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

512

H. A. [J. A.] Rose, “Unlucky and Lucky Children, and some Birth Superstitions,” Indian Antiquary, xxxi. (1902) p. 516; id., in Folklore, xiii. (1902) pp. 278 sq. As to the Khatris, see D. C. J. Ibbetson, Outlines of Panjab Ethnography, pp. 295 sq.; H. H. Risley, The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, i. 478 sqq.; W. Crooke, The Tribes and Castes of the North-western Provinces and Oudh, iii. 264 sqq.

513

The same suggestion has been made by Dr. E. Westermarck (The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, i. (London, 1906) pp. 460 sq.). Some years ago, before the publication of his book and while the present volume was still in proof, Dr. Westermarck and I in conversation discovered that we had independently arrived at the same conjectural explanation of the custom of killing the firstborn.

514

Capt. J. Cook, Voyages (London, 1809), i. 225 sq.; Capt. J. Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean (London, 1799), pp. 327, 330, 333; W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches,2 iii. 99-101; J. A. Mourenhout, Voyages aux îles du Grand Océan, ii. 13 sq.; Mathias G. – , Lettres sur les Îles Marquises (Paris, 1843), pp. 103 sq.; H. Hale, United States Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 34.

515

W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches,2 i. 251-253.

516

J. E. Erskine, Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific (London, 1853), p. 233.

517

J. Williams, Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands (London, 1836), pp. 117 sq.

518

J. Campbell, Travels in South Africa, Second Journey (London, 1822), ii. 276.

519

Hesiod, Theogony, 137 sqq., 453 sqq., 886 sqq.; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, i. 1-3.

520

Above, pp. 179 sq. Traces of a custom of sacrificing the children instead of the father may perhaps be found in the legends that Menoeceus, son of Creon, died to save Thebes, and that one or more of the daughters of Erechtheus perished to save Athens. See Euripides, Phoenissae, 889 sqq.; Apollodorus, iii. 6. 7, iii. 15. 4; Schol. on Aristides, Panathen. p. 113, ed. Dindorf; Cicero, Tuscul., i. 48. 116; id., De natura deorum, iii. 19. 50; W. H. Roscher, Lexikon d. griech. und röm. Mythologie, i. 1298 sq., ii. 2794 sq.

521

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. ii. pp. 269 sqq.

522

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. ii. p. 283. The Oedipus legend would conform still more closely to custom if we could suppose that marriage with a mother was formerly allowed in cases where the king had neither a sister nor a stepmother, by marrying whom he could otherwise legalise his claim to the throne.

523

Examples of this custom are collected by me in a note on Pausanias, i. 7. 1 (vol. ii. p. 85). For other instances see V. Noel, “Île de Madagascar, recherches sur les Sakkalava,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), Deuxième Série, xx. (Paris, 1843) pp. 63 sq. (among the Sakkalavas of Madagascar); V. L. Cameron, Across Africa (London, 1877), ii. 70, 149; J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 27 (among the Baganda of Central Africa); J. G. Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 523, 538 (among the Banyoro and Bahima); J. Dos Santos, “Eastern Ethiopia,” in G. McCall Theal's Records of South-Eastern Africa, vii. 191 (as to the kings of Sofala in eastern Africa). But Dos Santos's statement is doubted by Dr. McCall Theal (op. cit. p. 395).

524

This explanation of the custom was anticipated by McLennan: “Another rule of chiefly succession, which has been mentioned, that which gave the chiefship to a sister's son, appears to have been nullified in some cases by an extraordinary but effective expedient – by the chief, that is, marrying his own sister” (The Patriarchal Theory, based on the Papers of the late John Ferguson McLennan, edited and completed by Donald McLennan (London, 1885), p. 95).

525

Compare Cicero, De natura deorum, ii. 26. 66; [Plutarch], De vita et poesi Homeri, ii. 96; Lactantius, Divin. Inst. i. 10; Firmicus Maternus, De errore profanarum religionum, xii. 4.

526

Porphyry, De abstinentia, ii. 54.

527

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 292 sqq.

528

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 269 sqq.

529

Men and women of the Khlysti sect in Russia abhor marriage; and in the sect of the Skoptsi or Eunuchs the devotees mutilate themselves. See Sir D. Mackenzie Wallace, Russia. (London [1877]), p. 302. As to collective suicide, see above, pp. 43 sqq.

530

Above, p. 191.

531

Father Picarda, “Autour de Mandéra, notes sur l'Ouzigowa, l'Oukwéré et l'Oudoe (Zanguebar),” Missions Catholiques, xviii. (1886) p. 284.

532

The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell (Hakluyt Society, 1901), pp. 32, 84 sq.

533

F. de Azara, Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale (Paris, 1809), ii. 115-117. The writer affirms that the custom was universally established among all the women of the Mbaya nation, as well as among the women of other Indian nations.

534

R. Southey, History of Brazil, iii. (London, 1819) p. 385.

535

W. Barbrooke Grubb, An Unknown People in an Unknown Land (London, 1911), p. 233.

536

Hugh Goldie, Calabar and its Mission, new edition with additional chapters by the Rev. John Taylor Dean (Edinburgh and London, 1901), pp. 34 sq., 37 sq. The preface to the original edition of this work is dated 1890. By this time the tribal suicide is probably complete.

537

See above, pp. 21, 23, 26 sq.

538

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 410 sqq.

539

J. T. Nieuwenhuisen en H. C. B. von Rosenberg, “Verslag omtrent het eiland Nias,” Verhandelingen van het Batav. Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, xxx. (1863) p. 85; H. von Rosenberg, Der Malayische Archipel, p. 160; L. N. H. A. Chatelin, “Godsdienst en bijgeloof der Niassers,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xxvi. (1880) pp. 142 sq.; H. Sundermann, “Die Insel Nias und die Mission daselbst,” Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, xi. (1884) p. 445; E. Modigliani, Un Viaggio a Nías, pp. 277, 479 sq.; id., L'Isola delle Donne (Milan, 1894), p. 195.

540

Ch. Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition (London, 1845), iv. 453; United States Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology, by H. Hale (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 203.

541

Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-Centrale, ii. 574.

542

D. G. Brinton, Myths of the New World2 (New York, 1876), pp. 270 sq.

543

Relations des Jésuites, 1636, p. 130 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858).

544

A. Bastian, Die Voelker des oestlichen Asien, iv. 386.

545

Servius on Virgil, Aen. iv. 685; Cicero, In Verr. ii. 5. 45; K. F. Hermann, Lehrbuch der griechischen Privatalterthümer, ed. H. Blümner, p. 362, note 1.

546

J. Harland and T. T. Wilkinson, Lancashire Folk-lore (London, 1882), pp. 7 sq.

547

The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia, collected and historically digested by F. Balthazar Tellez (London, 1710), p. 198.

548

Ph. Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas, die geistige Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl (Berlin, 1896), p. 28.

549

This account I received from my friend the Rev. J. Roscoe in a letter dated Mengo, Uganda, April 27, 1900. See his “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) pp. 42, 45 sq., where, however, the account is in some points not quite so explicit.

550

J. Dos Santos, “Eastern Ethiopia,” in G. McCall Theal's Records of South-eastern Africa, vii. 196 sq.

551

See above, p. 35.

552

See Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 423 sqq.

553

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 362 sqq.

554

A. Grandidier, “Madagascar,” Bull. de la Société de Géographie (Paris), VIème Série, iii. (1872) pp. 402 sq.

555

Nicolaus Damascenus, quoted by Stobaeus, Florilegium, cxxiii. 12 (Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum, ed. C. Müller, iii. 463). The Issedones of Scythia used to gild the skulls of their dead fathers and offer great sacrifices to them annually (Herodotus, iv. 26); they also used the skulls as drinking-cups (Mela, ii. 1. 9). The Boii of Cisalpine Gaul cut off the head of a Roman general whom they had defeated, and having gilded the scalp they used it as a sacred vessel for the pouring of libations, and the priests drank out of it (Livy, xxiii. 24. 12).

556

Sir H. Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902), ii. 828.

557

Missionary Holley, “Étude sur les Egbas,” Missions Catholiques, xiii. (1881) p. 353. The writer speaks of “le roi d'Alakei,” but this is probably a mistake or a misprint. As to the Alake or king of Abeokuta, see Sir William Macgregor, “Lagos, Abeokuta, and the Alake,” Journal of the African Society, No. xii. (July, 1904) pp. 471 sq. Some years ago the Alake visited England and I had the honour of being presented to his Majesty by Sir William Macgregor at Cambridge.

558

F. T. Valdez, Six Years of a Traveller's Life in Western Africa, ii. 161 sq.

559

Missionary Holley, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, liv. (1882) p. 87. The “King of Ake” mentioned by the writer is the Alake or king of Abeokuta; for Ake is the principal quarter of Abeokuta, and Alake means “Lord of Ake.” See Sir William Macgregor, l. c.

560

Extracted from a letter of Mr. Harold G. Parsons, dated Lagos, September 28th, 1903, and addressed to Mr. Theodore A. Cooke of 54 Oakley Street, Chelsea, London, who was so kind as to send me the letter with leave to make use of it. “It is usual for great chiefs to report or announce their succession to the Oni of Ife, or to the Alafin of Oyo, the intimation being accompanied by a present” (Sir W. Macgregor, l. c.).

561

See above, pp. 23, 26 sq. Dr. E. Westermarck has suggested as an alternative to the theory in the text, “that the new king is supposed to inherit, not the predecessor's soul, but his divinity or holiness, which is looked upon in the light of a mysterious entity, temporarily seated in the ruling sovereign, but separable from him and transferable to another individual.” See his article, “The Killing of the Divine King,” Man, viii. (1908) pp. 22-24. There is a good deal to be said in favour of Dr. Westermarck's theory, which is supported in particular by the sanctity attributed to the regalia. But on the whole I see no sufficient reason to abandon the view adopted in the text, and I am confirmed in it by the Shilluk evidence, which was unknown to Dr. Westermarck when he propounded his theory.

562

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 1 sqq., ii. 378 sqq.

563

See above, pp. 21 sq., 27 sq.

564

See above, pp. 47 sq.

565

Fr. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), i. 235 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus (Berlin, 1875), pp. 320 sq. In some villages of Lower Bavaria one of the Pfingstl's comrades carries “the May,” which is a young birch-tree wreathed and decorated. Another name for this Whitsuntide masker, both in Lower and Upper Bavaria, is the Water-bird. Sometimes he carries a straw effigy of a monstrous bird with a long neck and a wooden beak, which is thrown into the water instead of the bearer. The wooden beak is afterwards nailed to the ridge of a barn, which it is supposed to protect against lightning and fire for a whole year, till the next Pfingstl makes his appearance. See Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern, i. 375 sq., 1003 sq. In Silesia the Whitsuntide mummer, called the Rauchfiess or Raupfiess, sometimes stands in a leafy arbour, which is mounted on a cart and drawn about the village by four or six lads. They collect gifts at the houses and finally throw the cart and the Rauchfiess into a shallow pool outside the village. This is called “driving out the Rauchfiess.” The custom used to be associated with the driving out of the cattle at Whitsuntide to pasture on the dewy grass, which was thought to make the cows yield plenty of milk. The herdsman who was the last to drive out his beasts on the morning of the day became the Rauchfiess in the afternoon. See P. Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien, i. (Leipsic, 1903), pp. 117-123.

566

E. Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 409-419; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 349 sq.

567

E. Sommer, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Sachsen und Thüringen (Halle, 1846), pp. 154 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 335 sq.

568

W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 336.

569

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen (Prague, n. d., preface dated 1861), p. 61; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 336 sq.

570

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen, p. 263; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 343.

571

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen, pp. 269 sq.

572

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 86 sq.

573

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen, pp. 264 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 353 sq.

574

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 73 sqq.

575

See pp. 208, 210.

576

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 247 sqq., 272 sqq.

577

See above, p. 208.

578

Ovid, Fasti, iii. 271.

579

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 308 sqq.

580

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 20.

581

Caesar, Bell. Gall. vi. 16; Adam of Bremen, Descriptio Insularum Aquilonis, 27 (Migne's Patrologia Latina, cxlvi. col. 644); Olaus Magnus, De gentium septrionalium variis conditionibus, iii. 7; J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 35 sqq.; F. J. Mone, Geschichte des nordischen Heidenthums, i. 69, 119, 120, 149, 187 sq.

582

H. J. Tendeloo, “Verklaring van het zoogenaamd Oud-Alfoersch Teekenschrift,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xxxvi. (1892) pp. 338 sq.

583

Sir H. Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902), ii. 719 sq. The writer describes the ceremony from the testimony of an eye-witness.

584

J. G. Bourke, Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona, pp. 196 sq.

585

Euripides, Iphigenia in Taur. 1458 sqq.

586

J. T. Nieuwenhuisen en H. C. B. von Rosenberg, “Verslag omtrent het eiland Nias,” Verhandelingen van het Batav. Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, xxx. (1863) p. 43; E. Modigliani, Un Viaggio a Nias (Milan, 1890), pp. 282 sq.

587

J. A. Dubois, Mæurs, institutions et cérémonies des peuples de l'Inde (Paris, 1825), i. 151 sq.

588

E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India (Madras, 1909), iv. 437, quoting Mr. A. R. Loftus-Tottenham.

589

G. Turner, Samoa, pp. 31 sq.; compare pp. 38, 58, 59, 69 sq., 72.

590

Porphyry, De abstinentia, ii. 55, citing Manetho as his authority.

591

“The Rudhirádhyáyă, or sanguinary chapter,” translated from the Calica Puran by W. C. Blaquiere, in Asiatick Researches, v. 376 (8vo ed., London, 1807).

592

E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal (Calcutta, 1872), p. 281.

593

E. T. Dalton, op. cit. pp. 258 sq.

594

Mgr. Bruguière, in Annales de l'Association de la Propagation de la Foi, v. (1831) p. 201.

595

B. C. A. J. van Dinter, “Eenige geographische en ethnographische aanteekeningen betreffende het eiland Siaoe,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xli. (1899) p. 379.

596

Ch. Hose and W. McDougall, “The Relations between Men and Animals in Sarawak,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxi. (1901) p. 208.

597

W. G. Aston, Shinto (London, 1905). pp. 56 sq.

598

A. C. Kruijt, “Eenige ethnografische aanteekeningen omtrent de Toboengkoe en de Tomori,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xliv. (1900) p. 222.

599

E. Thurston, “Deformity and Mutilation,” Madras Government Museum, Bulletin, vol. iv. No. 3 (Madras, 1903), pp. 193-196. As to the custom of sacrificing joints of fingers, see my note on Pausanias, viii. 34. 2, vol. iv. pp. 354 sqq. To the evidence there adduced add P. J. de Smet, Western Missions and Missionaries (New York, 1863), p. 135; G. B. Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge Tales, pp. 194, 258; A. d'Orbigny, L'Homme américain, ii. 24; J. Williams, Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands, pp. 470 sq.; J. Mathew, Eaglehawk and Crow (London and Melbourne, 1899), p. 120; A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, pp. 746 sq.; L. Degrandpré, Voyage à la côte occidentale d'Afrique (Paris, 1801), ii. 93 sq.; Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kaffir, pp. 203, 262 sq.; G. W. Stow, Native Races of South Africa (London, 1905), pp. 129, 152; Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, Nouvelle Édition, ix. 369, xii. 371; Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xiii. (1841) p. 20; id., xiv. (1842) pp. 68, 192; id., xvii. (1845) pp. 12, 13; id., xviii. (1846) p. 6; id., xxiii. (1851) p. 314; id., xxxii. (1860) pp. 95 sq.; Indian Antiquary, xxiv. (1895) p. 303; Missions Catholiques, xxix. (1897) p. 90; Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xxxii. (1900) p. 81. The objects of this mutilation were various. In ancient Athens it was customary to cut off the hand of a suicide and bury it apart from his body (Aeschines, Contra Ctesiph. § 244, p. 193, ed. F. Franke), perhaps to prevent his ghost from attacking the living.

600

Basil C. Thomson, Savage Island (London, 1902), pp. 92 sq.

601

E. Thurston, Ethnographic Notes in Southern India (Madras, 1906), p. 390.

602

J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 ii. 645; K. Haupt, Sagenbuch der Lausitz, ii. 58; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen, pp. 86 sq.; id., Das festliche Jahr, pp. 77 sq.; Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern, iii. 958 sq.; Sepp, Die Religion der alten Deutschen (Munich, 1890), pp. 67 sq.; W. Müller, Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren (Vienna and Olmutz, 1893), pp. 258, 353. The fourth Sunday in Lent is also known as Mid-Lent, because it falls in the middle of Lent, or as Laetare from the first word of the liturgy for that day. In the Roman calendar it is the Sunday of the Rose (Domenica rosae), because on that day the Pope consecrates a golden rose, which he presents to some royal lady. In one German village of Transylvania the Carrying out of Death takes place on Ascension Day. See below, pp. 248 sq.

603

G. Targioni-Tozzetti, Saggio di novelline, canti ed usanze popolari della Ciociaria (Palermo, 1891), pp. 89-95. At Palermo an effigy of the Carnival (Nannu) was burnt at midnight on Shrove Tuesday 1878. See G. Pitrè, Usi e costumi, credenze e pregiudizi del popolo siciliano, i. 117-119; G. Trede, Das Heidentum in der römischen Kirche, iii. 11, note.

604

A. de Nino, Usi e costumi abruzzesi, ii. 198-200. The writer omits to mention the date of these celebrations. No doubt it is either Shrove Tuesday or Ash Wednesday. Compare G. Finamore, Credenze, usi e costumi abruzzesi (Palermo, 1890), p. 111. In some parts of Piedmont an effigy of Carnival is burnt on the evening of Shrove Tuesday; in others they set fire to tall poplar trees, which, stript of their branches and surmounted by banners, have been set up the day before in public places. These trees go by the name of Scarli. See G. di Giovanni, Usi, credenze e pregiudizi del Canavese (Palermo, 1889), pp. 161, 164 sq. For other accounts of the ceremony of the death of the Carnival, represented either by a puppet or a living person, in Italy and Sicily, see G. Pitrè, Usi e costumi, credenze e pregiudizi del popolo siciliano, i. 96-100; G. Amalfi, Tradizioni ed usi nella Penisola Sorrentina (Palermo, 1890), pp. 40, 42. It has been rightly observed by Pitrè (op. cit. p. 96), that the personification of the Carnival is doubtless the lineal descendant of some mythical personage of remote Greek and Roman antiquity.

605

R. Wünsch, Das Frühlingsfest der Insel Malta (Leipsic, 1902), pp. 29 sq., quoting Ciantar's supplements to Abelas's Malta illustrata.

606

J. S. Campion, On Foot in Spain (London, 1879), pp. 291-295.