The first conclusion to be drawn from this is that the overlapping of the several examples (No. 1 overlapping No. 2 ata,b,c,d, No. 2 overlapping No. 3 ata,b+g,h, No. 3 overlapping No. 4 at +g,h,i) shows all these several examples to be but variations of one originalcustom, example No. 4, though possessing none of the elements of example No. 1, being the same custom as example No. 1. Secondly, the divergencesgtommark the line of decay which this particular custom has undergone since it ceased to belong to the dominant culture of the people, and dropped back into the position of a survival from a former culture preserved only by a fragment of the people.[224]
The first of these conclusions is not affected by the order in which the examples are arranged; whether we begin with No. 4 or with No. 1, the relationship of each example to the others, thus proved to be in intimate association, is the same. The second conclusion is necessarily dependent upon what we take to be "primary elements" and "secondary elements;" and the question is how can these be determined? As a rule it will be found that the primary elements are the most constant parts of the whole group of examples, appearing more frequently, possessing greater adherence to a common form, changing (when they do change) with slighter variations; while the secondary elements, on the other hand, assume many different varieties of form, are by no means of constant occurrence, and do not even amongst themselves tend to a common form. The primary elements, therefore, constitute the form of the custom which represents the oldest part of the survival. They alone will help us to determine the origin of the custom, whether by features represented in the elements thus brought together or by comparison with ancientcustom elsewhere or with survivals elsewhere similarly reconstituted. Altogether these elements, thus linked together by the tie of common attributes, are parts of one organic whole, and it is on this reconstructed organism we have to rely for the evidence from tradition.
When any given custom or belief has undergone this double process of analysis of its component parts and classification of its several elements, another process has to be undertaken, namely, to ascertain its association with other customs or beliefs, in the same country or among the same people, each of which customs or beliefs, being treated in exactly the same manner, is found to exhibit some degree of relationship in origin, condition, or purpose to the whole group under examination. In this way classification, analysis, and association go hand in hand as the necessary methods of studying survivals. Without analysis we cannot properly arrive at a classification; without classification we cannot work out the association of survivals.
The process is perhaps highly technical and complicated. It may not be of interest to all to discuss the process by which results are attained when what is most desired are the results themselves. But in truth the two parts of this study cannot well be separated. To judge of the validity of the results one must know what the process has been, and too often results are jumped at without warrant; items of custom and usage or of belief and myth are docketed as belonging to a given phase of culture, a given group of people, when they have no right to such a place in the history of man. It is not only distasteful to the inquirer, butalmost impossible to dislodge any item of folklore once so placed, and thus much of the value of the material supplied by folklore is lost or discounted.
Custom, rite, and belief treated in this fashion become veritable monuments of history—a history too ancient to have been recorded in script, too much an essential part of the folk-life to have been lost to tradition. We may hope to restore therefrom the surviving mosaic of ancient institutions, ancient law, and ancient religion, and we may further hope, with this mosaic to work upon, to restore much of the entire fabric which has been lying so many centuries beneath the accumulated and accumulating mass of new developments representing the civilisation of the Western world.
It is only here that we can discover the point where we may properly commence the work of comparative folklore. An item of folklore which stands isolated is practically of no use for scientific investigation. It may be, as we have seen, that the myth is in its primary stage as a sacred belief among primitive people, in its secondary or folk-tale stage as a sacred memory of what was once believed, in its final or legendary stage when it does duty in preserving the memory of a hero or a place of abiding interest. It may be, as we have seen, that the custom, rite, or belief is a mere formula without purpose or result, a mere traditional expression of a purpose without formula or result, a mere statement of result without formula or purpose. We must know the exact positionof each item before we begin to compare, or we may be comparing absolutely unlike things. The exact position of each item of folklore is not to be found from one isolated example. It has first to be restored to its association with all the known examples of its kind, so that the earliest and most complete form may be recorded. That is the true position to which it has been reduced as a survival. This restored and complete example is then in a position to be compared either with similar survivals in other countries on the same level of culture, or within the same ethnological or political sphere of influence, or with living customs, rites, or beliefs of peoples of a more backward state of culture or in a savage state of culture. Comparison of this kind is of value. Comparison of a less technical or comprehensive kind may be of value in the hands of a great master; but it is often not only valueless but mischievous in the hands of less experienced writers, who think that comparison is justified wherever similarity is discovered.
Similarity in form, however, does not necessarily mean similarity in origin. It does not mean similarity in motive. Customs and rites which are alike in practice can be shown to have originated from quite different causes, to express quite different motifs, and cannot therefore be held to belong to a common class, the elements of which are comparable. Thus to take a very considerable custom, to be found both in folk-tales and in usage, the succession of the youngest son, it is pretty clear that among European peoples it originated in the tribal practice of the elder sons going out of the tribal household to found tribal householdsof their own, thus leaving the youngest to inherit the original homestead. But among savage peoples where the youngest son inherits the homestead, he does not do so because of a tribal custom such as that to be found in the European evidence. It is because of the conditions of the marriage rites. Thus among the Kafir peoples of South Africa
"the young man of the commonality, who being a young man has had but little or no means of displaying his sagacity—a quality with them most frequently synonymous with cunning—commences for himself in a small way. Hence, too, being polygamous, and his wives being bought with cattle, his first wife is taken from a position accordant with that of a young, untried, and poor or comparatively poor man. Hence also it happens that his wives increase in number, and in—so to speak—position, in accordance with his wealth, and with his reputation for wisdom and sagacity, which may have raised him to the rank of headman of a district, and one of the Chief's counsellors. It is, therefore, only when old in years that he takes to himself his 'great wife,' one of greater social and racial position than were his previous wives, and her son, that is, her eldest son, who is consequently the father's youngest or nearly his youngest, becomes his 'great son,' and par excellence the heir. If the father be a Chief, this son becomes the Chief at his father's death."As, however, subordinate heirs, the father after some consultation and ceremony chooses out of his other sons, secondly 'the son of his right hand,' and thirdly, 'the son of his grandfather.' If the father be a Chief, these two are after his death accounted as Chiefs in the tribe, subordinate to the 'great son,' and even if through their superior energy, the size of the tribe requiring emigration to pastures new, or other causes, one or both of them break off, and with their respective inheritance or following form aseparate tribe or tribes, yet they are federally bound to their great brother, and their successors to his successors, and recognise him as their supreme or national Chief. Thus Krili, the Chief of the Amagcaleka tribe across the Kei, was also paramount Chief of all the Amaxosas, including his own tribe, and those this side the Kei, who are divided into the two great divisions—each of which includes several tribes—of the Amangquika and Amandhlambi, which latter has among it the Amagqunukwebi, a tribe of Caffre intermingled with Hottentot blood, and therefore rather looked down upon."[225]
"the young man of the commonality, who being a young man has had but little or no means of displaying his sagacity—a quality with them most frequently synonymous with cunning—commences for himself in a small way. Hence, too, being polygamous, and his wives being bought with cattle, his first wife is taken from a position accordant with that of a young, untried, and poor or comparatively poor man. Hence also it happens that his wives increase in number, and in—so to speak—position, in accordance with his wealth, and with his reputation for wisdom and sagacity, which may have raised him to the rank of headman of a district, and one of the Chief's counsellors. It is, therefore, only when old in years that he takes to himself his 'great wife,' one of greater social and racial position than were his previous wives, and her son, that is, her eldest son, who is consequently the father's youngest or nearly his youngest, becomes his 'great son,' and par excellence the heir. If the father be a Chief, this son becomes the Chief at his father's death.
"As, however, subordinate heirs, the father after some consultation and ceremony chooses out of his other sons, secondly 'the son of his right hand,' and thirdly, 'the son of his grandfather.' If the father be a Chief, these two are after his death accounted as Chiefs in the tribe, subordinate to the 'great son,' and even if through their superior energy, the size of the tribe requiring emigration to pastures new, or other causes, one or both of them break off, and with their respective inheritance or following form aseparate tribe or tribes, yet they are federally bound to their great brother, and their successors to his successors, and recognise him as their supreme or national Chief. Thus Krili, the Chief of the Amagcaleka tribe across the Kei, was also paramount Chief of all the Amaxosas, including his own tribe, and those this side the Kei, who are divided into the two great divisions—each of which includes several tribes—of the Amangquika and Amandhlambi, which latter has among it the Amagqunukwebi, a tribe of Caffre intermingled with Hottentot blood, and therefore rather looked down upon."[225]
Dr. Nicholson, from whom I quote this evidence, goes on to say that the
"custom then of the heirship of the youngest, appears to me to have not unlikely grown up among a polygamous race, and to have arisen both from considerations of self security and from those of race and rank."
"custom then of the heirship of the youngest, appears to me to have not unlikely grown up among a polygamous race, and to have arisen both from considerations of self security and from those of race and rank."
Quite independently of Dr. Nicholson I had come to the same conclusion;[226]and Dr. Nicholson, after handsomely acknowledging my priority in the "discovery," very properly alludes to the not unimportant fact of two workers in the same field coming to like conclusions. It is remarkable that the same distinction between the succession of the youngest son and of the son of the youngest wife appears in folk-tales.[227]Now clearly it would be quite wrong to suggest a parallel between the heirship of the youngest among the Kafir peoples of Africa and heirship of the youngest amongthe tribal people of early Europe. They are not comparable at all points, and it is just where the point of comparison fails that it becomes so important to science.[228]
I will take one other example, and this is the important practice of human sacrifice which looms so largely in anthropological research, and which is considered by so good an authority as Schrader to have taken a prominent place among the Aryans,[229]though he takes his examples, not from language, but from the unexamined customs of the Greeks, Romans, northerns, Indians, and Persians. We know more about the development of sacrifice now that Professor Robertson Smith has dealt with the Semitic part of the evidence. Without resting on the fact that the occurrence of human sacrifice in a country occupied by Aryan-speaking people does not, of itself alone, imply that the rite was Aryan, it is far more important to point out that among the higher races "the feeling that the slaying involves a grave responsibility and must be justified by divine permission" appears, and "care was taken to slay the victim without bloodshed, or to make believe that it had killed itself."[230]This feeling marks distinctly the Greek sacrifice as at Thargelia and in the Leukadian ceremony, the Roman sacrifice at the Tarpeian Rock, the sacrifice at the Valhalla rock of the northerns, while among the Hindus there is much to show that the idea of human sacrifice in some ofthe early writings is a literary borrowing from the Hebrews; and that if it ever prevailed among the Aryas of India it was very early superseded by the sacrifice of animals.[231]Colonel Dalton has given good reasons for his views "that the Hindus derived from the aboriginal races the practice of human sacrifices."[232]Although, then, Greek ritual and Greek myth are full of legends which tell of sacrifices once human, but afterwards commuted into sacrifices where some other victim is slain or the dummy of a man is destroyed;[233]although the significant Hindu ceremonial of so throwing the limbs of an animal slaughtered to be burnt with the dead that every limb lies upon a corresponding part of the corpse;[234]although Teuton, Celt, and Norse[235]are credited with the practice by authorities not to be questioned, it appears by the evidence that the European form of human sacrifice has little in common with the savage form except in the nature of the victim. It occurred, as Grimm states, when some great disaster, some heinous crime, had to be retrieved or purged, a kind of sacrifice, says Mr. Lang, not necessarilysavage except in its cruelty; and the victims were not tribesmen, but captive enemies, purchased slaves, or great criminals.
These two examples will serve as warning against the too general acceptance of the custom and belief of savage and barbaric races, as identical with the custom and belief of early or primitive man. Such identification is in the main correct; but it is correct not because it has been proved by the best methods to be so, but because, of all possible explanations, this is the only one that meets the general position in a satisfactory manner. In many cases, however, it is monstrously incorrect, and it is the incorrect conclusion which weighs far more against the acceptance of the results of folklore than do the correct conclusions in its favour.
The work which has to be accomplished by the comparative method of research is of such magnitude that it needs to be considered. The labour and research might in point of volume be out of proportion to the results, and it may be questioned, as it has already been questioned by inference, whether it is worth the while. The first answer to this objection is that all historical investigation is justified, however much the labour, however extensive the research. Secondly, considering the very few results which the study of folklore has hitherto produced upon the investigations into prehistoric Europe, it must be worth while for the student of custom and belief to conduct his experiments upon a recognised plan in order to get at the secret of man's place in the struggle for existence, which is determined more by psychological than by physical phenomena. Thirdly, if the psychical anthropologyof prehistoric times is to be sought for in the customs and beliefs of modern savages, it is of vital importance to anthropological science that this should be established by methods exactly defined. Whatever of traditional custom and belief is capable of bearing the test and of being definitely labelled as belonging to prehistoric man, becomes thereafter the data for the psychical anthropology of civilised man. Edmund Spenser understood this when his official duties took him among the "wild" Irish. "All the customs of the Irish," he says, "which I have often noted and compared with that I have read, would minister occasion of a most ample discourse of the original of them, and the antiquity of that people, which in truth I think to be more ancient than most that I know in this end of the world; so as if it were in the handling of some man of sound judgment and plentiful reading, it would be most pleasant and profitable."[236]
Comparative folklore, then, to be of value must be based upon scientific principles. The unmeaning custom or belief of the peasantry of the Western world of civilisation must not be taken into the domains of savagery or barbarism for an explanation without any thought as to what this action really signifies to the history of the custom or belief in question. No doubt the explanation thus afforded is correct in most cases, and perhaps it was necessary to begin with the comparative method in order to understand the importance and scope of the study of apparently worthless material. A new stage in comparative folklore must now be entered upon. It must be understood what the effective comparison of atraditional peasant custom or belief with a savage custom or belief really amounts to. The process includes the comparison of an isolated custom or belief belonging, perhaps secretly, to a particular place, a particular class of persons, or perhaps a particular family or person, with a custom or belief which is part of a whole system belonging to a savage race or tribe; of a custom or belief whose only sanction is tradition, the conservative instinct to do what has been done by one's ancestors, with a custom or belief whose sanction is the professed and established polity or religion of a people; of a custom or belief which is embedded in a civilisation, of which it is not a part and to which it is antagonistic, with a custom or belief which helps to make up the civilisation of which it is part. In carrying out such a comparison, therefore, a very long journey back into the past of the civilised race has been performed. For unless it be admitted that civilised people consciously borrow from savages and barbaric peoples or constantly revert to a savage original type of mental and social condition, the effect of such a comparison is to take back the custom or belief of the modern peasant to a date when a people of savage or barbaric culture occupied the country now occupied by their descendants, the peasants in question, and to equate the custom or belief of this ancient savage or barbaric culture with the custom or belief of modern savage or barbaric culture. The line of comparison is not therefore simply drawn level from civilisation to savagery; but it consists, first, of two vertical lines from civilisation and savagery respectively, drawn to a height scaled to represent the antiquity of savage culture in modern Europe, andthen the level horizontal line drawn to join the two vertical lines. Thus the line of comparison is
We thus arrive at some conception of the work to be accomplished by and involved in comparative folklore. The results are worth the work. They relate to stages of culture in the countries of civilisation which are recoverable by no other means. The stages of culture are practically lost to history. In ancient Greek and Roman history, and in ancient Scandinavian history, there are priceless fragments of information which tell us much. But these fragments are not the complete story, and they belong to relatively small areas of European history. Every nation has the right to go back as far in its history as it is possible to reach. It can only do this by the help of comparative folklore. In our own country we have seen how history breaks down, and yet historical records in Britain are perhaps the richest in Europe. The traditional materials known to us as folklore are the only means left to us, and we can only properly avail ourselves of these when we have mastered the methods of science which it is necessary to use in their investigation.
FOOTNOTES:[182]Mr. MacCulloch, in the title of his interesting book, theChildhood of Fiction, has emphasised this mischievous idea. I am not convinced to the contrary by the evidence he gives as to the popularity of the folk-tale among all peoples (p. 2). Indeed, the book itself is an emphatic testimony against its title. Mr. MacCulloch evidently began with the idea that the folk-tale belonged to the domain of fiction. Thus the opening words of his book are: "Folk-tales are the earliest form of romantic and imaginative literature—the unwritten fiction of early man and of primitive people in all parts of the world;" whereas as he nears the end of his study he observes: "Thus, in their origin, folk-tales may have had some other purpose than mere amusement; they may have embodied the traditions, histories, beliefs, ideas, and customs of men at an early stage of civilisation" (p. 451). Mr. MacCulloch himself proves this to be the case, and it is therefore all the more unfortunate that he should have stamped his very important study with the word "fiction."[183]A folk-tale of the Veys, a North African people, explains this view most graphically in its opening sentences. The narrator begins his tale by saying: "I speak of the long time past; hear! It is written in our old-time-palaver-books—I do not saythen; in old time the Vey people had no books, but the old men told it to their children and they kept it; afterwards it was written" (Journ. Ethnol. Soc., N.S., vi. 354). A parallel to this comes from Ireland: "What I have told your honour is true; and if it stands otherwise in books, it's the books which are wrong. Sure we've better authority than books, for we have it all handed down from generation to generation" (Kohl'sTravels in Ireland, 140).[184]I am the more willing to take this as my illustration of myth because, strangely enough, Mr. MacCulloch has omitted it from the examples he uses in hisChildhood of Fiction.[185]Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 166.[186]Mr. Jeremiah Curtin has collected and published theCreation Myths of Primitive America(London, 1899), and his introduction is a specially valuable study of the subject. I printed the Fijian myth from Williams'Fiji and Fijians, i. 204, and the Kumis myth from Lewin'sWild Races of South-east India, 225-6, in myHandbook of Folklore, 137-139, and Mr. Lang, in cap. vi. of hisMyth, Ritual, and Religiondeals with a sufficient number of examples.Cf.also Tylor,Primitive Culture, cap. ix.[187]Grey,Polynesian Mythology, 1-15. I have only summarised the full legend on the lines adopted by Dr. Tylor.[188]On the Kronos myth consult Farnell,Cults of the Greek States, i. 23-31, who gives an admirable summary of the evidence as it at present stands; Harrison and Verrall,Mythology and Monuments of Anc. Athens, 192; Lang,Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 295-323.[189]Mr. Crawley discovered this story in Mr. Bain'sA Digit of the Moon, 13-15, and printed it in hisMystic Rose, 33-34.[190]"The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature," and "Mr. Gladstone and Genesis," inScience and Hebrew Tradition, cap. iv. and v.[191]Adonis, Attis and Osiris, 4, 25. Mr. Jevons, too, lays stress upon "the source of errors in religion" as human reason gone astray,Introd. to Hist. of Religion, 463.[192]Mr. Jevons practically arrives at this conclusion from a different standpoint. "Beliefs," he says, "are about facts, are statements about facts, statements that certain facts will be found to occur in a certain way or be of a certain kind" (Introd. to Hist. of Religion, 402). Mr. Curtin,Creation Myths of Primitive America(p. xx), confirms the view I take.[193]Orpen,Cape Monthly Magazine. Quoted in Lang'sMyth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 71.[194]This myth is, I think, worth giving, because of its obvious object to account for the difference between white and black races. It is as follows: "In the beginning of the world God created three white men and three white women, and three black men and three black women. In order that these twelve human souls might not thenceforth complain of Divine partiality and of their separate conditions, God elected that they should determine their own fates by their own choice of good and evil. A large calabash or gourd was placed by God upon the ground, and close to the side of the calabash was also placed a small folded piece of paper. God ruled that the black man should have the first choice. He chose the calabash, because he expected that the calabash, being so large, could not but contain everything needful for himself. He opened the calabash, and found a scrap of gold, a scrap of iron, and several other metals of which he did not understand the use. The white man had no option. He took, of course, the small folded piece of paper, and discovered that, on being unfolded, it revealed a boundless stock of knowledge. God then left the black men and women in the bush, and led the white men and women to the seashore. He did not forsake the white men and women, but communicated with them every night, and taught them how to construct a ship, and how to sail from Africa to another country. After a while they returned to Africa with various kinds of merchandise, which they bartered to the black men and women, who had the opportunity of being greater and wiser than the white men and women, but who, out of sheer avidity, had thrown away their chance."[195]Native Tribes of South-east Australia, cap. viii.[196]Northern Tribes of Central Australia, cap. xxii.;Native Tribes of Central Australia, cap. xviii.[197]Spencer and Gillen,Northern Tribes, 624;cf. Native Tribes of Central Australia, 564.[198]Spencer and Gillen,Native Tribes of Central Australia, 229.[199]Grey,Polynesian Mythology, p. xi.Cf.Taylor,Te Ika a Maui, where myths told by the priests are given in cap. vi. and vii., andTrans. Ethnological Soc., new series, i. 45.[200]White'sAnc. Hist. of the Maori, i. 8-13.[201]Curtin,Creation Myths of Primitive America, p. xxi.[202]Im Thurn,Indians of Guiana, 335; Landtman,Origin of Priesthood, 117.[203]Primitive Manners and Customs, cap. i. "Some Savage Myths and Beliefs," and cap. viii., "Fairy Lore of Savages."[204]Introd. to Hist. of Religion, 263. Of course I do not accept Mr. J. A. Stewart's "general remarks on theμυθολογίαor story-telling myth" in hisMyths of Plato, 4-17. All Mr. Stewart's research is literary in object and result, though he uses the materials of anthropology.[205]H. H. Wilson,Rig Veda Sanhita, i. p. xvii.[206]H. H. Wilson,Vishnu Purana, i. p. iv;Rig Veda Sanhita, i. p. xlv.[207]Religion of the Semites, 19.[208]Mr. Hartland passes rapidly in his opening chapter from the myth as primitive science to the myth as fairy tale, from the savage to the Celt (Science of Fairy Tales, pp. 1-5), and I do not think it is possible to make this leap without using the bridge which is to be constructed out of the differing positions occupied by the myth and the fairy tale.[209]It will be interesting, I think, to preserve here one or two instances of the actual practice of telling traditional tales in our own country. Mr. Hartland has referred to the subject in hisScience of Fairy Tales, but the following instances are additional to those he has noted, and they refer directly back to the living custom. They are all from Scotland, and refer to the early part of last century. "In former times, when families, owing to distance and other circumstances, held little intercourse with each other through the day, numbers were in the habit of assembling together in the evening in one house, and spending the time in relating the tales of wonder which had been handed down to them by tradition" (Kiltearn in Ross and Cromarty; Sinclair,Statistical Account of Scotland, xiv. 323). "In the last generation every farm and hamlet possessed its oral recorder of tale and song. The pastoral habits of the people led them to seek recreation in listening to, and in rehearsing the tales of other times; and the senachie and the bard were held in high esteem" (Inverness-shire,ibid., xiv. 168). "In the winter months, many of them are in the habit of visiting and spending the evenings in each other's houses in the different hamlets, repeating the songs of their native bard or listening to the legendary tales of some venerable senachie" (Durness in Sutherlandshire,ibid., xv. 95).[210]W. H. R. Rivers,The Todas, 3-4.[211]Pausanias, viii. cap. xv. § 1.[212]Journ. Roy. Asiatic Soc., ii. p. 218.[213]Hist. of Rome, i. pp. 177-179.Cf.Gunnar Landtman,Origin of Priesthood, p. 77.[214]Perhaps Mr. Lang's study of "Cinderella and the Diffusion of Tales" inFolklore, iv. 413et seq., contains the best summary of the position.[215]Crawley,Tree of Life, 5, 144.[216]Train,Hist. of Isle of Man, ii. 115.[217]The ceremony is fully described inRelics for the Curious, i. 31;Gentleman's Magazine, 1784 (seeGent. Mag. Library, xxiii. 209), quoting from a tract first published in 1634; and seeProc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., x. 669.[218]SeeFolklore, iii. 253-264; Rhys,Celtic Folklore, i. 337-341.[219]Couch,Hist. of Polperro, 168.[220]I have investigated the bee cult at some length, and it will form part of my study onTribal Customwhich I am now preparing for publication.[221]Carleton,Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry.[222]Mr. Eden Phillpotts mentions in one of his Cornish stories exactly this conception. Rags were offered. "Just a rag tored off a petticoat or some such thing. They hanged 'em up around about on the thorn bushes, to shaw as they'd 'a' done more for the good saint if they'd had the power."—Lying Prophets, 60.[223]I gave an example of this false classification of folklore in accord with its apparent modern association in my preface toDenham Tracts, ii. p. ix. The left-leg stocking divination is not associated with dress, but with the left-hand as opposed to the right-hand augury, and I pointed out that the district of the Roman wall, thelocusof the Denham tracts, thus preserves the luck of the left, believed in by the Romans, in opposition to the luck of the right believed in by the Teutons. See Schrader,Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, 253-7.[224]I elaborated this plan of comparative analysis in a report to the British Association at Liverpool, in 1896 (see pp. 626-656), illustrating it from the fire customs of Britain.[225]Archæological Review, ii. 163-166;cf.the Rev. J. Macdonald inFolklore, iii. 338.[226]Athenæum, 29th December, 1883;Archæologia, vol. l. p. 213.[227]See MacCulloch'sChildhood of Fiction, chap. xiii., where this distinction is noted, though its significance is not pointed out.[228]Dr. Rivers has dealt with a very similar case of dual origin in connection with bride capture, seeJourn. Roy. Asiatic Soc., 1907, p. 624.[229]Schrader'sPrehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, 422.[230]Robertson Smith'sReligion of the Semites, 397.[231]Monier Williams,Indian Wisdom, pp. 29-31. The word-equations for sacrifice are given by Schrader,op. cit., 130, 415.[232]Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xxxiv. p. 7. On the influence of the aboriginal racescf.Monier Williams,Indian Wisdom, 312-313; Steel and Temple'sWide Awake Stories, 395; Campbell,Tales of West Highlands, l. p. xcviii.[233]Lang,Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. p. 271.[234]H. H. Wilson,Religion of the Hindus, ii. 289. I compare this with the custom of the cow following the coffin mentioned by Mannhardt,Die Gotterwelt, 320, and the soul shot or gift of a cow at death recorded by Brand, ii. 248.[235]Cf.Olaus Magnus, pp. 168, 169, for the significant Norse ceremony.[236]Spenser,View of the State of Ireland, 1595 (Morley reprint), 73.
[182]Mr. MacCulloch, in the title of his interesting book, theChildhood of Fiction, has emphasised this mischievous idea. I am not convinced to the contrary by the evidence he gives as to the popularity of the folk-tale among all peoples (p. 2). Indeed, the book itself is an emphatic testimony against its title. Mr. MacCulloch evidently began with the idea that the folk-tale belonged to the domain of fiction. Thus the opening words of his book are: "Folk-tales are the earliest form of romantic and imaginative literature—the unwritten fiction of early man and of primitive people in all parts of the world;" whereas as he nears the end of his study he observes: "Thus, in their origin, folk-tales may have had some other purpose than mere amusement; they may have embodied the traditions, histories, beliefs, ideas, and customs of men at an early stage of civilisation" (p. 451). Mr. MacCulloch himself proves this to be the case, and it is therefore all the more unfortunate that he should have stamped his very important study with the word "fiction."
[182]Mr. MacCulloch, in the title of his interesting book, theChildhood of Fiction, has emphasised this mischievous idea. I am not convinced to the contrary by the evidence he gives as to the popularity of the folk-tale among all peoples (p. 2). Indeed, the book itself is an emphatic testimony against its title. Mr. MacCulloch evidently began with the idea that the folk-tale belonged to the domain of fiction. Thus the opening words of his book are: "Folk-tales are the earliest form of romantic and imaginative literature—the unwritten fiction of early man and of primitive people in all parts of the world;" whereas as he nears the end of his study he observes: "Thus, in their origin, folk-tales may have had some other purpose than mere amusement; they may have embodied the traditions, histories, beliefs, ideas, and customs of men at an early stage of civilisation" (p. 451). Mr. MacCulloch himself proves this to be the case, and it is therefore all the more unfortunate that he should have stamped his very important study with the word "fiction."
[183]A folk-tale of the Veys, a North African people, explains this view most graphically in its opening sentences. The narrator begins his tale by saying: "I speak of the long time past; hear! It is written in our old-time-palaver-books—I do not saythen; in old time the Vey people had no books, but the old men told it to their children and they kept it; afterwards it was written" (Journ. Ethnol. Soc., N.S., vi. 354). A parallel to this comes from Ireland: "What I have told your honour is true; and if it stands otherwise in books, it's the books which are wrong. Sure we've better authority than books, for we have it all handed down from generation to generation" (Kohl'sTravels in Ireland, 140).
[183]A folk-tale of the Veys, a North African people, explains this view most graphically in its opening sentences. The narrator begins his tale by saying: "I speak of the long time past; hear! It is written in our old-time-palaver-books—I do not saythen; in old time the Vey people had no books, but the old men told it to their children and they kept it; afterwards it was written" (Journ. Ethnol. Soc., N.S., vi. 354). A parallel to this comes from Ireland: "What I have told your honour is true; and if it stands otherwise in books, it's the books which are wrong. Sure we've better authority than books, for we have it all handed down from generation to generation" (Kohl'sTravels in Ireland, 140).
[184]I am the more willing to take this as my illustration of myth because, strangely enough, Mr. MacCulloch has omitted it from the examples he uses in hisChildhood of Fiction.
[184]I am the more willing to take this as my illustration of myth because, strangely enough, Mr. MacCulloch has omitted it from the examples he uses in hisChildhood of Fiction.
[185]Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 166.
[185]Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 166.
[186]Mr. Jeremiah Curtin has collected and published theCreation Myths of Primitive America(London, 1899), and his introduction is a specially valuable study of the subject. I printed the Fijian myth from Williams'Fiji and Fijians, i. 204, and the Kumis myth from Lewin'sWild Races of South-east India, 225-6, in myHandbook of Folklore, 137-139, and Mr. Lang, in cap. vi. of hisMyth, Ritual, and Religiondeals with a sufficient number of examples.Cf.also Tylor,Primitive Culture, cap. ix.
[186]Mr. Jeremiah Curtin has collected and published theCreation Myths of Primitive America(London, 1899), and his introduction is a specially valuable study of the subject. I printed the Fijian myth from Williams'Fiji and Fijians, i. 204, and the Kumis myth from Lewin'sWild Races of South-east India, 225-6, in myHandbook of Folklore, 137-139, and Mr. Lang, in cap. vi. of hisMyth, Ritual, and Religiondeals with a sufficient number of examples.Cf.also Tylor,Primitive Culture, cap. ix.
[187]Grey,Polynesian Mythology, 1-15. I have only summarised the full legend on the lines adopted by Dr. Tylor.
[187]Grey,Polynesian Mythology, 1-15. I have only summarised the full legend on the lines adopted by Dr. Tylor.
[188]On the Kronos myth consult Farnell,Cults of the Greek States, i. 23-31, who gives an admirable summary of the evidence as it at present stands; Harrison and Verrall,Mythology and Monuments of Anc. Athens, 192; Lang,Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 295-323.
[188]On the Kronos myth consult Farnell,Cults of the Greek States, i. 23-31, who gives an admirable summary of the evidence as it at present stands; Harrison and Verrall,Mythology and Monuments of Anc. Athens, 192; Lang,Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 295-323.
[189]Mr. Crawley discovered this story in Mr. Bain'sA Digit of the Moon, 13-15, and printed it in hisMystic Rose, 33-34.
[189]Mr. Crawley discovered this story in Mr. Bain'sA Digit of the Moon, 13-15, and printed it in hisMystic Rose, 33-34.
[190]"The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature," and "Mr. Gladstone and Genesis," inScience and Hebrew Tradition, cap. iv. and v.
[190]"The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature," and "Mr. Gladstone and Genesis," inScience and Hebrew Tradition, cap. iv. and v.
[191]Adonis, Attis and Osiris, 4, 25. Mr. Jevons, too, lays stress upon "the source of errors in religion" as human reason gone astray,Introd. to Hist. of Religion, 463.
[191]Adonis, Attis and Osiris, 4, 25. Mr. Jevons, too, lays stress upon "the source of errors in religion" as human reason gone astray,Introd. to Hist. of Religion, 463.
[192]Mr. Jevons practically arrives at this conclusion from a different standpoint. "Beliefs," he says, "are about facts, are statements about facts, statements that certain facts will be found to occur in a certain way or be of a certain kind" (Introd. to Hist. of Religion, 402). Mr. Curtin,Creation Myths of Primitive America(p. xx), confirms the view I take.
[192]Mr. Jevons practically arrives at this conclusion from a different standpoint. "Beliefs," he says, "are about facts, are statements about facts, statements that certain facts will be found to occur in a certain way or be of a certain kind" (Introd. to Hist. of Religion, 402). Mr. Curtin,Creation Myths of Primitive America(p. xx), confirms the view I take.
[193]Orpen,Cape Monthly Magazine. Quoted in Lang'sMyth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 71.
[193]Orpen,Cape Monthly Magazine. Quoted in Lang'sMyth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 71.
[194]This myth is, I think, worth giving, because of its obvious object to account for the difference between white and black races. It is as follows: "In the beginning of the world God created three white men and three white women, and three black men and three black women. In order that these twelve human souls might not thenceforth complain of Divine partiality and of their separate conditions, God elected that they should determine their own fates by their own choice of good and evil. A large calabash or gourd was placed by God upon the ground, and close to the side of the calabash was also placed a small folded piece of paper. God ruled that the black man should have the first choice. He chose the calabash, because he expected that the calabash, being so large, could not but contain everything needful for himself. He opened the calabash, and found a scrap of gold, a scrap of iron, and several other metals of which he did not understand the use. The white man had no option. He took, of course, the small folded piece of paper, and discovered that, on being unfolded, it revealed a boundless stock of knowledge. God then left the black men and women in the bush, and led the white men and women to the seashore. He did not forsake the white men and women, but communicated with them every night, and taught them how to construct a ship, and how to sail from Africa to another country. After a while they returned to Africa with various kinds of merchandise, which they bartered to the black men and women, who had the opportunity of being greater and wiser than the white men and women, but who, out of sheer avidity, had thrown away their chance."
[194]This myth is, I think, worth giving, because of its obvious object to account for the difference between white and black races. It is as follows: "In the beginning of the world God created three white men and three white women, and three black men and three black women. In order that these twelve human souls might not thenceforth complain of Divine partiality and of their separate conditions, God elected that they should determine their own fates by their own choice of good and evil. A large calabash or gourd was placed by God upon the ground, and close to the side of the calabash was also placed a small folded piece of paper. God ruled that the black man should have the first choice. He chose the calabash, because he expected that the calabash, being so large, could not but contain everything needful for himself. He opened the calabash, and found a scrap of gold, a scrap of iron, and several other metals of which he did not understand the use. The white man had no option. He took, of course, the small folded piece of paper, and discovered that, on being unfolded, it revealed a boundless stock of knowledge. God then left the black men and women in the bush, and led the white men and women to the seashore. He did not forsake the white men and women, but communicated with them every night, and taught them how to construct a ship, and how to sail from Africa to another country. After a while they returned to Africa with various kinds of merchandise, which they bartered to the black men and women, who had the opportunity of being greater and wiser than the white men and women, but who, out of sheer avidity, had thrown away their chance."
[195]Native Tribes of South-east Australia, cap. viii.
[195]Native Tribes of South-east Australia, cap. viii.
[196]Northern Tribes of Central Australia, cap. xxii.;Native Tribes of Central Australia, cap. xviii.
[196]Northern Tribes of Central Australia, cap. xxii.;Native Tribes of Central Australia, cap. xviii.
[197]Spencer and Gillen,Northern Tribes, 624;cf. Native Tribes of Central Australia, 564.
[197]Spencer and Gillen,Northern Tribes, 624;cf. Native Tribes of Central Australia, 564.
[198]Spencer and Gillen,Native Tribes of Central Australia, 229.
[198]Spencer and Gillen,Native Tribes of Central Australia, 229.
[199]Grey,Polynesian Mythology, p. xi.Cf.Taylor,Te Ika a Maui, where myths told by the priests are given in cap. vi. and vii., andTrans. Ethnological Soc., new series, i. 45.
[199]Grey,Polynesian Mythology, p. xi.Cf.Taylor,Te Ika a Maui, where myths told by the priests are given in cap. vi. and vii., andTrans. Ethnological Soc., new series, i. 45.
[200]White'sAnc. Hist. of the Maori, i. 8-13.
[200]White'sAnc. Hist. of the Maori, i. 8-13.
[201]Curtin,Creation Myths of Primitive America, p. xxi.
[201]Curtin,Creation Myths of Primitive America, p. xxi.
[202]Im Thurn,Indians of Guiana, 335; Landtman,Origin of Priesthood, 117.
[202]Im Thurn,Indians of Guiana, 335; Landtman,Origin of Priesthood, 117.
[203]Primitive Manners and Customs, cap. i. "Some Savage Myths and Beliefs," and cap. viii., "Fairy Lore of Savages."
[203]Primitive Manners and Customs, cap. i. "Some Savage Myths and Beliefs," and cap. viii., "Fairy Lore of Savages."
[204]Introd. to Hist. of Religion, 263. Of course I do not accept Mr. J. A. Stewart's "general remarks on theμυθολογίαor story-telling myth" in hisMyths of Plato, 4-17. All Mr. Stewart's research is literary in object and result, though he uses the materials of anthropology.
[204]Introd. to Hist. of Religion, 263. Of course I do not accept Mr. J. A. Stewart's "general remarks on theμυθολογίαor story-telling myth" in hisMyths of Plato, 4-17. All Mr. Stewart's research is literary in object and result, though he uses the materials of anthropology.
[205]H. H. Wilson,Rig Veda Sanhita, i. p. xvii.
[205]H. H. Wilson,Rig Veda Sanhita, i. p. xvii.
[206]H. H. Wilson,Vishnu Purana, i. p. iv;Rig Veda Sanhita, i. p. xlv.
[206]H. H. Wilson,Vishnu Purana, i. p. iv;Rig Veda Sanhita, i. p. xlv.
[207]Religion of the Semites, 19.
[207]Religion of the Semites, 19.
[208]Mr. Hartland passes rapidly in his opening chapter from the myth as primitive science to the myth as fairy tale, from the savage to the Celt (Science of Fairy Tales, pp. 1-5), and I do not think it is possible to make this leap without using the bridge which is to be constructed out of the differing positions occupied by the myth and the fairy tale.
[208]Mr. Hartland passes rapidly in his opening chapter from the myth as primitive science to the myth as fairy tale, from the savage to the Celt (Science of Fairy Tales, pp. 1-5), and I do not think it is possible to make this leap without using the bridge which is to be constructed out of the differing positions occupied by the myth and the fairy tale.
[209]It will be interesting, I think, to preserve here one or two instances of the actual practice of telling traditional tales in our own country. Mr. Hartland has referred to the subject in hisScience of Fairy Tales, but the following instances are additional to those he has noted, and they refer directly back to the living custom. They are all from Scotland, and refer to the early part of last century. "In former times, when families, owing to distance and other circumstances, held little intercourse with each other through the day, numbers were in the habit of assembling together in the evening in one house, and spending the time in relating the tales of wonder which had been handed down to them by tradition" (Kiltearn in Ross and Cromarty; Sinclair,Statistical Account of Scotland, xiv. 323). "In the last generation every farm and hamlet possessed its oral recorder of tale and song. The pastoral habits of the people led them to seek recreation in listening to, and in rehearsing the tales of other times; and the senachie and the bard were held in high esteem" (Inverness-shire,ibid., xiv. 168). "In the winter months, many of them are in the habit of visiting and spending the evenings in each other's houses in the different hamlets, repeating the songs of their native bard or listening to the legendary tales of some venerable senachie" (Durness in Sutherlandshire,ibid., xv. 95).
[209]It will be interesting, I think, to preserve here one or two instances of the actual practice of telling traditional tales in our own country. Mr. Hartland has referred to the subject in hisScience of Fairy Tales, but the following instances are additional to those he has noted, and they refer directly back to the living custom. They are all from Scotland, and refer to the early part of last century. "In former times, when families, owing to distance and other circumstances, held little intercourse with each other through the day, numbers were in the habit of assembling together in the evening in one house, and spending the time in relating the tales of wonder which had been handed down to them by tradition" (Kiltearn in Ross and Cromarty; Sinclair,Statistical Account of Scotland, xiv. 323). "In the last generation every farm and hamlet possessed its oral recorder of tale and song. The pastoral habits of the people led them to seek recreation in listening to, and in rehearsing the tales of other times; and the senachie and the bard were held in high esteem" (Inverness-shire,ibid., xiv. 168). "In the winter months, many of them are in the habit of visiting and spending the evenings in each other's houses in the different hamlets, repeating the songs of their native bard or listening to the legendary tales of some venerable senachie" (Durness in Sutherlandshire,ibid., xv. 95).
[210]W. H. R. Rivers,The Todas, 3-4.
[210]W. H. R. Rivers,The Todas, 3-4.
[211]Pausanias, viii. cap. xv. § 1.
[211]Pausanias, viii. cap. xv. § 1.
[212]Journ. Roy. Asiatic Soc., ii. p. 218.
[212]Journ. Roy. Asiatic Soc., ii. p. 218.
[213]Hist. of Rome, i. pp. 177-179.Cf.Gunnar Landtman,Origin of Priesthood, p. 77.
[213]Hist. of Rome, i. pp. 177-179.Cf.Gunnar Landtman,Origin of Priesthood, p. 77.
[214]Perhaps Mr. Lang's study of "Cinderella and the Diffusion of Tales" inFolklore, iv. 413et seq., contains the best summary of the position.
[214]Perhaps Mr. Lang's study of "Cinderella and the Diffusion of Tales" inFolklore, iv. 413et seq., contains the best summary of the position.
[215]Crawley,Tree of Life, 5, 144.
[215]Crawley,Tree of Life, 5, 144.
[216]Train,Hist. of Isle of Man, ii. 115.
[216]Train,Hist. of Isle of Man, ii. 115.
[217]The ceremony is fully described inRelics for the Curious, i. 31;Gentleman's Magazine, 1784 (seeGent. Mag. Library, xxiii. 209), quoting from a tract first published in 1634; and seeProc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., x. 669.
[217]The ceremony is fully described inRelics for the Curious, i. 31;Gentleman's Magazine, 1784 (seeGent. Mag. Library, xxiii. 209), quoting from a tract first published in 1634; and seeProc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., x. 669.
[218]SeeFolklore, iii. 253-264; Rhys,Celtic Folklore, i. 337-341.
[218]SeeFolklore, iii. 253-264; Rhys,Celtic Folklore, i. 337-341.
[219]Couch,Hist. of Polperro, 168.
[219]Couch,Hist. of Polperro, 168.
[220]I have investigated the bee cult at some length, and it will form part of my study onTribal Customwhich I am now preparing for publication.
[220]I have investigated the bee cult at some length, and it will form part of my study onTribal Customwhich I am now preparing for publication.
[221]Carleton,Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry.
[221]Carleton,Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry.
[222]Mr. Eden Phillpotts mentions in one of his Cornish stories exactly this conception. Rags were offered. "Just a rag tored off a petticoat or some such thing. They hanged 'em up around about on the thorn bushes, to shaw as they'd 'a' done more for the good saint if they'd had the power."—Lying Prophets, 60.
[222]Mr. Eden Phillpotts mentions in one of his Cornish stories exactly this conception. Rags were offered. "Just a rag tored off a petticoat or some such thing. They hanged 'em up around about on the thorn bushes, to shaw as they'd 'a' done more for the good saint if they'd had the power."—Lying Prophets, 60.
[223]I gave an example of this false classification of folklore in accord with its apparent modern association in my preface toDenham Tracts, ii. p. ix. The left-leg stocking divination is not associated with dress, but with the left-hand as opposed to the right-hand augury, and I pointed out that the district of the Roman wall, thelocusof the Denham tracts, thus preserves the luck of the left, believed in by the Romans, in opposition to the luck of the right believed in by the Teutons. See Schrader,Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, 253-7.
[223]I gave an example of this false classification of folklore in accord with its apparent modern association in my preface toDenham Tracts, ii. p. ix. The left-leg stocking divination is not associated with dress, but with the left-hand as opposed to the right-hand augury, and I pointed out that the district of the Roman wall, thelocusof the Denham tracts, thus preserves the luck of the left, believed in by the Romans, in opposition to the luck of the right believed in by the Teutons. See Schrader,Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, 253-7.
[224]I elaborated this plan of comparative analysis in a report to the British Association at Liverpool, in 1896 (see pp. 626-656), illustrating it from the fire customs of Britain.
[224]I elaborated this plan of comparative analysis in a report to the British Association at Liverpool, in 1896 (see pp. 626-656), illustrating it from the fire customs of Britain.
[225]Archæological Review, ii. 163-166;cf.the Rev. J. Macdonald inFolklore, iii. 338.
[225]Archæological Review, ii. 163-166;cf.the Rev. J. Macdonald inFolklore, iii. 338.
[226]Athenæum, 29th December, 1883;Archæologia, vol. l. p. 213.
[226]Athenæum, 29th December, 1883;Archæologia, vol. l. p. 213.
[227]See MacCulloch'sChildhood of Fiction, chap. xiii., where this distinction is noted, though its significance is not pointed out.
[227]See MacCulloch'sChildhood of Fiction, chap. xiii., where this distinction is noted, though its significance is not pointed out.
[228]Dr. Rivers has dealt with a very similar case of dual origin in connection with bride capture, seeJourn. Roy. Asiatic Soc., 1907, p. 624.
[228]Dr. Rivers has dealt with a very similar case of dual origin in connection with bride capture, seeJourn. Roy. Asiatic Soc., 1907, p. 624.
[229]Schrader'sPrehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, 422.
[229]Schrader'sPrehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, 422.
[230]Robertson Smith'sReligion of the Semites, 397.
[230]Robertson Smith'sReligion of the Semites, 397.
[231]Monier Williams,Indian Wisdom, pp. 29-31. The word-equations for sacrifice are given by Schrader,op. cit., 130, 415.
[231]Monier Williams,Indian Wisdom, pp. 29-31. The word-equations for sacrifice are given by Schrader,op. cit., 130, 415.
[232]Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xxxiv. p. 7. On the influence of the aboriginal racescf.Monier Williams,Indian Wisdom, 312-313; Steel and Temple'sWide Awake Stories, 395; Campbell,Tales of West Highlands, l. p. xcviii.
[232]Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xxxiv. p. 7. On the influence of the aboriginal racescf.Monier Williams,Indian Wisdom, 312-313; Steel and Temple'sWide Awake Stories, 395; Campbell,Tales of West Highlands, l. p. xcviii.
[233]Lang,Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. p. 271.
[233]Lang,Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. p. 271.
[234]H. H. Wilson,Religion of the Hindus, ii. 289. I compare this with the custom of the cow following the coffin mentioned by Mannhardt,Die Gotterwelt, 320, and the soul shot or gift of a cow at death recorded by Brand, ii. 248.
[234]H. H. Wilson,Religion of the Hindus, ii. 289. I compare this with the custom of the cow following the coffin mentioned by Mannhardt,Die Gotterwelt, 320, and the soul shot or gift of a cow at death recorded by Brand, ii. 248.
[235]Cf.Olaus Magnus, pp. 168, 169, for the significant Norse ceremony.
[235]Cf.Olaus Magnus, pp. 168, 169, for the significant Norse ceremony.
[236]Spenser,View of the State of Ireland, 1595 (Morley reprint), 73.
[236]Spenser,View of the State of Ireland, 1595 (Morley reprint), 73.
Although the great mass of folklore rests upon tradition and tradition alone, an important aid to tradition comes from certain psychological conditions which we must now consider. At an early stage all students of folklore will have discovered that it is not entirely to tradition that folklore is indebted for its material. There are still people capable of thinking, capable of believing, in the primitive way and in the primitive degree. Such people are of course the descendants of long ancestors of such people—people whose minds are not attuned to the civilisation around them; people, perhaps, whose minds have been to an extent stunted and kept back by the civilisation around them. There can be no doubt that civilisation and all it demands of mankind acts as a deterrent upon the minds of some living within the civilisation zone, and belonging apparently to the civilised society. This is the root cause of some of the lunacy and much of the crime which apparently exists as a necessary adjunct of civilisation, and it leads to various forms of thought inconsistent with the knowledge and ideas of the age. When these forms of thought are not concentrated intoa new religious sect by the operation of social laws, they become what is sometimes called mere superstition, that kind of superstition which consists of using the same power of logic to a narrow set of facts which primitive man was in the habit of using, and thus repeating in this age the methods of primitive science. We cannot quite understand this in the age of railways and schools and inventions, but it will be understood better if we go back for only a generation or two to those parts of our country which are most remote from civilising influences, and obtain some information as to their condition.
This cannot be better accomplished than by referring to a Scottish author writing, in 1835, of the superstitions then prevailing in Scotland. "Our whole genuine records," says Dalyell,
"teem with the most repulsive pictures of the weakness, bigotry, turbulence, and fierce and treacherous cruelty of the populace. False and corrupt innovations of literature, a compound of facts and fiction, intermingling the old and the new in heterogeneous assemblage, would persuade us to think much more of our forefathers than they thought of themselves. Scotland, until the most modern date, was an utter stranger to civilisation, presenting a sterile country with a famished people, wasted by hordes of mendicants readier to seize than to solicit—void of ingenious arts and useful manufactures, possessed of little skill and learning, plunged in constant war and rapine, full of insubordination, disturbing public rule and private peace. For waving pendants, flowing draperies, brilliant colours, eagles' feathers, herons' plumes, feasts or festivals so splendid in imagination, let naked limbs, scanty, sombre garments to elude discovery by the foe, bits of heath stuck in bonnets if they had them, precarious sustenance, abject humility and all those hardships inseparablefrom uncultivated tribes and countries be instituted as a juster portrait of earlier generations."[237]
"teem with the most repulsive pictures of the weakness, bigotry, turbulence, and fierce and treacherous cruelty of the populace. False and corrupt innovations of literature, a compound of facts and fiction, intermingling the old and the new in heterogeneous assemblage, would persuade us to think much more of our forefathers than they thought of themselves. Scotland, until the most modern date, was an utter stranger to civilisation, presenting a sterile country with a famished people, wasted by hordes of mendicants readier to seize than to solicit—void of ingenious arts and useful manufactures, possessed of little skill and learning, plunged in constant war and rapine, full of insubordination, disturbing public rule and private peace. For waving pendants, flowing draperies, brilliant colours, eagles' feathers, herons' plumes, feasts or festivals so splendid in imagination, let naked limbs, scanty, sombre garments to elude discovery by the foe, bits of heath stuck in bonnets if they had them, precarious sustenance, abject humility and all those hardships inseparablefrom uncultivated tribes and countries be instituted as a juster portrait of earlier generations."[237]
This statement as to Scotland is correctly drawn from social conditions which have now passed away, but which, down to the beginning of last century, belonged to the ordinary life of the people. Thus it is recorded that