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

The Kakian association and its initiatory ceremonies have often been described. See François Valentyn, Oud en nieuw Oost-Indiën (Dordrecht and Amsterdam, 1724-1726), iii. 3 sq.; Von Schmid, “Het Kakihansch Verbond op het eiland Ceram,” Tijdschrift voor Neérlands Indië (Batavia, 1843), dl. ii. pp. 25-38; A. van Ekris, “Het Ceramsche Kakianverbond,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, ix. (1865) pp. 205-226 (repeated with slight changes in Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xvi. (1867) pp. 290-315); P. Fournier, “De Zuidkust van Ceram,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xvi. (1867) pp. 154-156; W. A. van Rees, Die Pionniers der Beschaving in Neêrlands Indië (Arnheim, 1867), pp. 92-106; G. W. W. C. Baron van Hoëvell, Ambon en meer bepaaldelijk de Oeliasers (Dordrecht, 1875), pp. 153 sqq.; Schulze, “Ueber Ceram und seine Bewohner,” Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte (1877), p. 117; W. Joest, “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Eingebornen der Insel Formosa und Ceram,” ibid. (1882) p. 64; H. von Rosenberg, Der Malayische Archipel (Leipsic, 1878), p. 318; A. Bastian, Indonesien, i. (Berlin, 1884) pp. 145-148; J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua (The Hague, 1886), pp. 107-111; O. D. Tauern, “Ceram,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xlv. (1913) pp. 167 sq. The best accounts are those of Valentyn, Von Schmid, Van Ekris, Van Rees, and Riedel, which are accordingly followed in the text.

642

No reason is assigned for this curious choice of a president. Can it have been that, because negro children are born pale or nearly white, an albino was deemed a proper president for a society, all the initiated members of which claimed to have been born again? Speaking of the people of the Lower Congo the old English traveller Andrew Battel observes that “the children of this country are born white, but change their colour in two days' time to a perfect black” (“Adventures of Andrew Battel,” in J. Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, xvi. London, 1814, p. 331).

643

Rev. J. H. Weeks, “Notes on some Customs of the Lower Congo People,” Folk-lore, xx. (1909) pp. 189-198; Rev. W. H. Bentley, Life on the Congo (London, 1887), pp. 78 sq.; id., Pioneering on the Congo (London, 1900), i. 284-287. Mr. Weeks's description of the institution is the fullest and I have followed it in the text. The custom was in vogue down to recent years, but seems to have been suppressed chiefly by the exertions of the missionaries. Besides the ndembo guild there is, or was, in these regions another secret society known as the nkimba, which some writers have confused with the ndembo. The nkimba was of a more harmless character than the other; indeed it seems even to have served some useful purposes, partly as a kind of freemasonry which encouraged mutual help among its members, partly as a system of police for the repression of crime, its professed object being to put down witchcraft and punish witches. Only males were admitted to it. Candidates for initiation were stupefied by a drug, but there was apparently no pretence of killing them and bringing them to life again. Members of the society had a home in the jungle away from the town, where the novices lived together for a period varying from six months to two years. They learned a secret language, and received new names; it was afterwards an offence to call a man by the name of his childhood. Instead of the red dye affected by members of the ndembo guild, members of the nkimba guild whitened their bodies with pipe clay and wore crinolines of palm frondlets. See Rev. W. H. Bentley, Life on the Congo, pp. 80-83; id., Pioneering on the Congo, i. 282-284; Rev. J. H. Weeks, op. cit. pp. 198-201; (Sir) H. H. Johnston, “A Visit to Mr. Stanley's Stations on the River Congo,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, N. S. v. (1883) pp. 572 sq.; E. Delmar Morgan, “Notes on the Lower Congo,” id., N.S. vi. (1884) p. 193. As to these two secret societies on the Lower Congo, see further (Sir) H. H. Johnston, “On the Races of the Congo,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiii. (1884) pp. 472 sq.; É. Dupont, Lettres sur le Congo (Paris, 1889), pp. 96-100; Herbert Ward, Five Years with the Congo Cannibals (London, 1890), pp. 54 sq.; id. “Ethnographical Notes relating to the Congo Tribes,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxiv. (1895) pp. 288 sq.; E. J. Glave, Six Years of Adventure in Congo Land (London, 1893), pp. 80-83; L. Frobenius, Die Masken und Geheimbünde Afrikas (Halle, 1898), pp. 43-54 (Nova Acta. Abh. der Kaiserl. Leop. Carol. Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher, vol. lxxiv. No. 1); H. Schurtz, Altersklassen und Männerbünde (Berlin, 1902), pp. 433-437; Notes Annalytiques sur les Collections Ethnographiques du Musée du Congo (Brussels, 1902-1906), pp. 199-206; Ed. de Jonghe, Les Sociétés Secrètes au Bas-Congo (Brussels, 1907), pp. 15 sqq. (extract from the Revue des Questions Scientifiques, October 1907). Some of these writers do not discriminate between the two societies, the ndembo and the nkimba. According to our best authorities (Messrs. Bentley and Weeks) the two societies are quite distinct and neither of them has anything to do with circumcision, which is, however, prevalent in the region. See Rev. J. H. Weeks, “Notes on some Customs of the Lower Congo People,” Folk-lore, xx. (1909) pp. 304 sqq. A secret society of the Lower Congo which Adolf Bastian has described under the name of quimba is probably identical with the nkimba. He speaks of a “Secret Order of those who have been born again,” and tells us that the candidates “are thrown into a death-like state and buried in the fetish house. When they are wakened to life again, they have (as in the Belliparo) lost their memory of everything that is past, even of their father and mother, and they can no longer remember their own name. Hence new names are given them according to the titles or ranks to which they are advanced.” See A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste (Jena, 1874-1875), ii. 15 sqq.

644

A. Bastian, Ein Besuch in San Salvador (Bremen, 1859), pp. 82 sq.

645

A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste, ii. 183. Elsewhere Bastian says that about San Salvador lads at puberty are secluded in the forest and circumcised, and during their seclusion “each of them is mystically united to the fetish by which his life is henceforth determined, as the Brahman whispers the secret charm in the ear of him who has been born again.” See A. Bastian, Ein Besuch in San Salvador (Bremen, 1859), pp. 85 sq.

646

H. Trilles, Le Totémisme chez les Fâṅ (Münster i. W., 1912), pp. 479 sq. The writer speaks of the guardian spirit as the individual totem of the young warrior.

647

O. Dapper, Description de l'Afrique (Amsterdam, 1686), pp. 268 sq. Dapper's account has been abridged in the text.

648

Miss Mary H. Kingsley, Travels in West Africa (London, 1867), p. 531. Perhaps the smearing with clay may be intended to indicate that the novices have undergone the new birth; for the negro child, though born reddish-brown, soon turns slaty-grey (E. B. Tylor, Anthropology, London, 1881, p. 67), which would answer well enough to the hue of the clay-bedaubed novices.

649

Thomas Winterbottom, An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone (London, 1803), pp. 135 sq. Compare John Matthews, A Voyage to the River Sierra-Leone (London, 1791), pp. 82-85; J. B. L. Durand, Voyage au Sénégal (Paris, 1802), pp. 183 sq. (whose account is copied without acknowledgment from Matthews). The purra or poro society also exists among the Timmes of Sierra Leone; in this tribe the novices are sometimes secluded from their families for ten years in the wood, they are tattooed on their backs and arms, and they learn a language which consists chiefly of names of plants and animals used in special senses. Women are not admitted to the society. See Zweifel et Moustier, “Voyage aux sources du Niger,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), VI. Série, xv. (1878) pp. 108 sq.

650

T. J. Alldridge, The Sherbro and its Hinterland (London, 1901), p. 130. This work contains a comparatively full account of the purra or poro society (pp. 124-131) and of the other secret societies of the country (pp. 131-149, 153-159). Compare L. Frobenius, Die Masken und Geheimbünde Afrikas (Halle, 1898), pp. 138-144 (Nova Acta, Abh. der Kaiserl. Leop. – Carol. Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher, vol. lxxiv. No. 1).

651

Thomas Winterbottom, An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone (London, 1803), pp. 137-139. As to the semo or simo society see further L. Frobenius, op. cit. pp. 130-138.

652

Extract from a letter of Mr. A. C. Hollis to me. Mr. Hollis's authority is Dr. T. W. W. Crawford of the Kenia Medical Mission.

653

W. Scoresby Routledge and Katherine Routledge, With a Prehistoric People, the Akikuyu of British East Africa (London, 1910), p. 152. Compare C. W. Hobley, “Kikuyu Customs and Beliefs,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xl. (1910) p. 441.

654

Mr. A. W. McGregor, of the Church Missionary Society, quoted by W. S. Routledge and K. Routledge, With a Prehistoric People, p. 151, note. 1. Mr. McGregor “has resided amongst the Akikuyu since 1901. He has by his tact and kindness won the confidence of the natives, and is the greatest authority on their language” (id., p. xxi).

655

W. S. Routledge and K. Routledge, op. cit. p. 151.

656

Rev. G. Dale, “An Account of the principal Customs and Habits of the Natives inhabiting the Bondei Country,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxv. (1896) p. 189.

657

E. Torday et T. A. Joyce, Les Bushongo (Brussels, 1910), pp. 82-85. As for the title “God on Earth,” applied to the principal chief or king, see id., p. 53.

658

(Beverley's) History of Virginia (London, 1722), pp. 177 sq. Compare J. Bricknell, The Natural History of North Carolina (Dublin, 1737), pp. 405 sq.

659

J. Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, Third Edition (London, 1781), pp. 271-275. The thing thrown at the man and afterwards vomited by him was probably not a bean but a small white sea-shell (Cypraea moneta). See H. R. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), iii. 287; J. G. Kohl, Kitschi-Gami (Bremen, 1859), i. 71; Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1891), pp. 191, 215; Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1896), p. 101.

660

J. Carver, op. cit. pp. 277 sq.; H. R. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, iii. 287 (as to the Winnebagoes), v. 430 sqq. (as to the Chippeways and Sioux); J. G. Kohl, Kitschi-Gami, i. 64-70 (as to the Ojebways). For a very detailed account of the Ojebway ceremonies, see W. J. Hoffman, “The Midewiwin or Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibwa,” Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1891), especially pp. 215 sq., 234 sq., 248, 265. For similar ceremonies among the Menomini, see id., “The Menomini Indians,” Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1896), pp. 99-102; and among the Omahas, see J. Owen Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1884), pp. 342-346. I have dealt more fully with the ritual in Totemism and Exogamy, iii. 462 sqq. Compare also P. Radin, “Ritual and Significance of the Winnebago Medicine Dance,” Journal of American Folk-lore, xxiv. (1911) pp. 149-208.

661

G. H. Pond, “Dakota superstitions,” Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society for the year 1867 (Saint Paul, 1867), pp. 35, 37-40. A similar but abridged account of the Dakota tradition and usage is given by S. R. Riggs in his Dakota Grammar, Texts, and Ethnography (Washington, 1893), pp. 227-229 (Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. ix.).

662

Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt (Middletown, 1820), p. 119.

663

Id., p. 44. For the age of the prince, see id., p. 35.

664

H. J. Holmberg, “Ueber die Völker des russischen Amerika,” Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae, iv. (Helsingfors, 1856) pp. 292 sqq., 328; Ivan Petroff, Report on the Population, Industries and Resources of Alaska, pp. 165 sq.; A. Krause, Die Tlinkit-Indianer (Jena, 1885), p. 112; R. C. Mayne, Four Years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island (London, 1862), pp. 257 sq., 268; Totemism and Exogamy, iii. 264 sqq.

665

Fr. Boas, in Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, pp. 47 sq. (separate reprint from the Report of the British Association, Leeds meeting, 1890); id., “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians,” Report of the United States National Museum for 1895; (Washington, 1897), pp. 632 sq. But while the initiation described in the text was into a wolf society, not into a wolf clan, it is to be observed that the wolf is one of the regular totems of the Nootka Indians. See Fr. Boas, in Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 32.

666