The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Golden Bough, Third Edition, Vol. 2 of 12, by James George Frazer

Part I. The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings. 4th Impression. Two volumes. 20s. net.

VII. Balder the Beautiful: The Fire-Festivals of Europe and the Doctrine of the External Soul. 2nd Impression. Two volumes. 20s. net.

TIMES.—“The verdict of posterity will probably be that The Golden Bough influenced the attitude of the human mind towards supernatural beliefs and symbolical rituals more profoundly than any other books published in the nineteenth century except those of Darwin and Herbert Spencer.”

TOTEMISM AND EXOGAMY. A Treatise on Certain Early Forms of Superstition and Society. With Maps. Four vols. 8vo. 50s. net.

Mr. A. E. Crawley in NATURE.—“That portion of the book which is concerned with totemism (if we may express our own belief at the risk of offending Prof. Frazer’s characteristic modesty) is actually ‘The Complete History of Totemism, its Practice and its Theory, its Origin and its End.’... Nearly two thousand pages are occupied with an ethnographical survey of totemism, an invaluable compilation. The maps, including that of the distribution of totemic peoples, are a new and useful feature.”

ATHENÆUM.—“It is the effect of a good book not only to teach, but also to stimulate and to suggest, and we think this the best and highest quality, and one that will recommend these lectures to all intelligent readers, as well as to the learned.”

PSYCHE’S TASK, A Discourse concerning the Influence of Superstition on the Growth of Institutions. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. To which is added “The Scope of Social Anthropology.” 8vo. 5s. net.

OUTLOOK.—“Whether we disagree or agree with Dr. Frazer’s general conclusions, he has provided us with a veritable storehouse of correlated facts, for which, and for the learning that has gone to their collection, and for the intellectual brilliance that has gone to their arrangement, we can never be sufficiently grateful.”

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AND THE WORSHIP OF THE DEAD. Vol. I. The Belief among the Aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea, and Melanesia. The Gifford Lectures, St. Andrews, 1911-1912. 8vo. 10s. net.

Mr. Edward Clodd in the DAILY CHRONICLE.—“‘If a man die, shall he live again?’ is a question asked chiliads before Job put it, and the generations of mankind repeat it. In this profoundly interesting volume, Professor Frazer, out of the treasury of his knowledge, and with consummate art of attractive presentment, gives the answers devised by the Lower Races.”

PAUSANIAS’S DESCRIPTION OF GREECE. Translated with a Commentary, Illustrations, and Maps. Second Edition. Six vols. 8vo. 126s. net.

ATHENÆUM.—“All these writings in many languages Mr. Frazer has read and digested with extraordinary care, so that his book will be for years the book of reference on such matters, not only in England, but in France and Germany. It is a perfect thesaurus of Greek topography, archæology, and art.”

STUDIES IN GREEK SCENERY, LEGEND AND HISTORY. Selected from his Commentary on Pausanias by Sir J. G. Frazer. Globe 8vo. 5s. net.

GUARDIAN.—“Here we have material which every one who has visited Greece, or purposes to visit it, most certainly should read and enjoy.... We cannot imagine a more excellent book for the educated visitor to Greece.”

LETTERS OF WILLIAM COWPER. Chosen and Edited, with a Memoir and a few Notes, by Sir J. G. Frazer. Two vols. Globe 8vo. 10s. net.

Mr. Clement Shorter in the DAILY CHRONICLE.—“The introductory Memoir, of some eighty pages in length, is a valuable addition to the many appraisements of Cowper that these later years have seen.... Dr. Frazer has given us two volumes that are an unqualified joy.”

ESSAYS OF JOSEPH ADDISON. Chosen and Edited, with a Preface and a few Notes, by Sir J. G. Frazer. Two vols. Globe 8vo. 10s. net.

1. A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste, ii. 230.

2. “Excursion de M. Brun-Rollet dans la région supérieure du Nil,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), IVme Série, iv. (1852) pp. 421-423; ib. viii. (1854) pp. 387 sq.; Brun-Rollet, Le Nil Blanc et le Soudan (Paris, 1855), pp. 227 sqq. As to the rain-making chiefs of this region see above, vol. i. pp. 345 sqq. As to the distress and privations endured by these people in the dry season, see E. de Pruyssenaere, “Reisen und Forschungen im Gebiete des Weissen und Blauen Nil,” Petermann’s Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsheft No. 50 (Gotha, 1877), p. 23.

3. W. Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien (Schaffhausen, 1864), p. 474.

4. Mgr. Cuénot, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xiii. (1841) p. 143; H. Mouhot, Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (London, 1864), ii. 35; A. Bastian, “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Gebirgsstämme in Kambodia,” Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, i. (1866) p. 37; J. Moura, Le Royaume du Cambodge (Paris, 1883), i. 432-436; E. Aymonier, “Notes sur les coutumes et croyances superstitieuses des Cambodgiens,” in Cochinchine Française: Excursions et reconnaissances, No. 16 (Saigon, 1883), pp. 172 sq.; id., Notes sur le Laos (Saigon, 1885), p. 60; Le Capitaine Cupet, “Chez les populations sauvages du Sud de l’Annam,” Tour du monde, No. 1682, April 1, 1893, pp. 193-204; id., in Mission Pavie, Indo-Chine 1879-1895, Géographie et voyages, iii. (Paris, 1900) pp. 297-318; Tournier, Notice sur le Laos Français (Hanoi, 1900), pp. 111 sq.; A. Lavallée, “Notes ethnographiques sur diverses tribus du Sud-Est de l’Inde-Chine,” Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient, i. (Hanoi, 1901) pp. 303 sq. Mgr. Cuénot mentions only the King of Fire. Bastian speaks as if the King of Fire was also the King of Water. Both writers report at second hand.

5. Caesar, Bell. Gall. vi. 25.

6. Julian, Fragm. 4, ed. Hertlein, pp. 608 sq. On the vast woods of Germany, their coolness and shade, see also Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 5.

7. Ch. Elton, Origins of English History (London, 1882), pp. 3, 106 sq., 224.

8. W. Helbig, Die Italiker in der Poebene (Leipsic, 1879), pp. 25 sq.

9. H. Nissen, Italische Landeskunde, i. (Berlin, 1883) pp. 431 sqq.

10. Livy, ix. 36-38. The Ciminian mountains (Monte Cimino) are still clothed with dense woods of majestic oaks and chestnuts. Modern writers suppose that Livy has exaggerated the terrors and difficulties of the forest. See G. Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, 3rd Ed., i. 146-149.

11. C. Neumann und J. Partsch, Physikalische Geographie von Griechenland (Breslau, 1885), pp. 357 sqq. I am told that the dark blue waters of the lake of Pheneus, which still reflected the sombre pine-forests of the surrounding mountains when I travelled in Arcadia in the bright unforgetable autumn days of 1895, have since disappeared, the subterranean chasms which drain this basin having been, whether accidentally or artificially, cleared so as to allow the pent-up waters to escape. The acres which the peasants have thereby added to their fields will hardly console future travellers for the loss of the watery mirror, which was one of the most beautiful, as it was one of the rarest, scenes in the parched land of Greece.

12. J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4th Ed., i. 53 sqq.; O. Schrader, Reallexikon der indo-germanischen Altertumskunde (Strasburg, 1901), s.v. “Tempel,” pp. 855 sqq.

13. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 249 sqq.; Maximus Tyrius, Dissert. viii. 8.

14. O. Schrader, op. cit. pp. 857 sq.

15. Tacitus, Germania, 9, 39, 40, 43; id., Annals, ii. 12, iv. 73; id., Hist. iv. 14; J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4th Ed., pp. 541 sqq.; Bavaria Landes- und Volkeskunde des Königreichs Bayern, iii. 929 sq.

16. J. Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, pp. 519 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus (Berlin, 1875), pp. 26 sqq.

17. Adam of Bremen, Descriptio insularum Aquilonis, 27 (Migne’s Patrologia Latina, vol. cxlvi. col. 644).

18. L. Leger, La Mythologie slave (Paris, 1901), pp. 73-75, 188-190.

19. Mathias Michov, “De Sarmatia Asiana atque Europea,” in Simon Grynaeus’s Novus Orbis regionum ac insularum veteribus incognitarum (Paris, 1532), pp. 455 sq. [wrongly numbered 445, 446]; Martin Cromer, De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum (Basel, 1568), p. 241; Fabricius, Livonicae historiae compendiosa series (Scriptores rerum Livonicarum, ii. (Riga and Leipsic, 1848) p. 441).

20. See C. Bötticher, Der Baumkultus der Hellenen (Berlin, 1856); L. Preller, Römische Mythologie, 3rd. Ed., i. 105-114.

21. The Classical Review, xix. (1905) p. 331, referring to an inscription found in Cos some years ago.

22. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xv. 77; Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 58. The fig-tree is represented on Roman coins and on the great marble reliefs which stand in the Forum. See E. Babelon, Monnaies de la République romaine, ii. 336 sq.; R. Lanciani, Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome (London, 1897), p. 258; E. Petersen, Vom alten Rom (Leipsic, 1900), pp. 26, 27.

23. Plutarch, Romulus, 20.

24. K. Rhamm, “Der heidnische Gottesdienst des finnischen Stammes,” Globus, lxvii. (1895) pp. 343, 348. This article is an abstract of a Finnish book Suomen suvun pakanillinen jumalen palvelus, by J. Krohn (Helsingfors, 1894).

25. “Heilige Haine und Bäume der Finnen,” Globus, lix. (1891) pp. 350 sq.

26. P. S. Pallas, Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reichs (St. Petersburg, 1771-1776), iii. 60 sq.

27. Porphyry, De abstinentia, i. 6. This was an opinion of the Stoic and Peripatetic philosophy.

28. Washington Matthews, Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians (Washington, 1877), pp. 48 sq.

29. L. H. Morgan, League of the Iroquois (Rochester, 1851), pp. 162, 164.

30. J. L. Krapf, Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours during an Eighteen Years’ Residence in Eastern Africa (London, 1860), p. 198.

31. Rev. Lorimer Fison, in a letter to the author dated November 3, 1898.

32. J. Teit, “The Thompson Indians of British Columbia,” p. 349 (Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. i. part iv.).

33. C. Hupe, “Over de godsdienst, zeden enz. der Dajakkers,” Tijdschrift voor Neêrlands Indië, 1846 (Batavia), dl. iii. p. 158.

34. De la Loubere, Du royaume de Siam (Amsterdam, 1691), i. 382. Compare Mgr. Bruguière, in Annales de l’Association de la Propagation de la Foi, v. (1831) p. 127.

35. The Buddhist conception of trees as animated often comes out in the Jatakas. For examples see H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, pp. 259 sqq.; The Jātaka, bk. xii. No. 465, vol. iv. pp. 96 sqq. (English translation edited by E. B. Cowell).

36. J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, iv. (Leyden, 1901) pp. 272 sqq.

37. J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, v. (Leyden, 1907) p. 663.

38. F. S. Krauss, Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Südslaven (Münster i. W., 1890), p. 33.

39. A. B. Ellis, The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast (London, 1890), pp. 49 sqq. Compare id., The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast (London, 1887), pp. 34 sqq.; Missions Catholiques, ix. (1877) p. 71.

40. G. Maspero, Histoire ancienne des peuples de l’Orient classique: les origines (Paris, 1895), pp. 121 sq.

41. Merolla, “Voyage to Congo,” in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, xvi. 236.

42. C. C. von der Decken, Reisen in Ost-Afrika (Leipsic and Heidelberg, 1869-1871), i. 216. The writer does not describe the mode of appeasing the tree-spirit in the case mentioned. As to the Wanika beliefs, see above, p. 12.

43. Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902), ii. 832.

44. J. B. L. Durand, Voyage au Sénégal (Paris, 1802), p. 119.

45. S. J. Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day (Chicago, 1902), p. 94.

46. A. d’Orbigny, Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale (Paris and Strasburg, 1839-1843), ii. 157, 159 sq.

47. A. W. Nieuwenhuis, In Centraal-Borneo (Leyden, 1900), i. 146.

48. H. H. Romilly, From my Verandah in New Guinea (London, 1889), p. 86.

49. D. C. J. Ibbetson, Outlines of Panjab Ethnography (Calcutta, 1883), p. 120.

50. W. von Schulenberg, “Volkskundliche Mittheilungen aus der Mark,” Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte (1896), p. 189. Compare A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, Nord-deutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche, p. 407, § 142; E. Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben, p. 463, § 208; A. Kuhn, Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen, ii. pp. 108 sq., §§ 326, 327, p. 116, §§ 356, 358; A. Birlinger, Volksthümliches aus Schwaben, i. pp. 464 sq., § 6; K. Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, ii. 228 sq.; W. Kolbe, Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebräuche, 2nd Ed., p. 29; R. Andree, Braunschweiger Volkskunde (Brunswick, 1896), p. 234; R. Wuttke, Sächsische Volkskunde 2nd Ed., (Dresden, 1901), p. 370. The custom has been discussed by U. Jahn, Die deutschen Opfergebräuche bei Ackerbau und Viehzucht (Breslau, 1884), pp. 214-220. He comes to the conclusion, which I cannot but regard as erroneous, that the custom was in origin a rational precaution to keep the caterpillars from the trees. Compare the marriage of trees, below, pp. 24 sqq.

51. J. Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme (London, 1881), p. 247.

52. Peter Jones, History of the Ojebway Indians, p. 104.

53. J. J. M. de Groot, Religious System of China, iv. 274.

54. A. Peter, Volksthümliches aus Österreichisch-Schlesien (Troppau, 1865-67), ii. 30.

55. P. Wagler, Die Eiche in alter und neuer Zeit, ii. (Berlin, 1891) p. 56 note 1.

56. A. Bastian, Indonesien, i. 154; compare id., Die Völker des östlichen Asien, ii. 457 sq., iii. 251 sq., iv. 42 sq.

57. J. de los Reyes y Florentino, “Die religiosen Anschauungen der Ilocanen (Luzon),” Mittheilungen der k. k. Geograph. Gesellschaft in Wien, xxxi. (1888) p. 556.

58. F. Gardner, “Philippine (Tagalog) Superstitions,” Journal of American Folk-lore, xix. (1906) p. 191. These superstitions are translated from an old and rare work La Pratica del ministerio, by Padre Tomas Ortiz (Manila, 1713).

59. Th. Nöldeke, “Tigre-Texte,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, xxiv. (1910) p. 298, referring to E. Littmann, Publications of the Princeton Expedition to Abyssinia (Leyden, 1910).

60. J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stämme (Berlin, 1906), pp. 394-396.

61. J. H. Neumann, “De tĕndi in verband met Si Dajang,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xlviii. (1904) pp. 124 sq.

62. From a letter of the Rev. J. Roscoe, written in Busoga, 21st May, 1908.

63. Satapatha-Brâhmana, translated by J. Eggeling, Part II. pp. 165 sq. (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxvi.); H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, pp. 256 sq.

64. De la Loubere, Du royaume de Siam (Amsterdam, 1691), i. 383.

65. G. Turner, Samoa, p. 63.

66. I. v. Zingerle, “Der heilige Baum bei Nauders,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, iv. (1859), pp. 33 sqq. According to Lucan (Pharsal. iii. 429-431), the soldiers whom Caesar ordered to cut down the sacred oak-grove of the Druids at Marseilles believed that the axes would rebound from the trees and wound themselves.

67. W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, pp. 198 sq. As to the durian-tree and its fruit, see A. R. Wallace, The Malay Archipelago 6th Ed., (London, 1877), pp. 74 sqq.

68. W. G. Aston, Shinto (London, 1905), p. 165.

69. F. S. Krauss, Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Südslaven, p. 34; A. Strausz, Die Bulgaren (Leipsic, 1898), p. 352. Compare R. F. Kaindl, “Aus der Volksüberlieferung der Bojken,” Globus, lxxix. (1901) p. 152.

70. G. Pitrè, Spettacoli e feste popolari (Palermo, 1881), p. 221; id., Usi e costumi, credenze e pregiudizi del popolo siciliano, iii. (Palermo, 1889) p. 111; G. Vuillier, “Chez les magiciens et les sorciers de la Corrèze,” Tour du monde, N.S. v. (1899) p. 512.

71. M. Tchéraz, “Notes sur la mythologie Arménienne,” Transactions of the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists (London, 1893), ii. 827. Compare M. Abeghian, Der armenische Volksglaube (Leipsic, 1899), p. 60.

72. G. Finamore, Credenze, usi, e costumi abruzzesi (Palermo, 1890), pp. 162 sq.

73. Georgeakis et Pineau, Folk-lore de Lesbos (Paris, 1894), p. 354.

74. Boecler-Kreutzwald, Der Ehsten abergläubische Gebräuche, Weisen und Gewohnheiten (St. Petersburg, 1854), p. 134.

75. M. J. van Baarda, “Fabelen, Verhalen, en Overleveringen der Galelareezen,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, xlv. (1895) p. 511.

76. A. G. Vorderman, “Planten-animisme op Java,” Teysmannia, No. 2, 1896, pp. 59 sq.; Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, ix. (1896) p. 175.

77. A. G. Vorderman, op. cit. p. 60; Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, ix. (1896) p. 176.

78. A. G. Vorderman, op. cit. pp. 61-63.

79. A. de Humboldt, Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, ii. (Paris, 1819) pp. 369 sq., 429 sq.

80. Elsdon Best, “Maori Nomenclature,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 197.

81. Herodotus, i. 193; Theophrastus, Historia plantarum, ii. 8. 4; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xiii. 31, 34 sq. In this passage Pliny states that naturalists distinguished the sexes of all trees and plants. On Assyrian monuments a winged figure is often represented holding an object which looks like a pine-cone to a palm-tree. The scene has been ingeniously and with great probability explained by Professor E. B. Tylor as the artificial fertilisation of the date-palm by means of the male inflorescence. See his paper in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, xii. (1890) pp. 383-393. On the artificial fertilisation of the date-palm, see C. Ritter, Vergleichende Erdkunde von Arabien (Berlin, 1847), ii. 811, 827 sq.

82. D. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus (St. Petersburg, 1856), ii. 36, 251. Mohammed forbade the artificial fertilisation of the palm, probably because of the superstitions attaching to the ceremony. But he had to acknowledge his mistake. See D. S. Margoliouth, Mohammed and the Rise of Islam, p. 230 (a passage pointed out to me by Dr. A. W. Verrall).

83. Sir W. H. Sleeman, Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official (Westminster, 1893), i. 38 sq.; compare Census of India, 1901, vol. xiii., Central Provinces, part i. p. 92.

84. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, lxxii., part iii. (Calcutta, 1904) p. 42.

85. J. A. Dubois, Mœurs, institutions et cérémonies des peuples de l’Inde (Paris, 1825), ii. 448 sq.; Monier Williams, Religious Life and Thought in India, pp. 333-335; W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), ii. 110 sq. According to another account, it is Vishnu, not Krishna, to whom the holy plant is annually married in every pious Hindoo family. See Census of India, 1901, vol. xviii., Baroda, p. 125.

86. Sir Henry M. Elliot, Memoirs on the History, Folklore, and Distribution of the Races of the North-western Provinces of India, edited by J. Beames (London, 1869), i. 233 sq.

87. W. Crooke, op. cit. i. 49.

88. Sir W. H. Sleeman, Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official (Westminster, 1893), i. 147-149, 175. The Salagrama is commonly perforated in one or more places by worms or, as the Hindoos believe, by the legendary insect Vajrakita or by Vishnu himself. The value of the fossil shell depends on its colour, and the number of its convolutions and holes. The black are prized as gracious embodiments of Vishnu; the violet are shunned as dangerous avatars of the god. He who possesses a black Salagrama keeps it wrapped in white linen, washes and adores it daily. A draught of the water in which the shell has been washed is supposed to purge away all sin and to secure the temporal and eternal welfare of the drinker. These fossils are found in Nepaul, in the upper course of the river Gandaka, a northern tributary of the Ganges. Hence the district goes by the name of Salagrami, and is highly esteemed for its sanctity; a visit to it confers great merit on a man. See Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes Orientales et à la Chine (Paris, 1782), i. 173 sq.; J. A. Dubois, Mœurs, institutions et cérémonies des peuples de l’Indie (Paris, 1825), ii. 446-448; Sir W. H. Sleeman, op. cit. i. 148 sq., with the editor’s notes; Monier Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India, pp. 69 sq.; G. Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, vi. Part II. (London and Calcutta, 1893) p. 384; W. Crooke, op. cit. ii. 164 sq.; Indian Antiquary, xxv. (1896) p. 146; G. Oppert, On the Original Inhabitants of Bharatavarsa or India (Westminster and Leipsic, 1893), pp. 337-359; id., “Note sur les Sālagrāmas,” Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Paris, 1900), pp. 472-485. The shell derives its name of ammonite from its resemblance to a ram’s horn, recalling the ram-god Ammon.