies
intended to ensure a proper supply of sunshine for
men, animals, and plants. We have seen that savages
resort to charms for making sunshine,^ and we need
not wonder that primitive man in Europe has done
the same. Indeed, considering the cold and cloudy
climate of Europe during a considerable part of the
year, it is natural that sun-charms should have played
a much more prominent part among the superstitious
practices of European peoples than among those of
savages who live nearer the equator. This view of
the festivals in question is supported by various con-
siderations drawn partly from the rites themselves,
partly from the influence which they are believed to
exert upon the weather and on vegetation. For
example, the custom of rolling a burning wheel down
a hillside, which is often observed on these occasions,
seems a very natural imitation of the sun's course in
the sky, and the imitation is especially appropriate
on Midsummer Day when the sun's annual declension
begins. Not less graphic is the imitation of his
apparent revolution by swinging a burning tar-barrel
round a pole." The custom of throwing blazing discs,
shaped like suns, into the air is probably also a piece
of imitative magic. In these, as in so many cases, the
magic force is supposed to take effect through mimicry
or sympathy ; by imitating the desired result you
actually produce it ; by counterfeiting the sun's pro-
gress through the heavens you really help the luminary
to pursue his celestial journey with punctuality and
despatch. The name " fire of heaven," by which the

1 Above, vol. i. p. 22 sqq. - Above, p. 262.

SUN-CHARMS 269

midsummer fire is sometimes popularly known, ^ clearly
indicates a consciousness of the connection between
the earthly and the heavenly flame.

Again, the manner in which the fire appears to have
been originally kindled on these occasions favours the
view that it was intended to be a mock-sun. For, as
various scholars have seen,- it is highly probable that
originally at these festivals fire was universally obtained
by the friction of two pieces of wood. We have seen
that this is still the case in some places both at the
Easter and midsummer fires, and that it is expressly
stated to have been formerly the case at the Beltane
fires.^ But what makes it almost certain that this was
once the invariable mode of kindling the fire at these
periodic festivals is the analogy of the need -fires.
Need-fires are kindled, not at fixed periods, but on
occasions of special distress, particularly at the out-
break of a murrain, and the cattle are driven through
the need-fire, just as they are sometimes driven through
the midsummer fires.* Now, the need-fire has always
been produced by the friction of wood and sometimes
by the revolution of a wheel; in Mull, for example, it
was made by turning an oaken wheel over nine oaken
spindles from east to west, that is, in the direction of
the sun. It is a plausible conjecture that the wheel
employed to produce the need-fire represents the sun ; '^
and if the spring and midsummer fires were originally
produced in the same way, it would be a confirmation

1 Birlinger, Volksthiimliches aiis ^ On the need -fires, see Grimm,

Sch'waben,\\. 57, 97; B. K. p. 510; D. J\L i. 501 sqq.; Wolf, oJ>. cit. i.

cp. Panzer, Beitrag,\\. 240. 116 sq., ii. 378 sqq.; Kuhn, op. cit.

- Cp. Grimm,/). M.^ \. 521; Wolf, p. 41 sqq.; B. K. p. 518 sqq.; Elton,

Bcitriige zur deittschen Mytkologie, ii. Origins of English History, p. 293 sq.;

389 ; Ad. Kuhn, Herabhiuft des Jahn, Die dentsche7i Opfergebnittche

Feners,'^ -p^. 41 sq., 47; W. Mannhardt, l>ei Acker-bazi iind Viehziicht, p. 26 sqq.

B. K. p. 521. ° This is the view of Grimm, Wolf,

•^ See above, pp. 254, 255, 260, 265. Kuhn, and Mannhardt.

2/0 FIRES AS CHAP.

of the view that they were originally sun-charms. In
point of fact there is, as Kuhn has pointed out/ some
evidence to show that the midsummer fire was
originally thus produced. For at Obermedlingen in
Swabia the "fire of heaven," as it was called, was
made on St. Vitus's Day (15th June) by igniting a
cart-wheel, which, smeared with pitch and plaited with
straw, was fastened on a pole twelve feet high, the top
of the pole being inserted in the nave of the wheel.
This fire was made on the summit of the mountain,
and as the flame ascended, the people uttered a set
form of words, with eyes and arms directed heaven-
ward.^ Here the fact of a wheel beino- fixed on the
top of a pole and ignited makes it probable that
originally the fire was produced, as in the need-fire, by
the revolution of a wheel. The day on which the
ceremony takes place (15th June) is near midsummer ;
and we have seen that in Masuren fire is (or was)
actually made on Midsummer Day by turning a wheel
rapidly about an oaken pole, though it is not said that
the new fire so produced is used to light a bonfire.

Once more, the influence which these bonfires are
supposed to exert on the weather and on vegetation,
goes to show that they are sun -charms, since the
effects ascribed to them are identical with those of
sunshine. Thus, in Sweden the warmth or cold of
the coming season is inferred from the direction in
which the fiames of the bonfire are blown ; if they
blow to the south, it will be warm, if to the north,
cold. No doubt at present the direction of the fiames
is regarded merely as an augury of the weather, not as
a mode of influencing it. But we may be pretty sure
that this is one of the cases in which mapfic has

1 Herabkunft des Fciiers,- p. 47. ^ Panzer, Beitrag, ii. 240.

SUN-CHARMS 271

dwindled into divination. So in the Eifel Mountains,
when the smoke blows towards the corn-fields, this
is an omen that the harvest will be abundant. But
doubtless the older view was, not merely that the
smoke and flames prognosticated, but that they actually
produced an abundant harvest, the heat of the flames
acting like sunshine on the corn. Indeed, this older
view must still have been held by people in the Isle of
Man when they lit fires to windward of their fields in
order that the smoke might blow over them. Again,
the idea that the corn will grow well as far as the
blaze of the bonfire is visible, is certainly a remnant of
the belief in the quickening and fertilising power of
the bonfires. The same belief reappears in the notion
that embers taken from the bonfires and inserted in
the fields will promote the growth of the crops, and
again it plainly underlies the custom of mixing the ashes
of the bonfire with the seed-corn at sowing, or of scatter-
ing the ashes by themselves over the field. The belief
that the flax will grow as high as the people leap over
the bonfire belongs clearly to the same class of ideas.
Once more, we saw that at Konz, on the banks of the
Moselle, if the blazing wheel which was trundled down
the hillside reached the river without being extinguished,
this was hailed as a proof that the vintage would be
abundant. So firmly was this belief held that the
successful performance of the ceremony entitled the
villagers to levy a tax upon the owners of the neio-h-
bouring vineyards. Here the unextinguished wheel
meant an unclouded sun, and this in turn meant an
abundant vintage. So the waggon-load of white wine
which the villagers received from the vineyards round
about was in fact a payment for the sunshine which
they had procured for the grapes.

272 FIRES AS CHAP.

The interpretation of these fire-customs as charms
for making sunshine is confirmed by a parallel custom
observed by the Hindoos of Southern India at the
Pongol or Feast of Ingathering. The festival is cele-
brated in the early part of January, when, according
to Hindoo astrologers, the sun enters the tropic of
Capricorn, and the chief event of the festival coin-
cides with the passage of the sun. For some days
previously the boys gather heaps of sticks, straw,
dead leaves, and everything that will burn. On the
morning of the first day of the festival the heaps
are fired. Every street and lane has its bonfire.
The young folk leap over the fire or pile on fresh
fuel. This fire is an offering to Siirya, the sun-god,
or to Agni, the deity of fire; it "wakes him from his
sleep, calling on him again to gladden the earth with
his light and heat."^ To say that the fires awaken
the sun -god from his sleep is only a metaphorical
and perhaps modernised expression of the belief that
they actually help to rekindle the sun's light and heat.

The custom of leaping over the fire and driving
cattle through it may be intended, on the one hand,
to secure for man and beast a share of the vital
energy of the sun, and, on the other hand, to purify
them from all evil influences ; for to the primitive
mind fire is the most powerful of all purificatory
agents. The latter idea is obviously uppermost in
the minds of Greek women when they leap over the
midsummer fire, saying, " I leave my sins behind
me." So in Yucatan at a New Year's festival
the people used to light a huge bonfire and pass
through it, in the belief that this was a means of

1 Ch. E. Cover, "The Pongol Jioyal Asiatic Society, U.S. v. (1870)
festival in Southern India," Journ. p. 96 sq.

SUN-CHARMS 273

riddino- themselves of their troubles.^ The custom
of driving cattle through a fire is not confined to
Europe. At certain times the Hottentots make a
fire of chips, dry branches, and green twigs, so as to
raise a great smoke. Through this fire they drive
their sheep, dragging them through by force, if
necessary. If the sheep make their escape without
passing through the fire, it is reckoned a heavy
disgrace and a very bad omen. But if they pass
readily through or over the fire, the joy of the
Hottentots is indescribable.^

The procession or race with burning torches,
which so often forms a part of these fire - festivals,
appears to be simply a means of diffusing far and
wide the genial influence of the bonfire or of the sun-
shine which it represents. Hence on these occasions
lighted torches are very frequently carried over the
fields, sometimes with the avowed intention of fer-
tilising them ; ^ and with the same intention live coals
from the bonfire are sometimes placed in the field
"to prevent blight." The custom of trundling a
burning wheel over the fields, which is practised for
the express purpose of fertilising them, embodies
the same idea in a still more graphic form ; since
in this way the mock-sun itself, not merely its light
and heat represented by torches, is made actually to
pass over the ground which is to receive its quicken-
ing and kindly influence. Again, the custom of
carrying lighted brands round the cattle is plainly

^ Diego de Landa, Relation des on the monuments, are perhaps to be

choses de Yucatan (Paris, 1864), p. 233. explained by this custom. To regard,

^ Kolben, Present State of the Cape with Mannhardt {B. K. p. 536), the

of Good Hope, i. \2<^ sqq. torches in the modern European cus-

^ P. 253. The torches of Demeter, toms as imitations of lightning seems

which figure so largely in her myth and unnecessary.

VOL. II T

!74 TREE-SPIRIT

equivalent to driving the animals through the fire.
It is quite possible that in these customs the idea
of the quickening pov^er of fire may be combined
v^ith the conception of it as a purgative agent for the
expulsion or destruction of evil beings. It is cer-
tainly sometimes interpreted in the latter way by
persons who practise the customs ; and this purgative
use of fire comes out very prominently, as we have
seen, in the general expulsion of demons from towns
and villages. But in the present class of cases this
aspect of it is perhaps secondary, if indeed it is more
than a later misinterpretation of the custom.

It remains to ask, What is the meaning of burning
an effigy in these bonfires ? The effigies so burned,
as was remarked above, can hardly be separated from
the effigies of Death which are burned or otherwise
destroyed in spring ; and grounds have been already
given for regarding the so-called effigies of Death
as really representations of the tree-spirit or spirit of
vegetation. Are the other effigies, which are burned
in the spring and midsummer bonfires, susceptible of
the same explanation? It would seem so. For just
as the fragments of the so-called Death are stuck in
the fields to make the crops grow, so the charred
embers of the figure burned in the spring bonfires
are sometimes placed in the fields in the belief that
they will keep vermin from the crop. Again, the
rule that the last married bride must leap over the
fire in which the straw -man is burned on Shrove
Tuesday, is probably intended to make her fruitful.
But, as we have seen, the power of blessing women
with offspring is a special attribute of tree-spirits;^
it is therefore a fair presumption that the burning

1 Above, vol. i. p. 70 sqq.

B URNT IN EFFIG V 27 5

effigy over which the bride must leap is a repre-
sentative of the fertihsing tree-spirit or spirit of
vegetation. This character of the effigy, as repre-
sentative of the spirit of vegetation, is almost unmis-
takable when the effigy is composed of an unthreshed
sheaf of corn or is covered from head to foot with
flowers.^ Aofain, it is to be noted that instead of an
effigy living trees are sometimes burned both in the
spring and midsummer bonfires." Now, considering
the frequency with which the tree-spirit is represented
in human shape, it is hardly rash to suppose that
when sometimes a tree and sometimes an effigy is
burned in these fires, the effigy and the tree are
regarded as equivalent to each other, each being a
representative of the tree-spirit. This, again, is con-
firmed by observing, first, that sometimes the effigy
which is' to be burned is carried about simultaneously
with a May-tree, the former being carried by the boys,
the latter by the girls ;^ and, second, that the effigy
is sometimes tied to a living tree and burned with
it.^ In these cases, we can scarcely doubt, the tree-
spirit is represented, as we have found it represented
before, in duplicate, both by the tree and by the
effigy. That the true character of the effigy as a
representative of the beneficent spirit of vegetation
should sometimes be forgotten, is natural. The cus-
tom of burning a beneficent god is too foreign to
later modes of thought to escape misinterpretation.
Naturally enough the people who continued to burn his
image came in time to identify it as the effigy of per-
sons, whom, on various grounds, they considered objec-
tionable, such as Judas Iscariot, Luther, and a witch.

The general reasons for killing a god or his
1 Pp. 250, 267. 2 Pp. 247, 248, 253, 259, 266. 3 p. 250 j-(/. ^ Pp. 247, 24S.

276 TREE-SPIRIT BURNT chap.

representative have been examined in the preceding
chapter. But when the god happens to be a deity
of vegetation, there are special reasons why he should
die by fire. For light and heat are necessary to
vegetable growth ; and, on the principle of sympathetic
magic, by subjecting the personal representative of
vegetation to their influence, you secure a supply of
these necessaries for trees and crops. In other words,
by burning the spirit of vegetation in a fire which
represents the sun, you make sure that, for a time
at least, vegetation shall have plenty of sun. It
may be objected that, if the intention is simply to
secure enough sunshine for vegetation, this end would
be better attained, on the principles of sympathetic
magic, by merely passing the representative of vege-
tation through the fire instead of burning him. In
point of fact this is sometimes done. In Russia, as
we have seen, the straw figure of Kupalo is not
burned in the midsummer fire, but merely carried
backwards and forwards across it.^ But, for the reasons
already given, it is necessary that the god should
die ; so next day Kupalo is stripped of her ornaments
and thrown into a stream. In this Russian custom,
therefore, the passage of the image through the fire is
a sun -charm pure and simple ; the killing of the god
is a separate act, and the mode of killing him —
by drowning — is probably a rain -charm. But usually
people have not thought it necessary to draw this fine
distinction ; for the various reasons already assigned,
it is advantageous, they think, to expose the god of
vegetation to a considerable degree of heat, and it is
also advantageous to kill him, and they combine these
advantages in a rough-and-ready way by burning him.

1 Vol. i. p. 272.

TREE-SPIRIT BURNT 277

Finally, we have to ask, were human beings
formerly burned as representatives of the tree- spirit
or deity of vegetation ? We have seen reasons for
believing that living persons have often acted as
representatives of the tree -spirit, and have suffered
death as such. There is no reason, therefore, why
they should not have been burned, if any special
advantages were likely to be attained by putting
them to death in that way. The consideration of
human suffering is not one which enters into the
calculations of primitive man. It would have been
surprising if it did, when we remember the record
of Christian Europe. Now, in the fire-festivals which
we are discussing, the pretence of burning people is
sometimes carried so far that it seems reasonable to
regard it as a mitigated survival of an older custom
of actually burning them. Thus in Aachen, as we
saw, the man clad in peas -straw acts so cleverly
that the children really believe he is being burned.
And at the Beltane fires the pretended victim was
seized, and a show made of throwing him into the
fire, and for some time afterwards people affected to
speak of him as dead. In the following customs
Mannhardt is probably right in recognising traces of
an old custom of burning a leaf-clad representative of
the spirit of vegetation. At Wolfeck, in Austria, on
Midsummer Day, a boy completely clad in green fir
branches goes from house to house, accompanied by a
noisy crew, collecting wood for the bonfire. As he
gets the wood he sings —

" Forest trees I want.
No sour milk for me.
But beer and wine,
So can the wood-man be jolly and gay.'"^

1 B. K. p. 524.

278 BURNT SACRIFICES chap.

In some parts of Bavaria, also, the boys who go
from house to house collecting fuel for the midsummer
bonfire envelop one of their number from head to
foot in green branches of firs, and lead him by a rope
through the whole village/ At Moosheim, in
Wlirtemberg, the festival of St. John's Fire usually
lasted for fourteen days, ending on the second Sunday
after Midsummer Day. On this last day the bonfire
was left in charge of the children, while the older
people retired to a wood. Here they encased a
young fellow in leaves and twigs, who, thus disguised,
went to the fire, scattered it, and trod it out. All the
people present fled at the sight of him.'

But it seems possible to go farther than this. Of
human sacrifices offered on these occasions the most
unequivocal traces, as we have seen, are those which,
about a hundred years ago, still lingered at the Beltane
fires in the Highlands of Scotland, that is, among a
Celtic people who, situated in a remote corner of
Europe, enjoying practical independence, and almost
completely isolated from foreign influence, had till
then conserved their old heathenism better than any
other people in the West of Europe. It is significant,
therefore, that human sacrifices by fire are known, on
unquestionable evidence, to have been systematically
practised by the Celts. The earliest description of
these sacrifices is by Julius Caesar. As conqueror of
the hitherto independent Celts of Gaul, Caesar had
ample opportunity of observing the national Celtic
religion and manners, while these were still fresh and
crisp from the native mint and had not yet been
fused in the melting-pot of Roman civilisation. With

1 Bavaria, iii. 956; B. K. p. 524. Schwabeti, ii. 121 sq.. No. 146 ; B. K.

2 Birlinger, Volksthiiinliches aiis p. 524 s<j.

IV AMONG THE CELTS 279

his own notes Caesar appears to have incorporated the
observations of a Greek explorer, by name Posidonius,
who travelled in Gaul about fifty years before Caesar
carried the Roman arms to the English Channel.
The Greek geographer Strabo and the historian
Diodorus seem also to have derived their descriptions
of the Celtic sacrifices from the work of Posidonius,
but independently of each other and of Caesar, for each
of the three derivative accounts contains some details
which are not to be found in either of the others. By
combining them, therefore, we can restore the original
account of Posidonius with some certainty, and thus
obtain a picture of the sacrifices offered by the Celts of
Gaul at the close of the second century b.c.^ The
following seem to have been the main outlines of the
custom. Condemned criminals were reserved by the
Celts in order to be sacrificed to the gods at a great
festival which took place once in every five years.
The more there were of such victims, the greater was
believed to be the fertility of the land.- When there
were not enough criminals to furnish victims, captives
taken in war were sacrificed to supply the deficiency.
When the time came the victims were sacrificed by the
Druids or priests. Some were shot down with arrows,
some were impaled, and some were burned alive in the
following manner. Colossal images of wicker-work or
of wood and grass were constructed ; these were filled
with live men, cattle, and animals of other kinds ; fire
was then applied to the images, and they were burned
with their living contents.

1 Caesar, i?t'//. Gall. vi. 15; Strabo, <f)oviKas diKas /xaXiaTa tovtols [i.e. the

iv. 4, 5, p. 198 Casaubon ; Diodorus, Druids] eTrererpaTrTo diKa^eiv, Urav re

V. 32. See Mannhardt, B. K. p. 525 0opa roirwv fi, (popav Kal rrjs xaipas

sij'/. vo/iii^ovcnv inrdpxetv. On this passage

^ Strabo, iv. 4, 4, p. 197, ras de see Mannhardt, £. A', p. 529 sgt/.

28o MODERN TRACES OF chap.

Such were the great festivals held once every five
years. But besides these quinquennial festivals, cele-
brated on so grand a scale and with, apparently, so
large an expenditure of human life, it seems reasonable
to suppose that festivals of the same sort, only on a
lesser scale, were held annually, and that from these
annual festivals are lineally descended some at least
of the fire-festivals which, with their traces of human
sacrifices, are still celebrated year by year in many
parts of Europe. The gigantic images constructed of
osiers or covered with grass in which the Druids en-
closed their victims remind us of the leafy framework
in which the human representative of the tree-spirit is
still so often encased.^ Considering, therefore, that
the fertility of the land was apparently supposed to
depend upon the due performance of these sacrifices,
Mannhardt is probably right in viewing the Celtic
victims, cased in osiers and grass, as representatives
of the tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation. These
wicker giants of the Druids seem to have still their
representatives at the spring and midsummer festivals
of modern Europe. At Douay a procession takes
place annually on the Sunday nearest to the 7th of
July. The great feature of the procession is a colossal
figure made of osiers, and called "the giant," which is
moved through the streets by means of rollers and
ropes worked by men who are enclosed within the
figure. The wooden head of the giant is said to have
been carved and painted by Rubens. The figure is
armed as a knight with lance and sword, helmet and
shield. Behind him march his wife and his three chil-
dren, all constructed of osiers on the same principle,
but on a smaller scale. ^ At Dunkirk the giant is forty

1 See vol. i. p. 88 sqq. 2 j^ j^^ p_ ^23, Jioie.

IV OLD CELTIC SACRIFICES 281

to fifty feet high, being made of basket - work and
canvas, properly painted and dressed. It contains a
great many Hving men within it, who move it about.
Wicker giants of this sort are common in the towns of
Belgium and French Flanders ; they are led about at
the Carnival in spring. The people, it is said, are much
attached to these grotesque figures, speak of them with
patriotic enthusiasm, and never weary of gazing at
them.^ In England artificial giants seem to have
been a standing feature of the midsummer festival. A
writer of the sixteenth century speaks of " Midsommer
pageants in London, where, to make the people wonder,
are set forth great and uglie gyants, marching as if
they were alive, and armed at all points, but within
they are stuffed full of browne paper and tow, which
the shrewd boyes, underpeeping, do guilefully discover,
and turne to a greate derision." - The Mayor of
Chester in 1599 "altered many antient customs, as the
shooting for the sheriff's breakfast ; the going of the
Giants at Midsommer, etc."^ In these cases the giants
only figure in the processions. But sometimes they
are burned in the spring or summer bonfires. Thus
the people of the Rue aux Ours in Paris used annually
to make a great wicker-work figure, dressed as a soldier,
which they promenaded up and down the streets for
several days, and solemnly burned on the 3d of July,
the crowd of spectators singing Salve Regina. The
burning fragments of the image were scattered among
the people, who eagerly scrambled for them. The

1 B. K. p. 523, jiole; John Milner, 2 Puttenham, Arte of English Poesie,

The History, Civiland Ecclesiastical, and 15S9, p. 128, quoted by Brand, Popular

Survey of the Antiquities of Winchester, Antiquities, i. 323.
i. 8 sq. ; Brand, Popular Antiquities, i.

2,2^ sq.;]^mtsl^og3ir\, The Scottish Gael, ^ King's Vale Royal of England, ■^.

ii. 358(newed.); Reinsberg-Duringsfeld, 208, quoted by Brand, I.e.
Calendrier Beige, p. 123 sqq.

2S2 MODERN TRACES OF chap.

custom was abolished in 1743.^ In Brie, Isle de
France, a wicker-work giant, eighteen feet high, was
annually burned on Midsummer Eve."

Again, the Druidical custom of burning live animals,
enclosed in wicker-work, has its counterpart at the
spring and midsummer festivals. At Luchon in the
Pyrenees on Midsummer Eve " a hollow column, com-
posed of strong wicker-work, is raised to the height of
about sixty feet in the centre of the principal suburb,
and interlaced with green foliage up to the very top ;
while the most beautiful flowers and shrubs procurable
are artistically arranged in groups below, so as to form
a sort of background to the scene. The column is
then filled with combustible materials, ready for igni-
tion. At an appointed hour — about 8 p.M.^a grand
procession, composed of the clergy, followed by young
men and maidens in holiday attire, pour forth from the
town chanting hymns, and take up their position around
the column. Meanwhile, bonfires are lit, with beautiful
effect, in the surrounding hills. As many living ser-
pents as could be collected are now thrown into the
column, which is set on fire at the base by means of
torches, armed with which about fifty boys and men
dance around with frantic gestures. The serpents, to
avoid the flames, wriggle their way to the top, whence
they are seen lashing out laterally until finally obliged
to drop, their struggles for life giving rise to enthusi-
astic delight among the surrounding spectators. This
is a favourite annual ceremony for the inhabitants of
Luchon and its neighbourhood, and local tradition
assigns to it a heathen origin."^ In the midsummer

1 Liebrecht, Gervasius von Tilbury, ^ Athenaeum, 241)1 July 1S69, p.

15. 212 sq.; B. K. p. 514. 115 ; />'. K. p. 515 sq.

' ^- ^•^'- PP' 514, 523-

IV OLD CELTIC SACRIFICES 283

fires formerly kindled on the Place de Greve at Paris
it was the custom to burn a basket, barrel, or sack lull
of live cats ; sometimes a fox was burned. The people
collected the embers and ashes of the fire and took
them home, believing that they brought good luck.^
At Metz midsummer fires were lighted on the Esplan-
ade, and six cats were burned in them." In Russia a
white cock was sometimes burned in the midsummer
bonfire;^ in Meissen or Thuringen a horse's head used
to be thrown into it.^ Sometimes animals are burned
in the spring bonfires. In the Vosges cats were burned
on Shrove Tuesday ; in Elsass they were thrown into
the Easter bonfire.^ We have seen that squirrels were
sometimes burned in the Easter fire.

If the men who were burned in wicker frames by
the Druids represented the spirit of vegetation, the
animals burned along with them must have had the
same meaning. Amongst the animals burned by the
Druids or in modern bonfires have been, as we saw,
cattle, cats, foxes, and cocks ; and all of these creatures
are variously regarded by European peoples as embodi-
ments of the corn-spirit." I am not aware of any certain
evidence that in Europe serpents have been regarded
as representatives of the tree-spirit or corn-spirit ; ^ as
victims at the midsummer festival in Luchon they may

1 ^o\{, Beitrdgezitr deiilschen Myth- Simon Grunau, Prenssische Chronik,
ologie, ii. 388 ; B. K. p. 515. ed. Perlbach, i. p. 89 ; Hartknoch, Alt-

2 B. K. p. 515. mid Neiies Prensseii, pp. 143, 163.
^ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,^ i. Serpents, again, played an important

519 ; B. K. p. 515. part in the worship of Demeter, as we

■* B. K. p. 515. have seen. But that they were regarded

5 lb. as embodiments of her can hardly be

" Above, vol. i. p. 408, vol. ii. p. 1 Ji/;/. assumed. In Siam the spirit of the

'' Some of the serpents worshipped takhien tree is believed to appear,

by the old Prussians lived in hollow sometimes in the form of a woman,

oaks, and as oaks were sacred among sometimes in the form of a serpent.

the Prussians, the serpents may have Bastian, Z>/£ Volker des ostlichen Asien,

been regarded as genii of the trees. iii. 251.

2S4 CELTIC SACRIFICES chap.

have replaced animals which really had this representa-
tive character. When the meaning of the custom was
forgotten, utility and humanity might unite in suggest-
ing the substitution of noxious reptiles as victims in
room of harmless and useful animals.

Thus it appears that the sacrificial rites of the Celts
of ancient Gaul can be traced in the popular festivals
of modern Europe. Naturally it is in France, or rather
in the wider area comprised within the limits of ancient
Gaul, that these rites have left the clearest traces
in the customs of burning giants of wicker-work
and animals enclosed in wicker-work or baskets.
These customs, it will have been remarked, are gener-
ally observed at or about midsummer. From this we
may infer that the original rites of which these are the
degenerate successors were solemnised at midsummer.
This inference harmonises with the conclusion sug-
gested by a general survey of European folk-custom,
that the midsummer festival must on the whole have
been the most widely diffused and the most solemn of
all the yearly festivals celebrated by the primitive
Aryans in Europe. And in its application to the Celts
this general conclusion is corroborated by the more or
less perfect vestiges of midsummer fire-festivals which
we have found lingering in all those westernmost pro-
montories and islands which are the last strong-holds
of the Celtic race in Europe — Britanny, Cornwall,
Wales, the Isle of Man, Scotland, and Ireland. In
Scotland, it is true, the chief Celtic fire- festivals
certainly appear to have been held at Beltane (ist
May) and Hallow E'en ; but this was exceptional.

To sum up : the combined evidence of ancient
writers and of modern folk-custom points to the con-
clusion that amongst the Celts of Gaul an annual

IV AND WORSHIP OF MISTLETOE 285

festival was celebrated at midsummer, at which living
men, representing the tree -spirit or spirit of vegeta-
tion, were enclosed in wicker - frames and burned.
The whole rite was designed as a charm to make the
sun to shine and the crops to grow.

But another great feature of the Celtic midsummer
festival appears to have been the gathering of the
sacred mistletoe by the Druids. The ceremony has
been thus described by Pliny in a passage which has
often been quoted. After enumerating the different
kinds of mistletoe he proceeds : " In treating of this
subject, the admiration in which the mistletoe is held
throughout Gaul ought not to pass unnoticed. The
Druids, for so they call their wizards, esteem nothing
more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree on which
it grows, provided only that the tree is an oak. But
apart from this they choose oak-woods for their sacred
groves and perform no sacred rites without oak-leaves ;
so that the very name of Druids may be regarded as a
Greek appellation derived from their worship of the
oak.^ For they believe that whatever grows on these
trees is sent from heaven, and is a sign that the tree
has been chosen by the god himself. The mistletoe is
very rarely to be met with ; but when it is found,
they gather it with solemn ceremony. This they do
especially in the sixth month (the beginnings of their
months and years are determined by the moon) and
after the tree has passed the thirtieth year of its age,

1 Pliny derives the name Druid from Gi-iechisch-lateinisches etymolog. IVdr-

the Greek di-iis, "oak." He did not terbuch, p. 368 sqq. ; Rhys, Celtic

know that the Celtic word for oak was Heathendom, p. 221 sqq. In the High-

the same {daur), and that therefore lands of Scotland the word is found

Druid, in the sense of priest of the in place-names like Bendarroch (the

oak, was genuine Celtic, not borrowed mountain of the oak), Craigandarroch,

from the Greek. See Curtius, Griech. etc.
Etymologie,^ p. 238 sq. ; Vanii^ek,

286 PLANTS GATHERED ON chap".

because by that time it has plenty of vigour, though it
has not attained half its full size. After due prepara-
tions have been made for a sacrifice and a feast under
the tree, they hail it as the universal healer and bring
to the spot two white bulls, whose horns have never
been bound before. A priest clad in a white robe
climbs the tree and with a golden^ sickle cuts the
mistletoe, which is caught in a white cloth. Then
they sacrifice the victims, praying that God may make
his own gift to prosper with those upon whom he has
bestowed it. They believe that a potion prepared
from mistletoe will make barren animals to brinor forth,
and that the plant is a remedy against all poison.""

In saying that the Druids cut the mistletoe in the
sixth month Pliny must have had in his mind the
Roman calendar, in which the sixth month was June.
Now, if the cutting of the mistletoe took place in June,
we may be almost certain that the day which witnessed
the ceremony was Midsummer Eve. For in many
places Midsummer Eve, a day redolent of a thousand
decaying fancies of yore, is still the time for culling
certain magic plants, whose evanescent virtue can be
secured at this mystic season alone. For example, on
Midsummer Eve the fern is believed to burst into a
wondrous bloom, like fire or burnished o-old. Who-

1 It is still a folk-lore rule not to cut In Cambodia when a man perceives a
the mistletoe with iron ; some say it certain parasitic plant growing on a
should be cut with gold. Grimm, tamarind-tree, he dresses in white and
Deutsche ]\IythoIogie,^\\. looi. On the taking a new. earthen pot climbs the
objection to the use of iron in such cases, tree at mid-day. He puts the plant in
see Liebrecht, Gervasius von Tillmry, the pot and lets the whole fall to the
p. 103 ; and above, vol. i. p. 177 sqq. ground. Then in the pot he makes a

2 Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. § 249 sqij. decoction which renders invulnerable.
On the Celtic worship of the oak, see also A5'monier, " Notes sur les coutumes et
Maximus Tyrius, Dissert, viii. 8, KeXrot croyances superstitieuses des Cambod-
ff^jSovai fxkv Aia dyaXfia de Atos KeXriKov giens," in Cochinchine F?'ancaise, Ex-
i'i/ztjAtj 5pOs. With this mode of gather- citrsions et Reconnaissatices, No. 16, p.
ing the mistletoe compare the following. 136.

MIDSUMMER EVE 2S7

ever catches this bloom, which very quickly fades and
falls off, can make himself invisible, can understand
the lanpfuage of animals, and so forth. But he must not
touch it with his hand ; he must spread a white cloth
under the fern, and the magic bloom (or seed) will fall
into it.^ Again, St. ]o\\ns vdort {Hype7'ic7nji perfora-
tum\ a herb which is believed to heal all kinds of
wounds and to drive away witches and demons, is
gathered on Midsummer Eve (Eve of St. John), and
is worn as an amulet or hung over doors and windows
on that day." Again, mugwort {^Artemisia vulgaris) is
believed to possess magic qualities provided it be
gathered on St. John's Eve. Hence in France it is
called the herb of St. John. People weave themselves
a girdle of the plant, believing that it will protect them
against ghosts, magic, misfortune, and disease, through-
out the year. Or they weave garlands of it on St.
John's Eve, and look through them at the midsummer
bonfire or put them on their heads. Whoever does
this will suffer no aches in his eyes or head that year.
Sometimes the plant is thrown into the midsummer
bonfire.^ The superstitious association of fern-seed,
St. John's wort, and mugwort with Midsummer Eve
is widely diffused over Europe. The following associa-
tions seem to be more local. In England the orpine
{Sedum telephium) is popularly called Midsummer

1 Wuttke, Der deittsche Volksaber- ^ V>x2CCiA, Popular A7ttiqitities,\. t,oi ,

glaubep' § 123; Grohmann, Aber- 2>'^2 ; Dyer, Folk-lore of Pla?zts, -p-p- 62,

glanben und Gebrdiuhe aus Bbhmen 2S6 •,¥nex\A, Flowers attd Flower Lore,

iind Mdhren, %% bj-^-G-JT, Gubernatis, pp. 147, 149, 150, 540; Wuttke,

Mythologie des Plantes, ii. 144 sqq.; % 134.
Friend, Flowers and Flower Lore, p.

362 ; Brand, Popular Antiquities, i. ^ Grimm, D. M.^ i. 514 sq., ii.

314 sqq. ; Vonbun, Beitrdge zttr 1013 sq., iii. 356; Grohmann, op.

dcutschen Mythologie, p. 133 sqq.; «V., § 635-637 ; Friend, op. cit. p. 75;

Burne and Jackson, Shropshire Folk- Gubernatis, Afyth, des Plantes, i. 189

/.?;'(?, p. 242. C"^. Archaeological Review, sq.,\\. 16 sqq.
i. 1645^^.

MISTLETOE GATHERED

Men, because it has been customary to gather it on
Midsummer Eve for the purpose of using it to ascer-
tain the fate of lovers ;^ and in England sprigs of red
sage are sometimes gathered on Midsummer Eve for
the same purpose.^ In Bohemia poachers fancy they
can make themselves invulnerable by means of fir-
cones gathered before sunrise on St. John's Day.^
Again, in Bohemia wild thyme gathered on Mid-
summer Day is used to fumigate the trees on Christmas
Eve, in order that they may grow well."* In Germany
and Bohemia a plant called St. John's Flower or St.
John's Blood (^Hieracium piloselld) is gathered on Mid-
summer Eve. It should be rooted up with a gold
coin. The plant is supposed to bring luck and to be
especially good for sick cattle.^

These facts by themselves would suffice to raise
a strong presumption that, if the Druids cut the
mistletoe in June, as we learn from Pliny that they
did, the day on which they cut it could have been no
other than Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day.
This presumption is converted into practical cer-
tainty when we find it to be still a rule of folk-
lore that the mistletoe should be cut on Midsummer
Eve.*^ Further, the peasants of Piedmont and Lom-
bardy still go out on Midsummer morning to search
the oak -leaves for the "oil of St. John," which
is supposed to heal all wounds made with cutting
instruments.^ Originally no doubt the "oil of St.
John " was simply the mistletoe, or a decoction made

^ Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisfne ^ Grohmann, § 68i ; Wuttke, § 134 ;

and Judaisme, p. 25 sq. ; Brand, Pop. Rochholz, Detitscher Glavbe t<nd

Ant. i. TfZq sqq.; Friend, p. 136. Branch, i. 9; Gubernatis, Mythologie

2 Brand, i. 333. ^es Plantes, i. 190.

„ ^, , ,. ^ Grimm, D. I\I.^ \\\. 78, 31;^.

•* Grohmann, ^ 1420. t r^ \ »• nr ti 1 ■ j m

' ^ ^ ' Gubernatis, Alythologie des Plantes,

* Grolimann, § 648. ii. 73.

IV ON MIDSUMMER EVE 289

from it. For in Holstein the mistletoe, especially oak-
mistletoe, is still regarded as a panacea for green
wounds;^ and if, as is alleged, "all-healer" is an
epithet of the mistletoe in the modern Celtic speech
of Britanny, Wales; Ireland, and Scotland,^ this can be
nothing but a survival of the name by which, as we
have seen, the Druids addressed the oak, or rather,
perhaps, the mistletoe.

Thus it appears that the two main features of the
Balder myth — the pulling of the mistletoe and the
burning of the god — were reproduced in the great
midsummer festival of the Celts. But in Scandinavia
itself, the home of Balder, both these features of his
myth can still be traced in the popular celebration of
midsummer. For in Sweden on Midsummer Eve
mistletoe is "diligently sought after, they believing it
to be, in a high degree, possessed of mystic qualities ;
and that if a sprig of it be attached to the ceiling of
the dwelling-house, the horse's stall, or the cow's crib,
the ' Troll ' will then be powerless to injure either
man or beast. "^ And in Sweden, Norway, and Den-
mark huofe bonfires are kindled on hills and eminences
on Midsummer Eve."* It does not appear, indeed,
that any effigy is burned in these bonfires ; but the
burning of an efiigy is a feature which might easily
drop out after its meaning was forgotten. And the
name of Balder's bale-fires {Baldei^'s Bdlar), by which
these midsummer fires were formerly known in
Sweden,^ puts their connection with Balder beyond
the reach of doubt, and makes it certain that in

1 Friend, Flowers and Flower Lore, ^ Grimm, D. RI.^ ii. 1009.

p. 378. Hunters believe that the ^ L. \Aoyd, Peasant Life in Swedeft,

mistletoe heals all wounds and brings p. 269.

luck in hunting. Kuhn, Herablmnft * Lloyd, op. cit. p. 259 ; Grimm,

des F'euers,'^ p. 206. D. A/.* i. 517 sq. ^ Lloyd, I.e.

VOL. II U

290 BALDER A TREE-SPIRIT chap.

former times either a living representative or an effigy
of Balder must have been annually burned in them.
Midsummer was the season sacred to Balder, and the
fact that the Swedish poet Tegner, in his FiHtJiiofssaga,
places the burning of Balder at midsummer^ may per-
haps be allowed as evidence of a Swedish tradition to
that effect. From this double coincidence of the
Balder myth, on the one hand with the midsummer
festival of Celtic Gaul and on the other with the mid-
summer festival in Scandinavia, we may safely con-
clude that the myth is not a myth pure and simple,
that is, a mere description of physical phenomena in
imagery borrowed from human life ; it must un-
doubtedly be a ritualistic myth, that is a myth based
on actual observation of religious ceremonies and pur-
porting to explain them. Now, the standing explana-
tion which myth gives of ritual is that the ritual in
question is a periodic commemoration of some remark-
able transaction in the past, the actors in which may
have been either gods or men. Such an explanation
the Balder myth would seem to offer of the annual
fire-festivals which, as we saw, must have played so
prominent a part in the primitive religion of the Aryan
race in Europe. Balder must have been the Norse
representative of the being who was burnt in effigy or
in the person of a living man at the fire-festivals in
question. But if, as I have tried to show, the being
so burnt was the tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation, it
follows that Balder also must have been a tree-spirit
or spirit of vegetation.

But it is desirable to determine, if we can, the

1 Grimm, D. J\IA iii. 78, who adds, the whole myth, has been quite lost on

" Mahnen die Johannisfeuei- an Baldrs the mythologists who since Grimm's

Leichenbrand V^ This pregnant hint, day have enveloped the subject in a

which contains in germ the solution of cloud of learned dust.

OAK-WORSHIP 291

particular kind of tree or trees, of which a personal
representative was burned at the fire -festivals. For
we may be quite sure that it was not as a representa-
tive of vegetation in general that the victim suffered
death. The conception of vegetation in general is too
abstract to be primitive. Most probably the victim at
first represented a particular kind of sacred tree. Now
of all European trees none has such claims as the oak
to be considered as pre-eminently the sacred tree of
the Aryans. Its worship is attested for all the great
branches of the Aryan stock in Europe. We have
seen that it was not only the sacred tree, but the
principal object of worship of both Celts and Slavs.^
According to Grimm, the oak ranked first among the
holy trees of the Germans, and was indeed their chief
god. It is certainly known to have been adored by
them in the age of heathendom, and traces of its
worship have survived in various parts of Germany
almost to the present day.^ Amongst the ancient
Italians, according to Preller, the oak was sacred above
all other trees.^ The image of Jupiter on the Capitol
at Rome seems to have been originally nothing
but a natural oak-tree.^ At Dodona, perhaps the
oldest of all Greek sanctuaries, Zeus was worshipped
as immanent in the sacred oak, and the rustling of
its leaves in the wind was his voice.^ If, then, the
great god of both Greeks and Romans was repre-
sented in some of his oldest shrines under the form
of an oak, and if the oak was the principal object
of worship of Celts, Germans, and Slavs, we may

1 Above, p. 285, and vol. i. pp. 58,64. Der Batunkultus der Hellencn, p.

2 Grimm, D. M.* i. 55 sij., 58 sc/., 133 si/.

ii. 542, iii. 187 sij. ^ Botticher, o/>. cit. p. 11 1 sqq.%

3 Preller, R6m. Mythol? i. 108. Preller, Grieclu Mythol.^ed. C. Robert,
■* Livy, i. 10. Cp. C. Botticher, i. 122 sqq.

292 ■ SACRED FIRES MADE chap.

certainly conclude that this tree was one of the chief,
if not the very chief divinity of the Aryans before
the dispersion ; and that their primitive home must
have lain in a land which was clothed with forests
.of oak.^

Now, considering the primitive character and re-
markable similarity of the fire-festivals observed by all
the branches of the Aryan race in Europe, we may
infer that these festivals form part of the common
stock of religious observances which the various peoples
carried with them in their wanderings from their ori-
ginal home. But, if I am right, an essential feature of
those primitive fire-festivals was the burning of a man
who represented the tree-spirit. In view, then, of
the place occupied by the oak in the religion of the
Aryans, the presumption is that the tree so repre-
sented at the fire-festivals must originally have been the
oak. So far as the Celts and Slavs are concerned, this
conclusion will perhaps hardly be contested. But both
for them and for the Germans it is confirmed by a
remarkable piece of religious conservatism. The most
primitive method known to man of producing fire is
by rubbing two pieces of wood against each other till
they ignite ; and we have seen that this method is still
used in Europe for kindling sacred fires such as the

1 Without hazarding an opinion on (Jena, 1S90), p. 394. In prehistoric

the vexed question of the primitive times the oak appears to have been the

home of the Aryans, I may observe chief tree in the forests which clothed

that in various parts of Europe the oalc the valley of the Po ; the piles on which

seems to have been formerly more com- the pile villages rested were of oak.

mon than it is now. In Denmark the W . Helbig, Die Italiker hi der Poebene,

present beech woods were preceded by p. 25 sq. The classical tradition that

oak woods and these by the Scotch fir. in the olden time men subsisted largely

Lyell, Antiquity of Alan, p. 9 ; J. on acorns is borne out by the evidence

Geikie, Prehistoric Eta-ope, p. 486 sq. of the pile villages in Northern Italy,

In parts of North Germany it appears in which great quantities of acorns have

from the evidence of archives that the been discovered. See Helbig, oj). fit.

fir has ousted the oak. O. Schrader, pp. 16 sq., 26, 72 sq.
Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte,'^

WITH OAK-WOOD 293

need-fire, and that most probably it was formerly
resorted to at all the fire-festivals under discussion.
Now it is som'etimes prescribed that the need-fire, or
other sacred fire, must be made by the friction of a
particular kind of wood ; and wherever the kind of
wood is prescribed, whether among Celts, Germans, or
Slavs, that wood is always the oak. Thus we have seen
that amongst the Slavs of Masuren the new fire for the
village is made on Midsummer Day by causing a
wheel to revolve rapidly round an axle of oak till the
axle takes fire.^ When the perpetual fire which the
ancient Slavs used to maintain chanced to go out, it
was rekindled by the friction of a piece of oak-wood,
which had been previously heated by being struck
with a gray (not a red) stone." In Germany the need-
fire was regularly kindled by the friction of oak-wood f
and in the Highlands of Scotland, both the Beltane and
the need-fires were lighted by similar means,* Now, if
the sacred fire was regularly kindled by the friction of
oak-wood, we may infer that originally the fire was also
fed with the same material. In point of fact, the per-
petual fire which burned under the sacred oak at the
great Slavonian sanctuary of Romove was fed with
oak-wood ; ^ and that oak-wood was formerly the fuel

1 Above, p. 265 s(j. The writer who styles himself Mon-

2 Praetorius, Deliciae Pnissicae, 1 9 tanus says [Die deiifscheii Volksfeste, etc. ,
sq. Mr. Ralston states (on what p. 127) that the need-fire was made by
authority I do not know) that if the the friction of oak and fir. Sometimes
fire maintained in honour of the Lithu- it is said that the need-fire should be
anian god Perkunas went out, it was made with nine different kinds of wood
rekindled by sparks struck from a stone (Grimm, D. Af.^ i. 503, 505; Wolf,
which the image of the god held in his Beitrdge ziir deutschen Mythologie, ii.
hand. Sougs of the Russian People, 380 ; Jahn, Die deutschen Opferge-
p. 88. brdtuhe, p. 27) ; but the kinds of wood

3 Grimm, D. M^ i. 502, 503 ; are not specified.

Kuhn, Herabkunft des Feuers,'^ P- 43 ; * John Ramsay, Scotland and Scots-

Prohle, Harzbilder, p. 75; Bartsch, ineti in the Eighteenth Century, \\. OfifT.',

Sagen, Mdrche7i und Gebrduche aus Grimm, D. Jl/.* i. 506. See above, p.

Mecklenburg, ii. 150; Rochholz, 255.

Deutscher Glaube iind Branch, ii. 148. ^ Above, vol. i. p. 58..

294

MAN BURNT AS

burned in the midsummer fires may perhaps be inferred
from the circumstance that in many mountain districts
of Germany peasants are still in the habit of making
up their cottage fire on Midsummer Day with a heavy
block of oak-wood. The block is so arranged that it
smoulders slowly and is not finally reduced to charcoal
till the expiry of a year. Then upon next Midsummer
Day the charred embers of the old log are removed
to make room for the new one, and are mixed with
the seed-corn or scattered about the garden. This is
believed to promote the growth of the crops and to
preserve them from blight and vermin.^ It may be
remembered that at the Boeotian festival of the
Daedala, the analogy of which to the spring and mid-
summer festivals of modern Europe has been already
pointed out, the great feature was the felling and burn-
ing of an oak.^ The general conclusion is, that at
those periodic or occasional ceremonies, of which the
object was to cause the sun to shine, and the fruits of
the earth to grow, the ancient Aryans both kindled
and fed the fire with the sacred oak-wood.

But if at these solemn rites the fire was regularly
made of oak-wood, it follows that the man who was
burned in it as a personification of the tree-spirit could
have represented no tree but the oak. The sacred
oak was thus burned in duplicate ; the wood of the
tree was consumed in the fire, and along with it was
consumed a living man as a personification of the oak-
spirit. The conclusion thus drawn for the European
Aryans in general is confirmed in its special application
to the Celts and Scandinavians by the relation in which,
amongst these peoples, the mistletoe stood to the burn-
ing of the victim in the midsummer fire. We have

1 Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfeste, etc., p. 127. ^ Above, vol. i. p. 100.

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE OAK 295

seen that among Celts and Scandinavians it has been
customary to gather the mistletoe at midsummer. But
so far as appears on the face of this custom, there is
nothing to connect it with the midsummer fires in
which human victims or effigies of them were burned.
Even if the fire, as seems probable, was originally
always made with oak-wood, why should it have been
necessary to pull the mistletoe ? The last link between
the midsummer customs of gathering the mistletoe
and lighting the bonfires is supplied by Balder's
myth, which certainly cannot be disjoined from the
customs in question. The myth shows that a vital
connection must once have been believed to subsist
between the mistletoe and the human representative of
the oak who was burned in the fire. According to the
myth, Balder could be killed by nothing in heaven or
earth except the mistletoe ; and so long as the mistletoe
remained on the oak, he was not only immortal, but
invulnerable. Now, as soon as we see that Balder
was the oak, the origin of the myth becomes plain.
The mistletoe was viewed as the seat of life of the oak,
and so long as it was uninjured nothing could kill or
even wound the oak. The conception of the mistletoe
as the seat of life of the oak would naturally be sug-
gested to primitive people by the observation that
while the oak is deciduous, the mistletoe which grows
on it is evergreen. In winter the sight of its fresh
foliao-e amonof the bare branches must have been hailed
by the worshippers of the tree as a sign that the divine
life which had ceased to animate the branches yet
survived in the mistletoe, as the heart of a sleeper
still beats when his body is motionless. Hence when
the god had to be killed — when the sacred tree had
to be burnt — it was necessary to begin by breaking off

296 THE MISTLETOE

the mistletoe. For so long as the mistletoe remained
intact, the oak (so people thought) was invulnerable ;
all the blows of their knives and axes would glance
harmless from its surface. But once tear from the oak
its sacred heart — the mistletoe — and the tree nodded
to its fall. And when in later times the spirit of the
oak came to be represented by a living man, it was
logically necessary to suppose that, like the tree he
personated, he could neither be killed nor wounded
so long as the mistletoe remained uninjured. The
pulling of the mistletoe was thus at once the signal
and the cause of his death.

But since the idea of a being whose life is thus, in
a sense, outside itself, must be strange to many readers,
and has, indeed, not yet been recognised in its full
bearing on primitive superstition, it will be worth
while to devote a couple of sections to the subject.
The result will be to show that, in assuming this idea
as the explanation of the relation of Balder to the
mistletoe, I assume a principle which is deeply
engraved on the mind of primitive man.

§ 3. — The external soul in folk-tales

In a former chapter we saw that, in the opinion of
primitive people, the soul may temporarily absent itself
from the body without causing death. Such temporary
absences of the soul are often believed to involve con-
siderable risk, since the wandering soul is liable to a
variety of mishaps at the hands of enemies, and so
forth. But there is another aspect to this power of
externalising the soul. If only the safety of the soul
can be ensured during its absence from the body, there

IV THE EXTERNAL SOUL 297

is no reason why the soul should not continue absent
for an indefinite time ; indeed a man may, on a pure
calculation of personal safety, desire that his soul should
never return to his body. Unable to conceive of life
abstractly as a " permanent possibility of sensation " or
a "continuous adjustment of internal arrangements to
external relations," the savage thinks of it as a concrete
material thing of a definite bulk, capable of being seen
and handled, kept in a box or jar, and liable to be
bruised, fractured, or smashed in pieces. It is not
needful that the life, so conceived, should be in the
man ; it may be absent from his body and still con-
tinue to animate him, by virtue of a sort of sympathy
or " action at a distance." So long as this object
which he calls his life or soul remains unharmed,
the man is well ; if it is injured, he suffers ; if it is
destroyed, he dies. Or, to put it otherwise, when a
man is ill or dies, the fact is explained by saying that
the material object called his life or soul, whether it be
in his body or out of it, has either sustained injury or
been destroyed. But there may be circumstances in
which, if the life or soul remains in the man, it stands
a greater chance of sustaining injury than if it were
stowed away in some safe and secret place. Accord-
ingly, in such circumstances, primitive man takes his
soul out of his body and deposits it for security in
some safe place, intending to replace it in his body
when the danger is past. Or if he should discover
some place of absolute security, he may be content to
leave his soul there permanently. The advantage of
this is that, so long as the soul remains unharmed in
the place where he has deposited it, the man himself
is immortal ; nothing can kill his body, since his life is
not in it.

298 THE EXTERNAL SOUL chap.

Evidence of this primitive belief is furnished by
a class of folk -tales of which the Norse story of
" The giant who had no heart in his body " is perhaps
the best -known example. Stories of this kind are
widely diffused over the world, and from their number
and the variety of incident and of details in which
the leading idea is embodied, we may infer that
the conception of an external soul is one which has
had a powerful hold on the minds of men at an early
stage of history. For folk-tales are a faithful reflection
of the world as it appeared to the primitive mind ; and
we may be sure that any idea which commonly occurs
in them, however absurd it may seem to us, must once
have been an ordinary article of belief. This assurance,
so far as it concerns the supposed power of externalising
the soul for a longer or shorter time, is amply corrobo-
rated by a comparison of the folk-tales in question
with the actual beliefs and practices of savages. To
this we shall return after some specimens of the tales
have been given. The specimens will be selected
with a view of illustrating both the characteristic
features and the wide diffusion of this class of tales.

In the first place, the story of the external soul is
told, in various forms, by all Aryan peoples from
Hindustan to the Hebrides. A very common form
of it is this : A warlock, giant, or other fairyland
being is invulnerable and immortal because he keeps
his soul hidden far away in some secret place ; but a fair
princess, whom he holds enthralled in his enchanted
castle, wiles his secret from him and reveals it to the
hero, who seeks out the warlock's soul, heart, life, or
death (as it is variously called), and, by destroying it,
simultaneously kills the warlock. Thus a Hindoo
story tells how a magician called Punchkin held a

IN HINDOO STORIES 299

queen captive for twelve years, and would fain marry
her, but she would not have him. At last the queen's
son came to rescue her, and the two plotted together
to kill Punchkin. So the queen spoke the magician fair,
and pretended that she had at last made up her mind
to marry him. " 'And do tell me,' she said, 'are you
quite immortal ? Can death never touch you ? And
are you too great an enchanter ever to feel human
suffering ?' . . . ' It is true,' he said, 'that I am not as
others. Far, far away — hundreds of thousands of
miles from this — there lies a desolate country covered
with thick jungle. In the midst of the jungle grows a
circle of palm-trees, and in the centre of the circle stand
six chattees full of water, piled one above another ;
below the sixth chattee is a small cage, which contains
a little green parrot — on the life of the parrot depends
my life — and if the parrot is killed I must die. It is,
however,' he added, ' impossible that the parrot should
sustain any injury, both on account of the inaccessibility
of the country, and because, by my appointment, many
thousand genii surround the palm-trees, and kill all
who approach the place.' " But the queen's young
son overcame all difficulties, and got possession of
the parrot. He brought it to the door of the magi-
cian's palace, and began playing with it. Punchkin,
the magician, saw him, and, coming out, tried to
persuade the boy to give him the parrot. " ' Give me
my parrot ! ' cried Punchkin. Then the boy took hold
of the parrot and tore off one of his wings ; and as he
did so the magician's right arm fell off. Punchkin
then stretched out his left arm, crying, * Give me my
parrot ! ' The prince pulled off" the parrot's second
winpf, and the magician's left arm tumbled off. ' Give
me my parrot ! ' cried he, and fell on his knees. The

300 THE EXTERNAL SOUL chap.

prince pulled off the parrot's right leg, the magician's
right leg fell off ; the prince pulled off the parrot's left
leg, down fell the magician's left. Nothing remained
of him except the lifeless body and the head ; but still
he rolled his eyes, and cried, * Give me my parrot ! '
' Take your parrot, then,' cried the boy ; and with that
he wrung the bird's neck, and threw it at the magician;
and, as he did so, Punchkin's head twisted round, and,
with a fearful groan, he died!"^ In another Hindoo
tale an ogre is asked by his daughter, " ' Papa, where
do you keep your soul ? ' ' Sixteen miles away from
this place,' said he, ' is a tree. Round the tree are
tigers, and bears, and scorpions, and snakes ; on the
top of the tree is a very great fat snake ; on his head
is a little cage ; in the cage is a bird ; and my soul is
in that bird.' " The end of the ogre is like that of the
magician in the previous tale. As the bird's wings
and legs are torn off, the ogre's arms and legs drop
off; and when its neck is wrung he falls down dead."

In another Hindoo story a princess called Sodewa
Bai is born with a golden necklace about her neck, and
the astrologer told her parents, "This is no common
child ; the necklace of gold about her neck contains
your daughter's soul ; let it, therefore, be guarded with
the utmost care ; for if it were taken off and worn
by another person, she would die." So her mother
caused it to be firmly fastened round the child's neck,
and, as soon as the child was old enough to under-
stand, she told her its value, and warned her never to
let it be taken off In course of time Sodewa Bai was
married to a prince who had another wife living. The

1 Mary Frere, Old Deccan Days, p. p. 187 sq.; Lai Behari Day, Folk-tales

12 sqq. of Bengal, p. 121 sq.; F. A. Steel and

- Maive Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, R. C. Temple, IVidc-aivake Stories, p.

p. 58 sqq. For similar stories, see id. 58 sqq.

IV IN HINDOO STORIES 301

first wife, jealous of her young rival, persuaded a
negress to steal from Sodewa Bai the golden necklace
which contained her soul. The negress did so, and,
as soon as she put the necklace round her own neck,
Sodewa Bai died. All day long the negress used to
wear the necklace ; but late at night, on going to bed,
she would take it off and put it by till morning ; a;nd
whenever she took it off, Sodewa Bai's soul returned to
her and she lived. But when morning came, and the
negress put on the necklace, Sodewa Bai died again.
At last the prince discovered the treachery of his elder
wife and restored the golden necklace to Sodewa Bai.^
In another Hindoo story a holy mendicant tells a
queen that she will bear a son, adding, " As enemies
will try to take away the life of your son, I may as
well tell you that the life of the boy will be bound up
in the life of a big boal-^sh. which is in your tank in
front of the palace. In the heart of the fish is a small
box of wood, in the box is a necklace of gold, that
necklace is the life of your son." The boy was born
and received the name of Dalim. His mother was the
Suo or younger queen. But the Duo or elder queen
hated the child, and learning the secret of his life, she
caused the boal-^sh., with which his life was bound up,
to be caught. Dalim was playing near the tank at the
time, but " the moment the boal-hsh. was caught in the
net, that moment Dalim felt unwell; and when the fish
was brought up to land, Dalim fell down on the ground,
and made as if he was about to breathe his last. He
was immediately taken into his mother's room, and the
king was astonished on hearing of the sudden illness
of his son and heir. The fish was by the order of the
physician taken into the room of the Duo queen, and

1 Old Deccan Days, p. 239 sqq.

THE EXTERNAL SOUL

as it lay on the floor striking its fins on the ground,
DaHm in his mother's room was given up for lost.
When the fish was cut open, a casket was found in it ;
and in the casket lay a necklace of gold. The moment
the necklace was worn by the queen, that very moment
Dalim died in his mother's room." The queen used
to put off the necklace every night, and whenever
she did so, the boy came to life again. But every
morning when the queen put on the necklace, he died
again. ^

In a Cashmeer story a lad visits an old ogress,
pretending to be her grandson, the son of her
daughter who had married a king. So the old ogress
took him into her confidence and showed him seven
cocks, a spinning wheel, a pigeon, and a starling.
"These seven cocks," said she, "contain the lives of
your seven uncles, who are away for a few days. Only
as long as the cocks live can your uncles hope to live ;
no power can hurt them as long as the seven cocks are
safe and sound. The spinning-wheel contains my life;
if it is broken, I too shall be broken, and must die ;
but otherwise I shall live on for ever. The pigeon
contains your grandfather's life, and the starling your
mother's ; as long as these live, nothing can harm your
grandfather or your mother." So the lad killed the
seven cocks and the pigeon and the starling, and
smashed the spinning-wheel ; and at the moment he
did so the ogres and ogresses perished.^ In another
story from Cashmeer an ogre cannot die unless a
particular pillar in the verandah of his palace be
broken. Learning the secret, a prince struck the

^ Lai Behari Day, op. cit. p. i sqq. awake Stories, p. 83 sqq.
Yox similar stories of necklaces, see ^ j_ fj. Knowles, Folk - tales of

Old Deccan Days, p. 233 sq.; Wide- Kashmir {L.QXii.o\\, 1888), p. /\,^ sq.

IV IN CASHMEER STORIES 303

pillar again and again till it was broken in pieces.
And it was as if each stroke had fallen on the ogre,
for he howled lamentably and shook like an aspen
every time the prince hit the pillar, until at last, when
the pillar fell down, the ogre also fell down and gave
up the ghost.^ In another Cashmeer tale an ogre is
represented as laughing very heartily at the idea that
he might possibly die. He said that "he should never
die. No power could oppose him ; no years could
age him ; he should remain ever strong and ever
young, for the thing wherein his life dwelt was most
difficult to obtain." It was in a queen bee, which was
in a honeycomb on a tree. But the bees in the
honeycomb were many and fierce, and it was only
at the greatest risk that any one could catch the
queen. But the hero achieved the enterprise and
crushed the queen bee ; and immediately the ogre
fell stone dead to the ground, so that the whole land
trembled with the shock. ^ In some Bengalee tales the
life of a whole tribe of ogres is described as con-
centrated in two bees. The secret was thus revealed
by an old ogress to a captive princess who pretended
to fear lest the ogress should die. " Know, foolish
girl," said the ogress, " that we ogres never die. We
are not naturally immortal, but our life depends on
a secret which no human being can unravel. Let me
tell you what it is that you may be comforted. You
know yonder tank ; there is in the middle of it a
crystal pillar, on the top of which in deep water are
two bees. If any human being can dive into the water
and bring up the two bees from the pillar in one
breath, and destroy them so that not a drop of their

^ J. H. Knowles, Folk-tales of Kashmir (London, 188S), p. 134.
^ Id. p. 382 sqq.

304 THE EXTERNAL SOUL chap.

blood falls to the ground, then we ogres shall certainly
die ; but if a single drop of blood falls to the ground,
then from it will start up a thousand ogres. But what
human being will find out this secret, or, finding it,
will be able to achieve the feat ? You need not, there-
fore, darling, be sad ; I am practically immortal."
As usual, the princess reveals the secret to the hero,
who kills the bees, and that same moment all the
ogres drop down dead, each on the spot where he
happened to be standing.^ In another Bengalee story
it is said that all the ogres dwell in Ceylon, and that
all their lives are in a single lemon. A boy cuts the
lemon in pieces, and all the ogres die."

In a Siamese or Cambodian story, probably de-
rived from India, we are told that Thossakan or
Ravana, the King of Ceylon, was able by magic
art to take his soul out of his body and leave it
in a box at home, while he went to the wars. Thus
he was invulnerable in battle. When he was about
to give battle to Rama, he deposited his soul with
a hermit called Fire-eye, who was to keep it safe for
him. So in the fight Rama was astounded to see that
his arrows struck the king without wounding him.
But one of Rama's allies, knowing the secret of
the king's invulnerability, transformed himself by
magic into the likeness of the king, and going to the
hermit asked back his soul. On receiving it he soared
up into the air and flew to Rama, brandishing the box
and squeezing it so hard that all the breath left the
King of Ceylon's body, and he died.^ In a Bengalee

1 Lai Behari Day, op. cit. p. 85 sq., see Clouston, Popular Talcs and
cp. id. p. 253 sqq.; India7i Antiquary, Fictions, i. 350.
i. (1872) 117. For an Indian story in 2 Jndian Antiquary, i. 171. '

which a giant's life is in five black bees, 3 a. Bastian, Die Volker des ostlichen

Asien, iv. 340 sq.

IV IN GREEK STORIES 305

Story a prince going into a far country planted with his
own hands a tree in the courtyard of his father's
palace, and said to his parents, " This tree is my life.
When you see the tree green and fresh, then know
that it is well with me ; when you see the tree fade in
some parts, then know that I am in an ill case ; and
when you see the whole tree fade, then know that I
am dead and gone."^ In another Indian tale a prince,
setting forth on his travels, left behind him a barley
plant with instructions that it should be carefully
tended and watched, for if it flourished, he would be
alive and well, but if it drooped, then some mischance
was about to happen to him. And so it fell out. For
the prince was beheaded, and as his head rolled off,
the barley plant snapped in two and the ear of barley
fell to the ground.^ In the legend of the origin of
Gilgit there figures a fairy king whose soul is in the
snows and who can only perish by fire.^

In Greek tales, ancient and modern, the idea of
an external soul is not uncommon. When Meleager
was seven days old, the Fates appeared to his mother
and told her that Meleager would die when the brand
which was blazing on the hearth had burnt down. So
his mother snatched the brand from the fire and kept
it in a box. But in after years, being enraged at her
son for slaying her brothers, she burnt the brand in
the fire and Meleager at once expired."^ Again, Nisus
King of Megara, had a purple or golden hair on the
middle of his head, and it was fated that whenever
the hair was pulled out the king should die. When
Megara was besieged by the Cretans, the king's

1 Lai Behari Day, op. cit. p. 189. * ApoUodorus, i. 8 ; Diodorus, iv.

2 Wide-awake Stories, i^"^. 52, 64. 34; Pausanias, x. 31, 4; Aeschylus,
^ G. W. Leitner, The Languages and Choeph. do^ sqq.

Races of Dardistan, p. 9.

VOL. II X

3o6 THE EXTERNAL SOUL chap.

daughter Scylla fell in love with Minos, their King,
and pulled out the fatal hair from her father's head.
So he died.^ Similarly Poseidon made Pterelaus
immortal by giving him a golden hair on his head.
But when Taphos, the home of Pterelaus, was be-
sieged by Amphitryon, the daughter of Pterelaus fell
in love with Amphitryon and killed her father by
plucking out the golden hair with which his life was
bound up." In a modern Greek folk-tale a man's
strength lies in three golden hairs on his head. When
his mother pulls them out, he grows weak and timid
and is slain by his enemies.^ In another modern
Greek story the life of an enchanter is bound up with
three doves which are in the belly of a wild boar.
When the first dove is killed, the magician grows sick,
when the second is killed, he grows very sick, and
when the third is killed, he dies.^ In another Greek
story of the same sort an ogre's strength is in three
singing birds which are in a wild boar. The hero
kills two of the birds, and then coming to the ogre's
house finds him lying on the ground in great pain.
He shows the third bird to the ogre, who begs that the
hero will either let it fly away or give it to him to eat.
But the hero wrings the bird's neck and the ogre dies
on the spot.^ In a variant of the latter story the

^ Apollodorus, iii. 15, 8; Aeschylus, esische Mdrchen, i. p. 217 ; a similar

Choeph. 612 sqq. ; Paiisanias, i. 19, story, id. ii. p. 282.

4. According to Tzetzes (Schol. on * Hahn, op. cil. ii. p. 215 sq.

Lycophron, 650) not the life but the ^ Id. ii. p. 275 sq. Similar stories,

strength of Nisus was in his golden id. ii. pp. 204, 294 sq. In an Albanian

hair ; when it was pulled out, he became story a monster's strength is in three

weak and was slain by Minos. Accord- pigeons, which are in a hare, which is

ing to Hyginus (Fab. 198) Nisus was in the silver tusk of a wild boar. When

destined to reign only so long as he kept the boar is killed, the monster feels ill ;

the purple lock on his head. when the hare is cut open, he can hardly

9 . ,, , •■ es „ _ stand on his feet ; when the three pieeons

■= Apollodorus, 11. 4, §§ <;, 7. ,-,,,,• ,> ^5

' -^ are killed, he expires. Dozon, Lojites

3 Ifahn, Griechische und Alban- albanais, p. 132 sq.

IV IN GREEK STORIES 307

monster's strencrth is in two doves, and when the hero
kills one of them, the monster cries out, " Ah, woe is
me ! Half my life is gone. Something must have
happened to one of the doves." When the second dove
is killed, he dies.^ In another Greek story the incidents
of the three golden hairs and the three doves are
artificially combined. A monster has three golden
hairs on his head which open the door of a chamber
in which are three doves ; when the first dove is
killed, the monster grows sick, when the second is
killed, he grows worse, and when the third is killed,
he dies.^ In another Greek tale an old man's strength
is in a ten-headed serpent. When the serpent's heads
are being cut off, he feels unwell, and when the last
head is struck off, he expires.^ In another Greek
story a dervish tells a queen that she will have three
sons, that at the birth of each she must plant a
pumpkin in the garden, and that in the fruit borne by
the pumpkins will reside the strength of the children.
In due time the infants are born and the pumpkins
planted. As the children grow up the pumpkins
grow with them. One morning the eldest son feels
sick, and on going into the garden they find that the
largest pumpkin is gone. Next night the second
son keeps watch in a summer-house in the garden. At
midnight a negro appears and cuts the second pump-
kin. At once the boy's strength goes out of him and
he is unable to pursue the negro. The youngest
son, however, succeeds in slaying the negro and
recovering the lost pumpkins.'*

Ancient Italian legend furnishes a close parallel to
the Greek story of Meleager. Silvia, the young wife

i Hahn, op. cit. ii. p. 260 sqq. ~ Id. i. p. 187. ^ Id. ii. p. 23 sq,

* Legrand, Contes populaires grecs, p. 191 sqq.

3o8 THE EXTERNAL SOUL chap.

of Septimius Marcellus, had a child by the god Mars.
The god gave her a spear, with which he said that
the fate of the child would be bound up. When the
boy grew up he quarrelled with his maternal uncles
and slew them. So in revenge his mother burned the
spear on which his life depended.^ In one of the
stories of the Pentamerone a certain queen has a twin
brother, a dragon. The astrologers declared at her
birth that she would live just as long as the dragon
and no longer, the death of the one involving the
death of the other. If the dragon were killed, the
only way to restore the queen to life would be to
smear her temples, breast, pulses, and nostrils with
the blood of the dragon.- In a modern Roman
version of "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," the
magician tells the princess whom he holds captive
in a floating rock in mid -ocean that he will never
die. The princess reports this to the prince her
husband, who has come to rescue her. The prince
replies, "It is impossible but that there should be
some one thing or other that is fatal to him ; ask him
what that one fatal thing is." So the princess asked
the magician and he told her that in the wood was a
hydra with seven heads ; in the middle head of the
hydra was a leveret, in the head of the leveret was
a bird, in the bird's head was a precious stone, and
if this stone were put under his pillow he would die.
The prince procured the stone and the princess laid
it under the magician's pillow. No sooner did the
enchanter lay his head on the pillow than he gave

1 Plutarch, Parallela, 26. In both the nephew presented to his lady-love

the Greek and Italian stories the sub- and which his uncles took from her.
ject of quarrel between nejihew and 2 Basile, renta»ic?-one, ii. p. 60 sq.

uncles is the skin of a boar, which (Liebrecht's German trans.)

IN SLA VONIC STORIES 309

three terrible yells, turned himself round and round
three times, and died/

Stories of the same sort are current among
Slavonic peoples. Thus in a Russian tale a warlock
called Koshchei the Deathless is asked where his
death is, " My death," he answered, " is in such and
such a place. There stands an oak, and under the
oak is a casket, and in the casket is a hare, and in the
hare is a duck, and in the duck is an egg, and in the
^gg is my death." A prince obtained the ^g^ and
squeezed it, whereupon Koshchei the Deathless bent
double. But when the prince shivered the Q.g'g in
pieces, the warlock died.- "In one of the descriptions
of Koshchei's death, he is said to be killed by a blow
on the forehead inflicted by the mysterious ^g<g — that
last link in the magic chain by which his life is darkly
bound. In another version of the same story, but told
of a snake, the fatal blow is struck by a small stone
found in the yolk of an ^gg, which is inside a duck,
which is inside a hare, which is inside a stone, which
is on an island."^ In another variant the prince
shifts the fatal ^<gg from one hand to the other, and as
he does so Koshchei rushes wildly from side to side
of the room. At last the prince smashes the ^gg, and
Koshchei drops dead.* In another Russian story the
death of an enchantress is in a blue rose-tree in a blue
forest. Prince Ivan uproots the rose-tree, whereupon
the enchantress straightway sickens. He brings the
rose-tree to her house and finds her at the point of
death. Then he throws it into the cellar, crying,
" Behold her death ! " and at once the whole building

1 R. H. Busk, Folk-lore of Rome, p. 103 sq.; so Dietrich, Russian Popular
164 sqq. Tales, p. 23 sq.

- Ralston, Russian Folk -tales, p. ^ Ralston, c/. cit. p. 109. •* Il>.

3IO THE EXTERNAL SOUL cuAr.

shakes, "and becomes an island, on which are people
who had been sitting in Hell, and who offer up thanks
to Prince Ivan."^ In another Russian story a prince
is grievously tormented by a witch who has got hold
of his heart, and keeps it seething in a magic cauldron.-
In a Bohemian tale a warlock's strength lies in an
^gg, which is in a duck, which is in a stag, which is
under a tree. A seer finds the ^gg and sucks it.
Then the warlock grows as weak as a child, " for all
his strength had passed into the seer."" In a Serbian
story a fabulous being called True Steel declares,
" Far away from this place there is a very high
mountain, in the mountain there is a fox, in the fox
there is a heart, in the heart there is a bird, and in
this bird is my strength." The fox is caught and
killed and its heart is taken out. Out of the fox's
heart is taken the bird, which is then burnt, and that
very moment True Steel falls dead.^ In a South
Slavonian story a dragon tells an old woman, " My
strength is a long way off, and you cannot go thither.
Far in another empire under the emperor's city is a
lake, in that lake is a dragon, and in the dragon a
boar, and in the boar a pigeon, and in that is my
strength." ^

Amongst peoples of the Teutonic stock stories of
the external soul are not wanting. In a tale told by
the Saxons of Transylvania it is said that a young
man shot at a witch again and again. The bullets
went clean through her but did her no harm, and she
only laughed and mocked at him. " Silly earthworm,"

^ Ralston, Russian Folk -tales, p. F. S. Krauss, Sagen nnd Mdrchen der

113 si], Siidslaven, i. (No. 34) p. 168 sq.

2 Id., p. 114. 3 Id., p. no. * A. H. Wratislaw, Sixty Folk-tales

■* Mijatovics, Serbian Folk - lore, from exclusively Slavonic sources

edited by the Rev. W. Denton, p. 172; (London, 1889), p. 225.

IV IN GERMAN STORIES 311

she cried, " shoot as much as you Hke, It does me no
harm. For know that my Hfe resides not in me but
far, far away. In a mountain is a pond, on the pond
swims a duck, in the duck is an ^g^, in the ^gg burns
a light, that light is my life. If you could put out that
light, my life would be at an end. But that can never,
never be." However, the young man got hold of the
^g<g, smashed it, and put out the light, and with it the
witch's life went out also.^ In a German story a
cannibal called Soulless keeps his soul in a box, which
stands on a rock in the middle of the Red Sea. A
soldier gets possession of the box and goes with it to
Soulless, who begs the soldier to give him back his
soul. But the soldier opens the box, takes out the
soul, and flings it backward over his head. At the
same moment the cannibal drops down stone dead.'
In an Oldenburg story a king has three sons and a
daughter, and for each child there grows a flower in
the king's garden. Each of the flowers is a life
flower ; it blooms and flourishes while the child lives,
but when the child dies it withers away.^ In another
German story an old warlock lives with a damsel all
alone in the midst of a vast and gloomy wood. She
fears that being old he may die and leave her alone in
the forest. But he reassures her. " Dear child," he
said, " I cannot die, and I have no heart in my breast."
But she importuned him to tell her where his heart was.
So he said, " Far, far from here in an unknown and
lonesome land stands a great church. The church is
well secured with iron doors, and round about it flows

1 Haltrich, Deutsche Volksindrchen - ].V\^.\^o\i, Deutsche Mcirchemiiid

aus dent Sachsenlande in Siebenbiirgen,^ Sagen, No. 20, p. 87 sqq.
No. 34 (No. 33 of the first ed. ), p. ^ SiYa.c'keT]a.n, Jberg/aube uud Sageu

149 sc/. aus devi Herzogthum Oldenburg, ii.

p. 306 sq.

312 THE EXTERNAL SOUL chap.

a broad deep moat. In the church flies a bird and in
the bird is my heart. So long as that bird Hves, I hve.
It cannot die of itself, and no one can catch it ; there-
fore I cannot die, and you need have no anxiety."
However the young man, whose bride the damsel was
to have been before the warlock spirited her away,
contrived to reach the church and catch the bird. He
brought it to the damsel, who stowed him and it away
under the warlock's bed. Soon the old warlock came
home. He was ailing, and said so. The girl wept
and said, "Alas, daddy is dying ; he has a heart in his
breast after all." " Child," replied the warlock, ''hold
your tongue. I cajit die. It will soon pass over."
At that the young man under the bed gave the bird a
gentle squeeze ; and as he did so, the old warlock felt
very unwell and sat down. Then the young man
gripped the bird tighter, and the warlock fell senseless
from his chair. " Now squeeze him dead," cried the
damsel. Her lover obeyed, and when the bird was
dead, the old warlock also lay dead on the floor.^

In the Norse tale of " the giant who had no heart
in his body," the giant tells the captive princess, " Far,
far away in a lake lies an island, on that island stands
a church, in that church is a well, in that well swims a
duck, in that duck there is an o^^g, and in that &gg there
lies my heart." The hero of the tale obtains the esfe
and squeezes it, at which the giant screams piteously
and begs for his life. But the hero breaks the egg in
pieces and the giant at once bursts." In another Norse
story a hill-ogre tells the captive princess that she will
never be able to return home unless she finds the

1 K. Mullenhoff,6'a;^(?«,J/rt;Y//f« ?/;/(/ 2 Asbjornsen og Moe, Norske Folke-

Lieder der Herzogthiitner Schleswig- Eventyr, No. 36 ; Dasent, Popular
Ilohtein und Laiienbitrg, p. 404 sqq. Talcs from the Norse, p. 55 sqq.

IV IN NORSE STORIES 3i3

grain of sand which lies under the ninth tongue of the
ninth head of a certain dragon ; but if that grain of
sand were to come over the rock in which the ogres hve,
they would all burst " and the rock itself would become
a gilded palace, and the lake green meadows." The
hero finds the grain of sand and takes it to the top of
the high rock in which the ogres live. So all the ogres
burst and the rest falls out as one of the ogres had
foretold.^ In an Icelandic parallel to the story of
Meleager, the spae-wives or sybils come and foretell
the high destiny of the infant Gestr as he lies in his
cradle. Two candles were burning beside the child,
and the youngest of the spae-wives, conceiving herself
slighted, cried out, " I foretell that the child shall live
no longer than this candle burns." Whereupon the
chief sybil put out the candle and gave it to Gestr's
mother to keep, charging her not to light it again
until her son should wish to die. Gestr lived three
hundred years ; then he kindled the candle and
expired.^

In a Celtic tale a giant says, "There is a great
flagstone under the threshold. There is a wether
under the flag. There is a duck in the wether's belly,
and an ^gg in the belly of the duck, and it is in the ^gg
that my soul is." The ^gg is crushed, and the giant
falls down dead.^ In another Celtic tale, a sea beast
has carried off a king's daughter, and an old smith
declares that there is no way of killing the beast but
one. " In the island that is in the midst of the loch
is Eillid Chaisthion — the white -footed hind, of the

^ Asbjornsen og Moe, Norske Folke- ^ Mannhardt, Gertna7iische Mythen,

Eventyr, Ny Samling, No. 70 ; Dasent, p. 592 ; Jamieson, Dictionaiy of the
Tales from the Fjeld, p. 229 ("Boots Scottish Language, s.v. "Yule."
and the Beasts.") ^ J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of

the J Vest Highlands, i. p. 10 sq.

314 THE EXTERNAL SOUL IN chap.

slenderest legs, and the swiftest step, and, though she
should be caught, there would spring a hoodie out of
her, and though the hoodie should be caught, there
would spring a trout out of her, but there is an ^gg in
the mouth of the trout, and the soul of the beast is in
the &gg, and if the (zgg breaks, the beast is dead." As
usual the egg is broken and the beast dies.^ In a
Breton story there figures a giant whom neither fire
nor water nor steel can harm. He tells a princess
whom he has just married, " I am immortal, and no
one can hurt me, unless he crushes on my breast an
Qgg which is in a pigeon, which is in the belly of a
hare ; this hare is in the belly of a wolf, and this wolf
is in the belly of my brother, who dwells a thousand
leagues from here. So I am quite easy on that score."
A soldier gets the egg and crushes it on the breast of
the giant, who immediately expires.^ In another
Breton tale a giant is called Body-without-Soul because
his life does not reside in his body. It resides in an
egg, the egg is in a dove, the dove is in a hare, the
hare is in a wolf, and the wolf is in an iron chest at the
bottom of the sea. The hero kills the animals one
after another, and at the death of each animal the
giant grows weaker, as if he had lost a limb. When at
last the hero comes to the Qriant's castle bearing the
egg in his hand, he finds Body-without-Soul stretched
on his bed at the point of death. So he dashes the
egg against the giant's forehead, the egg breaks, and
the giant straightway dies.^

The notion of an external soul has now been traced
in folk - tales told by Aryan peoples from India to

1 J. V. Campbell, Popular Tales of "^ Y. M. Luzel, Contes populaires de

the West Highlands, i. p. ^o sqq. Basse- Bret agne (Paris, 1887), i. 445-

'^ Sebillot, Contes populaires de la 449.
Haute- Bretagne (Paris, 1 885), p. 63 S(j(j.

AN EG yP TIAN STOR V 3 ' 5

Brittany and the Hebrides. We have still to show
that the same idea occurs commonly in the popular
stories of non- Aryan peoples. In the first place it
appears in the ancient Egyptian story of " The Two
Brothers." This story was written down in the reign
of Rameses II, about 1300 years B.C. It is therefore
older than our present redaction of Homer, and far older
than the Bible. The oudine of the story, so far as it
concerns us here, is as follows : Once upon a time there
were two brethren ; the name of the elder was Anupu
and the name of the younger was Bitiu. Now Anupu
had a house and a wife, and his younger brother dwelt
with him as his servant. It was Anupu who made the
garments, and every morning when it grew light he
drove the kine afield. As he walked behind them they
used to say to him, " The grass is good in such and such
a place," and he heard what they said and led them to
the good pasture that they desired. So his kine grew
very sleek and multiplied greatly. One day when the
two brothers were at work in the field the elder brother
said to the younger, " Run and fetch seed from the
village." So the younger brother ran and said to the
wife of his elder brother, " Give me seed that I may
run to the field, for my brother sent me saying, tarry
not." She said, " Go to the barn and take as much as
you desire." He went and filled a jar full of wheat
and barley, and came forth bearing it on his shoulders.
When the woman saw him her heart went out to him,
and she laid hold of him and said, " Come, let us rest
an hour too-ether." But he said, "Thou art to me
as a mother, and my brother is to me as a father." So
he would not hearken to her, but took the load on his
back and went away to the field. In the evening,
when the elder brother was returning from the field,

3i6 THE EXTERNAL SOUL IN chap.

his wife feared for what she had said. So she took
soot and made herself as one who has been beaten.
And when her husband came home, she said, "When
thy younger brother came to fetch seed, he said to me,
Come, let us rest an hour together. But I would not,
and he beat me." Then the elder brother became like
a panther of the south ; he sharpened his knife and
stood behind the door of the cow-house. And when
the sun set and the younger brother came laden
with all the herbs of the field, as was his wont every
day, the cow that walked in front of the herd said to
him, " Behold, thy elder brother stands with a knife to
kill thee. Flee before him." When he heard what
the cow said, he looked under the door of the cow-house
and saw the feet of his elder brother standinof behind
the door, his knife in his hand. So he fled and his
brother pursued him with the knife. But the younger
brother cried for help to the Sun, and the Sun heard
him and caused a great water to spring up between
him and his elder brother, and the water was full of
crocodiles. The two brothers stood, the one on the
one side of the water and the other on the other, and
the younger brother told the elder brother all that had
befallen. So the elder brother repented him of what
he had done and he wept aloud. But he could not
come at the farther bank by reason of the crocodiles.
His younger brother called to him and said, " Go home
and tend the cattle thyself For I will dwell no more
in the place where thou art. I will go to the Valley of
the Acacia. But this is what thou shalt do for me.
Thou shalt come and care for me, if evil befalls me, for
I will enchant my heart and place it on the top of the
flower of the Acacia ; and if they cut the Acacia and
my heart falls to the ground, thou shalt come and seek

IV AN EGYPTIAN STORY 317

it, and when thou hast found it thou shalt lay it in a
vessel of fresh water. Then I shall come to life again.
But this is the sign that evil has befallen me ; the pot
of beer in thine hand shall bubble." So he went away
to the Valley of the Acacia, but his brother returned
home with dust on his head and slew his wife and cast
her to the dogs.

For many days afterwards the younger brother

dwelt alone in the Valley of the Acacia. By day

he hunted the beasts of the field, but at evening he

came and laid him down under the Acacia, on the

top of whose flower was his heart. And many days

after that he built himself a house in the Valley of the

Acacia. But the gods were grieved for him ; and the

Sun said to Khnum, " Make a wife for Bitiu, that he

may not dwell alone." So Khnum made him a woman

to dwell with him, who was perfect in her limbs more

than any woman on earth, for all the gods were in her.

So she dwelt with him. But one day a lock of her

hair fell into the river and floated down to the land of

Egypt, to the house of Pharaoh's washerwomen. The

fragrance of the lock perfumed Pharaoh's raiment, and

the washerwomen were blamed, for it was said, " An

odour of perfume in the garments of Pharaoh ! " So

the heart of Pharaoh's chief washerman was weary of

the complaints that were made every day, and he went

to the quay, and there in the water he saw the lock of

hair. He sent one down into the river to fetch it, and,

because it smelt sweetly, he took it to Pharaoh. Then

Pharaoh's magicians were sent for and they said, "This

lock of hair belongs to a daughter of the Sun, who has

in her the essence of all the gods. Let messengers go

forth to all foreign lands to seek her." So the woman

was brought from the Valley of the Acacia with chariots

3i8 THE EXTERNAL SOUL chap.

and archers and much company, and all the land of
Egypt rejoiced at her coming, and Pharaoh loved her.
But when they asked her of her husband, she said to
Pharaoh, " Let them cut down the Acacia and let them
destroy him." So men were sent with tools to cut
down the Acacia. They came to it and cut the flower
upon which was the heart of Bitiu ; and he fell down
dead in that evil hour. But the next day, when the
elder brother of Bitiu was entered into his house and
had sat down, they brought him a pot of beer and it
bubbled, and they gave him a jug of wine and it grew
turbid. Then he took his staff and his sandals and
hied him to the Valley of the Acacia, and there he found
his younger brother lying dead in his house. So he
sought for the heart of his brother under the Acacia.
For three years he sought in vain, but in the fourth
year he found it in the berry of the Acacia. So he
threw the heart into a cup of fresh water. And when
it was night and the heart had sucked in much water,
Bitiu shook in all his limbs and revived. Then he
drank the cup of water in which his heart was, and his
heart went into its place, and he lived as before.^

In the story of Seyf-el-Mulook in the Arabian
Nights, the Jinnee declares, "When I was born, the
astrologers declared that the destruction of my soul
would be effected by the hand of one of the sons of the
human kings. I therefore took my soul, and put it
into the crop of a sparrow, and I imprisoned the sparrow
in a little box, and put this into another small box, and
this I put within seven other small boxes, and I put
these within seven chests, and the chests I put into a
coffer of marble within the verge of this circumambient
ocean ; for this part is remote from the countries of

1 Maspero, Contes populaires de VEgypte amienne (Paris, 1882), p. 5 sqq.

IV IN ARABIAN STORIES 3^9

mankind, and none of mankind can gain access to it."
But Seyf-el-Mulook got possession of the sparrow and
strangled it, and the Jinnee fell upon the ground a
heap of black ashes.^ In a modern Arabian tale a
king marries an ogress, who puts out the eyes of the
king's forty wives. One of the blinded queens gives
birth to a son whom she names Mohammed the Prudent.
But the ogress queen hated him and compassed his
death. So she sent him on an errand to the house of
her kinsfolk the ogres. In the house of the ogres he
saw some things hanging from the roof, and on asking
a female slave what they were, she said, " That is the
•bottle which contains the life of my lady the queen,
and the other bottle beside it contains the eyes of the
queens whom my mistress blinded." A little after-
wards he spied a beetle and rose to kill it. " Don't
kill it," cried the slave, "for that is my life." But
Mohammed the Prudent watched the beetle till it
ent»ered a chink in the wall ; and when the female slave
had fallen asleep, he killed the beetle in its hole, and so
the slave died. Then Mohammed took down the two
bottles and carried them home to his father's palace.
There he presented himself before the ogress queen
and said, " See, I have your life in my hand, but I will
not kill you till you have replaced the eyes which you
took from the forty queens." The ogress did as she
was bid, and then Mohammed the Prudent said,
" There, take your life." But the bottle slipped from
his hand and fell, the life of the ogress escaped from
it, and she died.'

1 Lane's Arabian Nights, iii. t,i6 sq. Cashmeer storyof " The Ogress Queen "

2 G. Spitta-Bey, Contes arabes (J. H. Knowles, Folk-tales of Kashmir,
modenies (Leyden and Paris, 1883), p. 42 sqq.) zxiA the Bengalee story of
No. 2, p. 12 sqq. The story in its "The Boy whom Seven Mothers
main outlines is identical with the Suckled " (Lai Behari Day, Folk-tales

THE EXTERNAL SOUL IN

In a Kabyl story an ogre declares that his fate is
far away in an ^g'g, which is in a pigeon, which is in a
camel, which is in the sea. The hero procures the ^^^
and crushes it between his hands, and the ogre dies.^
In a Magyar folk-tale, an old witch detains a young
prince called Ambrose in the bowels of the earth. At
last she confided to him that she kept a wild boar in a
silken meadow, and if it were killed, they would find a
hare inside, and inside the hare a pigeon, and inside
the pigeon a small box, and inside the box one black
and one shining beetle : the shining beetle held her
life, and the black one held her power ; if these two
beetles died, then her life would come to an end also.
When the old hag went out, Ambrose killed the wild
boar, took out the hare, from the hare he took the
pigeon, from the pigeon the box, and from the box the
two beetles ; he killed the black beetle, but kept the
shining one alive. So the witch's power left her
immediately, and when she came home, she had to
take to her bed. Having learned from her how to
escape from his prison to the upper air, Ambrose
killed the shining beetle, and the old hag's spirit left
her at once.^ In another Hungarian story the safety

of Bengal, p. 117 sqq.; Indian Anti- dans la Hatite Ethiopia, p. 272 sq.;

quary, \. ijo sqq.) In another Arabian Tausch, " Notices of the Circassians,"

story the life of a witch is bound up Journ. Royal Asiatic Soc. i. (1834) p.

with a phial; when it is broken, she 104; Biddulph, Tribes of the Hindoo

dies. W. A. Clouston, A Group of Koosh, pp. 77, 83 (cp. Leitner, Lan-

Eastern Romances and Stories, p. 30. gi<ages and Races of Dardistan, p. 34) ;

A similar incident occurs in a Cashmeer Denzil Ibbetson, Settlement Report of

story. Knowles, op. cit. p. 73. In the Panipat, Tahsil, aiid Karnal Par-

the Arabian story mentioned in the gattah of the Karnal District, p. 10 1 ;

text, the hero, by a genuine touch of Moura, Royaitine du Cambodge, i. 427 ;

local colour, is made to drink the milk F. S. Krauss, Sitte tifid , Bratich der

of an ogress's breasts and hence is Siidslaven, p. 14.

regarded by her as her son. Cp. W. ' Riviere, Contes populaires de la

\<.o\i^xi^ox\'im\\.\\,Kinsliipa>id Marriage Kabylie du Djurdjiira, p. 191.
in Early Arabia, p. 149 ; and for the ^ w jj. Jones and L. L. Kropf,

same mode of creating kinship among The Folk-tales of the Magyar (London,

otlier races, see D'Abbadie, Douze ans 1889), p. 205 sq.

IV A S AMOVED STORY 321

of the Dwarf- king resides in a golden cockchafer,
inside a golden cock, inside a golden sheep, inside a
golden stag, in the ninety- ninth island. The hero
overcomes all these golden animals and so recovers
his bride, whom the Dwarf-king had carried off.^ A
Samoyed story tells how seven warlocks killed a certain
man's mother and carried off his sister, whom they
kept to serve them. Every night when they came
home the seven warlocks used to take out their hearts
and place them in a dish, which the woman hung on
the tent-poles. But the wife of the man whom they
had wronged stole the hearts of the warlocks while
they slept, and took them to her husband. By break
of day he went with the hearts to the warlocks, and
found them at the point of death. They all begged
for their hearts ; but he threw six of their hearts to
the ground, and six of the warlocks died. The seventh
and eldest warlock begged hard for his heart, and the
man said, " You killed my mother. Make her alive
again, and I will give you back your heart." The
warlock said to his wife, "Go to the place where the
dead woman lies. You will find a bag there. Bring
it to me. The woman's spirit is in the bag." So his
wife brought the bag ; and the warlock said to the man,
" Go to your dead mother, shake the bag and let the
spirit breathe over her bones ; so she will come to life
again." The man did as he was bid, and his mother
was restored to life. Then he hurled the seventh
heart to the ground, and the seventh warlock died."

In a Tartar poem two heroes named Ak Molot
and Bulat engage in mortal combat. Ak Molot pierces
his foe through and through with an arrow, grapples

1 R. H. Busk, The Folk-lore of Rome, ^ QzsXx&xi, Ethnologische Vorlesimgen

p. 168. iiber die Altaischen Volker, p. 173 sqq.

VOL. II Y

THE EXTERNAL SOUL

with him, and dashes him to the ground, but all in
vain, Bulat could not die. At last when the combat
has lasted three years, a friend of Ak Molot sees a
golden casket hanging by a white thread from the sky,
and bethinks him that perhaps this casket contains
Bulat's soul. So he shot through the white thread
with an arrow, and down fell the casket. He opened
it, and in the casket sat ten white birds, and one of the
birds was Bulat's soul. Bulat wept when he saw that
his soul was found in the casket. But one after the other
the birds were killed, and then Ak Molot easily slew his
foe.^ In another Tartar poem, two brothers going to
fight two other brothers take out their souls and hide
them in the form of a white herb with six stalks in a
deep pit. But one of their foes sees them doing so and
digs up their souls, which he puts into a golden ram's
horn, and then puts the ram's horn in his quiver. The
two warriors whose souls have thus been stolen know
that they have no chance of victory, and accordingly
make peace with their enemies.^ In another Tartar
poem a terrible demon sets all the gods and heroes at
defiance. At last a valiant youth fights the demon,
binds him hand and foot, and slices him with his sword.
But still the demon is not slain. So the youth asked
him, " Tell me, where is your soul hidden ? For if your
soul had been hidden in your body, you must have
been dead long ago." The demon replied, " On the
saddle of my horse is a bag. In the bag is a serpent
with twelve heads. In the serpent is my soul. When
you have killed the serpent, you have killed me also."
So the youth took the saddle-bag from the horse and
killed the twelve-headed serpent, whereupon the demon

1 Schiefner, Heldeusagen der Minussinscheti Tatarcu, pp. 172-176.
^ Schiefner, op. cit. pp. 108- 11 2.

IN TARTAR POEMS 323

expired.^ In another Tartar poem a hero called Kok
Chan deposits with a maiden a golden ring, in which is
half his strenofth. Afterwards when Kok Chan is
wrestling long with a hero and cannot kill him, a
woman drops into his mouth the ring which contains
half his strength. Thus inspired with fresh force he
slays his enemy. ^'

In a Mongolian story the hero Joro gets the
better of his enemy the lama Tschoridong in the
following way. The lama, who is an enchanter, sends
out his soul in the form of a wasp to sting Joro's
eyes. But Joro catches the wasp in his hand, and by
alternately shutting and opening his hand he causes
the lama alternately to lose and recover consciousness.^
In a Tartar poem two youths cut open the body of an
old witch and tear out her bowels, but all to no pur-
pose, she still lives. On being asked where her soul
is, she answers that it is in the middle of her shoe-sole
in the form of a seven -headed speckled snake. So
one of the youths slices her shoe-sole with his sword,
takes out the speckled snake, and cuts off its seven
heads. Then the witch dies.* Another Tartar poem
describes how the hero Kartaga grappled with the
Swan-woman. Long they wrestled. Moons waxed
and waned and still they wrestled ; years came and
went, and still the struggle went on. But the piebald
horse and the black horse knew that the Swan-woman's

1 Schiefner, op. cit. pp. 360-364 ; because it is feared the owner of the
Castren, Vorlesiingen iiber die finnische horse will become the greatest hero on
Mythologie, p. 186 sq. earth. But these cases are, to some

2 Schiefner, op. cit. pp. 189-193. extent, the converse of those in the text.
In another Tartar poem '(Schiefner, c/. 3 gchott, " Ueber die Sage^ von
cit. p. 390 sq.) a boy's soul is shut up Geser Chan," Abhandlungen d. Konigl.
by his enemies in a box. While the Akad.d. IVissensch. zu Berlin, lS$l,^.
soul is in the box, the boy is dead ; 269.

when it is taken out, he is restored to * W. Radloff, Proben der Volks-

life. In the same poem (p. 384) the littei-atitr der tiirkischen Stdmme Sild-

soul of a horse is kept shut up in a box, Sibiriens, ii. 237 sq.

324 THE EXTERNAL SOUL chap.

soul was not in her. Under the black earth flow
nine seas ; where the seas meet and form one, the sea
comes to the surface of the earth. At the mouth of
the nine seas rises a rock of copper ; it rises to the
surface of the ground, it rises up between heaven and
earth, this rock of copper. At the foot of the copper
rock is a black chest, in the black chest is a golden
casket, and in the golden casket is the soul of the
Swan-woman. Seven little birds are the soul of the
Swan-woman ; if the birds are killed the Swan-woman
will die straightway. So the horses ran to the foot of
the copper rock, opened the black chest, and brought
back the golden casket. Then the piebald horse
turned himself into a bald-headed man, opened the
golden casket, and cut off the heads of the seven birds.
So the Swan-woman died.^ In a Tartar story a chief
called Tash Kan is asked where his soul is. He
answers that there are seven great poplars, and under
the poplars a golden well ; seven Maralen ij) come to
drink the water of the well, and the belly of one of
them trails on the ground ; in this Maral is a golden
box, in the golden box Is a silver box, in the silver
box are seven quails, the head of one of the quails
is golden and its tail silver ; that quail is Tash
Kan's soul. The hero of the story gets possession
of the seven quails and wrings the necks of six of
them. Then Tash Kan comes running and begs the
hero to let his soul ^o free. But the hero wrings the
quail's neck, and Tash Kan drops dead.^ In another
Tartar poem the hero, pursuing his sister who has
driven away his cattle, is warned to desist from the
pursuit because his sister has carried away his soul in
a golden sword and a golden arrow, and if he pursues

1 W. Radloff, op. cit. ii. 531 sqq. ^ Id., iv. 88 sq.

IV IN A MALA V POEM 325

her she will kill him by throwing the golden sword or
shooting the golden arrow at him/

A Malay poem relates how once upon a time in
the city of Indrapoera there was a certain merchant
who was rich and prosperous, but he had no children.
One day as he walked with his wife by the river they
found a baby girl, fair as an angel. So they adopted
the child and called her Bidasari. The merchant
caused a golden fish to be made, and into this fish he
transferred the soul of his adopted daughter. Then
he put the golden fish in a golden box full of water, and
hid it in a pond in the midst of his garden. In time
the girl grew to be a lovely woman. Now the King
of Indrapoera had a fair young queen, who lived in
fear that the king might take to himself a second wife.
So, hearing of the charms of Bidasari, the queen
resolved to put her out of the way. So she lured the
girl to the palace and tortured her cruelly ; but
Bidasari could not die, because her soul was not in her.
At last she could stand the torture no longer and said
to the queen, "If you wish me to die, you must bring
the box which is in the pond in my father's garden."
So the box was brought and opened, and there was
the golden fish in the water. The girl said, " My soul
is in that fish. In the morning you must take the fish
out of the water, and in the evening you must put it
back into the water. Do not let the fish lie about, but
bind it round your neck. If you do this, I shall soon
die." So the queen took the fish out of the box and
fastened it round her neck ; and no sooner had she
done so, than Bidasari fell into a swoon. But in the
evening, when the fish was put back into the water,
Bidasari came to herself again. Seeing that she thus

1 W. Radloff, oJ>. cit. i. 345 sq.

326 THE EXTERNAL SOUL chap.

had the girl in her power, the queen sent her home to
her adopted parents. To save her from further persecu-
tion her parents resolved to remove their daughter from
the city. So in a lonely and desolate spot they built a
house and brought Bidasari thither. Here she dwelt
alone, undergoing vicissitudes that corresponded with
the vicissitudes of the golden fish in which was her
soul. All day long, while the fish was out of the
water, she remained unconscious ; but in the evening,
when the fish was put into the water, she revived.
One day the king was out hunting, and coming to
the house where Bidasari lay unconscious, was smitten
with her beauty. He tried to waken her, but in vain.
Next day, towards evening, he repeated his visit, but
still found her unconscious. However, when darkness
fell, she came to herself and told the king the secret of
her life. So the king returned to the palace, took the
fish from the queen, and put it in water. Immediately
Bidasari revived, and the king took her to wife.^

The last story of an external soul which I shall notice
comes from Nias, an island to the west of Sumatra,
which we have visited more than once in the course of
this book. Once on a time a chief was captured by
his enemies, who tried to put him to death but failed.
Water would not drown him nor fire burn him nor
steel pierce him. At last his wife revealed the secret.
On his head he had a hair as hard as a copper wire ;
and with this wire his life was bound up. So the hair
was plucked out, and with it his spirit fled.^

1 G.A. Wilken, "De Simsonsage," Verhandel.vanhet Baiav. Genootsch.v.
De Gids, 1888, No. 5, p. 6 sqq. (of Ktmslen en Wetenschappen, xxx. p.
the separate reprint). Cp. Backer, iii; Sundermann, "Die Insel Nias,"
L'Arckipel Indien, -p"^. 144-149. AUgemeine JMissions - Zeitsch-ift, xi.

2 Nieuwenhuisen en Rosenberg, (1884) p. 453.
" Verslag omtrent het eiland Nias,"

IN FOLK-CUSTOM 327

§ 4. — The external soul in folk-nistom

Thus the idea that the soul may be deposited for
a longer or shorter time in some place of security
outside the body, or at all events in the hair, is found
in the popular tales of many races. It remains to show-
that the idea is not a mere figment devised to adorn a
tale, but is a real article of primitive faith, which has
given rise to a corresponding set of customs.

We have seen that in the tales the hero, as a
preparation for battle, sometimes removes his soul
from his body, in order that his body may be in-
vulnerable and immortal in the combat. With a like
intention the savage removes his soul from his body
on various occasions of real or imaginary danger.
Thus we have seen that among the Minahassa of
Celebes, when a family moves into a new house, a
priest collects the souls of the whole family in a bag,
and afterwards restores them to their owners, because
the moment of entering a new house is supposed to
be fraught with supernatural danger.^ In Southern
Celebes when a woman is brought to bed the mes-
senger who fetches the doctor or the midwife always
carries with him a piece of iron, which he delivers to
the doctor. The doctor must keep it in his house till
the confinement is over, when he gives it back,
receiving a fixed sum of money for doing so. The
piece of iron represents the woman's soul, which at
this critical time is believed to be safer out of her body
than in it. Hence the doctor must take great care of

1 Above, vol. i. p. 134.

STRENGTH IN HAIR

the piece of iron ; for if it were lost, the woman's soul
would assuredly, it is supposed, be lost with it.^

Again, we have seen that in folk-tales a man's soul
or strength is sometimes represented as bound up with
his hair, and that when his hair is cut off he dies or
grows weak. So the natives of Amboina used to
think that their strength was in their hair and would
desert them if it were shorn. A criminal under tor-
ture in a Dutch Court of that island persisted in
denying his guilt till his hair was cut off, when he
immediately confessed. One man who was tried for
murder endured without flinching the utmost ingenuity
of his torturers till he saw the surgeon standing with a
pair of shears. On asking what this was for, and being
told that it was to cut his hair, he begged they would
not do it, and made a clean breast. In subsequent
cases, when torture failed to wring a confession from a
prisoner, the Dutch authorities made a practice of
cutting off his hair.- In Ceram it is still believed that
if young people have their hair cut they will be
weakened and enervated thereby.^ In Zacynthus
people think that the whole strength of the ancient
Greeks resided in three hairs on their breasts, and
vanished whenever these hairs were cut ; but if the hairs
were allowed to grow again, their strength returned.*

Again, we have seen that in folk -tales the life of a
person is sometimes so bound up with the life of a plant
that the withering of the plant will immediately follow
or be followed by the death of the person.^ Similarly
among the M'Bengas in Western Africa, about the

1 B. F. Matthes, Bijdragen tot de 3 Rjedel, De sluik-en kroesharige
EtJmologie van Ziiid- Celebes, p. 54. rassen tusschen Selebes en Papita, p. 137.

2 F. Valentyn, Oiid en Niemo Oost- « -^ Schmidt, Das Volksleben der
Indien, ii. 143 sq.; G. A. Wilken, De Neiigriecken, p. 206.

Szmsonsage, p. 15 si/. 5 Above, pp. 305, 307, 309, 311.

IV LIFE-PLANTS 329

Gaboon, when two children are born on the same day,
the people plant two trees of the same kind and dance
round them. The life of each of the children is be-
lieved to be bound up with the life of one of the trees ;
and if the tree dies or is thrown down, they are sure
that the child will soon die.^ In the Cameroons, also,
the life of a person is believed to be sympathetically
bound up with that of a tree.^ Some of the Papuans
unite the life of a new-born child sympathetically with
that of a tree by driving a pebble into the bark of the
tree. This is supposed to give them complete mastery
over the child's life ; if the tree is cut down, the child
will die.^ After a birth the Maoris used to bury the
navel-string in a sacred place and plant a young sapling
over it. As the tree grew, it was a tolm oranga or sign
of life for the child; if it flourished, the child would
prosper ; if it withered and died, the parents augured
the worst for their child.* In Southern Celebes, when
a child is born, a cocoa-nut is planted, and is watered
with the water in which the after-birth and navel-string
have been washed. As it grows up, the tree is called
the " contemporary " of the child. ^ So in Bali a cocoa-
palm is planted at the birth of a child. It is believed
to grow up equally with the child, and is called
its "life-plant."'^ On certain occasions the Dyaks of
Borneo plant a palm-tree, which is believed to be a
complete index of their fate. If it flourishes, they
reckon on good fortune ; but if it withers or dies, they

1 Revue d Ethnographie, ii. 223. 184; Dumont D'Urville, Voyage autoiir

2 Bastian, Die detitsche Expedition du inonde et a la recherche de La Perouse
an der Loango-Kiiste, i. 165. sur la corvette Astrolabe, ii. 444.

3 Bastian, Ein Besuch in San Salva- ^ Matthes, Bijdragen tot de Ethno-
dor, p. 103 sq.; id., Der Mensch in logie van Zuid- Celebes, p. 59-

der Geschichte, iii. 193. ^ Van Eck, " Schetsen van het eiland

* R. Taylor, Te Ika a Maui ; or, Bali," Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch

Nezu Zealand and its Inhabitants,^ p. Indie, N. S. ix. (1880) p. 417 ^1-

330 LIFE-PLANTS

expect misfortune.^ It is said that there are still
families in Russia, Germany, England, France, and
Italy who are accustomed to plant a tree at the birth
of a child. The tree, it is hoped, will grow with the
child, and it is tended with special care." The custom
is still pretty general in the canton of Aargau in
Switzerland; an apple-tree is planted for a boy and
a pear-tree for a girl, and the people think that the
child will flourish or dwindle with the tree.^ In
Mecklenburg the after-birth is thrown out at the foot
of a young tree, and the child is then believed to grow
with the tree.^ In England persons are sometimes
passed through a cleft tree as a cure for rupture, and
thenceforward a sympathetic connection is believed to
exist between them and the tree. " Thomas Chilling-
worth, son of the owner of an adjoining farm, now
about thirty- four years of age, was, when an infant
of a year old, passed through a similar tree, now
perfectly sound, which he preserves with so much care
that he will not suffer a single branch to be touched,
for it is believed that the life of the patient depends on
the life of the tree ; and the moment that it is cut
down, be the patient ever so distant, the rupture
returns, and a mortification ensues."^ When Lord
Byron first visited his ancestral estate of Newstead
" he planted, it seems, a young oak in some part of
the grounds, and had an idea that as it fiourished
so should hey^

But in practice, as in folk -tales, it is not merely

^ G. A. Wilken, De Sit?isonsage, p. Gebrduche aus Mecklenburg, ii. 43, No.

26. 63.

2 Gubernatis, Alythohgie des Plantes, ^ Gentleman'' s Magazine, October
i. xxviii. sq. 1804, p. 909, quoted by Brand,

3 W. Mannhardt, B. K. p. 50 ; Ploss, Fopn/ar Antiquities, iii. 289 ; W. G.
Das Kind,"^ i. 79. Black, Folk-medicine, pp. 31 sq., 67.

* K. Bartsch, Sagen, Miirchen nnd ^ ^ioox&^s Life of Lord By }-on,\. loi.

THE TAMANIU 33i

with trees and plants that the life of an individual is
occasionally believed to be united by a bond of physical
sympathy. The same bond, it is supposed, may
exist between a man and an animal or a thing,
so that the death or destruction of the animal or
thing is immediately followed by the death of the
man. The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus was once
informed by an astronomer that the life of Simeon
prince of Bulgaria was bound up with a certain column
in Constantinople, so that if the capital of the column
were removed Simeon would immediately die. The
Emperor took the hint and removed the capital, and at
the same hour, as the emperor learned by inquiry,
Simeon died of heart disease in Bulgaria.^ Amongst
the Karens of Burma " the knife with which the navel-
string is cut is carefully preserved for the child. The
life of the child is supposed to be in some way con-
nected with it, for if lost or destroyed it is said the child
will not be long-lived."- The Malays believe that
"the soul of a person may pass into another person
or into an animal, or rather that such a mysterious
relation can arise between the two that the fate of the
one is wholly dependent on that of the other." ^ In
the Banks Islands "some people connect themselves
with an object, generally an animal, as a lizard or a
snake, or with a stone, which they imagine to have a
certain very close natural relation to themselves. This,
at Mota, is called tamaniu — likeness. This word at
Aurora is used for the ' atai ' \i.e. soul] of Mota. Some
fancy dictates the choice of a tamaniu ; or it may be

1 Cedrenus, Compend. Histoi: p. ^ Matthes, Makassarsch - Hollandsch
625 B, vol. ii. p. 308, ed. Bekker. IVoordenboek, s.v. soeinaiigd, p. 569 ;

2 F. Mason, " Physical Character of G. A. Wilken, *' Het animisme bij de
the Karens," Journal of the Asiatic volken van den Indischen Archipel,"
Society of Bengal, 1866, pt. ii. p. 9. De Indische Gids, June 18S4, p. 933.

332 THE IHLOZI chap.

found by drinking the infusion of certain herbs and
heaping together the dregs. Whatever Hving thing is
first seen in or upon the heap is the tamaniu. It is
watched, but not fed or worshipped. The natives
beHeve that it comes at call. The life of the man is
bound up with the life of his tamaniu. If it dies, gets
broken or lost, the man will die. In sickness they
send to see how the tamaniu is, and judge the issue
accordingly. This is only the fancy of some." ^

But what among the Banks Islanders and the
Malays is irregular and occasional, among other
peoples is systematic and universal. The Zulus
believe that every man has his ihlozi, a kind of
mysterious serpent, " which specially guards and helps
him, lives with him, wakes with him, sleeps and travels
with him, but always under ground. If it ever makes
its appearance, great is the joy, and the man must seek
to discover the meaning of its appearance. .He who has
no ihlozi must die. Therefore if any one unintention-
ally kills an ihlozi serpent, the man whose ihlozi it was
dies, but the serpent comes to life again." "^ Amongst
the Zapotecs of Central America, when a woman was
about to be confined, her relations assembled in the
hut, and began to draw on the floor figures of different
animals, rubbing each one out as soon as it was com-
pleted. This went on till the moment of birth, and
the figure that then remained sketched upon the
ground was called the child's tana or second self.
"When the child grew old enough he procured the
animal that represented him and took care of it, as it

1 R. H. Codrington, " Notes on the ^ y. Speckmann, Die Hermanns-

Customs of Mota, Banks Islands" burger Mission in Afrika (Heimanns-
(communicated by the Rev. Lorimer burg, 1S76), p. 167.
Fison), TransactioJis of the Royal Society
of Victoria, xvi. 136.

THE NAGUAL 333

was believed that health and existence were bound up
with that of the animal's, in fact that the death of both
would occur simultaneously," or rather that when the
animal died the man would die.^ Among the Indians
of Guatemala the nagual or naital is an " animate or
inanimate object, generally an animal, which stands in
a parallel relation to a particular man, so that the weal
and woe of the man depend on the fate of the animal."
Among the Chontal Indians who inhabit the part of
Honduras bordering on Guatemala and in point of
social culture stand very close to the Pipil Indians of
Guatemala, the nagtial used to be obtained as follows.
The young Indian went into the forest to a lonely
place by a river or to the top of a mountain, and
prayed with tears to the gods that they would vouch-
safe to him what his forefathers had possessed before
him. After sacrificing a dog or a bird he laid himself
down to sleep. Then in a dream or after awakening
from sleep there appeared to him a jaguar, puma, coyote
(prairie-wolf), crocodile, serpent, or bird. To this
visionary animal the Indian offered blood drawn from
his tongue, his ears, and other parts of his body, and
prayed for an abundant yield of salt and cacao. Then
the animal said to him, " On such and such a day you
shall sfo out huntincr, and the first animal that meets
you will be myself, who will always be your companion
and nagiiaiy A man who had no nagual zoxAA never
grow rich. The Indians were persuaded that the death
of their nagual would entail their own. Legend
affirms that in the first battles with the Spaniards on

1 'Ba.ncro^i, Native Races of the Pacific forzoso que miiei-an ellos cuaiido este

Coast, i. 66 1. The words quoted by tniiere," are not quite accurately repre-

Bancroft (p. 662, note) " Conservase sented by the statement of Bancroft

entre ellos la creencia de que su vida in the text.
esta unida a la de uii animal, y que es

334 SEX-TOTEMS

the plateau of Ouetzaltenango the nagiials of the
Indian chiefs fought in the form of serpents. The
nagual of the highest chief was especially conspicuous,
because it had the form of a great bird, resplendent in
green plumage. The Spanish general Pedro de
Alvarado killed the bird with his lance, and at the
same moment the Indian chief fell dead to the ground.^
In many of the Australian tribes each sex regards
a particular species of animals in the same way that a
Central American Indian regards his nagual, but with
this difference, that whereas the Indian apparently
knows the individual animal with which his life is
bound up, the Australians only know that each of their
lives is bound up with some one animal of the species,
but they cannot say with which. The result naturally
is that every man spares and protects all the animals
of the species with which the lives of the men are
bound up ; and every woman spares and protects all
the animals of the species with which the lives of the
women are bound up ; because no one knows but that
the death of any animal of the respective species might
entail his or her own ; just as the killing of the green
bird was immediately followed by the death of the
Indian chief, and the killing of the parrot by the death
of Punchkin in the fairy tale. Thus, for example, the
Wotjobaluk tribe of South Eastern Australia " held
that 'the life of Ngununguniit (the Bat) is the life of a
man and the life of Yartatgiirk (the Nightjar) is the
life of a woman,' and that when either of these creatures
is killed the life of some man or of some woman is
shortened. In such a case every man or every woman

1 Otto StoU, Die Ethnologic der Races of the Faciftc States, i. 740 sq.;
Indianerstamme von Guatemala (Ley- Bastian, Die Ciilturliinder des alien
den, 1889), p. 57 sq.; Bancroft, Native Amerika, ii. 2S2.

IN AUSTRALIA 335

in the camp feared that he or she might be the victim,
and from this cause great fights arose in this tribe. I
learn that in these fights, men on one side and women
on the other, it was not at all certain which would be
victorious, for at times the women grave the men a
severe drubbing with their yamsticks while often
women were injured or killed by spears."^ The
particular species of animals with which the lives of
the sexes were believed to be respectively bound up
varied somewhat from tribe to tribe. Thus whereas
among the Wotjobaluk the bat was the animal of the
men, at Gunbower Creek on the lower Murray the bat
seems to have been the animal of the women, for the
natives would not kill it for the reason that " if it was
killed, one of their lubras [women] would be sure to
die in consequence."^ But the belief itself and the
fights to which it gave rise are known to have
extended over a large part of South Eastern Australia,
and probably they extended much farther.^ The
belief is a very serious one, and so consequently are
the fights which spring from it. Thus where the bat is
the men's animal they "protect it against injury, even
to the half-killing of their wives for its sake;" and
where the fern owl or large goatsucker (a night bird) is
the women's animal, " it is jealously protected by them.
If a man kills one, they are as much enraged as if it
was one of their children, and will strike him with their
long poles." "^

The jealous protection thus afforded by Australian
men and women to bats and owls respectively (for bats

1 A. W. Howitt, "Further Notes Soc. New South Wales, 1862-65, p.
on the AustraUan Class Systems," 359 sq.

Joiirn. Anthrop. Inst, xviii. 58. 3 ^ ^ Howitt l.c

2 Gerard Krefft, " Manners and ' ' ' ' '

Customs of the Aborigines of the Lower * Dawson, Australian Aborigines,

Murray and Darhng," 7;-rt;?5a(7'. /'/«7i5'5. p. 52.

536 SEX-TOTEMS

and owls seem to be the creatures usually allotted to
men and women respectively) is not based upon purely
selfish considerations. For each man believes that
not only his own life, but the lives of his father, brothers,
sons, etc., are bound up with the lives of particular
bats, and that therefore in protecting the bat species
he is protecting the lives of all his male relations as
well as his own. Similarly, each woman believes that
the lives of her mother, sisters, daughters, etc., equally
with her own, are bound up with the lives of particular
owls, and that in guarding the owl species she is guard-
ing- the lives of all her female relations in addition to
her own. Now, when men's lives are thus supposed
to be contained in certain animals, it is obvious that
the animals can hardly be distinguished from the men,
or the men from the animals. If my brother John's
life is in a bat, then, on the one hand, the bat is my
brother as well as John ; and, on the other hand, John
is in a sense a bat, since his life is in a bat. Similarly,
if my sister Mary's life is in an owl, then the owl is
my sister and Mary is an owl. This is a natural
enough conclusion, and the Australians have not failed
to draw it. When the bat is the man's animal, it is
called his brother ; and when the owl is the woman's
animal, it is called her sister. And conversely a man
addresses a woman as an owl, and she addresses him
as a bat.^ So with the other animals allotted to the
sexes respectively in other tribes. For example,
among the Kurnai all Emu Wrens were "brothers"
of the men, and all the men were Emu Wrens ; all
Superb Warblers were " sisters " of the women, and
all the women were Superb Warblers.^

1 Journ. Aiithrop. Inst. xiv. 350, ^ pison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and

XV. 416, xviii. 57 (the "nightjar" is Kumai,^^. 1 94, 20 1 5^. , 2 1 5 ; /<??«■«.
apparently an owl). Anthrop. Inst. xv. 416, xviii. 56 sq.

TOTEM ISM 337

But when a savap-e names himself after an animal,
calls it his brother, and refuses to kill it, the animal is
said to be his totem. Accordingly the bat and the owl,
the Emu Wren and the Superb Warbler, may properly
be described as totems of the sexes. But the assig-
nation of a totem to a sex is comparatively rare, and
has hitherto been discovered nowhere but in Australia.
Far more commonly the totem is appropriated not to
a sex, but to a tribe or clan, and is hereditary either in
the male or female line. The relation of an individual
to the tribal totem does not differ in kind from his
relation to the sex totem ; he will not kill it, he speaks
of it as his brother, and he calls himself by its name.^
Now if the relations are similar, the explanation which
holds good of the one ought equally to hold good of
the other. Therefore the reason why a tribe revere a
particular species of animals or plants (for the tribal
totem may be a plant) and call themselves after it, must
be a belief that the life of each individual of the tribe is
bound up with some one animal or plant of the species,
and that his or her death would be the consequence
of killing that particular animal, or destroying that
particular plant. This explanation of totemism squares
very well with Sir George Grey's definition of a totem
or /Cv<5^;2^ in Western Australia. He says, " A certain
mysterious connection exists between a family and its
kobong, so that a member of the family will never kill
an animal of the species to which his kobong belongs,
should he find it asleep ; indeed he always kills it
reluctantly, and never without affording it a chance to
escape. This arises from the family belief that some
one individual of the species is their nearest friend, to

1 The chief facts of totemism have a little work, Totemism (Edinburgh, A.
been collected by the present writer in and C. Black, 1887).

VOL. II Z

338 TOTEM ISM

kill whom would be a great crime, and to be carefully
avoided. Similarly, a native who has a vegetable for
his kobo7ig may not gather it under certain circum-
stances, and at a particular period of the year."^ Here
it will be observed that though each man spares all the
animals or plants of the species, they are not all equally
precious to him ; far from it, out of the whole species
there is only one which is specially dear to him ; but
as he does not know which the dear one is, he is
obliged to spare them all from fear of injuring the one.
Again, this explanation of the tribal totem harmonises
with the supposed effect of killing one of the totem
species. "One day one of the blacks killed a crow.
Three or four days afterwards a Boortwa (crow) \i.e. a
man of the Crow clan or tribe] named Larry died. He
had been ailing for some days, but the killing of his
wingong [totem] hastened his death. "^ Here the kill-
ing of the crow caused the death of a man of the Crow
clan, exactly as, in the case of the sex totems, the killing
of a bat causes the death of a Bat man, or the killing
of an owl causes the death of an Owl woman. Similarly,
the killing of his nagiial causes the death of a Central
American Indian, the killing of his ihlozi causes the
death of a Zulu, the killino- of his tamaniu causes the
death of a Banks Islander, and the killing of the
animal in which his life is stowed away causes the
death of the giant or warlock in the fairy tale.

Thus it appears that the story of " The giant who
had no heart in his body " furnishes the key to the
religious aspect of totemism, that is, to the relation
which is supposed to subsist between a man and his
totem. The totem, if I am right, is simply the recep-

^ (Sir) George Grey, Journals of ^ Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and
Two Expeditions of Discovery in Norih- Kiu-nai,^. 169.
West and Western Australia, ii. 228 sq.

TOTEM ISM 339

tacle In which a man keeps his Hfe, as Punchkin kept
his Hfe in a parrot, and Bidasari kept her soul in a
golden fish. It is no valid objection to this view that
when a savage has both a sex totem and a tribal totem
his life must be bound up with two different animals,
the death of either of which would entail his own. If
a man has more vital places than one in his body, why,
the savage may think, should he not have more vital
places than one outside it .-* Why, since he can exter-
nalise his life, should he not transfer one portion of it
to one animal and another to another } The divisi-
bility of life, or, to put it otherwise, the plurality of
souls, is an idea suggested by many familiar facts,
and has commended itself to philosophers like Plato
as well as to savages. It is only when the notion
of a soul, from being a quasi -scientific hypothesis,
becomes a theological dogma that its unity and indi-
visibility are insisted upon as essential. The savage,
unshackled by dogma, is free to explain the facts of
life by the assumption of as many souls as he thinks
necessary. Hence, for example, the Caribs supposed
that there was one soul in the head, another in the
heart, and other souls at all the places where an artery
is felt pulsating.^ Some of the Hidatsa Indians explain
the phenomena of gradual death, when the extremities
appear dead first, by supposing that man has four
souls, and that they quit the body, not simultaneously,
but one after the other, dissolution being only complete
when all four have departed.- The Laos suppose that
the body is the seat of thirty spirits, which reside in
the hands, the feet, the mouth, the eyes, etc.^ Hence,

1 De la Borde, "Relation de ^ Washington Matthews, 77/^ ///(AzAa

rOrigine, etc. des Caraibes," p. 15, in Indians, p. 50.

Recueil de divers Voyages faits en Afri- ^ Bastian, Die Vclkei- des bstlicheii

que el en I'Amerique (Paris, 1684). Asien, iii. 248.

340 TOTEM ISM

from the primitive point of view, it is perfectly possible
that a savage should have one soul in his sex totem,
and another in his tribal totem. However, as I have
observed, sex totems occur nowhere but in Australia ; so
that as a rule the savage who practises totemism need
not have more than one soul out of his body at a time.
If this explanation of the totem as a receptacle in
which a man keeps his soul or one of his souls is
correct, we should expect to find some totemistic
tribes of whom it is expressly stated that every man
amongst them is believed to keep at least one soul
permanently out of his body, and that the destruction
of this external soul is supposed to entail the death of
its owner. Such a tribe are the Battas of Sumatra.
The Battas are divided into exogamous clans {inai'gas)
with descent in the male line ; and each clan is for-
bidden to eat the flesh of a particular animal. One
clan may not eat the tiger, another the ape, another
the crocodile, another the dog, another the cat, another
the dove, another the white buffalo. The reason given
by members of a clan for abstaining from the flesh of
the particular animal is either that they are descended
from animals of that species, and that their souls after
death may transmigrate into the animals, or that they
or their forefathers have been under certain obligations
to the animals. Sometimes, but not always, the clan
bears the name of the animal.^ Thus the Battas have

^ I. 15. Neumann, " Het Pane- en Wilken, Over de verwantschap en het

Bila - stroomgebied op het eiland htnvelijks-en erfrecht bij de volkau van

Sumatra," Tijdschiift van het A'eder- het maleische ras, pp. 20 sq., 36; id.,

landsch Aardnjks. Geiiootsch., Tvveede lets over de Papoewas van de Geel-

Serie, dl. iii. Afdeeling : meer uitge- vinkshaai, p. 27 sq. (reprint from

breide artikelen, No. 2, p. 311 sq.\ Bijdragen tot de Taal-La7td-en Volkett-

za'. , dl. iv. No. i,p. 8 jf^. ; Van Hoevell. kintde van Ned. -Indie, 5e Volgreeks

"lets over 't oorlogvoeren der Batta's," n.) \ Journal Ant hrop. Inst. ix. 295;

Tijdschrift voor N^ederlandsch Indie, Backer, UArchipel Indien, p. 470.
N. S. vii. (1878) p. 434; G. A.

TOTEM ISM 341

totemism in full. But, further, each Batta believes
that he has seven or, on a more moderate computation,
three souls. One of these souls is always outside the
body, but nevertheless whenever it dies, however far
away it may be at the time, that same moment the
man dies also.^ The writer who mentions this belief
says nothing about the Batta totems ; but on the
analogy of the Australian and Central American
evidence we can scarcely avoid concluding that the
external soul, whose death entails the death of the
man, must be housed in the totem animal or plant.

Against this view it can hardly be thought to mili-
tate that the Batta does not in set terms affirm his
external soul to be in his totem, but alleges other,
though hardly contradictory, grounds for respecting
the sacred animal or plant of his clan. For if a savage
seriously believes that his life is bound up with an
external object, it is in the last degree unlikely that
he will let any stranger into the secret. In all that
touches his inmost life and beliefs the savage is exceed-
ingly suspicious and reserved ; Europeans have resided
among savages for years without discovering some of
their capital articles of faith, and in the end the dis-
covery has often been the result of accident. Above
all, the savage lives in an intense and perpetual dread
of assassination by sorcery ; the most trifling relics of
his person — the clippings of his hair and nails, his
spittle, the remnants of his food, his very name — all
these may, he fancies, be turned by the sorcerer to his
destruction, and he is therefore anxiously careful to
conceal or destroy them. But if in matters such as

^ B. Hagen, " Beitrage zur Kennt- kiinde, xxviii. 514. J. B. Neumann
niss der Battareligion," Tijdschrift {op. cit. dl. iii. No. 2, p. 299) is the
voor Indische Taal-Land-en Volken- authority for the seven souls.

342 DEATH AND RESURRECTION chap.

these, which are but the outposts and outworks of his
life, he is shy and secretive to a degree, how close
must be the concealment, how impenetrable the reserve
in which he enshrouds the inner keep and citadel of
his being ! When the princess in the fairy tale asks
the giant where he keeps his soul, he generally gives
false or evasive answers, and it is only after much
coaxing and wheedling that the secret is at last wrung
from him. In his jealous reticence the giant resembles
the timid and furtive savage ; but whereas the
exigencies of the story demand that the giant should
at last reveal his secret, no such obligation is laid
on the savage ; and no inducement that can be
offered is likely to tempt him to imperil his soul by
revealing its hiding-place to a stranger. It is there-
fore no matter for surprise that the central mystery of
the savage's life should so long have remained a secret,
and that we should be left to piece it together from
scattered hints and fragments and from the recol-
lections of it which linger in fairy tales.

This view of totemism throws light on a class of
religious rites of which no adequate explanation, so far
as I am aware, has yet been offered. Amongst many
savage tribes, especially such as are known to practise
totemism, it is customary for lads at puberty to undergo
certain initiatory rites, of which one of the commonest
is a pretence of killing the lad and bringing him to life
again. Such rites become intelligible if w^e suppose
that their substance consists in extracting the youth's
soul in order to transfer it to his totem. For the
extraction of his soul would naturally be supposed to
kill the youth or, at least, to throw him into a death-
like trance, which the savage hardly distinguishes from
death. His recovery would then be attributed either

A T INITIA TION 343

to the gradual recovery of his system from the violent
shock which it had received, or, more probably, to the
infusion into him of fresh life drawn from the totem.
Thus the essence of these initiatory rites, so far as
they consist in a simulation of death and resurrection,
would be an exchange of life or souls between the
man and his totem. The primitive belief in the possi-
bility of such an exchange of souls comes clearly out
in the story of the Basque hunter who affirmed that
he had been killed by a bear, but that the bear had,
after killing him, breathed its own soul into him, so
that the bear's body was now dead, but he himself was
a bear, being animated by the bear's soul.^ This
revival of the dead hunter as a bear is exactly analo-
gous to what, if I am right, is supposed to take place
in the totemistic ceremony of killing a lad at puberty
and bringing him to life again. The lad dies as a
man and comes to life again as an animal ; the animal's
soul is now in him, and his human soul is in the
animal. With good right, therefore, does he call him-
self a Bear or a Wolf, etc., according to his totem ;
and with good right does he treat the bears or the
wolves, etc., as his brethren, since in these animals are
lodo-ed the souls of himself and his kindred.

Examples of this supposed death and resurrection
at initiation are the following. Among some of the
Australian tribes of New South Wales, when lads are
initiated, it is thought that a being called Thuremlin
takes each lad to a distance, kills him, and sometimes
cuts him up,, after which he restores him to life and
knocks out a tooth. -^ In one part of Queensland the

1 Th. Benfey, Pantschatantra, i. 128 some Tribes of New South Wales,'
sq. Jouni. Anthrop. Instit. xiv. 358.

2 A. L. P. Cameron, " Notes on

344 DEATH AND RESURRECTION chap.

humming sound of the Bullroarer, which is swung at
the initiatory rites, is said to be the noise made by the
wizards in swallowing the boys and bringing them up
again as young men. " The Ualaroi of the Upper
Darling River say that the boy meets a ghost which
kills him and brings him to life again as a man."^
This resurrection appears to be represented at the
initiatory rites by the following ceremony. An old
man, disguised with stringy bark fibre, lies down in a
grave, and is lightly covered up with sticks and earth,
and as far as possible the natural appearance of the
ground is restored, the excavated earth being carried
away. The buried man holds a small bush in his
hand ; it appears to be growing in the soil, and other
bushes are stuck in the soil to heighten the effect.
The novices are then brought to the edge of the grave,
and a song is sung, in which the only words used are
the "class -name" of the buried man and the word for
stringy bark fibre. Gradually, as the song continues,
the bush held by the buried man begins to quiver and
then to move more and more, and finally the man him-
self starts up from the grave.- Similarly, Fijian lads
at initiation were shown a row of apparently dead men,
covered with blood, their bodies seemingly cut open,
and their entrails protruding. But at a yell from the

1 A. W. Howitt, "On Australian religious mysteries. As a sacred in-
Medicine Men," /<??/;-«. Aiithrop. Inst. strument it also occurs in Western
xvi. 47 sq. On the Bullroarer (a piece ^Africa (R. F. Burton, Abeokuta and the
of wood fastened to a cord or thong and Cameroons Alonntains, i. 197 sq.;
swung round so as to produce a boom- Bouche, La Cote des Esclaves, p. 124),
ing sound), see A. Lang, Custom and and in New Guinea (J. Chalmers,
3Iyth, p. 29 sqq. The religious use of Pio7ieering m New Gtiinea, p. 85).
the Bullroarer is best known in Aus- 2 a. W. Howitt, "On some Aus-
tralia, but in the essay just referred to tralian ceremonies of initiation, "/i;?/;-«.
Mr. Andrew Lang has shown that Anthrop. Inst. xiii. 453 sq. The
the instrument has been similarly "class -name" is the name of the
employed not only in South Africa totemic division to which the man
and by the Zunis of New Mexico, but belongs,
also by the ancient Greeks in their

A T INITIA TION 345

priest the pretended dead men sprang to their feet and
ran to the river to cleanse themselves from the blood
and entrails of pigs with which they had been be-
smeared.^

In the valley of the Congo initiatory rites of this
sort are common. In some places they are called
Ndembo. " In the practice of Ndembo the initiating
doctors get some one to fall down in a pretended fit,
and in that state he is carried away to an enclosed
place outside the town. This is called ' dying Ndembo.'
Others follow suit, generally boys and girls, but often
young men and women. . . . They are supposed to
have died. But the parents and friends supply food,
and after a period varying, according to custom, from
three months to three years, it is arranged that the
doctor shall bring them to life again. . . . When the
doctor's fee has been paid, and money (goods) saved
for a feast, the Ndembo people are brought to life. At
first they pretend to know no one and nothing ; they
do not even know how to masticate food, and friends
have to perform that office for them. They want
everything nice that any one uninitiated may have, and
beat them if it is not granted, or even strangle and kill
people. They do not get into trouble for this, because
it is thought that they do not know better. Some-
times they carry on the pretence of talking gibberish,
and behaving as if they had returned from the spirit-
world. After this they are known by another name,
peculiar to those who have ' died Ndembo.' . . , We
hear of the custom far along on the upper river, as well
as in the cataract region." '" The following account of

^ L. Fison, "The Nanga, or sacred 2 \v H. Bentley, Life on the Congo

stone enclosure of Wainimala, Fiji," (London, 1887), p. 78 sq.
Joitrn. Anthrop. Inst. xiv. 22.

346 DEATH AND RESURRECTION chap.

the rites, as practised in this part of Africa, was given
to Bastian by an interpreter. " In the land of Ambamba
every one must die once, and when the fetish priest
shakes his calabash against a village, all the men and
lads whose hour is come fall into a state of lifeless
torpidity, from which they generally awake after three
days. But if the fetish loves a man he carries him
away into the bush and buries him in the fetish house,
often for many years. When he comes to life again,
he begins to eat and drink as before, but his under-
standing is gone and the fetish man must teach him
and direct him in every motion, like the smallest child.
At first this can only be done with a stick, but gradually
his senses return, so that it is possible to talk with
him, and when his education is complete, the priest
brings him back to his parents. They would seldom
recognise their son but for the express assurances of
the fetish priest, who moreover recalls previous events
to their memory. He who has not gone through the
ceremony of the new birth in Ambamba is universally
looked down upon and is not admitted to the dances."
During the period of initiation the novice is sym-
pathetically united to the fetish by which his life is
henceforward determined.^ The novice, plunged in
the magic sleep or death-like trance within the sacred
hut, "beholds a bird or other object with which his
existence is thenceforward sympathetically bound up,
just as the life of the young Indian is bound up with
the animal which he sees in his dreams at puberty." -

1 A. Bastian, Ein Besuch in San H. H. Johnston in Proceed. Royal
Salvador, pp. 82 sq. 86. Geogr. Soc. N. S. v. (18S3) p. 572 sq.,

2 Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition and in Joiirn. Anthrop. Inst. xiii.
an der loango-A'iiste, ii. 183 ; cp. id., 472; E. Delmar Morgan, in Proceed.
pp. 15-18, 30 sq. On these initiatory Royal Geogr. Soc. N. S. vi. 193.

rites in the Congo region see also

A T INITIA TION 347

Rites of this sort were formerly observed in Ouoja,
on the west coast of Africa, to the north of the Congo.
They are thus described by an old writer : — " They
have another ceremony which they call Belli- Paaro, but
it is not for everybody. For it is an incorporation in
the assembly of the spirits, and confers the right of
entering their groves, that is to say, of going and eat-
ing the offerings which the simple folk bring thither.
The initiation or admission to the Belli -Paaro is
celebrated every twenty or twenty -five years. The
initiated recount marvels of the ceremony, saying that
they are roasted, that they entirely change their habits
and life, and that they receive a spirit quite different
from that of other people and quite new lights. The
badge of membership consists in some lines traced
on the neck between the shoulders ; the lines seem to
be pricked with a needle. Those who have this mark
pass for persons of spirit, and when they have attained
a certain age they are allowed a voice in all public
assemblies ; whereas the uninitiated are regarded as
profane, impure, and ignorant persons, who dare not
express an opinion on any subject of importance.
When the time for the ceremony has come, it is
celebrated as follows : By order of the king a place is
appointed in the forest, whither they bring the youths
who have not been marked, not without much crying
and weeping ; for it is impressed upon the youths that
in order to undergo this change it is necessary to suffer
death. So they dispose of their property, as if it
were all over with them. There are always some of
the initiated beside the novices to instruct them.
They teach them to dance a certain dance called
killing, and to sing verses in praise of Belli. Above all,
they are very careful not to let them die of hunger,

348 DEATH AND RESURRECTION chap.

because if they did so, it is much to be feared that the
spiritual resurrection would profit them nothing. This
manner of life lasts five or six years, and is comfortable
enough, for there is a village in the forest, and they
amuse themselves with hunting and fishing. Other
lads are brought thither from time to time, so that the
last comers have not long to stay. No woman or
uninitiated person is suffered to pass within four or five
leagues of the sacred wood. When their instruction is
completed, they are taken from the wood and shut up
in small huts made for the purpose. Here they begin
once more to hold communion with mankind and to
talk with the women who bring them their food. It
is amusing- to see their affected simplicity. They pre-
tend to know no one, and to be ignorant of all the
customs of the country, such as the customs of washing
themselves, rubbing themselves with oil, etc. When
they enter these huts, their bodies are all covered with
the feathers of birds, and they wear caps of bark which
hang down before their faces. But after a time they
are dressed in clothes and taken to a great open place,
where all the people of the neighbourhood are
assembled. Here the novices give the first proof of
their capacity by dancing a dance which is called the
dance of Belli. After the dance is over, the novices
are taken to the houses of their parents by their
instructors." ^

Among the Indians of Virginia, an initiatory cere-
mony, called Huskanaw, took place every sixteen
or twenty years, or oftener, as the young men
happened to grow up. The youths were kept in
solitary confinement in the woods for several months,

1 Dapper, Description de PAfrique, p. 268 sq. Dapper's account has been
abbreviated in the text.

A T INITIA TION 349

receiving no food but an infusion of some intoxicating
roots, so that they went raving mad, and continued in
this state eighteen or twenty, days. " Upon this
occasion it is pretended that these poor creatures drink
so much of the water of Lethe that they perfectly lose
the remembrance of all former things, even of their
parents, their treasure, and their language. When the
doctors find that they have drank sufficiently of the
Wysoccan (so they call this mad potion), they gradually
restore them to their senses again by lessening the
intoxication of their diet ; but before they are perfectly
well they bring them back into their towns, while they
are still wild and crazy through the violence of the
medicine. After this they are very fearful of dis-
covering anything of their former remembrance ; for
if such a thing should happen to any of them, they
must immediately be Huskanawd again ; and the
second time the usage is so severe that seldom any
one escapes with life. Thus they must pretend to
have forgot the very use of their tongues, so as not
to be able to speak, nor understand anything that is
spoken, till they learn it again. Now, whether this be
real or counterfeit, I don't know ; but certain it is that
they will not for some time take notice of any body
nor any thing with which they were before acquainted,
being still under the guard of their keepers, who
constantly wait upon them everywhere till they have
learnt all things perfectly over again. Thus they
unlive their former lives, and commence men by
forgetting that they ever have been boys." ^

Among some of the Indian tribes of North America
there are certain religious associations which are only
open to candidates who have gone through a pretence

^ (Beverley's) History of Virginia (London, 1722), p. 177 sq.

350 DEATH AND RESURRECTION

of being killed and brought to life again. Captain
Carver witnessed the admission of a candidate to an
association called " the friendly society of the Spirit "
among the Naudowessies. The candidate knelt
before the chief, who told him that " he himself
was now agitated by the same spirit which he should
in a few moments communicate to him ; that it would
strike him dead, but that he would instantly be re-
stored again to life. ... As he spoke this, he appeared
to be greatly agitated, till at last his emotions became so
violent that his countenance was distorted and his whole
frame convulsed. At this juncture he threw something
that appeared both in shape and colour like a small
bean at the young man, which seemed to enter his
mouth, and he instantly fell as motionless as if he had
been shot." For a time the man lay like dead, but
under a shower of blows he showed signs of conscious-
ness, and finally, discharging from his mouth the bean,
or whatever it was the chief had thrown at him, he
came to life.^ In other tribes the instrument by which
the candidate is apparently slain is the medicine-bag.
The bag is made of the skin of an animal (such as the
otter, wild cat, serpent, bear, racoon, wolf, owl, weasel),
of which it roughly preserves the shape. Each mem-
ber of the society has one of these bags, in which he
keeps the odds and ends that make up his " medicine"
or charms. "They believe that from the miscellaneous
contents in the belly of the skin bag or animal there
issues a spirit or breath, which has the power, not only
to knock down and kill a man, but also to set him up
and restore him to life." The mode of killing a man
with one of these medicine-bacjs is to thrust it at him ;

1 J. Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, pp.
271-275.

A T INITIA TION 3 5 1

he falls like dead, but a second thrust of the bag
restores him to life.^

A ceremony witnessed by Jewitt during his
captivity among the Indians of Nootka Sound doubt-
less belongs to this class of customs. The Indian
king or chief "discharged a pistol close to his son's
ear, who immediately fell down as if killed, upon
which all the women of the house set up a most
lamentable cry, tearing handfuls of hair from their
heads, and exclaiming that the prince was dead ; at the
same time a great number of the inhabitants rushed
into the house armed with their daggers, muskets, etc.,
inquiring the cause of their outcry. These were im-
mediately followed by two others dressed in wolf skins,
with masks over their faces representing the head of
that animal. The latter came in on their hands and
feet in the manner of a beast, and taking up the prince,
carried him off upon their backs, retiring in the same
manner as they entered."" In another place Jewitt
mentions that the young prince — a lad of about eleven
years of age — wore a mask in imitation of a wolf's
head.^ Now, as the Indians of this part of America
are divided into totem clans, of which the Wolf clan is
one of the principal, and as the members of each clan
are in the habit of wearing some portion of the totem
animal about their person,'* it is probable that the
prince belonged to the Wolf clan, and that the
ceremony described by Jewitt represented the killing

^ Carver, op. cit. p. 277 sq.; School- * Holmberg, " Ueber die Volker des

craft, Indian Tribes, iii. 287, v. 430 russischen Amerika," Acta Soc. Scient.

sqq.; Kohl, Kitschi-Gami, i. 64-70. Fennicae, iv. (Helsingfors, 1856) pp.

2 Narrative of the Advetitures and ^^2 sqq., 328 ; Petroff, Report on the
Sufferings of John R. Jewitt (Middle- ^'P"i^(''>"' '^f-_ of Alaska, p. 165 sq.;
town, 1820), p. 119. ^- ^^™"^^' ^'^ ThnkU-Indianer, p.

112; R. C. Mayne, Four years in

3 Id., p. 44. For the age of the British Cohwibia and Vancouver Is-
prince, see id., p. 35. land, p. 257 sq., 268.

352 DEATH AND RESURRECTION chap.

of the lad in order that he mio-ht be born anew as a
wolf, much in the same way that the Basque hunter
supposed himself to have been killed and to have come
to life again as a bear. The Toukaway Indians of
Texas, one of whose totems is the wolf, have a
ceremony in which men, dressed in wolf skins, run
about on all fours, howling and mimicking wolves.
At last they scratch up a living tribesman, who has
been buried on purpose, and putting a bow and arrows
in his hands, bid him do as the wolves do — rob, kill,
and murder.^ The ceremony probably forms part of
an initiatory rite like the resurrection from the grave
of the old man in the Australian rites.

The people of Rook, an island east of New
Guinea, hold festivals at which one or two disguised
men, their heads covered with wooden masks, go
dancing through the village, followed by all the other
men. They demand that the circumcised boys who
have not yet been swallowed by Marsaba (the devil)
shall be given up to them. The boys, trembling and
shrieking, are delivered to them, and must creep be-
tween the legs of the disguised men. Then the pro-
cession moves through the village again, and announces
that Marsaba has eaten up the boys, and will not dis-
gorge them till he receives a present of pigs, taro, etc.
So all the villagers, according to their means, contri-
bute provisions, which are then consumed in the name
of Marsaba.^ In New Britain all males are members

1 Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, v. 683. mythological signification, ' holding the

In a letter dated i6th Dec. 1887, Mr. earth' {hatch). He forms one of their

A. S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of totem clans, and they have had a dance

Ethnology, Washington, writes to me : in his honor, danced by the males only,

"Among the Toukavve whom in 1884 who carried sticks."
I found at Fort Griffin [?], Texas, I ^ Reina, " Ueber die Bewohner der

noticed that they never kill the big or Insel Rook," Zeitschrift fiir allgemeine

gray wolf, hatchukiaidn, which has a Erdkunde, N. F. iv. (1858) p. 356 sq.

A r INITIA TION 3 5 3

of an association called the Duk-duk. The boys are
admitted to it very young, but are not fully initiated
till their fourteenth year, when they receive from the
Tubuvan a terrible blow with a cane, which is sup-
posed to kill them. The Tubuvan and the Duk-duk
are two disguised men who represent cassowaries.
They dance with a short hopping step in imitation of
the cassowary. Each of them wears a huge hat like
an extinguisher, woven of grass or palm -fibres ; it is
six feet high, and descends to the wearer's shoulders,
completely concealing his head and face. From the
neck to the knees the man's body is hidden by a crino-
line made of the leaves of a certain tree fastened on
hoops, one above the other. The Tubuvan is regarded
as a female, the Duk-duk as a male. No woman may
see these disguised men. The institution of the Duk-
duk is common to the neighbouring islands of New
Ireland and the Duke of York.^

Amongst the Galela and Tobelorese of Halmahera,
an island to the west of New Guinea, boys go through
a form of initiation, part of which seems to consist in a
pretence of begetting them anew. When a number of
boys have reached the proper age, their parents agree
to celebrate the ceremony at their common expense,
and they invite others to be present at it. A shed is
erected, and two long tables are placed in it, with

^ R. Parkinson, Iin Bismarck der Bismarck Archipel, pp. 115 -128.

Archipel, pp. 129 -134; Rev. G. The inhabitants of these islands are

Brown, "Notes on the Duke of York divided into two exogamous classes,

Group, New Britain, and New Ire- which in the Duke of York Island have

land," Joiirn. Royal Geogr. Soc. xlvii. two insects for their totems. One of

(1878) p. 148 sq.; H. H. Romilly, the insects is the waw^'/j- r^/zj^/^jz/j- ; the

"The Islands of the New Britain other is an insect that mimicks the leaf

Group," Proceed. Royal Geogr. Soc. of the horse-chestnut tree very closely.

N. S. ix. (1887) p. II sq.; Rev. G. Rev..B. Danks, "Marriage customs of

Brown, ib. p. 17; W. Powell, Wander- the New Britain Group," yi??</-«. Ait-

ings in a Wild Country, pp. 60-66 ; throp. Inst, xviii. 281 sq.
C. Hager, Kaiser Wilhelm^s Land iind

VOL. II . 2 A

354 DEATH AND RESURRECTION chap.

benches to match, one for the men and one for the
women. When all the preparations have been made
for a feast, a great many skins of the rayfish, and
some pieces of a wood which imparts a red colour to
water, are taken to the shed. A priest or elder causes
a vessel to be placed in the sight of all the people, and
then begins, with significant gestures, to rub a piece of
the wood with the ray-skin. The powder so produced
is put in the vessel, and at the same time the name of
one of the boys is called out. The same proceeding
is repeated for each boy. Then the vessels are filled
with water, after which the feast begins. At the third
cock-crow the priest smears the faces and bodies of the
boys with the red water, which represents the blood shed
at the perforation of the hymen. Towards daybreak
the boys are taken to the wood, and must hide behind
the largest trees. The men, armed with sword and
shield, accompany them, dancing and singing. The
priest knocks thrice on each of the trees behind which
a boy is hiding. All day the boys stay in the wood,
exposing themselves to the heat of the sun as much as
possible. In the evening they bathe arid return to the
shed, where the women supply them with food.^

In the west of Ceram boys at puberty are ad-
mitted to the Kakian association. ^ Modern writers

1 J. G. F. Riedel, "GalelaundTobel- with slight changes in Tijdschrift v.
oresen," Zeitschrift f. Ethnologie, xvii. Indische Taal- Land - en Volkenkiinde,
(1885) p. 81 sq. xvi. 1866, pp. 290-315); F. Foamier,

2 The Kakian association and its " De Zuidkust van Ceram," Tijdschrift
initiatory ceremonies have often been v. Indische Taal- Land -en Volkenkiinde,
described. See Valentyn, Oud en xvi. 154 sqq.; Van Rees, Die Pion-
nieuw Oost - lulien, iii. 3 sq. ; Von niers der Beschaving in Neerlands
Schmid, " Het Kakihansch Verbond Indie, pp. 92-106; Van Hoevell,
op het ciland Ceram," Tijdschrift v. Ambon en meer bepaaldelijkde Oeliasers,
Neerlands Indie, v. dl. ii. (1843)25- p. 153 sqq.; Schulze, " Ueber Ceram
38; Van Ekris, "Het Ceramsche und seine Bewohner," Vei-handl. d.
Kalvianverbond, " Mededeelingen van Berliner Gesell. f Anthropologie, etc.
zvege het Nederland. Zendelinggenoof- (1877) p. 117; W. Joest, " Beitrage
schap, (1865) ix. 205-226 (repeated zur Kenntniss der Eingebornen der

A T I NIT I A TION 3 5 5

have commonly regarded this association as primarily
a political league instituted to resist foreign domina-
tion. In reality its objects are purely .religious and
social, though it is possible that the priests may have
occasionally used their powerful influence for political
ends. The society is in fact merely one of those
widely-diffused primitive institutions, of which a chief
object is the initiation of young men. In recent years
the true nature of the association has been duly recog-
nised by the distinguished Dutch ethnologist, J. G. F.
Riedel. The Kakian house is an oblong wooden
shed, situated under the darkest trees in the depth of
the forest, and is built to admit so little light that it is
impossible to see what goes on in it. Every village
has such a house. Thither the boys who are to be
initiated are conducted blindfolded, followed by their
parents and relations. Each boy is led by the hand
by two men, who act as his sponsors or guardians,
looking after him during the period of initiation.
When all are assembled before the shed, the high
priest calls aloud upon the devils. Immediately a
hideous uproar is heard to proceed from the shed. It
is made by men with bamboo trumpets, who have been
secretly introduced into the building by a back door,
but the women and children think it is made by the
devils, and are much terrified.- Then the priests enter
the shed, followed by the boys, one at a time. As
soon as each boy has disappeared within the precincts,
a dull chopping sound is heard, a fearful cry rings out,
and a sword or spear, dripping with blood, is thrust

Insel Formosa unci Ceram,"/./. (1882), pp. 107-111. The best accounts are

p. 64 ; Rosenberg, Der Malayische those of Valentyn, Von Schmid, Van

Archipel, Tp. 318; Ba.siiSLT\, Indojiesien, Ekris, Van Rees, and Riedel, which

i- 145-148 ; Riedel, De sbiik-en kroes- are accordingly followed in the text.
harige rassen tusschcn Selcbes en Papua,

356 DEATH AND RESURRECTION chap.

through the roof of the shed. This is a token that the
boy's head has been cut off, and that the devil has
carried him away to the other world, there to regener-
ate and transform him. So at sight of the bloody
sword the mothers weep and wail, crying that the
devil has murdered their children. In some places, it
would seem, the boys are pushed through an opening
made in the shape of a crocodile's jaws or a cassowary's
beak, and it is then said that the devil has swallowed
them. The boys remain in the shed for five or nine
days. Sitting in the dark, they hear the blast of the
bamboo trumpets, and from time to time the sound of
musket shots and the clash of swords. Every day
they bathe, and their faces and bodies are smeared
with a yellow dye, to give them the appearance of
having been swallowed by the devil. During his stay
in the Kakian house each boy has one or two crosses
tattooed with thorns on his breast or arm. When they
are not sleeping, the lads must sit in a crouching pos-
ture without moving a muscle. As they sit in a row
cross-legged, with their hands stretched out, the chief
takes his trumpet, and placing the mouth of it on the
hands of each lad, speaks through it in strange tones,
imitating the voice of the spirits. He warns the lads,
under pain of death, to observe the rules of the Kakian
society, and never to reveal what has passed in the
Kakian house. The novices are also told by the
priests to behave well to their blood relations, and are
taught the traditions and secrets of the tribe.

Meantime the mothers and sisters of the lads have

* gone home to weep and mourn. But in a day or two

the men who acted as guardians or sponsors to the

novices return to the village with the glad tidings that

the devil, at the intercession of the priests, has restored

A T INITIA TION 357

the lads to life. The men who bring this news come
in a fainting state and daubed with mud, like mes-
sengers freshly arrived from the nether world. Before
leaving the Kakian house, each lad receives from the
priest a stick adorned at both ends with cock's or
cassowary's feathers. The sticks are supposed to have
been given to the lads by the devil at the time when*
he restored them to life, and they serve as a token that
the lads have been in the spirit -land. When they
return to their homes they totter in their walk, and
enter the house backward, as if they had forgotten how
to walk properly ; or they enter the house by the back
door. If a plate of food is given to them, they hold it
upside down. They remain dumb, indicating their
wants by signs only. All this is to show that they are
still under the influence of the devil or the spirits.
Their sponsors have to teach them all the common
acts of life, as if they were new-born children.
Further, upon leaving the Kakian house the boys are
strictly forbidden to eat of certain fruits until the next
celebration of the rites has taken place. And for
twenty or thirty days their hair may not be combed by
their mothers or sisters. At the end of that time the
high priest takes them to a lonely place in the forest,
and cuts off a lock of hair from the crown of each of
their heads. After these initiatory rites the lads are
deemed men, and may marry ; it would be a scandal if
they married before.

The simulation of death and resurrection or of a
new birth at initiation appears to have lingered on, or
at least to have left traces of itself, among peoples who
have advanced far beyond the stage of savagery. Thus,
after his investiture with the sacred thread — the
symbol of his order — a Brahman is called "twice-

358 TOTEMISM:

born." Manu says, "According to the injunction of
the revealed texts the first birth of an Aryan is from
his natural mother, the second happens on the tying
of the girdle of Munga grass, and the third on the
initiation to the performance of a Srauta sacrifice."^
A pretence of killing the candidate appears to have
formed part of the initiation to the Mithraic mysteries."
Thus, if I am right, wherever totemism is found,
and wherever a pretence is made of killing and bringing
to life again at initiation, there must exist or have
existed not only a belief in the possibility of perman-
ently depositing the soul in some external object —
animal, plant, or what not — but an actual intention of
so depositing it. If the question is put, why do men
desire to deposit their life outside their bodies ? the
answer can only be that, like the giant in the fairy tale,
they think it safer to do so than to carry it about with
them, just as people deposit their money with a banker
rather than carry it on their persons. We have seen
that at critical periods the life or soul is sometimes
temporarily deposited in a safe place till the danger is
past. But institutions like totemism are not resorted
to merely on special occasions of danger ; they are
systems into which every one, or at least every male,
is obliged to be initiated at a certain period of life.
Now the period of life at which initiation takes place
is regularly puberty ; and this fact suggests that the
special danger which totemism and systems like it are
intended to obviate is supposed not to arise till sexual
maturity has been attained, in fact, that the danger

1 Laws of Manu, ii. 169, trans, by and Thought in India, pp. 360 sq.
Biihler ; Dubois, Moeurs, Institutions 366 sq.

et Ceremonies des Peuples de Flnde, i. 2 Lampridius, Co/njnodus, 9 ; C.

125; Monier \\W\\s.ms, Religions Life W. King, The Gnostics and their

Remains,'^ pp. 127, 129.

ITS MOTIVE 359

apprehended is believed to. attend the relation of the
sexes to each other. It would be easy to prove by
a long array of facts that the sexual relation is
associated in the primitive mind with many super-
natural perils ; but the exact nature of the danger
apprehended is still obscure. We may hope that a
more exact acquaintance with savage modes of thought
will in time disclose this central mystery of primitive
society, and will thereby furnish the clue, not only to the
social aspect of totemism (the prohibition of sexual
union between persons of the same totem), but to the
origin of the marriage system.

§ 5. — Conclusion

Thus the view that Balder's life was in the mistletoe
Is entirely in harmony with primitive modes of thought.
It may indeed sound like a contradiction that, if his life
was in the mistletoe, he should nevertheless have been
killed by a blow from it. But when a person's life is
conceived as embodied in a particular object, with the
existence of which his own existence is inseparably
bound up, and the destruction of which involves his
own, the object in question may be regarded and
spoken of indifferently as the person's life or as his
death, as happens in the fairy tales. Hence if a man's
death is in an object, it is perfectly natural that he
should be killed by a blow from it. In the fairy tales
Koshchei the Deathless is killed by a blow from the
^gg ^^'^ ^he stone in which his life or death is ; ^ the
ogres burst when a certain grain of sand — doubtless
containing their life or death — is carried over their

^ Above, p. 309.

36o LIFE OF THE OAK chap.

heads ; ^ the magician dies when the stone in which his
Hfe or death is contained is put under his pillow ; " and
the Tartar hero is warned that he may be killed by the
golden arrow or golden sword in which his soul has
been stowed away.^

The idea that the life of the oak was in the mistletoe*
was probably suggested, as I have said, by the obser-
vation that in winter the mistletoe growing on the oak
remains green, while the oak itself is leafless. But the
position of the plant — growing, not from the ground,
but from the trunk or branches of the tree — mio^ht
confirm this idea. Primitive man might think that,
like himself, the oak-spirit had sought to deposit his
life in some safe place, and for this purpose had pitched
on the mistletoe, which, being in a sense neither on
earth nor in heaven, was as secure a place as could be
found. At the beginning of this chapter we saw that
primitive man seeks to preserve the life of his human
divinities by keeping them in a sort of intermediate
position between earth and heaven, as the place where
they are least likely to be assailed by the dangers that
encompass the life of man on earth. We can there-

■ 1 Above, p. 3125(7. 2 Above, p. 308 J^. British Popular Customs, p. 68.

^ Above, p. 324 J-;/. In the myth the Mannhardt {Die Korndlimonen, p. 16

throwing of the weapons and of the sq.") has made it probable that such

mistletoe at Balder and the blindness of sports are directly derived from the

Hodur who slew him remind us of the custom of killing a cock upon the

custom of the Irish reapers who kill the harvest-field as a representative of the

corn-spirit in the last sheaf by throwing corn-spirit (see above, p. 9). These

their sickles blindfold at it. (See above, customs, therefore, combined with the

vol. i. p. 339). In Mecklenburg a cock blindness of Hodur in the myth suggest

is sometimes buried in the ground and that the man who killed the human

a man who is blindfolded strikes at it representative of the oak - spirit was

with a flail. If he misses it, another blindfolded, and threw his weapon or

tries, and so on till the cock is killed. the mistletoe from a little distance.

Bartsch, Sagen, Marchen unci Ge- After the Lapps had killed a bear

hriiuche aiis Mecklenburg, ii. 280. In — which was the occasion of many

England on Shrove Tuesday a hen superstitious ceremonies — the bear's

used to be tied upon a man's back, and skin was hung on a post, and the

other men blindfolded struck at it with women, blindfolded, shot arrows at

branches till they killed it. Dyer, it. Scheffer, Lapponia, p. 240.

IV IN THE MISTLETOE 361

fore understand why in modern folk - medicine the
mistletoe is not allowed to touch the ground ; if it
touches the ground, its healing virtue is supposed to
be gone.^ This may be a survival of the old supersti-
tion that the plant in which the life of the sacred tree
was concentrated should not be exposed to the risk
incurred by contact with the ground. In an Indian
legend, which offers a parallel to the Balder myth, Indra
promised the demon Namuci not to kill him by day or
by night, nor with what was wet or what was dry. But
he killed him in the morning twilight by sprinkling
over him the foam of the sea.^ The foam of the sea
is just such an object as a savage might choose to put
his life in, because it occupies that sort of intermediate
or nondescript position between earth and sky or sea
and sky in which primitive man sees safety. It is
therefore not surprising that the foam of the river
should be the totem of a clan in India.^ Again, the
view that the mistletoe owes its mystic character partly
to the fact of its not growing on the ground is confirmed
by a parallel superstition about the mountain-ash or
rowan-tree. In Jutland a rowan that is found growing
out of the top of another tree is esteemed " exceedingly
effective against witchcraft : since it does not grow on
the ground witches have no power over it ; if it is to
have its full effect it must be cut on Ascension Day." ^
Hence it is placed over doors to prevent the ingress of
witches.^ Similarly the mistletoe in Germany is still

1 Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,'^ ii. over Jyske Ahimcsnial, Fjerde hefte
looi, loio. (Copenhagen, 18S8), p. 320. For a

2 Folk-lore Journal, vii. 61. • sight of Feilberg's work I am indebted

3 Col. E. T. Dalton, "The Kols of to the kindness of the Rev. Walter
Chota-Nagpore," Tra7is. Ethnol. Soc. Gregor, M.A., Pitsligo, who pointed
vi- 36- out the passage to me.

* Jens Kamp, Daiiske Folkeminder 5 g, x. Kristensen, lydske Folke-

(Odense, 1877), pp. 172, 65 ^(i^. referred mhider, vi. 380262, referred to by
to in Feilberg's Bidrag til en Ordbog Feilberg, I.e.

362 THE MISTLETOE IS chap.

universally considered a protection against witchcraft,
and in Sweden, as we saw, the mistletoe which is
gathered on Midsummer Eve Is attached to the ceiling
of the house, the horse stall, or the cow's crib, in the
belief that this renders the Troll powerless to injure
man or beast. ^

The view that the mistletoe was not merely the
instrument of Balder's death, but that It contained his
life, is countenanced by the analogy of a Scottish
superstition. Tradition ran that the fate of the family
of Hay was bound up with the mistletoe of a certain
oak.

" While the mistletoe bats on Errol's oak,
And that oak stands fast,

The Hays shall flourish, and their good gray hawk
Shall not flinch before the blast.

" But when the root of the oak decays.
And the mistletoe dwines on its withered breast,
The grass shall grow on the Earl's hearthstone,
And the corbies craw in the falcon's nest."

"A large oak with the mistletoe growing on it was
long pointed out as the tree referred to. A piece of
the mistletoe cut by a Hay was believed to have
magical virtues. ' The oak is gone and the estate is
lost to the family,' as a local historian says."^ The
idea that the fate of a family, as distinct from the lives
of its members, is bound up with a particular plant or
tree, is no doubt comparatively modern. The older
view probably was that the lives of all the Hays were
In this particular mistletoe, just as In the Indian story
the lives of all the ogres are In a lemon ; to break a
twig of the mistletoe would then have been to kill one

1 Wuttke, Der deiitsche Volksaber- and sent to me by the Rev. Walter
glaube^^%\2%; I.. lAoyA, Peasant Life Gregor, M.A., Pitsligo. Mr. Gregor
in Sweden, p. 269. does not mention the name of the

2 Extract from a newspajDer, copied newspaper.

IV THE GOLDEN BOUGH 363

of the Hays. Similarly in the island of Rum, whose
bold mountains the voyager from Oban to Skye
observes to seaward, it was thought that if one of
the family of Lachlin shot a deer on the mountain of
Finchra, he would die suddenly or contract a dis-
temper which would soon prove fatal. ^ Probably the
life of the Lachlins was bound up with the deer on
Finchra, as the life of the Hays was bound up with
the mistletoe on Errol's oak.

It is not a new opinion that the Golden Bough
was the mistletoe." True, Virgil does not identify but
only compares it with the mistletoe. But this may be
only a poetical device to cast a mystic glamour over
the humble plant. Or, more probably, his description
was based on a popular superstition that at certain
times the mistletoe blazed out into a supernatural golden
glory. The poet tells how two doves, guiding Aeneas
to the gloomy vale in whose depth grew the Golden
Bough, alighted upon a tree, " whence shone a
flickering gleam of gold. As in the woods in winter
cold the mistletoe — a plant not native to its tree — is
green with fresh leaves and twines its yellow berries
about the boles ; such seemed upon the shady oak the
leafy gold, so rustled in the gentle breeze the golden
leaf." ^ Here Virgil definitely describes the Golden
Bough as growing on an oak, and compares it with the
mistletoe. The inference is almost inevitable that the
Golden Bough was nothing but the mistletoe seen
through the haze of poetry or of popular superstition.

Now grounds have been shown for believing that

^ Martin, " Description of the " Rochholz, Deutscher Glaube iind

Western Islands of Scotland," in Bi-aiich, i. 9.

Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, iii. ^ Virgil, Aen. vi. 203 sqq., cp. 136

661. sqq. On the mistletoe (viscum) see

Pliny, N'at. Hist. xvi. 245 sqq.

364 THE KING OF THE WOOD chap.

the priest of the Arician grove — the King of the
Wood — personified the tree on which grew the Golden
Bough. ^ Hence, if that tree was the oak, the King of
the Wood must have been a personification of the oak-
spirit. It is, therefore, easy to understand why, before
he could be slain, it was necessary to break the Golden
Bough. As an oak-spirit, his life or death was in the
mistletoe on the oak, and so long as the mistletoe re-
mained intact, he, like Balder, could not die. To slay
him, therefore, it was necessary to break the mistletoe,
and probably, as in the case of Balder, to throw it at
him. And to complete the parallel, it is only necessary
to suppose that the King of the Wood was formerly
burned, dead or alive, at the midsummer fire festival
which, as we have seen, was annually celebrated in the
Arician grove. ^ The perpetual fire which burned in
the grove, like the perpetual fire under the oak at
Romove, was probably fed with the sacred oak-wood ;
and thus it would be in a great fire of oak that the King
of the Wood formerly met his end. At a later time,
as I have suggested, his annual tenure of office was
lengthened or shortened, as the case might be, by the
rule which allowed him to live so long as he could
prove his divine right by the strong hand. But he
only escaped the fire to fall by the sword.

Thus it seems that at a remote age in the heart of
Italy, beside the sweet lake of Nemi, the same fiery
tragedy was annually enacted which Italian merchants
and soldiers were afterwards to witness among their
rude kindred, the Celts of Gaul, and which, if the

^ Virgil (Aen. vi. 201 sqq.) places infernal world. Italian tradition, as we

the Golden Bough in the neighbourhood learn from Servius, placed the Golden

of Lake Avernus. But this was prob- Bough in the grove at Nemi.
ably a poetical liberty, adopted for the

convenience of Aeneas's descent to the ^ See above, vol. i. p. 4 sq.

IV BURNT IN OAK FIRE 365

Roman eagles had ever swooped on Norway, might
have been found repeated with Httle difference among
the barbarous Aryans of the North. The rite was
probably an essential feature in the primitive Aryan
worship of the oak,^

It only remains to ask, Why was the mistletoe
called the Golden Bough ? The name was not simply a
poet's fancy, nor even peculiarly Italian ; for in Welsh
also the mistletoe is known as " the tree of pure gold." ^
The whitish-yellow of the mistletoe berries is hardly
enough to account for the name. For Virgil says that
the Bough was altogether golden, stem as well as
leaves,^ and the same is implied in the Welsh name,
" the tree of pure gold." A clue to the real meaning
of the name is furnished by the mythical fern-seed or
fern-bloom.

We saw that fern -seed is popularly supposed to
bloom like sfold or fire on Midsummer Eve. Thus
in Bohemia it is said that " on St. John's Day fern-
seed blooms with golden blossoms that gleam like
fire."'* Now it is a property of this mythical fern-
seed that whoever has it, or will ascend a mountain
holding it in his hand on Midsummer Eve, will discover
a vein of orold or will see the treasures of the earth
shining with a bluish flame.^ And if you place fern-

1 A custom of annually burning a Druids seem to have eaten portions of

human representative of the corn-spirit the human victim. Pliny, Nat. Hist.

has been noted among the Egyptians, xxx. §13. Perhaps portions of the flesh

Pawnees, and Khonds. See above, vol. of the King of the Wood were eaten by

i. pp. 382, 387, 401 sq. In Semitic his worshippers as a sacrament. We

lands there are traces of a practice of have seen traces of the use of sacramental

annually burning a human god. For the bread at Nemi. See above, p. 82 sq.
image of Hercules (that is, of Baal) "^ Grimm, Deutsche Alythologie,'^ ii.

which was periodically burned on a pyre 1009, pren piiranr.
at Tarsus, must have been a substitute ^ Virgil, Aen. vi. 137 sq.

for a human representative of the god. * Grohmann, Aberglaitben und Ge-

See Dio Chrysostom, Orat. 33, vol. ii. briiuche aus Bohmemi7id Mdh>'en,%6'j'^.
p. 16, ed. Dindorf; "\V. R. Smith, The ^ Grohmann, op. at. §676; Wuttke,

Religion of the Se7niies,\. 353 J';/. The Der deutsche Volksaberglaiibe, § 123.

366 U'BV THE MISTLETOE chap.

seed among money, the money will never decrease,
however much of it you spend.^ Sometimes the
fern -seed is supposed to bloom at Christmas, and
whoever catches it will become very rich.- Thus, on
the principle of like by like, fern -seed is supposed to
discover gold because it is itself golden ; and for a
similar reason it enriches its possessor with an un-
failing supply of gold. But while the fern -seed is
described as golden, it is equally described as glowing
and fiery.^ Hence, when we consider that two great
days for gathering the fabulous seed are Midsummer
Eve and Christmas — that is, the two solstices (for
Christmas is nothing but an old heathen celebration of
the winter solstice) — we are led to regard the fiery
aspect of the fern - seed as primary, and its golden
aspect as secondary and derivative. Fern - seed, in
fact, would seem to be an emanation of the sun's fire
at the two turning-points of its course, the summer
and winter solstices. This view is confirmed by a
German story in which a hunter is said to have
procured fern -seed by shooting at the sun on Mid-
summer Day at noon ; three drops of blood fell
down, which he caught in a white cloth, and these
blood-drops were the fern-seed.^ Here the blood
is clearly the blood of the sun, from which the fern-
seed is thus directly derived. Thus it may be
taken as certain that fern -seed is golden, because
it is believed to be an emanation of the sun's golden
fire.

Now, like fern- seed, the mistletoe is gathered

1 Zingerle, Sitten, Brdiic/ie itnd Ralston, Songs of the Russian Fcople,
Meimengen des Tirol er Volkes^^ § p. 98.

882. * L. Bechstein, Deutsches Sagenlmch

2 Zingerle op. cit. § 1573. No. 500; id., Thiiringer Sagenlmch

3 Grohmann, op. cit. § 675 ; (Leipzig, 1885), ii. No. 161.

IV WAS CALLED GOLDEN 367

either at Midsummer or Christmas^ — that is, at the
summer and winter solstices — and, like fern -seed, it
is supposed to possess the power of revealing treasures
in the earth. On Midsummer Eve people in Sweden
make divining-rods of mistletoe or of four different
kinds of wood, one of which must be mistletoe. The
treasure-seeker places the rod on the ground after sun-
down, and when it rests directly over treasure, the rod
begins to move as if it were alive.- Now, if the
mistletoe discovers gold, it must be in its character
of the Golden Bough ; and if it is gathered at the sol-
stices, must not the Golden Bough, like the golden fern-
seed, be an emanation of the sun's fire ? The question
cannot be answered with a simple affirmative. We
have seen that the primitive Aryans probably kindled
the midsummer bonfires as sun -charms, that is, with
the intention of supplying the sun with fresh fire. But
as this fire was always elicited by the friction of oak
wood,^ it must have appeared to the primitive Aryan
that the sun was periodically recruited from the fire
which resided in the sacred oak. In other words, the
oak must have seemed to him the original storehouse
or reservoir of the fire which was from time to time
drawn out to feed the sun. But the life of the oak
was conceived to be in the mistletoe ; therefore the
mistletoe must have contained the seed or germ of the

1 For gathering it at midsummer, Aledallic History of Caraitsius, quoted

see above, p. 289. Tlie custom of by Brand, Popular Antiquities, i. 525.

gathering it at Christmas still survives This last custom is of course now

among ourselves. At York "on the obselete.

eve of Christmas Day they carry 9 .r i-

mistletoe to the high altar of the / ^f^ehus Volkssagett unci Volks-

cathedral, and proclaim a public and ^'f^^ aus Schwedens hlterer nmi 7ieuerer

universal liberty, pardon, and freedom ff^ \ Al./^'l Grimm, Deutsche

to all sorts of inferior and even wicked fyf^'^J'^S^e^ m. 289 ; L. Lloyd, Feasant

people at the gates of the city, towards ^'-^^ "' ^'''''^'''^ P- 266 sq.

the four quarters of heaven." Stukeley, ^ Above, p. 293.

368 THE OAK A STORE

fire which was elicited by friction from the wood of the
oak. Thus, instead of saying that the mistletoe was
an emanation of the sun's fire, it would be more
correct to say that the sun's fire was regarded as an
emanation of the mistletoe. No wonder, then, that
the mistletoe shone with a golden splendour, and was
called the Golden Bough. Probably, however, like
fern-seed, it was thought to assume its golden aspect
only at those stated times, especially midsummer,
when fire was drawn from the oak to light up the
sun.^ At Pulverbatch, in Shropshire, it was believed
within living memory that the oak-tree blooms on Mid-
summer Eve and the blossom withers before daylight."
This fleeting bloom of the oak, if I am right, could
originally have been nothing but the mistletoe in its
character of the Golden Bough. As Shropshire
borders on Wales, the superstition may be Welsh in
its immediate origin, though probably the belief is a
fragment of the primitive Aryan creed. In some
parts of Italy, as we saw,^ peasants still go out on
Midsummer morning to search the oak-trees for the
" oil of St. John," which, like the mistletoe, heals all
wounds, and is doubtless the mistletoe itself in its
glorified aspect. Thus it is easy to understand how a
tide like the Golden Bough or the " tree of pure gold,"
so litde descriptive of the real appearance of the plant,
should have held its ground as a name for the mistletoe
in Italy and Wales, and probably in other parts of the
Aryan world.*

1 Fern-seed is supposed to bloom at Folk-lo7-e, p. 242. ^ P. 288.
Easter as well as at midsummer and * The reason why Virgil represents
Ch.n%im?i%{Rz\s\.on, Songs of the Russian Aeneas as taking the mistletoe with
People, p. 98 sq. ) ; and Easter, as we him to Hades is perhaps that the
have seen, is one of the times when sun- mistletoe was supposed to repel evil
fires are kindled. spirits (see above, p. 362). Hence

2 Burne and Jackson, Shropshire when Charon is disposed to bluster at

OF SOLAR FIRE 369

Now, too, we can fully understand why Virbius
came to be confounded with the sun. If Virbius was,
as I have tried to show, a tree -spirit, he must have
been the spirit of the oak on which grew the Golden
Bough ; for tradition represented him as the first of
the Kings of the Wood. As an oak-spirit he must
have been supposed periodically to rekindle the sun's
fire, and might therefore easily be confounded with
the sun itself. Similarly we can explain why Balder,
an oak -spirit, was described as "so fair of face and so
shining that alight went forth from him," ^ and why he
should have been so often taken to be the sun. And
in general we may say that in primitive society, when
the only known way of making fire is by the friction of
wood, the savage must necessarily conceive fire as a
property stored away, like sap or juice, in trees, from
which he has laboriously to extract it. Thus all trees,
or at least the particular sorts of trees whose wood he
employs in fire -making, must be regarded by him as
reservoirs of hidden fire, and it is natural that he
should describe them by epithets like golden, shining, or
bright. May not this have been the origin of the name,
" the Bright or Shining One " (Zeus, Jove) by which the
ancient Greeks and Italians designated their supreme
god?^ It is at least highly significant that, amongst

Aeneas, the sight of the Golden Bough "shming," "bright," see Curtius,

quiets him [Aen. vi. 406 j^.) Perhaps Griech. Etymologie,^ ^. 236; Vanicek,

also the power ascribed to the mistletoe Griech. -Latein. Etymolog. IVorterbuch,

of laying bare the secrets of the earth p. 353 sqq. On the relation of Jove

may have suggested its use as a kind of to the oak, compare Pliny, Nat. Hist.

"open Sesame" to the lower world. xii. § 3, arboriim genera niuninibus

Compare Aen. vi. 140 sq. — siiis dicata perpetuo servantiir, ut Jovi

" Sed nonantedaturtelliirisopertasubire, aesculus ; Servius on Virgil, Georg. iii.

Auricomos^qua^n qui decerpserit arbore 332, omnis qiierais Jovi est consecrata.

fetus. 2ieus and Jupiter have commonly been

^'^ 8 ^'^'^'^' ubersetzt von K. regarded as sky gods, because their

Simrock, p. 264. names are etymologically connected

On the derivation of the names with the Sanscrit word for sky. The

Zeus and Jove from a root meaning reason seems insufficient.

VOL. II 2 B

370 THE OAK THE CHIEE GOD chap.

both Greeks and Italians, the oak should have been
the tree of the supreme god, that at his most ancient
shrines, both in Greece and Italy, this supreme god
should have been actually represented by an oak, and
that so soon as the barbarous Aryans of Northern
Europe appear in the light of history, they should be
found, amid all diversities of language, of character,
and of country, nevertheless at one in worshipping the
oak as the chief object of their religious reverence, and
extracting their sacred fire from its wood. If we are
to judge of the primitive religion of the European
Aryans by comparing the religions of the different
branches of the stock, the highest place in their
pantheon must certainly be assigned to the oak. The
result, then, of our inquiry is to make it probable that,
down to the time of the Roman Empire and the be-
ginning of our era, the primitive worship of the
Aryans was maintained nearly in its original form
in the sacred grove at Nemi, as in the oak woods
of Gaul, of Prussia, and of Scandinavia ; and that
the King of the Wood lived and died as 'an incar-
nation of the supreme Aryan god, whose life was in
the mistletoe or Golden Boug^h.

If, in bidding farewell to Nemi, we look around us
for the last time, we shall find the lake and its sur-
roundings not much changed from what they were
in the days when Diana and Virbius still received
the homage of their worshippers in the sacred' grove.
The temple of Diana, indeed, has disappeared, and the
King of the Wood no longer stands sentinel over the

IV LE ROI EST MORT 2>n

Golden Bough. But Nemi's woods are still green,
and at evening you may hear the church bells of
Albano, and perhaps, if the air be still, of Rome itself,
ringing the Angelus. Sweet and solemn they chime
out from the distant city, and die lingeringly away
across the wide Campagnan marshes. Le roi est mort,
Vive le roi !

NOTE

Oferings of first-fruits

We have seen (vol. ii. p. 68 sqq>i that primitive peoples often partake
of the new corn sacramentally, because they suppose it to be instinct
with a divine spirit or life. At a later age, when the fruits of the earth
are conceived as produced rather than as animated by a divinity, the
new fruits are no longer partaken of sacramentally as the body and
blood of a god ; but a portion of them is presented as a thank-
offering to the divine beings who are believed to have produced
them. Sometimes the first-fruits are presented to the king, probably
in his character of a god. Till the first-fruits have been offered to
the deity or the king, people are not at liberty to eat of the new
crops. But, as it is not always possible to draw a sharp line between
the sacrament and the sacrifice of first-fiuits, it may be well to round
off this part of the subject by appending some miscellaneous examples
of the latter.

Among the Basutos, when the corn has been threshed and
winnowed, it is left in a heap on the threshing-floor. Before it
can be touched a religious ceremony must be performed. The
persons to whom the corn belongs bring a new vessel to the spot, in
which they boil some of the grain. When it is boiled they throw a
few handfuls of it on the heap of corn, saying, " Thank you, gods ;
give us bread to-morrow also!" When this is done the rest is
eaten, and the provision for the year is considered pure and fit to
eat.^ Here the sacrifice of the first-fruits to the gods is the prominent
idea, which comes out again in the custom of leaving in the threshing-
floor a little hollow filled with grain, as a thank-off'ering to the gods.^

1 Casalis, The Basutos, p. 251 sq. 2 73. p. 252.

374 OFFERINGS OF FIRST-FRUITS

Still the Basutos retain a lively sense of the saijctity of the corn in
itself; for, so long as it is exposed to view, all defiled persons are
carefully kept from it. If it is necessary to employ a defiled person
in carrying home the harvest, he remains at some distance while the
sacks are being filled, and only approaches to place them upon the
draught oxen. As soon as the load is deposited at the dwelling he
retires, and under no pretext may he help to pour the corn into the
baskets in which it is kept.^

In Ashantee a harvest festival is held in September when the
yams are ripe. During the festival the king eats the new yams, but
none of the people may eat them till the close of the festival, which
lasts a fortnight. During its continuance the grossest liberty prevails ;
theft, intrigue, and assault go unpunished, and each sex abandons
itself to its passions.^ The Hovas of Madagascar present the first
sheaves of the new grain to the sovereign. The sheaves are carried
in procession to the palace from time to time as the grain ripens.^
So in Burma, when i\\epa?igati fruits ripen, some of them used to be
taken to the king's palace that he might eat of them ; no one might
partake of them before the king."*

Every year, when they gather their first crops, the Kochs of
Assam offer some of the first-fruits to their ancestors, calling to them
by name and clapping their hands. ^ In August, when the rice
ripens, the Hos offer the first-fruits of the harvest to Sing Bonga,
who dwells in the sun. Along with the new rice a white cock is
sacrificed ; and till the sacrifice has been offered no one may eat the
new rice.^ Among the hill tribes near Rajamahall, in India, when
the kosarane grain is being reaped in November or early in
December, a festival is held as a thanksgiving before the new grain
is eaten. On a day appointed by the chief a goat is sacrificed by
two men to a god called Chitariah Gossaih, after which the chief
himself sacrifices a fowl. Then the vassals repair to their fields,
offer thanksgiving, make an oblation to Kull Gossaih (who is
described as the Ceres of these mountaineers), and then return
to their houses to eat of the new kosarane. As soon as the

1 Casalis, The Basjitos, ^. 252^^7. narivo Animal and Madagascar Maga-

- A. B. Ellis, The Tshi- speaking zine, iii. 263.

Peoples of the Gold Coast, p. 229 sq.; ■* Bastian, Die Vblker des dstlichen

T. E. Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee, Asien, ii. 105.

p. 226^-7. (ed. 1873.) 5 Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p.

3 J. Cameron, "On the Early In- 91.

habitants of Madagascar," Antana- " Dalton, op. cit. p. 19S.

NOTE OFFERINGS OF FIRST-FRUITS 375

inhabitants have assembled at the chiefs house — the men sitting
on one side and the women on the other — a hog, a measure of
kosarane, and a pot of spirits are presented to the chief, who in
return blesses his vassals, and exhorts them to industry and good
behaviour ; " after which, making a libation in the names of all their
gods, and of their dead, he drinks, and also throws a little of the
kosara7ie away, repeating the same pious exclamations." Drinking
and festivity then begin, and are kept up for several days. The
same tribes have another festival at reaping the Indian corn in
August or September. Every man repairs to his fields with a hog,
a goat, or a fowl, which he sacrifices to KuU Gossaih. Then,
having feasted, he returns home, where another repast is prepared.
On this day it is customary for every family in the village to
distribute to every house a little of what they have prepared for
their feast. Should any person eat of the new kosarane or the new
Indian corn before the festival and public thanksgiving at the
reaping of these crops, the chief fines him a white cock, which is
sacrificed to Chitariah.^ In the Central Provinces of India the first
grain of the season is always offered to the god Bhimsen or Bhim
Deo.^ In the Punjaub, when sugar-cane is planted, a woman puts on
a necklace and walks round the field, winding thread on to a spindle ;''
and when the sugar-cane is cut the first-fruits are offered on an altar,
which is built close to the press and is sacred to the sugar-cane god.
Afterwards the first-fruits are given to Brahmans. Also, when the
women begin to pick the cotton, they go round the field eating rice-
milk, the first mouthful of which they spit upon the field toward the
west ; and the first cotton picked is exchanged at the village shop for
its weight in salt, which is prayed over and kept in the house till
the picking is finished.*

In the island of Tjumba, East Indies, a festival is held after
harvest. Vessels filled with rice are presented as a thank-offering to
the gods. Then the sacred stone at the foot of a palm-tree is
sprinkled with the blood of a sacrificed animal ; and rice, with some of

1 Thomas Shaw, "The Inhabitants women were forbidden by law to walk
of the Hills near Rajamahall," Asiatic on the highroads twirling a spindle,
Researches, iv. 56 sq. because this was supposed to injure

2 Punjab Notes and Queries, i. No. the crops. Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxviii.

^ ■ * D. C. J. Ibbetson, Oiitli7ies of

3 This is curiously unlike the custom Panjab Ethnography (Calcutta, 1S83),
of ancient Italy, in most parts of which p. 119.

376 OFFERINGS OF FIRST-FRUITS note

the flesh, is laid on the stone for the gods. The palm-tree is hung with
lances and shields.^ The Dyaks of Borneo hold a feast of first-fruits
when the paddy (unhusked rice) is ripe. The priestesses, accom-
panied by a gong and drum, go in procession to the farms and
gather several bunches of the ripe paddy. These are brought back
to the village, washed in cocoa-nut water, and laid round a bamboo
altar, which at the harvest festivals is erected in the common room of
the largest house. The altar is gaily decorated with white and red
streamers, and is hung with the sweet- smelling blossom of the areca
palm. The feast lasts two days, during which the village is tabooed ;
no one may leave it. Only fowls are killed, and dancing and gong-
beating go on day and night. When the festival is over the people
are free to get in their crops.^

The pounding of the new paddy is the occasion of a harvest
festival which is celebrated all over Celebes. The religious cere-
monies which accompany the feast were witnessed by Dr. B. F.
Matthes in July 1857. Two mats were spread on the ground, each
with a pillow on it. On one of the pillows were placed a man's
clothes and a sword, on the other a woman's clothes. These were
seemingly intended to represent the deceased ancestors. Rice and
water were placed before the two dummy figures, and they were
sprinkled with the new paddy. Also dishes of rice were set down
for the rest of the family and the slaves of the deceased. This was
the end of the ceremony.^ The Minahassa of Celebes have a
festival of "eating the new rice." Fowls or pigs are killed; some of
the flesh, with rice and palm-wine, is set apart for the gods, and then
the eating and drinking begin.^ The people of Kobi and Sariputi,
two villages on the north-east coast of Ceram, offer the first-fruits of
the paddy, in the form of cooked rice, with tobacco, etc., to their
ancestors, as a token of gratitude. The ceremony is called "feeding
the dead."^ In the Tenimber and Timorlaut Islands, East Indies,

1 Fr. Junghuhn, Die Battaldiider 165 j^.; E. Tregear, "The Maoris of
atif Sumatra, ii. 312. New Zealand," _/??«'«. Anthrop. Inst.

2 Spenser St. John, Life in the xix. no.

Forests of the Far East, i. 191. On ^ B. F. Matthes, Beknopt Verslag

taboos observed at agricultural opera- inijner reizen i)i de Binnenlanden van

tions, see id. i. 185; R. G. Wood- Celebes, in de jaren 1857 en 1861, p.

ihorpe, "Wild Tribes Inhabiting the 5.

so-called Naga Hills, "y(3«;-«. ^;2///;-<?/. * N. Graafland, De Minahassa, i.

Inst. xi. 71 ; Old N'ew Zealand, by a 165.

Pakeha Maori (London, 18S4), p. 103 ^ J. G. F. Riedel, De slnik-en

sq. ; R. Taylor, Te Ika a RIaui ; or, kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en

New Zealand and its Inhabitants,'^ p. Papua, p. 107.

NOTE OFFERINGS OF FIRST-FRUITS 2>77

the first-fruits of the paddy, along with live fowls and pigs, are offered
to the matmate. The viatmate are the spirits of their ancestors,
which are worshipped as guardian-spirits or household gods. They
are supposed to enter the house through an opening in the roof, and
to take up their abode temporarily in their skulls, or in images of
wood or ivory, in order to partake of the offerings and to help the
family. They also take the form of birds, pigs, crocodiles, turtles,
sharks, etc.^ In Amboina, after the rice or other harvest has been
gathered in, some of the new fruits are offered to the gods, and till
this is done, the priests may not eat of them. A portion of the new
rice, or whatever it may be, is boiled, and milk of the cocoa-nut is
poured on it, mixed with Indian saffron. It is then taken to the
place of sacrifice and offered to the god. Some people also pour out
oil before the deity ; and if any of the oil is left over, they take it
home as a holy and priceless treasure, wherewith they smear the
forehead and breast of sick people and whole people, in the firm
conviction that the oil confers all kinds of blessings.^ The Irayas
and Catalangans of Luzon, tribes of the Malay stock, but of mixed
blood, worship chiefly the souls of their ancestors under the name of
anitos, to whom they offer the first-fruits of the harvest. The a?iitos
are household deities ; some of them reside in pots in the corners of
the houses ; and miniature houses, standing near the dwelling-house,
are especially sacred to them.^

In certain tribes of Fiji "the first-fruits of the yam harvest are
presented to the ancestors in the Nanga [sacred stone enclosure] with
great ceremony, before the bulk of the crop is dug for the people's
use, and no man may taste of the new yams until the presentation
has been made. The yams thus offered are piled in the Great
Nanga, and are allowed to rot there. If any one were impiously
bold enough to appropriate them to his own use, he would be
smitten with madness. The mission teacher before mentioned told
me that when he visited the Nanga he saw among the weeds with
which it was overgrown numerous yam vines which had sprung up
out of the piles of decayed offerings. Great feasts are made at the
presentations of the first-fruits, which are times of public rejoicing,
and the Nanga itself is frequently spoken of as the Mbaki, or Har-

^ Riedel, op. cit. pp. 281, 296 sq. 3 c_ Semper, Die PJiilippinejt iind

2 Fr. Valentyn, Omi en nieuw Oost- Hire Bewohner, p. 56.
Indien. iii. 10.

378 OFFERINGS OF FIRST-FRUITS note

vest." ^ In other parts of Fiji the practice with regard to the first-
fruits seems to have been different, for we are told by another
observer that " the first-fruits of the yams, which are always pre-
sented at the principal temple of the district, become the property
of the priests, and form their revenue, although the pretence of their
being required for the use of the god is generally kept up."- In
Tana, one of the New Hebrides, the general name for gods appeared
to be areniha, which meant "a dead man." The spirits of departed
ancestors were among the gods of the people. Chiefs who reached
an advanced age were deified after their death, addressed by name,
and prayed to on various occasions. They were supposed to pre-
side especially over the growth of the yams and fruit-trees. The
first-fruits were presented to them. A little of the new fruit was laid
on a stone, or on a shelving branch of the tree, or on a rude tem-
porary altar, made of a few sticks lashed together with strips of bark,
in the form of a table, with its four feet stuck in the ground. All
being quiet, the chief acted as high priest, and prayed aloud as
follows : " Compassionate father ! here is some food for you ; eat it ;
be kind to us on account of it." Then all the people shouted. This
took place about noon, and afterwards the assembled people feasted
and danced till midnight or morning.^

In some of the Kingsmill Islands the god most commonly wor-
shipped was called Tubueriki. He was represented by a flat coral
stone, of irregular shape, about three feet long by eighteen inches
wide, set up on one end in the open air. Leaves of the cocoa-nut
palm were tied about it, considerably increasing its size and height.
The leaves were changed every month, that they might be always
fresh. The worship paid to the god consisted in repeating prayers
before the stone, and laying beside it a portion of the food prepared
by the people for their own use. This they did at their daily meals,
at festivals, and whenever they specially wished to propitiate the
favour of the god. The first-fruits of the season were always offered
to him. Every family of distinction had one of these stones
which was considered rather in the light of a family altar than as an
idol.*

1 Rev. Lorimer Fison, "TheNanga, a7nong the Islands of the Western Pacific,

or sacred stone enclosure, of Waini- p. 252. ^ Turner, Satnoa, p. 318 sq.
mala, ¥i]\,''^ Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xiv. ■* Horatio Hale, United States Ex-

27. ploring Expedition, Ethnology and

- J. E. 'Exs\dr\Q, Joitrtial of a Cruise Philology, p. 97.

NOTE OFFERINGS OF FIRS T-FR UITS 379

The following is a description of the festival of first-fruits as it
was celebrated in Tonga in the days when a European flag rarely
floated among the islands of the Pacific. " Inachi. This word means
literally a share or portion of any thing that is to be, or has been,
distributed out : but in the sense here mentioned it means that por-
tion of the fruits of the earth, and other eatables, which is offered to
the gods in the person of the divine chief Tooitonga, which allotment
is made once a year, just before the yams in general are arrived at a
state of maturity ; those which are used in this ceremony being
planted sooner than others, and, consequently, they are the first-fruits
of the yam season. The object of this offering is to insure the pro-
tection of the gods, that their favour may be extended to the welfare
of the nation generally, and in particular to the productions of the
earth, of which yams are the most important.

" The time for planting most kinds of yams is about the latter end
of July, but the species called caho-caho, which is always used in this
ceremony, is put in the ground about a month before, when, on each
plantation, there is a small piece of land chosen and fenced in, for
the purpose of growing a couple of yams of the above description.
As soon as they have arrived at a state of maturity, the Hoio [King]
sends a messenger to Tooitonga, stating that the yams for the Inachi
are fit to be taken up, and requesting that he would appoint a day
for the ceremony; he generally fixes on the tenth day afterwards,
reckoning the following day for the first. There are no particular
preparations made till the day before the ceremony ; at night, how-
ever, the sound of the conch is heard occasionally in different parts
of the islands, and as the day of the ceremony approaches, it becomes
more frequent, so that the people of almost every plantation sound
the conch three or four times, which, breaking in upon the silence of
the night, has a pleasing effect, particularly at Vavaoo, where the
number of woods and hills send back repeated echoes, adding greatly
to the effect. The day before the ceremony the yams are dug up,
and ornamented with a kind of ribbon prepared from the inner
membrane of the leaf of a species of pandanus, and dyed red. . . .

"The sun has scarcely set when the sound of the conch begins
again to echo through the island, increasing as the night advances.
At the Mooa [capital] and all the plantations the voices of men and
women are heard singing Nofo boa tegger gnaooe, booa gnaobe, Rest
thou, doing no work ; thou shalt not work. This increases till mid-
night, men generally singing the first part of the sentence, and the

38o OFFERINGS OF FIRST-FRUITS

women the last : it then subsides for three or four hours, and again
increases as the sun rises. Nobody, however, is seen stirring out in
the pubhc roads till about eight o'clock, when the people from all
quarters of the island are seen advancing towards the Mooa, and
canoes from all the other islands are landing their men ; so that all
the inhabitants of Tonga seem approaching by sea and land, singing
and sounding the conch. At the Mooa itself the universal bustle of
preparation is seen and heard ; and the different processions entering
from various quarters of men and women, all dressed up in new
gnatoos, ornamented with red ribbons and wreaths of flowers, and the
men armed with spears and clubs, betoken the importance of the
ceremony about to be performed. Each party brings in its yams in
a basket, which is carried in the arms with great care by the principal
vassal of the chief to whom the plantation may belong. The baskets
are deposited in the maldi^ (in the Mooa), and some of them begin
to employ themselves in slinging the yams, each upon the centre of a
pole about eight or nine feet long, and four inches diameter. The
proceedings are regulated by attending matabooles.^ The yams being
all slung, each pole is carried by two men upon their shoulders, one
walking before the other, and the yam hanging between them, orna-
mented with red ribbons. The procession begins to move towards
the grave of the last Tooitonga (which is generally in the neighbour-
hood, or the grave of one of his family will do), the men advancing
in a single line, every two bearing a yam, with a slow and measured
pace, sinking at every step, as if their burden were of immense
weight. In the meantime the chiefs and matabooles are seated in a
semicircle before the grave, with their heads bowed down, and their
hands clasped before them." The procession then marched round
the grave twice or thrice in a great circle, the conchs blowing and
the men singing. Next the yams, still suspended from the poles,
were deposited before the grave, and their bearers sat down beside
them. One of the matabooles of Tooitonga now addressed the gods
generally, and afterwards particularly, mentioning the late Tooitonga,
and the names of several others. He thanked them for their divine
bounty in favouring the land with the prospect of so good a harvest,
and prayed that their beneficence might be continued in future.

1 The maldi is "a piece of ground, are principally held." Mariner, Tonga
generally before a large house, or Islands, Vocabulary.
chief's grave, where public ceremonies - The matahoole is "a rank next

below chiefs or nobles." lb.

OFFERINGS OF FIRST-FRUITS 381

When he had finished, the men rose and resumed their loads, and
after parading two or three times round the grave, marched back to
the maldi, singing and blowing the conchs as before. The chiefs
and matabooks soon followed to the same place, where the yams had
been again deposited. Here the company sat down in a great circle,
presided over by Tooitonga. Then the other articles that formed
part of the Inachi were brought forward, consisting of dried fish,
mats, etc., which, with the yams, were divided into shares. About a
fourth was allotted to the gods, and appropriated by the priests;
about a half fell to the king; and the remainder belonged to
Tooitonga. The materials of the Itiachi having been carried away,
the company set themselves to drink cava^ and a mataboole addressed
them, saying that the gods would protect them, and grant them long
lives, if they continued to observe the religious ceremonies and
to pay respect to the chiefs.^

The Samoans used to present the first-fruits to the spirits {aiUis)
and chiefs.^ For example, a family whose god was in the form of an
eel presented the first-fruits of their taro plantations to the eel.^ In
Tahiti " the first fish taken periodically on their shores, together
with a number of kinds regarded as sacred, were conveyed to the
altar. The first-fruits of their orchards and gardens were also
taumaha, or offered, with a portion of their live stock, which con-
sisted of pigs, dogs, and fowls, as it was supposed death would be
inflicted on the owner or the occupant of the land from which the god
should not receive such acknowledgment." ^ In Huahine, one of the
Society Islands, the first-fruits were presented to the god Tani. A
poor person was expected to bring two of the earliest fruits gathered,
of whatever kind ; a raatira had to bring ten, and chiefs and princes
had to bring more, according to their rank and riches. They
brought the fruits to the temple, where they threw them down on the
ground, with the words, " Here, Tani, I have brought you something
to eat." ^ The chief gods of the Easter Islanders were Make-Make
and Haua. To these they offered the first of all the produce of the
ground.^ Amongst the Maoris the offering of the first-fruits of the

1 W. Mariner, Account of the Natives * Ellis, Polyjtesian Researches, i.
of the Tonga Islands (London, 1818), 350.

ii. 196-203. * Tyerman and Bennet, Journal of

2 Ch. Wilkes, Narrative of the United Voyages and Travels, i. 284.

States Exploring Expedition, \\. 133. ^ Geiseler, /?/« Oester - Insel i^^xXvci,

3 Turner, Samoa, p. 70 sq. 1883), p. 31.

382 OFFERINGS OF FIRST-FRUITS note

sweet potatoes to Pani, son of Rongo, the god of sweet potatoes, was
a solemn religious ceremony.^

It has been affirmed that the old Prussians offered the first-fruits
of their crops and of their fishing to the god Curcho, but doubt rests
on the statement.'^ The Romans sacrificed the first ears of corn to
Ceres, and the first of the new wine to Liber ; and until the priests
had offered these sacrifices, the people might not eat the new corn
nor drink the new wine.^

The chief solemnity of the Natchez, an Indian tribe on the Lower
Mississippi, was the Harvest Festival or the Festival of New Fire.
When the time for the festival drew near, a crier went through the
villages caUing upon the people to prepare new vessels and new
garments, to wash their houses, and to burn the old grain, the old
garments, and the old utensils in a common fire. He also pro-
claimed an amnesty to criminals. Next day he appeared again,
commanding the people to fast for three days, to abstain from all
pleasures, and to make use of the medicine of purification. There-
upon all the people took some drops extracted from a root which
they called the " root of blood." It was a kind of plantain and
distilled a red liquor which acted as a violent emetic. During their
three days' fast the people kept silence. At the end of it the crier
proclaimed that the festival would begin on the following day. So
next morning, as soon as it began to grow light in the sky, the people
streamed from all quarters towards the temple of the Sun. The temple
was a large building with two doors, one opening to the east, the other
to the west. On this morning the eastern door of the temple stood
open. Facing the eastern door was an altar, placed so as to catch
the first beams of the rising sun. An image of a chotichouacha
(a small marsupial) stood upon the altar ; on its right was an image
of a rattlesnake, on its left an image of a marmoset. Before these
images a fire of oak bark burned perpetually. Once a year only, on
the eve of the Harvest Festival, was the sacred flame suffered to die
out. To the right of the altar, on " this pious morn," stood the great
chief, who took his title and traced his descent from the Sun. To the

1 E. Tregear, " The Maoris of New pended to his edition of Dusburg's
Zealand," Joiirn. Anthrop. Inst. xix. Chi-onicou Pnissiae). Cp. W. Mann-
IIO. hardt, Die Kornddiiionen, p. 27.

2 Hartknoch, Alt iind neiiesPrettssen,

p. 161 ; id., Disscrtationes historicae ^ Festus, s.v. sacrima, p. 319, ed.

de variis rebus F}-ussicis, p. 163 (ap- Miiller ; Pliny, Nat. Hist, xviii. § 8.

OFFERINGS OF FIRST-FRUITS 383

left of the altar stood his wife. Round them were grouped, according
to their ranks, the war chiefs, the sachems, the heralds, and the young
braves. In front of the altar were piled bundles of dry reeds, stacked
in concentric rings.

The high priest, standing on the threshold of the temple, kept his
eyes fixed on the eastern horizon. Before presiding at the festival he
had to plunge thrice into the Mississippi. In his hands he held two
pieces of dry wood which he kept rubbing slowly against each other,
muttering magic words. At his side two acolytes held two cups filled
with a kind of black sherbet. All the women, their backs turned to
the east, each leaning with one hand on her rude mattock and
supporting her infant with the other, stood in a great semicircle at
the gate of the temple. Profound silence reigned throughout the
multitude while the priest watched attentively the growing light in
the east. As soon as the diffused light of dawn began to be shot
with beams of fire, he quickened the motion of the two pieces of
wood which he held in his hands ; and at the moment when the
upper edge of the sun's disc appeared above the horizon, fire flashed
from the wood and was caught in tinder. At the same instant the
women outside the temple faced round and held up their infants
and their mattocks to the rising sun.

The great chief and his wife now drank the black liquor. The
priests kindled the circle of dried reeds ; fire was set to the heap
of oak bark on the altar, and from this sacred flame all the hearths
of the village were rekindled. No sooner were the circles of reeds
consumed than the chiefs wife came forth from the temple and
placing herself at the head of the women marched in procession
to the harvest fields, whither the men were not allowed to follow
them. They went to gather the first sheaves of maize and returned
to the temple bearing them on their heads. Some of the sheaves
they presented to the high priest, who laid them on the altar.
Others they used to bake the unleavened bread which was to be
eaten in the evening. The eastern door of the sanctuary was now
closed, and the western door was opened.

When the day began to decline, the multitude assembled once
more at the temple, this time at its western gate, where they formed
a great crescent, with the horns turned toward the west. The
unleavened bread was held up and presented to the setting sun,
and a priest struck up a hymn in praise of his descending light.

384

OFFERINGS OF FIRST-FRUITS

When darkness had fallen the whole plain twinkled with fires, round
which the people feasted ; and the sounds of music and revelry
broke the silence of night.^

1 Chateaubriand, Voyage en Avieri-
que, pp. 130-136 (Michel Levy, Paris,
1870). Chateaubriand's description is
probably based on earlier accounts,
which I have been unable to trace.
Compare, however, Le Petit, "Relation
des Natchez," in Remeil de voiages au

A^ord, ix. 13 sq. (Amsterdam edition);
De Tonti, " Relation de la Louisiane
et du Mississippi," ib. v. 122 ; Char-
levoix, Histoi7-e de la Nouvelle France,
vi. 183 ; Lettres edijiantes et ciiriejises,
vii. 18 sq.

INDEX

Aachen, fire festival at, ii. 251
Aargau, trees planted at births in, ii.

330

Aberdeenshire, ceremony at the cutting
of the last sheaf in, i. 345

Abyssinia, rain - making on the out-
skirts of, i. 53

Abyssinian festivals, ii. 171

Acagchemen tribe, adoration of the
buzzard by the, ii. 90, 91

Adonis, myth and worship of, i. 279-
282, 296 ; connection with vegeta-
tion, i. 281 ; gardens of, i. 284-296 ;
rites of, similar to those of Osiris, i.
319, 320; probable origin of the cult
of, i. 363 ; lament of, i. 280, 399 ; as
a pig, ii. 49> 5°

Aegira, blood drunk at, before pro-
phesying, i. 34

Aethiopian kings confined to their
palaces, i. 164

Afghan Boundary Mission, reception
of the, by the natives, i. 155

Afghanistan, reception of strangers in,

Africa, weather kings common in, i.
44 ; reluctance to accept the crown
in some parts of West, i. 1 18, 1 19 ;
priestly kings on the west coast of, i.
112 ; human heart eaten in the Shire
Highlands of, ii. 89

Ague, cure for, ii. 153

Aht Indians, seclusion of girls amongst
the, ii. 229, 230

Ain, May-day customs in the Departe-
ment de 1', i. 88

Aino type of sacrament, ii. 134-136

Ainos, bear festival of the, ii. 101-105 ;
preparation for fishing, ii. 122 ; treat-
ment of the bear, ii. 132

Alaskan sable hunters, ii. 116

Alban hills, i. I ; mount, i. 2

Albania, Easter Eve custom in, i. 276 ;

VOL. II

ii. 181 ; scapegoat in, ii. 201, 202 ;
beating in, ii. 216
Alexandria, commemoration of the
death of Adonis and Aphrodite at,
i. 279, 280
Alfoers, function of their high priest
Leleen, i. 166 ; ceremony for restor-
ing the soul, i. 134, 135 ; priest's
hair uncut, i. 194; priest sows the
first rice seed and plucks the first ripe
rice, ii. 71 ; driving away the devil
by the, ii. 159
Algeria, midsummer fires in, ii. 266
Alligator, the man-eating, ii. 109
Alps, May-day custom in the, i. 104
Altisheim, harvest custom in, i. 337
Altmark, Whitsuntide customs in, i.

98 ; Easter bonfires, ii. 254
Amboina, soul -abstracting in, i. 139,
140 ; sprinkling the sick with spices
in, i. 154 ; hair burying in, i. 201 ;
disease boats in, ii. 188 ; strength
thought to be in the hair in, ii.
328; offerings of first-fruits in, ii.

377
Amenhotep IV and the sun -god, i.

314. 315 . .
America, belief in the resurrection of

the bufialo in the western prairies of,

ii. 123
Amnion, rage of the sun - god Ra

against, i. 315 ; rams held sacred by

the worshippers of, ii. 92, 93
Andamanese belief in the reflection as

the soul, i. 145
Anderida, wealds of Kent, Surrey, and

Sussex, remnants of the forest of, i.

57
Angel-man, beheading the, ii. 267
Angouleme, custom of burning a poplar

on .St. Peter's Day in, i. loi
Angoy, king of, must have no bodily

defects, i. 221

2 C

386

INDEX

Animal worship, two types of, ii. 133,
134 ; sacred carried in procession, ii.
139-147 ; employed as a scapegoat,
ii. 189-191, 194, 195; eaten to obtain
its quality, ii. 86, 87 ; spared by
savages from fear of the vengeance of
other animals of the same kind, ii.
107 -1 10; respect shown by the
savage for the animal he kills, ii.
1 10-132 ; Savage belief in the resur-
rection of the, ii. 122-125 ; burnt as
representative of the spirit of vegeta-
tion, ii. 282-284

Annamites, soul superstition amongst
the, i. 132

Antaymour kings responsible for the
general welfare, i. 46

Antrim, harvest custom in, i. 339

Apache Indians, rain-making by the,

i. 15

Apalai Indians, ceremony on the arrival

of a stranger by the, i. 153, 154
Aphrodite, i. 279
Apis the sacred Egyptian bull drowned,

ii. 61 sq.
Apollo Diradiotes, blood of sacrificial

lamb drunk in the temple of, i. 34
Apple-tree, superstition with regard to

the, by barren women, i. 73
Arabia, belief concerning a man's

shadow in, i. 143
Arabian stories, the external soul in, ii.

318, 319
Arabic belief in the properties of lion's

fat, ii. 86
Arabs, rain-making by the heathen, i. 20
Arcadia, rain-charm in, i. 21 ; beating

the scapegoat, ii. 214
Archon of Plataeae, the, may not touch

iron, i. 173
Arden, forest of, i. 57
Argive tradition concerning Dionysus,

i. 324, 325
Ariadne, marriage of, i. 104
Aricia, "there are many Manii at,"

explanation of the proverb, ii. 82, 83
Arician Grove, the, i. 1-6 ; ritual, ii.

63, 64 ; harvest celebration, ii. 67 ;

Manius the traditional founder of

the, ii. 84 ; sacrament, ii. 83, 84
Aru Islands, soul superstition in the, i.

125, 126 ; custom after a death in

the, i. 147 ; hair cutting, i. 201 ;

dog's flesh eaten, ii. 87
Arval Brothers, priestly college of the,

and the sacred grove, i. 65 ; sacred

grove of the, and iron, i. 172
Aryans, the, tree worshippers, i. 56-59,

99 ; totemism and the, ii. 38 ; oak

the sacred tree of the, ii. 291 ; primi-
tive worship, ii. 370

Ascension Day custom, i. 265
Aschbach, harvest custom in, i. 368
Ash Wednesday customs, i. 254-257 ;

ii. 29, 48, 251
Ashantee, royal blood not shed in, i.

181 ; harvest festival in, ii. 374
Asia Minor, Pontiffs of, i. 7, 8
Athene, relation of the goat to, ii.

Athens, annual marriage of the queen
to Dionysus at, i. 103, 104 ; rites of
Adonis observed in, i. 284, 285 ;
scapegoats in, ii. 212 ; ritual at the
sacrifice of the ox in, ii. 38, 39, 41

Attis, myth and festival of, i. 296-298 ;
ii. 50 ; a tree-spirit or corn-spirit, i.
298-300 ; probability that the high
priest of, was slain in the character
of the god, i. 300 ; probable origin
of the cult of, i. 363 ; relation to
Lityerses, i. 396, 397 ; as a pig, ii.

49' 50
Australia, rain-making in, i. 20, 21 ;
ceremony on entering strange terri-
tory by the Australians, i. 156 ; seclu-
sion of women in, i. 170; blood may
not be spilt on the ground in some
parts of, i. 181, 182 ; hair burning
after child-birth in, i. 206 ; totemism,

ii- 133. 334-336
Australian blacks' charm for staying the
sun, i. 25 ; attack the dust columns
of red sand, i. 29, 30 ; fear of
women's blood, i. 185, 186 ; ii. 238 ;
remedy for toothache, ii. 149 ; annual
expulsion of ghosts, ii. 163

Kamilaroi, cannibalism by the,

ii. 88

medicine man and recall of the

soul, i. 131, 132

Wotjobaluk, rain-making by the,

i- "4

Austria, charm for lulling the wind in,

i. 28 ; old peasant belief in the souls

of trees in, i. 61
Auxerre, reaping custom at, i. 335
Axim, annual expulsion of devils at, ii.

170
Aymara Indians, scapegoat used by

the, in times of plague, ii. 191
Aztecs, the, and the reflection-soul, i.

145 ; aversion to wine, i. 185

Baba, a name given to the last sheaf,

i- 339, 340
Babar Islands, restoration of the soul
in the, i. 137 ; the soul believed to
be in the shadow, i. 142
Babylon, Sacaea festival at, i. 226
Babylonian legend concerning the god-
dess Istar, i. 287

INDEX

387

Baffin Land, expulsion of evil by the
Eskimo of, ii. 165

Bagota, restrictions on the heir to the
throne in, ii. 225

Balder killed by the mistletoe, ii. 244
sq. ; the oak, ii. 295 ; life of, in the
mistletoe, ii. 359-362

Balder's bale-fires, ii. 289 sq.

Bali, mice and the - rice fields of the
island of, ii. 131 ; periodic expulsion
of devils, ii. 174, 175; custom at a
birth, ii. 329

Balquhidder, harvest custom in, i. 344

Banjar kings held responsible for the
weather, i. 46, 47

Banks Islanders, the tamaniu of the,
ii. 331, 332

Baranton, fountain of, i. 15

Barcelona, Mid-Lent custom in, i. 262

Bari tribe, rain kings of the, i. 52, 53

Barotse, the chief a demigod in, i. 46

Barren women's superstition regarding
the apple-tree, i. 73

Bassam, Great, sacrifice of oxen at, ii.
41, 42 ; ceremony of driving out the
evil spirit, ii. 161, 162

Basutos, the, and the reflection-soul, i.
145 ; cannibalism by the, ii. 89 ;
offerings of first-fruits, ii. 373

Bat, the, ii. 334-337

Battambang, rain-charm in, i. 19

Battas, the, fighting the wind, i. 28, 29 ;
refuse to fell trees, i. 64, 65 ; soul
superstition, i. 124, 125, 135, 136 ;
soul straying, i. 160 ; ceremony of
making the curse to fly away by the,
ii. 150, 151 ; totemism amongst the,
ii. 340, 341 ; belief in plurality of
souls, ii. 341

Bavaria, May custom in, i. 84 ; Whit-
suntide representative of the tree-
spirit in, i. 242 ; harvest custom in,
i. 342 ; ii. 27, 28 ; cure for fever, ii.
153; Easter bonfires in, ii. 254 ; mid-
summer bonfires in, ii. 278

Bear, Shrovetide, i. 254, 255 ; sacrifice
of the, ii. 99 - 108 ; ceremony at
killing a, ii. 111-113, 115; ceremony
before a bear-hunt, ii. 112, 113

Bears, dead, treated with respect, ii.
111-113

Beasts, divine, held responsible for the
course of nature, i. 48

Beating as a ceremonial purification, ii.
213-217, 232-234

Beauce, straw man in, ii. 40

Beavers, superstition about killing, ii,
116

Bechuanaland, rain-charm in, i. 18; sun
superstition in, i. 23 ; hack-thorn
held sacred in, i. 69 ; purification

after travel, i. 157 ; crocodile super-
stition in, ii. 55, 56 ; transference of

ills in, ii. 149
Bedouins, pursuing the wind, i. 29
Belfast, harvest custom at, i. 336, 337
Belgium, procession with wicker giant

in, ii. 281
Belli-Paaro, ceremony of, in Quoja, ii.

347, 348
Beltane fires, ii. 254-258
Bengal, Gardens of Adonis in, i. 2S8,

289
Bernkastel, reaping custom in, ii. 15
Berry, belief regarding the birth of the

corn-spirit in, ii. 23 ; harvest custom,

ii. 26
Bhagats, mock human sacrifices by the,

i. 252, 253
Bhotan, man worshippers in, i. 42
Biajas of Borneo, expulsion of diseases

to sea by the, ii. 192
Bidasari, ii. 325 sq,
Bilaspur, custom at, on the death of a

Rajah, v 232
Birch-tree dressed in women's clothes

in Russia at Whitsuntide, i. 77
Births, trees planted at, ii. 229, 230
Bison, resurrection of the, ii. 122, 123
Bithynia, lament by the reapers in, i.

365
Black Lake, i. 15

Blankenfelde, harvest custom in, i. 370
Bleeding trees, i. 61
Blekinge, midsummer ceremonies in, i.

292
Blood, the soul thought to be in the,

i. 178, 179; not eaten, ib.; royal

blood not spilt upon the ground, i.

179-183; ill effect of seeing, i.

185, 186 ; dread of contact with, i.

185-187 ; primitive dread of men-

struous, ii. 238-241
Blood-drinking, inspiration by, i. 34, 35
Boba, a name given to the last sheaf, i.

340, 341
Boeotians of Plataea, festival of the, i.

100-103
Boeroe, ceremony at the rice harvest in,

ii. 71
Bohemian midsummer custom, i. 79 ;

ii. 259 ; Mid - Lent custom, i. 82 ;

Whit Monday custom, i. 91, 244-247 ;

ceremony of carrying out Death, i.

258-260; superstition regarding death,

i. 260 ; ceremony of bringing back

summer, i. 263 ; harvest custom, i.

340 ; white mice spared in Bohemia,

ii. 131, 132 ; superstition held by

poachers in Bohemia, ii. 288
Bohmer Wald Mountains, custom of

the reapers in the, ii. 15

388

INDEX

Bolang Mongondo, recapture of the

soul in, i. 131 ; preservation of cut

hair, i. 203 ; ceremony at rice harvest

in, ii. 71, 72
Bombay, soul superstition in, i. 127
Bones of animals not broken by savages,

ii. 124
Boni, king of, and his courtiers, i. 222,

223
Booandik tribe superstition concerning

the blood of women, i. 186
Book of the Dead, i. 312
Bormus, the name given to the lament

of the Bithynian reapers, i. 365, 398
Borneo, custom in, regarding infested

persons, i. 154
Bouphonia, the, ii. 38-41
Brabant, North, Whitsuntide custom

in, i. 88
Brahman soul story, i. 128, 129; sin

eaters, ii. 156
Brahmans, temple of the, i. 230 ;

transference of sins by the, ii. 200
Brandy, North American Indian theory

about, ii. 87
Brazilian Indians, self-beating by the,

ii. 215, 216 ; treatment of girls at the

age of puberty by the, ii. 231, 232
Bresse, May customs in, i. 98 ; cere-
mony regarding the last sheaf, i. 408
Brest, fire festival at, ii. 261
Breton peasant and the wind, i. 30
Brian5on, May-day in the neighbour-
hood of, i. 95 ; harvest ceremony at,

ii. II
Bride, a name given to the binder of

the last sheaf, i. 345
Brie, May-day custom in, i. 84 ; harvest

custom in, i. 370, 375 ; burning of

mock giant in, ii. 282
Britanny, reaping custom in, i. 335,

336 ; midsummer fires in, ii. 261
British Columbia, fish ceremony by the

Indians of, ii. 121
Bruck, harvest custom in, i. 333, 334
Briid's bed in the Highlands, i. 97
Brunnen, Twelfth Night custom at, ii.

182
Brunswick, Whitsuntide customs in, i.

90
Buddhist animism, i. 59

Tartar worship, i. 42, 43

Buffalo, belief in the resurrection of the,

ii. 123 ; held sacred by the Todas, ii.

136, 137

bull, ii. 19

Bulgarian rain -charm, i. 16; custom

at the laying of a foundation stone, i.

144 ; harvest custom, i. 341
Bull, Dionysus as a, i. 325, 326 ; ii.

37-44 ; the corn-spirit as a, ii. 19-24 ;

Osiris and the, ii. 59-61 ; sacred, ii.

60 ; as a scapegoat, ii. 200, 201
Burghers, first seed sowing and reaping

amongst the, ii. 72 ; transference of

sins by the, ii. 151, 152
Burgimdian kings deposed in times of

scarcity, i. 47
Burma, mode of executing princes of

the blood in, i. 180; head-washing

in, i. 188, 189 ; mock burial in time

of sickness in, ii. 84 ; ceremony of

driving away cholera in, ii. 161 ;

offering of first-fruits in, ii. 374
Burmese and the soul, i. 130
Burnt sacrifices among the Celts, ii.

278-280
Buro Islands, dog's flesh eaten in the,

ii. 87 ; disease boats, ii. 187
Burying alive, i. 217
Busiris, legend of, i. 400, 401
Butterfly, the Samoans and the, ii. 56
Buzzard, sacrifice of the sacred, ii. 90-

92
Byblus, lamentation for the death of

Adonis at, i. 280

Calabria, expulsion of witches in, ii.

181
Calcutta, iron-charm used in, i. 176
Calf, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 19-24
Calicut, kings killed at the expiry of

twelve years in, i. 224, 225
Californian Indians, their opinion of the

dust columns, i. 30
sacrifice of the buzzard, ii. 90,

91

Caligula, i. 4

Callander, Beltane fires in, ii. 254,

Cambodia, search for inspired man in
time of epidemic in, i. 36 ; kings of
fire and water in, i. 53-56 ; its sacred
tree, i. 67; kings of, i. 118; touch-
ing the king's body in, i. 172 ; man's
head not touched in, i. 189; ceremony
at the cutting of the king's hair in, i.
197 ; temporary kings of, i. 228 ; the
Stiens of Cambodia and the killing
of animals, ii. 115 ; expulsion of evil
spirits, etc. in, ii. 178, 184; seclusion
of girls in, ii. 235

Cambridgeshire, harvest custom in, i.

341, 342

Cameroons, the life of a person sup-
posed to be bound up with that of a
tree by the, ii. 329

Canadian Indians, detention of the
soul amongst the, i. 139 ; beaver
hunting by the, ii. 1 16, 1 17

Candlemas Day customs, i. 97 ; ii. 29,
48

INDEX

389

Canelos Indians, their belief of the

soul in the portrait, i. 148
Cannibalism, ii. 88, 89
Capital offences, i. 162, 190
Carcassonne, hunting the wren in, ii.

143. 144 . .

Caribs, the, belief in the plurality of

souls, ii. 339
Carinthia, ceremonies on St. George's

Day in, i. 84, 85 ; ceremony at the

installation of a prince of, i. 232,

Carmona, custom in, ii. 184, 185
Carnival, ceremony of burying the,

i. 244, 252-257, 270, 272
Carnival Fool, i. 256
Carpathus islanders, reluctance to have

their likenesses drawn, i. 148, 149 ;

transference of sickness by the, ii. 154
Cashmere stories, the external soul in,

ii. 302-304
Cat, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 11, 12;

burnt, ii. 283
Caterpillars, method of freeing a garden

from, ii. 130
Cattle, trees and, i. 72 sq. ; driven

through the fire, ii. 273
Cedar, the sacred, of Gilgit, i. 69
Celebes, the, and the soul, i. 123-125 ;

custom regarding infested persons, i.

154; superstition regarding the

knife, i. 177 ; blood not spilt on the

ground by the, i. 182 ; custom at a

birth, ii. 329 ; harvest festival, ii. 376
Celtic human sacrifices, ii. 278-284 ;

the external soul in Celtic stories, ii.

313, 314

Ceram, rain -making in, i. 13 ; super-
stition regarding the blood of women
in, i. 187 ; hair cutting superstition in,
i. 194 ; ii. 328 ; disease boats in, ii.
185, 186 ; ceremony in epidemic, ii.
187 ; seclusion of girls in, ii. 229 ;
initiation ceremony, ii. 354-356

Chaeronea, human scapegoat in, ii. 210,
211

Chambery, threshing ceremony at, ii.

23
Chedooba, ceremony on felling a tree

in the island of, i. 64
Cheremiss, expulsion of Satan by the,

ii. 180, 181
Cherokee Indians, purification festival

of the, ii. 166, 167
Chester, procession of mock giant at,

ii. 281
Chibchas, weather kings of the, i. 44
Children sacrificed by their parents, i.

235-237
Chile, preservation of cut hair in, i. 204
China, emperors of, offer public sacri-

fices, i. 8 ; rain-charm in, i. 18 ; em-
peror held responsible for drought,
etc. , i. 49 ; abstention from knives
after a death in, i. 177 ; ceremony to
welcome the return of spring in, ii. 42,
43 ; special seat of courage amongst
the Chinese, ii. 87 ; cannibalism in, ii.
89 ; human scapegoat in, ii. 191 ;
festival of the aboriginal tribes of, ii.

193
Chios, rites of Dionysus at, i. 329
Chippeways, seclusion of women

amongst the, ii. 239, 240
Chiriguanos, seclusion of girls by the,

ii. 231
Chitome, the, i. 113-I15; not allowed

to die a natural death, i. 217,

218
Cholera, driving away, ii. 161, 189, 191
Chontal Indians, the nagual amongst

the, ii. 333
Christian, Captain, shooting of, i. 181
Christmas customs, i. 60, 334 ; ii. 6, 7,

29-31, 141, 142, 144
Chrudim, ceremony of carrying out

Death at, i. 259, 260
Chuwash, the, test of a suitable sacri-
ficial victim, i. 36
Circassians, the pear-tree believed to

be the protector of cattle by the, i.

73 . .
Circumcision, i. 17 1

Clucking-hen, ii. 8

Cobern, fire festival at, ii. 250

Cobra Capella, sacrifice of the, ii. 94,

95

Cock, the corn-spirit as a, n. 7- 10
Columbia River, Indians of the, and

the salmon, ii. 121, 122
Comanches, rain-charm used by the, i.

18
Compitalia, festival of the, ii. 83
Congo belief in the souls of trees, i. 60;

the Chitome in the kingdom of, i.

113; negroes and soul selling, i.

1 39 ; initiatory rites in the valley of

the, ii. 345, 346
Coorg rice -harvest ceremonies, ii. 72,

73
Corea, kings of, confined to their
palaces, i. 164 ; may not be touched,
i. 172; tigers' bones valuable in, ii.

87
Corn drenched as a rain-charm, i. 286 ;

double personification of the, i. 358,

359 ; reaper, binder, or thresher wrapt

up in corn, i. 370, 371

baby, ii. 23

goat, ii. 13, 14

mother, i. 232, 233 ; a prototype

of Demeter, i. 356

390

INDEX

Corn queen, i. 341

spirit, the, as the grandmother,

etc., i. 336-343; as youthful, i. 343-
346 ; death of, i. 363, 364 ; binding
persons in sheaves as representatives
of the, i. 367-372 ; pretence of kill-
ing the, or its representative, i. 372-
380 ; represented by a stranger, i.
375-3S0 ; represented by a human
victim, i. 390-395 ; how the repre-
sentative is chosen, i. 393 ; as an
animal, ii. 1-67; as acock, ii. 7-10;
as a hare, ii. 11 ; as a cat, ii. 11, 12 ;
as a goat, ii. 12-17; ^s a bull, ii.
19-24 ; as a calf, ib. ; as a cowf, ii.
20, 21 ; as. a mare, ii. 24, 25 ; as a
• horse, ii. 26 ; as a pig, ii. 26-31 ;
parallelism between the anthropo-
morphic and theriomorphic concep-
tions of the, ii. 32 ; death of the, ii.
33 ; suggested explanation of the
embodiment of the, in animal form,
ii. 34 ; the ox as the embodiment of
the, ii. 41-43

wolf, ii. 3-7, 30

woman, i. 342, 343

Cornwall, May-day custom in, i. 75 ;
midsummer bonfires in, i. loi ; ii.
262 ; reaping cries in, i. 407
Corsica, midsummer fires in, ii. 266
Cough, cure for, ii. 154
Court ceremonies, i. 22, 23 ; ii. 88
Cow, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 20, 21 ;
sacred, ii. 61 ; man in cow's hide, ii.
145, 146 ; cow as a scapegoat, ii.
200, 201
Cracow, harvest customs in, i. 340
Crannon, rain-charm at, i. 21
Creek Indians, festival of the first-
fruits amongst the, ii. 75-78 ; opinions
held regarding the properties of vari-
ous foods amongst the, ii. 85, 86 ; se-
clusion of women by the, ii. 239
Crete, sacrifices in, i. 173 ; festival of
Dionysus in, i. 324 ; worship of
Demeter in, i. 331
Croatia, beating in, ii. 216
Crocodiles spared from fear of the
vengeance of other crocodiles, ii. 109
Crops, kings and priests punished for
the failure of the, i. 46-48 ; human
sacrifices for the, i. 383, 384 ; cere-
monies at the eating of the new, ii.
69, 71 ; sacramental eating of the
new, ii. 68-77
Crying the Neck, i. 405-408
Curka Coles of India, their belief that
the tops ot trees are inhabited, i.

Curse, ceremony of making the curse
to fly away, ii. 150, 151

Cyzicus, construction of the council
chamber of, i. 174

Dacotas and the resurrection of the

dog, ii. 123
Daedala, festival of the, i. IOO-103
Dahomey, king of, a capital offence to

see him eat, i. 162
Damaras, custom of the, after travel, i.

158 ; blood of cattle not shed by the,

i. 182
Danae, ii. 237
Danger Islanders, soul snare used by

the, i. 138, 139
Danzig, burying of cut hair in, i. 202 ;

reaping custom, i. 333 ; harvest

ceremony, i. 367, 368
Dards, the, rain-charm, i. 19
Darfur, veiling the sultan of, i. 162 ;

the sultans and their courtiers, i.

222 ; the liver thought to be the

seat of the soul in, ii. 88
Darowen, midsummer bonfires at, ii. 262
Dead Sunday, i. 254, 260
Death, preference for a violent, i. 216,

217 ; superstition concerning, i. 260 ;

"carrying out," i. 257-261, 264-271 ;

ii. 207 ; driving out, i. 258, 259, 272,

276; in the custom of "carrying

out " Death is probably a divine

scapegoat, ii. 206-208 ; ceremonies at

the burying of, ii. 250 ; effigy of, i.

257 sq.
Debden, May Day custom in, i. 76
Deer, regard for, ii. 1 17, 118
Deities, reduplication of, i. 360-362
Demeter, the corn mother, i. 331, 332 ;

festivals of, ii. 44-47 ; as a pig, ii. 44-

49 ; legend of the Phigalian, ii. 49 ;

representation of the black, ii. 49 ;

and Proserpine, myth of, i. 330, 331 ;

probable origin of, i. 355 sq. ; proto-
types of, i. 356, 357_
Demons, the soul carried off by, i. 132-

Denderah, tree of Osiris at, i. 308
Denmark Christmas customs, ii. 29,

30 ; midsummer bonfires, ii. 289
Devils, ceremony at the expulsion of,

ii. 151, 158, 159-162, 170-185, 192,

193, 203 ; represented by men and

expelled, ii. 183-185
Devonshire reaping cries, i. 405, 406 ;

rain-charm, i. 408 ; cure for cough,

ii. 154
Diana, rule of the priesthood of, i. 2, 3,

6 ; ceremonies at the festival of, i.

5 ; Arician Grove said to be first

consecrated to her by Manius Egeri-

us, i. 5 ; a tree goddess, i. 105
Diana's mirror, i. i

INDEX

391

Dieyerie of South Australia, rain-mak-
ing by the, i. 20 ; tree superstition
amongst the, i. 62

Dingelstedt, harvest custom at, i. 371

Dionysus, marriage of, i. 104 ; titles of,
i. 320, 321 ; myth of, i. 322-325 ;
rites of, i. 324, 329 ; ii. 43-46, 90 ;
rites of, similar to those of Osiris, i.
319, 320; as an animal, i. 325-327,
ii. 34-38 ; association of, with Demeter
and Proserpine, ii. 37

Diseases sent away in boats, ii. 185-
189, 192 sq.

Divine beasts, i. 48

king, dependence of nature upon

the, i. 109

kings, i. 49 ; care taken of, i. 115 ;

cease to govern, i. 118, 119

kings and priests, burdensome

observances placed upon, i. 110-I18 ;
effects of these burdens, i. 1 18-120

Man as scapegoat, ii. 201, 205

persons, seclusion of, ii. 242, 243

spirit, transmigration of, i. 42-44

Divining rods made from the mistletoe,

Dog, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 3-7 ; the
flesh of the, eaten, ii. 87 ; resurrection
of the, ii. 123 ; used as a scapegoat, ii.

194. 195
Domalde, King of Sweden, sacrificed,

'• 47

Douai, annual procession at, ii. 280

Dreams, festival of, ii. 165, 166

Druids, oak-worship of the, i. 58

Dublin, May Day custom in, i. lOl

Duk-duk, the, ii. 352 sq.

Duke of York Island, fishing ceremony
by the natives of, ii. 120

Dulyn, i. 15

Dunkirk, annual procession at, ii. 280,28 1

Dust columns, i. 30

Dutch criminals, cutting the hair of, to
enforce confession, ii. 328

Dyaks, belief in the souls of trees
amongst the, i. 59, 60 ; abduction of
the soul, i. 132, 133 ; restoration of
the soul, i. 138 ; harvest custom, i. 68,
69, 353, 354 ; the Dyaks and bad
omens, ii. 151 ; custom in epidemic,
ii. 84 ; may not eat venison, ii. 86,
87 ; spare the crocodile, ii. 109 ;
Dyaks and the palm-tree, ii. 329 ;
festival of first-fruits, ii. 376

East Indian Islands, supposed cure
for epilepsy in the, ii. 148, 149

Easter customs, i. 272, 276, 334 ; ii. 29,
181, 216, 217

fires, ii. 251, 252

Islanders, blood of an animal

not shed by the, i. 182, 183 ; offer-
ings of first fruits, ii. 381
Eating animals to get their qualities, ii.
85-89

the god, ii. 67-90

and drinking, precautions taken

at, i. 160-162
Edersleben, midsummer fire festival in,

ii. 262
Efugaos, cannibalism by the, ii. 88
Egeria, i. 5

Eg}^pt, beasts responsible for the course
of nature in Upper, i. 48 ; Egyptian
kings deified, i. 49, 50 ; Egyptian
kings blamed for failure of crops, i.
50 ; ancient Eg)-ptian kings did not
drink wine, i. 184, 185 ; temporaiy
rulers in Upper Eg)-pt, i. 231 ; cus-
tom of burning red-haired men by the
ancient Egyptians, i. 307 ; religion of
ancient Eg}-pt, i. 313 ; Egyptians
and the pig, ii. 52, 53, 56, 57 ; the
bulls Apis and Mnevis worshipped,
ii. 60 ; sacred cattle in Eg}-pt, ii. 60,
61 ; sacrifice of the ram in, ii. 92, 93 ;
Egyptian type of sacrament, ii. 134-
136 ; Egj-ptian scapegoat, ii. 200 ;
the external soul in Egyptian story,
ii. 315-318
Eifel mountains, fire festival in the, ii.
247, 248 ; harvest omens in the, ii.
271
Eisenach, ceremony of bringing back
summer in, i. 263 ; ceremony of
carrying out death in, ib.
Elan, regard for the, ii. 117, 118
Elephant, ceremony at the killing of an,

ii. 113-115
Eleusis, mysteries of, ii. 37
Elk, regard for the, ii. 117, 118
Ellwangen, harvest ceremony in, ii. 17
Emin Pasha's reception in a Central

African village, i. 155
Emu wren, ii. 336, 337
Encounter Bay tribe, their dread of

women's blood, i. 186
English tradition concerning the killing

of the wren, ii. 140, 141
Entlebuch, human scapegoat in, ii. 199
Entraigues, hunting the wren in, ii. 144
Epidemic, ceremony in time of, i. 36 ;

ii. 84, 187-189
Epilepsy, supposed cure for, ii. 14S, 149
Erfurt, harvest custom in, i. 336
Ertingen, midsummer custom in, i. 89
Erzgebirge, Shrovetide custom in the, i.

244
Eskimos, charm for lulling the wind,
i. 28 ; Eskimos and the soul, i. 122 ;
reception of strangers, i. 155 ; Es-
kimo women, i. 170

392

INDEX

Essex, hunting the wren in, ii. 143

Esthonian superstition regarding the
welfare of cattle, i. 72 sq. ; blood not
tasted by the Esthonians, i. 178, 179 ;
belief concerning women's blood, i.
187 ; preservation of the parings of
nails by the Esthonians, i. 204 ;
carrying out the effigy of Death, i.
270 ; ceremony at the eating of the
new corn, ii. 69, 70 ; dread of the
weevil by the Esthonian peasants, ii.
129, 130

Ethiopian kings and their courtiers, i.
222

Etruscan wizards, i. 22

European rain-charm, i. 18 ; forests, i.
57 ; fire festivals, ii. 246-285

Evils, expulsion of, ii. 145 Sij. ; occa-
sional, ii. 158-162 ; periodic, ii. 162-
182 ; two kinds of expulsion of evils,
the direct or immediate, and the in-
direct or mediate, ii. 158; general
observations on, ii. 202-206 ; trans-
ference of, ii. 145 sq.

Fauns, representation of the, ii. 35 ;
the Fauns wood and corn-spirits, ii.

35, 36

Feilenhof, the wolf a corn-spirit in, ii. 3

Feloupes of Senegambia, charm for
rain-making, i. 18

Fern seed, midsummer, ii. 365, 366

Fernando Po, restrictions on the food
of the king of, i. 208

Fever, cure for, ii. 152, 153

Fida, no one to drink out of the king's
glass in, i. 166

Field of Mars, chariot race on the, ii.
64-66

Fiji, charm used for staying the sun in,
i. 24 ; gods of, i. 39 ; soul extraction
in, i. 138 ; belief in two souls in, i.
145 ; eating in the presence of sus-
pected persons avoided in, i. 160 ;
self-immolation at old age in, i. 216 ;
expulsion of devils in, ii. 175, 176 ;
initiatory rites in, ii. 344, 345 ; offer-
ings of first-fruits in, ii. 377, 378

Finland, wind selling in, i. 27 ; cattle
protected by the wood god in, i. 105,
106 ; ceremony at the killing of a
bear in, ii. 112

Fire festivals, human sacrifices offered
at, i. 251

festivals in Europe, ii. 246-285 ;

they were charms to make the sun
shine, ii. 267, 274

kings, i. 53-56

sacred, made by the friction of

wood, ii. 269 ; made with oak wood,
ii. 292, 293

Fire spirit, expulsion of the, ii. 178

Firstborn sacrificed, i. 236, 237

First-fruits, festival of the, ii. 75-78 ;
.offerings of, ii. 373-384

Fish, respect shown by savages to, ii.
1 18-122; fish preachers, ii. 119, 120

Fladda's chapel and wind-making, i.
26, 27

Flamen Diahs, rules of life, i. I17 ; not
allowed to walk under a trellised
vine, i. 183, 184; cuttings from the
hair and nails buried, i. 200 ; restric-
tion on the food of the, i. 207

Virbialis, i. 6

Flaminica, rules of life for the, i. 117,
118

Flanders, midsummer bonfires in, ii.
267 ; Flemish cure for ague, ii. 153

Flax-pullers, custom of the, i. 375

Florence, "sawing the old woman " in,
i. 261

Florida, sacrifice of the firstborn by the
Indians of, i. 236, 237

Folk tales, resurrection in, ii. 125

Food, unconsumed, buried, i. 166 ;
prohibited food, i. 207, 208 ; strong
food, ii. 85

Forests, Europe covered with, in pre-
historic times, i. 56

Fors, the, of Central Africa, preserva-
tion of nail parings by the, i. 204, 205

Forsaken sleeper, i. 96

Foulahs of Senegambia spare the croco-
dile, ii. no

France, harvest customs in the north-
east of, ii. 4

Franche Comte, harvest customs in, ii. 1 7

Frankish kings not allowed to cut their
hair, i. 193

Friedingen, harvest custom in, ii. 27

Friesland, harvest customs in East, ii. 8

Frog-flayer, i. 92

Funeral custom, i. 129, 130

Fiirstenwalde, harvest ceremonies in,
ii. 7

Gablingen, harvest customs in, ii. 13

Galela, ceremony at the initiation of
boys amongst the, ii. 353

Galicia, harvest customs in, ii. 8

Gall-bladder the special seat of courage
amongst the Chinese, ii. 87

Gareloch, Dumbartonshire, harvest cus-
toms on some farms on the, i. 345

Garos, rain-charm used by the, i. 18

Georgia, rain-charm in, i. 17

Germany — German peasants and a
whirlwind, i. 30 ; sacred groves
common amongst the ancient Ger-
mans, i. 58 ; ceremony on felling a
tree, i. 64 ; rain-charm, i. 93 ; custom

INDEX

393

after a death, i. 147 ; superstition re-
garding the knife, i. 177; superstition
concerning hair cutting, i. 196, 199 ;
harvest custom, i. 337, 345, 374, 375 ;
ii. 9 ; harvest cries, i. 408, 409 ; way
to free a garden from caterpillars, ii.
130; beating as a charm, ii. 216,
217 ; oak the sacred tree, ii. 291 ;
oak log burnt on Midsummer Day, ii.
294 ; the external soul in German
stories, ii. 310-312

Gervasius, rain spring mentioned by,
i. 19

Ghosts, the soul carried off by, i. 129-
132 ; annual expulsion of the ghosts
of the dead, ii. 163

Giant, sham, procession and burning of
the, ii. 280-282

Gilgit, ceremony on felling a tree in,
i. 65 ; sacred cedar of, i. 69 sq. ; har-
vest custom at, ii. 73, 74

Gilyak sacrifice of the bear, ii. 105- 107

Girls secluded at puberty, ii. 225-247 ;
reason for, ii. 238-242 ; not allowed
to touch the ground or see the sun, ii.
225-253 ; traces in folk tales of the
rule which forbids girls at puberty to
see the sun, ii. 235-237

Goat, the, sacred, ii. 56, 63 ; Diony-
sus as a, i. 326-328 ; ii. 34-37 ; the
corn-spirit as a, ii. 12-19

God, killing the, i. 213 ; ii. 218-222 ;
killing a god in animal Ibrm, i. 327,
328 ; motives for killing the god, i.
214-216

God's Mouth, the name of the supreme
ruler of the old Prussians, i. 223

Gods die and are buried, i. 213, 214

incarnate, slain, ii. 218-222

Gold Coast, sacrifices of the negroes of
the, i. 67 ; their superstition witir re-
gard to iron, i. 173

Golden Bough, Turner's picture of the,
i. I ; legend of the, i. 4 ; the repre-
sentative of the tree-spirit, i. 107 ;
between heaven and earth, ii. 223-
243 ; what was it, ii. 224 ; the Golden
Bough is the mistletoe, ii. 363, 368 ;
why was the mistletoe called the
Golden Bough, ii. 365 ; the Golden
Bough an emanation of the sun's fire,
ii. 367

Goldi sacrifice of the bear, ii. 107, 108

Gommern, harvest festival at, i. 370

Gonds, human sacrifices by the, i. 252,
384 ; mock-Iiuman sacrifices, i. 252 ;
scapegoats amongst the, ii. 200

Good Friday custom, ii. 216

Gout transferred from a man to a tree,

"• 153
Grand Lama, death and reappearance

of the, i. 42, 43 ; and the shadow of
Sankara, i. 142

Grandmother, a name given to the last
sheaf, i. 336

Granny, a name given to the last sheaf,
i. 336

Grass king, i. 91-93, 247

Griitz, midsummer custom in, ii. 267

Greece, rain - making in, i. 16; tree
worship in, i. 58, 59, 99 ; festivals of
the Greeks, i. 99, 100, 103 ; cere-
mony at the laying of a foundation
stone in, i. 144; sacrificial ritual in, ii.
54, 55 ; human scapegoats in, ii. 210-
217; midsummer fires in, ii. 266;
the external soul in Greek stories,
ii. 305-307

Green George, i. 84-86

Grenoble, May Day in, i. 94 ; harvest
custom in, ii. 15, 47

Grihya-Sutras, provision in the, for the
burning of cut hair, i. 202

Grossvargula, Whitsuntide custom in,
i. 91

Ground, sacred persons not allowed to
touch the, ii. 224, 243 note ; girls at
puberty not allowed to touch the, ii.
225 - 253 ; sacred things may not
touch the, ii. 243 tiote

Grvineberg, harvest ceremony in, ii. 1 1

Guanches, rain-charm in, i. 19

Guatemala, the nagual amongst the, ii.

333> 334 .

Guaycurus and storms, i. 28
Guinea, secreting of cut hair and nails

in, i. 203 ; annual expulsion of the

devil by the negroes of, ii. 170 ; time

of licence in, ii. 204
Guyenne, harvest ceremony in, ii. 6

Hack-thorn, sacred, i. 69

Hadeln, reaping custom in the district

of, i. 333
Haida Indian wind-charm, i. 26
Hair, burning of loose, i. 205 ; burning
after child-birth, i. 206 ; cut hair de-
posited in a safe place, i. 200-205 ;
cutting, i. 193 sq. ; most sacred day
of the year appointed for hair cutting,
i. 197 ; superstition concerning the
cutting of the, i. 196, 198, 199 ; cut
only during a storm, i. 199 ; hair-
cutting as a disinfectant, i. 206, 207 ;
magic use of cut hair, i. 198, 199 ;
strength supposed to be in the, ii. 328 ;
hair not cut, i. 193-195 ; superstition
about cutting the hair and nails, i.
193-207
Halberstadt, human scapegoats m, 11.

199 ^ , ..

Halibut, festival in honour of the, n. 121

394

INDEX

Halmahera, rain-making in, i. 13, 21
Hampstead, forest of, i. 57
Hare, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 10 sq.
Harran, ritual observed by the heathen

Syrians of, i. 283
Harvest child, a name given to the last

sheaf, i. 344
cock, a name given to the last

sheaf, ii. 7, 8

cries, i. 404-409

customs, i. 333-347, 352, 353> 367-

381, 408 ; ii. 4-27, 32, 47, 48, 68-73,

213
festival, i. 169; ii. 171, 172, 374-

376, 382-384

goat, u. 13

maiden, a prototype of Proserpine,

i- 356

May, i. 68, 69, 81, 82 ; ii. 4

omens, ii. 271

queen, i. 344

songs and cries, ii. 364-366, 404-

409 .

Harz Mountains, Easter fires in the, ii.

253..
Hawaii, detention of the soul in, i. 139 ;

capital offences in, i. 190
Hay family, the, and the mistletoe, ii.

362
Head, sanctity of the, i. 187-193;

ceremony at the washing of the, i.

188
Headache, transference of, ii. 149
Headington, May-day custom at, i. 94,

95
Heaven, the Golden Bough between

heaven and earth, ii. 223-243
Hebrides, representation of spring in

the, i. 97
Heligoland, disappearance of the

herring from, ii. 120
Herbrechtingen, threshing custom in,

ii. 22
Hercynian forest, i. 56, 57
Hereford, sin eaters in, ii. 154, 155
Herefordshire, midsummer fires in, ii.

262
Hermsdorf, harvest custom in, i. 338
Herodotus, story by, of the wind

fighters of Psylli, i. 29
Herring, disappearance of the, from

Heligoland, ii. 120
Hertfordshire harvest custom, ii. 24
Hessen, Ash Wednesday custom in, ii.

29 ; sowing-time customs in, ii. 48
Hidatsa Indians, belief in the plurality

of souls amongst the, ii. 339
Hierapolis, pigs sacred at, ii. 50
Himalayas, scapegoats in the Western,

ii. 194
Hindoo cure for the murrain, ii. 191 ;

festival of Ingathering, ii. 272 ; girls
and puberty, ii. 234, 235 ; the ex-
ternal soul in Hindoo stories, ii. 298-
302

Hindoos, the, test of a suitable sacri-
ficial victim, i. 36 ; Hindoos and
yawning, i. 123 ; custom of nail
cutting by the, i. 196 ; festival at the
eating of the new rice by the, ii. 73 '

Hindoo Koosh, smoke from the sacred
tree inhaled by the sybil, i. 35 ; blood
sucking the test of a diviner amongst
the, ih. ; expulsion of devils amongst
the, ii. 173

Hippolytus, i. 6

Holland, Whitsuntide custom in, i. ZZ ;
Easter fires, ii. 253

Holstein, reaping custom in, i. 333 ;
healing effects of the mistletoe in, ii.
289

Hornkampe, harvest custom in, i. 337

Horse, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 24-26 ;
sacrifice of the, ii. 64

Horses excluded from the Arician grove,
i. 6

and Virbius, ii. 62-64

Hos, harvest festival amongst the, ii.
171, 172; time of licence with the,
ii. 204 ; offering of first-fruits by the,

ii- 374

Hottentot priests do not use iron, i. 173 ;
wind-charm, i. 27, 28 ; sheep driven
through the fire by the, ii. 273

Hovas of Madagascar, offerings of first-
fruits by the, ii. 374

How, coffer of Osiris at, i. 309

Huahine, offerings of first-fruits in, ii.

Huitzilopochtli, dough image of the
Mexican god, made and eaten, ii. 81

Human sacrifices, i. 235-237, 251, 252,
381 ; replaced by mock sacrifices, i.
250-253

victim represents the corn-spirit,

i- 390-395
Hungary, Whitsuntide custom in, i. 93 ;

the external soul in Hungarian

stories, ii. 320, 321
Hunger, expulsion of, ii. 210, 21 1
Hunting the wren, ii. 140-144
Hurons, the, and fish bones, ii. 1 19 ;

their idea of the soul, i. 122 ; driving

away sickness amongst the, ii. 162
Huskanaw, the name of an initiatory

ceremony amongst the Indians of

Virginia, ii. 348
Hylae, sacred men inspired by the

image of Apollo at, i. 37

Ibo, king of, confined to his premises,
i. 164

INDEX

395

Iddah, king of, asserts that he is god,
i. 41, 42

Ihlozi, the, of the Zuhis, ii. 332

Incarnate gods, i. 30-54

Incarnation, temporary and permanent,
i. 32, 37-42

Incas of Peru revered as gods, i. 49 ;
preservation of cut hair and parings
of the nails of the, i. 203 ; restrictions
upon the prince who is to become Inca
of Peru, ii. 225 ; ceremony for the
expulsion of diseases, etc. by the, ii.
167-169

Indersdorf, harvest custom in, ii. 17, iS

India, devil dancer drinks sacrificial
blood in Southern, i. 34 ; human
gods in, i. 41, 42 ; marriage of shrubs
and trees in, i. 60 ; sin eating in, ii.
J 55) 156 ; iron used as a charm in, i.
I75> 176; harvest custom in the
Central Provinces of, i. 371, 372 ;
custom during cholera in Central
Provinces of, ii. 189 ; offerings of
first-fruits in, ii. 374, 375

Indians of Alaska, preservation of cut
hair by the, i. 201, 202

of Arizona offer human sacrifices,

i. 251

of Guayaquil sacrifice human

beings at seed time, i. 381

of Guiana, treatment of girls at

puberty by the, ii. 232-234
of Peru and their fish gods, ii. •

118, 119

of Virginia, initiatory ceremony

amongst the, ii. 348, 349

Influenza, ii. 190

Initiatory rites, simulation of death and
resurrection at, ii. 342-358

Innuit of Alaska, custom after a death
amongst the, i. 177

Inspiration, i. 33 ; by blood drinking,
i- 34» 35 ; l^y "se of sacred tree, i.
35; 36

Inspired men, i. 36, 37

victims, i. 36

Irayas of Luzon, offerings of first-fruits
by the, ii. 377

Ireland, May Day in the south-east of,
i. 94 ; hunting the wren at Christmas
in, ii. 142, 143 ; midsummer fires in,
ii. 263, 264

Iron, superstitious aversion to, i. 172-
174 ; as a charm, i. 175

Iron-Beard, Dr., i. 249, 257

Iroquois, ceremony at the festival of
dreams by the, ii. 165, 166 ; scape-
goat used by the, ii. 194, 195 ; time
of licence amongst the, ii. 204

Isis, a corn goddess, i. 310, 311 ; named
the moon by the aboriginal inhabi-

tants of Eg}'pt, i. 311 ; as a cow, ii.
61

Isle of Man, wind selling in the, i. 27 ;
hunting the wren at Christmas in the,
ii. 142 ; midsummer bonfires, ii. 263

Issapoo, the cobra capella the guardian
deity of the negroes of, ii. 94, 95

Istar, legend concerning the goddess, i.
287

Italones, cannibalism by the, ii. 88

Italy, tree worship in ancient, i. 58, 59 ;
custom of "sawing the old woman"
in, i. 261, 262 ; gardens of Adonis
in, i. 294 ; midsummer fires in, ii. 266 ;
oak the sacred tree in, ii. 291 ; the
external soul in Italian stories, ii.
307, 308

Itonamas, the, and the soul, i. 123

Itzgrund, harvest custom in, i. 338

Ivy girl, i. 344

Jack-in-the-green, i. 88, 89, 247
Jambi, temporary kings in, i. 231, 232
Japanese, expulsion of evil spirits by

the, ii. 176
Jarkino, belief in animate trees in, i. 61
Javanese and rice bloom, i. 60, 61 ;

ceremony at rice harvest, i. 355 j

Javanese and the soul, i. 124, 125
Jerome of Prague, i. 24
Jeypur, scapegoat used in cases of

smallpox in, ii. 190, 191
Jubilee, i. 225
Jupiter represented by an oak on the

Capitol at Rome, ii. 291

Kaffa, worship of human god in, i.

Kafir boys at circumcision, i. 171 ; New

Year festival, ii. 74 ; elephant

hunters, ii. 113, 1 14; burying of cut

hair and nails by the Kafirs, i. 202,

203
Kakian Association, ii. 354-357
Kakongo, king of, not allowed to touch

certain European goods, i. 160; not

seen eating, i. 162
Kalamba, ceremonies on a visit to, by

subject chiefs, i. 159
Kalmucks, consecration of the white

ram by the, ii. 136
Kamant tribe do not allow a natural

death, i. 217
Kamtchatkans excuse themselves before

killing land or sea animals, ii. no,

III; respect the seal and sea lion,

ii. Ill
Kanagra, spring custom in, i. 276,

277
Kangra, custom at, qn the death of a

Rajah, i. 232 : sin eaters in, ii. 156

396

INDEX

Karens, funeral custom by the, i. 129,
130; transference of the soul in
Karen, i. 140 ; dread of women's
blood by the, i. 186 ; belief concern-
ing the head, i. 187 ; custom at rice
sowing, i. 354, 355

Karma tree, i. 289

Karoks of California and salmon catch-
ing, ii. 121

Kasyas, expulsion of devils by the, ii.
184

Katodis, ceremony before felling a tree
by the, i. 63

Kent, the ivy girl in, i. 344

Keramin tribe of New South Wales,
rain-making by the, i. 15

Key Islanders, soul superstition amongst
the, i. 130, 131 ; expulsion of sick-
ness by the, ii. 160

Khonds, human sacrifices by the, i.
384-390 ; rain-charm, ii. 42 ; expul-
sion of devils by the, ii. 173, 174

Kibanga, kings killed in, i. 218

Kilema, ceremony in, before a stranger
is allowed to see the king, i. 159

Kilimanjaro Mount, believed to be
tenanted by demons, i. 151

Kimbunda, cannibalism amongst the,
ii. 88, 89

King Hop, the title of a temporary
king, i. 230

of the calf, ii. 21

of the May, i. 247

of the sacred rites, i. 7

of the Wood, i. 1-108 ; why so

called, i. 7 ; never a temporal sove-
reign, i. 51 ; an incarnation of the
tree spirit, i. 106-108; probabihty
that he was formerly slain annually,
i. 240, 241 ; similarity to North
European personages, i. 249, 250 ;
a personification of the oak, ii. 364 ;
probably burned in a fire of oak
^wood, ii. 363-365

Kings — as gods, i. 8 ; supposed to con-
trol the weather, i. 44-46 ; punished
for the failure of crops, i. 46-48 ;
killed, i. 48 ; divine, i. 49 ; of nature,
i. 52 ; of fire, i. 53-56 ; of rain, i, 52,
53 ; of water, i. 53-56 ; divine, cease
to govern, i. 118, 119; abdicate,
i. 120; guarded against strangers,
i. 158, 159; veiled,!. 162, 163; at
meals, i. 162; confined to their palaces,
i. 164, 165 ; killed when they show
signs of decay, i. 217-223 ; killed at
expiry of fixed term, i. 223 ; mitiga-
tion of the above rule, kings allowed
to defend themselves, i. 224 ; killed
annually, i. 225-227 ; temporary, i.
228-234 ; temporary kings sometimes

hereditary, i. 228, 232 ; sons sacrificed
in times of great danger, i. 235

Kingsmill Islands, offerings of first-
fruits in, ii. 378

Kirn, the name of a harvest supper, i.

,345
Klausenburg, harvest custom at, ii. 9
Kloxin, harvest ceremony in, i. 369
Knives, reluctance to use, after a death,

i. 176, 177
Kobi, offering of first-fruits by the, ii.
^376
Kochs of Assam, offerings of first-fruits

by the, ii. 374
Kohlerwinkel, harvest ceremony at, ii.
^27
Kolosh Indians, seclusion of girls

amongst the, ii. 230
Koniags, seclusion of girls amongst the,

ii. 230
Konigshain, driving out Death in, i.

276
Konkan, scapegoat used in Southern,

in cases of cholera, ii. 191
Konz, midsummer fire festival in, ii.

260, 261
Kostroma, funeral of, i. 273
Kostrubonko, i. 272
Kukulu, the priest king, i. 1 12, 1 13
Kumis, driving away small-pox by the,

ii. 161
Kupalo, funeral of, i. 272 ; representa-
tion of, i. 292
Ku^Dole's festival, i. 294

Lachlin family and the deer, ii. 363
La Ciotat, hunting the wren in, ii.

144
Lada, funeral of, i. 273
Lagos, human sacrifices at, i. 383
Lakor, expulsion of diseases to sea in,

ii. 192
Lamas, Grand, i. 42, 43 ; the chief of

the, i._ 43, 44
Lamb killed sacramentally by the Madi

tribe of Central Africa, ii. 137, 138
Lamps, festival of, ii. 176
Laos, precautions against strangers in,

i. 152; belief in plurality of souls

amongst the, ii. 339
Laosia, women worshippers in, i. 42
La Palisse, harvest custom in, ii. 68
Lapis manalis, i. 22
Lappland, wind selling in, i. 27 ; cere-
mony at the sacrifice of an animal in,

ii. 123 ; seclusion of women in, ii.

240
Larch-tree, sacred, i. 61, 62
Lazy man, the, i. 89
Lechrain, midsummer fires in, ii. 258,

259

INDEX

397

Leipzig, carrying out the effigy of Death

in, i. 268
Lent customs, ii. 247-249
Leopard, ceremony at the kiUing of a,

ii. 114
Leper, custom at the cleansing of a, ii.

Lerwick wind-sellers, 1. 27

Leti, expulsion of diseases to sea by
the, ii. 92

Leucadian scapegoat, ii. 213

Lewis, wind selling in the island of, i.
27

Lhoosai, harvest festival of the, i. 69

Libchowic, Mid -Lent custom in the
neighbourhood of, i. 93

Licence, periods of, ii. 204

Life of a person bound up with that of
a plant, ii. 328-330

Life plants, ii. 329, 330

Lille, harvest ceremonies at, ii. 25,
26

Linus, the name given to the Phoenician
lament at vintage time, i. 365

song, i. 398, 399

identified with Adonis, i. 399

Lion, ceremony at the killing of a, ii.
114; Arabic belief in the properties
of lion's fat, ii. 86

Lithuania, sun worshippers in, i. 24,
25 ; tree worshippers in, i. 58 ; super-
stition concerning the felling of
sacred groves in, i. 66, 67 ; May cus-
toms in, i. 83, 84 ; custom after
a funeral in, i. 177 ; harvest custom
in, i. 340, 341 ; ceremony at threshing
time in, i. 372, 373 ; ceremonies by
the peasants at the eating of the new
corn in, ii. 69, 70

Little leaf man, i. 88

Lityerses compared with harvest cus-
toms, i. 366, 367 ; story of, i. 392-
395 ; relation of, to Attis, i. 396,

397 . , ^
the name given to a song by the

Phrygian reapers, i. 365, 366

Liver, the, thought to be the seat of

the soul, ii. 88

Livonia, sacred grove in, i. 65

Llandebie, sin eating in, ii. 155

Loango, king of, deposed when the

harvest fails, i. 47 ; supernaturally

endowed kings of, i. 116; a capital

offence to see the king eat, i. 161 ;

the king confined to his palace after

coronation, i. 164 ; food left by the

king buried, i. 166 ; food restrictions

in, i. 207, 208 ; girls secluded at

puberty in, ii. 226

London, midsummer pageants in, ii.

281

Longnor, harvest custom at, ii. 25
Lost children, superstition concerning,

i. 63
Loucheux Indians, abstinence from the

sinew of the thigh by the, ii. 127, 128
Luchon, midsummer fire ceremony at,

ii. 282
Lumley, Sir J., excavation of the site

of the Diana Nemorensis by, i. 2

note
Llineberg, harvest custom in, i. 377
Lusatia, ceremony of carrying out Death

in, i. 259, 264

M'Bengas, Hfe of a child supposed to

be bound up with that of a tree by

the, ii. 328, 329
Macusis of British Guiana, treatment of

girls at the age of puberty by the, ii.

232 sq.
Madagascar, power ascribed to the

souls of the dead in, i. 132 ; blood of

nobles may not be shed in, i. 181 ;

crocodile not killed in, ii. 109, no
Madenassana bushmen, the goat sacred

to the, ii. 56
Madi tribe, burying of the parings of

the nails by the, i. 202 ; lamb killed

sacramentally by the, ii. 137, 138
Magic, sympathetic, i. 9- 1 2

use of cut hair, i. 198-200

Maiden, a name given to the last

handflil of corn, i. 344, 345
Maize, mother of the, i. 350-352
Makololo, burning or burying of cut

hair by the, i. 205
Malabar, reverence for the cow in, ii.

200
Malagasy, vehicle used by the, for the

transference of ills, ii. 149, 150
Malay poem, the external soul in a, ii.

325> 326
Malays and the soul, i. 124; ii. 331 ;

do not touch a man's head, i. 189
Maldives, cuttings from the hair and

nails buried by the natives of the, i.

200
Mamilian tower, ii. 67
Mamurius Veturius or the old Mars, ii.

208-210
Man in cow-skin, ii. 145, 146
gods in the South Sea Islands, i.

38, 39
Mandan Indians, and their portraits,

i. 148 ; expulsion of devils by the,

ii. 183, 184
Maneros, the name given to the lament

of the Egyptian reapers at the cutting

of the first sheaf, i. 364
Mangaia, priests called gods in, i. 33 ;

spiritual and temporal government

398

INDEX

in, i. 1 20; story of a warrior's

shadow, i. 142, 143
Man-god, two types of, i. 12
Mania, i. 6
" Manii, there are many at Aricia,"

explanation of the proverb, ii. 82,

83

Manius Egerius, traditional founder of
the Arician Grove, etc. , i. 5 ; ii. 84

Maori ceremonies on entering strange
territory, i. 156; the Maoris and
dead bodies, i. 169 ; fear of the
blood of women, i. 186 ; sacredness
of the head amongst the, i. 191, 192 ;
ceremony at hair cutting, i. 196, 197 ;
fishing custom, ii. 120; offerings of
first-firuits, ii. 381, 382

Mare, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 24-26

Marimos, human sacrifices by the, i.

383 > 384
Marktl, harvest ceremonies in the

neighbourhood of, ii. 16, 17
Marquesas Islands, men deified in their

life-time in the, i. 37, 38 ; the Mar-

quesans and the soul, i. 123 ; shaving

of the head in the, i. 195
Mars, chariot race on the field of, ii.

64-66

the old, ii. 208-210

Marseilles, human scapegoat in, ii. 212
Masuren, midsummer fire festival in, ii.

265, 266
May bride, i. 98

Day carols, i. 75> 7^

Day customs, i. 72-86, 88, 89, 94,

95, 9S-101 ; ii. 181, 182, 254, 255,

257, 258 _

king, i. 90, 91

poles, i. 78 sq., 230, 308 ; ii. 66

• queen, i. 93, 94

sleeping bridegroom of, i. 95

trees, i. 74-82, 90, 91, 243, 247,

268, 269 ; ii. 8, 251
Mayenne, May Day custom in, i. 76
Mecklenburg, reaping custom in, i.

376
Meiningen, Ash Wednesday custom in,

ii. 29 ; sowing time custom, ii. 48
Melanesia, sunshine making in, i. 24 ;

bringing back the soul in, i. 136 ;

Melanesian stones and a man's

shadow, i. 142
Meleager, ii. 305
Men eaten to obtain their qualities, ii.

88, 89
Menstruation, seclusion of women at

periods of, ii. 238-242
Menstruous blood, primitive dread of,

ii. 238, 241
Mentawej Islands, precautions against

strangers in the, i. 152

Meroe, Ethiopian kings of, killed, i.

218
Metz, midsummer fires in, ii. 283
Mexican sacraments, paste images of

the god eaten, ii. 79-82 ; festivals, ii.

80-84
Mexico, oath of kings at accession in,

i. 49 ; sacrifice of new-born babes in,

i. 307 : human sacrifice at harvest

festival in, i. 381 ; incarnate gods

slain in, ii. 218-222
Miaotse, ceremony of driving away the

devil by the, ii. 151
Mice, charm for ridding lands from, ii.

131

Mid-Lent customs, i. 82, 93, 254, 261-

263, 268, 269
Midsummer customs, i. 78 sq., 89, loi,

272, 290-294 ; ii. 366, 367
European fire festivals at, ii. 25S-

267, 282, 283 ; burning of effigies in

the midsummer fires, ii. 266, 267
Eve superstitions, ii. 286, 287 ; .

magic plants gathered on Midsummer

Eve, ii. 286-288

omens, i. 294

Mikado, description of the life of the,

i. 110-I12; cooking of his food, i.

166, 167 ; effects of wearing his

clothes without leave, i. 167 ; cutting

his hair and nails, i. 197 ; not allowed

to touch the ground, ii. 224, 225
Miklucho-Maclay, Baron, ceremony on

his entering a village on the Maclay

coast, i. 156
Milkmen worshipped by the Todas, i.

INIinahassa, rain-charm used by the, i.
17 ; blood drinking at festivals by the,
i. 35 ; custom in time of sickness, ii.
84 ; driving away devils by the, ii.

158, 159
Mingrelia, rain-getting in, i. 15
Minnetaree Indians and the resurrec-
tion of the bison, ii. 122, 123
Miris, tree superstition of the, i. 63 ;

tiger's flesh eaten by the, ii. 86
Mirrors, covering up of, i. 147
Mistletoe, the, worshipped by the
Celts and gathered by the Druids, ii.
285, 286, 288, 289, 295 ; gathered on
Midsummer Eve, ii. 2S6 sq. ; qualities
of, ii. 289 ; viewed as the seat of life,
ii. 295 ; life of the oak in the, ii.
360, 361 ; not allowed to touch the
ground, ii. 361 ; a protection against
witchcraft, ii. 362 ; the Golden
Bough the, ii. 363, 368 ; reason it
was called the Golden Bough, ii.
365 ; why called golden, ii. 366,
367 ; divining rods made from, in

INDEX

399

Sweden, ii. 367 ; gathered at mid-
summer and Christmas, ii. 367

Mithraic mysteries, ii. 358

Mnevis, the bull, ii. 60, 61

Moa, expulsion of diseases to sea by
the, ii. 192

Mock executions, i. 261

human sacrifices, i. 250-253

Mole, Le, i. 5

Moluccas, festivals in the, i. 40 ; treat-
ment of clove-trees in blossom in the,
i. 60 ; soul abduction in the, i. 133,
134 ; ceremony in the, after a journey,
i. 158

Mondard, the great, ii. 40

Mongolians, stuffing the skin of a
sacrificed animal by the, ii. 124

Mongols, the, and the soul, i. 128

Monomotapa, precautions taken for the
king of, i. 159

Montalto, Mid Lent custom in, i. 262

Mooris, custom at births by the, ii.

Moosheim, fire festival at, ii. 278
Moqui Indians, belief in the trans-
migration of human souls into turtles
held by the, ii. 98, 99 ; totem clans
of the, ii. 99
Moresby, Captain, at Shepherd's Isle, i.

152, 153.

Morocco, iron a protection against

demons in, i. 175 ; ants eaten in, ii.

87 ; diverting evil spirits in, ii. 151
Mother-cotton, the, i. 353

of the maize, i. 350-352

Motumotu theory of storms, i. 27

— — , the soul believed to be in the

reflection by the, i. 145
Mowat, the chief of, supposed to have

power of affecting crops, etc., i. 46 ;

boys beaten to make them grow in,

ii. 216
Mozcas, weather kings of the, i. 44
Muato Jamwo, a capital offence to see

him eat, i. 162
Mundaris, sacred groves of the, i. (y}, ;

superstition concerning the felling of

sacred groves, i. 67 ; harvest festival,

ii. 172
Mundas, ceremony at the planting'^of

the rice by the, i. 288, 289
Munster, rain fountain in, i. 19
Miinsterland, Easter fires in, ii. 252,

253

Murrain, cure for the, ii. 191

Murrams of Manipur, restrictions of

food among the, i. 208
Muyscas, weather kings of the, i. 44

Nagual, the, of the Indians of Guate-
mala, ii. 333, 334

Nails, cutting the, i. 195, 196 ; burying

the first cuttings of a child's, i. 201 ;

cuttings of, preserv-ed, i. 202-205
Namaquas, foods eaten and rejected by

the, ii. 86
Nanumea, precautions against strangers

in the island of, i. 151
Narrinyeri and their totems, i. 165,

166
Nass River, Indians of the, and the

recall of the soul, i. 140, 141
Natchez, harvest festival by the,' ii.

382-384
Nature, kings of, i. 52 ; dependence of,

upon the divine king, i. 109
Nauders, sacred larch-tree at, i. 61, 62
Naudowessies, initiatory ceremony

amongst the, ii. 350
Navarre, rain-making in, i. 15
Ndembo, the, ii. 345
Need fires, ii. 269, 293
Negro idea of the soul, i. 125
Nemi, lake of, i. i ; tree within the

sanctuary, i. 4 ; priest of, i. 249,

253, ii. 223 ; unchanged, ii. 370,

371
Nerechta, Whitsuntide customs in, i.

96
Neuautz, custom at barley sowing in, ii.

28
Neuhausen, harvest custom in, i. 370
Neusaass, harvest custom in, i. 337
New Britain, rain-making in, i. 13, 14;

wind - charm, i. 26 ; driving away

evil in, ii. 158 ; expulsion of devils

in, ii. 203 ; initiation ceremony in,

ii- 352, 353.
New Caledonia, rain-making in, i. 16 ;

charm for making sunshine in, i. 22-

24
New fruits etc. eaten sacramentally,

ii. 68-79
New Guinea, seclusion of girls in, ii.

228, 229
New Ireland, seclusion of girls in, ii.

226-228
New South Wales, ceremony of initia-
tion in, i. 163 ; first-born eaten in, i.

236
New Year's Day customs, ii. 170, 171,

I79> I93> 194. 272, 273
New Zealand, sacredness of blood in, i.

183 ; superstition concerning the

head, i. 192 ; hair cutting in, i. 197,

199 ; clippings from the hair buried

in, i. 200 ; effects of sacred contagion

in, ii. 55 ; gods, ii. 89
Nias, the people of, and the soul, i.

122, 138; precautions against

strangers in, i. 154 ; succession in, i.

238 ; slaves sacrificed at the funeral

400

INDEX

of a chief in, i. 251 ; exorcising the
devil in, ii. 160, 161 ; scapegoats in,
ii. 196, 197

Nicobar Islands, ceremony in cases of
epidemic in the, ii. 188, 189; expul-
sion of devils in the, ii. 192

Nightjar, the, ii. 334, 335

Nisus, King of Megara, ii. 305

Nootka Indians, ceremony by the, at
the killing of a bear, ii. I13 ; initia-
tory ceremony by the, ii. 351

Nordlingen, threshing custom in, i. 371

Norse stories, the external soul in, ii.
312, 313

North American Indians, their idea
with regard to strangers, i. 153 ; re-
strictions upon women at certain
times, i. 170; cleansing after the
slaying of enemies, i. 170, 171 ; ab-
stinence from blood, i. 179; nail
cutting amongst the, i. 196 ; belief
concerning the various properties of
food, ii. 85, 86 ; spare the rattle-
snake, ii. no; ceremony at bear
killing, ii. 115 ; respect for the elan,
deer and elk, ii. 117, 118 ; regard for
the bones of animals, ii. 125

Northamptonshire, May - day custom
in, i. 75 ; cure for cough, ii. 154

Norway, cut hair and nails buried or
burned in, i. 205 ; midsummer bon-
fires in, ii. 289

Niirnberg, ceremony of carrying out
Death in, i. 259

Oak worship, ii. 291 ; the chief sacred
tree of the European Aryans, ii. 291-
370 ; sacred fires made of, ii. 292 ;
oak wood burnt on Midsummer Day,
ii. 294 ; Balder is the, ii. 295 ; human
representative of the, slain, ii. 294-
296 ; life of, in the mistletoe, ii. 360,
361 ; superstition concerning the oak
tree, ii. 368 ; a store of solar fire, ii.

369
Oats-goat, ii. 13-15
Obermedlingen, threshing custom in,

ii. 21, 22 ; midsummer fires in, ii.

270
Oberpfalz, threshing custom in, i. 371
October horse, ii. 64-67
Offerings of first-fruits, ii. 373-3S4
Oil of St. John, ii. 288, 289
Ojebways, sunshine charm used by the,

i. 22 ; seldom fell living trees, i. 61
Olaf, King of Sweden, sacrificed, i. 47,

48
Old Calabar, revellings at the expulsion

of devils in, ii. 193
Old man, a name given to the last

sheaf, i. 337, 338

Old woman, a name given to the last
sheaf, i. 337, 338

Oldenburg, superstition regarding the
reflection in, i. 147 ; custom with
regard to clippings from the hair in,
i. 201 ; fire festival in, ii. 250

Omaha Indians, rain-making by the, i.
14 ; wind clan of the Omahas, i. 26 ;
their totems, ii. 53, 56

Omens, neutralising bad, ii. 151

Onitsha, ceremony of eating the new
yams at, ii. 74 ; New Year festival in,
ii. 170, 171 ; human scapegoats in,
ii. 195, 196

Oraon festival, i. 85, 86

Oraons, ceremony at rice planting by
the, i. 288

Orchomenus, human sacrifice at the rites
of Dionysus in, i. 329

Oregon, belief in the recall of the soul
by the Salish Indians of, i. 136, 137

Orestes, the originator of the worship
of Diana, i. 3

Orinoco rain-charm, i. 18, 93 ; sunshine
charm, i. 22

Orissa, worshippers of the Queen of
England in, i. 41 ; rice growing in,
i. 61

Orkney Islands, transference of sick-
ness in the, ii. 153

Osiris, myth of, i. 301 sq. ; ritual of, i.
303-305 ; representation of the dead
body of, in the temple of Isis, i. 305 ;
a corn-spirit, i. 305 - 307 ; a tree-
spirit, i. 307-309 ; grave of, at Philae,
i. 309 ; arguments for and against his
being the sun-god, i. 31 1-3 13, 316,
317, 318, 320; a god of vegetation,
i. 319 ; rites of, similar to those of
Dionysus and Adonis, i. 319, 320 ;
probable origin of the cult of, i. 363 ;
once represented by a human victim,
i. 400-404 ; on monuments, i. 403 ;
key to the mysteries of, i. 404 ; as a
pig, ii. 52-60 ; death of, ii. 58, 59 ;
annual sacrifice of a pig to, ii. 58, 59 ;
as a bull, ii. 59-61

Osnabriick, harvest custom in, i. 336

Osterode, Easter fires in, ii. 253

Ostiaks, ceremony by the, at the killing
of a bear, ii. in, 112

Ot Damons, custom with regard to
strangers by the, i. 151, 152; seclu-
sion of girls amongst the, ii. 229

Otawa Indians, ceremony at the killing
of a bear by the, ii. 113 ; do not burn
fish bones, ii. 119

Oude, sin eating in, ii. 156

Owl, the, ii. 335, 336

Ox, ritual at the Athenian sacrifice of
the, ii. 38, 39, 41 ; as an embodi-

INDEX

401

ment of the corn-spirit, ii. 41-43;
Osiris and the, ii. 59-6l
Ozieri, Gardens of Adonis at, i. 290

Pacific, human gods in the, i. 38, 39
Padams of Assam, superstition concern-
ing lost children by the, i. 63
Palermo, "sawing the old woman " in,

i. 261
Palm-tree, the Dyaks and the, ii. 329

Sunday custom, ii. 216

Pan, representation of, ii. 34, 35 ; the

Lord of the Wood, ii. 35
Panes, festival of the, ii. 90, 91
Papuans, foods eaten by the, ii. 87 ;

belief in a child's life being bound up

with that of a tree, ii. 329
Paris, procession of mock giant in, ii.

281
Parthian monarchs worshipped as

deities, i. 49
Patagonians, burning of loose hair by

the, i. 205
Pawnees, human sacrifices by the, at

sowing, i. 381, 382
Payaguas, method of fighting the wind

by the, i. 28
Pear-tree, the protector of cattle, i. 73
Pelew Islanders, god of the, i. 39, 40 ;

custom at tree-felling by the, i. 62, 63 ;

ceremony on the killing of a man by

the, i. 178
Pembrokeshire, Twelfth Day custom in,

ii. 143
Pepper Coast, high priest held respon-

sil)le for the general welfare, i. 47
Permanent incarnation, i. 37-42
Persian kings not seen eating, i. 162
Peru, rain-charm in, i. 17 ; charm for

staying the sun in, i. 24 ; preservation

of the representative corn -spirit by

the ancient Peruvians, i. 350, 351 ;

expulsion of devils in, ii. 203 ; self-
beating in, ii. 216. See also imdei-

Incas.
Philippine Islands, belief in the souls of

trees in the, i. 62 ; cannibalism in

the, ii. 88
Philosophy, primitive, defect of, i. 210-

212; rules of life of sacred men are

the outcome of, il>.
Phoenician custom at vintage, i. 365 ;

Linus song, i. 398, 399
Phrygia, mock human sacrifices in, i.

300 ; reapers' song in, i. 365, 366
Piedmont, midsummer peasant custom

in, i. 288
Pig, the corn -spirit as a, ii. 26-31;

sacred, ii. 50-57 ; Osiris as a, ii. 52-

60
Pigs, Demeter and Proserpine as, ii.

VOL. II

44-49 ; Attis and Adonis as, ii. 49,
50
Pilsen, Whitsuntide custom near, i. 92
Pine-tree sacred to Dionysus, i. 321
Pinsk, Whit Monday customs by

Russian girls in, i. 87, 88
Plas, Whitsuntide custom in the neigh-
bourhood of, i. 92
Po, excavations in the valley of the, i.

57
Poachers and the fir-cones, ii. 288
Point Barrow, hunting the evil spirit by

the Eskimo of, ii. 164, 165
Poitou, midsummer fire festival in, ii.

261
Poland, ceremony of carrying out Death

in, i. 261 ; harvest custom in, i. 339,

340, 342, 343 ; Christmas custom in,

ii. 6, 7
Polynesians, superstition held by the,

concerning the head, i. 189, 190 ;

and sacred contagion, ii. 55
Pomerania, cut hair buried in, i. 205 ;

reaping custom in, i. 205
Pomos of California, expulsions of

devils by the, ii. 183
Pongol festival, ii. 73
Pont a Mousson, harvest ceremony at,

ii. 21
Poplar, burning of a, on St. Peter's

Day, i. lOl
Portrait, the soul in the, i. I48, 149
Portraits, life in, i. 148
Potato-dog, ii. 4

wolf, ii. 2, 5

Potatoes, custom at the digging of new,

in Sutherlandshire, ii. Ji
Potniae, rites of Dionysus at, i. 329
Pouilly, harvest ceremony at, ii. 20, 21,

47
Preacher to the fish, ii. 1 19, 120
Pregnancy, i. 239
Priestly kings, i. "J, 8
Priests, Roman and iSabine, not shaved

with iron razors, i. 172
Primitive man and the supernatural, i.

6-30
philosophy, rules of life are the

outcome of, i. 208-210
Prophesying, drinking blood before, i.

34, 35
Propitiation of the fish, ii. 1 18, 1 19
Proserpine and the pig, ii. 44-49
Prussia, reverence for the oak in, i. 58 ;
high trees worshipped by the ancient
Prussians, i. 64 ; custom after a
funeral by the old Prussians, i. 177 5
self-immolation of the supreme ruler
of the old Prussians, i. 223 ; cere-
mony at spring ploughing in, i. 286 ;
corn drenching in, i. 287 ; gardens of

2 D

402

INDEX

Adonis in, i. 294, 295 ; harvest
custom in, i. 336, 338, 343 ; ceremony
at the sowing of the winter corn by
the Prussian Slavs, ii. 18, 19 ; mid-
summer fire festival in, ii. 265

Puberty, girls at, not allowed to touch
the ground or see the sun, ii. 225-
253 ; girls secluded at, ii. 225 ;
reasons for the seclusion, ii. 238 sq.

Pulverbatch, oak tree superstition at,
ii. 368

Punjaub, Gen. Nicholson worshipped
by a sect in the, i. 41 ; ceremony at the
bursting of the cotton boles in the, i.
353 ; custom at the festival of lamps,
ii. 176

Purification after travel, i. 157, 158

Pyrenees, customs in the, i. loi

QuAUHTiTLANS, human sacrifices by

the, ii. 221
Queen of the sacred rites, i. 7
Queensland, initiatory rites in, ii. 343,

344
Quilacare, self-immolation of the king of,

i. 224
Quoja, initiatory rites in, ii. 347

Ra, the sun-god, i. 313-316
Rain-charm, i. 93, 199, 287, 289, 299,

m^ 374, 390, 400 ; ii. 42

kings of, i. 52, 53

making, i. 13-22

Rajah, custom at the death of a, i.

232
Rajah Vijyanagram, his aversion to iron,

i. 174
Rajamahall, offerings of first-fruits in,

ii- 374, 375
Rali fair, the, i. 276, 277
Ram, sacred, ii. 63 ; Egyptian sacrifice
of the, ii. 92-94 ; consecration of the
white ram by the Kalmucks, ii. 136
Ramin, harvest custom in, i. 377
Raskolniks, the, and mirrors, i. 147
Rattlesnake not killed, ii. 1 10
Ratzeburg, harvest custom in, i. 376,

377
Red cock, ii. 9

haired victims, i. 306, 307

Reflection, the soul in the, i. 145-148
Religion, marks of a primitive, i. 348,

349

and magic, relation of, i. 30-32

Religious aspect of Peruvian, Parthian

and Egyptian sovereigns, i. 48-50
Resurrection, the, of animals, ii. 123-
125 ; traces in folk-tales of the belief
in, ii. 125 ; simulation of death and
resurrection at initiatory rites, ii.
342-358

Rhetra, priest tastes the sacrificial blood
at, i. 35

Rhon mountains, fire festivals in the, ii.
249

Rice-bride, the, i. 355

Rice harvest, ceremonies at the, ii. 71,
.72

Rio de la Plata, seclusion of girls
amongst the Indians of, ii. 230, 231

Roman cure for fever, ii. 152

haircutting custom, i. 199

Romans, tree worship by the, i. 99

Rome, ceremony of driving out the old
Mars from, ii. 208-210

Remove, sacred oak at, i. 58, 64

Rook, expulsion of evil in the island of,
ii. 158; initiation festival, ii. 352

Rosenheim, harvest custom in, ii. 20

Roti, haircutting ceremony in the
island of, i. 201, 205, 206

Rottenburg, midsummer ceremony in,
ii. 266, 267

Roumanians, rain-making by the, i. 16;
custom after a death by the, i. 176;
corn-drenching by the, i. 286

Rowan, the, effective against witch-
craft, ii. 361

Royal and priestly taboos, i. 109-120,
149-209

blood not spilt upon the ground,

i. 179-183

Ruhla, springtide custom in, i. 88

Rupture, cure for, ii. 330

Russia, Whitsuntide customs in, i. 76,
77 ; first - born sacrificed by the
heathen in, i. 237 ; Eastertide
customs in Little Russia, i. 272, 273 ;
harvest custom in, i. 341 ; ceremony
on the cutting of the first sheaf in, i.
364 ; Easter custom in White Russia,
ii. 29 ; Russian wood-spirits, ii. 35,
36 ; Russian corn - spirits, ii. 36 ;
beating as a charm in, ii. 216; mid-
summer customs in, ii. 265, 267

Ruthenia, fire festival in, ii. 265

Rye-boar, ii. 26, 27

goat, ii. 12

wolf, ii. 1-3, 5

Sabaea, kings of, not allowed out of

their palaces, i. 164
Sabarios, festival of, ii. 69
Sables, superstition about killing, ii.

"5

Sacaea festival at Babylon, i. 226, 400
Sacramental bread, traces of the use of,
at Aricia, ii. 82-84

character of the harvest supper,

corn-spirit eaten in animal form, ii. 31

killing of an animal, two types of

the, ii. 134 sq.

INDEX

403

Sacramental killing of sacred animal by
pastoral peoples, ii. 1 35- 138

Sacraments in ancient Mexico, ii. 78, 79

Sacred cattle in Egypt, ii. 60, 61

persons' vessels not to be used

by others, i. 166 ; sacred persons are
dangerous, i. 166, 167 : not allowed
to see the sun, ii. 225, 243 note ; not
allowed to touch the ground, ii. 224,
243 note

Sacredness and uncleanness not dis-
tinguished by primitive man, i. 169-
172

Sacrifices, human, i. 235-237, 251, 252

Sacrificial king, i. 7

Saddle Island, the reflection and the
soul in the, i. 145

Saffron Walden, May- day custom in,
i. 76

Sagar, influenza in, ii. 189, 190

Saligne, harvest custom in, i. 343

Salii, the, ii. 210 note

Salmon-catching, ii. 121, 122

Salza district. Shrove Tuesday custom
in the, ii. 29

Salzwedel, Whitsuntide custom in, i. 90

Samoan gods, i. 39 ; ii. 54

Samoans, the, and bleeding trees, i. 61;
recall of the soul amongst the, i. 135 ;
turtle not eaten by the, i. 163 ;
Samoans and the butterfly, ii. 56 ;
presentation of first-fruits by the, ii.

Samogitians, tree superstition amongst
the, i. 65 ; birds and beasts of the
wood held sacred by the, i. 105
Samorin kings, i. 225
Samoyed story, the external soul in a,

ii. 321
Sankara and his shadow, i. 142
Santals, story of a soul by the, i. 126
Sardinia, Gardens of Adonis in, i. 290
Satyrs, representation of the, ii. 35
Savage, our debt to the, i. 210-212
Savage Island, kings killed in the, i. 48;
collapse of the monarchy in the, i.
118; killing of strangers in the, i.
158
Savages and the soul, i. 121, 122
"Sawing the old woman," i. 261, 262
Saxon villages, Whitsuntide custom in,

i- 95

Saxons of Transylvania, charm for keep-
ing sparrows from the corn used by
the, ii. 130

Saxony, Whitsuntide ceremonies in, i.

Scandinavian Christmas custom, ii. 29
Scapegoat, ii. 182 -21 7 ; animal em-
ployed as a, ii. 189- 191, 194 sq. ;
human, ii. 191 sq. ; dog used as a.

ii. 194, 195 ; Tibetan ceremony of
the, ii. 197, 198; divine, ii. 199-201,
205 ; cow and bull as, ii. 201, 202 ;
use of, in classical antiquity, ii. 208-
217 ; reason for beating the, ii. 213-

215
Schaumburg, Easter fires in, ii. 253
Schluckenau, Shrovetide custom in, i.

244
Scotland, representation of spring in the

Highlands of, i. 97 ; iron as a charm

in, i. 175, 176; harvest custom in,

'• 339i 345 '■> cowherd clothed in

cow's hide in the Highlands of, ii.

145, 146 ; midsummer fires in, ii.

264, 265
Scythian kings put in bonds in times of

scarcity, i. 46
Sea-lion, respect for the, ii. Ill
Seal, respect for the, ii. Ill
Self-immolation, i. 216, 224
Semites, sacrifice of children by the,

i. 235 ; the king's son sacrificed, ih. ;

worship of Adonis, i. 279
Senegambia, the Python clan in, ii. 95 ;

soul detention among the Sereres of,

^- '39
Senjero, first-born sacrificed in, i. 236,

237
Servia, rain-making in, i. 16; torch-
light procession in, ii. 266
Seven Oaks, May-day custom in, i. 76
Sex-totems in Australia, ii. 334-337
Shadow, the soul in the, i. 141 -149
Shamans, the, sacrifice their chief on

account of pestilence, i. 48
Shans, expulsion of the fire-spirit by

the, ii. 178, 179
Shark Point the home of the priestly

King Kukulu, i. 112
Sharp instruments supposed to wound

spirits, i. 176, 177
Sheaf, the last, various names given to,

and ceremonies in connection with,

i- 336-338, 340-346, 408 ; ii. 4, 7, 8,

68
Shepherd's Isle, precautions taken

against strangers in, i. 152, 153
Shetland seamen and wind buying, i.

27

Shropshire, " Neck " the name given to
the last handful of corn in, i. 407,
408 ; harvest custom, ii. 24, 25 ; sin-
eating in, ii. 155

Shrovetide Bear, i. 254, 255

customs, i. 96, 244, 270 ; ii. 29,

250, 254-257, 283

Siam, soul superstition in, i. 59 ; mode
of royal executions in, i. 179, 180;
superstition concerning the head, i.
187, 188 ; temporary king of, i. 229 ;

404

INDEX

banishment of demons in, ii. 178;
human scapegoats in, ii. 196 ; the
external soul in Siamese story, ii.

304, 30s

Siberian sable hunters, ii. 1 1 5, 1 16

Sicily, Gardens of Adonis in, i. 294,
.295

Silenus both a wood and corn spirit, ii.
35 ; representation of, ib.

Silesia, driving out Death in, i. 260 ;
"carrying out Death" in, i. 267;
bringing back summer in, i. 263 ; har-
vest custom in, i. 336, 346 ; ii. 8

Silvanus both a wood and corn spirit,

."• 35

Sin-bearers, ii. 151, 152

Sin-eating, ii. 154-157

" Sinew which shrank," abstinence from
the, ii. 126-128

Skye, harvest festival in, ii. 14 ; Beltane
fires in, ii. 255, 256

Slaves sacrificed, i. 251, 252

Slavonia, "carrying out Death" in, i.
260 ; ii. 209 ; custom of ' ' sawing the
old woman " amongst the Slavs, i.
262 ; reaping custom amongst the
Slavs, i. 334, 355 ; beating in, ii.
216 ; midsummer fires in, ii. 265 ;
perpetual fire of the Slavs, ii. 293 ;
the external soul in Slavonic stories,
ii. 309, 310

Slovenes of Oberkrain, Shrove Tuesday
custom amongst the, i. 96

Small-pox, driving away the, ii. 161 ;
scapegoat used for, ii. 190, 191

Snake, communion with the, ii. 139

tribe, ii. 95 ; ceremony performed

with a dough snake by the, ii. 139,
140

Soest, custom of flax pullers at, i. 375

Sofala, kings of, killed, i. 219, 220

Sogamoso, restrictions on the heir to
the throne in, ii. 225

Solor, harvest custom in, i. 375

Somersetshire, midsummer fires in, ii.
262

Sorcerers, the soul extracted or detained
by, i. 1 35- 141

Soul, perils ot the, i. 109 sq. ; a minia-
ture of the body, i. 121-123 ; precau-
tions to prevent its escape, i. 123 ;
conceived as a bird, i. 124 ; its flight,
i. 124, 125 ; absent in sleep, i. 125-
129 ; its departure not always volun-
tary, i. 129; carried oft" by ghosts,
i. 129-132; recall of the, i. 129-141 ;
stolen by demons, i. 132-135 ; brought
back in visible shape, i. 136-138;
extracted or detained by sorcerers,
i. 1 38- 14 1 ; transference of the, i.
140 ; the soul thought to be in the

portrait, i. 148, 149 ; in the shadow,
i. 141-149; in the reflection, i. 145-
148; in the blood, i. 178, 179;
transmigration of the human soul into
that of a turtle, ii. 98 ; the external
soul in folk tales, ii. 296-326 ; in folk
custom, ii. 327-359

Souls, of trees, i. 59-61 ; of divine per-
sons transmitted to successors, i. 237-
239 ; plurality of, ii. 339

South American Indians, foods eaten
and avoided by the, ii. 86 ; beating
by the, ii. 216

South Sea Islands, man-gods in the, i.
38, 39 .

Sowing-time custom, ii. 28-30, 32, 48

Spachendorf, fire festivals in, ii. 249,
250

Spain, custom of "sawing the old
woman " in, i. 261, 262 ; midsummer
fires in, ii. 266

Sparrows, the, and the corn, ii. 130

Sparta, state sacrifices offered by the
kings of, i. 7

Spices, sprinkling the sick with, i.

'54

Spirit, of vegetation, in human shape, i.
87, 88

robbing the, i. 380

Spirits, sharp instruments supposed to
wound, i. 176, 177

Spitting as a protective charm, i. 205

Spring and harvest customs compared,
i. 346, 347

ceremony in, in China, ii. 42, 43 ;

European fire festivals in, ii. 247-254

.Storms, Motumotu theory of, i. 27

Strangers, precautions against the
magic arts of, i. 150-160 ; tied up in
the sheaves by the reapers as repre-
sentatives of the corn-spirit, i. 374-
380

Straw goats, ii. 16

Sucla-Tirtha, expulsion of sins to sea
by the, ii. 192

Suicide of Fijians at old age, i. 216

Sumatra, rain-charm in, i. 17 ; tree-
superstition in, i. 63 ; reluctance
to wound a tiger in, ii. no

Summer, bringing back, i. 263, 268

tree, i. 268, 269

Sun, staying the, i. 24 ; sacred person
not allowed to see the, ii. 225, 243
7iote ; girls at puberty not allowed to
see the, ii. 225-253 ; traces in folk-
tales of the rule which forbids girls at
puberty to see the sun, ii. 235-237 ;
belief that the sun can impregnate
women, ii. 236 ; tabooed persons
may not see the, ii. 243 note ; fires
as sun charms, ii. 267-274

INDEX

405

Suni Mohammedans, covering up
mirrors by the, i. 147

Sunshine, making, i. 22-24

Superb warbler, ii. 336, 337

Surenthal, midsummer fire ceremony
in the, ii. 259, 260

Surinam, the bush negroes of, and their
totems, ii. 53, 54

Sutherland, cure for cough in, ii. 154

Sutherlandshire, custom at the digging
of new potatoes in, ii. 71

Swabia, burying of cut hair in, i. 202 ;
burying the carnival in, i. 254-257 ;
harvest custom, ii. 27 ; fire festival,
ii. 248-249 ; Easter fires in, ii. 254 ;
midsummer fires in, ii. 258

Sweden, harvest superstition in, i. 68 ;
King Domalde sacrificed on account
of famine, i. 47, 48 ; May Eve
customs in, i. 78 ; midsummer cere-
monies, i. 78, 79 ; Christmas customs
in, ii. 29-31 ; superstitious use of Yule
straw in, ii. 30, 31 ; May Day fires in,
ii. 258 ; midsummer bonfires in, ii.
289 ; mistletoe superstition in, ib. ;
divining rods made from the mistletoe
in, ii. 367

Swineherds, restrictions on, in Egypt,
ii. 52

.Syleus, legend of, i. 398

Sympathetic eating. Savage belief that
a man acquires the character of the
animal or man whose flesh he eats,
ii. 85-89

magic, i. 9- 1 2

Syria, caterpillars in, ii. 132

Taboo, i. 121, 178; fatal effects of, i.
167-170; seclusion of tabooed persons,
i. 170, 171 ; the object of, is to pre-
serve life, i. 149 ; royal and priestly
taboos, i. 109-120, 149-150, 209

Tabor, in Bohemia, ceremony of carrying
out Death in, i. 258

Tahiti, abdication of kings of, i. 120;
the bodies of the king and queen not
allowed to be touched, i. 172 ; super-
stition concerning the head in, i. 190,
191 ; burying of cut hair in, i. 200

Taif, hair cut on returning from a
journey in, i. 194

Tamaniu, the, of the Bank Islanders,

ii- 33 1 > 332

Tana, disposal of unconsumed food by
the islanders, i. 166; offerings of first-
fruits in, ii. 378

Tarnow, reaping custom in, i. 335

Tartar Khan, ceremony on a visit by a
stranger to a, i. 158, 159

poems, the external soul in, ii.

321-324

Ta-ta-thi tribe of New South Wales,

rain-making by the, i. 14
Ta-uz, festival in honour of, i. 283,

284
Temporary kings, i. 228 - 234 ; some-
times hereditary, i. 22S, 232
Tenedos, rites of Dionysus at, i. 329
Tenimber Islands, offering of first-fruits

in the, ii. 376, 377
Teutonic kings exercised the powers of

high priests, i. 8
Texas, initiatory ceremony among the

Toukaway Indians of, ii. 352
Thammuz as a corn-spirit, i. 283, 288
Thann, May-Day customs in, i. 83
Theban ritual, ii. 92, 93 ; rams sacred

at Thelies, ii. 63
Thesmophoria, the, ii. 44-48
Thlinket of Alaska, festival to the

halibut by the, ii. 1 21
Thiiringen, Whitsuntide customs in, i.

90, 91, 243 ; Mid-Lent customs in, i.

257, 258 ; threshing custom in, i. 371
Tibetan New Year's day custom, ii.

I93-I95 ; scapegoat, ii. 197-198
Tiger, flesh of, eaten, ii. 86 ; reluctance

to wound a, ii. no
Tikopia islanders, ceremony by the, in

cases of epidemic, ii. 188
Tillot, threshing custom in the canton

of, i. 372
Timor, West, custom of a speaker in, i.

.163

Timorese rain-charm, i. 18

Timorlaut, married men not allowed to
cut their hair in, i. 194 ; disease-
boats in, ii. 186, 187

Tjumba, harvest festival in, ii. 375,
376

Todas, the dairy a sanctuary amongst
the, i. 41 ; buffalo held sacred by
the, ii. 136, 137

Tom-cat, ii. Ii

Tona, the, of the Zapotecs, ii. 332, 333

Tonga, king of, not seen eating, i. 162 ;
ceremony in, with regard to sacred
contagion, ii. 55 ; festival of the first-
fruits in, ii. 379-381

Tongues of birds given to backward
children to eat, ii. 87

Tonquin, the test of a suitable sacrifi-
cial victim in, i. 36 ; selection of
guardian spirits in, i. 40 ; the mon-
archy, i. 119, 120 ; kings not allowed
to be viewed in public, i. 165 ; mode
of royal executions in, i. 180, 181 ;
expulsionof evil spirits in, ii. 176-178;
time of licence in, ii. 204

Toothache cure, ii. 149

Torchlight processions, ii. 266, 273

Totem, a, is an object (animal, plant.

4o6

INDEX

etc. ) in which a man deposits his soul
for safety, ii. 337-342

Totemism, ii. 38, 53, 54, 56, 133, 337-
342, 358, 359

Totems, sex, ii. 334

Touaregs of the Sahara, custom of veil-
ing the face amongst the, i. 163

Transmigration of divine spirit, i. 42-44

Transylvania, rain-charm in, i. 17 ;
burying the carnival amongst the
Saxons of, i. 255; "carrying out
Death " in, i. 265, 266 ; corn-drench-
ing in, i. 286 ; custom for preserving
the crops from insects, etc. in, ii. 130

Transylvanian story of a soul, i. 126, 127

Traunstein district, harvest custom in
the, ii. 27

Travancore, transference of sickness in,
ii. 151

Travel, purification after, i. 157, 158

Tree-spirit represented by leaf-clad per-
sons alone, i. 87-90 ; killing the, i.
240-253 ; reason for annually killing
the, i. 247-249 ; the goat as an em-
bodiment of the, ii. 34-37 ; burnt in
effigy, ii. 274-277 ; human beings
burnt as representatives of the, ii.
277-285

spirits give rain and sunshine, i.

66 ; cause the crops to grow, i. 67-
70 ; influence of, on women and
cattle, i. 70-74

worship, i. 56-9S ; in antiquity,

98-108

Trees, bleeding, i. 61 ; souls of, i. 59-
61 ; souls of the dead believed to
animate, i. 62 ; inhabited by spirits,
i. 62-65 ; planted at the births of
children, ii. 329, 330 ; regarded as
storehouses of the sun's fire, ii. 369
sq.

— — and cattle, i. 72 sq.

Trier, harvest custom in, ii. 6

Tukaitawa and his shadow, i. 142, 143

Turks, parings from the nails preserved
by the, i. 204 ; Turks of Central
Asia give backward children tongues
of birds to eat, ii. 87

Turner's picture of the Golden Bough,
i. I

Turtle, the, not eaten, i. 163 ; sacrifice
of the sacred, ii. 95-99 ; belief in the
transmigration of human souls into,
ii. 98, 99

Twelfth Day customs, ii. 143, 144, 182

Tycoons, the, i. 1 19

Types, two, of animal worship, ii. 133,

134

Typhon, ii. 57-60

Tyrol, expulsion of witches in the, i.
181, 182; witches said to make use

of the hair cut in the, i. 199 ; midsum-
mer customs in the, ii. 267

Ualaroi, ceremony at initiatory rites

in, ii. 344
Uapes of Brazil, treatment of girls at

the age of puberty in, ii. 334
Udvarhely, harvest home in, i. 370,

371 ; ceremony with the last sheaf

in, ii. 9, 48
Uea, power ascribed to the souls of the

dead in, i. 132
Uelzen, harvest ceremony in, ii. 13
Uganda, custom of burning the king's

brothers in, i. 181 ; king of, and his

courtiers, i. 222
Ugi, dread of women's blood in, i. 186 ;

burying of cut hair in, i. 202
Uliase, sprinkling the sick with spices

in, i. 154
Unyoro, kings killed in, i. 218
Upsala, sacred grove at, i. 58
Utch Kurgan, sin eating in, ii. 156,

157

Val di Ledro, fire festival in, ii. 251

Vate, burying alive at, i. 217

Vegetation, spirit of, in human shape,
i. 87, 88 ; slain at midsummer, i.
274, 275

Veihng, i. 162, 163

Venison not eaten, ii. 86, 87

Vermin, respect shown by primitive
people for, ii. 129-132

Vestal fire, i. 5

virgins, hair of, i. 200

Victoria, Queen, worshipped by a sect
in Orissa, i. 41

Vine, not to walk under a, i. 183 ;
sacred to Dionysus, i. 321

Vintage, Phoenician custom at, i. 365

Virbius, legend of, i. 6 ; possible ex-
planation of his relation to the
Arician Diana, i. 362 ; and the horse,
ii. 62-67 ; reason why he was con-
founded with the sun, ii. 369

Volders, threshing custom at, i. 374

Vorarlberg, fire festival at, ii. 248

Vosges Mountains, May Day customs in
the, i. 76

Wadai, veiling of the Sultan of, i. 163 ;

he must have no bodily defect, i. 221
Waganda, worship in, i. 45
Walber, the, i. 84, 86
Wallachia, corn-drenching in, i. 286
Wanika, the, believers in the souls of

trees, i. 59 ; do not shed the blood of

animals, i. 182
Wanyoro, secretion of cut hair and

nails by the, i. 203

INDEX

407

Wanzleben, harvest custom in, ii. 5

Warts, cure for, ii. 153

Warua, the, not seen eating, i. 160,

161
Wa-teita, the, their reluctance to be

photographed, i. 148
Water, kings of, i. 53-56
fairy, EngUsh superstition re-
garding the, i. 146
WatjobaUik, the, and the bat, ii. 334
Weather kings, i. 44-46

omens, ii. 270, 271

Weevil, the, ii. 129, 130
Weiden, harvest custom in, i. 338
Welsh custom of sin eating, ii. 154, 155
Wends dancing round the oak-tree, i.

72
Wermland, custom among the threshers

in, i. 378 ; ceremony with regard to

the last sheaf in, ii. 68
West African rain-makers, i. 20
Westerhiisen, reaping custom in, i. 334
Westphalia, Whitsuntide customs in, i.

98 ; harvest custom in, i. 336 ; ii. 8,

9

Wetar, men injured by attacking their
shadows in, i. 142 ; superstition con-
cerning the blood of women in, i. 187;
opinion of the inhabitants as to their
descent, ii. 53

Wheat -bride, a name given to the
binder of the last sheaf, i. 346

dog, a name given to the binder

of the last sheaf, ii. 4

^Vhite dog, sacrifice of the, ii. 166

mice spared, ii. 131, 132

Whitsuntide basket, i. 89

bride, i. 98

customs, i. 76, 77, 80, 87, 88, 90-

96, 98, 242, 243-247

flower, i. 88

king, i. 90

queen, i. 93

Wiedingharde, threshing custom in, i.

Wild man, 1. 243, 244, 248, 250, 270 ;

ii. 41
Wind, buying and selling, i. 27 ;_ fight-
ing the, i. 28-30 ; wind-making, i.

26, 27
Wine the blood of the vine, i. 184,

185 ; abstention from, ib.
Winenthal, midsummer fire ceremony

in the, ii. 259, 260
Witchcraft, protection against, ii. 361,

362
Witches, expulsion of, ii. 181
Wolf, the corn-spirit as a, ii. 3-7 _
Wolfeck, midsummer bonfire in, ii.

277

Women, superstition concerning the

blood of, i. 185-187

secluded, ii. 238-242

and tree-spirits, i. 70-74

Wotjaks, sacred groves of the, i. 65 ;

driving out Satan by the, ii. 179,

180
Wren, hunting the, ii. 140 - 144 ;

English tradition concerning the

hunting of the, ii. 140, 141
Wurmlingen, Whit Monday custom in,

i. 242, 243 ; threshing custom in, ii.

21

Yakut charm for making wind, i. 26 ;

sacrifices, i. 36
Yawning, Hindoo custom when, i. 123
Yarilo, funeral of, i. 273
Yorkshire custom of the clergyman

cutting the first corn, ii. 71
Yoruba, precautions against strangers

in, i. 151
Yucutan charm for staying the sun, i.

25 ; New Year's festival, ii. 272,

273
Yule boar, ii. 29-32, 48
straw, ii. 30, 31

Zabern, May Day custom in, i. 77 ;

harvest custom in, ii. 18
Zacynthus, strength thought to be in the

hair by the people of, ii. 328
Zafimanelo, the, not seen eating, i. 160
Zaparo Indians of South America,

foods eaten and avoided by the, ii.

86
Zapotecs, high pontiff of the, i. 113,

114; ii. 224; harvest custom, i.

352, 353 ; the tona of the, ii. 332
Zealand, custom at the madder harvest

in, i. 378, 379
Zend Avesta, directions by the, concern-
ing the clippings of hair and nails, i.

202
Zeus, a man's shadow lost on entering

the sanctuary of, i. 143 ; represented

by an oak at Dodona, ii. 291
and Hera, representation of the

marriage of, i. 103
Zoolas, qualities required for the king

of the, i. 219
Zulu rain -charm, i. 19; belief in the

reflection as the soul, i. 145 ; kings

put to death, i. 218, 219 ; custom in

time of disease, ii. 86 ; cannibalism,

ii. 89 ; girls secluded at puberty, ii.

226 ; the Ihlozi of the, ii. 332
Zuni sacrifice of the turtle, ii. 95-99 ;

totem clans, ii. 99
Ziirich, fire festival in, ii. 250, 251

Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.

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The golden bough; a study in comparative

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