CHAPTER V. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRE-FESTIVALS.

§ 1. On the Fire-festivals in general.

(M289) The foregoing survey of the popular fire-festivals of Europe suggests some general observations. In the first place we can hardly help being struck by the resemblance which the ceremonies bear to each other, at whatever time of the year and in whatever part of Europe they are celebrated. The custom of kindling great bonfires, leaping over them, and driving cattle through or round them would seem to have been practically universal throughout Europe, and the same may be said of the processions or races with blazing torches round fields, orchards, pastures, or cattle-stalls. Less widespread are the customs of hurling lighted discs into the air(796) and trundling a burning wheel down hill;(797) for to judge by the evidence which I have collected these modes of distributing the beneficial influence of the fire have been confined in the main to Central Europe. The ceremonial of the Yule log is distinguished from that of the other fire-festivals by the privacy and domesticity which characterize it; but, as we have already seen, this distinction may well be due simply to the rough weather of midwinter, which is apt not only to render a public assembly in the open air disagreeable, but also at any moment to defeat the object of the assembly by extinguishing the all-important fire under a downpour of rain or a fall of snow. Apart from these local or seasonal differences, the general resemblance between the fire-festivals at all times of the year and in all places is tolerably close. And as the ceremonies themselves resemble each other, so do the benefits which the people expect to reap from them. Whether applied in the form of bonfires blazing at fixed points, or of torches carried about from place to place, or of embers and ashes taken from the smouldering heap of fuel, the fire is believed to promote the growth of the crops and the welfare of man and beast, either positively by stimulating them, or negatively by averting the dangers and calamities which threaten them from such causes as thunder and lightning, conflagration, blight, mildew, vermin, sterility, disease, and not least of all witchcraft.

(M290) But we naturally ask, How did it come about that benefits so great and manifold were supposed to be attained by means so simple? In what way did people imagine that they could procure so many goods or avoid so many ills by the application of fire and smoke, of embers and ashes? In short, what theory underlay and prompted the practice of these customs? For that the institution of the festivals was the outcome of a definite train of reasoning may be taken for granted; the view that primitive man acted first and invented his reasons to suit his actions afterwards, is not borne out by what we know of his nearest living representatives, the savage and the peasant. Two different explanations of the fire-festivals have been given by modern enquirers. On the one hand it has been held that they are sun-charms or magical ceremonies intended, on the principle of imitative magic, to ensure a needful supply of sunshine for men, animals, and plants by kindling fires which mimic on earth the great source of light and heat in the sky. This was the view of Wilhelm Mannhardt.(798) It may be called the solar theory. On the other hand it has been maintained that the ceremonial fires have no necessary reference to the sun but are simply purificatory in intention, being designed to burn up and destroy all harmful influences, whether these are conceived in a personal form as witches, demons, and monsters, or in an impersonal form as a sort of pervading taint or corruption of the air. This is the view of Dr. Edward Westermarck(799) and apparently of Professor Eugen Mogk.(800) It may be called the purificatory theory. Obviously the two theories postulate two very different conceptions of the fire which plays the principal part in the rites. On the one view, the fire, like sunshine in our latitude, is a genial creative power which fosters the growth of plants and the development of all that makes for health and happiness; on the other view, the fire is a fierce destructive power which blasts and consumes all the noxious elements, whether spiritual or material, that menace the life of men, of animals, and of plants. According to the one theory the fire is a stimulant, according to the other it is a disinfectant; on the one view its virtue is positive, on the other it is negative.

(M291) Yet the two explanations, different as they are in the character which they attribute to the fire, are perhaps not wholly irreconcilable. If we assume that the fires kindled at these festivals were primarily intended to imitate the sun’s light and heat, may we not regard the purificatory and disinfecting qualities, which popular opinion certainly appears to have ascribed to them, as attributes derived directly from the purificatory and disinfecting qualities of sunshine? In this way we might conclude that, while the imitation of sunshine in these ceremonies was primary and original, the purification attributed to them was secondary and derivative. Such a conclusion, occupying an intermediate position between the two opposing theories and recognizing an element of truth in both of them, was adopted by me in earlier editions of this work;(801) but in the meantime Dr. Westermarck has argued powerfully in favour of the purificatory theory alone, and I am bound to say that his arguments carry great weight, and that on a fuller review of the facts the balance of evidence seems to me to incline decidedly in his favour. However, the case is not so clear as to justify us in dismissing the solar theory without discussion, and accordingly I propose to adduce the considerations which tell for it before proceeding to notice those which tell against it. A theory which had the support of so learned and sagacious an investigator as W. Mannhardt is entitled to a respectful hearing.

§ 2. The Solar Theory of the Fire-festivals.

(M292) In an earlier part of this work we saw that savages resort to charms for making sunshine,(802) and it would be no wonder if primitive man in Europe did the same. Indeed, when we consider the cold and cloudy climate of Europe during a great part of the year, we shall find it natural that sun-charms should have played a much more prominent part among the superstitious practices of European peoples than among those of savages who live nearer the equator and who consequently are apt to get in the course of nature more sunshine than they want. This view of the festivals may be supported by various arguments drawn partly from their dates, partly from the nature of the rites, and partly from the influence which they are believed to exert upon the weather and on vegetation.

(M293) First, in regard to the dates of the festivals it can be no mere accident that two of the most important and widely spread of the festivals are timed to coincide more or less exactly with the summer and winter solstices, that is, with the two turning-points in the sun’s apparent course in the sky when he reaches respectively his highest and his lowest elevation at noon. Indeed with respect to the midwinter celebration of Christmas we are not left to conjecture; we know from the express testimony of the ancients that it was instituted by the church to supersede an old heathen festival of the birth of the sun,(803) which was apparently conceived to be born again on the shortest day of the year, after which his light and heat were seen to grow till they attained their full maturity at midsummer. Therefore it is no very far-fetched conjecture to suppose that the Yule log, which figures so prominently in the popular celebration of Christmas, was originally designed to help the labouring sun of midwinter to rekindle his seemingly expiring light.

(M294) The idea that by lighting a log on earth you can rekindle a fire in heaven or fan it into a brighter blaze, naturally seems to us absurd; but to the savage mind it wears a different aspect, and the institution of the great fire-festivals which we are considering probably dates from a time when Europe was still sunk in savagery or at most in barbarism. Now it can be shewn that in order to increase the celestial source of heat at midwinter savages resort to a practice analogous to that of our Yule log, if the kindling of the Yule log was originally a magical rite intended to rekindle the sun. In the southern hemisphere, where the order of the seasons is the reverse of ours, the rising of Sirius or the Dog Star in July marks the season of the greatest cold instead of, as with us, the greatest heat; and just as the civilized ancients ascribed the torrid heat of midsummer to that brilliant star,(804) so the modern savage of South Africa attributes to it the piercing cold of midwinter and seeks to mitigate its rigour by warming up the chilly star with the genial heat of the sun. How he does so may be best described in his own words as follows:—(805)

“The Bushmen perceive Canopus, they say to a child: ‘Give me yonder piece of wood, that I may put the end of it in the fire, that I may point it burning towards grandmother, for grandmother carries Bushman rice; grandmother shall make a little warmth for us; for she coldly comes out; the sun(806) shall warm grandmother’s eye for us.’ Sirius comes out; the people call out to one another: ‘Sirius comes yonder;’ they say to one another: ‘Ye must burn a stick for us towards Sirius.’ They say to one another: ‘Who was it who saw Sirius?’ One man says to the other: ‘Our brother saw Sirius.’ The other man says to him: ‘I saw Sirius.’ The other man says to him: ‘I wish thee to burn a stick for us towards Sirius; that the sun may shining come out for us; that Sirius may not coldly come out.’ The other man (the one who saw Sirius) says to his son: ‘Bring me the small piece of wood yonder, that I may put the end of it in the fire, that I may burn it towards grandmother; that grandmother may ascend the sky, like the other one, Canopus.’ The child brings him the piece of wood, he (the father) holds the end of it in the fire. He points it burning towards Sirius; he says that Sirius shall twinkle like Canopus. He sings; he sings about Canopus, he sings about Sirius; he points to them with fire,(807) that they may twinkle like each other. He throws fire at them. He covers himself up entirely (including his head) in his kaross and lies down. He arises, he sits down; while he does not again lie down; because he feels that he has worked, putting Sirius into the sun’s warmth; so that Sirius may warmly come out. The women go out early to seek for Bushman rice; they walk, sunning their shoulder blades.”(808) What the Bushmen thus do to temper the cold of midwinter in the southern hemisphere by blowing up the celestial fires may have been done by our rude forefathers at the corresponding season in the northern hemisphere.

(M295) Not only the date of some of the festivals but the manner of their celebration suggests a conscious imitation of the sun. The custom of rolling a burning wheel down a hill, which is often observed at these ceremonies, might well pass for an imitation of the sun’s course in the sky, and the imitation would be especially appropriate on Midsummer Day when the sun’s annual declension begins. Indeed the custom has been thus interpreted by some of those who have recorded it.(809) Not less graphic, it may be said, is the mimicry of his apparent revolution by swinging a burning tar-barrel round a pole.(810) Again, the common practice of throwing fiery discs, sometimes expressly said to be shaped like suns, into the air at the festivals may well be a piece of imitative magic. In these, as in so many cases, the magic force may be supposed to take effect through mimicry or sympathy: by imitating the desired result you actually produce it: by counterfeiting the sun’s progress through the heavens you really help the luminary to pursue his celestial journey with punctuality and despatch. The name “fire of heaven,” by which the midsummer fire is sometimes popularly known,(811) clearly implies a consciousness of a connexion between the earthly and the heavenly flame.

(M296) Again, the manner in which the fire appears to have been originally kindled on these occasions has been alleged in support of the view that it was intended to be a mock-sun. As some scholars have perceived, it is highly probable that at the periodic festivals in former times fire was universally obtained by the friction of two pieces of wood.(812) We have seen that it is still so procured in some places both at the Easter and the midsummer festivals, and that it is expressly said to have been formerly so procured at the Beltane celebration both in Scotland and Wales.(813) But what makes it nearly certain that this was once the invariable mode of kindling the fire at these periodic festivals is the analogy of the need-fire, which has almost always been produced by the friction of wood, and sometimes by the revolution of a wheel. It is a plausible conjecture that the wheel employed for this purpose represents the sun,(814) and if the fires at the regularly recurring celebrations were formerly produced in the same way, it might be regarded as a confirmation of the view that they were originally sun-charms. In point of fact there is, as Kuhn has indicated,(815) some evidence to shew that the midsummer fire was originally thus produced. We have seen that many Hungarian swine-herds make fire on Midsummer Eve by rotating a wheel round a wooden axle wrapt in hemp, and that they drive their pigs through the fire thus made.(816) At Obermedlingen, in Swabia, the “fire of heaven,” as it was called, was made on St. Vitus’s Day (the fifteenth of June) by igniting a cart-wheel, which, smeared with pitch and plaited with straw, was fastened on a pole twelve feet high, the top of the pole being inserted in the nave of the wheel. This fire was made on the summit of a mountain, and as the flame ascended, the people uttered a set form of words, with eyes and arms directed heavenward.(817) Here the fixing of a wheel on a pole and igniting it suggests that originally the fire was produced, as in the case of the need-fire, by the revolution of a wheel. The day on which the ceremony takes place (the fifteenth of June) is near midsummer; and we have seen that in Masuren fire is, or used to be, actually made on Midsummer Day by turning a wheel rapidly about an oaken pole,(818) though it is not said that the new fire so obtained is used to light a bonfire. However, we must bear in mind that in all such cases the use of a wheel may be merely a mechanical device to facilitate the operation of fire-making by increasing the friction; it need not have any symbolical significance.

(M297) Further, the influence which these fires, whether periodic or occasional, are supposed to exert on the weather and vegetation may be cited in support of the view that they are sun-charms, since the effects ascribed to them resemble those of sunshine. Thus, the French belief that in a rainy June the lighting of the midsummer bonfires will cause the rain to cease(819) appears to assume that they can disperse the dark clouds and make the sun to break out in radiant glory, drying the wet earth and dripping trees. Similarly the use of the need-fire by Swiss children on foggy days for the purpose of clearing away the mist(820) may very naturally be interpreted as a sun-charm. Again, we have seen that in the Vosges Mountains the people believe that the midsummer fires help to preserve the fruits of the earth and ensure good crops.(821) In Sweden the warmth or cold of the coming season is inferred from the direction in which the flames of the May Day bonfire are blown; if they blow to the south, it will be warm, if to the north, cold.(822) No doubt at present the direction of the flames is regarded merely as an augury of the weather, not as a mode of influencing it. But we may be pretty sure that this is one of the cases in which magic has dwindled into divination. So in the Eifel Mountains, when the smoke blows towards the corn-fields, this is an omen that the harvest will be abundant.(823) But the older view may have been not merely that the smoke and flames prognosticated, but that they actually produced an abundant harvest, the heat of the flames acting like sunshine on the corn. Perhaps it was with this view that people in the Isle of Man lit fires to windward of their fields in order that the smoke might blow over them.(824) So in South Africa, about the month of April, the Matabeles light huge fires to the windward of their gardens, “their idea being that the smoke, by passing over the crops, will assist the ripening of them.”(825) Among the Zulus also “medicine is burned on a fire placed to windward of the garden, the fumigation which the plants in consequence receive being held to improve the crop.”(826) Again, the idea of our European peasants that the corn will grow well as far as the blaze of the bonfire is visible,(827) may be interpreted as a remnant of the belief in the quickening and fertilizing power of the bonfires. The same belief, it may be argued, reappears in the notion that embers taken from the bonfires and inserted in the fields will promote the growth of the crops,(828) and it may be thought to underlie the customs of sowing flax-seed in the direction in which the flames blow,(829) of mixing the ashes of the bonfire with the seed-corn at sowing,(830) of scattering the ashes by themselves over the field to fertilize it,(831) and of incorporating a piece of the Yule log in the plough to make the seeds thrive.(832) The opinion that the flax or hemp will grow as high as the flames rise or the people leap over them(833) belongs clearly to the same class of ideas. Again, at Konz, on the banks of the Moselle, if the blazing wheel which was trundled down the hillside reached the river without being extinguished, this was hailed as a proof that the vintage would be abundant. So firmly was this belief held that the successful performance of the ceremony entitled the villagers to levy a tax upon the owners of the neighbouring vineyards.(834) Here the unextinguished wheel might be taken to represent an unclouded sun, which in turn would portend an abundant vintage. So the waggon-load of white wine which the villagers received from the vineyards round about might pass for a payment for the sunshine which they had procured for the grapes. Similarly we saw that in the Vale of Glamorgan a blazing wheel used to be trundled down hill on Midsummer Day, and that if the fire were extinguished before the wheel reached the foot of the hill, the people expected a bad harvest; whereas if the wheel kept alight all the way down and continued to blaze for a long time, the farmers looked forward to heavy crops that summer.(835) Here, again, it is natural to suppose that the rustic mind traced a direct connexion between the fire of the wheel and the fire of the sun, on which the crops are dependent.

(M298) But in popular belief the quickening and fertilizing influence of the bonfires is not limited to the vegetable world; it extends also to animals. This plainly appears from the Irish custom of driving barren cattle through the mid-summer fires,(836) from the French belief that the Yule-log steeped in water helps cows to calve,(837) from the French and Servian notion that there will be as many chickens, calves, lambs, and kids as there are sparks struck out of the Yule log,(838) from the French custom of putting the ashes of the bonfires in the fowls’ nests to make the hens lay eggs,(839) and from the German practice of mixing the ashes of the bonfires with the drink of cattle in order to make the animals thrive.(840) Further, there are clear indications that even human fecundity is supposed to be promoted by the genial heat of the fires. In Morocco the people think that childless couples can obtain offspring by leaping over the midsummer bonfire.(841) It is an Irish belief that a girl who jumps thrice over the midsummer bonfire will soon marry and become the mother of many children;(842) in Flanders women leap over the Midsummer fires to ensure an easy delivery;(843) and in various parts of France they think that if a girl dances round nine fires she will be sure to marry within the year.(844) On the other hand, in Lechrain people say that if a young man and woman, leaping over the midsummer fire together, escape unsmirched, the young woman will not become a mother within twelve months:(845) the flames have not touched and fertilized her. In parts of Switzerland and France the lighting of the Yule log is accompanied by a prayer that the women may bear children, the she-goats bring forth kids, and the ewes drop lambs.(846) The rule observed in some places that the bonfires should be kindled by the person who was last married(847) seems to belong to the same class of ideas, whether it be that such a person is supposed to receive from, or to impart to, the fire a generative and fertilizing influence. The common practice of lovers leaping over the fires hand in hand may very well have originated in a notion that thereby their marriage would be blessed with offspring; and the like motive would explain the custom which obliges couples married within the year to dance to the light of torches.(848) And the scenes of profligacy which appear to have marked the midsummer celebration among the Esthonians,(849) as they once marked the celebration of May Day among ourselves, may have sprung, not from the mere license of holiday-makers, but from a crude notion that such orgies were justified, if not required, by some mysterious bond which linked the life of man to the courses of the heavens at this turning-point of the year.

(M299) At the festivals which we are considering the custom of kindling bonfires is commonly associated with a custom of carrying lighted torches about the fields, the orchards, the pastures, the flocks and the herds; and we can hardly doubt that the two customs are only two different ways of attaining the same object, namely, the benefits which are believed to flow from the fire, whether it be stationary or portable. Accordingly if we accept the solar theory of the bonfires, we seem bound to apply it also to the torches; we must suppose that the practice of marching or running with blazing torches about the country is simply a means of diffusing far and wide the genial influence of the sunshine, of which these flickering flames are a feeble imitation. In favour of this view it may be said that sometimes the torches are carried about the fields for the express purpose of fertilizing them,(850) and for the same purpose live coals from the bonfires are sometimes placed in the fields “to prevent blight.”(851) On the Eve of Twelfth Day in Normandy men, women, and children run wildly through the fields and orchards with lighted torches, which they wave about the branches and dash against the trunks of the fruit-trees for the sake of burning the moss and driving away the moles and field mice. “They believe that the ceremony fulfils the double object of exorcizing the vermin whose multiplication would be a real calamity, and of imparting fecundity to the trees, the fields, and even the cattle”; and they imagine that the more the ceremony is prolonged, the greater will be the crop of fruit next autumn.(852) In Bohemia they say that the corn will grow as high as they fling the blazing besoms into the air.(853) Nor are such notions confined to Europe. In Corea, a few days before the New Year festival, the eunuchs of the palace swing burning torches, chanting invocations the while, and this is supposed to ensure bountiful crops for the next season.(854) The custom of trundling a burning wheel over the fields, which used to be observed in Poitou for the express purpose of fertilizing them,(855) may be thought to embody the same idea in a still more graphic form; since in this way the mock-sun itself, not merely its light and heat represented by torches, is made actually to pass over the ground which is to receive its quickening and kindly influence. Once more, the custom of carrying lighted brands round cattle(856) is plainly equivalent to driving the animals through the bonfire; and if the bonfire is a sun-charm, the torches must be so also.

§ 3. The Purificatory Theory of the Fire-festivals.

(M300) Thus far we have considered what may be said for the theory that at the European fire-festivals the fire is kindled as a charm to ensure an abundant supply of sunshine for man and beast, for corn and fruits. It remains to consider what may be said against this theory and in favour of the view that in these rites fire is employed not as a creative but as a cleansing agent, which purifies men, animals, and plants by burning up and consuming the noxious elements, whether material or spiritual, which menace all living things with disease and death.

(M301) First, then, it is to be observed that the people who practise the fire-customs appear never to allege the solar theory in explanation of them, while on the contrary they do frequently and emphatically put forward the purificatory theory. This is a strong argument in favour of the purificatory and against the solar theory; for the popular explanation of a popular custom is never to be rejected except for grave cause. And in the present case there seems to be no adequate reason for rejecting it. The conception of fire as a destructive agent, which can be turned to account for the consumption of evil things, is so simple and obvious that it could hardly escape the minds even of the rude peasantry with whom these festivals originated. On the other hand the conception of fire as an emanation of the sun, or at all events as linked to it by a bond of physical sympathy, is far less simple and obvious; and though the use of fire as a charm to produce sunshine appears to be undeniable,(857) nevertheless in attempting to explain popular customs we should never have recourse to a more recondite idea when a simpler one lies to hand and is supported by the explicit testimony of the people themselves. Now in the case of the fire-festivals the destructive aspect of fire is one upon which the people dwell again and again; and it is highly significant that the great evil against which the fire is directed appears to be witchcraft. Again and again we are told that the fires are intended to burn or repel the witches;(858) and the intention is sometimes graphically expressed by burning an effigy of a witch in the fire.(859) Hence, when we remember the great hold which the dread of witchcraft has had on the popular European mind in all ages, we may suspect that the primary intention of all these fire-festivals was simply to destroy or at all events get rid of the witches, who were regarded as the causes of nearly all the misfortunes and calamities that befall men, their cattle, and their crops.(860)

(M302) This suspicion is confirmed when we examine the evils for which the bonfires and torches were supposed to provide a remedy. Foremost, perhaps, among these evils we may reckon the diseases of cattle; and of all the ills that witches are believed to work there is probably none which is so constantly insisted on as the harm they do to the herds, particularly by stealing the milk from the cows.(861) Now it is significant that the need-fire, which may perhaps be regarded as the parent of the periodic fire-festivals, is kindled above all as a remedy for a murrain or other disease of cattle; and the circumstance suggests, what on general grounds seems probable, that the custom of kindling the need-fire goes back to a time when the ancestors of the European peoples subsisted chiefly on the products of their herds, and when agriculture as yet played a subordinate part in their lives. Witches and wolves are the two great foes still dreaded by the herdsman in many parts of Europe;(862) and we need not wonder that he should resort to fire as a powerful means of banning them both. Among Slavonic peoples it appears that the foes whom the need-fire is designed to combat are not so much living witches as vampyres and other evil spirits,(863) and the ceremony, as we saw, aims rather at repelling these baleful beings than at actually consuming them in the flames. But for our present purpose these distinctions are immaterial. The important thing to observe is that among the Slavs the need-fire, which is probably the original of all the ceremonial fires now under consideration, is not a sun-charm, but clearly and unmistakably nothing but a means of protecting man and beast against the attacks of maleficent creatures, whom the peasant thinks to burn or scare by the heat of the fire, just as he might burn or scare wild animals.

(M303) Again, the bonfires are often supposed to protect the fields against hail(864) and the homestead against thunder and lightning.(865) But both hail and thunderstorms are frequently thought to be caused by witches;(866) hence the fire which bans the witches necessarily serves at the same time as a talisman against hail, thunder, and lightning. Further, brands taken from the bonfires are commonly kept in the houses to guard them against conflagration;(867) and though this may perhaps be done on the principle of homoeopathic magic, one fire being thought to act as a preventive of another, it is also possible that the intention may be to keep witch-incendiaries at bay. Again, people leap over the bonfires as a preventive of colic,(868) and look at the flames steadily in order to preserve their eyes in good health;(869) and both colic and sore eyes are in Germany, and probably elsewhere, set down to the machinations of witches.(870) Once more, to leap over the Midsummer fires or to circumambulate them is thought to prevent a person from feeling pains in his back at reaping;(871) and in Germany such pains are called “witch-shots” and ascribed to witchcraft.(872)

(M304) But if the bonfires and torches of the fire-festivals are to be regarded primarily as weapons directed against witches and wizards, it becomes probable that the same explanation applies not only to the flaming discs which are hurled into the air, but also to the burning wheels which are rolled down hill on these occasions; discs and wheels, we may suppose, are alike intended to burn the witches who hover invisible in the air or haunt unseen the fields, the orchards, and the vineyards on the hillside.(873) Certainly witches are constantly thought to ride through the air on broomsticks or other equally convenient vehicles; and if they do so, how can you get at them so effectually as by hurling lighted missiles, whether discs, torches, or besoms, after them as they flit past overhead in the gloom? The South Slavonian peasant believes that witches ride in the dark hail-clouds; so he shoots at the clouds to bring down the hags, while he curses them, saying, “Curse, curse Herodias, thy mother is a heathen, damned of God and fettered through the Redeemer’s blood.” Also he brings out a pot of glowing charcoal on which he has thrown holy oil, laurel leaves, and wormwood to make a smoke. The fumes are supposed to ascend to the clouds and stupefy the witches, so that they tumble down to earth. And in order that they may not fall soft, but may hurt themselves very much, the yokel hastily brings out a chair and tilts it bottom up so that the witch in falling may break her legs on the legs of the chair. Worse than that, he cruelly lays scythes, bill-hooks and other formidable weapons edge upwards so as to cut and mangle the poor wretches when they drop plump upon them from the clouds.(874)

(M305) On this view the fertility supposed to follow the application of fire in the form of bonfires, torches, discs, rolling wheels, and so forth, is not conceived as resulting directly from an increase of solar heat which the fire has magically generated; it is merely an indirect result obtained by freeing the reproductive powers of plants and animals from the fatal obstruction of witchcraft. And what is true of the reproduction of plants and animals may hold good also of the fertility of the human sexes. We have seen that the bonfires are supposed to promote marriage and to procure offspring for childless couples. This happy effect need not flow directly from any quickening or fertilizing energy in the fire; it may follow indirectly from the power of the fire to remove those obstacles which the spells of witches and wizards notoriously present to the union of man and wife.(875)

(M306) On the whole, then, the theory of the purificatory virtue of the ceremonial fires appears more probable and more in accordance with the evidence than the opposing theory of their connexion with the sun. But Europe is not the only part of the world where ceremonies of this sort have been performed; elsewhere the passage through the flames or smoke or over the glowing embers of a bonfire, which is the central feature of most of the rites, has been employed as a cure or a preventive of various ills. We have seen that the midsummer ritual of fire in Morocco is practically identical with that of our European peasantry; and customs more or less similar have been observed by many races in various parts of the world. A consideration of some of them may help us to decide between the conflicting claims of the two rival theories, which explain the ceremonies as sun-charms or purifications respectively.

FOOTNOTES

M1 The priest of Aricia and the Golden Bough.

_ 1 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 44.

M2 What was the Golden Bough? M3 Sacred kings and priests forbidden to touch the ground with their feet.

2 H. H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London, 1875-1876), ii. 142; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l’Amérique-Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859), iii. 29.

_ 3 Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l’origine des Indiens_, publié par D. Charnay (Paris, 1903), p. 108; J. de Acosta, _The Natural and Moral History of the Indies_, bk. vii. chap. 22, vol. ii. p. 505 of E. Grimston’s translation, edited by (Sir) Clements R. Markham (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880).

_ 4 Memorials of the Empire of Japon in the XVI. and XVII. Centuries_, edited by T. Rundall (Hakluyt Society, London, 1850), pp. 14, 141; B. Varenius, _Descriptio regni Japoniae et Siam_ (Cambridge, 1673), p. 11; Caron, “Account of Japan,” in John Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_ (London, 1808-1814), vii. 613; Kaempfer, “History of Japan,” in _id._ vii. 716.

5 W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, Second Edition (London, 1832-1836), iii. 102 _sq._; Captain James Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_ (London, 1799), p. 329.

6 A. Bastian, _Der Mensch in der Geschichte_ (Leipsic, 1860), iii. 81.

7 Athenaeus, xii. 8, p. 514 c.

_ 8 The Voiages and Travels of John Struys_ (London, 1684), p. 30.

9 Rev. J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) pp. 62, 67; _id._, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 154 _sq._ Compare L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), p. 445 note: “Before horses had been introduced into Uganda the king and his mother never walked, but always went about perched astride the shoulders of a slave—a most ludicrous sight. In this way they often travelled hundreds of miles.” The use both of horses and of chariots by royal personages may often have been intended to prevent their sacred feet from touching the ground.

10 E. Torday et T. A. Joyce, _Les Bushongo_ (Brussels, 1910), p. 61.

11 Northcote W. Thomas, _Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking Peoples of Nigeria_ (London, 1913), i. 57 _sq._

_ 12 Satapatha Brâhmana_, translated by Julius Eggeling, Part iii. (Oxford, 1894) pp. 81, 91, 92, 102, 128 _sq._ (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xli.).

M4 Certain persons on certain occasions forbidden to touch the ground with their feet.

13 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_ (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 172.

14 Letter of Missionary Krick, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xxvi. (1854) pp. 86-88.

15 Pechuel-Loesche, “Indiscretes aus Loango,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, x. (1878) pp. 29 _sq._

16 Edgar Thurston, _Ethnographic Notes in Southern India_ (Madras, 1906), p. 70.

17 M. C. Schadee, “Het familieleven en familierecht der Dajaks van Landak en Tajan,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_, lxiii. (1910) p. 433.

18 James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), p. 382; _Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner_ (London, 1830), p. 123. As to the taboos to which warriors are subject see _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 157 _sqq._

19 Etienne Aymonier, _Notes sur le Laos_ (Saigon, 1885), p. 26.

_ 20 Die gestriegelte Rockenphilosophie_5 (Chemnitz, 1759), pp. 586 _sqq._

M5 Sacred or tabooed persons apparently thought to be charged with a mysterious virtue like a fluid, which will run to waste or explode if it touches the ground. M6 Things as well as persons can be charged with the mysterious quality of holiness or taboo; and when so charged they must be kept from contact with the ground.

21 Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 364, 370 _sqq._, 629; _id._, _Across Australia_ (London, 1912), ii. 280, 285 _sq._

M7 Festival of the wild mango tree in British New Guinea. M8 The wild mango tree not allowed to touch the ground. M9 Final disposition of the wild mango tree.

22 C. G. Seligmann, M.D., _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_ (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 589-599.

M10 The ceremony apparently intended to fertilize the mango trees. M11 Sacred objects of various sorts not allowed to touch the ground.

23 George Brown, D.D., _Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London, 1910), pp. 60 _sq._, 64. As to the Duk-duk society, see below, vol. ii. pp. 246 _sq._

24 John Keast Lord, _The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British Columbia_ (London, 1866), ii. 237.

25 Edwin James, _Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains_ (London, 1823), ii. 47; Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” _Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1884), p. 226.

26 James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), pp. 161-163.

27 (Sir) Henry Babington Smith, in _Folk-lore_, v. (1894) p. 340.

28 Miss C. F. Gordon Cumming, _In the Hebrides_ (London, 1883), p. 211.

29 W. Gregor, “Quelques coutumes du Nord-est du Comté d’Aberdeen,” _Revue des Traditions populaires_, iii. (1888) p. 485 B. Compare _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 158 _sq._

M12 Sacred food not allowed to touch the earth.

30 R. Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and London, 1878), i. 450.

31 E. Gerard, _The Land beyond the Forest_ (Edinburgh and London, 1888), ii. 7.

32 F. Grabowsky, “Der Distrikt Dusson Timor in Südost-Borneo und seine Bewohner,” _Das Ausland_, 1884, No. 24, p. 470.

_ 33 Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition made by Charles F. Hall_, edited by Prof. J. E. Nourse (Washington, 1879), pp. 110 _sq._

34 See _Taboo and Perils of the Soul_, pp. 207 _sqq._

M13 Magical implements and remedies thought to lose their virtue by contact with the ground.

35 Walter E. Roth, _Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines_ (Brisbane and London, 1897), p. 156, § 265. The custom of killing a man by pointing a bone or stick at him, while the sorcerer utters appropriate curses, is common among the tribes of Central Australia; but amongst them there seems to be no objection to place the bone or stick on the ground; on the contrary, an Arunta wizard inserts the bone or stick in the ground while he invokes death and destruction on his enemy. See Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 534 _sqq._; _id._, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1904), pp. 455 _sqq._

36 Hugh Low, _Sarawak_ (London, 1848), pp. 145 _sq._

37 Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_, xxviii. 33 _sq._

38 Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 184. As to the superstitions attaching to stone arrow-heads and axeheads (celts), commonly known as “thunderbolts,” in the British Islands, see W. W. Skeat, “Snake-stones and Stone Thunderbolts,” _Folk-lore_, xxiii. (1912) pp. 60 _sqq._; and as to such superstitions in general, see Chr. Blinkenberg, _The Thunderweapon in Religion and Folklore_ (Cambridge, 1911).

M14 Serpents’ eggs or Snake Stones.

39 Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_, xxix. 52-54.

40 W. Borlase, _Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the County of Cornwall_ (London, 1769), pp. 142 _sq._; J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London, 1882-1883), i. 322; J. G. Dalyell, _Darker Superstitions of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 140 _sq._; Daniel Wilson, _The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1851), pp. 303 _sqq._; Lieut.-Col. Forbes Leslie, _The Early Races of Scotland and their Monuments_ (Edinburgh, 1866), i. 75 _sqq._; J. G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 84-88; Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), pp. 170 _sq._; J. C. Davies, _Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 76. Compare W. W. Skeat, “Snakestones and Stone Thunderbolts,” _Folk-lore_, xxiii. (1912) pp. 45 _sqq._ The superstition is described as follows by Edward Lhwyd in a letter quoted by W. Borlase (_op. cit._ p. 142): “In most parts of Wales, and throughout all Scotland, and in Cornwall, we find it a common opinion of the vulgar, that about Midsummer-Eve (though in the time they do not all agree) it is usual for snakes to meet in companies; and that, by joining heads together, and hissing, a kind of bubble is formed, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on till it passes quite through the body, and then it immediately hardens, and resembles a glass-ring, which whoever finds (as some old women and children are persuaded) shall prosper in all his undertakings. The rings thus generated, are called _Gleineu Nadroeth_; in English, Snake-stones. They are small glass amulets, commonly about half as wide as our finger-rings, but much thicker, of a green colour usually, though sometimes blue, and waved with red and white.”

M15 Medicinal plants, water, etc., not allowed to touch the earth.

41 Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_, xxiv. 12 and 68, xxv. 171.

42 Marcellus, _De medicamentis_, ed. G. Helmreich (Leipsic, 1889), preface, p. i.: “_Nec solum veteres medicinae artis auctores Latino dumtaxat sermone perscriptos ... lectione scrutatus sum, sed etiam ab agrestibus et plebeis remedia fortuita atque simplicia, quae experimentis probaverant didici._” As to Marcellus and his work, see Jacob Grimm, “Ueber Marcellus Burdigalensis,” _Abhandlungen der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaft zu Berlin_, 1847, pp. 429-460; _id._, “Ueber die Marcellischen Formeln,” _ibid._, 1855, pp. 50-68.

43 Marcellus, _De medicamentis_, i. 68.

44 Marcellus, _op. cit._ i. 76.

45 Marcellus, _op. cit._ xxviii. 28 and 71, xxix. 35.

46 Marcellus, _op. cit._ xxix. 51.

47 Edward Westermarck, “Midsummer Customs in Morocco,” _Folk-lore_, xvi. (1905) pp. 32 _sq._; _id._, _Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture, certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco_ (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 75 _sq._

48 E. Westermarck, “Midsummer Customs in Morocco,” _Folk-lore_, xvi. (1905) p. 35; _id._, _Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture, certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco_ (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 88 _sq._

49 Matthäus Prätorius, _Deliciae Prussicae_, herausgegeben von Dr. W. Pierson (Berlin, 1871), p. 54.

M16 Sacred persons not allowed to see the sun.

50 H. H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London, 1875-1876), ii. 142; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l’Amérique Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859), iii. 29.

51 Kaempfer, “History of Japan,” in J. Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, vii. 717; Caron, “Account of Japan,” _ibid._ vii. 613; B. Varenius, _Descriptio regni Japoniae et Siam_ (Cambridge, 1673), p. 11: “_Radiis solis caput nunquam illustrabatur: in apertum aërem non procedebat._”

52 A. de Herrera, _General History of the vast Continent and Islands of America_, trans. by Capt. John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), v. 88.

53 H. Ternaux-Compans, _Essai sur l’ancien Cundinamarca_ (Paris, N.D.), p. 56; Theodor Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, iv. (Leipsic, 1864) p. 359.

54 Alonzo de Zurita, “Rapport sur les differentes classes de chefs de la Nouvelle-Espagne,” p. 30, in H. Ternaux-Compans’s _Voyages, Relations et Mémoires originaux, pour servir à l’Histoire de la Découverte de l’Amérique_ (Paris, 1840); Th. Waitz, _l.c._; A. Bastian, _Die Culturländer des alten Amerika_ (Berlin, 1878), ii. 204.

55 Cieza de Leon, _Second Part of the Chronicle of Peru_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1883), p. 18.

_ 56 The Grihya Sûtras_, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part ii. (Oxford, 1892) pp. 165, 275 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxx.). Umbrellas appear to have been sometimes used in ritual for the purpose of preventing the sunlight from falling on sacred persons or things. See W. Caland, _Altindisches Zauberritual_ (Amsterdam, 1900), p. 110 note 12. At an Athenian festival called Scira the priestess of Athena, the priest of Poseidon, and the priest of the Sun walked from the Acropolis under the shade of a huge white umbrella which was borne over their heads by the Eteobutads. See Harpocration and Suidas, _s.v._ Σκίρον; Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Eccles._ 18.

M17 Tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun. Certain persons forbidden to see fire.

57 Mrs. Bishop, _Korea and her Neighbours_ (London, 1898), ii. 248.

58 J. L. van Hasselt, “Eenige aanteekeningen aangaande de bewoners der N. Westkust van Nieuw Guinea,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xxxi. (1886) p. 587.

59 A. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, v. (Jena, 1869) p. 366.

60 W. M. Gabb, “On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica,” _Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia_, xiv. (Philadelphia, 1876), p. 510.

61 L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), p. 194.

62 H. H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, i. 553. See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, p. 182.

M18 The story of Prince Sunless.

63 L. Heuzey, _Le Mont Olympe et l’Acarnanie_ (Paris, 1860), pp. 458 _sq._

M19 Girls at puberty forbidden to touch the ground and to see the sun. Seclusion of girls at puberty among the A-Kamba. Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Baganda.

64 Pechuel-Loesche, “Indiscretes aus Loango,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, x. (1878) p. 23.

65 Rev. J. Macdonald, “Manners, Customs, Superstitions, and Religions of South African Tribes,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xx. (1891) p. 118.

66 Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), p. 209. The prohibition to drink milk under such circumstances is also mentioned, though without the reason for it, by L. Alberti (_De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika_, Amsterdam, 1810, p. 79), George Thompson (_Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa_, London, 1827, ii. 354 _sq._), and Mr. Warner (in Col. Maclean’s _Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs_, Cape Town, 1866, p. 98). As to the reason for the prohibition, see below, p. 80.

67 C. W. Hobley, _Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes_ (Cambridge, 1910), p. 65.

68 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 80. As to the interpretation which the Baganda put on the act of jumping or stepping over a woman, see _id._, pp. 48, 357 note 1. Apparently some of the Lower Congo people interpret the act similarly. See J. H. Weeks, “Notes on some Customs of the Lower Congo People,” _Folk-lore_, xix. (1908) p. 431. Among the Baganda the separation of children from their parents took place after weaning; girls usually went to live either with an elder married brother or (if there was none such) with one of their father’s brothers; boys in like manner went to live with one of their father’s brothers. See J. Roscoe, _op. cit._ p. 74. As to the prohibition to touch food with the hands, see _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 138 _sqq._, 146 _sqq._, etc.

69 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 80.

70 De la Loubère, _Du royaume de Siam_ (Amsterdam, 1691), i. 203. In Travancore it is believed that women at puberty and after childbirth are peculiarly liable to be attacked by demons. See S. Mateer, _The Land of Charity_ (London, 1871), p. 208.

71 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 80.

M20 Seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes of the Tanganyika plateau.

72 C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern Nigeria_ (London, 1911), pp. 158-160.

M21 Seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes of British Central Africa.

73 R. Sutherland Rattray, _Some Folk-lore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja_ (London, 1907), pp. 102-105.

M22 Abstinence from salt associated with a rule of chastity in many tribes.

74 Rev. H. Cole, “Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) pp. 309 _sq._

75 R. Sutherland Rattray, _op. cit._ pp. 191 _sq._

_ 76 The Grihya Sûtras_, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part i. p. 357,