190.3Lucan,Phars., i. 135; Vergil,Æn., xii. 766. Bötticher, 62,et seqq., mentions other instances, and in his illustrations gives several figures showing the custom.
191.1Georgeakis, 348, 349.
191.2Andree, i.Ethnog. Par., 29.
191.3vii.Rev. Trad. Pop., 56, citing Boijdowsky,Kievskaïa Starina.
192.1Von Wlislocki,Volksgl. Mag., 22, 70.
192.2H. H. Wilson, ii.Works, 169.
193.1Andree, i.Ethnog. Par., 50, 61; Burton,Sindh, 177; i.N. Ind. N. and Q., 39, 88, 174; Dalpatrám Dayá, 19, 20; i. Hanway, 260; Yule, i.Marco Polo, 128; i. Ouseley, 313, 369,et seqq., ii. 83; iii. 532. The Turks tear off strips of their robes and tie them to the railing surrounding a saint’s tomb. Featherman,Turanians, 398.
193.2Robertson Smith,Rel. Sem., 170; Andree, i.Ethnog. Par., 60, 34.
193.3Rodd, 167, quoting Kamporoglou,Hist. Ath.
194.1Andree, i.Ethnog. Par., 52.
194.2Cooper, 275.
195.1i.N. Ind. N. and Q., 76, quoting Moorcroft and Trebeck,Trav. in the Himalayas.
195.2Lewin, 232.
195.3Georgi, 25, 156.
195.4ii. Erman, 409.
196.1vii.Mélusine, 135.
196.2Andree, i.Ethnog. Par., 61.
196.3i. Schuyler, 138; ii. 113.
196.4A. H. Savage Landor, inFortnightly Rev., Aug. 1894, 186.
196.5H. S. Sanderson, in xxiv.Journ. Anthr. Inst., 311.
197.1Campbell, i.Circular Notes, 350.
197.2vi.Mélusine, 154, 155, quoting theTemps. I have referred to these performances by women in an earlier chapter, and compared them with a similar practice in Glamorganshire. Perhaps I may be allowed to refer to the case of St. Oswald’s Well at Oswestry, where the wish is to be obtained by flinging on a certain stone the remainder of the water in one’s hand after drinking. It must be done at midnight. Burne, 428. The Japanese practice is also referred to by Chamberlain, xxii.Journ. Anthr. Inst., 357. Compare with the rite at Penvenan,suprà,p. 186.
197.3xxii.Journ. Anthr. Inst., 359. See also 356. “In some of the Louisiade group there are certain very large well-known trees under which” the natives “have their feasts. These trees appear to be credited with possessing souls, as a portion of the feast is set aside for them, and bones, both pigs’ and human, are everywhere deeply imbedded in their branches.”Report of Special Commission for1887on British New Guinea, quoted in iii.Arch. Rev., 416. This custom, though not precisely the one now under discussion, is closely related.
198.1Andree, i.Ethnog. Par., 61, 60; vii.Internat. Archiv., 145. Crooke, 105, describing several rag-shrines in India, notes that they are generally called “Our Lady of Tatters.” One in Berár is called “The Lord of Tatters.”
198.2Andree, i.Ethnog. Par., 60.
199.1Mungo Park, 38.
199.2Gaidoz, in vii.Rev. de l’hist. des Rel., 7, quoting Charles de Rouvre,Bull. de la Soc. de Géog., Oct. 1880. M. Schmeltz has figured in vii.Internat. Archiv, 144, two specimens of then’dokéfrom the Congo and the Cameroon now in the National Museum of Ethnography at Leiden. They are stuck with pins and pieces of iron. Another from West Africa covered with nails may be seen in the British Museum. See also Herbert Ward, in xxiv.Journ. Anthr. Inst., 288.
200.1i. Binger, 212. See also Mungo Park, 250.
200.2Darwin,Journ., 68.
203.1ii. Brand, 268 note, quotingStatistical Account.
204.1xxvii.Antiquary, 169. Heron (Journey through the Western Counties of Scotland, 282) gives a less complete account of the practices at Strathfillan. In his time (1792) the offerings consisted of clothes, or a small bunch of heath. He asserts, I know not on what authority, that “more precious offerings used once to be brought. But these being never left long in the unmolested possession of the saint, it has become customary to make him presents which may afford no temptation to theft.”
204.2At a sacred cave in Kumaon is a pool where the worshipper must bathe with his clothes on, and then leave them for the priest. iii.N. Ind. N. and Q., 147. An instance is recorded of a spring in Italy where it was believed that a child bathed before its seventh year would be healed of all diseases. The parents left the child’s clothes to be distributed among the poor. A bishop, however, positively put an end to the superstition; and the spring has since been called “Acqua Scommunicata.” Ramage, 274. This bishop was perhaps eccentric. The bishop of Girgenti does not seem to have prohibited the practice, at the church of San Calogero in that city, of bringing children, stripping them naked in pursuance of a vow, and leaving their best clothes hung on a stick before the altar. i.Rivista, 790.
205.1Gen. xxxi. 44.
206.1Livingstone,Zambesi, 229.
206.2Darwin,Journ., 46.
206.3Josh. vii. 25; 2 Sam. xviii. 17.
207.1Andree, i.Ethnog. Par., 46, 47, 49, 50, 55, quoting various writers; De Gubernatis, i.Myth. Plantes, 160 note, citing Mantegazza; Finamore,Trad. Pop. Abr., 100; v.Am Urquell, 235; Georgeakis, 323; i.Rep. Bur. Ethn., 132; xiii.Archivio, 260; Le Braz, 230, 307; Thomas,Prob. Ohio Mounds, 12, citing Smith’sHistory of Wisconsin; Featherman,Chiapo-Mar., 495.
207.2Hahn,Tsuni-ǁgoam, 45, 46, 47, 52, 56, 69, quoting various writers.
207.3i.N. Ind. N. and Q., 40; Dalpatrám Dayá, 19, 20.
209.1Andree, i.Ethnog. Par., 46, 49, 55. Cf. with the Dyak custom that of the Esthonians on the island of Oesel.Ibid., 47. As to the Peruvian rite, i. Garcilasso, 131. Compare with it a Malabar custom of taking a shred from the clothes and presenting it to the new moon when first seen. i.N. Ind. N. and Q., 88.
209.2Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad.(1892), 819.
209.3Athenæum, 1st April 1893, 415.
209.4Casalis, 287. A parallel practice would seem to be that of putting mud in a niche above the well at the Chapel of the Seven Saints, Plédran, Côtes-du-Nord—not on the child—to cure the mumps. Dr. Aubry, in vii.Rev. Trad. Pop., 599.
210.1W. A. Craigie, in iv.Folklore, 223, quoting theLandnámabók. Cf. the custom in the Louisiade Islands citedantè,p. 197, note, and several African customs also cited above.
211.1i.Bull. F.L., 250.
212.1vi.Mélusine, 155.
213.1It is fair to M. Monseur to say that he recognises expressly (loc. cit.) the priority of trees as objects of worship, in point of time, to fetishes of wood; and M. Gaidoz, of course, would admit the same. But I do not think this affects my criticism. Elsewhere the former refers to two cases, which by no means stand alone, as instances of maltreated divinities. The remedy prescribed for toothache at Warnaut and Bioulx, in the province of Namur, is to bite, as noted in the last chapter, one of the crosses placed on the wayside in memory of persons who have died violent deaths in the neighbourhood. And at Herve, a girl who desires to be married goes to pray at Saint Joseph’s Chapel. She must bite the iron trellis-work around the saint’s statue—of course, because she cannot get at the saint himself. ii.Bull. F.L., 7, 56. It seems to me, however, that the object is, in both cases, to bring the sufferer or suppliant into union with the deceased or with the saint. So, to cure the fever, we find among the French superstitions of the seventeenth century the prescription to bind the patient for a while with a cord, or fasten him with wood or straw to a certain tree; and it was the opinion of some that it must be done early in the morning, that the patient must be fasting and must bite the bark of the tree before being released. Liebrecht, inGerv. Tilb., 238, quoting Thiers. In Transylvania, one who suffers from toothache bites the bell-rope while the church-bells are ringing, saying:—
“The free masses are sung,The bells have rung,The Gospel is read,The worm in my teeth shall be dead.”
“The free masses are sung,
The bells have rung,
The Gospel is read,
The worm in my teeth shall be dead.”
Von Wlislocki,Siebenb. Sachs., 106. This is neither Transplantation nor the ill-using of a god.
216.1Pausanias, ii. 11. A representation of the dedicated lock was sometimes carved in stone upon a tablet and presented to the shrine. In the Mausoleum Room of the British Museum is a marble slab found in Thessaly, whereon are carved two tresses offered to Poseidon. I am indebted to Mr. W. H. D. Rouse for drawing my attention to this.
217.1As to the dedication of hair, see Bötticher, 92et seqq., to which I am indebted for most of the above illustrations.
217.2Wilken,Haaropfer, 39, 40, 56; Robertson Smith,Rel. Sem., 305.
217.3Andree, i.Ethnog. Par., 150.
217.4Zingerle,Sagen, 470.
218.1Knoop,Sagen aus Posen, 182. According to another story, this wonderful hair was the gift of a noble lady as the most beautiful thing she had.
218.2Gaidoz, in vii.Mélusine, 84, quoting M. Auricoste de Lazarque, an eye-witness.
219.1i. De Nino, 49.
219.2Scot, 165 (l. xi., c. 15).
219.3Pettigrew, 40.
219.4Von Wlislocki,Volksgl. Mag., 22.
219.5Garnett, i.Wom., 73.
220.1i. Ainsworth, 260.
220.2De Gubernatis, i.Myth. Plantes, 160 note.
220.3Crooke, 231, quoting Col. Tod’sAnnals.
220.4Wilken,Haaropfer, 55, citing Sir Monier Williams,Religious Life and Thought in India, 375.
220.5Featherman,Turanians, 269.
220.6Ellis,Tour, 325.
221.1i. Macdonald, 109, 111.
221.2Featherman,Nigr., 162.
221.3i.Rep. Bur. Ethn., 159.
221.4Andree, i.Ethnog. Par., 151, 152; i.Rep. Bur. Ethn.,passim.
222.1Browning,Artemis Prologizes.
224.1Ploss, i.Kind, 15, citing Mörenhout.
224.2ii. Bartsch, 45; ii. Witzschel, 249.
224.3Scot, 165, quoting, apparently, Martin of Arles. Compare the Bosnian customs, mentionedsuprà, vol. i. p. 152.
224.4Dr. Paul Aubry, in vii.Rev. Trad. Pop., 599.
224.5Liebrecht, inGerv. Tilb., 240, quoting Thiers.
224.6v.Journ. Am. F.L., 108, 242; ix.Rep. Bur. Ethn., 572.
225.1ii.Zeits. des Vereins, 168. See the monkish MS. of the miracles of Simon de Montfort, printed by the Camden Soc.,passim.
225.2C. A. White, in vii.N. and Q., 8th ser., 6, quoting a book the authorship and bibliography of which are still to seek.
225.3Grimm,Teut. Myth., 1757. A votive offering still not uncommon is a candle of the size or weight of the person who, or on whose behalf, the vow is made. See for example i.Rivista, 790.
225.4B. H. Chamberlain, in xxii.Journ. Anthr. Inst., 364.
226.1i. Doolittle, 115.
226.2Capt. Bourke, in ix.Rep. Bur. Ethn., 556, quoting several authorities.
226.3Ibid., 572. Saint Francis’ is not the only image thus made useful. See v.Journ. Am. F.L., 242; vii. 135.
226.4Pineau, 508. In Brittany, bread rubbed on the statue of Saint Gildas is given to cattle and horses, and even eaten by human beings as a preventive against the bites of mad dogs. Le Calvez, in vii.Rev. Trad. Pop., 93.
226.5Casalis, 267.
227.1Von Wlislocki,Volksgl. Mag., 22.
227.2Journal of Thomas Dineley, in i.Journ. Kilk. Arch. Soc., N.S., 180.
227.3Miss Godden, in iv.Folklore, 502, quoting Dr. Reeves. In Iceland, a preventive of sea-sickness is a sod from the churchyard worn in the shoe. ii. Powell and Magnússon, 644; ii. Lehmann-Filhés, 252; both from Arnason.
227.4v.Rep. Bur. Ethn., 426; ix. 473; ii.Folklore, 442. Compare the Apache use of hoddentin, the pollen of the tule-rush. ix.Rep. Bur. Ethn., 500,et seqq.Compare also the consecration of the Hindu votaries of Devi, by the smearing of their foreheads with a portion of the red powder which has marked an earthenware pitcher containing water and other things infused, by means ofmantrás, with the spirit of the goddess. iv,N. Ind. N. and Q., 19.
228.1This intention, however, is by no means universal. Some instances to the contrary have already been given. I may add to them that in Belgium, in spite of certain examples like that of Saint Etto’s Cross, it seems to be believed that a nail found,especially in a tree, brings good luck. i.Bull. de F.L., 250. In such a case there can be no transfer of disease.
229.1Kolbe, 163.
230.1My authority for this statement is a paper read by Professor Kovalevsky at the British Association meeting at Oxford, August 1894, and not yet printed.
230.2G. Ferraro, in xiii.Archivio, 3.
231.1ii.F.L. Journ., 349.
231.2Addy, 115.
239.1On the blood-covenant, the three chief authorities are Robertson Smith,Kinship; andRel. Sem.; Trumbull; and Strack. Prof. Robertson Smith and Dr. Trumbull, approaching the subject from different points of view, arrived at similar conclusions independently and simultaneously. I have a long list of examples not mentioned by these writers; but I forbear to load the page with them, as they add nothing to the ample proofs of the meaning, and but little to those of the wide distribution, of the rite. By far the most exhaustive examination of totemism is that of Mr. Frazer in his book on the subject, an expansion of his article in theEncyclopædia Britannica.
241.1Stoll, 47; iii. Bancroft, 486, citing Carta; Trumbull, 90, citing various authorities. Similarly, De Acosta describes the practice when at a funeral human beings were sacrificed to the dead to be their slaves in the other world; the victim’s blood was smeared on the corpse’s face from ear to ear. De Acosta, 314. A writer of the last century describes the Nogats of the Bouraits and other peoples of Eastern Siberia asidoles en peinture, representing the contour of a naked human figure, six to eight inches long, painted with the heart’s blood of the victims, or with some other red material. Georgi, 150.
241.2Tibullus, i.Eleg., vi. 45.
242.1i.Heimskringla, 165.
242.2i. Risley, 504, 535, and other places. The daubing of the wooden casing of the well with red lead is one of the village ceremonies at the Sarhúl festival. iii.N. Ind. N. and Q., 180, quoting L. R. Forbes’ Report.
243.1J. B. Andrews, in ix.Rev. Trad. Pop., 115.
243.2P. Sébillot, in ix.Rev. Trad. Pop., 170.
244.1Arnason, i.Sagen, 192. Feilberg, in iii.Am Urquell, 5, quotes it as menstrual blood. Very likely this is correct; but the German version, to which alone I have access, does not specify it.
244.2Von Wlislocki,Volksgl. Zig., 110, 123, 124; Schiffer, in iii.Am Urquell, 200, citing Rulikowski; viii.Rev. Trad. Pop., 487.
244.3Strack, 51, quoting Mannhardt.
244.4Grimm,Teut. Myth., 1833 (a Swedish prescription from Hülphers, given in English by Thorpe, ii.N. Myth., 113). Several modern English cases given by Henderson, 181.
245.1Von Wlislocki, in iii.Am Urquell, 64.
245.2Featherman,Aoneo-Mar., 60.
245.3Featherman,Chiapo-Mar., 355.
245.4Powell, 92. Cf. the Australian custom. ii. Curr, 52.
245.5H. Vos, in iii.Internat. Arch., 72.
245.6i. Crantz, 193.
245.7Dr. M. Pasquarelli, in i.Rivista, 640, citing several cases.
246.1Du Chaillu,Ashango-land, 199, 201.
246.2Von Wlislocki, in iii.Am Urquell, 64.
247.1Arnason, i.Sagen, 20.
247.2Mr. Paton, in letter to me dated 25th May 1894.
250.1ii. Risley, 41.
250.2ii. Risley, 49.
251.1Featherman,Papuo-Mel., 333.
251.2Herod. iii. 11.
251.3Diodorus, xxii.
252.1i.Panjab N. and Q., 122.
252.2Markham,Rites and Laws, 25, 28.
252.3Burton,Wit and Wisd., 450.
252.4Von Wlislocki,Volksdicht., 250.
252.5v.L’Anthropologie, 352, citing and reviewing E. C. Taintor,Les aborigènes du nord de Formose.
253.1Krauss,Sitte und Brauch, 630. The old Norsemen seem to have made leagues by drinking together. See Morris, ii.Heimskringla, 105.
253.2i. Casati, 217.
253.3Saxo, 23; Elton’s version, xxxiii and 28; Du Chaillu, ii.Viking Age, 64, quoting the saga ofEgil and Asmund.
253.4Herod. iii. 8. It may be observed, in reference to Herodotus’ identification of Alilat with Urania, that Allatu (? = Alilat) appears to be the more correct transliteration of the name of the Babylonian goddess of the Underworld, given by Smith (Chald. Gen., 230) as Ninkigal. Jeremias,Höllenfahrt, passim.
254.1Robertson Smith,Rel. Sem., 297.
255.1Livingstone,Miss. Travels, 489.
255.2Kuno Meyer, in i.Arch. Rev., 304, translating the saga.
255.3Finamore,Trad. Pop. Abr., 172.
256.1i. Bancroft, 636, citing Father Joseph Arlegui.
256.2Featherman,Papuo-Mel., 281.
256.3Lewin, 228, 315, 322.
256.4vii.Mélusine, 76, quotingAnnales Apostoliques, July 1894.
256.5i. Risley, lviii. ii. 16, 111.
257.1Caroline Islanders, Featherman,Oceano-Mel., 348; La Pérouse Islanders,Ibid.,Papuo-Mel., 95.
257.2i. De Nino, 51. As to the blood-rite in modern Italy, see Strack, 12; Finamore,Trad. Pop. Abruz., 101.
258.1Krauss,Sitte und Brauch, 633.
259.1Congress Report(1891), 249,et seqq.Cf. the Apache ceremony of spitting in a hole made in the ground at concluding a peace. iii.Journ. Am. F.L., 54. I add a few references here in support of the opinion that the saliva contains the life, and the recipient’s life is enhanced by a portion of the giver’s. The examples given subsequently in the text are directed to the further point raised in the following paragraph. iii.Am Urquell, 9, 54, 56, 58; iv. 170, 274; v. 20; Krauss,Sitte und Brauch, 548; vi.Mélusine, 251; Blunt, 166; Marcellus, viii. 166, 172, 191; ix. 107; xxxvi. 70; Finamore,Trad. Pop. Abruz., 79, 135, 170, 191, 203; De Mensignac, 80,et seqq.; iv.Zeits. des Vereins, 84; i.Rivista, 222. (Cf. Zanetti, 59, 63; Von den Steinen, 335; Hodgkinson, 227.)
261.1Mrs. F. D. Bergen, in iii.Journ. Am. F.L., 51.
262.1Persius,Sat.ii. 31. Lustration with spittle was also part of the rites of purification in the Mysteries. Anrich, 211.
262.2Von Wlislocki,Siebenb. Sachs., 144.
262.3De Mensignac, 59, 61, 58; Garnett, ii.Wom., 475; Hillner, 21; Kaindl, 5; Sajaktis, in iv.Zeits. des Vereins, 139.
262.4Extracts from the Journal of Thomas Dineley, Esq., in i.Journ. Kilk. Arch. Soc., N.S., 182; Prof. Haddon, in iv.Folklore, 361, 358; Dr. C. R. Browne, in iii.Proc. Roy. Ir. Ac., 3rd Ser., 358.
263.1iv.Folklore, 357.
263.2iii.Am Urquell, 55.
263.3Ockley, 351.
263.4Mungo Park, 246; De Mensignac, 10, citing Anne Raffenel,Nouveau Voyage, and Abel Houvelacque,Les Nègres.
263.5Winwood Reade, 46.
263.6Burton, i.Gelele, 259.
264.1De Mensignac, 12, quoting Anne Raffenel. Mr. Crombie cites from Burckhardt, a similar custom among the Bedouin. If a thief be caught and abused by the man he has wronged, and can manage to spit on another, the latter must defend him, even against a fellow-tribesman, and may kill the assailant in his defence.Congress Report(1891), 257.
264.2De Mensignac, 22. A similar record by Peters is quoted by W. Simpson,Sikh Initiation, 5.
264.3Paulitschke, 246. Cf. the Pueblo story of the reason why all the Hano can talk Hopí and none of the Hopitah can talk Hano. viii.Rep. Bur. Ethn., 36. The language of some of the lower animals is acquired in folktales elsewhere by the creature spitting into the hero’s mouth. In Ashango-land guests are given red powder to rub themselves with. Du Chaillu,Ashango-land, 341. This appears to be a modified form of the blood-covenant.
265.1Paulitschke, 206.
265.2De Mensignac, 9.
265.3Casalis, 306.
265.4Addy, 59.
265.5De Mensignac, 12, citing Réville. I have mislaid a reference to a more direct authority. Cf. the practice in the Cordilleras mentioned on p. 208.
266.1ii. Brand, 572 note. The practice is a very familiar one. A variant practice is to spit on the first money received in the New Year. This is also practised in France. De Mensignac, 69.
266.2Monseur, 90.
266.3Lubbock, 97, citing Franklin; Addy, 94.
266.4Von Wlislocki,Siebenb. Sachs., 159.
266.5Grimm,Teut. Myth., 1847.
267.1De Mensignac, 66.
267.2Tuchmann, in vi.Mélusine, 231.
267.3De Mensignac, 66.
267.4vi.Rep. Bur. Ethn., 374.
267.5De Mensignac, 77.
267.6iii.Am Urquell, 55, 56.
267.7De Mensignac, 54, 69.
268.1Du Chaillu,Equatorial Africa, 430. Blowing alone appears in the Bakalai ceremony.Ibid., 393. Blowing here, as in other cases, seems a substitute for spitting.
268.2ix.Rep. Bur. Ethn., 574, quoting Major Cornwallis Harris.
268.3Anrich, 210.
269.1Kane, 407. Cf. the charms for rendering dogs faithful givenante, pp.124,127.
269.2Winwood Reade, 131.
269.3iii.Am Urquell, 57.
270.1v.Journ. Am. F.L., 183.
270.2Scot, 219; iii.Am Urquell, 56; Liebrecht, inGerv. Tilb.220; Pliny, xxviii. 7.
270.3i. Binger, 194.
270.4Kane, 216.
270.5Theocritus, xx. Cf. vi., where the object is expressly to ward off the Evil Eye.
271.1Pliny, xxviii. 7. Cf. the Italian custom mentioned by De Mensignac, 56.
271.2ii. Brand, 573 note. Seeante, pp.67,132.
271.3i.Rivista, 618; ii. 155.
271.4iii.Am Urquell, 57. The Girondins also spit on the wads of their wooden shoes before flinging them out, to avoid the fourcat, a kind of corn which grows in the fork of the great toe. De Mensignac, 54.
271.5Von Wlislocki,Siebenb. Sachs., 110, 116.
271.6iii.Am Urquell, 108.
272.1Georgeakis, 343.
272.2v.Journ. Am. F.L., 63.
272.3Pliny, xxviii. 7; xvii. Pitrè, 243; xv. 136.
272.4De Mensignac, 61.
272.5Tuchmann, in vi.Mélusine, 86.
273.1iii.Am Urquell, 57; De Mensignac, 54; Pliny, xxviii. 7. An elaborate counter-spell to the Evil Eye still extant in Calabria is detailed by Sig. A. Renda, in i.Rivista, 290.
273.2Haddon and Browne, in ii.Proc. Roy. Ir. Ac., 3rd ser., 819.
273.3vii.Journ. Am. F.L., 126.
273.4Pigorini-Beri, 40; Tuchmann, in vi.Mélusine, 108.
274.1Prof. Mikhailovskii, translated by O. Wardrop, in xxiv.Journ. Anthr. Inst., 97.
274.2Emil Hassler, inMem. Cong. Anthr., 356.
274.3S. K. Kusnezow, in viii.Internat. Arch., 21.
274.4F. H. Wells, in v.Rep. Austr. Ass., 518.
274.5Suetonius,Vit. Vesp., vii.; Tacitus,Hist., iv. 81.
274.6Dalyell, 76, citing St. Jerome’sLife of Saint Hilarion.
275.1ii. Doolittle, 373, 374.
275.2Campbell,Khondistan, 112.
275.3Simpson,Sikh Initiation, 5, quoting Wolf. Dr. Karl Piehl gives two curious extracts from the inscription on the tomb of Pepi II., an Egyptian monarch of the sixth dynasty, xv.Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., 250. They appear to belong to the order of thought under discussion; but in the absence of the context it is impossible to determine their exact meaning. Spitting is mentioned as a charm against rain in the Obererzgebirge, Spiess,Obererz., 34. It is probably an extension of the idea of spitting on a witch.
280.1Herod., iii. 38, 99.
280.2Ibid., i. 216; iv. 26. Father Favre identifies the Padaioi with the Battas of Sumatra (Favre,Wild Tribes, 5), and Major Rennell the Issedones with the Oigurs or Eluths, a Mongol tribe conquered in the last century by the Chinese (G. Busk in ii.Journ. Ethn. Soc., N.S., 80, citing Rennell’sGeographical System of Herodotus). These identifications, however, must be regarded as doubtful.
281.1Strabo, xi. 11, § 8; iv. 5, § 4.
281.2Marco Polo, lxi.
281.3Marco Polo, clxxvi.
282.1Maundeville, xviii., xix., xxxi.
282.2iii.Mélusine, 505, citing Friar Jean du Plan de Carpin and others; Vos, in iii.Internat. Archiv, 70, citing Plan de Carpin and another Franciscan, W. Rubruk.
282.3In Asia. Certain tribes of the interior of Siam, Barbosa, 190; the Birhors of Chutia Nágpúr (Bengal), Dalton, 158, 220; iii.Mélusine, 409; the Gonds, Featherman,Tur., 117 note, citing Rowney’sWild Tribes of India; the Samoyeds of Siberia, iii.Internat. Arch., 71.
In the East Indian Islands. Sumatra, the Battas, Favre,Wild Tribes, 5; viii.Mélusine, 410; ii. Churchill’sVoyages, 180; Featherman,Papuo-Mel., 336 note (Marsden, however, says nothing about it, and the most recent traveller denies it. Modigliani,Batacchi, 152, 181); Philippine Islands, the Montescos, Featherman,ibid., 499; Floris, the Rakka, ii.Journ. Ind. Arch., 174 (these statements are discredited in a note by the editor of theJourn. Ind. Arch., I do not know on what ground); ii. Yule, 236, 240, citing various authorities.
In Australia. Dawson, 67; iii.Journ. Ethn. Soc., 29; ii.Journ. Anthr. Inst., 179; xiii.ibid., 135, 298; xxiv. 171, 182; iii.Trans. Ethn. Soc., N.S., 248; Featherman,Papuo-Mel., 157, 160 note, 161; Letourneau,L’Év. Rel., 35, citing Taplin; ii. Curr, 18, 63, 119, 331, 341, 346, 361, 367, 404, 432, 449; iii. 21, 138, 147, 159.
In Africa. Congo tribes, iii.Mélusine, 433; Maniana, Winwood Reade, 160, citing Mollien; Manyuema, Andree,Anthropophagie, 41, citing Wissmann.
In South America. Various tribes in Brazil, ii. Churchill’sVoy., 133, 135; ii. Dobrizhoffer, 271; iii.Mélusine, 459; Featherman,Chiapo-Mar., 332, 344, 348, 355; xxiv.Journ. Anthr. Inst., 248, 249, 253; of Peru, i. Garcilasso, 56; ii. 274; i.Anthr. Rev., 38; Brinton,Amer. Race, 290; Featherman,Chiapo-Mar., 423; of Guiana, Featherman,ibid., 221.
There is a Gipsy tradition of a supernatural race of cannibals of this kind, where the habit may be a trait borrowed from some tribe with which they have actually come into contact in their wanderings. Von Wlislocki,Volksgl. Zig., 31.
Let me add an observation here. Among many savage nations it is not usual to wait the convenience of the aged before dining off their bodies. They are slain for the purpose. Relics of the custom of putting the aged to death are still found in Europe. It is remarkable that in Scandinavia, as witnessed by Du Chaillu, the displacement of the old man in favour of his son takes placeat the table. This, though not a funeral rite, points to cannibalism of the kind discussed in the text. Du Chaillu, i.Midnight Sun, 393. See also Gomme, in i.Folklore, 197; vii.Rev. Trad. Pop., 153, 287; xii.Archivio, 504; i.N. Ind. N. and Q., 205.
284.1Featherman,Chiapo-Mar., 31, 417. Mr. Featherman throws doubt on this latter instance, because it “is reported by a Jesuit missionary.” Surely this is carrying scepticism to an unwarranted length. The report of an objective fact like this by no means stands on the same footing as another, by apparently the same missionary, that “the Ucayali Indians believe in a creator of the universe,” to which he takes exception, probably with greater justice. In neither case is there, so far as I know, any reason to suspect that the missionary is intentionally misleading his readers.
285.1iii. Bancroft, 414, citing various authorities; 297et seqq., quoting Torquemada.
285.2Winwood Reade, 160; Featherman,Nigritians, 260, 262; Du Chaillu,Eq. Africa, 84, 88.
286.1Schneider, 135, apparently quoting the report of an English engineer, not named, fromDas Ausland, 1888.
286.2Featherman,Oceano-Mel., 243.
286.3Featherman,Chiapo-Mar., 355.
286.4Powers, 181.
287.1Wallace, 346. See also Brinton,Amer. Race, 267; Müller,Amer. Urrel., 289; iii.Trans. Ethn. Soc., N.S., 158, 193.
287.2i. Bancroft, 76.
287.3Codrington, 221; x.Journ. Anthr. Inst., 285; F. Bonney, in xiii.ibid., 135; A. W. Howitt, in xvi.ibid., 30, 35. The Koniaga practice also perhaps has its basis in magic.
287.4Featherman,Papuo-Mel., 74.
288.1Garnett, ii.Women, 263.
288.2Statements of Miss Garnett and the Rev. Dr. Gaster, cited iii.Folklore, 154.
288.3Mr. W. R. Paton in a letter to me dated 17th June 1892. As to repetition of the Kólyva cakes, see Rodd, 126; Garnett, i.Wom., 99. The times of the commemorative repetitionvarya little in different places. Compare with this the Sicilian custom of eating on the second of November (the festival of All Souls) sweetmeats impressed with images of skulls, bones, skeletons, souls in Purgatory and the like. This is calledeating the dead. i.Rivista, 239. A similar custom at Perugia.Ibid., 322.
289.1Plutarch,Rom. Quest., 65; Jevons, xci.; De Gubernatis, ii.Myth. Plantes, 134; Pliny, xviii. 30.
289.2ii. Laisnel de la Salle, 83.
289.3ii.Rivista, 65.
289.4Ostermann, 489, 482.
290.1C. Guerrieri, in i.Rivista, 314. A plateful is set aside for the dead, and afterwards eaten by one of the family.
290.2Monseur, 41. My knowledge of the Welsh custom depends on the statement of a Radnorshire woman to my brother-in-law, the Rev. W. E. T. Morgan, Vicar of Llanigon. It perhaps requires confirmation.
290.3O. Nemi, in i.Rivista, 959.
290.4Garnett, ii.Women, 496.
290.5Featherman,Tur., 205.
290.6Codrington, 272.
290.7Featherman,Aram., 621. In Barbary cooked food is distributed among the poor on the evening of the burial. This is called the supper of the grave.Ibid., 511.
291.1Featherman,Tur., 540. To these we may perhaps add the Patagonian custom of killing the horses of the deceased and distributing their flesh among his relations.Ibid.,Chiapo-Mar., 495.
291.2Atkinson, 227; iii.Arch. Cambr., 4th ser., 332;Gent. Mag. Lib.(Manners and Cust.), 70; ii.Cymru Fu N. and Q., 271, 275. See also ii.Antigua, 188, where “dyer bread” and “biscuit cakes” (species of pastry) are said to have been formerly handed round at Negro funerals on the island, enveloped in white paper and sealed with black wax.
292.1iv.Folklore, 392.
293.1iii. Pennant, 150.
293.2Aubrey,Remaines, 23, 24.
294.1Aubrey,Remaines, 35. Ellis reprints from Leland’sCollectaneaa letter from a Mr. Bagford, dated 1st Feb. 1714-15, giving a slightly varied account, also professedly derived from Aubrey, of the rite as practised in Shropshire. The fee is stated as a groat. ii. Brand, 155.
294.2iii.Arch. Cambr., N.S., 330. Traces of a similar custom are found in Derbyshire. There no wine is drunk at a funeral until after the party has returned from the church. Wine is then offered first to the bearers. This order is strictly observed; and it is believed that “every drop that you drink is a sin which the deceased has committed. You thereby take away the dead man’s sins and bear them yourself.” Addy, 123, 124.
296.1Burton,Sindh, 350, 354.
296.2iii.Mélusine, 409, quoting M. Dubois’ work as cited in theAnnales de la Propagation de la Foifor 1830. Mr. Frazer cites this case (ii.Golden Bough, 155) and some others from India, all of which I believe are referable to the same origin, though he interprets them by reference to the idea expressed in the Mosaic Scapegoat. His attention probably had not been drawn to the parallel cases I cite above and below.
297.1Dr. M. Hoefler, in ii.Am Urquell, 101. In an article on the Sin-eater in iii.Folklore, 150, I quoted Wilkie’s description of the Lowland Scottish rite called Dishaloof, and expressed the opinion that it belonged to the same order of thought as the rites now under discussion. Though I adhere to that opinion, I have not met with any thing which illustrates the mysterious details of the rite; and I have, therefore, thought it well to avoid burdening these pages with particulars that I cannot correlate. Mrs. Gomme has exhaustively analysed a children’s game called Green Grass, apparently connected with the Lowland rite; but the results attained do not help here. i.Traditional Games, 153. See Henderson, 53.
298.1Quoted in ii. Brand, 153 note.
299.1Denis H. Kelly, in i.Journ. Kilkenny Arch. Soc., N.S., 31 note. Smoking round the corpse was a part of the ceremony in North Wales in the last century. Owen,Crosses, 56.
299.2Mr. W. R. Paton, in letters to me as before, and in letter dated 25th May 1894. Bread or money is distributed by the beadle at the gate of the cemetery on the island of Lesbos. Georgeakis, 321. In Sardinia grain or money is given to the poor who assist at the funeral mass. G. Calvia, in i.Rivista, 953.
299.3Guhl and Koner, 594.
300.1Possibly this is because no fire is lighted in the house of death, as in Calabria, where all food for this reason is provided by the relations and friends for a whole month, i.Rivista, 383.