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

548

R. C. Maclagan, “Corn-maiden in Argyleshire,” Folk-lore, vii. (1896) pp. 78 sq.

549

See above, p. 149, where, however, the corn-spirit is conceived as an Old Man.

550

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

551

Above, pp. 134, 137, 138 sq., 142, 145, 147, 148, 149.

552

See below, pp. 237 sq.

553

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 47 sqq.

554

Above, pp. 134, 135.

555

Above, pp. 141, 155, 156, 158, 160 sq., 162, 165.

556

See above, p. 135.

557

Above, p. 145. Compare A. Kuhn, Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen (Leipsic, 1859), ii. p. 185, § 516.

558

Above, pp. 136, 139, 155, 157 sq., 162; compare p. 160.

559

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 220 sqq.

560

Above, p. 146. The common custom of wetting the last sheaf and its bearer is no doubt also a rain-charm; indeed the intention to procure rain or make the corn grow is sometimes avowed. See above, pp. 134, 137, 143, 144, 145; Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 195-197.

561

Above, pp. 135 sq., 138, 139, 152.

562

Above, p. 134.

563

Above, pp. 134, 155, 158, 161.

564

Above, pp. 136, 138, 140, 143, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158: W. Mannhardt, Die Korndämonen, pp. 7, 26.

565

J. de Acosta, Natural and Moral History of the Indies, bk. v. ch. 28, vol. ii. p. 374 (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880). In quoting the passage I have modernised the spelling. The original Spanish text of Acosta's work was reprinted in a convenient form at Madrid in 1894. See vol. ii. p. 117 of that edition.

566

W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 342 sq. Mannhardt's authority is a Spanish tract (Carta pastorale de exortacion e instruccion contra las idolatrias de los Indios del arçobispado de Lima) by Pedro de Villagomez, Archbishop of Lima, published at Lima in 1649, and communicated to Mannhardt by J. J. v. Tschudi. The Carta Pastorale itself seems to be partly based on an earlier work, the Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Piru. Dirigido al Rey N.S. en Su real conseio de Indias, por el Padre Pablo Joseph de Arriaga de la Compañia de Jesus (Lima, 1621). A copy of this work is possessed by the British Museum, where I consulted it. The writer explains (p. 16) that the Maize-mothers (Zaramamas) are of three sorts, namely (1) those which are made of maize stalks, dressed up like women, (2) those which are carved of stone in the likeness of cobs of maize, and (3) those which consist simply of fruitful stalks of maize or of two maize-cobs naturally joined together. These last, the writer tells us, were the principal Zaramamas, and were revered by the natives as Mothers of the Maize. Similarly, when two potatoes were found growing together the Indians called them Potato-mothers (Axomamas) and kept them in order to get a good crop of potatoes. As Arriaga's work is rare, it may be well to give his account of the Maize-mothers, Coca-mothers, and Potato-mothers in his own words. He says (p. 16): “Zaramamas, son de tres maneras, y son las que se quentan entre las cosas halladas en los pueblos. La primera es una como muñeca hecha de cañas de maiz, vestida como muger con su anaco, y llicilla, y sus topos de plata, y entienden, que como madre tiene virtud de engendrar, y parir mucho maiz. A este modo tienen tambien Cocamamas para augmento de la coca. Otras son de piedra labradas como choclos, o mazorcas de maiz, con sus granos relevados, y de estas suelen tener muchas en lugar de Conopas [household gods]. Otras son algunas cañas fertiles de maiz, que con la fertilidad de la tierra dieron muchas maçorcas, y grandes, o quando salen dos maçorcas juntas, y estas son las principales, Zaramamas, y assi las reverencian como a madres del maiz, a estas llaman tambien Huantayzara, o Ayrihuayzara. A este tercer genero no le dan la adoracion que a Huaca, ni Conopa, sino que le tienen supersticiosamente como una cosa sagrada, y colgando estas cañas con muchos choclos de unos ramos de sauce bailen con ellas el bayle, que llaman Ayrihua, y acabado el bayle, las queman, y sacrifican a Libiac para que les de buena cosecha. Con la misma supersticion guardan las mazorcas del maiz, que salen muy pintadas, que llaman Micsazara, o Mantayzara, o Caullazara, y otros que llaman Piruazara, que son otras maçorcas en que van subiendo los granos no derechos sino haziendo caracol. Estas Micsazara, o Piruazara, ponen supersticiosamente en los montones de maiz, y en las Piruas (que son donde guardan el maiz) paraque se las guarde, y el dia de las exhibiciones se junta tanto de estas maçorcas, que tienen bien que comer las mulas. La misma supersticion tienen con las que llaman Axomamas, que son quando salen algunas papas juntas, y las guardan para tener buena cosecha de papas.” The exhibiciones here referred to are the occasions when the Indians brought forth their idols and other relics of superstition and delivered them to the ecclesiastical visitors. At Tarija in Bolivia, down to the present time, a cross is set up at harvest in the maize-fields, and on it all maize-spadices growing as twins are hung. They are called Pachamamas (Earth-mothers) and are thought to bring good harvests. See Baron E. Nordenskiöld, “Travels on the Boundaries of Bolivia and Argentina,” The Geographical Journal, xxi. (1903) pp. 517, 518. Compare E. J. Payne, History of the New World called America (Oxford, 1892), i. 414 sq.

567

Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale (Paris 1857-1859), iii. 40 sqq. Compare id., iii. 505 sq.; E. J. Payne, History of the New World called America, i. 419 sq.

568

E. Seler, “Altmexikanische Studien, ii.,” Veröffentlichungen aus dem königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde, vi. (Berlin, 1899) 2/4 Heft, pp. 67 sqq. Another chapter of Sahagun's work, describing the costumes of the Mexican gods, has been edited and translated into German by Professor E. Seler in the same series of publications (“Altmexikanische Studien,” Veröffentlichungen aus dem königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde, i. 4 (Berlin, 1890) pp. 117 sqq.). Sahagun's work as a whole is known to me only in the excellent French translation of Messrs. D. Jourdanet and R. Simeon (Histoire Générale des choses de la Nouvelle-Espagne par le R. P. Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, Paris, 1880). As to the life and character of Sahagun see M. R. Simeon's introduction to the translation, pp. vii. sqq.

569

B. de Sahagun, Aztec text of book ii., translated by Professor E. Seler, “Altmexikanische Studien, ii.,” Veröffentlichungen aus dem königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde, vi. 2/4 Heft (Berlin, 1899), pp. 188-194. The account of the ceremonies given in the Spanish version of Sahagun's work is a good deal more summary. See B. de Sahagun, Histoire Générale des choses de la Nouvelle Espagne (Paris, 1880), pp. 94-96.

570

J. Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part I. (Washington, 1900) pp. 423, 432. See further Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 296 sq.

571

L. H. Morgan, League of the Iroquois (Rochester, 1851), pp. 161 sq., 199. According to the Iroquois the corn plant sprang from the bosom of the mother of the Great Spirit after her burial (L. H. Morgan, op. cit. p. 199 note 1).

572

C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (London, 1903), ii. 280.

573

H. M. Elliot, Supplemental Glossary of Terms used in the North-Western Provinces, edited by J. Beames (London, 1869), i. 254.

574

W. B. Harris, “The Berbers of Morocco,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxvii. (1898) p. 68.

575

Sir John Drummond Hay, Western Barbary, its Wild Tribes and Savage Animals (1844), p. 9, quoted in Folk-lore, vii. (1896) pp. 306 sq.

576

See above, pp. 70 sqq.

577

R. J. Wilkinson (of the Civil Service of the Federated Malay States), Malay Beliefs (London and Leyden, 1906), pp. 49-51. On the conception of the soul as a bird, see Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 33 sqq. The Toradjas of Central Celebes think that the soul of the rice is embodied in a pretty little blue bird, which builds its nest in the rice-field when the ears are forming and vanishes after harvest. Hence no one may drive away, much less kill, these birds; to do so would not only injure the crop, the sacrilegious wretch himself would suffer from sickness, which might end in blindness. See A. C. Kruyt, “De Rijstmoeder in den Indischen Archipel,” p. 374 (see the full reference in the next note).

578

A. C. Kruyt, “De Rijstmoeder in den Indischen Archipel,” Verslagen en Mededeelingen der koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Vierde Reeks, v. part 4 (Amsterdam, 1903), pp. 361 sq. This essay (pp. 361-411) contains a valuable collection of facts relating to what the writer calls the Rice-mother in the East Indies. But it is to be observed that while all the Indonesian peoples seem to treat a certain portion of the rice at harvest with superstitious respect and ceremony, only a part of them actually call it “the Rice-mother.” Mr. Kruyt prefers to speak of “soul-stuff” rather than of “a soul,” because, according to him, in living beings the animating principle is conceived, not as a tiny being confined to a single part of the body, but as a sort of fluid or ether diffused through every part of the body. See his work, Het Animisme in den Indischen Archipel (The Hague, 1906), pp. 1 sqq. In the latter work (pp. 145-150) the writer gives a more summary account of the Indonesian theory of the rice-soul.

579

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 28 sq.; A. C. Kruyt, “De Rijstmoeder,” op. cit. pp. 363 sq., 370 sqq.

580

See above, pp. 113 sqq.

581

See above, p. 181.

582

See Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 411 sq.; A. C. Kruyt, “De Rijstmoeder,” op. cit. p. 372.

583

See above, pp. 92 sqq.

584

A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 157 sq.

585

A. W. Nieuwenhuis, op. cit. i. 118-121. Compare id., In Centraal Borneo (Leyden, 1900), i. 154 sqq.

586

A similar belief probably explains the masked dances and pantomimes of many savage tribes. If that is so, it shews how deeply the principle of imitative magic has influenced savage religion.

587

A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo, i. 322-330. Compare id., In Centraal Borneo, i. 185 sq. As to the masquerades performed and the taboos observed at the sowing season by the Kayans of the Mendalam river, see above, pp. 94 sqq.

588

A. W. Nieuwenhuis, op. cit. i. 317.

589

Spenser St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East2 (London, 1863), i. 187, 192 sqq.; W. Chalmers, quoted in H. Ling Roth's Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo (London, 1896), i. 412-414.

590

Rev. E. B. Cross, “On the Karens,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, iv. (1854) p. 309.

591

(Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and of the Shan States (Rangoon, 1900-1901), Part i. vol. i. p. 559.

592

J. Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1900) p. 423. Compare Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 296 sq.

593

(Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardiman, op. cit. Part ii. vol. i. p. 172.

594

From a letter written to me by Mr. J. S. Furnivall and dated Pegu Club, Rangoon, 6/6 (sic). Mr. Furnivall adds that in Upper Burma the custom of the Bonmagyi sheaf is unknown.

595

J. L. van der Toorn, “Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer der Padangsche Bovenlanden,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië, xxxix. (1890) pp. 63-65. In the charm recited at sowing the Rice-mother in the bed, I have translated the Dutch word stoel as “root,” but I am not sure of its precise meaning in this connexion. It is doubtless identical with the English agricultural term “to stool,” which is said of a number of stalks sprouting from a single seed, as I learn from my friend Professor W. Somerville of Oxford.

596

A. C. Kruijt, “Eenige ethnografische aanteekeningen omtrent de Toboengkoe en de Tomori,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xliv. (1900) pp. 227, 230 sq.

597

See Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 411 sq.

598

A. C. Kruijt, op. cit. p. 228.

599

A. C. Kruijt, “Een en ander aangaande het geestelijk en maatschapelijk leven van den Poso-Alfoer,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xxxix. (1895) pp. 142 sq.

600

G. Maan, “Eenige mededeelingen omtrent de zeden en gewoonten der Toerateya ten opzichte van den rijstbouw,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xlvi. (1903) pp. 330-337. The writer dates his article from Tanneteya (in Celebes?), but otherwise gives no indication of the geographical position of the people he describes. A similar omission is common with Dutch writers on the geography and ethnology of the East Indies, who too often appear to assume that the uncouth names of these barbarous tribes and obscure hamlets are as familiar to European readers as Amsterdam or the Hague. The Toerateyas whose customs Mr. Maan describes in this article are the inland inhabitants of Celebes. Their name Toerateyas or Toradjas signifies simply “inlanders” and is applied to them by their neighbours who live nearer the sea; it is not a name used by the people themselves. The Toradjas include many tribes and the particular tribe whose usages in regard to the Rice-mother are described in the text is probably not one of those whose customs and beliefs have been described by Mr. A. C. Kruijt in many valuable papers. See above, p. 183 note 1, and The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 109 note 1.

601

M. Joustra, “Het leven, de zeden en gewoonten der Bataks,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xlvi. (1902) pp. 425 sq.

602

J. H. Neumann, “Iets over den landbouw bij de Karo-Bataks,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xlvi. (1902) pp. 380 sq. As to the employment in ritual of young people whose parents are both alive, see Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 413 sqq.

603

A. L. van Hasselt, “Nota, betreffende de rijstcultuur in de Residentie Tapanoeli,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xxxvi. (1893) pp. 526-529; Th. A. L. Heyting, “Beschrijving der Onderafdeeling Groot- mandeling en Batangnatal,” Tijdschrift van het Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, Tweede Serie, xiv. (1897) pp. 290 sq. As to the rule of sowing seed on a full stomach, which is a simple case of homoeopathic or imitative magic, see further The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 136.

604

W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic (London, 1900), pp. 225 sq.

605

W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, pp. 235-249.

606

See above, pp. 163 sq.

607

P. J. Veth, Java (Haarlem, 1875-1884), i. 524-526. The ceremony has also been described by Miss Augusta de Wit (Facts and Fancies about Java, Singapore, 1898, pp. 229-241), who lays stress on the extreme importance of the rice-harvest for the Javanese. The whole island of Java, she tells us, “is one vast rice-field. Rice on the swampy plains, rice on the rising ground, rice on the slopes, rice on the very summits of the hills. From the sod under one's feet to the verge of the horizon, everything has one and the same colour, the bluish-green of the young, or the gold of the ripened rice. The natives are all, without exception, tillers of the soil, who reckon their lives by seasons of planting and reaping, whose happiness or misery is synonymous with the abundance or the dearth of the precious grain. And the great national feast is the harvest home, with its crowning ceremony of the Wedding of the Rice” (op. cit. pp. 229 sq.). I have to thank my friend Dr. A. C. Haddon for directing my attention to Miss de Wit's book.

608

A. C. Kruijt, “Gebruiken bij den rijstoogst in enkele streken op Oost-Java,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xlvii. (1903) pp. 132-134. Compare id., “De rijst-moeder in den Indischen Archipel,” Verslagen en Mededeelingen der koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Vierde Reeks, v. part 4 (Amsterdam, 1903), pp. 398 sqq.

609

J. C. van Eerde, “Gebruiken bij den rijstbouw en rijstoogst op Lombok,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xlv. (1902) pp. 563-565 note.

610

J. C. van Eerde, “Gebruiken bij den rijstbouw en rijstoogst op Lombok,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xlv. (1902) pp. 563-573.

611

(Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, Part i. vol. i. (Rangoon, 1900) p. 426.

612

Maximilian, Prinz zu Wied, Reise in das innere Nord-America (Coblenz, 1839-1841), ii. 182 sq.

613

H. R. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, v. (Philadelphia, 1856) pp. 193-195.

614

B. A. Gupte, “Harvest Festivals in honour of Gauri and Ganesh,” Indian Antiquary, xxxv. (1906) p. 61. For details see The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 77 sq.

615

It is possible that the image of Demeter with corn and poppies in her hands, which Theocritus (vii. 155 sqq.) describes as standing on a rustic threshing-floor (see above, p. 47), may have been a Corn-mother or a Corn-maiden of the kind described in the text. The suggestion was made to me by my learned and esteemed friend Dr. W. H. D. Rouse.

616

Homer, Odyssey, v. 125 sqq.; Hesiod, Theog. 969 sqq.

617

See above, pp. 150 sq.

618

It is possible that a ceremony performed in a Cyprian worship of Ariadne may have been of this nature: at a certain annual sacrifice a young man lay down and mimicked a woman in child-bed. See Plutarch, Theseus, 20: ἐν δὴ τῇ θυσίᾳ τοῦ Γορπιαίου μηνὸς ἰσταμένου δευτέρᾳ κατακλινόμενόν τινα τῶν νεανίσκων φθέγγεσθαι καὶ ποιεῖν ἅπερ ὠδινοῦσαι γυναῖκες. We have already seen grounds for regarding Ariadne as a goddess or spirit of vegetation. See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 138. Amongst the Minnitarees in North America, the Prince of Neuwied saw a tall strong woman pretend to bring up a stalk of maize out of her stomach; the object of the ceremony was to secure a good crop of maize in the following year. See Maximilian, Prinz zu Wied, Reise in das innere Nord-America (Coblenz, 1839-1841), ii. 269.

619

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 97 sqq.

620

See above, p. 135.

621

See above, pp. 140 sqq., 155 sqq., 164 sqq., 197 sqq.

622

However, the Sicilians seem on the contrary to have regarded Demeter as the seed-corn and Persephone as the ripe crop. See above, pp. 57, 58 sq.

623

According to Augustine (De civitate Dei, iv. 8) the Romans imagined a whole series of distinct deities, mostly goddesses, who took charge of the corn at all its various stages from the time when it was committed to the ground to the time when it was lodged in the granary. Such a multiplication of mythical beings to account for the process of growth is probably late rather than early.

624

In some places it was customary to kneel down before the last sheaf, in others to kiss it. See W. Mannhardt, Korndämonen, p. 26; id., Mythologische Forschungen, p. 339. The custom of kneeling and bowing before the last corn is said to have been observed, at least occasionally, in England. See Folk-lore Journal, vii. (1888) p. 270; and Herrick's evidence, above, p. 147, note 1. The Malay sorceress who cut the seven ears of rice to form the Rice-child kissed the ears after she had cut them (W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 241).

625

Above, pp. 132 sq.

626

Even in one of the oldest documents, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Demeter is represented as the goddess who controls the growth of the corn rather than as the spirit who is immanent in it. See above, pp. 36 sq.

627

W. G. Aston, Shinto (London, 1905), p. 127.

628

See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 323 sqq., 330 sqq., 346 sqq.

629

A. Pauly, Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Alterthumswissenschaft, v. (Stuttgart, 1849) p. 1011.

630

Diodorus Siculus, i. 14, ἔτι γὰρ καὶ νῦν κατὰ τὸν θερισμὸν τοὺς πρώτους ἀμηθέντας στάχυς θέντας τοὺς ἀνθρώπους κόπτεσθαι πλησίον τοῦ δράγματοσ καὶ τὴν Ἶσιν ἀνακαλεῖσθαι κτλ. For θέντας we should perhaps read σύνθεντας, which is supported by the following δράγματος.

631

Herodotus, ii. 79; Julius Pollux, iv. 54; Pausanias, ix. 29. 7; Athenaeus, xiv. 11, p. 620 a.

632

H. Brugsch, Die Adonisklage und das Linoslied (Berlin, 1852), p. 24. According to another interpretation, however, Maneros is the Egyptian manurosh, “Let us be merry.” See Lauth, “Über den ägyptischen Maneros,” Sitzungsberichte der königl. bayer. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München, 1869, ii. 163-194.

633

Above, pp. 197 sqq.

634

W. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People (London, 1872), pp. 249 sq.

635

See above, pp. 158 sq.

636

W. Gregor, “Quelques coutumes du Nord-est du comté d'Aberdeen,” Revue des Traditions populaires, iii. (1888) p. 487 (should be 535).