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

671

J. M. Hildebrandt, “Ethnographische Notizen über Wakamba und ihre Nachbarn,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, x. (1878) p. 401.

672

H. R. Tate, “Further Notes on the Kikuyu Tribe of British East Africa,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxiv. (1904) pp. 260 sq. At the festivals sheep and goats are sacrificed to God (Ngai), and the people feast on the roast flesh.

673

E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, part i. (Washington, 1899) pp. 438, 440.

674

E. W. Nelson, op. cit. p. 440, compare pp. 380 sq. The bladder festival of these Esquimaux will be described in a later part of this work.

675

I. Petroff, Report on the Population, Industries, and Resources of Alaska (preface dated August 7, 1882), pp. 154 sq.

676

W. H. Dall, Alaska and its Resources (London, 1870), p. 404.

677

Fr. Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1888), pp. 584 sq., 595; id. “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, xv. part i. (1901) pp. 121-124. See also id. “Die Sagen der Baffin-land Eskimo,” Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte (1885), pp. 162 sq.; id., in Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, v. (Montreal, 1888) section ii. pp. 35 sq.; C. F. Hall, Life with the Esquimaux (London, 1864), ii. 321 sq.; id., Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition made by Charles F. Hall, edited by Professor J. E. Nourse (Washington, 1879), pp. 191 sq.

678

That is, the wizard or sorcerer.

679

That is, the wizard or sorcerer.

680

Fr. Boas, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, xv. pt. i. (1901) pp. 119-121, 124-126. In quoting these passages I have changed the spelling of a few words in accordance with English orthography.

681

Le P. P. Cayzac, “La Religion des Kikuyu,” Anthropos, v. (1905) p. 311.

682

Le P. P. Cayzac, loc. cit. The nature of the “ignoble ceremony” of transferring sin to a he-goat is not mentioned by the missionary. It can hardly have been the simple Jewish one of laying hands on the animal's head.

683

D. W. Harmon, in Rev. Jedidiah Morse's Report to the Secretary of War of the United States on Indian Affairs (New-haven, 1822), p. 345. The Carriers are an Indian tribe of North-West America who call themselves Ta-cul-lies, “a people who go upon water” (ibid. p. 343).

684

Francis C. Nicholas, “The Aborigines of Santa Maria, Colombia,” American Anthropologist, N.S. iii. (1901) pp. 639-641.

685

A. de Herrera, The General History of the Vast Continent and Islands of America, translated by Capt. J. Stevens (London, 1725-26), iv. 148. The confession of sins appears to have held an important place in the native religion of the American Indians, particularly the Mexicans and Peruvians. There is no sufficient reason to suppose that they learned the practice from Catholic priests. For more evidence of the custom among the aborigines of America see L. H. Morgan, League of the Iroquois (Rochester, U.S. America, 1851), pp. 170 sq., 187 sq.; B. de Sahagun, Histoire générale des choses de la Nouvelle Espagne, bk. i. ch. 12, bk. vi. ch. 7, pp. 22-27, 339-344 (Jourdanet and Simeon's French translation); A. de Herrera, op. cit. iv. 173, 190; Diego de Landa, Relation des choses de Yucatan (Paris, 1864), pp. 154 sqq.; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale, ii. 114 sq., 567, iii. 567-569; P. J. de Arriaga, Extirpacion de la idolatria del Piru (Lima, 1621), pp. 18, 28 sq.

686

As to this means of hastening the delivery see Totemism and Exogamy, iv. 248 sqq. The intention of the exchange of clothes at childbirth between husband and wife seems to be to relieve the woman by transferring the travail pangs to the man.

687

G. Ferrand, Les Musulmans à Madagascar, Deuxième Partie (Paris, 1893), pp. 20 sq.

688

H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda (Berlin, 1894), pp. 319 sq.

689

Satapatha Brahmana, translated by J. Eggeling, pt. i. p. 397 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xii.).

690

The similarity of some of the Mosaic laws to savage customs has struck most Europeans who have acquired an intimate knowledge of the savage and his ways. They have often explained the coincidences as due to a primitive revelation or to the dispersion of the Jews into all parts of the earth. Some examples of these coincidences were cited in my article “Taboo,” Encyclopaedia Britannica,9 xxiii. 17. The subject has since been handled, with consummate ability and learning, by my lamented friend W. Robertson Smith in his Religion of the Semites (New Edition, London, 1894). In Psyche's Task I have illustrated by examples the influence of superstition on the growth of morality.

691

A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo, i. 106 sq.

692

J. Adair, History of the American Indians, p. 118.

693

C. J. Andersson, Lake Ngami, p. 224.

694

L. Alberti, De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika (Amsterdam, 1810), pp. 158 sq. Compare H. Lichtenstein, Reisen im südlichen Africa (Berlin, 1811-12), i. 419. These accounts were written about a century ago. The custom may since have become obsolete. A similar remark applies to other customs described in this and the following paragraph.

695

P. Kolbe, Present State of the Cape of Good Hope, I.2 (London, 1738) pp. 251-255. The reason alleged for the custom is to allow the slayer to recruit his strength. But the reason is clearly inadequate as an explanation of this and similar practices.

696

J. Scheffer, Lapponia (Frankfort, 1673), pp. 234-243; C. Leemius, De Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua, vita et religione pristina commentatio (Copenhagen, 1767), pp. 502 sq.; E. J. Jessen, De Finnorum Lapponumque Nouvegicorum religione pagana tractatus singularis, pp. 64 sq. (bound up with Leemius's work).

697

S. Kay, Travels and Researches in Caffraria (London, 1833), pp. 341 sq.

698

J. Duncan, Travels in Western Africa (London, 1847), i. 195 sq.; F. E. Forbes, Dahomey and the Dahomans (London, 1851), i. 107; P. Bouche, La Côte des Esclaves (Paris, 1885), p. 397; A. B. Ellis, The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, pp. 58 sq.

699

Indian Antiquary, xxi. (1892) p. 224. Many of the above examples of expiation exacted for the slaughter of animals have already been cited by me in a note on Pausanias, ii. 7. 7, where I suggested that the legendary purification of Apollo for the slaughter of the python at Delphi (Plutarch, Quaest. Graec., 12; id., De defectu oraculorum, 15; Aelian, Var. Hist. iii. 1) may be a reminiscence of a custom of this sort.

700

Le R. P. Cadière, “Croyances et dictons populaires de la Vallée du Nguôn-son, Province de Quang-binh (Annam),” Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême Orient, i. (1901) pp. 183 sq.

701

On the nature of taboo see my article “Taboo” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th edition, vol. xxiii. (1888) pp. 15 sqq.; W. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites2 (London, 1894), pp. 148 sqq., 446 sqq. Some languages have retained a word for that general idea which includes under it the notions which we now distinguish as sanctity and pollution. The word in Latin is sacer, in Greek, ἅγιος. In Polynesian it is tabu (Tongan), tapu (Samoan, Tahitian, Marquesan, Maori, etc.), or kapu (Hawaiian). See E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (Wellington, N.Z., 1891), s. v. tapu. In Dacotan the word is wakan, which in Riggs's Dakota-English Dictionary (Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. vii., Washington, 1890, pp. 507 sq.) is defined as “spiritual, sacred, consecrated; wonderful, incomprehensible; said also of women at the menstrual period.” Another writer in the same dictionary defines wakan more fully as follows: “Mysterious; incomprehensible; in a peculiar state, which, from not being understood, it is dangerous to meddle with; hence the application of this word to women at the menstrual period, and from hence, too, arises the feeling among the wilder Indians, that if the Bible, the church, the missionary, etc., are ‘wakan,’ they are to be avoided, or shunned, not as being bad or dangerous, but as wakan. The word seems to be the only one suitable for holy, sacred, etc., but the common acceptation of it, given above, makes it quite misleading to the heathen.” On the notion designated by wakan, see also G. H. Pond, “Dakota Superstitions,” Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society for the year 1867 (Saint Paul, 1867), p. 33; J. Owen Dorsey, in Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1894), pp. 366 sq. It is characteristic of the equivocal notion denoted by these terms that, whereas the condition of women in childbed is commonly regarded by the savage as what we should call unclean, among the Herero the same condition is described as holy; for some time after the birth of her child, the woman is secluded in a hut made specially for her, and every morning the milk of all the cows is brought to her that she may consecrate it by touching it with her mouth. See H. Schinz, Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika, p. 167. Again, whereas a girl at puberty is commonly secluded as dangerous, among the Warundi of eastern Africa she is led by her grandmother all over the house and obliged to touch everything (O. Baumann, Durch Massailand sur Nilquelle (Berlin, 1894), p. 221), as if her touch imparted a blessing instead of a curse.

702

Plutarch, Agis, 19.

703

W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches,2 iii. 102.

704

E. Aymonier, Le Cambodge, ii. (Paris, 1901) p. 25.

705

J. Moura, Le Royaume du Cambodge (Paris, 1883), i. 226.

706

Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l'Église de Corée (Paris, 1874), i. pp. xxiv. sq.; W. E. Griffis, Corea, the Hermit Nation (London, 1882), p. 219. These customs are now obsolete (G. N. Curzon, Problems of the Far East (Westminster, 1896), pp. 154 sq. note).

707

Macrobius, Sat. v. 19. 13; Servius on Virgil, Aen. i. 448; Joannes Lydus, De mensibus, i. 31. We have already seen (p. 16) that the hair of the Flamen Dialis might only be cut with a bronze knife. The Greeks attributed a certain cleansing virtue to bronze; hence they employed it in expiatory rites, at eclipses, etc. See the Scholiast on Theocritus, ii. 36.

708

Acta Fratrum Arvalium, ed. G. Henzen (Berlin, 1874), pp. 128-135; J. Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii.2 (Das Sacralwesen) pp. 459 sq.

709

Plutarch, Praecepta gerendae reipublicae, xxvi. 7. Plutarch here mentions that gold was also excluded from some temples. At first sight this is surprising, for in general neither the gods nor their ministers have displayed any marked aversion to gold. But a little enquiry suffices to clear up the mystery and set the scruple in its proper light. From a Greek inscription discovered some years ago we learn that no person might enter the sanctuary of the Mistress at Lycosura wearing golden trinkets, unless for the purpose of dedicating them to the goddess; and if any one did enter the holy place with such ornaments on his body but no such pious intention in his mind, the trinkets were forfeited to the use of religion. See Ἐφημερὶς ἀρχαιολογική (Athens, 1898), col. 249; Dittenberger, Sylloge inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 939. The similar rule, that in the procession at the mysteries of Andania no woman might wear golden ornaments (Dittenberger, op. cit. No. 653), was probably subject to a similar exception and enforced by a similar penalty. Once more, if the maidens who served Athena on the Acropolis at Athens put on gold ornaments, the ornaments became sacred, in other words, the property of the goddess (Harpocration, s. v. ἀρρηφορεῖν, vol. i. p. 59, ed. Dindorf). Thus it appears that the pious scruple about gold was concerned rather with its exit from, than with its entrance into, the sacred edifice. At the sacrifice to the Sun in ancient Egypt worshippers were forbidden to wear golden trinkets and to give hay to an ass (Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 30) – a singular combination of religious precepts. In India gold and silver are common totems, and members of such clans are forbidden to wear gold and silver trinkets respectively. See Totemism and Exogamy, iv. 24.

710

Callimachus, referred to by the Old Scholiast on Ovid, Ibis. See Callimachea, ed. O. Schneider, ii. p. 282, Frag. 100a E.; Chr. A. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 686.

711

Plutarch, Aristides, 21. This passage was pointed out to me by my friend Mr. W. Wyse.

712

Theophilus Hahn, Tsuni-Goam, the Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi (London, 1881), p. 22.

713

Dr. P. H. Brincker, “Charakter, Sitten und Gebräuche speciell der Bantu Deutsch-Südwestafrikas,” Mittheilungen des Seminars für orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin, iii. (1900) Dritte Abtheilung, p. 80.

714

A. van Gennep, Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar (Paris, 1904), p. 38.

715

W. H. Furness, The Island of Stone Money, Uap of the Carolines (Philadelphia and London, 1910), p. 151.

716

J. G. Bourke, The Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona (New York, 1891), pp. 178 sq.

717

G. B. Grinnell, Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-tales (New York, 1889), p. 253.

718

See above, pp. 205 sq.

719

E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part I. (Washington, 1899) p. 392.

720

E. W. Nelson, op. cit. p. 383.

721

Fr. Boas, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, xv. Part I. (1901) p. 149.

722

C. F. Gordon Cumming, In the Hebrides (ed. 1883), p. 195.

723

James Logan, The Scottish Gael (ed. Alex. Stewart), ii. 68 sq.

724

J. G. Campbell, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 262, 298, 299.

725

R. C. Maclagan, M.D., “Notes on Folklore Objects from Argyleshire,” Folk-lore, vi. (1895) p. 157; J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow, 1900), pp. 263-266. The shoulder-blades of sheep have been used in divination by many peoples, for example by the Corsicans, South Slavs, Tartars, Kirghiz, Calmucks, Chukchees, and Lolos, as well as by the Scotch. See J. Brand, Popular Antiquities, iii. 339 sq. (Bohn's ed.); Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), Origin of Civilisation,4 pp. 237 sq.; Ch. Rogers, Social Life in Scotland, iii. 224; Camden, Britannia, translated by E. Gibson (London, 1695), col. 1046; M. MacPhail, “Traditions, Customs, and Superstitions of the Lewis,” Folk-lore, vi. (1895) p. 167; J. G. Dalyell, Darker Superstitions of Scotland, pp. 515 sqq.; F. Gregorovius, Corsica, (London, 1855), p. 187; F. S. Krauss, Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Südslaven, pp. 166-170; M. E. Durham, High Albania (London, 1909), pp. 104 sqq.; E. Doutté, Magie et religion dans l'Afrique du Nord (Algiers, 1908), p. 371; W. Radloff, Proben der Volksliteratur der türkischen Stämme Süd-Sibiriens, iii. 115, note 1, compare p. 132; J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 ii. 932; W. W. Rockhill, The Land of the Lamas (London, 1891), pp. 176, 341-344; P. S. Pallas, Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reichs, i. 393; J. G. Georgi, Beschreibung aller Nationen des russischen Reichs, p. 223; T. de Pauly, Description ethnographique des peuples de la Russie, peuples de la Sibérie orientale (St. Petersburg, 1862), p. 7; Krahmer, “Der Anadyr-Bezirk nach A. W. Olssufjew,” Petermann's Mittheilungen, xlv. (1899) pp. 230 sq.; W. Bogoras, “The Chuckchee Religion,” Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. vii. part ii. (Leyden and New York) pp. 487 sqq.; Crabouillet, “Les Lolos,” Missions Catholiques, v. (1873) p. 72; W. G. Aston, Shinto, p. 339; R. Andree, “Scapulimantia,” in Boas Anniversary Volume (New York, 1906), pp. 143-165.

726

C. F. Gordon Cumming, In the Hebrides, p. 226; E. J. Guthrie, Old Scottish Customs (London and Glasgow, 1885), p. 223.

727

1 Kings vi. 7; Exodus xx. 25.

728

Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquit. Roman. iii. 45, v. 24; Plutarch, Numa, 9; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 100.

729

Acta Fratrum Arvalium, ed. G. Henzen, p. 132; Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, i. No. 603.

730

Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 100.

731

Indian Antiquary, x. (1881) p. 364.

732

Prof. W. Ridgeway ingeniously suggests that the magical virtue of iron may be based on an observation of its magnetic power, which would lead savages to imagine that it was possessed of a spirit. See Report of the British Association for 1903, p. 816.

733

Frank Hatton, North Borneo (1886), p. 233.

734

A. E. Pratt, “Two Journeys to Ta-tsien-lu on the eastern Borders of Tibet,” Proceedings of the R. Geographical Society, xiii. (1891) p. 341.

735

W. Svoboda, “Die Bewohner des Nikobaren-Archipels,” Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, vi. (1893) p. 13.

736

The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse, in a. d. 1547-1555, translated by A. Tootal (London, 1874), pp. 85 sq.

737

E. H. Fraser, “The Fish-skin Tartars,” Journal of the China Branch of the R. Asiatic Society for the Year 1891-92, N.S. xxvi. p. 15.

738

Fr. Kreutzwald und H. Neus, Mythische und magische Lieder der Ehsten (St. Petersburg, 1854), p. 113.

739

Alexand. Guagninus, “De ducatu Samogitiae,” in Respublica sive status regni Poloniae, Lituaniae, Prussiae, Livoniae, etc. (Elzevir, 1627) p. 276; Johan. Lasicius, “De diis Samogitarum caeterorumque Sarmatum,” in Respublica, etc. (ut supra), p. 294 (p. 84, ed. W. Mannhardt, in Magazin herausgegeben von der Lettisch – Literärischen Gesellschaft, vol. xiv.).

740

L. von Ende, “Die Baduwis von Java,” Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, xix. (1889) p. 10.

741

J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow, 1900), pp. 46 sq.

742

E. J. Guthrie, Old Scottish Customs, p. 149; Ch. Rogers, Social Life in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1884-1886), iii. 218.

743

J. Macdonald, Religion and Myth, p. 91.

744

W. Gregor, Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland (London, 1881), p. 201. The fishermen think that if the word “pig,” “sow,” or “swine” be uttered while the lines are being baited, the line will certainly be lost.

745

A. Leared, Morocco and the Moors (London, 1876), p. 273.

746

Wickremasinghe, in Am Urquell, v. (1894) p. 7.

747

G. F. D'Penha, “Superstitions and Customs in Salsette,” Indian Antiquary, xxviii. (1899) p. 114.

748

W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, iii. 431.

749

F. Jagor, “Bericht über verschiedene Volksstämme in Vorderindien,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xxvi. (1894) p. 70.

750

E. Thurston, Ethnographic Notes in Southern India (Madras, 1906), p. 341.

751

E. M. Gordon, Indian Folk Tales (London, 1908), p. 31.

752

L. R. P. Cadière, “Coutumes populaires de la vallée du Nguôn-So'n,” Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, ii. (1902) pp. 354 sq.

753

Baudin, “Le Fétichisme,” Missions Catholiques, xvi. (1884) p. 249; A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, p. 113.

754

Il Fetha Nagast o legislazione dei re, codice ecclesiastico e civile di Abissinia, tradotto e annotato da Ignazio Guidi (Rome, 1899), p. 140.

755

The reader may observe how closely the taboos laid upon mourners resemble those laid upon kings. From what has gone before, the reason of the resemblance is obvious.

756

Panjab Notes and Queries, iii. p. 61, § 282.

757

G. F. D'Penha, “Superstitions and Customs in Salsette,” Indian Antiquary, xxviii. (1899) p. 115.

758

W. Gregor, Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland, p. 206.

759

This is expressly said in Panjab Notes and Queries, iii. p. 202, § 846. On iron as a protective charm see also F. Liebrecht, Gervasius von Tilbury, pp. 99 sqq.; id., Zur Volkskunde, p. 311; L. Strackerjan, Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg, i. pp. 354 sq. § 233; A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube,2 § 414 sq.; E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture,2 i. 140; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 132 note. Many peoples, especially in Africa, regard the smith's craft with awe or fear as something uncanny and savouring of magic. Hence smiths are sometimes held in high honour, sometimes looked down upon with great contempt. These feelings probably spring in large measure from the superstitions which cluster round iron. See R. Andree, Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, pp. 153-159; G. McCall Theal, Records of South-Eastern Africa, vii. 447; O. Lenz, Skizzen aus West-Afrika (Berlin, 1878), p. 184; A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste, ii. 217; M. Merkel, Die Masai (Berlin, 1904), pp. 110 sq.; A. C. Hollis, The Masai (Oxford, 1905), pp. 330 sq.; id., The Nandi (Oxford, 1909), pp. 36 sq.; J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stämme (Berlin, 1906), p. 776; E. Doutté, Magie et religion dans l'Afrique du Nord, pp. 40 sqq.; Ph. Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas, die geistige Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl (Berlin, 1896), p. 30; id., Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas, die materielle Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl (Berlin, 1893), p. 202; Th. Levebvre, Voyage en Abyssinie, i. p. lxi.; A. Cecchi, Da Zeila alle frontiere del Caffa, i. (Rome, 1886) p. 45; M. Parkyns, Life in Abyssinia2 (London, 1868), pp. 300 sq.; J. T. Bent, Sacred City of the Ethiopians (London, 1893), p. 212; G. Rohlf, “Reise durch Nord-Afrika,” Petermann's Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsheft, No. 25 (Gotha, 1868), pp. 30, 54; G. Nachtigal, “Die Tibbu,” Zeitschrift für Erdkunde zu Berlin, v. (1870) pp. 312 sq.; id., Sahara und Sudan, i. 443 sq., ii. 145, 178, 371, iii. 189, 234 sq. The Kayans of Borneo think that a smith is inspired by a special spirit, the smith's spirit, and that without this inspiration he could do no good work. See A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo, ii. 198.