CHAPTER XIII. FAREWELL TO NEMI.

(M234) We are at the end of our enquiry, but as often happens in the search after truth, if we have answered one question, we have raised many more; if we have followed one track home, we have had to pass by others that opened off it and led, or seemed to lead, to far other goals than the sacred grove at Nemi. Some of these paths we have followed a little way; others, if fortune should be kind, the writer and the reader may one day pursue together. For the present we have journeyed far enough together, and it is time to part. Yet before we do so, we may well ask ourselves whether there is not some more general conclusion, some lesson, if possible, of hope and encouragement, to be drawn from the melancholy record of human error and folly which has engaged our attention in these volumes.

(M235) If then we consider, on the one hand, the essential similarity of man’s chief wants everywhere and at all times, and on the other hand, the wide difference between the means he has adopted to satisfy them in different ages, we shall perhaps be disposed to conclude that the movement of the higher thought, so far as we can trace it, has on the whole been from magic through religion to science. In magic man depends on his own strength to meet the difficulties and dangers that beset him on every side. He believes in a certain established order of nature on which he can surely count, and which he can manipulate for his own ends. When he discovers his mistake, when he recognizes sadly that both the order of nature which he had assumed and the control which he had believed himself to exercise over it were purely imaginary, he ceases to rely on his own intelligence and his own unaided efforts, and throws himself humbly on the mercy of certain great invisible beings behind the veil of nature, to whom he now ascribes all those far-reaching powers which he once arrogated to himself. Thus in the acuter minds magic is gradually superseded by religion, which explains the succession of natural phenomena as regulated by the will, the passion, or the caprice of spiritual beings like man in kind, though vastly superior to him in power.

(M236) But as time goes on this explanation in its turn proves to be unsatisfactory. For it assumes that the succession of natural events is not determined by immutable laws, but is to some extent variable and irregular, and this assumption is not borne out by closer observation. On the contrary, the more we scrutinize that succession the more we are struck by the rigid uniformity, the punctual precision with which, wherever we can follow them, the operations of nature are carried on. Every great advance in knowledge has extended the sphere of order and correspondingly restricted the sphere of apparent disorder in the world, till now we are ready to anticipate that even in regions where chance and confusion appear still to reign, a fuller knowledge would everywhere reduce the seeming chaos to cosmos. Thus the keener minds, still pressing forward to a deeper solution of the mysteries of the universe, come to reject the religious theory of nature as inadequate, and to revert in a measure to the older standpoint of magic by postulating explicitly, what in magic had only been implicitly assumed, to wit, an inflexible regularity in the order of natural events, which, if carefully observed, enables us to foresee their course with certainty and to act accordingly. In short, religion, regarded as an explanation of nature, is displaced by science.

(M237) But while science has this much in common with magic that both rest on a faith in order as the underlying principle of all things, readers of this work will hardly need to be reminded that the order presupposed by magic differs widely from that which forms the basis of science. The difference flows naturally from the different modes in which the two orders have been reached. For whereas the order on which magic reckons is merely an extension, by false analogy, of the order in which ideas present themselves to our minds, the order laid down by science is derived from patient and exact observation of the phenomena themselves. The abundance, the solidity, and the splendour of the results already achieved by science are well fitted to inspire us with a cheerful confidence in the soundness of its method. Here at last, after groping about in the dark for countless ages, man has hit upon a clue to the labyrinth, a golden key that opens many locks in the treasury of nature. It is probably not too much to say that the hope of progress—moral and intellectual as well as material—in the future is bound up with the fortunes of science, and that every obstacle placed in the way of scientific discovery is a wrong to humanity.

(M238) Yet the history of thought should warn us against concluding that because the scientific theory of the world is the best that has yet been formulated, it is necessarily complete and final. We must remember that at bottom the generalizations of science or, in common parlance, the laws of nature are merely hypotheses devised to explain that ever-shifting phantasmagoria of thought which we dignify with the high-sounding names of the world and the universe. In the last analysis magic, religion, and science are nothing but theories of thought; and as science has supplanted its predecessors, so it may hereafter be itself superseded by some more perfect hypothesis, perhaps by some totally different way of looking at the phenomena—of registering the shadows on the screen—of which we in this generation can form no idea. The advance of knowledge is an infinite progression towards a goal that for ever recedes. We need not murmur at the endless pursuit:—

“_Fatti non foste a viver come bruti_ _Ma per seguir virtute e conoscenza._”

(M239) Great things will come of that pursuit, though we may not enjoy them. Brighter stars will rise on some voyager of the future—some great Ulysses of the realms of thought—than shine on us. The dreams of magic may one day be the waking realities of science. But a dark shadow lies athwart the far end of this fair prospect. For however vast the increase of knowledge and of power which the future may have in store for man, he can scarcely hope to stay the sweep of those great forces which seem to be making silently but relentlessly for the destruction of all this starry universe in which our earth swims as a speck or mote. In the ages to come man may be able to predict, perhaps even to control, the wayward courses of the winds and clouds, but hardly will his puny hands have strength to speed afresh our slackening planet in its orbit or rekindle the dying fire of the sun.(762) Yet the philosopher who trembles at the idea of such distant catastrophes may console himself by reflecting that these gloomy apprehensions, like the earth and the sun themselves, are only parts of that unsubstantial world which thought has conjured up out of the void, and that the phantoms which the subtle enchantress has evoked to-day she may ban to-morrow. They too, like so much that to common eyes seems solid, may melt into air, into thin air.(763)

(M240) Without dipping so far into the future, we may illustrate the course which thought has hitherto run by likening it to a web woven of three different threads—the black thread of magic, the red thread of religion, and the white thread of science, if under science we may include those simple truths, drawn from observation of nature, of which men in all ages have possessed a store. Could we then survey the web of thought from the beginning, we should probably perceive it to be at first a chequer of black and white, a patchwork of true and false notions, hardly tinged as yet by the red thread of religion. But carry your eye further along the fabric and you will remark that, while the black and white chequer still runs through it, there rests on the middle portion of the web, where religion has entered most deeply into its texture, a dark crimson stain, which shades off insensibly into a lighter tint as the white thread of science is woven more and more into the tissue. To a web thus chequered and stained, thus shot with threads of diverse hues, but gradually changing colour the farther it is unrolled, the state of modern thought, with all its divergent aims and conflicting tendencies, may be compared. Will the great movement which for centuries has been slowly altering the complexion of thought be continued in the near future? or will a reaction set in which may arrest progress and even undo much that has been done? To keep up our parable, what will be the colour of the web which the Fates are now weaving on the humming loom of time? will it be white or red? We cannot tell. A faint glimmering light illumines the backward portion of the web. Clouds and thick darkness hide the other end.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

(M241) Our long voyage of discovery is over and our bark has drooped her weary sails in port at last. Once more we take the road to Nemi. It is evening, and as we climb the long slope of the Appian Way up to the Alban Hills, we look back and see the sky aflame with sunset, its golden glory resting like the aureole of a dying saint over Rome and touching with a crest of fire the dome of St. Peter’s. The sight once seen can never be forgotten, but we turn from it and pursue our way darkling along the mountain side, till we come to Nemi and look down on the lake in its deep hollow, now fast disappearing in the evening shadows. The place has changed but little since Diana received the homage of her worshippers in the sacred grove. The temple of the sylvan goddess, indeed, has vanished and the King of the Wood no longer stands sentinel over the Golden Bough. But Nemi’s woods are still green, and as the sunset fades above them in the west, there comes to us, borne on the swell of the wind, the sound of the church bells of Ariccia ringing the Angelus. _Ave Maria!_ Sweet and solemn they chime out from the distant town and die lingeringly away across the wide Campagnan marshes. _Le roi est mort, vive le roi! Ave Maria!_

NOTES.

I. Snake Stones.(764)

(M242) The belief of the Scottish Highlanders as to the so-called Snake Stones has been recorded as follows by a good authority at the end of the nineteenth century:—

“A product called _clach-nathrach_, serpent stone, is found on the root of the long ling. It is of steel-grey colour, has the consistency of soft putty when new and of hard putty when old, and is as light as pumice-stone, which it resembles. It is of a globular form, and from one to three inches in diameter. There is a circular hole, about a quarter of an inch in width, through the centre. This substance is said to be produced by the serpent emitting spume round the root of a twig of heather. The _clach-nathrach_ is greatly prized by the people, who transmit it as a talisman to their descendants.”(765)

II. The Transformation of Witches Into Cats.

(M243) The European belief that witches can turn themselves into cats, and that any wounds inflicted on the witch-cat will afterwards be found on the body of the witch herself,(766) has its exact parallel among the Oraons or Uraons, a primitive hill tribe of Bengal. The following is the account given of the Oraon belief by a Jesuit missionary, who laboured for years among these savages and was intimately acquainted with their superstitions:—

“_Chordewa_ is a witch rather than a _bhut_ [demon]. It is believed that some women have the power to change their soul into a black cat, who then goes about in the houses where there are sick people. Such a cat has a peculiar way of mewing quite different from its brethren, and is easily recognised. It steals quietly into the house, licks the lips of the sick man and eats of the food that has been prepared for him. The sick man soon gets worse and dies. They say it is very difficult to catch the cat, as it has all the nimbleness of its nature and the cleverness of a _bhut_. However, they sometimes succeed, and then something wonderful happens. The woman out of whom the cat has come remains insensible, as it were in a state of temporary death, until the cat re-enters her body. Any wound inflicted on the cat will be inflicted on her; if they cut its ears or break its legs or put out its eyes the woman will suffer the same mutilation. The Uraons say that formerly they used to burn any woman that was suspected to be a _Chordewa_.”(767)

III. African Balders.

(M244) In various parts of Africa stories are told of men who could only be killed, like Balder, by the stroke of an apparently insignificant weapon; and some at least of these men were not mythical beings but real men of flesh and blood who lived not long ago and whose memory is still comparatively fresh among their people. The Wadoe of German East Africa tell such a story of a great sorcerer, whom they now worship as a dispenser of sunshine and rain. The legend and the worship are reported as follows by a native African traveller:—

(M245) “If drought sets in, all the chiefs meet in council and resolve: ‘This year we have had nothing but sunshine; when we plant, the fruits will not ripen; therefore we must betake ourselves to our spirits of the dead (_mizimu_).’ Then they take some woollen stuff dyed blue and a red cloth, and set out together on the way and go to the district Nguu, where their principal ghost (_mzimu_) resides, in order to lay the matter before him. The ghost dwells in a very spacious cave. On their coming the chiefs greet him. His answer consists in a humming noise, which sounds like the patter of rain. If one among them is a bad man, the ghost says to them, ‘There is come with you in the caravan a rascal who wears such and such clothes.’ If such a man there is, he is driven away. Now they tell the ghost all that they wish to say, to wit: ‘This year thou hast given us much sunshine; the fruits in the fields do not grow tall, everywhere there is sickness, therefore we beg thee, give us rain.’ Thereupon the ghost hums a second time, and all are glad, because he has answered them. But if the ghost is angry, he does not answer but holds his peace. If he has made them glad and given an answer, much rain will fall; otherwise they return as they went in sunshine.

(M246) “Originally this ghost was a man, a village elder (_jumbe_) of Ukami. He was a great sorcerer. One day people wished to conquer him, but they could do him no harm, for neither lead nor sword nor arrow could pierce his body. But he lived at strife with his wife. She said to his enemies, ‘If you would kill my husband, I will tell you how it can be done.’ They asked her, ‘How can it be done?’ She answered, ‘My husband is a great sorcerer; you all know that.’ They answered, ‘That is true.’ Then she said further, ‘If you would kill him so that he dies on the spot, seek a stalk of a gourd and smite him with it; then he will die at once, for that has always been to him a forbidden thing.’(768) They sought the stalk of a gourd, and when they smote him with it, he died at once without so much as setting one foot from the spot. But of him and his departure there was nothing more to be seen, for suddenly a great storm blew, and no man knew whither he had gone. The storm is said to have carried him to that cave which is still there to this day. After some days people saw in the cave his weapons, clothes, and turban lying, and they brought word to the folk in the town, ‘We have seen the clothes of the elder in the cave, but of himself we have perceived nothing.’ The folk went thither to look about, and they found that it was so. So the news of this ghost spread, all the more because people had seen the marvel that a man died and nobody knew where he had gone. The wonderful thing in this wood is that the spirits dwell in the midst of the wood and that everywhere a bright white sand lies on the ground, as if people had gone thither for the purpose of keeping everything clean. On many days they hear a drumming and shouts of joy in this wood, as if a marriage feast were being held there. That is the report about the ghost of Kolelo.(769) All village elders, who dwell in the interior, see in this ghost the greatest ghost of all. All the chiefs (_mwene_) and headmen (_pazi_) and the village elders (_jumben_) of the clan Kingaru(770) respect that ghost.”(771)

(M247) Miss Alice Werner, who kindly called my attention to this and the following cases of African Balders, tells me that this worshipful ghost in the cave appears to have been in his time a real man. Again, she was assured by some natives that “Chikumbu, a Yao chief, who at one time gave the Administration some trouble, was invulnerable by shot or steel; the only thing that could kill him—since he had not been fortified against it by the proper medicine—was a sharp splinter of bamboo. This reminds one of Balder and the mistletoe.”(772) Again, a Nyanja chief named Chibisa, who was a great man in this part of Africa when Livingstone travelled in it,(773) “stood firm upon his ant-heap, while his men fell round him, shouting his war-song, until one who knew the secret of a sand-bullet brought him down.”(774)

(M248) Once more the Swahili tell a story of an African Samson named Liongo who lived in Shanga, while it was a flourishing city. By reason of his great strength he oppressed the people exceedingly, and they sought to kill him, but all in vain. At last they bribed his nephew, saying, “Go and ask your father what it is that will kill him. When you know, come and tell us, and when he is dead we will give you the kingdom.” So the treacherous nephew went to his uncle and asked him, “Father, what is it that can kill you?” And his uncle said, “A copper needle. If any one stabs me in the navel, I die.” So the nephew went to the town and said to the people, “It is a copper needle that will kill him.” And they gave him a needle, and he went back to his uncle; and while his uncle slept the wicked nephew stabbed him with the needle in the navel. So he died, and they buried him, and his grave is to be seen at Ozi to this day. But they seized the nephew and killed him; they did not give the kingdom to that bad young man.(775)

(M249) When we compare the story of Balder with these African stories, the heroes of which were probably all real men, and when further we remember the similar tale told of the Persian hero Isfendiyar, who may well have been an historical personage,(776) we are confirmed in the suspicion that Balder himself may have been a real man, admired and beloved in his lifetime and deified after his death, like the African sorcerer, who is now worshipped in a cave and bestows rain or sunshine on his votaries. On the whole I incline to regard this solution of the Balder problem as more probable than the one I have advocated in the text, namely that Balder was a mythical personification of a mistletoe-bearing oak. The facts which seem to incline the balance to the side of Euhemerism reached me as my book was going to press and too late to be embodied in their proper place in the volumes. The acceptance of this hypothesis would not necessarily break the analogy which I have traced between Balder in his sacred grove on the Sogne fiord of Norway and the priest of Diana in the sacred grove of Nemi; indeed, it might even be thought rather to strengthen the resemblance between the two, since there is no doubt at all that the priests of Diana at Nemi were men who lived real lives and died real deaths.

IV. The Mistletoe and the Golden Bough.

(M250) That Virgil compares the Golden Bough to the mistletoe(777) is certain and admitted on all hands. The only doubt that can arise is whether the plant to which he compares the mystic bough is the ordinary species of mistletoe (_Viscum album_) or the species known to botanists as _Loranthus europaeus_. The common mistletoe (_Viscum album_, L.) “lives as a semi-parasite (obtaining carbon from the air, but water, nitrogen, and mineral matter from the sap of its host) on many conifers and broadleaved trees, and chiefly on their branches. The hosts, or trees on which it lives, are, _most frequently_, the apple tree, both wild and cultivated varieties; next, the silver-fir; _frequently_, birches, poplars (except aspen), limes, willows, Scots pine, mountain-ash, and hawthorn; _occasionally_, robinia, maples, horse-chestnut, hornbeam, and aspen. It is very rarely found on oaks, but has been observed on pedunculate oak at Thornbury, Gloucestershire, and elsewhere in Europe, also on _Quercus coccinea_, Moench., and _Q. palustris_, Moench. The alders, beech and spruce appear to be always free from mistletoe, and it very rarely attacks pear-trees. It is commoner in Southern Europe than in the North, and is extremely abundant where cider is made. In the N.-W. Himalayan districts, it is frequently found on apricot-trees, which are the commonest fruit-trees there. Its white berries are eaten by birds, chiefly by the missel-thrush (_Turdus viscivorus_, L.), and the seeds are either rubbed by the beak against branches of trees, or voided on to them; the seeds, owing to the viscous nature of the pulp surrounding them, then become attached to the branches.”(778) The large smooth pale-green tufts of the parasite, clinging to the boughs of trees, are most conspicuous in winter, when they assume a yellowish hue.(779) In Greece at the present time mistletoe grows most commonly on firs, especially at a considerable elevation (three thousand feet or more) above the level of the sea.(780) Throughout Italy mistletoe now grows on fruit-trees, almond-trees, hawthorn, limes, willows, black poplars, and firs, but never, it is said, on oaks.(781) In England seven authentic cases of mistletoe growing on oaks are said to be reported.(782) In Gloucestershire mistletoe grows on the Badham Court oak, Sedbury Park, Chepstow, and on the Frampton-on-Severn oak.(783) Branches of oak with mistletoe growing on them were exhibited to more than one learned society in France during the nineteenth century; one of the branches was cut in the forest of Jeugny.(784) It is a popular French superstition that mandragora or “the hand of glory,” as it is called by the people, may be found by digging at the root of a mistletoe-bearing oak.(785)

(M251) The species of mistletoe known as _Loranthus europaeus_ resembles the ordinary mistletoe in general appearance, but its berries are bright yellow instead of white. “This species attacks chiefly oaks, _Quercus cerris_, L., _Q. sessiliflora_, Salisb., less frequently, _Q. pedunculata_, Ehrh., and _Castanea vulgaris_, Lam.; also lime. It is found throughout Southern Europe and as far north as Saxony, not in Britain. It grows chiefly on the branches of standards over coppice.” The injury which it inflicts on its hosts is even greater than that inflicted by the ordinary mistletoe; it often kills the branch on which it settles. The seeds are carried to the trees by birds, chiefly by the missel-thrush. In India many kinds of _Loranthus_ grow on various species of forest trees, for example, on teak;(786) one variety (_Loranthus vestitus_) grows on two species of oak, the _Quercus dilatata_, Lindl., and the _Quercus incana_, Roxb.(787) A marked distinction between the two sorts of mistletoe is that whereas ordinary mistletoe (_Viscum album_) is evergreen, the _Loranthus_ is deciduous.(788) In Greece the _Loranthus_ has been observed on many old chestnut-trees at Stheni, near Delphi.(789) In Italy it grows chiefly on the various species of oaks and also on chestnut-trees. So familiar is it on oaks that it is known as “oak mistletoe” both in popular parlance (_visco quercino_) and in druggists’ shops (_viscum quernum_). Bird-lime is made from it in Italy.(790)

(M252) Both sorts of mistletoe were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, though the distinctive terms which they applied to each appear not to be quite certain. Theophrastus, and Pliny after him, seem to distinguish three sorts of mistletoe, to which Theophrastus gives the names of _ixia_, _hyphear_, and _stelis_ respectively. He says that the _hyphear_ and the _stelis_ grow on firs and pines, and that the _ixia_ grows on the oak (δρῦς), the terebinth, and many other kinds of trees. He also observes that both the _ixia_ and the _hyphear_ grow on the ilex or holm-oak (πρῖνος), the same tree sometimes bearing both species at the same time, the _ixia_ on the north and the _hyphear_ on the south. He expressly distinguishes the evergreen species of _ixia_ from the deciduous, which seems to prove that he included both the ordinary mistletoe (_Viscum album_) and the _Loranthus_ under the general name of _ixia_.(791)

(M253) Modern writers are not agreed as to the identification of the various species of mistletoe designated by the names _ixia_, _hyphear_, and _stelis_. F. Wimmer, the editor of Theophrastus in the Didot edition, takes _hyphear_ to be common mistletoe (_Viscum album_), _stelis_ to be _Loranthus europaeus_, and _ixia_ to be a general name which includes the two species.(792) On the other hand F. Fraas, while he agrees as to the identification of _hyphear_ and _stelis_ with common mistletoe and _Loranthus_ respectively, inclines somewhat hesitatingly to regard _ixia_ or _ixos_ (as Dioscorides has it) as a synonym for _stelis_ (the _Loranthus_).(793) H. O. Lenz, again, regards both _hyphear_ and _stelis_ as synonyms for common mistletoe (_Viscum album_), while he would restrict _ixia_ to the _Loranthus_.(794) But both these attempts to confine _ixia_ to the single deciduous species _Loranthus_ seem incompatible with the statement of Theophrastus, that _ixia_ includes an evergreen as well as a deciduous species.(795)

(M254) We have now to ask, Did Virgil compare the Golden Bough to the common mistletoe (_Viscum album_) or to the _Loranthus europaeus_? Some modern enquirers decide in favour of the _Loranthus_. Many years ago Sir Francis Darwin wrote to me:(796) “I wonder whether _Loranthus europaeus_ would do for your Golden Bough. It is a sort of mistletoe growing on oaks and chestnuts in S. Europe. In the autumn it produces what are described as bunches of pretty yellow berries. It is not evergreen like the mistletoe, but deciduous, and as its leaves appear at the same time as the oak leaves and drop at the same time in autumn, it must look like a branch of the oak, more especially as it has rough bark with lichens often growing on it. _Loranthus_ is said to be a hundred years old sometimes.” Professor P. J. Veth, after quoting the passage from Virgil, writes that “almost all translators (including Vondel) and commentators of the Mantuan bard think that the mistletoe is here meant, probably for the simple reason that it was better known to them than _Loranthus europaeus_. I am convinced that Virgil can only have thought of the latter. On the other side of the Alps the _Loranthus_ is much commoner than the mistletoe; on account of its splendid red blossoms, sometimes twenty centimetres long, it is a far larger and more conspicuous ornament of the trees; it bears really golden yellow fruit (_Croceus fetus_), whereas the berries of the mistletoe are almost white; and it attaches itself by preference to the oak, whereas the mistletoe is very seldom found on the oak.”(797) Again, Mr. W. R. Paton writes to me from Mount Athos:(798) “The oak is here called _dendron_, _the_ tree. As for the mistletoe there are two varieties, both called _axo_ (ancient ἰξός). Both are used to make bird-lime. The real _Golden Bough_ is the variety with yellow berries and no leaves. It is the parasite of the oak and rarely grows on other trees. It is very abundant, and now in winter the oak-trees which have adopted it seem from a distance to be draped in a golden tissue. The other variety is our own mistletoe and is strictly a parasite of the fir (a spruce fir, I don’t know its scientific name). It is also very abundant.”

(M255) Thus in favour of identifying Virgil’s mistletoe (_viscum_) with _Loranthus_ rather than with common mistletoe it has been urged, first, that the berries of _Loranthus_ are bright yellow, whereas those of the mistletoe are of a greenish white; and, second, that the _Loranthus_ commonly grows on oaks, whereas mistletoe seldom does so, indeed in Italy mistletoe is said never to be found on an oak. Both these circumstances certainly speak strongly in favour of _Loranthus_; since Virgil definitely describes the berries as of a saffron-yellow (_croceus_) and says that the plant grew on a holm-oak. Yet on the other hand Virgil tells us that the plant put forth fresh leaves in the depths of winter (_brumali frigore_, strictly speaking, “the cold of the winter solstice”); and this would best apply to the common mistletoe, which is evergreen, whereas _Loranthus_ is deciduous.(799) Accordingly, if we must decide between the two species, this single circumstance appears to incline the balance in favour of common mistletoe. But is it not possible that Virgil, whether consciously or unconsciously, confused the two plants and combined traits from both in his description? Both parasites are common in Italy and in appearance they are much alike except for the colour of the berries. As a loving observer of nature, Virgil was probably familiar by sight with both, but he may not have examined them closely; and he might be excused if he thought that the parasite which he saw growing, with its clusters of bright yellow berries, on oaks in winter, was identical with the similar parasite which he saw growing, with its bunches of greenish white berries and its pale green leaves, on many other trees of the forest. The confusion would be all the more natural if the Celts of northern Italy, in whose country the poet was born, resembled the modern Celts of Brittany in attaching bunches of the common mistletoe to their cottages and leaving them there till the revolving months had tinged the pale berries, leaves, and twigs with a golden yellow, thereby converting the branch of mistletoe into a true Golden Bough.

INDEX.

Aachen, effigy burnt at, i. 120, ii. 25

Aargau, Swiss canton, of, Lenten fire-custom in, i. 119; superstition as to oak-mistletoe in, ii. 82; mistletoe called “thunder-besom” in, 85, 301; birth-trees in, 165

Abeghian, Manuk, on creeping through cleft trees in Armenia, ii. 172

Abensberg in Bavaria, burning the Easter Man at, i. 144

Abeokuta, use of bull-roarers at, ii. 229 _n._

Aber, the Lake of, in Upper Austria, ii. 189

Aberdeenshire, custom at reaping the last corn in, i. 12; need-fire in, 296; holed rock used by childless women in, ii. 187

Aberfeldy, Hallowe’en fires near, i. 232

Aborigines of Victoria, their custom as to emu fat, i. 13

Abougit, Father X., S.J., on the ceremony of the new fire at Jerusalem, i. 130

Abruzzi, new Easter fire in the, i. 122; water consecrated at Easter in the, 122 _sqq._; Midsummer rites of fire and water in the, 209 _sq._

Acacia, the heart in the flower of the, ii. 135 _sq._

Acarnanian story of Prince Sunless, i. 21

Achern, St. John’s fires at, i. 168

Achterneed, in Ross-shire, Beltane cakes at, i. 153

Acireale, in Sicily, Midsummer fires at, i. 210

Adder stones, i. 15

Addison, Joseph, on witchcraft in Switzerland, ii. 42 _n._ 2

Adonis and Aphrodite, ii. 294 _sq._

Aelst, Peter van, painter, ii. 36

Aeneas and the Golden Bough, ii. 285, 293 _sq._

Africa, girls secluded at puberty in, i. 22 _sqq._; dread and seclusion of women at menstruation in, 79 _sqq._; birth-trees in, ii. 160 _sqq._; use of bull-roarers in, 229 _n._, 232

——, British Central, the Anyanja of, i. 81

——, British East, i. 81; ceremony of new fire in, 135 _sq._; the Nandi of, ii. 229 _n._; the Akikuyu of, 262 _sq._

——, East, ceremony of the new fire in, i. 135; the Swahili of, ii. 160

——, German East, the Wajagga of, ii. 160; the Washamba of, 183; the Bondeis of, 263; the Wadoe of, 312

——, German South-West, the Ovambo of, ii. 183

——, North, Midsummer fires in, i. 213 _sqq._

——, South, the Thonga of, ii. 297

——, West, theory of an external soul embodied in an animal prevalent in, ii. 200 _sqq._; ritual of death and resurrection at initiation in, 251 _sqq._

African stories of the external soul, ii. 148 _sqq._; Balders, 312 _sqq._

Afterbirth buried under a tree, ii. 160 _sq._, 162, 163, 164, 165; of child animated by a ghost and sympathetically connected with a banana-tree, 162; regarded as brother or sister of child, 162 _n._ 2; regarded as a second child, 162 _n._ 2; regarded as a guardian spirit, 223 _n._ 2; and navel-string regarded as guardian angels of the man, ii. 162 _n._ 2

Agaric growing on birch-trees, superstitions as to, i. 148

Aglu, New year fires at, i. 217

Air thought to be poisoned at eclipses, i. 162 _n._

Aisne, Midsummer fires in the department of, i. 187

Aix, squibs at Midsummer in, i. 193; Midsummer king at, i. 194, ii. 25; bathing at Midsummer in, 216

Agni, Hindoo deity, i. 99 _n._ 2; the fire-god, ii. 1, 296

Ague, Midsummer bonfires deemed a cure for, i. 162; leaps across the Midsummer bonfires thought to be a preventive of, 174

Agweh, on the Slave Coast, custom of widows at, ii. 18 _sq._

Ahlen, in Munsterland, i. 247

Ahriman, the devil of the Persians, i. 95

Aht or Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 43 _sq._

Ahura Mazda, the supreme being of the Persians, i. 95

Ain, Lenten fires in the department of, i. 114

Ainos of Japan, their mourning caps, i. 20; their use of mugwort in exorcism, ii. 60; their veneration for mistletoe, 79

A-Kamba of British East Africa, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 23

Akikuyu of British East Africa, their dread of menstruous women, i. 81; ritual of the new birth among the, ii. 262 _sq._

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, Roman version of, ii. 105

Alaska, seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of, i. 45 _sq._; the Esquimaux of, ii. 155

Alastir and the Bare-Stripping Hangman, Argyleshire story of, ii. 129 _sq._

Albania, Midsummer fires in, i. 212; the Yule log in, 264

Albanian story of the external soul, ii. 104 _n._ 3

Albert Nyanza, the Wakondyo of the, ii. 162 _sq._

Albino head of secret society on the Lower Congo, ii. 251

Alders free from mistletoe, ii. 315

Alfoors or Toradjas of Celebes, their custom at the smelting of iron, ii. 154; their doctrine of the plurality of souls, 222

Algeria, Midsummer fires in, i. 213

Alice Springs in Central Australia, ii. 238

Allan, John Hay, on the Hays of Errol, ii. 283

Allandur temple, at St. Thomas’s Mount, Madras, ii. 8

All-healer, name applied to mistletoe, ii. 77, 79, 82

All Saints’ Day, omens on, i. 240; the first of November, 225; bonfires on, 246; sheep passed through a hoop on, ii. 184

All Souls, Feast of, i. 223 _sq._, 225 _n._ 3

Almond-trees, mistletoe on, ii. 316

A-Louyi, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 28 _n._ 5

Alsace, Midsummer fires in, i. 169; cats burnt in Easter bonfires in, ii. 40

Althenneberg, in Bavaria, Easter fires at, i. 143 _sq._

Altmark, Easter bonfires in, i. 140, 142

Alum burnt at Midsummer, i. 214

Alungu, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 24 _sq._

Alur, a tribe of the Upper Nile, i. 64

Alvarado, Pedro de, Spanish general, ii. 214

_Amadhlozi_, ancestral spirits in serpent form, ii. 211 _n._ 2

Amambwe, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 24 _sq._

_Amatongo_, plural of _itongo_, ii. 302 _n._

Amazon, ordeals of young men among the Indians of the, i. 62 _sq._

Ambamba, in West Africa, death, resurrection, and the new birth in, ii. 256

Amboyna, hair of criminals cut in, ii. 158

Ambras, Midsummer customs at, i. 173

America, Central, the Mosquito territory in, i. 86

America, North, Indians of, not allowed to sit on bare ground in war, i. 5; seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of, 41 _sqq._; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of, 87 _sqq._; stories of the external soul among the Indians of, ii. 151 _sq._; religious associations among the Indian tribes of, 267 _sqq._

——, South, seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of, i. 56 _sqq._; effigies of Judas burnt at Easter in, 128; Midsummer fires in, 212 _sq._

Ammerland, in Oldenburg, cart-wheel used as charm against witchcraft in, i. 345 _n._ 3

Amphitryo besieges Taphos, ii. 103

Amulets, rings and bracelets as, i. 92; as soul-boxes, ii. 155; degenerate into ornaments, 156 _n._ 2

Ancestor, wooden image of, ii. 155

Ancestors, worship of, in Fiji, ii. 243 _sq._

Ancestral spirits incarnate in serpents, ii. 211

Anderson, Miss, of Barskimming, i. 171 _n._ 3

Andes, the Peruvian, effigies of Judas burnt at Easter in the, i. 128

Andjra, a district of Morocco, i. 17; Midsummer fires in the, 213 _sq._; Midsummer rites of water in, 216; animals bathed at Midsummer in, ii. 31

Andreas, parish of, in the Isle of Man, i. 224, 305, 307 _n._ 1

Angass, the, of Northern Nigeria, their belief in external human souls lodged in animals, ii. 210

Angel, need-fire revealed by an, i. 287

—— -man, effigy of, burnt at Midsummer, i. 167

Angelus bell, the, i. 110, ii. 47

Angoniland, British Central Africa, customs as to girls at puberty in, i. 25 _sq._; customs as to salt in, 27

Angus, superstitious remedy for the “quarter-ill” in, i. 296 _n._ 1

Anhalt, Easter bonfires in, i. 140

Animal, bewitched, or part of it, burnt to compel the witch to appear, i. 303, 305, 307 _sq._, 321 _sq._; sickness transferred to, ii. 181; and man, sympathetic relation between, 272 _sq._

Animal familiars of wizards and witches, ii. 196 _sq._, 201 _sq._

Animals burnt alive as a sacrifice in England, Wales, and Scotland, i. 300 _sqq._; witches transformed into, 315 _sqq._, ii. 311 _sq._; bewitched, buried alive, i. 324 _sqq._; live, burnt at Spring and Midsummer festivals, ii. 38 _sqq._; the animals perhaps deemed embodiments of witches, 41 _sq._, 43 _sq._; the language of, learned by means of fern-seed, 66 _n._; external soul in, 196 _sqq._; magical transformation of men into animals, 207; helpful, in fairy tales. _See_ Helpful

_Ankenmilch bohren_, to make the need-fire, i. 270 _n._

Ankole, in Central Africa, i. 80

Annam, dread of menstruous women in, i. 85; use of wormwood to avert demons in, ii. 61 _n._ 1

Anpu and Bata, ancient Egyptian story of, ii. 134 _sqq._

_Anthemis nobilis_, camomile, gathered at Midsummer, ii. 63

Ant-hill, insane people buried in an, i. 64

Ants employed to sting girls at puberty, i. 61; to sting young men, i. 62 _sq._

Antonius Mountain, in Thuringia, Christmas bonfire on the, i. 265 _sq._

Antwerp, wicker giants at, ii. 35 _sq._

Anula tribe of Northern Australia, their rites of initiation, ii. 235

Anyanja of British Central Africa, their dread of menstruous women, i. 81 _sq._

Apaches, i. 21; use of bull-roarers among the, ii, 230 _n._

Apala cured by Indra in the Rigveda, ii. 192

Ape, a Batta totem, ii. 223

Aphrodite and Adonis, ii. 294 _sq._

Apollo, identified with the Celtic Grannus, i. 112

—— Soranus, ii. 14, 15 _n._ 3

Apollo’s temple at Cumae, i. 99

Apple, divination by the sliced, i. 238; and candle, biting at, 241, 242, 243, 245

Apple-tree as life-index of boy, ii. 165

—— -trees, torches thrown at, i. 108; mistletoe on, ii. 315, 316 _n._ 5

Apples, dipping for, at Hallowe’en, i. 237, 239, 241, 242, 243, 245

Apricot-trees, mistletoe on, ii. 316

April, the twenty-seventh of, in popular superstitions of Morocco, i. 17 _sq._; ceremony of the new fire in, 136 _sq._, ii. 3; Chinese festival of fire in, 3

Arab women in Morocco, their superstitions as to plants at Midsummer, ii. 51

Arabia, tree-spirits in snake form in, ii. 44 _n._ 1

Arabian, modern, story of the external soul, ii. 137 _sq._

_Arabian Nights_, story of the external soul in the, ii. 137

Arabs of Morocco, their Midsummer customs, i. 214

Aran, in the valley of the Garonne, Midsummer fires at, i. 193

Arch, child after an illness passed under an, ii. 192; young men at initiation passed under a leafy, 193; triumphal, suggested origin of the, 195

Archer (_Tirant_), effigy of, ii. 36

Arches, novices at initiation passed under arches in Australia, ii. 193 _n._ 1

Archways, passing under, as a means of escaping evil spirits or sickness, ii. 179 _sqq._

Ardennes, the Belgian, bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in the, i. 107 _sq._; the French, Lenten fires and customs in the, 109 _sq._; Midsummer fires in the, 188; the Yule log in the, 253; cats burnt alive in Lenten bonfires, ii. 40

Argo, tree of which the ship was made, ii. 94 _n._ 1

Argyleshire stories of the external soul, ii. 127 _sqq._

Argyrus, temple of Hercules at, i. 99 _n._ 3

Aricia, the priest of, and the Golden Bough, i. 1; the priest of Diana at, perhaps a personified Jupiter, ii. 302 _sq._

Arician grove, the Midsummer festival of fire in the, ii. 285; the priest of the, a personification of an oak-spirit, 285

Ariminum, triumphal arch of Augustus at, ii. 194 _n._ 4

Arizona and New Mexico, use of bull-roarers in, ii. 230 _n._, 231

Arks, sacred, of the Cherokees, i. 11 _sq._

Armenia, were-wolves in, i. 316; sick people creep through cleft trees in, ii. 173

Armenian church, bonfires at Candlemas in the, i. 131

—— idea of the sun as a wheel, i. 334 _n._ 1

Arms of youths punctured to make them good hunters, i. 58

Arnstadt, witches burnt at, i. 6

Arran, the need-fire in, i. 293

Arrows used as a love-charm, i. 14

Artemis Perasia, at Castabala in Cappadocia, ii. 14

_Artemisia absinthium_, wormwood, ii. 58 _n._ 3, 61 _n._ 1

—— _vulgaris_, mugwort, gathered at Midsummer, ii. 58 _sqq._

Artois, mugwort at Midsummer in, ii. 59

Arunta of Central Australia, their sacred pole, i. 7; their dread of women at menstruation, 77; legend that the ancestors kept their spirits in their _churinga_, ii. 218 _n._ 3; rites of initiation among the, 233 _sq._; initiation of medicine-men among the, 238

Aryan god of the thunder and the oak, i. 265

—— peoples, stories of the external soul among, ii. 97 _sqq._

Aryans of Europe, importance of the Midsummer festival among the, ii. 40; the oak the chief sacred tree of the, 89 _sq._

Ascension Day, parasitic rowan should be cut on, ii. 281

Asceticism not primitive, i. 65

Ash Wednesday, effigy burnt on, i. 120

Ash-trees, children passed through cleft ash-trees as a cure for rupture or rickets, ii. 168 _sqq._

Ashes in divination, i. 243, 244, 245. _See also_ Sticks, Charred

—— of bonfires put in fowls’ nests, i. 112, 338; increase fertility of fields, 141, 337; make cattle thrive, 141, 338; placed in a person’s shoes, 156; administered to cattle to make them fat, ii. 4

—— of dead, disposal of the, i. 11

—— of Easter bonfire mixed with seed at sowing, i. 121

—— of Hallowe’en fires scattered, i. 233

—— of holy fires a protection against demons, ii. 8, 17

—— of Midsummer fires strewed on fields to fertilize them, i. 170, 190, 203; a protection against conflagration, 174, 196; a protection against lightning, 187, 188; a protection against thunder, 190; put by people in their shoes, 191 _sq._; a cure for consumption, 194 _sq._; rubbed by people on their hair or bodies, 213, 214, 215; good for the eyes, 214

Ashes of the need-fire strewn on fields to protect the crops against vermin, i. 274; used as a medicine, 286

—— of New Year’s fire used to rub sore eyes, i. 218

—— of Yule log strewed on fields, i. 250; used to heal swollen glands, 251

_Ashur_, Arab New Year’s Day, i. 217, 218

Asia Minor, the Celts in, ii. 89; cure for possession by an evil spirit in, 186; creeping through rifted rocks in, 189

Aspen, mistletoe on, ii. 315

_Aspidium filix mas_, the male fern, superstitions as to, ii. 66 _sq._

Ass, child passed under an, as a cure for whooping-cough, ii. 192 _n._ 1

Assam, the Khasis of, ii. 146; the Lushais of, 185 _sq._

Assiga, tribe of South Nigeria, ii. 204

Associations, religious, among the Indian tribes of North America, ii. 267 _sqq._

Assyrian ritual, use of golden axe in, ii. 80 _n._ 3

Aston, W. G., quoted, i. 137 _sq._; on the fire-walk in Japan, ii. 10 _n._ 1

Astral spirit of a witch, i. 317

_Atai_, external soul in the Mota language, ii. 197 _sq._

Ath, in Hainaut, procession of giants at, ii. 36

Athboy, in County Meath, i. 139

Athena, priestess of, uses a white umbrella, i. 20 _n._ 1

Athenians offer cakes to Cronus, i. 153 _n._ 3

Athens, ceremony of the new fire at Easter in, i. 130

Athis, in Normandy, Christmas bonfires at, i. 266

Athos, Mount, mistletoe at, ii. 319, 320 _n._

Atrae, city in Mesopotamia, i. 82

Aubrey, John, on the Midsummer fires, i. 197

Aufkirchen in Bavaria, burning the Easter Man at, i. 144

August, procession of wicker giants in, ii. 36

——, first of, Festival of the Cross on the, i. 220

—— the eighteenth, feast of Florus and Laurus, i. 220

—— the sixth, festival of St. Estapin, ii. 188

Augustus, triumphal arch of Augustus at Ariminum, ii. 195 _n._ 4

Aunis, wonderful herbs gathered on St. John’s Eve in, ii. 45; St. John’s wort in, 55; vervain gathered at Midsummer in, 62 _n._ 4; four-leaved clover at Midsummer in, 63

—— and Saintonge, Midsummer fires in, i. 192

Aurora, in the New Hebrides, _tamaniu_ in, ii. 198

Australia, dread and seclusion of women at menstruation in, i. 76 _sqq._; passing under an arch as a rite of initiation in, ii. 193 _n._ 1; initiation of young men in, 227, 233 _sqq._; use of bull-roarers in, 228 _n._ 2

——, Central, pointing sticks or bones in, i. 14 _n._ 3; its desert nature, ii. 230 _n._ 2

——, South-Eastern, sex totems among the natives of, ii. 214 _sqq._

Australian languages, words for fire and wood in, ii. 296

Austria, Midsummer fires in, i. 172 _sqq._; the Yule log among the Servians of, 262 _sqq._; need-fire in Upper, 279; fern-seed at Midsummer in, ii. 65; mistletoe used to prevent nightmare in, 85

Autumn fires, i. 220 _sqq._

Auvergne, Lenten fires in, i. 111 _sq._; story of a were-wolf in, 308 _sq._

_Ave Maria_ bell, ii. 47

Avernus, Lake, and the Golden Bough, ii. 285 _n._ 2

Awa-nkonde, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 28

“Awasungu, the house of the,” i. 28

Awka in South Nigeria, i. 4

Azemmur, in Morocco, Midsummer fires at, i. 214

Azores, bonfires and divination on Midsummer Eve in the, i. 208 _sq._; fern-seed at Midsummer in the, ii. 66

Aztecs, their punishment of witches and wizards, ii. 159

Baal and Beltane, i. 149 _n._ 1, 150 _n._ 1, 157

Babine Lake in British Columbia, i. 47

Backache at reaping, leaps over the Midsummer bonfire thought to be a preventive of, i. 165, 168, 189, 344 _sq._; set down to witchcraft, 343 _n._, 345; at harvest, mugwort a protection against, ii. 59; creeping through a holed stone to prevent backache at harvest, 189

_Badache_, double-axe, Midsummer King of the, i. 194

Badagas of the Neilgherry Hills, their fire-walk, ii. 8 _sq._

Baden, Lenten fire-custom in, i. 117; Easter bonfires in, 145; Midsummer fires in, 167 _sqq._

Badham Court oak, in Gloucestershire, ii. 316

_Badnyak_, Yule log, i. 259, 263

_Badnyi Dan_, Christmas Eve, i. 258, 263

Bag, souls of persons deposited in a, ii. 142, 153, 155

Baganda, children live apart from their parents among the, i. 23 _n._ 2; seclusion of girls at puberty among the, 23 _sq._; superstition as to women who do not menstruate, 24; abstain from salt in certain cases, 27 _sq._; their dread of menstruous women, 80 _sq._; their beliefs and customs concerning the afterbirth, ii. 162. _See also_ Uganda

Bahaus or Kayans of Central Borneo, i. 4 _sq._

Bahima of Central Africa, their dread of menstruous women, i. 80

Bahr-el-Ghazal province, ceremony of the new fire in the, i. 134 _sq._

Bakairi, the, of Brazil, call bull-roarers “thunder and lightning,” ii. 231 _sq._

Baking-forks, witches ride on, ii. 73, 74

Bakuba or Bushongo of the Congo, i. 4

Balder, his body burnt, i. 102; worshipped in Norway, 104; camomile sacred to, ii. 63; burnt at Midsummer, 87; Midsummer sacred to, 87; a tree-spirit or deity of vegetation, 88 _sq._; interpreted as a mistletoe-bearing oak, 93 _sq._; his invulnerability, 94; why Balder was thought to shine, 293

—— and the mistletoe, i. 101 _sq._, ii. 76 _sqq._, 302; his life or death in the mistletoe, 279, 283; perhaps a real man deified, 314 _sq._

——, the myth of, i. 101 _sqq._; reproduced in the Midsummer festival of Scandinavia, ii. 87; perhaps dramatized in ritual, 88; Indian parallel to, 280; African parallels to, 312 _sqq._

Balder’s Balefires, name formerly given to Midsummer bonfires in Sweden, i. 172, ii. 87

—— Grove, i. 104, ii. 315

_Balders-brâ_, Balder’s eyelashes, a name for camomile, ii. 63

Bâle, Lenten fire-custom in the canton of, i. 119

Balefires, Balder’s, at Midsummer in Sweden, i. 172

Bali, filing of teeth in, i. 68 _n._ 2; birth-trees in, ii. 164

Balkan Peninsula, need-fire in the, i. 281

Ball, game of, played to determine the King of Summer, i. 195

Ballyvadlea, in Tipperary, woman burnt as a witch at, i. 323 _sq._

Balnagown loch, in Lismore, i. 316

Balong of the Cameroons, their external souls in animals, ii. 203

Balquhidder, hill of the fires at, i. 149; Hallowe’en bonfires at, 232

_Balum_, New Guinea word signifying bull-roarer, ghost, and mythical monster, ii. 242

Banana-tree, afterbirth of child buried under a, ii. 162, 163, 164

Bancroft, H. H., on the external souls of the Zapotecs, ii. 212

Banivas of the Orinoco, their scourging of girls at puberty, i. 66 _sqq._

_Baraka_, blessed or magical virtue, i. 216, 218, ii. 51

Barclay, Sheriff, on Hallowe’en fires, i. 232

Bardney bumpkin, on witch as hare, i. 318

Bare-Stripping Hangman, Argyleshire story of the, ii. 129 _sq._

Barker, W. G. M. Jones, on need-fire in Yorkshire, i. 286 _sq._

Barley plant, external soul of prince in a, ii. 102

Ba-Ronga, the, of South Africa, their story of a clan whose external souls were in a cat, ii. 150 _sq._

Barotse or Marotse of the Zambesi, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 28, 29

Barren cattle driven through fire, i. 203, 338

—— women hope to conceive through fertilizing influence of vegetables, ii. 51

Barricading the road against a ghostly pursuer, ii. 176

Barsana, in North India, Holi bonfires at, ii. 2, 5

Bartle Bay, in British New Guinea, festival of the wild mango tree at, i. 7 _sqq._

Basque hunter transformed into bear, ii. 226, 270

—— story of the external soul, ii. 139

Bastar, province of India, treatment of witches in, ii. 159

Bastian, Adolph, on rites of initiation in West Africa, ii. 256 _sq._

Basutos, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 31

Bata and Anpu, ancient Egyptian story of, ii. 134 _sqq._

Bathing in the sea at Easter, i. 123; at Midsummer, 208, 210, 216, ii. 29 _sq._; thought to be dangerous on Midsummer Day, 26 _sq._

Bats, the lives of men in, ii. 215 _sq._, 217; called men’s “brothers,” 215, 216, 218

Battas, their doctrine of the plurality of souls, ii. 223; their totemic system, 224 _sqq._

Battel, Andrew, on the colour of negro children at birth, ii. 251 _n._ 1

Bavaria, Easter bonfires in, i. 143 _sq._; belief as to eclipses in, 162; Midsummer fires in, 164 _sqq._; leaf-clad mummer at Midsummer in, ii. 26; the divining-rod in, 67 _sq._; creeping through a holed stone or narrow opening in, 188 _sq._

——, Upper, use of mistletoe in, ii. 85 _n._ 4

Bavarian peasants, their belief as to hazel, ii. 69 _n._

Bavili, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 31

Beal-fires on Midsummer Eve in Yorkshire, i. 198

Bean, King of the, i. 153 _n._ 1

Beans, divination by, i. 209

Bear, external soul of warrior in a, ii. 151; Basque hunter transformed into, 226, 270; simulated transformation of novice into a, 274 _sq._

—— clan, ii. 271, 272 _n._ 1

—— -dance of man who pretends to be a bear, ii. 274

Bear’s skin, Lapp women shoot blindfold at a, ii. 280 _n._

Bearers to carry royal personages, i. 3 _sq._

Beating girls at puberty, i. 61, 66 _sq._; as a form of purification, 61, 64 _sqq._

Beauce, festival of torches in, i. 113; story of a were-wolf in, 309

—— and Perche, Midsummer fires in, i. 188

Beaver clan, ii. 272

Bechuana belief as to sympathetic relation of man to wounded crocodile, ii. 210 _sq._

Bee, external soul of an ogre in a, ii. 101

Beech or fir used to make the Yule log, i. 249

—— -tree burnt in Lenten bonfire, i. 115 _sq._

Beeches, struck by lightning, proportion of, ii. 298 _sq._; free from mistletoe, 315

Bees thought to be killed by menstruous women, i. 96; ashes of bonfires used to cure ailments of, 142

Beetle, external soul in a, ii. 138, 140

Begetting novices anew at initiation, pretence of, ii. 248

Behar, the fire-walk in, ii. 5

_Beifuss_, German name for mugwort, ii. 60 _n._ 6

Bel, the fires of, i. 147, 157, 158 _sq._

Beleth, John, his _Rationale Divinorum Officiorum_ quoted, i. 161 _n._ 2

Belford, in Northumberland, the Yule log at, i. 256

Belgium, Lenten fires in, i. 107 _sq._; Midsummer fires in, 194 _sq._; the Yule log in, 249; bathing on Midsummer Day in, ii. 30; divination by flowers on Midsummer Eve in, 53; mugwort gathered on St. John’s Day or Eve in, 59 _sq._; vervain gathered on St. John’s Day in, 62; four-leaved clover at Midsummer in, 63; the witches’ Sabbath in, 73

Bella Coola Indians of British Columbia, seclusion of girls at puberty among the, i. 46; custom of mourners among the, ii. 174

Belli-Paaro society in West Africa, rites of initiation in the, ii. 257 _sqq._

Bellochroy, i. 290

Bells worn by priest in exorcism, i. 5; on his legs, ii. 8

——, church, silenced in Holy Week, i. 123, 125 _n._ 1; rung on Midsummer Eve, ii. 47 _sq._; rung to drive away witches, 73

Beltane, popularly derived from Baal, i. 149 _n._ 1, 150 _n._ 1; the need-fire at, 293; the Yellow Day of, 293; sheep passed through a hoop at, ii. 184

—— and Hallowe’en the two chief fire-festivals of the British Celts, ii. 40 _sq._

—— cakes, i. 148 _sq._, 150, 152, 153, 154, 155

—— carline, i. 148, 153

—— Eve (the Eve of May Day), a witching time, i. 295

—— fire, pretence of throwing a man into the, i. 148, ii. 25; kindled by the friction of oak-wood, i. 148, 155, ii. 91

—— fires, i. 146 _sqq._; in Wales, 155 _sq._; in Ireland, 157 _sq._; in Nottinghamshire, 157

Benametapa, the king of, in East Africa, i. 135

Bengal, seclusion of girls at puberty in, i. 68; the Oraons of, ii. 311

Bengalee stories of the external soul, ii. 101 _sq._, 102

Beni Ahsen, a tribe in Morocco, ii. 31; their Midsummer fires, i. 215 _sq._

—— Mgild, a Berber tribe of Morocco, their Midsummer fires, i. 215

—— Snous, the, of Morocco, their Midsummer rites, i. 216

Bent, J. Theodore, on passing sick children through a cleft oak, ii. 172

Berber belief as to water at Midsummer, ii. 31

—— tale, milk-tie in a, ii. 138 _n._ 1

Berbers of North Africa, their Midsummer customs, i. 213 _sqq._, 219

Bergen, Midsummer bonfires at, i. 171

Bering Strait, the Esquimaux of, i. 91

Berleburg, in Westphalia, the Yule log at, i. 248

Berlin, the divining-rod at, ii. 68

Bern, Midsummer fires in the canton of, i. 172; the Yule log in the canton of, 249; witches put to death in the canton of, ii. 42 _n._ 2

Berry, Lenten fire custom in, i. 115; Midsummer fires in, 189; the Yule log in, 251 _sq._; four-leaved clover at Midsummer in, ii. 63

Besoms, blazing, flung aloft to make the corn grow high, i. 340; used to drive away witches, ii. 74

Bethlehem, new Easter fire carried to, i. 130 _n._

“Between the two Beltane fires,” i. 149

Beul, fire of, need-fire, i. 293

Bevan, Professor A. A., i. 83 _n._ 1

Beverley, on the initiatory rites of the Virginian Indians, ii. 266 _sq._

Bewitched animals burnt alive, i. 300 _sqq._; buried alive, 324 _sqq._

—— cow, mugwort applied to, ii. 59

—— things burnt to compel the witch to appear, i. 322

Bhils of India, torture of witches among the, ii. 159

Bhuiyars of Mirzapur, their dread of menstrual pollution, i. 84

Bhuiyas, a Dravidian tribe, fire-walk among the, ii. 5 _sq._

_Bhut_, demon, ii. 312

Bidasari and the golden fish, Malay story of, ii. 147 _sq._, 220

Bilqula. _See_ Bella Coola

Binbinga tribe of Northern Australia, their rites of initiation, ii. 234 _sq._; initiation of medicine-man in the, 239

Binding up a cleft stick or tree a mode of barricading the road against a ghostly pursuer, ii. 176

Bir, a tribal hero, ii. 6

Birch used to kindle need-fire, i. 291

—— and plane, fire made by the friction of, i. 220

——, branches of, on Midsummer Day, i. 177, 196; a protection against witchcraft, ii. 185

—— trees set up at Midsummer, i. 177; used to keep off witches, ii. 20 _n._; mistletoe on, 315

Bird, disease transferred to, ii. 187; brings first fire to earth, 295

Bird-lime made from mistletoe, ii. 317

Birds, external souls in, ii. 104, 111, 119, 142, 144, 150; carry seed of mistletoe, 316

Birseck, Lenten fires at, i. 119

Birth, the new, of novices at initiation, ii. 247, 251, 256, 257, 261

Birth-names of Central American Indians, ii. 214 _n._ 1

—— -trees in Africa, ii. 160 _sqq._; in Europe, 165

Birthday of the Sun at the winter solstice, i. 246

Bisection of the year, Celtic, i. 223

Black Corrie of Ben Breck, the giant of, in an Argyleshire tale, ii. 129 _sq._

—— Forest, Midsummer fires in the, i. 168

—— Isle, Ross-shire, i. 301

—— poplars, mistletoe on, ii. 316, 318 _n._ 6

—— spauld, a disease of cattle, cure for, i. 325

—— three-legged horse ridden by witches, ii. 74

Blackening girls at puberty, i. 41, 60

Blemishes, physical, transferred to witches, i. 160 _n._ 1

Blindness of Hother, ii. 279 _n._ 4

Block, the Yule, i. 247

Blocksberg, the resort of witches, i. 171; the Mount of the Witches, ii. 74

Blood, girls at puberty forbidden to see, i. 46; disastrous effect of seeing menstruous, 77; drawn from women who do not menstruate, 81

—— -brotherhood between men and animals among the Fans, ii. 201, 226 _n._ 1

—— -covenant between men and animals, ii. 201, 214, 226 _n._ 1

——, human, used in rain-making ceremonies, ii. 232 _sq._

——, menstruous, dread of, i. 76; deemed fatal to cattle, 80; miraculous virtue attributed to, 82 _sq._; medicinal application of, 98 _n._ 1

—— of St. John found on St. John’s wort and other plants at Midsummer, ii. 56, 57

—— of sheep poured on image of god as a sin-offering, i. 82

Boa-constrictors, kings at death turn into, ii. 212 _n._

Boas, Dr. Franz, on seclusion of Shuswap girls at puberty, i. 53; on customs observed by mourners among the Bella Coola Indians, ii. 174; on initiation into the wolf society of the Nootka Indians, 270 _sq._; on the relation between clans and secret societies, 273 _n._ 1

Boar’s skin, shoes of, worn by a king at inauguration, i. 4

Boars, familiar spirits of wizards in, ii. 196 _sq._; lives of persons bound up with those of, 201, 203, 205; external human souls in, 207

Bocage of Normandy, Midsummer fires in the, i. 185; the Yule log in the, 252; torchlight processions on Christmas Eve in the, 266

Body-without-soul in a Ligurian story, ii. 107; in a German story, 116 _sq._; in a Breton story, 132 _sq._; in a Basque story, 139

Boeotian festival of the Great Daedala, ii. 77 _n._ 1

Bogota, rigorous training of the heir to the throne of, i. 19

Bohemia, water and fire consecrated at Easter in, i. 123 _sq._; bonfires on May Day in, 159; Midsummer fires in, 173 _sqq._; need-fire in, 278 _sq._; charm to make corn grow high in, 340; offering to water-spirits on Midsummer Eve in, ii. 28; simples gathered on St. John’s Night in, 49; divination by means of flowers on Midsummer Eve in, 52 _sq._; mugwort at Midsummer in, 59; elder-flowers gathered at Midsummer in, 64; wild thyme gathered on Midsummer Day in, 64; fern-seed at Midsummer in, 66; “thunder besoms” in, 85; fern-seed on St. John’s Day in, 287, 288

Bohemian poachers, their use of vervain, ii. 62; their use of seeds of fir-cones, 64

—— story of the external soul, ii. 110

Bohus, Midsummer fires in, i. 172

_Boidès_, bonfires, i. 111 _n._ 1

Boiling bewitched animal or part of it to compel witch to appear, i. 321 _sq._, 323

—— milk, omens drawn from, ii. 8

—— resin, ordeal of, i. 311

Boils, crawling under a bramble as a cure for, ii. 180

Bolivia, the Chiriguanos of, i. 56; the Yuracares of, 57 _sq._; fires on St. John’s Eve in, 213; La Paz in, ii. 50

Boloki of the Upper Congo, birth-plants among the, ii. 161 _sq._; use of bull-roarers among the, 229 _n._

Bondeis of German East Africa, rites of initiation among the, ii. 263 _sq._

Bone used to point with in sorcery, i. 14; incident of, in folk-tales, 73 _n._ 3; of bird (eagle or swan), women at menstruation obliged to drink out of, 45, 48, 49, 50, 73 _n._ 3, 90, 92

Bones burnt in the Easter bonfires, i. 142; burnt in Midsummer fires, 203

—— of dead husbands carried by their widows, i. 91 _n._ 4

Bonfire Day in County Leitrim, i. 203

Bonfires supposed to protect against conflagrations, i. 107, 108; protect houses against lightning and conflagration, 344; lit by the persons last married, 107, 109; a protection against witchcraft, 108, 109, 154; a protection against sickness, 108, 109; a protection against sorcery, 156; quickening and fertilizing influence of, 336 _sqq._; omens of marriage drawn from, 338 _sq._; protect fields against hail, 344; at festivals in India, ii. 1 _sqq._ _See also_ Fires

Bonfires, Midsummer, intended to drive away dragons, i. 161; protect cattle against witchcraft, 188; thought to ensure good crops, 188, 336

Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, i. 270

Bonnach stone in a Celtic story, ii. 126

_Bordes_, bonfires, i. 111 _n._ 1, 113

Borlase, William, on Midsummer fires in Cornwall, i. 199

Borneo, festivals in, i. 13; seclusion of girls at puberty in, 35 _sq._; birth-custom in, ii. 154 _sq._; trees and plants as life-indices in, 164 _sq._; creeping through a cleft stick after a funeral in, 175 _sq._; giving the slip to an evil spirit in, 179 _sq._

——, the Dyaks of, i. 5, ii. 222

——, the Kayans of, i. 4 _sq._

Bororo of Brazil, their use of bull-roarers, ii. 230 _n._

Borrow, witches come to, i. 322, 323, ii. 73

Bosnia, need-fire in, i. 286; life-trees of children in, ii. 165

Bossuet, Bishop, on the Midsummer bonfires, i. 182

Bottesford, in Lincolnshire, mistletoe deemed a remedy for epilepsy at, ii. 83

Bottle, external soul of queen in a, ii. 138

Bougainville, use of bull-roarers in, ii. 229 _n._

Bough, the Golden, ii. 279 _sqq._; and the priest of Aricia, i. 1; a branch of mistletoe, ii. 284 _sqq._, 315 _sqq._ _See also_ Golden Bough

Boulia district of Queensland, i. 14

Bourbonnais, mistletoe a remedy for epilepsy in, ii. 83

_Bourdifailles_, bonfires, i. 111 _n._ 1

Bourke, Captain J. G., on the bull-roarer, ii. 231

Bowels, novice at initiation supplied by spirits with a new set of, ii. 235 _sqq._

Bowes, in Yorkshire, need-fire at, i. 287

Box, external soul of king in a, ii. 102, 149; external soul of cannibal in a, 117

Boxes or arks, sacred, i. 11 _sq._

Box-tree, external soul of giant in a, ii. 133

Boxwood blessed on Palm Sunday, i. 184, ii. 47

Boy and girl produce need-fire by friction of wood, i. 281

Boys at initiation thought to be swallowed by wizards, ii. 233

Brabant, Midsummer fires in, i. 194; St. Peter’s bonfires in, 195; wicker giants in, ii. 35

Bracelets as amulets, i. 92

Braemar Highlanders, their Hallowe’en fires, i. 233 _sq._

Brahman, the Hindoo creator, i. 95

Brahman called “twice born,” ii. 276

—— boys forbidden to see the sun, i. 68 _n._ 2

—— student, his observances at end of his studentship, i. 20

Brahmanic ritual at inauguration of a king, i. 4

Bramble, crawling under a, as a cure for whooping-cough, etc., ii. 180

Brand, John, on the Yule log, i. 247, 255

Brandenburg, simples culled at Midsummer in, ii. 48

_Brandons_, the Sunday of the, i. 110; torches carried about fields and streets, 111 _n._ 1

Brands of Midsummer fires a protection against lightning, conflagration, and spells, i. 183; a protection against thunder, 191; lighted, carried round cattle, 341

Braunrode in the Harz Mountains, Easter fires at, i. 142

Brazier, walking through a lighted, ii. 3 _sqq._

Brazil, the Guaranis of, i. 56; seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of, 56, 59 _sq._; the Uaupes of, 61; ordeals undergone by young men among the Indians of, 62 _sq._; effigies of Judas burnt at Easter in, 128; fires of St. John in, 213; the Caripunas of, ii. 230; the Bororo of, 230 _n._; the Nahuqua of, 230; the Bakairi of, 231

Bread, reverence for, i. 13

Breadalbane, i. 149; treatment of mad cow in, 326

Breadfruit-tree planted over navel-string of child, ii. 163

“Breath, scoring above the,” cutting a witch on the forehead, i. 315 _n._ 2

Breitenbrunn, the “Charcoal Man” at, ii. 26 _n._ 2

Brekinjska, in Slavonia, need-fire at, i. 282

Bresse, Midsummer bonfires in, i. 189

Brest, Midsummer fire-custom at, i. 184

Breteuil, canton of, Midsummer fires in the, i. 187

Breton belief that women can be impregnated by the moon, i. 76

—— stories of the external soul, ii. 132 _sq._

Brezina, in Slavonia, need-fire at, i. 282

Briar-thorn, divination by, i. 242

Bri-bri Indians of Costa Rica, seclusion of women at menstruation among the, i. 86

Bride not allowed to tread the earth, i. 5; last married, made to leap over bonfire, ii. 22

—— and bridegroom, mock, at bonfires, i. 109 _sq._

Bride, parish of, in the Isle of Man, i. 306, 307 _n._ 1

Bridegroom not to touch the ground with his feet, i. 5

Brie, Isle de France, effigy of giant burnt on Midsummer Eve at, ii. 38

Brihaspati, Hindoo deity, i. 99 _n._ 2

Briony, wreaths of, at Midsummer, i. 210

Brisbane River in Queensland, use of bull-roarers on the, ii. 233 _sqq._

British Columbia, seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of, i. 46 _sqq._; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of, 89 _sq._; the Kwakiutl of, ii. 186; Koskimo Indians of, 229; rites of initiation among the Indians of, 270 _sqq._; the Thompson Indians of, 297; the Shuswap Indians of, 297 _n._ 3

Brittany, Midsummer fires in, i. 183 _sqq._; stones thrown into the Midsummer fires in, 240; the Yule log in, 253; mistletoe hung over doors of stables and byres in, ii. 287; fern-seed used by treasure-seekers in, 288

_Brochs_, prehistoric ruins, i. 291

Brocken, in the Harz mountains, associated with witches, i. 160 _n._ 1, 171 _n._ 3

Broom, a protective against witchcraft, i. 210

“Brother” and “sister,” titles given by men and women to their sex totems,