The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 11 of 12)

Le sieur de la Borde, “Relation de l'Origine, Mœurs, Coustumes, Religion, Guerres et Voyages des Caraibes sauvages des Isles Antilles de l'Amerique,” p. 15, in Recueil de divers Voyages faits en Afrique et en l'Amerique (Paris, 1684).

592

Washington Matthews, The Hidatsa Indians (Washington, 1877), p. 50.

593

H. Ling Roth, “Low's Natives of Borneo,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxi. (1892) p. 117; W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic (London, 1900), p. 50.

594

A. C. Kruijt, “Een en ander aangaande het geestelijk en maatschappelijk leven van den Poso-Alfoer,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xxxix. (1895) pp. 3 sq.

595

A. Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asien, iii. (Jena, 1867) p. 248.

596

In some tribes, chiefly of North American Indians, every man has an individual or personal totem in addition to the totem of his clan. This personal totem is usually the animal of which he dreamed during a long and solitary fast at puberty. See Totemism and Exogamy, i. 49-52, iii. 370-456, where the relation of the individual or personal totem (if we may call it so) to the clan totem is discussed. It is quite possible that, as some good authorities incline to believe, the clan totem has been developed out of the personal totem by inheritance. See Miss Alice C. Fletcher, The Import of the Totem, pp. 3 sqq. (paper read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, August 1887, separate reprint); Fr. Boas, “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians,” Report of the United States National Museum for 1895 (Washington, 1897), pp. 323 sq., 336-338, 393. In the bush souls of the Calabar negroes (see above, pp. 204 sqq.) we seem to have something like the personal totem on its way to become hereditary and so to grow into the totem of a clan.

597

J. B. Neumann, “Het Pane- en Bila-stroomgebied op het eiland Sumatra,” Tijdschrift van het Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, Tweede Serie, dl. iii. Afdeeling, meer uitgebreide artikelen, No. 2 (1886), pp. 311 sq.; id., dl. iv. No. 1 (1887), pp. 8 sq.; Van Hoëvell, “Iets over 't oorlogvoeren der Batta's,” Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië, N.S., vii. (1878) p. 434; G. A. Wilken, Verspreide Geschriften (The Hague, 1912), i. 296, 306 sq., 309, 325 sq.; L. de Backer, L'Archipel Indien (Paris, 1874), p. 470; Col. Yule, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, ix. (1880) p. 295; Joachim Freiherr von Brenner, Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras (Würzburg, 1894), pp. 197 sqq.; P. A. L. E. van Dijk, “Eenige aanteekeningen omtrent de verschillenden stammen (Margas) en de stamverdeling bij de Battaks,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xxxviii. (1895) pp. 296 sq.; M. Joustra, “Naar het landschap Goenoeng,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xlv. (1901) pp. 80 sq.; id., “Het leven, de zeden en gewoonten der Bataks,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xlvi. (1902) pp. 387 sqq.; J. E. Neumann, “Kemali, Pantang, en Rĕboe bij de Karo-Bataks,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xlviii. (1906) p. 512. See further Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 185 sqq.

598

B. Hagen, “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Battareligion,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xxviii. (1883) p. 514. J. B. Neumann (op. cit. dl. iii. No. 2, pp. 299) is the authority for the seven souls. According to another writer, six out of the seven souls reside outside of the body; one of them dwells in heaven, the remaining five have no definite place of abode, but are so closely related to the man that were they to abandon him his health would suffer. See J. Freiherr von Brenner, Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras, pp. 239 sq. A different account of Batta psychology is given by Mr. Westenberg. According to him, each Batta has only one tendi (not three or seven of them); and the tendi is something between a soul and a guardian spirit. It always resides outside of the body, and on its position near, before, behind, above, or below, the welfare of its owner is supposed in great measure to depend. But in addition each man has two invisible guardian spirits (his kaka and agi) whose help he invokes in great danger; one is the seed by which he was begotten, the other is the afterbirth, and these he calls respectively his elder and his younger brother. Mr. Westenberg's account refers specially to the Karo-Battas. See C. J. Westenberg, “Aanteekeningen omtrent de godsdienstige begrippen der Karo-Bataks,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië, xli. (1892) pp. 228 sq.

599

Compare Ch. Hose and W. McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (London, 1912), ii. 90 sqq.: “An important institution among some of the Ibans, which occurs but in rare instances among the other peoples, is the ngarong or secret helper. The ngarong is one of the very few topics in regard to which the Ibans display any reluctance to speak freely. So great is their reserve in this connection that one of us lived for fourteen years on friendly terms with Ibans of various districts without ascertaining the meaning of the word ngarong, or suspecting the great importance of the part played by the notion in the lives of some of these people. The ngarong seems to be usually the spirit of some ancestor or dead relative, but not always so, and it is not clear that it is always conceived as the spirit of a deceased human being. This spirit becomes the special protector of some individual Iban, to whom in a dream he manifests himself, in the first place in human form, and announces that he will be his secret helper… When, as is most commonly the case, the secret helper takes on the form of some animal, all individuals of that species become objects of especial regard to the fortunate Iban; he will not kill or eat any such animal, and he will as far as possible restrain others from doing so.” Thus the ngarong or secret helper of the Ibans closely resembles what I have called the individual or personal totem.

600

It is not merely the personal name which is often shrouded in mystery (see Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 318 sqq.); the names of the clans and their subdivisions are objects of mysterious reverence among many, if not all, of the Siouan tribes of North America, and are never used in ordinary conversation. See J. Owen Dorsey, “Osage Traditions,” Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1888), p. 396. Among the Yuin of South-Eastern Australia “the totem name was called Budjan, and it was said to be more like Joïa, or magic, than a name; and it was in one sense a secret name, for with it an enemy might cause injury to its bearer by magic. Thus very few people knew the totem names of others, the name being told to a youth by his father at his initiation” (A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, London, 1904, p. 133).

601

Theodor Benfey, Pantschatantra (Leipsic, 1859), i. 128 sq. Similarly a man of the Kulin tribe in Victoria was called Kurburu, that is, “native bear,” because the spirit of a native bear was supposed to have entered into him when he killed the animal, and to have endowed him with its wonderful cleverness. This I learn from Miss E. B. Howitt's Folklore and Legends of some Victorian Tribes (chapter vi.), which I have been privileged to see in manuscript. Among the Chiquites Indians of Paraguay sickness was sometimes accounted for by supposing that the soul of a deer or a turtle had entered into the patient. See Lettres Édifiantes et Curieuses, Nouvelle Édition, viii. (Paris, 1781) p. 339. We have seen (pp. 213 (#x_16_i30)sq.) that the Indians of Honduras made an alliance with the animal that was to be their nagual by offering some of their own blood to it. Conversely the North American Indian kills the animal which is to be his personal totem, and thenceforth wears some part of the creature as an amulet (Totemism and Exogamy, i. 50). These facts seem to point to the establishment of a blood covenant, involving an interchange of life between a man and his personal totem or nagual; and among the Fans of West Africa, as we saw (above, p. 201 (#x_16_i12)), such a covenant is actually supposed to exist between a sorcerer and his elangela.

602

A. L. P. Cameron, “Notes on some Tribes of New South Wales,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiv. (1885) pp. 357 sq. Compare A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia (London, 1904), pp. 588 sq.

603

Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia (London, 1899), pp. 213, 453.

604

A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia (London, 1904), p. 538. As to Daramulun (of whose name Thuremlin is no doubt only a dialectical variation) see id., pp. 407, 493, 494 sq., 497, 499, 500, 507, 523 sq., 526, 528, 529 sq., 535, 540, 541, 585 sq., 587; id., “On some Australian Ceremonies of Initiation,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiii. (1884) pp. 442, 443, 446, 447, 448, 450, 451, 452, 455, 456, 459. On the bull-roarer see Andrew Lang, Custom and Myth (London, 1884), pp. 29-44; J. D. E. Schmeltz, Das Schwirrholz (Hamburg, 1896); A. C. Haddon, The Study of Man (London and New York, 1898), pp. 277-327; J. G. Frazer, “On some Ceremonies of the Central Australian Aborigines,” Proceedings of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science for the Year 1900 (Melbourne, 1901), pp. 317-322. The religious or magical use of the bull-roarer is best known in Australia. See, for example, L. Fison and A. W. Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai (Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Brisbane, 1880), pp. 267-269; A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, pp. 354, 509 sq., 514, 515, 517, 569, 571, 575, 578, 579, 582, 583, 584, 589, 592, 594, 595, 606, 659 sq., 670, 672, 696, 715; Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia (London, 1899), pp. 246, 344, 347; W. Baldwin Spencer, Introduction to the Study of Certain Native Tribes of the Northern Territory (Bulletin of the Northern Territory, No. 2) (Melbourne, 1912), pp. 19 sq., 23, 24, 31 sq., 37 sqq.; A. R. Brown, “Three Tribes of Western Australia,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xliii. (1913) pp. 168, 174; R. Pettazzoni, “Mythologie Australienne du Rhombe,” Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, lxv. (1912) pp. 149-170. But in the essay just referred to Mr. Andrew Lang shewed that the instrument has been similarly employed not only by savages in various parts of the world, but also by the ancient Greeks in their religious mysteries. In the Torres Straits Islands it is used both at the initiation of young men and as a magical instrument. See Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 217, 218, 219, 328, 330-333, 346, 352. In various parts of New Guinea it is sounded at the initiation of young men and is carefully concealed from women; the sound is thought to be the voice of a spirit. See Rev. J. Chalmers, Pioneering in New Guinea (London, 1887), p. 85; id., “Toaripi,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxvii. (1898) p. 329; Rev. J. Holmes, “Initiation Ceremonies of Natives of the Papuan Gulf,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) pp. 420, 424 sq.; O. Schellong, “Das Barlum-fest der Gegend Finsch-hafens,” Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, ii. (1889) pp. 150 sq., 154 sq.; F. Grabowsky, “Der Bezirk von Hatzfeldthafen und seine Bewohner,” Petermanns Mitteilungen, xli. (1895) p. 189; B. Hagen, Unter den Papua's (Wiesbaden, 1899), pp. 188 sq.; Max Krieger, Neu-Guinea (Berlin, preface dated 1899), pp. 168 sqq.; J. Vetter, in Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena, xi. (1892) p. 105; K. Vetter, in Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck-Archipel, 1897 (Berlin), p. 93; R. Neuhauss, Deutsch Neu-Guinea (Berlin, 1911), pp. 36, 297, 403, 406 sq., 410-412, 494 sqq.; Otto Reche, Der Kaiserin-Augusta-Fluss (Hamburg, 1913), pp. 349 sqq. (Ergebnisse der Südsee-Expedition 1908-1910, herausgegeben von G. Thilenius). It is similarly used at the circumcision-festivals in the French Islands, to the west of New Britain (R. Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee, Stuttgart, 1907, pp. 640 sq.), and it is employed at mysteries or mourning ceremonies in Bougainville and other Melanesian Islands. See R. Parkinson, op. cit. pp. 658 sq.; id., Zur Ethnographie der Nordwestlichen Salomo Inseln (Berlin, 1899), p. 11; R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), pp. 98 sq., 342. Among the Minangkabauers of Sumatra the bull-roarer (gasiĕng) is used by a rejected lover to induce the demons to carry off the soul of the jilt and so drive her mad. It is made of the frontal bone of a brave or skilful man, and some of the intended victim's hair is attached to it. See J. L. van der Toorn, “Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer in der Padangsche Bovenlanden,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië, xxxix. (1890) pp. 55 sq. Among the Yoruba-speaking negroes of the Slave Coast in West Africa, particularly at Abeokuta, the sound of the bull-roarer is supposed to be the voice of a great bogey named Oro, whose votaries compose a secret society under the name of Ogboni. When the sound of the bull-roarer is heard in the streets, every woman must shut herself up in her house and not look out of the window under pain of death. See R. F. Burton, Abeokuta and the Cameroons Mountains (London, 1863), i. 197 sq.;, Missionary Chautard, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, lv. (Lyons, 1883) pp. 192-198; Missionary Baudin, “Le Fétichisme,” Les Missions Catholiques, xvi. (1884) p. 257; P. Bouche, La Côte des Esclaves et le Dahomey (Paris, 1885), p. 124; Mrs. R. B. Batty and Governor Moloney, “Notes on the Yoruba Country,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xix. (1890) pp. 160-164; A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (London, 1894), pp. 110 sq.; R. H. Stone, In Afric's Forest and Jungle (Edinburgh and London, 1900), p. 88; L. Frobenius, Die Masken und Geheimbünde Afrikas (Halle, 1898), pp. 95 sqq. (Nova Acta, Abh. der Kaiserl. Leop. – Carol. Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher, vol. lxxiv. No. 1). Among the Nandi of British East Africa and the Bushongo of the Congo region bull-roarers are sounded by men to frighten novices at initiation. See A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford, 1909), pp. 40, 56; E. Torday and T. A. Joyce, Les Bushongo (Brussels, 1910), p. 82. Among the Caffres of South Africa and the Boloki of the Upper Congo the bull-roarer is a child's toy, but yet is thought to be endowed with magical virtue. See below, p. 232 (#x_18_i9) note 3. Among the Koskimo Indians of British Columbia the sound of the bull-roarers is supposed to be the voice of a spirit who comes to fetch away the novices. See Franz Boas, “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians,” Report of the United States National Museum (Washington, 1897), p. 610. The bull-roarer is used as a sacred or magical instrument for the making of rain by the Zuñi and other Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico, also by the Navajos and Apaches of the same region, and by the Utes of Nevada and Utah. See Dr. Washington Matthews, “The Mountain Chant, a Navajo Ceremony,” Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1887), pp. 435, 436; Captain J. G. Bourke, “The Medicine-men of the Apache,” Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1892), pp. 476-479; Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, “The Zuñi Indians,” Twenty-third Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington, 1904), pp. 115, 117, 128 sq., 175, 177, 355. The Guatusos of Costa Rica ascertain the will of the deity by listening to the humming sound of the bull-roarer. See Dr. C. Sapper, “Ein Besuch bei den Guatusos in Costarica,” Globus, lxxvi. (1899) p. 352; id., “Beiträge zur Ethnographie des südlichen Mittelamerika,” Petermanns Mitteilungen, xlvii. (1901) p. 36. The Caripunas Indians of the Madeira River, in Brazil, sound bull-roarers in lamentations for the dead. See Franz Keller, The Amazon and Madeira Rivers (London, 1874), p. 124. The Bororo of Brazil also swing bull-roarers at their festivals of the dead; the sound of them is the signal for the women to hide themselves; it is believed that women and children would die if they saw a bull-roarer. See K. von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasilien's (Berlin, 1894), pp. 497-499. The Nahuqua and other Brazilian tribes use bull-roarers in their masked dances, but make no mystery of them. See K. von den Steinen, op. cit. pp. 327 sq. As to the magical use of the bull-roarer, see pp. 230 sqq.

605

A. W. Howitt, “The Dieri and other Kindred Tribes of Central Australia,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xx. (1891) p. 83; id., Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 660. In the latter passage Dr. Howitt omits the not unimportant particular that the bull-roarer is swung for this purpose by the young man before his wounds are healed.

606

On the desert nature of Central Australia and the magical-like change wrought in its fauna and flora by heavy rain, see Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia (London, 1899), pp. 4 sq.; Totemism and Exogamy, i. 170 sqq., 316 sqq., 341 sq.; J. G. Frazer, “Howitt and Fison,” Folk-lore, xx. (1909) pp. 160, 162 sq., 164.

607

Captain J. G. Bourke, “The Medicine-men of the Apache,” Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1892), pp. 476 sq.

608

Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, “The Zuñi Indians,” Twenty-third Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington, 1904), pp. 115, 355.

609

Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, op. cit. p. 175; compare id., pp. 128 sq., 177.

610

Dr. Washington Matthews, “The Navajo Chant,” Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1887), p. 436; compare id., p. 435, where the sound of the bull-roarer is said to be “like that of a rain storm.”

611

Karl von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens (Berlin, 1894), p. 328.

612

Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge, 1904) p. 352.

613

G. McCall Theal, Kaffir Folk-lore (London, 1886), pp. 222 sq.; id., Records of South-Eastern Africa, vii. (1901) p. 456; Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir (London, 1904), p. 333. For an analogous reason among the Boloki of the Upper Congo the elders do not like when boys play with bull-roarers, because the sound resembles the growl of a leopard and will attract these ferocious animals. See Rev. John H. Weeks, Among Congo Cannibals (London, 1913), p. 157.

614

A. C. Haddon, Head-hunters, Black, White, and Brown (London, 1901), p. 104; Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 218, 219; Rev. J. Chalmers, “Notes on the Natives of Kiwai Island,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxiii. (1903) p. 119.

615

H. Zahn, “Die Jabim,” in R. Neuhauss's Deutsch Neu-Guinea (Berlin, 1911), iii. 333.

616