The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 08 of 12)

217

W. Bartram, Travels, p. 507.

218

So amongst the Cherokees, according to J. H. Payne, an arbour of green boughs was made in the sacred square; then “a beautiful bushy-topped shade-tree was cut down close to the roots, and planted in the very centre of the sacred square. Every man then provided himself with a green bough.”

219

So Adair. Bartram, on the other hand, as we have seen, says that the people provided themselves with new household utensils.

220

B. Hawkins, “Sketch,” etc., p. 76.

221

F. G. Speck, Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians (Philadelphia, 1909), pp. 86-89, 105-107, 112-131.

222

Th. Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, iii. (Leipsic, 1862) p. 42; A. S. Gatschet, A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, i. (Philadelphia, 1884) pp. 66 sqq.; Totemism and Exogamy, iii. 167.

223

C. MacCauley, “Seminole Indians of Florida,” Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1887), pp. 522 sq.

224

That is, the grand chief of the nation. All the chiefs of the Natchez were called Suns and were connected with the head chief or Great Sun, who bore on his breast an image of the sun and claimed to be descended from the luminary. See Bossu, Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes occidentales (Paris, 1768), i. 42.

225

Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, or of the western parts of Virginia and Carolina, translated from the French, New Edition (London, 1774), pp. 338-341. See also J. R. Swanton, Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley (Washington, 1911), pp. 110 sqq., where the passage of Du Pratz is translated in full from the original French. From Mr. Swanton's translation it appears that the English version of Du Pratz, which I have quoted in the text, is a good deal abridged. On the festival of first-fruits among the Natchez see also Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, Nouvelle Édition, vii. (Paris, 1781) p. 19; Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France (Paris, 1744), vi. 183; De Tonti, “Relation de la Louisiane et du Mississippi,” Recueil de Voyages au Nord, v. (Amsterdam, 1734) p. 122; Le Petit, “Relation des Natchez,” ibid. ix. 13 sq. (reprint of the account in the Lettres édifiantes cited above); Bossu, Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes occidentales (Paris, 1768), i. 43. According to Charlevoix, Le Petit, and Bossu the festival fell in July. For Chateaubriand's description of the custom, see below, pp. 135 sqq.

226

C. Hill-Tout, The Far West, the Home of the Salish and Déné (London, 1907), pp. 168-170.

227

J. Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, p. 349 (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, April, 1900).

228

See above, p. 52.

229

See above, pp. 50, 53, 65, 66, 72, 81.

230

See above, pp. 59, 60, 63, 69 sq., 71, 73, 75 sq., 82.

231

Joseph Thomson, Through Masai Land (London, 1885), p. 430; P. Reichard, Deutsch-Ostafrika (Leipsic, 1892), p. 288; O. Baumann, Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle (Berlin, 1894), p. 162; M. Merker, Die Masai (Berlin, 1904), p. 33; M. Weiss, Die Völkerstämme im Norden Deutsch-Ostafrikas (Berlin, 1910), p. 380. However, the motive which underlies the taboo appears to be a fear of injuring by sympathetic magic the cows from which the milk is drawn. See my essay “Folk-lore in the Old Testament,” in Anthropological Essays presented to E. B. Tylor (Oxford, 1907), pp. 164 sq. According to Reichard the warriors may partake of honey both with meat and with milk. Thomson does not mention honey and speaks of a purgative only. The periods during which meat and milk are alternately consumed vary, according to Reichard, from twelve to fifteen days. We may conjecture, therefore, that two of them, making up a complete cycle, correspond to a lunar month, with reference to which the diet is perhaps determined.

232

M. W. H. Beech, The Suk, their Language and Folklore (Oxford, 1911), p. 9. In both cases the motive, as with the Masai, is probably a fear of injuring the cattle, and especially of causing the cows to loose their milk. This is confirmed by other taboos of the same sort observed by the Suk. Thus they think that to eat the flesh of a certain forest pig would cause the cattle of the eater to run dry, and that if a rich man ate fish his cows would give no milk. See M. W. H. Beech, op. cit. p. 10.

233

O. Baumann, Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle (Berlin, 1894), p. 171.

234

Fr. Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1888), p. 595; id., “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. xv. part i. (New York, 1901) pp. 122-124. For more details see Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 208 sqq.

235

Rev. R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), p. 134.

236

Pausanias, v. 13. 3. We may assume, though Pausanias does not expressly say so, that persons who sacrificed to Telephus partook of the sacrifice.

237

Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 576 (vol. ii. p. 267); Ch. Michel, Recueil d'Inscriptions Grecques, No. 723, p. 622. Further, no one who had suffered a domestic bereavement might enter the sanctuary for forty days. Hence the pollution of death was clearly deemed more virulent, or at all events more lasting, than the pollution of food.

238

Diodorus Siculus, v. 62. 5.

239

See above, pp. 51 sq., 54, 58, 60 sq., 64, 74.

240

See below, pp. 109 sqq.

241

J. de Acosta, Natural and Moral History of the Indies, bk. v. ch. 24, vol. ii. pp. 356-360 (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880). I have modernised the old translator's spelling. Acosta's authority, which he followed without acknowledgment, was an anonymous writer of about the middle of the sixteenth century, whose manuscript, written in Spanish, was found in the library of the Franciscan monastery at Mexico in 1856. A French translation of it has been published. See Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l'Origine des Indiens qui habitent la Nouvelle-Espagne selon leurs traditions, publié par D. Charnay (Paris, 1903), pp. 149-154. Acosta's description is followed by A. de Herrera (General History of the vast Continent and Islands of America, translated by Capt. John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), iii. 213-215).

242

The Satapatha-Brâhmana, translated by J. Eggeling, Part i. (Oxford, 1882) p. 51 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xii.).

243

Op. cit. pp. 51 sq., with the translator's note.

244

See above, pp. 73 sqq.

245

Above, p. 68, note 3.

246

H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States (London, 1875-1876), iii. 297-300 (after Torquemada); F. S. Clavigero, History of Mexico, translated by Ch. Cullen (London, 1807), i. 309 sqq.; B. de Sahagun, Histoire générale des choses de la Nouvelle-Espagne, traduite et annotée par D. Jourdanet et R. Siméon (Paris, 1880), pp. 203 sq.; J. G. Müller, Geschichte der amerikanischen Urreligionen (Bâle, 1867), p. 605; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale (Paris, 1857-1859), iii. 531-534.

247

F. S. Clavigero, op. cit. i. 311; B. de Sahagun, op. cit. pp. 74, 156 sq.; J. G. Müller, op. cit. p. 606; H. H. Bancroft, op. cit. iii. 316; Brasseur de Bourbourg, op. cit. iii. 535. This festival took place on the last day of 16th month (which extended from 23rd December to 11th January). At another festival the Mexicans made the semblance of a bone out of paste and ate it sacramentally as the bone of the god. See Sahagun, op. cit. p. 33.

248

Brasseur de Bourbourg, op. cit. iii. 539.

249

G. F. de Oviedo, Histoire du Nicaragua (Paris, 1840), p. 219. Oviedo's account is borrowed by A. de Herrera (General History of the vast Continent and Islands of America, translated by Capt. John Stevens, iii. 301).

250

J. de Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. x. cap. 14, vol. ii. pp. 259 sqq. (Madrid, 1723); Brasseur de Bourbourg, op. cit. iii. 510-512.

251

C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (London, 1903), ii. 166-171. When Mr. Lumholtz revisited the temple in 1898, the idol had disappeared. It has probably been since replaced by another. The custom of abstaining both from salt and from women as a mode of ceremonial purification is common among savage and barbarous peoples. See above, p. 75 (as to the Yuchi Indians), and Totemism and Exogamy, iv. 224 sqq.

252

E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India (Madras, 1909), iv. 357 sq.

253

Graf Paul von Hoensbroech, 14 Jahre Jesuit (Leipsic, 1909-1910), i. 25 sq. The practice was officially sanctioned by a decree of the Inquisition, 29th July 1903.

254

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 22.

255

Festus, ed. C. O. Müller, pp. 128, 129, 145. The reading of the last passage is, however, uncertain (“et Ariciae genus panni fieri; quod manici † appelletur”).

256

Varro, De lingua latina, ix. 61; Arnobius, Adversus nationes, iii. 41; Macrobius, Saturn. i. 7. 35; Festus, p. 128, ed. C. O. Müller. Festus speaks of the mother or grandmother of the larvae; the other writers speak of the mother of the lares.

257

Macrobius, l. c.; Festus, pp. 121, 239, ed. C. O. Müller. The effigies hung up for the slaves were called pilae, not maniae. Pilae was also the name given to the straw-men which were thrown to the bulls to gore in the arena. See Martial, Epigr. ii. 43. 5 sq.; Asconius, In Cornel. p. 55, ed. Kiessling and Schoell.

258

The ancients were at least familiar with the practice of sacrificing images made of dough or other materials as substitutes for the animals themselves. It was a recognised principle that when an animal could not be easily obtained for sacrifice, it was lawful to offer an image of it made of bread or wax. See Servius on Virgil, Aen. ii. 116; compare Pausanias, x. 18. 5. Poor people who could not afford to sacrifice real animals offered dough images of them (Suidas, s. v. βοῦς ἕβδομος; compare Hesychius, s. vv. βοῦς, ἕβδομος βοῦς). Hence bakers made a regular business of baking cakes in the likeness of all the animals which were sacrificed to the gods (Proculus, quoted and emended by Chr. A. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 1079). When Cyzicus was besieged by Mithridates and the people could not procure a black cow to sacrifice at the rites of Persephone, they made a cow of dough and placed it at the altar (Plutarch, Lucullus, 10). In a Boeotian sacrifice to Hercules, in place of the ram which was the proper victim, an apple was regularly substituted, four chips being stuck in it to represent legs and two to represent horns (Julius Pollux, i. 30 sq.). The Athenians are said to have once offered to Hercules a similar substitute for an ox (Zenobius, Cent. v. 22). And the Locrians, being at a loss for an ox to sacrifice, made one out of figs and sticks, and offered it instead of the animal (Zenobius, Cent. v. 5). At the Athenian festival of the Diasia cakes shaped like animals were sacrificed (Schol. on Thucydides, i. 126, p. 36, ed. Didot). We have seen above (p. 25) that the poorer Egyptians offered cakes of dough instead of pigs. The Cheremiss of Russia sometimes offer cakes in the shape of horses instead of the real animals. See P. v. Stenin, “Ein neuer Beitrag zur Ethnographie der Tscheremissen,” Globus, lviii. (1890) pp. 203 sq. Similarly a North-American Indian dreamed that a sacrifice of twenty elans was necessary for the recovery of a sick girl; but the elans could not be procured, and the girl's parents were allowed to sacrifice twenty loaves instead. See Relations des Jésuites, 1636, p. 11 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858).

259

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 55 sqq.

260

L. A. Waddell, The Buddhism of Tibet (London, 1895), pp. 484-486.

261

W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, Second Edition (London, 1832-1836), i. 402.

262

M. J. van Baarda, “Fabelen, Verhalen en Overleveringen der Galelareezen,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, xlv. (1895) p. 539.

263

Rev. R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), p. 275.

264

J. Kubary, “Die Religion der Pelauer,” in A. Bastian's Allerlei aus Volks- und Menschenkunde (Berlin, 1888), i. 9.

265

W. M. Donselaar, “Aanteekeningen over het eiland Saleijer,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, i. (1857) p. 290.

266

Le Comte C. N. de Cardi, “Ju-ju laws and customs in the Niger Delta,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxix. (1899) p. 58.

267

A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast (London, 1894), p. 80.

268

Miss Mary H. Kingsley, Travels in West Africa (London, 1897), p. 473.

269

S. Crowther and J. C. Taylor, The Gospel on the Banks of the Niger (London, 1859), pp. 250 sq.

270

J. Macdonald, “East Central African Customs,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxii. (1893) pp. 114 sq.; id., Myth and Religion (London, 1893), pp. 155 sq. (from MS. notes of Dr. Elmslie).

271

B. Schwarz, Kamerun (Leipsic, 1886), pp. 256 sq.; E. Reclus, Nouvelle Géographie Universelle, xiii. 68 sq.

272

J. Fraser, “The Aborigines of New South Wales,” Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, xvi. (1882) p. 229; A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia (London, 1904), p. 467.

273

This I learned from Dr. Burton Brown (formerly of 3 Via Venti Setembri, Rome), who lived for some time among the Nagas.

274

Strabo, xvii. 1. 23, p. 803; Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 18.

275

Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. p. 39, § 240 (December 1884).

276

Some examples of this vicarious use of images as substitutes for the sick have been given in an earlier part of this work. See Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 62 sq.

277

N. Graafland, De Minahassa, (Rotterdam, 1869), i. 326.

278

P. J. Veth, Borneo's Wester-Afdeeling (Zaltbommel, 1854-56), ii. 309.

279

F. Grabowsky, “Ueber verschiedene weniger bekannte Opfer bei den Oloh Ngadju in Borneo,” Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, i. (1888) pp. 132 sq.

280

E. L. M. Kühr, “Schetsen uit Borneo's Westerafdeeling,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, xlvii. (1897) pp. 60 sq. For another mode in which these same Dyaks seek to heal sickness by means of an image, see Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 55 sq.

281

J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua (The Hague, 1886), p. 465.

282

H. Ling Roth, “Low's Natives of Borneo,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxi. (1892) p. 117.

283

B. Hagen, “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Battareligion,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xxviii. (1883) p. 531.

284

M. Joustra, “Het leven, de zeden en gewoonten der Bataks,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xlvi. (1902) pp. 413 sq.

285

N. Annandale and H. C. Robinson, “Some Preliminary Results of an Expedition to the Malay Peninsula,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 416.

286

Fr. Kramer, “Der Götzendienst der Niasser,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xxxiii. (1890) p. 489.

287

A. Bastian, Die Völkerstämme am Brahmaputra (Berlin, 1883), p. 73.

288

Sarat Chandra Das, Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet (London, 1902), p. 134.

289

Shway Yoe, The Burman (London, 1882), ii. 138.

290

Pallegoix, Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam (Paris, 1854), ii. 48 sq. Compare A. Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asien (Leipsic and Jena, 1866-1871), iii. 293, 486; E. Young, The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe (Westminster, 1898), p. 121.

291

J. Moura, Le Royaume du Cambodge (Paris, 1883), i. 176.

292

A. Woldt, “Die Kultus-Gegenstände der Golden und Giljaken,” Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, i. (1888) pp. 102 sq.

293

J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, vi. (Leyden, 1910) pp. 1103 sq.; for a description of the effigies or “substitutes for a person” see id., vol. v. (Leyden, 1907) p. 920. Can the monkish and clerical tonsure have been originally designed in like manner to let out the evil influence through the top of the head?

294

T. Watters, “Some Corean Customs and Notions,” Folk-lore, vi. (1895) pp. 82 sq.

295

N. v. Seidlitz, “Die Abchasen,” Globus, lxvi. (1894) p. 54.

296

J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stämme (Berlin, 1906), pp. 502-506, 512, 513, 838, 848, 910. It is a disputed point in Ewe theology whether there are many spiritual mothers in heaven or only one. Some say that there are as many spiritual mothers as there are individual men and women; others doubt this and say that there is only one spiritual mother, and that she is the wife of God (Mawu) and gave birth to all spirits that live in heaven, both men and women.

297

G. Binetsch, “Beantwortung mehrerer Fragen über unser Ewe-Volk und seine Anschauungen,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xxxviii. (1906) p. 37.

298

The Illustrated Missionary News, April 1st, 1891, pp. 59 sq.

299

As to the custom see Varro, De lingua latina, v. 45; Ovid, Fasti, v. 621 sqq.; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquit. Roman. i. 38; Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 32 and 86. For various explanations which have been proposed, see L. Preller, Römische Mythologie,3 ii. 134 sqq.; W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und Feldkulte, pp. 265 sqq.; Journal of Philology, xiv. (1885) p. 156 note; R. von Ihering, Vorgeschichte der Indoeuropäer, pp. 430-434; W. Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1899), pp. 111 sqq.; id., The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1911), pp. 54 sq., 321 sqq.; G. Wissowa, Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur römischen Religions- und Stadtgeschichte (Munich, 1904), pp. 211-229. The ceremony was observed on the fifteenth of May.

300

See The Golden Bough, Second Edition, iii. 107.

301

Plutarch, Quaest. Roman. 86.

302

See above, vol. i. pp. 231 sqq.

303

H. Tönjes, Ovamboland, Land, Leute, Mission (Berlin, 1911), p. 195.

304

Rev E. Casalis, The Basutos (London, 1861), pp. 251 sq.

305

Ibid. p. 252.

306

Ibid. pp. 252 sq. In the southern province of Ceylon “the threshers behave as if they were in a temple of the gods when they put the corn into the bags.” See C. J. R. Le Mesurier, “Customs and Superstitions connected with the Cultivation of Rice in the Southern Province of Ceylon,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, N.S. xvii. (1885), p. 371.

307

L. Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa (London, 1898), p. 173.

308

G. McCall Theal, Records of South-Eastern Africa, vii. (1901) p. 397.

309

“Der Muata Cazembe und die Völkerstämme der Maravis, Chevas, Muembas, Lundas und andere von Süd-Afrika,” Zeitschrift für allgemeine Erdkünde (Berlin), vi. (1856) pp. 272, 273.

310

Rev. A. Hetherwick, “Some Animistic Beliefs among the Yaos of British Central Africa,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) pp. 94 sq.

311

Rev. A. Hetherwick, op. cit. pp. 91-94.

312

Dr. J. A. Chisholm, “Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Winamwanga and Wiwa,” Journal of the African Society, vol. ix. No. 36 (July 1910), pp. 366 sq. Among the Winamwanga, as among the Yaos, the human soul or spirit is called muzimu (op. cit. p. 363).

313

C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia (London, 1911), pp. 294 sq.

314

C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 66, 85 sq.

315

Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda (London, 1911), p. 428.

316

Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, lx. (1888) p. 57. The account is extracted from the letter of a Catholic priest, himself a Dinka. The name of God, according to him, is Den-dit, meaning “Great Rain.” The form of the name agrees closely, and the interpretation of it agrees exactly, with the results of Dr. C. G. Seligmann's independent enquiries, according to which the name of the Dinka God is Dengdit, “Great Rain,” the word for rain being deng. See Dr. C. G. Seligmann, in Dr. J. Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, s. v. “Dinka,” vol. iv. (Edinburgh, 1911) p. 707.