The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 09 of 12)

Major A. G. Leonard, The Lower Niger and its Tribes (London, 1906), pp. 446 sqq.

522

An Igbodu is a sacred grove in which oracles are given. It is divided into three compartments by fences of palm branches and the omu shrub. Into the first compartment women and uninitiated men may enter; into the other two only priestly officials are permitted, according to their rank in the hierarchy, to enter. See Bishop James Johnson, “Yoruba Heathenism,” quoted by R. E. Dennett, At the Back of the Black Man's Mind (London, 1906), p. 254.

523

Bishop James Johnson, op. cit. p. 263. Bishop Johnson is a native African. It does not appear whether the sacrifice which he describes is occasional or periodical.

524

Turpin, “History of Siam,” in J. Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels (London, 1808-1814), ix. 579.

525

The oho-harahi or “Great Purification” is a ceremony, which used to be performed in the Japanese capital twice every year, namely on the last days of the sixth and twelfth month. It included a preliminary lustration, expiatory offerings, and the recital of a norito or formula (not a prayer), in which the Mikado, by virtue of an authority transmitted to him from the Sun-goddess, pronounced to his ministers and people the absolution and remission of their sins. See W. G. Aston, Shinto (London, 1905), pp. 294 sqq. The writer adds (p. 295): “The Chinese had an oho-harahi, defined by Mr. Giles in his Chinese Dictionary as ‘a religious ceremony of purification performed in spring and autumn, with a view to secure divine protection for agricultural interests.’ ” The popular celebrations of the first of May and the first of November in Europe seem to be relics of similar biennial purifications.

526

W. G. Aston, Shinto, pp. 308 sq.

527

W. Ködding, “Die Batakschen Götter und ihr Verhältnis zum Brahmanismus,” Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, xii. (1885) pp. 476, 478.

528

Aeneas Sylvius, Opera (Bâle, 1571), pp. 423 sq.

529

H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” Rheinisches Museum, N.F., xxx. (1875) p. 198; id., Kleine Schriften, iv. (Leipsic and Berlin, 1913) pp. 109 sq. The custom seems to have been revived in the latter part of the nineteenth century; perhaps it may still be observed. See H. Herzog, Schweizerische Volksfeste, Sitten und Gebräuche (Aarau, 1884), pp. 293 sq.; E. Hoffmann-Krayer, Feste und Bräuche des Schweizervolkes (Zurich, 1913), p. 101.

530

L. Curtius, “Christi Himmelfahrt,” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, xiv. (1911) p. 307, quoting the Münchener Neuesten Nachrichten, No. 235, May 21st, 1909.

531

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 164 sqq.

532

On the use of eponymous magistrates as annual scapegoats see above, pp. 39-41.

533

J. Thomas Phillips, Account of the Religion, Manners, and Learning of the People of Malabar (London, 1717), pp. 6, 12 sq.

534

Herodotus, ii. 39.

535

Herodotus, ii. 38-41; Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, New Edition (London, 1878), iii. 403 sqq.

536

Herodotus, l. c. As to the worship of sacred bulls in ancient Egypt, see further Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 34 sqq.

537

Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 175 sqq., 314 sq.

538

Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. p. 54, § 335 (December, 1884).

539

Strabo, xi. 4. 7, p. 503. For the custom of standing upon a sacrificed victim, compare Demosthenes, Or. xxiii. 68, p. 642; Pausanias, iii. 20. 9.

540

The ceremony referred to is perhaps the one performed on the tenth day, as described in the text.

541

“Report of a Route Survey by Pundit – from Nepal to Lhasa,” etc., Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, xxxviii. (1868) pp. 167, 170 sq.; “Four Years Journeying through Great Tibet, by one of the Trans-Himalayan Explorers,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, N.S. vii. (1885) pp. 67 sq.; W. Woodville Rockhill, “Tibet, a Geographical, Ethnographical, and Historical Sketch, derived from Chinese Sources,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1891 (London, 1891), pp. 211 sq.; L. A. Waddell, The Buddhism of Tibet (London, 1895), pp. 504 sqq., 512 sq.; J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins, Mission Scientifique dans la Haute Asie 1890-1895: Récit du Voyage (Paris, 1897), pp. 257 sq. The accounts supplement each other, though they differ in some particulars. I have endeavoured to combine them. According to Mr. Rockhill's account, which is drawn from Chinese sources, at one point of the ceremonies the troops march thrice round the temple and fire volleys of musketry to drive away the devil. With the like intent they discharge a great old cannon, which bears the inscription, “My power breaks up and destroys rebellion.” The same account speaks of a fencing with battle-axes by a troop of boy-dancers, a great illumination of the cathedral with lanterns, and its decoration with figures made out of butter and flour to represent men, animals, dragons, etc.; also it makes mention of a horse-race and a foot-race, both run by boys. The clerical invasion of the capital at this season is graphically described by an eye-witness. See Huc, Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie et le Thibet, Sixième Édition (Paris, 1878), ii. 380 sq.

542

In the Dassera festival, as celebrated in Nepaul, we seem to have another instance of the annual expulsion of demons preceded by a time of license. The festival occurs at the beginning of October and lasts ten days. “During its continuance there is a general holiday among all classes of the people. The city of Kathmandu at this time is required to be purified, but the purification is effected rather by prayer than by water-cleansing. All the courts of law are closed, and all prisoners in jail are removed from the precincts of the city… The Kalendar is cleared, or there is a jail-delivery always at the Dassera of all prisoners.” This seems a trace of a period of license. At this time “it is a general custom for masters to make an annual present, either of money, clothes, buffaloes, goats, etc., to such servants as have given satisfaction during the past year. It is in this respect, as well as in the feasting and drinking which goes on, something like our ‘boxing-time’ at Christmas.” On the seventh day at sunset there is a parade of all the troops in the capital, including the artillery. At a given signal the regiments begin to fire, the artillery takes it up, and a general firing goes on for about twenty minutes, when it suddenly ceases. This probably represents the expulsion of the demons. “The grand cutting of the rice-crops is always postponed till the Dassera is over, and commences all over the valley the very day afterwards.” See the description of the festival in H. A. Oldfield's Sketches from Nipal (London, 1880), ii. 342-351. On the Dassera in India, see J. A. Dubois, Mœurs, Institutions et Cérémonies des Peuples de l'Inde (Paris, 1825), ii. 329 sqq. The Besisi of the Malay Peninsula hold a regular carnival at the end of the rice-harvest, when they are said to be allowed to exchange wives. See W. W. Skeat and C. O. Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula (London, 1906), ii. 70, 76, 145, compare 120 sq. Amongst the Swahili of East Africa New Year's Day was formerly a day of general license, “every man did as he pleased. Old quarrels were settled, men were found dead on the following day, and no inquiry was instituted about the matter.” See Ch. New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa (London, 1873), p. 65; and The Golden Bough,2 iii. 250. An annual period of anarchy and license, lasting three days, is reported by Borelli to be observed by some of the Gallas. See Ph. Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas: die geistige Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somal (Berlin, 1896), p. 158. In Ashantee the annual festival of the new yams is a time of general license. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 62.

543

See The Dying God, pp. 233 sqq., 264.

544

Above, pp. 186, 189, 201.

545

H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” Rheinisches Museum, N.F. (1875) xxx. 194; id., Kleine Schriften, iv. (Leipsic and Berlin, 1913) p. 105.

546

Joannes Lydus, De mensibus, iii. 29, iv. 36. Lydus places the expulsion on the Ides of March, that is 15th March. But this seems to be a mistake. See H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” Rheinisches Museum, xxx. (1875) pp. 209 sqq.; id., Kleine Schriften, iv. (Leipsic and Berlin, 1913) pp. 122 sqq. Again, Lydus does not expressly say that Mamurius Veturius was driven out of the city, but he implies it by mentioning the legend that his mythical prototype was beaten with rods and expelled the city. Lastly, Lydus only mentions the name Mamurius. But the full name Mamurius Veturius is preserved by Varro, De lingua latina, vi. 45; Festus, ed. C. O. Müller, p. 131; Plutarch, Numa, 13. Mr. W. Warde Fowler is disposed to be sceptical as to the antiquity of the ceremony of expelling Mamurius. See his Roman Festivals of the period of the Republic (London, 1899), pp. 44-50.

547

H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” pp. 212 sq.; id., Kleine Schriften, iv. 125 sq.; W. H. Roscher, Apollon und Mars (Leipsic, 1873), p. 27; L. Preller, Römische Mythologie3 (Berlin, 1881-1883), i. 360; A. Vaniček, Griechisch-lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (Leipsic, 1877), p. 715. The three latter scholars take Veturius as = annuus, because vetus is etymologically equivalent to ἔτος. But, as Usener argues, it seems quite unallowable to take the Greek meaning of the word instead of the Latin.

548

Cato, De agri cultura, 141.

549

Varro, De lingua latina, v. 85.

550

See the song of the Arval Brothers in Acta Fratrum Arvalium, ed. G. Henzen (Berlin, 1874), pp. 26 sq.; J. Wordsworth, Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin (Oxford, 1874), p. 158; H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, ii. Pars i. (Berlin, 1902) p. 276.

551

Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 42 sqq.

552

Cato, De agri cultura, 83.

553

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 50 sq., 55, 124 sq.

554

L. Preller, Römische Mythologie,3 i. 360; W. H. Roscher, Apollon und Mars, p. 49; id., Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, ii. 2408 sq.; H. Usener, op. cit. The ceremony also closely resembles the Highland New Year ceremony already described. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 322 sqq.

555

But the Biyârs, a mixed tribe of North-Western India, observe an annual ceremony which they call “burning the old year.” The old year is represented by a stake of the wood of the cotton-tree, which is planted in the ground at an appointed place outside of the village, and then burned on the day of the full moon in the month of Pûs. Fire is first put to it by the village priest, and then all the people follow his example, parch stalks of barley in the fire, and afterwards eat them. Next day they throw the ashes of the burnt wood in the air; and on the morrow the festival ends with a regular saturnalia, at which decency and order are forgotten. See W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh (Calcutta, 1896), ii. 137 sq. Compare id., Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), ii. 319.

556

Propertius, v. 2. 61 sq.; H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” p. 210; id., Kleine Schriften, iv. 123.

557

Varro, De lingua latina, vi. 45 ed. C. O. Müller; Festus, s. v. “Mamuri Veturi,” p. 131 ed. C. O. Müller; Ovid, Fasti, iii. 389 sqq.; Plutarch, Numa, 13.

558

Servius, on Virgil, Aen. vii. 188, “Cui [scil. Mamurio] et diem consecrarunt, quo pellem virgis feriunt”; Minucius Felix, Octavius, 24, “Nudi cruda hieme discurrunt, alii incedunt pilleati, scuta vetera circumferunt, pelles caedunt.” Neither Servius nor Minucius Felix expressly mentions the Salii, but the description given by the latter writer (“pilleati, scuta vetera circumferunt”) proves that he alludes to them. The expression of Minucius Felix pelles caedunt is conclusive in favour of pellem in the passage of Servius, where some would wrongly substitute peltam, the reading of a single MS. That the beating of the skin-clad representative of Mamurius was done by the Salii was long ago rightly pointed out by Dr. W. H. Roscher (Apollon und Mars, p. 49).

559

Varro, De lingua latina, v. 85, “Saliia salitando, quod facere in comitio in sacris quotannis et solent et debent.” Compare Ovid, Fasti, iii. 387, “Iam dederat Saliis a saltu nomina dicta”; Plutarch, Numa, 13; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquitates Romanae, ii. 70.

560

J. Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii.2 (Leipsic, 1885) p. 431; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer2 (Munich, 1912), p. 144; W. Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1911), pp. 96 sq.

561

Festus, ed. C. O. Müller, p. 325, “Qui deus in saliaribus Saturnus nominatur, videlicet a sationibus.” In this passage Ritschl reads Saeturnus for Saturnus. The best MSS. of the epitome read Sateurnus. See J. Wordsworth, Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin (Oxford, 1884), p. 405. As to Saturn in this capacity see below, p. 306.

562

Columella, De re rustica, ii. 9. 6 sq.

563

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 137 sqq.

564

J. Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii.2 (Leipsic, 1885) pp. 427 sq.

565

L. Preller, Römische Mythologie3 (Berlin, 1881-1883), i. 359. As to the lunar year of the old Roman Calendar see L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie (Berlin, 1825-1826), ii. 38 sqq.

566

As to their number and badge see Aulus Gellius, vi. (vii., ed. M. Hertz) 7. 8; as to their function see Varro, De lingua latina, v. 85, “Fratres Arvales dicti sunt, qui sacra publica faciunt propterea ut fruges ferant arva, a ferendo et arvis fratres arvales dicti.”

567

Livy, i. 20. 4; Plutarch, Numa, 13; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquitates Romanae, ii. 70. Livy only mentions the shields. From an ancient relief we learn that the staves of the Salii terminated in a knob at each end. Hence we may correct the statement of Dionysius, who describes the weapon doubtfully as λόγχην ἣ ῥάβδον ἤ τι τοιοῦθ ἕτερον. See J. Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii.2 432, note 6.

568

See above, pp. 113, 116, 117, 132, 139, 141, 147, 158, 159, 161, 163, 165, 166, 186, 191, 196, 200, 204, 214.

569

Livy, i. 20. 4; J. Marquardt, op. cit. iii.2 432 sq.; W. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Third Edition (London, 1891), vol. ii. p. 590, s. v. “Salii.”

570

See above, pp. 111 sqq.

571

See above, p. 138.

572

Labat, Voyage du Chevalier Des Marchais en Guinée, Isles voisines, et à Cayenne (Amsterdam, 1731), ii. 80 (p. 99 of the Paris edition).

573

Olivier de Sanderval, De l'Atlantique au Niger par le Foutah-Djallon (Paris, 1883), p. 230. The phrase which I have translated “for exorcising the spirits” is “pour conjurer les esprits.”

574

Ludovico di Varthema, Travels in Egypt, Syria, etc., translated by J. W. Jones (Hakluyt Society, London, 1863), pp. 166 sq.

575

Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 95, 186 sq.

576

Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 111 sq.

577

Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, liii. (1881) p. 178.

578

C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (London, 1903), i. 330 sq.

579

C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (London, 1903), i. 335 sqq., 352 sq.

580

K. Th. Preuss, Die Nayarit-Expedition, I. Die Religion der Cora-Indianer (Leipsic, 1912), pp. xcviii. sq., 61-63. As to the sowing festival of the Mexican Indians, compare K. Th. Preuss, “Die religiösen Gesänge und Mythen einiger Stämme der mexikanischen Sierra Madre,” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, xi. (1908) pp. 374 sqq.

581

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 137-139.

582

Dr. F. J. Vonbun, Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie gesammelt in Churrhaetien (Chur, 1862), p. 21, quoting J. Stumpf and Ulr. Campell. As the passage is curious and the work probably rare, I will quote the original in full: “Sicherlich auch im zusammenhange mit Donarcultus war ein brauch der leute in der Grub (in Graubünden). ‘Die landleute in der Grub haben noch etwas anererbte bräuche, indem dass sie sich zu etlichen jahren (meistens zur zeit der sonnenwende) besammelten, verbutzten (sich als masken vermummten) und einander unbekannt machten, legten harnisch und geweer an, und nahm jeder ein grossen kolben oder knüttel, zugen in einer rott mit einander von einem dorf zum andern, triben hohe sprünge und seltsame abentheur. – Sie luffen gestracks laufs aneinander, stiessen mit kräften je einer den andern, dass es erhillt, stiessen laut mit ihren grössen stöcken und knütteln, deswegen sie vom landvolk genannt werden die Stopfer. Diese thorechte abentheuer triben sie zum aberglauben, dass ihnen das korn destobas gerathen sölle, haben aber anjetzo abgelassen, und sind diese Stopfer in keiner achtung mehr.’ (Joh. Stumpf). Auch Ulr. Campell erwähnt dieses volksbrauch (s. 11) und bemerkt: ‘mit diesem gebrauche hing früher der glaube zusammen, dass dessen ausübung ein fruchtbares jahr bringe.’ ” The word Stopfer means “stopper,” “rammer,” “crammer,” etc.

583

J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie4 (Berlin, 1875-1878), i. 226 sqq., iii. 88 sq.; Fr. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), i. 247 sq., ii. 381; I. V. Zingerle, “Perahta in Tirol,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie, iii. (Göttingen, 1855), pp. 203-206; id., Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes2 (Innsbruck, 1871), pp. 128 sq., 138 sq.; J. M. Ritter von Alpenburg, Mythen und Sagen Tirols (Zürich, 1857), pp. 46-51, 63-65; Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern (Munich, 1860-1867), i. 365; A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube2 (Berlin, 1869), § 25, pp. 25-27; W. Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme (Berlin, 1875), pp. 542 sq.; Karl Weinhold, Weinacht-Spiele und Lieder aus Süddeutschland und Schlesien (Vienna, 1875), pp. 19 sqq.; E. Mogk, in H. Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie,2 iii. (Strasburg, 1900), pp. 280 sq. (where it is said that Perchta “spendet dem Acker Fruchtbarkeit und lässt das Vieh gedeihen”); E. H. Meyer, Mythologie der Germanen (Strasburg, 1903), pp. 424 sqq.; P. Herrmann, Deutsche Mythologie (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 303 sqq.; M. Andree-Eysen, Volkskundliches aus dem bayrisch-österreichischen Alpengebiet (Brunswick, 1910), pp. 156 sqq.; E. Hoffmann-Krayer, Feste und Bräuche des Schweizervolkes (Zürich, 1913), pp. 118 sqq.

584

J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 231; I. V. Zingerle, Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes2 (Innsbruck, 1871), pp. 138 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 542 sq.; J. M. Ritter von Alpenburg, Mythen und Sagen Tirols (Zürich, 1857), pp. 50 sq.; K. Weinhold, Weinacht-Spiele und Lieder aus Süddeutschland und Schlesien (Vienna, 1875), pp. 21 sqq.

585

Marie Andree-Eysn, Volkskundliches aus dem bayrisch-österreichischen Alpengebiet (Brunswick, 1910), pp. 156-175.

586

Marie Andree-Eysn, Volkskundliches aus dem bayrisch-österreichischen Alpengebiet (Brunswick, 1910), pp. 179 sq. The authoress kindly presented me with a copy of her valuable work in May 1910, when I had the pleasure of visiting her and her husband, the eminent anthropologist, the late Dr. Richard Andree, in their home at Munich.

587

See P. Sartori, “Glockensagen und Glockenaberglaube,” Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, vii. (1897) pp. 360 sqq. The use in classical antiquity of bells, gongs, and the clash of bronze generally to ban the demon host has been learnedly illustrated by Mr. A. B. Cook in his article, “The Gong at Dodona,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxii. (1902) pp. 14 sqq.

588

Rev. A. L. Kitching, On the Backwaters of the Nile (London, 1912), p. 264. As to the country of the Teso people, who do not belong to the Bantu stock, see id., pp. 26 sq.

589

Marie Andree-Eysn, op. cit. pp. 180-182. As to the custom of “ringing-out the grass,” see further W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 540; The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 343 sq.

590

Marie Andree-Eysn, op. cit. p. 182.

591

Marie Andree-Eysn, l. c.

592

K. Seifart, Sagen, Märchen, Schwänke und Gebräuche aus Stadt und Stift Hildesheim2 (Hildesheim, 1889), p. 180. For more evidence of the supposed fertilizing influence of bells, see P. Sartori, “Glockensagen und Glockenaberglaube,” Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, vii. (1897) pp. 363 sq.

593

I. V. Zingerle, Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes2 (Innsbruck, 1871), pp. 135 sq., 139, § 1196, 1211, 1212.

594

W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 268 sq.

595

Marie Andree-Eysn, op. cit. pp. 182 sq.

596

W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 548.

597

W. Mannhardt, l. c.

598