The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 03 of 12)

1

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 332 sqq., 373 sqq.

2

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 352 sqq.

3

Manners and Customs of the Japanese in the Nineteenth Century: from recent Dutch Visitors to Japan, and the German of Dr. Ph. Fr. von Siebold (London, 1841), pp. 141 sqq.

4

W. G. Aston, Shinto (the Way of the Gods) (London, 1905), p. 41; Michel Revon, Le Shintoïsme, i. (Paris, 1907), pp. 189 sqq. The Japanese word for god or deity is kami. It is thus explained by the native scholar Motoöri, one of the chief authorities on Japanese religion: “The term Kami is applied in the first place to the various deities of Heaven and Earth who are mentioned in the ancient records as well as their spirits (mi-tama) which reside in the shrines where they are worshipped. Moreover, not only human beings, but birds, beasts, plants and trees, seas and mountains, and all other things whatsoever which deserve to be dreaded and revered for the extraordinary and pre-eminent powers which they possess, are called Kami. They need not be eminent for surpassing nobleness, goodness, or serviceableness alone. Malignant and uncanny beings are also called Kami if only they are the objects of general dread. Among Kami who are human beings I need hardly mention first of all the successive Mikados – with reverence be it spoken… Then there have been numerous examples of divine human beings both in ancient and modern times, who, although not accepted by the nation generally, are treated as gods, each of his several dignity, in a single province, village, or family.” Hirata, another native authority on Japanese religion, defines kami as a term which comprises all things strange, wondrous, and possessing isao or virtue. And a recent dictionary gives the following definitions: “Kami. 1. Something which has no form but is only spirit, has unlimited supernatural power, dispenses calamity and good fortune, punishes crime and rewards virtue. 2. Sovereigns of all times, wise and virtuous men, valorous and heroic persons whose spirits are prayed to after their death. 3. Divine things which transcend human intellect. 4. The Christian God, Creator, Supreme Lord.” See W. G. Aston, Shinto (the Way of the Gods), pp. 8-10, from which the foregoing quotations are made. Mr. Aston himself considers that “the deification of living Mikados was titular rather than real,” and he adds: “I am not aware that any specific so-called miraculous powers were authoritatively claimed for them” (op. cit. p. 41). No doubt it is very difficult for the Western mind to put itself at the point of view of the Oriental and to seize the precise point (if it can be said to exist) where the divine fades into the human or the human brightens into the divine. In translating, as we must do, the vague thought of a crude theology into the comparatively exact language of civilised Europe we must allow for a considerable want of correspondence between the two: we must leave between them, as it were, a margin of cloudland to which in the last resort the deity may retreat from the too searching light of philosophy and science.

5

M. Revon, op. cit. i. 190 n.

6

Kaempfer, “History of Japan,” in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, vii. 716 sq. However, Mr. W. G. Aston tells us that Kaempfer's statements regarding the sacred character of the Mikado's person cannot be depended on (Shinto, the Way of the Gods, p. 41, note †). M. Revon quotes Kaempfer's account with the observation that, “les naïvetés recèlent plus d'une idée juste” (Le Shintoïsme, vol. i. p. 191, note

). To me it seems that Kaempfer's description is very strongly confirmed by its close correspondence in detail with the similar customs and superstitions which have prevailed in regard to sacred personages in many other parts of the world and with which it is most unlikely that Kaempfer was acquainted. This correspondence will be brought out in the following pages.

7

In Pinkerton's reprint this word appears as “mobility.” I have made the correction from a comparison with the original (Kaempfer, History of Japan, translated from the original Dutch manuscript by J. G. Scheuchzer, London, 1728, vol. i. p. 150).

8

Caron, “Account of Japan,” in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, vii. 613. Compare B. Varenius, Descriptio regni Japoniae et Siam (Cambridge, 1673), p. 11: “Nunquam attingebant (quemadmodum et hodie id observat) pedes ipsius terram: radiis Solis caput nunquam illustrabatur: in apertum aërem non procedebat,” etc. The first edition of this book was published by Elzevir at Amsterdam in 1649. The Geographia Generalis of the same writer had the honour of appearing in an edition revised and corrected by Isaac Newton (Cambridge, at the University Press, 1672).

9

A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste (Jena, 1874-75), i. 287 sq., compare pp. 353 sq.

10

H. Klose, Togo unter deutscher Flagge (Berlin, 1899), pp. 189, 268.

11

J. B. Labat, Relation historique de l'Éthiopie occidentale (Paris, 1732), i. 254 sqq.

12

Ch. Wunenberger, “La Mission et le royaume de Humbé, sur les bords du Cunène,” Missions Catholiques, xx. (1888) p. 262.

13

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 415 sq.

14

Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-centrale, iii. 29 sq.; H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 142 sq.

15

A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste, i. 355.

16

O. Dapper, Description de l'Afrique (Amsterdam, 1686), p. 336.

17

O. Baumann, Eine afrikanische Tropen-Insel, Fernando Póo und die Bube (Wien und Olmütz, 1888), pp. 103 sq.

18

G. Zündel, “Land und Volk der Eweer auf der Sclavenküste in Westafrika,” Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, xii. (1877) p. 402.

19

Béraud, “Note sur le Dahomé,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), Vme Série, xii. (1866) p. 377.

20

A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste, i. 263.

21

Bosman's “Guinea,” in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, xvi. 500.

22

A. Dalzell, History of Dahomey (London, 1793), p. 15; Th. Winterbottom, An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone (London, 1803), pp. 229 sq.

23

J. B. L. Durand, Voyage au Sénégal (Paris, 1802), p. 55.

24

W. S. Taberer (Chief Native Commissioner for Mashonaland), “Mashonaland Natives,” Journal of the African Society, No. 15 (April 1905). p. 320.

25