AFTERMATH
A SUPPLEMENT TO
THE GOLDEN BOUGH
BY
SIR JAMES GEORGE FRAZER
O.M., F.R.S., F.B.A.
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O miseras hominum mentes, opectora caeca! Qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque pencils Degitur hoc aevi quodcumquest /
Lucretius, Book II, lines 14-16.
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PREFACE
THIS book is in no sense an independent treatise ; it is simply, as the title purports, a supplement intended to provide some fresh information on certain subjects which I have discussed more at large in The Golden Bough. Much of the new matter which the volume contains has been gathered from works that have appeared since the third and last edition of The Golden Bough was completed by the publication of the index volume in 1915 ; but I have also drawn on earlier sources which had escaped me when I wrote the original work. In that work, as in all my other writings, I have sought to base my conclusions by strict induction on a broad and solid foundation of well-authenticated facts. In the present work I have extended and strengthened the founda- tion without remodelling the superstructure of theory, which on the whole I have seen no reason to change. But now, as always, I hold all my theories very lightly, and am ever ready to modify or abandon them in the light of new evidence. If my writings should survive the writer, they will do so, I believe, less for the sake of the theories which they propound than for the sake of the facts which they record. They will live, if they live at all, as a picture or moving panorama of the vanished life of primitive man all over the world, from the Tropics to the Poles, groping and stumbling through the mists of ignorance and superstition in the eternal search after goodness and truth. When I
y
VI
PREFACE
first put pen to paper to write The Golden Rough I had no conception of the magnitude of the voyage on which I was embarking ; I thought only to explain a single rule of an ancient Italian priesthood. But insensibly I was led on, step by step, into surveying, as from some specular height, spme Pisgah of the mind, a great part of the human race ; I was beguiled, as by some subtle enchanter, into inditing what I cannot but regard as a dark, a tragic chronicle of human error and folly, of fruitkss endeavour, wasted time, and blighted hopes. At the best the chronicle may serve as a warning, as a sort of Ariadne's thread, to help the forlorn wayfarer to shun some of the snares and pitfalls into which his fellows have fallen before him in the labyrinth of life. Such as it is, with all its shortcomings, I now submit The Golden Bough in its completed form to the judgment of my contemporaries, and perhaps of posterity.
J« G. FRAZER
August 1936
CONTENTS
PREFACE , Pp. v-vi
CHAPTER L— MAGIC Pp. 1-67
Magic may be divided into Homoeopathic or Imitative and Contagious Magic. A belief in magic has greatly affected the lives of primitive people, leading to economic stagnation as well as to tragic loss of life.
A familiar example of homoeopathic or imitative magic consists in making and injuring a magical image of an enemy. Imitative magic is also em- ployed to facilitate childbirth, as in the Malay States, to relieve pain, as in Celebes, India, and Wales, and to cause sickness or death, as in New Guinea.
Many acts are forbidden in primitive society lest they might, on the prin- ciples of homoeopathic magic, entail undesirable effects. Certain foods are also forbidden for the same reason.
A magical sympathy is often supposed to exist between people at a distance, such that the actions of the one directly affect the other. Thus rules of conduct are often imposed upon wives during their husbands' absence in hunting, fishing, or fighting. Infidelity to an absent spouse is particularly dreaded and avoided.
Homoeopathic magic is often employed at sowing and planting to promote the growth and quality of the crops.
A fruitful branch of magic consists in the employment of the relics of the dead. By sympathetic magic birth and death are often associated with the flow and ebb of the tides.
Contagious magic is founded on the belief that things once conjoined remain, even after being disjoined, in sympathetic relation. Contagious magic is supposed to exist between a man and his bodily relics, especially his hair, nails, navel-string, and afterbirth. This has led to many observances throughout the world. Clothing and bodily impressions are often employed
in contagious magic.
•• Vtt
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER II.— THE MAGICAL CONTROL OF
THE WEATHER ..... Pp, 68-100
An important function of magic is to control the weather, ami w«Mthrr- makers sometimes rise to positions of power and influence. Magicians attempt to cause rain to fall or to cease, sometimes by imitative magic and sometimes by methods that are partly magical, partly religious. Primitive man also sometimes attempts to control the course of the gun, ami to raw the wind to blow or be still at his bidding. A common practice is " whistling for a wind.1'
CHAPTER III.— MAGICIANS AS KINGS . Pp. 101-113
Gerontocracy— & state of society in which authority fa held by the old nu*n of the tribe — prevalent among Australian aborigines and found elsewhere.
In Africa the political influence of the magician is great, but the rainmaker who fails to bring rain is often punished,
In England sovereigns have been regarded as a sort of divinity. A relit* of this belief persisted in England and France in the notion that they rm»M, by their touch, cure scrofula, hence called " The King's Evil*'
CHAPTER IV.— INCARNATE HUMAN GODS . Pp, 114-123
Chiefs regarded as incarnate human gods abounded among the P of the Pacific Islands. Possession by divine spirit wa* not always per manent, but was often temporary. In Africa also chiefi mad king! have often claimed to be deities, and Christian England has not lacked protendm to divinity.
CHAPTER V.— DEPARTMENTAL KINGS OF
NATURE ..... . Pp. 124*125
Sometimes the magician claims to control only a particular department of nature, of which he proclaims himself king, such as the 2Ung-of.the-W*t«r in Nigeria.
CHAPTER VI.— THE WORSHIP OF TREES . Pp. 126-149
The worship of to« is widespread in Sudan, and is also found in Nigeria, India, and Celebes. The belief that trees are inhabited by ipuifc h*t led tocermonies of propitiation at felling tree, in Africa, Burma, lado-China, and Indones*. Agam, many primitive communities have sacred prove. which they respect, especially in Africa. The tree-spirit* are often believed to possess powers of fecundity, and are accordingly entreated
CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER VII. — RELICS OF TREE- WORSHIP
IN EUROPE . . . • . . . Pp. 150-152
Relics of the worship of trees have survived in the popular observances of Europe, for example in the May Day customs of Wales.
CHAPTER VIII. — THE INFLUENCE OF THE
SEXES ON VEGETATION . . .Pp. 153-156
The intercourse of the human sexes is believed to have a potent influence in stimulating vegetation, and for this reason many restrictions are often imposed at the time of sowing and planting. Twins and parents of twins are sometimes credited with a power of fertilizing at such times. Sexual offences, especially incest, are believed to blight the crops.
CHAPTER IX. — THE SACRED MARRIAGE . Pp. 157-165
The mimic marriage of the king and queen of May was probably intended originally to promote the growth of plant-life in spring by the dramatic representation of a bridal : examples from Morocco, the Punjab, and Bengal.
In Africa women were often wedded to spirits or deities. Stories like that of Andromeda, in which the heroine is exposed to a sea-monster, may reflect an earlier custom of sacrificing virgins to water-spirits to be their wives : examples from Africa jand China.
Water-spirits are often thought to bestow offspring on childless women, especially in Africa.
CHAPTER X.— THE KING'S FIRE . . Pp. 166-168
With the Vestals of Ancient Rome, who maintained the fire on the royal hearth, may be compared the African Vestals of Uganda, who maintain perpetual fires in the temple.
CHAPTER XL — THE FIRE-DRILL . * Pp. 169-173
The making of fire by the fire-drill, that is, by revolving a pointed stick in a grooved stick, seems to be the most widely diffused method among primitive savages : it is found almost universally. Many savages see in the working of the fire-drill an analogy to the intercourse of the sexes.
CHAPTER XII. — FATHER JOVE AND MOTHER
VESTA Pp. 174-* 76
Ancestral spirits are supposed to haunt their old domestic hearths, and for this reason a fire has sometimes to b*- continually maintained for the comfort of the family ghosts.
CONTEArTS
In the kindling of new fire by the fire-drill both srx<?$ sometimes assist, In Assam the ceremony is performed by unmarried hoys, In Germany a widespread belief connects a person's chastity with his Ability to blow up a dying flame.
CHAPTER XIII.— THE ORIGIN OF PER-
PETUAL FIRES . , . . , Pp, 177-181
The custom of maintaining perpetual fires may have originated in the difficulty of kindling new fire by the laborious enrly method. Thv rustom is prevalent in Africa. The Banyoro of Africa extinguish all tires on the death of a king, and the Birhors of India after a funeral .
CHAPTER XIV.— THE SUCCESSION TO THE
KINGDOM IN ANCIENT LATIUM . , Pp. 182-185
In the old Latin kingship the crown seems to have desremhul to the man who married one of the king's daughters, kinship being traced in the feiiule line. The same rule of descent is found elsewhere, us m Burma and Assam. Instances occur in Africa of the hereditary and elective priudpU-s lvm$ combined.
CHAPTER XV.— ST. GEORGE AND THE
PARILIA ...... Pp. 186-187
In Hungary cattle are first driven out to pasture, with special observances, on St. George's Day, April 23, a date that nearly coincide* with the ancient Parilia, April 21.
CHAPTER XVI.-THE OAK . . , Pp. ,RJ».,OI
Prehistoric flint weapons are often regarded as thunderbolts m Europe. Africa, and India.
CHAPTER XVH.-DUNUS AND DIANA . Pp. ,92.I93
Diana
CHAPTER XVIII.-ROYAL AND PRIESTLY
TABOOS . „
..... Pp. 194-201
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER XIX. — THE PERILS OF THE SOUL Pp. 202-226
The soul is commonly identified with a person's likeness : hence it is feared that a person may be injured through his reflection or shadow. Sometimes a sick person is bound, to prevent his soul from leaving him, and again magicians often undertake to recover and restore the soul of a sick person when it is believed to have already left him. Examples from Indonesia, Burma, Assam, China, Africa, and North America.
Primitive people have often been in the habit of laying the foundations of buildings on the bodies of human victims, that their souls may guard or strengthen the foundations.
CHAPTER XX.— TABOOED ACTS , . Pp. 227-228
Savages commonly fear the spirits of any unknown country they enter, and observe ceremonies on crossing the boundary : so with the Maoris of New Zealand, Savages also fear to be injured by magic through relics of their food : examples of such belief in Australia and New Guinea.
CHAPTER XXI, — TABOOED PERSONS . * Pp. 229-256
Kings and chiefs in primitive society are subject to many taboos. Mourners, menstruous and pregnant women, and women after childbirth, warriors in time of war, warriors who have slain a foe, and hunters and fishers are subject to many taboos in different parts of the world.
CHAPTER XXII.— TABOOED THINGS . „ Pp. 257-270
Things as well as persons are subject to the mysterious influence of taboo, Thus iron is widely avoided, and sharp-edged weapons, and blood. The human head is often regarded as particularly tabooed or sacred, and the hair, as part of the head. The disposal of cut hair and nails is often an anxious matter to primitive man, since these may be used in magic to his hurt. So, too, with the saliva. Knots are widely regarded as magically potent, and are therefore sometimes tabooed. A knot on the garment of a woman in childbed is believed to retard delivery, hence these should be untied. Knots may be turned to good account, to oppose the inroad of disease.
CHAPTER XXIIL— TABOOED WORDS «, . Pp. 271-289
Words, especially names, are commonly tabooed, and many primitive people are unwilling to utter their own names. In some tribes parents are named after their children. This common avoidance of one's name seems to be based on a fear that evil might be worked on a person by a sorcerer
CONTENTS
through his name. Similarly primitive people are often forbidden to mention or address their relatives by marriage by name. The names of the dead are also frequently forbidden to the living,
A common taboo prohibits the telling of fairy stories at certain times and seasons, particularly during the day.
Sometimes the names of sacred chiefs and gods are tabooed. The same interdiction is frequently laid on the names of common objects of daily life, especially the names of objects for which men are searching, or of animals for which they are hunting. Thus in Maky, Assam, and Africa. A common taboo in Africa forbids people to step over things or persons lying on the ground, from a fear that this will affect the thing or person stepped over.
CHAPTER XXIV.— THE KILLING OF THE
DIVINE KING Pp. 290-317
The custom of killing a divine king upon any serious failure of his powers is very common in Africa: it was practised by the Jukvm of Nigeria, the Fung of the Upper Nile, the Mburn of the Cameroons, and many other tribes. These examples suggest an explanation of the priest howl at Ncmi.
Primitive peoples often entertain superstitions about meteors, and connect their occurrence with certain events, such as a death.
The great games of ancient Greece were, according to tradition, original!/ funeral games. Such funeral games occur in Samoa and among the Indians of Alaska,
In ancient Babylon the king's tenure of office seem* to have been Knitted to a single year, at the end of which he was put to death. 'Hie Banyuro of Uganda and Ibibio of Nigeria retain traces of a similar custom,
CHAPTER XXV.— THE FAIRY WIFE . . Pp. 318-323
Stories of a fairy wife or husband, of the type known as the Swan Maiden, or Beauty and the Beast, or Cupid and Psyche, are widely dtfifuied : ex* amples from Malay, New Hebrides, New Zealand, New Guinea, and Assam.
CHAPTER XXVL— TEMPORARY KINGS „ Pp. 324-330
The custom has existed among some people of appointing a temporary or mock king, either annually or at the beginning of the real king's reign. Examples from Uganda, Sudan, Nigeria in Africa, and Bastar ia India,
CHAPTER XX VI L— SACRIFICE OF THE KINO'S
SON ' Pp> 33*-333
An African chief is reported to have sacrificed his first-born son to feriag about his own recovery. More recently animals have been substituted for men
CONTENTS
Till
in such sacrifices. The custom of killing or sacrificing first-born children has been practised in Australia, the Solomon Islands, in Indo-China, in India, and in Africa.
CHAPTER XXVIIL — KILLING THE TREE- SPIRIT Pp. 334-335
Images are used as substitutes for human sacrifices in Bombay.
In Siberia, as in Europe, the transition from winter to summer is celebrated by a dramatic contest.
CHAPTER XXIX. — SWINGING AS A MAGICAL
RITE Pp. 336-337
Swinging is practised as a magical rite as a cure for serious sicknesses by the Milanos of Sarawak in Borneo.
CHAPTER XXX,— THE MYTH OF ADONIS . Pp. 338-339
The primitive mind is untrammelled by logic : thus the African native and the Chinese peasant are able to believe both of two contradictory statements.
CHAPTER XXXL— CONSECRATION BY ANOINT- ING ...*... Pp. 340-341
The custom of consecrating by anointing is observed in various parts of Polynesia and in Bombay.
CHAPTER XXXIL — REINCARNATION OF THE
DEAD „ Pp. 342-346
Sacred women who are regarded as wivps of a god in Nigeria and fakirs in India are believed to have miraculous powers of gaining favours from heaven.
The belief that the human dead come to life in the form of snakes is parti- cularly common in Africa. So, too, is a belief that dead infants may enter once more into the wombs of their mothers and be bom again. Hence infants are buried at places to which their mothers often go.
Among the Australian aborigines conception is often attributed to the entrance into the woman of an ancestral spirit, and is regarded as in- dependent of sexual intercourse. A precisely similar belief has been dis- covered among the Trobriand Islanders, and in the Merinas of Madagascar.
CHAPTER XXXIIL — VOLCANIC RELIGION . Pp. 347-349
Worship is paid to inflammable gases in India and Celebes, to earthquakes in Africa, and to * volcano in the Friendly Islands*
xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXXIV.— THE GARDENS OF ADONIS Pp. 350352
The ancient gardens of Adonis have their analogy in nuny tribes of modern India.
, 4
CHAPTER XXXV.— THE RITUAL OF Arns Pp. 353-354
The self-mutilation of male worshippers at the vernal iestiv&i of Cybele and Attis finds an analogy in modern Nigeria*
CHAPTER XXXVI.— ATTIS AS THE FATHER
GOD P. 355
The Manggerai of West Flores, in the Indian Arehijjehigo, personify the Sky and Earth as husband and wife.
CHAPTER XXXVIL— ON HEAD-HUNTINC . Pp. 356-357
Among the motives alleged by head-hunters for the practice of taking heads is a belief that they thereby promote the fertility of the rurth arid the growth of the crops. Thus in Assam, Formosa, Nigeria, and South America.
CHAPTER XXXVIIL— THE TEARS OF Isis Pp. 358-359
In modern Egypt a night about midsummer is called the Night of the Drop, because at that time a certain marvellous drop is beliewd to initiate tta swelling of the Nile.
CHAPTER XXXIX -THE STAR OF Isis . P. 360
The Bafeoti of Loango, like the ancient Egyptian., employ «he star Siriu* to correct their calendar of twelve lunar monda.
CHASTER XL.— FEASTS OF ALL SOULS . Pp. 361-364
The custom of holding an annual feast to welcome the returning souls «f
Ae dead is observed in the Trobriand Islands, in Chin., in Tibet, tad m Jrieomont.
CHAPTER XLI.— MOTHER-KIN AND MOTHER
GoDDESSES P. 365
£ S^™f pU7,8^°Tcwf ' fa which m« «e ruled by women, » reported to exist among the Valovale of South Africa,
CONTENTS xv
CHAPTER XLI I. —MARRIAGE OF BROTHERS
WITH SISTERS Pp, 366-367
The ancient Egyptian custom of marrying brothers with sisters has been practised in the royal family of the Banyoro in Uganda.
CHATTER XLIII. — CHILDREN OF LIVING
PARENTS IN RITUAL . pp. 368-370
Children whose parents are both alive are commonly used in ritual, probably from a belief that such children have a larger share of vitality than usual.
CHAPTER XLI V.- -BLIND VICTIMS IN SACRI-
FICE ••-.... Pp. 371-372
Blind victims are often used in sacrifice for the purpose of blinding, by sympathetic magic, the eyes of enemies. On the same principle in perform- ing a magical rite a person will sometimes clpse his eyes to blind the animals or vermin against which his incantations are directed.
CHAPTER XLV, — MEN DRESSED AS WOMEN P. 373
The Mawhoos or Mahoos of Tahiti are men who dress and act as women.
CHAPTER XLVL— CHILDREN IN WINNOWING-
FANS P<374
The custom of placing a child in a winnowing-fan is widespread.
CHAPTER XLVII, — MAGICAL SIGNIFICANCE
OF GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE Pp. 375-378
Games are often played by primitive peoples to promote the growth of their crops : thus in India and New Guinea. The game of cats' cradles is of very common occurrence for this purpose.
CHAPTER XL VI II. —WOMEN'S PART IN PRIMI- TIVE AGRICULTURE . . . „ pp- 379-384
Among primitive people who practise agriculture the men commonly clear the land, while the actual cultivation falls to the lot of the women : so in Africa, New Guinea, and New Britain.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XLIX,— PERSONIFICATION OF THE CORN-SPIRIT AT HARVEST . Pp
The custom of " cutting the caheht M was observed at Antrim ia 1913. The Oraonft of India have a similar custom at the rice-h«&rvcst, md the "corn-baby w is a general institution among the Hinilooi of India and the Palaungs of Burma,
The " Barley Bride " as practised by the Berbers of Morocco &nd the Malay ritual of the " rice-baby/'
CHAPTER L.— HUMAN SACRIFICES FOR THE
CROPS ».*«.» P. 39*
Men and women offered as sacrifices in Nigeria at planting and harvtft,
CHAPTER LI.— THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN
ANIMAL ,*.*»* P. 392
In the Orkney Islands the corn-spirit was regarded m a dog,
CHAPTER LIL— THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE
AGRICULTURE * Pp. 393-397
The constellation of the PJeiade* fa regarded as important by tnaay primi- tive races, especially for determining the beginning of the year mad the seasons of planting and sowing, Example* from Polynesia, Indonesia, Africa, and South America.
CHAPTER LIIL— A PRIMITIVE FORM OF
PURIFICATION * P. 398
Cohabitation is sometimes required as a form of purification in ?im* of mourning.
CHAPTER LIV.— THE MANIAE AT ARICIA * P, 399
Cakes in human form are baked annually at Frasoiti* new Afida.
CHAPTER LV,— ATTEMPTS TO DECEIVE
DEMONS .**.** Pp. 400-401
The deception of demon* is sometimes attempted by uowck burial** at among the Shans of Burma and the Tomdyas of Celebes
CONTENTS xvii
CHAPTER LVI. — THE SACRIFICE OF FIRST- FRUITS ...... Pp. 402-407
At harvest the first-fruits are commonly offered to the gods, the spirits of the dead, or kings and chiefs, before the people are allowed to eat of the new crop.
CHAPTER LVII. — HOMOEOPATHIC MAGIC OF
A FLESH DIET Pp. 408-409
The savage commonly believes that by eating the flesh of a man or an animal he acquires the qualities and abilities of the animal or man,
CHAPTER LVI II. — THE PROPITIATION OF
WILD ANIMALS BY HUNTERS . , Pp. 410-416
Believing that animals have souls like men, the savage commonly pro- pitiates the animals and fish which he kills and eats, by prayer and sacrifice. The Berbers of Morocco resort to various magical and religious rites to protect their crops from the inroads of sparrows,
CHAPTER LIX< — THE TRANSMIGRATION OF
HUMAN SOULS INTO ANIMALS . . Pp. 417-418
The savage often believes that the souls of his dead kinsfolk have passed into animals, which he accordingly treats with respect.
CHAPTER LX. — THE TRANSFERENCE OF EVIL Pp. 419-424
Primitive man often believes he can rid himself of all his troubles by magically transferring them to other persons, or even to inanimate objects* The belief has led to the sacrifice of animals and human victims as scape- goats.
CHAPTER LXL— THE OMNIPRESENCE OF
DEMONS Pp. 425-426
Savage man believes himself to be encompassed on every side by spiritual agencies, to which he attributes all the evils that befall him. Thus with the Birhors of India and the Kiwai of New Guinea, and the natives of Yap in the Pacific.
B
xviii CONTENTS
CHAPTER LXIL— THE PUBLIC EXPULSION
OF EVILS . . Pp. 427-432
Sometimes primitive man attempts to rid the whole community of their troubles by a general and public expulsion of evils, either occasionally or periodically.
In this connection the annual appearance of a certain sea-slug in the Pacific is of interest.
CHAPTER LXIIL— PUBLIC SCAPEGOATS * Pp. 433-439
Sometimes the evils publicly expelled are believed to he cmUxlitd in a material form, such as a door, an animal, or a human being. Sickness is often thought to be driven out in this way*
CHAPTER LXIV.— THE SATURNALIA AND
KINDRED FESTIVALS .... pp. 440-442
A festival similar to the Roman Saturnalia i$ observed by the B«$e«u of Mount Kenya.
Intercalary periods are commonly regarded as unlucky. Observation of the Buddhist Lent.
CHAPTER LXV.— NOT TO TOUCH THE EARTH Pp. 443-446
Certain sacred or tabooed persons and objects are not allowed to touch the ground, for example kings, chiefs, and holy men, brides and bride- grooms, new-bom children, sacred books, and so on*
CHAPTER LXVL— NOT TO SEE THE SUN . P. 447
Certain sacred or tabooed persons, especially women after chiidbcii, **r« not permitted to see the sun.
CHAPTER LXVIL— THE SECLUSION OF GIRLS
AT PUBERTY ..... Pp< 448-450
Girls are commonly secluded at puberty, a custom observed by the Bftkongo of the Lower Congo, the Andaman Islanders, the Gilbert *ttd MunluJl Islanders of the Pacific, and the Kakadu tribe of Austnlm.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER LX VI 1 1. —THE FIRE FESTIVALS
OF EUROPE Pp. 451-453
The ancient fire festivals of Europe, in modified forms, are observed in North Friesland, in Savoy, and among the mountain Jews of the Caucasus.
CHAPTER LX IX. —WERE- WOLVES . . Pp. 454-456
The belief in were-wolves is still prevalent in the Sudan and the Lower Congo.
CHAPTER LXX.— THE FIRE- WALK . . Pp. 457-458
The religious rite of walking through fire is still observed in India and Africa, and is reported in a Maori legend.
CHAPTER LXXI,— THE MAGIC FLOWERS OF
MIDSUMMER EVE .... P. 459
The belief in such magic flowers remains in Savoy, and finds a curious parallel in the Sudan.
CHAPTER LXX 1 1. —THE EXTERNAL SOUL
IN FOLK-TALES Pp. 460-462
A popular Indian story tells of a magician who concealed his soul in a parrot.
CHAPTER LXX II I. —THE EXTERNAL SOUL
IN FOLK-CUSTOM . . . .Pp. 463-477
Such a, story reflects a belief in the ability to deposit the soul externally, a custom commonly practised in Northern Rhodesia, in Nigeria, and else- where. The external objects with which human lives are believed to be bound up are often plants or trees.
A primitive custom exists of passing sick people through a cleft tree as a mode of cure. Again, some tribes pass through a deft tree or stick or other narrow opening after a death, no doubt in order to evade the dead man's ghost.
Many primitive people believe that their lives are so bound up with those of animals that when the animal dies the man dies. This belief common in Africa.
According to some primitive people, every human being possesses several iouls.
xx CONTENTS
CHAPTER LXXIV.— THE RITUAL OF DEATH
AND RESURRECTION . Pp. 478-479
At certain initiations the candidate must undergo n rife of mimic death and resurrection, as in Nigeria.
CHAPTER LXXV-— THE MISTLETOE . « P. 480
The Gallas of East Africa say that the mistletoe is grafted cm % trer *s the soul is grafted on the body, and venerate it.
INDEX ,...*«, Pp, 481-494
CHAPTER I
MAGIC
IN The Golden Bough I have attempted to indicate the great part which a belief in magic has played in the early history of human thought. The belief rests on two main logical fallacies ; first, that by imitating the desired effect you can produce it, and second, that things which have once been in contact can influence each other when they are separated, just as if the contact still persisted. The rnagic based on the first of these fallacies may be called Homoeopathic or Imitative Magic, and the magic based on the second of these principles may be called Contagious Magic. If this analysis is correct it follows that a belief in magic is wholly fallacious. All its pretensions are false, and only deceive the dupes who trust in them. Yet the belief in magic has been, and still is, enormous throughout the world, though it has always been most pre- valent among backward or primitive peoples. The magician believes that by his acts and words, his magical rites and incantations, he can control the forces of Nature for his own benefit and the injury of his enemies. The effects of this belief have been disastrous. Among primitive peoples, especially in Africa, natural death has commonly, or even regularly, been ascribed to the effects of maleficent magic, and the death has been usually avenged by the murder of the imaginary but really innocent culprit.1
But the disastrous effects of a belief in magic are not confined to the destruction of human lives. Its baleful influence has extended to the economic sphere* Speaking of the Kafir tribes of South Africa, a good authority tells us that
* J. G, Frazer, Belief in Immortality (London! 1913)1 i. 33
I
MAGIC
2
" so strong is this fear of being accused of getting rich by magic that many people purposely refrain from undue cultiva- tion of their land, lest others should accuse them of using magical practices to increase the fertility of the soil." *
Among the Bangala, a tribe of the Upper Congo River, the disastrous influence of a belief in magic or witchcraft has been admirably recorded by an experienced missionary in the following striking passage. " In judging the conservatism of natives and the way in which they have from generation to generation simply followed in the footsteps of their pre- decessors one must not forget that they have been, and many tribes still are, bound fast by witchcraft, fetishism, and super- stition, and any tendency to burst these more than iron bands has been suppressed by fear of being charged with witchcraft. Some twenty-five years ago I knew a blacksmith who made a good imitation, from old hoop iron, of a trade knife, and when the king heard of it he thought he was too clever and threatened him with a charge of witchcraft if he made any more like it.^ If the man who made our locomotives had lived here, in Africa, and had given play to his inventive genius, he would not have been honoured, but killed as a witch. The native had a deep- rooted feeling that anything out of the ordinary was due to witchcraft and treated it as such, Some years ago I knew a native medicine woman who was successful in treating certain native diseases, and as she became wealthy, the natives accused her of giving the sickness by witchcraft in order to cure it and be paid for it ; for they said, * How can she cure it so easily unless she first gave it to them ? ' She had to abandon her practice or she would have been killed as a witch,
" The introduction of a new article of trade has always
brought on the introducer a charge of witchcraft ; and there
is a legend, that the man who discovered the way to tap palm
trees for palm wine was charged as a witch and paid the
penalty with his life. That, however, did not stop the trade
in palm wine. Through this fear of being charged with
witchcraft, the natives would never of themselves have made
any progress in art, science, or civilization. This fear was so
real and so widespread that It stultified and killed every
tendency to change and progress. The reasons which have
1 Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir (London, 1904}! p. 147,
MAGIC 3
caused a lack of material progress are the same that held them fast to their religious beliefs until the white man arrived with his tools, his skill, his medicine, and his religious teach- ing. In their old state they maintained strict conservatism, which, however, was quickly broken down by contact with the white man, whom they are always ready to acknowledge their superior in all things and worthy of imitation wherever this is possible.'11
The rooted suspicion of magic or witchcraft with which these African blacks regard every material improvement in the arts and crafts has had a close parallel in ancient Rome. Once on a time a certain C. Furius Cresimus, whose small farm produced heavier crops than the largest farms in the neighbourhood, was shrewdly suspected of drawing away the corn from other people's fields by enchantment. Being brought before the public assembly at Rome to stand his trial on this charge, he produced in the sight of the people his ploughshares, his mattocks, his sturdy hinds, his sleek oxen, and pointing to them said, " These are my enchantments, gentlemen. I regret that it is not in my power to lay before you my toils and moils and sweatings." He was unanimously acquitted.2
Perhaps the most familiar example of homoeopathic or imitative magic is the practice of making a magical image of the person whom the magician desires to injure. By cutting, stabbing, or otherwise injuring the image he believes that he inflicts a corresponding injury upon his enemy whom the image represents ; by burning or otherwise destroying the image he imagines that he kills his foe. Of this practice I have cited many examples in The Golden Bough? Here I will give a few additional instances. Thus, for example, ih Morocco magical images made for this maleficent purpose are either of paper or of more substantial material. Thus if the magician wishes to cause his enemy to suffer from headache he will fashion an image of him in dough and pierce the head of it with a nail before putting the image in the oven. But
1 J. H. Weeks, " Anthropological (1909), p. 108.
Notes on the Bangala of the Upper f Pliny, Nat. Histt> xviii. 41 sgq.
Congo River," in Journal of the Royal * The Magic Art and the Evolution
Anthropological Institute, xxxix. of Kings, \. 55 sqqt
4 MAGIC CHA?.
before doing so he should insert a scrap of his victim's gar- ment in the image. If he wishes his victim to break his arm or his leg he wrenches the corresponding limb from the image. If he desires to make his victim suffer perpetual pain he heats a metal effigy of him with a hammer on the anvil for a whole day, saying, "As this hammer does not cease to strike the anvil for a whole day, so may misfortune pursue So-and-so his whole life long." Paper images are similarly treated for a similar purpose by piercing them with nails or thorns, or by tearing off a limb. In order that the victim may suffer throughout his whole life, the magician finally buries the image in a graveyard, a slaughter-house, a furnace, or a well If the effigy is buried in the bed of a river the victim will be continually shivering from cold : if it is buried in a furnace he will constantly be hot with anger. If the image has been simply buried in the earth, without being broken or pierced, the victim will simply waste away. When the image is a statuette it suffices that it should be made by a sorcerer who recites the appropriate incantation ; but if the image is of paper it should be made by a scribe who writes cabalistic phrases, on the body and limbs,1
Among the Ibo and Ijaw of Southern Nigeria "a mud, or wax image is modelled in the rough semblance of the man whom it is desired to injure, and while incantations are made, this is damaged by being pierced with a nail or spear or it is decapitated/1 2 In Loango the magician fashions an image of his victim out of a root, pith, or wood, and with the appro* priate imprecations throws it into a river or the sea or the wilderness, holds it in the fire, or hangs it in the smoke. Just as the image rots, shrivels up, or is reduced to ashes, the victim suffers a corresponding fate,3
Among the Bangala of the Upper Congo if a man loses a relative or has an enemy he goes to a magician (nganga ya hkenge\ who calls up in his saucepan of water the spirits of various people whose images are visible in the water, and the cheat, who sits by watching the water, allows one reflection
~ Sdfr .« *"** m I P** ****** ***** ****•
S****
, 1926), ii. 184, «. a ™ 3377^ {Muttgwt, 1909),
I MAGIC
after another to pass until the reflection of his enemy is shown in the water. That reflection or elimo (soul) he pierces at once with a palm splinter as a substitute for a spear, and the one who owns that soul will sicken and die. Sometimes a piece of wood or plantain stalk was roughly carved to repre- sent the enemy, and wherever it was stuck or cut the enemy would feel intense pain in the corresponding part of his body, and to stick it in a vital part meant death.1
Among the Bakongo of the Lower Congo " the most powerful and most feared of all the fetishes in the catalogue belongs to the medicine-man who has the mbanzangola fetish. It is a wooden image, and is always retained in the possession of the witch-doctor, as it is too powerful to pass into the hands of a layman. A private person can buy other fetishes, but no private individual can own a mbanzangola fetish. If a person desires to cause pain, disease, or death to another, he goes to a medicine-man of this fetish order, and, having paid a fee, he drives in a nail or knife where he wants his enemy to feel pain. A knife-stab in a vital part means a painful death to the man's enemy ; a nail in the shoulder, elbow, or knee means ex- cruciating agony in one or other of those joints, and indicates that the man does not want to kill his enemy, but only wishes him to have rheumatism, abscesses, or such minor ailments. These fetish images are often stuck over with nails, knives, and other sharp instruments. This is probably the only fetish image in connection with which there is no * white art f practised — Jt is neither a protective fetish nor a curative one, but is always used to inflict pain. On the other hand, I have heard that the nails, etc., driven into this image ,are offerings for benefits received ; and it is possible that someone suffering from a pain in part of his body has driven in a nail in a corre- sponding part of the image, to pass on the pain to an enemy whom he may think sent it to him, hence he may regard such a nail as an offering for a benefit he hoped to receive." *
A Greek inscription of the fourth century B.C. from Cyrene in North Africa records an interesting instance of the burning
1 J. H. Weeks, "Anthropological (1910), 395*
Notes on the Bangala of the Upper * J. H. Weeks, Among the Primi-
Congo River/1 w. Journal of the JRoyal tive Bakongo (London 19x4), 325
Anthropological Institute, vol xl. sq.
6 MAGIC CHAP.
of wax images for the purpose of destroying the malefactors whom they represented. Cyrene was founded by Greek colonists from the island of Thera in the Aegean, and in founding it the Thereans passed a very stringent decree directed against all such recreants as either refused to sail with the colonists or having sailed with them should after- wards desert the colony and return to Thera, Waxen images of all such traitors were to be made and burned, no doubt for the purpose of bringing down destruction on their heads.1
In Egypt, which borders on Cyrene, similar magical practices were rife in antiquity. On the subject Dr. Wallis Budge writes as follows : " There were, however, in Egypt many men who professed the art of Black Magic, the object of which was to do harm. In their hands the powers of magic were generally misused, and disastrous results, if we may believe the papyri, were the consequence. One of the com- monest ways of working evil was by means of the wax figure. A man employed a magician to make in wax a figure of his enemy, whose name was cut or written upon it, and then to work magic upon it by reciting spells over it. If the spells contained curses they were supposed to take effect upon the living man ; and if the figure were stabbed, or gashes made in it with a knife, the living man suffered terrible pain, or wounds appeared in his body. If the figure were destroyed by fire or by any other means, the death of the living man ensued. The Westcar Papyrus tells us that the wife of one Aba-aner committed adultery in his garden with one of his servants. When the news of this was brought to him, he made a model of a crocodile in wax, and told his servant to go and place it in the river at the spot where his guilty wife's paramour was in the habit of bathing. As soon as this man entered the water on the following day, the wax crocodile turned into a huge living crocodile, which quickly devoured him. The Rollin Papyrus states that certain evil men suc- ceeded in stealing a book of magic from the Royal Library, and that by following the directions contained in It they
1 A. D. Nock, " A Curse from Cirene," in Abkmdlungtn 4#r
Cyrene/1 in Archw fur ReKgionswis- lichtn Akadsmi* 4*r Wimmtkzfim
sensehaft, vol. 24 (1926), p. 172, and tu Btrlin, v. (1925) 19 Dr. Ferri, " Atom insrrizioni di
I MAGIC 7
succeeded in making wax figures, on which they worked magic with the view of injuring or killing the king of Egypt. This was held to be treason in the first degree, and the malefactors seem to have suffered the death penalty. The use of the wax figureswas not disdained bythe priests of Amen-Ra at Thebes, for they regularly burnt a wax figure of the fiend Apep, who daily endeavoured to prevent the sun from rising. This figure was in the form of a serpent of many folds, on which the name Apep was written or cut. A case made of papyrus inscribed with spells containing curses was prepared, and, the wax figure having been placed inside it, both case and figure were cast into a fire made of a special kind of plant. Whilst they were burning the priest recited curses, and stamped upon them with his left foot until they were rendered shapeless and were finally destroyed. This magical ceremony was believed to be very helpful to Ra, the Sun-God, who uttered over the real Apep spells which paralysed him, and then killed him by the fiery darts of his rays, and consumed him.'*1
In Burma similar magical practices of the injury of a foe are still in use, as we learn from a good observer, Mrs. Leslie Milne, who writes as follows : "As in many other countries, in former times and even at the present day, small figures of men and women are made to represent an enemy, and are subjected to the injury they would inflict on that person. In southern Italy a lemon is sometimes named after an enemy and needles or splinters of wood are stuck into it with the idea of harming the person that it represents. I have never heard of fruit being so treated among the Palaungs, nor have I heard of the drowning of a figure as in Kashmir, or of the melting of a wax image in front of the fire as was done in Europe, The figures are made of earth, and as that in the Palaung hills is not very plastic, it is moistened and modelled on a piece of board in the manner of a rough bas-relief. As the board is kept horizontal, the figure retains the shape. One that was made for me as a specimen, by a wise man, was ten inches long. I hoped to bring it home, but it fell to pieces on the journey. Incantations are said over these figures, and splinters of bamboo are stuck into them, or a hand or foot is
1 E, A. WalUa Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection (London, 1911) ii. 177
g MAGIC CHA?.
cut off. The name is sometimes scratched on the figure while it is still damp. This can only be done by those who can write : those who cannot, whisper over it the name of the
enemy."1
In Annam a common form of maleficent magic is to
sculpture or to fashion out of paper a representation of the person whom the magician wishes to injure. This effigy is cut with the stroke of a knife or a nail, and hidden in the woodwork of the house or under the threshold of the person whom the magician desires to injure. It is believed that the master of the house will suffer an injury corresponding to the wound inflicted on the effigy. In Tonqtiin a similar male* ficent magic is practised on wooden figures which represent the foes of the magician. The persons represented are supposed to suffer injuries corresponding to those which have been inflicted on their images. If the image is decapitated, the man soon dies. Malevolent carpenters wil! sometimes introduce into the roof of the house they are building Httie figures of wood or paper, carrying in their hands a stick, a knife, or a bucket. In the first two cases the figure is supposed to create domestic strife or robbery by armed burglars. In the last case all the good luck of the household is thought to be drained away by the mysterious action of the bucket. Further, in the chimney of the kitchen they place two images which by the action of the draught of air with the smoke arc made to turn on their axes. This is supposed to breed per- petual quarrels between the householder and his wife, who are apparently thought to turn from each other as the images turn in the chimney,2
The Sedang, a warlike branch of the primitive Mol race in Indo-China, on the borders of Annam and Laos, employ the magic of images to secure success in hunting or war, Before setting out for war or the chase they fashion an image of the men or animals which they wish to kill, moulding them either out of the sand by the river-bank or the earth of their cultivated fields. Having done so they pierce the image with their spear, saying : " May the man or the animal thus perish with the thrust of my spear this very evening.0 They are
1 Mrs. Leslie Milne, The Home of m * P. Giran, Afy* </ Extern CUn (Oxford, 1924), p. 263, AnnttmiUs (Paris, 1912), p.
I MAGIC 9
persuaded that by this ceremony they ensure the success of their enterprise.1 Among the Man Coc, a mountain tribe of Tonquin, when a man wishes to avenge himself on an enemy for some minor offence without killing him, he fashions an image of his enemy out of paper, fastens it to a tree, and shoots it with an arrow or a gun. This is supposed to make the culprit fall ill ; but for more serious offences the pro- cedure is different and more complicated. The injured man writes the name and village of his enemy on a piece of paper, which he gives to a he-goat to swallow. Then he hangs the goat from a tree, and inflicts upon it a severe beating, saying all the time, " I am sorry to inflict such a punishment upon you, but the cause is my enemy, who has done me grievous wrong. You will have to bear witness of this before the divinities to whom you are despatched. If you fail to dis- charge this duty, your soul will never be reincarnated, but will float for ever in the air." After that he releases the un- fortunate goat and lets it wander and die of hunger in the forest. He awaits with confidence the result of the message which he has sent by the goat to the heavenly powers, con- vinced that he thus ensures the death of his enemy and all his children.2 In this last ceremony the goat is probably a sub- stitute for an image of the man's enemy.
In Japan the practice of attempting to injure an enemy by maltreating an effigy representing him is common, and takes a variety of forms. The common mode of carrying out the charm is to form a lay figure of straw, pierced with nails, and. to bury it beneath the place where the person to be punished usually sleeps. To avenge the infidelity of a husband or lover a jealous woman "will take an image of the faithless one, or, as the case may be, of his frail companion, or of both, and nail it to a tree within the grounds of some shrine. At whatever part of the effigy the nail is driven, there will be injury inflicted on the original in the flesh, but if she should meet the ghost of an enormous bull and exhibit terror at the apparition the potency of the charm is lost, and can only be revived with incantation and imprecations on the offending pair. Another
1 " L'Envoutement par 1'Image chez s E. Diguet, Zes Montagnords dn les Mol, Annam," in I? Anthropologist Tonkin (Paris, 190$), p. xxiii. (1912) p. 245.
IO
MAGIC CHAP.
account says that at two o'clock in the morning the operator
goes to the shrine of her patron god (usually the Ujibami} ;
on her bosom a mirror is hung ; sometimes she wears a crown
formed of an inverted iron tripod bearing three candles. She
carries a straw effigy of the victim in her right hand and a
hammer in her left. She nails the image to the sacred tree
before the shrine, and while so engaged she adjures the gods
to save their tree, impute the guilt of desecration to the traitor,
and visit him with their deadly vengeance. She visits the
tree each night until the victim has sickened and died. Two
other very similar forms of this type were described to me at
Yokohama. In one the operator goes at night to the sacred
tree of a shrine near her home, and, stating her purpose and
the number of times she intends to come, drives in a nail
through the image ; she then pays the specified number of
visits, on each occasion driving in a nail ; after a number of
nails have been inserted blood will issue from the tree if the
victim is to die. In the other, among the details mentioned
were the holding of a lighted incense-stick, by the operator,
in each corner of her mouth, and the necessity of the most
complete secrecy if the operation were to succeed in its object,1 * *
The same method of injuring an enemy by injuring a
magical effigy of him is known and practised by the Malays.
" To destroy an enemy, there is prescribed in Malay versions
of Muslim treatises a world-wide method of sorcery. A
cabalistic symbol is inscribed on wax. The wa% is moulded
in the form of a man. Then the eyes of the figure are pierced
with a needle, or its belly stabbed, while a purely Arabic
charm is recited to call down upon the victim the anger of
Allah ! To rob an enemy of power to harm t it suffices to draw
his portrait in the dust of cross-roads, grind one's heel on his
navel, tread on his pictured heart, beat the face with a stick,
and recite a short imprecation/' *
Thus among the Looboos, a primitive tribe of Sumatra, who differ from their neighbours in culture, language, and appearance, images of persons are made and ill-treated in all sorts of ways in order that by this means the persons themselves
L. Hildburgh, « Notes oa p. j 18.
^*gi?] Meth<Ki* for * R' °* Winrtedt, .tt«»«r, &*», /' m Mm, xv. (1915) and Suji (Lumluii, 1923), pp. K.< ,*
1 MAGIC II
may sympathetically suffer corresponding injuries. Usually two images are made, one of clay and one of wood ; the one is buried under the house of the person who is to be injured ; on the other Spanish pepper is smeared on the part corre- sponding to the heart ; or nails are knocked into that part of the image ; sometimes the image is hung on a rope and swung to and fro, in order that the person represented may in like manner shake with fits. If a lover finds that his love is not returned, he may employ a sorcerer to injure the woman by means of an image. The sorcerer makes an image of the woman out of earth taken from a burial-ground and dresses it in white, just like a corpse in a shroud. Then he makes a mixture of things that cause itch, down from plants, etc., and strews it on the image. Then he gets a little earth from the place where the woman last made water, also some locks of her hair and parings of her nails, and some grains of rice which she left over at a meal. Of these ingredients a mixture is made and placed on the puppet.1
In our own country cases of a similar use of magical effigies for the injury of enemies are upon record. In the reign of DufFus, the son of Malcolm, the seventy-eighth King of Scot- land, •" amidst these confusions the King was seized with a new and unusual disease, and no evident cause appearing, when all remedies had been tried in vain, a rumour was spread abroad, by I know not whom, that he was bewitched : the suspicion of this witchcraft arose either from some indication of his disease, or else because his body wasted and pined away by continual sweating, and his strength was so much decayed, that the physicians who were sent for far and near, not know- ing what to apply for his relief ; when no common causes of the disease discovered themselves, they even laid it to the charge of a secret one. And whilst all were intent on the King's malady, at last news were brought, that nightly assemblies and conspiracies were made against him at Forres, a town in Murray. The report was taken for truth, there being nothing to contradict it ; therefore some faithful messengers were sent to Donald, Governor of the Castle, in whom the King confided much, even in his greatest affairs,
1 J. Kreemer, " De Loeboesin Man- Landen Volkenkundt van Ntdtr* dailing," in Bijdragen tot de TaaJ-, landsch-Indii^ Ixvi. (1912) p. 329.
12 MAO 1C CHAP.
to find out the truth of the matter. He, from a discovery made by a certain harlot, whose mother was noted for a witch, detected the whole conspiracy. For the young girl, having blabbed out, a few days before, some words concern- ing the sickness and death of the king, being apprehended and brought to the rack to be tortured, at the very first sight of it she presently declared what was designed against the life of the King. Upon this some soldiers were sent, who found the maid's mother and some other gossips roasting the King's picture, made in wax, by a soft fire- Their design was that as the wax did leisurely melt, so the King, being dissolved into a sweat, should pine away by degrees, and when the wax was quite consumed, then, his breath failing him, he should presently die. When this picture of wax was broken, and the witches punished, in the same month (as some say) the King was freed from his disease/' l
In England, under the reign of Henry VI, in the year 1447, the duke of Gloucester " worsted in all court intrigues, for which his temper was not suited ; but possessing in a high degree the favour of the public, had already received from his rivals a cruel mortification, which he had hitherto borne with- out violating public peace, but which it was impossible that a person of his spirit and humanity could ever forgive. His duchess, the daughter of Reginald, lord Cobham, had been accused of the crime of witchcraft, and it was pretended that there was found in her possession a waxen figure of the king, which she and her associates, sir Roger Bolingbroke a priest, and one Margery Jordan of Eye, melted in a magical manner before a slow fire, with an intention of making Henry's force and vigour melt away by like insensible degrees. The accusa- tion was well calculated to affect the weak and credulous mind of the king, and to gain belief in an ignorant age ; and the duchess was brought to trial with her confederates. The nature of this crime, so opposite to all common sense, seems always to exempt the accusers from observing the rules of com- mon sense in their evidence ; the prisoners were pronounced guilty ; the duchess was condemned to do public penance and to suffer perpetual imprisonment ; the others were executed/* *
History 9f S^tl&nd * D, Hume, Th* Histwy */ M*g* (Edinburgh, 1751), i. 223. knd (Ediabwgfc, 18*8), ill.
I MAGIC
But homoeopathic or imitative magic by means of an image has not always been used for the maleficent purpose of injuring or killing a foe. Occasionally it has been employed for the benevolent purpose of enabling the practitioner to be born again to a higher form of life. On one occasion it was so employed by the Rajah of Travancore in Southern India, as we learn from the following passage of a contemporary English writer. "Among the natives of Malabar every man is confined to his own caste, follows the profession of his ancestors, is married in childhood to his equal, and never rises higher than the limited sphere in which he was born : there may be exceptions, but they are very uncommon. One indeed of an extraordinary nature occurred during my resi- dence in Travancore : the reigning sovereign, who was of an inferior caste of Brahmins, advanced himself into a higher, by purifications, gifts, and ceremonies, part of which con- sisted in his majesty passing through the body of a cow, of the size of life, and made of pure gold : this was the last stage of purification ; and when performed, the cow was divided among the Brahmins/' The same writer adds in a footnote : " Orme ascribes a different cause for the king of Travancore's regeneration to that given to me by his subjects, who, perhaps, were withheld by fear from assigning the true reason. ' The king of Travancore has conquered, or carried war into all the countries which lay round his dominions, and lives in continual exercise of his arms. To atone for the blood which he has spilt, the Brahmins persuaded him that it was necessary that he should be born anew : this ceremony con- sisted in putting the prince into the body of a golden cow of immense value ; where, after he had lain the time pre- scribed, he came out regenerated, and freed from all the crimes of his former life. The cow was afterwards cut up, and divided among the seers who had invented this extraordinary method for the remission of his sins.* " x
Further, homoeopathic or imitative magic by means of an image may be resorted to with the kindly object of facilitating a woman's childbirth. Thus in Perak, one of the Malay States, during the seventh month of a woman's pregnancy, " a palm-blossom is swathed to represent a baby with a child's
1 J, Forbes, Oriental Memoirs (London, 1813), i. 377*
0
t. MAGIC CHAP,
*4
brooch on the bosom. This doll, adorned with flowers, is laid on a tray and the tray placed in a cradle made of three, five, or seven layers of cloth according to the rank of the pro- spective parents. Midwife and magician sprinkle rice-paste on doll and cradle. The midwife rocks the cradle, crooning baby songs. Then she gives the doll to the future mother and father and all their relatives to dandle. Finally the doll is put back into the cradle and left there till the next day, when it is broken up and thrown into water/' *
Again, homoeopathic or imitative magic has very often
been employed for the benevolent purpose of relieving pain
and healing the sick. Thus the Toradyas of Central Celebes
employ rings of red stones to staunch the bleeding of wounds
of all sorts.2 The same principle of homoeopathic magic is
employed by the Brahuis of Baluchistan to save the wheat
crop when it is attacked by red rust. The remedy is thus
described by Mr. Denys Bray, our best authority on the
Brahuis. " At least once every five years a disease, variously
known as surkhi or ratti, ' red rust/ attacks the wheat in
Kalat, and the more thickly-growing and well-watered the
crop, the severer the attack. It comes with the n&mbi> the
moist south wind, which carries it rapidly from field to field ;
but it soon disappears if the wind veers round to the north*
If the gorich or north-wind doesn't blow, they get Sayyids to
read charms over some earth and throw it on the fields. But
if this fails, the Brahuis are not yet at their wits' end. They
get hold of a boy seven years old, bathe him, and deck him
out in red clothes, and make him drive a red kid through the
fields attacked by the red rust. The kid is then slaughtered,
and the meat distributed in the name of God. A most effec-
tive remedy this, they tell me." a And just as red stones are
supposed to arrest the flow of red blood by homoeopathic magic
so yellow objects are often employed as a cure for yellow
jaundice. Thus among the Mehtars, the caste of sweepers
and scavengers in the Central Provinces of India, when a child
suffers from jaundice they get the flesh of a yellow snake which
1 R. O. Winstedt, Shaman, $aiva> Middm*Cehfo$ (Batavia,
and Sufi, p. 118. 350.
* N. Adrian! and A. C. Kruijt, * Census of India, l$l 1 ; vol. iv,r
De Bare'e-sprekendt Toradja's van Baluchistan, Irjr Denis Bray, p, 68.
I MAGIC IJ
appears in the rains, and of the rohu fish, which has yellowish scales, and hang them to its neck ; or they catch a small frog alive, tie it up in a yellow cloth, and hang it to the child's neck by a blue thread till it dies.1 In Wales the old cure for jaundice was to put a gold coin at the bottom of a pewter mug, fill it with clear mead, and ask the patient to look into it without drinking any. This was to be done while repeating the Lord's Prayer nine times over without a mistake.2 How- ever, Welsh opinion seems to hesitate between regarding yellow objects as a cure or as a cause of jaundice and other ail- ments, as we learn from the following passage : " Yellow was considered very bad for the ' sterricks ' (hysteria), and country folk said that if you gazed too long upon a ' yellow rag ' you would become ' silly and moon-struck.' The plague was often called the yellow sickness or the yellow complaint. At the same time, a person suffering from jaundice was advised to wear a yellow ribbon or woollen rag around his throat. But in some parts of Wales it was asserted that yellow worn on any part of the body would induce or * conjure ' the jaundice. If a yellow-hammer could be caught and held before the face of a person afflicted with jaundice, a cure might be expected. A piece of amber or a topaz put in a drinking goblet or cup, and the latter filled with mead, was a cure for jaundice. The skin of a lizard or viper placed under the pillow served the same purpose." 8 And in Wales, as yellow objects have been used as a cure for jaundice, so on the same principle of homoeopathic magic, red objects have been employed as a cure for scarlet fever and other maladies. So " in 1859 a doctor of the old school ordered a patient suffering from scarlet fever to be dressed in red night and day clothing. Red curtains were suspended from the window-pole, and the old-fashioned, four-posted bedstead was draped with red material. Smallpox patients were also enveloped in red, and red blinds or curtains were drawn across the windows. At the first approach of scarlet fever or smallpox the person was subjected to red treatment. There was an old superstition
1 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes Folk- Stories of Wales (London, 1909),
of the Central Provinces of India p. 228. (London, 1916), iv. 224. ,
1 M. Trevelyan, Folk-Lor* and * M. Trevelyan, op. cit. p.
,5 MA OIC CHAP,
that if scarlet fever or smallpox were epidemic, red flannel worn around the neck, or next to the skin on any part of the body, warded away the disease. Even in the present day the peasantry of Wales cling very closely to the old superstition about a bit of red flannel as a preventive against fever, small- pox, and rheumatism/* 1
Further, homoeopathic or imitative magic is employed by the Looboos of Sumatra to impart virulence to the poison with which they smear their arrows. The poison is made from the sap of various plants* The mode of preparing the poison is kept secret by the priest or sorcerer, for many magical ceremonies are observed in the preparation of it. It may not be made in the house, but out in the forest. The priest or sorcerer is assisted by a number of persons, each of whom has his appointed task, the general intention of the ceremonies being to represent dramatically the desired effect of the poison. Thus one man will climb a tree and pretend to fall down from it ; another makes as if he must vomit violently ; while another lies naked on the ground and mimics the motions of a man in convulsions. The poison is very strong, and cauees severe vomiting.2
Similarly, on the principles of homoeopathic or imitative magic, among the Kai of Northern New Guinea a sorcerer imagines that he can cause sickness or death by mimicking in his own person the sufferings and death of his victim,3
Among the natives of the Bathurst and Melville Islands, off the northern coast of Australia, the faces of boys at initiation are rubbed with the tendrils or u whiskers " of yams, for the purpose of promoting, on the principles of homoeopathic magic, the growth of whiskers on the faces of the novices.4
In primitive society many acts are forbidden, Jn other words, are tabooed, because it is believed that if they were committed they would, on the principles of homoeopathic magic, entail certain undesirable results. Of such taboos I have given many examples elsewhere.* Here I will add
* M. Trevelyan, op. cit. p. 311. * Baldwin Spencer, Afetinr Trite
1 J. Kreemer, op. ciL p. 308. of the North*™ Territory of Aus
1 Ch. Keysser in R. Neuhauss, tr&lia (London, 1914), p, 99.
Deutsch Mu-Guinea (Berlin, 191 1), iii. * The Magic Art and tk*
P- 137- of Kings, i. m
I MAGIC 17
some fresh examples. Thus among the Birhors, a primitive tribe of Chota Nagpur in India, " a Birhor woman, like a Santal woman, must abstain from eating such fruits of the tarop (Buchania latifolid) or the terel (Diospyrus tomentosd) tree as may grow together in one accrescent calyx. If she infringes this taboo, she will give birth to twins. A woman must not comb her hair at sunset. Should she do so her hair will fall on Smgbonga's rice, as that is the time when Sing- bonga (identified with the sun) retires to eat. A pregnant woman must not step over a sagar or block-wheel cart. Should she do so, her child's throat will emit a creaking sound like that of a sagar. A pregnant woman must not step over a dog. Should she do so, her child's belly will make a rumbling noise like that of a dog. A pregnant woman must not eat the flesh of deer, of hare or porcu- pine, or other animals with hair on their bodies, nor even look at them when brought home by a hunting party. Should she do so, she will give birth to children with hairy bodies."1
Again, the Chadar, a small caste of weavers and village watchmen in the Central Provinces of India will not throw the first teeth of a child on to a tiled roof, because they believe that if this were done his next teeth would be wide and ugly like the tiles.2
Among the Looboos of Sumatra, while a birth is taking place no one should peep round the corner of the house-door ; else the child in the womb might miss its way and so retard the delivery. For the same reason people entering the house must not stop on the threshold but must come straight in or go straight out. All chests and boxes must be open, and the clothes and hair of the woman must hang loose. Further, all eiforts are made to get a brooding hen and to set it down before the woman, in order that by its contagious example the birth may be hastened.3 This last provision is, of course, not a taboo but a positive injunction of homoeopathic rnagic. Among the Toradyas of Central Celebes it is similarly a rule that any person entering the house of a pregnant woman should not stand on the threshold but pass straight in, any
1 S. C. Roy, The Birhors (Ranchi, * R. V. Russell, op, tit. i. 402. I925)> PP- 376 sg$. * J. Kreemer, op. cit. p, 313.
I8 MAGIC CHAP.
delay on the threshold being no doubt supposed to retard the woman's delivery.1
In Africa, among the Boloki or Bangala of the Upper Congo, when aman is making a canoe, he must not drink water, or other- wise it is believed that the canoe would leak, in other words, would take water into its hull, just as he takes water into his body.2 Among the Ibibios of Southern Nigeria, " old women may not touch soup made in deep pots, ' lest they receive too much nourishment therefrom, which will cause them to live beyond the allotted span.' Neither may their chop (food) be cooked upon logs in which the least trace of sap remains, lest this should act as a rejuvenating influence. Only quite dry and sapless branches may be used for them. This taboo is most carefully kept. Many an aged crone sits shivering, at night-time, in a far corner rather than venture to warm her withered limbs near the glow of a fire nourished by partially dried logs, while all who hold by old custom would rather starve to death than eat food prepared over such fires. The reason is somewhat pathetic. They fear that, should the taboo be broken, their mothers and grandmothers, instead of welcoming them near the door of the ghost town, will drive them away with harsh words on arriving, and force them to dwell lonely and kinless amid outcast wraiths."3
In Wales a woman should never spin or knit in or near a field, for the witches will tangle the yarn** This rule is an example of a taboo based on the principle of homoeopathic or imitative magic, the winding of the woman's threads being supposed to entail the winding of the corn-stalks by the witches. A similar taboo was observed, no doubt for a similar reason, by women in ancient Italy,5
Further, in primitive society many foods are forbidden, in other words tabooed, on the principle of homoeopathic magic. Thus among the Suk, a tribe of Kenya, in East Africa, a woman may not eat the flesh of a cow that has died in calf,
1 Adrian! and Kruijt, op. cit. ii. pp. Cf. id.9 The Peoples of Southern 43 J£- Nigeria.) iii. 743.
2 J. H. Weeks, Among Congo * M. Trevelyan, op* cit. p. 209. Cannibals (London, 1913), p. 298. * The Mvgic Art and the Evolution
* P. A. Talbot, Life in Southern of Kings, i. 113, citing Fliay, Nat. Nigeria (London, 1923), p. 224. Hist, xxviii, 28.
I MA QIC 19
lest she herself should die in pregnancy.1 Among the Lobango, a tribe to the west of Lake Tanganyika, the flesh of the parrot may be eaten only by very old men, for they say that if young men ate of it their children would have the wad- dling gait of the bird.2
The Toradyas of Bada in Central Celebes commonly eat the larvae of beetles, but a pregnant woman may not eat of this food, because they find that the insect swells through eating the pith of the tree, and they fear that if the woman partook of it the foetus in her womb would swell in like manner, and so impede her delivery.3 Again, among the Kai of Northern New Guinea, many different kinds of food are forbidden to children on the ground of homoeopathic magic. Thus it is thought that if they ate of the flesh of the white cockatoo they would be cowardly like the bird. Further, if they ate the flesh of the cuckoo, a girl would afterwards give birth to children one after the other in un- broken succession, and a boy would be reduced to marrying a widow. Again if children ate the flesh of cassowaries or kangaroos they would get long necks and thick bellies like those of the bird and animal, and the girls would have no breasts, to the swelling of which they passionately look for- ward. If, at the season of puberty, a girl were to eat of mussels and crabs, her breasts would remain undeveloped like these Crustacea in their shells.4 Again the fruit of the make tree is thought to render the eater cowardly, hence it may only be eaten by women, but is always forbidden to men, and its wood may not be used to kindle a fire in which a spear is tempered, lest it should infect with its cowardice the spear and hence the warrior who used it. The reason for this taboo appears to be that the wood of the tree is eaten by the larvae of a species of beetle, which is presumably taxed with cowardice by the natives.5
The savage commonly believes that there exists between persons at a distance from each other a magic sympathy such that the actions of the one directly affect the other, however far
i M. W. H. Beech, Th* Suk Bada in Midden- Celebes," in Tijd-
(Oxford, 1911), p. 10. schriftvanhetNtdtrlandschAardrijk-
1 D. Livingstone, Last Journals skundigGsno0t$ck&p^vi.(i9Q$)v.349. (London, 1874), ii. 145, 4 R. Neuhauss, op. cit* iii. 34 sg.
1 A* C. Kruijt, " Het landschap * R. Neuhauss, op. dt. ii)". p. 104,
20
MAGIC CHAP.
he or she may be away. Such a magic sympathy, for example, is usually believed to exist between husband and wife when the husband is away hunting or at war and his wife remains at home. In such cases during the absence of the husband the wife is commonly bound to observe certain rules of con- duct, to do certain things or to abstain from doing others. She does certain things which are thought to promote the safety and success of her absent spouse : she refrains from doing other things which, if she did them, might endanger the success or the life of her distant husband. Elsewhere I have given examples of this primitive form of a belief in telepathy.1 I will now adduce some fresh examples.
Thus among the Banyankole, a tribe in the south of Uganda, " when a man was out hunting, his wife refrained from sexual intercourse with other men, and she had to be careful not to kill anything ; even vermin, if caught, must be thrown away and not killed. She might let no man pass behind her back, but warned him to keep in front of her. Should she neglect any of these precautions, her husband's chances of obtaining game in the hunt would be ruined/' 2 Among the Thonga or Ronga of south-eastern Africa the rule of continence is also binding on a woman during her husband's absence at the chase. On this subject M. Junod, our great authority on the tribe, writes as follows : "Old Makhani assured me that incontinence on the part of the wife at home would have as a consequence that the husband would be attacked and killed by wild beasts far away in the desert. These women must moreover observe certain rules in their everyday life. They must smear the floor of their huts only early in the morning or late in the evening, viz. at the time of day when their husbands are not busy hunting ; then all will go well with them. Thus the behaviour of the wife has its effect on the husband's fate. Sometimes she will take a plate, fill it with attractive food, call her children, and dis- tribute it to them, in order that her husband, when passing through the villages in the far-distant country, may be well treated by the inhabitants of the land. Should a death occur in the hunter's village during his absence, it is very
** An and the Evolution * J- Roscoe, Th* BanyankoU (Cam- 19 xw . bridge; I923);p> I6 * ^ai*
I MAGIC 21
dangerous for him. It was for this reason that Makhani was attacked by a buffalo which injured his skull. Those at home must expose themselves to vapour baths in the early morning and late in the evening, as in the case of smearing the hut.J>1 In the same tribe, when a man is away hunting a hippopotamus, his wife at home is bound to observe certain rules of conduct for the purpose of ensuring his success and safety in the chase. " As soon as the assagai is thrown, somebody runs to the hunter's village to inform his wife. The woman must at once shut herself up in the hut and remain perfectly quiet. She lights a pipe and keeps it burn- ing the whole time. A little child brings her her pipe (Ronga women are great pipe smokers). She must neither eat nor drink ; or, if she is very thirsty, the child will bring her some water. In any case, she must not crush her mealies ; she must not go out of the hut except to satisfy her natural wants. Why ? Because if she were to move to and fro in the village, this would induce the hippopotamus to rush wildly upon her husband and possibly kill him. Moreover, the fact that she remains confined within the circular walls of the hut will have as a consequence that the wild beast will be in some sort imprisoned in a small space ; it will not be able to run far away and escape."2
Among the Tumbuka of Central Africa, when the hunters were going forth to kill an elephant, after all preparations had been made, and sacrifices had been offered to the spirits of the dead, " the chief hunter charged the villagers who remained that there must be no quarrelling or immorality indulged in within the village. None were to leave their homes to visit other places, but all were to remain quiet and law- abiding lest the game disappear, or turn in anger and rend the hunters. As he left the village he blew a loud blast on a little horn he carried, and shouted back to the people, ' Let those who have gone before, go in peace ; but let him that utters my name die/ The curse was to prevent any talk about the projected hunt lest the game hear about it and hide away.*' 8 Among the Baya, a tribe of equatorial Africa
1 H. A. Junod, The Life of a South. * Junod, op. cit. ii. 69. African Tribe, 2nd edit, (London, 8 0. Fraser, Winning a Primitive 1927) ii. 62, Ptepl* (London, 1914), p» 136.
22
MA GIC CHAP.
on the eastern borders of what used to be the Cameroons, hunters observed a period of continence of three days before going forth to the chase lest they should be killed by the animals. If a wife does not accompany her husband on the expedition she is bound to remain in her hut the whole time of his absence. Above all she must practise strict continence. If a village has hunted several times without success the hunters accuse their wives of infidelity, and a hunter is called in to exorcise them. If the ill-luck persists, the women are sub- jected to the poison-ordeal in order to determine the culprit who by incontinence has brought misfortune on the village,1 Among the Wandamba of East Africa, in the Tanganyika Territory, the principle of magical telepathy is also employed to bring down the elephants which they hunt, " When following a herd containing a large bull they rub some of his excrement into one or two of their cicatrices, which they open slightly for the purpose, and pour some of the original medicine into his footprints, thereby causing him to travel slowly and lag behind apart from the rest of the herd. An elephant or any other animal may also be called back out of a herd by taking a piece of grass, leaf, or twig which he has chewed and expectorated, and placing it on a lonely grave, whereupon the desired animal may shortly be encountered alone and deprived of life like the occupant of the grave ; part of the leaf or grass should also be mixed with the original medicine and rubbed on the gun and in one of the cuts. Another device sometimes employed in order to procure a copious blood spoor after wounding is to stick a fruit of the mtonga tree on the end of a gun, roast it in fire, and then pour the juice down the barrel of the gun and rub it into one of the cuts on the hunter's arm ; and it is always a wise precaution to rub in a little more medicine on viewing the quarry and before approaching to close quarters.'1 In this tribe moreover, elephant hunters are bound to practise the strictest continence during the hunt, and their wives at home must observe the same rule.2 Among the Hehe, another tribe of Tanganyika, while the hunters are
* A. Poupon, " £tude ethnogra- on the Hunting Customs of the Wand-
S q™,£es a£a .de la Description amba of the Ulanga Valley, Tan- du M bimon » m L'Anthropologie, ganyika Territory/' m Journal of the
•^'APS *i07 *' „ o T R°y*1 Anthropological Institute, Ivi.
A. G. O. Hodgson, " Some Notes (1926) pp. 62 sq.
I MAGIC 23
out to kill elephants, the people at home may not beat each other nor break firewood nor cut their hair, for they say that were they to do so their actions would harm the absent hunters.1 Among the Wachamba, a tribe of Usambara in Central Africa, while a hunter is away in the forest his wife at home is bound to observe all the magical restrictions which are incumbent also upon him. She remains alone for weeks, and, following the directions of a medicine-man, abstains from doing certain things which, according to the sage, might bring harm upon her distant spouse. Thus she may not cut anything in the house, nor place her bed in the sun, nor shut her house-door, nor flirt with other men or have intercourse with a stranger. She is forbidden to receive visits from men in her hut. Only her closest relations may feed with her. If she does not observe these restrictions, it is believed that her husband will fall ill or perish in the forest.8
Speaking of the Bantu tribes of Central Africa in general, a writer who lived twenty-nine years among them tells us that " hunter's taboos affect also the hunter's wife, and the laws pertaining to success in the chase are numerous and intricate. Inviolate faithfulness of husband and wife during the former's absence in the hunting field is one of the first and most im- portant laws for hunters if they are to have luck. If a woman is unfaithful during her hunter husband's absence, the hunter is exposed to failure, danger from wild animals, and even death. If the elephant charges and the hunter is killed, the woman is tried for murder on the ground of concealed adultery and breaking the taboo, and is at once executed," *
Similar practices based on the principle of magical tele- pathy or action at a distance are reported from other parts of the world. Thus among the Oraons of Chota Nagpur in India, while the men are absent from the village on the Summer Hunt, not only the hunters themselves, but their wives at home, are bound to observe strict sexual continence. " It is believed that if this taboo is disregarded by any Oraon, male or female, his or her fellow-villagers, or at any rate the
1 O. DempwolfF, f* Beitrage zur nis der Waschambaa," in Bacssler*
Volksbeschreibung der Hehe," in ArMv, iix. (19x3) p. 88.
Baessler Archiv, iv. (1914) pp. ifosg. * IX Campbell, In the Heart of
1 A. Karasek, " Beitrage sur Kennt- Bantulcnd (London, 1922), p. 94.
MAGIC CHAP.
members of hi? or her family who have joined the hunt, are sure to have ill-success at the hunt. Another tahoo which the stay-at-home Oraons of such villages have to observe is that they must not kill, beat, or even purchase any eatable fowl or animal so long as the hunters are away from home. An interesting feature of this Summer Hunt is that so long as the men are out hunting, the Oraon women of the village behave like men. Several of them dress like men, go about with men's lathis or sticks in their hands, and use the jargon of the males. As for example, they say to each other, gucka ho becha ho (come along, let us dance) — as men say while talking to each other, instead of guchae bechae ho, as women ordinarily say to each other. The women also pose as men before strangers coming to or passing through the village, and realise drink-money from them by threatening to poke them with their lathis. Oraon women of such villages are by common consent allowed at this period perfect liberty to behave in this way, and even alien landlords and police- officers submit to their demands for drink-money. The utmost license of speech is also permitted to these women, and they may with impunity abuse any man they meet in the filthiest language they choose. During these days the women also set up an akhra or dancing-ground for themselves in the village. This akhra is called the chot or minor akhra^ and here the women dance and sing till a late hour of the night in the manner of young men. If during these days any Oraon woman refuses to join the dances. at the Chot akhra> the other women pour water over her head, poke her with their latkis^ and finally drag her by force to the dancing-ground. The idea seems to be that to omit the village dances during these nights bodes ill for the village — and perhaps for the hunters too. Two motives appear to lie at the root of this custom — first, an anxiety to let the outside world know that everything is going on as before in the village so that the enemies may not know that the fighting people of the village are away ; and, secondly and principally, the superstition that if the people in the village are merry, the hunters also will, by sympathetic magic, have cause to be merry. After they have finished their dances at the akhra^ the women approach the houses of such men as have not joined the hunting-party, poke
I MAGIC 2$
their lathis at the doors of their huts, taunt the men (except, of course, old men and young children) as womenly cowards and abuse them in the filthiest language they can think of. Before proceeding to the akhra they generally drive away these stay- at-home men temporarily from the village, unless they have themselves already taken care to keep themselves out of their way." *
Among the Moi, a primitive people of Indo-China, " hunt- ing rites are numerous and for the most part rest on the same conception which we have noticed before in relation to other rites, namely the belief in the power of imitative or sympathetic magic. Thus a hunter never eats the flesh of the hare or deer for fear of becoming as timorous as these creatures. This species of food is only permitted to old men, women, and children. If a wild-boar hunt is in progress the hunters taking part must abstain from fat and oil. Without this pre- caution the animal would undoubtedly slip through the meshes of their nets and escape its pursuers. When the Laotians slaughter elephants for the sake of their ivory the women are absolutely forbidden to cut their hair or nails, otherwise the monsters would infallibly break the stakes of the palisade in which they are entrapped/' 2 Among the Chams, another people of Indo-China, " the women who remain behind in the village are strictly forbidden to quarrel among themselves while their husbands are away looking for eaglewood. A breach of this regulation would mean that the men would run grave risk of being attacked by tigers or bitten by serpents." 3
Among the Kiwai of British New Guinea a man may not go out hunting while his wife is in childbed or menstruating, for it is believed that were he to do so he would be killed by a pig or a shark, or meet with some other calamity. The blood flowing from his wound is associated by sympathetic magic with that of his wife. If a woman has intercourse with another man while her husband is away hunting, it is believed that the absent spouse will meet with nothing but ill-luck.4
1 S. C. Roy, The Oraons of Chota * Ibid. p. 305.
Nagpur (Ranchi, 1915), pp. 231 $qq. * G. Landtman, The Kiwai
3 C, Baudesson, Indo-China audits Papuans of British New Guinea
Primitive Inhabitants (London) ,p, 135. (London, 1927), pp.
26 MAGIC CHAP.
The same people hunt dugong by harpooning them in the sea, and during their absence the people at home have to observe certain precautions for ensuring the success of the harpooners at sea. These have been described by Professor Landtman as follows : " When, after a successful expedition to the reefs, a dugong is being cut up, the harpooner secures the skin of its face, including the nostrils and the neck. The piece of skin is stretched between splints of bamboo and dried. Part of the windpipe is fastened at the mouth, and at the lower end of the skin a bunch of magical herbs. The skin is hung on a stick by a string passed through the nostrils. Before leaving for the reefs the owner obtains a little of the manababa plant from his wife (she has held it for a while in her vulva), and some of it he chews and spits upon the skin. The rest is kept in the hole of the harpoon-shaft, and part of the same medicine he will later on chew and blow out upon the first pole (mast) to be used for the harpooning platform. The skin is called momoro wodi (" dugong nose "). Sometimes several skins are hung up outside the same longhouse by different people. The lower jaw of a dugong recently caught is hooked on to each skin. The skin is supposed to bring success to the harpooners. No one at home goes near it. It would be very bad if one of the children should happen to touch the skin and cause it to move : ' suppose push him like that, face he go other way— dugong he go too, clear out/ During the night the harpooner's wife watches the skin from the door in the moonlight. If the thing stirs of its own accord, she will rejoice, for it means that her husband is at the very moment spearing a dugong. The wind is supposed not to be able to move the skin, on account of the shortness of the string with which it is attached. It is important that the stick on which it hangs should lean over a little in the direction of the reefs, indicating the spot towards which the dugong should betake themselves. Hunting in the bush or by canoe under sail- that is nothing (it is not so difficult), say the natives. If the game is not to be found in one place, the hunters are at liberty to look for it anywhere else they choose. Not so the har- pooner on the platform. He remains stationary, and it is the dugong which must be induced to go to him. Hence the many rigorous observances required in that kind of hunting.
I MAGIC 27
While the harpooners are out on the reefs, the people at home must observe certain very strict rules of conduct in order not to jeopardize the others' luck, but also to assist them in a positive way. The dugong will be frightened away if fire- wood is cut or coconuts are broken close to the house (par- ticularly in the evening, when the harpooners have mounted the platform). That kind of work must be performed some distance off in the bush. No drum must be heard in the village, nor any noise ; the people at home must keep just as quiet as the crews waiting in the canoes. Sometimes all the young people are sent away from the village, so as not to ' move ' the house by any chance. They go and camp at some suitable place, while only the old people remain at home. On the other hand, it is regarded as a lucky sign if a baby cries during such a night. This means that a dugong is just being speared. The people seem to think that the spirit of the dugong comes to the child, and the pricking of the animal's whiskers on its face and body makes the baby cry. No women must quarrel while their husbands are harpooning, for the spirits of the women too are thought to participate in the fight, causing a noise which will be heard by the dugong. The worst is if a man ' steals ' the wife of a harpooner at home, for it is from her body that the husband has obtained the medicines essential for success. ' Suppose man he humbug that room (where the medicines come from) he shut him door belong dugong, all same shut him door.' While the har- pooner is away, his wife will in the daytime wear her grass skirt very loosely tied on, and for the night she takes it off entirely and sleeps nude. Sometimes in the night she lies down naked on her back at the door through which her husband has passed out, holding her feet widely apart, one at each doorpost. This causes the dugong to come. Some women refrain from lighting a fire while their husbands are away harpooning, lest they should burn their hand — a bad thing, for it is with that hand that they have passed the valu- able medicines to the men. All the harpooners recognize the important services rendered them by their wives, and for this reason they take care to let their relatives by marriage have a share in the dugong meat. During the absence of the har- pooners on the reefs some old man at home may assist them
28 MAGIC
CHAP.
by means of a certain rite, which he performs on the village beach. He walks along the water's edge by himself in the night chewing some manababa> which he spits into the water uttering certain incantations. Providing himself with a bough of the warakara tree, he steps out into the sea and repeatedly makes a sweeping gesture with the bough in the water towards himself, after which he throws the bough on to the beach and leaves it there. At the same time he calls on all the dugong to come to the harpooners, and names all the islands whence the animals should muster at the reef where the harpooners are waiting. He also asks certain spirits to bring the dugong there." l
In Samoa " when a boat belonging to any family was fishing for bonito or sharks it was forbidden to mention the names of the fishermen by the people on shore, as if they were talked about they would get no fish. I do not know whether the people believed that the aitus or spirits would hear the conversation and report it. If any person came to the house of a family from which some of the members had gone on a fishing expedition and were to ask where they were, they would be told that they were 'looking aside ' (faasangaese). It was also forbidden to untie any bundles of native cloth or mats in the house, or to lift up the nut blinds nearest to the sea whilst the boats were out. It was also forbidden to wash a bonito on the beach on such occasions ; whilst the fact of the chief being angry, or one of the men's wives being sulky or scolding in his absence, was quite sufficient to account for the fishing party being unsuccessful. " 2
Even in England there may be found traces of this primi- tive belief, that the good luck of fishermen at sea can through sympathetic magic be directly influenced by the conduct of their wives at home. At Flamborough In Yorkshire, " we have the custom of Raising Herrings. It is believed that a good fishing season will surely follow this ceremony. When the men are at sea, the wives and other women disguise them-
m
, and with music and laughter go about the village
r n ,., ! Landtma&. op- eit. pp
G. Bwwn, Melanesia*: md fo
1{>lo)i
I MAGIC
visiting the houses of their neighbours, and receiving alms or God-speed."1
Savages commonly suppose that a magical sympathy or telepathy exists between absent men and their families, especially their wives, at home, not only in seasons of hunting and fishing, but also in times of war, and among them accord- ingly wives at home are bound to observe at such times certain rules of conduct for the purpose of ensuring the safety and victory of the absent warriors. Thus, among the Banyoro, a large and important tribe of Uganda, in time of war it was incumbent upon all wives who were left behind to live chaste lives, to make offerings to the gods, and to abstain from cutting their hair, and to put away all vessels used by their husbands until they returned. Should a wife shave her head during her husband's absence on an expedition and he be wounded or killed, she would be blamed as the cause, and the heir to the property would send her back to her relatives and claim the original marriage fee ; and she would find it difficult to obtain a husband in the future. Should a warrior strike his foot against a tree root or against a stone, he would attribute the cause of the accident to his wife who, he would say, was going about visiting and enjoying herself, instead of making offerings to the gods to protect him.3
Among the Baganda, the most important tribe of Uganda, when a man was setting forth to war his wife would accom- pany him for about a mile. " There the wife would kneel down by the roadside to bid her husband farewell ; she would hand him his weapons, and they would exchange necklaces, and take leave of each other, the wife committing her husband to the care of the gods. She \vould stand and watch her husband out of sight, and then pluck some grass from the roadside at the spot where they had taken leave of each other; this she would carry back with her to her house, and put it under the grass with which the house was carpeted, near the main post, and there it would be kept until her husband returned. The necklace would be placed with the fetishes,
1 County Folk-Lore, vi., East Rid- ron Wulden, 1880), p, 143. ing of Yorkshire (London 1912), p. 25,
quoting A, H. Armytagc* in Flam- * J. Roscoe, Tke Northern Bantu
borough^ Village and Headland (Saff- (Cambridge, 1915), p. 82,
30 MAGIC CHAR
and each day she would offer a little beer to them and pray, saying, ' My husband is at war, take care of him/ The warrior's friend, who had care of his wife, would tell her from time to time what offerings she should bring, that he might take them to the priest, and obtain the latter's inter- cession on behalf of the warrior. If a wife was negligent in these duties, or if she allowed any other man to make love to her, and was unfaithful, it was believed that her husband would fall, or at least be wounded in battle, because the gods resented her behaviour, and withdrew their favour and protection from him. . „ . Should the wife be a woman who never menstruated, the husband, when taking leave of her, would scratch her with his spear, sufficiently to draw blood, and this would ensure his safe return. From the time that the warrior left his wife, he observed the rule of chastity until after the first battle was fought, or at least until the army had taken some spoil ; negligence in this respect would be fraught with grave disaster to his home and his children, or his wife would die, and the expedition would also be a failure/' * In this account, which I have borrowed from Canon Roscoe's classic work on the Baganda, the prayers and offerings of the wife to the gods for her absent husband are purely religious, not magical. Here, as in so many cases, magic is reinforced by religion. Otherwise the relations between the Baganda husband and wife, particularly in the matter of mutual conjugal fidelity, are strictly magical, based on the principle of telepathy. With regard to mutual conjugal fidelity Canon Roscoe tells us elsewhere that " when a warrior returned home, his principal wife went out to meet him, relieved him of his weapons, and gave him a gourd of water * some of this water he drank before entering his house. If his wife had been unfaithful during his absence at the war the water was supposed to cause him to fall ill, and so the wife s unfaithfulness was discovered. Accordingly, if the husband fell ill, the wife was promptly put into the stocks and tried ; if she then confessed her guilt, and named the man with whom she had done wrong, the latter was heavily fined, or even put to death." With regard to the conduct of persons at home m time of war, Canon Roscoe tells us further
1 J. Roscoe, The Baganda (London, 1915), p. 353.
I MAGIC 31
that " during the time that a punitive expedition was away, no one who was left behind was allowed to kill a sheep, but only goats or cows might be killed. The penalty for killing a sheep was confiscation of the man's property ; the reason given for this custom is that those left behind were looked upon as women, and that accordingly the meat of the sheep was taboo to them. No man was allowed to enter the house of a woman whose husband was absent, if the wife was sitting in the doorway ; nor might a wife touch any man's clothing, for, if she did so, it would bring misfortune on her husband's weapons and might even cost him his life. The gods were thought to be very particular about women observing the taboos during their husbands' absence, and having nothing to do with men. A man's principal wife was responsible to him for the conduct of his other wives ; he tested her chastity on his return home, by the water test described above, and if she was found faithful, her word was accepted for the conduct of the others." l
Among the Agni, a tribe of the Ivory Coast in West Africa, when the men of a village have gone forth to war, leaving only the aged and infirm men and the women and children behind, all the women in the village paint their faces, breasts, and limbs with white clay dipped in water. The paintings consist in bands, either vertical or horizontal, and in diverse drawings which seem to be left to individual tastes. Especially the clay is smeared round both eyes. Thus decorated the women assemble in the central place of the village, either of their own accord or at the order of the old men who are left at home. They take each a stick, which is called a gun, and fall into line at the order of the oldest wife of the chief of the village. Thus decorated and armed they execute a series of very animated dances, running from one end of the village to the other. The woman who commands them incites them
fc
continually to fresh efforts, singing very licentious and filthy songs, directed in abuse of the chief of the enemy, and in praise of their own chief and his warriors. These refrains are repeated by the dancers without the accompaniment of any musical instrument. The wife of the chief and the old men take particular care that the women do not pronounce the
1 J. Rdsroe, The Baganda, pp. 362 sqq*
32 MAGIC CHAP.
name of any who are not directly concerned in the war. The dances consist of rapid marches, analogous in cadence and rhythm to the war dances of the men. The ceremony ends with a rush of the women to the gate of the village from which the men went forth to war. There they brandish their spears and make derisory gestures in the direction of the chief of the enemy and addressed to him. After that the dancers resume their domestic duties, having laid down their sticks but retaining their body-paintings, which they do not remove until after the return of the warriors to the village. After- wards, whenever their domestic duties permit of it, and especially when they hear the shots of the warriors in the distance, they resume their dances and songs. All the time that these ceremonies last the women are supposed to be transformed into men. Each of them is called by the name of her husband, her brother, or her son, and the sticks which they carry are called rifles. When the dancers are tired, they sit on the earth, and converse among themselves in the manner of men, addressing one another in salutations otherwise reserved for the male sex. The wife of the chief brings a jar of water, which, for the occasion, is thought to be palm-wine. One of the women supports the jar on her left thigh, and from it pours the water into a goblet, which she holds in her right hand. From the goblet she first pours water on the ground as a libation to Mother Earth and the spirits of the dead buried in the village. Then she fills the goblet a second time and passes it to the wife of the chief, who in her turn pours some drops as a libation on the ground, then drinks the rest of the water in the manner of men, allowing some of the liquid to drip at each extremity of the mouth and imitating the grimace which men make at drinking strong liquor. Afterwards each of the women receives the goblet and drinks the water in the same manner. When all have drunk, the woman who has been pouring out spills what remains of the water on the earth, and addressing the wife of the chief, says, ^ Father so-and-so, I thank you/' It is notable that except in these circumstances the women never drink in this manner, which is absolutely special to men. After drinking, the women talk among themselves, continually addressing each other m the names of men, each of them recounting their
1 MAGIC 33
supposed warlike exploits, telling, for example, how many prisoners they made, and giving the most precise details of their imaginary prowess. Then at the order of the chiefs wife the dances and songs begin again, to last the whole day and a good part of the night, with the exception of intervals just noted and such as were consecrated to domestic work. During these last intervals, the comedy of sexual inversion ceases, and women resume their ordinary names. This cus- tom constitutes for the women at once an amusement and a duty. On the one hand, the women take the greatest pleasure in this sort of comedy, and in the songs and talk which it authorizes : it suffices to observe the happy expression which they wear during the ceremony and the zest with which they afterwards recount its incidents. The occasions of it are not very frequent. On the other hand, the ceremony is obliga- tory. Whenever the women show any slackness or reluctance to begin the dances, they are urged on to them by the old men, " The men are fighting ; you must perform the cere- mony." If they hear rifle-shots, the old men call to the women to dance faster and to sing more loudly. If the warriors, on returning from battle, learn that the women have not devoted all the time at their disposal to performing the ceremony, they reproach and abuse them. And if they return defeated, they do not hesitate to allege that the defeat is due to the failure of the women to perform the ceremony at the moment of battle. This custom is based on the belief that victory will fall to the side of those whose wives danced and sang the most, and above all danced and sang at the very moment of battle. That is why the dances are redoubled when the rifle-shots are heard. And that is why, when the fighting takes place at too great a distance for the sound of it to be heard in the village, it is necessary for the dancing and singing to continue all day long, with the briefest possible intervals, in order to ensure that the actual moment of combat should not coincide with a cessation of the dances and songs.1 It might be difficult to find a stronger proof of savage faith in the telepathy of war. These savages apparently think that victory in battle depends more upon the women at
1 M. Delafosse, *' Coutumes ob- guerre/* in Revue d* Ethnographic et •crvees par les famines en temps dc tie Sociofogi*, iv, (i9*3) PP«
34 MAGIC CHAP.
home than upon the men in the field.
Among the Efiks of Southern Nigeria, " as night fell on the day when Efik warriors left the town, the wives who remained behind used to go to their sleeping-rooms and there don the garments of their absent lords. With this clothing the head wife also took the name of her husband, and while the ceremony lasted might call herself, or be addressed, by no other. Once clad in this strange attire, the women sallied forth to visit the chief compounds of the town, drinking palm wine, laughing and jesting at each. No matter how heavy and anxious might be the hearts beneath this manly guise, they dared not show the least anxiety, but must appear happy and brave, that by sympathetic magic the courage of their absent husbands should be upheld. The ceremony was called ' Ikom Be,} and it was most strictly forbidden that any man should witness it ; for this also was among the women's mysteries, and destruction would have fallen upon the race should any male have profaned the rites by his presence. All night long the women danced round the town to prove their courage and endurance. Only after dawnbreak might they creep back to rest, and even then tears were forbidden lest indulgence in such weakness might magically affect their absent lords — turning to water their hearts within their breasts and causing their strength to melt away." l Another account of the Efik customs runs thus : " Among the Efik during the absence of the fighting men, the women used to march about the town making a martial display with swords and guns, singing boastful war songs and keeping up their spirits gener- ally, so that the souls of their warriors in the field might be sympathetically encouraged. Each wore the clothing of her absent lord and also took his name, and might be addressed by no other during the ceremony, which was called Ikom Be, and might not be witnessed by any male or destruction would fall upon the town." 2 The analogy of this Efik custom to the custom of the Agni on the Ivory Coast described above is close and obvious.
Among the Ijaw of Southern Nigeria, while the men were
* D. A. Talbot, Women's Mystenes * P. A. Talbot, The JPeopk* of of a Primitive People (London, 1915), Southern Nigeria, iii. 846* pp. 191 jy.
I MAGIC 35
away at the war, the women at home had to keep up a bold and happy appearance, and had to offer sacrifices to the fetishes. Every day they spread the tables with the favourite dishes of their absent husbands so that the souls of the warriors might not be driven by hunger to partake of the ensnaring feasts of the enemy's magician.1 Among the Ibo of the same region a wife had to remain strictly chaste during the absence of her husband at the war. Her infidelity might affect the war medicines of her husband, and cause him to be wounded or killed,2
Among the Bantu people of Southern Nigeria, while the men were away at the war their wives at home were for- bidden to wash, and they remained very quiet and anxious, and held no festivities of any kind. If any of them during this time had illicit intercourse, it was believed that her husband would surely be killed, and if any of them had previously sinned in this way and had not confessed her fault before his departure, it was believed that he would incur great danger and would hear a shot whistle by his ears. If he, after all, returned in safety, he would sell his faithless wife into another country.3
Among the Bangala of the Upper Congo, " when men went to fight distant towns their wives were expected not to commit adultery with such men as were left in the town, or their husbands would receive spear wounds from the enemy. The sisters of the fighters would take every precaution to guard against the adultery of their brothers' wives while they were on the expedition. " 4 Among the I la-speaking tribes of Northern Rhodesia " the women were instructed to remain chaste while their husbands were away fighting, lest harm should befall them. They were also forbidden to throw any- thing at one another, for fear lest their relations should be speared, or to imitate any kind of blow. They were also forbidden to dance, the period until the safe return of the warriors was assured being one rather for mourning than for rejoicing.'**
1 P. A. Talbot, op. tit* iii. 835. the Royal Anthropological Institute,
» P. A. Talbot, op. tit. iii. 842. ad. (1910) p. 413.
* P. A. Talbot, op. tit. w. 856, * E. W. Smith and A. M. Dale,
*J. H. Weeks, Among Congo The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern
, p. 224 ; *#. in Journal 9 Rhodesia (London, 1920), i. 176,
36 MAGIC CHAP.
Among the Thonga or Ronga of South-east Africa in time of war " the whole clan is subjected to many taboos. Those who remain at home must keep quiet. No noise must be heard in the villages. The women must not close the doors of the huts. It is taboo : their husbands might meet with ' bitterness ' (shibitf). They might lack strength to run away. Fires must be lit in the huts in the evening in order that the warriors might * have light ' where they are. It is taboo to omit this precaution. Work in the fields must be more or less suspended ; women may attend to it in the morn- ing only, before the heat of the day, while the air is still fresh. ' Then, if the warrior has stepped on a thorn, the thorn will be cool ; if he has knocked against a stump, the stump will be quiet and not hurt him,' (Mboza). Old men who remain at home must keep watch, and if they see a messenger coming they follow him to the chief, Should he bring bad news, they do not inform the women, as it is taboo to mourn over warriors before the return of the army. A fine is imposed upon those who contravene this law. It is taboo also to have sexual relations as long as the army is on the warpath* This would cause thorns to hurt the warriors, and they would be defeated." l
Among the Khetran Baloch of Baluchistan in olden days the women were strictly forbidden to grind corn on their handmills when the men were out on a raid, because they believed that the noise of the grinding would cause confusion in the ranks of the raiders.2 Among the Dusuns of the Tuaran and Tempassuk districts of British North Borneo, " when their men are on the warpath their women must not weave cloth or their husbands will be unable to escape from the enemy, because they would become uncertain in which direction to run. In^the weaving of cloth the backwards and forwards movement of the shuttle represents the uncertain movements of a man running first to one side and then to another, in order to escape from an enemy. Women may not eat from the winnowing basket ; for the edges of it represent mountains, over which their men would not be able to climb,
. The Life of a South « Denys Bray, Ethnographic Sur- (London, 2nd edit, vey of Baluchistan (Bombay, 1913), . 470- 1.63.
I MAGIC 37
The women must not sit sprawling about, or with their legs crossed, else their husbands will not have strength for any- thing. On the other hand it is lucky for the women to keep walking about, for then the men will have strength to walk far. " * Among the Toradyas of Central Celebes, while the men are away on a raid certain taboos must be observed by the friends of the absent warriors. The house must be kept clean. The sleeping-mat of the absent man may not be rolled up, but must be hung over a stick. The wife and the nearest relatives may not leave the house by night. Many sticks are burned to make a light during the whole night. No cooking-pot may be lent out. The wife may not wash her hair, nor seek for lice upon her head. She may not dance or pay visits. The origin of these taboos lies in the belief that the soul of the absent warrior can suddenly return to the house. In such a case he must find everything in order. He must not see anything to make him uneasy or restless, since the body of the warrior is affected by all the emotions of his soul, and he might thereby be made unfit before the battle. There were also other taboos which aimed at a sympathetic effect. Thus the wife may not leave off her bark-cape (baadje\ her head- dress, or her head-band in her sleep, so that her husband in the battle should not lose his head-dress, whereby his long hair would fall over his face and blind him. During his absence she might not sew or handle anything in which there were thorns, nor pleat mats with pandanus leaves, whose edges were beset with thorns. For if she did so her husband, on the day when he came face to face with the enemy, would feel pain in the soles of his feet. In order that this should not happen the wife, every evening and morning, strewed the floor of her house with certain leaves, lest the soul of her husband should come to grief in this way. The wives also continually carry about small branches of the waro-waro, a plant whose pods are very light and easily wafted by the wind. The waro-waro is the symbol of agility, and the carrying of it by their wives at home, must, by sympathetic magic, make the warriors agile in their movements. The names of the absent
1 I. H. N. Evans, " Notes on the the Royal Anthropological Institute^ Religion, Beliefs, etc., of the Dusuns, xlii. (1912) p, 392 sq. British North Borneo," in Journal
38 MAGIC CHAP.
men may never be mentioned by those who remain at home : a mention of his name would lure the soul of the absent warrior back to the house, leaving his body without strength for the fight. Similar rules are observed by any young girl who has given her bark-cape or her head-dress to a young man who has gone off to war.1
Among the Kiwai of British New Guinea it is deemed very important that the people who remain at home while their friends are absent on a raid should observe certain rules of conduct, for their conduct is believed materially to affect the raiders and the expedition. " In the absence of the warriors the few old women who are associated with every man's house must keep some fires burning in the house in order to keep it warm, or defeat is sure to follow. The whole village must be kept quiet, for otherwise the enemy will be warned pre- maturely (as if hearing the noise) and run away. Therefore the women at home do only the most necessary work. They also have to restrict themselves to certain kinds of food. Fish and turtle are forbidden on account of the shyness of these animals, but dugong may be eaten, for they do not flee away so easily. Coconuts must not be husked or broken near the house, only in the bush, in order to avoid noise. A woman must not even wail if she feels sad, thinking of her absent husband." It is particularly disastrous if any man seduces the wife of an absent warrior during the raid, for in that case the husband would not succeed in killing any enemy, but might very likely be killed himself.2 In the Loyalty Islands, to the east of New Caledonia, " a woman whose husband or son was absent in war would place a piece of coral to represent the warrior on a mat before her, and move it about with her right hand to represent his movements in the fight. Then with her left hand she would brush away imagi- nary obstacles and evils. The warrior was thus thought to be protected by the charm performed at home." *
Further, homoeopathic magic is often resorted to at sowing and planting for the purpose of promoting the growth and
1 N. Adrian! and A. C. Kruijt, op. Language of Lifu, Loyalty Islands,"
j p XT' , . fa Journal of the Royal Anthropo
Jf- -L-anotman, op. tit. p. 157. logical Institute, xlvii. fiai*V t>
1 S, H, Ray, " The People and' 297.
I MAGIC 39
quality of the crops. Thus, for example, among the Chams of Indo-China, when the flax is being gathered in it is proper to pretend to be drunk, for the plant is thereby encouraged to preserve its inebriating qualities.1 The Toradyas of Central Celebes prefer that a coconut-palm should be planted by an old woman who has many children and grandchildren, because they believe that a tree planted by so fruitful a woman will bear a plentiful crop of coconuts.8 The Berbers of Morocco, at sowing wheat, observe customs which are similarly based on homoeopathic magic. At Ait Hassan it is a woman who scatters the first handful of seed. At Addar this duty is confided to the girl who has the longest hair, for it is believed that the wheat which grows from such grains will be as long as the girl's hair. In the same order of ideas, at Nedroma they think they can make a prodigious crop rise from the earth by inviting the tallest worker to stretch himself at full length in the first furrow. Then, in the place which he occupied, they bury figs and an onion. Indeed, to bury in the first furrow certain fruits of a particular structure, such as figs, pomegranates, and locust-beans, is a usage frequently observed. At Chenoua the peasant buries two pomegranates in his field of cereals, and two locust-beans in his field of broad beans. In Kabylie pomegranates, nuts, and acorns buried under the same conditions serve to assure a heavy crop.3 The multitude of seeds found in figs and pomegranates, and pre- sumably in the other plants employed for this purpose has probably suggested their use in these fertility charms.
The homoeopathic magic of plants wears another and less agreeable aspect in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific, where they think that if a man eats a bread-fruit or pandanus fruit which has fallen from a tree and burst, he will himself fall from a tree and burst in like manner.4
A fruitful branch of homoeopathic magic consists in the employment of the flesh, bones, or other bodily relics of the dead as vehicles of magical force.5 Thus among the Thonga
1 BL Baudesson, /»^-C^wf<z ttnd its * P. A. EnUand, £Hc Marshall-
Primitive People, p. 263. Insulaner (Munster i. W., 1914),
* Adrian! and Kruijt, opm ctt. i. p, 339.
267 Jy- * The Golden Bough: The Magic
* E. Laoust, Mots et . choses her- Art and 'the Evolution of Jfings, i, fats (Paris, 1920), p. 312. 147
40
MAGIC CHAP,
or Ronga of South -east Africa, when a battle had been fought with great slaughter, "magicians from all Xoutpansherg came and asked to buy parts of the slain in order to prepare their powerful charms. In fact, in their opinion, the flesh and blood of an enemy killed in battle is the most efficacious of all charms and makes a first-rate drug called murumelo. This medicine is also used for other purposes : with it the seeds are smeared in order to ensure a good harvest. When the mealies are two feet high, the magician ties together leaves on stems at the four corners of the field, after having treated them with the drug ; the blacksmiths from the Iron Moun- tains of Zoutpansberg buy it and mix it with their mineral ore, in order to strengthen the iron which they melt in their fur- naces. Without this help they would obtain but slag. The hunters inoculate themselves in the following way with the powder obtained from the tendons and the bones : they make incisions in the skin of their wrists and elbows, draw a little blood, mix it with the drug, cook both in a pot, expose their arrows and assegais to the smoke, and rub the incisions with the powder. They will then be able to aim straight. The powder specially prepared from the tendons of slain enemies will be spread on the paths during future wars ; foes march- ing on it unknowingly will suddenly become unable to walk and will easily be killed. . . . The Nkuna magicians, in olden times, before they were influenced by their Pedi neigh- bours, used to dissect the tendons of the back (riringa) of the slain enemy, which they smeared with his medulla and hung to the shields of the warriors. Enemies seeing these shields would * tjemeka nhlana ' — ' have their backs broken/ a figurative expression which means to be terror-stricken. A part of the body was also preserved and mixed with the war- medicine ; the idea which underlies this custom being evi- dently this : when you have eaten the flesh of your enemies, you have absorbed all their strength and they are unable to do you any further harm."1
Among the Wandamba of Tanganyika, when a man has been killed by an elephant and buried long enough to allow the bones to crumble, a medicine man comes to the grave and extracts from it part of the cranium, radius, and tibia, which
1 H. A. Junod, Tht Life of a South African Tribe, i. 476
1 MAGIC . 41
he puts in his medicine-bag. When these are ground and cooked, and mixed with his original medicine, together with the parts taken from the dead elephant, they enhance still further the efficacy of the medicine. Similar extracts from the bones of men who have been killed in battle or have died by drinking poison at a trial by ordeal are used for the same purpose, since, being parts of persons who have died violent deaths, they will hasten the violent death of the hunted animal.1
A Hausa charm to render a husband blind to his wife's infidelity is as follows : take a certain kind of field-mouse, known to the Hausas as Beran Benghazi, and cut its throat. Then dry the body, taking care to save the blood with it, and pound it up with certain roots. Obtain the right hand of a corpse, place the powder in couscous (?), and stir it with the dead hand, hiding it in your own. At any time after the husband has eaten the couscous so doctored, he will be amenable to treatment, and all the wife has to do is place the dead hand under his pillow. After this he will become so tractable that she will be able to talk to her lover in his presence, and he will even summon the lover to visit her at her request. In both cases it is the corpse which exercises the soporific influence, for the husband is made as if to appear dead for the time. The mouse (which moves in dark corners) and the roots (which never see the sun) cause the husband to be blind to the wife's misconduct even when he is awake.2
Among the Kpelle, a tribe of Liberia, warriors think that they become brave if they eat part of the corpse of a brave enemy, or drink the blood, or use his skull as a drinking-cup.a
In Java burglars strew earth from a grave in the houses which they intend to rob for the purpose of plunging the inmates into a slumber as deep as that of the dead.4 Among the Kiwai of British New Guinea, in order to destroy some other man's coconut tree, a sorcerer will proceed as follows. When somebody has died in the village the sorcerer provides
1 A* G. O. Hodgson, *' Some Notes the &ori (London), pp. 165 on the Hunting Customs of the 3 D. Westermann, Die Kpelle
Wanditruba," vb Journal oj the Royal (Goettingen and Leipzig, 1921)* P*
Anthropological Institute^ Ivi. (1926) 2103. p. 64. * A. Bastian, Die V$lker de$
a A. J N. Ttemeurne, The Ban of fctlichen Asien (Jena, 1869), vi. 170.
42 MAGIC CHAP.
himself with a powerful poison by thrusting a small piece of the tiroho plant into the nose of the corpse, afterwards remov- ing it and keeping it for future use. When the occasion offers itself, he sticks the tiroho into the trunk of a coconut tree belonging to his enemy, and pulls it out again. After that the tree will produce no more fruit, and all the young coconuts will die and fall off. The bane can be undone by the sorcerer if he washes the stick of tiroho in water, paints it red, and takes it home.1 In New Britain a thief places bones on the breasts of sleepers in a house which he wishes to rob : the bones are thought to keep the sleepers slumbering soundly while the thief carries off the goods.2
Again, animals are a fertile source of homoeopathic magic, which seeks to employ their desirable properties for the use and benefit of mankind.8 Thus, for example, the Kpelle, a tribe of Liberia, imagine that the flesh of the dwarf antelope imparts speed and cunning to the eater, and that the flesh of the leopard communicates strength and dexterity to him who partakes of it, and that the same desirable qualities are acquired by him who wears the teeth and claws of the leopard* The powdered shells of snails are supposed to heal sicknesses of various sorts, because the snail goes straight forward without turning on its tracks, and is in fact a good progress- ive animal, hence a patient who swallows a portion of its shell maybe expected to make good progress towards recovery. The head and skin of a leopard are kept by a chief in his hut on account of the strength which is supposed to emanate from them.4 Among the Banyankole, a tribe in the south of Uganda, when a child was slow of learning to speak, the parents would catch a bird called the kanyonza which was known for its chattering, and was said to be almost able to talk. The child's tongue was made to touch the bird, and it was believed that thereafter the child would be able to talk in a few days.5 The following is a Hausa charm. If you
1 G. Landtman, The Kiwai Papu- p, 456.
ens of British New Guinea, p. 99. * The Golden Bough : The Magic
1 B. Banks, " Some Notes on Art and the Evolution of Kings, i.
Savage Life in New Britain," in 150^.
Report of the Twelfth Meeting of the * D. Westermann, op. fit. p. 203.
Australasian Association for the Ad- • J. Roscoe, The Banyank&U, p,
vancement of Science (Brisbane, 1910), 115.
I MAGIC 43
suspect that any person is trying to wound or imprison you, get a piece of a skin of an electric eel and wear it on your person, for this will not only enable you to slip from the hands of anyone who tries to catch hold of you : it will also cause all blows of clubs or swords to slide off harmless.1 Among the Ekoi of Southern Nigeria, when an infant is thought old enough, its wrist is cut and medicine rubbed in. The medicine which is intended to give strength is made from the index finger of the chimpanzee, and to impart quickness and activity fierce black ants are pounded up and used.2
The Pangwe or Fan, a tribe of West Africa, attribute to the swallow the peculiar power of evading its enemy, the hawk. Hence they think that if a man kills a swallow and carries it as a parcel on his person he will be sure to avoid the shots of the enemy.8 The Bakongo of equatorial Africa employ frogs in composing the potion which warriors drink before going forth to battle, because they have noticed that when a frog's heart is extracted from its body it continues to pulsate for some time afterwards, and they hope that the frog medicine will communicate to them a corresponding tenacity of life.4 In Loango men tie strips of antelope skins to their legs in order to give them the fleetness of the antelope.5 The Ba-Ila of Northern Rhodesia compound medicines from various living creatures to assure the safety of their warriors in battle. They notice that a certain insect called Injelele darts rapidly over the surface of a pool or lake, so rapidly that you can hardly follow its motions. Accordingly, this insect is eaten with food to make the eater invisible in battle. Again, the skunk is a difficult creature to kill or catch, because when it is chased it jumps rapidly from side to side. Accord- ingly the Ba-Ila use it as a charm to ensure their safety in the fight. Some take the nose of the animal, others some of its hair, and put them in the medicine bag which they wear on their bodies. These are charms to secure that the spears of the enemy will fail to reach the wearer : that, indeed, he will be as hard to hit as the skunk. Similarly the quail, on account
* A. J. N. Tremearne, The Ban of Hn, 1913), ii, 6.
the Bori) p. 172. * J. H. Weeks, Among the Primi*
8 P. A. Talbot, The Peoples of tive Bakongo^ p. 192.
Southern Nigeria, ii. 372 sq. * Di* Loango- Expedition, iii. 3,
* G. Tessmann, Die Pangwe (Ber- p. 351.
44
MAGIC CHAP.
of its ability to hide, is eaten by a warrior to render him un- discoverable by the enemy.1 And as people often eat the flesh of certain animals in order to acquire the qualities of these creatures, so in certain cases they avoid eating the flesh of others lest they should acquire certain undesirable qualities which are characteristic of these animals. Thus, for example, in Madagascar a pregnant woman is bound to abstain from eating a whole list of animals, which it is feared might influence for evil her unborn child. She may not eat water- scorpion or crabs, because otherwise her child would have deformed hands. She may not eat a certain bird of night (tararaka), because if she did so her child would have goggle-eyes like the bird* She may not eat menamaso (small wading birds), nor the feet of birds in general, and above all the feet of the goose and the duck, lest her child should have webbed feet and no calves. She may not eat red pepper, for otherwise her child would have red hair ; nor mulberries or raspberries, lest he should have birth-marks of corre- sponding colour ; nor the white of an egg, lest he should be an albino ; nor the Madagascar sparrow, lest he should be quarrelsome like the bird ; nor the ears of sheep, lest he should become timid like the sheep.2 Among the domiciled Hindoos of Baluchistan " if a boy does not begin to talk freely within a reasonable time, he is given, in Barkhan, water out of which a sparrow has first drunk, and a piece of cake baked of dough which has first been rubbed over a kind of drum called tabla. In Lahri he is made to eat the head of a partridge roasted on embers, and in Bhag any food which has been touched by a sparrow or a parrot. These devices, of course, loosen his tongue and he becomes as chirpy as a sparrow or a partridge and as loud as a drum/1 *
During the time of harvest the Lakhers of North-Eastern India may not eat a bird or rat, because if they did so the spirit of the rat or bird would eat the paddy (rice in the fields). The reason why some of them sacrifice a mole instead of a hen is that the mole in burrowing throws up a large quantity
1 E. W. Smith and A. M. Dale, Madagascar, vol. Iv., Ethnographic
The Ila-speaking Peoples of Southern de Madagascar, Part ii. (Paris, 1914)
Rhodesia^ i. 263, ii. 360. p. 250.
* A. and G. Grandidier, Histoire * Denys Bray, Ethnographic Sur.
physique, naturelle et polittque. de vey of Baluchistan, & 51 sg.
I MAGIC 45
of soil, and accordingly they hope that the paddy will bear a correspondingly large crop. Further, the porcupine is deemed to be a very propitious animal for the crops, as in burrowing he throws up a large quantity of earth, and accordingly at the harvest feast for the rice crop boys are given the flesh of porcupine to eat.1
The Toradyas of Central Celebes think that a sickness caused by a note of the woodpecker can be cured by a beak of the bird. When a man is suffering from a splinter of wood which has run into his body, the doctor will chew a piece of a tortoise's head and spit it on the suffering part of the patient's body, because they think that just as a tortoise withdraws and then protrudes its head, so the man's body will protrude and push out the intrusive splinter.2
The Kiwai of British New Guinea put the claw of a certain crayfish in a trap to enable the trap to catch many fish. This they do, because the crayfish turns its claws inwards in a peculiar fashion when walking, as if it were beckoning to some one. Hence its claw is supposed to beckon many fish to come into the trap.3 Among these people, when a boy is being scarified, the head of a centipede is sometimes inserted into the wound, because these reptiles are almost as much dreaded as snakes. Hence the boy who has been inoculated with one of them is expected to become a great warrior.* When the first shoots of the yam crop corne up through the soil, the natives of the Fly River, in British New Guinea, insert sticks in the ground for them to climb up. And in a hole close by the stick they insert certain pieces of the flying- fox which have previously been dried for the purpose. This they do because flying-foxes are extremely prolific ; hundreds of them may be seen hanging to a single tree at certain times of the year. And accordingly the natives imagine that by thus associating the yams with flying-foxes they will render the shoots of the yams equally prolific.6 The Larrekiya youths of Northern Australia admire the musical chirping of a species of large grasshopper, and they eat the insect in order
1 N. E. Parry, The Lakhers (Lou- ans of British New Guinea, p. 170, don, 1932), pp. 437, 439. * G. Landtman, op. cit. p. 240.
3 Adriani and Kruijt, op. at. i. 409. * E. Baxter Riley, Among Papuan
8 (r. Landtman, The Kiwai P&pu- Headhunted (London, 1925), p. 98.
46 MAGIC CHAP.
to acquire its vocal talent.1 The CatJos Indians of Columbia in South America give their boys the eyes of chameleons to eat, in order that the boys may be sly and circumspect like the animal. Also they give them to eat the eyes and the tail of the jaguar, that like the jaguar they may be strong in battle. Further, they give the youths to eat the eyes of certain birds which build very fine nests, in order that the young men may similarly build fine Indian huts.2
Further, inanimate objects also possess certain desirable qualities which primitive man attempts to appropriate by homoeopathic magic. Thus, in the opinion of the Malays of the Peninsula, " hard objects have strong soul-substance, of which magic makes good use. The sick are rubbed with bezoar-stones. A candle-nut, a stone, and an iron nail are employed both at the birth of a child and at the taking of the rice-baby.8 The drinking of water in which iron has been put strengthens an oath, for the soul of the metal will destroy a perjurer. Applied to the wound, the blades of some daggers can extract the venom from a snake-bite, and the mere invoca- tion of magnetic steel will help to join parted lovers.11 *
Before planting taro the Kai of Northern New Guinea place the shoots on a large and heavy block of stone in order that the crop of taro may in like manner be large and heavy,5 and among them dancers possess certain round stones which roll easily on the ground. Before the men begin to dance each man chips off a small piece of this stone, takes it in his mouth with water, and then spits it out. By this ceremony he expects to acquire the mobility of the stone in the dance.6 The Bukaua of Northern New Guinea employ stones shaped like taro tubers in the taro fields in order to promote by homoeopathic magic the growth of the taro crop. The stones are inserted in holes in the field, and they remain there until the harvest. At planting them the magician reinforces the effect of the magical stones by prayers which he addresses to
^ ^ B,a,Sf^' Tht Ausiralia* Tk* Spirits o} the Corn and of tk* Abonpnal (Adelaide, I925), p. 384. Wild, i. 197 W.
2 J. and M. Schilling, in Artkw fur 4 p n w- , UP* * -
Retigionswissenschajt, xxiii {iQ-O *• y- Wmstedt, Shaman, Setva,
p. 230. X v"w and •$*/*> P- 74-
8 The rice-baby is an effigy made * &• Neuhauss, Deutsch Neu» from the stalks of the rice on the har- Guinea, Hi. 123* vest-field. Cf. The Golden Bough; « Neuhauss, of. cit. iii 1 xg.
MAGIC
47
the ancestral spirits, begging them to take care of the fields and to ensure a good crop.1 Further, among these Bukaua, there are magicians who are believed to be able to cause dearth by spoiling the taro crops through homoeopathic magic. They have a great reputation and are much feared. They work by means of stones which resemble the effects that they desire to produce in the taro. For example, they employ a stone which resembles a rotten fruit, which will cause the plant to put forth many leaves but little or no fruit ; or a round stone with a long handle, which causes the seedling to put out a long shoot but very small fruit ; or a scraped stone of a peculiar shape, which causes all the fruit to rot, so that in digging up the plant nothing is found but foul matter adher- ing to the leaves ; or a large stone with two small holes in it resembling the holes made by beetles which have gnawed the tubers, which is thought to cause the beetles to gnaw the real tubers ; or a small stone in order that the fruit itself may in like manner be small.* Among objects possessed of magical virtue the Kpelle of Liberia esteem stones very highly on account of the endurance and strength which they are believed to impart. Hence they make great use of them in magical ceremonies for the benefit of the tribe or the town. In every Kpelle village may be seen a stone hanging from a pole over a path or buried in the ground. As the inhabitants of the village in their daily avocations pass to and fro under or over the stone they are supposed to acquire some portion of its strength and stability.8
Among the natives of the Purari Delta in British New Guinea we hear of a cure effected through homoeopathic magic by the red glow of sunset. A native policeman was suffering from a painful swelling in the groin. An oM man undertook to cure him. At sundown, while the sky was aglow with red sunset light, the old man rubbed a red paste on his hands, then facing westward he uttered a spell. There- after, still facing the western sky, he waved his arms before him, then turning to the patient he rubbed the red paste over his swelling. He explained in no uncertain terms that, as the red of the sunset faded in a few moments, so he expected
1 Neuhauss, op. cit. iii. 434, * D« Westermann, Die Kpelle^ p.
1 Neuhauss, op. tit* iii. 457. 203.
48 MAGIC CHAP.
the speedy and complete disappearance of the unfortunate policeman's swelling which had been smeared with the red paste. The result did not answer to his expectations.1
Men, both savage and civilized, are apt to associate by homoeopathic magic birth and death with the flow and ebb of the tides.2 Thus in San Cristoval, one of the Solomon Islands, a woman of the noble Araha clan may not leave the house in her pregnancy. Pregnant women of other clans may leave their houses, but only at high tide, because they believe that it is only at high tide that women give birth to offspring successfully.3 In Loango it is believed that people do not die when the tide is flowing, but only when it is ebbing.4 Similarly the coast-dwellers of the North Andaman Islands believe that the soul of a dying man goes out with the ebbing tide.5
Thus far we have been dealing mainly with homoeopathic
or imitative magic, which is based on the principle of re-
semblance, on the assumption that like things produce like
effects. The other great branch of sympathetic magic, which
I have called contagious magic, rests on the assumption that
things which have once been conjoined remain ever after,
even when disjoined from each other, in sympathetic relation,
such that whatever is done to the one affects the other in like
manner.6 Thus for example contagious magic is supposed
to exist between a man and the severed portions of his person,
such as his teeth, hair, and nails, even when the teeth have
been extracted and the hair and nails clipped. To take
instances, among the Kai of Northern New Guinea a
magician who desires to injure a person seeks to possess him-
self of some portion of his victim's person or of something
which has been in contact with him, such as a hair of his body,
a drop of his sweat, his spittle, or the remains of his food, or
a shaving of wood. All these things must be taken quite
fresh, as otherwise t would be uncertain whether the soul-
.E.WilHaixis,r^^^zW<7/^ * Die Loango- Expedition, iii. 2,
Puran Belt* (London, 1924), p. 231. p, 325.
* The > Golden Bough : The Magic • A. R, Brown, The Andaman
Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. Islanders (Cambridge, 1922), p. 175
*
3 r ^ n „ ' Cf* Th<
JU i. Fox, The Threshold of the Magic Art and the Evolution of Pacific (London, 1924), p. 337, . £in L ,
I MA GIC 49
stuff of the man still remained in them, in order to ensure that the vital energy of the intended victim is still in the relic, the object is inserted in a small bamboo tube and put by the magician under his arm-pit to keep it warm. Afterwards he wraps the relic in a Gama leaf, in order that, just as Gama leaves are devoured by caterpillars, so will the body of his victim become the food of worms. Afterwards he puts the relic in- a bamboo cane, and wraps it again in Gama leaves, and ties them with the leaves of a certain climbing plant. This climbing plant withers and decays very quickly, and so shall the charmed man quickly lose his strength, and die. Thus in these enchantments the magician employs both contagious and homoeopathic magic for the destruction of his victim.1
In New Britain much use is made of contagious magic for the detriment or destruction of persons at whom the magician has a grudge. On this subject an experienced missionary writes as follows: "Charms (malira) are many, and employed for many purposes, such as to ensure love, to inflict disease, and so on. One consists in pricking the footprints of a person with the barbed bone of a ray-fish. This brings sickness or evil on the person whose footprints have been so treated. Sometimes they (the malira or charms) are made out of any- thing which has had connection or contact with a person, such as remains of food of which she or he has partaken ; earth from a footprint, excrement, spittle, hair, or clothing. Any of these things may be buried with incantation ceremonies, and thus afflict the people concerned in various ways. The name of this custom \sputa and the articles used putaputana. This last kind of malira is much guarded against. Expec- toration is in the form of infinitesimal spray. Stooling is always in absolute secrecy, and with the greatest care. When shaving or cutting the hair, every scrap of hair is carefully burnt, and the crumbs of one's food are also burnt* Now all these charms work by the power of the spirit world, and through the spiritual connection of things and men, and day and night people live and move and have their being in a spiritualistic atmosphere. They fear each other less as men than they do as men possessed of a powerful malira* To us
1 R. Neuhauss, Deutsch Neu-Gvinta, iii. 134
SO MAGIC
CHAP.
this is ridiculous, but not so to them.**1 Maori magicians work harm on an enemy either by earth taken from his foot- prints or by a shred of his clothing, a lock of his hair, or his spittle. For this reason it is a rule with the Maoris when they are travelling in the country of a hostile tribe not to walk in the paths but to go as far as possible in the beds of streams so as to leave behind them no footprints which a magician might use to their bane.8
In Northern Australia, " in tribes inhabiting the country around the Alligator Rivers a very favourite form of magic is to get hold of some excrement, it does not matter how small a piece, of a man or woman against whom you may have a grudge, and whom you wish to injure. All you have to do is to get two or three friends to help you perform a rather elaborate ceremony out in some quiet spot, where he cannot see you, and you can easily compass his death. The belief has one beneficial result in that the camps of these natives are much better from a sanitary point of view than in most Aus- tralian tribes, because everything is carefully buried lest some enemy should be lurking about.***
Among personal relics which are the subjects of contagious magic, extracted teeth occupy an important place. Thus among the Wajagga of Kilimanjaro in East Africa when a child loses its milk-tooth it throws it on the roof of the hut to the lizards playing there, saying, " Little lizard, you have my tooth : send me a better one for it" If the child does not do this, it is thought that his second tooth will not come quickly,4 In the Tigre tribes of Abyssinia, " if the milk- teeth of little children break away, the parents say to every one of them : ' Thou wert born in such and such a country, and now that lies in this direction, turn thither and throw thy toothlet ! ' And the little one takes a small piece of quartz and another of charcoal with his toothlet. Then he turns in the direction in which they have told him and says,
1 *R T^ 1 tt e>
,,«JL T£*_ XT *L ?°.te!L on Australasia* Association far the
<vwi<» TiV. L XT « -7 . ,. M *nus(rafafian Association for the
OZiVaffc ,L«1IG 1H JNPtir Hrifoi** ** £•* Jl J * *. . *
Re*£t »t *L 'r JXi >J • - ' , m Advancement of Science, 1910, p, 450.
Kept* of the Twelfth Meeting of the • Baldma Spencer, Afeite Tnlfs
association for the of Northern Australia, p. 37. Cf,
of Science, I9io, p. id, pp. 257 sqq. * F ^
E Best « M»«^ -D r • „ . * B' Gut&Mi"*, Dicktat and X)ut*
l MAGIC 51
' Howling hyena, this my pretty toothlet I give thee ; give thou me thy ugly tooth.' And he throws his toothlet with the other pieces. But later on when his man's incisors are shed again or if they are broken by force, he gathers them and also his molar teeth. Then when he is buried they are buried with him, and his body is considered complete. But those who do not know it do not pay attention to this nor gather them."1 In Marsa Matruh, the classical Paraetonium, situated about 1 50 miles west of Alexandria on the Marmaric coast, the population consists chiefly of Bedouins, with a strong infusion of Berber blood. Among them, " in child- hood, when a boy or girl loses his or her first teeth, the teeth, as soon as they come out, are thrown into the air with the exclamation, * I have exchanged my tooth for thee, O star ! ' The explanation given for this practice is that there are from time to time found in the fields white nodules of exceptionally hard stone, which are believed to be fallen stars." The inten- tion of the practice is no doubt to ensure by this means that the next teeth of the child should be white and hard, like the nodules of stone. A similar custom is practised by Algerian children, who toss a lost tooth towards the sun, saying, " O Sun, give me a new tooth ! " 2 Among the Sakalava, an important tribe of Madagascar, when the first milk-tooth of a child drops out, the child throws it on the roof of his parents' house, saying, " I change this bad tooth for a good one." s Among the Oraons of Chota Nagpur in India " children besmear their own cast milk-teeth with cowdung and saliva, and then throw these teeth on the roof of their own huts. As they thus throw away the teeth, they call on the mice to exchange their milk-white teeth with their own cast milk- teeth, saying, ' May mine be new, and yours old.* " 4 Among the Shans of Burma " when a child loses its first teeth it is often teased by the big children, who call it ' Little Grand- father * or ' Grandmother.1 If an upper tooth comes out
1 E, Littmann, Publications of the * A. and G. Grandidier, op. cit*
Princeton Expedition to Abyssinia, iv, 2, p. 292. ii. (Leyden, 1910) p. 315.
* O. Bates, " Ethnographic Notes * S. C. Roy, " Magic and Witch-
from Marsa Matruh," in Journal of 'the craft on the Chota Nagpur Plateau,"
Royal Asiatic Society, 1915, pp. in. Journal of the Royal Anthropo-
724 sq. logical Institute^ xJiv. (1914) P- 333-
52 MAGIC CHAP.
it must be thrown on the roof of the house, and the child is taught to say, ' Little mice, take away this old tooth and bring me a new tooth.1 It is not an easy matter for a small arm to throw so far, but there is always some kind big boy or man who is willing to help. The excitement is great when the tooth falls short of the roof, or, when landing successfully, it rolls down and falls to the ground. It must at once be found and thrown up again. A lower tooth must be hidden among the ashes of the hearth, while the same appeal to the little mice is made." * Among the Kiwai of British New Guinea 11 the milk-teeth on falling out are sometimes buried — for instance in a forefather's grave, just under the surface. When this is being done, the child is taught to call on the dead person by name and say, * I give you old tooth, you give me new one/ In other cases the teeth are dropped into holes bored in the beach by small reddish crabs (siogoro ; they look like spiders). The child says, * This teeth he no good, you give me good teeth.' Adults' teeth that have come out are thrown away anywhere when no one is looking. Teeth too can be used for sorcery." z
Similar customs with regard to the cast milk-teeth are known and practised in Europe. In Swabia the first milk- tooth cast by a child is dropped into a mouse-hole. Then the child gets a new one. Others say that the child should throw the tooth behind it, saying, " Mouse, thou hast an old tooth, make me a new one/' Another version of this speech at throwing away the tooth is, " Wolf, wolf, I give you here an old tooth : give me a new one for it.1* 3 In Masuren, a district of Germany, a child throws its first cast tooth upon the stove, saying, " Little mouse, little mouse, my dear little brother, take my bone tooth and give me an iron one." 4 In the North Frisian Islands, " when a child's milk-tooth falls out, the child should throw it into the clock or the chimney, saying, ' Little mouse, little mouse, I bring you a golden tooth. Will you bring me a tooth of bone in return ? J Or, * Little mouse, little mouse, I bring you a tooth of bone. If you bring me in
_l Mrs. Leslie Milne, The Shans at und Gebr&uch* aus Schwaben (Stiitt- Home (London, 1910), pp. 40 s$. gart, 1852), pp. 494 sq.
* G. Landtman, The Kiwai Papu-
i € B^sh New Guinea> P- 235- 4 M. Toeppen, Aberglaubtn
E. Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitten, Masuren (Danzig, 1867}, p. 83.
I MAGIC 53
return a tooth of bone, I will bring you a silver tooth/ Or, ' Little mouse, little mouse, here is an old tooth. Give me a new one in return/ Or, ' Little mouse, there you have my old tooth ; bring me a new one instead/ " x
Again, among the personal relics which are the subjects of contagious magic the navel-string and afterbirth or placenta figure largely.2 Thus among the Birhors of Chota Nagpur in India when a birth has taken place " the navel-string and the placenta are now taken up in a leaf-cup and buried just outside the threshold of the hut in a hole about a cubit deep. The Birhors assert that the reason why the afterbirth is thus buried and secreted is that should a dog or other animal eat it up the mother would sicken and die. If this hole is deep, the difference between the age of the present baby and its next brother or sister will be long, and if the hole be shallow, the difference will be short. The stump of the um- bilical cord, when it dries up and falls off, is also buried just outside the threshold, but not so deep ; it is asserted that should it be eaten up by any animal, the child will sicken and die. If the stump of the navel-string is buried deep, the teeth of the baby, it is said, will be late in appearing ; but if the stump is buried just below the surface, the baby will teeth early /' 3
The Karwal of the United Provinces of India observe certain curious rites at a birth. A midwife of the caste attends. They bury the umbilical cord and placenta with a scorpion's sting, two and a half bits of donkey's dung, a porcu- pine's intestines, and some liquor. The scorpion's sting is supposed to render the babe immune, not from being bitten by, but from feeling, the bite of a scorpion. The dung is thought to prevent an excessive secretion of bile, the intes- tines of the porcupine to ward off colds, and the liquor is thrown in for luck.4 Among the Kurmi, a caste of culti- vators in the Central Provinces of India, " the part of the navel-
1 C. Jensen, Die nordfriesischen Bough; The Magic Art and the Inseln (Hamburg, 1899), p. 248. In Evolution of Kings 9 i. 182 $qq.
regard to these customs concerning 8 Q o B -,, D-I,^ „„ r j. -11 4. j.t_ j. c fr>i. /-» t j * o. L*. Koy, J ne jstr/iors9 pp.
first milk-teeth cast, cf. The Golden J* ' rr
Bough: The Magic Art and the 22* sq~
Evolution of Kings, i. 178 sqq. * E. A. H. Blunt, in Census of
1 With what follows cf. The Golden India, 1911, vol. xv. Part i. p. 368.
54 MAGIC CHAP.
string which falls off the child's body is believed to have the power of rendering barren women fertile, and is also intimately connected with the child's destiny. It is therefore carefully preserved and buried in some auspicious place, as by the bank of a river." l Among the Brahuis of Baluchistan, at child- birth " the navel is bound with a thread of blue cotton. But the cord that is severed is taken away and buried where no dog may hap upon it ; for should it, for lack of care, fall a prey to a dog or other beast, the babe grows restless and a lusty squaller." 2
In Annam the navel-string and the afterbirth are reputed
to possess particular virtues which according to their nature
the people try either to appropriate or to guard themselves
against. The navel-string should be kept for a year, and
when it is dry they use it to calm the colics of the child. For
this purpose they roast a part of it which they make the child
swallow with some drink. When the part of the navel-string
which remains attached to the child falls off, they gather it and
hide it in some secret place until they can make use of it, or
they hang it below the lamp to scare off evil spirits, or, again,
they use it in the following manner ; they take two pieces of
brick reddened in the fire, and between them place the navel-
string, which in a few moments is reduced to ashes : they
gather the residue and use it as a medicine to cure the slight
indispositions of the child. The afterbirth is also reputed to
possess beneficent virtues or maleficent influences, which
therefore they seek either to take advantage of or to avoid,
according to the case. In Tonquin they generally bury the
afterbirth, either before the door of the house, or in a certain
place where they may go from time to time to see the state of
the soil. If the soil grows hard, or if they have not buried the
afterbirth at a depth of more than a metre, the infant will be
subject to hiccup, and he will become subject to fits of vomit-
ing if the soil should be too loose. At other times the after-
birth is preserved with lime and a hundred needles in an
earthen jar which is hung in a place exposed to the sun.
This practice is intended to ensure the life of the child in
cases where the parents are not able to rear the child them-
/,iRV*V' RTJs!,e11' Tribes and Cast65 * Deny* Bray, Life History of of the Central Provinces, iv. 72. Brakvi (London, 1913), p. *o/
! MAGIC 5
selves, but are obliged to commit it to the care of strangers. Dumoutier reports almost the same custom. He adds that when the child reaches the age often the jar is taken down and thrown into the current of a river. Sometimes, but very rarely, the mother, to be certain of rearing her child, must eat a portion of the afterbirth,1
The people of Laos in Indo-China never consider the afterbirth as useless or throw it away in any corner : they believe that it remains in sympathetic connection with the individual, and according to its treatment will influence his lot in various ways. Attached to the highest branch of a tree in the courtyard, it becomes the prey of beneficent spirits, who will prepare for the child a happy life. Buried in the garden, it will secure the fidelity of the child to the house in which he was born : he will never leave it. Buried under the house- ladder it will, oddly enough, secure the child from pains in his stomach.8
Among the Looboos of Sumatra, the afterbirth is washed in water and put in a new rice-pot, which is then closed with a piece of white kain (?) and buried under the house. A stone is put over the spot to mark it. If the child cries, they think that ants have made their way into the rice-pot and are biting the afterbirth ; so they pour hot water on the ground over the buried pot in order to drive the ants away.3 Among the Kooboos, a primitive aboriginal tribe of South-Eastern Sumatra, the natal fluid (amnii liquor), the navel-string, the afterbirth, and the blood, are regarded as in a way companions of the newly-born child, and above all a great vital power is ascribed to the navel-string and afterbirth ; because they are looked upon as brothers or sisters of the infant, and though their bodies have not come to perfection, yet their soul and spirit are just as normal as those of the child and indeed have reached a much higher stage of development. The navel- string and afterbirth visit the man who was born with them thrice a day and thrice by night till his death, or they hover near him. They are the good spirits, a sort of guardian angel
1 P, Giran, Magh et Religion Societe d* Anthropologie de JParis, vi. Annamites (Paris, 1912), pp. no sq. (Paris, 1912) p. 473.
2 G. Maupetit, " Mceurs Lao-
tennes,"in Bulletins *t Mtmoires de la * J. Kreemer, op. cit. p. 314.
56 MAGIC CHAP.
of the man who came into the world with them and who lives on earth ; they are said to guard him from all eviL Hence it is that the Kooboo always thinks of his navel-string and after- birth before he goes to sleep, or to work, or undertakes a journey, and so on. Merely to think of them is enough ; there is no need to invoke them, or to ask them anything. By not thinking of them a man deprives himself of their good offices. Immediately after the birth, mother and child are washed and the afterbirth and navel-string are buried about a foot deep in the ground close by the spot in the forest where the birth took place, for Kooboo women are not allowed to bring forth in the village. Before they return to the house, this spot is subjected to a certain magical treatment (gejampied^ for were this precaution omitted, then the navel-string and afterbirth, instead of being a good spirit for the newly-born child might become an evil spirit and visit him with all sorts of calamities out of spite for this neglect.1
Among the Dyaks of Borneo, when a father is removing the afterbirth to hang it on a tree either in the cemetery or on the site of a former house of the family, he is solemnly warned by his wife not to look to the right or the left, because were he to do so the new-born child would squint.2 The assump- tion obviously is that by turning his eyes to right and left the father will, through contagious magic, cause the child to look askew. Among the Toradyas of Central Celebes in like manner the person who carries away the afterbirth may not look to the right or to the left, because otherwise the newly- born child will squint. The afterbirth is first washed in water, and then wrapped in leaves. It is then laid in a coco- nut shell or in an earthen cooking-pot, and to this some add spices. Sometimes the afterbirth is buried in the gutter out- side the house, so that, whenever it rains, it is continually washed. Or it is hung or laid in the branches of a tree- Generally the afterbirth of the first child is buried. If this child lives, the afterbirth of the second child is also buried.
• 1jG'£ Jan<?0 rgenC D,e Koeboes * W- Hcwell> " Dyak Ceremonies in
in de Onderafdeelmg Koeboestreken Pregnancy and Childbirth," in Journal
der Residentae Palembang," in Bij- of the Straits Branch of the Royal
dragen tot de Tool-, Land- en Volken* Asiatic Society (Dec. 1906), pp. »6,
kunde van Nederlansch-IndiS, Ixxxiii. 128 (1910) pp. 228 s#.
I , MAGIC 57
But if this child dies, the afterbirth of the second child is not buried, but hung on a tree. They say that, when the after- birth of a child is hung on a tree and anything happens to it, the child becomes noisy. All this implies a vital connection between a child and its afterbirth, but as to the nature of that connection the Toradyas have no clear idea.1
Among the Kiwai of British New Guinea the afterbirth is placed in a native receptacle (jbaru) and carried away and buried secretly. It is supposed to injure any one who might tread upon the spot where it is buried, and if a sorcerer were to get possession of it, he could, by means of it, work evil magic on the mother, father, and child. If the woman entrusted with the disposal of the afterbirth were to bury it very deep and to plant over it a tree of a certain species, the mother would never bear another child.2 Among the Oro- kaiva of British New Guinea " the afterbirth is treated by various alternative methods, some of which are thought to affect the mother subsequently. It may be placed in a small receptacle built in a tree where it is left to decompose ; it may be buried (if at the butt of a coconut tree the roots would enclose or constrict it, and the result would be to render the mother barren in future) ; I have been told that it may be given to a sow to eat, ' when it is supposed to effect a transfer of fecundity from the women to the pig/ In some cases a small enclosure is built underneath the house expressly to prevent the pig gaining access to the afterbirth, which is allowed to fall through the house floor ; and it is probably the same notion at work : if the animal were to eat the afterbirth it might have an adverse effect on the woman's fecundity/1 a Among the Kai of Northern New Guinea, when the navel- string falls off it is laid upon the branch of a fruit-tree. The child, especially if he is a boy, shall thereby become a good climber. As the natives have to obtain their fruit, especially the bread-fruit, and birds and their eggs, from tall trees, it is very important for these people to be good climbers.4 Among the natives about Cape King William, as the Germans
1 Adrian! and Kruijt, op. tit. ii. * F. E. Williams, Orokaiva Society 48 sg. (London, 1930), pp. 94 sy.
2 G. Landtman, The Kiwai Papu- ans of British N&w Guinea, p. 231. 4 Neuhauss, op. cit. iii. p. 27.
58 MACK CHAP.
called it, in Northern New Guinea, when the navel-string falls off, it is fixed to the edge of the net in which a child lies. If the child is of male sex, the navel-string, when the child begins to walk, is loosened from the net and shot with an arrow at a tree, so that it hangs from above. Thereby the boy will be able to climb trees in order later to take fruit from them. Otherwise the child when he grew up would be a mere walker on earth, which would be hard for him.1 Simi- larly among the Yabim of Northern New Guinea, the navel- string of a boy is put in a small netted pocket and hung on a tree, because the boy must often climb trees in after-life. For . the navel-strings of girls no such custom is observed ; but if the mother wishes no more children she throws the navel- string into the sea. Otherwise she places it under a large stone,2 Among the Kulaman, a wild tribe of the Davao district in Mindanao, one of the Philippine Islands, "the after- birth is placed in the care of an old woman who carries it directly to a sturdy molave tree ( Vitex littoralis Decne) and there attaches it to the branches ' so that the child may be- come strong like the tree.' While on this mission the bearer looks neither to the right nor to the left, nor does she hesitate, for such actions on her part might influence the disposition of the child or cause it to have physical deformities/' *
In the Marshall Islands of the western Pacific the navel- string of a boy is thrown into the sea in order that he may become a good fisher : the navel-string of a girl is inserted in a leafy pandanus tree, in order that she may be diligent in plaiting pandanus fibre.4 In the Marquesas Islands, when a birth had taken place, the afterbirth was hastily buried under a frequented path in order that women passing over the spot might acquire from the afterbirth the gift of fecundity.*
In the Kakadu tribe of Northern Australia the navel-string " is cut off, by means of a mussel-shell, about two inches from the abdomen. It is dried and carried about, until the child is about five years old, in one of the small bags that, in the Kakadu and allied tribes, the native habitually wears sus-
* Neuhauss, 0. tit. m. 254. « p. A. Erdland, Die Marstatt*
Neuhauss, ^. «/ ui. 296. /«**** (Minister, 1914), pp. 125,
8 fray-Cooper Cole, The Wild 338.
Tnbes 0} 'the Davao District, Mindanao * M. Radiguet, Its Dtmitrs Sav-
.Chicago, 1913), p. I56. vafes (paris I8g2)
I MAGIC 59
pended from a string round the neck. When once the child can move about freely it is merely thrown into a water pool, without any ceremony, but, up to that time it must be care- fully preserved or else the child becomes very ill and probably dies. Should the child die before it is thrown away, it is burnt, but, on the other hand, if it be burnt while the child is still alive, either before or after such time as the child can walk about, the result again is serious illness and probably death. If the child dies while the mother is carrying the Worlu (navel- string), the death is attributed to the fact that the mother has broken one of the kumali (secret) rules ; she must, they say, have eaten forbidden food or washed in deep water, so that the child's spirit has gone from it* The father says to the mother, Bialila niandida ; ameinajau ngeinyimma ; bialila warija\ * the child (was) good; what kind of food (have) you (eaten) ; the child is dead.1 He is very angry with the woman, and often punishes her severely." x
Speaking somewhat vaguely of the outlying tribes of Uganda on the backwaters of the Nile, a missionary tells us that " a matter of supreme importance is the safe disposal of the umbilical cord, which in the hands of evilly disposed persons may be a potent source of danger. If the cord is found and burnt by an enemy of the family, the child is bound to die, so the mother is careful to bury it in some obscure place away in the jungle ; for any one to be suspected of searching for the hiding-place is tantamount to being suspected of attempted murder. Then the father must be careful, accord- ing to belief in Patiko, on no account to cross a stream, or, indeed, any water, for some days after the birth of his child, or dire consequences will ensue." 2
A curious branch of sympathetic magic consists in the treatment of wounds. Instead of applying treatment to the wound the surgeon, or rather the magician, applies it to the weapon which inflicted the wound, or to something else which represents it. Elsewhere I have given examples of this form of primitive surgery.8 Here I will add a few more. Thus
1 Baldwin Spencer, Native Tribes waters of the Nile (London, 1912), of the Northern Territory of AuS' p. 169.
tralia, p. 325. * The Golden Bough : The Magic
Art and the Evolution of Kings^ i.
* A, L. Kitching, On the Bach- 201 sqq.
60 MA GIC CHAP.
the Kawars, a primitive hill tribe in the Central Provinces ot India, " have the usual belief in imitative and sympathetic magic. If a person is wounded by an axe he throws it first into fire and then into cold water. By the first operation he thinks to dry up the wound and prevent its festering, and by the second to keep it cool." * In the Elgeyo tribe of Kenya, when a thorn has been extracted from a wounded foot it is carried along carefully until the next water is reached. There it is buried in the cool mud. This treatment of the thorn is supposed to keep the wounded foot cool and to prevent inflammation.2 Among the Ibibio of Southern Nigeria, should a man be wounded in war despite all the magical safe- guards with which he has armed himself, the misfortune is attributed to a supposed breach of fetish law inadvertently committed or to the superior power of the enemy's magic. In such a case, instead of washing the wound with hot water as was the usual custom, the native doctor used to go into the forest and cut a stick the size of the gash. This sub- stitute was washed and tended as though it were the real wound, until by sympathetic magic the injured flesh grew whole.8
In the Kagoro tribe of Northern Nigeria, if a man is wounded by a spear or sword and the place refuses to heal, the weapon, if it can be obtained, is washed with water, which is drunk by the patient, who is then supposed to recover.4
The form of contagious magic which consists in applying medical treatment to the weapon which inflicted a wound instead of to the wound itself has been commonly practised, and doubtless is still practised here and there, by ignorant people in our own country. "The treatment of surgical cases in the North by no means corresponds to that pursued by the faculty. When a Northumbrian reaper is cut by his sickle, it is not uncommon to clean and polish the sickle. Lately, in the village of Stamfordham, a boy hurt his hand with a rusty
/ r^/y* Russe11* &&* ond Castes Nigeria, p. 234 ; cf, #., The of the Central Provinces, in. 401 . of Southern Nigeria, iii. 823.
1 J. A. Massani, The Cliff Dwellers * A- J- N- Twroeame, " Notes on
oj henya (London, 1927), p. 226. Some Nl£erian Headhunted," in
. • ' ' Journal of the Royal Anthropological
P. A. Talbot, Life in Southern Institute, xlii. (X9X2> p. x6l.
I MAGIC bi
nail. The nail was immediately taken to a blacksmith to file off the rust, and was afterwards carefully rubbed every day, before sunrise and after sunset, for a certain time ; and thus the injured hand was perfectly healed. . . . This curious mode of treatment still lingers here and there. Not long ago it was practised on a hayfork in the neighbourhood of Win* Chester, and I lately heard a reference to it in Devonshire. A young relation of mine, while riding in the green lanes of that county, lamed his pony by its treading on a nail. He took the poor creature to the village blacksmith, who immediately asked for the nail, and, finding it had been left in the road, said, as he shook his head, * Ah, sir, if you had picked it up and wiped it, and kept it warm and dry in your pocket, there'd have been a better chance for your pony, poor thing ! * . . . Again, my Sussex informant writes : * Several instances of this old superstitious remedy have come under my observa- tion, but the most remarkable one occurred in the house of an acquaintance, one of whose men had fallen down upon a sword-stick and inflicted an injury on his back which confined him to his bed for several days. During the whole of this time the sword-stick was hung up at his bed's head, and polished night and day at stated intervals by a female hand. It was also anxiously examined lest a single spot of rust should be found on it, since that would have foretold the death of the wounded man/ >>:L
A similar belief and practice in regard to the treatment of wounds by contagious magic are reported from Lincolnshire. " Perhaps the most extraordinary notion in connection with iron is the firm belief that when it has inflicted any wound there is some kind of sympathy between the injury and its cause. Only a very short time before I left the Marsh a man was badly cut by the knives of a reaper, and in spite of all that medical skill could do he died the next day. But the true reason for his death was thus accounted for by a Marshman, 4 You see, he were nobutt one of them iggnerent Irishmen and they knaws nowt ; if they hed but tekken the knife off and seen to that, mebbe he wouldn't have died." And when I
1 W. Henderson, Notes on the Polk- Folk-lore : Northumberland (London, lore of the Northern Counties (Lon- 1904), p. 46. don, 1879), PP« *57 sg. Cf. County
v
MA GIC CHAP.
myself had got a nasty cut in the face from a bolt which flew out of a bit of old ship wood I was chopping up, my own gardener, a particularly intelligent man, asked anxiously where the bolt was, and suggested that the wound would heal the quicker if all dirt and rust were carefully taken off its
edges." a
From their close connection with the wearer's body articles of clothing are naturally supposed to be particularly subject to sympathetic or contagious magic ; indeed anything which has been in contact with the person may be dealt with by the magician on the same principle. Thus among the Baganda of Central Africa " women often fell ill, and in some instances died, because an enemy had contrived to obtain some of the weeds which they had handled when digging, or some of the earth which they had rubbed from their hoe, or a piece of string which they had used to tie the blade of their hoe to the handle, or again a shred of their barkcloth which they had thrown down. These fragments would then be used to work magic upon, and the spell would either cause the woman to fall sick, or in some cases would kill her/1 * Among the natives of the Central Provinces of India " magic spells are performed in various ways with or without the aid of a magician or witch. The idea that it is possible to transfer the fecundity of a fertile woman to a barren woman is at the root of a large number of the spells used. Thus any part of the body or any article of apparel of, or anything that has received the touch of, a woman who has had child (especially if it is associated with the time when she was in taboo) is efficacious and is eagerly sought after by a barren woman," * The Kai of Northern New Guinea believe that everything with which a man comes in contact retains something of his soul-stuff, by working on which a sorcerer may do the man himself grievous hurt. This is the great source of anxiety to the natives of New Guinea. Hence the native is at great pains to remove any traces of his presence from any object with which he has been in contact. If upon his way through the forest he leaves a lock of his hair or a thread of his girdle on a thorny bush, he
1 Heanley, in County Folk-lore ; » J, T. Marten, in Census o Lincolnshire (London, 1908), p. 112. 1911, vol- x. Part i. p. 153, 1 J. Roscoe, The Baganda, p, 344.
l MAGIC 63
goes no further until he has removed every trace of it. He throws nothing away. Even when he is a guest at a friendly village he gathers the shells of the betel-nuts carefully in his pouch which he always carries about with him ; or he throws the remains in the fire. Even the places where he sits retain something of his soul-stuff, so on rising he is careful to efface the traces of his person, either by stamping with his feet, or by poking with his stick, or by sprinkling them with water from a stream. Or on the spot he places certain leaves which are believed to possess the property of driving away his soul-stuff. The soul-stuff is thought of itself soon to depart, but it is desirable to hasten its departure, for once a magician gets possession of the soul-stuff the original owner of it is often supposed to be a doomed man.1
Of the bodily impressions of which magicians avail them- selves for the purpose of injuring through sympathetic or contagious magic the persons who made the impressions, by far the commonest appear to be footprints. As, for example, in the Kakadu tribe of Northern Australia, " still another form of evil magic is associated with the mud that attaches itself to the foot of a native walking through a swamp. When he comes on to dry ground he naturally scrapes the mud off, generally using something such as a piece of paper bark to do so. If another man, who wishes to injure him, comes across his tracks, he gathers up some of the mud or paper bark to which it is attached. He wraps it in some more paper bark and ties it round with string. In his camp, when it is quite dry, he pounds it up until he can roll it into a ball, and then, as in the previous case, places it in a hole that he makes at the base of an ant-hill By and by the victim's foot breaks out into sores which gradually spread all over it. The toes drop off, and the hands and feet decay. No medicine-man can do anything to counteract this form of magic. It is a disease which is every now and then met with among the Kakadu natives, and is, superficially at least, suggestive of leprosy." « Speaking of the Alligator district of Northern Australia, to which the Kakadu tribe belongs, another writer describes the magic of footprints as follows : " Upon other occasions in
1 Neuhauss, op. tit. iii. 1 17. */ *&* Northern. Territory of Aus*
1 BaW\vin Spencer, Native Tribes tralasic, pp. 260 sq.
64 MAGIC CHAP.
the same district, the footprint of a man who had been decreed to die might be found upon a clay-flat or a river-bank. The track must be intact ; if it be in the least degree imperfect it is considered useless for the purpose. Taking for granted, then, that it is clear and well-defined, the mould is cut out of the clay in toto and buried in an ant-hill. There it is secreted until such time as the spirit of the doomed man's father is supposed to be in attendance at a ceremonial, when it is fetched and broken over a blazing fire." This is supposed to seal the doomed man's fate.1
In New Ireland a person who has been robbed looks for the footprints of the thief, and if he finds them he takes them up and performs ceremonies over them, which he supposes will disable the malefactor, and so prevent him from doing further mischief.2
In San Cristoval, one of the Solomon Islands, when a man wishes to injure an enemy he will sometimes smear his own foot with lime and then walk step by step in the foot-tracks of his foe, believing that in this way he causes the man's death. Or he takes the bone of a dead man, scrapes it, and sprinkles the powder on the tracks of his enemy, at the same time driving the bone into the footprints, as a man would drive a naiL The death of the man whose footprints have thus been treated is supposed to follow.8 A similar form of magic dealing with footprints is practised in other Solomon Islands. When a man finds the footprints of his enemy he will take them up and carry them home with him. This is supposed to cause his enemy's feet and legs to break out into sores. Such sores arc common among natives of the Solomon Islands, and they arc often attributed to the magic of this use of his footprints by an enemy. When a man suspects another of having thus be- witched him, he will get a friend or relative to go to the sus- pected magician and persuade him to throw away the earth from the footprints. If after that the sores on the man's legs and feet do not heal, his friends will make war on the suspected magician.4
1 H. Basedow, The Australian 1916) p. 48.
Aboriginal, p. 175. » C. E, Fox, The Threshold of the
2 P. F. Hees, " Ein Beitrag a«s Pacific (London, 1924), p. 262.
den Sagen und Erzahlungen der 4 R. Thurnwald, F&rsthungen auf Nakanai," in Anthropos, x.-xi, (1915- dtn$al&mo*In$eln (Berlin, 191
i MAGIC 65
The Kiwai of British New Guinea seem to think it hopeless to pursue an enemy when he has got a good start, so all that they do is to shoot arrows into his footprints, or they have recourse to other forms of magic for his injury, which are supposed to act at a distance.1 At Kerema in the Elema district on the south coast of British New Guinea we hear of a man who seriously believed that another native had killed his wife by collecting some sand out of her foot- prints, and had then placed the sand in a small bamboo with the requisite medicine.2
The Malays believe that a person's soul may be attacked through objects that have come into contact with its owner. " One way to abduct a girl's soul is to * take sand or earth from her footprint or from her garden path or the front of her door or from her carriage wheels or her pony's hooves.' Frying the soul-substance in oil, one recites a charm :
I am burning the liver, the heart, the lusts, and passions of my
beloved,
So that she is broken and hot with love, Madly in love with me, and restless, Burning as this sand burns." 3
To bewitch an enemy, his horse or his ox, the Palaungs of Burma will take earth from his footprints or from the tracks of his animals, so that all the earth from the foot- print is secured, whether broken or in one mass. This should be wrapped in large leaves and roasted over a slow fire.4
In Izumo, a district of Japan, if a house has been robbed in the night while the inmates are asleep, when they wake in the morning they will look for the footprints of the burglars, and if they find them they will burn mugwort in them. By this operation it is hoped or believed that the burglar's feet will be made so sore that he cannot run far, and that the police may easily overtake him.5
1 G. Landtman, " The Magic of logical Institute, xlix. (1919) P- 293- the Kiwai Papuans in Warfare," in * R. O. Winstedt, Shaman, Saiva,
Journal of the Royal Anthropological and Sufi, p. 67. Institute, xlvi. (1916) p. 330. * Mrs. L. Milne, The Home of an
* W. M. Strong, " Some Personal Eastern Clan, p. 263. Experiences of British New Guinea," * L. Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar
in Journal of the Ro$al Anthropo- Japap (London, 1905)* "•
66 MACK CHAP.
Among the Angoni, Senga, and Tumbuka of Central Africa it is believed that if a man's footprints be stabbed or cupped by his enemy, in the morning he would be found in his hut bleeding from wounds, or blistered and dying.1 Among the Wajagga of Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa, when a blacksmith has been robbed he takes earth from the footprints of the thief, wraps them carefully in the skin of a banana and lays them on the coals of his smithy fire. He begins to blow up the fire with his bellows. He himself stands opposite and utters the curse-formula : " You, who have stolen such-and- such from me, may you swell up like a tree, and burst like a worm in the fire/' If after that any one dies in the land with appearances of swelling, then they see in this the results of the curse. Thus it comes about that the smith can leave all his tools and implements openly about, because no one would dare to steal them.2 Among the Teso people of Uganda one mode of injuring an enemy is to collect earth from his foot- prints and to mix it with medicine procured from some one skilled in such concoctions. The mixture is laid by in a potsherd, and then the feet of the unfortunate enemy will soon begin to swell mysteriously and the skin to peel off.5 In Loango the footprints of an enemy are magically treated for his injury in various ways. Sometimes magical objects are deposited on them, sometimes a frog is made to jump in them, sometimes earth from the footprint is taken up and treated magically, sometimes it suffices to spit upon the foot- prints or obliterate them, and at the same time to think or to murmur a curse.4
Elsewhere I have attempted to show * that in the history of human thought the belief in magic has preceded religion or the worship of the gods ; but even when men have attained to a belief in the gods they still often think, as in ancient Egypt, that the gods can be influenced or controlled by the spells of the magicians. Thus with regard to the Oraons, a primitive people of India, we are told by a good
?," E^1?' Winn™* a ^mitive waters of the Nil*> p.
d und
tht
I MAGIC 67
authority that " the Oraon's normal attitude towards his deities is that of a human being towards other human beings more crafty and powerful than himself ; and control through magic, and not propitiation by service, is the ideal method of dealing with his gods." l
1 S. C. Roy, The Oraons, p. 225.
CHAPTER II
THE MAGICAL CONTROL OF THE WEATHER
IN primitive society a most important function of magic is its use to control the weather for the good of the tribe by causing the rain to fall, the sun to shine, and the wind to blow in due season. On the proper discharge of this function it is believed that the prosperity and indeed the existence of the tribe is absolutely dependent. Accordingly the magicians who profess to discharge the office of weather-makers are extremely important personages, and sometimes, especially in Africa, they rise to the position of head-men or chiefs of the tribe. In any case, at this stage of development they are no longer private practitioners of magic, but public function- aries to whom the whole tribe looks for maintaining the food supply, and who may pay with their lives for any failure to exercise their craft to the satisfaction of the people. Else- where I have dealt at some length with the magical control of the weather : a here I must content myself with adducing some fresh evidence on the subject, beginning with the magical control of rain.
In San Cristoval, one of the Solomon Islands, " to get rain, fine weather, wind, calm, and so on, it is common to use sympathetic magic. Thus to get rain water is poured into a teteu, ' half of a coconut shell,' a charm is said, and the teteu is lifted up towards the sky ; or a coconut frond is taken and bent over to form an arch representing the whole sky clouded over, and then when you wish to stop the rain the frond is broken. So to get sunshiny weather take a fan and say a charm and wave the fan about, sweeping away the clouds, or
* The Golden Bough ; The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i 244
68
CH.n THE MAGICAL CONTROL OF THE WEATHER 69
do the same merely with the hands* Or to get wind take a pandanus mat and tie it up." x The flapping of the mat with every breath of air is probably supposed to raise a wind. At Padada in Mindanao, when the people have planted the rice, the planters take their planting-sticks and place them on an offering of rice and pour water over them. In this way they think they secure a plentiful supply of rain for the rice crop by imitative magic.2 When the Kiwai of British New Guinea find that the garden crops are withering and they wish to make rain, they concoct a magic medicine with the following in- gredients : some sweet-smelling bark of the sanea tree, a wild juicy fruit of a certain tree, and a little of a certain swamp am- phibian. All these are mixed in a vessel, and water both from a swamp and the sea, as well as sap from a tree, is poured on. Taking the vessel with its contents to the beach, the magician dips a pig's tail into it, and sprinkles the mixture into- the air, thus imitating the fall of rain. He may also take some of it into his mouth and blow it out. He then utters a spell which is intended to cover the heaven with dark clouds, shutting out the light like the roof of a house. Two beings in the sky, called Deboa and Sura, are occasionally invoked to send down rain. In appealing to them the sorcerer takes water in his mouth and blows it upwards.8 In this last ceremony imita- tive magic is supplemented by an appeal to heavenly beings ; here, as so often, magic is reinforced by religion.
The Bare'e-speaking Toradyas of Central Celebes employ the dry method of cultivating rice. Hence they are wholly dependent on rain and drought in the proper seasons for the prosperity of the crops. When rain is wanted, people go to a stream and splash or squirt water on each other, or they make a plumping sound on the water with the hands. To make rain they sometimes also have recourse to certain water- snails. These are hung by a string on a tree, and told that till rain falls they will not be put back in the water. So they appeal to the gods, who in pity send rain.4 Here again once more we find magic reinforced by religion.
1 C. E. Fox, The Threshold of the * G. Landtman, The Kiwai Papu- Pacific> p. 262. ans of British New Guinea, p. 6l.
2 Fay-Cooper Cole, The Wild
Tribes of the DWM District, Min~ * Adriani and Kruijt, op. dt. ii, danao, p. 160, 258.
7o THE MAGICAL CONTROL OF THE WEATHER CHAP.
The Lakhers of Assam are an agricultural people, and therefore need a regular fall of rain in order to ensure their subsistence. To procure rain they resort to a variety of charms, based on homoeopathic or imitative magic. Thus in Saiko a chosen man is sent out to fetch a stalk of wild cardamum (Amomum dealbatum). The cardamum stalk is planted in the village street, and the man who brought it rubs it up and down with his hand. When rubbed, the cardamum stalk makes a noise, "Vut, uut, vut" which the Lakhers say resembles thunder, and while the man who is performing the ceremony is rubbing the stalk, another man pours a bamboo tube full of water over his back. The water resembles rain, and incidentally in running down the cardamum stalk it helps to increase the noise of the thunder. The day on which this ceremony is performed the whole village is taboo (pana). Another method used in Siaha and also in Saiko is as follows. An eel is caught and its head cut off and fixed to a pole planted on the roadside and pointed to the sky. Water is poured on to the eel, and also on to the person holding it up to the sky. As the eel lives in water it is believed that when it ia killed its spirit becomes very thirsty, and if its head is pointed up to the sky in this way its spirit is sure to bring rain. On the day of the ceremony the village is taboo (pana). In Savang, if drought is threatened, the villagers go down to the Tisi River. There they find a stone with a large hole in its top which contains water, bale all the water out, and then sacrifice a fowl near the stone, and place the sacrificial parts of the fowl, that is, the tongue and the tail, in the hole. The fowl is then cooked, and a little of its liver and meat are placed inside the hole, and the rest of it is eaten. They think that the spirit who lives in the hollow stone will call down rain to fill its home with water again. Having eaten the chicken they all go home, and the rest of the day is taboo (pana). After a few days the stone is inspected, and if it has filled up with water and small fish are swimming about, the omen is favour- able and good crops are expected ; if, however, the stone fails to fill up with water, it is believed that a drought will occur. In the Kawlchaw River there is a deep pool called Siataw, with overhanging precipices. The Lakhers believe that if fish are poisoned in this pool rain will fall, because the spirit of the
n THE MAGICAL CONTROL OF THE WEATHER 71
pool is annoyed when the fish in his pool are poisoned. Hence in times of drought the people of Saiko poison the pool in hopes of thereby procuring rain.1
The Ao, another agricultural tribe of Assam, in order to procure rain for their rice, practise various charms, some of which resemble those of the Lakhers. " Usually either a stream is ' poisoned ' and fished with due rites, or sacrifices are offered to certain of the sacred stones which abound in Ao land. The custom of poisoning a stream for rain is universal throughout the country* Usually the water is first either exhorted or mocked. For instance, Longmisa go down to a certain pool in the Dikhu with fish poison. Arrived at the bank, all put leaf rain-shields over their heads as if rain 'were falling, and an old man, selected by a medicine-man as one whose action will be efficacious, first enters the water and pounds his bundle of poison and says : * Is there no rain in the sky ? Of course there is. Let it rain and never stop till the river is big enough to carry away an old man.' The pool is then fished in the ordinary way. Changki are even ruder in their treatment of the water. They go down to the Disoi and dam up one of the branches at a place where a little island divides it — a very common method of fishing among the Ao. One of the elders says : ' You are so low we can bail you dry with our dao-holders (knife-sheaths). We do not need bamboo dishes ' (such as ordinarily used to bail the water out of a dammed-up channel). The elders then get into the water and splash it up-stream with their dao-holders. Then the channel is bailed dry in the ordinary way and the trapped fish caught. After this, for very shame, the heavens open and the stream comes down in flood. Most Ao sacred stones are connected with the weather. In fact they are as a rule too powerful rain-producers to be pleasant, and to meddle with or insult one entails a violent storm. But some, by respect- ful sacrifices, can give rain in moderation. Merangkong are so cautious that they operate at long range, and release a cock in the village street in honour of two stones away down in the valley at the junction of the Tsumak and Melak streams. Mongsenyimti release a red cock with no white spots in honour of Shitilung (' elephant stone '), a particularly
* N. E. Parry, The Lakhers (London, 1932), pp. 452 sqq.
72 THE MAGICAL CONTROL OF THE WEATHER CHAP.
powerful stone just below the village. . . . Some rain ceremonies are nothing but very crude imitative magic. For instance, Changki, besides fishing in the Disoi, go to a boulder called Alungterungbaba and, rattling a stick about in a hole in the stone, make a noise which is supposed to resemble that of rain falling. Another method, practised in Merangkong, is to lead water in bamboo aqueducts from certain streams to the village paths and sacrifice a cock with a prayer that rain may come,1' * In this account, which I have borrowed from Mr. Mills' valuable monograph on the Ao, the sacrifices and prayers are religious, but the rest of the ceremony is magical. As usual, primitive man does not hesitate to have recourse to religion when he thinks it will answer his purpose better than the old magical rites. The same blending of religion with magic meets us in a ceremony which the Garos, another agricultural tribe of Assam, per- form for the purpose of procuring rain. Among them " the rain god is invoked in cases of long-continued drought in the Wachikrita or Salgurua sacrifice. The ceremony is a curious one and worth describing. All the male members of the village repair to a big rock in the neighbourhood, each person holding a gourd of water in his hand. The priest recites a •prayer to implore the god to have mercy on them, sacrifices a goat, and smears its blood upon the rock. The assembled persons then pour the contents of their gourds over the unfortunate priest to the accompaniment of the beating of drums and the blowing of wind instruments. " *
The same instructive combination of religion with magic appears in the ceremonies which the Oraons, a primitive agricultural tribe of Chota Nagpur in India, observe for the purpose of procuring rain. These have been well described by Mr. Sarat Chandra Roy as follows : " A notable instance of imitative magic is the Oraon ceremony of rain-making. When rain is badly wanted in any part of the Oraon country, the Oraons of each village fix a day for the rain- making ceremony. On the morning of the appointed day the women of the village, with the wife of the village priest or Pahan at their head, proceed to the village spring or tank,
1 J. P. Mills, The Ao Nagas (Lon- * A. Playfair, The Garos (London don, 1926), pp. 131 Jy, 1909), p. 88,
II THE MAGICAL CONTROL OF THE WEATHER 73
and there, after ablution, each woman fills her pitcher (lota) with water, and all proceed in a body to a sacred pipar tree (Ficus religiosa). Before these women have had their ablutions and are gone with their lotas towards the sacred pipar-tetz, no one else that morning is allowed to touch the water of the tank or spring. On their arrival at the sacred tree, all the women simultaneously pour the water in their pitchers over the foot of the tree, saying, ' May rain fall on earth like this.' The wife of the village-priest now puts marks of vermilion, diluted in oil, on the trunk of the tree. After this the women depart, and the village priest or Pahan proceeds to sacrifice a red cock to the god Baranda at the spot. It is firmly believed by the Oraons that within a day or two after this ceremony rain is bound to fall. And in olden times, it is said, a heavy shower of rain would even overtake the women on their way home from the sacred tree. In this case, apparently, direct alliance, by sacrifice and by anointing the tree with vermilion, have been superimposed on what was once, perhaps, purely a ceremony of imitative magic. Such combination of imitative magic with prayer and sacrifice is a prominent feature in the chief religious festival of the Oraons. This festival, known as the Khaddi or Sarhul, is celebrated when the ^/-flowers are in blossom in the month of April, shortly before the time for sowing paddy in their fields. Seasonable rain and plenty of it is a necessity to the agricul- turalist. And the Oraon is, above all, an agriculturalist. Naturally, therefore, he leaves no expedient untried to ensure plenty of rain. Thus, when on the occasion of the Sarhul festival, the village-priest or Pahan and his assistant, the Pujar, go in procession from house to house, the women pour large jarfuls (g haras) of water over the head, first of the priest, then of his assistant, and finally over the head of everyone and anyone ; and all the Oraons revel in- water on that day and splash mud on each other so as to present the mud- besmeared appearance of persons sowing paddy-seeds in mud. By this they hope to have plenty of seasonable rain for their agricultural operations. A further custom observed on the same occasion, of all the Oraon families of a village heap- ing rice on the sacred winnowing-basket (sup} which the P;ihan carries in procession, and the Pahan dropping rice
74 THE MAGICAL CONTROL OF THE WEATHER CHAP.
from his sup all along the route as he proceeds, and his assistant, the Pujar, continually dropping water from his batari or pitcher with a tube attached to it, all along the route, is another instance of imitative magic for securing plenty of rain and crops. " x
With regard to the Birhors, a primitive jungle tribe of Chota Nagpur, we are informed that " as the Birhors, as a tribe, have not yet taken to agriculture, they scarcely feel the need for seasonal rains. Those few Jag hi families among them who have secured lands for cultivation have adopted from their Munda neighbours their magical rain-making ceremony, which is as follows : Early in the morning they go up the nearest hill and push down stones of all sizes which produce a rumbling noise in falling to the ground ; and this noise is at the same time intensified by