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

I follow the exposition of E. Doutté, whose account of the sanctity or magical influence (baraka) ascribed to the persons of living Mohammedan saints (marabouts) is very instructive. See his Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord, pp. 438 sqq. Mr. E. S. Hartland had previously explained the custom of throwing stones and sticks on cairns as acts of ceremonial union with the spirit who is supposed to reside in the cairn. See his Legend of Perseus, ii. (London, 1895) p. 128. While this theory offers a plausible explanation of some cases of the custom, I do not think that it will cover them all. M. René Dussaud argues that the stones deposited at shrines of holy men are simply material embodiments of the prayers which at the same time the suppliants address to the saints; and he holds that the practice of depositing stones at such places rests on a principle entirely different from that of throwing stones for the purpose of repelling evil spirits. See René Dussaud, “La matérialisation de la prière en Orient,” Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d' Anthropologie de Paris, V. Série, vii. (1906) pp. 213-220. If I am right, the fundamental idea in these customs is neither that the stones or sticks are offerings presented to good spirits nor that they are missiles hurled at bad ones, but that they embody the evil, whether disease, misfortune, fear, horror, or what not, of which the person attempts to rid himself by transferring it to a material vehicle. But I am far from confident that this explanation applies to all cases. In particular it is difficult to reconcile it with the custom, described in the text, of throwing a marked stone at a holy man and then recovering it. Are we to suppose that the stone carries away the evil to the good man and brings back his blessing instead? The idea is perhaps too subtle and far-fetched.

The word baraka, which in North Africa describes the powerful and in general beneficent, yet dangerous, influence which emanates from holy persons and things, is no doubt identical with the Hebrew bĕrakhah (ברכה) “blessing.” The importance which the ancient Hebrews ascribed to the blessing or the curse of a holy man is familiar to us from many passages in the Old Testament. See, for example, Genesis xxvii., xlviii. 8 sqq.; Deuteronomy xxvii. 11 sqq., xxviii. 1 sqq.

67

E. Doutté, Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord (Algiers, 1908), pp. 430 sq.; J. Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidentums

(Berlin, 1897), p. 111. The explanation given in the text is regarded as probable by Professor M. J. de Goeje (Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, xvi. ,1904, p. 42.)

68

Etymologicum Magnum, s. v. Ἑρμαῖον, pp. 375 sq.; Eustathius on Homer, Odyssey, xvi. 471. As to the heaps of stones see Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 16; Babrius, Fabulae, xlviii. 1 sq.; Suidas, s. v. Ἑρμαῖον; Scholiast on Nicander, Ther. 150; M. P. Nilsson, Griechische Feste (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 388 sqq. The method of execution by stoning may perhaps have been resorted to in order to avoid the pollution which would be entailed by contact with the guilty and dying man.

69

Plato, Laws, ix. 12, p. 873 a-c λίθον ἕκαστος φέρων ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν τοῦ νεκροῦ βάλλων ἀφοσιούτω τὴν πόλιν ὅλην.

70

Satapatha Brahmana, ix. 1. 2. 9-12, Part iv. p. 171 of J. Eggeling's translation (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xliii., Oxford, 1897). As to Nirriti, the Goddess of Destruction, see H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda (Berlin, 1894), pp. 323, 351, 354, 489 note 3.

71

See, for example, O. Baumann, Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle (Berlin, 1894), p. 214; G. M. Dawson, “Notes on the Shuswap People of British Columbia,” Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, ix. (1891) section ii. p. 38; F. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde (Heilbronn, 1879), pp. 267 sq., 273 sq., 276, 278 sq.; R. Andree, Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche (Stuttgart, 1878), p. 48; Catat, in Le Tour du Monde, lxv. (1893), p. 40. Some of these writers have made a special study of the practices in question. See F. Liebrecht, “Die geworfenen Steine,” Zur Volkskunde, pp. 267-284; R. Andree, “Steinhaufen,” Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, pp. 46-58; E. S. Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, ii. (London, 1895) pp. 204 sqq.; E. Doutté, Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord (Algiers, 1908), pp. 419 sqq. With the views of the last of these writers I am in general agreement.

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However, at the waterfall of Kriml, in the Tyrol, it is customary for every passer-by to throw a stone into the water; and this attention is said to put the water-spirits in high good humour; for they follow the wayfarer who has complied with the custom and guard him from all the perils of the dangerous path. See F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 236 sq.

73

J. A. H. Louis, The Gates of Thibet, Second Edition (Calcutta, 1894), pp. 111 sq.

74

L. A. Waddell, Among the Himalayas (Westminster, 1899), pp. 115, 188.

75

Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-Centrale, ii. 564.

76

C. Sapper, “Die Gebräuche und religiösen Anschauungen der Kekchí-Indianer,” Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, viii. (1895) pp. 197 sq.

77

D. Forbes, “On the Aymara Indians of Bolivia and Peru,” Journal of the Ethnological Society of London, ii. (1870) pp. 237 sq.; G. C. Musters, “Notes on Bolivia,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, xlvii. (1877) p. 211; Baron E. Nordenskiöld, “Travels on the Boundaries of Bolivia and Argentina,” The Geographical Journal, xxi. (1903) p. 518.

78

P. J. de Arriaga, Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Piru (Lima, 1621), pp. 37, 130.

79

F. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 274; Brett, “Dans la Corée Septentrionale,” Les Missions Catholiques, xxxi. (1899) p. 237.

80

W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), i. 115. “In some parts of Bilaspore there may be seen heaps of stones, which are known as kuriyā, from the word kurhonā, meaning to heap or pile-up. Just how and why the practice was started the people cannot explain; but to this day every one who passes a kuriyā will take up a stone and throw it on the pile. This, they say, has been done as long as they can remember” (E. M. Gordon, Indian Folk Tales, London, 1908, p. 14).

81

W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), i. 267 sq.

82

Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda (London, 1911), p. 163.

83

P. Amaury Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush (London, 1912), p. 242. As to the goddess Nimm, see id., pp. 2 sq.

84

P. Amaury Talbot, op. cit. p. 91.

85

A. Karasek, “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Waschambaa,” Baessler-Archiv, i. (1911) p. 194.

86

M. Martin, “A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland,” in John Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels (London, 1808-1814), iii. 691.

87

E. Aymonier, Notes sur le Laos (Saigon, 1885), p. 198.

88

E. T. Atkinson, The Himalayan Districts of the North-Western Provinces of India, ii. (Allahabad, 1884) p. 832.

89

T. T. Cooper, Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce (London, 1871), p. 275. Compare W. W. Rockhill, The Land of the Lamas (London, 1891), pp. 126 sq.

90