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

684

H. Mouhot, Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (London, 1864), i. 252; J. Moura, Le Royaume du Cambodge (Paris, 1883), i. 422.

685

H. R. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 420.

686

J. G. Gmelin, Reise durch Sibirien (Göttingen, 1751-1752), ii. 278.

687

L. von Schrenck, Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-lande, iii. 564.

688

W. Dall, Alaska and its Resources (London, 1870), p. 89; id., in The Yukon Territory (London, 1898), p. 89.

689

Fr. Boas, in Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 92 (separate reprint from the Report of the British Association for 1890).

690

A. G. Morice, “Notes, archæological, industrial, and sociological, on the Western Dénés,” Transactions of the Canadian Institute, iv. (1892-93) p. 108.

691

A. G. Morice, Au pays de l'Ours Noir, chez les sauvages de la Colombie Britannique (Paris and Lyons, 1897), p. 71.

692

L. Hennepin, Description de la Louisiane (Paris, 1683), pp. 97 sq.

693

Relations des Jésuites, 1634, p. 24 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858). Nets are regarded by the Indians as living creatures who not only think and feel but also eat, speak, and marry wives. See F. Gabriel Sagard, Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons, p. 256 (pp. 178 sq. of the reprint, Librairie Tross, Paris, 1865); S. Hearne, Journey to the Northern Ocean (London, 1795), pp. 329 sq.; Relations des Jésuites, 1636, p. 109; ibid. 1639, p. 95; Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France (Paris, 1744), v. 225; Chateaubriand, Voyage en Amérique, pp. 140 sqq. The Hebrews sacrificed and burned incense to their nets (Habakkuk i. 16). In some of the mountain villages of Annam the people, who are great hunters, sacrifice fowls, rice, incense, and gilt paper to their nets at the festival of the New Year. See Le R. P. Cadière, “Coutumes populaires de la vallée du Nguôn-So'n,” Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, ii. (Hanoi, 1902) p. 381. When a net has caught little or nothing, the Ewe negroes think that it must be hungry; so they call in the help of a priest, who commonly feeds the hungry net by sprinkling maize-flour and fish, moistened with palm oil, on its meshes. See G. Härtter, “Der Fischfang im Evheland,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xxxviii. (1906) p. 55.

694

Chateaubriand, Voyage en Amérique, pp. 175, 178 (Paris, Michel Lévy Frères, 1870). They will not let the blood of beavers fall on the ground, or their luck in hunting them would be gone (Relations des Jésuites, 1633, p. 21). Compare the rule about not allowing the blood of kings to fall on the ground. See Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 241 sqq.

695

L. Hennepin, Nouveau voyage d'un pais plus grand que l'Europe (Utrecht, 1698), pp. 141. sq.; Relations des Jésuites, 1636, p. 109; F. Gabriel Sagard, Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons, p. 255 (p. 178 of the reprint, Libraire Tross, Paris, 1865). Not quite consistently the Canadian Indians used to kill every elan they could overtake in the chase, lest any should escape to warn their fellows (Sagard, l. c.).

696

A. de Herrera, General History of the vast Continent and Islands of America, translated by Capt. John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), iv. 142.

697

Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, Nouvelle Édition, viii. (Paris, 1781) p. 339.

698

C. Sapper, “Die Gebräuche und religiösen Anschauungen der Kekchí-Indianer,” Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, viii. (1895) pp. 195 sq.

699

J. Mooney, “Cherokee Theory and Practice of Medicine,” American Journal of Folk-lore, iii. (1890) pp. 45 sq.; id., “Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees,” Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1891), pp. 320 sq., 347; id., “Myths of the Cherokee,” Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1900) pp. 263 sq.

700

J. G. Bourke, “Religion of the Apache Indians,” Folk-lore, ii. (1891) p. 438.

701

L. Hennepin, Description de la Louisiane (Paris, 1683), pp. 80 sq.

702

James Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, pp. 346 sq. (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, April 1900).

703

James Teit, The Lillooet Indians (Leyden and New York, 1906), pp. 281 sq. (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History).

704

Relations des Jésuites, 1634, p. 26 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858).

705

Fr. Boas, in “Ninth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada,” Report of the British Association for 1894, PP. 459 sq.

706

H. R. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), iii. 230.

707

Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France (Paris, 1744), v. 443.

708

W. Bogaras, The Chuckchee (Leyden and New York, 1904-1909), p. 409 (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. vii., Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History).

709

J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stämme (Berlin, 1906), pp. 389 sq.

710

J. A. Jacobsen, Reisen in die Inselwelt des Banda-Meeres (Berlin, 1896), p. 234.

711

A. C. Kruijt, “Een en ander aangaande het geestelijk en maatschappelijk leven van den Poso-Alfoer,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xli. (1897) pp. 4 sq.

712

W. Barbrooke Grubb, An Unknown People in an Unknown Land (London, 1911), pp. 125 sq.

713

L. M. Turner, “Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay Territory,” Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1894), pp. 200 sq.

714

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, xv. (1901) pp. 119 sqq. As to the antagonism which these Esquimaux suppose to exist between marine and terrestrial animals, see above, p. 84; and with regard to the taboos observed by these Esquimaux after the slaughter of sea-beasts, see Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 205 sqq.

715

D. Crantz, History of Greenland (London, 1767), i. 216.

716

E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1899), pp. 379-393, 437. Compare A. Woldt, Captain Jacobsen's Reise an der Nordwestküste Americas 1881-1883 (Leipsic, 1884), pp. 289-291. In the text the ceremony has been described mainly as it was witnessed by Mr. E. W. Nelson at Kushunuk, near Cape Vancouver, in December, 1879. As might have been expected, the ritual varies in details at different places.

717

Garcilasso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, translated by C. R. Markham, First Part, bk. i. ch. 10, vol. i. pp. 49 sq. (Hakluyt Society, London, 1869-1871). Compare id., vol. ii. p. 148.

718

Fr. Boas, in Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, pp. 61 sq. (separate reprint from the Report of the British Association for 1890); id., Kwakiutl Texts, ii. pp. 303 sq., 305 sq., 307, 317 (Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, December, 1902).

719

Relations des Jésuites, 1667, p. 12 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858).

720

F. Gabriel Sagard, Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons, pp. 255 sqq. (pp. 178 sqq. of the reprint, Libraire Tross, Paris, 1865).

721

B. Hagen, Unter den Papuas (Wiesbaden, 1899), p. 270.

722

Rev. J. Batchelor, The Ainu and their Folk-lore (London, 1901), pp. 529 sq.

723

A Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt (Middletown, 1820), p. 116.

724

M. J. Schleiden, Das Salz (Leipsic, 1875), p. 47. For this reference I am indebted to my late friend W. Robertson Smith.

725

Hugh Miller, Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland, ch. xvii. pp. 256 sq. (Edinburgh, 1889).

726

M. Martin, “Description of the Western Islands of Scotland,” in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, iii. (London, 1809) p. 620.

727

W. Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country (London, 1883), pp. 66 sq.

728

C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (London, 1903), i. 403.

729

R. Taylor, Te Ika a Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants, Second Edition (London, 1870), p. 200; A. S. Thomson, The Story of New Zealand (London, 1859), i. 202; E. Tregear, “The Maoris of New Zealand,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xix. (1890) p. 109.

730

Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda (London, 1911), p. 395.

731

A. G. Morice, Au pays de l'Ours Noir (Paris and Lyons, 1897), p. 28.

732

Sir John Lubbock, Origin of Civilisation4 (London, 1882), p. 277, quoting Metlahkatlah, p. 96.

733

W. Dall, Alaska and its Resources (London, 1870), p. 413.

734

Fr. Boas, in “Ninth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada,” Report of the British Association for 1894, p. 461. Compare J. Teit, The Lillooet Indians (Leyden and New York, 1906), pp. 280 sq. (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History); C. Hill Tout, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxv. (1905) p. 140; id., The Far West, the Home of the Salish and Déné (London, 1907), pp. 170-172.

735

Fr. Boas, in Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, pp. 16 sq. (separate reprint from the Report of the British Association for 1890).

736

Id., in Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 51 (separate reprint from the Report of the British Association for 1889).

737

Stephen Powers, Tribes of California (Washington, 1877), pp. 31 sq.

738

Alex. Ross, Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River (London, 1849), p. 97.

739

Ch. Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, New Edition (New York, 1851), iv. 324, v. 119, where it is said, “a dog must never be permitted to eat the heart of a salmon; and in order to prevent this, they cut the heart of the fish out before they sell it.”

740

H. C. St. John, “The Ainos,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, ii. (1873) p. 253; id., Notes and Sketches from the Wild Coasts of Nipon, pp. 27 sq. Similarly it is a rule with the Aino to bring the flesh of bears and other game into the house, not by the door, but by the window or the smoke-hole. See Rev. J. Batchelor, The Ainu and their Folk-lore (London, 1901), p. 123; P. Labbé, Un Bagne Russe (Paris, 1903), pp. 255 sq.

741

Archiv für Anthropologie, xxvi. (1900) p. 796 (as to the Gilyak of the Amoor); J. Scheffer, Lapponia (Frankfort, 1673), pp. 242 sq.; C. Leemius, De Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua, vita, et religione pristina commentatio (Copenhagen, 1767), p. 503; Revue d'Ethnographie, ii. (1883) pp. 308 sq.; Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vii. (1878) p. 207; Fr. Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” in 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, xv. (1901) p. 148; A. G. Morice, in Transactions of the Canadian Institute, iv. (1892-93) p. 108.

742

E. James, Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains (London, 1823), i. 257.

743

D. G. Brinton, Myths of the New World2 (New York, 1876), p. 278.

744

W. H. Keating, Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River (London, 1825), i. 452.

745

Fr. Boas, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, xv. (1901) p. 161.

746

A. d'Orbigny, Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale, iii. (Paris and Strasburg, 1844) p. 201. However, in this case a belief in the resurrection of the animals is not expressly affirmed, and the practice of burning the bones seems inconsistent with it.

747

E. J. Jessen, De Finnorum Lapponumque Norwegicorum religione pagana tractatus singularis, pp. 46 sq., 52 sq., 65 (bound with C. Leem's De Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua, vita et religione pristina commentatio, Copenhagen, 1767). Compare Leem's work, pp. 418-420, 428 sq.; J. Acerbi, Travels through Sweden, Finnland, and Lapland (London, 1802), ii. 302.

748

G. W. Steller, Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1774), p. 269; S. Krascheninnikow, Beschreibung des Landes Kamtschatka (Lemgo, 1766), p. 246.

749

See A. Erman, referred to above, p. 223; J. G. Gmelin, Reise durch Sibirien (Göttingen, 1751-1752), i. 274, ii. 182 sq., 214; H. Vambery, Das Türkenvolk (Leipsic, 1885), pp. 118 sq. When a fox, the sacred animal of the Conchucos in Peru, had been killed, its skin was stuffed and set up (A. Bastian, Die Culturländer des alten Amerika, i. 443). Compare the bouphonia, above, pp. 4 sqq.

750

At the annual sacrifice of the White Dog, the Iroquois were careful to strangle the animal without shedding its blood or breaking its bones; the dog was afterwards burned (L. H. Morgan, League of the Iroquois, Rochester, 1851, p. 210). It is a rule with some of the Australian blacks that in killing the native bear they may not break his bones. They say that the native bear once stole all the water of the river, and that if they were to break his bones or take off his skin before roasting him, he would do so again (R. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 447 sqq.). Some of the Queensland aborigines believe that if the bones or skulls of dugong were not put away in a heap or otherwise preserved, no more dugong would be caught (W. E. Roth, North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5, Brisbane, 1903, p. 27). When the Tartars whom Carpini visited killed animals for eating, they might not break their bones but burned them with fire (Carpini, Historia Mongalorum (Paris, 1838), cap. iii. § i. 2, p. 620). North American Indians might not break the bones of the animals which they ate at feasts (Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, vi. 72). In the war feast held by Indian warriors after leaving home, a whole animal was cooked and had to be all eaten. No bone of it might be broken. After being stripped of the flesh the bones were hung on a tree (Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, London, 1830, p. 287). On St. Olaf's Day (29th July) the Karels of Finland kill a lamb, without using a knife, and roast it whole. None of its bones may be broken. The lamb has not been shorn since spring. Some of the flesh is placed in a corner of the room for the house-spirits, some is deposited on the field and beside the birch-trees which are destined to be used as May-trees next year (W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und Feldkulte, pp. 160 sq., note). Some of the Esquimaux in skinning a deer are careful not to break a single bone, and they will not break the bones of deer while walrus are being hunted (Fr. Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1888), pp. 595 sq.). The Innuit (Esquimaux) of Point Barrow, Alaska, carefully preserve unbroken the bones of the seals which they have caught and return them to the sea, either leaving them in an ice-crack far out from the land or dropping them through a hole in the ice. By doing so they think they secure good fortune in the pursuit of seals (Report of the International Expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska (Washington, 1885), p. 40). In this last custom the idea probably is that the bones will be reclothed with flesh and the seals come to life again. The Mosquito Indians of Central America carefully preserved the bones of deer and the shells of eggs, lest the deer or chickens should die or disappear (H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, i. 741). In Syria at the present time people offer a sacrifice for a boy when he is seven days old, and they will not break a bone of the victim, “because they fear that if a bone of the sacrifice should be broken, the child's bones would be broken, too” (S. I. Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, Chicago, etc., 1902, p. 178). This last may be a later misinterpretation of the old custom. For West African cases of refusal to break the bones of sacrificial victims, see J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stämme (Berlin, 1906), pp. 458, 466, 480, 527, 712, 796, 824. Amongst the Narrinyeri of South Australia, when an animal was being cut up, the bystanders used to leap and yell as often as a bone was broken, thinking that if they did not do so their own bones would rot within them (A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 763).

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.