The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 07 of 12)

For the evidence see The Dying God, pp. 277-285.

341

On the Kayan chiefs and their religious duties, see A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo, i. 58-60.

342

See above, p. 36 (#x_8_i5).

343

See above, p. 74 (#x_10_i3).

344

Plutarch, Praecepta Conjugalia, 42. Another of these Sacred Ploughings was performed at Scirum, and the third at the foot of the Acropolis at Athens; for in this passage of Plutarch we must, with the latest editor, read ὑπὸ πόλιν for the ὑπὸ πέλιν of the manuscripts.

345

See above, pp. 50 (#x_8_i27)sqq.

346

Etymologicum Magnum, s. v. Βουζυγία, p. 206, lines 47 sqq.; Im. Bekker, Anecdota Graeca (Berlin, 1814-1821), i. 221; Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 199; Hesychius, s. v. Βουζύγης; καθίστατο δὲ παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς καὶ ὁ τοὺς ἱεροὺς ἀρότους ἐπιτελῶν Βουζύγης; Paroemiographi Graeci, ed. E. L. Leutsch und F. G. Schneidewin (Göttingen, 1839-1851), i. 388, Βουζύγης; ἐπὶ τῶν πολλὰ ἀρωμένων. Ὁ γὰρ Βουζύγης Ἀθήνησιν ὁ τὸν ἱερὸν ἄροτον ἐπιτελῶν … ἄλλα τε πολλὰ ἀρᾶται καὶ τοῖς μὴ κοινωνοῦσι κατὰ τὸν Βίον ὕδατος ἢ πυρὸς ἢ μὴ ὑποφαίνουσιν ὁδὸν πλανωμένοις; Scholiast on Sophocles, Antigone, 255, λόγος δὲ ὅτι Βουζύγης Ἀθήνησι κατηράσατο τοῖς περιορῶσιν ἄταφον σῶμα. The Sacred Ploughing at the foot of the Acropolis was specially called bouzygios (Plutarch, Praecepta Conjugalia, 42). Compare J. Toepffer, Attische Genealogie (Berlin, 1889) pp. 136 sqq.

347

Such Sabbaths are very commonly and very strictly observed in connexion with the crops by the agricultural hill tribes of Assam. The native name for such a Sabbath is genna. See T. C. Hodson, “The Genna amongst the Tribes of Assam,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxvi. (1906) pp. 94 sq.: “Communal tabus are observed by the whole village… Those which are of regular occurrence are for the most part connected with the crops. Even where irrigated terraces are made, the rice plant is much affected by deficiencies of rain and excess of sun. Before the crop is sown, the village is tabu or genna. The gates are closed and the friend without has to stay outside, while the stranger that is within the gates remains till all is ended. The festival is marked among some tribes by an outburst of licentiousness, for, so long as the crops remain ungarnered, the slightest incontinence might ruin all. An omen of the prosperity of the crops is taken by a mock contest, the girls pulling against the men. In some villages the gennas last for ten days, but the tenth day is the crowning day of all. The men cook, and eat apart from the women during this time, and the food tabus are strictly enforced. From the conclusion of the initial crop genna to the commencement of the genna which ushers in the harvest-time, all trade, all fishing, all hunting, all cutting grass and felling trees is forbidden. Those tribes which specialise in cloth-weaving, salt-making or pottery-making are forbidden the exercise of these minor but valuable industries. Drums and bugles are silent all the while… Between the initial crop genna and the harvest-home, some tribes interpose a genna day which depends on the appearance of the first blade of rice. All celebrate the commencement of the gathering of the crops by a genna, which lasts at least two days. It is mainly a repetition of the initial genna and, just as the first seed was sown by the gennabura, the religious head of the village, so he is obliged to cut the first ear of rice before any one else may begin.” On such occasions among the Kabuis, in spite of the licence accorded to the people generally, the strictest chastity is required of the religious head of the village who initiates the sowing and the reaping, and his diet is extremely limited; for example, he may not eat dogs or tomatoes. See T. C. Hodson, “The Native Tribes of Manipur,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxi. (1901) pp. 306 sq.; and for more details, id., The Naga Tribes of Manipur (London, 1911), pp. 168 sqq. The resemblance of some of these customs to those of the Kayans of Borneo is obvious. We may conjecture that the “tug of war” which takes place between the sexes on several of these Sabbaths was originally a magical ceremony to ensure good crops rather than merely a mode of divination to forecast the coming harvest. Magic regularly dwindles into divination before it degenerates into a simple game. At one of these taboo periods the men set up an effigy of a man and throw pointed bamboos at it. He who hits the figure in the head will kill an enemy; he who hits it in the belly will have plenty of food. See T. C. Hodson, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxvi. (1906) p. 95; id., The Naga Tribes of Manipur, p. 171. Here also we probably have an old magical ceremony passing through a phase of divination before it reaches the last stage of decay. On Sabbaths observed in connexion with agriculture in Borneo and Assam, see further Hutton Webster, Rest Days, a Sociological Study, pp. 11 sqq. (University Studies, Lincoln, Nebraska, vol. xi. Nos. 1-2, January-April, 1911).

348

See above, p. 71 (#x_10_i1).

349

See above, p. 71 (#x_10_i1) note 5.

350

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

351

See the old Greek scholiast on Clement of Alexandria, quoted by Chr. Aug. Lobeck, Aglaophamus (Königsberg, 1829), p. 700; Andrew Lang, Custom and Myth (London, 1884), p. 39. It is true that the bull-roarer seems to have been associated with the rites of Dionysus rather than of Demeter; perhaps the sound of it was thought to mimick the bellowing of the god in his character of a bull. But the worship of Dionysus was from an early time associated with that of Demeter in the Eleusinian mysteries; and the god himself, as we have seen, had agricultural affinities. See above, p. 5 (#x_4_i7). An annual festival of swinging (which, as we have seen, is still practised both in New Guinea and Russia for the good of the crops) was held by the Athenians in antiquity and was believed to have originated in the worship of Dionysus. See The Dying God, pp. 281 sq.

352

See above, pp. 95 (#x_12_i8)sq., and below, pp. 186 (#x_18_i43)sq.

353

See above, p. 39 (#x_8_i9).

354

Th. Koch-Grünberg, Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern (Berlin, 1909-1910), i. 137-140, ii. 193-196. As to the cultivation of manioc among these Indians see id. ii. 202 sqq.

355

F. B. Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion (London, 1896), p. 240; H. Hirt, Die Indogermanen (Strasburg, 1905-1907), i. 251 sqq.

356

Rev. J. Shooter, The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country (London, 1857), pp. 17 sq. Speaking of the Zulus another writer observes: “In gardening, the men clear the land, if need be, and sometimes fence it in; the women plant, weed, and harvest” (Rev. L. Grout, Zulu-land, Philadelphia, n. d., p. 110).

357

A. Delegorgue, Voyage dans l'Afrique Australe (Paris, 1847), ii. 225.

358

H. A. Junod, Les Ba-Ronga (Neuchatel, 1908), pp. 195 sq.

359

L. Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa (London, 1898), p. 85.

360

L. Decle, op. cit. p. 160.

361

C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia (London, 1911), p. 302.

362

L. Decle, op. cit. p. 295.

363

C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, The Great Plateau of Northern Nigeria (London, 1911), p. 179.

364

Rev. J. H. Weeks, “Notes on some Customs of the Lower Congo People,” Folk-lore, xx. (1909) p. 311.

365