The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 03 of 12)

24

W. S. Taberer (Chief Native Commissioner for Mashonaland), “Mashonaland Natives,” Journal of the African Society, No. 15 (April 1905). p. 320.

25

A. van Gennep, Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar (Paris, 1904), p. 113.

26

Father Porte, “Les Reminiscences d'un missionnaire du Basutoland,” Missions Catholiques, xxviii. (1896) p. 235.

27

Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 32.

28

P. J. de Arriaga, Extirpacion de la idolatria del Piru (Lima, 1621), pp. 11, 132.

29

W. Marsden, History of Sumatra (London, 1811), p. 301.

30

A. van Gennep, Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar, p. 113, quoting De Thuy, Étude historique, géographique et ethnographique sur la province de Tuléar, Notes, Rec., Expl., 1899, p. 104.

31

T. C. Hodson, “The genna amongst the Tribes of Assam,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxvi. (1906) p. 98. The word for taboo among these tribes is genna.

32

The Duibhlinn is the part of the Liffey on which Dublin now stands.

33

The site, marked by the remains of some earthen forts, is now known as Rathcroghan, near Belanagare in the county of Roscommon.

34

The Book of Rights, edited with translation and notes by John O'Donovan (Dublin, 1847), pp. 3-8. This work, comprising a list both of the prohibitions (urgharta or geasa) and the prerogatives (buadha) of the Irish kings, is preserved in a number of manuscripts, of which the two oldest date from 1390 and about 1418 respectively. The list is repeated twice, first in prose and then in verse. I have to thank my friend Professor Sir J. Rhys for kindly calling my attention to this interesting record of a long-vanished past in Ireland. As to these taboos, see P. W. Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland, i. 310 sqq.

35

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 418 sqq.

36

Diodorus Siculus, i. 70.

37

G. Maspero, Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient classique, ii. 759, note 3; A. Moret, Du caractère religieux de la royauté Pharaonique (Paris, 1902), pp. 314-318.

38

(Sir) J. G. Scott, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, part ii. vol. i. (Rangoon, 1901) p. 308.

39

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. ii. pp. 191 sq.

40

Among the Gallas the king, who also acts as priest by performing sacrifices, is the only man who is not allowed to fight with weapons; he may not even ward off a blow. See Ph. Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas: die geistige Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl, p. 136.

41

Among the Kafirs of the Hindoo Koosh men who are preparing to be headmen are considered ceremonially pure, and wear a semi-sacred uniform which must not be defiled by coming into contact with dogs. “The Kaneash [persons in this state of ceremonial purity] were nervously afraid of my dogs, which had to be fastened up whenever one of these august personages was seen to approach. The dressing has to be performed with the greatest care, in a place which cannot be defiled with dogs. Utah and another had convenient dressing-rooms on the top of their houses which happened to be high and isolated, but another of the four Kaneash had been compelled to erect a curious-looking square pen made of poles in front of his house, his own roof being a common thoroughfare” (Sir George Scott Robertson, The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush (London, 1898), p. 466).

42

Similarly the Egyptian priests abstained from beans and would not even look at them. See Herodotus, ii. 37, with A. Wiedemann's note; Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 5.

43

Similarly among the Kafirs of the Hindoo Koosh the high priest “may not traverse certain paths which go near the receptacles for the dead, nor may he visit the cemeteries. He may not go into the actual room where a death has occurred until after an effigy has been erected for the deceased. Slaves may cross his threshold, but must not approach the hearth” (Sir George Scott Robertson, op. cit. p. 416).

44

Aulus Gellius, x. 15; Plutarch, Quaest, Rom. 109-112; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxviii. 146; Servius on Virgil, Aen. i. 179, 448, iv. 518; Macrobius, Saturn. i. 16. 8 sq.; Festus, p. 161 a, ed. C. O. Müller. For more details see J. Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii.2 326 sqq.

45

Sir Harry Johnston, Liberia (London, 1906), ii. 1076 sq., quoting from Bishop Payne, who wrote “some fifty years ago.” The Bodia described by Bishop Payne is clearly identical with the Bodio of the Grain Coast who is described by the Rev. J. L. Wilson (Western Africa, pp. 129 sqq.). See below, p. 23; and The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. p. 353. As to the iron ring which the pontiff wears on his ankle as the badge of his office we are told that it “is regarded with as much veneration as the most ancient crown in Europe, and the incumbent suffers as deep disgrace by its removal as any monarch in Europe would by being deprived of his crown” (J. L. Wilson, op. cit. pp. 129 sq.).

46

W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas (London, 1906), pp. 98-103.

47

For restrictions imposed on these lesser milkmen see W. H. R. Rivers, op. cit. pp. 62, 66, 67 sq., 72, 73, 79-81.

48

W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas, pp. 79-81.

49

The Magic Art, vol. ii. p. 4.

50

Id. vol. i. pp. 354 sq.

51

A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste, i. 354 sq., ii. 9, 11.

52

Zweifel et Moustier, “Voyage aux sources du Niger,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), VIme Série, xx. (1880) p. 111.

53

O. Dapper, Description de l'Afrique (Amsterdam, 1686), p. 250.

54

J. Matthews, Voyage to Sierra-Leone (London, 1791), p. 75.

55

T. Winterbottom, Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone (London, 1803), p. 124.

56

The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia, collected and historically digested by F. Balthazar Tellez (London, 1710), pp. 197 sq.

57

Manners and Customs of the Japanese, pp. 199 sqq., 355 sqq.

58

Richard, “History of Tonquin,” in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, ix. 744 sqq.

59

L. A. Waddell, Among the Himalayas (Westminster, 1899), pp. 146 sq.

60

W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, Second Edition (London, 1832-1836), iii. 99 sqq.

61

W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs of the South Pacific, pp. 293 sqq.

62

The late Rev. Lorimer Fison, in a letter to the author, dated August 26, 1898.

63

W. Mariner, An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, Second Edition (London, 1818), ii. 75-79, 132-136.

64

Strabo, vii. 3. 5, pp. 297 sq. Compare id. vii. 3. 11, p. 304.

65

Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, iii. 2. My friend Professor Henry Jackson kindly called my attention to this passage.

66

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. p. 416, and above, p. 6.

67

Miss Mary H. Kingsley in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxix. (1899) pp. 61 sqq. I had some conversation on this subject with Miss Kingsley (1st June 1897) and have embodied the results in the text. Miss Kingsley did not know the rule of succession among the fetish kings.

68

T. J. Hutchinson, Impressions of Western Africa (London, 1858), pp. 101 sq.; Le Comte C. N. de Cardi, “Ju-ju Laws and Customs in the Niger Delta,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxix. (1899) p. 51.

69

H. Goldie, Calabar and its Mission, New Edition (London, 1901), P. 43.

70

J. L. Wilson, Western Africa (London, 1856), p. 129. As to the taboos observed by the Bodio or Bodia see above, p. 15.

71

Miss Mary H. Kingsley, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxix. (1899) p. 62.

72

Marchoux, “Ethnographie, Porto-Novo,” Revue Scientifique, Quatrième Série, iii. (1895) pp. 595 sq. This passage was pointed out to me by Mr. N. W. Thomas.

73

O. von Kotzebue, Entdeckungs-Reise in die Süd-See und nach der Berings-Strasse (Weimar, 1821), iii. 149.

74

J. J. de Hollander, Handleiding bij de Beofening der Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Oost-Indië, ii. 606 sq. In other parts of Timor the spiritual ruler is called Anaha paha or “conjuror of the land.” Compare H. Zondervan, “Timor en de Timoreezen,” Tijdschrift van het Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, Tweede Serie, v. (1888) Afdeeling, mehr uitgebreide artikelen, pp. 400-402.

75

A. C. Haddon, Head-hunters, Black, White, and Brown (London, 1901), pp. 270-272.

76

Dr. Hahl, “Mittheilungen über Sitten und rechtliche Verhältnisse auf Ponape,” Ethnologisches Notizblatt, ii. Heft 2 (Berlin, 1901), pp. 5 sq., 7. The title of the prime-minister is Nanekin.

77

R. Salvado, Mémoires historiques sur l'Australie (Paris, 1854), p. 162; Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vii. (1878) p. 282. In this edifying catechism there is little to choose between the savagery of the white man and the savagery of the black.

78

Relations des Jésuites, 1634, p. 17; id., 1636, p. 104; id., 1639, p. 43 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858).

79

H. Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 36. The Esquimaux of Bering Strait believe that every man has several souls, and that two of these souls are shaped exactly like the body. See E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, part i. (Washington, 1899) p. 422.

80

Fr. Boas, in Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 44 (separate reprint from the Report of the British Association for 1890).

81

Fr. Boas, in Ninth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 461 (Report of the British Association for 1894).

82

W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic (London, 1900), p. 47.

83

G. Maspero, Études de mythologie et d'archéologie égyptiennes (Paris, 1893), i. 388 sq.; A. Wiedemann, The ancient Egyptian Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul (London, 1895), pp. 10 sqq. In Greek works of art, especially vase-paintings, the human soul is sometimes represented as a tiny being in human form, generally winged, sometimes clothed and armed, sometimes naked. See O. Jahn, Archäologische Beiträge (Berlin, 1847), pp. 128 sqq.; E. Pottier, Étude sur les lécythes blancs attiques (Paris, 1883), pp. 75-79; American Journal of Archaeology, ii. (1886) pll. xii., xiii.; O. Kern, in Aus der Anomia, Archäologische Beiträge Carl Robert zur Erinnerung an Berlin dargebracht (Berlin, 1890), pp. 89-95. Greek artists of a later period sometimes portrayed the human soul in the form of a butterfly (O. Jahn, op. cit. pp. 138 sqq.). There was a particular sort of butterfly to which the Greeks gave the name of soul (ψυχή). See Aristotle, Hist. anim. v. 19, p. 550 b 26, p. 551 b 13 sq.; Plutarch, Quaest. conviv. ii. 3. 2.

84

W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs of the South Pacific (London, 1876), p. 171.

85

H. Sundermann, “Die Insel Nias und die Mission daselbst,” Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, Bd. xi. October 1884, p. 453.

86

The late Rev. Lorimer Fison, in a letter to the author, dated November 3, 1898.

87

H. A. Rose, “Note on Female Tattooing in the Panjâb,” Indian Antiquary, xxxi. (1902) p. 298.

88

B. F. Matthes, Over de Bissoes of heidensche priesters en priesteressen der Boeginezen (Amsterdam, 1872), p. 24 (reprinted from the Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Deel vii.).

89

A. C. Haddon, Head-hunters, p. 439.

90

H. Ling Roth, “Low's Natives of Borneo,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxi. (1892) p. 115.

91

A. C. Haddon, Head hunters, pp. 371, 396.

92

H. Candelier, Rio-Hacha et les Indiens Goajires (Paris, 1893), pp. 258 sq.

93

R. Southey, History of Brazil, iii. 396.

94

G. M. Dawson, “On the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands,” Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress for 1878-1879 (Montreal, 1880), pp. 123 B, 139 B.

95

Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. p. 114, § 665.

96

M. Radiguet, Les Derniers Sauvages (Paris, 1882), p. 245; Matthias G – , Lettres sur Iles les Marquises (Paris, 1843), p. 115; Clavel, Les Marquisiens, p. 42 note.

97

Gagnière, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xxxii. (1860) p. 439.

98

F. Blumentritt, “Das Stromgebiet des Rio Grande de Mindano,” Petermanns Mitteilungen, xxxvii. (1891) p. 111.

99

A. d'Orbigny, L'Homme américain, ii. 241; T. J. Hutchinson, “The Chaco Indians,” Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, N.S., iii. (1865) pp. 322 sq.; A. Bastian, Culturländer des alten Amerika, i. 476. A similar custom is observed by the Cayuvava Indians (A. d'Orbigny, op. cit. ii. 257).

100

E. Modigliani, Un Viaggio a Nías (Milan, 1890), p. 283.

101

A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia (London, 1904), p. 473.

102

Fr. Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1888), pp. 613 sq. Among the Esquimaux of Smith Sound male mourners plug up the right nostril and female mourners the left (E. Bessels in American Naturalist, xviii. (1884) p. 877; cp. J. Murdoch, “Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,” Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1892), p. 425). This seems to point to a belief that the soul enters by one nostril and goes out by the other, and that the functions assigned to the right and left nostrils in this respect are reversed in men and women. Among the Esquimaux of Baffin land “the person who prepares a body for burial puts rabbit's fur into his nostrils to prevent the exhalations from entering his own lungs” (Fr. Boas, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, xv. part i. (1901) p. 144). But this would hardly explain the custom of stopping one nostril only.

103

G. F. Lyon, Private Journal (London, 1824), p. 370.

104

B. F. Matthes, Bijdragen tot de Ethnologie van Zuid-Celebes (The Hague, 1875), p. 54.

105

J. L. van der Toorn, “Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer der Padangsche Bovenlanden,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, xxxix. (1890) p. 56.

106

C. Hose and R. Shelford, “Materials for a Study of Tatu in Borneo,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxvi. (1906) p. 65.

107

W. Jochelson, “The Koryak, Religion and Myths” (Leyden and New York, 1905), p. 103 (Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. vi. part i.).

108

W. F. A. Zimmermann, Die Inseln des Indischen und Stillen Meeres (Berlin, 1864-65), ii. 386 sq.

109

Compare τοῦτον κατ᾽ ὤμου δεῖρον ἄχρις ἡ ψυχὴ | αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ χειλέων μοῦνον ἡ κακὴ λειφθῇ, Herodas, Mimiambi, iii. 3 sq.; μόνον οὐκ ἐπὶ τοῖς χείλεσι τὰς ψυχὰς ἕχοντας, Dio Chrysostom, Orat. xxxii. vol. i. p. 417, ed. Dindorf; modern Greek μὲ τὴ ψυχὴ ᾽ς τὰ δόντια, G. F. Abbott, Macedonian Folklore, p. 193 note; “mihi anima in naso esse, stabam tanquam mortuus,” Petronius, Sat. 62; “in primis labris animam habere,” Seneca, Natur. quaest. iii. praef. 16; “Voilà un pauvre malade qui a le feu dans le corps, et l'âme sur le bout des lèvres,” J. de Brebeuf, in Relations des Jésuites, 1636, p. 113 (Canadian reprint); “This posture keeps the weary soul hanging upon the lip; ready to leave the carcass, and yet not suffered to take its wing,” R. Bentley, “Sermon on Popery,” quoted in Monk's Life of Bentley,2 i. 382. In Czech they say of a dying person that his soul is on his tongue (Br. Jelínek, in Mittheilungen der anthropolog. Gesellschaft in Wien, xxi. (1891) p. 22).

110

Compare the Greek ποτάομαι, ἀναπτερόω, etc.

111

K. von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens (Berlin, 1894), pp. 511, 512.

112

Fr. Boas, in Seventh Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, pp. 14 sq. (separate reprint of the Report of the British Association for 1891).

113

R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians, pp. 207 sq.

114

Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 174. Compare Herodotus, iv. 14 sq.; Maximus Tyríus, Dissert. xvi. 2.

115

Br. Jelínek, “Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und Volkskunde Böhmens,” Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, xxi. (1891) p. 22.

116

G. A. Wilken, “Het animisme bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel,” De Indische Gids, June 1884, p. 944.

117

G. A. Wilken, l. c.

118

E. L. M. Kühr, “Schetsen uit Borneo's Westerafdeeling,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie, xlvii. (1897) p. 57.

119

B. F. Matthes, Bijdragen tot de Ethnologie van Zuid-Celebes, p. 33; id., Over de Bissoes of heidensche priesters en priesteressen der Boeginezen, pp. 9 sq.; id., Makassaarsch-Hollandsch Woordenboek, s. vv. Kôerróe and soemāñgá, pp. 41, 569. Of these two words, the former means the sound made in calling fowls, and the latter means the soul. The expression for the ceremonies described in the text is ápakôerróe soemāñgá. So common is the recall of the bird-soul among the Malays that the words koer (kur) semangat (“cluck! cluck! soul!”) often amount to little more than an expression of astonishment, like our “Good gracious me!” See W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 47, note 2.

120

B. F. Matthes, “Over de âdá's of gewoonten der Makassaren en Boegineezen,” Verslagen en Mededeelingen der koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen (Amsterdam), Afdeeling Letterkunde, Reeks iii. Deel ii. (1885) pp. 174 sq.; J. K. Niemann, “De Boegineezen en Makassaren,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, xxxviii.(1889) p. 281.

121

A. C. Kruyt, “Het koppensnellen der Toradja's,” Verslagen en Mededeelingen der koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen (Amsterdam), Afdeeling Letterkunde, Reeks iv. Deel iii. (1899) p. 162.

122

J. L. van der Toorn, “Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer der Padangsche Bovenlanden,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, xxxix. (1890) pp. 56-58. On traces of the bird-soul in Mohammedan popular belief, see I. Goldziher, “Der Seelenvogel im islamischen Volksglauben,” Globus, lxxxiii. (1903) pp. 301-304; and on the soul in bird-form generally, see J. von Negelein, “Seele als Vogel,” Globus, lxxix. (1901) pp. 357-361, 381-384.

123

K. von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens, p. 340; E. F. im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana, pp. 344 sqq.

124

V. Fric, “Eine Pilcomayo-Reise in den Chaco Central,” Globus, lxxxix. (1906) p. 233.

125

Shway Yoe, The Burman, his Life and Notions (London, 1882), ii. 100.

126

R. Andree, Braunschweiger Volkskunde (Brunswick, 1896), p. 266.

127

H. von Wlislocki, Volksglaube und Volksbrauch der Siebenbürger Sachsen (Berlin, 1893), p. 167.

128

J. L. Wilson, Western Africa (London, 1856), p. 220; A. B. Ellis, The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, p. 20.

129

J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, p. 267. For detention of a sleeper's soul by spirits and consequent illness, see also Mason, quoted in A. Bastian's Die Völker des östlichen Asien, ii. 387 note.

130

J. Teit, “The Thompson Indians of British Columbia,” Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. i. part iv. (April 1900) p. 327. The Koryak of North-Eastern Asia also keep awake so long as there is a corpse in the house. See W. Jochelson, “The Koryak, Religion and Myths,” Memoir of the American Museum for Natural History, The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. vi. part i. (Leyden and New York, 1905) p. 110.