The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 04 of 12)

108

E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal (Calcutta, 1872), p. 146.

109

F. T. Valdez, Six Years of a Traveller's Life in Western Africa (London, 1861), ii. 158-160. I have translated the title Maquita by “chief”; the writer does not explain it.

110

Ynglinga Saga, 29 (The Heimskringla, translated by S. Laing, i. 239 sq.). Compare H. M. Chadwick, The Cult of Othin (London, 1899), p. 4. According to Messrs. Laing and Chadwick the sacrifice took place every tenth year. But I follow Prof. K. Weinhold who translates “hit tiunda hvert ár” by “alle neun Jahre” (“Die mystische Neunzahl bei den Deutschen,” Abhandlungen der könig. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1897, p. 6). So in Latin decimo quoque anno should be translated “every ninth year.”

111

Saxo Grammaticus, Historia Danica, iii. pp. 129-131, ed. P. E. Müller (pp. 98 sq. of Oliver Elton's English translation).

112

Adam of Bremen, Descriptio insularum Aquilonis, 27 (Migne's Patrologia Latina, cxlvi. col. 644). See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. ii. pp. 364 sq.

113

Plutarch, Agis, II. Plutarch says that the custom was observed “at intervals of nine years” (δι᾽ ἐτῶν ἐννέα), but the expression is equivalent to our “at intervals of eight years.” In reckoning intervals of time numerically the Greeks included both the terms which are separated by the interval, whereas we include only one of them. For example, our phrase “every second day” would be rendered in Greek διὰ τρίτης ἡμέρας, literally “every third day.” Again, a cycle of two years is in Greek trieteris, literally “a period of three years”; a cycle of eight years is ennaeteris, literally “a period of nine years”; and so forth. See Censorinus, De die natali, 18. The Latin use of the ordinal numbers is similar, e. g. our “every second year” would be tertio quoque anno in Latin. However, the Greeks and Romans were not always consistent in this matter, for they occasionally reckoned in our fashion. The resulting ambiguity is not only puzzling to moderns; it sometimes confused the ancients themselves. For example, it led to a derangement of the newly instituted Julian calendar, which escaped detection for more than thirty years. See Macrobius, Saturn. i. 14. 13 sq.; Solinus, i. 45-47. On the ancient modes of counting in such cases see A. Schmidt, Handbuch der griechischen Chronologie (Jena, 1888), pp. 95 sqq. According to Schmidt, the practice of adding both terms to the sum of the intervening units was not extended by the Greeks to numbers above nine.

114

Die Dorier,2 ii. 96.

115

E. Man, Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, pp. 84 sq.

116

W. E. Roth, North Queensland Bulletin, No. 5, Superstition, Magic, and Medicine (Brisbane, 1903), p. 8.

117

A. W. Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 429.

118

A. W. Howitt, op. cit. p. 430. One of the earliest writers on New South Wales reports that the natives attributed great importance to the falling of a star (D. Collins,Account of the English Colony in New South Wales (London, 1804), p. 383).

119

Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 627.

120

Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. pp. 488, 627 sq.

121

G. Thilenius, Ethnographische Ergebnisse aus Melanesien, ii. (Halle, 1903) p. 129.

122

H. A. Junod, Les Ba-ronga (Neuchatel, 1898), p. 470.

123

A. C. Hollis, The Masai (Oxford, 1905), p. 316.

124

J. Campbell, Travels in South Africa (London, 1815), pp. 428 sq.

125

Id., Travels in South Africa, Second Journey (London, 1822), ii. 204.

126

G. Zündel, “Land und Volk der Eweer auf der Sclavenküste in Westafrika,” Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, xii. (1877) pp. 415 sq.; C. Spiess, “Religionsbegriffe der Evheer in Westafrika,” Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin, vi. (1903) Dritte Abtheilung, p. 112.

127

Boscana, “Chinigchinich, a Historical Account of the Origin, etc., of the Indians of St. Juan Capistrano,” in A. Robinson's Life in California (New York, 1846), p. 299.

128

C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (London, 1903), i. 324 sq.

129

K. von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens (Berlin, 1894), pp. 514 sq. The Peruvian Indians also made a prodigious noise when they saw a shooting star. See P. de Cieza de Leon, Travels (Hakluyt Society, London, 1864), p. 232.

130

G. Kurze, “Sitten und Gebräuche der Lengua-Indianer,” Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena, xxiii. (1905) p. 17; W. Barbrooke Grubb, An Unknown People in an Unknown Land (London, 1911), p. 163.

131

M. Dobrizhoffer, Historia de Abiponibus (Vienna, 1784), ii. 86.

132

W. Tetzlaff, “Notes on the Laughlan Islands,” Annual Report on British New Guinea, 1890-91 (Brisbane, 1892), p. 105.

133

H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, p. 267.

134

W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India (Westminster, 1906), ii. 22.

135

Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat, vii. (1872) p. 48.

136

Guillain, Documents sur l'histoire, la géographie, et le commerce de l'Afrique Orientale, ii. (Paris, N.D.) p. 97; C. Velten, Sitten und Gebräuche der Suaheli (Göttingen, 1903), pp. 339 sq.; C. B. Klunzinger, Upper Egypt (London, 1878), p. 405; Budgett Meakin, The Moors (London, 1902), p. 353.

137

E. Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand (London, 1843), ii. 66. According to another account, meteors are regarded by the Maoris as betokening the presence of a god (R. Taylor, Te Ika a Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants,2 p. 147).

138

Ch. Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, v. 88.

139

A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 369.

140

A. W. Howitt, in Brough Smyth's Aborigines of Victoria, ii. 309.

141

E. Palmer, “Notes on some Australian Tribes,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiii. (1884) p. 292. Sometimes apparently the Australian natives regard crystals or broken glass as fallen stars, and treasure them as powerful instruments of magic. See E. M. Curr, The Australian Race, iii. 29; W. E. Roth, North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5, p. 8.

142

J. Macgillivray, Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake (London, 1852), ii. 30.

143

P. A. Kleintitschen, Die Küstenbewohner der Gazellehalbinsel (Hiltrup bei Münster, n. d.), p. 227.

144

P. Rascher, “Die Sulka,” Archiv für Anthropologie, xxix. (1904) p. 216.

145

Dudley Kidd, Savage Childhood (London, 1906), p. 149.

146

J. Halkin, Quelques Peuplades du district de l'Uelé (Liège, 1907), p. 102.

147

O. Baumann, Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle (Berlin, 1894), p. 163.

148

O. Baumann, Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle (Berlin, 1894), p. 188.

149

E. Petitot, Monographie des Dènè-Dindjé (Paris, 1876), p. 60; id., Monographie des Esquimaux Tchiglit (Paris, 1876), p. 24.

150

A. Henry, “The Lolos and other Tribes of Western China,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxiii. (1903) p. 103.

151

Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 28.

152

F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, ii. 293; A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche, p. 457, § 422; E. Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben, p. 506, §§ 379, 380.

153

P. Sébillot, Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, ii. 353; J. Haltrich, Zur Volkskunde der Siebenbürger Sachsen (Vienna, 1885), p. 300; W. Schmidt, Das Jahr und seine Tage in Meinung und Brauch der Romänen Siebenbürgens, p. 38; E. Gerard, The Land beyond the Forest, i. 311; J. V. Grohmann, Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren, p. 31, § 164; Br. Jelínek, “Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und Volkskunde Böhmens,” Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, xxi. (1891) p. 25; G. Finamore, Credenze, usi e costumi Abruzzesi, pp. 47 sq.; M. Placucci, Usi e pregiudizj dei contadini della Romagna (Palermo, 1885), p. 141; Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” Verhandl. der gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat, vii. (1872) p. 48. The same belief is said to prevail in Armenia. See Minas Tchéraz, “Notes sur la mythologie arménienne,” Transactions of the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists (London, 1893), ii. 824. Bret Harte has employed the idea in his little poem, “Relieving Guard.”

154

H. Lew, “Der Tod und die Beerdigungs-gebräuche bei den polnischen Juden,” Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, xxxii. (1902) p. 402.

155

A. Schlossar, “Volksmeinung und Volksaberglaube aus der deutschen Steiermark,” Germania, N.R., xxiv. (1891) p. 389.

156

Boecler-Kreutzwald, Der Ehsten abergläubische Gebräuche, Weisen und Gewohnheiten (St. Petersburg, 1854), p. 73.

157

E. Monseur, Le Folklore wallon, p. 61; A. de Nore, Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de France, pp. 101, 160, 223, 267, 284; B. Souché, Croyances, présages et traditions diverses, p. 23; P. Sébillot, Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, ii. 352; J. Lecœur, Esquisses du bocage normand, ii. 13; L. Pineau, Folk-lore du Poitou (Paris, 1892), pp. 525 sq.

158

L. F. Sauvé. Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges (Paris, 1889), pp. 196 sq.

159

F. Chapiseau, Le Folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche (Paris, 1902), i. 290; G. Finamore, Credenze, usi e costumi Abruzzesi (Palermo, 1890), p. 48.

160

North Indian Notes and Queries, i. p. 102, § 673. Compare id. p. 47, § 356; Indian Notes and Queries, iv. p. 184, § 674; W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), i. 82.

161

W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches,2 iii. 171.

162

Maximilian Prinz zu Wied, Reise in das Innere Nord-America (Coblenz, 1839-1841), ii. 152. It does not, however, appear from the writer's statement whether the descent of the soul was identified with the flight of a meteor or not.

163

D. C. J. Ibbetson, Outlines of Panjab Ethnography (Calcutta, 1883), p. 118, § 231.

164

L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie, ii. 605 sqq. Ninety-nine lunar months nearly coincide with eight solar years, as the ancients well knew (Sozomenus, Historia ecclesiastica, vii. 18). On the religious and political import of the eight years' cycle in ancient Greece see especially K. O. Müller, Orchomenus und die Minyer,2 pp. 213-218; id., Die Dorier,2 i. 254 sq., 333 sq., 440, ii. 96, 483; id., Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftlichen Mythologie (Göttingen, 1825), pp. 422-424.

165

“Ancient opinion even assigned the regulation of the calendar by the solstices and equinoxes to the will of the gods that sacrifices should be rendered at similar times in each year, rather than to the strict requirements of agriculture; and as religion undoubtedly makes larger demands on the cultivator as agriculture advances, the obligations of sacrifice may probably be reckoned as of equal importance with agricultural necessities in urging the formation of reckonings in the nature of a calendar” (E. J. Payne, History of the New World called America, ii. 280).

166

As to the eight years' servitude of Apollo and Cadmus for the slaughter of dragons, see below, p. 78. For the nine years' penance of the man who had tasted human flesh at the festival of Zeus on Mount Lycaeus, see Pliny, Nat. hist. viii. 81 sq.; Augustine, De civitate Dei, xviii. 17; Pausanias, viii. 2. 6; compare Plato, Republic, viii. p. 565 D E. Any god who forswore himself by the water of Styx was exiled for nine years from the society of his fellow-gods (Hesiod, Theogony, 793-804). On this subject see further, E. Rohde, Psyche,3 ii. 211 sq.; W. H. Roscher, “Die enneadischen und hebdomadischen Fristen und Wochen der ältesten Griechen,” Abhandlungen der philolog. – histor. Klasse der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, xxi. No. 4 (1903), pp. 24 sqq.

167

Plato, Meno, p. 81 a-c; Pindar, ed. Boeckh, vol. iii. pp. 623 sq., Frag. 98.

168

Homer, Odyssey, xix. 178 sq., τῇσι δ᾽ ἐνὶ Κνωσός, μεγάλη πόλις, ἔνθα τε Μίνως ἐννέωρος βασίλευε Διὸς μεγάλου ὀαριστής.

with the Scholia; Plato, Laws, i. I. p. 624 a, b;[id.] Minos, 13 sq., pp. 319 sq.; Strabo, ix. 4. 8, p. 476; Maximus Tyrius, Dissert. xxxviii. 2; Etymologicum magnum, s. v. ἐννέωροι, p. 343, 23 sqq.; Valerius Maximus, i. 2, ext. I; compare Diodorus Siculus, v. 78. 3. Homer's expression, ἐννέωρος βασίλευε, has been variously explained. I follow the interpretation which appears to have generally found favour both with the ancients, including Plato, and with modern scholars. See K. Hoeck, Kreta, i. 244 sqq.; K. O. Müller,Die Dorier,2 ii. 96; G. F. Unger, “Zeitrechnung der Griechen und Römer,” in Ivan Müller's Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, i. 569; A. Schmidt, Handbuch der griechischen Chronologie (Jena, 1888), p. 65; W. H. Roscher, “Die enneadischen und hebdomadischen Fristen und Wochen der ältesten Griechen,” Abhandlungen der philolog. – histor. Klasse der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, xxi. No. 4 (Leipsic, 1903), pp. 22 sq.; E. Rohde, Psyche,3 i. 128 sq. Literally interpreted, ἐννέωρος means “for nine years,” not “for eight years.” But see above, p. 59, note 1.

169

Apollodorus, iii. 1. 3 sq., iii. 15. 8; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 77; Schol. on Euripides, Hippolytus, 887; J. Tzetzes, Chiliades, i. 479 sqq.; Hyginus, Fabulae, 40; Virgil, Ecl. vi. 45 sqq.; Ovid, Ars amat. i. 289 sqq.

170

K. Hoeck, Kreta, ii. (Göttingen, 1828) pp. 63-69; L. Preller, Griechische Mythologie,3 ii. 119-123; W. H. Roscher, Über Selene mid Verwandtes (Leipsic, 1890), pp. 135-139; id., Nachträge zu meiner Schrift über Selene (Leipsic, 1895), p. 3; Türk, in W. H. Roscher's Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, iii. 1666 sq.; A. J. Evans, “Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxi. (1901) p. 181; A. B. Cook, “Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak,” Classical Review, xvii. (1903) pp. 406-412; compare id., “The European Sky-god,” Folklore, xv. (1904) p. 272. All these writers, except Mr. Cook, regard Minos and Pasiphae as representing the sun and moon. Mr. Cook agrees so far as relates to Minos, but he supposes Pasiphae to be a sky-goddess or sun-goddess rather than a goddess of the moon. On the other hand, he was the first to suggest that the myth was periodically acted by the king and queen of Cnossus disguised in bovine form.

171

Compare The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 368 sq.

172

Bekker's Anecdota Graeca, i. 344, s. v. Ἀδιούνιος ταῦρος.

173

Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelii, iii. 13. 1 sq.; Diodorus Siculus, i. 84. 4, i. 88. 4; Strabo, xvii. 1. 22 and 27, pp. 803, 805; Aelian, De natura animalium, xi. II; Suidas, s. v. Ἆπις; Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii. 14. 7; A. Wiedemann, Herodots Zweites Buch, p. 552; A. Erman, Die ägyptische Religion (Berlin, 1905), p. 26; E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians (London, 1904), i. 330.

174

E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, i. 25.

175

Pausanias, i. 26. 1. For a description of the scenery of this coast, see Morritt, in Walpole's Memoirs relating to European Turkey, i.2 p. 54.

176

W. H. Roscher, Über Selene und Verwandtes, pp. 30-33.

177

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 130 sqq. We are told that Egyptian sovereigns assumed the masks of lions, bulls, and serpents as symbols of power (Diodorus Siculus, i. 62. 4).

178

As to Minos and Britomartis or Dictynna, see Callimachus, Hymn to Diana, 189 sqq.; Pausanias, ii. 30. 3; Antoninus Liberalis, Transform. 40; Diodorus Siculus, v. 76. On Britomartis as a moon-goddess, see K. Hoeck, Kreta, ii. 170; W. H. Roscher, Über Selene und Verwandtes, pp. 45 sq., 116-118. Hoeck acutely perceived that the pursuit of Britomartis by Minos “is a trait of old festival customs in which the conceptions of the sun-god were transferred to the king of the island.” As to the explanation here adopted of the myth of Zeus and Europa, see K. Hoeck, Kreta, i. 90 sqq.; W. H. Roscher, op. cit. pp. 128-135. Moschus describes (ii. 84 sqq.) the bull which carried off Europa as yellow in colour with a silver circle shining on his forehead, and he compares the bull's horns to those of the moon.

179

See W. H. Roscher, op. cit. pp. 76-82. Amongst the passages of classical writers which he cites are Plutarch, De facie in orbe lunae, 30; id., Isis et Osiris, 52; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae compendium, 34, p. 72, ed. C. Lang; Proclus, on Hesiod, Works and Days, 780; Macrobius, Commentar. in Somnium Scipionis, i. 18. 10 sq.; Pliny, Nat. hist. ii. 45. When the sun and moon were eclipsed, the Tahitians supposed that the luminaries were in the act of copulation (J. Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean (London, 1799), p. 346).

180

Plutarch, Theseus, 15 sq.; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 61; Pausanias, i. 27. 10; Ovid, Metam. viii. 170 sq. According to another account, the tribute of youths and maidens was paid every year. See Virgil, Aen. vi. 14 sqq., with the commentary of Servius; Hyginus, Fabulae, 41.

181

Apollodorus, i. 9. 26; Apollonius Rhodius, Argon. iv. 1638 sqq., with the scholium; Agatharchides, in Photius, Bibliotheca, p. 443b, lines 22-25, ed. Bekker; Lucian, De saltatione, 49; Zenobius, v. 85; Suidas, s. v. Σαρδάνιος γέλως; Eustathius on Homer, Odyssey, xx. 302, p. 1893; Schol. on Plato, Republic, i. p. 337A.

182

Apollodorus, i. 9. 26.

183

Hesychius, s. v. Ταλῶς.

184

Diodorus Siculus, xx. 14; Clitarchus, cited by Suidas, s. v. Σαρδάνιος γέλως, and by the Scholiast on Plato, Republic, p. 337A; Plutarch, De superstitione, 13; Paulus Fagius, quoted by Selden, De dis Syris (Leipsic, 1668), pp. 169 sq. The calf's head of the idol is mentioned only by P. Fagius, who drew his account from a book Jalkut by Rabbi Simeon.

185

Compare M. Mayer, s. v. “Kronos,” in W. H. Roscher's Lexikon d. griech. u. röm. Mythologie, iii. 1501 sqq.

186

J. Tzetzes, Chiliades, i. 646 sqq.

187

Homer, Iliad, xviii. 590 sqq.

188

Plutarch, Theseus, 21; Julius Pollux, iv. 101.

189

As to the Game of Troy, see Virgil, Aen. v. 545-603; Plutarch, Cato, 3; Tacitus, Annals, xi. 11; Suetonius, Augustus, 43; id., Tiberius, 6; id., Caligula, 18; id., Nero, 6; W. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,3 s. v. “Trojae ludus”; O. Benndorf, “Das Alter des Trojaspieles,” appended to W. Reichel's Über homerische Waffen (Vienna, 1894), pp. 133-139.

190

O. Benndorf, op. cit. pp. 133 sq.

191

B. V. Head, Historia numorum (Oxford, 1887), pp. 389-391.

192

O. Benndorf, op. cit. pp. 134 sq.

193

Pliny, Nat. hist. xxxvi. 85.

194

O. Benndorf, op. cit. p. 135; W. Meyer, “Ein Labyrinth mit Versen,” Sitzungsberichte der philosoph. philolog. und histor. Classe der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München, 1882, vol. ii. pp. 267-300.

195

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 312.

196

B. V. Head, Historia numorum, p. 389.

197

Censorinus, De die natali, 18. 6.

198

The suggestion was made by Mr. A. B. Cook. The following discussion of the subject is founded on his ingenious exposition. See his article, “The European Sky-god,” Folklore, xv. (1904) pp. 402-424.

199

As to the Delphic festival see Plutarch, Quaest. Graec. 12; id., De defectu oraculorum, 15; Strabo, ix. 3. 12, pp. 422 sq.; Aelian, Var. hist. iii. 1; Stephanus Byzantius, s. v. Δειπνίας; K. O. Müller, Die Dorier,2 i. 203 sqq., 321-324; Aug. Mommsen, Delphika (Leipsic, 1878), pp. 206 sqq.; Th. Schreiber, Apollo Pythoktonos, pp. 9 sqq.; my note on Pausanias, ii. 7. 7 (vol. ii. 53 sqq.). As to the Theban festival, see Pausanias, ix. 10. 4, with my note; Proclus, quoted by Photius, Bibliotheca, p. 321, ed. Bekker; Aug. Boeckh, in his edition of Pindar, Explicationes, p. 590; K. O. Müller, Orchomenus und die Minyer,2 pp. 215 sq.; id., Dorier,2 i. 236 sq., 333 sq.; C. Boetticher, Der Baumkultus der Hellenen, pp. 386 sqq.; G. F. Schömann, Griechische Alterthümer,4 ii. 479 sq.