The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 11 of 12)

285

Marie Trevelyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales (London, 1909), p. 88.

286

L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden (London, 1870), p. 269.

287

Above, pp. 77, 78.

288

Above, pp. 82, 84.

289

Above, pp. 83, 86.

290

J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 iii. 353, referring to Dybeck, Runa, 1844, p. 22.

291

Marie Trevelyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales (London, 1909), p. 88.

292

See above, p. 86.

293

G. Wahlenberg, Flora Suecica (Upsala, 1824-1826), ii. No. 1143 Viscum album, pp. 649 sq.: “Hab. in sylvarum densiorum et humidiorum arboribus frondosis, ut Pyris, Quercu, Fago etc. per Sueciam temperatiorem passim.”

294

Above, vol. i. pp. 171 sq.

295

L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden (London, 1870), p. 259.

296

J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 iii. 78, who adds, “Mahnen die Johannisfeuer an Baldrs Leichenbrand?” This pregnant hint perhaps contains in germ the solution of the whole myth.

297

Above, vol. i. p. 148.

298

Above, vol. i. p. 186.

299

Above, p. 26.

300

As to the worship of the oak in Europe, see The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 349 sqq. Compare P. Wagler, Die Eiche in alter und neuer Zeit, in two parts (Wurzen, n. d., and Berlin, 1891).

301

Strabo, xii. 5.1, p. 567. The name is a compound of dryu, “oak,” and nemed, “temple” (H. F. Tozer, Selections from Strabo, Oxford, 1893, p. 284). We know from Jerome (Commentar. in Epist. ad Galat. book ii. praef.) that the Galatians retained their native Celtic speech as late as the fourth century of our era.

302

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 365.

303

J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 55 sq., 58 sq., ii. 542, iii. 187 sq.; P. Wagler, Die Eiche in alter und neuer Zeit (Berlin, 1891), pp. 40 sqq.; The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 363 sqq., 371.

304

L. Preller, Römische Mythologie3 (Berlin, 1881-1883), i. 108.

305

Livy, i. 10. Compare C. Bötticher, Der Baumkultus der Hellenen (Berlin, 1856), pp. 133 sq.

306

C. Bötticher, op. cit. pp. 111 sqq.; L. Preller, Griechische Mythologie,4 ed. C. Robert, i. (Berlin, 1894) pp. 122 sqq.; P. Wagler, Die Eiche in alter und neuer Zeit (Berlin, 1891), pp. 2 sqq. It is noteworthy that at Olympia the only wood that might be used in sacrificing to Zeus was the white poplar (Pausanias, v. 14. 2). But it is probable that herein Zeus, who was an intruder at Olympia, merely accepted an old local custom which, long before his arrival, had been observed in the worship of Pelops (Pausanias, v. 13. 3).

307

Without hazarding an opinion on the vexed question of the cradle of the Aryans, I may observe that in various parts of Europe the oak seems to have been formerly more common than it is now. See the evidence collected in The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 349 sqq.

308

However, some exceptions to the rule are recorded. See above, vol. i. pp. 169, 278 (oak and fir), 220 (plane and birch), 281, 283, 286 (limewood), 282 (poplar and fir), 286 (cornel-tree), 291 (birch or other hard wood), 278, 280 (nine kinds of wood). According to Montanus, the need-fire, Easter, and Midsummer fires were kindled by the friction of oak and limewood. See Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbräuche und deutscher Volksglaube (Iserlohn, n. d.), p. 159. But elsewhere (pp. 33 sq., 127) the same writer says that the need-fire and Midsummer fires were produced by the friction of oak and fir-wood.

309

Above, vol. i. p. 177.

310

M. Prätorius, Deliciae Prussicae, herausgegeben von Dr. William Pierson (Berlin, 1871), pp. 19 sq. W. R. S. Ralston says (on what authority I do not know) that if the fire maintained in honour of the Lithuanian god Perkunas went out, it was rekindled by sparks struck from a stone which the image of the god held in his hand (Songs of the Russian People, London, 1872, p. 88).

311

See above, vol. i. pp. 148, 271, 272, 274, 275, 276, 281, 289, 294.

312

Above, vol. i. pp. 148, 155.

313

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 186.

314

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 366. However, sacred fires of other wood than oak are not unknown among Aryan peoples. Thus at Olympia white poplar was the wood burnt in sacrifices to Zeus (above, p. 90 n.1); at Delphi the perpetual fire was fed with pinewood (Plutarch, De EI apud Delphos, 2), and it was over the glowing embers of pinewood that the Soranian Wolves walked at Soracte (above, p. 14).

315

Montanus, Diedeutschen Volksfeste, Volksbräuche und deutscher Volksglaube (Iserlohn, n. d.), pp. 127, 159. The log is called in German Sckarholz. The custom appears to have prevailed particularly in Westphalia, about Sieg and Lahn. Compare Montanus, op. cit. p. 12, as to the similar custom at Christmas. The use of the Scharholz is reported to be found also in Niederlausitz and among the neighbouring Saxons. See Paul Wagler, Die Eiche in alter und neuer Zeit (Berlin, 1891), pp. 86 sq.

316

Above, vol. i. pp. 248, 250, 251, 257, 258, 260, 263. Elsewhere the Yule log has been made of fir, beech, holly, yew, crab-tree, or olive. See above, vol. i. pp. 249, 257, 263.

317

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 140 sq.

318

A curious use of an oak-wood fire to detect a criminal is reported from Germany. If a man has been found murdered and his murderer is unknown, you are recommended to proceed as follows. You kindle a fire of dry oak-wood, you pour some of the blood from the wounds on the fire, and you change the poor man's shoes, putting the right shoe on the left foot, and vice versa. As soon as that is done, the murderer is struck blind and mad, so that he fancies he is riding up to the throat in water; labouring under this delusion he returns to the corpse, when you can apprehend him and deliver him up to the arm of justice with the greatest ease. See Montanus, op. cit. pp. 159 sq.

319

Pliny, Nat. Hist. xiii. 119: “Alexander Cornelius arborem leonem appellavit ex qua facta esset Argo, similem robori viscum ferenti, quae neque aqua neque igni possit corrumpi, sicuti nec viscum, nulli alii cognitam, quod equidem sciam.” Here the tree out of which the ship Argo was made is said to have been destructible neither by fire nor water; and as the tree is compared to a mistletoe-bearing oak, and the mistletoe itself is said to be indestructible by fire and water, it seems to follow that the same indestructibility may have been believed to attach to the oak which bore the mistletoe, so long at least as the mistletoe remained rooted on the boughs.

320

Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 26 sqq.

321

A number of the following examples were collected by Mr. E. Clodd in his paper, “The Philosophy of Punchkin,” Folk-lore Journal, ii. (1884) pp. 288-303; and again in his Myths and Dreams (London, 1885), pp. 188-198. The subject of the external soul, both in folk-tales and in custom, has been well handled by G. A. Wilken in his two papers, “De betrekking tusschen menschen- dieren- en plantenleven naar het volksgeloof,” De Indische Gids, November 1884, pp. 595-612, and “De Simsonsage,” De Gids, 1888, No. 5. In “De Simsonsage” Wilken has reproduced, to a great extent in the same words, most of the evidence cited by him in “De betrekking,” yet without referring to that paper. When I wrote this book in 1889-1890 I was unacquainted with “De betrekking,” but used with advantage “De Simsonsage,” a copy of it having been kindly sent me by the author. I am the more anxious to express my obligations to “De Simsonsage,” because I have had little occasion to refer to it, most of the original authorities cited by the author being either in my own library or easily accessible to me in Cambridge. It would be a convenience to anthropologists if Wilken's valuable papers, dispersed as they are in various Dutch periodicals which are seldom to be met with in England, were collected and published together. After the appearance of my first anthropological essay in 1885, Professor Wilken entered into correspondence with me, and thenceforward sent me copies of his papers as they appeared; but of his papers published before that date I have not a complete set. (Note to the Second Edition.) The wish expressed in the foregoing note has now been happily fulfilled. Wilken's many scattered papers have been collected and published in a form which leaves nothing to be desired (De verspreide Geschriften van Prof. Dr. G. A. Wilken, verzameld door Mr. F. D. E. van Ossenbruggen, in four volumes, The Hague, 1912). The two papers “De betrekking” and “De Simsonsage” are reprinted in the third volume, pp. 289-309 and pp. 551-579. The subject of the external soul in relation to Balder has been fully illustrated and discussed by Professor F. Kauffmann in his Balder, Mythus und Sage (Strasburg, 1902), pp. 136 sqq. Amongst the first to collect examples of the external soul in folk-tales was the learned Dr. Reinhold Köhler (in Orient und Occident, ii., Göttingen, 1864, pp. 100-103; reprinted with additional references in the writer's Kleinere Schriften, i., Weimar, 1898, pp. 158-161). Many versions of the tale were also cited by W. R. S. Ralston (Russian Folk-tales, London, 1873, pp. 109 sqq.). (Note to the Third Edition.)

322

Mary Frere, Old Deccan Days, Third Edition (London, 1881), pp. 12-16.

323

Maive Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales (London, 1880), pp. 58-60. For similar Hindoo stories, see id., pp. 187 sq.; Lai Behari Day, Folk-tales of Bengal (London, 1883), pp. 121 sq.; F. A. Steel and R. C. Temple, Wide-awake Stories (Bombay and London, 1884), pp. 58-60.

324

Mary Frere, Old Deccan Days, pp. 239 sqq.

325

Lal Behari Day, Folk-tales of Bengal, pp. 1 sqq. For similar stories of necklaces, see Mary Frere, Old Deccan Days, pp. 233 sq.; F. A. Steel and R. C. Temple, Wide-awake Stories, pp. 83 sqq.

326

J. H. Knowles, Folk-tales of Kashmir, Second Edition (London, 1893), pp. 49 sq.

327

J. H. Knowles, op. cit. p. 134.

328

J. H. Knowles, op. cit. pp. 382 sqq.

329

Lal Behari Day, Folk-tales of Bengal, pp. 85 sq.; compare id., pp. 253 sqq.; Indian Antiquary, i. (1872) p. 117. For an Indian story in which a giant's life is in five black bees, see W. A. Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions (Edinburgh and London, 1887), i. 350.

330

Indian Antiquary, i. (1872), p. 171.

331

A. Bastian, Die Voelker des oestlichen Asien, iv. (Jena, 1868) pp. 304 sq.

332

Lal Behari Day, Folk-tales of Bengal, p. 189.

333

F. A. Steel and R. C. Temple, Wide-awake Stories (Bombay and London, 1884), pp. 52, 64. In the Indian Jataka there is a tale (book ii. No. 208) which relates how Buddha in the form of a monkey deceived a crocodile by pretending that monkeys kept their hearts in figs growing on a tree. See The Jataka or Stories of the Buddha's former Births translated from the Pali by various hands, vol. ii. translated by W. H. D. Rouse (Cambridge, 1895), pp. 111 sq.

334

G. W. Leitner, The Languages and Races of Dardistan, Third Edition (Lahore, 1878), p. 9.

335

Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, i. 8; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 34; Pausanias, x. 31. 4; Aeschylus, Choeph. 604 sqq.; Antoninus Liberalis, Transform. ii.; Dio Chrysostom, Or. lxvii. vol. ii. p. 231, ed. L. Dindorf (Leipsic, 1857); Hyginus, Fab. 171, 174; Ovid, Metam. viii. 445 sqq. In his play on this theme Euripides made the life of Meleager to depend on an olive-leaf which his mother had given birth to along with the babe. See J. Malalas, Chronographia, vi. pp. 165 sq. ed. L. Dindorf (Bonn, 1831); J. Tzetzes, Scholia on Lycophron, 492 sq. (vol. ii. pp. 646 sq., ed. Chr. G. Müller, Leipsic, 1811); G. Knaack, “Zur Meleagersage,” Rheinisches Museum, N. F. xlix. (1894) pp. 310-313.

336

Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, iii. 15. 8; Aeschylus, Choeph. 612 sqq.; Pausanias, i. 19. 4; Ciris, 116 sqq.; Ovid, Metam. viii. 8 sqq. According to J. Tzetzes (Schol. on Lycophron, 650) not the life but the strength of Nisus was in his golden hair; when it was pulled out, he became weak and was slain by Minos. According to Hyginus (Fab. 198) Nisus was destined to reign only so long as he kept the purple lock on his head.

337

Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, ii. 4. 5 and 7.

338

J. G. von Hahn, Griechische und albanesische Märchen (Leipsic, 1864), i. 217; a similar story, ibid. ii. 282.

339

B. Schmidt, Griechische Märchen, Sagen und Volkslieder (Leipsic, 1877), pp. 91 sq. The same writer found in the island of Zacynthus a belief that the whole strength of the ancient Greeks resided in three hairs on their breasts, and that it vanished whenever these hairs were cut; but if the hairs were allowed to grow again, their strength returned (B. Schmidt, Das Volksleben der Neugriechen, Leipsic, 1871, p. 206). The Biblical story of Samson and Delilah (Judges xvi.) implies a belief of the same sort, as G. A. Wilken abundantly shewed in his paper, “De Simsonsage,” De Gids, 1888, No. 5 (reprinted in his Verspreide Geschriften, The Hague, 1912, vol. iii. pp. 551-579).

340

J. G. von Hahn, op. cit. ii. 215 sq.

341

Ibid. ii. 275 sq. Similar stories, ibid. ii. 204, 294 sq. In an Albanian story a monster's strength is in three pigeons, which are in a hare, which is in the silver tusk of a wild boar. When the boar is killed, the monster feels ill; when the hare is cut open, he can hardly stand on his feet; when the three pigeons are killed, he expires. See Aug. Dozon, Contes albanais (Paris, 1881), pp. 132 sq.

342

J. G. von Hahn, op. cit. ii. 260 sqq.

343

Ibid. i. 187.

344

Ibid. ii. 23 sq.

345

Émile Legrand, Contes populaires grecs (Paris, 1881), pp. 191 sqq.

346

Plutarch, Parallela, 26. In both the Greek and Italian stories the subject of quarrel between nephew and uncles is the skin of a boar, which the nephew presented to his lady-love and which his uncles took from her.

347

G. Basile, Pentamerone, übertragen von Felix Liebrecht (Breslau, 1846), ii. 60 sq.

348

R. H. Busk, Folk-lore of Rome (London, 1874), pp. 164 sqq.

349

T. F. Crane, Italian Popular Tales (London, 1885), pp. 31-34. The hero had acquired the power of turning himself into an eagle, a lion, and an ant from three creatures of these sorts whose quarrel about their shares in a dead ass he had composed. This incident occurs in other tales of the same type. See below, note 2 and pp. 120 with note 2, 132, 133 with note 1.

350

J. B. Andrews, Contes Ligures (Paris, 1892), No. 46, pp. 213 sqq. In a parallel Sicilian story the hero Beppino slays a sorcerer in the same manner after he had received from an eagle, a lion, and an ant the same gift of transformation in return for the same service. See G. Pitrè, Fiabe, Novelle e Racconti popolari Siciliani, ii. (Palermo, 1875) p. 215; and for another Sicilian parallel, Laura Gonzenbach, Sicilianische Märchen (Leipsic, 1870), No. 6, pp. 34-38.

351

Anton Dietrich, Russian Popular Tales (London, 1857), pp. 21-24.

352

Jeremiah Curtin, Myths and Folk-tales of the Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars (London, 1891), pp. 119-122. Compare W. R. S. Ralston, Russian Folk-tales (London, 1873), pp. 100-105.

353

W. R. S. Ralston, op. cit. p. 109.

354

W. R. S. Ralston, Russian Folk-tales, pp. 113 sq.

355

Id., p. 114.

356

Id., p. 110.

357

Madam Csedomille Mijatovies, Serbian Folk-lore, edited by the Rev. W. Denton (London, 1874), pp. 167-172; F. S. Krauss, Sagen und Märchen der Südslaven (Leipsic, 1883-1884), i. 164-169.

358

A. H. Wratislaw, Sixty Folk-tales from exclusively Slavonic Sources (London, 1889), pp. 224-231.

359

A. Leskien und K. Brugmann, Litauische Volkslieder und Märchen (Strasburg, 1882), pp. 423-430; compare id., pp. 569-571.

360

Josef Haltrich, Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen4 (Vienna, 1885), No. 34 (No. 33 of the first edition), pp. 149 sq.

361

J. W. Wolf, Deutsche Märchen und Sagen (Leipsic, 1845), No. 20, pp. 87-93.

362

L. Strackerjan, Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg (Oldenburg, 1867), ii. 306-308, § 622. In this story the flowers are rather life-tokens than external souls. The life-token has been carefully studied by Mr. E. S. Hartland in the second volume of his learned work The Legend of Perseus (London, 1895).

363

K. Müllenhoff, Sagen, Märchen und Lieder der Herzogthümer Schleswig Holstein und Lauenburg (Kiel, 1845), pp. 404 sqq.

364

P. Chr. Asbjörnsen og J. Moe, Norske Folke-Eventyr (Christiania, n. d.), No. 36, pp. 174-180; G. W. Dasent, Popular Tales from the Norse (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 55 sqq.

365

P. Chr. Asbjörnsen, Norske Folke-Eventyr, Ny Samling (Christiania, 1871), No. 70, pp. 35-40; G. W. Dasent, Tales from the Fjeld (London, 1874), pp. 223-230 (“Boots and the Beasts”). As in other tales of this type, it is said that the hero found three animals (a lion, a falcon, and an ant) quarrelling over a dead horse, and received from them the power of transforming himself into animals of these species as a reward for dividing the carcase fairly among them.

366

Svend Grundtvig, Dänische Volksmärchen, übersetzt von A. Strodtmann, Zweite Sammlung (Leipsic, 1879), pp. 194-218.

367

Svend Grundtvig, Dänische Volksmärchen, übersetzt von Willibald Leo (Leipsic, 1878), pp. 29-45.

368

J. C. Poestion, Isländische Märchen (Vienna, 1884), No. vii. pp. 49-55. The same story is told with minor variations by Konrad Maurer in his Isländische Volkssagen der Gegenwart (Leipsic, 1860), pp. 277-280. In his version a giant and giantess, brother and sister, have their life in one stone, which they throw backwards and forwards to each other; when the stone is caught and broken by the heroine, the giant and giantess at once expire. The tale was told to Maurer when he was crossing an arm of the sea in a small boat; and the waves ran so high and broke into the boat so that he could not write the story down at the time but had to trust to his memory in recording it afterwards.

369

W. Mannhardt, Germanische Mythen (Berlin, 1858), p. 592; John Jamieson, Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, New Edition, revised by J. Longmuir and D. Donaldson (Paisley, 1879-1882), iv. 869, s. v. “Yule.”

370

J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, New Edition (Paisley and London, 1890), i. 7-11.

371

J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, New Edition, i. 80 sqq.

372

Compare Taboo and the Perils of Soul, p. 12.

373

Rev. D. MacInnes, Folk and Hero Tales (London, 1890), pp. 103-121.

374

Rev. J. Macdougall, Folk and Hero Tales (London, 1891), pp. 76 sqq. (Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, No. iii.).

375

Rev. James Macdonald, Religion and Myth (London, 1893), pp. 187 sq. The writer tells us that in his youth a certain old Betty Miles used to terrify him with this tale. For the tradition of Headless Hugh, who seems to have been the only son of Hector, first chief of Lochbuy, in the fourteenth century, see J. G. Campbell, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow, 1902), pp. III sqq. India also has its stories of headless horsemen. See W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (London, 1896), i. 256 sqq.

376

Rev. James Macdonald, Religion and Myth, pp. 191 sq., from information furnished by the Rev. A. Mackay. In North Uist there is a sept known as “the MacCodrums of the seals.” and a precisely similar legend is told to explain their descent from seals. See J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow, 1900), p. 284.

377

Jeremiah Curtin, Myths and Folk-tales of Ireland (London, n. d.), pp. 71 sqq.

378

P. Sébillot, Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne (Paris, 1885), pp. 63 sqq.

379

F. M. Luzel, Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne (Paris, 1887), i. 435-449. Compare id., Veillées Bretonnes (Morlaix, 1879), pp. 133 sq. For two other French stories of the same type, taken down in Lorraine, see E. Cosquin, Contes populaires de Lorraine (Paris, n. d.), Nos. 15 and 50 (vol. i. pp. 166 sqq., vol. ii. pp. 128 sqq.). In both of them there figures a miraculous beast which can only be slain by breaking a certain egg against its head; but we are not told that the life of the beast was in the egg. In both of them also the hero receives from three animals, whose dispute about the carcase of a dead beast he has settled, the power of changing himself into animals of the same sort. See the remarks and comparisons of the learned editor, Monsieur E. Cosquin, op. cit. i. 170 sqq.