Part v. (Oxford, 1900) pp. 222 _sq._ (_The Sacred Books of the

East_, vol. xliv.); Denham Rouse, in _Folk-lore Journal_, vii. (1889) p. 61, quoting _Taittīrya Brāhmana_, I. vii. 1.

681 Col. E. T. Dalton, “The Kols of Chota-Nagpore,” _Transactions of the Ethnological Society_, N.S. vi. (1868) p. 36.

M216 Analogous superstitions attaching to a parasitic rowan.

682 Jens Kamp, _Danske Folkeminder_ (Odense, 1877), pp. 172, 65 _sq._, referred to in Feilberg’s _Bidrag til en Ordbog over Jyske Almuesmål_, Fjerde hefte (Copenhagen, 1888), p. 320. For a sight of Feilberg’s work I am indebted to the kindness of the late Rev. Walter Gregor, M.A., of Pitsligo, who pointed out the passage to me.

683 E. T. Kristensen, _Iydske Folkeminder_, vi. 380, referred to by Feilberg, _l.c._ According to Marcellus (_De Medicamentis_, xxvi. 115), ivy which springs from an oak is a remedy for stone, provided it be cut with a copper instrument.

684 A. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks_2 (Gütersloh, 1886), pp. 175 _sq._, quoting Dybeck’s _Runa_, 1845, pp. 62 _sq._

685 A. Kuhn, _op. cit._ p. 176.

686 Quoted by A. Kuhn, _op. cit._ pp. 180 _sq._ In Zimbales, a province of the Philippine Islands, “a certain parasitic plant that much resembles yellow moss and grows high up on trees is regarded as a very powerful charm. It is called _gay-u-ma_, and a man who possesses it is called _nanara gayuma_. If his eyes rest on a person during the new moon he will become sick at the stomach, but he can cure the sickness by laying hands on the afflicted part.” See W. A. Reed, _Negritos of Zambales_ (Manilla, 1904), p. 67 (_Department of the Interior, Ethnological Survey Publications_, vol. ii. part i.). Mr. Reed seems to mean that if a man who possesses this parasitic plant sees a person at the new moon, the person on whom his eye falls will be sick in his stomach, but that the owner of the parasite can cure the sufferer by laying his (the owner’s) hands on his (the patient’s) stomach. It is interesting to observe that the magical virtue of the parasitic plant appears to be especially effective at the new moon.

687 A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 97 § 128; L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), p. 269. See above, p. 86.

M217 The fate of the Hays believed to be bound up with the mistletoe on Errol’s oak.

688 John Hay Allan, _The Bridal of Caölchairn_ (London, 1822), pp. 337 _sq._

689 Rev. John B. Pratt, _Buchan_, Second Edition (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and London, 1859), p. 342. “_The corbie roup_” means “the raven croak.” In former editions of this work my only source of information as to the mistletoe and oak of the Hays was an extract from a newspaper which was kindly copied and sent to me, without the name of the newspaper, by the late Rev. Walter Gregor, M.A., of Pitsligo. For my acquaintance with the works of J. H. Allan and J. B. Pratt I am indebted to the researches of my learned friend Mr. A. B. Cook, who has already quoted them in his article “The European Sky-God,” _Folk-lore_, xvii. (1906) pp. 318 _sq._

M218 The life of the Lachlins and the deer of Finchra.

690 M. Martin, “Description of the Western Islands of Scotland,” in J. Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_ (London, 1808-1814), iii. 661.

M219 The Golden Bough seems to have been a glorified mistletoe.

691 See James Sowerby, _English Botany_, xxi. (London, 1805), p. 1470: “The Misseltoe is celebrated in story as the sacred plant of the Druids, and the Golden Bough of Virgil, which was Aeneas’s passport to the infernal regions.” Again, the author of the _Lexicon Mythologicum_ concludes, “_cum Jonghio nostro_,” that the Golden Bough “was nothing but the mistletoe glorified by poetical license.” See _Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, iii. (Copenhagen, 1828) p. 513 note. C. L. Rochholz expresses the same opinion (_Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, Berlin, 1867, i. 9). The subject is discussed at length by E. Norden, _P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneis Buch VI._ (Leipsic, 1903) pp. 161-171, who, however, does not even mention the general or popular view (_publica opinio_) current in the time of Servius, that the Golden Bough was the branch which a candidate for the priesthood of Diana had to pluck in the sacred grove of Nemi. I confess I have more respect for the general opinion of antiquity than to dismiss it thus cavalierly without a hearing.

692 Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 203 _sqq._, compare 136 _sqq._ See Note IV. “The Mistletoe and the Golden Bough” at the end of this volume.

M220 If the Golden Bough was the mistletoe, the King of the Wood at Nemi may have personated an oak spirit and perished in an oak fire.

_ 693 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 40 _sqq._, ii. 378 _sqq._ Virgil (_Aen._ vi. 201 _sqq._) places the Golden Bough in the neighbourhood of Lake Avernus. But this was probably a poetical liberty, adopted for the convenience of Aeneas’s descent to the infernal world. Italian tradition, as we learn from Servius (on Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 136), placed the Golden Bough in the grove at Nemi.

_ 694 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 12.

_ 695 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 186, 366 note 2.

M221 A similar tragedy may have been enacted over the human representative of Balder in Norway.

696 A custom of annually burning or otherwise sacrificing a human representative of the corn-spirit has been noted among the Egyptians, Pawnees, and Khonds. See _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 238 _sq._, 245 _sqq._, 259 _sq._ We have seen that in Western Asia there are strong traces of a practice of annually burning a human god. See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 84 _sqq._, 98 _sq._, 137 _sq._, 139 _sqq._, 155 _sq._ The Druids appear to have eaten portions of the human victim (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxx. 13). Perhaps portions of the flesh of the King of the Wood were eaten by his worshippers as a sacrament. We have found traces of the use of sacramental bread at Nemi. See _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii. 94 _sqq._

M222 The name of the Golden Bough may have been applied to the mistletoe on account of the golden tinge which the plant assumes in withering.

697 It has been said that in Welsh a name for mistletoe is “the tree of pure gold” (_pren puraur_). See J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii. 1009, referring to Davies. But my friend Sir John Rhys tells me that the statement is devoid of foundation.

698 Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 137 _sq._:—

“_Latet arbore opaca_ _ Aureus et foliis et lento vimine ramus._”

699 This suggestion as to the origin of the name has been made to me by two correspondents independently. Miss Florence Grove, writing to me from 10 Milton Chambers, Cheyne Walk, London, on May 13th, 1901, tells me that she regularly hangs up a bough of mistletoe every year and allows it to remain till it is replaced by the new branch next year, and from her observation “the mistletoe is actually a golden bough when kept a sufficiently long time.” She was kind enough to send me some twigs of her old bough, which fully bore out her description. Again, Mrs. A. Stuart writes to me from Crear Cottage, Morningside Drive, Edinburgh, on June 26th, 1901: “As to why the mistletoe might be called the Golden Bough, my sister Miss Haig wishes me to tell you that last June, when she was in Brittany, she saw great bunches of mistletoe hung up in front of the houses in the villages. The leaves were _bright golden_. You should hang up a branch next Christmas and keep it till June!” The great hollow oak of Saint-Denis-des-Puits, in the French province of Perche, is called “the gilded or golden oak” (_Chêne-Doré_) “in memory of the Druidical tradition of the mistletoe cut with a golden sickle.” See Felix Chapiseau, _Le Folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche_ (Paris, 1902), i. 97. Perhaps the name may be derived from bunches of withered mistletoe shining like gold in the sunshine among the branches.

700 H. Gaidoz, “Bulletin critique de la Mythologie Gauloise,” _Revue de l’Histoire des Religions_, ii. (Paris, 1880) p. 76.

M223 The yellow hue of withered mistletoe may partly explain why the plant is thought to disclose yellow gold in the earth. Similarly fern-seed is thought to bloom like gold or fire and to reveal buried treasures on Midsummer Eve. Sometimes fern-seed is thought to bloom on Christmas night. The wicked weaver of Rotenburg.

701 See below, pp. 291 _sq._

702 See above, pp. 65 _sq._

703 J. V. Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_ (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 97, § 673.

704 J. V. Grohmann, _op. cit._ p. 97, § 676; A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 94, § 123; I. V. Zingerle, _Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes_2 (Innsbruck, 1871), p. 158, § 1350.

705 C. Russwurm, “Aberglaube in Russland,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, iv. (1859), pp. 152 _sq._; Angelo de Gubernatis, _Mythologie des Plantes_ (Paris, 1878-1882), ii. 146.

706 P. Sébillot, _Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1882), ii. 336; _id._, _Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1886), p. 217.

707 J. E. Waldfreund, “Volksgebräuche und Aberglauben in Tirol und dem Salzburger Gebirg,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, iii. (1855), p. 339.

708 H. Runge, “Volksglaube in der Schweiz,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, iv. (1859), p. 175.

709 O. Frh. von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen_ (Prague, N.D.), pp. 311 _sq._ Compare Theodor Vernaleken, _Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_ (Vienna, 1859), pp. 309 _sq._; M. Töppen, _Aberglauben aus Masuren_2 (Danzig, 1867), pp. 72 _sq._ Even without the use of fern-seed treasures are sometimes said to bloom or burn in the earth, or to reveal their presence by a bluish flame, on Midsummer Eve; in Transylvania only children born on a Sunday can see them and fetch them up. See J. Haltrich, _Zur Volkskunde der Siebenbürger Sachsen_ (Vienna, 1885), p. 287; I. V. Zingerle, _Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes_2 (Innsbruck, 1871), p. 159, §§ 1351, 1352; K. Bartsch, _Sagen, Märchen und Gebrauche aus Mecklenburg_ (Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 285, § 1431; E. Monseur, _Folklore Wallon_ (Brussels, N.D.), p. 6, § 1789; K. Haupt, _Sagenbuch der Lausitz_ (Leipsic, 1862-1863), i. 231 _sq._, No. 275; A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 76, § 92; F. J. Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und äusseren Leben der Ehsten_ (St. Petersburg, 1876), p. 363.

710 I. V. Zingerle, _op. cit._ p. 103, § 882; _id._, in _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, i. (1853), p. 330; W. Müller, _Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren_ (Vienna and Olmütz, 1893), p. 265. At Pergine, in the Tyrol, it was thought that fern-seed gathered with the dew on St. John’s night had the power of transforming metals (into gold?). See Ch. Schneller, _Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol_ (Innsbruck, 1867), p. 237, § 23.

711 I. V. Zingerle, _Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes_,2 pp. 190 _sq._, § 1573.

712 A. Schlossar, “Volksmeinung und Volksaberglaube aus der deutschen Steiermark,” _Germania_, N.R., xxiv. (1891) p. 387.

713 Ernst Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_ (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 242-244.

M224 The golden or fiery fern-seed appears to be an emanation of the sun’s fire.

714 J. V. Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_, p. 97, § 675; W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, Second Edition (London, 1872), p. 98; C. Russwurm, “Aberglaube in Russland,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, iv. (1859) p. 152.

715 L. Bechstein, _Deutsches Sagenbuch_ (Leipsic, 1853), p. 430, No. 500; _id._, _Thüringer Sagenbuch_ (Leipsic, 1885), ii. pp. 17 _sq._, No. 161.

M225 Like fern-seed the mistletoe is gathered at the solstices (Midsummer and Christmas) and is supposed to reveal treasures in the earth; perhaps, therefore, it too is deemed an emanation of the sun’s golden fire. The bloom of the oak on Midsummer Eve.

716 For gathering it at midsummer, see above, pp. 86 _sq._ The custom of gathering it at Christmas still commonly survives in England. At York “on the eve of Christmas-day they carry mistletoe to the high altar of the cathedral, and proclaim a public and universal liberty, pardon and freedom to all sorts of inferior and even wicked people at the gates of the city, toward the four quarters of heaven.” See W. Stukeley, _The Medallic History of Marcus Aurelius Valerius Carausius, Emperor in Britain_ (London, 1757-1759), ii. 164; J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London, 1882-1883), i. 525. This last custom, which is now doubtless obsolete, may have been a relic of an annual period of license like the Saturnalia. The traditional privilege accorded to men of kissing any woman found under mistletoe is probably another relic of the same sort. See Washington Irving, _Sketch-Book_, “Christmas Eve,” p. 147 (Bohn’s edition); Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), p. 88.

717 A. A. Afzelius, _Volkssagen und Volkslieder aus Schwedens älterer und neuerer Zeit_ (Leipsic, 1842), i. 41 _sq._; J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 iii. 289; L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), pp. 266 _sq._ See above, p. 69. In the Tyrol they say that if mistletoe grows on a hazel-tree, there must be a treasure under the tree. See J. N. Ritter von Alpenburg, _Mythen und Sagen Tirols_ (Zurich, 1857), p. 398. In East Prussia a similar belief is held in regard to mistletoe that grows on a thorn. See C. Lemke, _Volksthümliches in Ostpreussen_ (Mohrungen, 1884-1887), ii. 283. We have seen that the divining-rod which reveals treasures is commonly cut from a hazel (above, pp. 67 _sq._).

718 Above, pp. 90-92.

719 Fern-seed is supposed to bloom at Easter as well as at Midsummer and Christmas (W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, pp. 98 _sq._); and Easter, as we have seen, is one of the times when fires are ceremonially kindled, perhaps to recruit the fire of the sun.

720 Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_ (London, 1883), p. 242.

721 Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), p. 88.

722 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xvi. 251.

723 Above, pp. 82 _sq._

724 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxxiii. 94: “_Calx aqua accenditur et Thracius lapis, idem oleo restinguitur, ignis autem aceto maxime et visco et ovo._”

725 See above, p. 85.

M226 Aeneas and the Golden Bough. Orpheus and the willow.

726 Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 179-209.

727 Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 384-416.

728 Above, pp. 86, 282.

729 Above, p. 85.

730 Pausanias, x. 30. 6.

731 J. Six, “Die Eriphyle des Polygnot,” _Mittheilungen des kaiserlich deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts, Athenische Abtheilung_, xix. (1894) pp. 338 _sq._ Compare my commentary on Pausanias, vol. v. p. 385.

732 The sarcophagus is in the Lateran Museum at Rome. See W. Helbig, _Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen Klassischer Altertümer in Rom_2 (Leipsic, 1899), ii. 468.

M227 Trees thought by the savage to be the seat of fire because he elicits it by friction from their wood.

733 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 19 _sqq._

_ 734 Die Edda_, übersetzt von K. Simrock8 (Stuttgart, 1882), p. 264.

735 S. Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Washington, 1877), p. 171.

736 S. Powers, _Tribes of California_, p. 287.

737 Max Girschner, “Die Karolineninsel Namöluk und ihre Bewohner,” _Baessler-Archiv_, ii. (1912) p. 141.

738 A. A. Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_ (Strasburg, 1897), pp. 91 _sq._, referring to _Rigveda_, vi. 3. 3, x. 79. 7, ii. 1. 14, iii. 1. 13, x. 1. 2, viii. 43. 9, i. 70. 4, ii. 1. 1. Compare H. Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_ (Berlin, 1894), pp. 120 _sq._

739 Edward M. Curr, _The Australian Race_ (Melbourne and London, 1886-1887), i. 9, 18.

M228 Trees that have been struck by lightning are deemed by the savage to be charged with a double portion of fire.

740 James Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” _Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1900) p. 422, compare p. 435.

741 James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, p. 346 (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History_, April, 1900).

742 J. Teit, _op. cit._ p. 374.

743 The Shuswap Indians of British Columbia entertain a similar belief. It has been suggested that the fancy may be based on the observation that cold follows a thunder-storm. See G. M. Dawson, “Notes on the Shuswap people of British Columbia,” _Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada_, ix. (1891) Section ii. p. 38.

744 R. Wuttke, _Sächsische Volkskunde_2 (Dresden, 1901), p. 369.

745 Henri A. Junod, _The Life of a South African Tribe_ (Neuchatel, 1912-1913), ii. 291. The Thonga imagine that lightning is caused by a great bird, which sometimes buries itself in the ground to a depth of several feet. See H. A. Junod, _op. cit._ ii. 290 _sq._

746 Dr. James A. Chisholm (of the Livingstonia Mission, Mwenzo, N.E. Rhodesia), “Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Winamwanga and Wiwa,” _Journal of the African Society_, No. 36 (July, 1910), p. 363.

747 S. Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Washington, 1877), p. 287. The dread of lightning is prominent in some of the customs observed in Patiko, a district of the Uganda Protectorate. If a village has suffered from lightning, ropes made of twisted grass are strung from peak to peak of the houses to ward off further strokes. And if a person has been struck or badly shaken, “an elaborate cure is performed upon him. A red cock is taken, his tongue torn out, and his body dashed upon the house where the stroke fell. Then the scene changes to the bank of a small running stream, where the patient is made to kneel while the bird is sacrificed over the water. A raw egg is next given to the patient to swallow, and he is laid on his stomach and encouraged to vomit. The lightning is supposed to be vomited along with the egg, and all ill effects prevented.” See Rev. A. L. Kitching, _On the Backwaters of the Nile_ (London, 1912), p. 263.

M229 Theory that the sanctity of the oak and the relation of the tree to the sky-god were suggested by the frequency with which oaks are struck by lightning.

748 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 349 _sqq._

749 W. Warde Fowler, “The Oak and the Thunder-god,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, xvi. (1913) pp. 318 _sq._ My friend Mr. Warde Fowler had previously called my attention to the facts in a letter dated September 17th, 1912.

750 Dr. W. Schlich’s _Manual of Forestry_, vol. iv. _Forest Protection_, by W. R. Fisher, Second Edition (London, 1907), pp. 662 _sq._ Mr. W. Warde Fowler was the first to call the attention of mythologists to this work.

751 Experiments on the conductivity of electricity in wood go to shew that starchy trees (oak, poplar, maples, ash, elm, _sorbus_) are good conductors, that oily trees (beech, walnut, birch, lime) are bad conductors, and that the conifers are intermediate, the Scotch pine in summer being as deficient in oil as the starchy trees, but rich in oil during winter. It was found that a single turn of Holz’s electric machine sufficed to send the spark through oakwood, but that from twelve to twenty turns were required to send it through beech-wood. Five turns of the machine were needed to send the spark through poplar and willow wood. See Dr. W. Schlich, _Manual of Forestry_, vol. iv. _Forest Protection_, Second Edition (London, 1907), p. 664. In the tropics lightning is said to be especially attracted to coco-nut palms. See P. Amaury Talbot, _In the Shadow of the Bush_ (London, 1913), p. 73.

752 As to the Greek belief and custom, see H. Usener, _Kleine Schriften_, iv. (Leipsic and Berlin, 1913), “Keraunos,” pp. 471 _sqq._; _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 361. As to the Roman belief and custom, see Festus, _svv._ _Fulguritum and Provorsum fulgur_, pp. 92, 229, ed. C. O. Müller (Leipsic, 1839); H. Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, vol. ii. pars i. (Berlin, 1902) pp. 10 _sq._, Nos. 3048-3056; L. Preller, _Römische Mythologie_3 (Berlin, 1881-1883), i. 190-193; G. Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_2 (Munich, 1912), pp. 121 _sq._ By a curious refinement the Romans referred lightning which fell by day to Jupiter, but lightning which fell by night to a god called Summanus (Festus, p. 229).

M230 This explanation of the Aryan worship of the oak is preferable to the one formerly adopted by the author.

753 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 iii. 64, citing a statement that lightning strikes twenty oaks for one beech. The statistics adduced by Mr. W. Warde Fowler seem to shew that this statement is no exaggeration but rather the contrary.

754 W. Warde Fowler, “The Oak and the Thunder-god,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, xvi. (1913) pp. 317-320.

_ 755 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 356 _sqq._

756 The suggestion is Mr. W. Warde Fowler’s (_op cit._ pp. 319 _sq._).

M231 The sacredness of mistletoe was perhaps due to a belief that the plant fell on the tree in a flash of lightning.

757 Pliny, _Natur. Hist._ xvi. 249.

758 See above, p. 85.

759 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 i. 153. See above, p. 85.

M232 Hence the stroke of mistletoe that killed Balder may have been a stroke of lightning.

760 This interpretation of Balder’s death was anticipated by W. Schwartz (_Der Ursprung der Mythologie_, Berlin, 1860, p. 176), who cut the whole knot by dubbing Balder “the German thunder-and-lightning god” and mistletoe “the wonderful thunder-and-lightning flower.” But as this learned writer nursed a fatal passion for thunder and lightning, which he detected lurking in the most unlikely places, we need not wonder that he occasionally found it in places where there were some slight grounds for thinking that it really existed.

M233 The King of the Wood and the Golden Bough.

761 On the relation of the priest to Jupiter, and the equivalence of Jupiter and Juno to Janus (Dianus) and Diana, see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 376 _sqq._

M234 Looking back at the end of the journey. M235 The movement of human thought in the past from magic to religion. M236 The movement of thought from religion to science. M237 Contrast between the views of natural order postulated by magic and by science respectively. M238 The scientific theory of the world not necessarily final. M239 The shadow across the path.

762 “I quite agree how humiliating the slow progress of man is, but every one has his own pet horror, and this slow progress or even personal annihilation sinks in my mind into insignificance compared with the idea or rather I presume certainty of the sun some day cooling and we all freezing. To think of the progress of millions of years, with every continent swarming with good and enlightened men, all ending in this, and with probably no fresh start until this our planetary system has been again converted into red-hot gas. _Sic transit gloria mundi_, with a vengeance” (_More Letters of Charles Darwin_, edited by Francis Darwin, London, 1903, i. 260 _sq._).

763 Since this passage was written the hope which it expresses has been to some extent strengthened by the discovery of radium, which appears to prolong indefinitely the prospect of the duration of the sun’s heat, and with it the duration of life on its attendant planets. See (Sir) George Howard Darwin’s Presidential Address to the British Association, _Report of the 75th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science_ (South Africa, 1905), pp. 28 _sq._; F. Soddy, _The Interpretation of Radium_, Third Edition (London, 1912), pp. 240 _sqq._; E. Rutherford, _Radio-active Substances and their Radiations_ (Cambridge, 1913), pp. 653-656. At the same time it should be borne in mind that even if the atomic disintegration and accompanying liberation of energy, which characterize radium and kindred elements, should prove to be common in different degrees to all the other elements and to form a vast and till lately unsuspected store of heat to the sun, this enormous reserve of fuel would only defer but could not avert that final catastrophe with which the solar system and indeed the whole universe is remorselessly threatened by the law of the dissipation of energy.

M240 The web of thought. M241 Nemi at evening: the _Ave Maria_ bell.

764 See above, vol. i. pp. 15 _sq._

M242 Snake Stones in the Highlands.

765 Alexander Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica, Hymns and Incantations with Illustrative Notes on Words, Rites, and Customs, dying and obsolete: orally collected in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and translated into English_ (Edinburgh, 1900), ii. 312.

M243 Witches as cats among the Oraons.

766 Above, vol. i. pp. 315 _sqq._

767 The late Rev. P. Dehon, S.J., “Religion and Customs of the Uraons,” _Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol. i. No. 9 (Calcutta, 1906), p. 141.

M244 African parallels to Balder. M245 The worshipful ghost in the cave. M246 The man who could only be killed by the stalk of a gourd.

768 “Every clan (_Familienstamm_) has a definite thing which is forbidden to all the members of the clan, whether it be a particular kind of meat, or a certain fish, or as here the stalk of a gourd.”

769 “The place in Nguu, where the ghost is said to dwell.”

770 “In Ukami.”

771 C. Velten, _Schilderungen der Suaheli_ (Göttingen, 1901), pp. 195-197.

M247 The man who could only be killed by a splinter of bamboo.

772 Miss Alice Werner, _The Natives of British Central Africa_ (London, 1906), p. 82. In a letter Miss Werner tells me that she learned these particulars at Blantyre in 1893, and that the chief lived in the neighbourhood of Mlanje.

773 Rev. Henry Rowley, _Twenty Years in Central Africa_ (London, N.D.), pp. 36 _sqq._ For a reference to this and all the other works cited in this Note I am indebted to the kindness of Miss Alice Werner.

774 Rev. David Clement Scott, _A Cyclopaedic Dictionary of the Mang’anja Language spoken in British Central Africa_ (Edinburgh, 1892), p. 315.

M248 The man who could only be killed by a copper needle.

775 Edward Steere, _Swahili Tales_ (London, 1870), pp. 441-453. The young man in the story is spoken of now as the nephew and now as the son of the man he murdered. Probably he was what we should call a nephew or brother’s son of his victim; for under the classificatory system of relationship, which seems to prevail among the Bantu stock, to whom the Swahili belong, a man regularly calls his paternal uncle his father.

M249 These stories confirm the view that Balder may have been a real man who was deified after death.

776 Above, vol. i. pp. 104 _sq._

M250 Two species of mistletoe, the _Viscum album_ and the _Loranthus europaeus_. Common mistletoe (_Viscum album_).

777 Virgil, Aen. vi. 205 _sqq._:—

“_Quale solet silvis brumali frigore viscum_ _ Fronde virere nova, quod non sua seminat arbos,_ _ Et croceo fetu teretis circumdare truncos:_ _ Talis erat species auri frondentis opaca_ _ Ilice, sic leni crepitabat bractea vento._”

778 W. Schlich, _Manual of Forestry_, vol. iv. _Forest Protection_, by W. R. Fisher, M.A., Second Edition (London, 1907), p. 412. French peasants about Coulommiers think that mistletoe springs from birds’ dung. See H. Gaidoz, “Bulletin critique de la Mythologie Gauloise,” _Revue de l’Histoire des Religions_, ii. (1880) p. 76. The ancients were well aware that mistletoe is propagated from tree to tree by seeds which have been voided by birds. See Theophrastus, _De Causis Plantarum_, ii. 17. 5; Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_, xvi. 247. Pliny tells us that the birds which most commonly deposited the seeds were pigeons and thrushes. Can this have been the reason why Virgil (_Aen._ vi. 190 _sqq._) represents Aeneas led to the Golden Bough by a pair of doves?

779 James Sowerby, _English Botany_, xxi. (London, 1805) p. 1470.

780 C. Fraas, _Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae_ (Munich, 1845), p. 152.

781 H. O. Lenz, _Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer_ (Gotha, 1859), p. 597, quoting Pollini.

782 J. Lindley and T. Moore, _The Treasury of Botany_, New Edition (London, 1874), ii. 1220. A good authority, however, observes that mistletoe is “frequently to be observed on the branches of old apple-trees, hawthorns, lime-trees, oaks, etc., where it grows parasitically.” See J. Sowerby, _English Botany_, xxi. (London, 1805) p. 1470.

_ 783 Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Ninth Edition, x. 689, _s.v._ “Gloucester.”

784 H. Gaidoz, “Bulletin critique de la Mythologie Gauloise,” _Revue de l’Histoire des Religions_, ii. (1880) pp. 75 _sq._

785 Angelo de Gubernatis, _La Mythologie des Plantes_ (Paris, 1878-1882), ii. 216 _sq._ As to the many curious superstitions that have clustered round mandragora, see P. J. Veth, “De Mandragora,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, vii. (1894) pp. 199-205; C. B. Randolph, “The Mandragora of the Ancients in Folk-lore and Medicine,” _Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences_, vol. xl. No. 12 (January, 1905), pp. 487-537.

_ M251 Loranthus europaeus._

786 W. Schlich, _Manual of Forestry_, vol. iv. _Forest Protection_, Second Edition (London, 1907), pp. 415-417.

787 E. B. Stebbing, “The Loranthus Parasite of the Moru and Ban Oaks,” _Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, New Series, v. (Calcutta, 1910) pp. 189-195. The _Loranthus vestitus_ “is a small branching woody plant with dirty yellowish green leaves which are dark shining green above. It grows in great clumps and masses on the trees, resembling a giant mistletoe. The fruit is yellowish and fleshy, and is almost sessile on the stem, which it thickly studs” (_ib._, p. 192). The writer shews that the parasite is very destructive to oaks in India.

788 H. O. Lenz, _Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer_ (Gotha, 1859), p. 598, notes 151 and 152.

789 C. Fraas, _Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae_ (Munich, 1845), p. 152.

790 H. O. Lenz, _Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer_ (Gotha, 1859), pp. 599 _sq._

M252 Both sorts of mistletoe known to the ancients and designated by different words.

791 Theophrastus, _Historia Plantarum_, iii. 7. 5, iii. 16. 1, _De Causis Plantarum_, ii. 17; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xvi. 245-247. Compare Dioscorides, _De materia medica_, ii. 93 (103), vol. i. pp. 442 _sq._, ed. C. Sprengel (Leipsic, 1829-1830), who uses the form _ixos_ instead of _ixia_. Both Dioscorides (_l.c._) and Plutarch (_Coriolanus_, 3) affirm that mistletoe (_ixos_) grows on the oak (δρῦς); and Hesychius quotes from Sophocles’s play _Meleager_ the expression “mistletoe-bearing oaks” (ἰξοφόρους δρύας, Hesychius, _s.v._).

M253 Doubts as to the identification of the ancient names for mistletoe.

792 Theophrastus, _Opera quae supersunt omnia_, ed. Fr. Wimmer (Paris, 1866), pp. 537, 545, 546, _s.vv._ ἰξία, στελίς, ὑφέαρ.

793 F. Fraas, _Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae_ (Munich, 1845), p. 152.

794 H. O. Lenz, _Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer_ (Gotha, 1859), p. 597, notes 147 and 148.

795 Theophrastus, _De Causis Plantarum_, ii. 17. 2, ἐπεὶ τό γε τὴν μὲν ἀείφυλλον εἶναι τῶν ἰξιῶν (τὴν δὲ φυλλοβόλον) οὐθὲν ἄτοπον, κἂν ἡ μὲν (ἐν) ἀιφύλλοις ἡ δὲ ἐν φυλλοβόλοις ἐμβιῴη.

M254 Did Virgil compare the Golden Bough to common mistletoe or to _Loranthus_? Some enquirers decide in favour of _Loranthus_.

796 His letter is undated, but the postmark is April 28th, 1889. Sir Francis Darwin has since told me that his authority is Kerner von Marilaun, _Pflanzenleben_ (1888), vol. i. pp. 195, 196. See Anton Kerner von Marilaun, _The Natural History of Plants_, translated and edited by F. W. Oliver (London, 1894-1895), i. 204 _sqq._ According to this writer “the mistletoe’s favourite tree is certainly the Black Poplar (_Populus nigra_). It flourishes with astonishing luxuriance on the branches of that tree.... Mistletoe has also been found by way of exception upon the oak and the maple, and upon old vines” (_op. cit._ i. 205).

797 Prof. P. J. Veth, “De leer der signatuur, III. De mistel en de riembloem,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, vii. (1894) p. 105. The Dutch language has separate names for the two species: mistletoe is _mistel_, and _Loranthus_ is _riembloem_.

798 His letter is dated 18th February, 1908.

M255 Reason for preferring common mistletoe. Perhaps Virgil confused the two species.

799 But Sir Francis Darwin writes to me:—“I do not quite see why _Loranthus_ should not put out leaves in winter as easily as _Viscum_, in both cases it would be due to unfolding leaf buds; the fact that _Viscum_ has adult leaves at the time, while _Loranthus_ has not, does not really affect the matter.” However, Mr. Paton tells us, as we have just seen, that in winter the _Loranthus_ growing on the oaks of Mount Athos has no leaves, though its yellow berries are very conspicuous.