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

751

Relations des Jésuites, 1634, p. 25 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858); A. Mackenzie, Voyages through the Continent of America (London, 1801), p. civ.; J. Dunn, History of the Oregon Territory (London, 1844), p. 99; F. Whymper, in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, xxxviii. (1868) p. 228; id., in Transactions of the Ethnological Society, N.S., vii. (1869) p. 174; A. P. Reid, “Religious Belief of the Ojibois Indians,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, iii. (1874) p. 111; Fr. Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1888), p. 596; id., “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, xv. (1901) p. 123; E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1899) pp. 438 sq. For more examples see above, pp. 225, 238 sqq., 242 sq., 246. After a meal the Indians of Costa Rica gather all the bones carefully and either burn them or put them out of reach of the dogs. See W. M. Gabb, On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica (read before the American Philosophical Society, 20th Aug. 1875), p. 520 (Philadelphia, 1875). The custom of burning the bones to prevent the dogs getting them does not necessarily contradict the view suggested in the text. It may be a way of transmitting the bones to the spirit-land. The aborigines of Australia burn the bones of the animals which they eat, but for a different reason; they think that if an enemy got hold of the bones and burned them with charms, it would cause the death of the person who had eaten the animal (Native Tribes of South Australia, Adelaide, 1879, pp. 24, 196).

752

See Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 279 sqq.

753

A. de Herrera, General History of the vast Continent and Islands of America, translated by Capt. John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), iv. 126.

754

Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia (London, 1899), p. 475.

755

For this suggestion I am indebted to a hint thrown out in conversation by my friend Professor G. F. Stout.

756

See The Dying God, p. 1.

757

The principle of the conservation of energy is clearly stated and illustrated by Balfour Stewart in his book The Conservation of Energy, Fourth Edition (London, 1877). The writer does not countenance the view that life is a form of energy distinct from and independent of physical and chemical forces; he regards a living being simply as a very delicately constructed machine in which the natural forces are in a state of unstable equilibrium. To avoid misapprehension it may be well to add that I do not pretend to argue either for or against the theory of life which appears to be implicitly adopted by the savage; my aim is simply to explain, not to justify or condemn, the mental attitude of primitive man towards these profound problems.

758

W. Mannhardt, Germanische Mythen (Berlin, 1858), pp. 57-74; id., Baumkultus, p. 116; C. L. Rochholz, Deutscher Glaube und Brauch (Berlin, 1867), i. 219 sqq.; J. Curtin, Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland (London, n. d.), pp. 45 sq.; E. Cosquin, Contes populaires de Lorraine (Paris, n. d.), ii. 25; E. S. Hartland, “The Physicians of Myddfai,” Archaeological Review, i. (1888) pp. 30 sq. In folk-tales, as in primitive custom, the blood is sometimes not allowed to fall on the ground. See E. Cosquin, l. c.

759

W. Mannhardt, Germanische Mythen, p. 66.

760

Jamblichus, Vita Pythag. 92, 135, 140; Porphyry, Vita Pythag. 28.

761

Pindar, Olymp. i. 37 sqq., with the Scholiast.

762

Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxviii. 34.

763

Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 18. This is one of the sacred stories which the pious Herodotus (ii. 48) concealed and the pious Plutarch divulged.

764

Adam Hodgson, Letters from North America (London, 1824), i. 244.

765

J. Adair, History of the American Indians (London, 1775), pp. 137 sq. This writer, animated by a curious though not uncommon passion for discovering the ten lost tribes of Israel, imagined that he detected the missing Hebrews disguised under the red skins and beardless faces of the American Indians.

766

É. Petitot, Monographie des Dènè-Dindjie (Paris, 1867), pp. 77, 81 sq.; id., Traditions indiennes du Canada Nord-ouest (Paris, 1886), pp. 132 sqq., compare pp. 41, 76, 213, 264. The story is told in a briefer form, though without any reference to the custom, by another French missionary. See the letter of Mgr. Tache, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xxiv. (1852) pp. 336 sq.

767

The first part of this suggestion is due to my friend W. Robertson Smith. See his Lectures on the Religion of the Semites2 (London, 1894), p. 380, note 1. The Faleshas, a Jewish sect of Abyssinia, after killing an animal for food, “carefully remove the vein from the thighs with its surrounding flesh.” See Halévy, “Travels in Abyssinia,” in Publications of the Society of Hebrew Literature, Second Series, vol. ii. p. 220. Caffre men will not eat the sinew of the thigh; “it is carefully cut out and sent to the principal boy at the kraal, who with his companions consider it as their right.” See Col. Maclean, Kafir Laws and Customs (Cape Town, 1866), p. 151. Gallas who pride themselves on their descent will not eat the flesh of the biceps; the reasons assigned for the custom are inconsistent and unsatisfactory. See Ph. Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas: die materielle Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl (Berlin, 1893), p. 154. When the Bushmen kill a hare, they cut out a sinew of the thigh and will not eat it, alleging as their reason that the hare was once a man, and that this particular sinew is still human flesh. See W. H. I. Bleek and L. C. Lloyd. Specimens of Bushman Folklore (London, 1911), pp. xxxix., 60 sq., 63.

768

J. Mooney, “Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees,” Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1891), p. 323. Compare id., “Myths of the Cherokee,” Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1900) pp. 267, 447. In the last of these passages the writer quotes Buttrick, Antiquities, p. 12, as follows: “The Indians never used to eat a certain sinew in the thigh… Some say that if they eat of the sinew they will have cramp in it on attempting to run. It is said that once a woman had cramp in that sinew, and therefore none must eat it.”

769

See above, pp. 138 sqq.

770

É. Aymonier, Notes sur le Laos (Saigon, 1885), p. 23.

771

E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1899) p. 423.

772

Rev. J. Batchelor, The Ainu and their Folk-lore (London, 1901), p. 504.

773

L. von Schrenck, Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande, iii. 546.

774

P. S. Pallas, Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs (St. Petersburg, 1771-1776), iii. 70.

775

Rev. J. Macdonald, Light in Africa, Second Edition (London, 1890), p. 171.

776

J. Teit, The Thompson Indians cf British Columbia, p. 317 (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, April, 1900).

777

So among the Esquimaux of Bering Strait a girl at puberty is considered unclean. “A peculiar atmosphere is supposed to surround her at this time, and if a young man should come near enough for it to touch him it would render him visible to every animal he might hunt, so that his success as a hunter would be gone.” See E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1899) p. 291.

778

P. Dobell, Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia (London, 1830), i. 19.

779

Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” Third Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1884), pp. 289 sq.

780

J. G. Kohl, Kitschi-Gami (Bremen, 1859), ii. 251 sq.; Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, v. 173; Chateaubriand, Voyage en Amérique, pp. 179 sq., 184.

781

For examples of the incident, see J. F. Bladé, Contes populaires recueillis en Agenais (Paris, 1874), pp. 12, 14; G. W. Dasent, Popular Tales from the Norse (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 133 sq. (“Shortshanks”); Aug. Schleicher, Litauische Märchen (Weimar, 1857), p. 58; Sepp, Altbayerischer Sagenschatz (Munich, 1876), p. 114; R. Köhler, on L. Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen (Leipsic, 1870), ii. 230; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, iii. 13. 3; Schol. on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonaut. i. 517; W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und Feldkulte, p. 53; J. C. Poestion, Lappländische Märchen (Vienna, 1876), pp. 231 sq.; A. F. Chamberlain, in Eighth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 35 (separate reprint from the Report of the British Association for 1892); I. V. Zingerle, Kinder und Hausmärchen aus Tirol2 (Gera, 1870), No. 25, p. 127; A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche (Leipsic, 1848), p. 342; S. Grundtvig, Dänische Volksmärchen, übersetzt von W. Leo (Leipsic, 1878), p. 289; A. Leskien und K. Brugmann, Litauische Volkslieder und Märchen (Strasburg, 1882), pp. 405 sq., 409 sq.; A. und A. Schott, Walachische Maerchen (Stuttgart and Tübingen), No. 10, p. 142; Chr. Schneller, Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol (Innsbruck, 1867), No. 39, pp. 116 sq.; G. Basile, Pentamerone, übertragen von F. Liebrecht (Breslau, 1846), i. 99; P. Sébillot, Contes Populaires de la Haute-Bretagne (Paris, 1885), No. 11, p. 80; E. Cosquin, Contes Populaires de Lorraine (Paris, n. d.), i. p. 61; J. Haltrich, Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen4 (Vienna and Hermannstadt, 1885), No. 24, pp. 104 sqq.; Grimm, Household Tales, No. 60. The incident often occurs in the type of tale analysed by Mr. E. S. Hartland in his Legend of Perseus (vol. i. pp. 12, 17, 18, etc.; vol. iii. pp. 6, 7, 8, etc.).

782

Fr. Boas, in Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 58 (separate reprint from the Report of the British Association for 1889); id., in Journal of American Folk-lore, i. (1888) p. 218.

783

See W. H. Dall, “Masks and Labrets,” Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1884), pp. 111 sq. Compare id., Alaska and its Resources (London, 1870), p. 425; Ivan Petroff, Report on the Population, Industries, and Resources of Alaska, p. 176.

784

Ph. Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas: die Geistige Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl (Berlin, 1896), p. 47.

785

Ph. Paulitschke, op. cit. p. 156; id., Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas: die materielle Cultur, etc. (Berlin, 1893), p. 226.

786

J. V. Grohmann, Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 54, § 354.

787

L. Strackerjan, Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg (Oldenburg, 1867), ii. 94, § 381; E. Monseur, in Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, xxxi. (1895) pp. 297 sq.

788

J. V. Grohmann, op. cit. p. 81, § 576.

789

Homer, Od. iii. 332, 341.

790

Scholiast on Aristophanes, Plutus, 1110; Athenaeus, i. 28, p. 16 b; Paroemiographi Graeci, ed. Leutsch et Schneidewin, i. 415, No. 100.

791

See further H. Gaidoz, “Les Langues coupées,” Mélusine, iii. (1886-87) coll. 303-307; E. Monseur, loc. cit.

792

T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, Relation d'un Voyage d'Exploration au Nord-est de la Colonie du Cap de Bonne-Espérance (Paris, 1842), pp. 562-564.

793

Rev. J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 60. This custom appears not to be mentioned by the writer in his book The Baganda (London, 1911).

794

A. Oldfield, “On the Aborigines of Australia,” Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, N.S. iii. (1865) p. 287.

795

E. M. Curr, The Australian Race (Melbourne and London, 1886), i. 348, 381.

796

R. Southey, History of Brazil, vol. i. Second Edition (London, 1822), p. 231.

797

E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, part i. (Washington, 1899) p. 423.

798

Rev. S. Mateer, The Land of Charity (London, 1871), pp. 203 sq.

799

Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, “A Study of Siouan Cults,” Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1894), p. 420.

800

C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia (London, 1911), p. 126.

801

J. B. Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat, vii. Heft 2 (Dorpat, 1872), p. 105 note.

802

G. A. Heinrich, Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen Siebenbürgens (Hermannstadt, 1880), pp. 15 sq.

803

R. F. Kaindl, Die Huzulen (Vienna, 1894), pp. 79, 103; id., “Viehzucht und Viehzauber in den Ostkarpaten,” Globus, lxix. (1906) p. 387.

804

E. Krause, “Abergläubische Kuren und sonstiger Aberglaube in Berlin,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xv. (1883) p. 93.

805

L. Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa (London, 1898), p. 160.

806

Vetter, “Aberglaube unter dem Jabim-Stamme in Kaiser-Wilhelmsland,” Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena, xii. (1893) pp. 95 sq.

807

E. Modigliani, Un Viaggio a Nías (Milan, 1890), p. 626.

808

W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), ii. 303.

809

M. Merker, “Rechtsverhältnisse und Sitten der Wadschagga,” Petermanns Mitteilungen, Ergänzungsheft No. 113 (Gotha, 1902), pp. 35 sq.

810

Rev. H. Cole, “Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 320.

811

Geoponica, xiii. 5. According to the commentator, the field assigned to the mice is a neighbour's, but it may be a patch of waste ground on the farmer's own land. The charm is said to have been employed formerly in the neighbourhood of Paris (A. de Nore, Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France, Paris and Lyons, 1846, p. 383).

812

A. Meyrac, Traditions, Coutumes, Légendes et Contes des Ardennes (Charleville, 1890), p. 176.

813

American Journal of Folk-lore, xi. (1898) p. 161.

814

G. Maan, “Eenige mededeelingen omtrent de zeden en gewoonten der Toerateya ten opzichte van den rijstbouw,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xlvi. (1903) pp. 329 sq.

815

Rev. J. Batchelor, The Ainu and their Folk-lore (London, 1901), p. 509.

816

R. van Eck, “Schetsen van het eiland Bali,” Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië, N.S., viii. (1879) p. 125.

817

J. L. van Gennep, “Bijdrage tot de kennis van den Kangean-Archipel,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, xlvi. (1896) p. 101.

818

C. Hose and W. McDougall, “The Relations between Men and Animals in Sarawak” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxi. (1901) pp. 198 sq.

819

J. V. Grohmann, Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 60, § 405.

820

J. G. von Hahn, Albanesische Studien (Jena, 1854), Heft i. p. 157.

821

Lagarde, Reliquiae juris ecclesiastici antiquissimae, p. 135. For this passage I am indebted to my late friend W. Robertson Smith, who kindly translated it for me from the Syriac. It occurs in the Canons of Jacob of Edessa, of which a German translation has been published by C. Kayser (Die Canones Jacob's von Edessa übersetzt und erläutert, Leipsic, 1886; see pp. 25 sq.).

822

W. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People (London, 1872), p. 255.

823

Dudley Kidd, Savage Childhood, a Study of Kafir Children (London, 1906), p. 292.

824

H. A. Junod, Les Ba-ronga (Neuchatel, 1898), pp. 419 sq. As to the rain-making ceremony among the Baronga, see The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 267 sq.

825

J. Malalas, Chronographia, ed. L. Dindorf (Bonn, 1831), p. 264.

826

D. Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages (London, 1895), p. 265. I have to thank Mr. J. D. May of Merton College, Oxford, for this and the following references to Comparetti's book.

827

D. Comparetti, op. cit. pp. 259, 293, 341.

828

E. Doutté, Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord (Algiers, 1908), p. 144.

829

Encyclopaedia Biblica, iv. (London, 1903) col. 4395.

830

Grégoire de Tours, Histoire Ecclésiastique des Francs, traduction de M. Guizot, Nouvelle Édition (Paris, 1874), viii. 33, vol. i. p. 514. For some stories of the same sort, see J. B. Thiers, Traité des Superstitions (Paris, 1679), pp. 306-308.

831

1 Samuel vi. 4-18. The passage in which the plague of mice is definitely described has been omitted in the existing Hebrew text, but is preserved in the Septuagint (1 Samuel v. 6, καὶ μέσον τῆς χώρας αὐτῆς ἀνεφύησαν μύες). See Dean Kirkpatrick's note on 1 Samuel v. 6 (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges).

832

Numbers xxi. 6-9.

833

Homer, Iliad, i. 39, with the Scholia and the comment of Eustathius; Strabo, xiii. 1. 48 and 63; Aelian, Nat. Anim. xii. 5; Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii. 39, p. 34, ed. Potter; Pausanias, x. 12. 5.

834

Strabo, xiii. 1. 64; Pausanias, i. 24. 8.

835

Strabo, xiii. 1. 64; Eustathius, on Homer, Iliad, i. 39, p. 34; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 609 (vol. ii. p. 386).

836

Strabo and Eustathius, ll.cc.

837

Professor W. Ridgeway has pointed out that the epithet Bassareus applied to Dionysus (Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 30) appears to be derived from bassara, “a fox.” See J. Tzetzes, Schol. on Lycophron, 771; W. Ridgeway, in The Classical Review, x. (1896) pp. 21 sqq.; S. Reinach, Cultes, Mythes, et Religions, ii. (Paris, 1906) pp. 106 sqq.

838

Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 75; Pausanias, v. 14. 1, viii. 26. 7; Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii. 38, p. 33, ed. Potter.

839

Robigo or personified as Robigus. See Varro, Rerum rusticarum, i. 1. 6; id., De lingua latina, vi. 16; Ovid, Fasti, iv. 905 sqq.; Tertullian, De spectaculis, 5; Augustine, De civitate Dei, iv. 21; Lactantius, Divin. Instit. i. 20; L. Preller, Römische Mythologie3 (Berlin, 1881-1883), ii. 43 sqq.; W. Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1899), pp. 88 sqq.

840

Aristotle, Hist. Anim. vi. 37, p. 580 b 15 sqq.; Aelian, Nat. Anim. xvii. 41; W. Warde Fowler, in The Classical Review vi. (1892) p. 413. In Laos, a province of Siam, the ravages committed by rats are terrible. From time to time whole armies of these destructive rodents appear and march across the country in dense columns and serried ranks, devouring everything as they go, and leaving famine, with all its horrors, in their train. See Lieut. – Col. Tournier, Notice sur le Laos Français (Hanoi, 1900), pp. 104, 135. So in Burma, the rats multiply in some years to such an extent that they cause a famine by destroying whole crops and granaries. See Max and Bertha Ferrars, Burma (London, 1900), pp. 149 sq.

841

Polemo, cited by a scholiast on Homer, Iliad, i. 39 (ed. Im. Bekker). Compare Eustathius on Homer, Iliad, i. 39.

842

Aelian, Nat. Anim. xii. 5.

843

Aelian, l. c.

844

See above, p. 279.

845

E. Aymonier, “Les Tchames et leurs religions,” Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, xxiv. (1891) p. 236.

846

Λύκειος or Λύκιος, Pausanias, i. 19. 3 (with my note), ii. 9. 7, ii. 19. 3, viii. 40. 5; Lucian, Anacharsis, 7; Im. Bekker, Anecdota Graeca (Berlin, 1814-1821), i. 277, lines 10 sq.

847

Pausanias, ii. 9. 7; Scholiast on Demosthenes, xxiv. 114, p. 736.

848

Sophocles, Electra, 6.

849

Scholiast on Demosthenes, xxiv. 114, p. 736.