A STUDY IN MAGIC AND RELIGION

THIRD EDITION

PART VII

BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL

VOL. I

THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE EXTERNAL SOUL

J.G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL.

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I

PREFACE

In this concluding part of The Golden Bough I have discussed the problem which gives its title to the whole work. If I am right, the Golden Bough over which the King of the Wood, Diana's priest at Aricia, kept watch and ward was no other than a branch of mistletoe growing on an oak within the sacred grove; and as the plucking of the bough was a necessary prelude to the slaughter of the priest, I have been led to institute a parallel between the King of the Wood at Nemi and the Norse god Balder, who was worshipped in a sacred grove beside the beautiful Sogne fiord of Norway and was said to have perished by a stroke of mistletoe, which alone of all things on earth or in heaven could wound him. On the theory here suggested both Balder and the King of the Wood personified in a sense the sacred oak of our Aryan forefathers, and both had deposited their lives or souls for safety in the parasite which sometimes, though rarely, is found growing on an oak and by the very rarity of its appearance excites the wonder and stimulates the devotion of ignorant men. Though I am now less than ever disposed to lay weight on the analogy between the Italian priest and the Norse god, I have allowed it to stand because it furnishes me with a pretext for discussing not only the general question of the external soul in popular superstition, but also the fire-festivals of Europe, since fire played a part both in the myth of Balder and in the ritual of the Arician grove. Thus Balder the Beautiful in my hands is little more than a stalking-horse to carry two heavy pack-loads of facts. And what is true of Balder applies equally to the priest of Nemi himself, the nominal hero of the long tragedy of human folly and suffering which has unrolled itself before the readers of these volumes, and on which the curtain is now about to fall. He, too, for all the quaint garb he wears and the gravity with which he stalks across the stage, is merely a puppet, and it is time to unmask him before laying him up in the box.

To drop metaphor, while nominally investigating a particular problem of ancient mythology, I have really been discussing questions of more general interest which concern the gradual evolution of human thought from savagery to civilization. The enquiry is beset with difficulties of many kinds, for the record of man's mental development is even more imperfect than the record of his physical development, and it is harder to read, not only by reason of the incomparably more subtle and complex nature of the subject, but because the reader's eyes are apt to be dimmed by thick mists of passion and prejudice, which cloud in a far less degree the fields of comparative anatomy and geology. My contribution to the history of the human mind consists of little more than a rough and purely provisional classification of facts gathered almost entirely from printed sources. If there is one general conclusion which seems to emerge from the mass of particulars, I venture to think that it is the essential similarity in the working of the less developed human mind among all races, which corresponds to the essential similarity in their bodily frame revealed by comparative anatomy. But while this general mental similarity may, I believe, be taken as established, we must always be on our guard against tracing to it a multitude of particular resemblances which may be and often are due to simple diffusion, since nothing is more certain than that the various races of men have borrowed from each other many of their arts and crafts, their ideas, customs, and institutions. To sift out the elements of culture which a race has independently evolved and to distinguish them accurately from those which it has derived from other races is a task of extreme difficulty and delicacy, which promises to occupy students of man for a long time to come; indeed so complex are the facts and so imperfect in most cases is the historical record that it may be doubted whether in regard to many of the lower races we shall ever arrive at more than probable conjectures.

Since the last edition of The Golden Bough was published some thirteen years ago, I have seen reason to change my views on several matters discussed in this concluding part of the work, and though I have called attention to these changes in the text, it may be well for the sake of clearness to recapitulate them here.

In the first place, the arguments of Dr. Edward Westermarck have satisfied me that the solar theory of the European fire-festivals, which I accepted from W. Mannhardt, is very slightly, if at all, supported by the evidence and is probably erroneous. The true explanation of the festivals I now believe to be the one advocated by Dr. Westermarck himself, namely that they are purificatory in intention, the fire being designed not, as I formerly held, to reinforce the sun's light and heat by sympathetic magic, but merely to burn or repel the noxious things, whether conceived as material or spiritual, which threaten the life of man, of animals, and of plants. This aspect of the fire-festivals had not wholly escaped me in former editions; I pointed it out explicitly, but, biassed perhaps by the great authority of Mannhardt, I treated it as secondary and subordinate instead of primary and dominant. Out of deference to Mannhardt, for whose work I entertain the highest respect, and because the evidence for the purificatory theory of the fires is perhaps not quite conclusive, I have in this edition repeated and even reinforced the arguments for the solar theory of the festivals, so that the reader may see for himself what can be said on both sides of the question and may draw his own conclusion; but for my part I cannot but think that the arguments for the purificatory theory far outweigh the arguments for the solar theory. Dr. Westermarck based his criticisms largely on his own observations of the Mohammedan fire-festivals of Morocco, which present a remarkable resemblance to those of Christian Europe, though there seems no reason to assume that herein Africa has borrowed from Europe or Europe from Africa. So far as Europe is concerned, the evidence tends strongly to shew that the grand evil which the festivals aimed at combating was witchcraft, and that they were conceived to attain their end by actually burning the witches, whether visible or invisible, in the flames. If that was so, the wide prevalence and the immense popularity of the fire-festivals provides us with a measure for estimating the extent of the hold which the belief in witchcraft had on the European mind before the rise of Christianity or rather of rationalism; for Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, accepted the old belief and enforced it in the old way by the faggot and the stake. It was not until human reason at last awoke after the long slumber of the Middle Ages that this dreadful obsession gradually passed away like a dark cloud from the intellectual horizon of Europe.

Yet we should deceive ourselves if we imagined that the belief in witchcraft is even now dead in the mass of the people; on the contrary there is ample evidence to show that it only hibernates under the chilling influence of rationalism, and that it would start into active life if that influence were ever seriously relaxed. The truth seems to be that to this day the peasant remains a pagan and savage at heart; his civilization is merely a thin veneer which the hard knocks of life soon abrade, exposing the solid core of paganism and savagery below. The danger created by a bottomless layer of ignorance and superstition under the crust of civilized society is lessened, not only by the natural torpidity and inertia of the bucolic mind, but also by the progressive decrease of the rural as compared with the urban population in modern states; for I believe it will be found that the artisans who congregate in towns are far less retentive of primitive modes of thought than their rustic brethren. In every age cities have been the centres and as it were the lighthouses from which ideas radiate into the surrounding darkness, kindled by the friction of mind with mind in the crowded haunts of men; and it is natural that at these beacons of intellectual light all should partake in some measure of the general illumination. No doubt the mental ferment and unrest of great cities have their dark as well as their bright side; but among the evils to be apprehended from them the chances of a pagan revival need hardly be reckoned.

Another point on which I have changed my mind is the nature of the great Aryan god whom the Romans called Jupiter and the Greeks Zeus. Whereas I formerly argued that he was primarily a personification of the sacred oak and only in the second place a personification of the thundering sky, I now invert the order of his divine functions and believe that he was a sky-god before he came to be associated with the oak. In fact, I revert to the traditional view of Jupiter, recant my heresy, and am gathered like a lost sheep into the fold of mythological orthodoxy. The good shepherd who has brought me back is my friend Mr. W. Warde Fowler. He has removed the stone over which I stumbled in the wilderness by explaining in a simple and natural way how a god of the thundering sky might easily come to be afterwards associated with the oak. The explanation turns on the great frequency with which, as statistics prove, the oak is struck by lightning beyond any other tree of the wood in Europe. To our rude forefathers, who dwelt in the gloomy depths of the primaeval forest, it might well seem that the riven and blackened oaks must indeed be favourites of the sky-god, who so often descended on them from the murky cloud in a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder.

This change of view as to the great Aryan god necessarily affects my interpretation of the King of the Wood, the priest of Diana at Aricia, if I may take that discarded puppet out of the box again for a moment. On my theory the priest represented Jupiter in the flesh, and accordingly, if Jupiter was primarily a sky-god, his priest cannot have been a mere incarnation of the sacred oak, but must, like the deity whose commission he bore, have been invested in the imagination of his worshippers with the power of overcasting the heaven with clouds and eliciting storms of thunder and rain from the celestial vault. The attribution of weather-making powers to kings or priests is very common in primitive society, and is indeed one of the principal levers by which such personages raise themselves to a position of superiority above their fellows. There is therefore no improbability in the supposition that as a representative of Jupiter the priest of Diana enjoyed this reputation, though positive evidence of it appears to be lacking.

Lastly, in the present edition I have shewn some grounds for thinking that the Golden Bough itself, or in common parlance the mistletoe on the oak, was supposed to have dropped from the sky upon the tree in a flash of lightning and therefore to contain within itself the seed of celestial fire, a sort of smouldering thunderbolt. This view of the priest and of the bough which he guarded at the peril of his life has the advantage of accounting for the importance which the sanctuary at Nemi acquired and the treasure which it amassed through the offerings of the faithful; for the shrine would seem to have been to ancient what Loreto has been to modern Italy, a place of pilgrimage, where princes and nobles as well as commoners poured wealth into the coffers of Diana in her green recess among the Alban hills, just as in modern times kings and queens vied with each other in enriching the black Virgin who from her Holy House on the hillside at Loreto looks out on the blue Adriatic and the purple Apennines. Such pious prodigality becomes more intelligible if the greatest of the gods was indeed believed to dwell in human shape with his wife among the woods of Nemi.

These are the principal points on which I have altered my opinion since the last edition of my book was published. The mere admission of such changes may suffice to indicate the doubt and uncertainty which attend enquiries of this nature. The whole fabric of ancient mythology is so foreign to our modern ways of thought, and the evidence concerning it is for the most part so fragmentary, obscure, and conflicting that in our attempts to piece together and interpret it we can hardly hope to reach conclusions that will completely satisfy either ourselves or others. In this as in other branches of study it is the fate of theories to be washed away like children's castles of sand by the rising tide of knowledge, and I am not so presumptuous as to expect or desire for mine an exemption from the common lot. I hold them all very lightly and have used them chiefly as convenient pegs on which to hang my collections of facts. For I believe that, while theories are transitory, a record of facts has a permanent value, and that as a chronicle of ancient customs and beliefs my book may retain its utility when my theories are as obsolete as the customs and beliefs themselves deserve to be.

I cannot dismiss without some natural regret a task which has occupied and amused me at intervals for many years. But the regret is tempered by thankfulness and hope. I am thankful that I have been able to conclude at least one chapter of the work I projected a long time ago. I am hopeful that I may not now be taking a final leave of my indulgent readers, but that, as I am sensible of little abatement in my bodily strength and of none in my ardour for study, they will bear with me yet a while if I should attempt to entertain them with fresh subjects of laughter and tears drawn from the comedy and the tragedy of man's endless quest after happiness and truth.

J.G. FRAZER.

CAMBRIDGE, 17th October 1913.

CONTENTS

PREFACE, Pp. v-xii

CHAPTER I.—BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH, Pp. 1-21

§ 1. Not to touch the Earth, pp. 1-18.—The priest of Aricia and the Golden Bough, 1 sq.; sacred kings and priests forbidden to touch the ground with their feet, 2-4; certain persons on certain occasions forbidden to touch the ground with their feet, 4-6; sacred persons apparently thought to be charged with a mysterious virtue which will run to waste or explode by contact with the ground, 6 sq.; things as well as persons charged with the mysterious virtue of holiness or taboo and therefore kept from contact with the ground, 7; festival of the wild mango, which is not allowed to touch the earth, 7-11; other sacred objects kept from contact with the ground, 11 sq.; sacred food not allowed to touch the earth, 13 sq.; magical implements and remedies thought to lose their virtue by contact with the ground, 14 sq.; serpents' eggs or snake stones, 15 sq.; medicinal plants, water, etc., not allowed to touch the earth, 17 sq.

§ 2. Not to see the Sun, pp. 18-21.—Sacred persons not allowed to see the sun, 18-20; tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun, 20; certain persons forbidden to see fire, 20 sq.; the story of Prince Sunless, 21.

CHAPTER II.—THE SECLUSION OF GIRLS AT PUBERTY, Pp. 22-100

§ 1. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Africa, pp. 22-32.—Girls at puberty forbidden to touch the ground and see the sun, 22; seclusion of girls at puberty among the Zulus and kindred tribes, 22; among the A-Kamba of British East Africa, 23; among the Baganda of Central Africa, 23 sq.; among the tribes of the Tanganyika plateau, 24 sq.; among the tribes of British Central Africa, 25 sq.; abstinence from salt associated with a rule of chastity in many tribes, 26-28; seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes about Lake Nyassa and on the Zambesi, 28 sq.; among the Thonga of Delagoa Bay, 29 sq.; among the Caffre tribes of South Africa, 30 sq.; among the Bavili of the Lower Congo, 31 sq.

§ 2. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in New Ireland, New Guinea, and Indonesia, pp. 32-36.—Seclusion of girls at puberty in New Ireland, 32-34; in New Guinea, Borneo, Ceram, and the Caroline Islands, 35 sq.

§ 3. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in the Torres Straits Islands and Northern Australia, pp. 36-41.—Seclusion of girls at puberty in Mabuiag, Torres Straits, 36 sq.; in Northern Australia, 37-39; in the islands of Torres Straits, 39-41.

§ 4. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of North America, pp. 41-55.—Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of California, 41-43; among the Indians of Washington State, 43; among the Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, 43 sq.; among the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands, 44 sq.; among the Tlingit Indians of Alaska, 45 sq.; among the Tsetsaut and Bella Coola Indians of British Columbia, 46 sq.; among the Tinneh Indians of British Columbia, 47 sq.; among the Tinneh Indians of Alaska, 48 sq.; among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, 49-52; among the Lillooet Indians of British Columbia, 52 sq.; among the Shuswap Indians of British Columbia, 53 sq.; among the Delaware and Cheyenne Indians, 54 sq.; among the Esquimaux, 55 sq.

§ 5. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of South America, pp. 56-68.—Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Guaranis, Chiriguanos, and Lengua Indians, 56 sq.; among the Yuracares of Bolivia, 57 sq.; among the Indians of the Gran Chaco, 58 sq.; among the Indians of Brazil, 59 sq.; among the Indians of Guiana, 60 sq.; beating the girls and stinging them with ants, 61; stinging young men with ants and wasps as an initiatory rite, 61-63; stinging men and women with ants to improve their character or health or to render them invulnerable, 63 sq.; in such cases the beating or stinging was originally a purification, not a test of courage and endurance, 65 sq.; this explanation confirmed by the beating of girls among the Banivas of the Orinoco to rid them of a demon, 66-68; symptoms of puberty in a girl regarded as wounds inflicted on her by a demon, 68.

§ 6. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in India and Cambodia, pp. 68-70.—Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Hindoos, 68; in Southern India, 68-70; in Cambodia, 70.

§ 7. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Folk-tales, pp. 70-76.—Danish story of the girl who might not see the sun, 70-72; Tyrolese story of the girl who might not see the sun, 72; modern Greek stories of the maid who might not see the sun, 72 sq.; ancient Greek story of Danae and its parallel in a Kirghiz legend, 73 sq.; impregnation of women by the sun in legends, 74 sq.; traces in marriage customs of the belief that women can be impregnated by the sun, 75; belief in the impregnation of women by the moon, 75 sq.

§ 8. Reasons for the Seclusion of Girls at Puberty, pp. 76-100.—The reason for the seclusion of girls at puberty is the dread of menstruous blood, 76; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the aborigines of Australia, 76-78; in Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea, Galela, and Sumatra, 78 sq.; among the tribes of South Africa, 79 sq.; among the tribes of Central and East Africa, 80-82; among the tribes of West Africa, 82; powerful influence ascribed to menstruous blood in Arab legend, 82 sq.; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Jews and in Syria, 83 sq.; in India, 84 sq.; in Annam, 85; among the Indians of Central and South America, 85 sq.; among the Indians of North America, 87-94; among the Creek, Choctaw, Omaha and Cheyenne Indians, 88 sq.; among the Indians of British Columbia, 89 sq.; among the Chippeway Indians, 90 sq.; among the Tinneh or Déné Indians, 91; among the Carrier Indians, 91-94; similar rules of seclusion enjoined on menstruous women in ancient Hindoo, Persian, and Hebrew codes, 94-96; superstitions as to menstruous women in ancient and modern Europe, 96 sq.; the intention of secluding menstruous women is to neutralize the dangerous influences which are thought to emanate from them in that condition, 97; suspension between heaven and earth, 97; the same explanation applies to the similar rules of seclusion observed by divine kings and priests, 97-99; stories of immortality attained by suspension between heaven and earth, 99 sq.

CHAPTER III.—THE MYTH OF BALDER, Pp. 101-105

How Balder, the good and beautiful god, was done to death by a stroke of mistletoe, 101 sq.; story of Balder in the older Edda, 102 sq.; story of Balder as told by Saxo Grammaticus, 103; Balder worshipped in Norway, 104; legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of Isfendiyar in the epic of Firdusi, 104 sq.; the myth of Balder perhaps acted as a magical ceremony; the two main incidents of the myth, namely the pulling of the mistletoe and the burning of the god, have perhaps their counterpart in popular ritual, 105.

CHAPTER IV.—THE FIRE FESTIVALS OF EUROPE, Pp. 106-327

§ 1. The Lenten Fires, pp. 106-120.—European custom of kindling bonfires on certain days of the year, dancing round them, leaping over them, and burning effigies in the flames, 106; seasons of the year at which the bonfires are lit, 106 sq.; bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent in the Belgian Ardennes, 107 sq.; in the French department of the Ardennes, 109 sq.; in Franche-Comté, 110 sq.; in Auvergne, 111-113; French custom of carrying lighted torches (brandons) about the orchards and fields to fertilize them on the first Sunday of Lent, 113-115; bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in Germany and Austria, 115 sq.; "burning the witch," 116; burning discs thrown into the air, 116 sq.; burning wheels rolled down hill, 117 sq.; bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent in Switzerland, 118 sq.; burning discs thrown into the air, 119; connexion of these fires with the custom of "carrying out Death," 119 sq.

§ 2. The Easter Fires, 120-146.—Custom in Catholic countries of kindling a holy new fire on Easter Saturday, marvellous properties ascribed to the embers of the fire, 121; effigy of Judas burnt in the fire, 121; Easter fires in Bavaria and the Abruzzi, 122; water as well as fire consecrated at Easter in Italy, Bohemia, and Germany, 122-124; new fire at Easter in Carinthia, 124; Thomas Kirchmeyer's account of the consecration of fire and water by the Catholic Church at Easter, 124 sq.; the new fire on Easter Saturday at Florence, 126 sq.; the new fire and the burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Mexico and South America, 127 sq.; the new fire on Easter Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, 128-130; the new fire and the burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Greece, 130 sq.; the new fire at Candlemas in Armenia, 131; the new fire and the burning of Judas at Easter are probably relics of paganism, 131 sq.; new fire at the summer solstice among the Incas of Peru, 132; new fire among the Indians of Mexico and New Mexico, the Iroquois, and the Esquimaux, 132-134; new fire in Wadai, among the Swahili, and in other parts of Africa, 134-136; new fires among the Todas and Nagas of India, 136; new fire in China and Japan, 137 sq.; new fire in ancient Greece and Rome, 138; new fire at Hallowe'en among the old Celts of Ireland, 139; new fire on the first of September among the Russian peasants, 139; the rite of the new fire probably common to many peoples of the Mediterranean area before the rise of Christianity, 139 sq.; the pagan character of the Easter fire manifest from the superstitions associated with it, such as the belief that the fire fertilizes the fields and protects houses from conflagration and sickness, 140 sq.; the Easter fires in Münsterland, Oldenburg, the Harz Mountains, and the Altmark, 141-143; Easter fires and the burning of Judas or the Easter Man in Bavaria, 143 sq.; Easter fires and "thunder poles" in Baden, 145; Easter fires in Holland and Sweden, 145 sq.; the burning of Judas in Bohemia, 146.

§ 3. The Beltane Fires, pp. 146-160.—The Beltane fires on the first of May in the Highlands of Scotland, 146-154; John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, his description of the Beltane fires and cakes and the Beltane carline, 146-149; Beltane fires and cakes in Perthshire, 150-153; Beltane fires in the north-east of Scotland to burn the witches, 153 sq.; Beltane fires and cakes in the Hebrides, 154; Beltane fires and cakes in Wales, 155-157; in the Isle of Man to burn the witches, 157; in Nottinghamshire, 157; in Ireland, 157-159; fires on the Eve of May Day in Sweden, 159; in Austria and Saxony to burn the witches, 159 sq.

§ 4. The Midsummer Fires, pp. 160-219.—The great season for fire-festivals in Europe is Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day, which the church has dedicated to St. John the Baptist, 160 sq.; the bonfires, the torches, and the burning wheels of the festival, 161; Thomas Kirchmeyer's description of the Midsummer festival, 162 sq.; the Midsummer fires in Germany, 163-171; burning wheel rolled down hill at Konz on the Moselle, 163 sq.; Midsummer fires in Bavaria, 164-166; in Swabia, 166 sq.; in Baden, 167-169; in Alsace, Lorraine, the Eifel, the Harz district, and Thuringia, 169; Midsummer fires kindled by the friction of wood, 169 sq.; driving away the witches and demons, 170; Midsummer fires in Silesia, scaring away the witches, 170 sq.; Midsummer fires in Denmark and Norway, keeping off the witches, 171; Midsummer fires in Sweden, 172; Midsummer fires in Switzerland and Austria, 172 sq.; in Bohemia, 173-175; in Moravia, Austrian Silesia, and the district of Cracow, 175; among the Slavs of Russia, 176; in Prussia and Lithuania as a protection against witchcraft, thunder, hail, and cattle disease, 176 sq.; in Masuren the fire is kindled by the revolution of a wheel, 177; Midsummer fires among the Letts of Russia, 177 sq.; among the South Slavs, 178; among the Magyars, 178 sq.; among the Esthonians, 179 sq.; among the Finns and Cheremiss of Russia, 180 sq.; in France, 181-194; Bossuet on the Midsummer festival, 182; the Midsummer fires in Brittany, 183-185; in Normandy, the Brotherhood of the Green Wolf at Jumièges, 185 sq.; Midsummer fires in Picardy, 187 sq.; in Beauce and Perche, 188; the fires a protection against witchcraft, 188; the Midsummer fires in the Ardennes, the Vosges, and the Jura, 188 sq.; in Franche-Comté, 189; in Berry and other parts of Central France, 189 sq.; in Poitou, 190 sq.; in the departments of Vienne and Deux-Sèvres and in the provinces of Saintonge and Aunis, 191 sq.; in Southern France, 192 sq.; Midsummer festival of fire and water in Provence, 193 sq.; Midsummer fires in Belgium, 194-196; in England, 196-200; Stow's description of the Midsummer fires in London, 196 sq.; John Aubrey on the Midsummer fires, 197; Midsummer fires in Cumberland, Northumberland, and Yorkshire, 197 sq.; in Herefordshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, 199 sq.; in Wales and the Isle of Man, 200 sq.; in Ireland, 201-205; holy wells resorted to on Midsummer Eve in Ireland, 205 sq.; Midsummer fires in Scotland, 206 sq.; Midsummer fires and divination in Spain and the Azores, 208 sq.; Midsummer fires in Corsica and Sardinia, 209; in the Abruzzi, 209 sq.; in Sicily, 210; in Malta, 210 sq.; in Greece and the Greek islands, 211 sq.; in Macedonia and Albania, 212; in South America, 212 sq.; among the Mohammedans of Morocco and Algeria, 213-216; the Midsummer festival in North Africa comprises rites of water as well as fire, 216; similar festival of fire and water at New Year in North Africa, 217 sq.; the duplication of the festival probably due to a conflict between the solar calendar of the Romans and the lunar calendar of the Arabs, 218 sg.; the Midsummer festival in Morocco apparently of Berber origin, 219.

§ 5. The Autumn Fires, pp. 220-222.—Festivals of fire in August, 220; "living fire" made by the friction of wood, 220; feast of the Nativity of the Virgin on the eighth of September at Capri and Naples, 220-222.

§ 6. The Halloween Fires, pp. 222-246.—While the Midsummer festival implies observation of the solstices, the Celts appear to have divided their year, without regard to the solstices, by the times when they drove their cattle to and from the summer pasture on the first of May and the last of October (Hallowe'en), 222-224; the two great Celtic festivals of Beltane (May Day) and Hallowe'en (the last of October), 224; Hallowe'en seems to have marked the beginning of the Celtic year, 224 sq.; it was a season of divination and a festival of the dead, 225 sq.; fairies and hobgoblins let loose at Hallowe'en, 226-228; divination in Celtic countries at Hallowe'en, 228 sq.; Hallowe'en bonfires in the Highlands of Scotland, 229-232; Hallowe'en fires in Buchan to burn the witches, 232 sq.; processions with torches at Hallowe'en in the Braemar Highlands, 233 sq.; divination at Hallowe'en in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, 234-239; Hallowe'en fires in Wales, omens drawn from stones cast into the fires, 239 sq.; divination at Hallowe'en in Wales, 240 sq.; divination at Hallowe'en in Ireland, 241-243; Hallowe'en fires and divination in the Isle of Man, 243 sq.; Hallowe'en fires and divination in Lancashire, 244 sq.; marching with lighted candles to keep off the witches, 245; divination at Hallowe'en in Northumberland, 245; Hallowe'en fires in France, 245 sq.

§ 7. The Midwinter Fires, pp. 246-269.—Christmas the continuation of an old heathen festival of the sun, 246; the Yule log the Midwinter counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire, 247; the Yule log in Germany, 247-249; in Switzerland, 249; in Belgium, 249; in France, 249-255; French superstitions as to the Yule log, 250; the Yule log at Marseilles and in Perigord, 250 sq.; in Berry, 251 sq.; in Normandy and Brittany, 252 sq.; in the Ardennes, 253 sq.; in the Vosges, 254; in Franche-Comté, 254 sq.; the Yule log and Yule candle in England, 255-258; the Yule log in the north of England and Yorkshire, 256 sq.; in Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire, 257 sq.; in Wales, 258; in Servia, 258-262; among the Servians of Slavonia, 262 sq.; among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro, 263 sq.; in Albania, 264; belief that the Yule log protects against fire and lightning, 264 sq.; public fire-festivals at Midwinter, 265-269; Christmas bonfire at Schweina in Thuringia, 265 sq.; Christmas bonfires in Normandy, 266; bonfires on St. Thomas's Day in the Isle of Man, 266; the "Burning of the Clavie" at Burghead on the last day of December, 266-268; Christmas procession with burning tar-barrels at Lerwick, 268 sq.

§ 8. The Need-fire, pp. 269-300.—Need-fire kindled not at fixed periods but on occasions of distress and calamity, 269; the need-fire in the Middle Ages and down to the end of the sixteenth century, 270 sq.; mode of kindling the need-fire by the friction of wood, 271 sq.; the need-fire in Central Germany, particularly about Hildesheim, 272 sq.; the need-fire in the Mark, 273; in Mecklenburg, 274 sq.; in Hanover, 275 sq.; in the Harz Mountains, 276 sq.; in Brunswick, 277 sq.; in Silesia and Bohemia, 278 sq.; in Switzerland, 279 sq.; in Sweden and Norway, 280; among the Slavonic peoples, 281-286; in Russia and Poland, 281 sq.; in Slavonia, 282; in Servia, 282-284; in Bulgaria, 284-286; in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 286; in England, 286-289; in Yorkshire, 286-288; in Northumberland, 288 sq.; in Scotland, 289-297; Martin's account of it in the Highlands, 289; the need-fire in Mull, 289 sq.; in Caithness, 290-292; W. Grant Stewart's account of the need-fire, 292 sq.; Alexander Carmichael's account, 293-295; the need-fire in Aberdeenshire, 296; in Perthshire, 296 sq.; in Ireland, 297; the use of need-fire a relic of the time when all fires were similarly kindled by the friction of wood, 297 sq.; the belief that need-fire cannot kindle if any other fire remains alight in the neighbourhood, 298 sq.; the need-fire among the Iroquois of North America, 299 sq.

§ 9. The Sacrifice of an Animal to stay a Cattle-plague, pp. 300-327.—The burnt sacrifice of a calf in England and Wales, 300 sq.; burnt sacrifices of animals in Scotland, 301 sq.; calf burnt in order to break a spell which has been cast on the herd, 302 sq.; mode in which the burning of a bewitched animal is supposed to break the spell, 303-305; in burning the bewitched animal you burn the witch herself, 305; practice of burning cattle and sheep as sacrifices in the Isle of Man, 305-307; by burning a bewitched animal you compel the witch to appear, 307; magic sympathy between the witch and the bewitched animal, 308; similar sympathy between a were-wolf and his or her human shape, wounds inflicted on the animal are felt by the man or woman, 308; were-wolves in Europe, 308-310; in China, 310 sq.; among the Toradjas of Central Celebes, 311-313 sq.; in the Egyptian Sudan, 313 sq.; the were-wolf story in Petronius, 313 sq.; witches like were-wolves can temporarily transform themselves into animals, and wounds inflicted on the transformed animals appear on the persons of the witches, 315 sq.; instances of such transformations and wounds in Scotland, England, Ireland, France, and Germany, 316-321; hence the reason for burning bewitched animals is either to burn the witch herself or at all events to compel her to appear, 321 sq.; the like reason for burning bewitched things, 322 sq.; similarly by burning alive a person whose likeness a witch has assumed you compel the witch to disclose herself, 323; woman burnt alive as a witch in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century, 323 sq.; bewitched animals sometimes buried alive instead of being burned, 324-326; calves killed and buried to save the rest of the herd, 326 sq.

CHAPTER V.—THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRE-FESTIVALS, Pp. 328-346

§ 1. On the Fire-festivals in general pp. 328-331.—General resemblance of the fire-festivals to each other, 328 sq.; two explanations of the festivals suggested, one by W. Mannhardt that they are sun-charms, the other by Dr. E. Westermarck that they are purificatory, 329 sq.; the two explanations perhaps not mutually exclusive, 330 sq.

§ 2. The Solar Theory of the Fire-festivals, pp. 331-341.—Theory that the fire-festivals are charms to ensure a supply of sunshine, 331; coincidence of two of the festivals with the solstices, 331 sq.; attempt of the Bushmen to warm up the fire of Sirius in midwinter by kindling sticks, 332 sq.; the burning wheels and discs of the fire-festivals may be direct imitations of the sun, 334; the wheel which is sometimes used to kindle the fire by friction may also be an imitation of the sun, 334-336; the influence which the bonfires are supposed to exert on the weather and vegetation may be thought to be due to an increase of solar heat produced by the fires, 336-338; the effect which the bonfires are supposed to have in fertilizing cattle and women may also be attributed to an increase of solar heat produced by the fires, 338 sq.; the carrying of lighted torches about the country at the festivals may be explained as an attempt to diffuse the sun's heat, 339-341.

§ 3. The Purificatory Theory of the Fire-festivals, pp. 341-346.—Theory that the fires at the festivals are purificatory, being intended to burn up all harmful things, 341; the purificatory or destructive effect of the fires is often alleged by the people who light them, and there is no reason to reject this explanation, 341 sq.; the great evil against which the fire at the festivals appears to be directed is witchcraft, 342; among the evils for which the fire-festivals are deemed remedies the foremost is cattle-disease, and cattle-disease is often supposed to be an effect of witchcraft, 343 sq.; again, the bonfires are thought to avert hail, thunder, lightning, and various maladies, all of which are attributed to the maleficent arts of witches, 344 sq.; the burning wheels rolled down hill and the burning discs thrown into the air may be intended to burn the invisible witches, 345 sq.; on this view the fertility supposed to follow the use of fire results indirectly from breaking the spells of witches, 346; on the whole the theory of the purificatory or destructive intention of the fire-festivals seems the more probable, 346.