The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2)

1246

W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 39.

1247

W. Mannhardt, Myth. Forsch. p. 39 sq.

1248

Ib. p. 40. For the speeches made by the woman who binds the stranger or the master, see ib. p. 41; Lemke, Volksthümliches in Ostpreussen, i. 23 sq.

1249

W. Mannhardt, Myth. Forsch. p. 41 sq.

1250

W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 42.

1251

Ib. p. 42. See above, p. 343. In Thüringen a being called the Rush-cutter used to be much dreaded. On the morning of St. John's Day he was wont to walk through the fields with sickles tied to his ankles cutting avenues in the corn as he walked. To detect him, seven bundles of brushwood were silently threshed with the flail on the threshing-floor, and the stranger who appeared at the door of the barn during the threshing was the Rush-cutter. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen, p. 221. With the Binsenschneider compare the Bilschneider. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, ii. 210 sq.

1252

W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 47 sq.

1253

Ib. p. 48. To prevent a rationalistic explanation of this custom, which, like most rationalistic explanations of folk-custom, would be wrong, it may be pointed out that a little of the crop is sometimes left on the field for the spirit under other names than “the Poor Old Woman.” Thus in a village of the Tilsit district, the last sheaf was left standing on the field “for the Old Rye-woman.” M. F. p. 337. In Neftenbach (Canton of Zürich) the first three ears of corn reaped are thrown away on the field “to satisfy the Corn-mother and to make the next year's crop abundant.” Ib. In Thüringen when the after-grass (Grummet) is being got in, a little heap is left lying on the field; it belongs to “the Little Wood-woman” in return for the blessing she has bestowed. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen, p. 224. At Kupferberg, Bavaria, some corn is left standing on the field when the rest has been cut. Of this corn left standing, they say that “it belongs to the Old Woman,” to whom it is dedicated in the following words —

“We give it to the Old Woman;She shall keep it.Next year may she be to usAs kind as this time she has been.”

M. F. p. 337 sq. These last expressions are quite conclusive. See also Mannhardt, Korndämonen, p. 7 sq. In Russia a patch of unreaped corn is left in the field and the ears are knotted together; this is called “the plaiting of the beard of Volos.” “The unreaped patch is looked upon as tabooed; and it is believed that if any one meddles with it he will shrivel up, and become twisted like the interwoven ears.” Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 251. In the North-east of Scotland a few stalks were sometimes left unreaped for the benefit of “the aul' man.” W. Gregor, Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland, p. 182. Here “the aul' man” is probably the equivalent of the Old Man (der Alte) of Germany.

1254

M. F. p. 48.

1255

Ib. p. 48 sq.

1256

Ib. p. 49.

1257

Ib. p. 49 sq.; Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube,2 § 400; Töppen, Aberglaube aus Masuren,2 p. 57.

1258

The explanation of the custom is Mannhardt's. M. F. p. 49.

1259

Odyssey, xvii. 485 sqq. Cp. Plato, Sophist, 216 a.

1260

For throwing him into the water, see p. 374.

1261

Cieza de Leon, Travels, translated by Markham, p. 203 (Hakluyt Society, 1864).

1262

Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique, i. 274; Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 340.

1263

Bastian, Die Culturländer des alten Amerika, ii. 639 (quoting Herrara). See above, p. 307.

1264

E. James, Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, ii. 80 sq.; Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, v. 77 sqq.; De Smet, Voyages aux Montagnes Rocheuses, nouvelle ed. 1873, p. 121 sqq. The accounts by Schoolcraft and De Smet of the sacrifice of the Sioux girl are independent and supplement each other.

1265

Labat, Relation historique de l'Ethiopie occidentale, i. 380.

1266

John Adams, Sketches taken during Ten Voyages in Africa between the years 1786 and 1800, p. 25.

1267

P. Bouche, La Côte des Esclaves, p. 132.

1268

Arbousset et Daumas, Voyage d'exploration au Nord-est de la Colonie du Cap de Bonne-Esperance, p. 117 sq.

1269

Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. No. 721.

1270

Major S. C. Macpherson, Memorials of Service in India, p. 113 sq.; Major-General John Campbell, Wild Tribes of Khondistan, pp. 52-58, etc.

1271

J. Campbell, op. cit. p. 56.

1272

S. C. Macpherson, op. cit. p. 115 sq.

1273

Ib. p. 113.

1274

S. C. Macpherson, op. cit. p. 117 sq.; J. Campbell, p. 112.

1275

S. C. Macpherson, p. 118.

1276

J. Campbell, p. 54.

1277

Ib. pp. 55, 112.

1278

S. C. Macpherson, p. 119; J. Campbell, p. 113.

1279

S. C. Macpherson, p. 127. Instead of the branch of a green tree, Campbell mentions two strong planks or bamboos (p. 57) or a slit bamboo (p. 182).

1280

J. Campbell, pp. 56, 58, 120.

1281

Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p. 288, quoting Colonel Campbell's Report.

1282

J. Campbell, p. 126. The elephant represented the Earth Goddess herself, who was here conceived in elephant-form; Campbell, pp. 51, 126. In the hill tracts of Goomsur she was represented in peacock-form, and the post to which the victim was bound bore the effigy of a peacock, Campbell, p. 54.

1283

S. C. Macpherson, p. 130.

1284

Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p. 288, referring to Colonel Campbell's Report.

1285

S. C. Macpherson, p. 129. Cp. J. Campbell, pp. 55, 58, 113, 121, 187.

1286

J. Campbell, p. 182.

1287

S. C. Macpherson, p. 128; Dalton, l. c.

1288

J. Campbell, pp. 55, 182.

1289

J. Campbell, p. 187.

1290

J. Campbell, p. 112.

1291

S. C. Macpherson, p. 118.

1292

Above, pp. 383, 384.

1293

Above, pp. 334, 335.

1294

Above, pp. 333, 344, 345.

1295

Above, p. 372.

1296

Above, p. 374.

1297

Above, pp. 286 sq., 337, 340, 374.

1298

Above, p. 374.

1299

W. Mannhardt, Korndämonen, p. 5.

1300

Pfannenschmid, Germanische Erntefeste, p. 98.

1301

Above, p. 376 sq.

1302

Above, p. 235.

1303

Above, p. 299.

1304

Above, p. 68.

1305

I do not know when the corn is reaped in Phrygia; but considering the high upland character of the country, harvest is probably later there than on the coasts of the Mediterranean.

1306

Above, p. 364 sq.

1307

Above, p. 365.

1308

Hesychius, s. v. Βῶρμον.

1309

Apollodorus, ii. 6, 3.

1310

The scurrilities exchanged in both ancient and modern times between vine-dressers, vintagers, and passers-by seem to belong to a different category. See W. Mannhardt, Myth. Forsch. p. 53 sq.

1311

Above, p. 282 sqq.

1312

Above, p. 283 sq.

1313

Above, pp. 381, 384, 389.

1314

For this fact of the probable correspondence of the months, which supplies so welcome a confirmation of the conjecture in the text, I am indebted to my friend Professor W. Robertson Smith, who furnishes me with the following note: “In the Syro-Macedonian calendar Lous represents Ab, not Tammuz. Was it different in Babylon? I think it was, and one month different, at least in the early times of the Greek monarchy in Asia. For we know from a Babylonian observation in the Almagest (Ideler, I. 396) that in 229 b. c. Xanthicus began on February 26. It was therefore the month before the equinoctial moon, not Nisan but Adar, and consequently Lous answered to the lunar month Tammuz.”

1315

Above, p. 364.

1316

Apollodorus, ii. 5, 11; Schol. on Apollonius Rhodius, iv. 1396; Plutarch, Parall. 38. Herodotus (ii. 45) discredits the idea that the Egyptians ever offered human sacrifices. But his authority is not to be weighed against that of Manetho (Plutarch, Is. et Os. 73), who affirms that they did.

1317

E. Meyer, Geschichte des Alterthums, i. § 57.

1318

Diodorus, i. 88; Plutarch, Is. et Os. 73; cp. id., 30, 33.

1319

Above, pp. 307, 383, 391.

1320

Festus, s. v. Catularia. Cp. id., s. v. rutilae canes; Columella, x. 343; Ovid, Fasti, iv. 905 sqq.; Pliny, N. H. xviii. § 14.

1321

Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, ii. 207, No. 362; Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern, iii. 343.

1322

Above, pp. 384, 389.

1323

Above, pp. 381, 383.

1324

Plutarch, Is. et Os. 18.

1325

Plutarch, Is. et Os. 22, 30, 31, 33, 73.

1326

Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (ed. 1878), iii. 81.

1327

Pausanias, i. 22, 3, viii. 5, 8, viii. 42, 1

1328

Cornutus, De nat. deor. c. 28.

1329

Hone, Every-day Book, ii. c. 1170 sq.

1330

Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 372 sq., referring to Mrs. Bray's Traditions of Devon, i. 330.

1331

Hone, op. cit. ii. 1172.

1332

Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 20 (Bohn's ed.); Burne and Jackson, op. cit. p. 371.

1333

Burne and Jackson, l. c.

1334

W. Mannhardt, Myth. Forsch. p. 185.

1335

See above, p. 345.

1336

W. Mannhardt, Myth. Forsch. p. 185.

1337

Ib.

1338

Revue des Traditions populaires, ii. 500.

1339

Above, p. 343.

1340

U. Jahn, Die deutschen Opfergebräuche bei Ackerbau und Viehzucht, pp. 166-169; Pfannenschmid, Germanische Erntefeste, p. 104 sq.; Kuhn, Westfälische Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen, ii. Nos. 491, 492; Kuhn und Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche, p. 395, No. 97; Lynker, Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen, p. 256, No. 340.