We can now understand the Bulgarian ballad cited in Chapter IV., containing the pathetic narrative of the hyacinths growing out of the dead man’s grave and causing his mother to give birth to another son. The flowers were a new manifestation of the youth who had been untimely slain; and by them he entered again into his mother’s womb and was born. This and others of the tales referred to in the same chapter and that which follows it are parallel with the tale of The Two Brothers in the transformations they present. And both they and many of the practices detailed in the last chapter point very clearly to the belief that a dead person can be born again, if only the right means be taken for that end.
All our illustrations of the doctrine of Transformation have been drawn from cases where the hero is conceived as having begun his career in human shape, whether as man or deity, save in the one instance of the Annamite story of Posthumous Revenge. There his pristine figure was an eel. But if the power of metamorphosis be such that human beings can be changed by means of death and a fresh birth into brute and vegetable form, brutes and vegetables may equally be changed by the same agency into human beings. The märchen of The King of the Fishes displays this power. In the light of the transmutations we have passed in review, it is abundantly evident that the fisherman’s sons, their horses, dogs and life-tokens, are nothing more nor less than the ancestor-fish in a new mould. In previous chapters we have examined cases in which men and women deceased have been held to reappear as human babes without undergoing any intermediate change into lower forms; and we have others yet to examine. What is expressly affirmed in tales where pregnancy is caused by tasting the ashes of a corpse, what is implicit in the disgusting superstitions which lead women to swallow portions of dead bodies, must also be understood in the parallel cases where fishes and fruit are eaten and result in the production of children. Here then we have the real meaning of the tales and superstitions considered in the last three chapters. At their root lies the belief in Transformation. Flowers, fruit, and other vegetables, eggs, fishes, spiders, worms, and even stones, are all capable of becoming human beings. They only await absorption in the shape of food, or in some other appropriate manner, into the body of a woman, to enable the metamorphosis to be accomplished. In some cases, as where drugs and other compounds are used, or where water or sunbeams are the fructifying power, this meaning has been forgotten. The virtue of such means is usually imputed to magical or divine power. But this does not appear to be the original belief. The original belief is intimately bound up with the savage theory of the universe. In that theory no strict line of cleavage runs across Nature. All things may change their shape, some at will, others on the fulfilment of certain conditions, whereof death, as applying to all animal and vegetable life, is perhaps the most usual. Most of the instances of death and new birth we have yet to deal with have little apparent relation to this point. But, so far as they add to the general evidence as to the reappearance of the dead in fresh births, even the least relevant of them are not without value.
According to the classical mythology, when Orion’s two daughters sacrificed themselves for Thebes, two young men sprang from their ashes. Ovid describes the goblet presented by Anius, the priest-king of Delos, to Æneas, as carved with a representation of the scene:
“Out of their maiden embers, lo! twin youths,
Lest the race fail, arise, Coronæ named,
And lead the funeral pomp.”208.1
Although the poet speaks of the devoted virgins as their mothers, we shall probably not be far wrong in conjecturing that the youths were originally regarded as new and worthier manifestations of the maidens whose virile courage had not hesitated at self-inflicted death, in pursuance of the oracle, to save their devoted city from the plague. However this may be, elsewhere we frequently find stories of men who have died and been born again. The Mogul emperor Akbar is said to have declared that he had formerly been a Brumhuchari, named Mukundu. Worldly desires were excited in his mind by cow’s hairs in some milk which he had drunk; and he began to long for wisdom and greatness. The pipul-tree under which he was sitting had the power of granting any wish. Therefore, laying hold of it, he renounced life in Gunga, and reappeared as Akbar.209.1 A Mongolian tale relates that Shêduir Van, a Khotogait prince, having been guilty of plotting insurrection against the emperor of China, was caught and condemned to execution. Before being beheaded, he said: “I am to be executed; but that is no misfortune; my soul shall enter the womb of the emperor’s wife.” The empress accordingly gave birth to a son, who had a cicatrice on the neck. The wise men advised the emperor that the soul of Shêduir Van had entered her womb. The child was therefore destroyed. The empress conceived once more, and bore a son with a scar. The emperor, again advised by his wise men that this was the soul of Shêduir Van, ordered the babe to be thrown into the fire; but the charcoal went out and changed into water. After this, we are told that the soul of Shêduir Van did not again enter the empress’ womb, but revealed itself as a hairless bay mare, whose hide is preserved to the present day.209.2
Like the story of the great monarch Akbar, that of Shêduir Van has probably been influenced by Buddhistic thought. But in both cases the influence would be that of Buddhistic thought only as popularly understood. The common people of India, we may safely assume—still less the tribes of Tibet and the practical Chinese—never absorbed into their minds the abstract doctrines of Karma and the Skandhas. It is, indeed, more than doubtful whether these philosophical speculations have ever penetrated the intellects of the greatest doctors of the Northern Church. The current belief is illustrated in the Chinese tales I have quoted. Even more strikingly is it exemplified in the successive incarnations which provide a perpetual succession of Grand Lamas at Lhasa, and of skooshoks for minor monasteries. While as to the Southern Church, we are not dependent for our assumption upon the folklore and the general culture of the Cingalese and the peoples of Further India. In the Játakas, or parables attributed to Gautama, we have irrefragable witness of the teaching current from a very early period in Buddhist history. They are apologues, most of them probably of much older date, which have acquired sacredness by being fitted to alleged events in the ministry of the Buddha. The Master is represented as taking occasion, from some remark made by his disciples upon a passing occurrence, to declare that in a former birth the same things had happened to them; and in illustration of his statement he tells the tale. The following may stand for a typical conclusion or application. It is that of the parable of the cruel crane outwitted by the crab: “When the Teacher had finished this discourse showing that ‘Not now only, O mendicants, has this man been outwitted by the country robe-maker, long ago he was outwitted in the same way,’ he established the connection, and summed up the Játaka, by saying, ‘At that time he [the crane] was the Jetavana robe-maker, the crab was the country robe-maker, but the Genius of the Tree was I myself.’ ” To the personages of the tale is thus ascribed complete identity with the Buddha and his contemporaries. Transmigration, in short, as conceived in popular Buddhism, was no product of the subtleties of Hindu metaphysics. It was no refined philosophical doctrine. It is undiscoverable in the Rig-Veda, the earliest sacred book of the Sanskrit-speaking conquerors of India. Its ethical value, even, if we may judge from the Játakas, was of the smallest. Such as it was, Transmigration was a direct evolution of the more savage belief in Transformation, as we have seen that belief exemplified in the present chapter, and hardly distinguishable from it, either in its terms or in its consequences.
Far in the west the Celts are reported to have held the dogma of Transmigration. This report, coming to us from writers imbued with Greco-Roman philosophy, and interpreting, according to the custom of classical antiquity, the religions of barbarous races in the terms of their own, has been understood to imply an elaborate philosophical system such as those of Pythagoras and Buddha. That the Celts had imbibed Buddhist theories we cannot suppose. The doctrines of Pythagoras may, indeed, have penetrated into Gaul by commercial routes or by contact with Greek colonies. Yet, if they did, it is strange that no other vestige of the Pythagorean philosophy is imputed to the Celts, and that the Druidical religion, whereof we are told the dogma in question was part, blossomed, as it is said to have done, most perfectly in Britain, where it was furthest removed from all foreign influences. We know directly little concerning Druidism. Our knowledge, as far as it goes, leads us to think the religion of the ancient Britons and Gauls was of the same general character as other barbarous cults. Arising thus from the common ground of savagery, there is no reason why Celtic opinion may not have begun to develop in the same direction as popular Buddhism. Neither Celtic mythology, however, as known to us, nor Celtic folklore, as reported by mediæval and modern writers, affords ground for supposing that metempsychosis in any philosophical sense was part of the ancient Celtic creed. In touching, a few pages back, on Barguests, as ghosts in animal mould are technically called, we disposed of the most salient point of modern Celtic folklore, for we found it to be an expression, in no way divergent from that of other uncultivated peoples, of the universal doctrine of Transformation. We shall now briefly discuss the examples to be found in what remains to us of the ancient mythology.
The story of Taliessin, though only found in a manuscript of the seventeenth century, comes, it is generally conceded, within this category; for its coincidences with the older Celtic traditions are too striking to allow of any other explanation. Ceridwen, the wife of Tegid the Bald, had, among other children, a son of such extreme ugliness that she thought he was not likely to be admitted amongst men of noble birth unless he had some exalted merits or knowledge. So she undertook, with the aid of the books of Fferyll—that is to say, Vergil the Magician, a character which Vergil the poet is made to sustain in mediæval tradition—to boil a caldron of Inspiration and Science for his benefit. Now, this caldron required to be boiled for a year and a day; at the end of which time three precious drops would be obtained, the rest of its contents being poisonous, and indeed highly explosive. The caldron was placed in charge of Gwion the Little and a blind man named Mordav, while Ceridwen herself went to gather herbs of virtue. But before the expiration of the year and a day the three precious drops flew out of the caldron and fell upon Gwion’s finger, which he instinctively put to his mouth to allay the scalding. He at once became possessed of all knowledge, and foresaw his danger from Ceridwen’s rage when she found her preparations had been in vain. He, therefore, fled, hotly pursued by the witch. To elude her he changed into a hare, whereupon she took the shape of a greyhound. He ran towards the river, and became a fish, to chase which she assumed the form of an otter. Gwion then flew up as a bird. He soon found himself followed by a hawk, which was no other than his enemy; and just as she was about to stoop upon him he dropped among a heap of winnowed wheat on the floor of a barn, and turned himself into one of the grains. From a hawk to a black hen the transformation was easy; and Ceridwen thus pecked up the grain in question and swallowed it. She became by this means pregnant, and gave birth to a beautiful boy—a new manifestation of Gwion the Little; and when he was born she wrapped him up in a hide and cast him into the sea, by which he was ultimately thrown upon the weir of Gwyddno. From thence he was rescued to become the king of the bards, Taliessin.213.1 Two poems attributed to Taliessin enumerate many more metamorphoses than are mentioned in the tale. The exact date of these poems is, in the present state of Welsh scholarship, unascertainable; but they are certainly not later than the fourteenth century. One of them speaks of the poet’s original country as the region of the summer stars, and identifies him with Merlin and other sages and bards. Confining our attention, however, to the narrative, we may lay aside the earlier changes as links of a chain of incidents common in fairy-tales, and known technically as the Transformation-fight. An example of it familiar to every reader is the contest between the princess and the Jinn in the story of the Second Calender in the Arabian Nights. These changes are not effected by death and birth as are the ones we are considering now. In the final change, on the other hand, Gwion is devoured by the witch and reproduced as her son, just as Bata is swallowed in the shape of a splinter of the persea-tree by the king’s Favourite, and born again of her, to become her destruction.
So far the Welsh mythology: a parallel instance is afforded by the Erse. Both have suffered from the Euhemerism of the Middle Ages that has preserved them for us; but the true lines of the tales are not too far obliterated for our present purpose. The story of Tuan mac Cairill, then, as we find it embalmed in the Irish chronicles, makes him the sole survivor of the band of Partholon, who first colonised the island after the Deluge. Fallen into decrepitude after many years, he saw a new immigration led by Nemed, flying from which he fasted three days, lay down to sleep and was changed into a stag. Again he fell into old age, fasted, and was metamorphosed into a wild boar. Meanwhile, the descendants of Nemed had all died out. Semion, then, the ancestor of the three tribes of the Fir Domnann, the Fir Bolg and the Galiûin, established himself in the land. After a time the process was repeated, and Tuan became a great sea-eagle. Beothach, from whom descended the Tuatha De Danann, seized the island, and afterwards the sons of Mile, whose descendants are the living race. The sea-eagle found himself in the hole of a tree on the bank of a river. There he fasted nine days, and, sleeping, awoke as a salmon in the stream. For a long time he escaped the fishermen’s nets; at last he was caught and carried to the wife of Carell, king of that district. She saw the fish, longed for it, cooked it, and ate it up. But this was far from being the end of Tuan. From her he was born again, wise man and prophet, and was called Tuan, son of Carell. He lived not only to be baptized at the coming of Saint Patrick, but to converse with Saint Columba, and to narrate the whole history of Ireland, as he remembered it during his various transformations, to Saint Finnen in the middle of the sixth century. All the ancient history, all the old genealogies rest upon his authority.215.1
Etain, another mythological figure of Ireland, had a somewhat similar adventure. She was one of the two wives of Mider, who belonged to the Tuatha De Danann. Oengus, son of the Dagde, and foster-son of Mider, carried her off, and she became his wife. Her first husband, however, had not ceased to remember her, and he sought if by any means he might recover her. His other wife, bent on frustrating him, and watching her opportunity, sent a wind that blew Etain out of the bower built for her by Oengus, and deposited her on the roof of a house where the lords of Ulster and their wives were engaged in a drinking-bout. Upon the table beneath stood a golden cup of beer beside one of the ladies. From the roof, by the opening which did duty for a chimney, Etain fell into the cup. The lady swallowed her unperceived in the next draught, and gave birth to her again after nine months. Thus Etain began a new life. She became the loveliest of Irish maidens, and wedded the supreme king Eochaid Airem, who reigned at Tara. But Mider had not yet ceased to love her. Disguised as a warrior, he sought the king and challenged him to a game of chess. When the board was set: “Play,” said he to the king. “I do not play without stakes,” replied the monarch. Mider, on his side, bet fifty brown horses, large-breasted, with limbs slender and agile. “For my part,” said the king, sure of success, “if I lose, I will pay what you like.” They played; the king lost, and Mider demanded his wife. The king objected that he was entitled to his revenge; and his adversary, with a bad grace, yielded. A year passed, during which the king saw nothing of Mider; though he often appeared to Etain and wooed her, but without success; for she proved faithful to her husband. At the end of the year Mider came and claimed the second game. They played; again Eochaid lost, and Mider demanded to put his arms around Etain and give her a kiss. “Come back in a month,” replied the king, “and it shall be granted you.” When the fatal day arrived, his rival found Eochaid surrounded by his warriors, the fortress closed and guarded on every side. The day passed, and no antagonist presented himself. But at night Mider stood all at once in the midst of the hall, the beautiful Mider, more beautiful than ever. No one had seen him enter. The lady blushed when he boldly named his errand. “Do not blush,” quoth Mider; “thou hast no reason to reproach thyself. For a whole year I have not ceased to woo thee with jewels and wealth—thee, the fairest of the women of Ireland; and thou hast refused to listen to me so long as thy husband gave thee no permission.” “I have told thee,” replied she, “that I will not follow thee, unless my husband yield me. I will only be taken if Eochaid give me to thee.” “I will not give thee,” cried the king. “I only consent that he put his arms around thee here in this hall, as has been agreed.” “It shall be done,” said Mider. Laying his lance in his left hand, he seized Etain with his right; and, rising in the air, he disappeared with her through the smoke-hole in the palace-roof. The warriors that surrounded the king, ashamed at their own impotence, rushed from the hall to pursue the fugitives. They only saw, high above Tara, two swans whose long white necks were encircled and bound together by a yoke of gold. The story adds that afterwards, by the magical might of his Druids, Eochaid forced an entrance to the mysterious subterranean palace of Mider and took possession once more of his wife, so lovely, so beloved. But Mider’s hate was one day revenged on the posterity of Eochaid and Etain by the tragic death of Conaire, their grandson.217.1 The Druidical doctrine of metempsychosis would appear, alike from these ancient mythological tales and from modern folklore, to have been nothing more than Transformation as we find it among savages in all parts of the world.
Before turning to rites and superstitious beliefs, we may notice the legend of Oankoitupeh, son of the Red Cloud, the hero of the North American Maidus. A maiden sees a beautiful red cloud, and hears sweet music. The next day, while picking grass-seed pinole, she finds an arrow trimmed with yellow-hammer feathers; and suddenly a man is standing beside her, who is none other than the red cloud she had seen the day before. The bright and resplendent stranger declares his love; and the maiden replies: “If you love me, take and eat this basket of grass-seed pinole.” He touches the basket, and its contents vanish. Thereupon the girl swoons. When she returns to consciousness, behold! she has given birth to a son. The Red Cloud tells her: “You love me now; that is my boy, but he is not of this world.… He shall be greater than all men; he shall have power over all, and not fear any that live. Therefore shall his name be Oan-koi-tu-peh (the Invincible). Whenever you see him, think of me. This boy has no life apart from me; he is myself.”218.1 Compare with this the statement concerning Cuchulainn, one of the epic heroes of Ireland. It will be recollected that he was a new birth of the god Lug. The great epic cycles took final shape after the wars with the Danes in the eleventh century. One of the manuscripts of that period relates that the men of Ulster took counsel about Cuchulainn, because they were troubled and afraid that he would perish early, “so for that reason they wished to give him a wife that he might leave an heir; for they knew that his re-birth would be of himself.”218.2
These passages, though related of more than common men, point to a belief shared by the ancient Irish with the ancient Californians, that the son is in some sense identical with his father—a new birth, a new manifestation of the same person. This curious belief finds categorical expression in the great Brahman compilation known as the Laws of Manu. There we are told: “The husband, after conception by his wife, becomes an embryo and is born again of her; for that is the wifehood of a wife, that he is born again by her.”218.3 Corresponding with this declaration, the ritual prescribes, among other ceremonies when a boy is born, that the husband should address the babe thus: “From limb by limb thou art produced; and of the heart thou art born. Thou indeed art the self (atman) called son; so live a hundred autumns.” In the same words he addresses the boy every time he himself returns from a journey, embracing his head and kissing him thrice.219.1
Traces of the notion that a child is neither more nor less than the reappearance of an ancestor are found almost all over the world. It seems to be a general opinion among the Negroes of the western coasts of Africa that the ghostly self of a dead man enters the body of a newborn babe belonging to the same family. In Guinea, and among the Wanika, the resemblance, physical or mental, borne by a child to its father is attributed to this cause. The Yorubas inquire of their family god which of the deceased ancestors has returned, in order to name the child accordingly; and they greet its birth with the words “Thou art come!” as if addressing some one who has returned.219.2 On the Gold Coast, parents who have lost several children sometimes cast into the bush the body of the infant who has last died. They believe the next born to be the same child returned; and if it have any congenital deformity or defect, that is attributed to injuries received from wild beasts or other evil influences in the jungle.219.3 Caution, however, is required in dealing with some of these cases, for the subtlety of savage metaphysics is marvellous. An acute observer points out that among the Tshi-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast and the Ewe-speaking tribes of the Slave Coast, a distinction is drawn between the ghostly self that continues the man’s existence after death in the spirit-world, and his kra or ñoli, which is capable of being born again in a new human body. In the eastern Ewe districts and in Dahome the soul is, by either an inconsistency or a subtlety, believed to remain in the land of the dead and to animate some new child of the family at one and the same time; but it never animates an embryo in a strange family.220.1 Not very different seems to be the opinion of the Khonds of Orissa. Anthropologists have often quoted Macpherson’s description of the divination for determining a child’s name. The priest drops grains of rice into a cup of water, naming with each grain a deceased ancestor. From the movements of the seed in the fluid, and from observations made on the infant’s person, he pronounces which of the progenitors has reappeared in it; and the babe is usually named accordingly. Khond psychology endows every one with four souls. Out of such a company there is no difficulty in arranging that one of them shall be attached to some tribe and perpetually born again into it. This, in fact, is what is believed to happen.220.2
In New Zealand the priest, after certain ceremonies, first recited to the child the following stave:
“Wait till I pronounce your name.
What is your name?
Listen to your name,
This is your name——”
Then followed strings of ancestral names, until the babe sneezed. The name being uttered at the moment of the sneeze was the one chosen.221.1 We are not expressly told that the object of this rite was to identify the child with one of his forefathers. But, as Dr. Tylor remarks, we may always suspect it in such a case; and the verses seem to point to some such purpose. It was difficult to distinguish between gods and ancestors among the Maori,221.2 as, in truth, it often is, if we may not use a stronger expression, among savage peoples. The worship of the kindred inhabitants of Samoa was totemistic. During the mother’s labour, first the family god of the father, and then that of the mother was invoked. The god being invoked at the instant of birth was looked upon as the child’s special aitu (Maori, atua) or god; and during infancy the child was called and actually named “merda of Tongo” or “of Satiā,” or whatever other deity it might be.221.3 This would seem to go a step beyond the Maori creed, and to indicate that at one time the child was identified with the totem-god. In the island of Aurora, New Hebrides, where the people are Melanesians, women often speak of a child as the nunu, or echo, of some dead person. Dr. Codrington says: “It is not a notion of metempsychosis, as if the soul of the dead person returned in the newborn child; but it is thought that there is so close a connection that the infant takes the place of the deceased.”222.1 We may set this explanation beside the statement quoted by Dr. Tylor from Charlevoix that “some North American Indians were observed to set the child in place of the last owner of its name, so that a man would treat as his grandfather a child who might have been his grandson.”222.2 Whatever may be the fact as regards the Melanesians, it is certain that North American tribes, like the Mengwe and the Thlinkits, believed in the new birth of the dead. Among the latter, if a pregnant woman dreamed of a dead man, it was said that the ghost had taken up its abode in her body; and if a newborn child had the least resemblance to a deceased relative, the latter was believed to have returned, and the child was called by his name.222.3 Even in Norway, if a pregnant woman dream of one who is dead, the child must be named after him. If the dream be of a man, and a girl be born, the man’s name must be feminised, and vice versâ. If she dream of more than one person, the names of all must be given.222.4 The last practice perhaps resulted from the uncertainty as to which of the dead who appeared was to be identified with the coming stranger. Returning to America, we find that the Tacullies and Sicamies, tribes allied to the Thlinkits, inquire of the dead if they will return to life or not. The shaman inspects the naked breast of the body, and if satisfied on the point he blows the soul into the air, that it may seek a new body or puts his hands on the head of one of the mourners, thereby conveying the spirit into him, to be embodied in his next offspring. The relation thus favoured, we are told, added the name of the deceased to his own.223.1 It is said that the Dakotas believed that their medicine-men and women ran their career four times in human shape.223.2 In the Amazons Valley the Ticunas, and yet further to the south the Bakaïrí and their allied tribes, name a child from one of its forefathers. In Southern India the same practice is followed by the Yenadies;223.3 and, indeed, it may be said, whatever be its motive, to be a common practice in many parts of the globe. An Esthonian babe is baptized by the name of one of its grandfathers.223.4 In the Romagna it is usual to give the names of grandfathers, uncles and other relatives, to children, but not the names of relatives who are living, lest their death be accelerated—a vague reminiscence probably of the real reason.223.5 Elsewhere in Italy the superstition that a baby is a dead relative returned appears to be extant.224.1 Among the Andaman islanders, “if a woman who has lost a baby be about to become a mother, the name borne by the deceased is bestowed on the fœtus, in the expectation that it will prove to be the same child born again. Should the infant at birth prove to be of the same sex as the one who had died, the identity would be considered sufficiently established.”224.2 The same belief was current among the people of Old Calabar.224.3 Huron philosophy posited the existence of two souls in a man. One was changed into a turtle-dove, or went to the village of souls. The other remained attached to the body, never to leave it “unless some one gave birth to it again.” The Hurons, moreover, as we have seen, buried in the road their little children who died, in order that they might secretly enter into the wombs of passing women, and be born again.224.4 As to the beliefs of the Eskimo there seems a little question. As to their practice of naming children after deceased persons (either relatives or intimate friends) there is no doubt. Dr. Tylor cites from Crantz the assertion that a helpless widow would seek to persuade some father that the soul of a dead child of his had passed into a living child of hers, or vice versâ, thus gaining to herself a new relative and protector. Dr. Rink, on the other hand, considers that the deceased person whose name a child bore was only looked upon as a kind of guardian spirit. His statement, however, that the child when grown up was bound to brave the influences that had caused his namesake’s death—for instance, if the namesake had perished at sea, his successor had all the greater inducement to become a skilful kayaker—points to identity; and so do the stories I have cited from Rink’s collection in previous pages.225.1 It may be suggested that the discrepancy is to be accounted for by the gradual change in Eskimo ideas under contact with civilised travellers and missionaries.
We have now reviewed a large number of märchen wherein the hero or heroine is said to have suffered by death and new birth transfiguration into a variety of forms, both brute and human. We have, moreover, found the same plot in sagas in both hemispheres. And, advancing to savage theory and its correlative customs, I hope I have made it plain that stories of metamorphosis, whether märchen or sagas, have been founded upon the belief that at death men are not annihilated, but pass into fresh forms, sometimes appearing as plants and trees, sometimes as animals of the lower creation, and sometimes as men and women born again into their own kindred or among strangers. This is a creed held so widely that—though subject, perhaps, to varying stress, according to the degree and direction of the evolving civilisation, or, possibly yet more, to the different capacities and opportunities of travellers who report the characteristics of savage life and thought often far removed from their own—it may yet be regarded as practically universal. I have not attempted to distinguish between Transformation and Transmigration. When a man, either without passing through death and birth, or passing through death only, changes into a wolf or an ant, it is no more than Transformation. But if the metamorphosis be effected by death and growth into a tree, or a fresh birth from brute or human mother, it is obvious that there is more difficulty in affirming identity between the new substance and the old. In some cases, if we may trust our authorities, and if we rightly interpret the tales and ritual and beliefs they report, the savage sets this difficulty at defiance: the proofs of identity overcome it. Oftener, it may be, the identity established is of an inner and more elusive self. For want of a better word we call this kernel of a man his soul, or spirit, both of which words connote to us an immaterial object, with none of the attributes of physical existence. To the savage, however, as to our own forefathers, and to the folk of all civilised countries still, the idea of an incorporeal soul is incomprehensible. He may not be able to see it at all times; he may not be able to handle it when he will: but this kernel, this inner self, of friend or foe, comes to him in dreams; he beholds it in the snake or the toad, the insect or the dove, that haunts the tomb of one who was dear to him, or in the rose-bush or the lily growing upon the grave; or he fetches it back in the shape of a white stone to his beloved child, who has sickened at its absence, and is like to die. Thus it is everywhere in the lower culture conceived as material, though capable of changing its form and appearance without losing its identity. And this identity is the real identity of the man, suffusing and transfusing his entire being. Hence the dividing line between Transformation and Transmigration is frequently so thin and faint. Transmigration as popularly understood (for I am not speaking of the speculations of philosophers, whether Indian or Greek) is a natural and imperceptible development of Transformation. As regards the popular Buddhistic belief of ancient Hindustan I have already shown this from the Játakas; and what is true of that holds good of other popular forms of belief, at all events where Judaism and its daughter-faiths, Christianity and Mohammedanism, have not too deeply penetrated.
Some races, as we have seen, divide the soul into two or more entities, whereof one alone may be capable of re-manifestation. To discuss the reason for this would lead us away from our subject. It will be enough to suggest that it is an attempt to escape from the dilemma imposed by the meeting of two or more lines of speculation as to the future life. A reconciliation must be attained between the reasoning which would lead to the belief in a place of the dead elsewhere than here, and that which inclines to the opinion that the deceased remains among his friends, or amid his decaying dust, ready and eager to appear again. The divisibility of the inner self succeeds in this object; and if we meet with such a device less frequently than we might expect, it is no doubt because the savage mind, unaccustomed to consecutive and abstract thought, is slow in realising a contradiction, and unwilling to solve the difficulty, unless where circumstances have compelled the attention and the necessary effort.
The study of the belief in the re-incorporation of the soul in a human body has no direct bearing on the legend of Perseus, but some account of it was required to complete our view of savage thought upon the subject of Transformation by means of death and birth—a subject necessary to be understood in approaching the incident of the Life-token. To that incident we have next to address ourselves.
[End of vol. I]
Note.—In the notes Roman numerals placed before the name of a work or author indicate the volume, placed after the name indicate the book or chapter, cited; Arabic numerals generally indicate the page or verse.
Allen, Grant, Attis. The Attis of Caius Valerius Catullus Translated into English Verse, with Dissertations on the Myth of Attis, on the Origin of Tree-Worship, and on the Galliambic Metre by Grant Allen, B.A. London, 1892.
Am Urquell. Am Urquell. Monatsschrift für Volkskunde. Herausgegeben von Friedrich S. Krauss. 4 vols. Wien, 1890-3. [Still proceeding.]
Anthropologie. L’Anthropologie paraissant tous les deux mois sous la direction de MM. Cartailhac, Hamy, Topinard. 4 vols. Paris, 1890-93. [Still proceeding.]
Antiquary. The Antiquary: a Magazine devoted to the Study of the Past. 29 vols. London, 1880-94. [Still proceeding.]
Archivio. Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizioni Popolari. Rivista trimestrale diritta da G. Pitrè e S. Salamone-Marino. 12 vols. Palermo, 1882-93. [Still proceeding.]
Arch. Rev. The Archæological Review. 4 vols. London, 1888-90.
Asbjörnsen. Norwegische Volksmärchen, gesammelt von P. Asbjörnsen und Jörgen Moe. Deutsch von Friederich Bresemann. 2 vols. Berlin, 1847.
Aubrey, Miscellanies. Miscellanies upon Various Subjects. By John Aubrey, F.R.S. London, 1857.
Auning. Ueber den lettischen Drachen-Mythus (Puhkis). Ein Beitrag zur lettischen Mythologie von Robert Auning. Mitan, 1892.
Bahar-Danush. Bahar-Danush; or Garden of Knowledge. An Oriental Romance. Translated from the Persic of Einiaut Oollah. By Jonathan Scott. 3 vols. Shrewsbury, 1799.
Bancroft. The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. 5 vols. London, 1875-6.
Basile. Lo Cunto de li Cunti (Il Pentamerone) di Giambattista Basile. Testo conforme alla prima stampa del 1634-6 con introduzione e note di Benedetto Croce. Vol. I. Napoli, 1891. [Only one volume yet published.]
Bent, Cyclades. The Cyclades or Life among the Insular Greeks by J. Theodore Bent, B.A. London, 1885.
Bérenger-Féraud. Traditions et Réminiscences Populaires de la Provence (Coutumes, Légendes, Superstitions, etc.). Par Bérenger-Féraud. Paris, 1886.
Bladé, Agenais. Contes Populaires recueillis en Agenais par M. Jean-François Bladé. Paris, 1874.
—— Contes Pop. Gasc. Contes Populaires de la Gascogne, par M. Jean-François Bladé. 3 vols. Paris, 1886.
Blätt. f. Pomm. Volksk. Blätter für Pommersche Volkskunde. Monatsschrift für Sage und Märchen [etc.]. Herausgegeben von O. Knoop und Dr. A. Haas. vols. Stettin. 1892—.
Bötticher. Der Baumkultus der Hellenen nach den gottesdienstlichen Gebräuchen und den überlieferten Bildwerken dargestellt von Carl Boetticher. Berlin, 1856.
Braga, Contos. Theophilo Braga. Contos Tradicionaes do Povo Portuguez. 2 vols. Porto, N.D.
Brinton, Amer. Hero-Myths. American Hero-Myths. A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent. By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. Philadelphia, 1882.
Brinton, Lenâpé. The Lenâpé and their Legends; with the complete text and symbols of the Walam Olum, a new translation, and an inquiry into its authenticity. By Daniel G. Brinton, A.M., M.D. Philadelphia, 1885.
—— Myths. The Myths of the New World. A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America by Daniel G. Brinton, A.M., M.D. New York, 1868.
Browne, Vulgar Errors. Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or Enquiries into very many received Tenents and commonly presumed Truths. By Thomas Browne, Doctor of Physick. London, 1646.
Bull. de F.L. Bulletin de Folklore Organe de la Société du Folklore Wallon. 2 vols. London, 1892-3. [Still proceeding.]
Burton, Gelele. A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome by Richard F. Burton. 2 vols. London, 1864.
—— Nights. A plain and literal translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, with introduction, explanatory notes [etc.], by Richard F. Burton. 10 vols. Privately printed, 1885.
—— Suppl. Nights. Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night with notes anthropological and explanatory by Richard F. Burton. 6 vols. Privately printed, 1886-88.
—— Wanderings. Wanderings in West Africa from Liverpool to Fernando Po. By A F.R.G.S. 2 vols. London, 1863.
—— Wit and Wisd. Wit and Wisdom from West Africa, compiled by Richard F. Burton. London, 1865.
Busk, Sagas from the Far East. Sagas from the Far East; or Kalmouk and Mongolian Traditionary Tales. With historical preface and explanatory notes. By the Author of “Patrañas,” etc. London, 1873.
Callaway, Rel. Syst. The Religious System of the Amazulu. Isinyanga Zokubula; or Divination, as existing among the Amazulu, in their own words, with a translation into English, and notes. By the Rev. Canon Callaway, M.D. Natal, 1870.
—— Tales. Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, in their own words, with a translation into English, and notes. By the Rev. Canon Callaway, M.D. Vol. I. London, 1868. [Only one vol. published.]
Campbell. Popular Tales of the West Highlands orally collected with a translation by J. F. Campbell. 4 vols. Edinburgh, 1860-62.
Campbell, Santal F.T. Santal Folk Tales. Translated from the Santali by A. Campbell. Pokhuria, 1891.
Carnoy. Contes Français recueillis par E. Henry Carnoy. Paris, 1885.
Casalis. Les Bassoutos ou vingt-trois années de séjour et d’observations au sud de l’Afrique par E. Casalis. Paris, 1859.
Cavallius. Schwedische Volkssagen und Märchen. Nach mündlicher Ueberlieferung gesammelt und herausgegeben von Gunnar Olof Hyltén Cavallius und George Stephens. Deutsch von Carl Oberleitner. Wien, 1848.
Chambers, Pop. Rhymes. Popular Rhymes of Scotland. Robert Chambers. London, 1870.
Child. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads edited by Francis James Child. 8 parts. Boston, N.D. [1882-92, still proceeding.]
Codrington. The Melanesians. Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore by R. H. Codrington, D.D. Oxford, 1891.
Coelho. Contos Populares Portuguezes colligidos por F. Adolpho Coelho. Lisbon, 1879.
Comparetti. Novelline Popolari Italiane pubblicate ed illustrate da Domenico Comparetti. Vol. I. Torino, 1875. [Only one volume yet published.]
Compte-Rendu du Congrès. Congrès International des Traditions Populaires. Première Session. Paris, 1889. Compte-Rendu des Séances. Paris, 1891.
Congress Report. The International Folklore Congress, 1891. Papers and Transactions. Edited by Joseph Jacobs and Alfred Nutt. London, 1892.
Cosquin. Emmanuel Cosquin. Contes Populaires de la Lorraine. 2 vols. Paris, N.D. [Preface dated Août 1886.]
County F.L., Suffolk. County Folklore. Printed Extracts. No. 2: Suffolk. Collected and edited by the Lady Eveline Camilla Gurdon. London, 1893. [Folklore Society.]
Cox, Miss, Cinderella. Cinderella. Three hundred and forty-five variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap o’ Rushes, abstracted and tabulated, with a discussion of mediæval analogues, and notes, by Marian Roalfe Cox. London, 1893.
Crane. Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane, A.M. London, 1885.
Crantz. The History of Greenland: containing a Description of the Country and its Inhabitants. By David Crantz. Translated from the High Dutch. 2 vols. London, 1767.
Curtin, Russians. Myths and Folktales of the Russians, Western Slavs and Magyars by Jeremiah Curtin. London, 1890.
Cymmrodor. See Y Cymmrodor.
Dalton. Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, by Edward Tuite Dalton, C.S.I.Col. Calcutta, 1872.
D’Arbois de Jubainville, Cycle Myth. Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais et la Mythologie Celtique, par H. D’Arbois de Jubainville. Paris, 1884.
—— Épopée Celtique. L’Épopée Celtique en Irlande, par H. D’Arbois de Jubainville. Vol. I. Paris, 1892. [One volume only yet published.]
Dasent. Popular Tales from the Norse by Sir George Webbe Dasent, D.C.L. Edinburgh, 1888.
Davids. See Rhys Davids.
Day. Folktales of Bengal by the Rev. Lal Behari Day. London, 1883.
De Charencey, Le Fils de la Vierge. Le Fils de la Vierge par H. de Charencey. Havre, 1879.
—— Trad. rel. Les Traditions relatives au Fils de la Vierge par H. de Charencey. Paris, 1881.
De Gubernatis. Le Novelline di Santo Stefano raccolte da Angelo de Gubernatis. Torino, 1869.
—— Zool. Myth. Zoological Mythology or The Legends of Animals by Angelo de Gubernatis. London, 1872.
De Gubernatis, Trad. Pop. Le Tradizioni Popolari di S. Stefano di Calcinaia raccolte da Alessandro de Gubernatis. Roma, 1894. [Includes a new edition of the Novelline.]
De Nino. Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi descritti da Antonio de Nino. 5 vols. Firenze, 1879-91. [The first volume bears only the title Usi Abruzzesi.]
Dennys. The Folklore of China, and its Affinities with that of the Aryan and Semitic Races. By N. B. Dennys, Ph.D., F.R.G.S. London, 1876.
De Rochemonteix. Quelques Contes Nubiens par Maxence de Rochemonteix. Cairo, 1888.
Dorman. The Origin of Primitive Superstitions and their Development into the Worship of Spirits and the Doctrine of Spiritual Agency among the Aborigines of America. By Rushton M. Dorman. Philadelphia, 1881.
Early Trav. Early Travels in Palestine, comprising the narratives of Arculf, Willibald [etc.]. Edited with notes by Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A. London, 1848.
Elliot, N. W. Prov. Memoirs on the History, Folklore, and Distribution of the Races of the North Western Provinces of India; being an amplified edition of the original Supplemental Glossary of Indian Terms by the late Sir Henry M. Elliot, K.C.B. Edited, revised, and rearranged by John Beames, M.R.A.S. 2 vols. London, 1869.
Ellis, Polyn. Res. Polynesian Researches, during a residence of nearly eight years in the Society and Sandwich Islands. By William Ellis. 4 vols. London, 1831.
—— Ewe-speaking Peoples. The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa. Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Languages, etc. By A. B. Ellis. London, 1890.
—— Tshi-speaking Peoples. The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa. Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, etc. By A. B. Ellis. London, 1887.
—— Yoruba. The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa. Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, etc. By A. B. Ellis. London, 1894.
Featherman. Social History of the Races of Mankind. By A. Featherman. 7 vols., not numbered, but distinguished as follows:—1st Division: Nigritians. 2nd Division: Papuo- and Malayo-Melanesians. 2nd Division: Oceano-Melanesians. 3rd Division: Aoneo-Maranonians. 3rd Division: Chiapo- and Guarano-Maranonians. 4th Division: Dravido-Turanians, Turco-Tatar-Turanians, Ugrio-Turanians. 5th Division: Aramæans. London, 1881-91.
Finamore. Tradizioni Popolari Abruzzesi raccolte da Gennaro Finamore. 2 vols. [Vol. I. in 2 parts, separately paged.] Lanciano, 1882-86.
—— Trad. Pop. Abr. Tradizioni Popolari Abruzzesi raccolte da Gennaro Finamore. Torino, 1894. [A separate work from, but apparently a continuation of, the above.]
F.L. Journ. The Folk-lore Journal. 7 vols. London, 1883-89. [Organ of the Folklore Society.]
F.L. Record. The Folk-lore Record. 5 vols. London, 1878-82. [Organ of the Folklore Society.]
Folklore. Folk-Lore, a Quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution, and Custom. 4 vols. London, 1890-93. [Organ of the Folklore Society, still proceeding.]
Frazer, Golden Bough. The Golden Bough A Study in Comparative Religion by J. G. Frazer, M.A. 2 vols. London, 1890.
Frere. Old Deccan Days; or Hindoo Fairy Legends current in Southern India. Collected from Oral Tradition by M. Frere. London, 1870.
Friend. Flowers and Flower Lore. By the Rev. Hilderic Friend, F.L.S. 2 vols., paged continuously. London, 1884.
Garnett, Women. The Women of Turkey and their Folk-lore by Lucy M. J. Garnett. 2 vols. London, 1890-91.
Gerv. Tilb. Des Gervasius von Tilbury Otia Imperialia. In einer Auswahl neu herausgegeben und mit Anmerkungen begleitet von Felix Liebrecht. Hannover, 1856.
Gibb. The History of the Forty Vezirs or The Story of the Forty Morns and Eves written in Turkish by Sheykh-Zāda done into English by E. J. W. Gibb, M.R.A.S. London, 1886.
Giles. Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Translated and annotated by Herbert A. Giles. 2 vols. London, 1880.
Gonzenbach. Sicilianische Märchen. Aus dem Volksmund gesammelt von Laura Gonzenbach. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1870.
Grimm, Tales. Grimm’s Household Tales. With the Author’s Notes Translated from the German and edited by Margaret Hunt. 2 vols. London, 1884.
—— Teut. Myth. Teutonic Mythology by Jacob Grimm Translated from the Fourth Edition with Notes and Appendix by James Steven Stallybrass. 4 vols., paged continuously. London, 1880-88.
Grinnell, Blackfoot L.T. Blackfoot Lodge Tales. The Story of a Prairie People by George Bird Grinnell. London, 1893.
Grundtvig. Dänische Volksmärchen. Nach bisher ungedruckten Quellen erzählt von Svend Grundtvig. Uebersetzt von Willibald Leo. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1885.
Guppy. The Solomon Islands and their Natives, By H. B. Guppy, M.B., F.G.S. London, 1887.
Hahn, Tsuni-ǁgoam. Tsuni-ǁgoam the Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi by Theophilus Hahn, Ph.D. London, 1881.
Haltrich. Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen. Gesammelt von Josef Haltrich. Wien, 1885.
Hanway. An Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea: with a Journal of Travels through Russia into Persia and back again through Russia Germany and Holland. By Jonas Hanway, Merchant. 4 vols. London, 1753.
Hodgetts. Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar. A Collection of Russian Stories. Translated from the original Russian by Edith M. S. Hodgetts. London, 1890.
Hunter, Rural Bengal. The Annals of Rural Bengal. By W. W. Hunter, C.I.E., LL.D. London, 1883.
Imbriani. La Novellaja Fiorentina Fiabe e Novelline Stenografate in Firenze dal dettato popolare da Vittorio Imbriani. Ristampa accresciuta di molte novelle inedite, [etc.,] nelle quale è accolta integralmente La Novellaja Milanese dello stesso raccoglitore. Livorno, 1877.
Im Thurn. Among the Indians of Guiana being Sketches chiefly anthropologic from the Interior of British Guiana by Everard F. im Thurn, M.A. London, 1883.
Internat. Archiv. Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie. 6 vols. Leiden, 1888-93. [Still proceeding.]
Jacobs, Celtic F.T. Celtic Fairy Tales selected and edited by Joseph Jacobs. London, 1892.
—— Indian F.T. Indian Fairy Tales selected and edited by Joseph Jacobs. London, 1892.
James, The Long White Mountain. The Long White Mountain. A Journey in Manchuria with some Account of the History, People, Administration and Religion of that Country. By H. E. M. James. London, 1888.
Jeremias, Izdubar-Nimrod. Izdubar-Nimrod. Eine altbabylonische Heldensage. Nach den Keilschriftfragmenten dargestellt von Dr. Alfred Jeremias. Leipzig, 1891.
Jevons, Plutarch’s Romane Questions. Plutarch’s Romane Questions. Translated A.D. 1603 by Philemon Holland, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Now again edited by Frank Byron Jevons, M.A. With Dissertations on Italian Cults [etc.]. London, 1892.
Journ. Am. F.L. The Journal of American Folklore. 6 vols. Boston, 1888-93. [Organ of the American Folklore Society, still proceeding.]
Journ. Anthrop. Inst. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 23 vols. London, 1872-94. [Still proceeding.]
Journ. Anthr. Soc. Journal of the Anthropological Society of London. 8 vols. London, 1863-70.
Journ. Ethnol. Soc., N.S. Journal of the Ethnological Society of London. Published quarterly. 2 vols. London, 1869-70.
Kathá. The Kathá-sarit-Ságara or Ocean of the Streams of Story translated from the original Sanskrit by C. H. Tawney, M.A. 2 vols. Calcutta, 1880-84.
Kaindl. Die Huzulen. Ihr Leben ihre Sitten und ihre Volksüberlieferung geschildert von Dr. Raimund Friedrich Kaindl. Wien, 1894.
Kalevala. Kalewala, das National-Epos der Finnen, nach der zweiten Ausgabe ins Deutsche übertragen von Anton Schiefner. Helsingfors, 1852.
Klunzinger. Upper Egypt: its People and its Products. A Descriptive Account of the Manners, Customs, Superstitions and Occupations of the People of the Nile Valley [etc.]. By C. B. Klunzinger, M.D. London, 1878.
Knight. Where Three Empires Meet. A Narrative of recent Travel in Kashmir, Western Tibet, Gilgit and the adjoining Countries by E. F. Knight. London, 1893.
Knoop. Volkssagen, Erzählungen Aberglauben, Gebräuche und Märchen aus dem östlichen Hinterpommern. Gesammelt von Otto Knoop. Posen, 1885.
Knowles. Folktales of Kashmir. By the Rev. J. Hinton Knowles, F.R.G.S., M.R.A.S. London, 1888.
Kohlrusch. Schweizerisches Sagenbuch. Nach mündlichen Ueberlieferungen, Chroniken und andern gedruckten und handschriftlichen Quellen herausgegeben von C. Kohlrusch. Leipzig, 1854-56. [Only one volume and a portion of a second published.]
Kolbe. Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebräuche im Lichte der heidnische Vorzeit. Von Wilhelm Kolbe. Marburg, 1888.
Krauss, Sagen. Sagen und Märchen der Südslaven. Zum grossen Teil aus ungedruckten Quellen von Dr. Friedrich S. Krauss. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1883-84.
—— Sitte und Brauch. Sitte und Brauch der Südslaven. Nach heimischen gedruckten und ungedruckten Quellen von Dr. Friedrich S. Krauss. Wien, 1885.
Kremnitz. Rumänische Märchen übersetzt von Mite Kremnitz. Leipzig, 1882.
Kreutzwald. Ehstnische Märchen aufgezeichnet von Friedrich Kreutzwald. Aus dem Ehstnischen übersetzt von F. Löwe. Halle, 1869.
Kuhn und Schwartz. Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus dem Munde des Volkes gesammelt und herausgegeben von A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz. Leipzig, 1848.
Landes, Annamites. Contes et Légendes Annamites par A. Landes. Saigon, 1886.
—— Tjames. Contes Tjames traduits et annotés par A. Landes. Saigon, 1887.
Lane. An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, written in Egypt during the years 1833, -34, and -35, partly from notes made during a former visit [etc.]. By Edward William Lane. 2 vols. London, 1842.
Le Braz. La Légende de la Mort en Basse Bretagne. Croyances, Traditions et Usages des Bretons Armoricains par A. Le Braz. Paris, 1893.
Leg. Panjâb. The Legends of the Panjâb. By Captain R. C. Temple. 2 vols. Bombay, N.D.
Legrand. Recueil des Contes Populaires Grecs traduits sur les textes originaux par Émile Legrand. Paris, 1881.
Leland, Gip. Sorc. Gipsy Sorcery and Fortune-telling, illustrated by numerous incantations, specimens of medical magic, anecdotes and tales by Charles Godfrey Leland. London, 1891.
Leskien. Litauische Volkslieder und Märchen aus dem Preussischen und dem Russischen Litauen, gesammelt von A. Leskien und K. Brugman. Strassburg, 1882.
Liebrecht. Zur Volkskunde. Alte und Neue Aufsätze von Felix Liebrecht. Heilbronn, 1879.
Llyvyr Coch. See Mabinogion.
Luzel, Contes Bretons. Contes Bretons par F. M. Luzel. Quimperlé, 1870.
—— Contes Pop. Contes Populaires de la Basse Bretagne par F. M. Luzel. 3 vols. Paris, 1887.
Mabinogion. The Mabinogion. From the Welsh of the Llyfr Coch o Hergest (The Red Book of Hergest) in the Library of Jesus College, Oxford. Translated, with notes, by Lady Charlotte Guest. London, 1877.
Y Llyvyr Coch o Hergest. [Diplomatic reproduction of the MS. referred to above. No general title-page. The first volume contains the Mabinogion. Edited by John Rhŷs, M.A., and J. Gwenogvryn Evans. Oxford, 1887.]
Macdonald. Africana; or The Heart of Heathen Africa. By the Rev. Duff Macdonald, M.A., B.D. 2 vols. London, 1882.
Macpherson, Memorials. Memorials of Service in India from the Correspondence of the late Major Samuel Charters Macpherson, C.B., edited by his brother William Macpherson. London, 1865.
Mango. Novelline Popolari Sarde raccolte e annotate dal Dott. Francesco Mango. Palermo, 1890.
Markham, Rites and Laws. Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Yncas. Translated from the original Spanish MSS., and edited by Clements R. Markham, C.B., F.R.S. London, 1873.
Marsden. The History of Sumatra, containing an Account of the Government, Laws, Customs, and Manners of the Native Inhabitants [etc.]. By William Marsden, F.R.S. London, 1811.
Martinengo-Cesaresco, Countess. Essays in the Study of Folk-songs. By the Countess Evelyn Martinengo-Cesaresco. London, 1886.
Maspero. Les Contes Populaires de l’Égypte Ancienne, traduits et commentés par G. Maspero. Paris, 1882.
Maurer. Isländische Volkssagen der Gegenwart, vorwiegend nach mündlicher Ueberlieferung gesammelt, und verdeutscht von Dr. Konrad Maurer. Leipzig, 1860.
Maury, Légendes Pieuses. Essai sur les Légendes Pieuses du Moyen Age, ou Examen de ce qu’elles renferment de Merveilleux [etc.]; par L. F. Alfred Maury. Paris, 1843.
Meddygon Myddfai. The Physicians of Myddvai; Meddygon Myddfai, or the Medical Practice of the celebrated Rhiwallon and his sons, of Myddvai, in Carmarthenshire, Physicians to Rhys Gryg, Lord of Dynevor and Ystrad Towy, about the middle of the thirteenth century. From ancient MSS. in the Libraries of Jesus College, Oxford, Llanover, and Tonn; with an English translation; and the legend of the Lady of Llynn y Van. Translated by John Pughe, Esq., F.R.C.S., and edited by the Rev. John Williams ab Ithel, M.A. Llandovery, 1861.
Meier, Märchen. Deutsche Volksmärchen aus Schwaben. Aus dem Munde des Volkes gesammelt und herausgegeben von Dr. Ernst Meier. Stuttgart, N.D. [3rd edition.]
—— Sagen. Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben, gesammelt von Ernst Meier. 2 vols., paged continuously. Stuttgart, 1852.
Mélusine. Mélusine Recueil de Mythologie Littérature Populaire, Traditions et Usages, publié par MM. H. Gaidoz et E. Rolland. 6 vols. Paris, 1878-93. [Still proceeding. The later volumes edited by H. Gaidoz alone.]
Mem. Anthr. Soc. Memoirs read before the Anthropological Society of London. 3 vols. London, 1865-70.
Milenowsky. Volks-märchen aus Böhmen. Von J. Milenowsky. Breslau, 1853.
Modigliani. Un Viaggio a Nías di Elio Modigliani. Milano, 1890.
Morris and Magnússon, Heimskringla. The Stories of the Kings of Norway called The Round World (Heimskringla) by Snorri Sturluson done into English out of the Icelandic by William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon. Vol. I. London, 1893. [One volume only yet issued.]
Müller, Amer. Urrel. Geschichte der Amerikanischen Ur-religionen. Von J. G. Müller. Basel, 1867.
Nat. Mus. Rep., 1888. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, for the year ending June 30, 1888. Report of the U.S. National Museum. Washington, 1890.
O’Donovan, Four Masters. Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the Four Masters, edited by John O’Donovan, Esq. 5 vols. Dublin, 1851.
Pentamerone. Der Pentamerone oder Das Märchen aller Märchen von Giambattista Basile. Aus dem Neapolitanischen übertragen von Felix Liebrecht. 2 vols. Breslau, 1846.
Pigorini-Beri. Caterina Pigorini-Beri. Costumi e Superstizioni dell’ Appennino Marchigiano. Città di Castello, 1889.
Pitrè. Biblioteca delle Tradizioni Popolari Siciliane per cura di Giuseppe Pitrè. 18 vols. Palermo, 1871-88.
—— Nov. Pop. Toscane. Novelle Popolari Toscane illustrate da Giuseppe Pitrè. Firenze, 1885.
Placucci. Usi e Pregiudizj dei Contadini della Romagna di Michele Placucci da forlì riprodotti sulla edizione originale per cura di Giuseppe Pitrè. Palermo, 1885.
Ploss, Kind. Das Kind in Brauch und Sitte der Völker. Anthropologische Studien von Dr. H. Ploss. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1884.
—— Weib. Das Weib in der Natur- und Völkerkunde. Anthropologische Studien von Dr. H. Ploss. Nach dem Tode des Verfassers bearbeitet und herausgegeben von Dr. Max Bartels. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1891.
Popol Vuh. Popol Vuh. Le Livre sacré et les Mythes de l’Antiquité Américaine, avec les livres héroïques et historiques des Quichés. Ouvrage original des Indigènes de Guatemala, Texte Quiché et Traduction Française en regard, accompagné de notes [etc.]. Par l’Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg. Paris, 1861.
Powell and Magnússon. Icelandic Legends. Collected by Jón Arnason. Translated by George E. J. Powell and Eiríkur Magnússon. 2 vols. London, 1864-66.
Powers. Tribes of California. By Stephen Powers. Washington, 1877. [Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. iii.]
Preller, Röm. Myth. Römische Mythologie von L. Preller. 3te Auflage von H. Jordan. 2 vols. Berlin, 1881-3.
Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch. Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology. 15 vols. London, 1879-93. [Still proceeding.]
Pröhle, Kinder- und Volksm. Kinder- und Volksmärchen. Gesammelt von Heinrich Pröhle. Leipzig, 1853.
Radloff. Proben der Volkslitteratur der Türkischen Stämme Süd-Sibiriens, gesammelt und übersetzt von Dr. W. Radloff. 6 vols. St. Petersburg, 1866-86. [The last two volumes are entitled Proben der Volkslitteratur der nördlichen Türkischen Stämme.]
Ralston, Russian F.T. Russian Folktales by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. London, 1873.
—— Songs. The Songs of the Russian People, as illustrative of Slavonic Mythology and Russian Social Life. By W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. London, 1872.
—— Tibetan Tales. Tibetan Tales derived from Indian Sources. Translated from the Tibetan of the Kah-gyur by F. Anton von Schiefner. Done into English from the German by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. London, 1882.
Reade, Winwood. Savage Africa: being the Narrative of a Tour in Equatorial, South-Western, and North-Western Africa, by W. Winwood Reade. London, 1863.