The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 09 of 12)

General remarks.

The foregoing survey of the custom of publicly expelling the accumulated evils of a village or town or country suggests a few general observations.

First, the immediate and the mediate expulsions of evil are identical in intention.

In the first place, it will not be disputed that what I have called the immediate and the mediate expulsions of evil are identical in intention; in other words, that whether the evils are conceived of as invisible or as embodied in a material form, is a circumstance entirely subordinate to the main object of the ceremony, which is simply to effect a total clearance of all the ills that have been infesting a people. If any link were wanting to connect the two kinds of expulsion, it would be furnished by such a practice as that of sending the evils away in a litter or a boat. For here, on the one hand, the evils are invisible and intangible; and, on the other hand, there is a visible and tangible vehicle to convey them away. And a scapegoat is nothing more than such a vehicle.

Second, the annual expulsion of evil generally coincides with some well-marked change of season, such as the beginning or end of winter, the beginning or end of the rainy season, etc.

In the second place, when a general clearance of evils is resorted to periodically, the interval between the celebrations of the ceremony is commonly a year, and the time of year when the ceremony takes place usually coincides with some well-marked change of season, such as the beginning or end of winter in the arctic and temperate zones, and the beginning or end of the rainy season in the tropics. The increased mortality which such climatic changes are apt to produce, especially amongst ill-fed, ill-clothed, and ill-housed savages, is set down by primitive man to the agency of demons, who must accordingly be expelled. Hence, in the tropical regions of New Britain and Peru, the devils are or were driven out at the beginning of the rainy season; hence, on the dreary coasts of Baffin Land, they are banished at the approach of the bitter arctic winter. When a tribe has taken to husbandry, the time for the general expulsion of devils is naturally made to agree with one of the great epochs of the agricultural year, as sowing, or harvest; but, as these epochs themselves naturally coincide with changes of season, it does not follow that the transition from the hunting or pastoral to the agricultural life involves any alteration in the time of celebrating this great annual rite. Some of the agricultural communities of India and the Hindoo Koosh, as we have seen, hold their general clearance of demons at harvest, others at sowing-time. But, at whatever season of the year it is held, the general expulsion of devils commonly marks the beginning of the new year. For, before entering on a new year, people are anxious to rid themselves of the troubles that have harassed them in the past; hence it comes about that in so many communities the beginning of the new year is inaugurated with a solemn and public banishment of evil spirits.

Third, the annual expulsion of evil is commonly preceded or followed by a period of general license.

In the third place, it is to be observed that this public and periodic expulsion of devils is commonly preceded or followed by a period of general license, during which the ordinary restraints of society are thrown aside, and all offences, short of the gravest, are allowed to pass unpunished. In Guinea and Tonquin the period of license precedes the public expulsion of demons; and the suspension of the ordinary government in Lhasa previous to the expulsion of the scapegoat is perhaps a relic of a similar period of universal license. Amongst the Hos of India the period of license follows the expulsion of the devil. Amongst the Iroquois it hardly appears whether it preceded or followed the banishment of evils. In any case, the extraordinary relaxation of all ordinary rules of conduct on such occasions is doubtless to be explained by the general clearance of evils which precedes or follows it. On the one hand, when a general riddance of evil and absolution from all sin is in immediate prospect, men are encouraged to give the rein to their passions, trusting that the coming ceremony will wipe out the score which they are running up so fast. On the other hand, when the ceremony has just taken place, men's minds are freed from the oppressive sense, under which they generally labour, of an atmosphere surcharged with devils; and in the first revulsion of joy they overleap the limits commonly imposed by custom and morality. When the ceremony takes place at harvest-time, the elation of feeling which it excites is further stimulated by the state of physical wellbeing produced by an abundant supply of food.[542 - In the Dassera festival, as celebrated in Nepaul, we seem to have another instance of the annual expulsion of demons preceded by a time of license. The festival occurs at the beginning of October and lasts ten days. “During its continuance there is a general holiday among all classes of the people. The city of Kathmandu at this time is required to be purified, but the purification is effected rather by prayer than by water-cleansing. All the courts of law are closed, and all prisoners in jail are removed from the precincts of the city… The Kalendar is cleared, or there is a jail-delivery always at the Dassera of all prisoners.” This seems a trace of a period of license. At this time “it is a general custom for masters to make an annual present, either of money, clothes, buffaloes, goats, etc., to such servants as have given satisfaction during the past year. It is in this respect, as well as in the feasting and drinking which goes on, something like our ‘boxing-time’ at Christmas.” On the seventh day at sunset there is a parade of all the troops in the capital, including the artillery. At a given signal the regiments begin to fire, the artillery takes it up, and a general firing goes on for about twenty minutes, when it suddenly ceases. This probably represents the expulsion of the demons. “The grand cutting of the rice-crops is always postponed till the Dassera is over, and commences all over the valley the very day afterwards.” See the description of the festival in H. A. Oldfield's Sketches from Nipal (London, 1880), ii. 342-351. On the Dassera in India, see J. A. Dubois, Mœurs, Institutions et Cérémonies des Peuples de l'Inde (Paris, 1825), ii. 329 sqq. The Besisi of the Malay Peninsula hold a regular carnival at the end of the rice-harvest, when they are said to be allowed to exchange wives. See W. W. Skeat and C. O. Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula (London, 1906), ii. 70, 76, 145, compare 120 sq. Amongst the Swahili of East Africa New Year's Day was formerly a day of general license, “every man did as he pleased. Old quarrels were settled, men were found dead on the following day, and no inquiry was instituted about the matter.” See Ch. New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa (London, 1873), p. 65; and The Golden Bough,

iii. 250. An annual period of anarchy and license, lasting three days, is reported by Borelli to be observed by some of the Gallas. See Ph. Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas: die geistige Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somal (Berlin, 1896), p. 158. In Ashantee the annual festival of the new yams is a time of general license. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 62.]

Fourth, the use of a divine man or animal as a scapegoat is remarkable.

Fourthly, the employment of a divine man or animal as a scapegoat is especially to be noted; indeed, we are here directly concerned with the custom of banishing evils only in so far as these evils are believed to be transferred to a god who is afterwards slain. It may be suspected that the custom of employing a divine man or animal as a public scapegoat is much more widely diffused than appears from the examples cited. For, as has already been pointed out, the custom of killing a god dates from so early a period of human history that in later ages, even when the custom continues to be practised, it is liable to be misinterpreted. The divine character of the animal or man is forgotten, and he comes to be regarded merely as an ordinary victim. This is especially likely to be the case when it is a divine man who is killed. For when a nation becomes civilized, if it does not drop human sacrifices altogether, it at least selects as victims only such wretches as would be put to death at any rate. Thus the killing of a god may sometimes come to be confounded with the execution of a criminal.

Why a dying god should serve as a scapegoat.

If we ask why a dying god should be chosen to take upon himself and carry away the sins and sorrows of the people, it may be suggested that in the practice of using the divinity as a scapegoat we have a combination of two customs which were at one time distinct and independent. On the one hand we have seen that it has been customary to kill the human or animal god in order to save his divine life from being weakened by the inroads of age. On the other hand we have seen that it has been customary to have a general expulsion of evils and sins once a year. Now, if it occurred to people to combine these two customs, the result would be the employment of the dying god as a scapegoat. He was killed, not originally to take away sin, but to save the divine life from the degeneracy of old age; but, since he had to be killed at any rate, people may have thought that they might as well seize the opportunity to lay upon him the burden of their sufferings and sins, in order that he might bear it away with him to the unknown world beyond the grave.

The use of a divinity as scapegoat explains an ambiguity in the ceremony of “Carrying out Death.”

The use of the divinity as a scapegoat clears up the ambiguity which, as we saw, appears to hang about the European folk-custom of “carrying out Death.”[543 - See The Dying God, pp. 233 sqq., 264.] Grounds have been shewn for believing that in this ceremony the so-called Death was originally the spirit of vegetation, who was annually slain in spring, in order that he might come to life again with all the vigour of youth. But, as I pointed out, there are certain features in the ceremony which are not explicable on this hypothesis alone. Such are the marks of joy with which the effigy of Death is carried out to be buried or burnt, and the fear and abhorrence of it manifested by the bearers. But these features become at once intelligible if we suppose that the Death was not merely the dying god of vegetation, but also a public scapegoat, upon whom were laid all the evils that had afflicted the people during the past year. Joy on such an occasion is natural and appropriate; and if the dying god appears to be the object of that fear and abhorrence which are properly due not to himself, but to the sins and misfortunes with which he is laden, this arises merely from the difficulty of distinguishing, or at least of marking the distinction, between the bearer and the burden. When the burden is of a baleful character, the bearer of it will be feared and shunned just as much as if he were himself instinct with those dangerous properties of which, as it happens, he is only the vehicle. Similarly we have seen that disease-laden and sin-laden boats are dreaded and shunned by East Indian peoples.[544 - Above, pp. 186 (#x_17_i34), 189 (#x_17_i59), 201 (#x_18_i5).] Again, the view that in these popular customs the Death is a scapegoat as well as a representative of the divine spirit of vegetation derives some support from the circumstance that its expulsion is always celebrated in spring and chiefly by Slavonic peoples. For the Slavonic year began in spring;[545 - H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” Rheinisches Museum, N.F. (1875) xxx. 194; id., Kleine Schriften, iv. (Leipsic and Berlin, 1913) p. 105.] and thus, in one of its aspects, the ceremony of “carrying out Death” would be an example of the widespread custom of expelling the accumulated evils of the old year before entering on a new one.

Chapter VI. Human Scapegoats in Classical Antiquity

§ 1. The Human Scapegoat in Ancient Rome

Annual expulsion of “the Old Mars”in the month of March in ancient Rome.

We are now prepared to notice the use of the human scapegoat in classical antiquity. Every year on the fourteenth of March a man clad in skins was led in procession through the streets of Rome, beaten with long white rods, and driven out of the city. He was called Mamurius Veturius,[546 - Joannes Lydus, De mensibus, iii. 29, iv. 36. Lydus places the expulsion on the Ides of March, that is 15th March. But this seems to be a mistake. See H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” Rheinisches Museum, xxx. (1875) pp. 209 sqq.; id., Kleine Schriften, iv. (Leipsic and Berlin, 1913) pp. 122 sqq. Again, Lydus does not expressly say that Mamurius Veturius was driven out of the city, but he implies it by mentioning the legend that his mythical prototype was beaten with rods and expelled the city. Lastly, Lydus only mentions the name Mamurius. But the full name Mamurius Veturius is preserved by Varro, De lingua latina, vi. 45; Festus, ed. C. O. Müller, p. 131; Plutarch, Numa, 13. Mr. W. Warde Fowler is disposed to be sceptical as to the antiquity of the ceremony of expelling Mamurius. See his Roman Festivals of the period of the Republic (London, 1899), pp. 44-50.] that is, “the old Mars,”[547 - H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” pp. 212 sq.; id., Kleine Schriften, iv. 125 sq.; W. H. Roscher, Apollon und Mars (Leipsic, 1873), p. 27; L. Preller, Römische Mythologie

(Berlin, 1881-1883), i. 360; A. Vaniček, Griechisch-lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (Leipsic, 1877), p. 715. The three latter scholars take Veturius as = annuus, because vetus is etymologically equivalent to ἔτος. But, as Usener argues, it seems quite unallowable to take the Greek meaning of the word instead of the Latin.] and as the ceremony took place on the day preceding the first full moon of the old Roman year (which began on the first of March), the skin-clad man must have represented the Mars of the past year, who was driven out at the beginning of a new one. Now Mars was originally not a god of war but of vegetation. For it was to Mars that the Roman husbandman prayed for the prosperity of his corn and his vines, his fruit-trees and his copses;[548 - Cato, De agri cultura, 141.] it was to Mars that the priestly college of the Arval Brothers, whose business it was to sacrifice for the growth of the crops,[549 - Varro, De lingua latina, v. 85.] addressed their petitions almost exclusively;[550 - See the song of the Arval Brothers in Acta Fratrum Arvalium, ed. G. Henzen (Berlin, 1874), pp. 26 sq.; J. Wordsworth, Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin (Oxford, 1874), p. 158; H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, ii. Pars i. (Berlin, 1902) p. 276.] and it was to Mars, as we saw,[551 - Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 42 sqq.] that a horse was sacrificed in October to secure an abundant harvest. Moreover, it was to Mars, under his title of “Mars of the woods” (Mars Silvanus), that farmers offered sacrifice for the welfare of their cattle.[552 - Cato, De agri cultura, 83.] We have already seen that cattle are commonly supposed to be under the special patronage of tree-gods.[553 - The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 50 sq., 55, 124 sq.] Once more, the consecration of the vernal month of March to Mars seems to point him out as the deity of the sprouting vegetation. Thus the Roman custom of expelling the old Mars at the beginning of the new year in spring is identical with the Slavonic custom of “carrying out Death,” if the view here taken of the latter custom is correct. The similarity of the Roman and Slavonic customs has been already remarked by scholars, who appear, however, to have taken Mamurius Veturius and the corresponding figures in the Slavonic ceremonies to be representatives of the old year rather than of the old god of vegetation.[554 - L. Preller, Römische Mythologie,

i. 360; W. H. Roscher, Apollon und Mars, p. 49; id., Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, ii. 2408 sq.; H. Usener, op. cit. The ceremony also closely resembles the Highland New Year ceremony already described. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 322 sqq.] It is possible that ceremonies of this kind may have come to be thus interpreted in later times even by the people who practised them. But the personification of a period of time is too abstract an idea to be primitive.[555 - But the Biyârs, a mixed tribe of North-Western India, observe an annual ceremony which they call “burning the old year.” The old year is represented by a stake of the wood of the cotton-tree, which is planted in the ground at an appointed place outside of the village, and then burned on the day of the full moon in the month of Pûs. Fire is first put to it by the village priest, and then all the people follow his example, parch stalks of barley in the fire, and afterwards eat them. Next day they throw the ashes of the burnt wood in the air; and on the morrow the festival ends with a regular saturnalia, at which decency and order are forgotten. See W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh (Calcutta, 1896), ii. 137 sq. Compare id., Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), ii. 319.] However, in the Roman, as in the Slavonic, ceremony, the representative of the god appears to have been treated not only as a deity of vegetation but also as a scapegoat. His expulsion implies this; for there is no reason why the god of vegetation, as such, should be expelled the city. But it is otherwise if he is also a scapegoat; it then becomes necessary to drive him beyond the boundaries, that he may carry his sorrowful burden away to other lands. And, in fact, Mamurius Veturius appears to have been driven away to the land of the Oscans, the enemies of Rome.[556 - Propertius, v. 2. 61 sq.; H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” p. 210; id., Kleine Schriften, iv. 123.]

“The Old Mars”seems to have been beaten by the Salii, the dancing priests of Mars. The dances of the Salii in spring and autumn were perhaps intended to quicken the growth of the corn sown at these seasons. The armed processions of the Salii may have been intended to rout out and expel the demons lurking in the city.

The blows with which the “old Mars” was expelled the city seem to have been administered by the dancing priests of Mars, the Salii. At least we know that in their songs these priests made mention of Mamurius Veturius;[557 - Varro, De lingua latina, vi. 45 ed. C. O. Müller; Festus, s. v. “Mamuri Veturi,” p. 131 ed. C. O. Müller; Ovid, Fasti, iii. 389 sqq.; Plutarch, Numa, 13.] and we are told that on a day dedicated to him they beat a hide with rods.[558 - Servius, on Virgil, Aen. vii. 188, “Cui [scil. Mamurio] et diem consecrarunt, quo pellem virgis feriunt”; Minucius Felix, Octavius, 24, “Nudi cruda hieme discurrunt, alii incedunt pilleati, scuta vetera circumferunt, pelles caedunt.” Neither Servius nor Minucius Felix expressly mentions the Salii, but the description given by the latter writer (“pilleati, scuta vetera circumferunt”) proves that he alludes to them. The expression of Minucius Felix pelles caedunt is conclusive in favour of pellem in the passage of Servius, where some would wrongly substitute peltam, the reading of a single MS. That the beating of the skin-clad representative of Mamurius was done by the Salii was long ago rightly pointed out by Dr. W. H. Roscher (Apollon und Mars, p. 49).] It is therefore highly probable that the hide which they drubbed on that day was the one worn by the representative of the deity whose name they simultaneously chanted. Thus on the fourteenth day of March every year Rome witnessed the curious spectacle of the human incarnation of a god chased by the god's own priests with blows from the city. The rite becomes at least intelligible on the theory that the man so beaten and expelled stood for the outworn deity of vegetation, who had to be replaced by a fresh and vigorous young divinity at the beginning of a New Year, when everywhere around in field and meadow, in wood and thicket the vernal flowers, the sprouting grass, and the opening buds and blossoms testified to the stirring of new life in nature after the long torpor and stagnation of winter. The dancing priests of the god derived their name of Salii from the leaps or dances which they were bound to execute as a solemn religious ceremony every year in the Comitium, the centre of Roman political life.[559 - Varro, De lingua latina, v. 85, “Saliia salitando, quod facere in comitio in sacris quotannis et solent et debent.” Compare Ovid, Fasti, iii. 387, “Iam dederat Saliis a saltu nomina dicta”; Plutarch, Numa, 13; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquitates Romanae, ii. 70.] Twice a year, in the spring month of March and the autumn month of October, they discharged this sacred duty;[560 - J. Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii.

(Leipsic, 1885) p. 431; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer

(Munich, 1912), p. 144; W. Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1911), pp. 96 sq.] and as they did so they invoked Saturn, the Roman god of sowing.[561 - Festus, ed. C. O. Müller, p. 325, “Qui deus in saliaribus Saturnus nominatur, videlicet a sationibus.” In this passage Ritschl reads Saeturnus for Saturnus. The best MSS. of the epitome read Sateurnus. See J. Wordsworth, Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin (Oxford, 1884), p. 405. As to Saturn in this capacity see below, p. 306.] As the Romans sowed the corn both in spring and autumn,[562 - Columella, De re rustica, ii. 9. 6 sq.] and as down to the present time in Europe superstitious rustics are wont to dance and leap high in spring for the purpose of making the crops grow high,[563 - The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 137 sqq.] we may conjecture that the leaps and dances performed by the Salii, the priests of the old Italian god of vegetation, were similarly supposed to quicken the growth of the corn by homoeopathic or imitative magic. The Salii were not limited to Rome; similar colleges of dancing priests are known to have existed in many towns of ancient Italy;[564 - J. Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii.

(Leipsic, 1885) pp. 427 sq.] everywhere, we may conjecture, they were supposed to contribute to the fertility of the earth by their leaps and dances. At Rome they were divided into two colleges, each composed of twelve members; and it is not impossible that the number twelve was fixed with reference to the twelve months of the old lunar year;[565 - L. Preller, Römische Mythologie

(Berlin, 1881-1883), i. 359. As to the lunar year of the old Roman Calendar see L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie (Berlin, 1825-1826), ii. 38 sqq.] the Fratres Arvales, or “Brethren of the Ploughed Fields,” another Roman college of priests, whose functions were purely agricultural, and who wore as a badge of their office a wreath of corn-ears, were also twelve in number, perhaps for a similar reason.[566 - As to their number and badge see Aulus Gellius, vi. (vii., ed. M. Hertz) 7. 8; as to their function see Varro, De lingua latina, v. 85, “Fratres Arvales dicti sunt, qui sacra publica faciunt propterea ut fruges ferant arva, a ferendo et arvis fratres arvales dicti.”] Nor was the martial equipment of the Salii so alien to this peaceful function as a modern reader might naturally suppose. Each of them wore on his head a peaked helmet of bronze, and at his side a sword; on his left arm he carried a shield of a peculiar shape, and in his right hand he wielded a staff with which he smote on the shield till it rang again.[567 - Livy, i. 20. 4; Plutarch, Numa, 13; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquitates Romanae, ii. 70. Livy only mentions the shields. From an ancient relief we learn that the staves of the Salii terminated in a knob at each end. Hence we may correct the statement of Dionysius, who describes the weapon doubtfully as λόγχην ἣ ῥάβδον ἤ τι τοιοῦθ ἕτερον. See J. Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii.

432, note 6.] Such weapons in priestly hands may be turned against spiritual foes; in the preceding pages we have met with many examples of the use of material arms to rout the host of demons who oppress the imagination of primitive man, and we have seen that the clash and clangour of metal is often deemed particularly effective in putting these baleful beings to flight.[568 - See above, pp. 113 (#x_12_i9), 116 (#x_12_i13), 117 (#x_12_i15), 132 (#x_13_i17), 139 (#x_13_i27), 141 (#x_13_i31), 147 (#x_14_i7), 158 (#x_14_i21), 159 (#x_14_i23), 161 (#x_14_i28), 163 (#x_15_i3), 165 (#x_15_i7), 166 (#x_15_i9), 186 (#x_17_i34), 191 (#x_17_i61), 196 (#x_17_i69), 200 (#x_18_i5), 204 (#x_18_i11), 214 (#x_18_i25).] May it not have been so with the martial priests of Mars? We know that they paraded the city for days together in a regular order, taking up their quarters for the night at a different place each day; and as they went they danced in triple time, singing and clashing on their shields and taking their time from a fugleman, who skipped and postured at their head.[569 - Livy, i. 20. 4; J. Marquardt, op. cit. iii.

432 sq.; W. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Third Edition (London, 1891), vol. ii. p. 590, s. v. “Salii.”] We may conjecture that in so doing they were supposed to be expelling the powers of evil which had accumulated during the preceding year or six months, and which the people pictured to themselves in the form of demons lurking in the houses, temples, and the other edifices of the city. In savage communities such tumultuous and noisy processions often parade the village for a similar purpose. Similarly, we have seen that among the Iroquois men in fantastic costume used to go about collecting the sins of the people as a preliminary to transferring them to the scapegoat dogs; and we have met with many examples of armed men rushing about the streets and houses to drive out demons and evils of all kinds.[570 - See above, pp. 111 (#x_12_i7)sqq.] Why should it not have been so also in ancient Rome? The religion of the old Romans is full of relics of savagery.

The demons expelled by the Salii may have been above all the demons of blight and infertility. This conjecture is supported by analogous ceremonies performed by savages for the purpose of driving off the demons that would harm the crops.

If there is any truth in this conjecture, we may suppose that, as priests of a god who manifested his power in the vegetation of spring, the Salii turned their attention above all to the demons of blight and infertility, who might be thought by their maleficent activity to counteract the genial influence of the kindly god and to endanger the farmer's prospects in the coming summer or winter. The conjecture may be supported by analogies drawn from the customs of modern European peasants as well as of savages. Thus, to begin with savages, we have seen that at the time of sowing the Khonds drive out the “evil spirits, spoilers of the seed” from every house in the village, the expulsion being effected by young men who beat each other and strike the air violently with long sticks.[571 - See above, p. 138 (#x_13_i27).] If I am right in connecting the vernal and the autumnal processions of the Salii with the vernal and the autumnal sowing, the analogy between the Khond and the Roman customs would be very close. In West Africa the fields of the King of Whydah, according to an old French traveller, “are hoed and sowed before any of his subjects has leave to hoe and sow a foot of his own lands. These labours are performed thrice a year. The chiefs lead their people before the king's palace at daybreak, and there they sing and dance for a full quarter of an hour. Half of these people are armed as in a day of battle, the other half have only their farm tools. They go all together singing and dancing to the scene of their labours, and there, keeping time to the sound of the instruments, they work with such speed and neatness that it is a pleasure to behold. At the end of the day they return and dance before the king's palace. This exercise refreshes them and does them more good than all the repose they could take.”[572 - Labat, Voyage du Chevalier Des Marchais en Guinée, Isles voisines, et à Cayenne (Amsterdam, 1731), ii. 80 (p. 99 of the Paris edition).] From this account we might infer that the dancing was merely a recreation of the field-labourers, and that the music of the band had no other object than to animate them in their work by enabling them to ply their mattocks in time to its stirring strains. But this inference, though it seems to have been drawn by the traveller who has furnished the account, would probably be erroneous. For if half of the men were armed as for war, what were they doing in the fields all the time that the others were digging? A clue to unravel the mystery is furnished by the description which a later French traveller gives of a similar scene witnessed by him near Timbo in French Guinea. He saw some natives at work preparing the ground for sowing. “It is a very curious spectacle: fifty or sixty blacks in a line, with bent backs, are smiting the earth simultaneously with their little iron tools, which gleam in the sun. Ten paces in front of them, marching backwards, the women sing a well marked air, clapping their hands as for a dance, and the hoes keep time to the song. Between the workers and the singers a man runs and dances, crouching on his hams like a clown, while he whirls about his musket and performs other manœuvres with it. Two others dance, also pirouetting and smiting the earth here and there with their little hoe. All that is necessary for exorcising the spirits and causing the grain to sprout.”[573 - Olivier de Sanderval, De l'Atlantique au Niger par le Foutah-Djallon (Paris, 1883), p. 230. The phrase which I have translated “for exorcising the spirits” is “pour conjurer les esprits.”] Here, while the song of the women gives the time to the strokes of the hoes, the dances and other antics of the armed man and his colleagues are intended to exorcise or ward off the spirits who might interfere with the diggers and so prevent the grain from sprouting.

Dances of masked men in India, Borneo, and South America to promote the growth of the crops.

Again, an old traveller in southern India tells us that “the men of Calicut, when they wish to sow rice, observe this practice. First, they plough the land with oxen as we do, and when they sow the rice in the field they have all the instruments of the city continually sounding and making merry. They also have ten or twelve men clothed like devils, and these unite in making great rejoicing with the players on the instruments, in order that the devil may make that rice very productive.”[574 - Ludovico di Varthema, Travels in Egypt, Syria, etc., translated by J. W. Jones (Hakluyt Society, London, 1863), pp. 166 sq.] We may suspect that the noisy music is played and the mummers cut their capers for the purpose rather of repelling demons than of inducing them to favour the growth of the rice. However, where our information is so scanty it would be rash to dogmatize. Perhaps the old traveller was right in thinking that the mummers personated devils. Among the Kayans of Central Borneo men disguised in wooden masks and great masses of green foliage certainly play the part of demons for the purpose of promoting the growth of the rice just before the seed is committed to the ground; and it is notable that among the performances which they give on this occasion are war dances.[575 - Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 95, 186 sq.] Again, among the Kaua and Kobeua Indians of North-Western Brazil masked men who represent spirits or demons of fertility perform dances or rather pantomimes for the purpose of stimulating the growth of plants, quickening the wombs of women, and promoting the multiplication of animals.[576 - Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 111 sq.]

Dances in Aracan for the sake of the crops. Dances of the Tarahumare Indians of Mexico to procure rain for their crops.

Further, we are told that “the natives of Aracan dance in order to render propitious the spirits whom they believe to preside over the sowing and over the harvest. There are definite times for doing it, and we may say that in their eyes it is, as it were, an act of religion.”[577 - Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, liii. (1881) p. 178.] Another people who dance diligently to obtain good crops are the Tarahumare Indians of Mexico. They subsist by agriculture and their thoughts accordingly turn much on the supply of rain, which is needed for their fields. According to them, “the favour of the gods may be won by what for want of a better term may be called dancing, but what in reality is a series of monotonous movements, a kind of rhythmical exercise, kept up sometimes for two nights. By dint of such hard work they think to prevail upon the gods to grant their prayers. The dancing is accompanied by the song of the shaman, in which he communicates his wishes to the unseen world, describing the beautiful effect of the rain, the fog, and the mist on the vegetable world. He invokes the aid of all the animals, mentioning each by name, and also calls on them, especially the deer and the rabbit, to multiply that the people may have plenty to eat. As a matter of fact, the Tarahumares assert that the dances have been taught them by the animals. Like all primitive people, they are close observers of nature. To them the animals are by no means inferior creatures; they understand magic and are possessed of much knowledge, and may assist the Tarahumares in making rain. In spring, the singing of the birds, the cooing of the dove, the croaking of the frog, the chirping of the cricket, all the sounds uttered by the denizens of the greensward, are to the Indian appeals to the deities for rain. For what other reason should they sing or call? For the strange behaviour of many animals in the early spring the Tarahumares can find no other explanation but that these creatures, too, are interested in rain. And as the gods grant the prayers of the deer expressed in its antics and dances, and of the turkey in its curious playing, by sending the rain, they easily infer that to please the gods they, too, must dance as the deer and play as the turkey. From this it will be understood that dance with these people is a very serious and ceremonious matter, a kind of worship and incantation rather than amusement.”[578 - C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (London, 1903), i. 330 sq.]

Dances of the Tarahumare Indians to cause rain to fall, corn to sprout, grass to grow, and animals to multiply.

The two principal dances of these Indians, the rutuburi and the yumari, are supposed to have been taught them by the turkey and the deer respectively. They are danced by numbers of men and women, the two sexes keeping apart from each other in the dance, while the shaman sings and shakes his rattle. But “a large gathering is not necessary in order to pray to the gods by dancing. Sometimes the family dances alone, the father teaching the boys. While doing agricultural work, the Indians often depute one man to dance yumari near the house, while the others attend to the work in the fields. It is a curious sight to see a lone man taking his devotional exercise to the tune of his rattle in front of an apparently deserted dwelling. The lonely worshipper is doing his share of the general work by bringing down the fructifying rain and by warding off disaster, while the rest of the family and their friends plant, hoe, weed, or harvest. In the evening, when they return from the field, they may join him for a little while; but often he goes on alone, dancing all night, and singing himself hoarse, and the Indians told me that this is the very hardest kind of work, and exhausting even to them. Solitary worship is also observed by men who go out hunting deer or squirrels for a communal feast. Every one of them dances yumari alone in front of his house for two hours to insure success on the hunt; and when putting corn to sprout for the making of tesvino the owner of the house dances for a while, that the corn may sprout well.” Another dance is thought to cause the grass and funguses to grow, and the deer and rabbits to multiply; and another is supposed to draw the clouds together from the north and south, so that they clash and descend in rain.[579 - C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (London, 1903), i. 335 sqq., 352 sq.]

Dance of the Cora Indians at the sowing festival.

The Cora Indians of Mexico celebrate a festival of sowing shortly before they commit the seed of the maize to the ground. The festival falls in June, because that is the month when the rainy season sets in, supplying the moisture needed for the growth of the maize. At the festival two old women, who represent the goddesses of sowing, dance side by side and imitate the process of sowing by digging holes in the earth with long sticks and inserting the seed of the maize in the holes; whereupon a man who represents the Morning Star pours water on the buried seeds. This solemn dance is accompanied by the singing of an appropriate hymn, which may be compared to the song of the Arval Brothers in ancient Rome.[580 - K. Th. Preuss, Die Nayarit-Expedition, I. Die Religion der Cora-Indianer (Leipsic, 1912), pp. xcviii. sq., 61-63. As to the sowing festival of the Mexican Indians, compare K. Th. Preuss, “Die religiösen Gesänge und Mythen einiger Stämme der mexikanischen Sierra Madre,” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, xi. (1908) pp. 374 sqq.]

Dances and leaps of European peasants to make the corn grow tall.

We have seen that in many parts of Germany, Austria, and France the peasants are still, or were till lately, accustomed to dance and leap high in order that the crops may grow tall. Such leaps and dances are sometimes performed by the sower immediately before or after he sows the seed; but often they are executed by the people on a fixed day of the year, which in some places is Twelfth Night (the sixth of January), or Candlemas (the second of February) or Walpurgis Night, that is, the Eve of May Day; but apparently the favourite season for these performances is the last day of the Carnival, namely Shrove Tuesday.[581 - The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 137-139.] In such cases the leaps and dances are performed by every man for his own behoof; he skips and jumps merely in order that his own corn, or flax, or hemp may spring up and thrive. But sometimes in modern Europe, as (if I am right) in ancient Rome, the duty of dancing for the crops was committed to bands or troops of men, who cut their capers for the benefit of the whole community. For example, at Grub, in the Swiss canton of the Grisons (Graubünden), the practice used to be as follows. “The peasants of Grub,” we are informed, “have still some hereditary customs, in that they assembled in some years, mostly at the time of the summer solstice, disguised themselves as maskers so as to be unrecognizable, armed themselves with weapons defensive and offensive, took every man a great club or cudgel, marched in a troop together from one village to another, and executed high leaps and strange antics. They ran full tilt at each other, struck every man his fellow with all his might, so that the blow resounded, and clashed their great staves and cudgels. Hence they were called by the country folk the Stopfer. These foolish pranks they played from a superstitious notion that their corn would thrive the better; but now they have left off, and these Stopfer are no longer in any repute.” Another authority, after describing the custom, remarks: “With this custom was formerly connected the belief that its observance brought a fruitful year.”[582 - Dr. F. J. Vonbun, Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie gesammelt in Churrhaetien (Chur, 1862), p. 21, quoting J. Stumpf and Ulr. Campell. As the passage is curious and the work probably rare, I will quote the original in full: “Sicherlich auch im zusammenhange mit Donarcultus war ein brauch der leute in der Grub (in Graubünden). ‘Die landleute in der Grub haben noch etwas anererbte bräuche, indem dass sie sich zu etlichen jahren (meistens zur zeit der sonnenwende) besammelten, verbutzten (sich als masken vermummten) und einander unbekannt machten, legten harnisch und geweer an, und nahm jeder ein grossen kolben oder knüttel, zugen in einer rott mit einander von einem dorf zum andern, triben hohe sprünge und seltsame abentheur. – Sie luffen gestracks laufs aneinander, stiessen mit kräften je einer den andern, dass es erhillt, stiessen laut mit ihren grössen stöcken und knütteln, deswegen sie vom landvolk genannt werden die Stopfer. Diese thorechte abentheuer triben sie zum aberglauben, dass ihnen das korn destobas gerathen sölle, haben aber anjetzo abgelassen, und sind diese Stopfer in keiner achtung mehr.’ (Joh. Stumpf). Auch Ulr. Campell erwähnt dieses volksbrauch (s. 11) und bemerkt: ‘mit diesem gebrauche hing früher der glaube zusammen, dass dessen ausübung ein fruchtbares jahr bringe.’ ” The word Stopfer means “stopper,” “rammer,” “crammer,” etc.]

Dances of mummers called Perchtenin Austria for the good of the crops. The mythical old woman called Perchta.

In the Austrian provinces of Salzburg and Tyrol bands of mummers wearing grotesque masks, with bells jingling on their persons, and carrying long sticks or poles in their hands, used formerly to run and leap about on certain days of the year for the purpose of procuring good crops. They were called Perchten, a name derived from Perchta, Berchta, or Percht, a mythical old woman, whether goddess or elf, who is well known all over South Germany; Mrs. Perchta (Frau Perchta), as they call her, is to be met with in Elsace, Swabia, Bavaria, Austria, and Switzerland, but nowhere, perhaps, so commonly as in Salzburg and the Tyrol. In the Tyrol she appears as a little old woman with a very wrinkled face, bright lively eyes, and a long hooked nose; her hair is dishevelled, her garments tattered and torn. Hence they say to a slatternly wench, “You are a regular Perchta.” She goes about especially during the twelve days from Christmas to Twelfth Night (Epiphany), above all on the Eve of Twelfth Night, which is often called Perchta's Day. Many precautions must be observed during these mystic days in order not to incur her displeasure, for she is mischievous to man and beast. If she appears in the byre, a distemper breaks out among the cows. That is why during these days the byres must be kept very clean and straw laid on the threshold; otherwise you will find bald patches on your sheep and goats next morning, and next summer the hair which has been filched from the animals will descend in hail-stones from the sky. Old Mrs. Perchta also keeps a very sharp eye on spinners during the twelve days; she inspects all distaffs and spinning-wheels in the houses, and if she finds any flax or tow unspun on them, she tears it to bits, and she does not spare the lazy spinner, for she scratches her and smacks her fingers so that they bear the marks of it for the rest of her life. Indeed she sometimes does much more; for she rips up the belly of the sluggard and stuffs it with flax. That is the punishment with which a Bavarian mother will threaten an idle jade of a girl who has left some flax on her distaff on New Year's Eve. However, they say in Bavaria that if you only eat plenty of the rich juicy cakes which are baked for Mrs. Perchta on her day, the old woman's knife will glance off your body without making any impression on it. Perchta often comes not alone but attended by many little children, who follow her as chickens waddle after the mother hen; and if you should see any little child lagging behind the rest and blubbering, you may be quite sure that that child has been baptized. On the Eve of Twelfth Night everybody should eat pancakes baked of meal and milk or water. If anybody does not do so, old Mrs. Perchta comes and slits up his stomach, takes out the other food, fills up the vacuity so created with a tangled skein and bricks, and then sews up the orifice neatly, using, singularly enough, a ploughshare for a needle and an iron chain for thread. In other or the same places she does the same thing to anybody who does not eat herrings and dumplings on Twelfth Night. Some say that she rides on the storm like the Wild Huntsman, followed by a boisterous noisy pack, and carrying off people into far countries. Yet withal old Mrs. Perchta has her redeeming qualities. Good children who spin diligently and learn their lessons she rewards with nuts and sugar plums. It has even been affirmed that she makes the ploughed land fruitful and causes the cattle to thrive. When a mist floats over the fields, the peasants see her figure gliding along in a white mantle. On the Eve of Twelfth Night good people leave the remains of their supper for her on the table, and when they have gone to bed and all is quiet in the house, she comes in the likeness of an old wizened little woman, with all the children about her, and partakes of the broken victuals. But woe to the prying wight who peeps at her through the key-hole! Many a man has been blinded by her for a whole year as a punishment for his ill-timed curiosity.[583 - J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie

(Berlin, 1875-1878), i. 226 sqq., iii. 88 sq.; Fr. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), i. 247 sq., ii. 381; I. V. Zingerle, “Perahta in Tirol,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie, iii. (Göttingen, 1855), pp. 203-206; id., Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes

(Innsbruck, 1871), pp. 128 sq., 138 sq.; J. M. Ritter von Alpenburg, Mythen und Sagen Tirols (Zürich, 1857), pp. 46-51, 63-65; Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern (Munich, 1860-1867), i. 365; A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube

(Berlin, 1869), § 25, pp. 25-27; W. Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme (Berlin, 1875), pp. 542 sq.; Karl Weinhold, Weinacht-Spiele und Lieder aus Süddeutschland und Schlesien (Vienna, 1875), pp. 19 sqq.; E. Mogk, in H. Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie,

iii. (Strasburg, 1900), pp. 280 sq. (where it is said that Perchta “spendet dem Acker Fruchtbarkeit und lässt das Vieh gedeihen”); E. H. Meyer, Mythologie der Germanen (Strasburg, 1903), pp. 424 sqq.; P. Herrmann, Deutsche Mythologie (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 303 sqq.; M. Andree-Eysen, Volkskundliches aus dem bayrisch-österreichischen Alpengebiet (Brunswick, 1910), pp. 156 sqq.; E. Hoffmann-Krayer, Feste und Bräuche des Schweizervolkes (Zürich, 1913), pp. 118 sqq.]

The running and leaping of the Perchtenmummers on Twelfth Night. The Beautiful Perchtenand the Ugly Perchten.

The processions of maskers who took their name of Perchten from this quaint creation of the popular fancy were known as Perchten-running or Perchten-leaping from the runs and leaps which the men took in their wild headlong course through the streets and over the fields. They appear to have been held in all the Alpine regions of Germany, but are best known to us in the Tyrol and Salzburg. The appropriate season for the celebration of the rite was Perchta's Day, that is, Twelfth Night or Epiphany, the sixth of January, but in some places it was held on Shrove Tuesday, the last day of the Carnival, the very day when many farmers of Central Europe jump to make the crops grow tall. Corresponding to the double character of Perchta as a power for good and evil, the maskers are divided into two sets known respectively as the Beautiful and the Ugly Perchten. At Lienz in the Tyrol, where the maskers made their appearance on Shrove Tuesday, the Beautiful Perchten were decked with ribbons, galloons, and so forth, while the ugly Perchten made themselves as hideous as they could by hanging rats and mice, chains and bells about their persons. All wore on their heads tall pointed caps with bells attached to them; their faces were concealed by masks, and in their hands they all carried long sticks. The sticks of the Beautiful Perchten were adorned with ribbons; those of the Ugly Perchten ended in the heads of devils. Thus equipped they leaped and ran about the streets and went into the houses. Amongst them was a clown who blew ashes and soot in people's faces through a blow-pipe. It was all very merry and frolicsome, except when “the wild Perchta” herself came, invisible to ordinary eyes, upon the scene. Then her namesakes the Perchten grew wild and furious too; they scattered and fled for their lives to the nearest house, for as soon as they got under the gutter of a roof they were safe. But if she caught them, she tore them in pieces. To this day you may see the graves where the mangled bodies of her victims lie buried. When no such interruption took place, the noisy rout of maskers rushed madly about, with jingling bells and resounding cracks of whips, entering the houses, dancing here, drinking there, teasing wayfarers, or racing from village to village like the Wild Hunt itself in the sky; till at the close of the winter day the church bells rang the Ave Maria. Then at last the wild uproar died away into silence. Such tumultuous masquerades were thought to be very beneficial to the crops; a bad harvest would be set down to the omission of the Perchten to skip and jump about in their usual fashion.[584 - J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,

i. 231; I. V. Zingerle, Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes