CHAPTER VIII. THE KILLING OF THE TREE-SPIRIT.

§ 1. The Whitsuntide Mummers.

(M160) It remains to ask what light the custom of killing the divine king or priest sheds upon the special subject of our enquiry. In the first part of this work we saw reason to suppose that the King of the Wood at Nemi was regarded as an incarnation of a tree-spirit or of the spirit of vegetation, and that as such he would be endowed, in the belief of his worshippers, with a magical power of making the trees to bear fruit, the crops to grow, and so on.(562) His life must therefore have been held very precious by his worshippers, and was probably hedged in by a system of elaborate precautions or taboos like those by which, in so many places, the life of the man-god has been guarded against the malignant influence of demons and sorcerers. But we have seen that the very value attached to the life of the man-god necessitates his violent death as the only means of preserving it from the inevitable decay of age. The same reasoning would apply to the King of the Wood; he, too, had to be killed in order that the divine spirit, incarnate in him, might be transferred in its integrity to his successor. The rule that he held office till a stronger should slay him might be supposed to secure both the preservation of his divine life in full vigour and its transference to a suitable successor as soon as that vigour began to be impaired. For so long as he could maintain his position by the strong hand, it might be inferred that his natural force was not abated; whereas his defeat and death at the hands of another proved that his strength was beginning to fail and that it was time his divine life should be lodged in a less dilapidated tabernacle. This explanation of the rule that the King of the Wood had to be slain by his successor at least renders that rule perfectly intelligible. It is strongly supported by the theory and practice of the Shilluk, who put their divine king to death at the first signs of failing health, lest his decrepitude should entail a corresponding failure of vital energy on the corn, the cattle, and men.(563) Moreover, it is countenanced by the analogy of the Chitomé, upon whose life the existence of the world was supposed to hang, and who was therefore slain by his successor as soon as he shewed signs of breaking up. Again, the terms on which in later times the King of Calicut held office are identical with those attached to the office of King of the Wood, except that whereas the former might be assailed by a candidate at any time, the King of Calicut might only be attacked once every twelve years. But as the leave granted to the King of Calicut to reign so long as he could defend himself against all comers was a mitigation of the old rule which set a fixed term to his life,(564) so we may conjecture that the similar permission granted to the King of the Wood was a mitigation of an older custom of putting him to death at the end of a definite period. In both cases the new rule gave to the god-man at least a chance for his life, which under the old rule was denied him; and people probably reconciled themselves to the change by reflecting that so long as the god-man could maintain himself by the sword against all assaults, there was no reason to apprehend that the fatal decay had set in.

(M161) The conjecture that the King of the Wood was formerly put to death at the expiry of a fixed term, without being allowed a chance for his life, will be confirmed if evidence can be adduced of a custom of periodically killing his counterparts, the human representatives of the tree-spirit, in Northern Europe. Now in point of fact such a custom has left unmistakable traces of itself in the rural festivals of the peasantry. To take examples.

(M162) At Niederpöring, in Lower Bavaria, the Whitsuntide representative of the tree-spirit—the _Pfingstl_ as he was called—was clad from top to toe in leaves and flowers. On his head he wore a high pointed cap, the ends of which rested on his shoulders, only two holes being left in it for his eyes. The cap was covered with water-flowers and surmounted with a nosegay of peonies. The sleeves of his coat were also made of water-plants, and the rest of his body was enveloped in alder and hazel leaves. On each side of him marched a boy holding up one of the _Pfingstl’s_ arms. These two boys carried drawn swords, and so did most of the others who formed the procession. They stopped at every house where they hoped to receive a present; and the people, in hiding, soused the leaf-clad boy with water. All rejoiced when he was well drenched. Finally he waded into the brook up to his middle; whereupon one of the boys, standing on the bridge, pretended to cut off his head.(565) At Wurmlingen, in Swabia, a score of young fellows dress themselves on Whit-Monday in white shirts and white trousers, with red scarves round their waists and swords hanging from the scarves. They ride on horseback into the wood, led by two trumpeters blowing their trumpets. In the wood they cut down leafy oak branches, in which they envelop from head to foot him who was the last of their number to ride out of the village. His legs, however, are encased separately, so that he may be able to mount his horse again. Further, they give him a long artificial neck, with an artificial head and a false face on the top of it. Then a May-tree is cut, generally an aspen or beech about ten feet high; and being decked with coloured handkerchiefs and ribbons it is entrusted to a special “May-bearer.” The cavalcade then returns with music and song to the village. Amongst the personages who figure in the procession are a Moorish king with a sooty face and a crown on his head, a Dr. Iron-Beard, a corporal, and an executioner. They halt on the village green, and each of the characters makes a speech in rhyme. The executioner announces that the leaf-clad man has been condemned to death, and cuts off his false head. Then the riders race to the May-tree, which has been set up a little way off. The first man who succeeds in wrenching it from the ground as he gallops past keeps it with all its decorations. The ceremony is observed every second or third year.(566)

(M163) In Saxony and Thüringen there is a Whitsuntide ceremony called “chasing the Wild Man out of the bush,” or “fetching the Wild Man out of the Wood.” A young fellow is enveloped in leaves or moss and called the Wild Man. He hides in the wood and the other lads of the village go out to seek him. They find him, lead him captive out of the wood, and fire at him with blank muskets. He falls like dead to the ground, but a lad dressed as a doctor bleeds him, and he comes to life again. At this they rejoice, and, binding him fast on a waggon, take him to the village, where they tell all the people how they have caught the Wild Man. At every house they receive a gift.(567) In the Erzgebirge the following custom was annually observed at Shrovetide about the beginning of the seventeenth century. Two men disguised as Wild Men, the one in brushwood and moss, the other in straw, were led about the streets, and at last taken to the market-place, where they were chased up and down, shot and stabbed. Before falling they reeled about with strange gestures and spirted blood on the people from bladders which they carried. When they were down the huntsmen placed them on boards and carried them to the ale-house, the miners marching beside them and winding blasts on their mining tools as if they had taken a noble head of game.(568) A very similar Shrovetide custom is still observed near Schluckenau in Bohemia. A man dressed up as a Wild Man is chased through several streets till he comes to a narrow lane across which a cord is stretched. He stumbles over the cord and, falling to the ground, is overtaken and caught by his pursuers. The executioner runs up and stabs with his sword a bladder filled with blood which the Wild Man wears round his body; so the Wild Man dies, while a stream of blood reddens the ground. Next day a straw-man, made up to look like the Wild Man, is placed on a litter, and, accompanied by a great crowd, is taken to a pool into which it is thrown by the executioner. The ceremony is called “burying the Carnival.”(569)

(M164) In Semic (Bohemia) the custom of beheading the King is observed on Whit-Monday. A troop of young people disguise themselves; each is girt with a girdle of bark and carries a wooden sword and a trumpet of willow-bark. The King wears a robe of tree-bark adorned with flowers, on his head is a crown of bark decked with flowers and branches, his feet are wound about with ferns, a mask hides his face, and for a sceptre he has a hawthorn switch in his hand. A lad leads him through the village by a rope fastened to his foot, while the rest dance about, blow their trumpets, and whistle. In every farmhouse the King is chased round the room, and one of the troop, amid much noise and outcry strikes with his sword a blow on the King’s robe of bark till it rings again. Then a gratuity is demanded.(570) The ceremony of decapitation, which is here somewhat slurred over, is carried out with a greater semblance of reality in other parts of Bohemia. Thus in some villages of the Königgrätz district on Whit-Monday the girls assemble under one lime-tree and the young men under another, all dressed in their best and tricked out with ribbons. The young men twine a garland for the Queen, and the girls another for the King. When they have chosen the King and Queen they all go in procession, two and two, to the ale-house, from the balcony of which the crier proclaims the names of the King and Queen. Both are then invested with the insignia of their office and are crowned with the garlands, while the music plays up. Then some one gets on a bench and accuses the King of various offences, such as ill-treating the cattle. The King appeals to witnesses and a trial ensues, at the close of which the judge, who carries a white wand as his badge of office, pronounces a verdict of “Guilty” or “Not guilty.” If the verdict is “Guilty,” the judge breaks his wand, the King kneels on a white cloth, all heads are bared, and a soldier sets three or four hats, one above the other, on his Majesty’s head. The judge then pronounces the word “Guilty” thrice in a loud voice, and orders the crier to behead the King. The crier obeys by striking off the King’s hats with his wooden sword.(571)

(M165) But perhaps, for our purpose, the most instructive of these mimic executions is the following Bohemian one, which has been in part described already.(572) In some places of the Pilsen district (Bohemia) on Whit-Monday the King is dressed in bark, ornamented with flowers and ribbons; he wears a crown of gilt paper and rides a horse, which is also decked with flowers. Attended by a judge, an executioner, and other characters, and followed by a train of soldiers, all mounted, he rides to the village square, where a hut or arbour of green boughs has been erected under the May-trees, which are firs, freshly cut, peeled to the top, and dressed with flowers and ribbons. After the dames and maidens of the village have been criticised and a frog beheaded, in the way already described, the cavalcade rides to a place previously determined upon, in a straight, broad street. Here they draw up in two lines and the King takes to flight. He is given a short start and rides off at full speed, pursued by the whole troop. If they fail to catch him he remains King for another year, and his companions must pay his score at the ale-house in the evening. But if they overtake and catch him he is scourged with hazel rods or beaten with the wooden swords and compelled to dismount. Then the executioner asks, “Shall I behead this King?” The answer is given, “Behead him”; the executioner brandishes his axe, and with the words, “One, two, three, let the King headless be!” he strikes off the King’s crown. Amid the loud cries of the bystanders the King sinks to the ground; then he is laid on a bier and carried to the nearest farmhouse.(573)

(M166) In most of the personages who are thus slain in mimicry it is impossible not to recognise representatives of the tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation, as he is supposed to manifest himself in spring. The bark, leaves, and flowers in which the actors are dressed, and the season of the year at which they appear, shew that they belong to the same class as the Grass King, King of the May, Jack-in-the-Green, and other representatives of the vernal spirit of vegetation which we examined in the first part of this work.(574) As if to remove any possible doubt on this head, we find that in two cases(575) these slain men are brought into direct connexion with May-trees, which are the impersonal, as the May King, Grass King, and so forth, are the personal representatives of the tree-spirit. The drenching of the _Pfingstl_ with water and his wading up to the middle into the brook are, therefore, no doubt rain-charms like those which have been already described.(576)

(M167) But if these personages represent, as they certainly do, the spirit of vegetation in spring, the question arises, Why kill them? What is the object of slaying the spirit of vegetation at any time and above all in spring, when his services are most wanted? The only probable answer to this question seems to be given in the explanation already proposed of the custom of killing the divine king or priest. The divine life, incarnate in a material and mortal body, is liable to be tainted and corrupted by the weakness of the frail medium in which it is for a time enshrined; and if it is to be saved from the increasing enfeeblement which it must necessarily share with its human incarnation as he advances in years, it must be detached from him before, or at least as soon as, he exhibits signs of decay, in order to be transferred to a vigorous successor. This is done by killing the old representative of the god and conveying the divine spirit from him to a new incarnation. The killing of the god, that is, of his human incarnation, is therefore merely a necessary step to his revival or resurrection in a better form. Far from being an extinction of the divine spirit, it is only the beginning of a purer and stronger manifestation of it. If this explanation holds good of the custom of killing divine kings and priests in general, it is still more obviously applicable to the custom of annually killing the representative of the tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation in spring. For the decay of plant life in winter is readily interpreted by primitive man as an enfeeblement of the spirit of vegetation; the spirit has, he thinks, grown old and weak and must therefore be renovated by being slain and brought to life in a younger and fresher form. Thus the killing of the representative of the tree-spirit in spring is regarded as a means to promote and quicken the growth of vegetation. For the killing of the tree-spirit is associated always (we must suppose) implicitly, and sometimes explicitly also, with a revival or resurrection of him in a more youthful and vigorous form. So in the Saxon and Thüringen custom, after the Wild Man has been shot he is brought to life again by a doctor;(577) and in the Wurmlingen ceremony there figures a Dr. Iron-Beard, who probably once played a similar part; certainly in another spring ceremony, which will be described presently, Dr. Iron-Beard pretends to restore a dead man to life. But of this revival or resurrection of the god we shall have more to say anon.

(M168) The points of similarity between these North European personages and the subject of our enquiry—the King of the Wood or priest of Nemi—are sufficiently striking. In these northern maskers we see kings, whose dress of bark and leaves, along with the hut of green boughs and the fir-trees under which they hold their court, proclaim them unmistakably as, like their Italian counterpart, Kings of the Wood. Like him they die a violent death, but like him they may escape from it for a time by their bodily strength and agility; for in several of these northern customs the flight and pursuit of the king is a prominent part of the ceremony, and in one case at least if the king can outrun his pursuers he retains his life and his office for another year. In this last case the king in fact holds office on condition of running for his life once a year, just as the King of Calicut in later times held office on condition of defending his life against all comers once every twelve years, and just as the priest of Nemi held office on condition of defending himself against any assault at any time. In every one of these instances the life of the god-man is prolonged on condition of his shewing, in a severe physical contest of fight or flight, that his bodily strength is not decayed, and that, therefore, the violent death, which sooner or later is inevitable, may for the present be postponed. With regard to flight it is noticeable that flight figured conspicuously both in the legend and in the practice of the King of the Wood. He had to be a runaway slave in memory of the flight of Orestes, the traditional founder of the worship; hence the Kings of the Wood are described by an ancient writer as “both strong of hand and fleet of foot.”(578) Perhaps if we knew the ritual of the Arician grove fully we might find that the king was allowed a chance for his life by flight, like his Bohemian brother. I have already conjectured that the annual flight of the priestly king at Rome (_regifugium_) was at first a flight of the same kind; in other words, that he was originally one of those divine kings who are either put to death after a fixed period or allowed to prove by the strong hand or the fleet foot that their divinity is vigorous and unimpaired.(579) One more point of resemblance may be noted between the Italian King of the Wood and his northern counterparts. In Saxony and Thüringen the representative of the tree-spirit, after being killed, is brought to life again by a doctor. This is exactly what legend affirmed to have happened to the first King of the Wood at Nemi, Hippolytus or Virbius, who after he had been killed by his horses was restored to life by the physician Aesculapius.(580) Such a legend tallies well with the theory that the slaying of the King of the Wood was only a step to his revival or resurrection in his successor.

§ 2. Mock Human Sacrifices.

(M169) In the preceding discussion it has been assumed that the mock killing of the Wild Man and of the King in North European folk-custom is a modern substitute for an ancient custom of killing them in earnest. Those who best know the tenacity of life possessed by folk-custom and its tendency, with the growth of civilisation, to dwindle from solemn ritual into mere pageant and pastime, will be least likely to question the truth of this assumption. That human sacrifices were commonly offered by the ancestors of the civilised races of North Europe, Celts, Teutons, and Slavs, is certain.(581) It is not, therefore, surprising that the modern peasant should do in mimicry what his forefathers did in reality. We know as a matter of fact that in other parts of the world mock human sacrifices have been substituted for real ones. Thus in Minahassa, a district of Celebes, human victims used to be regularly sacrificed at certain festivals, but through Dutch influence the custom was abolished and a sham sacrifice substituted for it. The victim was seated in a chair and all the usual preparations were made for sacrificing him, but at the critical moment, when the chief priest had heaved up his flashing swords (for he wielded two of them) to deal the fatal stroke, his assistants sprang forward, their hands wrapt in cloths, to grasp and arrest the descending blades. The precaution was necessary, for the priest was wound up to such a pitch of excitement that if left alone he might have consummated the sacrifice. Afterwards an effigy, made out of the stem of a banana-tree, was substituted for the human victim; and the blood, which might not be wanting, was supplied by fowls.(582) Near the native town of Luba, in western Busoga, a district of central Africa, there is a sacred tree of the species known as _Parinarium_. Its glossy white trunk shoots up to a height of a hundred feet before it sends out branches. The tree is surrounded by small fetish huts and curious arcades. Once when the dry season was drawing to an end and the new crops were not yet ripe, the Basoga suffered from hunger. So they came to the sacred tree in canoes, of which the prows were decked with wreaths of yellow acacia blossom and other flowers. Landing on the shore they stripped themselves of their clothing and wrapped ropes made of green creepers and leaves round their arms and necks. At the foot of the tree they danced to an accompaniment of song. Then a little girl, about ten years old, was brought and laid at the base of the tree as if she were to be sacrificed. Every detail of the sacrifice was gone through in mimicry. A slight cut was made in the child’s neck, and she was then caught up and thrown into the lake, where a man stood ready to save her from drowning. By native custom the girl on whom this ceremony had been performed was dedicated to a life of perpetual virginity.(583) Captain Bourke was informed by an old chief that the Indians of Arizona used to offer human sacrifices at the Feast of Fire when the days are shortest. The victim had his throat cut, his breast opened, and his heart taken out by one of the priests. This custom was abolished by the Mexicans, but for a long time afterwards a modified form of it was secretly observed as follows. The victim, generally a young man, had his throat cut, and blood was allowed to flow freely; but the medicine-men sprinkled “medicine” on the gash, which soon healed up, and the man recovered.(584) So in the ritual of Artemis at Halae in Attica, a man’s throat was cut and the blood allowed to gush out, but he was not killed.(585) At the funeral of a chief in Nias slaves are sacrificed; a little of their hair is cut off, and then they are beheaded. The victims are generally purchased for the purpose, and their number is proportioned to the wealth and power of the deceased. But if the number required is excessively great or cannot be procured, some of the chiefs own slaves undergo a sham sacrifice. They are told, and believe, that they are about to be decapitated; their heads are placed on a log and their necks struck with the back of a sword. The fright drives some of them crazy.(586) When a Hindoo has killed or ill-treated an ape, a bird of prey of a certain kind, or a cobra capella, in the presence of the worshippers of Vishnu, he must expiate his offence by the pretended sacrifice and resurrection of a human being. An incision is made in the victim’s arm, the blood flows, he grows faint, falls, and feigns to die. Afterwards he is brought to life by being sprinkled with blood drawn from the thigh of a worshipper of Vishnu. The crowd of spectators is fully convinced of the reality of this simulated death and resurrection.(587) The Malayans, a caste of Southern India, act as devil dancers for the purpose of exorcising demons who have taken possession of people. One of their ceremonies, “known as _ucchav[-e]li_, has several forms, all of which seem to be either survivals, or at least imitations of human sacrifice. One of these consists of a mock living burial of the principal performer, who is placed in a pit, which is covered with planks, on the top of which a sacrifice is performed, with a fire kindled with jack wood (_Artocarpus integrifolia_) and a plant called erinna. In another variety, the Malayan cuts his left forearm, and smears his face with the blood thus drawn.”(588) In Samoa, where every family had its god incarnate in one or more species of animals, any disrespect shewn to the worshipful animal, either by members of the kin or by a stranger in their presence, had to be atoned for by pretending to bake one of the family in a cold oven as a burnt sacrifice to appease the wrath of the offended god. For example, if a stranger staying in a household whose god was incarnate in cuttle-fish were to catch and cook one of these creatures, or if a member of the family had been present where a cuttle-fish was eaten, the family would meet in solemn conclave and choose a man or woman to go and lie down in a cold oven, where he would be covered over with leaves, just as if he were really being baked. While this mock sacrifice was being carried out the family prayed: “O bald-headed Cuttle-fish! forgive what has been done, it was all the work of a stranger.” If they had not thus abased themselves before the divine cuttle-fish, he would undoubtedly have come and been the death of somebody by making a cuttle-fish to grow in his inside.(589)

(M170) Sometimes, as in Minahassa, the pretended sacrifice is carried out, not on a living person, but on an effigy. At the City of the Sun in ancient Egypt three men used to be sacrificed every day, after the priests had stripped and examined them, like calves, to see whether they were without blemish and fit for the altar. But King Amasis ordered waxen images to be substituted for the human victims.(590) An Indian law-book, the _Calica Puran_, prescribes that when the sacrifice of lions, tigers, or human beings is required, an image of a lion, tiger, or man shall be made with butter, paste, or barley meal, and sacrificed instead.(591) Some of the Gonds of India formerly offered human sacrifices; they now sacrifice straw-men, which are found to answer the purpose just as well.(592) Colonel Dalton was told that in some of their villages the Bhagats “annually make an image of a man in wood, put clothes and ornaments on it, and present it before the altar of a Mahádeo. The person who officiates as priest on the occasion says: ‘O Mahádeo, we sacrifice this man to you according to ancient customs. Give us rain in due season, and a plentiful harvest.’ Then with one stroke of the axe the head of the image is struck off, and the body is removed and buried.”(593) Formerly, when a Siamese army was about to take the field a condemned criminal representing the enemy was put to death, but a humane king caused a puppet to be substituted for the man. The effigy is felled by the blow of an axe, and if it drops at the first stroke, the omen is favourable.(594) In the East Indian island of Siaoo or Siauw, one of the Sangi group, a child stolen from a neighbouring island used to be sacrificed every year to the spirit of a volcano in order that there might be no eruption. The victim was slowly tortured to death in the temple by a priestess, who cut off the child’s ears, nose, fingers, and so on, then consummated the sacrifice by splitting open the breast. The spectacle was witnessed by hundreds of people, and feasting and cock-fighting went on for nine days afterwards. In course of time the annual human victim was replaced by a wooden puppet, which was cut to pieces in the same manner.(595) The Kayans of Borneo used to kill slaves at the death of a chief and nail them to the tomb, in order that they might accompany the chief on his long journey to the other world and paddle the canoe in which he must travel. This is no longer done, but instead they put up a wooden figure of a man at the head and another of a woman at the foot of the chief’s coffin as it lies in state before the funeral. And a small wooden image of a man is usually fixed on the top of the tomb to row the canoe for the dead chief.(596) In ancient times human sacrifices used to be offered at the graves of Mikados and princes of Japan, the personal attendants of the deceased being buried alive within the precincts of the tomb. But a humane emperor ordered that clay images should thenceforth be substituted for live men and women. One of these images is now in the British Museum.(597) The Toboongkoos of central Celebes, who are reported still to carry home as trophies the heads of their slain enemies, resort to the following cure for certain kinds of sickness. The heathen priestess cuts the likeness of a human head out of the sheath of a sago-leaf and sets it up on three sticks in the courtyard of the house. The patient, arrayed in his or her best clothes, is then brought down into the court and remains there while women dance and sing round the artificial head, and men perform sham fights with shield, spear, and bow, just as they did, or perhaps still do, when they have brought back a human head from a raid. After that the sick man is taken back to the house, and an improvement in his health is confidently expected.(598) In this ceremony the sham head is doubtless a substitute for a real one.

(M171) With these mock sacrifices of human lives we may compare mimic sacrifices of other kinds. In southern India, as in many parts of the world, it used to be customary to sacrifice joints of the fingers on certain occasions. Thus among the Morasas, when a grandchild was born in the family, the wife of the eldest son of the grandfather must have the last two joints of the third and fourth fingers of her right hand amputated at a temple of Bhairava. The amputation was performed by the village carpenter with a chisel. Nowadays, the custom having been forbidden by the English Government, the sacrifice is performed in mimicry. Some people stick gold or silver pieces with flour paste to the ends of their fingers and then cut or pull them off. Others tie flowers round the fingers that used to be amputated, and go through a pantomime of cutting the fingers by putting a chisel on the joint and then taking it away. Others again twist gold wires in the shape of rings round their fingers. These the carpenter removes and appropriates.(599) In Niué or Savage Island, in the South Pacific, the following custom continued till lately to be observed. When a boy was a few weeks old the men assembled, and a feast was made. On the village square an awning was rigged up, and the child was laid on the ground under it. An old man then approached it, and performed the operation of circumcision on the infant in dumb show with his forefinger. No child was regarded as a full-born member of the tribe till he had been subjected to this rite. The natives say that real circumcision was never performed in their island; but as it was commonly practised in Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa, we may assume that its imitation in Niué was a substitute, introduced at some time or other, for the actual operation.(600) Similarly when an adult Hindoo joins the sect of the Daira or Mahadev Mohammedans in Mysore, a mock rite of circumcision is performed on him instead of the real operation. A betel leaf is wrapped round the male member of the neophyte and the loose end of the leaf is snipped off instead of the prepuce.(601)

§ 3. Burying the Carnival.

(M172) Thus far I have offered an explanation of the rule which required that the priest of Nemi should be slain by his successor. The explanation claims to be no more than probable; our scanty knowledge of the custom and of its history forbids it to be more. But its probability will be augmented in proportion to the extent to which the motives and modes of thought which it assumes can be proved to have operated in primitive society. Hitherto the god with whose death and resurrection we have been chiefly concerned has been the tree-god. But if I can shew that the custom of killing the god and the belief in his resurrection originated, or at least existed, in the hunting and pastoral stage of society, when the slain god was an animal, and that it survived into the agricultural stage, when the slain god was the corn or a human being representing the corn, the probability of my explanation will have been considerably increased. This I shall attempt to do in the sequel, and in the course of the discussion I hope to clear up some obscurities which still remain, and to answer some objections which may have suggested themselves to the reader.

(M173) We start from the point at which we left off—the spring customs of European peasantry. Besides the ceremonies already described there are two kindred sets of observances in which the simulated death of a divine or supernatural being is a conspicuous feature. In one of them the being whose death is dramatically represented is a personification of the Carnival; in the other it is Death himself. The former ceremony falls naturally at the end of the Carnival, either on the last day of that merry season, namely Shrove Tuesday, or on the first day of Lent, namely Ash Wednesday. The date of the other ceremony—the Carrying or Driving out of Death, as it is commonly called—is not so uniformly fixed. Generally it is the fourth Sunday in Lent, which hence goes by the name of Dead Sunday; but in some places the celebration falls a week earlier, in others, as among the Czechs of Bohemia, a week later, while in certain German villages of Moravia it is held on the first Sunday after Easter. Perhaps, as has been suggested, the date may originally have been variable, depending on the appearance of the first swallow or some other herald of the spring. Some writers regard the ceremony as Slavonic in its origin. Grimm thought it was a festival of the New Year with the old Slavs, who began their year in March.(602) We shall first take examples of the mimic death of the Carnival, which always falls before the other in the calendar.

(M174) At Frosinone, in Latium, about half-way between Rome and Naples, the dull monotony of life in a provincial Italian town is agreeably broken on the last day of the Carnival by the ancient festival known as the _Radica_. About four o’clock in the afternoon the town band, playing lively tunes and followed by a great crowd, proceeds to the Piazza del Plebiscito, where is the Sub-Prefecture as well as the rest of the Government buildings. Here, in the middle of the square, the eyes of the expectant multitude are greeted by the sight of an immense car decked with many-coloured festoons and drawn by four horses. Mounted on the car is a huge chair, on which sits enthroned the majestic figure of the Carnival, a man of stucco about nine feet high with a rubicund and smiling countenance. Enormous boots, a tin helmet like those which grace the heads of officers of the Italian marine, and a coat of many colours embellished with strange devices, adorn the outward man of this stately personage. His left hand rests on the arm of the chair, while with his right he gracefully salutes the crowd, being moved to this act of civility by a string which is pulled by a man who modestly shrinks from publicity under the mercy-seat. And now the crowd, surging excitedly round the car, gives vent to its feelings in wild cries of joy, gentle and simple being mixed up together and all dancing furiously the _Saltarello_. A special feature of the festival is that every one must carry in his hand what is called a _radica_ (“root”), by which is meant a huge leaf of the aloe or rather the agave. Any one who ventured into the crowd without such a leaf would be unceremoniously hustled out of it, unless indeed he bore as a substitute a large cabbage at the end of a long stick or a bunch of grass curiously plaited. When the multitude, after a short turn, has escorted the slow-moving car to the gate of the Sub-Prefecture, they halt, and the car, jolting over the uneven ground, rumbles into the courtyard. A hush now falls on the crowd, their subdued voices sounding, according to the description of one who has heard them, like the murmur of a troubled sea. All eyes are turned anxiously to the door from which the Sub-Prefect himself and the other representatives of the majesty of the law are expected to issue and pay their homage to the hero of the hour. A few moments of suspense and then a storm of cheers and hand-clapping salutes the appearance of the dignitaries, as they file out and, descending the staircase, take their place in the procession. The hymn of the Carnival is now thundered out, after which, amid a deafening roar, aloe leaves and cabbages are whirled aloft and descend impartially on the heads of the just and the unjust, who lend fresh zest to the proceedings by engaging in a free fight. When these preliminaries have been concluded to the satisfaction of all concerned, the procession gets under weigh. The rear is brought up by a cart laden with barrels of wine and policemen, the latter engaged in the congenial task of serving out wine to all who ask for it, while a most internecine struggle, accompanied by a copious discharge of yells, blows, and blasphemy, goes on among the surging crowd at the cart’s tail in their anxiety not to miss the glorious opportunity of intoxicating themselves at the public expense. Finally, after the procession has paraded the principal streets in this majestic manner, the effigy of Carnival is taken to the middle of a public square, stripped of his finery, laid on a pile of wood, and burnt amid the cries of the multitude, who thundering out once more the song of the Carnival fling their so-called “roots” on the pyre and give themselves up without restraint to the pleasures of the dance.(603)

(M175) In the Abruzzi a pasteboard figure of the Carnival is carried by four grave-diggers with pipes in their mouths and bottles of wine slung at their shoulder-belts. In front walks the wife of the Carnival, dressed in mourning and dissolved in tears. From time to time the company halts, and while the wife addresses the sympathising public, the grave-diggers refresh the inner man with a pull at the bottle. In the open square the mimic corpse is laid on a pyre, and to the roll of drums, the shrill screams of the women, and the gruffer cries of the men a light is set to it. While the figure burns, chestnuts are thrown about among the crowd. Sometimes the Carnival is represented by a straw-man at the top of a pole which is borne through the town by a troop of mummers in the course of the afternoon. When evening comes on, four of the mummers hold out a quilt or sheet by the corners, and the figure of the Carnival is made to tumble into it. The procession is then resumed, the performers weeping crocodile tears and emphasising the poignancy of their grief by the help of saucepans and dinner bells. Sometimes, again, in the Abruzzi the dead Carnival is personified by a living man who lies in a coffin, attended by another who acts the priest and dispenses holy water in great profusion from a bathing tub.(604) In Malta the death of the Carnival used to be mourned by women on the last day of the merry festival. Clad from head to foot in black mantles, they carried through the streets of the city the linen effigy of a corpse, stuffed with straw or hay and decked with leaves and oranges. As they carried it, they chanted dirges, stopping after every verse to howl like professional mourners. The custom came to an end about the year 1737.(605)

(M176) At Lerida, in Catalonia, the funeral of the Carnival was witnessed by an English traveller in 1877. On the last Sunday of the Carnival a grand procession of infantry, cavalry, and maskers of many sorts, some on horseback and some in carriages, escorted the grand car of His Grace Pau Pi, as the effigy was called, in triumph through the principal streets. For three days the revelry ran high, and then at midnight on the last day of the Carnival the same procession again wound through the streets, but under a different aspect and for a different end. The triumphal car was exchanged for a hearse, in which reposed the effigy of his dead Grace: a troop of maskers, who in the first procession had played the part of Students of Folly with many a merry quip and jest, now, robed as priests and bishops, paced slowly along holding aloft huge lighted tapers and singing a dirge. All the mummers wore crape, and all the horsemen carried blazing flambeaux. Down the high street, between the lofty, many-storeyed and balconied houses, where every window, every balcony, every housetop was crammed with a dense mass of spectators, all dressed and masked in fantastic gorgeousness, the procession took its melancholy way. Over the scene flashed and played the shifting cross-lights and shadows from the moving torches: red and blue Bengal lights flared up and died out again; and above the trampling of the horses and the measured tread of the marching multitude rose the voices of the priests chanting the requiem, while the military bands struck in with the solemn roll of the muffled drums. On reaching the principal square the procession halted, a burlesque funeral oration was pronounced over the defunct Pau Pi, and the lights were extinguished. Immediately the devil and his angels darted from the crowd, seized the body and fled away with it, hotly pursued by the whole multitude, yelling, screaming, and cheering. Naturally the fiends were overtaken and dispersed; and the sham corpse, rescued from their clutches, was laid in a grave that had been made ready for its reception. Thus the Carnival of 1877 at Lerida died and was buried.(606)

(M177) A ceremony of the same sort is observed in Provence on Ash Wednesday. An effigy called Caramantran, whimsically attired, is drawn in a chariot or borne on a litter, accompanied by the populace in grotesque costumes, who carry gourds full of wine and drain them with all the marks, real or affected, of intoxication. At the head of the procession are some men disguised as judges and barristers, and a tall gaunt personage who masquerades as Lent; behind them follow young people mounted on miserable hacks and attired as mourners who pretend to bewail the fate that is in store for Caramantran. In the principal square the procession halts, the tribunal is constituted, and Caramantran placed at the bar. After a formal trial he is sentenced to death amid the groans of the mob; the barrister who defended him embraces his client for the last time: the officers of justice do their duty: the condemned is set with his back to a wall and hurried into eternity under a shower of stones. The sea or a river receives his mangled remains.(607) At Lussac in the department of Vienne young people, attired in long mourning robes and with woebegone countenances, carry an effigy down to the river on Ash Wednesday and throw it into the river, crying, “Carnival is dead! Carnival is dead!”(608) Throughout nearly the whole of the Ardennes it was and still is customary on Ash Wednesday to burn an effigy which is supposed to represent the Carnival, while appropriate verses are sung round about the blazing figure. Very often an attempt is made to fashion the effigy in the likeness of the husband who is reputed to be least faithful to his wife of any in the village. As might perhaps have been anticipated, the distinction of being selected for portraiture under these painful circumstances has a slight tendency to breed domestic jars, especially when the portrait is burnt in front of the house of the gay deceiver whom it represents, while a powerful chorus of caterwauls, groans, and other melodious sounds bears public testimony to the opinion which his friends and neighbours entertain of his private virtues. In some villages of the Ardennes a young man of flesh and blood, dressed up in hay and straw, used to act the part of Shrove Tuesday (_Mardi Gras_), as the personification of the Carnival is often called in France after the last day of the period which he personates. He was brought before a mock tribunal, and being condemned to death was placed with his back to a wall, like a soldier at a military execution, and fired at with blank cartridges. At Vrigne-aux-Bois one of these harmless buffoons, named Thierry, was accidentally killed by a wad that had been left in a musket of the firing-party. When poor Shrove Tuesday dropped under the fire, the applause was loud and long, he did it so naturally; but when he did not get up again, they ran to him and found him a corpse. Since then there have been no more of these mock executions in the Ardennes.(609) In Franche-Comté people used to make an effigy of Shrove Tuesday on Ash Wednesday, and carry it about the streets to the accompaniment of songs. Then they brought it to the public square, where the offender was tried in front of the town-hall. Judges muffled in old red curtains and holding big books in their hands pronounced sentence of death. The mode of execution varied with the place. Sometimes it was burning, sometimes drowning, sometimes decapitation. In the last case the effigy was provided with tubes of blood, which spouted gore at the critical moment, making a profound impression on the minds of children, some of whom wept bitterly at the sight. Meantime the onlookers uttered piercing cries and appeared to be plunged in the deepest grief. The proceedings generally wound up in the evening with a ball, which the young married people were obliged to provide for the public entertainment; otherwise their slumbers were apt to be disturbed by the discordant notes of a cat’s concert chanted under their windows.(610)

(M178) In Normandy on the evening of Ash Wednesday it used to be the custom to hold a celebration called the Burial of Shrove Tuesday. A squalid effigy scantily clothed in rags, a battered old hat crushed down on his dirty face, his great round paunch stuffed with straw, represented the disreputable old rake who after a long course of dissipation was now about to suffer for his sins. Hoisted on the shoulders of a sturdy fellow, who pretended to stagger under the burden, this popular personification of the Carnival promenaded the streets for the last time in a manner the reverse of triumphal. Preceded by a drummer and accompanied by a jeering rabble, among whom the urchins and all the tag-rag and bobtail of the town mustered in great force, the figure was carried about by the flickering light of torches to the discordant din of shovels and tongs, pots and pans, horns and kettles, mingled with hootings, groans, and hisses. From time to time the procession halted, and a champion of morality accused the broken-down old sinner of all the excesses he had committed and for which he was now about to be burned alive. The culprit, having nothing to urge in his own defence, was thrown on a heap of straw, a torch was put to it, and a great blaze shot up, to the delight of the children who frisked round it screaming out some old popular verses about the death of the Carnival. Sometimes the effigy was rolled down the slope of a hill before being burnt.(611) At Saint-Lô the ragged effigy of Shrove Tuesday was followed by his widow, a big burly lout dressed as a woman with a crape veil, who emitted sounds of lamentation and woe in a stentorian voice. After being carried about the streets on a litter attended by a crowd of maskers, the figure was thrown into the River Vire. The final scene has been graphically described by Madame Octave Feuillet as she witnessed it in her childhood some fifty years ago. “My parents invited friends to see, from the top of the tower of Jeanne Couillard, the funeral procession passing. It was there that, quaffing lemonade—the only refreshment allowed because of the fast—we witnessed at nightfall a spectacle of which I shall always preserve a lively recollection. At our feet flowed the Vire under its old stone bridge. On the middle of the bridge lay the figure of Shrove Tuesday on a litter of leaves, surrounded by scores of maskers dancing, singing, and carrying torches. Some of them in their motley costumes ran along the parapet like fiends. The rest, worn out with their revels, sat on the posts and dozed. Soon the dancing stopped, and some of the troop, seizing a torch, set fire to the effigy, after which they flung it into the river with redoubled shouts and clamour. The man of straw, soaked with resin, floated away burning down the stream of the Vire, lighting up with its funeral fires the woods on the bank and the battlements of the old castle in which Louis XI. and Francis I. had slept. When the last glimmer of the blazing phantom had vanished, like a falling star, at the end of the valley, every one withdrew, crowd and maskers alike, and we quitted the ramparts with our guests. As we returned home my father sang gaily the old popular song:—

_“__Shrove Tuesday is dead and his wife has got_ _His shabby pocket-handkerchief and his cracked old pot._ _Sing high, sing low,_ _Shrove Tuesday will come back no more.__”_

‘He will come back! He will come back!’ we cried warmly, clapping our hands; and he did come back next year, and I think I should see him still if, after the lapse of half a century, I returned to the land of my birth.”(612)

(M179) In Upper Brittany the burial of Shrove Tuesday or the Carnival is sometimes performed in a ceremonious manner. Four young fellows carry a straw-man or one of their companions, and are followed by a funeral procession. A show is made of depositing the pretended corpse in the grave, after which the bystanders make believe to mourn, crying out in melancholy tones, “Ah! my poor little Shrove Tuesday!” The boy who played the part of Shrove Tuesday bears the name for the whole year.(613) At Lesneven in Lower Brittany it was formerly the custom on Ash Wednesday to burn a straw-man, covered with rags, after he had been promenaded about the town. He was followed by a representative of Shrove Tuesday clothed with sardines and cods’ tails.(614) At Pontaven in Finistère an effigy representing the Carnival used to be thrown from the quay into the sea on the morning of Ash Wednesday.(615) At La Rochelle the porters and sailors carried about a man of straw representing Shrove Tuesday, then burned it on Ash Wednesday and flung the ashes into the sea.(616) In Saintonge and Aunis, which correspond roughly to the modern departments of Charente, children used to drown or burn a figure of the Carnival on the morning of Ash Wednesday.(617) The beginning of Lent in England was formerly marked by a custom which has now fallen into disuse. A figure, made up of straw and cast-off clothes, was drawn or carried through the streets amid much noise and merriment; after which it was either burnt, shot at, or thrown down a chimney. This image went by the name of Jack o’ Lent, and was by some supposed to represent Judas Iscariot.(618)

(M180) A Bohemian form of the custom of “Burying the Carnival” has been already described.(619) The following Swabian form is obviously similar. In the neighbourhood of Tübingen on Shrove Tuesday a straw-man, called the Shrovetide Bear, is made up; he is dressed in a pair of old trousers, and a fresh black-pudding or two squirts filled with blood are inserted in his neck. After a formal condemnation he is beheaded, laid in a coffin, and on Ash Wednesday is buried in the churchyard. This is called “Burying the Carnival.”(620) Amongst some of the Saxons of Transylvania the Carnival is hanged. Thus at Braller on Ash Wednesday or Shrove Tuesday two white and two chestnut horses draw a sledge on which is placed a straw-man swathed in a white cloth; beside him is a cart-wheel which is kept turning round. Two lads disguised as old men follow the sledge lamenting. The rest of the village lads, mounted on horseback and decked with ribbons, accompany the procession, which is headed by two girls crowned with evergreen and drawn in a waggon or sledge. A trial is held under a tree, at which lads disguised as soldiers pronounce sentence of death. The two old men try to rescue the straw-man and to fly with him, but to no purpose; he is caught by the two girls and handed over to the executioner, who hangs him on a tree. In vain the old men try to climb up the tree and take him down; they always tumble down, and at last in despair they throw themselves on the ground and weep and howl for the hanged man. An official then makes a speech in which he declares that the Carnival was condemned to death because he had done them harm, by wearing out their shoes and making them tired and sleepy.(621) At the “Burial of Carnival” in Lechrain, a man dressed as a woman in black clothes is carried on a litter or bier by four men; he is lamented over by men disguised as women in black clothes, then thrown down before the village dung-heap, drenched with water, buried in the dung-heap, and covered with straw.(622) Similarly in Schörzingen, near Schömberg, the “Carnival (Shrovetide) Fool” was carried all about the village on a bier, preceded by a man dressed in white, and followed by a devil who was dressed in black and carried chains, which he clanked. One of the train collected gifts. After the procession the Fool was buried under straw and dung.(623) In Rottweil the “Carnival Fool” is made drunk on Ash Wednesday and buried under straw amid loud lamentation.(624) In Wurmlingen the Fool is represented by a young fellow enveloped in straw, who is led about the village by a rope as a “Bear” on Shrove Tuesday and the preceding day. He dances to the flute. Then on Ash Wednesday a straw-man is made, placed on a trough, carried out of the village to the sound of drums and mournful music, and buried in a field.(625) In Altdorf and Weingarten on Ash Wednesday the Fool, represented by a straw-man, is carried about and then thrown into the water to the accompaniment of melancholy music. In other villages of Swabia the part of fool is played by a live person, who is thrown into the water after being carried about in procession.(626) At Balwe, in Westphalia, a straw-man is made on Shrove Tuesday and thrown into the river amid rejoicings. This is called, as usual, “Burying the Carnival.”(627) At Burgebrach, in Bavaria, it used to be customary, as a public pastime, to hold a sort of court of justice on Ash Wednesday. The accused was a straw-man, on whom was laid the burden of all the notorious transgressions that had been committed in the course of the year. Twelve chosen maidens sat in judgment and pronounced sentence, and a single advocate pleaded the cause of the public scapegoat. Finally the effigy was burnt, and thus all the offences that had created a scandal in the community during the year were symbolically atoned for. We can hardly doubt that this custom of burning a straw-man on Ash Wednesday for the sins of a whole year is only another form of the custom, observed on the same day in so many other places, of burning an effigy which is supposed to embody and to be responsible for all the excesses committed during the licence of the Carnival.

(M181) In Greece a ceremony of the same sort was witnessed at Pylos by Mr. E. L. Tilton in 1895. On the evening of the first day of the Greek Lent, which fell that year on the twenty-fifth of February, an effigy with a grotesque mask for a face was borne about the streets on a bier, preceded by a mock priest with long white beard. Other functionaries surrounded the bier and two torch-bearers walked in advance. The procession moved slowly to melancholy music played by a pipe and drum. A final halt was made in the public square, where a circular space was kept clear of the surging crowd. Here a bonfire was kindled, and round it the priest led a wild dance to the same droning music. When the frenzy was at its height, the chief performer put tow on the effigy and set fire to it, and while it blazed he resumed his mad career, brandishing torches and tearing off his venerable beard to add fuel to the flames.(628) On the evening of Shrove Tuesday the Esthonians make a straw figure called _metsik_ or “wood-spirit”; one year it is dressed with a man’s coat and hat, next year with a hood and a petticoat. This figure is stuck on a long pole, carried across the boundary of the village with loud cries of joy, and fastened to the top of a tree in the wood. The ceremony is believed to be a protection against all kinds of misfortune.(629)

(M182) Sometimes at these Shrovetide or Lenten ceremonies the resurrection of the pretended dead person is enacted. Thus, in some parts of Swabia on Shrove Tuesday Dr. Iron-Beard professes to bleed a sick man, who thereupon falls as dead to the ground; but the doctor at last restores him to life by blowing air into him through a tube.(630) In the Harz Mountains, when Carnival is over, a man is laid on a baking-trough and carried with dirges to a grave; but in the grave a glass of brandy is buried instead of the man. A speech is delivered and then the people return to the village-green or meeting-place, where they smoke the long clay pipes which are distributed at funerals. On the morning of Shrove Tuesday in the following year the brandy is dug up and the festival begins by every one tasting the spirit which, as the phrase goes, has come to life again.(631)

§ 4. Carrying out Death.

(M183) The ceremony of “Carrying out Death” presents much the same features as “Burying the Carnival”; except that the carrying out of Death is generally followed by a ceremony, or at least accompanied by a profession, of bringing in Summer, Spring, or Life. Thus in Middle Franken, a province of Bavaria, on the fourth Sunday in Lent, the village urchins used to make a straw effigy of Death, which they carried about with burlesque pomp through the streets, and afterwards burned with loud cries beyond the bounds.(632) The Frankish custom is thus described by a writer of the sixteenth century: “At Mid-Lent, the season when the church bids us rejoice, the young people of my native country make a straw image of Death, and fastening it to a pole carry it with shouts to the neighbouring villages. By some they are kindly received, and after being refreshed with milk, peas, and dried pears, the usual food of that season, are sent home again. Others, however, treat them with anything but hospitality; for, looking on them as harbingers of misfortune, to wit of death, they drive them from their boundaries with weapons and insults.”(633) In the villages near Erlangen, when the fourth Sunday in Lent came round, the peasant girls used to dress themselves in all their finery with flowers in their hair. Thus attired they repaired to the neighbouring town, carrying puppets which were adorned with leaves and covered with white cloths. These they took from house to house in pairs, stopping at every door where they expected to receive something, and singing a few lines in which they announced that it was Mid-Lent and that they were about to throw Death into the water. When they had collected some trifling gratuities they went to the river Regnitz and flung the puppets representing Death into the stream. This was done to ensure a fruitful and prosperous year; further, it was considered a safeguard against pestilence and sudden death.(634) At Nuremberg girls of seven to eighteen years of age go through the streets bearing a little open coffin, in which is a doll hidden under a shroud. Others carry a beech branch, with an apple fastened to it for a head, in an open box. They sing, “We carry Death into the water, it is well,” or “We carry Death into the water, carry him in and out again.”(635) In other parts of Bavaria the ceremony took place on the Saturday before the fifth Sunday in Lent, and the performers were boys or girls, according to the sex of the last person who died in the village. The figure was thrown into water or buried in a secret place, for example under moss in the forest, that no one might find Death again. Then early on Sunday morning the children went from house to house singing a song in which they announced the glad tidings that Death was gone.(636) In some parts of Bavaria down to 1780 it was believed that a fatal epidemic would ensue if the custom of “Carrying out Death” were not observed.(637)

(M184) In some villages of Thüringen, on the fourth Sunday of Lent, the children used to carry a puppet of birchen twigs through the village, and then threw it into a pool, while they sang, “We carry the old Death out behind the herdsman’s old house; we have got Summer, and Kroden’s (?) power is destroyed.”(638) At Debschwitz or Dobschwitz, near Gera, the ceremony of “Driving out Death” is or was annually observed on the first of March. The young people make up a figure of straw or the like materials, dress it in old clothes, which they have begged from houses in the village, and carry it out and throw it into the river. On returning to the village they break the good news to the people, and receive eggs and other victuals as a reward. The ceremony is or was supposed to purify the village and to protect the inhabitants from sickness and plague. In other villages of Thüringen, in which the population was originally Slavonic, the carrying out of the puppet is accompanied with the singing of a song, which begins, “Now we carry Death out of the village and Spring into the village.”(639) At the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century the custom was observed in Thüringen as follows. The boys and girls made an effigy of straw or the like materials, but the shape of the figure varied from year to year. In one year it would represent an old man, in the next an old woman, in the third a young man, and in the fourth a maiden, and the dress of the figure varied with the character it personated. There used to be a sharp contest as to where the effigy was to be made, for the people thought that the house from which it was carried forth would not be visited with death that year. Having been made, the puppet was fastened to a pole and carried by a girl if it represented an old man, but by a boy if it represented an old woman. Thus it was borne in procession, the young people holding sticks in their hands and singing that they were driving out Death. When they came to water they threw the effigy into it and ran hastily back, fearing that it might jump on their shoulders and wring their necks. They also took care not to touch it, lest it should dry them up. On their return they beat the cattle with the sticks, believing that this would make the animals fat or fruitful. Afterwards they visited the house or houses from which they had carried the image of Death, where they received a dole of half-boiled peas.(640) The custom of “Carrying out Death” was practised also in Saxony. At Leipsic the bastards and public women used to make a straw effigy of Death every year at Mid-Lent. This they carried through all the streets with songs and shewed it to the young married women. Finally they threw it into the river Parthe. By this ceremony they professed to make the young wives fruitful, to purify the city, and to protect the inhabitants for that year from plague and other epidemics.(641)

(M185) Ceremonies of the same sort are observed at Mid-Lent in Silesia. Thus in many places the grown girls with the help of the young men dress up a straw figure with women’s clothes and carry it out of the village towards the setting sun. At the boundary they strip it of its clothes, tear it in pieces, and scatter the fragments about the fields. This is called “Burying Death.” As they carry the image out, they sing that they are about to bury death under an oak, that he may depart from the people. Sometimes the song runs that they are bearing death over hill and dale to return no more. In the Polish neighbourhood of Gross-Strehlitz the puppet is called Goik. It is carried on horseback and thrown into the nearest water. The people think that the ceremony protects them from sickness of every sort in the coming year. In the districts of Wohlau and Guhrau the image of Death used to be thrown over the boundary of the next village. But as the neighbours feared to receive the ill-omened figure, they were on the look-out to repel it, and hard knocks were often exchanged between the two parties. In some Polish parts of Upper Silesia the effigy, representing an old woman, goes by the name of Marzana, the goddess of death. It is made in the house where the last death occurred, and is carried on a pole to the boundary of the village, where it is thrown into a pond or burnt. At Polkwitz the custom of “Carrying out Death” fell into abeyance; but an outbreak of fatal sickness which followed the intermission of the ceremony induced the people to resume it.(642) Some of the Moravians of Silesia make three puppets on this occasion: one represents a man, another a bride, and the third a bridesmaid. The first is carried by the boys, the two last by the girls. Formerly these effigies were torn to pieces at a brook; now they are brought home again.(643) In this last custom two of the figures are clearly conceived as bride and bridegroom.

(M186) In Bohemia the children go out with a straw-man, representing Death, to the end of the village, where they burn it, singing—

“_Now carry we Death out of the village,_ _The new Summer into the village,_ _Welcome, dear Summer,_ _Green little corn._”(644)

At Tabor in Bohemia the figure of Death is carried out of the town and flung from a high rock into the water, while they sing—

“_Death swims on the water,_ _Summer will soon be here,_ _We carried Death away for you,_ _We brought the Summer._ _And do thou, O holy Marketa,_ _Give us a good year_ _For wheat and for rye._”(645)

In other parts of Bohemia they carry Death to the end of the village, singing—

“_We carry Death out of the village,_ _And the New Year into the village._ _Dear Spring, we bid you welcome,_ _Green grass, we bid you welcome._”

Behind the village they erect a pyre, on which they burn the straw figure, reviling and scoffing at it the while. Then they return, singing—

“_We have carried away Death,_ _And brought Life back._ _He has taken up his quarters in the village,_ _Therefore sing joyous songs._”(646)

(M187) In some German villages of Moravia, as in Jassnitz and Seitendorf, the young folk assemble on the third Sunday in Lent and fashion a straw-man, who is generally adorned with a fur cap and a pair of old leathern hose, if such are to be had. The effigy is then hoisted on a pole and carried by the lads and lasses out into the open fields. On the way they sing a song, in which it is said that they are carrying Death away and bringing dear Summer into the house, and with Summer the May and the flowers. On reaching an appointed place they dance in a circle round the effigy with loud shouts and screams, then suddenly rush at it and tear it to pieces with their hands. Lastly, the pieces are thrown together in a heap, the pole is broken, and fire is set to the whole. While it burns the troop dances merrily round it, rejoicing at the victory won by Spring; and when the fire has nearly died out they go to the householders to beg for a present of eggs wherewith to hold a feast, taking care to give as a reason for the request that they have carried Death out and away.(647)

(M188) The preceding evidence shews that the effigy of Death is often regarded with fear and treated with marks of hatred and abhorrence. Thus the anxiety of the villagers to transfer the figure from their own to their neighbours’ land, and the reluctance of the latter to receive the ominous guest, are proof enough of the dread which it inspires. Further, in Lusatia and Silesia the puppet is sometimes made to look in at the window of a house, and it is believed that some one in the house will die within the year unless his life is redeemed by the payment of money.(648) Again, after throwing the effigy away, the bearers sometimes run home lest Death should follow them, and if one of them falls in running, it is believed that he will die within the year.(649) At Chrudim, in Bohemia, the figure of Death is made out of a cross, with a head and mask stuck at the top, and a shirt stretched out on it. On the fifth Sunday in Lent the boys take this effigy to the nearest brook or pool, and standing in a line throw it into the water. Then they all plunge in after it; but as soon as it is caught no one more may enter the water. The boy who did not enter the water or entered it last will die within the year, and he is obliged to carry the Death back to the village. The effigy is then burned.(650) On the other hand, it is believed that no one will die within the year in the house out of which the figure of Death has been carried;(651) and the village out of which Death has been driven is sometimes supposed to be protected against sickness and plague.(652) In some villages of Austrian Silesia on the Saturday before Dead Sunday an effigy is made of old clothes, hay, and straw, for the purpose of driving Death out of the village. On Sunday the people, armed with sticks and straps, assemble before the house where the figure is lodged. Four lads then draw the effigy by cords through the village amid exultant shouts, while all the others beat it with their sticks and straps. On reaching a field which belongs to a neighbouring village they lay down the figure, cudgel it soundly, and scatter the fragments over the field. The people believe that the village from which Death has been thus carried out will be safe from any infectious disease for the whole year.(653) In Slavonia the figure of Death is cudgelled and then rent in two.(654) In Poland the effigy, made of hemp and straw, is flung into a pool or swamp with the words “The devil take thee.”(655)

§ 5. Sawing the Old Woman.

(M189) The custom of “Sawing the Old Woman,” which is or used to be observed in Italy, France, and Spain on the fourth Sunday in Lent, is doubtless, as Grimm supposes, merely another form of the custom of “Carrying out Death.” A great hideous figure representing the oldest woman of the village was dragged out and sawn in two, amid a prodigious noise made with cow-bells, pots and pans, and so forth.(656) In Palermo the representation used to be still more lifelike. At Mid-Lent an old woman was drawn through the streets on a cart, attended by two men dressed in the costume of the _Compagnia de’ Bianchi_, a society or religious order whose function it was to attend and console prisoners condemned to death. A scaffold was erected in a public square; the old woman mounted it, and two mock executioners proceeded, amid a storm of huzzas and hand-clapping, to saw through her neck, or rather through a bladder of blood which had been previously fitted to it. The blood gushed out and the old woman pretended to swoon and die. The last of these mock executions took place in 1737.(657) In Florence, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Old Woman was represented by a figure stuffed with walnuts and dried figs and fastened to the top of a ladder. At Mid-Lent this effigy was sawn through the middle under the _Loggie_ of the Mercato Nuovo, and as the dried fruits tumbled out they were scrambled for by the crowd. A trace of the custom is still to be seen in the practice, observed by urchins, of secretly pinning paper ladders to the shoulders of women of the lower classes who happen to shew themselves in the streets on the morning of Mid-Lent.(658) A similar custom is observed by urchins in Rome; and at Naples on the first of April boys cut strips of cloth into the shape of saws, smear them with gypsum, and strike passers-by with their "saws" on the back, thus imprinting the figure of a saw upon their clothes.(659) At Montalto, in Calabria, boys go about at Mid-Lent with little saws made of cane and jeer at old people, who therefore generally stay indoors on that day. The Calabrian women meet together at this time and feast on figs, chestnuts, honey, and so forth; this they call “Sawing the Old Woman”—a reminiscence probably of a custom like the old Florentine one.(660) In Lombardy the Thursday of Mid-Lent is known as the Day of the Old Wives (_il giorno delle vecchie_). The children run about crying out for the oldest woman, whom they wish to burn; and failing to possess themselves of the original, they make a puppet representing her, which in the evening is consumed on a bonfire. On the Lake of Garda the blaze of light flaring at different points on the hills produces a picturesque effect.(661)

(M190) In Berry, a region of central France, the custom of “Sawing the Old Woman” at Mid-Lent used to be popular, and has probably not wholly died out even now. Here the name of “Fairs of the old Wives” was given to certain fairs held in Lent, at which children were made to believe that they would see the Old Woman of Mid-Lent split or sawn asunder. At Argenton and Cluis-Dessus, when Mid-Lent has come, children of ten or twelve years of age scour the streets with wooden swords, pursue the old crones whom they meet, and even try to break into the houses where ancient dames are known to live. Passers-by, who see the children thus engaged, say, “They are going to cut or sabre the Old Woman.” Meantime the old wives take care to keep out of sight as much as possible. When the children of Cluis-Dessus have gone their rounds, and the day draws towards evening, they repair to Cluis-Dessous, where they mould a rude figure of an old woman out of clay, hew it in pieces with their wooden swords, and throw the bits into the river. At Bourges on the same day, an effigy representing an old woman was formerly sawn in two on the crier’s stone in a public square. About the middle of the nineteenth century, in the same town and on the same day, hundreds of children assembled at the Hospital “to see the old woman split or divided in two.” A religious service was held in the building on this occasion, which attracted many idlers. In the streets it was not uncommon to hear cries of “Let us cleave the Old Wife! let us cleave the oldest woman of the ward!” At Tulle, on the day of Mid-Lent, the people used to enquire after the oldest woman in the town, and to tell the children that at mid-day punctually she was to be sawn in two at Puy-Saint-Clair.(662)

(M191) In Barcelona on the fourth Sunday in Lent boys run about the streets, some with saws, others with billets of wood, others again with cloths in which they collect gratuities. They sing a song in which it is said that they are looking for the oldest woman of the city for the purpose of sawing her in two in honour of Mid-Lent; at last, pretending to have found her, they saw something in two and burn it. A like custom is found amongst the South Slavs. In Lent the Croats tell their children that at noon an old woman is being sawn in two outside the gates; and in Carniola also the saying is current that at Mid-Lent an old woman is taken out of the village and sawn in two. The North Slavonian expression for keeping Mid-Lent is _bábu rezati_, that is, “sawing the Old Wife.”(663) In the Graubünden Canton of Switzerland, on _Invocavit_ Sunday, grown people used to assemble in the ale-house and there saw in two a straw puppet which they called Mrs. Winter or the Ugly Woman (_bagorda_), while the children in the streets teased each other with wooden saws.(664)

(M192) Among the gypsies of south-eastern Europe the custom of “sawing the Old Woman in two” is observed in a very graphic form, not at Mid-Lent, but on the afternoon of Palm Sunday. The Old Woman, represented by a puppet of straw dressed in women’s clothes, is laid across a beam in some open place and beaten with clubs by the assembled gypsies, after which it is sawn in two by a young man and a maiden, both of whom wear a disguise. While the effigy is being sawn through, the rest of the company dance round it singing songs of various sorts. The remains of the figure are finally burnt, and the ashes thrown into a stream. The ceremony is supposed by the gypsies themselves to be observed in honour of a certain Shadow Queen; hence Palm Sunday goes by the name Shadow Day among all the strolling gypsies of eastern and southern Europe. According to the popular belief, this Shadow Queen, of whom the gypsies of to-day have only a very vague and confused conception, vanishes underground at the appearance of spring, but comes forth again at the beginning of winter to plague mankind during that inclement season with sickness, hunger, and death. Among the vagrant gypsies of southern Hungary the effigy is regarded as an expiatory and thank offering made to the Shadow Queen for having spared the people during the winter. In Transylvania the gypsies who live in tents clothe the puppet in the cast-off garments of the woman who has last become a widow. The widow herself gives the clothes gladly for this purpose, because she thinks that being burnt they will pass into the possession of her departed husband, who will thus have no excuse for returning from the spirit-land to visit her. The ashes are thrown by the Transylvanian gypsies on the first graveyard that they pass on their journey.(665) In this gypsy custom the equivalence of the effigy of the Old Woman to the effigy of Death in the customs we have just been considering comes out very clearly, thus strongly confirming the opinion of Grimm that the practice of “sawing the Old Woman” is only another form of the practice of “carrying out Death.”

(M193) The same perhaps may be said of a somewhat different form which the custom assumes in parts of Spain and Italy. In Spain it is sometimes usual on Ash Wednesday to fashion an effigy of stucco or pasteboard representing a hideous old woman with seven legs, wearing a crown of sorrel and spinach, and holding a sceptre in her hand. The seven skinny legs stand for the seven weeks of the Lenten fast which begins on Ash Wednesday. This monster, proclaimed Queen of Lent amid the chanting of lugubrious songs, is carried in triumph through the crowded streets and public places. On reaching the principal square the people put out their torches, cease shouting, and disperse. Their revels are now ended, and they take a vow to hold no more merry meetings until all the legs of the old woman have fallen one by one and she has been beheaded. The effigy is then deposited in some place appointed for the purpose, where the public is admitted to see it during the whole of Lent. Every week, on Saturday evening, one of the Queen’s legs is pulled off; and on Holy Saturday, when from every church tower the joyous clangour of the bells proclaims the glad tidings that Christ is risen, the mutilated body of the fallen Queen is carried with great solemnity to the principal square and publicly beheaded.(666)

(M194) A custom of the same sort prevails in various parts of Italy. Thus in the Abruzzi they hang a puppet of tow, representing Lent, to a cord, which stretches across the street from one window to another. Seven feathers are attached to the figure, and in its hand it grasps a distaff and spindle. Every Saturday in Lent one of the seven feathers is plucked out, and on Holy Saturday, while the bells are ringing, a string of chestnuts is burnt for the purpose of sending Lent and its meagre fare to the devil. In houses, too, it is usual to amuse children by cutting the figure of an old woman with seven legs out of pasteboard and sticking it beside the chimney. The old woman represents Lent, and her seven legs are the seven weeks of the fast; every Saturday one of the legs is amputated. At Mid-Lent the effigy is cut through the middle, and the part of which the feet have been already amputated is removed. Sometimes the figure is stuffed with sweets, dried fruits, and halfpence, for which the street urchins scramble when the puppet is bisected.(667) In the Sorrentine peninsula Lent is similarly represented by the effigy of a wrinkled old hag with a spindle and distaff, which is fastened to a balcony or a window. Attached to the figure is an orange with as many feathers stuck into it as there are weeks in Lent, and at the end of each week one of the feathers is plucked out. At Mid-Lent the puppet is sawn in two, an operation which is sometimes attended by a gush of blood from a bladder concealed in the interior of the figure. Any old women who shew themselves in the streets on that day are exposed to jibes and jests, and may be warned that they ought to remain at home.(668) At Castellammare, to the south of Naples, an English lady observed a rude puppet dangling from a string which spanned one of the narrow streets of the old town, being fastened at either end, high overhead, to the upper part of the many-storied houses. The puppet, about a foot long, was dressed all in black, rather like a nun, and from the skirts projected five or six feathers which bore a certain resemblance to legs. A peasant being asked what these things meant, replied with Italian vagueness, “It is only Lent.” Further enquiries, however, elicited the information that at the end of every week in Lent one of the feather legs was pulled off the puppet, and that the puppet was finally destroyed on the last day of Lent.(669)

§ 6. Bringing in Summer.

(M195) In the preceding ceremonies the return of Spring, Summer, or Life, as a sequel to the expulsion of Death, is only implied or at most announced. In the following ceremonies it is plainly enacted. Thus in some parts of Bohemia the effigy of Death is drowned by being thrown into the water at sunset; then the girls go out into the wood and cut down a young tree with a green crown, hang a doll dressed as a woman on it, deck the whole with green, red, and white ribbons, and march in procession with their _Líto_ (Summer) into the village, collecting gifts and singing—

“_Death swims in the water,_ _Spring comes to visit us,_ _With eggs that are red,_ _With yellow pancakes._ _We carried Death out of the village,_ _We are carrying Summer into the village._”(670)

In many Silesian villages the figure of Death, after being treated with respect, is stript of its clothes and flung with curses into the water, or torn to pieces in a field. Then the young folk repair to a wood, cut down a small fir-tree, peel the trunk, and deck it with festoons of evergreens, paper roses, painted egg-shells, motley bits of cloth, and so forth. The tree thus adorned is called Summer or May. Boys carry it from house to house singing appropriate songs and begging for presents. Among their songs is the following:—

“_We have carried Death out,_ _We are bringing the dear Summer back,_ _The Summer and the May_ _And all the flowers gay._”

Sometimes they also bring back from the wood a prettily adorned figure, which goes by the name of Summer, May, or the Bride; in the Polish districts it is called Dziewanna, the goddess of spring.(671)

At Eisenach on the fourth Sunday in Lent young people used to fasten a straw-man, representing Death, to a wheel, which they trundled to the top of a hill. Then setting fire to the figure they allowed it and the wheel to roll down the slope. Next they cut a tall fir-tree, tricked it out with ribbons, and set it up in the plain. The men then climbed the tree to fetch down the ribbons.(672) In Upper Lusatia the figure of Death, made of straw and rags, is dressed in a veil furnished by the last bride and a shirt provided by the house in which the last death took place. Thus arrayed the figure is stuck on the end of a long pole and carried at full speed by the tallest and strongest girl, while the rest pelt the effigy with sticks and stones. Whoever hits it will be sure to live through the year. In this way Death is carried out of the village and thrown into the water or over the boundary of the next village. On their way home each one breaks a green branch and carries it gaily with him till he reaches the village, when he throws it away. Sometimes the young people of the next village, upon whose land the figure has been thrown, run after them and hurl it back, not wishing to have Death among them. Hence the two parties occasionally come to blows.(673)

(M196) In these cases Death is represented by the puppet which is thrown away, Summer or Life by the branches or trees which are brought back. But sometimes a new potency of life seems to be attributed to the image of Death itself, and by a kind of resurrection it becomes the instrument of the general revival. Thus in some parts of Lusatia women alone are concerned in carrying out Death, and suffer no male to meddle with it. Attired in mourning, which they wear the whole day, they make a puppet of straw, clothe it in a white shirt, and give it a broom in one hand and a scythe in the other. Singing songs and pursued by urchins throwing stones, they carry the puppet to the village boundary, where they tear it in pieces. Then they cut down a fine tree, hang the shirt on it, and carry it home singing.(674) On the Feast of Ascension the Saxons of Braller, a village of Transylvania, not far from Hermannstadt, observe the ceremony of “Carrying out Death” in the following manner. After morning service all the school-girls repair to the house of one of their number, and there dress up the Death. This is done by tying a threshed-out sheaf of corn into a rough semblance of a head and body, while the arms are simulated by a broomstick thrust through it horizontally. The figure is dressed in the holiday attire of a young peasant woman, with a red hood, silver brooches, and a profusion of ribbons at the arms and breast. The girls bustle at their work, for soon the bells will be ringing to vespers, and the Death must be ready in time to be placed at the open window, that all the people may see it on their way to church. When vespers are over, the longed-for moment has come for the first procession with the Death to begin; it is a privilege that belongs to the school-girls alone. Two of the older girls seize the figure by the arms and walk in front: all the rest follow two and two. Boys may take no part in the procession, but they troop after it gazing with open-mouthed admiration at the “beautiful Death.” So the procession goes through all the streets of the village, the girls singing the old hymn that begins—

“_Gott mein Vater, deine Liebe_ _Reicht so weit der Himmel ist,_”

to a tune that differs from the ordinary one. When the procession has wound its way through every street, the girls go to another house, and having shut the door against the eager prying crowd of boys who follow at their heels, they strip the Death and pass the naked truss of straw out of the window to the boys, who pounce on it, run out of the village with it without singing, and fling the dilapidated effigy into the neighbouring brook. This done, the second scene of the little drama begins. While the boys were carrying away the Death out of the village, the girls remained in the house, and one of them is now dressed in all the finery which had been worn by the effigy. Thus arrayed she is led in procession through all the streets to the singing of the same hymn as before. When the procession is over they all betake themselves to the house of the girl who played the leading part. Here a feast awaits them from which also the boys are excluded. It is a popular belief that the children may safely begin to eat gooseberries and other fruit after the day on which Death has thus been carried out; for Death, which up to that time lurked especially in gooseberries, is now destroyed. Further, they may now bathe with impunity out of doors.(675) Very similar is the ceremony which, down to recent years, was observed in some of the German villages of Moravia. Boys and girls met on the afternoon of the first Sunday after Easter, and together fashioned a puppet of straw to represent Death. Decked with bright-coloured ribbons and cloths, and fastened to the top of a long pole, the effigy was then borne with singing and clamour to the nearest height, where it was stript of its gay attire and thrown or rolled down the slope. One of the girls was next dressed in the gauds taken from the effigy of Death, and with her at its head the procession moved back to the village. In some villages the practice is to bury the effigy in the place that has the most evil reputation of all the country-side: others throw it into running water.(676)

(M197) In the Lusatian ceremony described above,(677) the tree which is brought home after the destruction of the figure of Death is plainly equivalent to the trees or branches which, in the preceding customs, were brought back as representatives of Summer or Life, after Death had been thrown away or destroyed. But the transference of the shirt worn by the effigy of Death to the tree clearly indicates that the tree is a kind of revivification, in a new form, of the destroyed effigy.(678) This comes out also in the Transylvanian and Moravian customs: the dressing of a girl in the clothes worn by the Death, and the leading her about the village to the same song which had been sung when the Death was being carried about, shew that she is intended to be a kind of resuscitation of the being whose effigy has just been destroyed. These examples therefore suggest that the Death whose demolition is represented in these ceremonies cannot be regarded as the purely destructive agent which we understand by Death. If the tree which is brought back as an embodiment of the reviving vegetation of spring is clothed in the shirt worn by the Death which has just been destroyed, the object certainly cannot be to check and counteract the revival of vegetation: it can only be to foster and promote it. Therefore the being which has just been destroyed—the so-called Death—must be supposed to be endowed with a vivifying and quickening influence, which it can communicate to the vegetable and even the animal world. This ascription of a life-giving virtue to the figure of Death is put beyond a doubt by the custom, observed in some places, of taking pieces of the straw effigy of Death and placing them in the fields to make the crops grow, or in the manger to make the cattle thrive. Thus in Spachendorf, a village of Austrian Silesia, the figure of Death, made of straw, brushwood, and rags, is carried with wild songs to an open place outside the village and there burned, and while it is burning a general struggle takes place for the pieces, which are pulled out of the flames with bare hands. Each one who secures a fragment of the effigy ties it to a branch of the largest tree in his garden, or buries it in his field, in the belief that this causes the crops to grow better.(679) In the Troppau district of Austrian Silesia the straw figure which the boys make on the fourth Sunday in Lent is dressed by the girls in woman’s clothes and hung with ribbons, necklace, and garlands. Attached to a long pole it is carried out of the village, followed by a troop of young people of both sexes, who alternately frolic, lament, and sing songs. Arrived at its destination—a field outside the village—the figure is stripped of its clothes and ornaments; then the crowd rushes at it and tears it to bits, scuffling for the fragments. Every one tries to get a wisp of the straw of which the effigy was made, because such a wisp, placed in the manger, is believed to make the cattle thrive.(680) Or the straw is put in the hens’ nest, it being supposed that this prevents the hens from carrying away their eggs, and makes them brood much better.(681) The same attribution of a fertilising power to the figure of Death appears in the belief that if the bearers of the figure, after throwing it away, beat cattle with their sticks, this will render the beasts fat or prolific.(682) Perhaps the sticks had been previously used to beat the Death,(683) and so had acquired the fertilising power ascribed to the effigy. We have seen, too, that at Leipsic a straw effigy of Death was shewn to young wives to make them fruitful.(684)

(M198) It seems hardly possible to separate from the May-trees the trees or branches which are brought into the village after the destruction of the Death. The bearers who bring them in profess to be bringing in the Summer,(685) therefore the trees obviously represent the Summer; indeed in Silesia they are commonly called the Summer or the May,(686) and the doll which is sometimes attached to the Summer-tree is a duplicate representative of the Summer, just as the May is sometimes represented at the same time by a May-tree and a May Lady.(687) Further, the Summer-trees are adorned like May-trees with ribbons and so on; like May-trees, when large, they are planted in the ground and climbed up; and like May-trees, when small, they are carried from door to door by boys or girls singing songs and collecting money.(688) And as if to demonstrate the identity of the two sets of customs the bearers of the Summer-tree sometimes announce that they are bringing in the Summer and the May.(689) The customs, therefore, of bringing in the May and bringing in the Summer are essentially the same; and the Summer-tree is merely another form of the May-tree, the only distinction (besides that of name) being in the time at which they are respectively brought in; for while the May-tree is usually fetched in on the first of May or at Whitsuntide, the Summer-tree is fetched in on the fourth Sunday in Lent. Therefore, if the May-tree is an embodiment of the tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation, the Summer-tree must likewise be an embodiment of the tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation. But we have seen that the Summer-tree is in some cases a revivification of the effigy of Death. It follows, therefore, that in these cases the effigy called Death must be an embodiment of the tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation. This inference is confirmed, first, by the vivifying and fertilising influence which the fragments of the effigy of Death are believed to exercise both on vegetable and on animal life;(690) for this influence, as we saw in the first part of this work,(691) is supposed to be a special attribute of the tree-spirit. It is confirmed, secondly, by observing that the effigy of Death is sometimes decked with leaves or made of twigs, branches, hemp, or a threshed-out sheaf of corn;(692) and that sometimes it is hung on a little tree and so carried about by girls collecting money,(693) just as is done with the May-tree and the May Lady, and with the Summer-tree and the doll attached to it. In short we are driven to regard the expulsion of Death and the bringing in of Summer as, in some cases at least, merely another form of that death and revival of the spirit of vegetation in spring which we saw enacted in the killing and resurrection of the Wild Man.(694) The burial and resurrection of the Carnival is probably another way of expressing the same idea. The interment of the representative of the Carnival under a dung-heap(695) is natural, if he is supposed to possess a quickening and fertilising influence like that ascribed to the effigy of Death. The Esthonians, indeed, who carry the straw figure out of the village in the usual way on Shrove Tuesday, do not call it the Carnival, but the Wood-spirit (_Metsik_), and they clearly indicate the identity of the effigy with the wood-spirit by fixing it to the top of a tree in the wood, where it remains for a year, and is besought almost daily with prayers and offerings to protect the herds; for like a true wood-spirit the _Metsik_ is a patron of cattle. Sometimes the _Metsik_ is made of sheaves of corn.(696)

(M199) Thus we may fairly conjecture that the names Carnival, Death, and Summer are comparatively late and inadequate expressions for the beings personified or embodied in the customs with which we have been dealing. The very abstractness of the names bespeaks a modern origin; for the personification of times and seasons like the Carnival and Summer, or of an abstract notion like death, is hardly primitive. But the ceremonies themselves bear the stamp of a dateless antiquity; therefore we can hardly help supposing that in their origin the ideas which they embodied were of a more simple and concrete order. The notion of a tree, perhaps of a particular kind of tree (for some savages have no word for tree in general), or even of an individual tree, is sufficiently concrete to supply a basis from which by a gradual process of generalisation the wider idea of a spirit of vegetation might be reached. But this general idea of vegetation would readily be confounded with the season in which it manifests itself; hence the substitution of Spring, Summer, or May for the tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation would be easy and natural. Again, the concrete notion of the dying tree or dying vegetation would by a similar process of generalisation glide into a notion of death in general; so that the practice of carrying out the dying or dead vegetation in spring, as a preliminary to its revival, would in time widen out into an attempt to banish Death in general from the village or district. The view that in these spring ceremonies Death meant originally the dying or dead vegetation of winter has the high support of W. Mannhardt; and he confirms it by the analogy of the name Death as applied to the spirit of the ripe corn. Commonly the spirit of the ripe corn is conceived, not as dead, but as old, and hence it goes by the name of the Old Man or the Old Woman. But in some places the last sheaf cut at harvest, which is generally believed to be the seat of the corn spirit, is called "the Dead One": children are warned against entering the corn-fields because Death sits in the corn; and, in a game played by Saxon children in Transylvania at the maize harvest, Death is represented by a child completely covered with maize leaves.(697)

§ 7. Battle of Summer and Winter.

(M200) Sometimes in the popular customs of the peasantry the contrast between the dormant powers of vegetation in winter and their awakening vitality in spring takes the form of a dramatic contest between actors who play the parts respectively of Winter and Summer. Thus in the towns of Sweden on May Day two troops of young men on horseback used to meet as if for mortal combat. One of them was led by a representative of Winter clad in furs, who threw snowballs and ice in order to prolong the cold weather. The other troop was commanded by a representative of Summer covered with fresh leaves and flowers. In the sham fight which followed the party of Summer came off victorious, and the ceremony ended with a feast.(698) Again, in the region of the middle Rhine, a representative of Summer clad in ivy combats a representative of Winter clad in straw or moss and finally gains a victory over him. The vanquished foe is thrown to the ground and stripped of his casing of straw, which is torn to pieces and scattered about, while the youthful comrades of the two champions sing a song to commemorate the defeat of Winter by Summer. Afterwards they carry about a summer garland or branch and collect gifts of eggs and bacon from house to house. Sometimes the champion who acts the part of Summer is dressed in leaves and flowers and wears a chaplet of flowers on his head. In the Palatinate this mimic conflict takes place on the fourth Sunday in Lent.(699) All over Bavaria the same drama used to be acted on the same day, and it was still kept up in some places down to the middle of the nineteenth century or later. While Summer appeared clad all in green, decked with fluttering ribbons, and carrying a branch in blossom or a little tree hung with apples and pears, Winter was muffled up in cap and mantle of fur and bore in his hand a snow-shovel or a flail. Accompanied by their respective retinues dressed in corresponding attire, they went through all the streets of the village, halting before the houses and singing staves of old songs, for which they received presents of bread, eggs, and fruit. Finally, after a short struggle, Winter was beaten by Summer and ducked in the village well or driven out of the village with shouts and laughter into the forest.(700) In some parts of Bavaria the boys who play the parts of Winter and Summer act their little drama in every house that they visit, and engage in a war of words before they come to blows, each of them vaunting the pleasures and benefits of the season he represents and disparaging those of the other. The dialogue is in verse. A few couplets may serve as specimens:—

SUMMER

“_Green, green are meadows wherever I pass_ _And the mowers are busy among the grass._”

WINTER

“_White, white are the meadows wherever I go,_ _And the sledges glide hissing across the snow._”

SUMMER

“_I’ll climb up the tree where the red cherries glow,_ _And Winter can stand by himself down below._”

WINTER

“_With you I will climb the cherry-tree tall,_ _Its branches will kindle the fire in the hall._”

SUMMER

“_O Winter, you are most uncivil_ _To send old women to the devil._”

WINTER

“_By that I make them warm and mellow,_ _So let them bawl and let them bellow._”

SUMMER

“_I am the Summer in white array,_ _I’m chasing the Winter far, far away._”

WINTER

“_I am the Winter in mantle of furs,_ _I’m chasing the Summer o’er bushes and burs._”

SUMMER

“_Just say a word more, and I’ll have you banned_ _At once and for ever from Summer land._”

WINTER

“_O Summer, for all your bluster and brag,_ _You’d not dare to carry a hen in a bag._”

SUMMER

“_O Winter, your chatter no more can I stay,_ _I’ll kick and I’ll cuff you without delay._”

Here ensues a scuffle between the two little boys, in which Summer gets the best of it, and turns Winter out of the house. But soon the beaten champion of Winter peeps in at the door and says with a humbled and crestfallen air:—

“_O Summer, dear Summer, I’m under your ban,_ _For you are the master and I am the man._”

To which Summer replies:—

“_’Tis a capital notion, an excellent plan,_ _If I am the master and you are the man._ _So come, my dear Winter, and give me your hand,_ _We’ll travel together to Summer Land._”(701)

(M201) At Goepfritz in Lower Austria, two men personating Summer and Winter used to go from house to house on Shrove Tuesday, and were everywhere welcomed by the children with great delight. The representative of Summer was clad in white and bore a sickle; his comrade, who played the part of Winter, had a fur-cap on his head, his arms and legs were swathed in straw, and he carried a flail. In every house they sang verses alternately.(702) At Drömling in Brunswick, down to the present time, the contest between Summer and Winter is acted every year at Whitsuntide by a troop of boys and a troop of girls. The boys rush singing, shouting, and ringing bells from house to house to drive Winter away; after them come the girls singing softly and led by a May Bride, all in bright dresses and decked with flowers and garlands to represent the genial advent of spring. Formerly the part of Winter was played by a straw-man which the boys carried with them; now it is acted by a real man in disguise.(703) In Wachtl and Brodek, a German village and a little German town of Moravia, encompassed by Slavonic people on every side, the great change that comes over the earth in spring is still annually mimicked. The long village of Wachtl, with its trim houses and farmyards, nestles in a valley surrounded by pretty pine-woods. Here, on a day in spring, about the time of the vernal equinox, an elderly man with a long flaxen beard may be seen going from door to door. He is muffled in furs, with warm gloves on his hands and a bearskin cap on his head, and he carries a threshing flail. This is the personification of Winter. With him goes a younger beardless man dressed in white, wearing a straw hat trimmed with gay ribbons on his head, and carrying a decorated May-tree in his hands. This is Summer. At every house they receive a friendly greeting and recite a long dialogue in verse, Winter punctuating his discourse with his flail, which he brings down with rude vigour on the backs of all within reach.(704) Amongst the Slavonic population near Ungarisch Brod, in Moravia, the ceremony took a somewhat different form. Girls dressed in green marched in procession round a May-tree. Then two others, one in white and one in green, stepped up to the tree and engaged in a dialogue. Finally, the girl in white was driven away, but returned afterwards clothed in green, and the festival ended with a dance.(705)

(M202) On May Day it used to be customary in almost all the large parishes of the Isle of Man to choose from among the daughters of the wealthiest farmers a young maiden to be Queen of May. She was dressed in the gayest attire and attended by about twenty others, who were called maids of honour. She had also a young man for her captain with a number of inferior officers under him. In opposition to her was the Queen of Winter, a man attired as a woman, with woollen hoods, fur tippets, and loaded with the warmest and heaviest clothes, one upon another. Her attendants were habited in like manner, and she too had a captain and troop for her defence. Thus representing respectively the beauty of spring and the deformity of winter they set forth from their different quarters, the one preceded by the dulcet music of flutes and violins, the other by the harsh clatter of cleavers and tongs. In this array they marched till they met on a common, where the trains of the two mimic sovereigns engaged in a mock battle. If the Queen of Winter’s forces got the better of their adversaries and took her rival prisoner, the captive Queen of Summer was ransomed for as much as would pay the expenses of the festival. After this ceremony, Winter and her company retired and diverted themselves in a barn, while the partisans of Summer danced on the green, concluding the evening with a feast, at which the Queen and her maids sat at one table and the captain and his troop at another. In later times the person of the Queen of May was exempt from capture, but one of her slippers was substituted and, if captured, had to be ransomed to defray the expenses of the pageant. The procession of the Summer, which was subsequently composed of little girls and called the Maceboard, outlived that of its rival the Winter for some years; but both have now long been things of the past.(706)

(M203) Among the central Esquimaux of North America the contest between representatives of summer and winter, which in Europe has long degenerated into a mere dramatic performance, is still kept up as a magical ceremony of which the avowed intention is to influence the weather. In autumn, when storms announce the approach of the dismal Arctic winter, the Esquimaux divide themselves into two parties called respectively the ptarmigans and the ducks, the ptarmigans comprising all persons born in winter, and the ducks all persons born in summer. A long rope of sealskin is then stretched out, and each party laying hold of one end of it seeks by tugging with might and main to drag the other party over to its side. If the ptarmigans get the worst of it, then summer has won the game and fine weather may be expected to prevail through the winter.(707) In this ceremony it is clearly assumed that persons born in summer have a natural affinity with warm weather, and therefore possess a power of mitigating the rigour of winter, whereas persons born in winter are, so to say, of a cold and frosty disposition and can thereby exert a refrigerating influence on the temperature of the air. In spite of this natural antipathy between the representatives of summer and winter, we may be allowed to conjecture that in the grand tug of war the ptarmigans do not pull at the rope with the same hearty goodwill as the ducks, and that thus the genial influence of summer commonly prevails over the harsh austerity of winter. The Indians of Canada seem also to have imagined that persons are endowed with distinct natural capacities according as they are born in summer or winter, and they turned the distinction to account in much the same fashion as the Esquimaux. When they wearied of the long frosts and the deep snow which kept them prisoners in their huts and prevented them from hunting, all of them who were born in summer rushed out of their houses armed with burning brands and torches which they hurled against the One who makes Winter; and this was supposed to produce the desired effect of mitigating the cold. But those Indians who were born in winter abstained from taking part in the ceremony, for they believed that if they meddled with it the cold would increase instead of diminishing.(708) We may surmise that in the corresponding European ceremonies, which have just been described, it was formerly deemed necessary that the actors, who played the parts of Winter and Summer, should have been born in the seasons which they personated.

(M204) Every year on the Monday after the spring equinox boys and girls attired in gay costume flock at a very early hour into Zurich from the country. The girls, generally clad in white, are called _Mareielis_ and carry two and two a small May tree or a wreath decked with flowers and ribbons. Thus they go in bands from house to house, jingling the bells which are attached to the wreath and singing a song, in which it is said that the _Mareielis_ dance because the leaves and the grass are green and everything is bursting into blossom. In this way they are supposed to celebrate the triumph of Summer and to proclaim his coming. The boys are called _Böggen_. They generally wear over their ordinary clothes a shirt decked with many-coloured ribbons, tall pointed paper caps on their heads, and masks before their faces. In this quaint costume they cart about through the streets effigies made of straw and other combustible materials which are supposed to represent Winter. At evening these effigies are burned in various parts of the city.(709) The ceremony was witnessed at Zurich on Monday, April 20th, 1903, by my friend Dr. J. Sutherland Black, who has kindly furnished me with some notes on the subject. The effigy of Winter was a gigantic figure composed in great part, as it seemed, of cotton-wool. This was laid on a huge pyre, about thirty feet high, which had been erected on the Stadthausplatz close to the lake. In presence of a vast concourse of people fire was set to the pyre and all was soon in a blaze, while the town bells rang a joyous peal. As the figure gradually consumed in the flames, the mechanism enclosed in its interior produced a variety of grotesque effects, such as the gushing forth of bowels. At last nothing remained of the effigy but the iron backbone; the crowd slowly dispersed, and the fire brigade set to work to quench the smouldering embers.(710) In this ceremony the contest between Summer and Winter is rather implied than expressed, but the significance of the rite is unmistakable.

§ 8. Death and Resurrection of Kostrubonko.

(M205) In Russia funeral ceremonies like those of “Burying the Carnival” and “Carrying out Death” are celebrated under the names, not of Death or the Carnival, but of certain mythic figures, Kostrubonko, Kostroma, Kupalo, Lada, and Yarilo. These Russian ceremonies are observed both in spring and at midsummer. Thus “in Little Russia it used to be the custom at Eastertide to celebrate the funeral of a being called Kostrubonko, the deity of the spring. A circle was formed of singers who moved slowly around a girl who lay on the ground as if dead, and as they went they sang,—

‘_Dead, dead is our Kostrubonko!_ _Dead, dead is our dear one!_’

until the girl suddenly sprang up, on which the chorus joyfully exclaimed,—

‘_Come to life, come to life has our Kostrubonko!_ _Come to life, come to life has our dear one!_’ ”(711)

On the Eve of St. John (Midsummer Eve) a figure of Kupalo is made of straw and “is dressed in woman’s clothes, with a necklace and a floral crown. Then a tree is felled, and, after being decked with ribbons, is set up on some chosen spot. Near this tree, to which they give the name of Marena [Winter or Death], the straw figure is placed, together with a table, on which stand spirits and viands. Afterwards a bonfire is lit, and the young men and maidens jump over it in couples, carrying the figure with them. On the next day they strip the tree and the figure of their ornaments, and throw them both into a stream.”(712) On St. Peter’s Day, the twenty-ninth of June, or on the following Sunday, “the Funeral of Kostroma” or of Lada or of Yarilo is celebrated in Russia. In the Governments of Penza and Simbirsk the funeral used to be represented as follows. A bonfire was kindled on the twenty-eighth of June, and on the next day the maidens chose one of their number to play the part of Kostroma. Her companions saluted her with deep obeisances, placed her on a board, and carried her to the bank of a stream. There they bathed her in the water, while the oldest girl made a basket of lime-tree bark and beat it like a drum. Then they returned to the village and ended the day with processions, games, and dances.(713) In the Murom district Kostroma was represented by a straw figure dressed in woman’s clothes and flowers. This was laid in a trough and carried with songs to the bank of a lake or river. Here the crowd divided into two sides, of which the one attacked and the other defended the figure. At last the assailants gained the day, stripped the figure of its dress and ornaments, tore it in pieces, trod the straw of which it was made under foot, and flung it into the stream; while the defenders of the figure hid their faces in their hands and pretended to bewail the death of Kostroma.(714) In the district of Kostroma the burial of Yarilo was celebrated on the twenty-ninth or thirtieth of June. The people chose an old man and gave him a small coffin containing a Priapus-like figure representing Yarilo. This he carried out of the town, followed by women chanting dirges and expressing by their gestures grief and despair. In the open fields a grave was dug, and into it the figure was lowered amid weeping and wailing, after which games and dances were begun, “calling to mind the funeral games celebrated in old times by the pagan Slavonians.”(715) In Little Russia the figure of Yarilo was laid in a coffin and carried through the streets after sunset surrounded by drunken women, who kept repeating mournfully, “He is dead! he is dead!” The men lifted and shook the figure as if they were trying to recall the dead man to life. Then they said to the women, “Women, weep not. I know what is sweeter than honey.” But the women continued to lament and chant, as they do at funerals. “Of what was he guilty? He was so good. He will arise no more. O how shall we part from thee? What is life without thee? Arise, if only for a brief hour. But he rises not, he rises not.” At last the Yarilo was buried in a grave.(716)

§ 9. Death and Revival of Vegetation.

(M206) These Russian customs are plainly of the same nature as those which in Austria and Germany are known as “Carrying out Death.” Therefore if the interpretation here adopted of the latter is right, the Russian Kostrubonko, Yarilo, and the rest must also have been originally embodiments of the spirit of vegetation, and their death must have been regarded as a necessary preliminary to their revival. The revival as a sequel to the death is enacted in the first of the ceremonies described, the death and resurrection of Kostrubonko. The reason why in some of these Russian ceremonies the death of the spirit of vegetation is celebrated at midsummer may be that the decline of summer is dated from Midsummer Day, after which the days begin to shorten, and the sun sets out on his downward journey—

“_To the darksome hollows_ _Where the frosts of winter lie._”

Such a turning-point of the year, when vegetation might be thought to share the incipient though still almost imperceptible decay of summer, might very well be chosen by primitive man as a fit moment for resorting to those magic rites by which he hopes to stay the decline, or at least to ensure the revival, of plant life.

(M207) But while the death of vegetation appears to have been represented in all, and its revival in some, of these spring and midsummer ceremonies, there are features in some of them which can hardly be explained on this hypothesis alone. The solemn funeral, the lamentations, and the mourning attire, which often characterise these rites, are indeed appropriate at the death of the beneficent spirit of vegetation. But what shall we say of the glee with which the effigy is often carried out, of the sticks and stones with which it is assailed, and the taunts and curses which are hurled at it? What shall we say of the dread of the effigy evinced by the haste with which the bearers scamper home as soon as they have thrown it away, and by the belief that some one must soon die in any house into which it has looked? This dread might perhaps be explained by a belief that there is a certain infectiousness in the dead spirit of vegetation which renders its approach dangerous. But this explanation, besides being rather strained, does not cover the rejoicings which often attend the carrying out of Death. We must therefore recognise two distinct and seemingly opposite features in these ceremonies: on the one hand, sorrow for the death, and affection and respect for the dead; on the other hand, fear and hatred of the dead, and rejoicings at his death. How the former of these features is to be explained I have attempted to shew: how the latter came to be so closely associated with the former is a question which I shall try to answer in the sequel.

(M208) Before we quit these European customs to go farther afield, it will be well to notice that occasionally the expulsion of Death or of a mythic being is conducted without any visible representative of the personage expelled. Thus at Königshain, near Görlitz in Silesia, all the villagers, young and old, used to go out with straw torches to the top of a neighbouring hill, called _Todtenstein_ (Death-stone), where they lit their torches, and so returned home singing, “We have driven out Death, we are bringing back Summer.”(717) In Albania young people light torches of resinous wood on Easter Eve, and march in procession through the village brandishing them. At last they throw the torches into the river, saying, “Ha, Kore, we fling you into the river, like these torches, that you may return no more.” Some say that the intention of the ceremony is to drive out winter; but Kore is conceived as a malignant being who devours children.(718)

§ 10. Analogous Rites in India.

(M209) In the Kanagra district of India there is a custom observed by young girls in spring which closely resembles some of the European spring ceremonies just described. It is called the _Ralî Ka melâ_, or fair of Ralî, the _Ralî_ being a small painted earthen image of Siva or Pârvatî. The custom is in vogue all over the Kanagra district, and its celebration, which is entirely confined to young girls, lasts through most of Chet (March-April) up to the Sankrânt of Baisâkh (April). On a morning in March all the young girls of the village take small baskets of _dûb_ grass and flowers to an appointed place, where they throw them in a heap. Round this heap they stand in a circle and sing. This goes on every day for ten days, till the heap of grass and flowers has reached a fair height. Then they cut in the jungle two branches, each with three prongs at one end, and place them, prongs downwards, over the heap of flowers, so as to make two tripods or pyramids. On the single uppermost points of these branches they get an image-maker to construct two clay images, one to represent Siva, and the other Pârvatî. The girls then divide themselves into two parties, one for Siva and one for Pârvatî, and marry the images in the usual way, leaving out no part of the ceremony. After the marriage they have a feast, the cost of which is defrayed by contributions solicited from their parents. Then at the next Sankrânt (Baisâkh) they all go together to the river-side, throw the images into a deep pool, and weep over the place, as though they were performing funeral obsequies. The boys of the neighbourhood often tease them by diving after the images, bringing them up, and waving them about while the girls are crying over them. The object of the fair is said to be to secure a good husband.(719)

(M210) That in this Indian ceremony the deities Siva and Pârvatî are conceived as spirits of vegetation seems to be proved by the placing of their images on branches over a heap of grass and flowers. Here, as often in European folk-custom, the divinities of vegetation are represented in duplicate, by plants and by puppets. The marriage of these Indian deities in spring corresponds to the European ceremonies in which the marriage of the vernal spirits of vegetation is represented by the King and Queen of May, the May Bride, Bridegroom of the May, and so forth.(720) The throwing of the images into the water, and the mourning for them, are the equivalents of the European customs of throwing the dead spirit of vegetation under the name of Death, Yarilo, Kostroma, and the rest, into the water and lamenting over it. Again, in India, as often in Europe, the rite is performed exclusively by females. The notion that the ceremony helps to procure husbands for the girls can be explained by the quickening and fertilising influence which the spirit of vegetation is believed to exert upon the life of man as well as of plants.(721)

§ 11. The Magic Spring.

(M211) The general explanation which we have been led to adopt of these and many similar ceremonies is that they are, or were in their origin, magical rites intended to ensure the revival of nature in spring. The means by which they were supposed to effect this end were imitation and sympathy. Led astray by his ignorance of the true causes of things, primitive man believed that in order to produce the great phenomena of nature on which his life depended he had only to imitate them, and that immediately by a secret sympathy or mystic influence the little drama which he acted in forest glade or mountain dell, on desert plain or wind-swept shore, would be taken up and repeated by mightier actors on a vaster stage. He fancied that by masquerading in leaves and flowers he helped the bare earth to clothe herself with verdure, and that by playing the death and burial of winter he drove that gloomy season away, and made smooth the path for the footsteps of returning spring. If we find it hard to throw ourselves even in fancy into a mental condition in which such things seem possible, we can more easily picture to ourselves the anxiety which the savage, when he first began to lift his thoughts above the satisfaction of his merely animal wants, and to meditate on the causes of things, may have felt as to the continued operation of what we now call the laws of nature. To us, familiar as we are with the conception of the uniformity and regularity with which the great cosmic phenomena succeed each other, there seems little ground for apprehension that the causes which produce these effects will cease to operate, at least within the near future. But this confidence in the stability of nature is bred only by the experience which comes of wide observation and long tradition; and the savage, with his narrow sphere of observation and his short-lived tradition, lacks the very elements of that experience which alone could set his mind at rest in face of the ever-changing and often menacing aspects of nature. No wonder, therefore, that he is thrown into a panic by an eclipse, and thinks that the sun or the moon would surely perish, if he did not raise a clamour and shoot his puny shafts into the air to defend the luminaries from the monster who threatens to devour them. No wonder he is terrified when in the darkness of night a streak of sky is suddenly illumined by the flash of a meteor, or the whole expanse of the celestial arch glows with the fitful light of the Northern Streamers.(722) Even phenomena which recur at fixed and uniform intervals may be viewed by him with apprehension, before he has come to recognise the orderliness of their recurrence. The speed or slowness of his recognition of such periodic or cyclic changes in nature will depend largely on the length of the particular cycle. The cycle, for example, of day and night is everywhere, except in the polar regions, so short and hence so frequent that men probably soon ceased to discompose themselves seriously as to the chance of its failing to recur, though the ancient Egyptians, as we have seen, daily wrought enchantments to bring back to the east in the morning the fiery orb which had sunk at evening in the crimson west. But it was far otherwise with the annual cycle of the seasons. To any man a year is a considerable period, seeing that the number of our years is but few at the best. To the primitive savage, with his short memory and imperfect means of marking the flight of time, a year may well have been so long that he failed to recognise it as a cycle at all, and watched the changing aspects of earth and heaven with a perpetual wonder, alternately delighted and alarmed, elated and cast down, according as the vicissitudes of light and heat, of plant and animal life, ministered to his comfort or threatened his existence. In autumn when the withered leaves were whirled about the forest by the nipping blast, and he looked up at the bare boughs, could he feel sure that they would ever be green again? As day by day the sun sank lower and lower in the sky, could he be certain that the luminary would ever retrace his heavenly road? Even the waning moon, whose pale sickle rose thinner and thinner every night over the rim of the eastern horizon, may have excited in his mind a fear lest, when it had wholly vanished, there should be moons no more.

(M212) These and a thousand such misgivings may have thronged the fancy and troubled the peace of the man who first began to reflect on the mysteries of the world he lived in, and to take thought for a more distant future than the morrow. It was natural, therefore, that with such thoughts and fears he should have done all that in him lay to bring back the faded blossom to the bough, to swing the low sun of winter up to his old place in the summer sky, and to restore its orbed fulness to the silver lamp of the waning moon. We may smile at his vain endeavours if we please, but it was only by making a long series of experiments, of which some were almost inevitably doomed to failure, that man learned from experience the futility of some of his attempted methods and the fruitfulness of others. After all, magical ceremonies are nothing but experiments which have failed and which continue to be repeated merely because, for reasons which have already been indicated,(723) the operator is unaware of their failure. With the advance of knowledge these ceremonies either cease to be performed altogether or are kept up from force of habit long after the intention with which they were instituted has been forgotten. Thus fallen from their high estate, no longer regarded as solemn rites on the punctual performance of which the welfare and even the life of the community depend, they sink gradually to the level of simple pageants, mummeries, and pastimes, till in the final stage of degeneration they are wholly abandoned by older people, and, from having once been the most serious occupation of the sage, become at last the idle sport of children. It is in this final stage of decay that most of the old magical rites of our European forefathers linger on at the present day, and even from this their last retreat they are fast being swept away by the rising tide of those multitudinous forces, moral, intellectual, and social, which are bearing mankind onward to a new and unknown goal. We may feel some natural regret at the disappearance of quaint customs and picturesque ceremonies, which have preserved to an age often deemed dull and prosaic something of the flavour and freshness of the olden time, some breath of the springtime of the world; yet our regret will be lessened when we remember that these pretty pageants, these now innocent diversions, had their origin in ignorance and superstition; that if they are a record of human endeavour, they are also a monument of fruitless ingenuity, of wasted labour, and of blighted hopes; and that for all their gay trappings—their flowers, their ribbons, and their music—they partake far more of tragedy than of farce.

(M213) The interpretation which, following in the footsteps of W. Mannhardt, I have attempted to give of these ceremonies has been not a little confirmed by the discovery, made since this book was first written, that the natives of Central Australia regularly practise magical ceremonies for the purpose of awakening the dormant energies of nature at the approach of what may be called the Australian spring. Nowhere apparently are the alternations of the seasons more sudden and the contrasts between them more striking than in the deserts of Central Australia, where at the end of a long period of drought the sandy and stony wilderness, over which the silence and desolation of death appear to brood, is suddenly, after a few days of torrential rain, transformed into a landscape smiling with verdure and peopled with teeming multitudes of insects and lizards, of frogs and birds. The marvellous change which passes over the face of nature at such times has been compared even by European observers to the effect of magic;(724) no wonder, then, that the savage should regard it as such in very deed. Now it is just when there is promise of the approach of a good season that the natives of Central Australia are wont especially to perform those magical ceremonies of which the avowed intention is to multiply the plants and animals they use as food.(725) These ceremonies, therefore, present a close analogy to the spring customs of our European peasantry not only in the time of their celebration, but also in their aim; for we can hardly doubt that in instituting rites designed to assist the revival of plant life in spring our primitive forefathers were moved, not by any sentimental wish to smell at early violets, or pluck the rathe primrose, or watch yellow daffodils dancing in the breeze, but by the very practical consideration, certainly not formulated in abstract terms, that the life of man is inextricably bound up with that of plants, and that if they were to perish he could not survive. And as the faith of the Australian savage in the efficacy of his magic rites is confirmed by observing that their performance is invariably followed, sooner or later, by that increase of vegetable and animal life which it is their object to produce, so, we may suppose, it was with European savages in the olden time. The sight of the fresh green in brake and thicket, of vernal flowers blowing on mossy banks, of swallows arriving from the south, and of the sun mounting daily higher in the sky, would be welcomed by them as so many visible signs that their enchantments were indeed taking effect, and would inspire them with a cheerful confidence that all was well with a world which they could thus mould to suit their wishes. Only in autumn days, as summer slowly faded, would their confidence again be dashed by doubts and misgivings at symptoms of decay, which told how vain were all their efforts to stave off for ever the approach of winter and of death.

NOTE A. CHINESE INDIFFERENCE TO DEATH.

(M214) Lord Avebury kindly allows me to print the letter of Mr. M. W. Lampson, referred to above (p. 146, note 1). It runs as follows:—

FOREIGN OFFICE, _August 7, 1903_.

DEAR LORD AVEBURY—As the result of enquiries I hear from a Mr. Eames, a lawyer who practised for some years at Shanghai and has considerable knowledge of Chinese matters, that for a small sum a substitute can be found for execution. This is recognised by the Chinese authorities, with certain exceptions, as for instance parricide. It is even asserted that the local Taotai gains pecuniarily by this arrangement, as he is as a rule not above obtaining a substitute for the condemned man for a less sum than was paid him by the latter.

It is, I believe, part of the doctrine of Confucius that it is one of the highest virtues to increase the family prosperity at the expense of personal suffering. According to Eames, the Chinamen [_sic_] looks upon execution in another man’s stead in this light, and consequently there is quite a competition for such a “substitution.”

Should you wish to get more definite information, the address is: W. Eames, Esq., c/o Norman Craig, Inner Temple, E.C.

The only man in this department who has actually been out to China is at present away. But on his return I will ask him about it.—

Yours sincerely, MILES W. LAMPSON.

(M215) On this subject Lord Avebury had stated: “It is said that in China, if a rich man is condemned to death, he can sometimes purchase a willing substitute at a very small expense.”(726) In regard to his authority for this statement Lord Avebury wrote to me (August 10, 1903): “I believe my previous information came from Sir T. Wade, but I have been unable to lay my hand on his letter, and do not therefore like to state it as a fact.” Sir Thomas Wade was English Ambassador at Peking, and afterwards Professor of Chinese at Cambridge.

(M216) On the same subject Mr. Valentine Chirol, editor of the foreign department of _The Times_, wrote to me as follows:—

QUEEN ANNE’S MANSIONS, WESTMINSTER, S.W., _August 21st, 1905_.

DEAR SIR—I shall be very glad to do what I can to obtain for you the information you require. It was a surprise to me to hear that the accuracy of the statement was called in question. It is certainly a matter of common report in China that the practice exists. The difficulty, I conceive, will be to obtain evidence enabling one to quote concrete cases. My own impression is that the practice is quite justifiable according to Chinese ethics when life is given up from motives of filial piety, that is to say in order to relieve the wants of indigent parents, or to defray the costs of ancestral rights [_sic_]. Your general thesis that life is less valued and more readily sacrificed by some races than by modern Europeans seems to be beyond dispute. Surely the Japanese practice of _sepuku_, or _harikari_, as it is vulgarly called, is a case in point. Life is risked, as in duelling, by Europeans, for the mere point of honour, but it is never deliberately laid down in satisfaction of the exigencies of the social code. I will send you whatever information I can obtain when it reaches me, but that will not of course be for some months.—Yours truly,

VALENTINE CHIROL.

_P.S._—A friend of mine who has just been here entirely confirms my own belief as to the accuracy of your statement, and tells me he has himself seen several Imperial Decrees in the _Peking Gazette_, calling provincial authorities to order for having allowed specific cases of substitution to occur, and ordering the death penalty to be carried out in a more severe form on the original culprits as an extra punishment for obtaining substitutes. He has promised to look up some of these Impe. Decrees on his return to China, and send me translations. I am satisfied personally that his statement is conclusive.

V. C.

On the same subject I have received the following letter from Mr. J. O. P. Bland, for fourteen years correspondent of _The Times_ in China:—

THE CLOCK HOUSE, SHEPPERTON, _March 22nd, 1911_.

DEAR PROFESSOR FRAZER—My friend Mr. Valentine Chirol, writing the other day from Crete on his way East, asked me to communicate with you on the subject of your letter of the 3rd ulto., namely, the custom, alleged to exist in China, of procuring substitutes for persons condemned to death, the substitutes’ families or relatives receiving compensation in cash.

To speak of this as a custom is to exaggerate the frequency of a class of incident which has undoubtedly been recorded in China and of which there has been mention in Imperial Decrees. I am sorry to say that I have not my file of the _Peking Gazette_ here, for immediate reference, but I am writing to my friend Mr. Backhouse in Peking, and have no doubt but that he will be able to give chapter and verse of instances thus recorded. I had expected to find cases of the kind recorded in Mr. Werner’s recently-published “Descriptive Sociology” of the Chinese (Spencerian publications), but have not been able to do so in the absence of an index to that voluminous work. More than one of the authors whom he quotes have certainly referred to cases of substitution for death-sentence prisoners. Parker, for instance (“China Past and Present,” page 378), asserts that substitutes were to be had in Canton at the reasonable price of fifty taels (say £10). Dr. Matignon (in “Superstition, Crime et Misère en Chine,” page 113) says that filial piety is a frequent motive. The negative opinion of Professors Giles and de Groot is entitled to consideration, but cannot be regarded as any more conclusive than the views expressed by Professor Giles on the question of infanticide which are outweighed by a mass of direct proof of eye-witnesses.

In a country where men submit voluntarily to mutilation and grave risk of death for a comparatively small gain to themselves and their relatives, where women commit suicide in hundreds to escape capture by invaders or strangers, where men and women alike habitually sacrifice their life for the most trivial motives of revenge or distress, it need not greatly surprise us that some should be found, especially among the wretchedly poor class, willing to give up their life in order to relieve their families of want or otherwise to “acquire merit.”

The most important thing, I think, in expressing any opinion about the Chinese, is to remember the great extent and heterogeneous elements of the country, and to abstain from any sweeping generalisations based on isolated acts or events.—Yours very truly,

J. O. P. BLAND.

As the practice in question involves a grave miscarriage of justice, the discovery of which might entail serious consequences on the magistrate who connived at it, we need not wonder that it is generally hushed up, and that no instances of it should come to the ears of many Europeans resident in China. My friend Professor H. A. Giles of Cambridge in conversation expressed himself quite incredulous on the subject, and Professor J. J. M. de Groot of Leyden wrote to me (January 31, 1902) to the same effect. The Rev. Dr. W. T. A. Barber, Headmaster of the Leys School, Cambridge, and formerly a missionary in China, wrote to me (January 30, 1902): “As to the possibility that a man condemned to death may secure a substitute on payment of a moderate sum of money, we used to hear that this was the case; but I have no proof that would justify you in using the fact.” Another experienced missionary, the Rev. W. A. Cornaby, wrote to Dr. Barber: “I have heard of no such custom in capital crimes. The man in whose house a fire starts may, and often does, pay another to receive the blows and three days in a cangue. But unless where ‘foreign riots’ were the case, and a previously condemned criminal handy, I should hardly think it possible. Every precaution is taken that no one is beheaded but the man who cannot possibly be let off. The expense on the county mandarin is over £100 in ‘stationery expenses’ with higher courts.” On this I would observe that if every execution costs the local mandarin so dear, he must be under a strong temptation to get the expenses out of the prisoner whenever he can do so without being detected.

(M217) With regard to the custom, mentioned by Mr. Cornaby, of procuring substitutes for corporal punishment, we are told that in China there are men who earn a livelihood by being thrashed instead of the real culprits. But they bribe the executioner to lay on lightly; otherwise their constitution could not long resist the tear and wear of so exhausting a profession.(727) Thus the theory and practice of vicarious suffering are well understood in China.

NOTE B. SWINGING AS A MAGICAL RITE.

(M218) The custom of swinging has been practised as a religious or rather magical rite in various parts of the world, but it does not seem possible to explain all the instances of it in the same way. People appear to have resorted to the practice from different motives and with different ideas of the benefit to be derived from it. In the text we have seen that the Letts, and perhaps the Siamese, swing to make the crops grow tall.(728) The same may be the intention of the ceremony whenever it is specially observed at harvest festivals. Among the Buginese and Macassars of Celebes, for example, it used to be the custom for young girls to swing one after the other on these occasions.(729) At the great Dassera festival of Nepaul, which immediately precedes the cutting of the rice, swings and kites come into fashion among the young people of both sexes. The swings are sometimes hung from boughs of trees, but generally from a cross-beam supported on a framework of tall bamboos.(730) Among the Dyaks of Sarawak a feast is held at the end of harvest, when the soul of the rice is secured to prevent the crops from rotting away. On this occasion a number of old women rock to and fro on a rude swing suspended from the rafters.(731) A traveller in Sarawak has described how he saw many tall swings erected and Dyaks swinging to and fro on them, sometimes ten or twelve men together on one swing, while they chanted in monotonous, dirge-like tones an invocation to the spirits that they would be pleased to grant a plentiful harvest of sago and fruit and a good fishing season.(732)

(M219) In the East Indian island of Bengkali elaborate and costly ceremonies are performed to ensure a good catch of fish. Among the rest an hereditary priestess, who bears the royal title of Djindjang Rajah, works herself up by means of the fumes of incense and so forth into that state of mental disorder which with many people passes for a symptom of divine inspiration. In this pious frame of mind she is led by her four handmaids to a swing all covered with yellow and hung with golden bells, on which she takes her seat amid the jingle of the bells. As she rocks gently to and fro in the swing, she speaks in an unknown tongue to each of the sixteen spirits who have to do with the fishing.(733) In order to procure a plentiful supply of game the Tinneh Indians of North-West America perform a magical ceremony which they call “the young man bounding or tied.” They pinion a man tightly, and having hung him by the head and heels from the roof of the hut, rock him backwards and forwards.(734)

(M220) Thus we see that people swing in order to procure a plentiful supply of fish and game as well as good crops. In such cases the notion seems to be that the ceremony promotes fertility, whether in the vegetable or the animal kingdom; though why it should be supposed to do so, I confess myself unable to explain. There seem to be some reasons for thinking that the Indian rite of swinging on hooks run through the flesh of the performer is also resorted to, at least in some cases, from a belief in its fertilising virtue. Thus Hamilton tells us that at Karwar, on the west coast of India, a feast is held at the end of May or beginning of June in honour of the infernal gods, “with a divination or conjuration to know the fate of the ensuing crop of corn.” Men were hung from a pole by means of tenter-hooks inserted in the flesh of their backs; and the pole with the men dangling from it was then dragged for more than a mile over ploughed ground from one sacred grove to another, preceded by a young girl who carried a pot of fire on her head. When the second grove was reached, the men were let down and taken off the hooks, and the girl fell into the usual prophetic frenzy, after which she unfolded to the priests the revelation with which she had just been favoured by the terrestrial gods. In each of the groves a shapeless black stone, daubed with red lead to stand for a mouth, eyes, and ears, appears to have represented the indwelling divinity.(735) Sometimes this custom of swinging on hooks, which is known among the Hindoos as _Churuk Puja_, seems to be intended to propitiate demons. Some Santals asked Mr. V. Ball to be allowed to perform it because their women and children were dying of sickness, and their cattle were being killed by wild beasts; they believed that these misfortunes befell them because the evil spirits had not been appeased.(736) These same Santals celebrate a swinging festival of a less barbarous sort about the month of February. Eight men sit in chairs and rotate round posts in a sort of revolving swing, like the merry-go-rounds which are so dear to children at English fairs.(737) At the Nauroz and Eed festivals in Dardistan the women swing on ropes suspended from trees.(738) During the rainy season in Behar young women swing in their houses, while they sing songs appropriate to the season. The period during which they indulge in this pastime, if a mere pastime it be, is strictly limited; it begins with a festival which usually falls on the twenty-fifth of the month Jeyt and ends with another festival which commonly takes place on the twenty-fifth of the month Asin. No one would think of swinging at any other time of the year.(739) It is possible that this last custom may be nothing more than a pastime meant to while away some of the tedious hours of the inclement season; but its limitation to a certain clearly-defined portion of the year seems rather to point to a religious or magical origin. Possibly the intention may once have been to drive away the rain. We shall see immediately that swinging is sometimes resorted to for the purpose of expelling the powers of evil. About the middle of March the Hindoos observe a swinging festival of a different sort in honour of the god Krishna, whose image is placed in the seat or cradle of a swing and then, just when the dawn is breaking, rocked gently to and fro several times. The same ceremony is repeated at noon and at sunset.(740) In the Rigveda the sun is called, by a natural metaphor, “the golden swing in the sky,” and the expression helps us to understand a ceremony of Vedic India. A priest sat in a swing and touched with the span of his right hand at once the seat of the swing and the ground. In doing so he said, “The great lord has united himself with the great lady, the god has united himself with the goddess.” Perhaps he meant to indicate in a graphic way that the sun had reached that lowest point of its course where it was nearest to the earth.(741) In this connexion it is of interest to note that in the Esthonian celebration of St. John’s Day or the summer solstice swings play, along with bonfires, the most prominent part. Girls sit and swing the whole night through, singing old songs to explain why they do so. For legend tells of an Esthonian prince who wooed and won an Islandic princess. But a wicked enchanter spirited away the lover to a desert island, where he languished in captivity, till his lady-love contrived to break the magic spell that bound him. Together they sailed home to Esthonia, which they reached on St. John’s Day, and burnt their ship, resolved to stray no longer in far foreign lands. The swings in which the Esthonian maidens still rock themselves on St. John’s Day are said to recall the ship in which the lovers tossed upon the stormy sea, and the bonfires commemorate the burning of it. When the fires have died out, the swings are laid aside and never used again either in the village or at the solitary alehouse until spring comes round once more.(742) Here it is natural to connect both swings and bonfires with the apparent course of the sun, who reaches the highest and turning point of his orbit on St. John’s Day. Bonfires and swings perhaps were originally charms intended to kindle and speed afresh on its heavenly road “the golden swing in the sky.” Among the Letts of South Livonia and Curland the summer solstice is the occasion of a great festival of flowers, at which the people sing songs with the constant refrain of _lihgo, lihgo_. It has been proposed to derive the word _lihgo_ from the Lettish verb _ligot_, “to swing,” with reference to the sun swinging in the sky at this turning-point of his course.(743)

(M221) At Tengaroeng, in Eastern Borneo, the priests and priestesses receive the inspiration of the spirits seated in swings and rocking themselves to and fro. Thus suspended in the air they appear to be in a peculiarly favourable position for catching the divine afflatus. One end of the plank which forms the seat of the priest’s swing is carved in the rude likeness of a crocodile’s head; the swing of the priestess is similarly ornamented with a serpent’s head.(744)

(M222) Again, swings are used for the cure of sickness, but it is the doctor who rocks himself in them, not the patient. In North Borneo the Dyak medicine man will sometimes erect a swing in front of the sick man’s house and sway backwards and forwards on it for the purpose of kicking away the disease, frightening away evil spirits, and catching the stray soul of the sufferer.(745) Clearly in his passage through the air the physician is likely to collide with the disease and the evil spirits, both of which are sure to be loitering about in the neighbourhood of the patient, and the rude shock thus given to the malady and the demons may reasonably be expected to push or hustle them away. At Tengaroeng, in Eastern Borneo, a traveller witnessed a ceremony for the expulsion of an evil spirit in which swinging played a part. After four men in blue shirts bespangled with stars, and wearing coronets of red cloth decorated with beads and bells, had sought diligently for the devil, grabbling about on the floor and grunting withal, three hideous hags dressed in faded red petticoats were brought in with great pomp, carried on the shoulders of Malays, and took their seats, amid solemn silence, on the cradle of a swing, the ends of which were carved to represent the head and tail of a crocodile. Not a sound escaped from the crowd of spectators during this awe-inspiring ceremony; they regarded the business as most serious. The venerable dames then rocked to and fro on the swing, fanning themselves languidly with Chinese paper fans. At a later stage of the performance they and three girls discharged burning arrows at a sort of altar of banana leaves, maize, and grass. This completed the discomfiture of the devil.(746)

(M223) The Athenians in antiquity celebrated an annual festival of swinging. Boards were hung from trees by ropes, and people sitting on them swung to and fro, while they sang songs of a loose or voluptuous character. The swinging went on both in public and private. Various explanations were given of the custom; the most generally received was as follows. When Bacchus came among men to make known to them the pleasures of wine, he lodged with a certain Icarus or Icarius, to whom he revealed the precious secret and bade him go forth and carry the glad tidings to all the world. So Icarus loaded a waggon with wine-skins, and set out on his travels, the dog Maera running beside him. He came to Attica, and there fell in with shepherds tending their sheep, to whom he gave of the wine. They drank greedily, but when some of them fell down dead drunk, their companions thought the stranger had poisoned them with intent to steal the sheep; so they knocked him on the head. The faithful dog ran home and guided his master’s daughter Erigone to the body. At sight of it she was smitten with despair and hanged herself on a tree beside her dead father, but not until she had prayed that, unless the Athenians should avenge her sire’s murder, their daughters might die the same death as she. Her curse was fulfilled, for soon many Athenian damsels hanged themselves for no obvious reason. An oracle informed the Athenians of the true cause of this epidemic of suicide; so they sought out the bodies of the unhappy pair and instituted the swinging festival to appease Erigone; and at the vintage they offered the first of the grapes to her and her father.(747)

(M224) Thus the swinging festival at Athens was regarded by the ancients as an expiation for a suicide or suicides by hanging. This opinion is strongly confirmed by a statement of Varro, that it was unlawful to perform funeral rites in honour of persons who had died by hanging, but that in their case such rites were replaced by a custom of swinging images, as if in imitation of the death they had died.(748) Servius says that the Athenians, failing to find the bodies of Icarius and Erigone on earth, made a pretence of seeking them in the air by swinging on ropes hung from trees; and he seems to have regarded the custom of swinging as a purification by means of air.(749) This explanation probably comes very near the truth; indeed if we substitute “souls” for “bodies” in the wording of it we may almost accept it as exact. It might be thought that the souls of persons who had died by hanging were, more than the souls of the other dead, hovering in the air, since their bodies were suspended in air at the moment of death. Hence it would be considered needful to purge the air of these vagrant spirits, and this might be done by swinging persons or things to and fro, in order that by their impact they might disperse and drive away the baleful ghosts. Thus the custom would be exactly analogous, on the one hand, to the practice of the Malay medicine-man, who swings to and fro in front of the patient’s house in order to chase away the disease, or to frighten away evil spirits, or to catch the stray soul of the sick man, and, on the other hand, to the practice of the Central Australian aborigines who beat the air with their weapons and hands in order to drive the lingering ghost away to the grave.(750) At Rome swinging seems to have formed part of the great Latin festival (_Feriae Latinae_), and its origin was traced to a search in the air for the body or even the soul of King Latinus, who had disappeared from earth after the battle with Mezentius, King of Caere.(751)

(M225) Yet on the other hand there are circumstances which point to an intimate association, both at Athens and Rome, of these swinging festivals with an intention of promoting the growth of cultivated plants. Such circumstances are the legendary connexion of the Athenian festival with Bacchus, the custom of offering the first-fruits of the vintage to Erigone and Icarius,(752) and at Rome the practice of hanging masks on trees at the time of sowing(753) and in order to make the grapes grow better.(754) Perhaps we can reconcile the two apparently discrepant effects attributed to swinging as a means of expiation on the one side and of fertilisation on the other, by supposing that in both cases the intention is to clear the air of dangerous influences, whether these are ghosts of the unburied dead or spiritual powers inimical to the growth of plants. Independent of both appears to be the notion that the higher you swing the higher will grow the crops.(755) This last is homoeopathic or imitative magic pure and simple, without any admixture of the ideas of purification or expiation.

(M226) In modern Greece and Italy the custom of swinging as a festal rite, whatever its origin may be, is still observed in some places. At the small village of Koukoura in Elis an English traveller observed peasants swinging from a tree in honour of St. George, whose festival it was.(756) On the Tuesday after Easter the maidens of Seriphos play their favourite game of the swing. They hang a rope from one wall to another of the steep, narrow, filthy street, and putting some clothes on it swing one after the other, singing as they swing. Young men who try to pass are called upon to pay toll in the shape of a penny, a song, and a swing. The words which the youth sings are generally these: “The gold is swung, the silver is swung, and swung too is my love with the golden hair”; to which the girl replies, “Who is it that swings me that I may gild him with my favour, that I may work him a fez all covered with pearls?”(757) In the Greek island of Karpathos the villagers assemble at a given place on each of the four Sundays before Easter, a swing is erected, and the women swing one after the other, singing death wails such as they chant round the mimic tombs in church on the night of Good Friday.(758) On Christmas Day peasant girls in some villages of Calabria fasten ropes to iron rings in the ceiling and swing on them, while they sing certain songs prescribed by custom for the occasion. The practice is regarded not merely as an amusement but also as an act of devotion.(759) “It is a custom in Cadiz, when Christmas comes, to fasten swings in the courtyards of houses, and even in the houses themselves when there is no room for them outside. In the evenings lads and lasses assemble round the swings and pass the time happily in swinging amid joyous songs and cries. The swings are taken down when Carnival is come.”(760) The observance of the custom at Christmas, that is, at the winter solstice, suggests that in Calabria and Spain, as in Esthonia, the pastime may originally have been a magical rite designed to assist the sun in climbing the steep ascent to the top of the summer sky. If this were so, we might surmise that the gold and the golden hair mentioned by youths and maidens of Seriphos as they swing refer to “the golden swing in the sky,” in other words to the sun whose golden lamp swings daily across the blue vault of heaven.

(M227) However that may be, it would seem that festivals of swinging are especially held in spring. This is true, for example, of North Africa, where such festivals are common. At some places in that part of the world the date of the swinging is the time of the apricots; at others it is said to be the spring equinox. In some places the festival lasts three days, and fathers who have had children born to them within the year bring them and swing them in the swings.(761) In Corea “the fifth day of the fifth moon is called _Tano-nal_. Ancestors are then worshipped, and swings are put up in the yards of most houses for the amusement of the people. The women on this day may go about the streets; during the rest of the year they may go out only after dark. Dressed in their prettiest clothes, they visit the various houses and amuse themselves swinging. The swing is said to convey the idea of keeping cool in the approaching summer. It is one of the most popular feasts of the year.”(762) Perhaps the reason here assigned for swinging may explain other instances of the custom; on the principles of homoeopathic magic the swinging may be regarded as a means of ensuring a succession of cool refreshing breezes during the oppressive heat of the ensuing summer.

ADDENDA.

P. 104. _The sacred precinct of Pelops at Olympia._—It deserves to be noted that just as Pelops, whose legend reflects the origin of the chariot-race, had his sacred precinct and probably his tomb at Olympia, in like manner Endymion, whose legend reflects the origin of the foot-race,(763) had his tomb at the end of the Olympic stadium, at the point where the runners started in the race.(764) This presence at Olympia of the graves of the two early kings, whose names are associated with the origin of the foot-race and of the chariot-race respectively, can hardly be without significance; it indicates the important part played by the dead in the foundation of the Olympic games.

P. 188. _A man is literally reborn in the person of his son._—This belief in the possible rebirth of the parent in the child may sometimes explain the seemingly widespread dislike of people to have children like themselves. Examples of such a dislike have met us in a former part of this work.(765) A similar superstition prevails among the Papuans of Doreh Bay in Dutch New Guinea. When a son resembles his father or a daughter resembles her mother closely in features, these savages fear that the father or mother will soon die.(766) Again, in the island of Savou, to the south-west of Timor, if a child at birth is thought to be like its father or mother, it may not remain under the parental roof, else the person whom it resembles would soon die.(767) Such superstitions, it is obvious, might readily suggest the expedient of killing the child in order to save the life of the parent.

INDEX.

Ababua, the, 65

Abbas, the Great, 157

Abchases, their memorial feasts, 98, 103

Abdication, annual, of kings, 148; of father when his son is grown up, 181; of the king on the birth of a son, 190

Abeokuta, the Alake of, 203

Abipones, the, 63

Abraham, his attempted sacrifice of Isaac, 177

Abruzzi, the, 66, 67; burning an effigy of the Carnival in the, 224; Lenten custom in the, 244 _sq._

Abstract notions, the personification of, not primitive, 253

Academy at Athens, funeral games held in the, 96

Acaill, Book of, 39

Accession of a Shilluk king, ceremonies at the, 23 _sq._

Acropolis at Athens, the sacred serpent on the, 86 _sq._

Adonis or Tammuz, 7

Aesculapius restores Hippolytus or Virbius to life, 214

Africa, succession to the soul in, 200 _sq._

—— North, festivals of swinging in, 284

Agathocles, his siege of Carthage, 167

Agrigentum, Phalaris of, 75

Agrionia, a festival, 163

Agylla, funeral games at, 95

Ahaz, King, his sacrifice of his children, 169 _sq._

Akurwa, 19, 23, 24

Alake, the, of Abeokuta, custom of cutting off the head of his corpse, 203

Alban kings, 76

Albania, expulsion of Kore on Easter Eve in, 265

Alcibiades of Apamea, his vision of the Holy Ghost, 5 _n._3

Alexander the Great, funeral games in his honour, 95

Algonkin women, their attempts to be impregnated by the souls of the dying, 199

Altdorf and Weingarten, Ash Wednesday at, 232

Alus, sanctuary of Laphystian Zeus at, 161, 164

Amasis, king of Egypt, 217

Amelioration in the character of the gods, 136

American Indians, their Great Spirit, 3

Andaman Islanders, their ideas as to shooting stars, 60

Angamis, the, 13

Angel of Death, 177 _sq._

Angola, the Matiamvo of, 35

Angoni, the, of British Central Africa, 156 _n._2

Angoy, king of, 39

Anhouri, Egyptian god, 5

Animals sacred to kings, 82, 84 _sqq._; transformations into, 82 _sqq._

Annam, natives of, their indifference to death, 136 _sq._

Annual abdication of kings, 148

—— renewal of king’s power at Babylon, 113

—— tenure of the kingship, 113 _sqq._

Antichrist, expected reign of, 44 _sq._

Aphrodite, the grave of, 4

Apollo, buried at Delphi, 4; servitude of, 70 _n._1, 78; and the laurel, 78 _sqq._; as slayer of the dragon at Delphi, 78, 79, 80 _sq._; at Thebes, 79; purged of the dragon’s blood in the Vale of Tempe, 81

Ardennes, effigies of Carnival burned in the, 226 _sq._

Ares, the grave of, 4

Ariadne and Theseus, 75

Ariadne’s Dance, 77

Arician grove, ritual of the, 213

Arizona, mock human sacrifices in, 215

Arnold, Matthew, on the English middle class, 146

Artemis, Munychian, sacrifice to, 166 _n._1; mock human sacrifice in the ritual of, 215 _sq._

Artemisia, wife of Mausolus, 95

Ascanius, 76

Ascension Day, 222 _n_.1; the “Carrying out of Death” on, at Braller, 247 _sqq._

Ash Wednesday, Burial of the Carnival on, 221; death of Caramantran on, 226; effigies of Carnival or of Shrove Tuesday burnt or buried on, 226, 228 _sqq._

_Asherim_, sacred poles, 169

Ass, son of a god in the form of an, 124 _sq._; the crest or totem of a royal family, 132, 133

“Assegai, child of the,” 183

Asses and men, redemption of firstling, 173

Assyrian eponymate, 116 _sq._

Astarte, the moon-goddess, 92

Astronomical considerations determining the early Greek calendar, 68 _sq._

Athamas and his children, legend of, 161 _sqq._

Athena, human sacrifices to, 166 _n._1

Athenaeus, 143

Athenian festival of swinging, 281

Athens, funeral games at, 96; hand of suicide cut off at, 220 _n._

Attacks on kings permitted, 22, 48 _sqq._

Aun or On, king of Sweden, 57; sacrifices his sons, 160 _sq._, 188

Aurora Australis, fear entertained by the Kurnai of the, 267 _n._1

Australia, custom of destroying firstborn children among the aborigines of, 179 _sq._; magical rites for the revival of nature in Central, 270

Australian aborigines, their ideas as to shooting stars, 60 _sq._

—— funeral custom, 92

Avebury, Lord, 146 _n._1, 273

Baal, Semitic, 75; human sacrifices to, 167 _sqq._, 195

Babylon, festival of Zagmuk at, 110, 113

Babylonian gods, mortality of the, 5 _sq._

—— legend of creation, 110

—— myth of Marduk and Tiamat, 105 _sq._, 107 _sq._

Bacchic frenzy, 164

Baganda, the, 11

Ball, V., 279

Ballymote, the Book of, 100

Balwe in Westphalia, Burying the Carnival at, 232

Banishment of homicide, 69 _sq._

Banna, a tribe accustomed to strangle their firstborn children, 181 _sq._

Barber, Rev. Dr. W. T. A., 145 _n._, 275

Barcelona, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 242

Barongo, the, 10, 61

Bashada, a tribe accustomed to strangle their firstborn children, 181 _sq._

Bashkirs, their horse-races at funerals, 97

Bath of ox blood, 201

Battle of Summer and Winter, 254 _sqq._

Bautz, Dr. Joseph, on hell fire, 136 _n._1

Bavaria, Whitsuntide mummers in, 207 _sq._; Carrying out Death in, 233 _sqq._; dramatic contests between Summer and Winter in, 255 _sq._

Bear, the soul of Typhon in the Great, 5

Beast, the number of the, 44

Beating cattle to make them fat or fruitful, 236

Beauty and the Beast type of tale, 125 _sqq._

Bedouins, annual festival of the Sinaitic, 97

Behar, custom of swinging in, 279

Beheading the King, a Whitsuntide pageant in Bohemia, 209 _sq._

Bengal, kings of, their rule of succession, 51

Bengkali, East Indian island, 277

Benin, king of, represented with panther’s whiskers, 85 _sq._; human sacrifices at the burial of a king of, 139 _sq._

Berosus, Babylonian historian, 113

Berry, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” in, 241 _sq._

Bhagats, mock human sacrifices among the, 217 _sq._

Bhuiyas, the, of north-eastern India, 56

Bilaspur, temporary rajah in, 154

Birds of omen, stories of their origin, 126, 127 _sq._

Black, Dr. J. Sutherland, 260 _sq._

Black bull sacrificed to the dead, 95

—— ox, bath of blood of, 201

—— ram sacrificed to Pelops, 92, 104

Bland, J. O. P., 274 _sq._

Blemishes, bodily, a ground for putting kings to death, 36 _sqq._

Blood of victims in rain-making ceremonies, 20; bath of ox, 35; human, offered to the dead, 92 _sq._, 104; of sacrifice splashed on door-posts, house-posts, etc., 175, 176 _n._1; of human victims smeared on faces of idols, 185

Boemus, J., 234

Bohemia, Whitsuntide mummers in, 209 _sqq._; “Carrying out Death” in, 237 _sq._

Bones of sacrificial victim not broken, 20

Bonfire, jumping over, 262

Boni, in Celebes, 40

Book of Acaill, 39

Borans, their custom of sacrificing their children, 181

Bororos, the, of Brazil, 62

Bourges, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 242

Bourke, Captain J. G., 215

Boxers at funerals, 97

Brahmans, the ceremonial swinging of, 150, 156 _sq._

Braller in Transylvania, 230; “Carrying out Death” at, 247 _sqq._

Brasidas, funeral games in his honour, 94

Brazilian Indians, their indifference to death, 138

Breezes, magical means of securing, 287

Bridegroom of the May, 266

Bringing in Summer, 233, 237, 238, 246 _sqq._

Britomartis and Minos, 73

Brittany, Burial of Shrove Tuesday or of the Carnival in, 229 _sq._

Brockelmann, C., 116

Bronze ploughs used by Etruscans at founding cities, 157

Brother and sister marriages in royal families, 193 _sq._

Buddhist monks, suicide of, 42 _sq._

Budge, E. A. Wallis, 5 _n._3

Buginese of Celebes, their custom of swinging, 277

Bull, Pasiphae and the, 71; as symbol of the sun, 71 _sq._; the brazen, of Phalaris, 75; said to have guided the Samnites, 186 _n._4

—— and cow, represented by masked actors, 71

Bull-headed image of the sun, 75, 76, 78

Burgebrach in Bavaria, straw-man burnt on Ash Wednesday at, 232

Burial alive of the aged, 11 _sq._; in jars, 12 _sq._; of infants to secure rebirth, 199 _sq._; of Shrove Tuesday, 228

Burning an effigy of the Carnival, 223, 224, 228 _sq._, 229 _sq._, 232 _sq._

—— effigies of Shrove Tuesday, 227 _sqq._; of Winter at Zurich, 260 _sq._

“Burying the Carnival,” 209, 220 _sqq._

Busoga, mock human sacrifice in, 215

Cabunian, Mount, 3

Cadiz, custom of swinging at, 284

Cadmea, the, 79

Cadmus, servitude of, for the slaughter of the dragon, 70 _n._1, 78; the slayer of the dragon at Thebes, 78 _sq._

—— and Harmonia, their transformation into serpents, 84; marriage of, 88, 89

Caffres, the, 65

Caiem, the caliph, 8

Calabria, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” in, 241; custom of swinging in, 284

Calendar, the early Greek, determined by astronomical considerations, 68 _sq._; closely bound up with religion, 69; the Syro-Macedonian, 116

_Calica Puran_, an Indian law-book, 217

Calicut, rule of succession observed by the kings of, 47 _sqq._, 206

California, Indians of, 62

Cambodia, Kings of Fire and Water in, 14; annual abdication of the king of, 148

Canaanites, their custom of burning their children in honour of Baal, 168

Canada, Indians of, their ceremony for mitigating the cold of winter, 259 _sq._

Caramantran, death of, on Ash Wednesday in Provence, 226

Carinthia, ceremony at the installation of a prince of, 154 _sq._

Carman, the fair of, 100, 101

Carnival, Burying the, 209, 220 _sqq._; swings taken down at, 287

“Carnival (Shrovetide) Fool,” 231

Carolina, king’s son wounded among the Indians of, 184 _sq._

Carrier Indians, succession to the soul among the, 199

“Carrying out Death,” 221, 233 _sqq._, 246 _sqq._

Carthaginian sacrifice of children to Moloch, 75; to Baal, 167 _sq._

Cassange, in Angola, king of, 203; human sacrifice at installation of king of, 56 _sq._

Cassotis, oracular spring, 79

Castaly, the oracular spring of, 79

Catalonia, funeral of Carnival in, 225

Cattle sacrificed instead of human beings, 166 _n._ 1

Caucasus, funeral games among the people of the, 97 _sq._

Cauxanas, Indian tribe of the Amazon, kill all their firstborn children, 185 _sq._

Cecrops, half-serpent, half-man, 86 _sq._

Celebes, sanctity of regalia in, 202; the Toboongkoos of, 219

Celts of Gaul, their indifference to death, 142 _sq._

Cemeteries, fairs held at, 101, 102

Chaka, a Zulu tyrant, 36 _sq._

Chama, town on the Gold Coast, 129

Chariot-race at Olympia, 91, 104 _sq._, 287

—— races in honour of the dead, 93

Chewsurs, their funeral games, 98

Cheyne, Professor T. K., 86 _n._4

Chilcotin Indians, their practice at an eclipse of the sun, 77

“Child of the assegai,” 183

Children sacrificed to Moloch, 75; sacrificed by the Semites, 166 _sqq._; dislike of parents to have children like themselves, 287

Chinese indifference to death, 144 _sqq._, 273 _sqq._; reports of custom of devouring firstborn children, 180

Chiriguanos, the, of South America, 12

Chirol, Valentine, 274

Chitomé, a pontiff in Congo, the manner of his death, 14 _sq._

Christmas, custom of swinging at, 284

Chrudim in Bohemia, effigy of Death burnt at, 239

Chukchees, voluntary deaths among the, 13

Circassia, games in honour of the dead in, 98

Circumcision of father as a mode of redeeming his offspring, 181; mimic rite of, 219 _sq._

Cities, Etruscan ceremony at the founding of, 157

Cloud-dragon, myth of the, 107

Cluis-Dessus and Cluis-Dessous, custom of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 241 _sq._

Cnossus, Minos at, 70 _sqq._; the labyrinth at, 75 _sqq._

Cobra, the crest of the Maharajah of Nagpur, 132 _sq._

Cock, king represented with the feathers of a, 85

Colchis, Phrixus in, 162

Congo, the pontiff Chitomé in, 14

Conjunction of sun and moon, a time for marriage, 73

Consecration of firstlings, 172

Contempt of death, 142 _sqq._

Contests, dramatic, between actors representing Summer and Winter, 254 _sqq._

Conti, Nicolo, 54

Conybeare, F. C., 5 _n._3

Cook, A. B., 71 _n._2, 78 _n._2, 79 _n._1, 80, 81 _n._1, 82 _ns._1 and 3, 89 _n._5, 90

Corannas of South Africa, custom as to succession among the, 191 _sq._

Corea, custom of swinging in, 284 _sq._

Cornaby, Rev. W. A., 273

Cornford, F. M., 91 _n._7

Corn-harvest, the first-fruits of the, offered at Lammas, 101 _sq._

—— -spirit called the Old Man or the Old Woman, 253 _sq._

Cornwall, temporary king in, 153 _sq._

Corporeal relics of dead kings confer right to throne, 202 _sq._

Courtiers required to imitate their sovereign, 39 _sq._

Cow as symbol of the moon, 71 _sq._

Crane, dance called the, 75

Crassus, Publicius Licinius, 96

Creation, myths of, 106 _sqq._; Babylonian legend of, 110

Creator, the grave of the, 3

Crete, grave of Zeus in, 3

Criminals sacrificed, 195

Crocodile clan, 31

Cromm Cruach, a legendary Irish idol, 183

Cronus buried in Sicily, 4; his sacrifice of his son, 166, 179; his treatment of his father and his children, 192; his marriage with his sister Rhea, 194

Crooke, W., 53 _n._1, 157 _n._5, 159 _n._1

Crown of laurel, 78, 80 _sqq._; of oak leaves, 80 _sqq._; of olive at Olympia, 91

Crowning, festival of the, at Delphi, 78 _sqq._

Cruachan, the fair of, 101

Crystals, superstitions as to, 64 _n._6

Cupid and Psyche, story of, 131

Cutting or lacerating the body in honour of the dead, 92 _sq._, 97

Cuttle-fish, expiation for killing a, 217

Cychreus, king of Salamis, 87

Cycle, the octennial, based on an attempt to reconcile solar and lunar time, 68 _sq._

Cyclopes, slaughter of the, 78 _n._4

Cytisorus, 162

Czechs of Bohemia, 221

Daedalus, 75

Dahomey, royal family of, related to leopards, 85; religious massacres in, 138

Daira or Mahadev Mohammedans in Mysore, 220

Dalton, Colonel E. T., 217

Danakils or Afar of East Africa, 200

Dance of youths and maidens at Cnossus, 75 _sqq._; Ariadne’s, 77

Dardistan, custom of swinging in, 279

Darfur, Sultans of, 39

Dassera festival of Nepaul, 277

Daura, a Hausa kingdom, 35; custom of succession to the throne in, 201

David, King, and the brazen serpent, 86

Dead, souls of the, associated with falling stars, 64 _sqq._; rebirth of the, 70; sacrifices to the, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97; human blood offered to the, 92 _sq._, 104

Dead kings, worship of, 24 _sq._; their spirits thought to possess sick people, 25 _sq._; of Uganda consulted as oracles, 200 _sq._

—— man’s hand used in magical ceremony, 267 _n._1

—— One, the, name applied to the last sheaf, 254

—— Sunday, 239; the fourth Sunday in Lent, 221; also called Mid-Lent, 222 _n._1

Death of the Great Pan, 6 _sq._

—— preference for a violent, 9 _sqq._; natural, regarded as a calamity, 11 _sq._; European fear of, 135 _sq._, 146; indifference to, displayed by many races, 136 _sqq._; the Carrying out of, 221, 233 _sqq._, 246 _sqq._; conception of, in relation to vegetation, 253 _sq._; in the corn, 254; and resurrection of Kostrubonko at Eastertide, 261; and revival of vegetation, 263 _sq._

Death, effigy of, feared and abhorred, 239 _sq._; potency of life attributed to, 247 _sqq._

—— the Angel of, 177 _sq._

De Barros, Portuguese historian, 51

Deer, descent of Kalamants from a, 126 _sq._; sacrificed instead of human beings, 166 _n._.1

Delos, Theseus at, 75

Delphi, tombs of Dionysus and Apollo at, 3 _sq._; festival of Crowning at, 78 _sqq._

Dengdit, the Supreme Being of the Dinka, 30, 32

Deputy, the expedient of dying by, 56, 160

Dictynna and Minos, 73

Dinka, the, of the White Nile, 28 _sqq._; totemism of the, 30 _sq._

Diomede, human sacrifices to, 166 _n._1

Dionysus, the tomb of, at Delphi, 3; human sacrifice consummated by a priest of, 163; boys sacrificed to, 166 _n._1

Dislike of people to have children like themselves, 287

Diurnal tenure of the kingship, 118 _sq._

Divine king, the killing of the, 9 _sqq._

—— kings of the Shilluk, 17 _sqq._

—— spirit incarnate in Shilluk kings, 21, 26 _sq._

Dodge, Colonel R. I., 3

Dog killed instead of king, 17

Doreh Bay in New Guinea, 287

Dorians, their superstition as to meteors, 59

Dragon, drama of the slaughter of the, 78 _sqq._, 89; myth of the, 105 _sqq._

Dragon-crest of kings, 105

Dramatic contests of actors representing Summer and Winter, 254 _sqq._

Dreams, revelations in, 25

Drenching leaf-clad mummer as a rain-charm, 211

Driver, Professor S. R., 170 _n._5, 173 _n._1

Ducks and ptarmigan, dramatic contest of the, 259

Dyak medicine-men, their practice of swinging, 280 _sq._

Dyaks of Sarawak, story of their descent from a fish, 126; sacrifice cattle instead of human beings, 166 _n._1; their sacrifices during an epidemic, 176 _n._1; their custom of swinging, 277

Dying, custom of catching the souls of the, 198 _sqq._

Dying by deputy, 56, 160

Eames, W., 273

Ears of sacrificial victims cut off, 97

Easter, first Sunday after, 249; swinging on the Tuesday after, 283; custom of swinging on the four Sundays before, 284

Easter Eve in Albania, expulsion of Kore on, 265

Eastertide, death and resurrection of Kostrubonko at, 261

Eating the bodies of aged relations, custom of, 14

Echinadian Islands, 6

Eclipse of the sun and moon, belief of the Tahitians as to, 73 _n._2; practice of the Chilcotin Indians at an, 77

Ecliptic perhaps mimicked in dances, 77

Effigies of Carnival, 222 _sqq._; of Shrove Tuesday, 227 _sqq._; of Death, 233 _sqq._, 246 _sqq._; seven-legged, of Lent in Spain and Italy, 244 _sq._; of Winter burnt at Zurich, 260 _sq._; of Kupalo, Kostroma, and Yarilo in Russia, 262 _sq._

Effigy, human sacrifices carried out in, 217 _sqq._

Egbas, the, 41

Egypt, temporary kings in Upper, 151 _sq._; mock human sacrifices in ancient, 217

Egyptian gods, mortality of the ancient, 4 _sqq._; influence on Christian doctrine of the Trinity, 5 _n._3; kings called bulls, 72; trinities of gods, 5 _n._3

Eimine Ban, an Irish abbot, 159 _n._1

Eldest sons sacrificed for their fathers, 161 _sqq._

Elliot, R. H., 136

Emain, fair at, 100

Embalming as a means of prolonging the life of the soul, 4

Encheleans, the, 84

Endymion at Olympia, 90; his tomb at Olympia, 287

English middle class, their clinging to life, 146

Ἐννέωρος βασίλευε, 70 _n._3

Eponymate, the Assyrian, 116 _sq._

Eponymous magistrates, 117 _n._1

Equinox, the spring, custom of swinging at, 284; drama of Summer and Winter at the spring, 257

Erechtheum, the, 87

Erechtheus or Erichthonius in relation to the sacred serpent on the Acropolis, 86 _sq._; voluntary death of the daughters of, 192 _n._3

Ergamenes, king of Meroe, 15

Erichthonius, 86. _See_ Erechtheus

Erigone, her suicide by hanging, 281 _sq._

Erzgebirge, Shrovetide custom in the, 208 _sq._

Esagil, temple of Marduk at Babylon, 113

Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, 116

Esquimaux, suicide among the, 43; their magical ceremony in autumn, 259

Esthonian belief as to falling stars, 66 _sq._; celebration of St. John’s Day, 280; custom on Shrove Tuesday, 233, 252 _sq._

Esthonians, their ideas of shooting stars, 63

Ethiopia, kings of, chosen for their beauty, 38 _sq._

Ethiopian kings of Meroe put to death, 15

Etruscan ceremony at founding cities, 157

Euphorion of Chalcis, Greek author, 143, 144

Europa, her wanderings, 89; and Zeus, 73

European beliefs as to shooting stars, 66 _sqq._; fear of death, 135 _sq._, 146

Evans, Sebastian, 122 _n._1

Eve, Easter, in Albania, 265

Eve of St. John (Midsummer Eve), Russian ceremony on, 262

Ewe negroes, the, 61

Expiation for killing sacred animals, 216 _sq._

Eyeo, kings of, put to death, 40 _sq._

Ezekiel, on the sacrifice of the firstborn, 171 _sq._

E-zida, the temple of Nabu, 110

Fairs of ancient Ireland, 99 _sqq._

Fashoda, the capital of the Shilluk kings, 18, 19, 21, 24

Father god succeeded by his divine son, 5

Fazoql or Fazolglou, kings of, put to death, 16

Fear of death entertained by the European races, 135 _sq._, 146

“Feeding the dead,” 102

_Feriae Latinae_, 283

Feronia, a Latin goddess, 186 _n._4

Fertilising power ascribed to the effigy of Death, 250 _sq._

Festival of the Crowning at Delphi, 78 _sq._; of the Laurel-bearing at Thebes, 78 _sq._, 88 _sq._

Festus, on “the Sacred Spring,” 186

Feuillet, Madame Octave, 228 _sq._

Fez, mock sultan in, 152

Fighting the king, right of, 22

Fiji, voluntary deaths in, 11 _sq._; custom of grave-diggers in, 156 _n._2; rule of succession in, 191

Finger-joints, custom of sacrificing, 219; mock sacrifice of, _ib._

Fire, voluntary death by, 42 _sqq._; and Water, kings of, in Cambodia, 14

Firstborn, sacrifice of the, 171 _sqq._; killed and eaten, 179 _sq._; sacrificed among various races, 179 _sqq._

—— -fruits offered to the dead, 102; of the corn offered at Lammas, 101 _sq._; of the vintage offered to Icarius and Erigone, 283

Firstlings, Hebrew sacrifice of, 172 _sq._; Irish sacrifice of, 183

Fish, descent of the Dyaks from a, 126

Fison, Rev. Lorimer, 156 _n._2

Five years, despotic power for period of, 53

Flight of the priestly king (_Regifugium_) at Rome, 213

Florence, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 240 _sq._

Florida, sacrifice of firstborn male children by the Indians of, 184

Fool, the Carnival, burial of, 231 _sq._

Foot, custom of standing on one, 149, 150, 155, 156

—— -race at Olympia, 287

Franche-Comté, effigies of Shrove Tuesday destroyed in, 227

Freycinet, L. de, 118 _n._1

Frosinone in Latium, burning an effigy of the Carnival at, 22 _sq._

Funeral of Kostroma, 261 _sqq._

—— -games, 92 _sqq._

—— -rites performed for a father in the fifth month of his wife’s pregnancy, 189

Futuna in the South Pacific, 97

Galton, Sir Francis, 146 _n._2

Game of Troy, 76 _sq._

Games, funeral, 92 _sqq._

Gandharva-Sena, 124, 125

Ganges, firstborn children sacrificed to the, 180 _sq._

Gazelle Peninsula in New Britain, 65

Gelo, tyrant of Syracuse, 167

Genesis, account of the creation in, 106

Ghost, the Holy, regarded as female, 5 _n._3

Ghosts propitiated with blood, 92; propitiated with games, 96; anger of, 103

Giles, Professor H. A., 275

Girls’ race at Olympia, 91

Gladiators at Roman funerals, 96; at Roman banquets, 143

Goats sacrificed instead of human beings, 166 _n._1

Gobir, a Hausa kingdom, 35

God, the killing and resurrection of a god in the hunting, pastoral, and agricultural stages of society, 221

God’s Mouth, 41

Gods, mortality of the, 1 _sqq._; created by man in his own likeness, 2 _sq._; succeeded by their sons, 5; progressive amelioration in the character of the, 136

Golden apples of the Hesperides, 80

—— fleece, ram with, 162

—— swords, 75

Goldmann, Dr. Emil, 155 _n._1

Goldziher, I., 97 _n._7

Gomes, E. H., 176 _n._1

Gonds, mock human sacrifices among the, 217

Good Friday, 284

Gore, Captain, 139 _n._1

Gospel to the Hebrews, the apocryphal, 5 _n._3

_Graal_, _History of the Holy_, 120, 134

Grape-cluster, Mother of the, 8

Gray, Archdeacon J. H., 145

Great Pan, death of the, 6 _sq._

—— Spirit, the, of the American Indians, 3

—— year, the, 70

Greece, human sacrifices in ancient, 161 _sqq._; swinging as a festal rite in modern, 283 _sq._

Greek mode of reckoning intervals of time, 59 _n._1

Greenlanders, their belief in the mortality of the gods, 3

Grey hair a signal of death, 36 _sq._

—— hairs of kings, 100, 102, 103

Grimm, J., 155 _n._1, 221, 240, 244

Groot, Professor J. J. M. de, 180 _n._7, 275

Grove, the Arician, 213

Guatemala, catching the soul of the dying in, 199

Guayana Indians, 12

Gypsies, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” among the, 243

Hair, grey, a signal of death, 36 _sq._

Halae in Attica, mock human sacrifice at, 215

Hale, Horatio, quoted, 11 _sq._

Hamilton, Alexander, quoted, 48

Hamilton’s _Account of the East Indies_, 278

Hammurabi, king of Babylon, 110

Hand of dead man in magical ceremony, 267 _n._1; of suicide cut off, 220 _n._

Hanging of an effigy of the Carnival, 230 _sq._

Harmonia and Cadmus, 84; marriage of, 88, 89

Harvest ceremonies, 20, 25

Harz Mountains, ceremony at Carnival in the, 233

Hausa kings put to death, 35

Hawaii, annual festival in, 117 _sq._

Hawk in Egypt, symbol of the sun and of the king, 112

Heads of dead kings removed and kept, 202 _sq._

Hebrew sacrifice of the firstborn, 171 _sqq._

Hebrews, apocryphal Gospel to the, 5 _n._3

Heitsi-eibib, a Hottentot god, 3

Heliogabalus, the emperor, 92

Heliopolis, 5; the sacred bull of, 72

Hell fire in Catholic and Protestant theology, 136

Helle and Phrixus, the children of King Athamas, 161 _sqq._

Hephaestion, 95

Hera, race of girls in honour of, at Olympia, 91; the sister of her husband Zeus, 194

Heraclitus, on the souls of the dead, 12

Hercules in the garden of the Hesperides, 80

Hermapolis, 4

Hermes, the grave of, 4

Heruli, the, 14

Hesperides, garden of the, 80

Hieraconpolis, 112

_High History of the Holy Graal_, 120, 134

Hippodamia at Olympia, 91; grave of the suitors of, 104

Hippolytus or Virbius killed by horses, 214

Hindoo belief as to shooting stars, 67; of the rebirth of a father in his son, 188

Hinnom, the Valley of, 169, 170

Hirpini, guided by a wolf (_hirpus_), 186 _n._4

Hodson, T. C., 117 _n._1

Hoeck, K., 73 _n._1

Hofmayr, P. W., 18 _n._1, 19 _n._2

Holm-oak, 81 _sq._

Holy Ghost, regarded as female, 5 _n._3

—— Saturday, 244

Homeric age, funeral games in the, 93

Homicide, banishment of, 69 _sq._

Homoeopathic or imitative magic, 283, 285

Hooks, Indian custom of swinging on, 278 _sq._

Horse-mackerel, descent of a totemic clan from a, 129

—— -races in honour of the dead, 97, 98, 99, 101; at fairs, 99 _sqq._

Horses, Hippolytus killed by, 214

Horus, the soul of, in Orion, 5

Hottentots, the mortal god of the, 3

Howitt, A. W., 64

Human flesh, transformation into animal shape through eating, 83 _sq._

Human sacrifices at Upsala, 58; in ancient Greece, 161 _sqq._; mock, 214 _sqq._; offered by ancestors of the European races, 214; to renew the sun’s fire, 74 _sq._

Huntsman, the Spectral, 178

Huron Indians, their burial of infants, 199

Ibadan in West Africa, 203

Ibn Batuta, 53

Icarus or Icarius and his daughter Erigone, 281 _sq._, 283

Ida, oracular cave of Zeus on Mount, 70

Ihering, R. von, 187 _n._4

Ijebu tribe, 112

Ilex or holm-oak, 81 _sq._

Immortality, belief of savages in their natural, 1; firm belief of the North American Indians in, 137

Impregnation by the souls of the dying, 199

Incarnation of divine spirit in Shilluk kings, 21, 26 _sq._

India, sacrifice of firstborn children in, 180 _sq._; images of Siva and Pârvati married in, 265 _sq._

Indians of Arizona, mock human sacrifice among the, 215; of Canada, their ceremony for mitigating the cold of winter, 259 _sq._

Indifference to death displayed by many races, 136 _sqq._

Indra and the dragon Vrtra, 106 _sq._

Infanticide among the Australian aborigines, 187 _n._6; sometimes suggested by a doctrine of transmigration or reincarnation of human souls, 188 _sq._; prevalent in Polynesia, 191, 196; among savages, 196 _sq._

Infants, burial of, 199

Ino and Melicertes, 162

Intervals of time, Greek and Latin modes of reckoning, 59 _n._1

_Invocavit_ Sunday, 243

Ireland, the great fairs of ancient, 99 _sqq._

Irish sacrifice of firstlings, 183

Iron-Beard, Dr., a Whitsuntide mummer, 208, 212, 233

Isaac about to be sacrificed by his father Abraham, 177

Isaacs, Nathaniel, 36 _sq._

Isis, the soul of, in Sirius, 5

Isle of Man, May Day in the, 258

Isocrates, 95

Israelites, their custom of burning their children in honour of Baal, 168 _sqq._

Isthmian games instituted in honour of Melicertes, 93, 103

Italy, seven-legged effigies of Lent in, 244 _sq._

Jack o’ Lent, 230

Jagas, a tribe of Angola, their custom of infanticide, 196 _sq._

Jaintias of Assam, 55

Jambi in Sumatra, temporary kings in, 154

Japan, mock human sacrifices in, 218

Jars, burial in, 12 _sq._

Java, Sultans of, 53

Jawbone of king preserved, 200 _sq._

Jeoud, the only-begotten son of Cronus, sacrificed by his father, 166

Jerome, on Tophet, 170

“Jerusalem, the Road of,” 76

Jerusalem, sacrifice of children at, 169

Jinn, death of the King of the, 8

Jordanus, Friar, 54

Joyce, P. W., 100 _n._1, 101

Judah, kings of, their custom of burning their children, 169

Jukos, kings of the, put to death, 34

Jumping over a bonfire, 262

June, the twenty-ninth of, St. Peter’s Day, 262

Jŭok, the great god of the Shilluk, 18

Jupiter, period of revolution of the planet, 49

Justin, 187 _n._5

Kaitish, the, 60

Kalamantans, their descent from a deer, 126 _sq._

Kali, Indian goddess, 123

Kamants, a Jewish tribe, 12

Kanagra district of India, 265

Karpathos, custom of swinging in the island of, 284

Katsina, a Hausa kingdom, 35

Kayans of Borneo, mock human sacrifices among the, 218

Keonjhur, ceremony at installation of Rajah of, 56

Kerre, a tribe accustomed to strangle their firstborn children, 181 _sq._

Khlysti, the, a Russian sect, 196 _n._3

Khonds of India, their human sacrifices, 139

Kibanga, kings of, put to death, 34

Killer of the Elephant, 35

Killing the divine king, 9 _sqq._

—— of the tree-spirit, 205 _sqq._; a means to promote the growth of vegetation, 211 _sq._

—— a god, in the hunting, pastoral, and agricultural stages of society, 221

King, the killing of the divine, 8 _sqq._; slaying of the, in legend, 120 _sqq._; responsible for the weather and crops, 165; abdicates on the birth of a son, 190; at Whitsuntide, pretence of beheading the, 209 _sq._

King of the Jinn, death of the, 8

—— of the Wood at Nemi, 28, 205 _sq._, 212 _sqq._

—— and Queen of May, marriage of, 266

King Hop, 149, 151

King’s daughter offered as prize in a race, 104

—— jawbone preserved, 200 _sq._

—— life sympathetically bound up with the prosperity of the country, 21, 27

—— skull used as a drinking-vessel, 200

—— son, sacrifice of the, 160 _sqq._

—— widow, succession to the throne through marriage with, 193

Kingdom, the prize of a race, 103 _sqq._ _See also_ Succession

Kings, divine, of the Shilluk, 17 _sqq._; regarded as incarnations of a divine spirit, 21, 26 _sq._; attacks on, permitted, 22, 48 _sqq._; worship of dead, 24 _sq._; killed at the end of a fixed term, 46 _sqq._; related to sacred animals, 82, 84 _sqq._; personating dragons or serpents, 82; addressed by names of animals, 86; with a dragon or serpent crest, 105; the supply of, 134 _sqq._; temporary, 148 _sqq._; abdicate annually, 148

—— killed when their strength fails, 14 _sqq._

—— of Dahomey and Benin represented partly in animal shapes, 85 _sq._

—— of Fire and Water, 14

—— of Uganda, dead, consulted as oracles, 200 _sq._

Kingship, octennial tenure of the, 58 _sqq._; triennial tenure of the, 112 _sq._; annual tenure of the, 113 _sqq._; diurnal tenure of the, 118 _sq._; burdens and restrictions attaching to the early, 135; modern type of, different from the ancient, 135

Kingsley, Mary H., 119 _n._1

Kingsmill Islanders, 64

Kirghiz, games in honour of the dead among the, 97

_Kirwaido_, ruler of the old Prussians, 41

Königgrätz district of Bohemia, Whitsuntide custom in the, 209 _sq._

Kore expelled on Easter Eve in Albania, 265

Koryaks, voluntary deaths among the, 13

Kostroma, funeral of, 261 _sqq._

Kostrubonko, funeral of, 261

Krapf, Dr. J. L., 183 _n._1

Krishna, Hindoo festival of swinging in honour of, 279

Kupalo, funeral of, 261, 262

Kurnai, their fear of the Aurora Australis, 267 _n._1

Kutonaqa Indians of British Columbia, their sacrifice of their firstborn children to the sun, 183 _sq._

La Rochelle, burning of Shrove Tuesday at, 230

Labyrinth, the Cretan, 71, 74, 75, 76, 77

Labyrinths in churches, 76; in the north of Europe, 76 _sq._

Lada, the funeral of, 261, 262

Laevinus, M. Valerius, 96

Laius and Oedipus, 193

“Lame reign,” 38

Lammas, the first of August, 99, 100, 101, 105

Lampson, M. W., 146 _n._1, 273

Lancelot constrained to be king, 120 _sq._, 135

Lang, Andrew, 130 _n._1

Laodicea in Syria, human sacrifices at, 166 _n._1

Laos, a province of Siam, 97

Laphystian Zeus, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165

Last sheaf called “the Dead One,” 254

Latin festival, the great (_Feriae Latinae_), 283

—— mode of reckoning intervals of time, 59 _n._1

Latins, sanctity of the woodpecker among the, 186 _n._4

Latinus, King, his disappearance, 283

Laughlan Islanders, 63

Laurel, sacred, guarded by a dragon, 79 _sq._; chewed by priestess of Apollo, 80

Laurel-Bearer at Thebes, 88 _sq._

—— -Bearing Apollo, 79 _n._3

—— -bearing, festival of the, at Thebes, 78 _sq._, 88 _sq._

—— wreath at Delphi and Thebes, 78 _sqq._

_Laws of Manu_, 188

Learchus, son of King Athamas, 161, 162

Lechrain, Burial of the Carnival in, 231

Leipsic, “Carrying out Death” at, 236

Lengua Indians, 11; of the Gran Chaco, 63; their practice of killing firstborn girls, 186; their custom of infanticide, 197

Lent, the fourth Sunday in, called Dead Sunday or Mid-Lent, 221, 222 _n._1, 233 _sqq._, 250, 255; personified by an actor or effigy, 226, 230; fifth Sunday in, 234, 239; third Sunday in, 238; Queen of, 244; symbolised by a seven-legged effigy, 244 _sq._

Leonidas, funeral games in his honour, 94

Leopard Societies of Western Africa, 83

Leopards related to royal family of Dahomey, 85

Lepidus, Marcus Aemilius, 96

Lepsius, R., 17 _n._2

Lerida in Catalonia, funeral of the Carnival at, 225 _sq._

Lerpiu, a spirit, 32

Letts, celebration of the summer solstice among the, 280

Leviathan, 106 _n._2

Liebrecht, F., 7 _n._2

Life, human, valued more highly by Europeans than by many other races, 135 _sq._

_Limu_, the Assyrian eponymate, 117

Lion, king represented with the body of a, 85

Lisiansky, U., 117 _sq._

“Little Easter Sunday,” 153, 154 _n._1

Logan, W., 49

Lolos, the, 65

Lombardy, the Day of the Old Wives in, 241

“Lord of the Heavenly Hosts,” 149, 150, 155, 156

Lostwithiel in Cornwall, temporary king at, 153 _sq._

Lous, a Babylonian month, 113, 116

Lucian, 42

Lug, legendary Irish hero, 99, 101

Lugnasad, the first of August, 101

Lunar and solar time, attempts to harmonise, 68 _sq._

Luschan, F. von, 85 _n._5, 86 _n._1

Lussac, Ash Wednesday at, 226

Lycaeus, Mount, Zeus on, 70; human sacrifices on, 163

Macahity, an annual festival in Hawaii, 117

Macassars of Celebes, their custom of swinging, 277

Macdonald, Rev. J., 183 _n._2

Maceboard, the, in the Isle of Man, 258

Macgregor, Sir William, 203 _n._2

Macha, Queen, 100

McLennan, J. F., 194 _n._1

Magic, the Age of, 2; homoeopathic or imitative, 283, 285

Magical ceremonies for the revival of nature in spring, 266 _sqq._; for the revival of nature in Central Australia, 270

_Maha Makham_, the Great Sacrifice, 49

Mairs, their custom of sacrificing their firstborn sons, 181

Malabar, custom of _Thalavettiparothiam_ in, 53; religious suicide in, 54 _sq._

Malayans, devil-dancers, practise a mock human sacrifice, 216

Malays, their belief in the Spectral Huntsman, 178

Malta, death of the Carnival in, 224 _sq._

Manasseh, King, his sacrifice of his children, 170

Mandans, their notions as to the stars, 67 _sq._

Man-god, reason for killing the, 9 _sq._

Mangaians, their preference for a violent death, 10

Manipur, the Naga tribes of, 11; mode of counting the years in, 117 _n._1; rajahs of, descended from a snake, 133

Mannhardt, W., 249 _n._4, 253, 270

_Manu_, _Laws of_, 188

Maoris, the, 64

Mara tribe of northern Australia, 60

_Mardi Gras_, Shrove Tuesday, 227

Marduk, New Year festival of, 110; his image at Babylon, 113

—— and Tiamat, 105 _sq._, 107 _sq._

_Mareielis_ at Zurich, 260

Marena, Winter or Death, 262

Marketa, the holy, 238

Marriage, mythical and dramatic, of the Sun and Moon, 71, 73 _sq._, 78, 87 _sq._, 92, 105; of brothers and sisters in royal families, 193 _sq._

—— Sacred, of king and queen, 71; of gods and goddesses, 73; of actors disguised as animals, 83; of Zeus and Hera, 91

“Marriage Hollow” at Teltown, 99

Martin, Father, quoted, 141 _sq._

Marzana, goddess of Death, 237

Masai, the, 61, 65; their custom as to the skulls of dead chiefs, 202 _sq._

Masks hung on trees, 283

Masquerades of kings and queens, 71 _sq._, 88, 89

Masson, Bishop, 137

Mata, the small-pox goddess, sacrifice of children to, 181

Matiamvo, a potentate in Angola, the manner of his death, 35 _sq._

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, 94 _sq._

Mausolus, contests of eloquence in his honour, 95

May, the Queen of, in the Isle of Man, 258; King and Queen of, 266

—— Bride, 266

—— Day in Sweden, 254; in the Isle of Man, 258

—— -tree, 246; horse-race to, 208

—— -trees, 251 _sq._

Mbaya Indians of South America, 140; their custom of infanticide, 197

Medicine-men swinging as a mode of cure, 280 _sq._

Melicertes at the Isthmus of Corinth, 93, 103; in Tenedos, human sacrifices to, 162

Memphis, statues of Summer and Winter at, 259 _n._1

Men and asses, redemption of firstling, 173

Mendes, mummy of Osiris at, 4; the ram-god of, 7 n.2

Menoeceus, his voluntary death, 192 _n._3

Meriahs, human victims among the Khonds, 139

Meroe, Ethiopian kings of, put to death, 15

Merolla, G., quoted, 14 _sq._

Messiah, a pretended, 46

Meteors, superstitions as to, 58 _sqq._

Metis, swallowed by her husband Zeus, 192

_Metsik_, “wood-spirit,” 233, 252 _sq._

Meyer, Professor Kuno, 159 _n._1

Micah, the prophet, on sacrifice, 171, 174

Mid-Lent, the fourth Sunday in Lent, 222 _n._1; also called Dead Sunday, 221; celebration of, 234, 236 _sq._; ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 240 _sqq._

Midsummer Eve, Russian ceremony on, 262

Mikados, human sacrifices formerly offered at the graves of the, 218

Miltiades, funeral games in his honour, 93

Minahassa, mock human sacrifices in, 214 _sq._

Minorca, seven-legged images of Lent in, 244 _n._1

Minos, king of Cnossus, his reign of eight years, 70 _sqq._; tribute of youths and maidens sent to, 74 _sqq._

—— and Britomartis, 73

Minotaur, legend of the, 71, 74, 75

Minyas, king of Orchomenus, 164

Mnevis, the sacred bull of Heliopolis, 72

Moab, king of, sacrifices his son on the wall, 166, 179

Mock human sacrifices, 214 _sqq._; sacrifices of finger-joints, 219

—— sultan in Morocco, 152 _sq._

Mohammedan belief as to falling stars, 63 _sq._

Moloch, sacrifice of children to, 75, 168 _sqq._

Moon represented by a cow, 71 _sq._; myth of the setting and rising, 73; married to Endymion, 90

—— and sun, mythical and dramatic marriage of the, 71, 73 _sq._, 78, 87 _sq._, 92, 105

Morasas, the, 219

Moravia, “Carrying out Death” in, 238 _sq._, 249

Morocco, annual temporary king in, 152 _sq._

Mortality of the gods, 1 _sqq._

Moschus, 73 _n._1

Moss, W., 284 _n._4

Mother of the Grape-cluster, 8

Moulton, Professor J. H., 124 _n._1

Mounds, sepulchral, 93, 96, 100, 104

Mulai Rasheed II., 153

Müller, K. O., 59, 69 _n._1, 90, 165 _n._1, 166 _n._1

Mumbo Jumbos, 178

Mummers, the Whitsuntide, 205 _sqq._

Murderers, their bodies destroyed, 11

Mutch, Captain J. S., 259 _n._1

Mysore, mimic rite of circumcision in, 220

Myths of creation, 106 _sqq._

Nabu, a Babylonian god, 110

Naga tribes of Manipur, 11

Nagpur, the cobra the crest of the Maharajah of, 132 _sq._

Namaquas, the, 61

Natural death regarded as a calamity, 11 _sq._

Nauroz and Eed festivals, 279

Nemean games celebrated in honour of Opheltes, 93

Nemi, priest of, 28, 212 _sq._, 220; King of the Wood at, 205 _sq._, 212 _sqq._

Nephele, wife of King Athamas, 161

New Britain, 65

—— Guinea, the Papuans of, 287

—— Hebrides, burial alive in the, 12

—— South Wales, sacrifice of firstborn children among the aborigines of, 179 _sq._

Ngarigo, the, of New South Wales, 60

Ngoio, a province of Congo, 118 _sq._

Nias, custom of succession to the chieftainship in, 198 _sq._; mock human sacrifices at funerals in, 216

Nicobarese, their sham-fights to gratify the dead, 96

Niederpöring in Bavaria, Whitsuntide custom at, 206 _sq._

Niué or Savage Island, 219

Nöldeke, Professor Th., 179 _n._4

Normandy, Burial of Shrove Tuesday in, 228

Norsemen, their custom of wounding the dying, 13 _sq._

North Africa, festivals of swinging in, 284

—— American Indians, their funeral celebrations, 97; their firm belief in immortality, 137

Nyakang, founder of the dynasty of Shilluk kings, 18 _sqq._

Nyikpla or Nyigbla, a negro divinity, 61

Oak, sacred, at Delphi, 80 _sq._; effigy of Death buried under an, 236

Oak branches, Whitsuntide mummer swathed in, 207

—— -leaves, crown of, 80 _sqq._

Oath by the Styx, 70 _n._1

Octennial cycle based on an attempt to harmonise lunar and solar time, 68 _sq._

—— tenure of the kingship, 58 _sqq._

Odin, 13; legend of the deposition of, 56; sacrifice of king’s sons to, 57; human sacrifices to, 160 _sq._, 188

Oedipus, legend of, 193

Oenomaus at Olympia, 91

Oesel, island of, 66

Old Man, name of the corn-spirit, 253 _sq._

—— people killed, 11 _sqq._

—— Wives, the Day of the, 241

—— Woman, Sawing the, a ceremony in Lent, 240 _sqq._; name applied to the corn-spirit, 253 _sq._

Oldenberg, Professor H., 122 _n._2

Oleae, the, at Orchomenus, 163, 164

Olive crown at Olympia, 91

Olympia, tombs of Pelops and Endymion at, 287

Olympiads based on the octennial cycle, 90

Olympic festival based on the octennial cycle, 89 _sq._; based on astronomical, not agricultural considerations, 105

—— games said to have been founded in honour of Pelops, 92

—— stadium, the, 287

—— victors regarded as embodiments of Zeus, 90 _sq._, or of the Sun and Moon, 91, 105

Omen-birds, stories of their origin, 126, 127 _sq._

On or Aun, king of Sweden, 57, 160 _sq._, 188

Opheltes at Nemea, 93

Ophites, the, 5 _n._3

Oracular springs, 79 _sq._

Orchomenus in Boeotia, human sacrifice at, 163 _sq._

Ordeal by poison, fatal effects of, 197

Orestes, flight of, 213

Origen, on the Holy Spirit, 5 _n._3

Orion the soul of Horus, 5

_Ororo_, 24

Osiris, the mummy of, 4

Otho, suicide of the Emperor, 140

Ox-blood, bath of, 201

Oxen sacrificed instead of human beings, 166 _n._1

Palermo, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 240

Palm Sunday, “Sawing the Old Woman” on, 243

Palodes, 6

Pan, death of the Great, 6 _sq._

Panebian Libyans, their custom of cutting off the heads of their dead kings, 202

Papuans, the, of Doreh Bay in New Guinea, 287

Parker, Professor E. H., 146 _n._1

Parkinson, John, 112 _sq._

Parrots’ eggs, a signal of death, 40 _sq._

Parsons, Harold G., 203 _n._5

Parthenon, eastern frieze of the, 89 _n._5

Pârvatî and Siva, marriage of the images of, 265 _sq._

Pasiphae identified with the moon, 72

—— and the bull, 71

“Pass through the fire,” meaning of the phrase as applied to the sacrifice of children, 165 _n._3, 172

Passier, kings of, put to death, 51 _sq._

Passover, tradition of the origin of the, 174 _sqq._

Pau Pi, an effigy of the Carnival, 225

Pausanias, King, funeral games in his honour, 94

Payagua Indians, 12

Payne, E. J., 69 _n._2

Paxos, 6

_Peking Gazette_, 274, 275

Pelops worshipped at Olympia, 92, 104; sacred precinct of, 104, 287

—— and Hippodamia at Olympia, 91

Penance for the slaughter of the dragon, 78

Peregrinus, his death by fire, 42

Persia, temporary kings in, 157 _sqq._

Personification of abstract ideas not primitive, 253

Peru, sacrifice of children among the Indians of, 185

Perun, sacrifice of firstborn children to, 183

Peruvian Indians, 63 _n._1

_Pfingstl_, a Whitsuntide mummer, 206 _sq._, 211

Phalaris, the brazen bull of, 75

Phaya Phollathep, “Lord of the Heavenly Hosts,” 149

Pherecydes, 163 _n._1

Philippine Islands, 3

Philo Judaeus, his doctrine of the Trinity, 6 _n._

—— of Byblus, 166, 179

Phocaeans, dead, propitiated with games, 95

Phoenicians, their custom of human sacrifice, 166 _sq._, 178, 179

Phrixus and Helle, the children of King Athamas, 161 _sqq._

Piceni, guided by a woodpecker (_picus_), 186 _n._4

Pilsen district of Bohemia, Whitsuntide custom in the, 210 _sq._

Pindar on the rebirth of the dead, 70

Pitrè, G., 224 _n._1

Plataea, sacrifices and funeral games in honour of the slain at, 95 _sq._

Plato on human sacrifices, 163

Ploughing, annual ceremony of, performed by temporary king, 149, 155 _sq._, 157

Ploughs, bronze, used by Etruscans at founding of cities, 157

Plutarch, 163; on the death of the Great Pan, 6; on human sacrifices among the Carthaginians, 167

Poison ordeal, fatal effects of the use of the, 197

Polynesia, remarkable rule of succession in, 190; prevalence of infanticide in, 191, 196

Poplars burnt on Shrove Tuesday, 224 _n._1

Poseidon, identified with Erechtheus, 87

Posidonius, ancient Greek traveller, 142

Possession by spirits of dead kings, 25 _sq._

Preference for a violent death, 9 _sqq._

Pregnancy, funeral rites performed for a father in the fifth month of his wife’s, 189

Prince of Wales Islands, 64

Procopius, 14

Prussians, supreme ruler of the old, 41 _sq._; custom of the old, 156

Pruyssenaere, E. de, 30 _n._1

Psoloeis, the, at Orchomenus, 163, 164

Ptarmigans and ducks, dramatic contest of the, 259

Puruha, a province of Quito, 185

Pururavas and Urvasi, Indian story of, 131

Pylos, burning the Carnival at, 232 _sq._

Pythagoras at Delphi, 4

Pythian games, 80 _sq._; celebrated in honour of the Python, 93

Queen of May in the Isle of Man, 259; married to the King of May, 266

—— of Winter in the Isle of Man, 258

Queensland, natives of, their superstitions as to falling stars, 60

Quilicare, suicide of kings of, 46 _sq._

Quiteve, title of kings of Sofala, 37 _sq._

Race for the kingdom at Olympia, 90

Races to determine the successor to the kingship, 103 _sqq._

_Radica_, a festival at the end of the Carnival at Frosinone, 222

Rahab or Leviathan, 106 _n._2

Rain-charms, 211

—— clan, 31

—— -god, 61

—— -makers among the Dinka, 32 _sqq._

—— -making ceremonies, 20

Rajah, temporary, 154

Ralî, the fair of, 265

Ram with golden fleece, 162

—— -god of Mendes, 7 _n._3

—— sacrificed to Pelops, 92, 104

Raratonga, custom of succession in, 191

_Rauchfiess_, a Whitsuntide mummer, 207 _n._1

Rebirth of the dead, 70; of a father in his son, 188 _sqq._; of the parent in the child, 287

Reckoning intervals of time, Greek and Latin modes of reckoning, 59 _n._1

Redemption of firstling men and asses, 173

Regalia in Celebes, sanctity of, 202

Regicide among the Slavs, 52; modified custom of, 148

_Regifugium_ at Rome, 213

Reinach, Salomon, 7 _n._2

Reincarnation of human souls, belief in, a motive for infanticide, 188 _sq._

Religion, the Age of, 2

Renewal, annual, of king’s power at Babylon, 113

Resurrection of the god, 212; of the tree-spirit, 212; of a god in the hunting, pastoral, and agricultural stages of society, 221; enacted in Shrovetide or Lenten ceremonies, 233; of the effigy of Death, 247 _sqq._; of the Carnival, 252; of the Wild Man, 252; of Kostrubonko at Eastertide, 261

Retaliation in Southern India, law of, 141 _sq._

Rhea and Cronus, 194

Rhegium in Italy, 187 _n._5

Rhodes, human sacrifices to Baal in, 195

Rhys, Sir John, 101

Rigveda, the, 279

“Road of Jerusalem,” 76

Robinson, Captain W. C., 139 _n._1

Rockhill, W. W., 284 _sq._

Roman custom of catching the souls of the dying, 200; of vowing a “Sacred Spring,” 186 _sq._

—— funeral customs, 92, 96

—— game of Troy, 76 _sq._

—— indifference to death, 143 _sq._

Rome, funeral games at, 96; the _Regifugium_ at, 213

Rook, custom of killing all firstborn children in the island of, 180

Roscher, W. H., 7 _n._2, 73 _n._2

Roscoe, Rev. J., 139, 182 _n._2, 201 _n._1

Rose, H. A., 181

Rose, the Sunday of the, 222 _n._1

Rottweil, the Carnival Fool at, 231

Russia, funeral ceremonies of Kostrubonko, etc., in, 261 _sqq._

Russians, religious suicides among the, 44 _sq._; the heathen, their sacrifice of the firstborn children, 183

Sacaea, a Babylonian festival, 113 _sqq._

Sacred Marriage of king and queen, 71; of actors disguised as animals, 71, 83; of gods and goddesses, 73; of Zeus and Hera, 91

—— spears, 19, 20

“Sacred spring, the,” among the ancient Italian peoples, 186 _sq._

Sacrifice of the king’s son, 160 _sqq._; of the firstborn, 171 _sqq._, 179 _sqq._; of finger-joints, 219

Sacrifices for rain, 20; for the sick, 20, 25; to totems, 31; to the dead, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97; of children among the Semites, 166 _sqq._

—— human, in ancient Greece, 161 _sqq._; mock human, 214 _sqq._

—— vicarious, 117; in ancient Greece, 166 _n._1

St. George and the Dragon, 107; swinging on the festival of, 283

St. John’s Day (the summer solstice), swinging at, 280

—— Eve, Russian ceremony on, 262

Saint-Lô, the burning of Shrove Tuesday at, 228 _sq._

St. Peter’s Day, the twenty-ninth of June, 262

Saintonge and Aunis, burning the Carnival in, 230

Sakalavas, sanctity of relics of dead kings among the, 202

Salamis in Cyprus, human sacrifices at, 166 _n._1

Salih, a prophet, 97

Salish Indians, their sacrifice of their firstborn children to the sun, 184

Salmoneus, his imitation of thunder and lightning, 165

Samaracand, New Year ceremony at, 151

Samnites, guided by a bull, 186 _n._4

Samoa, expiation for disrespect to a sacred animal in, 216 _sq._

Samorin, title of the kings of Calicut, 47 _sq._

Samothracian mysteries, 89

Santal custom of swinging on hooks, 279

Santos, J. dos, 37 _sq._

Sarawak, Dyaks of, 277

Saturday, Holy, 244

Savage Island, mimic rite of circumcision in, 219 _sq._

Savages believe themselves naturally immortal, 1

Savou, island of, 287

“Sawing the Old Woman,” a Lenten ceremony, 240 _sqq._

Saws at Mid-Lent, 241, 242

Saxon kings, their marriage with their stepmothers, 193

Saxons of Transylvania, the hanging of an effigy of Carnival among the, 230 _sq._

Saxony, Whitsuntide mummers in, 208

_Scarli_, 224 _n._1

Schmidt, A., 59 _n._1

Schmiedel, Professor P., 261 _n._1

Schoolcraft, H. R., 137 _sq._

Schörzingen, the Carnival Fool at, 231

Schwegler, F. C. A., 187 _n._4

Sdach Méac, title of annual temporary king of Cambodia, 148

Sea Dyaks, their stories of the origin of omen birds, 126, 127 _sq._

Seligmann, C. G., 17, 21, 22, 23, 26, 30, 33

Semang, the, 85

Semic in Bohemia, beheading the king on Whit-Monday at, 209

Seminoles of Florida, souls of the dying caught among the, 199

Semites, sacrifices of children among the, 166 _sqq._

Semitic Baal, 75

Senjero, sacrifice of firstborn sons in, 182 _sq._

Sepharvites, their sacrifices of children, 171

Seriphos, custom of swinging in the island of, 283 _sq._

Serpent, the Brazen, 86; sacred, on the Acropolis at Athens, 86; or dragons personated by kings, 82; transmigration of the souls of the dead into, 84

Servitude for the slaughter of dragons, 70, 78

Servius, on the legend of Erigone, 282

Seven youths and maidens, tribute of, 74 _sqq._

—— -legged effigy of Lent, 244 _sq._

Shadow Day, a gypsy name for Palm Sunday, 243

—— Queen, the, 243

Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 169, 170

Sham fight, 24

Shark, king of Dahomey represented with body of a, 85

Shilluk, a tribe of the White Nile, 17 _sqq._; custom of putting to death the divine kings, 17 _sqq._, 204, 206; ceremony on the accession of a new king of the, 204

Shirt worn by the effigy of Death, its use, 247, 249

Shooting stars, superstitions as to, 53 _sqq._

Shrines of dead kings, 24 _sq._

Shrove Tuesday, Burial of the Carnival on, 221 _sqq._; mock death of, 227 _sqq._; drama of Summer and Winter on, 257

Shrovetide custom in the Erzgebirge, 208 _sq._; in Bohemia, 209

—— Bear, the, 230

Shurii-Kia-Miau, aboriginal tribe in China, 145

Siam, annual temporary kings in, 149 _sq._

Siamese, mock human sacrifices among the, 218

Sick, sacrifices for the, 20, 25; thought to be possessed by the spirits of kings, 25 _sq._

Silesia, “Carrying out Death” in, 236 _sq._, 250 _sq._

Singalang Burong, the Ruler of the Spirit World, 127, 128

Sioo or Siauw, mock human sacrifices in the island of, 218

Sirius, the soul of Isis in, 5

Sister, marriage with, in royal families, 193 _sq._

Siu, a Sea Dyak, and his bird wife, 127 _sq._

Siva and Pârvatî, marriage of the images of, 265 _sq._

Six hundred and sixty-six, the number of the Beast, 44

Skoptsi, a Russian sect, 196 _n._3

Skull of dead king used as a drinking-vessel, 200

Skulls of dead kings removed and kept, 202 _sq._

Sky-spirit, sacrifice of children to, 181

Slaughter of the Dragon, drama of the, at Delphi and Thebes, 78 _sqq._, 89; myth of the, 105 _sqq._

Slavs, custom of regicide among the, 52; festival of the New Year among the old, 221; "Sawing the Old Woman" among the, 242

Slaying of the king in legend, 120 _sqq._

Smith, W. Robertson, 8 _n._1

Snake, rajahs of Manipur descended from a, 133

Sofala, kings of, put to death, 37 _sq._; dead kings of, consulted as oracles, 201

Solar and lunar time, early attempts to harmonise, 68 _sq._

Son of the king sacrificed for his father, 160 _sqq._

Sons of gods, 5

“Soranian Wolves,” 186 _n._4

Soul, succession to the, 196 _sqq._

Souls of the dead supposed to resemble their bodies, as these were at the moment of death, 10 _sq._; associated with falling stars, 64 _sqq._; transmitted to successors, 198

South American Indians, their insensibility to pain, 138

Spain, seven-legged effigies of Lent in, 244

Spartan kings liable to be deposed every eighth year, 58 _sq._

Spears, sacred, 19

Spectral Huntsman, 178

Spencer and Gillen, quoted, 180 _n._1, 187 _n._6

Spirit, the Great, of the American Indians, 3

Spitting to avert demons, 63

Spring equinox, custom of swinging at, 284; drama of Summer and Winter at the, 257

Spring, magical ceremonies for the revival of nature in, 266 _sqq._

“Spring, the Sacred,” among the ancient Italian peoples, 186 _sq._

Springs, oracular, 78 _sq._

Stadium, the Olympic, 287

Standing on one foot, custom of, 149, 150, 155, 156

Stars, the souls of Egyptian gods in, 5; shooting, superstitions as to, 58 _sqq._; their supposed influence on human destiny, 65 _sq._, 67 _sq._

Stepmother, marriage with a, 193

Stevens, Captain John, his _History of Persia_ quoted, 158 _sq._

Stigand, Captain C. H., 182

Stool at installation of Shilluk kings, 24

Students of Fez, their mock sultan, 152 _sq._

Styx, oath by the, 70 _n._1

Substitutes, voluntary, for capital punishment in China, 145 _sq._, 273 _sqq._

Succession in Polynesia, customs of, 190 _sq._

—— to the kingdom through marriage with a sister or with the king’s widow, 193 _sq._; conferred by personal relics of dead kings, 202 _sq._

—— to the soul, 196 _sqq._

Sufi II., Shah of Persia, 158

Suicide of Buddhist monks, 42 _sq._; epidemic of, in Russia, 44 _sq._; by hanging, 282

——, religious, 42 _sqq._, 54 _sqq._; in India, 54 _sq._

——, hand of, cut off, 220 _n._

Sulka, the, of New Britain, 65

“Sultan of the Scribes,” 152 _sq._

Summer, bringing in, 233, 237, 238, 246 _sqq._

—— and Winter, dramatic battle of, 254 _sq._

—— solstice in connexion with the Olympic festival, 90; swinging at the, 280

—— trees, 246, 251 _sq._

Sun represented by a bull, 71 _sq._; represented as a man with a bull’s head, 75; eclipses of the, beliefs and practices as to, 73 _n._2, 77; sacrifice of firstborn children to the, 183 _sq._; called “the golden swing in the sky,” 279

Sun and Moon, mythical and dramatic marriage of, 71, 73 _sq._, 78, 87 _sq._, 92, 105

Sunday of the Rose, 222 _n._1

Supply of kings, 134 _sqq._

Supreme Beings, otiose, in Africa, 19 _n._

Swabia, Whitsuntide mummers in, 207; Shrovetide or Lenten ceremonies in, 230, 233

Sweden, May Day in, 254

Swedish kings, traces of nine years’ reign of, 57 _sq._

Swing in the Sky, the Golden, description of the sun, 279

Swinging as a ceremony or magical rite, 150, 156 _sq._, 277 _sqq._; on hooks run through the body, Indian custom, 278 _sq._; as a mode of inspiration, 280; as a festal rite in modern Greece, Spain, and Italy, 283 _sq._

Swords, golden, 75

Syene, 144 _n._2

Syntengs of Assam, 55

Syro-Macedonian calendar, 116 _n._1

Tahiti, remarkable rule of succession in, 190

Tahitians, their notions as to eclipses of the sun and moon, 73 _n._2

Tailltiu or Tailltin, the fair of, 99, 101

Takilis or Carrier Indians, succession to the soul among the, 199

Talos, a bronze man, perhaps identical with the Minotaur, 74 _sq._

Tammuz or Adonis, 7

Tara, pagan cemetery at, 101

Tarahumares, the, of Mexico, 62

Taui Islanders, 61

Tchiglit Esquimaux, the, 65

Tel-El-Amarna tablets, 170 _n._5

Teltown, the fair at, 99

Tempe, the Vale of, 81

Temporary kings, 148 _sqq._

Tenedos, sacrifice of infants to Melicertes in, 162

Tengaroeng in Borneo, swinging at, 280, 281

_Thalavettiparothiam_, a custom observed in Malabar, 52 _sq._

Thamus, an Egyptian pilot, 6

Thebes, festival of the Laurel-Bearing at, 78 _sq._, 88 _sq._

Theopompus, 95

Theseus and Ariadne, 75

Thiodolf, the poet, 161

Thracians, funeral games held by the, 96; their contempt of death, 142

Throne, reverence for the, 51

Thüringen, Whitsuntide mummers in, 208; Carrying out Death in, 235 _sq._

Tiamat and Marduk, 105 _sq._, 107 _sq._

Tiberius, his enquiries as to the death of Pan, 7; his attempt to put down Carthaginian sacrifices of children, 168

Tilton, E. L., 232

Time, Greek and Latin modes of reckoning intervals of, 59

Timoleon, funeral games in his honour, 94

Tinneh Indians, the, 65, 278

Tirunavayi temple, 49

Tlachtga, pagan cemetery at, 101

Toboongkoos, mock human sacrifices among the, 219

_Todtenstein_, 264

Tonquinese custom of catching the soul of the dying, 200

Tooth of dead king kept, 203

Tophet, 169, 170, 171

Torres Straits, funeral custom in, 92 _sq._

Totemism of the Dinka, 30 _sq._; possible trace of Latin, 186 _n._4; the source of a particular type of folk-tales, 129 _sqq._

Totems, sacrifices to, 31; stories told to account for the origin of, 129

Toumou, Egyptian god, 5

Transformations into animals, 82 _sqq._

Transmigration of souls of the dead into serpents and other animals, 84 _sq._; belief in, a motive for infanticide, 188 _sq._

Transmission of soul to successor, 198 _sqq._

Trasimene Lake, battle of, 186

Tree-spirit, killing of the, 205 _sqq._; resurrection of the, 212; in relation to vegetation-spirit, 253

Trees, masks hung on, 283

Trevelyan, G. M., 154 _n._1

Tribute of youths and maidens, 74 _sqq._

Triennial tenure of the kingship, 112 _sq._

Trinity, Christian doctrine of the, 5 _n._3

Trocadero Museum, statues of kings of Dahomey in the, 85

Trojeburg, 77

Trophonius at Lebadea, 166 _n._1

Troy, the game of, 76 _sq._

Tshi-speaking negroes of the Gold Coast, their stories to explain their totemism, 128 _sq._

Turrbal tribe of Queensland, 60

Typhon, the soul of, in the Great Bear, 5

Uganda, king of, 39 _sq._; human sacrifices in, 139; firstborn sons strangled in, 182; dead kings of, give oracles through inspired mediums, 200 _sq._

Ujjain in Western India, 122 _sqq._, 132, 133

Ulster, tombs of the kings of, 101

Unyoro, kings of, put to death, 34

Upsala, 161; sepulchral mound at, 57; great festival at, 58

Uranus mutilated by his son Cronus, 192

Urvasi and King Pururavas, Indian story of, 131

Ushnagh, pagan cemetery at, 101

Valhala, 13

Varro on a Roman funeral custom, 92; on suicides by hanging, 282

Vegetation, death and revival of, 263 _sqq._

—— -spirit perhaps generalised from a tree-spirit, 253

Vicarious sacrifices, 117; in ancient Greece, 166 _n._1

Vikramaditya, legendary king of Ujjain, 122 _sqq._, 132

Vintage, first-fruits of the, offered to Icarius and Erigone, 283

Virbius or Hippolytus killed by horses, 214

Virgil, on the game of Troy, 76; on the creation of the world, 108 _sq._

Vishnu, mock human sacrifice in the worship of, 216

Volcano, sacrifice of child to, 218

Vosges Mountains, superstition as to shooting stars in the, 67

Vṛtra, the dragon, 106 _sq._

Wachtl in Moravia, drama of Summer and Winter at, 257

Wadai, Sultan of, 39

Wade, Sir Thomas, 273 _sq._

Waizganthos, an old Prussian god, 156

Wak, a sky-spirit, 181

Wambugwe, the, 65

Water, effigies of Death thrown into the, 234 _sqq._, 246 _sq._

—— -bird, a Whitsuntide mummer, 207 _n._1

—— -dragon, drama of the slaying of, 78

Weinhold, K., 57 _n._2

Wends, their custom of killing and eating the old, 14

Westermarck, Dr. E., 16 _n._1, 153 _n._1, 189 _n._2, 204_ n._1

Wheat at Lammas, offerings of, 101

Wheel, effigy of Death attached to a, 247

Whiteway, R. S., 51 _n._2

Whitsuntide, drama of Summer and Winter at, 257

—— King, 209 _sqq._

—— Mummers, 205 _sqq._

—— Queen, 210

Widow of king, succession to the throne through marriage with the, 193

Wieland’s House, 77

Wild Man, a Whitsuntide mummer, 208 _sq._, 212

Winter, Queen of, in the Isle of Man, 258; effigy of, burned at Zurich, 260 _sq._

—— and Summer, dramatic battle of, 254 _sqq._

Wolf, transformation into, 83; said to have guided the Samnites, 186 _n._4

—— -god, Zeus as the, 83

Wolves, Soranian, 186 _n._4

Woman, Sawing the Old, a Lenten ceremony, 240 _sqq._

Wood, King of the, at Nemi, 28

Woodpecker (_picus_) said to have guided the Piceni, 186 _n._4; sacred among the Latins, _ib._

Worship of dead kings, 24 _sq._

Wotjobaluk, the, 64

Wounding the dead or dying, custom of, 13 _sq._

Wrestling-matches in honour of the dead, 97

Wurmlingen in Swabia, Whitsuntide custom at, 207 _sq._; the Carnival Fool at, 231 _sq._

Wyse, W., 144

Xeres, Fr., early Spanish historian, 185

Xerxes in Thessaly, 161, 163

Ximanas, an Indian tribe of the Amazon, kill all their firstborn children, 185 _sq._

Yarilo, the funeral of, 261, 262 _sq._

Year, the Great, 70

Years, mode of counting the, in Manipur, 117 _n._1

Yerrunthally tribe of Queensland, 64

Yorubas, the, 41, 112

Youths and maidens, tribute of, sent to Minos, 74 _sqq._

Zagmuk, a Babylonian festival, 110 _sq._, 113, 115 _sqq._

Zeus, the grave of, 3; oracular cave of, 70; on Mount Lycaeus, 70 _n._1; his transformations into animals, 82 _sq._; the Wolf-god, 83; the Olympic victors regarded as embodiments of, 90 _sq._; swallows his wife Metis, 192; his marriage with his sister Hera, 194; and Europa, 73

—— and Hera, sacred marriage of, 91

—— Laphystian, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165

Zimmern, H., 111 _n._1

Zoganes at Babylon, 114

Zulu kings put to death, 36 _sq._

Zurich, effigies of Winter burnt at, 260 _sq._

FOOTNOTES

M1 Mortality of savage gods, Greek gods.

1 For examples see M. Dobrizhoffer, _Historia de Abiponibus_ (Vienna, 1784), ii. 92 _sq._, 240 _sqq._; C. Gay, “Fragment d’un voyage dans le Chili et au Cusco,” _Bulletin le la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), Deuxième Série, xix. (1843) p. 25; H. Delaporte, “Une Visite chez les Araucaniens,” _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), Quatrième Série, x. (1855) p. 30; K. von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_ (Berlin, 1894), pp. 344, 348; E. F. im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_ (London, 1883), pp. 330 sq.; A. G. Morice, “The Canadian Dénés,” _Annual Archaeological Report, 1905_; (Toronto, 1906), p. 207; (Sir) George Grey, _Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery into North-West and Western Australia_ (London, 1841), ii. 238; A. Oldfield, “The Aborigines of Australia,” _Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London_, N.S. iii. (1865) p. 236; J. Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_ (Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881), p. 63; Rev. G. Taplin, “The Narrinyeri,” _Native Tribes of South Australia_ (Adelaide, 1879), p. 25; C. W. Schürmann, “The Aboriginal Tribes of Port Lincoln,” _Native Tribes of South Australia_, p. 237; H. E. A. Meyer, in _Native Tribes of South Australia_, p. 195; R. Brough Smyth, _The Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne, 1878), i. 110, ii. 289 _sq._; W. Stanbridge, in _Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London_, New Series, i. (1861) p. 299; L. Fison and A. W. Howitt, _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, pp. 250 _sq._; A. L. P. Cameron, “Notes on some Tribes of New South Wales,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xiv. (1885) pp. 361, 362 sq.; W. Ridley, _Kamilaroi_, Second Edition (Sydney, 1875), p. 159; Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 46-48; _Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 248, 323; E. Beardmore, “The Natives of Mowat, British New Guinea,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xix. (1890) p. 461; R. E. Guise, “On the Tribes inhabiting the Mouth of the Wanigela River, New Guinea,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxviii. (1899) p. 216; C. G. Seligmann, _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_ (Cambridge, 1910), p. 279; K. Vetter, _Komm herüber und hilf uns! oder die Arbeit der Neuen-Dettelsauer Mission_, iii. (Barmen, 1898) pp. 10 _sq._; _id._, in _Nachrichten über Kaiser-Wilhelmsland und den Bismarck-Archipel_, 1897, pp. 94, 98; A. Deniau, “Croyances religieuses et mœurs des indigènes de l’ile Malo,” _Missions Catholiques_, xxxiii. (1901) pp. 315 _sq._; C. Ribbe, _Zwei Jahre unter den Kannibalen der Salomo-Inseln_ (Dresden-Blasewitz, 1903), p. 268; P. A. Kleintitschen, _Die Küstenbewohner der Gazellehalbinsel_ (Hiltrup bei Münster, N.D.), p. 344; P. Rascher, “Die Sulka,” _Archiv für Anthropologie_, xxix. (1904) pp. 221 _sq._; R. Parkinson, _Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee_ (Stuttgart, 1907), pp. 199-201; G. Brown, D.D., _Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London, 1910), p. 176; Father Abinal, “Astrologie Malgache,” _Missions Catholiques_, xi. (1879) p. 506; A. Grandidier, “Madagascar,” _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), Sixième Série, iii. (1872) p. 399; Father Campana, “Congo, Mission Catholique de Landana,” _Missions Catholiques_, xxvii. (1895) pp. 102 _sq._; Th. Masui, _Guide de la Section de l’État Indépendant du Congo à l’Exposition de Bruxelles-Tervueren en 1897_ (Brussels, 1897), p. 82. The discussion of this and similar evidence must be reserved for another work.

2 C. Meiners, _Geschichte der Religionen_ (Hannover, 1806-1807), i. 48.

3 R. I. Dodge, _Our Wild Indians_, p. 112.

4 F. Blumentritt, “Der Ahnencultus und die religiösen Anschauungen der Malaien des Philippinen-Archipels,” _Mittheilungen d. Wiener geogr. Gesellschaft_, 1882, p. 198.

5 Sir James E. Alexander, _Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa_, i. 166; H. Lichtenstein, _Reisen im Südlichen Africa_ (Berlin, 1811-1812), i. 349 _sq._; W. H. I. Bleek, _Reynard the Fox in South Africa_ (London, 1864), pp. 75 _sq._; Theophilus Hahn, _Tsuni-Goam, the Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi_ (London, 1881), pp. 56, 69.

6 Callimachus, _Hymn to Zeus_, 9 _sq._; Diodorus Siculus, iii. 61; Lucian, _Philopseudes_, 3; _id._, _Jupiter Tragoedus_, 45; _id._, _Philopatris_, 10; Porphyry, _Vita Pythagorae_, 17; Cicero, _De natura deorum_, iii. 21. 53; Pomponius Mela, ii. 7. 112; Minucius Felix, _Octavius_, 21; Lactantius, _Divin. instit._ i. II.

7 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35; Philochorus, _Fragm._ 22, in C. Müller’s _Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, i. p. 378; Tatian, _Oratio ad Graecos_, 8, ed. Otto; J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on Lycophron_, 208. Compare Ch. Petersen, “Das Grab und die Todtenfeier des Dionysos,” _Philologus_, xv. (1860) pp. 77-91. The grave of Dionysus is also said to have been at Thebes (Clemens Romanus, _Recognitiones_, x. 24; Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, i. col. 1434).

8 Porphyry, _Vit. Pythag._ 16.

9 Philochorus, _Fr._ 184, in C. Müller’s _Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, ii. p. 414.

10 Ch. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_ (Königsberg, 1829), pp. 574 _sq._

M2 Mortality of Egyptian gods.

11 G. Maspero, _Histoire ancienne des peuples de l’Orient classique: les origines_, pp. 108-111, 116-118. On the mortality of the Egyptian gods see further A. Moret, _Le Rituel du culte divin journalier en Égypte_ (Paris, 1902), pp. 219 _sqq._

12 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 21, 22, 38, 61; Diodorus Siculus, i. 27. 4; Dittenberger, _Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae_, i. No. 56, p. 102.

13 A. Wiedemann, _Die Religion der alten Aegypter_, pp. 59 _sq._; G. Maspero, _Histoire ancienne des peuples de l’Orient classique: les origines_, pp. 104-108, 150. Indeed it was an article of the Egyptian creed that every god must die after he had begotten a son in his own likeness (A. Wiedemann, _Herodots zweites Buch_, p. 204). Hence the Egyptian deities were commonly arranged in trinities of a simple and natural type, each comprising a father, a mother, and a son. “Speaking generally, two members of such a triad were gods, one old and one young, and the third was a goddess, who was, naturally, the wife, or female counterpart, of the older god. The younger god was the son of the older god and goddess, and he was supposed to possess all the attributes and powers which belonged to his father.... The feminine counterpart or wife of the chief god was usually a local goddess of little or no importance; on the other hand, her son by the chief god was nearly as important as his father, because it was assumed that he would succeed to his rank and throne when the elder god had passed away. The conception of the triad or trinity is, in Egypt, probably as old as the belief in gods, and it seems to be based on the anthropomorphic views which were current in the earliest times about them” (E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_, London, 1904, i. 113 _sq._). If the Christian doctrine of the Trinity took shape under Egyptian influence, the function originally assigned to the Holy Spirit may have been that of the divine mother. In the apocryphal _Gospel to the Hebrews_, as Mr. F. C. Conybeare was kind enough to point out to me, Christ spoke of the Holy Ghost as his mother. The passage is quoted by Origen (_Comment. in Joan. II._ vol. iv. col. 132, ed. Migne), and runs as follows: “My mother the Holy Spirit took me a moment ago by one of my hairs and carried me away to the great Mount Tabor.” Compare Origen, _In Jeremiam Hom._ XV. 4, vol. iii. col. 433, ed. Migne. In the reign of Trajan a certain Alcibiades, from Apamea in Syria, appeared at Rome with a volume in which the Holy Ghost was described as a stalwart female about ninety-six miles high and broad in proportion. See Hippolytus, _Refut. omnium haeresium_, ix. 13, p. 462, ed. Duncker and Schneidewin. The Ophites represented the Holy Spirit as “the first woman,” “mother of all living,” who was beloved by “the first man” and likewise by “the second man,” and who conceived by one or both of them “the light, which they call Christ.” See H. Usener, _Das Weihnachtsfest_, pp. 116 _sq._, quoting Irenaeus, i. 28. As to a female member of the Trinity, see further _id._, _Dreiheit, ein Versuch mythologischer Zahlenlehre_ (Bonn, 1903), pp. 41 _sqq._; Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, ch. 1. vol. ix. p. 261, note g (Edinburgh, 1811). Mr. Conybeare tells me that Philo Judaeus, who lived in the first half of the first century of our era, constantly defines God as a Trinity in Unity, or a Unity in Trinity, and that the speculations of this Alexandrian Jew deeply influenced the course of Christian thought on the mystical nature of the deity. Thus it seems not impossible that the ancient Egyptian doctrine of the divine Trinity may have been distilled through Philo into Christianity. On the other hand it has been suggested that the Christian Trinity is of Babylonian origin. See H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_,3 pp. 418 _sq._, 440.

14 L. W. King, _Babylonian Religion and Mythology_ (London, 1899), p. 8.

M3 The death of the Great Pan. Death of the King of the Jinn. Death of the Grape-cluster.

15 Plutarch, _De defectu oraculorum_, 17.

16 This is in substance the explanation briefly suggested by F. Liebrecht, and developed more fully and with certain variations of detail by S. Reinach. See F. Liebrecht, _Des Gervasius von Tilbury Otia Imperialia_ (Hanover, 1856), p. 180; S. Reinach, _Cultes, mythes et religions_, iii. (Paris, 1908), pp. 1 _sqq._ As to the worship of Tammuz or Adonis in Syria and Greece see my _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition (London, 1907). In Plutarch’s narrative confusion seems to have arisen through the native name (Tammuz) of the deity, which either accidentally coincided with that of the pilot (as S. Reinach thinks) or was erroneously transferred to him by a narrator (as F. Liebrecht supposed). An entirely different explanation of the story has been proposed by Dr. W. H. Roscher. He holds that the god whose death was lamented was the great ram-god of Mendes in Egypt, whom Greek writers constantly mistook for a goat-god and identified with Pan. A living ram was always revered as an incarnation of the god, and when it died there was a great mourning throughout all the land of Mendes. Some stone coffins of the sacred animal have been found in the ruins of the city. See Herodotus, ii. 46, with A. Wiedemann’s commentary; W. H. Roscher, “Die Legende vom Tode des groszen Pan,” _Fleckeisen’s Jahrbücher für classische Philologie_, xxxviii. (1892) pp. 465-477. Dr. Roscher shews that Thamus was an Egyptian name, comparing Plato, _Phaedrus_, p. 274 D E; Polyaenus, iii. 2. 5; Philostratus, _Vit. Apollon. Tyan._ vi. 5. 108. As to the worshipful goat, or rather ram, of Mendes, see also Diodorus Siculus, i. 84; Strabo, xvii. 1. 19, p. 802; Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 39, p. 34, ed. Potter; Suidas, _s.v._ Μένδην.

17 F. Liebrecht, _op. cit._ pp. 180 _sq._; W. Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_,2 pp. 412, 414. The latter writer observes with justice that “the wailing for ’Uncūd, the divine Grape-cluster, seems to be the last survival of an old vintage piaculum.” “The dread of the worshippers,” he adds, “that the neglect of the usual ritual would be followed by disaster, is particularly intelligible if they regarded the necessary operations of agriculture as involving the violent extinction of a particle of divine life.” On the mortality of the gods in general and of the Teutonic gods in particular, see J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 i. 263 _sqq._; compare E. H. Meyer, _Mythologie der Germanen_ (Strasburg, 1903), p. 288. As to the mortality of the Irish gods, see Douglas Hyde, _Literary History of Ireland_ (London, 1899), pp. 80 _sq._

M4 Human gods are killed to prevent them from growing old and feeble.

18 “Der Muata Cazembe und die Völkerstämme der Maravis, Chevas, Muembas, Lundas und andere von Süd-Afrika,” _Zeitschrift für allgemeine Erdkunde_, vi. (1856) p. 395; F. T. Valdez, _Six Years of a Traveller’s Life in Western Africa_ (London, 1861), ii. 241 _sq._

19 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 6, 7 _sq._

20 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 26 _sqq._

M5 Preference for a violent death: the sick and old killed.

21 W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs of the South Pacific_ (London, 1876), p. 163.

22 H. A. Junod, _Les Ba-Ronga_ (Neuchatel, 1898), pp. 381 _sq._

23 W. Barbrooke Grubb, _An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London, 1911), p. 120.

24 T. C. Hodson, _The Naga Tribes of Manipur_ (London, 1911), p. 159.

25 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 281.

26 Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_ (London, 1845), iii. 96.

_ 27 U.S. Exploring Expedition, Ethnology and Philology_, by H. Hale (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 65. Compare Th. Williams, _Fiji and the Fijians_,2 i. 183; J. E. Erskine, _Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific_ (London, 1853), p. 248.

28 G. Turner, _Samoa_, p. 335.

29 Martin Flad, _A Short Description of the Falasha and Kamants in Abyssinia_, p. 19.

30 H. Diels, _Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker_,2 i. (Berlin, 1906) p. 81; _id._, _Herakleitos von Ephesos_2 (Berlin, 1909), p. 50, Frag. 136, ψυχαὶ ἀρηίφατοι καθαρώτεραι ἢ ἐνὶ νούσοις.

M6 Preference for a violent death: the sick and aged killed.

31 F. de Castelnau, _Expédition dans les parties centrales de l’Amérique du Sud_, iv. (Paris, 1851) p. 380. Compare _id._ ii. 49 _sq._ as to the practice of the Chavantes, a tribe of Indians on the Tocantins river.

32 R. Southey, _History of Brazil_, iii. (London, 1819) p. 619; R. F. Burton, in _The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1874), p. 122.

33 C. von Dittmar, “Über die Koräken und die ihnen sehr nahe verwandten Tschuktschen,” _Bulletin de la Classe philologique de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de St-Pétersbourg_, xiii. (1856) coll. 122, 124 _sq._ The custom has now been completely abandoned. See W. Jochelson, “The Koryak, Religion and Myths” (Leyden and New York, 1905), p. 103 (_Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, The Jesup North Pacific Expedition_, vol. vi. part i.).

34 C. von Dittmar, _op. cit._ col. 132; De Wrangell, _Le Nord de la Sibérie_ (Paris, 1843), i. 263 _sq._; “Die Ethnographie Russlands nach A. F. Rittich,” _Petermann’s Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsheft_, _No._ 54 (Gotha, 1878), pp. 14 _sq._; “Der Anadyr-Bezirk nach A. W. Olssufjew,” _Petermann’s Mittheilungen_, xlv. (1899) p. 230; V. Priklonski, “Todtengebräuche der Jakuten,” _Globus_, lix. (1891) p. 82; R. von Seidlitz, “Der Selbstmord bei den Tschuktschen,” _ib._ p. 111; Cremat, “Der Anadyrbezirk Sibiriens und seine Bevölkerung,” _Globus_, lxvi. (1894) p. 287; H. de Windt, _Through the Gold-fields of Alaska to Bering Straits_ (London, 1898), pp. 223-225; W. Bogaras, “The Chukchee” (Leyden and New York, 1904-1909), pp. 560 _sqq._ (_Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, The Jesup North Pacific Expedition_, vol. vii.).

35 L. A. Waddell, “The Tribes of the Brahmaputra Valley,” _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, lxix. part iii. (1901) pp. 20, 24; T. C. Hodson, _The Naga Tribes of Manipur_ (London, 1911), p. 151.

36 K. Simrock, _Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie_,5 pp. 177 _sq._, 507; H. M. Chadwick, _The Cult of Othin_ (London, 1899), pp. 13 _sq._, 34 _sq._

37 Procopius, _De bello Gothico_, ii. 14.

38 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer_,3 p. 488. A custom of putting the sick and aged to death seems to have prevailed in several branches of the Aryan family; it may at one time have been common to the whole stock. See J. Grimm, _op. cit._ pp. 486 _sqq._; O. Schrader, _Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_, pp. 36-39.

M7 Divine kings put to death. The Chitomé of Congo. Ethiopian kings of Meroe.

39 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 4 _sq._

_ 40 Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 5 _sq._

41 J. B. Labat, _Relation historique de l’Éthiopie occidentale_ (Paris, 1732), i. 260 _sq._; W. Winwood Reade, _Savage Africa_ (London, 1863), p. 362.

42 G. Merolla, _Relazione del viaggio nel regno di Congo_ (Naples, 1726), p. 76. The English version of this passage (Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, xvi. 228) has already been quoted by Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury) in his _Origin of Civilisation_,4 pp. 358 _sq._ In that version the native title of the pontiff is misspelt.

43 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 6; Strabo, xvii. 2. 3, p. 822.

M8 Kings of Fazoql on the Blue Nile.

44 R. Lepsius, _Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the peninsula of Sinai_ (London, 1853), pp. 202, 204. I have to thank Dr. E. Westermarck for pointing out these passages to me. Fazoql lies in the fork between the Blue Nile and its tributary the Tumat. See J. Russeger, _Reisen in Europa, Asien und Afrika_, ii. 2 (Stuttgart, 1844), p. 552 note.

45 Brun-Rollet, _Le Nil Blanc et le Soudan_ (Paris, 1855), pp. 248 _sq._ For the orgiastic character of these annual festivals, see _id._ p. 245. Fazolglou is probably the same as Fazoql. The people who practise the custom are called Bertat by E. Marno (_Reisen im Gebiete des blauen und weissen Nil_ (Vienna, 1874), p. 68).

46 J. Russegger, _Reisen in Europa, Asien und Afrika_, ii. 2, p. 553. Russegger met Assusa in January 1838, and says that the king had then been a year in office. He does not mention the name of the king’s uncle who had, he tells us, been strangled by the chiefs; but I assume that he was the Yassin who is mentioned by Brun-Rollet. Russegger adds that the strangling of the king was performed publicly, and in the most solemn manner, and was said to happen often in Fazoql and the neighbouring countries.

47 R. Lepsius, _Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the peninsula of Sinai_ (London, 1853), p. 204. Lepsius’s letter is dated “The Pyramids of Meroë, 22nd April 1844.” His informant was Osman Bey, who had lived for sixteen years in these regions. An _anqareb_ or _angareb_ is a kind of bed made by stretching string or leather thongs over an oblong wooden framework.

M9 Shilluk custom of putting divine kings to death. The Shilluk kings supposed to be reincarnations of Nyakang, the semi-divine founder of the dynasty. The shrines of Nyakang.

48 I have to thank Dr. Seligmann for his kindness and courtesy in transmitting to me his unpublished account and allowing me to draw on it at my discretion.

49 As to Jŭok (Čuok), the supreme being of the Shilluk, see P. W. Hofmayr, “Religion der Schilluk,” _Anthropos_, vi. (1911) pp. 120-122, whose account agrees with the briefer one given by Dr. C. G. Seligmann. Otiose supreme beings (_dieux fainéants_) of this type, who having made the world do not meddle with it and to whom little or no worship is paid, are common in Africa.

50 P. W. Hofmayr, “Religion der Schilluk,” _Anthropos_, vi. (1911) pp. 123, 125. This writer gives Nykang as the name of the first Shilluk king.

51 P. W. Hofmayr, _op. cit._ p. 123.

52 This is the view both of Dr. C. G. Seligmann and of Father P. W. Hofmayr (_op. cit._ p. 123).

53 The word _kengo_ is applied only to the shrines of Nyakang and the graves of the kings. Graves of commoners are called _roro_.

M10 Annual rain-making ceremony performed at the shrines of Nyakang. Harvest ceremony at the shrines of Nyakang.

54 On the use of flowing blood in rain-making ceremonies see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 256, 257 _sq._

M11 Shilluk kings put to death when they shew signs of ill-health or failing strength.

55 Dr. C. G. Seligmann, _The Shilluk Divine Kings_ (in manuscript).

M12 Shilluk kings formerly liable to be attacked and killed at any time by rival claimants to the throne.

56 On this subject Dr. Seligmann writes to me (March 9th, 1911) as follows: “The assumption of the throne as the result of victory in single combat doubtless occurred once; at the present day and perhaps for the whole of the historic period it has been superseded by the ceremonial killing of the king, but I regard these stories as folk-lore indicating what once really happened.”

57 These particulars I take from letters of Dr. C. G. Seligmann’s to me (dated 8th February and 9th March 1911). They are not mentioned in the writer’s paper on the subject.

M13 Ceremonies at the accession of a Shilluk king. M14 Worship of the dead Shilluk kings.

58 When one of the king’s wives is with child, she remains at Fashoda till the fourth or fifth month of her pregnancy; she is then sent away to a village, not necessarily her own, where she remains under the charge of the village chief until she has finished nursing the child. Afterwards she returns to Fashoda, but the child invariably remains in the village of his or her birth and is brought up there. All royal children of either sex, in whatever part of the Shilluk territory they may happen to die, are buried the village where they were born.

M15 Sick people and others supposed to be possessed by the spirits of dead Shilluk kings. M16 The principal element in the religion of the Shilluk is the worship of their kings. The kings put to death in order to preserve their divine spirit from natural decay, which would sympathetically affect the crops, the cattle, and mankind.

59 As to the disappearance of the early Roman kings see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. pp. 312 _sqq._; as to the disappearance of the early kings of Uganda, see the Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 214.

M17 Parallel between the Shilluk kings and the King of the Wood at Nemi.

60 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 1 _sqq._, ii. 376 _sqq._

M18 The Dinka of the Upper Nile.

61 “E. de Pruyssenaere’s Reisen und Forschungen im Gebiete des Weissen und Blauen Nil,” _Petermann’s Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsheft_, No. 50 (Gotha, 1877), pp. 18-23. Compare G. Schweinfurth, _The Heart of Africa_, Third Edition (London, 1878), i. 48 _sqq._ In the text I have followed de Pruyssenaere’s description of the privations endured by the Dinka in the dry season. But that description is perhaps only applicable in seasons of unusual drought, for Dr. C. G. Seligmann, writing from personal observation, informs me that he regards the description as much overdrawn; in an average year, he tells me, the cattle do not die of famine and the natives are not starving. According to his information the drinking of the blood of their cattle is a luxury in which the Dinka indulge themselves at any time of the year.

M19 Dengdit, the Supreme Being of the Dinka. Totemism of the Dinka.

62 For this and the following information as to the religion, totemism, and rain-makers of the Dinka I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. C. G. Seligmann, who investigated the Shilluk and Dinka in 1909-1910 and has most obligingly placed his manuscript materials at my disposal.

M20 Rain-makers among the Dinka.

63 On the importance of the rain-makers among the Dinka and other tribes of the Upper Nile, see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 345 _sqq._

M21 Dinka rain-makers not allowed to die a natural death. M22 Kings put to death in Unyoro and other parts of Africa.

_ 64 Emin Pasha in Central Africa, being a Collection of his Letters and Journals_ (London, 1888), p. 91; J. G. Frazer, _Totemism and Exogamy_, ii. 529 _sq._ (from information given by the Rev. John Roscoe).

65 Father Guillemé, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, lx. (1888) p. 258; _id._, “Credenze religiose dei Negri di Kibanga nell’ Alto Congo,” _Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari_, vii. (1888) p. 231.

_ 66 The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia_, collected and historically digested by F. Balthazar Tellez, of the Society of Jesus (London, 1710), p. 197. We may compare the death of Saul (1 Samuel, xxxi. 3-6).

67 Lieut. H. Pope-Hennessy, “Notes on the Jukos and other Tribes of the Middle Benue,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxx. (1900) p. (29).

68 J. G. Frazer, _Totemism and Exogamy_, ii. 608, on the authority of Mr. H. R. Palmer, Resident in Charge of Katsina.

M23 The Matiamvo of Angola.

69 F. T. Valdez, _Six Years of a Traveller’s Life in Western Africa_ (London, 1861), ii. 194 _sq._

M24 Zulu kings put to death on the approach of old age.

70 Nathaniel Isaacs, _Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa_ (London, 1836), i. 295 _sq._, compare pp. 232, 290 _sq._

M25 Kings of Sofala put to death on account of bodily blemishes.

_ 71 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 392.

72 J. dos Santos, “Eastern Ethiopia,” in G. McCall Theal’s _Records of Southeastern Africa_, vii. (1901) pp. 194 _sq._ A more highly-flavoured and full-bodied, though less slavishly accurate, translation of this passage is given in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, xvi. 684, where the English translator has enriched the unadorned simplicity of the Portuguese historian’s style with “the scythe of time” and other flowers of rhetoric.

73 J. dos Santos, _op. cit._ p. 193.

M26 Kings required to be unblemished. Courtiers required to imitate their sovereign.

74 Xenophon, _Hellenica_, iii. 3. 3; Plutarch, _Agesilaus_, 3; _id._, _Lysander_, 22; Pausanias, iii. 8. 9.

75 Herodotus, iii. 20; Aristotle, _Politics_, iv. 4. 4.; Athenaeus, xiii. 20, p. 566. According to Nicolaus Damascenus (_Fr._ 142, in _Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iii. p. 463), the handsomest and bravest man was only raised to the throne when the king had no heirs, the heirs being the sons of his sisters. But this limitation is not mentioned by the other authorities.

76 G. Nachtigal, _Saharâ und Sûdân_, iii. (Leipsic, 1889) p. 225; A. Bastian, _Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste_ (Jena, 1874-75), i. 220.

77 P. W. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903), i. 311.

78 Strabo, xvii. 2. 3, p. 823; Diodorus Siculus, iii. 7.

79 Mohammed Ebn-Omar El-Tounsy, _Voyage au Darfour_ (Paris, 1845), pp. 162 _sq._; _Travels of an Arab Merchant in Soudan_, abridged from the French by Bayle St. John (London, 1854), p. 78; _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), IVme Série, iv. (1852) pp. 539 _sq._

80 R. W. Felkin, “Notes on the Waganda Tribe of Central Africa,” in _Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, xiii. (1884-1886) p. 711; J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 77 (as to sneezing).

_ 81 Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, from the Journal of James Brooke, Esq., Rajah of Sarawak_, by Captain R. Mundy, i. 134. My friend the late Mr. Lorimer Fison, in a letter of August 26th, 1898, told me that the custom of falling down whenever a chief fell was observed also in Fiji, where it had a special name, _bale muri_, “fall-follow.”

82 Mgr. Bruguière, in _Annales de l’Association de la Propagation de la Foi_, v. (1831) pp. 174 _sq._

M27 Kings of Eyeo put to death. Voluntary death by fire of the old Prussian _Kirwaido_.

83 A. Dalzel, _History of Dahomy_ (London, 1793), pp. 12 _sq._, 156 _sq._

84 Father Baudin, “Le Fétichisme ou la religion des Nègres de la Guinée,” _Missions Catholiques_, xvi. (1884) p. 215.

85 Missionary Holley, “Étude sur les Egbas,” _Missions Catholiques_, xiii. (1881) pp. 351 _sq._ Here Oyo is probably the same as Eyeo mentioned above.

86 Simon Grunau, _Preussische Chronik_, herausgegeben von Dr. M. Perlbach (Leipsic, 1876), i. p. 97.

M28 Voluntary deaths by fire. Peregrinus at Olympia. Buddhist monks in China.

87 Lucian, _De morte Peregrini_. That Lucian’s account of the mountebank’s death is not a fancy picture is proved by the evidence of Tertullian, _Ad martyres_, 4, “_Peregrinus qui non olim se rogo immisit._”

88 D. S. Macgowan, M.D., “Self-immolation by Fire in China,” _The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal_, xix. (1888) pp. 445-451, 508-521.

89 E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” _Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part I. (Washington, 1899), pp. 320, 433 _sq._

M29 Religious suicides in Russia. Belief in the approaching end of the world.

90 Revelation xx. 1-3.

91 Revelation xiii. 18.

M30 Epidemic of suicide. Suicide by starvation. Suicide by fire.

92 Ivan Stchoukine, _Le Suicide collectif dans le Raskol russe_ (Paris, 1903), pp. 45-53, 61-78, 84-87, 96-99, 102-112. The mania in its most extreme form died away towards the end of the seventeenth century, but during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries cases of collective suicide from religious motives occurred from time to time, people burning themselves in families or in batches of thirty or forty. The last of these suicides by fire took place in 1860, when fifteen persons thus perished in the Government of Olonetz. Twenty-four others buried themselves alive near Tiraspol in the winter of 1896-97. See I. Stchoukine, _op. cit._ pp. 114-126.

M31 A Jewish Messiah.

93 Voltaire, _Essai sur les Mœurs_, iii. 142-145 (_Œuvres complètes de Voltaire_, xiii. Paris, 1878).

M32 Kings put to death after a fixed term. Suicide of the kings of Quilacare at the end of a reign of twelve years.

94 Duarte Barbosa, _A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1866), pp. 172 _sq._

M33 Custom of the kings of Calicut.

95 L. di Varthema, _Travels_, translated by J. W. Jones and edited by G. P. Badger (Hakluyt Society, London, 1863), p. 134. In a note the Editor says that the name Zamorin (Samorin) according to some “is a corruption of _Tamuri_, the name of the most exalted family of the Nair caste.”

96 Francis Buchanan, “Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, viii. 735.

97 Alex. Hamilton, “A New Account of the East Indies,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, viii. 374.

M34 Fuller account of the Calicut custom. M35 The _Maha Makham_ or Great Sacrifice at Calicut.

98 The sidereal revolution of Jupiter is completed in 11 years 314.92 days (_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Ninth Edition, _s.v._ “Astronomy,” ii. 808). The twelve-years revolution of Jupiter was known to the Greek astronomers, from whom the knowledge may perhaps have penetrated into India. See Geminus, _Eisagoge_, I, p. 10, ed. Halma.

M36 The attack on the king.

99 W. Logan, _Malabar_ (Madras, 1887), i. 162-169. The writer describes in particular the festival of 1683, when fifty-five men perished in the manner described.

M37 Custom of kings in Bengal. Custom of the kings of Passier. Custom of Slavonic kings.

100 Sir H. M. Elliot, _The History of India as told by its own Historians_, iv. 260. I have to thank Mr. R. S. Whiteway, of Brownscombe, Shottermill, Surrey, for kindly calling my attention to this and the following instance of the custom of regicide.

101 De Barros, _Da Asia, dos feitos, que os Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento e conquista dos mares e terras do Oriente_, Decada Terceira, Liv. V. cap. i. pp. 512 _sq._ (Lisbon, 1777).

102 Saxo Grammaticus,_Historia Danica_, viii. pp. 410 _sq._, ed. P. E. Müller (p. 334 of Mr. Oliver Elton’s English translation).

M38 Custom of _Thalavettiparothiam_ in Malabar. Custom of the Sultans of Java.

103 T. K. Gopal Panikkar (of the Madras Registration Department), _Malabar and its Folk_ (Madras, N. D., preface dated Chowghaut, 8th October 1900), pp. 120 _sq._ I have to thank my friend Mr. W. Crooke for calling my attention to this account.

_ 104 Voyage d’Ibn Batoutah_, texte arabe, accompagné d’une traduction par C. Deffrémery et B. R. Sanguinetti (Paris, 1853-58), iv. 246 _sq._

M39 Religious suicides in India.

_ 105 The Wonders of the East, by Friar Jordanus_, translated by Col. Henry Yule (London, 1863, Hakluyt Society), pp. 32 _sq._

_ 106 India in the Fifteenth Century, being a Collection of Voyages to India in the century preceding the Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope_, edited by R. H. Major (Hakluyt Society, London, 1857), “The Travels of Nicolo Conti in the East,” pp. 27 _sq._ An instrument of the sort described in the text (a crescent-shaped knife with chains and stirrups attached to it for the convenience of the suicide) used to be preserved at Kshira, a village of Bengal near Nadiya: it was called a _karavat_. See _The Book of Ser Marco Polo_, newly translated and edited by Colonel Henry Yule, Second Edition (London, 1875), ii. 334.

107 Major P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_ (London, 1907), pp. 102 _sq._, quoting Mr. Gait in the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_ for 1898.

M40 Pretence of putting the king’s proxy to death. Man killed at the installation of a king of Cassange.

108 E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_ (Calcutta, 1872), p. 146.

109 F. T. Valdez, _Six Years of a Traveller’s Life in Western Africa_ (London, 1861), ii. 158-160. I have translated the title _Maquita_ by “chief”; the writer does not explain it.

M41 Sacrifice of the king’s sons in Sweden: evidence of a nine years’ tenure of the throne.

_ 110 Ynglinga Saga_, 29 (_The Heimskringla_, translated by S. Laing, i. 239 sq.). Compare H. M. Chadwick, _The Cult of Othin_ (London, 1899), p. 4. According to Messrs. Laing and Chadwick the sacrifice took place every _tenth_ year. But I follow Prof. K. Weinhold who translates “_hit tiunda hvert ár_” by “_alle neun Jahre_” (“Die mystische Neunzahl bei den Deutschen,” _Abhandlungen der könig. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_, 1897, p. 6). So in Latin _decimo quoque anno_ should be translated “every ninth year.”

111 Saxo Grammaticus, _Historia Danica_, iii. pp. 129-131, ed. P. E. Müller (pp. 98 _sq._ of Oliver Elton’s English translation).

112 Adam of Bremen, _Descriptio insularum Aquilonis_, 27 (Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_, cxlvi. col. 644). See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. pp. 364 _sq._

M42 Limited tenure of the kingship in ancient Greece. The Spartan kings appear formerly to have held office for periods of eight years only. The dread of meteors shared by savages.

113 Plutarch, _Agis_, II. Plutarch says that the custom was observed “at intervals of nine years” (δι᾽ ἐτῶν ἐννέα), but the expression is equivalent to our “at intervals of eight years.” In reckoning intervals of time numerically the Greeks included both the terms which are separated by the interval, whereas we include only one of them. For example, our phrase “every second day” would be rendered in Greek διὰ τρίτης ἡμέρας, literally “every third day.” Again, a cycle of two years is in Greek _trieteris_, literally “a period of three years”; a cycle of eight years is _ennaeteris_, literally “a period of nine years”; and so forth. See Censorinus, _De die natali_, 18. The Latin use of the ordinal numbers is similar, _e.g._ our “every second year” would be _tertio quoque anno_ in Latin. However, the Greeks and Romans were not always consistent in this matter, for they occasionally reckoned in our fashion. The resulting ambiguity is not only puzzling to moderns; it sometimes confused the ancients themselves. For example, it led to a derangement of the newly instituted Julian calendar, which escaped detection for more than thirty years. See Macrobius, _Saturn._ i. 14. 13 _sq._; Solinus, i. 45-47. On the ancient modes of counting in such cases see A. Schmidt, _Handbuch der griechischen Chronologie_ (Jena, 1888), pp. 95 _sqq._ According to Schmidt, the practice of adding both terms to the sum of the intervening units was not extended by the Greeks to numbers above nine.

_ 114 Die Dorier_,2 ii. 96.

M43 Superstitions of the Australian aborigines as to shooting stars.

115 E. Man, _Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands_, pp. 84 _sq._

116 W. E. Roth, _North Queensland Bulletin, No. 5, Superstition, Magic, and Medicine_ (Brisbane, 1903), p. 8.

117 A. W. Howitt, _The Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, p. 429.

118 A. W. Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 430. One of the earliest writers on New South Wales reports that the natives attributed great importance to the falling of a star (D. Collins,_Account of the English Colony in New South Wales_ (London, 1804), p. 383).

119 Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 627.

120 Spencer and Gillen, _op. cit._ pp. 488, 627 _sq._

121 G. Thilenius, _Ethnographische Ergebnisse aus Melanesien_, ii. (Halle, 1903) p. 129.

M44 Superstitions of the negroes and other African races as to shooting stars.

122 H. A. Junod, _Les Ba-ronga_ (Neuchatel, 1898), p. 470.

123 A. C. Hollis, _The Masai_ (Oxford, 1905), p. 316.

124 J. Campbell, _Travels in South Africa_ (London, 1815), pp. 428 _sq._

_ 125 Id._, _Travels in South Africa, Second Journey_ (London, 1822), ii. 204.

126 G. Zündel, “Land und Volk der Eweer auf der Sclavenküste in Westafrika,” _Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin_, xii. (1877) pp. 415 _sq._; C. Spiess, “Religionsbegriffe der Evheer in Westafrika,” _Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin_, vi. (1903) Dritte Abtheilung, p. 112.

M45 Superstitions of the American Indians as to shooting stars.

127 Boscana, “Chinigchinich, a Historical Account of the Origin, etc., of the Indians of St. Juan Capistrano,” in A. Robinson’s _Life in California_ (New York, 1846), p. 299.

128 C. Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_ (London, 1903), i. 324 _sq._

129 K. von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_ (Berlin, 1894), pp. 514 _sq._ The Peruvian Indians also made a prodigious noise when they saw a shooting star. See P. de Cieza de Leon, _Travels_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1864), p. 232.

130 G. Kurze, “Sitten und Gebräuche der Lengua-Indianer,” _Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, xxiii. (1905) p. 17; W. Barbrooke Grubb, _An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London, 1911), p. 163.

131 M. Dobrizhoffer, _Historia de Abiponibus_ (Vienna, 1784), ii. 86.

M46 Shooting stars regarded as demons.

132 W. Tetzlaff, “Notes on the Laughlan Islands,” _Annual Report on British New Guinea, 1890-91_ (Brisbane, 1892), p. 105.

133 H. Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, p. 267.

134 W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_ (Westminster, 1906), ii. 22.

135 Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” _Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. (1872) p. 48.

136 Guillain, _Documents sur l’histoire, la géographie, et le commerce de l’Afrique Orientale_, ii. (Paris, N.D.) p. 97; C. Velten, _Sitten und Gebräuche der Suaheli_ (Göttingen, 1903), pp. 339 _sq._; C. B. Klunzinger, _Upper Egypt_ (London, 1878), p. 405; Budgett Meakin, _The Moors_ (London, 1902), p. 353.

M47 Shooting stars associated with the souls of the dead. Supposed relation of the stars to men.

137 E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_ (London, 1843), ii. 66. According to another account, meteors are regarded by the Maoris as betokening the presence of a god (R. Taylor, _Te Ika a Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants_,2 p. 147).

138 Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition_, v. 88.

139 A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, p. 369.

140 A. W. Howitt, in Brough Smyth’s _Aborigines of Victoria_, ii. 309.

141 E. Palmer, “Notes on some Australian Tribes,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xiii. (1884) p. 292. Sometimes apparently the Australian natives regard crystals or broken glass as fallen stars, and treasure them as powerful instruments of magic. See E. M. Curr, _The Australian Race_, iii. 29; W. E. Roth, _North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5_, p. 8.

142 J. Macgillivray, _Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake_ (London, 1852), ii. 30.

143 P. A. Kleintitschen, _Die Küstenbewohner der Gazellehalbinsel_ (Hiltrup bei Münster, N.D.), p. 227.

144 P. Rascher, “Die Sulka,” _Archiv für Anthropologie_, xxix. (1904) p. 216.

145 Dudley Kidd, _Savage Childhood_ (London, 1906), p. 149.

146 J. Halkin, _Quelques Peuplades du district de l’Uelé_ (Liège, 1907), p. 102.

147 O. Baumann, _Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle_ (Berlin, 1894), p. 163.

148 O. Baumann, _Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle_ (Berlin, 1894), p. 188.

149 E. Petitot, _Monographie des Dènè-Dindjé_ (Paris, 1876), p. 60; _id._, _Monographie des Esquimaux Tchiglit_ (Paris, 1876), p. 24.

150 A. Henry, “The Lolos and other Tribes of Western China,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxiii. (1903) p. 103.

151 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ ii. 28.

M48 Modern European beliefs as to meteors. Various beliefs as to stars and meteors.

152 F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. 293; A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_, p. 457, § 422; E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, p. 506, §§ 379, 380.

153 P. Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, ii. 353; J. Haltrich, _Zur Volkskunde der Siebenbürger Sachsen_ (Vienna, 1885), p. 300; W. Schmidt, _Das Jahr und seine Tage in Meinung und Brauch der Romänen Siebenbürgens_, p. 38; E. Gerard, _The Land beyond the Forest_, i. 311; J. V. Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_, p. 31, § 164; Br. Jelínek, “Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und Volkskunde Böhmens,” _Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien_, xxi. (1891) p. 25; G. Finamore, _Credenze, usi e costumi Abruzzesi_, pp. 47 _sq._; M. Placucci, _Usi e pregiudizj dei contadini della Romagna_ (Palermo, 1885), p. 141; Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” _Verhandl. der gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. (1872) p. 48. The same belief is said to prevail in Armenia. See Minas Tchéraz, “Notes sur la mythologie arménienne,” _Transactions of the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists_ (London, 1893), ii. 824. Bret Harte has employed the idea in his little poem, “Relieving Guard.”

154 H. Lew, “Der Tod und die Beerdigungs-gebräuche bei den polnischen Juden,” _Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien_, xxxii. (1902) p. 402.

155 A. Schlossar, “Volksmeinung und Volksaberglaube aus der deutschen Steiermark,” _Germania_, N.R., xxiv. (1891) p. 389.

156 Boecler-Kreutzwald, _Der Ehsten abergläubische Gebräuche, Weisen und Gewohnheiten_ (St. Petersburg, 1854), p. 73.

157 E. Monseur, _Le Folklore wallon_, p. 61; A. de Nore, _Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de France_, pp. 101, 160, 223, 267, 284; B. Souché, _Croyances, présages et traditions diverses_, p. 23; P. Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, ii. 352; J. Lecœur, _Esquisses du bocage normand_, ii. 13; L. Pineau, _Folk-lore du Poitou_ (Paris, 1892), pp. 525 _sq._

158 L. F. Sauvé. _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), pp. 196 _sq._

159 F. Chapiseau, _Le Folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche_ (Paris, 1902), i. 290; G. Finamore, _Credenze, usi e costumi Abruzzesi_ (Palermo, 1890), p. 48.

_ 160 North Indian Notes and Queries_, i. p. 102, § 673. Compare _id._ p. 47, § 356; _Indian Notes and Queries_, iv. p. 184, § 674; W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_ (Westminster, 1896), i. 82.

161 W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_,2 iii. 171.

162 Maximilian Prinz zu Wied, _Reise in das Innere Nord-America_ (Coblenz, 1839-1841), ii. 152. It does not, however, appear from the writer’s statement whether the descent of the soul was identified with the flight of a meteor or not.

163 D. C. J. Ibbetson, _Outlines of Panjab Ethnography_ (Calcutta, 1883), p. 118, § 231.

M49 The fall of the king’s star. M50 Reasons for limiting a king’s reign to eight years. The octennial cycle based on an attempt to reconcile solar and lunar time.

164 L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_, ii. 605 _sqq._ Ninety-nine lunar months nearly coincide with eight solar years, as the ancients well knew (Sozomenus, _Historia ecclesiastica_, vii. 18). On the religious and political import of the eight years’ cycle in ancient Greece see especially K. O. Müller, _Orchomenus und die Minyer_,2 pp. 213-218; _id._, _Die Dorier_,2 i. 254 _sq._, 333 _sq._, 440, ii. 96, 483; _id._, _Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftlichen Mythologie_ (Göttingen, 1825), pp. 422-424.

165 “Ancient opinion even assigned the regulation of the calendar by the solstices and equinoxes to the will of the gods that sacrifices should be rendered at similar times in each year, rather than to the strict requirements of agriculture; and as religion undoubtedly makes larger demands on the cultivator as agriculture advances, the obligations of sacrifice may probably be reckoned as of equal importance with agricultural necessities in urging the formation of reckonings in the nature of a calendar” (E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_, ii. 280).

M51 The octennial cycle in relation to the Greek doctrine of rebirth.

166 As to the eight years’ servitude of Apollo and Cadmus for the slaughter of dragons, see below, p. 78. For the nine years’ penance of the man who had tasted human flesh at the festival of Zeus on Mount Lycaeus, see Pliny, _Nat. hist._ viii. 81 _sq._; Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, xviii. 17; Pausanias, viii. 2. 6; compare Plato, _Republic_, viii. p. 565 D E. Any god who forswore himself by the water of Styx was exiled for nine years from the society of his fellow-gods (Hesiod, _Theogony_, 793-804). On this subject see further, E. Rohde, _Psyche_,3 ii. 211 _sq._; W. H. Roscher, “Die enneadischen und hebdomadischen Fristen und Wochen der ältesten Griechen,” _Abhandlungen der philolog.-histor. Klasse der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, xxi. No. 4 (1903), pp. 24 _sqq._

167 Plato, _Meno_, p. 81 A-C; Pindar, ed. Boeckh, vol. iii. pp. 623 _sq._, Frag. 98.

M52 The octennial cycle at Cnossus in Crete. King Minos and Zeus. Sacred marriage of the king and queen of Cnossus in the form of bull and cow as symbols of the sun and moon.

168 Homer, _Odyssey_, xix. 178 _sq._,

τῇσι δ᾽ ἐνὶ Κνωσός, μεγάλη πόλις, ἔνθα τε Μίνως ἐννέωρος βασίλευε Διὸς μεγάλου ὀαριστής.

with the Scholia; Plato, _Laws_, i. I. p. 624 A, B;[_id._] _Minos_, 13 _sq._, pp. 319 _sq._; Strabo, ix. 4. 8, p. 476; Maximus Tyrius, _Dissert._ xxxviii. 2; _Etymologicum magnum_, _s.v._ ἐννέωροι, p. 343, 23 _sqq._; Valerius Maximus, i. 2, ext. I; compare Diodorus Siculus, v. 78. 3. Homer’s expression, ἐννέωρος βασίλευε, has been variously explained. I follow the interpretation which appears to have generally found favour both with the ancients, including Plato, and with modern scholars. See K. Hoeck, _Kreta_, i. 244 _sqq._; K. O. Müller,_Die Dorier_,2 ii. 96; G. F. Unger, “Zeitrechnung der Griechen und Römer,” in Ivan Müller’s _Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft_, i. 569; A. Schmidt, _Handbuch der griechischen Chronologie_ (Jena, 1888), p. 65; W. H. Roscher, “Die enneadischen und hebdomadischen Fristen und Wochen der ältesten Griechen,” _Abhandlungen der philolog.-histor. Klasse der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, xxi. No. 4 (Leipsic, 1903), pp. 22 _sq._; E. Rohde, _Psyche_,3 i. 128 _sq._ Literally interpreted, ἐννέωρος means “for nine years,” not “for eight years.” But see above, p. 59, note 1.

169 Apollodorus, iii. 1. 3 _sq._, iii. 15. 8; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 77; Schol. on Euripides, _Hippolytus_, 887; J. Tzetzes, _Chiliades_, i. 479 _sqq._; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 40; Virgil, _Ecl._ vi. 45 _sqq._; Ovid, _Ars amat._ i. 289 _sqq._

170 K. Hoeck, _Kreta_, ii. (Göttingen, 1828) pp. 63-69; L. Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_,3 ii. 119-123; W. H. Roscher, _Über Selene mid Verwandtes_ (Leipsic, 1890), pp. 135-139; _id._, _Nachträge zu meiner Schrift über Selene_ (Leipsic, 1895), p. 3; Türk, in W. H. _Roscher’s Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, iii. 1666 _sq._; A. J. Evans, “Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xxi. (1901) p. 181; A. B. Cook, “Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak,” _Classical Review_, xvii. (1903) pp. 406-412; compare _id._, “The European Sky-god,” _Folklore_, xv. (1904) p. 272. All these writers, except Mr. Cook, regard Minos and Pasiphae as representing the sun and moon. Mr. Cook agrees so far as relates to Minos, but he supposes Pasiphae to be a sky-goddess or sun-goddess rather than a goddess of the moon. On the other hand, he was the first to suggest that the myth was periodically acted by the king and queen of Cnossus disguised in bovine form.

171 Compare _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 368 _sq._

172 Bekker’s _Anecdota Graeca_, i. 344, _s.v._ Ἀδιούνιος ταῦρος.

173 Eusebius, _Praeparatio Evangelii_, iii. 13. 1 _sq._; Diodorus Siculus, i. 84. 4, i. 88. 4; Strabo, xvii. 1. 22 and 27, pp. 803, 805; Aelian, _De natura animalium_, xi. II; Suidas, _s.v._ Ἆπις; Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii. 14. 7; A. Wiedemann, _Herodots Zweites Buch_, p. 552; A. Erman, _Die ägyptische Religion_ (Berlin, 1905), p. 26; E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_ (London, 1904), i. 330.

174 E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_, i. 25.

175 Pausanias, i. 26. 1. For a description of the scenery of this coast, see Morritt, in Walpole’s _Memoirs relating to European Turkey_, i.2 p. 54.

176 W. H. Roscher, _Über Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 30-33.

177 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 130 _sqq._ We are told that Egyptian sovereigns assumed the masks of lions, bulls, and serpents as symbols of power (Diodorus Siculus, i. 62. 4).

M53 The same myth and custom of the marriage of the sun and moon appear in the stories of Zeus and Europa, of Minos and Britomartis. The conjunction of the sun and moon regarded as the best time for marriages. Octennial marriage of the king and queen as representatives of the sun and moon.

178 As to Minos and Britomartis or Dictynna, see Callimachus, _Hymn to Diana_, 189 _sqq._; Pausanias, ii. 30. 3; Antoninus Liberalis, _Transform._ 40; Diodorus Siculus, v. 76. On Britomartis as a moon-goddess, see K. Hoeck, _Kreta_, ii. 170; W. H. Roscher, _Über Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 45 _sq._, 116-118. Hoeck acutely perceived that the pursuit of Britomartis by Minos “is a trait of old festival customs in which the conceptions of the sun-god were transferred to the king of the island.” As to the explanation here adopted of the myth of Zeus and Europa, see K. Hoeck, _Kreta_, i. 90 _sqq._; W. H. Roscher, _op. cit._ pp. 128-135. Moschus describes (ii. 84 _sqq._) the bull which carried off Europa as yellow in colour with a silver circle shining on his forehead, and he compares the bull’s horns to those of the moon.

179 See W. H. Roscher, _op. cit._ pp. 76-82. Amongst the passages of classical writers which he cites are Plutarch, _De facie in orbe lunae_, 30; _id._, _Isis et Osiris_, 52; Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae compendium_, 34, p. 72, ed. C. Lang; Proclus, on Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 780; Macrobius, _Commentar. in Somnium Scipionis_, i. 18. 10 _sq._; Pliny, _Nat. hist._ ii. 45. When the sun and moon were eclipsed, the Tahitians supposed that the luminaries were in the act of copulation (J. Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_ (London, 1799), p. 346).

M54 Octennial tribute of youths and maidens probably required as a means of renewing the sun’s fire by human sacrifices. The Minotaur a bull-headed image of the sun.

180 Plutarch, _Theseus_, 15 _sq._; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 61; Pausanias, i. 27. 10; Ovid, _Metam._ viii. 170 _sq._ According to another account, the tribute of youths and maidens was paid every year. See Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 14 _sqq._, with the commentary of Servius; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 41.

181 Apollodorus, i. 9. 26; Apollonius Rhodius, _Argon._ iv. 1638 _sqq._, with the scholium; Agatharchides, in Photius, _Bibliotheca_, p. 443b, lines 22-25, ed. Bekker; Lucian, _De saltatione_, 49; Zenobius, v. 85; Suidas, _s.v._ Σαρδάνιος γέλως; Eustathius on Homer, _Odyssey_, xx. 302, p. 1893; Schol. on Plato, _Republic_, i. p. 337A.

182 Apollodorus, i. 9. 26.

183 Hesychius, _s.v._ Ταλῶς.

184 Diodorus Siculus, xx. 14; Clitarchus, cited by Suidas, _s.v._ Σαρδάνιος γέλως, and by the Scholiast on Plato, _Republic_, p. 337A; Plutarch, _De superstitione_, 13; Paulus Fagius, quoted by Selden, _De dis Syris_ (Leipsic, 1668), pp. 169 _sq._ The calf’s head of the idol is mentioned only by P. Fagius, who drew his account from a book Jalkut by Rabbi Simeon.

185 Compare M. Mayer, _s.v._ “Kronos,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon d. griech. u. röm. Mythologie_, iii. 1501 _sqq._

186 J. Tzetzes, _Chiliades_, i. 646 _sqq._

M55 Dance of the youths and maidens at Cnossus.

187 Homer, _Iliad_, xviii. 590 _sqq._

188 Plutarch, _Theseus_, 21; Julius Pollux, iv. 101.

M56 The game of Troy.

189 As to the Game of Troy, see Virgil, _Aen._ v. 545-603; Plutarch, _Cato_, 3; Tacitus, _Annals_, xi. 11; Suetonius, _Augustus_, 43; _id._, _Tiberius_, 6; _id._, _Caligula_, 18; _id._, _Nero_, 6; W. Smith’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_,3 _s.v._ “Trojae ludus”; O. Benndorf, “Das Alter des Trojaspieles,” appended to W. Reichel’s _Über homerische Waffen_ (Vienna, 1894), pp. 133-139.

190 O. Benndorf, _op. cit._ pp. 133 _sq._

191 B. V. Head, _Historia numorum_ (Oxford, 1887), pp. 389-391.

192 O. Benndorf, _op. cit._ pp. 134 _sq._

193 Pliny, _Nat. hist._ xxxvi. 85.

194 O. Benndorf, _op. cit._ p. 135; W. Meyer, “Ein Labyrinth mit Versen,” _Sitzungsberichte der philosoph. philolog. und histor_. _Classe der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München_, 1882, vol. ii. pp. 267-300.

M57 The dance at Cnossus perhaps an imitation of the sun’s course in the sky.

195 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 312.

196 B. V. Head, _Historia numorum_, p. 389.

M58 Conclusions as to the king of Cnossus. M59 Octennial festivals of the Crowning at Delphi and the Laurel-bearing at Thebes. Both represented dramatically the slaying of a water-dragon.

197 Censorinus, _De die natali_, 18. 6.

198 The suggestion was made by Mr. A. B. Cook. The following discussion of the subject is founded on his ingenious exposition. See his article, “The European Sky-god,” _Folklore_, xv. (1904) pp. 402-424.

199 As to the Delphic festival see Plutarch, _Quaest. Graec._ 12; _id._, _De defectu oraculorum_, 15; Strabo, ix. 3. 12, pp. 422 _sq._; Aelian, _Var. hist._ iii. 1; Stephanus Byzantius, _s.v._ Δειπνίας; K. O. Müller, _Die Dorier_,2 i. 203 _sqq._, 321-324; Aug. Mommsen, _Delphika_ (Leipsic, 1878), pp. 206 _sqq._; Th. Schreiber, _Apollo Pythoktonos_, pp. 9 _sqq._; my note on Pausanias, ii. 7. 7 (vol. ii. 53 _sqq._). As to the Theban festival, see Pausanias, ix. 10. 4, with my note; Proclus, quoted by Photius, _Bibliotheca_, p. 321, ed. Bekker; Aug. Boeckh, in his edition of Pindar, _Explicationes_, p. 590; K. O. Müller, _Orchomenus und die Minyer_,2 pp. 215 _sq._; _id._, _Dorier_,2 i. 236 _sq._, 333 _sq._; C. Boetticher, _Der Baumkultus der Hellenen_, pp. 386 _sqq._; G. F. Schömann, _Griechische Alterthümer_,4 ii. 479 _sq._

200 Apollodorus, iii. 4. 2, iii. 10. 4; Servius, on Virgil, _Aen._ vii. 761. The servitude of Apollo is traditionally associated with his slaughter of the Cyclopes, not of the dragon. But see my note on Pausanias, ii. 7. 7 (vol. ii. pp. 53 _sqq._).

201 W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon d. griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 830, 838, 839. On an Etruscan mirror the scene of Cadmus’s combat with the dragon is surrounded by a wreath of laurel (Roscher, _op. cit._ ii. 862). Mr. A. B. Cook was the first to call attention to these vase-paintings in confirmation of my view that the Festival of the Laurel-bearing celebrated the destruction of the dragon by Cadmus (_Folklore_, xv. (1904) p. 411, note 224).

202 Pausanias, ix. 10. 2; K. O. Müller, _Die Dorier_,2 i. 237 _sq._

203 For evidence of the wide diffusion of the myth and the drama, see Th. Schreiber, _Apollon Pythoktonos_, pp. 39-50. The Laurel-bearing Apollo was worshipped at Athens, as we know from an inscription carved on one of the seats in the theatre. See E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, _Introduction to Greek Epigraphy_, ii. (Cambridge, 1905) p. 467, No. 247.

M60 Both at Delphi and at Thebes the dragon seems to have guarded the oracular spring and the oracular tree. The crown of laurel and the crown of oak. The Festival of Crowning at Delphi originally identical with the Pythian games.

204 Apollodorus, iii. 4. 3; Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 494; Pausanias, ix. 10. 5; _Homeric Hymn to Apollo_, 300 _sq._ The writer of the Homeric hymn merely says that Apollo slew the Delphic dragon at a spring; but Pausanias (x. 6. 6) tells us that the beast guarded the oracle.

205 Pausanias, x. 8. 9, x. 24. 7, with my notes; Ovid, _Amores_, i. 15. 35 _sq._; Lucian, _Jupiter tragoedus_, 30; Nonnus, _Dionys._ iv. 309 _sq._; Suidas, _s.v._ Κασταλία.

206 W. H. Roscher, _Lexikon d. griech. u. röm. Mythologie_, ii. 830, 838.

207 Euripides, _Iphigenia in Tauris_, 1245 _sq._, where the reading κατάχαλκος is clearly corrupt.

208 Lucian, _Bis accusatus_, I. So the priest of the Clarian Apollo at Colophon drank of a secret spring before he uttered oracles in verse (Tacitus, _Annals_, ii. 54; Pliny, _Nat. hist._ ii. 232).

209 Euripides, _Iphigenia in Tauris_, 1245 _sqq._; Apollodorus, i. 4. I; Pausanias, x. 6. 6; Aelian, _Var. hist._ iii. i; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 140; Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 519; Schol. on Pindar, _Pyth._ Argument, p. 298, ed. Boeckh.

210 Euripides, _Hercules Furens_, 395 _sqq._; Apollodorus, ii. 5. II; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 26; Eratosthenes, _Catasterism._ 3; Schol. on Euripides, _Hippolytus_, 742; Schol. on Apollonius Rhodius, _Argon_, iv. 1396.

211 A. B. Cook, “The European Sky-god,” _Folklore_, xv. (1904) p. 413.

212 Ovid, _Metam._ i. 448 _sqq._

213 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ i. I, p. 2, and ii. 34, p. 29, ed. Potter; Aristotle, _Peplos_, Frag. (_Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, ii. p. 189, No. 282, ed. C. Müller); John of Antioch, Frag. i. 20 (_Frag. histor. Graec._ iv. p. 539, ed. C. Müller); Jamblichus, _De Pythagor. vit._ x. 52; Schol. on Pindar, _Pyth._ Argum. p. 298, ed. Boeckh; Ovid, _Metam._ i. 445 _sqq._; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 140.

214 Schol. on Pindar, _l.c._; Censorinus, _De die natali_, 18. 6; compare Eustathius on Homer, _Od._ iii. 267, p. 1466. 29.

215 Plutarch, _De defectu oraculorum_, 3, compared with _id._ 15; Aug. Mommsen, _Delphika_, pp. 211, 214; Th. Schreiber, _Apollon Pythoktonos_ (Leipsic, 1879), pp. 32 _sqq._

216 Aelian, _Var. hist._ iii. I; Schol. on Pindar, _l.c._

217 On the original identity of the festivals see Th. Schreiber, _Apollon Pythoktonus_, pp. 37 _sq._; A. B. Cook, in _Folklore_, xv. (1904) pp. 404 _sq._

218 The inference was drawn by Mr. A. B. Cook, whom I follow. See his article, “The European Sky-god,” _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp. 412 _sqq_.

M61 Substitution of the laurel for the oak.

219 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. i. p. 8.

220 Aelian, _Var. hist._ iii. 1; Schol. on Pindar, _Pyth._ Argum. p. 298, ed. Boeckh.

221 A. B. Cook, “The European Sky-god,” _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp. 423 _sq_.

222 Pausanias, ix. 3. 4. See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. p. 140.

M62 Hypothesis of octennial kings at Delphi and Thebes, who personated dragons or serpents. Animals sacred to royal families. Greek stories of the transformation of gods into beasts point to a custom of a sacred marriage in which the actors masqueraded as animals.

223 A. B. Cook, “The European Sky-god,” _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp. 402 _sqq_.

M63 Analogy of the Wolf Society of Arcadia to the Leopard Society of west Africa.

224 Plato, _Republic_, viii. p. 565 D E; Polybius, vii. 13; Pliny, _Nat. hist._ viii. 81; Varro, cited by Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, xviii. 17; Pausanias, vi. 8. 2, viii. 2. 3-6.

225 Mary H. Kingsley, _Travels in West Africa_, pp. 536-543; T. J. Alldridge, _The Sherbro and its Hinterland_ (London, 1901), pp. 153-159; compare R. H. Nassau, _Fetichism in West Africa_ (London, 1904), pp. 200-203.

226 T. J. Alldridge, _op. cit._ p. 154.

227 A. Bastian, _Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste_, ii. 248.

M64 Legend of the transformation of Cadmus and Harmonia into serpents. Transmigration of the souls of the dead into serpents. Kings claim kinship with the most powerful animals.

228 Apollodorus, iii. 5. 4; Strabo, vii. 7. 8, p. 326; Ovid, _Metam_. iv. 563-603; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 6; Nicander, _Theriaca_, 607 _sqq._

229 A. van Gennep, _Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar_ (Paris, 1904), p. 326.

230 Dercylus, quoted by a scholiast on Euripides, _Phoenissae_, 7; _Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iv. 387. The writer rationalises the legend by representing the dragon as a Theban man of that name whom Cadmus slew. On the theory here suggested this Euhemeristic version of the story is substantially right.

231 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 268 _sqq._

232 David Leslie, _Among the Zulus and Amatongas_, Second Edition (Edinburgh, 1875), p. 213. Compare H. Callaway, _The Religious System of the Amazulu_, Part II., pp. 196, 211.

233 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 73 _sqq._

234 D. Livingstone, _Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa_, p. 615; Miss A. Werner, _The Natives of British Central Africa_ (London, 1906), p. 64; L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), p. 74; J. Roscoe, “The Bahima,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxvii. (1907) pp. 101 sq.; Major J. A. Meldon, “Notes on the Bahima,” _Journal of the African Society_, No. 22 (January, 1907), pp. 151-153; J. A. Chisholm, “Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Winamwanga and Wiwa,” _Journal of the African Society_, No. 36 (July, 1910), pp. 374, 375; P. Alois Hamberger, in _Anthropos_, v. (1910) p. 802.

235 W. W. Skeat and C. O. Blagden, _Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula_ (London, 1906), ii. 194, 197, 221, 227, 305.

236 A. B. Ellis, _The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, pp. 74 sq.

237 This I learned from Professor F. von Luschan in the Anthropological Museum at Berlin.

238 M. Delafosse, in _La Nature_, No. 1086 (March 24th, 1894), pp. 262-266; J. G. Frazer, “Statues of Three Kings of Dahomey,” _Man_, viii. (1908) pp. 130-132. King Behanzin, surnamed the Shark, is doubtless the King of Dahomey referred to by Professor von Luschan (see the preceding note).

239 The statue was pointed out to me and explained by Professor F. von Luschan.

240 A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, pp. 205 _sq._

241 2 Kings xviii. 4.

242 W. Robertson Smith, “Animal Worship and Animal Tribes,” _Journal of Philology_, ix. (1880) pp. 99 _sq._ Professor T. K. Cheyne prefers to suppose that the brazen serpent and the brazen “sea” in the temple at Jerusalem were borrowed from Babylon and represented the great dragon, the impersonation of the primaeval watery chaos. See _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Nehushtan,” vol. i. coll. 3387. The two views are perhaps not wholly irreconcilable. See below, pp. 111 _sq._

M65 The serpent the royal animal at Athens and Salamis.

243 Herodotus, viii. 41; Plutarch, _Themistocles_, 10; Aristophanes, _Lysistrata_, 758 _sq._, with the Scholium; Philostratus, _Imagines_, ii. 17. 6. Some said that there were two serpents ,Hesychius and Photius, _Lexicon_, _s.v._ οἰκουρὸν ὄφιν. For the identity of the serpent with Erichthonius, see Pausanias, i. 24. 7; Hyginus, _Astronomica_, ii. 13; Tertullian, _De spectaculis_, 9; compare Philostratus, _Vit. Apoll._ vii. 24; and for the identity of Erichthonius and Erechtheus, see Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 547; _Etymologicum magnum_, p. 371, _s.v._ Ἐρεχθεύς. According to some, the upper part of Erichthonius was human and the lower part or only the feet serpentine. See Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 166; _id._, _Astronomica_, ii. 13; Schol. on Plato, _Timaeus_, p. 23 D; _Etymologicum magnum_, _l.c._; Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ iii. 13. See further my notes on Pausanias i. 18. 2 and i. 26. 5, vol. ii. pp. 168 _sqq._, 330 _sqq._

244 Apollodorus, iii. 14. i; Aristophanes, _Wasps_, 438. Compare J. Tzetzes, _Chiliades_, v. 641.

245 W. H. Roscher, _Lexikon d. griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 1019. Compare Euripides, _Ion_, 1163 _sqq._

246 O. Immisch, in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon d. griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 1023.

247 Apollodorus, iii. 12. 7; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 72; J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on Lycophron_, 110, 175, 451.

248 Pausanias, i. 36. 1. Another version of the story was that Cychreus bred a snake which ravaged the island and was driven out by Eurylochus, after which Demeter received the creature at Eleusis as one of her attendants (Hesiod, quoted by Strabo, ix. 1. 9, p. 393).

249 Stephanus Byzantius, _s.v._ Κυχρεῖος πάγος; Eustathius, _Commentary on Dionysius_, 507, in _Geographi Graeci minores_, ed. C. Müller, ii. 314.

250 Hesychius, _s.v._ Ἐρεχθεύς; Athenagoras, _Supplicatio pro Christianis_, 1; [Plutarch], _Vit. X. Orat._ p. 843 B C; _Corpus inscriptionum Atticarum_, i. No. 387, iii. Nos. 276, 805; compare Pausanias, i. 26. 5.

251 Apollodorus, iii. 14. 1; Herodotus, viii. 55; compare Pausanias, viii. 10. 4.

M66 The wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia at Thebes may have been a dramatic representation of the marriage of the sun and moon at the end of the eight years’ cycle.

252 See above, p. 73.

253 Apollodorus, iii. 4. 1 _sq._; Pausanias, ix. 12. 1 _sq._; Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 494; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 178. The mark of the moon on the cow is mentioned only by Pausanias and Hyginus.

254 Apollodorus, iii. 4. 2; Euripides, _Phoenissae_, 822 _sq._; Pindar, _Pyth._ iii. 155 _sqq._; Diodorus Siculus, v. 49. 1; Pausanias, iii. 18. 12, ix. 12. 3; Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 494.

M67 This theory confirmed by the astronomical symbols carried by the Laurel-bearer at the octennial festival of Laurel-bearing. The Olympic festival seems to have been based on the octennial cycle. Mythical marriage of the sun and moon at Olympia.

255 Proclus, quoted by Photius, _Bibliotheca_, p. 321, ed. Bekker.

256 Proclus, _l.c._

257 Pindar, _Pyth._ iii. 155 _sqq._; Diodorus Siculus, v. 49. 1; Pausanias, ix. 12. 3; Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 494.

258 Schol. on Euripides, _Phoenissae_, 7 καὶ νῦν ἔτι ἐν τῇ Σαμοθρᾴκῃ ζητοῦσιν αὐτὴν [scil. Ἁρμονίαν] ἐν ταῖς ἑορταῖς. According to the Samothracian account, Cadmus in seeking Europa came to Samothrace, and there, having been initiated into the mysteries, married Harmonia (Diodorus Siculus, v. 48 _sq._). It is probable, though it cannot be proved, that the legend was acted in the mystic rites.

259 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 133. Mr. A. B. Cook has suggested that the central scene on the eastern frieze of the Parthenon represents the king and queen of Athens about to take their places among the enthroned deities. See his article “Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak,” _Classical Review_, xviii. (1904) p. 371. As the scenes on the frieze appear to have been copied from the Panathenaiac festival, it would seem, on Mr. Cook’s hypothesis, that the sacred marriage of the King and Queen was celebrated on that occasion in presence of actors who played the parts of gods and goddesses. In this connexion it may not be amiss to remember that in the eastern gable of the Parthenon the pursuit of the moon by the sun was mythically represented by the horses of the sun emerging from the sea on the one side, and the horses of the moon plunging into it on the other.

260 Schol. on Pindar, _Olymp._ iii. 35 (20).

261 Compare Aug. Boeckh, on Pindar, _l.c._, _Explicationes_, p. 138; L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_, i. 366 _sq._; G. F. Unger, “Zeitrechnung der Griechen und Römer,” in Iwan Müller’s _Handbuch der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, i. 605 _sq._ All these writers recognise the octennial cycle at Olympia.

262 K. O. Müller, _Die Dorier_,2 ii. 483; compare _id._ i. 254 _sq._

263 Pausanias, v. 1. 4.

264 Aug. Boeckh, _l.c._; A. Schmidt, _Handbuch der griechischen Chronologie_ (Jena, 1888), pp. 50 _sqq._; K. O. Müller, _Die Dorier_,2 i. 438; W. H. Roscher, _Selene und Verwandtes_, pp. 2 _sq._, 80 _sq._, 101.

265 See Aug. Boeckh and L. Ideler, _ll.cc._ More recent writers would date it on the second full moon after the summer solstice, hence in August or the last days of July. See G. F. Unger, _l.c._; E. F. Bischoff, “De fastis Graecorum antiquioribus,” _Leipziger Studien zur classischen Philologie_, vii. (1884) pp. 347 _sq._; Aug. Mommsen, _Über die Zeit der Olympien_ (Leipsic, 1891); and my note on Pausanias, v. 9. 3 (vol. iii. pp. 488 _sq._).

M68 The Olympic victors, male and female, may originally have represented Zeus and Hera or the Sun and Moon, and have reigned as divine king and queen for four or eight years.

266 A. B. Cook, “The European Sky-God,” _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp. 398-402.

267 Rapp, in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon d. griech. und röm. Mythologie_, i. 2005 _sqq._

268 Pausanias, v. 15. 3, with my note; Schol. on Pindar, _Olymp._ iii. 60.

269 Pausanias, v. 11. 1.

270 Pausanias, v. 16. 2 _sqq._

271 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. p. 143.

272 Pausanias, v. 16. 4.

273 Many years after the theory in the text was printed (for the present volume has been long in the press) I accidentally learned that my friend Mr. F. M. Cornford, Fellow and Lecturer of Trinity College, Cambridge, had quite independently arrived at a similar conclusion with regard to the mythical and dramatic parts played by the Olympic victors, male and female, as representatives of the Sun and Moon, and I had the pleasure of hearing him expound the theory in a brilliant lecture delivered before the Classical Society of Cambridge, 28th February 1911. The coincidence of two independent enquirers in conclusions, which can hardly be called obvious, seems to furnish a certain confirmation of their truth. In Mr. Cornford’s case the theory in question forms part of a more elaborate and comprehensive hypothesis as to the origin of the Olympic games, concerning which I must for the present suspend my judgment.

274 Herodian, v. 6. 3-5.

M69 Tradition that the great games of Greece originated in funeral celebrations.

275 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 34, p. 29, ed. Potter. The following account of funeral games is based on my note on Pausanias i. 44. 8 (vol. ii. pp. 549 _sq._). Compare W. Ridgeway, _The Origin of Tragedy_ (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 32 _sqq._

276 Clement of Alexandria, _l.c._

277 Pausanias, v. 13. 1 _sq._

278 Scholiast on Pindar, _Olymp._ i. 146.

279 Varro, cited by Servius, on Virgil, _Aen._ iii. 67.

280 F. Bonney, “On some Customs of the Aborigines of the River Darling,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xiii. (1884) pp. 134 _sq._; Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, pp. 507, 509 _sq._; (Sir) G. Grey, _Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia_ (London, 1841), ii. 332.

_ 281 Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, vi. (Cambridge, 1908) pp. 135, 154.

282 Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 74; Apollodorus, iii. 6. 4; Schol. on Pindar, _Pyth._, Introduction; Pausanias, ii. 15. 2 _sq._; Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 34, p. 29, ed. Potter.

283 Scholiast on Pindar, _Isthm._, Introduction, p. 514, ed. Boeckh; Pausanias, i. 44. 8; Apollodorus, iii. 4. 3; Zenobius, iv. 38; Clement of Alexandria, _l.c._; J. Tzetzes, _Scholia on Lycophron_, 107, 229; Scholia on Euripides, _Medea_, 1284; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 2.

284 Clement of Alexandria, _l.c._; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 140.

M70 The tradition is confirmed by Greek practice, for in historical times games were instituted to do honour to many famous men in Greece.

285 Homer, _Iliad_, xxiii. 255 _sqq._, 629 _sqq._, 651 _sqq._

286 Herodotus, vi. 38.

287 Pausanias, iii. 14. 1.

288 Plutarch, _De sera numinis vindicta_, 17.

289 Thucydides, v. 10 _sq._

290 Plutarch, _Timoleon_, 39.

291 Aulus Gellius, x. 18. 5 _sq._

292 Arrian, vii. 14. 10.

M71 The Greeks also instituted games in honour of large numbers of men who had perished in battle or a massacre.

293 Herodotus, i. 167.

294 Plutarch, _Aristides_, 21; Strabo, ix. 2. 31, p. 412; Pausanias, ix. 2. 5 _sq._

295 Philostratus, _Vit. Sophist._ ii. 30; Heliodorus, _Aethiopica_, i. 17; compare Aristotle, _Constitution of Athens_, 58.

M72 Funeral games have been celebrated in honour of the dead by other peoples both in ancient and modern times.

296 Herodotus, v. 8.

297 Livy, xxiii. 30. 15.

298 Livy, xxxi. 50. 4.

299 Livy, xxxix. 46. 2 _sq._

_ 300 Census of India, 1901_, vol. iii., _The Andaman and Nicobar Islands_, by Lieut.-Col. Sir Richard C. Temple (Calcutta, 1903), p. 209.

301 Letter of the missionary Chevron, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xv. (1843) pp. 40 _sq._

302 É. Aymonier, _Voyage dans le Laos_ (Paris, 1895-1897), ii. 325 _sq._; C. Bock, _Temples and Elephants_ (London, 1884), p. 262.

303 A. de Levchine, _Description des hommes et des steppes des Kirghiz-Kazaks ou Kirghiz-Kaisaks_ (Paris, 1840), pp. 367 _sq._; H. Vambery, _Das Türkenvolk_ (Leipsic, 1885), p. 255; P. von Stenin, “Die Kirgisen des Kreises Saissanak im Gebiete von Ssemipalatinsk,” _Globus_, lxix. (1906) p. 228.

304 T. de Pauly, _Description ethnographique des peuples de la Russie_ (St. Petersburg, 1862), _Peuples ouralo-altaïques_, p. 29.

305 Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1744), vi. 111.

M73 Funeral games among the Bedouins and among the peoples of the Caucasus.

306 I. Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_ (Halle a. S., 1888-1890), ii. 328 _sq._ However, Prof. Goldziher believes that the festival is an ancient heathen one which has been subsequently grafted upon the tradition of the orthodox prophet Salih.

307 J. Potocki, _Voyage dans les steps d’Astrakhan et du Caucase_ (Paris, 1829), i. 275 _sq._; Edmund Spencer, _Travels in Circassia, Krim Tartary_, etc. (London, 1836) ii. 399.

308 G. Radde, _Die Chews’uren und ihr Land_ (Cassel, 1878), pp. 95 _sq._; Prince Eristow, “Die Pschawen und Chewsurier im Kaukasus,” _Zeitschrift für allgemeine Erdkunde_, Neue Folge, ii. (1857) p. 77.

309 C. v. Hahn, “Religiöse Anschauungen und Totengedächtnisfeier der Chewsuren,” _Globus_, lxxvi. (1899) pp. 211 _sq._

310 N. v. Seidlitz, “Die Abchasen,” _Globus_, lxvi. (1894) pp. 42 _sq._

M74 Games periodically held in honour of some famous man might in time assume the character of a great fair. The great Irish fairs of Tailltin and Carman, in which horse-races played a prominent part, are said to have been instituted in honour of the dead.

311 (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London, 1888), pp. 409 _sq._; H. d’Arbois de Jubainville, _Cours de littérature celtique_, vii. (Paris, 1895) pp. 309 _sqq._; P. W. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903), ii. 438 _sqq._ “The _aenach_ or fair was an assembly of the people of every grade without distinction; it was the most common kind of large public meeting, and its main object was the celebration of games, athletic exercises, sports, and pastimes of all kinds” (P. W. Joyce, _op. cit._ ii. 438). The Irish name is _Tailltiu_, genitive _Taillten_, accusative and dative _Tailltin_ (Sir J. Rhys, _op. cit._ p. 409 note 1).

312 (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, p. 411; H. d’Arbois de Jubainville, _Cours de littérature celtique_, vii. 313 _sqq._; P. W. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_, ii. 434 _sq._, 441 _sqq._

M75 Indeed most of the great Irish fairs are said to have originated in funeral games.

313 P. W. Joyce, _op. cit._ ii. 435.

314 P. W. Joyce, _op. cit._ ii. 434. Compare (Sir) J. Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, p. 411.

315 H. d’Arbois de Jubainville, _Cours de littérature celtique_, vii. 313.

316 H. d’Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._ vii. 310.

M76 The great Irish fairs were held on the first of August (Lammas), which seems to have been an old harvest festival of first-fruits.

317 P. W. Joyce, _op. cit._ ii. 389, 439.

318 (Sir) J. Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, p. 410.

319 (Sir) J. Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, pp. 411 _sq._, quoting the substance of a note by Thos. Hearne, in his edition of _Robert of Gloucester’s Chronicles_ (Oxford, 1724), p. 679. As to the derivation of the word see _New English Dictionary_ (Oxford, 1888- ) and W. W. Skeat, _Etymological Dictionary of the English Language_ (Oxford, 1910), _s.v._ “Lammas.”

320 See above, p. 100.

321 See _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, ii. 459 _sqq._

322 See _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, ii. 460, 463, 464 _sq._

M77 If the great Irish fairs were instituted in honour of the dead, we can understand why their observance was supposed to ensure plenty of corn, fruit, milk, and fish.

323 See above, pp. 14 _sqq._, 21, 27, 33, 36 _sq._

324 See above, p. 98.

325 See above, p. 93.

M78 But the theory of the funeral origin of the Olympic games does not explain all the legends connected with them. Suggested theory of the origin of the Olympic games.

326 Pausanias, v. 1. 4, v. 8. 1.

327 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, pp. 183-185 ed. R. Wagner (_Epitoma_, ii. 3-9); Diodorus Siculus, iv. 73; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 84; Schol. on Pindar, _Olymp._ i. 114; Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ iii. 7. See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 299 _sq._

328 Strabo, vi. 3. 9, p. 284; K. O. Müller, _Aeschylos Eumeniden_ (Göttingen, 1833), p. 144.

329 Pausanias, vi. 21. 9-11.

M79 The Olympic games not a harvest festival, but based on astronomical considerations. M80 Widespread myth of the slaughter of a great dragon. The Babylonian story of the slaying of Tiamat by Marduk is a myth of the creation of cosmos out of chaos.

330 P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_ (Strasburg, 1890), pp. 263 _sqq._; _id._, _Assyrisch-babylonische Mythen und Epen_ (Berlin, 1900), pp. 3 _sqq._; M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 407 _sqq._; L. W. King, _Babylonian Religion and Mythology_, pp. 53 _sqq._; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_ (Berlin, 1902), pp. 488 _sqq._; M. J. Lagrange, _Études sur les religions sémitiques_2 (Paris, 1905); pp. 366 _sqq._

331 P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_, pp. 304-306; H. Gunkel, _Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit_ (Göttingen, 1895), pp. 114 _sqq._; _id._, _Genesis übersetzt und erklärt_ (Göttingen, 1901), pp. 107 _sqq._; _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Creation,” i. coll. 938 _sqq._; S. R. Driver, _The Book of Genesis_4 (London, 1905), pp. 27 _sqq._ The myth is clearly alluded to in several passages of Scripture, where the dragon of the sea is spoken of as Rahab or Leviathan. See Isaiah li. 9, “Art thou not it that cut Rahab in pieces, that pierced the dragon?”: _id._ xxvii. 1, “In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the swift serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea”: Job xxvi. 12, “He stirreth up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab”: Psalm lxxxix. 10, “Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain”: Psalm lxxiv. 13 _sq._, “Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces.” See further H. Gunkel, _Schöpfung und Chaos_, pp. 29 _sqq._

M81 Indian story of the slaying of Vṛtra by Indra. The story may be a myth descriptive of the beginning of the rainy season in India.

332 A. A. Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_, pp. 58-60, 158 _sq._ Compare H. Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, pp. 134 _sqq._

333 See M. Winternitz, “Der Sarpabali, ein altindischer Schlangencult,” _Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien_, xviii. (1888) pp. 44 _sq._

M82 Similarly the other tales of the slaughter of the dragon may be mythical descriptions of the changes of the seasons.

334 A. Kuhn, “Wodan,” _Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum_, v. (1845) pp. 484-488.

335 P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_, pp. 315 _sq._; H. Gunkel, _Schöpfung und Chaos_, p. 25; _id._, _Genesis übersetzt und erklärt_, pp. 115 _sq._; M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 411 _sq._, 429 _sq._, 432 _sq._; H. Zimmern, in _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Creation,” i. coll. 940 _sq._; _id._, in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_,3 pp. 370 _sq._, 500 _sq._; S. R. Driver, _The Book of Genesis_4 (London, 1905), p. 28.

M83 The cosmogonical significance of the Babylonian myth may have been an after-thought, the early philosophers picturing the creation of the world on the analogy of the change from winter to summer.

336 Virgil, _Georgics_, ii. 336-342.

M84 Thus ceremonies intended to hasten the departure of winter are in a sense attempts to repeat the creation of the world. M85 In Babylon and India the myth of the slaughter of the dragon may have been acted as a magical ceremony to hasten the advent of summer or of the rainy season. New-year festival of Zagmuk at Babylon.

337 P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_, pp. 84 _sqq._; M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 677 _sqq._; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_,3 pp. 371, 384 note 4, 402, 427, 515 _sqq._; R. F. Harper, _Babylonian and Assyrian Literature_ (New York, 1901), pp. 136, _sq._, 137, 140, 149; M. J. Lagrange, _Études sur les religions sémitiques_2 (Paris, 1905), pp. 285 _sqq._

338 L. W. King, _Babylonian Religion and Mythology_, pp. 88 _sqq._

339 See C. P. Tiele, _Geschiedenis van den Godsdienst in de Oudheid_, i. (Amsterdam, 1903) pp. 159 _sq._; L. W. King, _op. cit._ p. 21; H. Zimmern. in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_,3 p. 399; M. Jastrow, _Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens_, i (Giessen, 1905) pp. 117 _sqq._

340 P. Jensen, _op. cit._ pp. 85 _sqq._; M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 679; H. Zimmern, _op. cit._ p. 515; M. J. Lagrange, _op. cit._ p. 286.

341 P. Jensen, _op. cit._ p. 87; M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 681; H. Zimmern, _op. cit._ pp. 402, 415; R. F. Harper, _op. cit._ p. 136.

342 P. Jensen, _Assyrisch-babylonische Mythen und Epen_, p. 29; L. W. King, _Babylonian Religion and Mythology_, p. 74.

343 This appears to be substantially the view of H. Zimmern (_op. cit._ p. 501) and of Karppe (referred to in _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Creation,” i. coll. 941 note 1).

M86 Part played by the king in the drama of the Slaughter of the Dragon. M87 Suggested reconciliation of the totemic with the cosmological interpretation of the Slaughter of the Dragon.

344 A. Moret, _Du caractère religieux de la royauté Pharaonique_ (Paris, 1902), pp. 18 _sqq._, 33 _sqq._

345 Clement of Alexandria. _Strom._ v. 7. p. 671, ed. Potter.

346 A. Erman, _Die ägyptische Religion_ (Berlin, 1905), pp. 10, 25.

347 John Parkinson (late Principal of the Mineral Survey of Southern Nigeria), “Southern Nigeria, the Lagos Province,” _The Empire Review_, vol. xv. May 1908, pp. 290 _sq._ The account in the text of the mystery surrounding the Awujale is taken from A. B. Ellis, _The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa_ (London, 1894), p. 170.

M88 Evidence of an annual tenure of the kingship at Babylon. Further, it would seem that in very early times the kings of Babylon were put to death at the end of a year’s reign. The mock king put to death at the festival of the Sacaea was probably a substitute for the real king.

348 M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 680; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_,3 pp. 374, 515; C. Brockelmann, “Wesen und Ursprung des Eponymats in Assyrien,” _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, xvi. (1902) pp. 391 _sq._, 396 _sq._

349 Athenaeus, xiv. 44, p. 639 C; Dio Chrysostom, _Or._ iv. pp. 69 _sq._ (vol. i. p. 76, ed. L. Dindorf). Dio Chrysostom does not mention his authority, but it was probably either Berosus or Ctesias. The execution of the mock king is not noticed in the passage of Berosus cited by Athenaeus, probably because the mention of it was not germane to Athenaeus’s purpose, which was simply to give a list of festivals at which masters waited on their servants. A passage of Macrobius (_Saturn._ iii. 7. 6) which has sometimes been interpreted as referring to this Babylonian custom (F. Liebrecht, in _Philologus_, xxii. 710; J. J. Bachofen, _Die Sage von Tanaquil_, p. 52, note 16) has in fact nothing to do with it. See A. B. Cook, in _Classical Review_, xvii. (1903) p. 412; _id._ in _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp. 304, 384. In the passage of Dio Chrysostom ἐκρέμασαν should strictly mean “hanged,” but the verb was applied by the Greeks to the Roman punishment of crucifixion (Plutarch, _Caesar_, 2). It may have been extended to include impalement, which was often inflicted by the Assyrians, as we may see by the representations of it on the Assyrian monuments in the British Museum. See also R. F. Harper, _Assyrian and Babylonian Literature_, p. 41, with the plate facing p. 54. The proper word for impalement in Greek is ἀνασκολοπίζειν (Herodotus, iv. 202). Hanging was also an Oriental as well as Roman mode of punishment. The Hebrew word for it (חלה) seems unambiguous. See Esther, v. 14, vii. 9 _sq._; Deuteronomy, xxi. 22 _sq._; Joshua, viii. 29, x. 26; Livy, i. 26. 6.

350 See above, pp. 21, 26 _sqq._

M89 The festival of the Sacaea was perhaps identical with Zagmuk. Festival of Zagmuk in Assyria. Trace of an annual tenure of the kingship in Assyria.

351 Bruno Meissner, “Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Purimfestes,” _Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, I. (1896) pp. 296-301; H. Winckler, _Altorientalische Forschungen_, Zweite Reihe, Bd. ii. p. 345; C. Brockelmann, “Wesen und Ursprung des Eponymats in Assyrien,” _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, xvi. (1902) pp. 391 _sq._

352 Meantime I may refer the reader to _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, ii. 254, iii. 151 _sqq._ As I have there pointed out (iii. 152 _sq._) the identification of the months of the Syro-Macedonian calendar (that is, the ascertainment of their astronomical dates in the solar year) is a matter of some uncertainty, the dates appearing to have varied considerably in different places. The month Lous in particular is variously said to have corresponded in different places to July, August, September, and October. Until we have ascertained beyond the reach of doubt when Lous fell at Babylon in the time of Berosus, it would be premature to allow much weight to the seeming discrepancy in the dates of Zagmuk and the Sacaea. On the whole difficult question of the identification or dating of the months of the Syro-Macedonian calendar see L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_, i. 393 _sqq._; K. F. Hermann, “Über griechische Monatskunde,” _Abhandlungen der histor.-philolog. Classe d. kön. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen_, ii. (1843-44) pp. 68 _sqq._, 95, 109, 111 _sqq._; H. F. Clinton, _Fasti Hellenici_, iii.2 351 _sqq._; article “Calendarium,” in W. Smith’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_,3 i. 339. The distinction between the dates of the Syro-Macedonian months, which differed in different places, and their order, which was the same in all places (Dius, Apellaeus, etc.), appears to have been overlooked by some of my former readers.

353 P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_, p. 84; C. Brockelmann, “Wesen und Ursprung des Eponymats in Assyrien,” _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, xvi. (1902) p. 392. However, there is no mention of Zagmuk in Prof. R. F. Harper’s translation of the inscription (_Assyrian and Babylonian Literature_, p. 87).

354 C. Brockelmann, _op. cit._ pp. 389-401.

355 H. Winckler, _Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens_ (Leipsic, 1902), p. 212; R. F. Harper, _Assyrian and Babylonian Literature_, pp. xxxviii. _sq._, 206-216; E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_2, i. 2 (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1909), pp. 331 _sq._ It was the second, not the first, year of a king’s reign which in later times at all events was named after him. For the explanation see C. Brockelmann, _op. cit._ pp. 397 _sq._

356 The eponymate in Assyria and elsewhere may have been the subject of superstitions which we do not yet understand. Perhaps the eponymous magistrate may have been deemed in a sense responsible for everything that happened in the year. Thus we are told that “in Manipur they have a noteworthy system of keeping count of the years. Each year is named after some man, who—for a consideration—undertakes to bear the fortune, good or bad, of the year. If the year be good, if there be no pestilence and a good harvest, he gets presents from all sorts of people, and I remember hearing that in 1898, when the cholera was at its worst, a deputation came to the Political Agent and asked him to punish the name-giver, as it was obvious that he was responsible for the epidemic. In former times he would have got into trouble” (T. C. Hodson, “The Native Tribes of Manipur,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxi. 1901, p. 302).

357 C. Brockelmann, “Das Neujahrsfest der Jezîdîs,” _Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, lv. (1901) pp. 388-390.

M90 Slaves sacrificed instead of their masters in West Africa.

358 Letter of the missionary N. Baudin, dated 16th April 1875, in _Missions Catholiques_, vii. (1875) pp. 614-616, 627 _sq._; _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xlviii. (1876) pp. 66-76.

M91 Trace of custom of killing the kings of Hawaii at the end of a year’s reign.

359 U. Lisiansky, _A Voyage Round the World in the Years 1803, 4, 5, and 6_ (London, 1814), pp. 118 _sq._ The same ceremony seems to be more briefly described by the French voyager Freycinet, who says that after the principal idol had been carried in procession about the island for twenty-three days it was brought back to the temple, and that thereupon the king was not allowed to enter the precinct until he had parried a spear thrown at him by two men. See L. de Freycinet, _Voyage autour du monde_, vol. ii. Première Partie (Paris, 1829), pp. 596 _sq._

M92 The reign and life of the king limited to a single day in Ngoio, a province of Congo.

360 R. E. Dennett, _Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort_, with an introduction by Mary H. Kingsley (London, 1898), p. xxxii; _id._, _At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_ (London, 1906), p. 120. Miss Kingsley in conversation called my attention to this particular custom, and informed me that she was personally acquainted with the chief, who possesses but declines to exercise the right of succession.

M93 Reminiscences of a custom of regicide in popular tales. Story how Lancelot came to a city where the king had to perish in the fire on New Year’s Day.

_ 361 The High History of the Holy Graal_, translated from the French by Sebastian Evans (London, 1898), i. 200-203. I have to thank the translator, Mr. Sebastian Evans, for his kindness in indicating this passage to me.

M94 Story of King Vikramditya of Ujjain in India. Kings of Ujjain devoured by a demon after a reign of a single day.

362 For a discussion of the legends which gather round Vikramaditya see Captain Wilford, “Vicramaditya and Salivahana,” _Asiatic Researches_, ix. (London, 1809) pp. 117 _sqq._; Chr. Lassen, _Indische Alterthumskunde_, ii.2 752 _sqq._, 794 _sqq._; E. T. Atkinson, _The Himalayan Districts of the North-Western Provinces of India_, ii. (Allahabad, 1884), pp. 410. _sqq._ Vikramaditya is commonly supposed to have lived in the first century B.C. and to have founded the _Samvat_ era, which began with 57 B.C., and is now in use all over India. But according to Professor H. Oldenberg it is now certain that this Vikramaditya was a purely legendary personage (H. Oldenberg, _Die Literatur des alten Indien_, Stuttgart and Berlin, 1903, pp. 215 _sq._).

M95 Vikramaditya puts an end to the custom by vanquishing the demon, after which he reigns as king of Ujjain.

363 “Histoire des rois de l’Hindoustan après les Pandaras, traduite du texte hindoustani de Mîr Cher-i Alî Afsos, par M. l’abbé Bertrand,” _Journal Asiatique_, IVème Série, iii. (Paris, 1844) pp. 248-257. The story is told more briefly by Mrs. Postans, _Cutch_ (London, 1839), pp. 21 _sq._ Compare Chr. Lassen, _Indische Alterthumskunde_, ii.2 798.

M96 Yearly human sacrifices formerly offered at Ujjain.

364 A. V. Williams Jackson, “Notes from India, Second Series,” _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, xxiii. (1902) pp. 308, 316 _sq._ I have to thank my friend the Rev. Professor J. H. Moulton for referring me to Prof. Williams Jackson’s paper.

M97 Story of the birth of Vikramaditya. His father Gandharva-Sena was an ass by day and a man by night, until his ass’s skin was burnt, when he left his wife for ever.

365 “Histoire des rois de l’Hindoustan,” _Journal Asiatique_, IVème Série, iii. (1844) pp. 239-243. The legend is told with modifications by Captain Wilford (“Vicramaditya and Salivahana,” _Asiatic Researches_, ix. London, 1809, pp. 148 _sq._), Mrs. Postans (_Cutch_, London, 1839, pp. 18-20), and Prof. Williams Jackson (_op. cit._ pp. 314 _sq._).

M98 Stories of the type of Beauty and the Beast, which tell how human beings are married to beasts or to animals which temporarily assume human form. M99 Stories of this kind are told by savages to explain why they abstain from eating certain animals. Dyak stories of this type.

366 The Bishop of Labuan, “Wild Tribes of Borneo,” _Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London_, New Series, ii. (1863) pp. 26 _sq._

367 Ch. Hose and W. McDougall, “The Relations between Men and Animals in Sarawak,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxi. (1901) pp. 197 _sq._

368 Ch. Hose and W. McDougall, _op. cit._ p. 193.

M100 Story told by the Sea Dyaks to explain how they came to plant rice and to revere the omen-birds. It describes how the young chief Siu married a woman of the bird-family, and promised her never to hurt or even touch a bird. M101 But one day he broke his word, and his bird-wife left him and returned to the bird-people.

369 Rev. E. H. Gomes, “Two Sea Dyak Legends,” _Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, No. 41 (January 1904, Singapore), pp. 12-28; _id._, _Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo_ (London, 1911), pp. 278 _sqq._

M102 Stories of the same sort are told by the Tshi-speaking negroes of the Gold Coast to explain why they do not eat their totemic animals.

370 A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_ (London, 1887), pp. 204-212.

M103 Stories of this sort were probably at first always told to explain the totemic belief in the kinship of certain families with certain species of animals. When husband and wife had different totems, a violation of the totemic taboos by husband or wife might lead to the separation of the spouses. This would explain the separation of husband and wife in the type of tale here discussed.

371 The type of story in question has been discussed by Mr. Andrew Lang in a well-known essay “Cupid, Psyche, and the Sun-Frog,” _Custom and Myth_ (London, 1884), pp. 64-86. He rightly explains all such tales as based on savage taboos, but so far as I know he does not definitely connect them with totemism. For other examples of these tales told by savages see W. Lederbogen, “Duala Märchen,” _Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin_, v. (1902) Dritte Abtheilung, pp. 139-145 (the Duala tribe of Cameroons; in one tale the wife is a palm-rat, in the other a _mpondo_, a hard brown fruit as large as a coconut); R. H. Nassau, _Fetichism in West Africa_ (London, 1904), pp. 351-358 (West Africa; wife a forest-rat); G. H. Smith, “Some Betsimisaraka Superstitions,” _The Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine_, No. 10 (Christmas, 1886), pp. 241 _sq._; R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_, pp. 172, 397 _sq._ (Melanesia; wife a bird, husband an owl); A. F. van Spreeuwenberg, “Een blik op Minahassa,” _Tijdschrift voor Neêrland’s Indië_, 1846, Erste deel, pp. 25-28 (the Bantiks of Celebes; wife a white dove); J. H. F. Kohlbrugge, “Die Tenggeresen, ein alter Javanischer Volksstaam,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_, iiii. (1901) pp. 97-99 (the Tenggeres of Java; wife a bird); J. Fanggidaej, “Rottineesche Verhalen,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_, lviii. (1905), pp. 430-436 (island of Rotti; husband a crocodile); J. Kubary, “Die Religion der Pelauer,” in A. Bastian’s _Allerlei aus Volkes- und Menschenkunde_ (Berlin, 1888), i. 60 _sq._ (Pelew Islands; wife a fish); A. R. McMahon, _The Karens of the Golden Chersonese_, pp. 248-250 (Karens of Burma; husband a tree-lizard); Landes, “Contes Tjames,” _Cochinchine française, excursions et reconnaissances_, No. 29 (Saigon, 1887), pp. 53 _sqq._ (Chams of Cochin-China; husband a coco-nut); A. Certeux and E. H. Carnoy, _L’Algérie traditionnelle_ (Paris and Algiers, 1884), pp. 87-89 (Arabs of Algeria; wife a dove); J. G. Kohl, _Kitschi-Gami_ (Bremen, 1858), i. 140-145 (Ojebway Indians; wife a beaver); Franz Boas and George Hunt, _Kwakiutl Texts_, ii. 322-330 (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History_) (Kwakiutl Indians; wife a salmon); J. R. Swanton, _Haida Texts and Myths_ (_Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin_, No. 29, Washington, 1905), pp. 286 _sq._ (Haida Indians; wife a killer-whale); H. Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, pp. 146 _sq._ (Esquimaux; wife a sea-fowl). The Bantik story is told to explain the origin of the people; the Tenggeres story is told to explain why it is forbidden to lift the lid of a basket in which rice is being boiled. The other stories referred to in this note are apparently told as fairy tales only, but we may conjecture that they too were related originally to explain a supposed relationship of human beings to animals or plants. I have already illustrated and explained this type of story in _Totemism and Exogamy_, vol. ii. pp. 55, 206, 308, 565-571, 589, iii. 60-64, 337 _sq._

372 The fable of Cupid and Psyche is only preserved in the Latin of Apuleius (_Metamorph._ iv. 28-vi. 24), but we cannot doubt that the original was Greek. For the story of Pururavas and Urvasi, see _The Rigveda_, x. 95 (_Hymns of the Rigveda_, translated by R. T. H. Griffith, vol. iv. Benares, 1892, pp. 304 _sqq._); _Satapatha Brahmana_, translated by J. Eggeling, part v. pp. 68-74 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xliv.); and the references in _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. p. 250, note 4. A clear trace of the bird-nature of Urvasi occurs in the _Satapatha Brahmana_ (Part v. p. 70 of J. Eggeling’s translation), where the sorrowing husband finds his lost wife among nymphs who are swimming about in the shape of swans or ducks on a lotus-covered lake. This has been already pointed out by Th. Benfey (_Pantschatantra_, i. 264). In English the type of tale is known as “Beauty and the Beast,” which ought to include the cases in which the wife, as well as those in which the husband, appears as an animal. On stories of this sort, especially in the folklore of civilised peoples, see Th. Benfey, _Pantschatantra_, i. 254 _sqq._; W. R. S. Ralston, Introduction to F. A. von Schiefner’s _Tibetan Tales_, pp. xxxvii.-xxxix.; A. Lang, _Custom and Myth_ (London, 1884), pp. 64 _sqq._; S. Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_, pp. 561-578; E. Cosquin, _Contes populaires de Lorraine_, ii. 215-230; W. A. Clouston, _Popular Tales and Fictions_, i. 182-191; Miss M. Roalfe Cox, _Introduction to Folklore_ (London, 1895) pp. 120-123.

M104 The story of the parentage of Vikramaditya may point to a line of kings who had the ass for their crest or totem. Similarly the Maharajahs of Nagpur have the cobra for their crest and the origin of the crest is explained by a story of the type of Beauty and the Beast.

373 In the ruins of Raipoor, supposed to be the ancient Mandavie, coins are found bearing the image of an ass; and the legend of the transformation of Gandharva-Sena into an ass is told to explain their occurrence. The coins are called Gandharva pice. See Mrs. Postans, _Cutch_ (London, 1839), pp. 17 _sq._, 22.

374 E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, pp. 165 _sq._

375 T. C. Hodson, “The Native Tribes of Manipur,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxi. (1901) pp. 302, 304.

M105 Stories of the type of Beauty and the Beast are not mere fictions, but rest on a real basis of belief and custom. Similarly the legend of kings who were sacrificed after a reign of a single day has its analogy in actual custom. Such stories indicate that the supply of kings may have been maintained by compelling men to accept the fatal sovereignty.

376 See above, pp. 118 _sq._

M106 Our conceptions of the primitive kingship are apt to be coloured and falsified by ideas borrowed from the very different monarchies of modern Europe.

377 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. p. 4; _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 17 _sqq._

M107 In other races and other ages many men may have been willing to accept a kingdom on condition of being killed at the end of a short reign. Various causes have contributed to intensify the fear of death in modern Europe.

378 See Dr. Joseph Bautz, _Die Hölle, im Anschluss an die Scholastik dargestellt_2 (Mainz, 1905). Dr. Bautz holds that the damned burn in eternal darkness and eternal fire somewhere in the bowels of the earth. He is, let us hope in more senses than one, an extraordinary professor of theology at the University of Münster, and his book is published with the approbation of the Catholic Church.

M108 Evidence of the comparative indifference to death displayed by other races. Absence of the fear of death in India and Annam.

379 R. H. Elliot, _Experiences of a Planter in the Jungles of Mysore_ (London, 1871), i. 95.

380 Mrs. Postans, _Cutch_ (London, 1839), p. 168.

381 Mgr. Masson, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xxiv. (1852) pp. 324 _sq._

M109 Absence of the fear of death among the American Indians.

382 H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_, ii. (Philadelphia, 1853), p. 68.

383 F. de Azara, _Voyages dans l’Amérique Méridionale_, ii. 181.

M110 Apathy of savages under sentence of death.

384 A. B. Ellis, _The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, p. 127. The testimony of a soldier on such a point is peculiarly valuable.

385 A. Thevet, _Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique_ (Antwerp, 1558), pp. 74 _sq._; _id._, _Cosmographie universelle_ (Paris, 1575), p. 945 [979].

386 My informant was the late Captain W. C. Robinson, formerly of the 2nd Bombay Europeans (Company’s Service), afterwards resident at 15 Chesterton Hall Crescent, Cambridge. He learned the facts in the year 1853 from his friend Captain Gore, of the 29th Madras Native Infantry, who rescued some of the victims.

387 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 338.

M111 Further, men of other races often sacrifice their lives voluntarily for reasons which seem to us wholly inadequate. Thus people have freely allowed themselves to be killed in order to accompany their dead ruler to the other world.

388 See above, pp. 42 _sqq._, 54 _sqq._

389 O. Dapper, _Description de l’Afrique_ (Amsterdam, 1686), p. 312; H. Ling Roth, _Great Benin_, p. 43.

390 R. Southey, _History of Brazil_, iii. 391 _sq._

391 Tacitus, _Histor._ ii. 49; Plutarch, _Otho_, 17.

M112 In the East, persons sometimes commit suicide in order to avenge themselves on their enemies. Law of retaliation in a robber caste of southern India.

392 R. Lasch, “Rache als Selbstmordmotiv,” _Globus_, lxxiv. (1898) pp. 37-39.

393 Father Martin, Jesuit missionary, in _Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, Nouvelle Édition, xi. (Paris, 1781), pp. 246-248. The letter was written at Marava, in the mission of Madura, 8th November 1709. No doubt the English Government has long since done its best to suppress these practices.

M113 Contempt of death exhibited in antiquity by the Thracians and the Gauls.

394 Seleucus, quoted by Athenaeus, iv. 42, p. 155 D E.

395 Posidonius, quoted by Athenaeus, iv. 40, p. 154 B C.

M114 In ancient Rome there were men willing to be beheaded for a sum of five _minae_.

396 Euphorion of Chalcis, quoted by Athenaeus, iv. 40, p. 154 C; Eustathius on Homer, _Odyssey_, xviii. 46, p. 1837.

397 Athenaeus, iv. 39, p. 153 E F, quoting Nicolaus Damascenus.

398 Tertullian, _De spectaculis_, 12. The custom of sacrificing human beings in honour of the dead, which has been practised by many savage and barbarous peoples, was in later times so far mitigated at Rome that the destined victims were allowed to fight each other, which gave some of them a chance of surviving. This mitigation of human sacrifice is said to have been introduced by D. Junius Brutus in the third century B.C. (Livy, _Epit._ xvi.). It resembles the change which I suppose to have taken place at Nemi and other places, where, if I am right, kings were at first put to death inexorably at the end of a fixed period, but were afterwards permitted to defend themselves in single combat.

399 Livy, ii. 5. 8, xxvi. 13. 15, xxviii. 29. 11; Polybius, i. 7. 12, xi. 30. 2; Th. Mommsen, _Römisches Strafrecht_ (Leipsic, 1899), pp. 916 _sqq._

400 Hiera Sykaminos (_Maharraka_), the furthest point of the Roman dominion in southern Egypt, lies within the tropics. The empire did not reach this its extreme limit till after the age of Augustus. See Th. Mommsen, _Römische Geschichte_, v. 594 _sq._ Strabo speaks (xvii. 1. 48, p. 817) as if Syene, which was held by a Roman garrison of three cohorts, were within the tropics; but that is a mistake.

M115 Chinese indifference to death.

401 For some evidence see J. H. Gray, _China_, i. 329 _sqq._; H. Norman, _The Peoples and Politics of the Far East_ (London, 1905), pp. 277 _sq._ On this subject the Rev. Dr. W. T. A. Barber, Headmaster of the Leys School, Cambridge, formerly a missionary in China, writes to me as follows (3rd February 1902):—“Undoubtedly the Eastern, through his belief in Fate, has comparatively little fear of death. I have sometimes seen the Chinese in great fear; but, on the other hand, I have saved at least a hundred lives of people who had swallowed opium out of spite against some one else, the idea being, first, the trouble given by minions of the law to the survivor; second, that the dead would gain a vantage ground by becoming a ghost, and thus able to plague his enemy in the flesh. Probably blind anger has more to do with it than either of these causes. But the particular mode would not ordinarily occur to a Western. I am bound to say that in many cases the patient was ready enough to take my medicines, but mostly it was the friends who were most eager, and exceedingly rarely did I receive thanks from the rescued.”

402 J. H. Gray (Archdeacon of Hong-kong), _China_ (London, 1878), ii. 306.

403 The particulars in the text are taken, with Lord Avebury’s kind permission, from a letter addressed to him by Mr. M. W. Lampson of the Foreign Office. See Note A at the end of the volume. Speaking of capital punishment in China, Professor E. H. Parker says: “It is popularly stated that substitutes can be bought for Taels 50, and most certainly this statement is more than true, so far as the price of human life is concerned; but it is quite another question whether the gaolers and judges can always be bribed” (E. H. Parker, Professor of Chinese at the Owens College, Manchester, _China Past and Present_, London, 1903, pp. 378 _sq._). However, from his personal enquiries Professor Parker is convinced that in such matters the local mandarin can do what he pleases, provided that he observes the form of law and gives no offence to his superiors.

M116 We must not judge of all men’s love of life by our own.

404 My friend, the late Sir Francis Galton, mentioned in conversation a phrase which described the fear of death as “the Western (or European) malady,” but he did not remember where he had met with it. He wrote to me (18th October 1902) that “our fear of death is presumably much greater than that of the barbarians who were our far-back ancestors.”

M117 Hence it is probable that in some races and at some periods of history it would be easy to find men willing to accept a kingdom on condition of being killed at the end of a short reign.

405 See above, pp. 23, 49 _sqq._, 52 _sq._

M118 Annual abdication of kings and their places temporarily taken by nominal sovereigns. Temporary kings in Cambodia.

406 See above, pp. 113 _sqq._

407 E. Aymonier, _Notice sur le Cambodge_ (Paris, 1875), p. 61; J. Moura, _Le Royaume du Cambodge_ (Paris, 1883), i. 327 _sq._ For the connexion of the temporary king’s family with the royal house, see E. Aymonier, _op. cit._ pp. 36 _sq._

M119 Temporary kings in Siam in former days.

408 De la Loubère, _Du royaume de Siam_ (Amsterdam, 1691), i. 56 _sq._; Turpin, “History of Siam,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, ix. 581 _sq._; Mgr. Brugière, in _Annales de l’Association de la Propagation de la Foi_, v. (1831) pp. 188 _sq._; Pallegoix, _Description du royaume Thai ou Siam_ (Paris, 1854), i. 250; A. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, iii. 305-309, 526-528. Bowring (_Siam_, i. 158 _sq._) copies, as usual, from Pallegoix. For a description of the ceremony as observed at the present day, see E. Young, _The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe_ (Westminster, 1898), pp. 210 _sq._ The representative of the king no longer enjoys his old privilege of seizing any goods that are exposed for sale along the line of the procession. According to Mr. Young, the ceremony is generally held about the middle of May, and no one is supposed to plough or sow till it is over. According to Loubère the title of the temporary king was _Oc-ya Kaou_, or Lord of the Rice, and the office was regarded as fatal, or at least calamitous “_funeste_”) to him.

409 Lieut.-Col. James Low, “On the Laws of Muung Thai or Siam,” _Journal of the Indian Archipelago_, i. (Singapore, 1847) p. 339; A. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, iii. 98, 314, 526 _sq._

M120 Modern custom of temporary kings in Siam.

410 E. Young, _The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe_, pp. 212-217. The writer tells us that though the Minister for Agriculture still officiates at the Ploughing Festival, he no longer presides at the Swinging Festival; a different nobleman is chosen every year to superintend the latter.

M121 Temporary kings in Samaracand and Upper Egypt.

411 Ed. Chavannes, _Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) Occidentaux_ (St. Petersburg, 1903), p. 133, note. The documents collected in this volume are translated from the Chinese.

412 C. B. Klunzinger, _Bilder aus Oberägypten der Wüste und dem Rothen Meere_ (Stuttgart, 1877), pp. 180 _sq._

_ 413 Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, p. 243. For evidence of a practice of burning divine personages, see _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 84 _sqq._, 91 _sqq._, 139 _sqq._

M122 Temporary kings in Morocco.

414 Budgett Meakin, _The Moors_ (London, 1902), pp. 312 sq.; E. Aubin, _Le Maroc d’aujourd’hui_ (Paris, 1904), pp. 283-287. According to the latter of these writers the flight of the mock sultan takes place the day after his meeting with the real sultan. The account in the text embodies some notes which were kindly furnished me by Dr. E. Westermarck.

M123 Temporary king in Cornwall.

415 R. Carew, _Survey of Cornwall_ (London, 1811), p. 322. I do not know what the writer means by “little Easter Sunday.” The ceremony has often been described by subsequent writers, but they seem all to copy, directly or indirectly, from Carew, who says that the custom had been yearly observed in past times and was only of late days discontinued. His _Survey of Cornwall_ was first printed in 1602. I have to thank Mr. G. M. Trevelyan, formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, for directing my attention to this interesting survival of what was doubtless a very ancient custom.

M124 Temporary kings at the beginning of a reign.

416 J. W. Boers, “Oud volksgebruik in het Rijk van Jambi,” _Tijdschrift voor Neêrlands Indië_, 1840, dl. i. pp. 372 _sqq._

_ 417 Panjab Notes and Queries_, i. p. 86, § 674 (May 1884).

418 Aeneas Sylvius, _Opera_ (Bâle, 1571), pp. 409 _sq._; J. Boemus, _Mores, leges, et ritus omnium gentium_ (Lyons, 1541), pp. 241 _sq._; J. Grimm, _Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer_, p. 253. According to Grimm, the cow and mare stood beside the prince, not the peasant. The Carinthian ceremony is the subject of an elaborate German dissertation by Dr. Emil Goldmann (_Die Einführung der deutschen Herzogsgeschlechter Kärntens in den Slovenischen Stammesverband, ein Beitrag zur Rechts- und Kulturgeschichte_, Breslau, 1903).

M125 The temporary kings discharge divine or magical functions.

419 E. Young, _The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe_, p. 211.

420 Lasicius, “De diis Samagitarum caeterorumque Sarmatarum,” in _Respublica sive status regni Poloniae, Lituaniae, Prussiae, Livoniae_, etc. (Elzevir, 1627), pp. 306 _sq._; _id._, edited by W. Mannhardt in _Magazin herausgegeben von der Lettisch-Literarischen Gesellschaft_, xiv. 91 _sq._; J. G. Kohl, _Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen_ (Dresden and Leipsic, 1841), ii. 27. There, are, however, other occasions when superstition requires a person to stand on one foot. At Toku-toku, in Fiji, the grave-digger who turns the first sod has to stand on one leg, leaning on his digging-stick (Rev. Lorimer Fison, in a letter to the author, dated August 26, 1898). Among the Angoni of British Central Africa, when the corpse of a chief is being burned, his heir stands beside the blazing pyre on one leg with his shield in his hand; and three days later he again stands on one leg before the assembled people when they proclaim him chief. See R. Sutherland Rattray, _Some Folk-lore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja_ (London, 1907), pp. 100, 101.

421 E. Young, _The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe_, p. 212.

422 J. G. Kohl, _Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen_, ii. 25. With regard to swinging as a magical or religious rite, see Note B at the end of the volume. For other charms to make the crops grow tall by leaping, letting the hair hang loose, and so forth, see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 135 _sqq._

423 Macrobius, _Saturn._ v. 19. 13.

424 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 225 _sqq._

M126 Temporary kings substituted in certain emergencies for Shahs of Persia.

425 Sir John Malcolm, _History of Persia_ (London, 1815), i. 527 _sq._ I am indebted to my friend Mr. W. Crooke for calling my attention to this passage.

426 Captain John Stevens, _The History of Persia_ (London, 1715), pp. 356 _sq._ I have to thank Mr. W. Crooke for his kindness in copying out this passage and sending it to me. I have not seen the original. An Irish legend relates how the abbot Eimine Ban and forty-nine of his monks sacrificed themselves by a voluntary death to save Bran úa Faeláin, King of Leinster, and forty-nine Leinster chiefs, from a pestilence which was then desolating Leinster. They were sacrificed in batches of seven a day for a week, the abbot himself perishing after the last batch on the last day of the week. But it is not said that the abbot enjoyed regal dignity during the seven days. See C. Plummer, “Cáin Eimíne Báin,” _Ériu, the Journal of the School of Irish Learning, Dublin_. vol. iv. part i. (1908) pp. 39-46. The legend was pointed out to me by Professor Kuno Meyer.

M127 The temporary kings are sometimes related by blood to the real kings. M128 Tradition of On, King of Sweden, and the sacrifice of his nine sons.

427 “Ynglinga Saga,” 29, in _The Heimskringla or Chronicle of the Kings of Norway, translated from the Icelandic of Snorro_ _Sturleson_, by S. Laing (London, 1844), i. 239 _sq._; H. M. Chadwick, _The Cult of Othin_ (London, 1899), pp. 4, 27. I have already cited the tradition as evidence of a nine years’ tenure of the kingship in Sweden. See above, p. 57, with note 2.

M129 Tradition of King Athamas and his children. Male descendants of King Athamas liable to be sacrificed.

428 Herodotus, vii. 197; Apollodorus, i. 9. 1 _sq._; Schol. on Aristophanes, _Clouds_, 257; J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on Lycophron_, 21, 229; Schol. on Apollonius Rhodius, _Argonautica_, ii. 653; Eustathius, on Homer, _Iliad_, vii. 86, p. 667; _id._, on _Odyssey_, v. 339, p. 1543; Pausanias, i. 44. 7, ix. 34. 7; Zenobius, iv. 38; Plutarch, _De superstitione_, 5; Hyginus, _Fab._ 1-5; _id._, _Astronomica_, ii. 20; Servius, on Virgil, _Aen._ v. 241. The story is told or alluded to by these writers with some variations of detail. In piecing their accounts together I have chosen the features which seemed to be the most archaic. According to Pherecydes, one of the oldest writers on Greek legendary history, Phrixus offered himself as a voluntary victim when the crops were perishing (Schol. on Pindar, _Pyth._ iv. 288). On the whole subject see K. O. Müller, _Orchomenus und die Minyer_,2 pp. 156, 171.

429 Plato, _Minos_, p. 315 C.

M130 Family of royal descent liable to be sacrificed at Orchomenus.

430 Plutarch, _Quaest. Graec._ 38; Antoninus Liberalis, _Transform._ 10; Ovid, _Metam._ iv. 1 _sqq._

M131 Thessalian and Boeotian kings seem to have sacrificed their sons to Laphystian Zeus instead of themselves.

431 Pausanias, ix. 34. 5 _sqq._; Apollonius Rhodius, _Argonautica_, iii. 265 _sq._; Hellanicus, cited by the Scholiast on Apollonius, _l.c._ Apollodorus speaks of Athamas as reigning over Boeotia (_Bibliotheca_, i. 9. 1); Tzetzes calls him king of Thebes (_Schol. on Lycophron_, 21).

432 The old Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (_Argon._ ii. 653) tells us that down to his time it was customary for one of the descendants of Athamas to enter the town-hall and sacrifice to Laphystian Zeus. K. O. Müller sees in this custom a mitigation of the ancient rule—instead of being themselves sacrificed, the scions of royalty were now permitted to offer sacrifice (_Orchomenus und die Minyer_,2 p. 158). But this need not have been so. The obligation to serve as victims in certain circumstances lay only on the eldest male of each generation in the direct line; the sacrificers may have been younger brothers or more remote relations of the destined victims. It may be observed that in a dynasty of which the eldest males were regularly sacrificed, the kings, if they were not themselves the victims, must always have been younger sons.

433 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. i. p. 310.

434 I have followed K. O. Müller (_Orchomenus und die Minyer_,2 pp. 160, 166 _sq._) in regarding the ram which saved Phrixus as a mythical expression for the substitution of a ram for a human victim. He points out that a ram was the proper victim to sacrifice to Trophonius (Pausanias, ix. 39. 6), whose very ancient worship was practised at Lebadea not far from Orchomenus. The principle of vicarious sacrifices was familiar enough to the Greeks, as K. O. Müller does not fail to indicate. At Potniae, near Thebes, goats were substituted as victims instead of boys in the sacrifices offered to Dionysus (Pausanias, ix. 8. 2). Once when an oracle commanded that a girl should be sacrificed to Munychian Artemis in order to stay a plague or famine, a goat dressed up as a girl was sacrificed instead (Eustathius on Homer, _Iliad_, ii. 732, p. 331; Apostolius, vii. 10; _Paroemiogr. Graeci_, ed. Leutsch et Schneidewin, ii. 402; Suidas, _s.v._ Ἔμβαρος). At Salamis in Cyprus a man was annually sacrificed to Aphrodite and afterwards to Diomede, but in later times an ox was substituted (Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii. 54). At Laodicea in Syria a deer took the place of a maiden as the victim yearly offered to Athena (Porphyry, _op. cit._ ii. 56). Since human sacrifices have been forbidden by the Dutch Government in Borneo, the Barito and other Dyak tribes of that island have kept cattle for the sole purpose of sacrificing them instead of human beings at the close of mourning and at other religious ceremonies. See A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, ii. (Leyden, 1907), p. 127.

M132 Sacrifice of kings’ sons among the Semites. Sacrifice of children to Baal among the Semites.

435 Philo of Byblus, quoted by Eusebius, _Praeparatio Evangelii_, i. 10. 29 _sq._

436 2 Kings iii. 27.

437 On this subject see Dr. G. F. Moore, _s.v._ “Molech, Moloch,” _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, iii. 3183 _sqq._; C. P. Tiele, _Geschichte der Religion im Altertum_, i. (Gotha, 1896) pp. 240-244.

438 Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii. 56.

439 Plato, _Minos_, p. 315 C.

440 Plutarch, _Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata, Gelon I._

441 Diodorus Siculus, xx. 14. Compare Clitarchus, cited by Suidas, _s.v._ σαρδάνιος γέλως, and by the Scholiast on Plato, _Republic_, p. 337 A; J. Selden, _De dis Syris_ (Leipsic, 1668), pp. 169 _sq._

442 Plutarch, _De superstitione_, 13. Egyptian mothers were glad and proud when their children were devoured by the holy crocodiles. See Aelian, _De natura animalium_, x. 21; Maximus Tyrius, _Dissert._ viii. 5; Josephus, _Contra Apion._ ii. 7.

443 Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, 6. Compare Justin, xviii. 6. 12; Ennius, cited by Festus, _s.v._ “Puelli,” pp. 248, 249, ed. C. O. Müller; Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vii. 19 and 26.

M133 Canaanite and Hebrew custom of burning children in honour of Baal or Moloch. Sacrifices of children in Tophet.

444 “Every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods,” Deuteronomy xii. 31. Here and in what follows I quote the Revised English Version.

445 Deuteronomy xviii. 9-12.

446 Leviticus xviii. 21.

447 Psalms cvi. 35-38.

448 2 Kings xvii. 16, 17.

449 “And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire,” Jeremiah vii. 31; “And have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings unto Baal,” _id._ xix. 5; “And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech,” _id._ xxxii. 35; “Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Were thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through the fire unto them?” Ezekiel xvi. 20 _sq._; compare xx. 26, 31. A comparison of these passages shews that the expression “to cause to pass through the fire,” so often employed in this connexion in Scripture, meant to burn the children in the fire. Some have attempted to interpret the words in a milder sense. See J. Spencer, _De legibus Hebraeorum_ (The Hague, 1686), i. 288 _sqq._

450 2 Chronicles xxviii. 3. In the corresponding passage of 2 Kings (xvi. 3) it is said that Ahaz “made his son to pass through the fire.”

451 2 Chronicles xxxiii. 6; compare 2 Kings xxi. 6.

452 2 Kings xxiii. 10.

453 Jerome on Jeremiah vii. 31, quoted in Winer’s _Biblisches Realwôrterbuch_,2 _s.v._ “Thopeth.”

M134 Did the Hebrews borrow the custom from the Canaanites? Custom of the Sepharvites.

454 The Tel El-Amarna tablets prove that “the prae-Israelitish inhabitants of Canaan were closely akin to the Hebrews, and that they spoke substantially the same language” (S. R. Driver, in _Authority and Archaeology, Sacred and Profane_, edited by D. G. Hogarth (London, 1899), p. 76).

455 2 Kings xvii. 31. The identification of Sepharvaim is uncertain. See _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, iv. 4371 _sq._

M135 Only the firstborn children were burned.

456 Micah vi. 6-8.

457 Ezekiel xx. 25, 26, 31.

458 Exodus xiii. 1 _sq._

459 Exodus xiii. 12.

460 Exodus xxxiv. 19. In the Authorised Version the passage runs thus: “All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.”

461 Exodus xxii. 29 _sq._ The Authorised Version has “the first of thy ripe fruits" instead of "the abundance of thy fruits.”

M136 Hebrew sacrifice of firstlings: redemption of the firstlings of men and asses.

462 Numbers xviii. 17 _sq._ Elsewhere, however, we read: “All the firstling males that are born of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thine ox, nor shear the firstling of thy flock. Thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God year by year in the place which the Lord shall choose, thou and thy household,” Deuteronomy xv. 19 _sq._ Compare Deuteronomy xii. 6 _sq._, 17 _sq._ To reconcile this ordinance with the other we must suppose that the flesh was divided between the Levite and the owner of the animal. But perhaps the rule in Deuteronomy may represent the old custom which obtained before the rise of the priestly caste. Prof. S. R. Driver inclines to the latter view (_Commentary on Deuteronomy_, p. 187).

463 Exodus xiii. 13, xxxiv. 20.

464 Numbers xviii. 15 _sq._ Compare Numbers iii. 46-51; Exodus xiii. 13, xxxiv. 20.

M137 Sacrifice of firstborn children perhaps regarded as an act of heroic virtue. M138 Tradition of the origin of the Passover.

465 Exodus xi.-xiii. 16; Numbers iii. 13, viii. 17. While many points in this strange story remain obscure, the reason which moved the Israelites of old to splash the blood of lambs on the doorposts of their houses at the Passover may perhaps have been not very different from that which induces the Sea Dyaks of Borneo to do much the same thing at the present day. “When there is any great epidemic in the country—when cholera or smallpox is killing its hundreds on all sides—one often notices little offerings of food hung on the walls and from the ceiling, animals killed in sacrifice, and blood splashed on the posts of the houses. When one asks why all this is done, they say they do it in the hope that when the evil spirit, who is thirsting for human lives, comes along and sees the offerings they have made and the animals killed in sacrifice, he will be satisfied with these things, and not take the lives of any of the people living in the Dyak village house” (E. H. Gomes, _Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo_, London, 1911, p. 201). Similarly in Western Africa, when a pestilence or an attack of enemies is expected, it is customary to sacrifice sheep and goats and smear their blood on the gateways of the village (Miss Mary H. Kingsley, _Travels in West Africa_, p. 454, compare p. 45). In Peru, when an Indian hut is cleansed and whitewashed, the blood of a llama is always sprinkled on the doorway and internal walls in order to keep out the evil spirit (Col. Church, cited by E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_, i. 394, note 2). For more evidence of the custom of pouring or smearing blood on the threshold, lintel, and side-posts of doors, see Ph. Paulitschke, _Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas, die geistige Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl_ (Berlin, 1896), pp. 38, 48; J. Goldziher, _Muhamedanische Studien_, ii. 329; S. J. Curtiss, _Primitive Semitic Religion To-day_, pp. 181-193, 227 _sq._; H. C. Trumbull, _The Threshold Covenant_ (New York, 1896), pp. 4 _sq._, 8 _sq._, 26-28, 66-68. Perhaps the original intention of the custom was to avert evil influence, especially evil spirits, from the door.

M139 Originally the firstborn children seem to have been regularly sacrificed: their redemption was a later mitigation of the rule.

466 Genesis xxii. 1-13.

467 See for example Father Baudin, in _Missions Catholiques_, xvi. (1894) p. 333; A. B. Ellis, _The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, pp. 105 _sq._

M140 Attempts to outwit a malignant spirit.

468 W. E. Maxwell, “The Folklore of the Malays,” _Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, No. 7 (June 1881), p. 14; W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_, p. 112. The bird in question is thought to be the goat-sucker or night-jar.

M141 The custom of sacrificing all the firstborn, whether of animals or men, was probably a very ancient Semitic institution.

469 2 Kings iii. 27.

470 See above, pp. 166, 167.

471 As to the redemption of the firstborn among modern Jews, see L. Löw, _Die Lebensalter in der jüdischen Literatur_ (Szegedin, 1875), pp. 110-118; Budgett Meakin, _The Moors_ (London, 1902), pp. 440 _sq._

M142 Sacrifice of firstborn children among various races.

472 J. Wellhausen, _Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels_,3 p. 90; W. Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_,2 p. 464. On the other hand, when I published the foregoing discussion in the second edition of my book, I was not aware that the conclusion reached in it had been anticipated by Prof. Th. Nöldeke, who has drawn the same inference from the same evidence. See _Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, xlii. (1888) p. 483. I am happy to find myself in agreement with so eminent an authority on Semitic antiquity.

473 R. Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_, ii. 311. In the Luritcha tribe of central Australia “young children are sometimes killed and eaten, and it is not an infrequent custom, when a child is in weak health, to kill a younger and healthy one and then to feed the weakling on its flesh, the idea being that this will give the weak child the strength of the stronger one” (Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 475). The practice seems to have been common among the Australian aborigines. See W. E. Stanbridge, quoted by R. Brough Smyth, _op. cit._ i. 52; A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, pp. 749, 750.

474 G. Scriviner, in E. Curr’s _The Australian Race_, ii. 182.

475 A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, p. 750.

476 S. Gason, in E. Curr’s _The Australian Race_, ii. 119.

477 Father Mazzuconi, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xxvii. (1855) pp. 368 _sq._

478 J. J. M. de Groot, _Religious System of China_, ii. 679, iv. 364.

479 J. J. M. de Groot, _op. cit._ iv. 365. On these Chinese reports Prof. de Groot remarks (_op. cit._ iv. 366): “Quite at a loss, however, we are to explain that eating of firstborn sons by their own nearest kinsfolk, absolutely inconsistent as it is with a primary law of tribal life in general, which imperiously demands that the tribe should make itself strong in male cognates, but not indulge in self-destruction by killing its natural defenders. We feel, therefore, strongly inclined to believe the statement fabulous.” Such scepticism implies an opinion of the good sense and foresight of savages which is far from being justified by the facts. Many savage tribes have “indulged in self-destruction” by killing a large proportion of their children, both male and female. See below, pp. 196 _sq._

480 W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_, ii. 169.

481 H. A. Rose, “Unlucky Children,” _Folklore_, xiii. (1902) p. 63; _id._, in _Indian Antiquary_, xxxi. (1902) pp. 162 _sq._ Mr. Rose is Superintendent of Ethnography in the Punjaub. The authorities cited by him are Moore’s _Hindu Infanticide_, pp. 198 _sq._, and Sherring’s _Hindu Tribes and Castes_, iii. p. 66.

M143 Sacrifice of firstborn children among the Borans and other tribes to the south of Abyssinia. Firstborn male children put to death in Uganda.

482 Captain Philip Maud, “Exploration in the Southern Borderland of Abyssinia,” _The Geographical Journal_, xxiii. (1904) pp. 567 _sq._

483 Exodus iv. 24-26.

484 Captain C. H. Stigand, _To Abyssinia through an Unknown Land_ (London, 1910), pp. 234 _sq._

485 J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 30. Mr. Roscoe informs me that a similar custom prevails also in Koki and Bunyoro.

486 J. L. Krapf, _Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours during an Eighteen Years’ Residence in Eastern Africa_ (London, 1860), pp. 69 _sq._ Dr. Krapf, who reports the custom at second hand, thinks that the existence of the pillar may be doubted, but that the rest of the story harmonises well enough with African superstition.

487 J. Macdonald, _Light in Africa_2 (London, 1890), p. 156. In the text I have embodied some fuller explanations and particulars which my friend the Rev. Mr. Macdonald was good enough to send me in a letter dated September 16th, 1899. Among the tribes with which Mr. Macdonald is best acquainted the custom is obsolete and lives only in tradition; formerly it was universally practised.

M144 Sacrifice of firstborn children in Europe and America. Sacrifice of firstborn children to the sun. Sacrifice of children in Peru.

488 F. J. Mone, _Geschichte des Heidenthums im nördlichen Europa_ (Leipsic and Darmstadt, 1822-1823), i. 119.

489 Vallancey, _Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis_, vol. iii. (Dublin, 1786) p. 457; D. Nutt, _The Voyage of Bran_, ii. 149-151, 304 _sq._; P. W. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_, i. 275 _sq._, 281-284. The authority for the tradition is the _Dinnschenchas_ or _Dinnsenchus_, a document compiled in the eleventh and twelfth centuries out of older materials. Mr. Joyce discredits the tradition of human sacrifice.

490 Fr. Boas, in “Fourth Annual Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada,” _Report of the British Association for 1888_, p. 242; _id._, in _Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p. 52 (separate reprint from the _Report of the British Association for 1889_).

491 Fr. Boas, in _Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p. 46 (separate reprint from the _Report of the British Association for 1889_).

492 W. Strachey, _Historie of travaile into Virginia Britannia_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1849), p. 84.

493 J. Bricknell, _The Natural History of North Carolina_ (Dublin, 1737), pp. 342 _sq._ I have taken the liberty of altering slightly the writer’s somewhat eccentric punctuation.

494 See above, p. 162.

495 A. de Herrera, _The General History of the Vast Continent and Islands of America_, translated by Capt. John Stevens (London, 1725-6), iv. 347 _sq._ Compare J. de Acosta, _Natural and Moral History of the Indies_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880), ii. 344.

496 Fr. Xeres, _Relation véridique de la conquête du Perou et de la Province de Cuzco nommée Nouvelle-Castille_ (in H. Ternaux-Compans’s _Voyages, relations et mémoires_, etc., Paris, 1837), p. 53.

497 Juan de Velasco, _Histoire du royaume de Quito_, i. (Paris, 1840) p. 106 (forming vol. xviii. of H. Ternaux-Compans’s _Voyages, relations et mémoires_, etc.).

498 A. R. Wallace, _Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro_ (London, 1889), p. 355.

499 W. Barbrooke Grubb, _An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London, 1911), p. 233.

M145 The “sacred spring” in ancient Italy.

500 Festus, _De verborum significatione_, _s.vv._ “Mamertini,” “Sacrani,” and “Ver sacrum,” pp. 158, 370, 371, 379, ed. C. O. Müller; Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ vii. 796; Nonius Marcellus, _s.v._ “ver sacrum,” p. 522 (p. 610, ed. Quicherat); Varro, _Rerum rusticarum_, iii. 16. 29; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Antiquit. Rom._ i. 16 and 23 _sq._, ii. 1. 2.

501 Strabo, v. 4. 2 and 12; Pliny, _Nat. hist._ iii. 110; Festus, _De verborum significatione_, _s.v._ “Irpini,” ed. C. O. Müller, p. 106. It is worthy of note that the three swarms which afterwards developed into the Piceni, the Samnites, and the Hirpini were said to have been guided by a woodpecker, a bull, and a wolf respectively, of which the woodpecker (_picus_) and the wolf (_hirpus_) gave their names to the Piceni and the Hirpini. The tradition may perhaps preserve a trace of totemism, but in the absence of clearer evidence it would be rash to assume that it does so. The woodpecker was sacred among the Latins, and a woodpecker as well as a wolf is said to have fed the twins Romulus and Remus (Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 21; Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 37 _sq._). Does this legend point to the existence of a wolf-clan and a woodpecker-clan at Rome? There was perhaps a similar conjunction of wolf and woodpecker at Soracte, for the woodpecker is spoken of as the bird of Feronia (“_picus Feronius_,” Festus, _s.v._ “Oscines,” p. 197, ed. C. O. Müller), a goddess in whose sanctuary at Soracte certain men went by the name of Soranian Wolves (Servius, on Virgil, _Aen._ xi. 785; Pliny, _Nat. hist._ vii. 19; Strabo, v. 2. 9). These “Soranian Wolves” will meet us again later on.

502 Livy, xxii. 9 _sq._; Plutarch, _Fabius Maximus_, 4.

503 Livy, xxxiv. 44.

504 Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Antiquit. Rom._ i. 24.

505 Schwegler thought it hardly open to question that the “sacred spring” was a substitute for an original custom of human sacrifice (_Römische Geschichte_, i. 240 _sq._). The inference is denied on insufficient grounds by R. von Ihering (_Vorgeschichte der Indoeuropäer_, pp. 309 _sqq._).

506 Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Antiquit. Rom._ i. 16. 1. Rhegium in Italy was founded by Chalcidian colonists, who in obedience to the Delphic Oracle had been dedicated as a tithe-offering to Apollo on account of a dearth (Strabo, vi. 1. 6, p. 257). Justin speaks of the Gauls sending out three hundred thousand men, “as it were a sacred spring,” to seek a new home (Justin, xxiv. 4. 1).

M146 Different motives may have led to the practice of killing the firstborn. A belief in the rebirth of souls may in some cases have operated to produce infanticide, especially of the firstborn. The Hindoos believe that a man is reborn in his son, while at the same time he dies in his own person.

507 The Australian aborigines resort to infanticide to keep down the number of a family. But “the number is kept down, not with any idea at all of regulating the food supply, so far as the adults are concerned, but simply from the point of view that, if the mother is suckling one child, she cannot properly provide food for another, quite apart from the question of the trouble of carrying two children about. An Australian native never looks far enough ahead to consider what will be the effect on the food supply in future years if he allows a particular child to live; what affects him is simply the question of how it will interfere with the work of his wife so far as their own camp is concerned” (Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 264).

508 See above, pp. 57, 160 _sq._

509 Above, p. 185.

510 Father Baudin, “Le Fétichisme,” _Missions Catholiques_, xvi. (1884) p. 259.

_ 511 The Laws of Manu_, ix. 8, p. 329, G. Bühler’s translation (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxv.). On this Hindoo doctrine of reincarnation, its logical consequences and its analogies in other parts of the world, see J. von Negelein, “Eine Quelle der indischen Seelenwanderungvorstellung,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, vi. (1903) pp. 320-333. Compare E. S. Hartland, _The Legend of Perseus_, i. 218 _sq._; _id._, _Primitive Paternity_ (London, 1909-1910), ii. 196 _sqq._

512 H. A. [J. A.] Rose, “Unlucky and Lucky Children, and some Birth Superstitions,” _Indian Antiquary_, xxxi. (1902) p. 516; _id._, in _Folklore_, xiii. (1902) pp. 278 _sq._ As to the Khatris, see D. C. J. Ibbetson, _Outlines of Panjab Ethnography_, pp. 295 _sq._; H. H. Risley, _The Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, i. 478 _sqq._; W. Crooke, _The Tribes and Castes of the North-western Provinces and Oudh_, iii. 264 _sqq._

M147 Painful dilemma of a father.

513 The same suggestion has been made by Dr. E. Westermarck (_The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, i. (London, 1906) pp. 460 _sq._). Some years ago, before the publication of his book and while the present volume was still in proof, Dr. Westermarck and I in conversation discovered that we had independently arrived at the same conjectural explanation of the custom of killing the firstborn.

M148 The same notion of the rebirth of the father in the son would explain why in Polynesia infants succeeded to the chieftainship as soon as they were born, their fathers abdicating in their favour.

514 Capt. J. Cook, _Voyages_ (London, 1809), i. 225 _sq._; Capt. J. Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_ (London, 1799), pp. 327, 330, 333; W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_,2 iii. 99-101; J. A. Mourenhout, _Voyages aux îles du Grand Océan_, ii. 13 _sq._; Mathias G. ——, _Lettres sur les Îles Marquises_ (Paris, 1843), pp. 103 _sq._; H. Hale, _United States Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 34.

M149 Such a rule of succession might easily lead to a practice of infanticide. Prevalence of infanticide in Polynesia.

515 W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_,2 i. 251-253.

M150 In some places the father either abdicates when his son attains to manhood or is forcibly deposed by him.

516 J. E. Erskine, _Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific_ (London, 1853), p. 233.

517 J. Williams, _Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands_ (London, 1836), pp. 117 _sq._

518 J. Campbell, _Travels in South Africa, Second Journey_ (London, 1822), ii. 276.

M151 The custom of the deposition of the father by his son may perhaps be traced in Greek myth and legend. Cronus and his children.

519 Hesiod, _Theogony_, 137 _sqq._, 453 _sqq._, 886 _sqq._; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, i. 1-3.

520 Above, pp. 179 _sq._ Traces of a custom of sacrificing the children instead of the father may perhaps be found in the legends that Menoeceus, son of Creon, died to save Thebes, and that one or more of the daughters of Erechtheus perished to save Athens. See Euripides, _Phoenissae_, 889 _sqq._; Apollodorus, iii. 6. 7, iii. 15. 4; Schol. on Aristides, _Panathen._ p. 113, ed. Dindorf; Cicero, _Tuscul._, i. 48. 116; _id._, _De natura deorum_, iii. 19. 50; W. H. Roscher, _Lexikon d. griech. und röm. Mythologie_, i. 1298 _sq._, ii. 2794 _sq._

M152 Legend of Oedipus, who slew his father and married his mother. Marriage with a widowed queen sometimes forms a legitimate title to the kingdom. Marriage with a stepmother or a sister, a mode of securing the succession of the king’s own children, and so of transferring the inheritance from the female to the male line. Brother and sister marriages in royal families.

521 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. pp. 269 _sqq._

522 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. p. 283. The Oedipus legend would conform still more closely to custom if we could suppose that marriage with a mother was formerly allowed in cases where the king had neither a sister nor a stepmother, by marrying whom he could otherwise legalise his claim to the throne.

523 Examples of this custom are collected by me in a note on Pausanias, i. 7. 1 (vol. ii. p. 85). For other instances see V. Noel, “Île de Madagascar, recherches sur les Sakkalava,” _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), Deuxième Série, xx. (Paris, 1843) pp. 63 _sq._ (among the Sakkalavas of Madagascar); V. L. Cameron, _Across Africa_ (London, 1877), ii. 70, 149; J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 27 (among the Baganda of Central Africa); J. G. Frazer, _Totemism and Exogamy_, ii. 523, 538 (among the Banyoro and Bahima); J. Dos Santos, “Eastern Ethiopia,” in G. McCall Theal’s _Records of South-Eastern Africa_, vii. 191 (as to the kings of Sofala in eastern Africa). But Dos Santos’s statement is doubted by Dr. McCall Theal (_op. cit._ p. 395).

524 This explanation of the custom was anticipated by McLennan: “Another rule of chiefly succession, which has been mentioned, that which gave the chiefship to a sister’s son, appears to have been nullified in some cases by an extraordinary but effective expedient—by the chief, that is, marrying his own sister” (_The Patriarchal Theory, based on the Papers of the late John Ferguson McLennan_, edited and completed by Donald McLennan (London, 1885), p. 95).

525 Compare Cicero, _De natura deorum_, ii. 26. 66; [Plutarch], _De vita et poesi Homeri_, ii. 96; Lactantius, _Divin. Inst._ i. 10; Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, xii. 4.

M153 Kings’ sons sacrificed instead of their fathers. Substitution of condemned criminals.

526 Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii. 54.

M154 A custom of putting kings to death at short intervals might extinguish the families from which the kings were drawn; but this tendency would be no bar to the observance of the custom. Many races have indulged in practices which tend directly to their extinction.

527 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 292 _sqq._

_ 528 See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 269 _sqq._

529 Men and women of the Khlysti sect in Russia abhor marriage; and in the sect of the Skoptsi or Eunuchs the devotees mutilate themselves. See Sir D. Mackenzie Wallace, _Russia_. (London [1877]), p. 302. As to collective suicide, see above, pp. 43 _sqq._

530 Above, p. 191.

531 Father Picarda, “Autour de Mandéra, notes sur l’Ouzigowa, l’Oukwéré et l’Oudoe (Zanguebar),” _Missions Catholiques_, xviii. (1886) p. 284.

_ 532 The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell_ (Hakluyt Society, 1901), pp. 32, 84 _sq._

533 F. de Azara, _Voyages dans l’Amérique Méridionale_ (Paris, 1809), ii. 115-117. The writer affirms that the custom was universally established among all the women of the Mbaya nation, as well as among the women of other Indian nations.

534 R. Southey, _History of Brazil_, iii. (London, 1819) p. 385.

535 W. Barbrooke Grubb, _An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London, 1911), p. 233.

536 Hugh Goldie, _Calabar and its Mission_, new edition with additional chapters by the Rev. John Taylor Dean (Edinburgh and London, 1901), pp. 34 _sq._, 37 _sq._ The preface to the original edition of this work is dated 1890. By this time the tribal suicide is probably complete.

M155 Transmission of the soul of the slain king to his successor. Transmission of the souls of chiefs to their sons in Nias.

537 See above, pp. 21, 23, 26 _sq._

538 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 410 _sqq._

539 J. T. Nieuwenhuisen en H. C. B. von Rosenberg, “Verslag omtrent het eiland Nias,” _Verhandelingen van het Batav. Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen_, xxx. (1863) p. 85; H. von Rosenberg, _Der Malayische Archipel_, p. 160; L. N. H. A. Chatelin, “Godsdienst en bijgeloof der Niassers,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xxvi. (1880) pp. 142 _sq._; H. Sundermann, “Die Insel Nias und die Mission daselbst,” _Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift_, xi. (1884) p. 445; E. Modigliani, _Un Viaggio a Nías_, pp. 277, 479 _sq._; _id._, _L’Isola delle Donne_ (Milan, 1894), p. 195.

M156 Succession to the soul among the American Indians and other races.

540 Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition_ (London, 1845), iv. 453; _United States Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology_, by H. Hale (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 203.

541 Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l’Amérique-Centrale_, ii. 574.

542 D. G. Brinton, _Myths of the New World_2 (New York, 1876), pp. 270 _sq._

_ 543 Relations des Jésuites_, 1636, p. 130 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858).

544 A. Bastian, _Die Voelker des oestlichen Asien_, iv. 386.

545 Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ iv. 685; Cicero, _In Verr._ ii. 5. 45; K. F. Hermann, _Lehrbuch der griechischen Privatalterthümer_, ed. H. Blümner, p. 362, note 1.

546 J. Harland and T. T. Wilkinson, _Lancashire Folk-lore_ (London, 1882), pp. 7 _sq._

M157 Succession to the soul in Africa. Inspired representatives of dead kings in Africa.

_ 547 The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia_, collected and historically digested by F. Balthazar Tellez (London, 1710), p. 198.

548 Ph. Paulitschke, _Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas, die geistige Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl_ (Berlin, 1896), p. 28.

549 This account I received from my friend the Rev. J. Roscoe in a letter dated Mengo, Uganda, April 27, 1900. See his “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) pp. 42, 45 _sq._, where, however, the account is in some points not quite so explicit.

550 J. Dos Santos, “Eastern Ethiopia,” in G. McCall Theal’s _Records of South-eastern Africa_, vii. 196 _sq._

551 See above, p. 35.

552 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 423 _sqq._

M158 Right of succession to the kingdom conferred by possession of personal relics of dead kings. Sometimes a king has to eat a portion of his predecessor.

553 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 362 _sqq._

554 A. Grandidier, “Madagascar,” _Bull. de la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), VIème Série, iii. (1872) pp. 402 _sq._

555 Nicolaus Damascenus, quoted by Stobaeus, _Florilegium_, cxxiii. 12 (_Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iii. 463). The Issedones of Scythia used to gild the skulls of their dead fathers and offer great sacrifices to them annually (Herodotus, iv. 26); they also used the skulls as drinking-cups (Mela, ii. 1. 9). The Boii of Cisalpine Gaul cut off the head of a Roman general whom they had defeated, and having gilded the scalp they used it as a sacred vessel for the pouring of libations, and the priests drank out of it (Livy, xxiii. 24. 12).

556 Sir H. Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_ (London, 1902), ii. 828.

557 Missionary Holley, “Étude sur les Egbas,” _Missions Catholiques_, xiii. (1881) p. 353. The writer speaks of “_le roi d’Alakei_,” but this is probably a mistake or a misprint. As to the Alake or king of Abeokuta, see Sir William Macgregor, “Lagos, Abeokuta, and the Alake,” _Journal of the African Society_, No. xii. (July, 1904) pp. 471 _sq._ Some years ago the Alake visited England and I had the honour of being presented to his Majesty by Sir William Macgregor at Cambridge.

558 F. T. Valdez, _Six Years of a Traveller’s Life in Western Africa_, ii. 161 _sq._

559 Missionary Holley, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, liv. (1882) p. 87. The “King of Ake” mentioned by the writer is the Alake or king of Abeokuta; for Ake is the principal quarter of Abeokuta, and Alake means “Lord of Ake.” See Sir William Macgregor, _l.c._

560 Extracted from a letter of Mr. Harold G. Parsons, dated Lagos, September 28th, 1903, and addressed to Mr. Theodore A. Cooke of 54 Oakley Street, Chelsea, London, who was so kind as to send me the letter with leave to make use of it. “It is usual for great chiefs to report or announce their succession to the Oni of Ife, or to the Alafin of Oyo, the intimation being accompanied by a present” (Sir W. Macgregor, _l.c._).

M159 Succession to the soul of the slain king or priest.

561 See above, pp. 23, 26 _sq._ Dr. E. Westermarck has suggested as an alternative to the theory in the text, “that the new king is supposed to inherit, not the predecessor’s soul, but his divinity or holiness, which is looked upon in the light of a mysterious entity, temporarily seated in the ruling sovereign, but separable from him and transferable to another individual.” See his article, “The Killing of the Divine King,” _Man_, viii. (1908) pp. 22-24. There is a good deal to be said in favour of Dr. Westermarck’s theory, which is supported in particular by the sanctity attributed to the regalia. But on the whole I see no sufficient reason to abandon the view adopted in the text, and I am confirmed in it by the Shilluk evidence, which was unknown to Dr. Westermarck when he propounded his theory.

M160 The single combat of the King of the Wood at Nemi was probably a mitigation of an older custom of putting him to death at the end of a fixed period.

562 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 1 _sqq._, ii. 378 _sqq._

563 See above, pp. 21 _sq._, 27 _sq._

564 See above, pp. 47 _sq._

M161 Custom of killing the human representatives of the tree-spirit. M162 Bavarian customs of beheading the representatives of the tree-spirit at Whitsuntide.

565 Fr. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855), i. 235 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_ (Berlin, 1875), pp. 320 _sq._ In some villages of Lower Bavaria one of the _Pfingstl’s_ comrades carries “the May,” which is a young birch-tree wreathed and decorated. Another name for this Whitsuntide masker, both in Lower and Upper Bavaria, is the Water-bird. Sometimes he carries a straw effigy of a monstrous bird with a long neck and a wooden beak, which is thrown into the water instead of the bearer. The wooden beak is afterwards nailed to the ridge of a barn, which it is supposed to protect against lightning and fire for a whole year, till the next _Pfingstl_ makes his appearance. See _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, i. 375 _sq._, 1003 _sq._ In Silesia the Whitsuntide mummer, called the _Rauchfiess_ or _Raupfiess_, sometimes stands in a leafy arbour, which is mounted on a cart and drawn about the village by four or six lads. They collect gifts at the houses and finally throw the cart and the _Rauchfiess_ into a shallow pool outside the village. This is called “driving out the _Rauchfiess_.” The custom used to be associated with the driving out of the cattle at Whitsuntide to pasture on the dewy grass, which was thought to make the cows yield plenty of milk. The herdsman who was the last to drive out his beasts on the morning of the day became the _Rauchfiess_ in the afternoon. See P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_, i. (Leipsic, 1903), pp. 117-123.

566 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_ (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 409-419; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 349 _sq._

M163 Killing the Wild Man in Saxony and Bohemia.

567 E. Sommer, _Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Sachsen und Thüringen_ (Halle, 1846), pp. 154 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 335 _sq._

568 W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 336.

569 Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_ (Prague, N.D., preface dated 1861), p. 61; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 336 _sq._

M164 Beheading the King on Whit-Monday in Bohemia.

570 Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, p. 263; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 343.

571 Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, pp. 269 _sq._

M165 Beheading the King on Whit-Monday in Bohemia.

_ 572 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 86 _sq._

573 Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, pp. 264 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 353 _sq._

M166 The leaf-clad mummers in these customs represent the tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation.

574 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 73 _sqq._

575 See pp. 208, 210.

_ 576 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 247 _sqq._, 272 _sqq._

M167 The tree-spirit is killed in order to prevent its decay and ensure its revival in a vigorous successor.

577 See above, p. 208.

M168 Resemblances between these North European customs and the rites of Nemi.

578 Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 271.

579 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 308 _sqq._

580 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 20.

M169 The mock killing of the leaf-clad mummers is probably a substitute for an old custom of killing them in earnest. Substitution of mock human sacrifices for real ones.

581 Caesar, _Bell. Gall._ vi. 16; Adam of Bremen, _Descriptio Insularum Aquilonis_, 27 (Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_, cxlvi. col. 644); Olaus Magnus, _De gentium septrionalium variis conditionibus_, iii. 7; J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 i. 35 _sqq._; F. J. Mone, _Geschichte des nordischen Heidenthums_, i. 69, 119, 120, 149, 187 _sq._

582 H. J. Tendeloo, “Verklaring van het zoogenaamd Oud-Alfoersch Teekenschrift,” _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, xxxvi. (1892) pp. 338 _sq._

583 Sir H. Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_ (London, 1902), ii. 719 _sq._ The writer describes the ceremony from the testimony of an eye-witness.

584 J. G. Bourke, _Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona_, pp. 196 _sq._

585 Euripides, _Iphigenia in Taur._ 1458 _sqq._

586 J. T. Nieuwenhuisen en H. C. B. von Rosenberg, “Verslag omtrent het eiland Nias,” _Verhandelingen van het Batav. Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen_, xxx. (1863) p. 43; E. Modigliani, _Un Viaggio a Nias_ (Milan, 1890), pp. 282 _sq._

587 J. A. Dubois, _Mæurs, institutions et cérémonies des peuples de l’Inde_ (Paris, 1825), i. 151 _sq._

588 E. Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_ (Madras, 1909), iv. 437, quoting Mr. A. R. Loftus-Tottenham.

589 G. Turner, _Samoa_, pp. 31 _sq._; compare pp. 38, 58, 59, 69 _sq._, 72.

M170 Mock human sacrifices carried out in effigy.

590 Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii. 55, citing Manetho as his authority.

591 “The Rudhirádhyáyă, or sanguinary chapter,” translated from the _Calica Puran_ by W. C. Blaquiere, in _Asiatick Researches_, v. 376 (8vo ed., London, 1807).

592 E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_ (Calcutta, 1872), p. 281.

593 E. T. Dalton, _op. cit._ pp. 258 _sq._

594 Mgr. Bruguière, in _Annales de l’Association de la Propagation de la Foi_, v. (1831) p. 201.

595 B. C. A. J. van Dinter, “Eenige geographische en ethnographische aanteekeningen betreffende het eiland Siaoe,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xli. (1899) p. 379.

596 Ch. Hose and W. McDougall, “The Relations between Men and Animals in Sarawak,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxi. (1901) p. 208.

597 W. G. Aston, _Shinto_ (London, 1905). pp. 56 _sq._

598 A. C. Kruijt, “Eenige ethnografische aanteekeningen omtrent de Toboengkoe en de Tomori,” _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, xliv. (1900) p. 222.

M171 Mimic sacrifices of various kinds. Mimic sacrifices of fingers. Mimic rite of circumcision.

599 E. Thurston, “Deformity and Mutilation,” _Madras Government Museum, Bulletin_, vol. iv. No. 3 (Madras, 1903), pp. 193-196. As to the custom of sacrificing joints of fingers, see my note on Pausanias, viii. 34. 2, vol. iv. pp. 354 _sqq._ To the evidence there adduced add P. J. de Smet, _Western Missions and Missionaries_ (New York, 1863), p. 135; G. B. Grinnell, _Blackfoot Lodge Tales_, pp. 194, 258; A. d’Orbigny, _L’Homme américain_, ii. 24; J. Williams, _Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands_, pp. 470 _sq._; J. Mathew, _Eaglehawk and Crow_ (London and Melbourne, 1899), p. 120; A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, pp. 746 _sq._; L. Degrandpré, _Voyage à la côte occidentale d’Afrique_ (Paris, 1801), ii. 93 _sq._; Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kaffir_, pp. 203, 262 _sq._; G. W. Stow, _Native Races of South Africa_ (London, 1905), pp. 129, 152; _Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, Nouvelle Édition, ix. 369, xii. 371; _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xiii. (1841) p. 20; _id._, xiv. (1842) pp. 68, 192; _id._, xvii. (1845) pp. 12, 13; _id._, xviii. (1846) p. 6; _id._, xxiii. (1851) p. 314; _id._, xxxii. (1860) pp. 95 _sq._; _Indian Antiquary_, xxiv. (1895) p. 303; _Missions Catholiques_, xxix. (1897) p. 90; _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xxxii. (1900) p. 81. The objects of this mutilation were various. In ancient Athens it was customary to cut off the hand of a suicide and bury it apart from his body (Aeschines, _Contra Ctesiph._ § 244, p. 193, ed. F. Franke), perhaps to prevent his ghost from attacking the living.

600 Basil C. Thomson, _Savage Island_ (London, 1902), pp. 92 _sq._

601 E. Thurston, _Ethnographic Notes in Southern India_ (Madras, 1906), p. 390.

M172 It has been customary to kill animal gods and corn gods as well as tree-spirits. M173 Customs of burying the Carnival and carrying out Death.

602 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 645; K. Haupt, _Sagenbuch der Lausitz_, ii. 58; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, pp. 86 _sq._; _id._, _Das festliche Jahr_, pp. 77 _sq._; _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, iii. 958 _sq._; Sepp, _Die Religion der alten Deutschen_ (Munich, 1890), pp. 67 _sq._; W. Müller, _Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren_ (Vienna and Olmutz, 1893), pp. 258, 353. The fourth Sunday in Lent is also known as Mid-Lent, because it falls in the middle of Lent, or as _Laetare_ from the first word of the liturgy for that day. In the Roman calendar it is the Sunday of the Rose (_Domenica rosae_), because on that day the Pope consecrates a golden rose, which he presents to some royal lady. In one German village of Transylvania the Carrying out of Death takes place on Ascension Day. See below, pp. 248 _sq._

M174 Effigy of the Carnival burnt at Frosinone in Latium.

603 G. Targioni-Tozzetti, _Saggio di novelline, canti ed usanze popolari della Ciociaria_ (Palermo, 1891), pp. 89-95. At Palermo an effigy of the Carnival (_Nannu_) was burnt at midnight on Shrove Tuesday 1878. See G. Pitrè, _Usi e costumi, credenze e pregiudizi del popolo siciliano_, i. 117-119; G. Trede, _Das Heidentum in der römischen Kirche_, iii. 11, note.

M175 Burying the Carnival in the Abruzzi.

604 A. de Nino, _Usi e costumi abruzzesi_, ii. 198-200. The writer omits to mention the date of these celebrations. No doubt it is either Shrove Tuesday or Ash Wednesday. Compare G. Finamore, _Credenze, usi e costumi abruzzesi_ (Palermo, 1890), p. 111. In some parts of Piedmont an effigy of Carnival is burnt on the evening of Shrove Tuesday; in others they set fire to tall poplar trees, which, stript of their branches and surmounted by banners, have been set up the day before in public places. These trees go by the name of _Scarli_. See G. di Giovanni, _Usi, credenze e pregiudizi del Canavese_ (Palermo, 1889), pp. 161, 164 _sq._ For other accounts of the ceremony of the death of the Carnival, represented either by a puppet or a living person, in Italy and Sicily, see G. Pitrè, _Usi e costumi, credenze e pregiudizi del popolo siciliano_, i. 96-100; G. Amalfi, _Tradizioni ed usi nella Penisola Sorrentina_ (Palermo, 1890), pp. 40, 42. It has been rightly observed by Pitrè (_op. cit._ p. 96), that the personification of the Carnival is doubtless the lineal descendant of some mythical personage of remote Greek and Roman antiquity.

605 R. Wünsch, _Das Frühlingsfest der Insel Malta_ (Leipsic, 1902), pp. 29 _sq._, quoting Ciantar’s supplements to Abelas’s _Malta illustrata_.

M176 Burial of the Carnival at Lerida in Spain.

606 J. S. Campion, _On Foot in Spain_ (London, 1879), pp. 291-295.

M177 Funeral of the Carnival in France. Execution of Shrove Tuesday in the Ardennes and Franche-Comté.

607 A. de Nore, _Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 37 _sq._ The name Caramantran is thought to be compounded of _carême entrant_, “Lent entering.” It is said that the effigy of Caramantran is sometimes burnt (E. Cortet, _Essai sur les fêtes religieuses_, Paris, 1867, p. 107).

608 L. Pineau, _Folk-lore du Poitou_ (Paris, 1892), p. 493.

609 A. Meyrac, _Traditions, légendes et contes des Ardennes_ (Charleville, 1890), p. 63. According to the writer, the custom of burning an effigy of Shrove Tuesday or the Carnival is pretty general in France.

610 Ch. Beauquier, _Les Mois en Franche-Comté_ (Paris, 1900), p. 30. In Beauce and Perche the burning or burial of Shrove Tuesday used to be represented in effigy, but the custom has now disappeared. See F. Chapiseau, _Le Folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche_ (Paris, 1902), i. 320 _sq._

M178 Burial of Shrove Tuesday in Normandy. Burning Shrove Tuesday at Saint-Lô.

611 J. Lecœur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Condé-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 148-150.

612 Madame Octave Feuillet, _Quelques années de ma vie_5 (Paris, 1895), pp. 59-61.

M179 Burial of Shrove Tuesday or the Carnival in Brittany.

613 P. Sébillot, _Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1886), pp. 227 _sq._

614 A. de Nore, _Coutumes, mythes et traditions des Provinces de France_, p. 206.

615 P. Sébillot, _Le Folk-lore de France_, ii. (Paris, 1905) p. 170.

616 P. Sébillot, _l.c._

617 J. L. M. Nogues, _Les Mœurs d’autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis_ (Saintes, 1891), p. 60. As to the trial and condemnation of the Carnival on Ash Wednesday in France, see further Bérenger-Féraud, _Superstitions et survivances_, iv. 52 _sq._

618 T. F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), p. 93.

M180 Burying the Carnival in Germany and Austria.

619 See above, p. 209.

620 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, p. 371.

621 J. Haltrich, _Zur Volkskunde der Siebenbürger Sachsen_ (Vienna, 1885), pp. 284 _sq._

622 K. von Leoprechting, _Aus dem Lechrain_, pp. 162 _sqq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 411.

623 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, p. 374; compare A. Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. pp. 54 _sq._, § 71.

624 E. Meier, _op. cit._ p. 372.

625 E. Meier, _op. cit._ p. 373.

626 E. Meier, _op. cit._ pp. 373, 374.

627 A. Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen_ (Leipsic, 1859), ii. p. 130, § 393.

M181 Burning the Carnival in Greece. Esthonian custom on Shrove Tuesday.

_ 628 Folk-lore_, vi. (1895) p. 206.

629 F. J. Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und äusseren Leben der Ehsten_ (St. Petersburg, 1876), p. 353.

M182 Resurrection enacted in these ceremonies.

630 E. Meier, _op. cit._ p. 374.

631 H. Pröhle, _Harzbilder_ (Leipsic, 1855), p. 54.

M183 Carrying out Death in Bavaria.

_ 632 Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, iii. 958.

633 J. Boemus, _Omnium gentium mores, leges, et ritus_ (Paris, 1538), p. 83.

_ 634 Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, iii. 958.

635 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 639 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 412.

636 Sepp, _Die Religion der alten Deutschen_ (Munich, 1876), p. 67.

637 Fr. Kauffmann, _Balder_ (Strasburg, 1902), p. 283.

M184 Carrying out Death in Thüringen.

638 Aug. Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_ (Vienna, 1878), p. 193.

639 A. Witzschel, _op. cit._ p. 199; J. A. E. Köhler, _Volksbrauch, Aberglauben, Sagen und andre alte Überlieferungen im Voigtlande_ (Leipsic, 1867), pp. 171 _sq._

640 Fr. Kauffmann, _Balder_ (Strasburg, 1902), p. 283 note, quoting J. K. Zeumer, _Laetare vulgo Todten Sonntag_ (Jena, 1701), pp. 20 _sqq._; J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 640 _sq._ The words of the song are given as “_So treiben wir den todten auss_,” but this must be a mistake for “_So treiben wir den Tod hinaus_,” as the line is given by P. Drechsler (_Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_, i. 66). In the passage quoted the effigy is spoken of as “_mortis larva_.”

641 Zacharias Schneider, _Leipziger Chronik_, iv. 143, cited by K. Schwenk, _Die Mythologie der Slaven_ (Frankfort, 1853), pp. 217 _sq._, and Fr. Kauffmann, _Balder_, pp. 284 _sq._

M185 Carrying out Death in Silesia.

642 P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_, i. 65-71. Compare A. Peter, _Volksthümliches aus Österreichisch-Schlesien_ (Troppau, 1865-1867), ii. 281 _sq._

643 F. Tetzner, “Die Tschechen und Mährer in Schlesien,” _Globus_, lxxviii. (1900) p. 340.

M186 Carrying out Death in Bohemia.

644 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 642.

645 Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, pp. 90 _sq._

_ 646 Ibid._ p. 91.

M187 Carrying out Death in Moravia.

647 W. Müller, _Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren_ (Vienna and Olmütz, 1893), pp. 353-355.

M188 The effigy of Death feared and abhorred.

648 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 644; K. Haupt, _Sagenbuch der Lausitz_ (Leipsic, 1862-1863), ii. 55; P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Branch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_, i. 70 _sq._

649 J. Grimm, _op. cit._ ii. 640, 643; P. Drechsler, _op. cit._ i. 70. See also above, p. 236.

650 Th. Vernaleken, _Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Österreich_ (Vienna, 1859), pp. 294 _sq._; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, p. 90.

651 See above, p. 236.

652 See above, pp. 234, 235, 236, 237.

653 Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_ (Leipsic, 1863), p. 80.

654 W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_ (London, 1872), p. 211.

_ 655 Ibid._ p. 210.

M189 Sawing the Old Woman at Mid-Lent in Italy.

656 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 652; H. Usener, "Italische Mythen," _Rheinisches Museum_, N.F., xxx. (1875) pp. 191 _sq._

657 G. Pitrè, _Spettacoli e feste popolari siciliane_ (Palermo, 1881), pp. 207 _sq._, _id._, _Usi e costumi, credenze e pregiudizi del popolo siciliano_, i. 107 _sq._

_ 658 Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari_, iv. (1885) pp. 294 _sq._

659 H. Usener, _op. cit._ p. 193.

660 Vincenzo Dorsa, _La Tradizione greco-latina negli usi e nelle credenze popolari della Calabria citeriore_ (Cosenza, 1884), pp. 43 _sq._

661 E. Martinengo-Cesaresco, in _The Academy_, No. 671, March 14, 1885, p. 188.

M190 Sawing the Old Woman at Mid-Lent in France.

662 Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et légendes du centre de la France_ (Paris, 1875), i. 43 _sq._

M191 Sawing the Old Woman at Mid-Lent in Spain and among the Slavs.

663 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 652; H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” _Rheinisches Museum_, N.F., xxx. (1875) pp. 191 _sq._

664 E. Hoffmann-Krayer, “Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen Volksbrauch,” _Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde_, xi. (1903) p. 239.

M192 Sawing the Old Woman on Palm Sunday among the gypsies.

665 H. von Wlislocki, _Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Zigeuner_ (Münster i. W., 1891), pp. 145 _sq._

M193 Seven-legged effigies of Lent in Spain.

666 E. Cortet, _Essai sur les fêtes religieuses_ (Paris, 1867), pp. 107 _sq._; Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et légendes du centre de la France_, i. 45 _sq._ A similar custom appears to be observed in Minorca. See _Globus_, lix. (1891) pp. 279, 280.

M194 Seven-legged effigies of Lent in Italy.

667 A. de Nino, _Usi e costumi abruzzesi_, ii. 203-205 (Florence, 1881); G. Finamore, _Credenze, usi e costumi abruzzesi_ (Palermo, 1890), pp. 112, 114.

668 G. Amalfi, _Tradizioni ed usi nella Penisola Sorrentina_ (Palermo, 1890), p. 41.

669 Lucy E. Broadwood, in _Folk-lore_, iv. (1893) p. 390.

M195 The custom of carrying out Death is often followed by the ceremony of bringing in Summer, in which the Summer is represented by a tree or branches.

670 Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, pp. 89 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 156. This custom has been already referred to. See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 73 _sq._

671 P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_, i. 71 _sqq._; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_, p. 82; Philo vom Walde, _Schlesien in Sage und Brauch_ (Berlin, N.D., preface dated 1883), p. 122.

672 A. Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_, pp. 192 _sq._; compare pp. 297 _sqq._

673 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 643 _sq._; K. Haupt, _Sagenbuch der Lausitz_, ii. 54 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 412 _sq._; W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 211.

M196 New potency of life ascribed to the image of Death. Carrying out Death at Braller in Transylvania.

674 J. Grimm, _op. cit._ ii. 644; K. Haupt, _op. cit._ ii. 55.

675 J. K. Schuller, _Das Todaustragen und der Muorlef, ein Beitrag zur Kunde sächsischer Sitte und Sage in Siebenbürgen_ (Hermannstadt, 1861), pp. 4 _sq._ The description of this ceremony by Miss E. Gerard (_The Land beyond the Forest_, ii. 47-49) is plainly borrowed from Mr. Schuller’s little work.

676 W. Müller, _Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren_ (Vienna and Olmütz, 1893), pp. 258 _sq._

M197 Life-giving virtue ascribed to the effigy of Death.

677 P. 247.

678 This is also the view taken of the custom by W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 419.

679 Th. Vernaleken, _Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Österreich_, pp. 293 _sq._

680 Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_, p. 82.

681 Philo vom Walde, _Schlesien in Sage und Brauch_, p. 122; P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_, i. 74.

682 See above, p. 236.

683 See above, pp. 239 _sq._

684 See above, p. 236.

M198 The Summer-tree equivalent to the May-tree. But the Summer-tree is a revival of the image of Death; hence the image of Death must be an embodiment of the spirit of vegetation.

685 Above, p. 246.

686 Above, p. 246.

687 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 73 _sqq._

688 Above, p. 246, and J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 644; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, pp. 87 _sq._

689 Above, p. 246.

690 See above, pp. 250 _sq._

691 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 45 _sqq._

692 Above, pp. 234, 235, 240, 248, 250; and J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 643.

693 Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, p. 88. Sometimes the effigy of Death (without a tree) is carried round by boys who collect gratuities (J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 644).

694 Above, p. 208.

695 Above, p. 231.

696 F. J. Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und äusseren Leben der Ehsten_, p. 353; Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” in _Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. Heft 2, pp. 10 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 407 _sq._

M199 The names of Carnival, Death, and Summer in the preceding customs seem to cover an ancient tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation.

697 W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 417-421.

M200 Dramatic contests between representatives of Summer and Winter.

698 Olaus Magnus, _De gentium septentrionalium variis conditionibus_, xv. 8 _sq._ In _Le Temps_, No. 15,669, May 11, 1902, p. 2, there is a description of this ceremony as it used to be performed in Stockholm. The description seems to be borrowed from Olaus Magnus.

699 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 637-639; _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, iv. 2, pp. 357 _sq._ See also E. Krause, “Das Sommertags-Fest in Heidelberg,” _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie_, 1895, p. (145); A. Dieterich, “Sommertag,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, viii. (1905) Beiheft, pp. 82 _sqq._

_ 700 Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, i. 369 _sq._

_ 701 Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, ii. 259 _sq._; F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, i. pp. 253-256; K. von Leoprechting, _Aus dem Lechrain_, pp. 167 _sq._ A dialogue in verse between representatives of Winter and Summer is spoken at Hartlieb in Silesia, near Breslau. See _Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde_, iii. (1893) pp. 226-228.

M201 Dramatic contests between representatives of Summer and Winter.

702 Th. Vernaleken, _Mythen und Bräuche des Völkes in Österreich_, pp. 297 _sq._

703 R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), p. 250.

704 W. Müller, _Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren_, pp. 430-436.

705 W. Müller, _op. cit._ p. 259.

M202 Queen of Winter and Queen of May in the Isle of Man.

706 J. Train, _Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man_ (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), ii. 118-120. It has been suggested that the name Maceboard may be a corruption of May-sports.

M203 Contests between representatives of Summer and Winter among the Esquimaux. Canadian Indians drove away Winter with burning brands.

707 Fr. Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” _Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1888), p. 605. The account of this custom given by Captain J. S. Mutch is as follows: “The people take a long rope, the ends of which are tied together. They arrange themselves so that those born during the summer stand close to the water, and those born in the winter stand inland; and then they pull at the rope to see whether summer or winter is the stronger. If winter should win, there will be plenty of food; if summer should win, there will be a bad winter.” See Fr. Boas, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” _Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History_, xv. (1901) pp. 140 _sq._ At Memphis in Egypt there were two statues in front of the temple of Hephaestus (Ptah), of which the more northern was popularly called Summer and the more southern Winter. The people worshipped the image of Summer and execrated the image of Winter. It has been suggested that the two statues represented Osiris and Typhon, the good and the bad god. See Herodotus, ii. 121, with the notes of Bähr and Wiedemann.

_ 708 Relations des Jésuites_, 1636, p. 38 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858).

M204 The burning of Winter at Zurich.

709 H. Herzog, _Schweizerische Volksfeste, Sitten und Gebräuche_ (Aurau, 1884), pp. 164-166; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 498 _sq._

710 Letter to me of Dr. J. S. Black, dated Lauriston Cottage, Wimbledon Common, 28th May, 1903. In a subsequent letter (dated 9th June, 1903) Dr. Black enclosed some bibliographical references to the custom which were kindly furnished to him by Professor P. Schmiedel of Zurich, who speaks of the effigy as a representative of Winter. It is not expressly so called by H. Herzog and W. Mannhardt. See the preceding note.

M205 Funeral of Kostrubonko, Kostroma, Kupalo, and Yarilo in Russia.

711 W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 221.

712 W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 241.

713 W. R. S. Ralston, _op. cit._ pp. 243 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 414.

714 W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 414 _sq._; W. R. S. Ralston, _op. cit._ p. 244.

715 W. R. S. Ralston, _op. cit._ p. 245; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 416.

716 W. Mannhardt, _l.c._; W. R. S. Ralston, _l.c._

M206 The Russian Kostrubonko, Yarilo, and so on, were probably at first spirits of vegetation dying and coming to life again. M207 In these ceremonies grief and gladness, love and hatred appear to be curiously combined. M208 Expulsion of Death sometimes enacted without an effigy.

717 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 644.

718 J. G. von Hahn, _Albanesische Studien_ (Jena, 1854), i. 160.

M209 Images of Siva and Pârvatî married, drowned, and mourned for in India.

719 R. C. Temple, in _Indian Antiquary_, xi. (1882) pp. 297 _sq._

M210 In this Indian custom Siva and Pârvatî seem to be the equivalents of the King and Queen of May.

720 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 84 _sqq._

721 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 45 _sqq._

M211 The foregoing customs were originally rites intended to ensure the revival of nature in spring by means of imitative magic. Feelings with which the primitive savage may have regarded the changes of the seasons.

722 When the Kurnai of Victoria saw the Aurora Australis, which corresponds to the Northern Streamers of Europe, they exchanged wives for the day and swung the severed hand of a dead man towards it, shouting, “Send it away! do not let it burn us up!” See A. W. Howitt, “On some Australian Beliefs,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xiii. (1884) p. 189; _id._, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, pp. 276 sq., 430.

M212 In modern Europe the old magical rites for the revival of nature in spring have degenerated into mere pageants and pastimes.

723 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 242 _sq._

M213 Parallel to the spring customs of Europe in the magical rites of the Central Australian aborigines.

724 Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, pp. 4 _sq._, 170.

725 Spencer and Gillen, _op. cit._ p. 170. For a description of some of these ceremonies see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 85 _sqq._

M214 Letter of Mr. M. W. Lampson. M215 Lord Avebury’s statement.

726 Lord Avebury, _Origin of Civilisation_,5 pp. 378 _sq._; compare _id._, _Prehistoric Times_,5 p. 561.

M216 Opinions of various authorities. M217 Substitutes for corporal punishment in China.

727 De Guignes, _Voyages à Peking, Manille et l’Île de France_, iii. (Paris, 1808) pp. 114 _sq._

M218 The custom of swinging practised for various reasons. Swinging at harvest.

728 Above, pp. 156 _sq._

729 B. F. Matthes, _Einige Eigenthumlichkeiten in den Festen und Gewohnheiten der Makassaren und Buginesen_ (Leyden, 1884), p. 1; _id._, “Over de âdá’s of gewoonten der Makassaren en Boegineezen,” _Verslagen en Mededeelingen der koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen_, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Derde Reeks, Tweede Deel (Amsterdam, 1885), pp. 169 _sq._

730 H. A. Oldfield, _Sketches from Nipal_ (London, 1880), ii. 351.

731 Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_,2 i. 194 _sq._

732 Ch. Brooke, _Ten Years in Sarawak_, ii. 226 _sq._

M219 Swinging for fish and game.

733 J. S. G. Gramberg, “De Troeboekvisscherij,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xxiv. (1887) pp. 314 _sq._

734 E. Petitot, _Monographie des Dènè-Dindjiè_ (Paris, 1876), p. 38. The same ceremony is performed, oddly enough, to procure the death of an enemy.

M220 Indian custom of swinging on hooks. Swinging in the rainy season. Swinging in honour of Krishna. Esthonian custom of swinging at the summer solstice.

735 Hamilton’s “Account of the East Indies,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, viii. 360 _sq._ In general we are merely told that these Indian devotees swing on hooks in fulfilment of a vow or to obtain some favour of a deity. See Duarte Barbosa, _Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the beginning of the Sixteenth Century_, translated by the Hon. H. E. J. Stanley (Hakluyt Society, London, 1866), pp. 95 _sq._; Gaspar Balbi’s “Voyage to Pegu,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, ix. 398; Sonnerat, _Voyage aux Indes orientales et à la Chine_, i. 244; S. Mateer, _The Land of Charity_, p. 220; W. W. Hunter, _Annals of Rural Bengal_,5 p. 463; _North Indian Notes and Queries_, i. p. 76, § 511.

736 V. Ball, _Jungle Life in India_ (London, 1880), p. 232.

737 W. W. Hunter, _Annals of Rural Bengal_5 (London, 1872), p. 463.

738 G. W. Leitner, _The Languages and Races of Dardistan_ (Lahore, 1878), p. 12.

739 Sarat Chandra Mitra, “Notes on two Behari Pastimes,” _Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay_, iii. 95 _sq._

740 H. H. Wilson, “The Religious Festivals of the Hindus,” _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, ix. (1848) p. 98. Compare E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 314; Monier Williams, _Religious Life and Thought in India_, p. 137; W. Crooke, “The Legends of Krishna,” _Folk-lore_, xi. (1900) pp. 21 _sqq._

_ 741 The Hymns of the Rigveda_, vii. 87. 5 (vol. iii. p. 108 of R. T. H. Griffith’s translation, Benares, 1891); H. Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, pp. 444 _sq._

742 J. G. Kohl, _Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen_ (Dresden and Leipsic, 1841), ii. 268 _sqq._

743 L. v. Schroeder, “Lihgo (Refrain der lettischen Sonnwendlieder),” _Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien_, xxxii. (1902) pp. 1-11.

M221 Swinging for inspiration.

744 S. W. Tromp, “Uit de Salasila van Koetei,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_, xxxvii. (1888) pp. 87-89.

M222 Swinging as a cure for sickness.

745 J. Perham, “Manangism in Borneo,” _Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, No. 19 (Singapore, 1887), pp. 97 _sq._; E. H. Gomes, _Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo_ (London, 1911), pp. 169, 170, 171; H. Ling Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_, i. 279.

746 C. Bock, _The Head-hunters of Borneo_ (London, 1881), pp. 110-112.

M223 Athenian festival of swinging.

747 Hyginus, _Astronomica_, ii. 4, pp. 34 _sqq._, ed. Bunte; _id._, _Fabulae_, 130; Servius and Probus on Virgil, _Georg._ ii. 389; Festus, _s.v._ “Oscillantes,” p. 194, ed. C. O. Müller; Athenaeus, xiv. 10, p. 618 E F; Pollux, iv. 55; Hesychius, _s.vv._ Ἀλῆτις and Αἰώρα; _Etymologicum magnum_, _s.v._ Αἰώρα, p. 42. 3; Schol. on Homer, _Iliad_, xxii. 29. The story of the murder of Icarius is told by a scholiast on Lucian (_Dial. meretr._ vii. 4) to explain the origin of a different festival (_Rheinisches Museum_, N.F., xxv. (1870) pp. 557 _sqq._; _Scholia in Lucianum_, ed. H. Rabe, p. 280). As to the swinging festival at Athens see O. Jahn, _Archäologische Beiträge_, pp. 324 _sq._; Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines_, _s.v._ “Aiora”; Miss J. E. Harrison, in _Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens_, by Mrs. Verrall and Miss J. E. Harrison, pp. xxxix. _sqq._

M224 Swinging as a mode of expiation and purification.

748 Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ xii. 603: “_Et Varro ait: Suspendiosis quibus iusta fieri ius non sit, suspensis oscillis veluti per imitationem mortis parentari._”

749 Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ ii. 389; _id._, on _Aen._ vi. 741.

750 Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, pp. 505 _sq._

751 Festus, _s.v._ “Oscillantes,” p. 194, ed. C. O. Müller. This festival and its origin are also alluded to in a passage of one of the manuscripts of Servius (on Virgil, _Georg._ ii. 389), which is printed by Lion in his edition of Servius (vol. ii. 254, note), but not by Thilo and Hagen in their large critical edition of the old Virgilian commentator. “In _Schol. Bob._ p. 256 we are told that there was a reminiscence of the fact that, the bodies of Latinus and Aeneas being undiscoverable, their _animae_ were sought in the air” (G. E. M. Marindin, _s.v._ “Oscilla,” W. Smith’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_,3 ii. 304).

M225 Swinging to promote the growth of plants.

752 Hyginus, _Fab._ 130.

753 Probus on Virgil, _Georg._ ii. 385.

754 Virgil, _Georg._ ii. 388 _sqq._

755 See above, p. 157.

M226 Swinging as a festal rite in modern Greece and Italy.

756 W. G. Clark, _Peloponnesus_ (London, 1858), p. 274.

757 J. T. Bent, _The Cyclades_ (London, 1885), p. 5.

758 J. T. Bent, quoted by Miss J. E. Harrison, _Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens_, p. xliii.

759 Vincenzo Dorsa, _La Tradizione greco-latina negli usi e nelle credenze popolari della Calabria Citeriore_ (Cosenza, 1884), p. 36. In one village the custom is observed on Ascension Day instead of at Christmas.

760 Valdés, _Los Majos de Cadiz_, extract sent to me in the original Spanish by Mr. W. Moss, of 21 Abbey Grove, Bolton, March 23rd, 1907.

M227 Swinging at festivals in spring.

761 E. Doutté, _Magie et religion dans l’Afrique du nord_ (Algiers, 1908), pp. 580 _sq._

762 W. W. Rockhill, “Notes on some of the Laws, Customs, and Superstitions of Korea,” _American Anthropologist_, iv. (1891) pp. 185 _sq._

763 Pausanias, v. 1. 4.

764 Pausanias, vi. 20. 9.

_ 765 Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 88 _sq._

766 J. L. van Hasselt, “Aanteekeningen aangaande de gewoonten der Papoeas in de Dorebaai, ten opzichte van zwangerschap en geboorte,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xliii. (1901) p. 566.

767 J. H. Letteboer, “Eenige aanteekeningen omtrent de gebruiken bij zwangerschap en geboorte onder de Savuneezen,” _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, xlvi. (1902) p. 45.