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

538

Franz Boas, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, xv. part i. (New York, 1901) pp. 125 sq. As to Sedna, see id. pp. 119 sqq.

539

H. A. Junod, “Les Conceptions physiologiques des Bantou sud-africains et leurs tabous,” Revue d'Ethnographie et de Sociologie, i. (1910) p. 139.

540

H. A. Junod, op. cit. pp. 139 sq.

541

H. A. Junod, op. cit. pp. 140 sq.

542

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 262 sqq., 278.

543

Le R. P. Cadière, “Coutumes populaires de la vallée du Nguôn-So'n,” Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, ii. (Hanoi, 1902) pp. 353 sq.

544

Dittenberger, Sylloge inscriptionum Graecarum,

No. 566; Ch. Michel, Recueil d'inscriptions grecques, No. 730 ἁγνευέτωσαν δὲ καὶ εἰσίτωσαν εἰς τὸν τῆς θεο[ῦ ναὸν] … ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ κήδους καὶ τεκούσης γυναικὸς δευτεραῖος: Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris, 380 sqq.:

τὰ τῆς θεοῦ δὲ μέμφομαι σοφίσματα, ἤτις. βροτῶν μὲν ἤν τις ἄψηται φόνου ἥ καὶ λοχείας ἢ νεκροῦ θιγῇ χεροῖν, βωμῶν ἀπείργει, μυσαρὸν ὡς ἡγουμένη.

Compare also a mutilated Greek inscription found in Egypt (Revue archéologique, IIIme Série, ii. 182 sqq.). In the passage of Euripides which I have just quoted an acute verbal scholar, the late Dr. Badham, proposed to omit the line ἢ καὶ λοχείας ἢ νεκροῦ θιγῇ χεροῖν with the comment: “Nihil facit ad argumentum puerperae mentio; patet versum a sciolo additum.” To do Dr. Badham justice, the inscription which furnishes so close a parallel to the line of Euripides had not yet been discovered among the ruins of Pergamum, when he proposed to mutilate the text of the poet.

545

B. Hawkins, “The Creek Confederacy,” Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, iii. pt. i. (Savannah, 1848) pp. 78 sq. Hawkins's account is reproduced by A. S. Gatschett, in his Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, i. 185 sq. (Philadelphia, 1884). In the Turrbal tribe of southern Queensland boys at initiation were not allowed to scratch themselves with their fingers, but they might do it with a stick. See A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 596.

546

L. Alberti, De Kaffers (Amsterdam, 1810), pp. 76 sq.; H. Lichtenstein, Reisen im südlichen Afrika (Berlin, 1811-12), i. 427; S. Kay, Travels and Researches in Caffraria (London, 1833), pp. 273 sq.; Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir, p. 208; J. Stewart, D.D., Lovedale, South Africa (Edinburgh, 1894), pp. 105 sq., with illustrations.

547

Old New Zealand, by a Pakeha Maori (London, 1884), pp. 96, 114 sq. One of the customs mentioned by the writer was that all the people left in the camp had to fast strictly while the warriors were out in the field. This rule is obviously based on the sympathetic connexion supposed to exist between friends at a distance, especially at critical times. See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 126 sqq.

548

Deuteronomy xxiii. 9-14; 1 Samuel xxi. 5. The rule laid down in Deuteronomy xxiii. 10, 11, suffices to prove that the custom of continence observed in time of war by the Israelites, as by a multitude of savage and barbarous peoples, was based on a superstitious, not a rational motive. To convince us of this it is enough to remark that the rule is often observed by warriors for some time after their victorious return, and also by the persons left at home during the absence of the fighting men. In these cases the observance of the rule evidently does not admit of a rational explanation, which could hardly, indeed, be entertained by any one conversant with savage modes of thought. For examples, see The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 125, 128, 131, 133, and below, pp. 161, 163, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 175 sq., 178, 179, 181.

The other rule of personal cleanliness referred to in the text is exactly observed, for the reason I have indicated, by the aborigines in various parts of Australia. See (Sir) George Grey, Journals, ii. 344; R. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 165; J. Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 12; P. Beveridge, in Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, xvii. (1883) pp. 69 sq. Compare W. Stanbridge, “On the Aborigines of Victoria,” Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, N.S. i. (1861) p. 299; Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 251; E. M. Curr, The Australian Race, iii. 178 sq., 547; W. E. Roth, North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5 (Brisbane, 1903), p. 22, § 80. The same dread has resulted in a similar custom of cleanliness in Melanesia and Africa. See R. Parkinson, Im Bismarck-Archipel, pp. 143 sq.; R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians, p. 203 note; F. von Luschan, “Einiges über Sitten und Gebräuche der Eingeborenen Neu-Guineas,” Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte (1900), p. 416; J. Macdonald, “Manners, Customs, Superstitions, and Religions of South African Tribes,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xx. (1891) p. 131. Mr. Lorimer Fison sent me some notes on the Fijian practice, which agrees with the one described by Dr. Codrington. The same rule is observed, probably from the same motives, by the Miranha Indians of Brazil. See Spix und Martius, Reise in Brasilien, iii. 1251 note. On this subject compare F. Schwally, Semitische Kriegsaltertümer, i. (Leipsic, 1901) pp. 67 sq.

549

Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner (London, 1830), p. 122.

550

We have seen (pp. 146 (#x_10_i25), 156 (#x_10_i37)) that the same rule is observed by girls at puberty among some Indian tribes of British Columbia and by Creek lads at initiation. It is also observed by Kwakiutl Indians who have eaten human flesh (see below, p. 189 (#x_11_i35)). Among the Blackfoot Indians the man who was appointed every four years to take charge of the sacred pipe and other emblems of their religion might not scratch his body with his finger-nails, but carried a sharp stick in his hair which he used for this purpose. During the term of his priesthood he had to fast and practise strict continence. None but he dare handle the sacred pipe and emblems (W. W. Warren, “History of the Ojibways,” Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, v. (1885) pp. 68 sq.). In Vedic India the man who was about to offer the solemn sacrifice of soma prepared himself for his duties by a ceremony of consecration, during which he carried the horn of a black deer or antelope wherewith to scratch himself if necessary (Satapatha-Brâhmana, bk. iii. 31, vol. ii. pp. 33 sq. trans. by J. Eggeling; H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, p. 399). Some of the Peruvian Indians used to prepare themselves for an important office by fasting, continence, and refusing to wash themselves, to comb their hair, and to put their hands to their heads; if they wished to scratch themselves, they must do it with a stick. See P. J. de Arriaga, Extirpacion de la idolatria del Piru (Lima, 1621), p. 20. Among the Isistines Indians of Paraguay mourners refrained from scratching their heads with their fingers, believing that to break the rule would make them bald, no hair growing on the part of the head which their fingers had touched. See Guevara, “Historia del Paraguay,” in P. de Angelis's Coleccion de obras y documentos relativos a la historia antigua y moderna de las provincias del Rio de la Plata, ii. (Buenos-Aires, 1836) p. 30. Amongst the Macusis of British Guiana, when a woman has given birth to a child, the father hangs up his hammock beside that of his wife and stays there till the navel-string drops off the child. During this time the parents have to observe certain rules, of which one is that they may not scratch their heads or bodies with their nails, but must use for this purpose a piece of palm-leaf. If they broke this rule, they think the child would die or be an invalid all its life. See R. Schomburgk, Reisen in Britisch-Guiana, ii. 314. Some aborigines of Queensland believe that if they scratched themselves with their fingers during a rain-making ceremony, no rain would fall. See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. p. 254. In all these cases, plainly, the hands are conceived to be so strongly infected with the venom of taboo that it is dangerous even for the owner of the hands to touch himself with them. The cowboy who herded the cows of the king of Unyoro had to live strictly chaste, no one might touch him, and he might not scratch or wound himself so as to draw blood. But it is not said that he was forbidden to touch himself with his own hands. See my Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 527.

551

Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner (London, 1830), p. 123. As to the custom of not stepping over a person or his weapons, see the note at the end of the volume.

552

J. G. Bourke, On the Border with Crook (New York, 1891), p. 133; id., in Folk-lore, ii. (1891) p. 453; id., in Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1892), p. 490.

553

J. G. Kohl, Kitschi-Gami, ii. 168.

554

Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt (Middletown, 1820), pp. 148 sq.

555

J. de Smet, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xiv. (1842) pp. 67 sq. These customs have doubtless long passed away, and the Indians who practised them may well have suffered the extinction which they did their best to incur.

556

J. Adair, History of the American Indians (London, 1775), p. 163.

557

J. Adair, History of the American Indians, pp. 380-382.

558

Maj. M. Marston, in Rev. Jedidiah Morse's Report to the Secretary of War of the United States on Indian Affairs (New-haven, 1822), Appendix, p. 130. The account in the text refers especially to the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo Indians, at the junction of the Rock and Mississippi rivers.

559

H. A. Junod, “Les Conceptions physiologiques des Bantou sud-africains et leurs tabous,” Revue d'Ethnographie et de Sociologie, i. (1910) p. 149.

560

For more evidence of the practice of continence by warriors, see R. Taylor, Te Ika A Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants,