The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 03 of 12)

500

Old New Zealand, by a Pakeha Maori (London, 1884), pp. 104-114. For more evidence see W. Yate, New Zealand, p. 85; G. F. Angas, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, ii. 90; E. Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand, ii. 104 sq.; J. Dumont D'Urville, Voyage autour du monde et à la recherche de La Pérouse, ii. 530; Father Servant, “Notice sur la Nouvelle Zélande,” Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xv. (1843) p. 22.

501

G. Turner, Samoa, p. 145. Compare G. Brown, D.D., Melanesians and Polynesians (London, 1910), p. 402: “The men who took hold of the body were paia (sacred) for the time, were forbidden to touch their own food, and were fed by others. No food wad eaten in the same house with the dead body.”

502

W. Mariner, The Natives of the Tonga Islands2 (London, 1818), i. 141 sq., note.

503

Father Bataillon, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xiii. (1841) p. 19. For more evidence of the practice of this custom in Polynesia, see Captain J. Cook, Voyages (London, 1809), vii. 147; James Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean (London, 1799), p. 363.

504

Ch. Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, New Edition (New York, 1851), iii. 99 sq.

505

W. G. Lawes, “Ethnological Notes on the Motu, Koitapu, and Koiari Tribes of New Guinea,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, viii. (1879) p. 370.

506

Father Lambert, in Missions Catholiques, xii. (1880) p. 365; id., Mœurs et superstitions des Néo-Calédoniens (Nouméa, 1900), pp. 238 sq.

507

A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford, 1909), p. 70.

508

H. A. Junod, “Les Conceptions physiologiques des Bantou sud-africains et leurs tabous,” Revue d'Ethnographie et de Sociologie, i. (1910) p. 153.

509

A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 563.

510

Fr. Boas, in Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, pp. 91 sq. (separate Reprint from the Report of the British Association for 1890).

511

J. Teit, “The Thompson Indians of British Columbia,” Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. i. part iv. (April 1900) pp. 331, 332 sq.

512

C. Hill-Tout, The Far West, the Home of the Salish and Déné (London, 1907), pp. 193 sq.

513

G. M. Dawson, “Notes and Observations on the Kwakiool People of the Northern part of Vancouver Island and adjacent Coasts,” Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada for the Year 1887, vol. v. (Montreal, 1888) Trans. Section ii. pp. 78 sq.

514

F. Blumentritt, “Über die Eingeborenen der Insel Palawan und der Inselgruppe der Talamlanen,” Globus, lix. (1891) p. 182.

515

Father Guis, “Les Canaques, Mort-Deuil,” Missions Catholiques, xxxiv. (1902) pp. 208 sq.

516

Capt. W. E. Armit, “Customs of the Australian Aborigines,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, ix. (1880) p. 459.

517

W. Ridley, “Report on Australian Languages and Traditions,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, ii. (1873) p. 268.

518

From information given me by Messrs. Roscoe and Miller, missionaries to Uganda (June 24, 1897), and afterwards corrected by the Katikiro (Prime Minister) of Uganda in conversation with Mr. Roscoe (June 20, 1902).

519

Report of the International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska (Washington, 1885), p. 46.

520

Alexander Mackenzie, Voyages from Montreal through the Continent of North America (London, 1801), p. cxxiii.

521

Gavin Hamilton, “Customs of the New Caledonian Women,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vii. (1878) p. 206. Among the Nootkas of British Columbia a girl at puberty is hidden from the sight of men for several days behind a partition of mats; during her seclusion she may not scratch her head or her body with her hands, but she may do so with a comb or a piece of bone, which is provided for the purpose. See Fr. Boas, in Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 41 (separate reprint from the Report of the British Association for 1890). Again, among the Shuswap of British Columbia a girl at puberty lives alone in a little hut on the mountains and is forbidden to touch her head or scratch her body; but she may scratch her head with a three-toothed comb and her body with the painted bone of a deer. See Fr. Boas, op. cit. pp. 89 sq. In the East Indian island of Ceram a girl may not scratch herself with her fingers the night before her teeth are filed, but she may do it with a piece of bamboo. See J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, p. 137.

522

A. G. Morice, “The Canadian Dénés,” Annual Archaeological Report (Toronto), 1905, p. 218.

523

H. Pittier de Fabrega, “Die Sprache der Bribri-Indianer in Costa Rica,” Sitzungsberichte der philosophischen-historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Vienna), cxxxviii. (1898) p. 20.

524

C. G. Seligmann, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 201, 203.

525

James Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, p. 354.

526

G. Turner, Samoa, p. 276.

527

C. G. Seligmann, “The Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery of the Sinaugolo,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 302. In Uganda a bride is secluded for a month, during which she only receives near relatives; she wears her veil all this time. She may not handle food, but is fed by one of her attendants. A peasant's wife is secluded for two or three days only. See J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 37.

528

Father Guis, “Les Canaques, ce qu'ils font, ce qu'ils disent,” Missions Catholiques, xxx. (1898) p. 119.

529

V. Lisiansky, A Voyage Round the World (London, 1814), p. 201.

530

H. A. Junod, “Les Conceptions physiologiques des Bantou sud-africains et leurs tabous,” Revue d' Ethnographie et de Sociologie, i. (1910) p. 153.

531

H. Pittier de Fábrega, op. cit. pp. 20 sq.

532

F. Fawcett, “Note on a Custom of the Mysore ‘Gollaválu’ or Shepherd Caste People,” Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, i. 536 sq.; E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India (Madras, 1909), ii. 287 sq.

533

M. J. Erdweg, “Die Bewohner der Insel Tumleo, Berlinhafen, Deutsch Neu-Guinea,” Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, xxxii. (1902) p. 280.

534

P. Rascher, “Die Sulka,” Archiv für Anthropologie, xxix. (1904) p. 212; R. Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee (Stuttgart, 1907), p. 180.

535

K. Vetter, in Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck-Archipel, 1897, p. 87.

536

Rev. E. Dannert, “Customs of the Ovaherero at the Birth of a Child,” (South African) Folk-lore Journal, ii. (1880) p. 63.

537

Levrault, “Rapport sur les provinces de Canélos et du Napo,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), Deuxième Série, xi. (1839) p. 74.

538

Franz Boas, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, xv. part i. (New York, 1901) pp. 125 sq. As to Sedna, see id. pp. 119 sqq.

539

H. A. Junod, “Les Conceptions physiologiques des Bantou sud-africains et leurs tabous,” Revue d'Ethnographie et de Sociologie, i. (1910) p. 139.

540

H. A. Junod, op. cit. pp. 139 sq.

541

H. A. Junod, op. cit. pp. 140 sq.

542

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 262 sqq., 278.

543

Le R. P. Cadière, “Coutumes populaires de la vallée du Nguôn-So'n,” Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, ii. (Hanoi, 1902) pp. 353 sq.

544

Dittenberger, Sylloge inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 566; Ch. Michel, Recueil d'inscriptions grecques, No. 730 ἁγνευέτωσαν δὲ καὶ εἰσίτωσαν εἰς τὸν τῆς θεο[ῦ ναὸν] … ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ κήδους καὶ τεκούσης γυναικὸς δευτεραῖος: Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris, 380 sqq.:

τὰ τῆς θεοῦ δὲ μέμφομαι σοφίσματα, ἤτις. βροτῶν μὲν ἤν τις ἄψηται φόνου ἥ καὶ λοχείας ἢ νεκροῦ θιγῇ χεροῖν, βωμῶν ἀπείργει, μυσαρὸν ὡς ἡγουμένη.

Compare also a mutilated Greek inscription found in Egypt (Revue archéologique, IIIme Série, ii. 182 sqq.). In the passage of Euripides which I have just quoted an acute verbal scholar, the late Dr. Badham, proposed to omit the line ἢ καὶ λοχείας ἢ νεκροῦ θιγῇ χεροῖν with the comment: “Nihil facit ad argumentum puerperae mentio; patet versum a sciolo additum.” To do Dr. Badham justice, the inscription which furnishes so close a parallel to the line of Euripides had not yet been discovered among the ruins of Pergamum, when he proposed to mutilate the text of the poet.

545

B. Hawkins, “The Creek Confederacy,” Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, iii. pt. i. (Savannah, 1848) pp. 78 sq. Hawkins's account is reproduced by A. S. Gatschett, in his Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, i. 185 sq. (Philadelphia, 1884). In the Turrbal tribe of southern Queensland boys at initiation were not allowed to scratch themselves with their fingers, but they might do it with a stick. See A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 596.

546

L. Alberti, De Kaffers (Amsterdam, 1810), pp. 76 sq.; H. Lichtenstein, Reisen im südlichen Afrika (Berlin, 1811-12), i. 427; S. Kay, Travels and Researches in Caffraria (London, 1833), pp. 273 sq.; Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir, p. 208; J. Stewart, D.D., Lovedale, South Africa (Edinburgh, 1894), pp. 105 sq., with illustrations.

547

Old New Zealand, by a Pakeha Maori (London, 1884), pp. 96, 114 sq. One of the customs mentioned by the writer was that all the people left in the camp had to fast strictly while the warriors were out in the field. This rule is obviously based on the sympathetic connexion supposed to exist between friends at a distance, especially at critical times. See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 126 sqq.

548

Deuteronomy xxiii. 9-14; 1 Samuel xxi. 5. The rule laid down in Deuteronomy xxiii. 10, 11, suffices to prove that the custom of continence observed in time of war by the Israelites, as by a multitude of savage and barbarous peoples, was based on a superstitious, not a rational motive. To convince us of this it is enough to remark that the rule is often observed by warriors for some time after their victorious return, and also by the persons left at home during the absence of the fighting men. In these cases the observance of the rule evidently does not admit of a rational explanation, which could hardly, indeed, be entertained by any one conversant with savage modes of thought. For examples, see The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 125, 128, 131, 133, and below, pp. 161, 163, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 175 sq., 178, 179, 181.

The other rule of personal cleanliness referred to in the text is exactly observed, for the reason I have indicated, by the aborigines in various parts of Australia. See (Sir) George Grey, Journals, ii. 344; R. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 165; J. Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 12; P. Beveridge, in Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, xvii. (1883) pp. 69 sq. Compare W. Stanbridge, “On the Aborigines of Victoria,” Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, N.S. i. (1861) p. 299; Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 251; E. M. Curr, The Australian Race, iii. 178 sq., 547; W. E. Roth, North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5 (Brisbane, 1903), p. 22, § 80. The same dread has resulted in a similar custom of cleanliness in Melanesia and Africa. See R. Parkinson, Im Bismarck-Archipel, pp. 143 sq.; R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians, p. 203 note; F. von Luschan, “Einiges über Sitten und Gebräuche der Eingeborenen Neu-Guineas,” Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte (1900), p. 416; J. Macdonald, “Manners, Customs, Superstitions, and Religions of South African Tribes,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xx. (1891) p. 131. Mr. Lorimer Fison sent me some notes on the Fijian practice, which agrees with the one described by Dr. Codrington. The same rule is observed, probably from the same motives, by the Miranha Indians of Brazil. See Spix und Martius, Reise in Brasilien, iii. 1251 note. On this subject compare F. Schwally, Semitische Kriegsaltertümer, i. (Leipsic, 1901) pp. 67 sq.

549

Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner (London, 1830), p. 122.

550

We have seen (pp. 146, 156) that the same rule is observed by girls at puberty among some Indian tribes of British Columbia and by Creek lads at initiation. It is also observed by Kwakiutl Indians who have eaten human flesh (see below, p. 189). Among the Blackfoot Indians the man who was appointed every four years to take charge of the sacred pipe and other emblems of their religion might not scratch his body with his finger-nails, but carried a sharp stick in his hair which he used for this purpose. During the term of his priesthood he had to fast and practise strict continence. None but he dare handle the sacred pipe and emblems (W. W. Warren, “History of the Ojibways,” Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, v. (1885) pp. 68 sq.). In Vedic India the man who was about to offer the solemn sacrifice of soma prepared himself for his duties by a ceremony of consecration, during which he carried the horn of a black deer or antelope wherewith to scratch himself if necessary (Satapatha-Brâhmana, bk. iii. 31, vol. ii. pp. 33 sq. trans. by J. Eggeling; H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, p. 399). Some of the Peruvian Indians used to prepare themselves for an important office by fasting, continence, and refusing to wash themselves, to comb their hair, and to put their hands to their heads; if they wished to scratch themselves, they must do it with a stick. See P. J. de Arriaga, Extirpacion de la idolatria del Piru (Lima, 1621), p. 20. Among the Isistines Indians of Paraguay mourners refrained from scratching their heads with their fingers, believing that to break the rule would make them bald, no hair growing on the part of the head which their fingers had touched. See Guevara, “Historia del Paraguay,” in P. de Angelis's Coleccion de obras y documentos relativos a la historia antigua y moderna de las provincias del Rio de la Plata, ii. (Buenos-Aires, 1836) p. 30. Amongst the Macusis of British Guiana, when a woman has given birth to a child, the father hangs up his hammock beside that of his wife and stays there till the navel-string drops off the child. During this time the parents have to observe certain rules, of which one is that they may not scratch their heads or bodies with their nails, but must use for this purpose a piece of palm-leaf. If they broke this rule, they think the child would die or be an invalid all its life. See R. Schomburgk, Reisen in Britisch-Guiana, ii. 314. Some aborigines of Queensland believe that if they scratched themselves with their fingers during a rain-making ceremony, no rain would fall. See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. p. 254. In all these cases, plainly, the hands are conceived to be so strongly infected with the venom of taboo that it is dangerous even for the owner of the hands to touch himself with them. The cowboy who herded the cows of the king of Unyoro had to live strictly chaste, no one might touch him, and he might not scratch or wound himself so as to draw blood. But it is not said that he was forbidden to touch himself with his own hands. See my Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 527.

551

Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner (London, 1830), p. 123. As to the custom of not stepping over a person or his weapons, see the note at the end of the volume.

552

J. G. Bourke, On the Border with Crook (New York, 1891), p. 133; id., in Folk-lore, ii. (1891) p. 453; id., in Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1892), p. 490.

553

J. G. Kohl, Kitschi-Gami, ii. 168.

554

Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt (Middletown, 1820), pp. 148 sq.

555

J. de Smet, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xiv. (1842) pp. 67 sq. These customs have doubtless long passed away, and the Indians who practised them may well have suffered the extinction which they did their best to incur.

556

J. Adair, History of the American Indians (London, 1775), p. 163.

557

J. Adair, History of the American Indians, pp. 380-382.

558

Maj. M. Marston, in Rev. Jedidiah Morse's Report to the Secretary of War of the United States on Indian Affairs (New-haven, 1822), Appendix, p. 130. The account in the text refers especially to the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo Indians, at the junction of the Rock and Mississippi rivers.

559

H. A. Junod, “Les Conceptions physiologiques des Bantou sud-africains et leurs tabous,” Revue d'Ethnographie et de Sociologie, i. (1910) p. 149.

560

For more evidence of the practice of continence by warriors, see R. Taylor, Te Ika A Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants,2 p. 189; E. Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand, ii. 85 sq.; Ch. Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, iii. 78; J. Chalmers, “Toaripi,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxvii. (1898) p. 332; id., Pioneering in New Guinea, p. 65; Van Schmidt, “Aanteekeningen nopens de zeden, etc., der bevolking van de eilanden Saparoea, Haroekoe, Noessa Laut, etc.,” Tijdschrift voor Neêrlands Indie, 1843, deel ii. p. 507; J. G. F. Riedel, De sluikharige en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, p. 223; id., “Galela und Tobeloresen,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xvii. (1885) p. 68; W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 524; E. Reclus, Nouvelle Géographie universelle, viii. 126 (compare J. Biddulph, Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh, p. 18); N. Isaacs, Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, i. 120; H. Callaway, Religious System of the Amazulu, iv. 437 sq.; Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir, p. 306; A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste, i. 203; H. Cole, “Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 317; R. H. Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, p. 177; H. R. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, iv. 63; J. Morse, Report to the Secretary of War of the U.S. on Indian Affairs (New-haven, 1822), pp. 130, 131; H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, i. 189. On the other hand in Uganda, before an army set out, the general and all the chiefs had either to lie with their wives or to jump over them. This was supposed to ensure victory and plenty of booty. See J. Roscoe, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 59. And in Kiwai Island, off British New Guinea, men had intercourse with their wives before they went to war, and they drew omens from it. See J. Chalmers, “Notes on the Natives of Kiwai,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxiii. (1903) p. 123.

561

See above, pp. 151 sq.

562

A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo, i. 350.

563

T. C. Hodson, “The genna amongst the Tribes of Assam,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxvi. (1906) p. 100.

564

S. Müller, Reizen en Onderzoekingen in den Indischen Archipel (Amsterdam, 1857), ii. 252.

565

J. S. G. Gramberg, “Eene maand in de binnenlanden van Timor,” Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, xxxvi. (1872) pp. 208, 216 sq. Compare H. Zondervan, “Timor en de Timoreezen,” Tijdschrift van het Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, Tweede Serie, v. (1888) Afdeeling, meer uitgebreide artikelen, pp. 399, 413. Similarly Gallas returning from war sacrifice to the jinn or guardian spirits of their slain foes before they will re-enter their own houses (Ph. Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas, die geistige Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl, pp. 50, 136). Sometimes perhaps the sacrifice consists of the slayers' own blood. See below, pp. 174, 176, 180. Orestes is said to have appeased the Furies of his murdered mother by biting off one of his fingers (Pausanias, viii. 34. 3).

566

N. Adriani en A. C. Kruijt, “Van Posso naar Parigi, Sigi en Lindoe,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xlii. (1898) p. 451.

567

S. W. Tromp, “Uit de Salasila van Koetei,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, xxxvii. (1888) p. 74.

568

Dr. L. Loria, “Notes on the Ancient War Customs of the Natives of Logea and Neighbourhood,” British New Guinea, Annual Report for 1894-1895 (London, 1896), p. 52.

569

Rev. J. Chalmers, “Toaripi,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxvii. (1898) p. 333.

570

R. E. Guise, “On the Tribes inhabiting the Mouth of the Wanigela River, New Guinea,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxviii. (1899) pp. 213 sq.

571

C. G. Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Guinea (Cambridge, 1910), p. 298.

572

C. G. Seligmann, op. cit. pp. 129 sq.

573

C. G. Seligmann, op. cit. pp. 563 sq.

574

P. Franz Vormann, “Zur Psychologie, Religion, Soziologie und Geschichte der Monumbo-Papua, Deutsch-Neuguinea,” Anthropos, v. (1910) pp. 410 sq.