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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at|http: //books .google .com/I .1 ^ FOLK-LORE A QUARTERLY REVIEW MYTH, TRADITION. INSTITUTION, &• CUSTC The Traksactions of the Folk-Lore Society And itKorporating The ARCHiCOLOGiCAL Review and The Folk-Lore Journal .j, VOL. XIL— igoi. DAVID NUTT, 55—57, LONG ACRE 1901. [XLvm.] PRnrTBD BT J. B. NIOHOLS AND BONK, PARLIAMBKT MANSIONS, OBCHABD ST., YIOTORIA ST., ^W. », ^ * , • • • • * i 54933 CONTENTS. I. — (March, 1901.) PAGE Minutes of Meetings : Wednesday, November 28th, 1900 . i Minutes of Meetings : Wednesday, December 19th, 1900 3 Minutes of Meetings : Wednesday, January 1 6th, 1 90 1 . . 3 Annual Report of the Council . . . . .5 Presidential Address. E. Sidney Hartland . . -15 Old Irish Tabus or Geasa. Eleanor Hull « . •41 II. — (June, 1901.) Minutes of Meetings : Wednesday, February 20th, 1901 . .129 Minutes of Meetings : Wednesday, March 20th, 1901 . . 131 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. Everard F. im Thurn 132 The Folklore of Lincolnshire. Mabel Peacock . .161 III. — (September, 1901.) Minutes of Meetings : Wednesday, April 17th, 190 1 '257 Minutes of Meetings : Wednesday, May isth, 1901 . . 259 Minutes of Meetings : Wednesday, June 19th, 1901 . .260 Persian Folklore. Ella C. Sykes . . . .261 The Ancient and Modem Game of Astragals. E. Lovett . 280 The Paganism of the Ancient Prussians. F. C. Conybeare . 293 IV. — (December, 1901.) Notes and Queries on Totemism ..... 385 Garland Day at Castleton. S. O. Addy . . . 394 The Silver Bough in Irish L^end Eleanor Hull . -431 Collectanea : — A Buddhist Wheel of Life from Japan. N. W. Thomas 67 Stray Notes on Japanese Folklore. N. W. Thomas . . 69 iv Contents. .1 Folklore Notes from South-west Wilts. John Folktales from the iEgean, XV.-XVII. W. R. Cropping Animals' Ears. N. W. Thomas Stories and other Notes from the Upper Congo. Animal Superstitions. N. W. Thomas Vine-graftirtg in Southern France. Catharine Folk-tales from the JEgezn, XVIII.-XXII. W. Cropping Animals' Ears. N. W. Thomas, W. 1 A Hertfordshire St. George. W. B. Gerish . " Grateful Fr^jus." Evelyn M. Jones Midsummer in the Pyrenees. Jean C. G. Spea Folktales from the ^gean, XXIII.-XXV. W. ] The Kraal Family System among the Amandebek Stories from Upper Egypt. C. S. Myers Rhymes, English and Hindu. Kate Lee, Ma S. O. Addy, M. N. Venkataswami . The Fire Walk Ceremony in Tahiti. S. P. Lan A Survival of Tree-worship. Mary Lovett Cai Rice Harvest in Ceylon. R. J. Drummond Stories and other Notes from the Upper Conj TV lULlvd • * • • • Supernatural Changes of Sites. Edward Peaco< Correspondence : — Weathercocks. J. P. Emslie . Alphabet used in Consecrating a Church. A. Ni Husband and Wife. W. R. Paton Head of Corpse between the Thighs. S. O. Add The Divining Rod in U. S. A. A. R. Wright The Bumble-bee in Magic. Edith F. Carey . Customs in the Building Trade. W. Henry Jew Irish Burial Custom. John Cooke Sacrifice to avert Shipwreck. W. H. D. Rouse Spectral Light in Corsica. Edward Peacock StoneK:atching Game. £. Lemke Primitive Orientation. W. H. R. Rivers Husband and Wife Story. E. Sidney Hartland Japanese Notes : Corrigenda et Addenda. N. W. Cutting off the Head of a Corpse. Madi Braitm Stone-catching Games. F. A. Milne . A Berwickshire Kirn -Dolly. Alice B. Gomme Sun Charms. N. W. Thomas Rain Charm in Asia Minor. W. R. Paton Sacrifice at York, 1648. Edward Peacock Contents. PAOl Blacksmiths' Festival. Charlotte S. Burne .218 The Mill of the Twelve Apostles. S. O. Addv . .218 History, Tradition, and Historic Myths. Alfred Nutt . 3.^6 Customs relating to Iron, H. Collev March . . 340 The Transition from Totemism to Ancestor Worship. N. W. Thomas ....... 343 Spectral Lights. A. Lang ..... 343 Miss Weston's Guingamor. A. Nun .... 344 Blacksmiths' Festival. T. W. E. Higgens, W. Percy Merrick ....... 344 The Golden Bough : Moab or Edom ? Jessie L. Weston . 347 The Luck of Mycenae. W. H. D. Rouse . 347 Horses' Heads. Florence Grove .... 348 New Year Customs in Herefordshire. J. G. Frazer . . 349 Whitsuntide Fate and Mock Burials. M. F. Johnston, Christabel Coleridge, Alice A. Kearv . . • 351 • Border Marriages. F. A. Milne . -352 The Power of Speech. M. le Dr. Chervin . . . 353 History, Tradition, and Historic Myth. W. H D. Rouse . 466 The Ethnological Significance of Burial and Cremation. N. W. Thomas . . . .468 Myths of Greece, Geo. St. Clair .... 469 The Transition from Totemism to Ancestor Worship. E. Sidney Hartland . . . -471 Customs relating to Iron. Mabel Peacock, Katherine Carson, C. S. Burne . . . -472 King Solomon and the Blacksmith. M. Gaster -475 Moab or Edom? M. Gaster. .... 476 Ship Processions. N. W. Thomas ... 476 A " Nabby " Colt. M. Peacock -477 Early-Rising Jest. W. Henry Jewitt . -477 Dr. Feilberg's Seventieth Birthday. Marian Roalfe Cox, E. W. Brabrook . -477 Rainbow Magic. Frederic J. Cheshire . 479 Bell-lore. E. Farrer ...... 480 Reviews : — Carl Lumholtz's Symbolism of the Huichol Indians, E. Sidney Hartland ....... 107 Emile Durkheim's L Annie Sociologique, E. Sidney Hartland no AndxG^f IjSing^^ The Making of Religion . .112 John Rhys's Celtic Folklorey Welsh and Manx . . .114 Jessie L. Weston's Guingamor^ Lanval^ Tyoltty The Werewolf Eleanor Hull . . . . . .116 Contents. PACK .ug. Gitt^e's Curiositks de la Vie Enfantine. E. Sidney Hartland . . . .120 ^opular Studies in Mythology^ Romance^ and Folklore^ Nos. 1-7. 121 fan^ Nos. i and 2 . . . . . 122 skar Kallas's Achtzig Mdrchen der Ljutziner JSsten. W.- F. KiRBY . . . . . .124 .¥. Abbott's Songs 0/ Modem Greece . . . • ^25 G. Frazer's TAe Golden Bough, E. W. Brabrook, G. Laurence Gomme, M. Gaster, A. C. Haddon, F. B. Jevons, Andrew Lang, Alfred Nutt, Charlotte S. BURNE . . . . . .219 ;. W. de Visser's De Grcecorum diis nan referentibus speciem humanum. E. Sidney Hartland .... 243 . H. D. Rouse's The Jdtaka, E. V. Arnold's The Rig-Veda, S. P. Rice's Occasional Essays on Native South Indian Life, W. Crooke ....... 245 K. Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black's Encyclopedia Biblica, W. Crooke . . . . . . 247 seph Wright's The English Dialect Dictionary .248 Ichele Marchiano's DOrigine delta Favola Greca . 250 rginia Frazer Boyle's Devil Tales. John Abercromby . 251 .ul S^billot's Cuentos Bretones, E. Sidney Hartland . 252 idrew Lang's Magic and Religion. 354 . Ridgeway^s The Early Age of Greece . 360 Jorge St. Clair's Myths of Greece .... 362 A. Wiedemann's The Realms of the Egyptian Dead. A. H. Sayce ....... 364 Lvid Prescott Barrows's TTie Ethno-Botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California. E. Sidney Hartland . 366 ice C. Fletcher's Indian Story and Song from North America. E. Sidney Hartland ..... 368 ul S^billot's Contes des Landes et des Grives, Les Coquillages de Mer, and Le Folk-Lore des P^cheurs. E. Sidney Hartland 370 idolfo Nenicci's Tradizioni Popolari Pistoiesi, E. Sidney Hartland ....... 372 H. Maynadier's The Wife of BatlCs Tale. Jessie L. Weston 373 tra L. Thompson and E. E. Speight's The Junior Temple Reader 37*; sie L. Weston's The Romance Cycle of Charlemagne and his eers • . • . • •'Itc fie Durkheim's LAnnke Sociologigue^ 1899- 1900. E. Sidney ARTLANVP . . ... . , j^gj e L. IVeston's The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac. Walter Greg ...... ^36 Contents. vii PAOB F, Uoyd Griffith's Stories of the High-Priests of Memphis. A. H. Sayce ...... 497 Caspanis Albers's De diis in lads editis cultis apud Gracos. E. Sidney Hartland ..... 500 W. Skeafs Fables and Folk- tales from an Eastern Forest . 502 Ramaswami Raju's Indian Fables .... 503 Records of Women^s Conference on the Home Life of Chinese Women, E. Sidney Hartland .... 504 Obituary : — H.M. Queen Victoria. E. W. Brabrook .98 Bibliography .126, 253, 376, 506 Index . -5^3 Rules and List of Members. Index of ARCHiEOLOciCAL Papers published 1899. v.s^cx.w'^ ^ ^^ <^ List of Plates : — I. A Buddhist Wheel of Life from Japan . Frontispiece 2 o face page 99 136 137 138 138 138 258 9) II. Weathercocks III. Macusi Games . IV. Ibid. V. Ibid. VI. Ibid. VII. Ibid. VIII. Graveyard at Sahnck Showing Pipes on Graves. IX. Wedding Dance Mask, County Mayo „ 258 X. Tomb in Brent Pelham Church, Herts, 1901 ... „ 303 XI. Castleton Church, the Garland on the Tower, 1901 ... „ 410 XII. The Frame of the Garland „ 412 XIII. The King and Garland . „ 413 XIV. The Queen, 1901 „ 414 XV. Papa-Ita Performing the Fire Walk at Honolulu .... „ 454 viii Contents. ERRATA. Page 127, line 5 from bottom, for 1900 read 1901. Page 195, line 7, for revee read rivee. Page 129, line 25, for V allure read h r allure. Page 195, line 30, for la sort conduise read le sort y conduise. Page 195, note 4, ^or par la, xoaAparla, Page 196, line 5, for Vaudrez-vaus read Voudriez-vaus. Page 196, line 6, insert et before le vin. Page 216, last line but one, for Myndus read Myndos. Page 236, line 16, for Fraser read Frazer. Page 243, title of review, for humanum read humanatn. Pages 254, 378, for Bureau of Ethnology lead Bureau of American Ethnology, Page 348, line 8 from bottom, for head read heads. Page 349, line 3, delete comma after May, Page 378, line s» for 2 read 2, 3. Page 380, line 3, for Humanite read Humanite Page 381, line 19, for Customs read Costumes* .t » • « m JfolftsXore. TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLKLORE SOCIETY, Vol. XII.] MARCH, 1901. [No. I. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28th, 1900. The President (Mr. E. Sidney Hartland) in the Chair. The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. The election of the following new members was announced : Mrs. M. E. Price, Mr. G. O. Howell, Mr. A. C. Garrett, Miss M. C. B. Howitt, Dr. H. O. Forbes, Mr. R. R. Marett, Mr. T. Lee, Mr. W. H. Tozer, Mr, H. Ling Roth, Mr. Walter W. Skeat, Mr. C. W. Duncan, Miss K. Hamilton, and Mr. W. H. P. Gibson. Tiie following resignations were also announced : Mr. G. H. Kinahan, Miss Wardrop, Mr. G. Simmons, Mr. P. H. Emerson, Mr. Clive Holland, Miss Schlesinger. Mr. N. W. Thomas exhibited and explained (i) a photo- graph of squeezes of moulds for cakes which it is the custom to make in certain parts of Austria on St. Nicholas Day (December 6th), one mould representing a deer, the other a cock ; and (2) a Buddhist Wheel of Life from Japan [see Frontispiece and p. 67] , the latter of which he presented to the Society. The Secretary exhibited a " Reaping Maiden '* from Argyllshire, presented to the Society by the Rev. Malcolm MacPhail, and read a descriptive note thereon. Votes of thanks were accorded to Mr. Thomas and Mr. MacPhail for their gifts. VOL. xn. B •• • • • • • • • •, Minutes of Meeting. v.. Mr.'-Ofhomas read some Notes on Jc [see^C'69], upon which Mr. Nutt and the soipe observations. .••.^Rfiss Eleanor Hull then read a paper on .'•vtBeasa)/' [p- 41] and in the discussioi •••/•Mr. Mescal, Mr. Nutt, and the President t The Meeting terminated with a hearty Miss Hull for her paper. The following books, which had been Society since the last Meeting, were lai( I. Mieo leh vat thon thu (collected Thamphunga, Lushais), by Major Shakesp the Assam Government. 2. The Americ vol. xxii., presented by the Smithsonia Madras Government Museum Publicatio {Anthropology) y presented by the Mad 4. An Old Indian Village^ by Johan Au sented by the Smithsonian Institution. logical Reports, 1898 and 1899, append of the Minister of Education, Ontario, by presented by the Author. 7. The MSS Lambeth Palace, received in exchange Antiquarian Society. 8. The Journa logical Institute^ vol. xxix., Nos 3 and 4, from the Anthropological Institute. 9 Mexican Study of the Native Langui on the Ethnography of S. Mexico Cochitiy New Mexico, all by Profess the Author. 12. Lud^ Organ Towan we Lwowie, vol. vi.. Parts 2, 3, 4. j BitanUi by John H. Weeks, present An Outline Grammar of the DaJ Hamilton, presented by the Govern Minutes of Meeting. 3 WBDNE8DAT, DBCEKBBB 19th, 1900. The President (Mr. E. Sidney Hartland) in the Chair. The minutes of the last Meeting were read and con- firmed. The election of Mrs. Wallis and Miss Riicker as members of the Society was announced. The death of Mr. S. C. Southam was also announced. The President exhibited (i) a photogfraph of magic stones from the Manning River Tribe in New South Wales, presented by Mr, Andrew Lang to the Society, and (2) a pipe from the gp'aveyard at Salruck in the west of Ireland, sent by Mr. J. Cooke, and read Mr. Cooke's note thereon [p. 104]. Dr. Gaster exhibited some popular illustrated broadsides sent him from Madrid, and known as Spanish Alleluias. The Secretary read a paper entitled " Folk-Lore Notes from South- West Wilts," by Mr. J. U. Powell [p. 71]. Mrs. von Oelrichs read a paper entitled " Lincolnshire Folklore," by Miss Mabel Peacock, and in the discussion which followed Miss Burne, Mr. Gomme, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Bowen, Mr. Kirby, and the President took part. The Meeting terminated with hearty votes of thanks to those who had sent objects for exhibition, to Mr. Powell and Miss Mabel Peacock for their papers, and to Mrs. von .Oelrichs for reading Miss Peacock's paper in the unavoid- able absence of the writer. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16th, 1901. The 23rd Annual Meeting. The President (Mr. E. Sidney Hartland) in the Chair. The minutes of the last Annual Meeting were read and confirmed. The Annual Report, Statement of Accounts, and Balance Sheet for the year 1900 were duly presented, and upon the B 2 4 Minutes of Meeting. motion of Mr. Brabrook, seconded by Mr. Nutt, it was resolved that the same be received and adopted. Balloting papers for the election of President, Vice- Presidents, Council, and Officers for the year 1901 having been distributed, Mr. Kirby and the Secretary were, on the motion of Mr. Nutt, seconded by Mr. Ordish, appointed scrutineers for the ballot. The President delivered his Presidential Address, the subject being " Some Problems of Early Religion in the light of South African Folklore." The result of the ballot was then, at the request of the President, announced by the Secretary, and the following ladies and gentlemen, who had been nominated by the Council, were declared to have been duly elected, viz. : As President : Mr. E. W. Brabrook. As Vice-Presidents : The Hon. J. Abercromby, the Right Hon. Lord Avebury, Miss C. S. Bume, Mr. Edward Clodd, Mr. G. Laurence Gomme. Mr. E. Sidney Hartland, Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. Alfred Nutt, Professor F. York Powell, Professor J. Rhys, the Rev. Professor A. H. Sayce, and Professor E. B. Tylor. As Members of Council: Mr. H. Courthope Bowen, Miss Lucy Broadwood, Mr. E. K. Chambers, Mr. F. C. Conybeare, Mr. J. E. Crombie, Mr. F. T. Elworthy, Dr. J. G. Frazer, Dr. Gaster, Miss Florence Grove, Professor A. C. Haddon, Miss Eleanor Hull, Mr. E. im Thum, Mr. Albany F. Major, Mr. R. R. Marett, Mr. J. L. Myres, Mr. S. E. Bouverie-Pusey, Mr. T. F. Ordish, Mr. C. G. Seligmann, Professor B. C. A. Windle, and Mr. A. R. Wright. As Hon. Treasurer : Mr. Edward Clodd. As Hon. Auditors : Mr. F. G. Green and Mr. N. W. Thomas. As Secretary : Mr. F. A. Milne. Upon the declaration of the resnk of the ballot Mr. Annual Report of the Council. 5 Hartland vacated the chair, which was thereupon taken by Mr. Brabrook who briefly returned thanks for his election. Upon the motion of Professor York Powell, seconded by Mr. Gomme, a vote of thanks was accorded to the outgoing President for his Address, and upon the motion of Mr. Gomme, seconded by Mr. Nutt, a further vote of thanks was accorded to him for the invaluable work he had done for the Society during his term of office. On the motion of Mr. Ordish, seconded by Mr. Nutt, it was resolved that a vote of thanks be accorded to the out- going Members of the Council, viz. : Mr. W. Crooke, Mr. T. Gowland, Mr. T. W. E. Higgens, Dr. F. B. Jevons, Professor W. P. Ker, and Mr. W. H. D. Rouse. TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 1 6th January, 1901. During the past year there has been no event of striking importance to chronicle, such as the visit of Professor Starr to England in the summer of 1899, but the general interest in the Society has been well sustained, and the Council has been gratified by the accession to the roll of members of more than one anthropologist, whose contri- butions to knowledge are highly esteemed wherever folk- lore and the kindred science of ethnography are studied. Their adhesion is a testimony to the growing recognition both of the importance of the study of folklore and of the value of the Society as an organisation for that purpose. There are now 382 enrolled members as against 386 at the end of 1899 ; a state of affairs which, although it affords Annual Report of the Council. little room for congratulation, is by no means unsatisfactory, considering the many urgent calls on public attention and on the individual purse during the past year. In the death of Lieut, -Gen. Pitt-Rivers, one of its Vice- Presidents, the Society has shared in a special manner a national loss. His services to archasology have been duly recorded in the pages of Folk-Lore. Although he never made any communication to the Society, every folklore student owes a deep debt of gratitude to his labours, and to the collections at Oxford and at Farnham which he founded. Miss Mary H. Kingsley was never a member of the Society. But she rendered invaluable assistance to it by writing the introduction to Mr. Dennett's Folklore of the Fjort,and by contributing to the pages of Folk-Lore a. most interesting and suggestive paper on The Fetish View of the Human Soul. Her keen and wisely-balanced sym- pathies with the native races of West Africa, and her whole-souled and statesmanlike efforts to secure at t> hands of their white rulers a stable administration bas upon a thorough comprehension of African traditions a polity, render her premature death a calamity alike to Afr and the empire. During the earlier part of the session the attendar the evening meetings was not so good as usual. Tb due no doubt in a great measure to the general dep and anxiety caused by the war in South Africa, special personal anxieties and sorrow from the sa of many members and friends of the Society, spring advanced, however, the meetings became ; attended, and the concluding meeting of the ' which Professor Sayce read his paper on Cairer was specially well attended. The Council has reports reminded members that any friends the with them to the meetings would be welcoff now venture to urge that one of the best wa and deepening the interest taken in the So' Annual Report of the Council. 7 of extending its usefulness is by bringing to its meetings all who are in any way attracted to the many subjects com- prised under the general name of folklore. The following papers were read ki the course of the year 190O1 viz. : — Feb, 21. March 21. Jan, 17. The President's Address: "Totembm and some Recent Dis- coveries." " Toys and Games of Papuan Children." By Professor Haddon. *• The Feast of Fools." By Mr. E. K. Chambers. " Notes on Korean Folklore." By the Rev. J. S. Gale. " The Bumble-bee in Folklore." By Miss M. Peacock. " A Note on the Japanese Legend of Ama Terasu." By Miss L. Kennedy. April ^^, "Animal Superstitions and Totemism." By Mr. N. W. Thomas. " Horses' Heads, Weathercocks, &c." By Mr. N. W. Thomas. May 16. " The Ancient Teutonic Priesthood." By Mr. H. M. Chad wick. " Guernsey Folklore and Superstitions," By Mrs. Murray- Aynsley. " Folklore from Wilts." By Miss Law. June 20. " Cairene Folklore." By the Rev. Professor Sayce. Nov. 28. <* Old Irish Tabus (Geasa)." By Miss Eleanor Hull. " Note on Japanese Folklore." By Mr. N. W. Thomas. Dec, 19. " Lincolnshire Folklore." By Miss M. Peacock. " Folklore from South-west Wilts." By Mr. J. U. Powell. The meeting held on February 21st was enlivened by lantern slides and an exhibition of string puzzles and string tricks as practised by the Papuans, kindly given by Dr. W. H. R. Rivers and Mr. Sidney H. Ray. The following objects haVe been exhibited at the meetings, VIZ. :• (i) Dentalium shells from the N.-W. coast of America used by the tribes of British Columbia for currency and ornament. By Mr. W. Comer. (2) Photograph of a bas-relief at Welton Farmhouse, Blairgowrie. By Mr. E. K. Pearce. (3) Engraving by Woollett representing a dance of native Australians. By Mr. J. P. Emslie. (4) Photograph of Bacchanalian dances on sarcophagi at Rome. By Miss F. Grove. (5) Totems, fetishes, and toys of the Hop! tribe of the North American Indians. By Mr. Lundgren. (6) Photograph representing a harvest scene at Ssetersdal in Southern 8 Annual Report of the Council. Norway. By Mr. N. W. Thomas. (7) Three Japanese fishinp flies. By Major C. S. Cumberland. (8) Medieval prints contain- ing woodcut initials representing children's games. By Dr. Gaster. (9) Photograph of moulds in which cakes are baked on St. Nicholas* Day in South Austria. By Mr. N. W. Thomas. (10) "Reaping Maiden" from Argyllshire. By the Rev. Malcolm MacPhail. (11) Japanese picture of the Buddhist Wheel of Life. By Mr. N. W. Thomas. (12) Photograph of two Gibber stones from New South Wales. By Mr. A. Lang. (13) Irish pipe from a box beside a grave in the old grave>'ard at Salruck, Connemara. By Mr. J. Cooke. Several of these objects have been presented by the exhibitors to the Society and placed in the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge. The thanks of the Society have been given to the respective donors, and also to the authorities of the museum for their courtesy in allowing the objects to find a home there. The exhibition of objects of folklore interest adds greatly to the pleasure and instruction of the meetings ; and when such objects are suitable and the owners are willing the Council is always glad to have them photographed for reproduction in the pages of the transactions. This enhances the value of the transactions by preserving a record of objects which may often be of a perishable nature. The collection of Musquakie beadwork and ceremonial instruments, so generously presented to the Society by Miss Mary A. Owen, will shortly arrive in England, and arrangements are being made for its exhibition at a joint meeting of the Society and the Anthropological Institute. The collection is a very valuable one, and will add greatly to the interest of the Society's exhibits at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge. The number of volumes in the library is increasing, some thirty-five books and pamphlets having been presented to the Society or received in exchange during the year. The Lecture Committee continues the excellent work commenced last session. The meetings arranged to take Annual Report of the Council. 9 place at Chelsea and Battersea at the beginning of the year, which were alluded to in the last annual report, were well attended, and Mr. Crooke's lectures were much appreciated. In November a series of three lectures was delivered at the South Western Polytechnic, Chelsea, by Mr. Clodd, Mr. Nmt, and the President. The attendance at each of these lectures was large. The lectures themselves were listened to with attention and interest, and it is hoped that they will be the means of attracting some of the audience to the serious study of the subject. A lecture was also delivered in November by Mr. Nutt before the Dulwich Literary and Scientific Institution at Dulwich, the arrangements for the lecture having been very kindly made by Mr. A. R. Wright. The success of these lectures has been due to a very great extent to the untiring efforts of Miss Grove, the honorary secretary of the committee, and the Council desires to express their special thanks to her for her tact and energy. The Society has issued during the year the eleventh volume of the new aeries of its transactions, Folk-Lore, which the Council ventures to think has been well kept up to its general level of excellence. The Society is indebted to Mr. A, R. Wright for the index to this volume. The President having been reluctantly compelled to give up the editorship, by the pressure of his many other engagements, the Council has appointed Miss C. S. Burne as his successor, the President retaining the chairmanship of the Publications Committee. In its last report the Council announced that the extra volume for 1899 would be a further instalment of County Folklore, but that the order of publishing the three collec- tions, which had then been completed, had not yet been determined. The Council has since resolved that Mrs. f Gutch's collection of Folklore from the North Riding of I Yorkshire shall be printed first, and it estimates that this will fill a volume- The collection is now in the hands I of the printers, and it is hoped that it will be issued to 10 Annual Report of the OmncH. members early in the year. The delay (which the Council much regrets) has been unavoidable. Happily it will not entail similar delay in the issue of extra volumes for 1900 and 1901. The former will be a collection of Argyllshire Pastimes, by Dr. R. C. Maclagan, which is now in the press, and will in all probability be ready for publication about the same time as the volume for 1899. The Society is indebted to Dr. Maclagan for a liberal contribution towards the cost of this volume. The extra volume for 1901 will 1 be a further instalment of County Folklore, consisting of Mr. G, F. Black's Orkney and Shetland collection. The MS, is ready for the press, and will be printed as soon as the arrangements are completed. These volumes, together with the Transactions and the ordinary expenses of the Society, will practically pledge the income of the Society during the year now opening as well as exhaust the accumulations of the last two years. The Council believes, J however, that the intrinsic interest of the volumes will fully repay the outlay; and it is hoped that they may indirectl be the means of widening the circle of students awakening to the importance of folklore more of that I? class whose attention is mainly or primarily occupied local matters. j Early in September an International Folklore Co^f was held in Paris in connection with the Exhi' Owing to the simultaneous meeting of the British j* tion at Bradford and other circumstances, the Counci' that few members of the Society were able to tat it. Mr. Abercromby and Mr, Andrews, how attended, were the delegates of the Society, an- by Mr. Abercromby has already been printed Lore. The Council, entertaining a warm reg French colleagues, is pleased to be able to ' them on the success of the congress, to thank t' hospitality to British visitors, and to express the value of these congresses may be incre ciated by students on this side of the channr Anuual Report of the Council. ii The Society was represented at the British Association meeting in Bradford by its president, Professor Rhys, _ Dr. Haddon, Messrs. Crooke and Brabrook. During the year the Council has, in conjunction with Bthe Council of the Anthropological Institute, presented a I memorial to the Colonial Secretary praying for the appoint- ment of a Commission to inquire into the customs and institutions of the native races of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony. The suggestions contained in the memorial I have been approved by a large number of scientific men, 1 and a reply has already been received by the memorialists from the Colonial Office intimating that their suggestions will not be lost sight of when the proper time arrives. The memorial approaches the subject from the scientific side. I The Council believes it is only by an accurate knowledge of rthe customs, institutions, and superstitions of the natives rthat the extremely difficult problem of dealing with the native races can be satisfactorily solved, while the scientific ; of the record which would be obtained by such a Commission as is suggested, would be hardly less than its [administrative value. The Council has also co-operated with the Anthropo- ' logical Institute in a scheme for providing lantern slides representing scenes and objects of scientific interest. The i provides for the appointment of a joint Committee of Management, and the Society is very ably represented on ithis committee by Miss Grove. The slides are kept at the reoms of the Anthropological institute, and are available e by the members of the Society. They have proved Ilndispensable to the Lecture Committee for the work they Fbave in hand. At present the slides are comparatively few 1 number. For them the Society is indebted to Dr. Haddon, . Oscar W. Clark, Mr. W. H. D. Rouse, and the Pre- ent. It is hoped that in the course of the next few years, by the kindness of individual members, and with judicious expenditure, such a number will be accumulated as will be available for the formation of several repre- 12 Annual Report of the Council. sentative sets for lectures. With the view of securing this object the Council has lately made a small conditional grant which it has little doubt will be met by a gfrant of like amount from the funds of the Institute. The Council will be very glad to receive contributions either of money or of slides. The Council of the Anthropological Institute, being in search of a new habitation, has approached this Council with a suggestion as to the feasibility of securing a common home for the two societies. The want of a local habitation for the Society makes itself felt in more ways than one. In its library the Society possesses something more than the nucleus of a collection of books which might be of much ser- vice to students. To develop it and extend its utility rooms are required, whither members might come to look up sub- jects of interest without feeling that they were trespassing upon the business hours and engagements of the Secretary. The desirability of a place where, objects may be conveni- ently exhibited and temporarily housed was illustrated at the time of Professor Starr's visit. Although the Anthropr logical Institute has, with a readiness which the Counc cannot but gfratefully acknowledge, shown itself willing 1 repeat this hospitality, the Council feel that the Socif ought not to be dependent upon acts of courtesy, howf gracious, which it is not in a position to return. Council has therefore gladly entertained the suggestio common home, and a joint committee has been apf to consider the matter. It is to be hoped that th mittee may during the year see its way to some prac recommendations. The Council submits herewith the annual acco balance sheet duly audited, and the balloting li Council and Officers for the ensuing year. E. Sidney Har Presia Annual Report of the Council. llfi- ^1 a " 2 iB s ^ 18 I S '9' i I 1*^ I'" M Annual Report of the CounciL o o ON U W W w U < pq Oqo m - O f*i M CO C/) o o 00 QO CO . c C ! I s o »w* I -s :: 00 s . a*' : «'S Ji 8o o C/3 £te •^' s? vo o o o OvO ^o oo o o OvN i-< 'O C/) H •J n •J \o o f*i r C p2 C 55 • '1, o . O S ^53 c • G 1/1 C u I ■£p<^ 00;^ go s • I) o c c C X PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. Only one more of the responsibilities which you laid upon me when, two years ago, you did me the honour to elect me your President yet remains to be discharged ; and for that I have to make during the next few minutes what I hope will not seem an undue claim upon your indulgence. The past year has been a sad one for many of us in our personal relations. As Members of this Society, and as students of folklore, it has been not less sad. We have had to mourn the loss of some who have rendered striking service to the cause of science, and of more than one to whom we and the world at large owe much of the pleasure and interest which give zest to life. General Pitt-Rivers had been for eleven years a Vice- President of the Society. His chief work, though outside the immediate range of our studies, was of a kind which on the one hand illustrates those studies, and on the other hand receives from them illustration and confirmation. The continuity of tradition was the leading thought of his scientific life. The noble museum at Oxford which bears his name, and is due to his munificence, grew out of that thought ; and the other museum, hardly less interesting, on his estate at Farnham is penetrated with the same. If genius be properly defined as the infinite capacity for taking pains. General Pitt-Rivers was endowed with it in ample measure. His motto in everything was Thorough ; and it will be of evil augury for British archaeology if the example he set shall ever be lost sight of. He has left to his country and to anthropological science in the two 1 6 Presidential A ddress. museums and in his writings, not simply a monument to his own fame, but a gfift the value of which must grow with the rolling years and our evolving civilisation. There is another loss which touches us in some respects even more directly, that of Miss Kingsley. Among all the victims of the war against the Boer states there has been none whose life was so precious as that of Mary Kingsley. I need not repeat the phrases of admiration and affection with which her death has been mourned from one end of the country to the other. All phrases seem cold when we think of her. She suffered the crowning tragedy of so many gracious lives in dying with her work unaccom- plished. Her insight into the mind of the West African native, and her bold and humorous advocacy of careful study of and rational treatment for him, had hardly begfun to impress the powers that be in the political and religious worlds. A band of friends are seeking to fulfil that task. To do so will be to perpetuate in the worthiest way, the way she herself would most have wished, the memory and the aims of one of the noblest among women. Unfortunately General Pitt-Rivers and Miss Kingsley do not end the sad list. Ulrich Jahn, the Pomeranian collector of folklore, was known to all students. Professor Max Miiller, insecure and unsatisfactory as his mythological theories were, deserves a gjrateful recognition from us as the first to popularise by his charming and persuasive style the study of mythological problems. From him many of us drew our earliest interest in the subject. Nor may we forget the name of that distinguished student of savage peoples, Frank Hamilton Gushing. Throughout the length and breadth of North America his premature demise has called forth the most touching expressions of regret. His constant associates, themselves men of learning and judge- ment, speak of him as *' a man of genius," ** one of the most original minds among anthropologists '* ; and Major Powell, the head of the Bureau of Ethnology, adds : *' From Presidential Address. ne lime that we first went together to Zuni until the day f his death, he was my companion and friend, and I loved bim as a father loves his son." My own acquaintance with Fhim was of the slightest; but what I had the privilege of ' fleeing assured me that in him anthropology possessed, not merely a capable and devoted, but a brilliant disciple. To English readers his works are not very accessible, being chiefly embodied in official reports. No one who studies them, however, can resist the impression that their writer was endowed with all the qualities and experience which go to make an ideal investigator of archaic civilisations. We will not dwelt on the losses of the immediate past. Deeply though we may feel them, their noblest use is to inspire the activities of the present. After all, the shadows of a closing age are but the reverse side of the hopes of that which is opening. As we linger on the threshold of the twentieth century we are tempted rather to look for- ward into the unknown, and to wonder what new fortunes, what events, what discoveries are to glorify or bedim, at any rate to signalise, the new era. Especially with regard to anthropological science, whereof folklore is so important a branch, we desire to forecast the future. We are perhaps getting a little tired of rhapsodies on the progress of science during the nineteenth century. We are willing to take it all for granted. Yet it is well we should remember how rapid has been the rise of folklore as a serious study. A hundred years ago Brand was apologising for his investiga- tion of the causes of " vulgar rites and popular opinions." " If," he says, "they shall appear to any to be so frivolous as not to have deserved the pains of the search, the humble labourer [namely, himself] will at least have the satisfac- tion of avoiding censure by incurring contempt." And he thinks it necessary to appeal, against the pride which would so treat him, to the common origin of mankind, the lowest as well as the highest. "The People, of whom society is chiefly composed, is," he pleads, "a respectable subject to everyone who is the friend of man." Before these words VOL XII. c 1 8 Presidential A ddress. were published, a greater than Brand had issued the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border ^ and the brothers Grimm had collected and given to the world the first volume of their famous Kinder- und Hausmdrchen. With these two works and Brand and Ellis' Observations on Popular Antiquities, the foundations of the science of folklore were securely laid. Nearly two generations, however, were to pass away before Maine, Maclennan, Morgan, and Professor Tylor began to build upon them. When we consider the remarkable results of the researches of the past forty years initiated by these distinguished men, we need little encouragement to anticipate an early solution of the great enigfmas offered by human civilisation and the history of religion. They, however, who know the com- plexity of the problem will be the least sanguine. They will be more likely to sympathise with Brand's modest estimate of possibilities. " The prime origin of the super- stitious notions and ceremonies of the people," he assures us, as Dr. Johnson had done before him, '* is absolutely unattainable. We must despair of ever being able to reach the fountain-head of streams which have been running and increasing from the beginning of time." Then, with the true instinct of an explorer in this difficult region, he adds : " All that we can aspire to do, is only to trace their courses backward, as far as possible, on those charts that now remain of the distant countries whence they were first perceived to flow." For my own part, after the experience of what has already been discovered in this way, I am content to believe that in good time all the important issues will be determined, though that determination will have to be preceded by arduous enquiry, perhaps in directions hitherto unthought of. Dismissing speculation, let us turn to one or two of the questions awaiting solution. Our thoughts have bee during the past year directed so continuously to Sou Africa that I shall offer no apology for considering su< I questions in Ihe light of the folklore of the South African tribes. Among the subjects that have at various times occupied the minds of the foremost thinkers throughout the world is that of the beginnings of religion. Its attraction is perennial. But not until our own time has it been possible so much as to enter on the enquiry in a scientific manner. And still, like the visionary Fountain of Youth for which the Spaniards sought so pertinaciously in the New World, the further we penetrate the wilds of savage thought and savage custom, the further off seems the abject of our search. Has the search then been in vain? By no means, Or.ly in the sweat of his brow shall man eat the bread of scientific truth. It does not drop like manna from heaven. Its clear waters will not well forth from any rock in the wilderness, chance-smitten by any rod. He who essays to reveal it must not shrink from long and painful preparation, from patient and heedful observation. It must be won by exhaustive research, by the careful framing and conscien- tious testing of hypotheses, and by their rejection or modifi- cation as the facts, and the facts alone, demand. This is a process of which we have already been witnesses and par- takers. Hypothesis after hypothesis has been formulated, each probably embodying some aspect of the truth. Their destruction by criticism has been as inevitable and as essential as their formation. It should not dishearten us : nor should it obscure the portions of truth they have severally contained. One of the latest contributions to the discussion was furnished a year or two ago by Mr, Andrew Lang in his book on TAe Making of Religion. The phenomena of hypnotism and the High Gods of low races were there examined; and a vigorous polemic was instituted against Huxley, Dr. Tylor, Mr. Herbert Spencer, Mr. im Thurn. and others who denied anything like a Supreme Being to savages on a low plane of culture. Hypnotism is beyond ken. But I ventured, as you will remember, to urge in 20 Presidential Address. the pages of Folk-Lore some objections against Mr. Lang's presentation of the Australian evidence for a relatively supreme and moral Being. I still think those objections valid, though I have been unable to convince him. I do not intend now to return to the charge. Rather I would say : Be Mr. Lang's conclusions right or wrong, he has rendered a service to anthropology in drawing attention to evidence which has been too much overlooked. Since The Making of Religion was published, another interpretation of much of the evidence concerning savage religion has been attempted by Mr. Marett in a paper printed in the last volume of Folk-Lore. He does not claim to have " a brand-new theory to propound.'* The phenomena to which he points have been observed by pre- vious writers, and have long been admittedly an element not to be passed over in the solution of the problem. His merit is to have explained those phenomena anew, and to have recognised that they have a greater value than had been assigned to them. If his view be just, they must henceforth occupy not a subordinate, but a principal — not necessarily an exclusive — place in our explanations. Like Mr. Lang, Mr. Marett seeks to go behind animism, and to resolve into its elements the compound of emotion and belief which we call religion. He is struck by the attitude of the savage mind in relation to the unfamiliar. That attitude he identifies, if I rightly understand him, with the attitude of the primitive savage towards the world and its phenomena. Missionaries and scientific men who have endeavoured to sound the depths of savage belief have been baffled by its vagueness. Accustomed themselves to the sharply defined affirmations of the Christian creeds, they have been perplexed by the contradictions and the want of clear and self-consistent ideas with which the savage on the theory of his religion, as on all subjects not immediately practical, is content. Therein I think they have shown a want of knowledge of human nature. If Presidential Addre Tthey had recollected what many of them must have bet'ii I familiar with — the mental condition of their own peasantry I at home — nay, if they had looked into their own minds and I asked themselves what was their own attitude with regard 'erything outside a certain radius of subjects with j which they were occupied from day to day, or which they [ were thoroughly taught in earlier life, they would have 1 found the very same condition, the very same attitude. These contradictions, this want of clear and self-consistent ideas, is simply ignorance. Inasmuch, however, as the unknown all around the savage presses upon him uninter- ' mittently, it is regarded with a feeling best described as 'e, a feeling in which fear sometimes predominates, and I sometimes wonder. Portions of the unknown are from time to time conquered, or at all events parcelled out among various powers, whom the savage explains in the terms of his own consciousness, and names as beings in actual relation with himself. This explanation is called Animism, and the beings it summons into existence are spirits, ghosts, witches, gods. But they do not exhaust the unknown. Beyond and behind them the Awful, as Mr. Marett calls it, is still there, infinite as night and filled with possibilities as dreadful as death. Now it occurs to me that here may be found the solution I of the puzzle Mr. Lang has pointed out. I do not wish to dogmatise ; nor do I claim credit for the suggestion, which is explicitly or implicitly Mr. Marett's, Mr. Lang's critics have missed his meaning so often that 1 tremble to repro- ] duce his theory, Apparently, however, it is claimed that j the belief in a Supreme Being came, in some way only to L be guessed at, first in order of evolution, and was subse- ^^^1 quently obscured and overlaid by belief in ghosts and in a ^^^^ pantheon of lesser divinities. Animism hrst, and then ^^^B polytheism, supplanted theism. I think I should find myself ^^^H within measurable distance of reconciliation, if for theism I ^^^B might substitute that attitude of mind for which Mr. Marett ^ 2 2 Presidential A ddress. has invented the term Teratism. Defining Teratism as the sense of awe (of which "Fear, Admiration, Wonder, and the like" are, as Mr. Marett puts it, "the component moments*'), I could not of course assent to the statement that it was actually supplanted by animism, polytheism and so forth. Rather, it was the soil out of which they grew. It was the dim vast background on which they were manifested. The soil was ever fertile of new growths. The sense of the Mysterious, of the Awful, might concentrate itself on a tree, or a boulder, on an amulet, or a dead man ; but this would not exhaust it. Other shapes, not yet fully realised, would loom forth now and again from the background, some to become defined, to receive specific acts of homage and thus enter into relations with humanity, some to fade away once more into the gloom. At one time this process would be long, at another time it would be short. A striking exhibition of power, especially from some visible object, might cause an immediate concentration of awe and its precipitation in acts of worship. The multitude at the gates of Lystra only differed from many another multitude in identifying the new Powers revealed to them with the old ones. On the other hand, a power only ex- hibited occasionally, not proceeding from any visible object, and not traceable in savage reasoning to any known centre of Awe, might hover for generations or for ages in the borderland where the recognised and the unrecognised, the personal and the impersonal, meet. South Africa does not bulk very largely in Mr. Lang's argument, probably because of the extreme difficulty in extracting from the conflicting testimony any sane or self- consistent interpretation. The largest body of evidence in regard to any one of the South African peoples is that collected by Dr. Callaway in The Religious System of th Amazulu, As Mr. Lang says, it is " honest but confused.' Confused ! precisely. But it is more than confused ; it contradictory. I invite your attention to this confus« Presidential Address. 23 this contradictory character of the evidence. It may I perhaps be said that tradition often is confused and con- I tradictory. So it is ; but the evidence as to the traditional I religious beliefs of the South African races is, whatever be ' the cause, more than usually confused and contradictory. Oni; of Bishop Callaway's informants told him: "The primitive faith of our fathers was this, they said, ' There is Unkulunkulu, who is a man, who is of the earth.' And they used to say, ' There is a lord in heaven.' " Another fiatly contradicted him : " The ancients did not say there is a lord in heaven (inkosi pezulu). As for Unkulunkulu, we do not know that he left any word (or man. We worship the Amatongo [the spirits of the dead]."^ On one thing, however, all were agreed. If there was any lord in heaven, he was not the Creator. In fact, so far as can be gathered, the very idea of creation was foreign to their minds, Unkulunkulu, or whatever was the name of the great father who gave being to man, was regarded as a man, The way he gave being to man is told differently I by different informants. He begat them, he dug them up. I he split them out of a stone, he made them out of a reed, I Anyhow, " the- earth was in existence first, before Unkulun- I kulu as yet existed.'" If we turn to the Bechuana, we find Moffat, after twenty- ■ three years' service as a missionary, chiefly among them, emphatic as to their want of belief in a god, " No frag- ments remain," he tells us, "of former days, as mementoes to the present generation, that their ancestors ever loved, served, or reverenced a being greater than man. A pro- \ found silence reigns on this awful subject."* Unfortunately no missionaries to any of the numerous k Bechuana tribes have ever thought it worth while to collect I their religious traditions as Callaway did from the Zulus. ' CalUway, AVi .S>j/., pp. 56, 44. ' Ibid., p. 41. ' MolTat, Misthnary Labgun and Stti n Southern Africa (1841), p. 243. 24 Presidential Address. We have, therefore, to draw our conclusions from incidental notices. There is, however, one word, common in some form to most of the Bechuana dialects, which has been much discussed : the word Morimo^ plural Barimo. In the singular it has been adopted by the missionaries to trans- late God. Yet Moffat tells us expressly that it did not convey to the minds of those who heard it the idea of God, though Morimo is never called man. Morimo, as well as man and all the different species of animals, came out of a cave or hole in the Bakone country, where their footmarks are still to be seen. He appears as a malignant being — something cunning or spiteful — able to injure men and cattle, and to cause death. When hail damaged the crops, or rain fell unseasonably, Morimo would be cursed in the vilest language. " Would that I could catch it [t.^., Morimo] , I would transfix it with my spear ! " exclaimed a chief, whose judgement on other subjects, we are told, would command attention. However, for good or ill the missionaries had adopted the word to translate their con- ception of God; and one day Moffat was addressing a chief, when the latter called some of his men : " There is Ra-Mary " [Mary's Father, the name by which Moffat was known], said he, "who tells me that the heavens were made, the earth also, by a beginner, whom he'calls Morimo. Have you ever heard anything to be compared with this ? " And he added other expressions which rendered it evident that neither he nor they had ever before heard of Morimo, or if they had, it was certainly not in the capacity of Creator or Preserver of the world. His words were received with a burst of deafening laughter, and he begged Moffat to say no more on such trifles, lest the people should think him mad.i Morimo is an uncanny word. It is said to be derived from gorimo^ above, with the singular personal prefix mo. ' MofTai, chap. i6. Presidential Address. 25 It would thus signify Him who is above. The plural Barimo, seems to mean the spirits of the dead. The phrase " Going to Barimo," means dying. ■' I( a person were talking foolishly, or ivandering in his intellect, were delirious, or in a fit," Moffat tells us he would be called Barimo, which we may best render by " Possessed." ' Mackenzie, also a missionary of considerable experience, gives another plural, Merimo, having the sense of "gods."^ This is puzzling, because, properly speaking, the Bechuana have no gods. They invoke their ancestors, or the ancestors of their chiefs, if not too remote, and when they offer sacrifice it is to the spirits of the dead. Light is perhaps thrown upon the matter by Casalis, who, speaking of the Basuto, says that, "every being, to whom the natives render adoration, is called Molimo," a dialectic variation of Morimo. When a Mosuto falls sick, the first thing the medicine-man does is to divine " under the influence of what Molimo the patient is supposed to be. Is it an ancestor on the father's side or the mother's? According as fate decides, the paternal or maternal uncle will offer the purifying sacrifice." Here the word Molimo is obviously used to designate a ghost, or disembodied spirit, and nothing else. In fact, Casalis tells us plainly, and includes other Bechuana tribes in the remark : '■ Each family is supposed to be under the direct influence and protection of its ancestors ; but the tribe, taken as a whole, acknowledges for its national gods the ancestors of the reigning sovereign,"* Mackenzie declares Barimo to be a plural without a singular. And Moffat admits that, though in form it is the plural of Morimo, it is never so used ; but apparently he knows nothing of the other plural, Merimo. What are we to make of all this confusion and un- certainty? I am inclined to regard Morimo not as a once ' MolTal, p|i. z6o, 361. ' Mackenzie, Ten Years Nerlh of the OraHj^e Kiver 1 1S71), p. J94. ' Casalis, Tkt Bmulos {1B61), pp. 248, 249- 26 Presidential Address. supreme divinity fading away, but as a god in process of becoming. It is I think more in harmony with all that we know of savage thought and of human evolution to suppose that out of the vague background of the unknown there was being slowly shaped the figure of a powerful being, or god, than to attribute the ambiguities and difficulties to forgetfulness. It is true that Mackenzie represents the Bechuana as saying: "Our forefathers, no doubt, knew more about Morimo than we do; but they did not persevere in speaking of him to their children.'* The very form, however, of this assertion shows that the speakers were merely guessing. They were trying to explain to the missionary why they knew so little about Morimo. A quick-witted race, they accounted for their ignorance as they thought the missionary thought it ought to be ac- counted for. And they were successful. The same interpretation must be put on the Zulu evidence. Bishop Callaway gave it piecemeal as he received it; and it perplexed Mr. Lang, as it evidently had perplexed the bishop himself. The latest enquirer is M. Junod, whose book on the Baronga is well worth a careful study. The Baronga are a Zulu tribe. The very word Zulu means heaven. In the dialect of the Baronga it is Tito ; and concerning Tilo M. Junod has much to say. It is a place. It is, moreover, a power which manifests itself in various ways. As such, it is sometimes called hosi^ the same word as inkosiy translated by Bishop Callaway as lord or chief. But it is a power, says M. Junod, " en- visaged for the most part as essentially impersonal." Rain, tempest, strange diseases, infantile convulsions, are attri- buted to it ; above all, the mysterious visitation of twins. I must refer you to the book itself for the details of the Ronga ideas concerning Tilo, and for the curious rites with which those ideas are connected.^ I can only say that the ideas ' Junod, Les Baronga (Neuchatel, 1898), pp. 408, sqq. Presidential Address. 27 I are as confused, as vague, as contradictory as those of the lus. In fact, a careful comparison shows that they are substantially identical. Bishop Callaway himself in the end sums up to the same effect as M. Junod. " it appears, therefore," he says, "that iii the native mind there is scarcely any notion of Deity, if any at all, wrapt up in their sayings about a heavenly chief. When it [i.e., the name inkosi pezulu, heavenly chief or lord in heaven] is applied to God, it is simply the result of leaching. Among them- selves he is not regarded as the Creator, nor the Preserver of Men ; but as a power." And he adds by way of a con- jecture : " it may be nothing more than an earthly chief, still celebrated by name, — -a relic of the king-worship of the .Egyptians; another form merely of ancestor-worship."' I Accepting the Bishop's judgement, we may discard the I conjecture as no more than an obiter dictum. Tilo, or I inkosi pesulu, thus, tike the Ngai of the Masai, like the [ Malagasy Andria-manitra, like the Siouan Wakanda, is I found to be theoplasm, god-stuff, not a god fully formed I and finally evolved. It is a god, or gods, in the making, I not a god with one foot in the grave. The Zulus and the Bechuana then appear to confirm the ' suggestion with which we started. The evidence gathered from other South African peoples is more fragmentary still than that from Ihe Bechuana. So far as 1 can interpret it, the effect is the same. But the discussion would be tedious, and I want to come back to Bishop Callaway's obiter dictum. It is a guess founded on the deeply-rooted cult of the dead which forms the very core of Zulu religion. The worship of the dead, as it prevails among the Zulus, cannot be deemed in any sense of the word a primitive institution. . The Zulus themselves are not a primitive people. One of I the most advanced offshoots of the Bantu stock, they have I long since, like all their congeners, taken that step, which, I according to Mr. Payne's canon, divides savagery from ' CalUwiiy, p. 124. 2 8 Presidential A d dress. barbarism. Their social state no longer rests on a natural basis of subsistence. The Bushmen, living upon the pro- ceeds of hunting and upon such roots and other edible vegetables as they may chance to find, are savages. Agri- culture and cattle, on the other hand, afford the mainstay of Zulu economy. In other words, the Amazulu are no longer savages. They live a comparatively settled life in kraals under chiefs, and have developed a highly organised government. The development of their religion corresponds with that of their social economy ; and traces of an earlier stage are few and indistinct, so far as our information extends. Yet they must have passed through the savage phases of religion usually accompanying the uncertain and wandering lives of hunters and root-diggers. Other tribes belonging to the same stock retain traces of that earlier condition. The Bantu are an intrusive race. They occupied South Africa in successive immigrations. Wherever the original habitat whence they started for their conquests may have been, it was a country where they had already domesticated the ox and learned the rudiments of agriculture. They have now been living for ages in an intermediate state between a nomadic and a definitely settled life. The climate and meteorological conditions of South Africa have retarded the evolution of true civilisation. Tribes are compelled to remove by disappearance of wood by want of water and pasture, exhaustion of soil and other causes. Hence, a powerful incentive to peaceful changes of settlement within a limited area, but also to wars of conquest and wholesale movements of armed populations. In the face of recent criticism, I hesitate to assert that mother-right (or kinship traced only through women) and totemism are invariable notes of savagery. There can however, be no question that these institutions tend to disappear with the higher organisation of agricultural and pastoral life. The accumulation of property, in the shape of cattle and other food stores, the preservation intact of Presidential Address. 29 jiie cultivated land, and its increase in proportion to the Increase of the population, involve continuous and elaborate preparations for defence and for attack. The inevitable t is to unite the whole community round a permanent aider or chief, and to efface mother-right (where it lubsists), and usually to change it into Agnation, or the reckoning of kinship through the father only. Accordingly, we find the Bantu everywhere under a patriarchal rule, sometimes more, sometimes less, despotic in its character. The position of women is proportionately depressed. Though not slaves, they are held in perpetual tutelage, like the women of old Rome, where in prehistoric times a similar condition of society and civilisation gave birth to the race that conquered the world. Women, mong the Bechuana. are degraded to field- and househotd- ■udges, whose purpose in life is to rear children and till J fields. it remains of a different state of things, in which mother- ight prevailed, are not wanting. The influence of the laternal uncle is usually regarded as an index of mother- light. Among the Basuto this is well marked. The eldest Waternal uncle enjoys special rights over the sister's liildren. His duties towards them commence with their , and it is he who presides at their funeral ceremonies. He IS entitled in return to a share of the spoil taken by his lephews in war, as well as of the game they kill. The price of a bride is usually paid in cattle. A portion of this feattle goes to the eldest maternal uncle; and he is expected I take care of the bride and her children, and to sup- ^ her with anything she may require.' The Ovaherer6 [ Damara-land. now German territory, more backward in Fgeneral culture than their eastern brethren, are distinguished rfor the consideration paid to their women. Descent is ■.reckoned, for most purposes, through the mother. The ^ Cssslii, Les Btusautas, p. i90(Ei^. ed. p. 180). Cape of Geed ffeft. %ip.ef tktGavernmenlCemm.enNaiivtLavisaHdCu!tomi(\f&^), App. p. 23. 30 Presidential Address. children belong to her eanda^ or gens, and derive their right to property through her.^ A man's sister's children, therefore, not his own, inherit from him. So, among the Bayeye of Lake Ngami, who like the Ovaherer6 have an infu- sion of Hottentot blood, no chief is succeeded by his son, but by his sister's son.* The Hottentots proper appear to re- present the vanguard of the Bantu invasion. Both in their physical traits and in their language Bushman influence is apparent. They were, as might be expected, on a lower step of culture than the Bantu peoples strictly so called. Contact with civilisation, however, has greatly changed them, and our information as to their primitive condition is very fragmentary. As far as we can trace, their women have hardly entered upon that long martyrdom in the cause of civilisation which has been so sad a necessity of progress. In every Hottentot's house the wife is supreme. Her husband, poor fellow ! though he may wield wide power and influence out of doors, at home dare not even take a mouthful of sour milk out of the household vat without her leave. Nor is a woman's realm limited to her husband. There seems a special relationship between brother and sister. The highest oath a man can take is to swear by his eldest sister; and if he abuse this name he forfeits to her his finest cows and sheep.* Women having this position, we might anticipate other remains of mother-right in Hottentot custom. There are indeed traces of it, both in their jurisprudence and language; but, whether from our imperfect knowledge, or from any other cause, those traces are too few and uncertain to lead to any definite result. Turning now to the question of totemism, let me first observe that, whether or not it be an invariable note of > South African Folk-Lore Journal, vol. i., p. 40. Cape Comm. Rep,, App. p. 401. « South African Folk- Lore Jounial, vol. ii., p. 37. ' Hahn, Tsuni-^^M, pp. I9» 21. Presidential A ddress. 3 1 savagery, totemism is a purely savage institution. Accord- ingly, we must not expect to find it in full force among the Bantu. All we can expect to discover are better or worse preserved survivals. The well-known passage in Living- stone's first book tells us that " the different Bechuana tribes are named after certain animals, The term Bakatia means * they of the monkey ; ' Bakuena, * they of the alligator ; ' Batlapi, * they of the fish ; ' each tribe having a superstitious dread of the animal after which it is called. They also use the word * bina,' to dance, in reference to' the custom of thus naming themselves, so that, when you wish to ascertain what tribe they belong to, you say, * What do you dance ? * It would seem as if that had been part of the worship of old. A tribe never eats the animal which is its namesake, using the term * ila,' hate or dread, in reference to killing it. We find traces of many ancient tribes in the country in individual members of those now extinct, as the Batau, * they of the lion ; ' the Banoga, * they of the serpent ; ' though no such tribes now exist." ^ But the evidence does not stop here. Casalis, after giving additional designations — Banare, they of the buffalo ; Batlou, they of the elephant ; Banuku, they of the porcupine ; Bamorara, they of the wild vine — adds by way of illustra- tion : '* The Bakuena call the crocodile their father ; they celebrate it in their festivals, they swear by it, and make an incision resembling the mouth of this animal in the ears of their cattle, by which they distinguish them from others. The head of the family, which ranks first in the tribe, receives the title of Great Man of the Crocodile. No one dares eat the flesh or clothe himself with the skin of the animal, the name of which he bears. If this animal is hurtful, as the lion for instance, it may not be killed with- out grreat apologies being made to it, and its pardon being asked. Purification is necessary after the commission of ' Livingstone, Missionary Trcn'elSy p. 13. II III 32 Presidential Address. such a sacrilege."' Additional particulars are given by Arbousset and Daumas. The Baperi are commonly called Banoku, they of the porcupine. " Their great oath is that of ka nokuy by the porcupine, because the majority of them singi to use the consecrated phrase, intimating that they feast, worship, or revere that animal. . . . When they see anyone maltreat that animal, they afflict them- selves, grieve, collect with religious care the quills, if it has been killed, spit upon them, and rub their eyebrows with them, saying, * They have slain our brother, our master, one of ours, him whom we sing.' They fear that they will die if they eat the flesh of one."' In this passage I daresay you will have noticed that not all the Baperi, but only the majority of them, are Banoku. This throws light on the loose phraseology of the mis- sionaries to whom we are indebted for our information. The last-quoted authors on a later page explicitly define their use of the word tribe to mean family ^ illustrating it by reference to these totemistic superstitions.* Accord- ingly, the Baperi did not all belong to the gens or clan, as we should say, of the porcupine ; it only predominated in their organisation and territory. I have not noticed in the authorities I have hitherto quoted any reference to mar- riage-prohibitions. Mr. Lionel Decle, however, in de- scribing the totemism of a more northerly people of the Bantu stock, the Waganda, says expressly that " no man can marry in his own clan." * Among all these peoples A the clan would appear to descend from father to son. The .». * Casalis, The Basutos (Eng. edit.), p. 211. I cannot at this moment refer ^ to the original French, but possibly we should read : ** Even if this animal is hurtful," &c. * Arbousset and Daumas, Narrative of an Exploratory Tour to the North- east of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hofe^ translated by Brown (Cape Town, , . ; 1846), p. 176. Other particulars follow, which I have not thought necessary to quote. * Thid.y p. 213. Cf. p. 169. * Decle, Three Years in Savage South Africa^ p. 443. t 1 rai thi L H- Presidential Address. less cultured Ovahererfi, as we have seen, trace descent of the eanda through the mother. It remains to be added that, so far as can be gathered from the very meagre reports we possess, the eanda is exogamic and bears the name of a totem, each eanda having " its peculiar rites and superstitions." ' In fact, the only branches of the Bantu race among which no certain traces of totemism and but few of mother- right are found, are the Amazulu and their allied tribes ; and they are precisely the most advanced of all the Bantu peoples. The Bechuana yield very substantial remnants of totemism, and side by side, though not organically con- nected, with them traces of mother-right. While in the less advanced branches of the race mother-right is still strong and unsubdued by the patriarchal economy, and it is organically connected with totemism. Thus the Bantu present a graduated series of social stages. On the lowest of them, though the totem-sacrifice has not been reported, totemism is yet flourishing, and patriarchal and pastoral institutions are struggling with it. On the highest it has disappeared with almost all its characteristic accompani- ments. There can therefore be little doubt that the Bantu race has emerged from a nomadic savagery organised on the basis of totemism and mother-right. The question is. How, if so, has ancestor-worship developed and supplanted totemism ? I answer that it is entirely dependent upon the growth the patriarchal system. The more highly the patriarchal system is organised — the more absolute becomes the power of the head of the nation, and under him of the subordinate chiefs and the heads of families — the more the original totemistic superstitions tend to disappear, until they are altogether lost and forgotten. The Bushmen appear to believe in the continued existence of the dead, though even ' Anderson, Laic NsaiHt, p. 221. Cf. South African Fotk^Lort Jaumul, vol. i., pp. 40, 4S, VOL. XU. D 34 Presidential Address. on the most liberal construction of the word worship they can hardly be said to worship them. This belief, arising in savagery, gains in strength with favouring circumstances. It does not literally involve the immortality of the soul, for the dead are gradually forgotten. Campbell, who early in the last century took pains to obtain from the memories of the people lists of chiefs of various Bechuana tribes, succeeded in one case only in getting the names of as many as ten deceased chiefs ; and these would probably not extend to more than five or six generations. ' It is a com- mon experience of enquirers that peoples in the lower culture when questioned on the fate of their forgotten dead, affirm that their existence has been finally terminated. But in fact very few trouble themselves about the fate of their forgotten dead ; and the vagfueness characteristic of their other opinions on the subject of the supernatural attaches to this also. The recently dead is alone remem- bered vividly and worshipped earnestly. " Black people," said one of Callaway's Zulu friends, " do not worship all Amatongo indifferently, that is, all the dead of their tribe. Speaking generally, the head of each house is worshipped by the children of that house ; for they do not know the ancients who are dead, nor their laud-giving names, nor [any of] their names. But their father whom they knew is the head by whom they begin and end in their prayer, .... So it is then, although they worship the many Amatongo of their tribe, [thus] making a great fence around them- [selves] for their protection ; yet their father is far before all others when they worship the Amatongo." *^ Behind their father stand the figures of a few others whom they remember ; behind them, all is chaos. They would not think of \yorshipping a father in his lifetime. Then they * Campbell, Trccveh in Sottth AfricOy 3rd edit., 18 1 5, p. 206. Ibid., Secoftd Journey y 1822, vol. i., pp. 179, 242. ^ Callaway, op. cit.^ p. 144. The words in brackets are my interpretation, not Bishop Callaway's. Presidential Address. 35 Fcan hear him, see him, they know his ways, they can I tske his commands from his own tips, and whether he be ■ pleased or displeased the mood is manifested directly. But when death has conferred mystery upon him, the ^rence for a father rises into worship. The chief of a tribe is but a father on a larger scale. He gives his name to the tribe, and the tribesmen are in a sense his children. Hence, when a chief takes-on the mystery of death, the Iwhole tribe which has lately quailed before his rage or I rejoiced in his pleasure and his might, believing that his f anger and his power are not less than before but all the greater, because manifested by methods terrifying in that they come not under observation and their results — drought, sickness, defeat in battle, and the like — are only to be inter- _ preted by the witch-doctor, render to him the heightened \ service of worship. He becomes part of the tribal religion, I for the moment, perhaps, the most prominent part, until I another dead chief, or some more striking personage, real I or imaginary, supplants him, Patriarchy, or government by the father or the eldest I male of the family, is not identical with father-right, or the Precognition of blood on the father's side only. But the two I'institutions tend to coincide. Patriarchal government I loosens the ties of mother-right, and eventually succeeds in ■ effacing them. It does not always succeed in substituting father-right, though the paternal blood always becomes the more potent bond. This process, as I pointed out last year, tends to collect the kin and consolidate it with the local group. When we have a totemic clan thus consolidated with the local group and under patriarchal rule, we have the conditions for the evolution of totemism into ancestor- l worship. It only remains to ask by what avenue the I passage from one to the other may be accomplished. A belief in transformation and impermanence of form is one of the elements of totemism ; and it is found in strong force among the Bantu. They commonly hold that men — 36 Presidential Address. some men at all events — can change their shapes at will. It is their universal belief that the dead come back in brute- form, and in that form their departed friends receive reverence and offerings. The head of the clan bears the clan name in an emphatic shape. The Bataung, as you will remember, are the Lion- clan. Accordingly their chief is the Lion-man (Motaung, he of the lion).^ He represents, as it were, the lion. The Bakwena are the Crocodile-clan. Their chief is the Great Man of the Crocodile. We are expressly told that the crocodile is called by the Bakwena ''one of them, their master, their Father ; " ' and that the Baperi speak of the porcupine in similar terms. The same is doubtless true of the totem-animal of the Bataung and other tribes. This is precisely the way in which the chief would be regarded. He too is " one of them, their master, their father." After death the chief appears in the form of some powerful animal. For example, among the Barotse he takes the form of a hippopotamus. ^ I have not indeed met with the state- ment that a chief comes back in the form of the totem-animal. Perhaps the dissolution of Bantu society and religion has now proceeded too far for us to recover any such belief, if it ever existed. It was the belief of some at all events of the North American tribes that a clansman after death assumed the form of the totem-animal. ^ And although we may not be able to put our fingers on any similar evidence in respect to the Bantu, I venture to suggest that this was the link, now snapped asunder, between totemism and ancestor-worship in South Africa. Once totemism began to fall into the background, the posthumous assumption of totem-form would tend to be confined first of all to the chief. » Arbousset, p. 213. The Lion-dan existed as a political unit in the time of Arbousset and Daumas, though it had disappeared by Livingstone's day. * Arbousset, loc. di. » Dede, Tlurm Ymn m Stamgt Afritm^ ^ 74. « FiaMT, T^inmirmt p. 56^ dting seveial anthonties. Presidential Address. 37 I In other words, he who was in his lifetime emphatically the Lion-man, the Crocodile-man, the Porcupine-man, the Elephant-man, the Hippopotamus-man, would longest pre- serve the totem-form after death, especially in the cases where the totem was a beast to be dreaded for its size, physical powers, and propensities to mischief. Ultimately this appropriation would be dropped, and a dead man, be he chief or another, would reappear in any suitable form as 1 conceived by the survivors. This of course is a mere hypothesis. But it has seemed I worth while, in view of recent discussions, to try to show \ how totemism might conceivably, by the change from I mother-right to father-right, or at least to patriarchy, and the consequent identification of the local organisation with the clan, pass into something like a tribal cult, and ultimately into ancestor-worship. I took up so much of your time last year in discussing questions relating to totemism that I did not intend to bore you with the subject to-night, i hope you will not think that it is like King Charles's head, and cannot be kept out of my lucubrations. In any case I offer the most humble apologies. Happily, ' by the constitutional practice of the Society, you will not run the risk of being troubled with it again. I owe you these apologies all the more because I do not pretend to have solved any of the problems 1 have touched. That is a task far beyond what I set myself to do, probably far beyond our present knowledge, and in any case demanding the collation of evidence from all parts of the world. What I have tried to do is to suggest some ways in which the folklore of South Africa may contribute to their solution. Most of my illustrations have been taken , from tribes in British territory. The vast extent of our ; African possessions embraces peoples in almost every ■ stage of culture. On that continent alone, the opening of the twentieth century thus finds us in a position which is unique in its opportunities for the advancement of anthro- 38 Presidential Address. pological science. As you will have read in the Council's Annual Report, the Anthropological Institute and the Folk- Lore Society have joined to urge upon the Government the importance of seizing those opportunities in the countries we have lately added to the empire. We must not think that already we know enough about the coloured peoples of South Africa, On the contrary, our information is of a very fragmentary and often uncertain character. The great blanks must be filled ; it must be systematised and rendered intelligible. For such purposes a careful and com- prehensive enquiry is needed. The first consideration we have put forward in the memorial we have presented to the Colonial Secretary is the proper government and well-being of the native tribes beneath our swav. This is the prime consideration to a statesman ; and we believe that by no means as effectual as the methodical study of the people and their customs and beliefs can their proper government be secured. No ruler who does not understand his subjects can govern them for the best advantage, either theirs or his. Surely the time has come to abandon our old igno- rant, unsympathetic, though often well-meaning, fashion of muddling along. It has led in the past to innumerable difficulties, to endless waste of blood and treasure. With the new century let us turn over a new leaf in the history of our dealings with savage and half-civilised nations, and write on an unstained page our resolution to seek a more excellent way. But we have ventured to urge another consideration — the interests of anthropological science, interests only to be subordinated to those of actual government. For when in all directions the speculative science of to-day becomes the practical and applied science of to-morrow, who shall venture to deny such a possibility to anthropology ? I read in the newspapers that the German government, clearer'in perception and more prompt in execution than ours, spent in the year 1898 upon anthropological explorations no less Presidential Address. 39 I a sum than £25,000. The Bureau of Ethnology at Washington costs 40,000 dollars a year ; and that is by no means all that the government of the United States is spending upon the anthropology of a single race. The government of India, under the guidance of Mr. H. H. Risley, and thanks to the statesmanlike grasp and energy of Lord Curzon, is taking measures for an Ethnographical Survey of that teeming empire. Among our self-ruling colonies. Cape Colony and Queensland have been foremost in recognising the political necessity of an accurate register of the customs and institutions, ay, the prejudices and superstitions, of the coloured peoples beneath their sway. And there are signs that the latter and more than one of her sister-states of the Australian Commonwealth are prepared to go further, and to assist in gathering such information for purely scientific purposes. The mother- country in her turn will surr-lyshowajust appreciation of the duties of a civilised nation. We are helping vigorously to macadamise the world for the benefit of modern commerce. The material prosperity of ourselves and others — perad- venture, higher benefits loo — will follow in the wake of the steam-roller. It will certainly destroy much that can never be replaced, much thai is picturesque, much that is capable, rightly construed, of yielding instruction as to the past of humanity. In the "dark backward and abysm of time " before the dawn of history, the destiny of the nations was being shaped by forces which it is the endeavour of anthropology to understand and account for. The deter- mination and the measurement of those forces can hardly fail to bring forth practical results. However this may be, I am greatly mistaken unless the intelligent curiosity of mankind will, as the ages roll onward, be more and more drawn to questions concerning it so vitally as the story of its own early struggles with nature and its first futile guesses at the unsearchable riddle of things. To have missed an opportunity like the present of accumulating a 40 Presidential A ddress. large body of evidence within and beyond (for if the movement be once started I trust it will not stop within the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony) our new posses- sions, will then be seen to have incurred a responsibility and a reproach which we are seeking to spare our country and our government. Considerations like these, moreover, touch in appropriate degree everyone of us. The unparalleled changes wrought by the nineteenth century have swept away for ever much that remained to us of the ideas and the practices of our remote forefathers. Whatever the twentieth century may do over the rest of the world, it will in Britain at least complete the work of the nineteenth. The muse of folk- lore is inexorable as the sibyl. Of no other science are the materials disappearing so rapidly. That for which we will not pay the price to-day will become fuel for the devouring fire of civilisation, and to-morrow we shall repent in vain our refusal or neglect. Of the two tasks before us at the opening of the twentieth century, there can be no question that the work of collection is the more pressing. For the framing of hypotheses we can wait the leisure of a later day. We cannot wait for the observation of phenomena which are rapidly passing out of existence. A single new fact carefully observed and rigorously reported is just now more than ever worth a hundred of the most brilliant hypotheses. In this Society we rightly insist upon the study of the phenomena. But I hope we shall yet more strenuously urge the prior duty of ascertaining and record- ing them, whether in this country or elsewhere, and the paramount necessity of literal exactness in so doing. Thus the Folk-Lore Society will fulfil the purpose of its being with more abundant success, and establish a lasting claim upon the gratitude of all serious students of the origin and growth of human institutions and culture. Prmdemi 1900. OLD IRISH TABUS, OR GEASA. {Read at Meeting of 2%th November, igoo.) ' Though a great deal of attention has been given during the last few years to the study of " tabus," and to the elucidation of their bearing upon primitive ideas of morality and religion, and though nearly every nation has been laid under con- tribution in furnishing examples of this curious survival of primitive custom, the literature of Ireland and the pagan ideas belonging to our own Gaelic stock have, so far as I am aware, not yet been even cursorily examined with a view to finding out what were the ideas of the ancient inhabitants of our own islands on this question. In the very able books put forth by Mr. J. G. Frazer, Mr. Frank Jevons, and Mr. Andrew Lang, the entire world is ransacked for data; but I do not think that the tabus of Scotland, Wales, or Ireland are so much as mentioned. Yet we cannot take up any ancient Irish romance without being immediately con- fronted by tabus of the most pronounced kind. Their influence pervades almost every piece of ancient Gaelic imaginative literature; their mysterious power encircles the life of every notable Gaelic hero. There is, perhaps, no ancient literature in which they play so conspicuous a part. Tribal, ancestral, or personal tabus (called in Irish litera- ture geasa) hem in the actions of all the chief personages of Irish romance. They are imposed sometimes at or even before birth, sometimes at critical moments in the career; in either case the breaking of them portends death or disaster to the individual. In some instances every act from the moment of birth to death is determined by these solemn harbingers of destiny; whether the individual is or is not conscious of them, he cannot escape from their doom. 42 Old Irish Tabtis^ or Geasa. Wc must not disregard the evidence as to the existence of a complicated system of tabus in the social and political order of things in ancient Ireland, merely on the ground that our knowledge of it is derived largely from romance literature. The old romance of Ireland undoubtedly pre- serves for us traditions of a time anterior to the introduc- tion of Christianity into these islands, and one of its chief claims to the attention of students is derived from the fact that it enshrines for us many of the pagan beliefs, modes of life, and customs of the early Gael. In these romances we can study from within what Roman conquerors and Christian missionaries could only study from without ; and, moreover, could only study with minds strongly imbued with the superiority of their own system of life, and incapable of comprehending, even had they wished to do so, the ideas and customs of the ''barbarians'' whom they came to conquer for Caesar or for Christ. If we would correct or amplify our superficial and often misleading ideas drawn from Latin sources, as to the religious belief and social life of the Celt, it is largely to Irish literature that we must turn. Elsewhere the pri- mitive lore of the Western Celt, expressed in legend and story, has to a large extent died out under the influx of foreign ideas enforced by conquest and by the introduction of a more solid written literature. But in Ireland we possess a great body of material that has come down to us from a pre-Christian condition of life, and that places us in relation to a system of things dating back to a remote pagan antiquity. Roman civilisation, which eventually transformed the social and political standpoint of Gaul and Britain, made itself felt only in a minor degree in Ireland. As an educational and religious force it exercised a con- siderable influence ; as a political and social force its influence was almost nil. Ireland retained her original tribal laws and regulations, and her ancient system of rule mid !•».* ^^ver die larger portion of the country Old Irish Tabus, or Gcasa. 43 right up to the period of the Tudors ; she retains even to this day many of her primitive modes of thought. I do not contend that Irish pagan romance has, in all Cases, come down to us unchanged by later influences. Not only have the inevitable variations due to verbal repeti- tion continued over a long space of time to be taken into account, we have also to allow for alterations and omissions purposely made by the scribes and compilers, who were in the majority of cases Christian bishops, saints, or lay- brothers, working within the walls and for the honour of their various monasteries, It is, however, much to the credit of these clerical compilers that, except in a few cases in which doctrines directly antagonistic to Christianity were conveyed by the text, these changes are so slight that they can in most cases be detected by a comparison with other versions of the same story. On the whole, we cannot too highly praise the enlightenment of monks who apparently bestowed the same care upon the collection and transcrip- tion of the tales and legends of their pagan forefathers as they did upon the religious dissertations, homilies, and lives of saints, which make up the larger part of the remaining tracts belonging to the oldest stratum of Irish literature. Now, as we should naturally expect, it is in the more archaic romances that the greatest stress is laid upon geasa. Again, comparing together the two chief cycles into which the heroic romance of Ireland falls, the Cuchulainn or Conchobhar cycle, and the Finn or Ossianic cycle, we find that it is in the former cycle that geasa or tabus play the more prominent part. This is not to prejudge the question as to the comparative age of the two sagas, which does not concern us here ; it merely serves to emphasise the conclu- sion that we should have drawn from other indications, that we possess the tales of the Cuchulainn saga, as a whole, more nearly in their original form than the tales of the 'inn saga. The Cuchulainn stories as they have come [down to us bear, with a few exceptions, the impress of hav- 44 Old Irish Tabus^ or Geasa. ing been formed in one single stratum of social life, whereas the Finn cycle comes to us diversified by the variations impressed upon it by the handling of different epochs with different ways of thought. In the " Story of Diarmuid and Grainne," the longest and most impressive of the Ossianic tales^ tabus are frequent, and of terrible import ; and this story is, as we should expect, probably one of ^he most ancient of the cycle. Elsewhere they play a much less im- portant part than in the Cuchulainn tales, in which the principal actors are caught round and controlled from birth to death in a web of minute observances, the omission or commission of which presaged loss of honour or life, either to themselves or to those whom they were bound to pro- tect. They are usually spoken of as " solemn druidical prohibitions " or " fearful perilous bonds " which no true hero can avoid. From a literary point of view, the unconscious infringe- ment of geasa is the motif of some of the very finest scenes in the heroic romances. For instance, in the Ossianic story of " The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne," to which we have alluded^ the climax of the tragedy turns upon an unwitting transgression of geasa. The death of Diarmuid is caused by his destruction of the wild boar of Ben Gulban, in which was the soul of his own foster- brother, unjustly slain by Diarmuid's father. Now a pro- hibition had been laid upon Diarmuid by one of the gods, Angus of the Brugh, his special protector, that he was never to hunt a boar ; but this tabu, laid upon him in infancy, is unknown to him. Finn, his jealous rival and sworn foe, is, however, well aware of it, but he conceals the matter until, by cunning wiles, he has persuaded Diarmuid to join in the hunt of Ben Gulban. It is then too late. " By my word, " quoth Diarmuid, ** it is to slay me that thou hast made this hunt, O Finn ; and if it be here that I am fated to die, I have no power to shun it, ^' and he rushes forward to kill the boar whose fate is so inextricably bound up with his Old Irish Tabus, or Geasa. 45 ^^^in th own, that the death of the one means also the death of the other. As the boar falls beneath the sword of Diarmuid, the pains of death overtake the hero and he expires at his side. The sense of fatality expressed in Diarmuid's speech is an undertone running through the whole of Irish romantic literature, and it remains strongly impressed upon the Irish peasant of to-day. " It was to happen ; " " what is to happen, must happen, " is his belief to-day. " It is profitless to fly from death ; " " there are three periods of time that cannot be avoided : the hour of death, the hour of birth, and the hour of conception," sang his forebears a thousand years ago. This sense of an irresistible necessity determining the periods of life and death, combined with the finality involved in the destruction (conscious or unconscious) of the tabus whose observance have hedged life round with safety, imparts to the tales so strong a feeling of overmastering fate that, were we to find geasa playing an important part only in romantic literature, we might be templed to think that they were introduced solely with a dramatic purpose. But this is not so. Geasa seem to have controlled the lives, not of imaginary personages only, but of actual chiefs and rulers of Ireland, and this for a long period of time, stretching down from the unchronicled years of barbarism into a late historical period. There is in existence a valuable tract called the Leabhar nag-ceart, or " Book of Rights,"' which contains an account of the rents and tributes payable to the kings of the pro- vinces of Ireland. This tract, though doubtless added to and altered as necessity arose, probably dates back in its original form to the days of St. Patrick. It claims to have been part of a notable book called the Saltair Ckaisil, said to have been drawn up in its original form by St. Benan, the friend and companion of St. Patrick and his successor in the primacy of Armagh. Now to this important work is elixed a shorter tract which forms a sort of introduction ' Edited tor the Celtic Society by John O'Donovan, 1847. 46 Old Irish Tabus^ or Geasa. to the other, called Oeasa agus Buadha Riogh ^ireann, or the *' Restrictions and Prerogatives of the Kings of fore," in which those things that are forbidden to the kings of the several provinces, because the doing of them would bring ill luck — their "prohibitions," as O' Donovan translates the word Urghartha — are laid down with great precision. This most curious collection of kingly tabus is ascribed to Cuan O'Lochain, chief poet of Malachi II., monarch of Ireland ; and regent (after the death of the king in 1022) for twenty years, during part of that troublous period that intervened between the downfall of the Danish power and the Anglo-Norman invasion. The larger number of these tabus are not only quite inexplicable to ourselves, but their meaning appears to have been doubtful even at the time they were written down, though they were probably observed none the less scrupulously for that. They evidently reach back into far anterior times. Dr. O' Donovan, the editor, remarks in his preface lo the tract that the reference to the King of Leinster " drinking by th^ light of wax candles in the palace of Dinn Riogh," shows that this prohibition dates from a remote period in the history of this province, Dinn Riogh having been deserted by the kings of Leinster for Nas (Naas) long before the introduction ot Christianity. Again, the prohibition to the monarch of Ireland "that the sun should not rise upon him on his bed at Tara " clearly refers to the period when Tara was still a royal residence, which it ceased to be about the year 565 A.D. Yet though the meaning of many of the tabus had probably been lost, the importance of observing them does not seem to have dimi- nished. Their observance will, it is promised, make the earth fruitful and bring victory in battle, will guard against treachery and the pollution of the high attributes of the king. The poet ends with the solemn injunction : " It is certain to the kings of £ire that if they avoid their geasa (restrictions) and obtain their buadha (prerogatives), they shall meet no mischance or misfortune ; no epidemic or Old Irish Tabus, or Geasa. 47 mortality shall occur in their reigns, and they shall not ex- P perience the decay of age for the space of ninety years. I The poet or the learned historian who does not know the \adha ("prerogatives) and urghartha (prohibitions) of these , kings, is not entitled to visitation {Le. free hospitality) orto (the) sale (of his own compositions)." These tabus seem to have been hereditary, and binding on all kings. A large number are evidently precautionary, as is indeed implied in the words " if he observe them, it will guard against treachery in battle and the pollution of his high attributes." They refer, for the most part, to the danger of doing certain things on certain days or in certain seasons of the year; such as the caution to the King of Eire not to alight on Wednesday in Magh Breagh {Bregia, co. Meath) ; to traverse Magh Cuitlinn after sunset ; to go on Tuesday against North Teffia (co. Longford) ; to go in a ship on the water the Monday after Beltaine (Mayday) ; to leave the 1, track of his army upon Ath Maighne (co, Westmeath) the I Tuesday after Samhain (Hallow-e'en) : this latter being no [doubt a reference to the lateness of the season for warfare. The Irish, like all superstitious people, had a great belief Kin lucky and unlucky days, The origin of this special form [of superstition may have come in many instances from the ^experience that certain fortunate or unfortunate events had P occurred on such days, whence arose the belief that all . actions performed on the same day would turn out in the same manner. In the Battle of Magh Lena, an early semi- historical epic,' we read of a regular horoscope being drawn ■ before a certain king of Munster, Eoghan taidhleach, the I- Glorious, marched to battle with all good omens. "For lit is certain," says the writer, " that the calculations of the ftmoon and of nature said that it was a lucky conjuncture ' Tht Battle of Magh Ltna, edited for the Celtic Sodely by Eugene VO'Ciuiy, 1855. In Mtita Ulad we find Cudmlainn sending out his eer lo " observe ihc stars of the air, and ascertain when midnighl " but this does not presuppose much acquaintnnoe with asttononiy. 48 Old Irish Tabus^ or Geasa. with a seventh, and that it was counted a foot in advance towards an eighth, and that it was a strong fifteenth to- wards happiness and strength for him, to have decided on gaining power over his foes at that particular time." In the old medical treatises, the cross or. unlucky days of the year are all set down in order, but many of these may be of late origin. The use made by Christianity of these super- stitions is seen in a marginal note to one such book bear- ing date 1733.^ "The prohibited Mondays of the year. The first Monday in April, on which day Cain was born and his brother slain. The second Monday in August, on which day Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. The thirteenth (the third Monday of?) December, on which day Judas was born that betrayed Christ." The addition of biblical events to the days of pagan observance was part of the regular system pursued and openly acknowledged by the early Christian teachers. We have seen in the tale of Diarmuid and Grainne that at Brugh on the Boyne the foster-brother of Diarmuid was transformed into a wild boar by the power of Angus. Though the subject of such transformations does not lie directly in our course, it bears so closely upon it that I may, perhaps, be allowed to say a few words regarding the Irish belief about it. In Irish legend it is usually, if not quite always, the higher order of beings, the Tuatha D6 Danann, who are capable of undergoing transformation into birds or beasts. The daughters of Lir are turned into swans ; when Fand comes to beckon Cuchulainn into Magh Mell, the Plain of Honey, the Paradise of Irish paganism, she and her companion appear to him swimming on the lake in the same disguise ; so do Dervorgilla and her maiden in that tale which is so close a parallel to the classical stories of Perseus and Andromeda and of Iphigenia in Aulis. Again, in the tale of the Origin of Cuchulainn, his mother disappears with fifty of her maidens for three years. They ' Hodges and Smith Collection, Royal Irish Academy, No. 65. Old Irish Tabus, or Geasa. 49 reappear as a flock of beautiful birds who attract the Fattention or the Uitonians by devastating the country and eating up every blade of grass, until they induce the warriors to come out in strength to hunt them, when they fly before them to the mysterious country in which Ciichulainn had birth. The birds, as in Northern legend, are usually yoked together with golden or silver chains; when they are wounded they resume their natural shape. In the stories of LCtual re -incarnation the agency of certain animalculae is lesorted to, We must guard against the notion that the transforma- ■tion into bird or beast necessarily implies to the primitive 1 a descent Jn the scale of being. There exists for him Brno such line of demarcation as we are accustomed to draw ■ between the larger animal-world and mankind; he does I'Bot doubt their power of intercommunication, nor does he doubt the reasoning faculty of the beast, or its close interest in human affairs. Remembering this, the ancient tales of interchange of being between man or god and the lower animals lose half the horror with which we are inclined to regard them : they regain the poetic beauty with which the savage mind invested them. They are no longer associated I exclusively with the idea of human degradation ; rather nthey are the expression of a simple and beautiful belief Kthat the whole creation is linked in brotherhood and Vgentle fellowship. In Ireland this view of their relation- ■ship is emphasised by the fact that it is rather divine ['than human beings who can accomplish the transforma- There is one example of what appears to be a true tote- I mistic idea in these stories, though, so far as I am aware, such examples are rare. It is in Cuchulainn's prohibition to eat the flesh of a hound because it was his namesake. You will remember that he gained his name of Ciichulainn, i.e. the " Hound of Culann," because he had slain, while yet a child of eight years, the monstrous watch-dog belonging to the 5© Old Irish Tabus, or Geasa. smith, which barred his way. He is frequently called simply Cu or the Hound, and in the poems detailing his (eats he is renowned as the Hound of Combat. When he is going forth to bis last fight, three crones, daughters of the mist, sitting by the wayside, urge him to partake of their pro- vender. Now one of the things that Cuchulainn was bound not to do was to go to a cooking- hearth and consume food. Another thing that he must not do was to eat his namesake's flesh. Now the crones, bent on his destruction, were cooking a hound with poisons and spells on spits of the rowan-tree. He speeds on and is about to pass them, when they upbraid him thus ; " It is because the food is only a hound," quoth they; " were this a great cooking-hearth thou wouldst come more readily. But because what is here is little thou condescendest not. Unseemly is it for the great to despise the small." Touched in his tenderest point, an appeal to his chivalry, Cuchulainn takes a shoulder-blade and eats of it out of his left hand, putting it under his left thigh. The hand that held it and the thigh under which be put it were stricken from trunk to end, so that they had no strength in them for his last fight. Of that earliest form of belief in which inanimate nature as well as animate shares in sympathetic fellowship the joys and sorrows of man, we also 6nd traces in the more archaic pieces of the ancient literature, though the Irish theory as regards inanimate nature had, as a rule, reached an advanced stage before we meet with it; and we find the underworld conceived of as mapped out and inhabited by mythical beings, just as the upper world was peopled by man- kind. When, after the mythical fight of Tailltc, the Tuatha gods entered the underground, each took possession of his or her own particular domain beneath the hills and vales of £ire; and there from particular centres, generally places where tumuli existed, such as New Grange and Knowth on the Boyne, they ruled and marshalled their invisible hosts. MS Old Irish Tabus, or Geasa. 51 much as the chieftains of the upper world ruled iheirs.^ We can localise a large number of these Sidh or fairy dwellings in various parts of Ireland. Later, the belief seems to have widened until every hillock was conceived of as peopled with fairy people, the modern representatives of the ancient and powerful race of gods.' But beyond and behind this conception we seem to catch traces of a yet more primitive idea, in which is realised a belief in a consciousness in inanimate nature itself, in the cognisance of nature and its sympathy in the affairs of man. For instance, there is a fine poetic passage in the Second Battle of Moytura, a very archaic piece, which describes the mythical battle of the Tuatha De Danann and the Fomorians, in which it is said that afterthebattle'The Morrigan, daughter of Ernmas (the Irish war-goddess), proceeded to proclaim the battle and the mighty victory that had been won to the royal heights of Ireland and to its fairy host and its chief rivers and river mouths."^ Here she addresses nature directly, as being interested in the doings of mankind. Of a similar sort is the belief in talking swords, in the harp which sounded forth melodiesattheDagda'scallandwhichmovedfrom the wall to greet him, or in the moaning and roaring of the shield of King Conchobhar when its master was in danger. As it cried, all the shields of the warriors of Ulster cried out likewise, and the weapons hung in the hall of Emain Macha fell from their racks. Moreover, the three sympathetic waves of Erin, surging up upon the extreme points of the coast, moaned in unison, as was their custom in times of dire distress, " As for the King" (we read in the Battle of Rosnaree) "a hun- dred advanced to the place where he was, and they battered ' See the lale entitleJ Ckafhur in Ha mutnda, Ici.sche TexlB, 311; Serie. Heft I., pp. 230-378. ' See for example Asallamh na Stnifrar^ or T&e Colloquy ef the Ancienis, Silva Gadclica, edlled hy S. H. O'Grady, vnl. i., pp. 94-*33- ' The SieendBaitli of Maf;h Tnirtadk, editcti by Dr. Whiiley Stokes, Ra>. Cttl. vol. iz. 52 .Old Irish Tabus ^ or Geasa. his shield with murder-strokes until the shield, the Ochain, cried and roared at the greatness of the need wherein he lay. And all the shields of the men of Ulster fell from their shoulders and from their grasp and from the racks in which they were placed, at the cry of the Ochain at that hour. Then the three blue-flooded surging waves of fiire thundered mightily in lament for the unequal fight sustained by Conchobhar, to wit, the rushing ruddy wave of Rury, and the freight-bearing stormy wave of Cleena, and the swollen flood of the wave of Tuadh Inbhir." ^ The moaning of these three sympathetic waves is a very poetic survival of those earlier days when man and nature were but one ; a beautiful conception which the Christian creed, the growth of an interest in man apart from the rest of the universe, the scientific and rationalising spirit, and above all the removal of the majority of mankind from those habits of pastoral and agricultural life which fostered an intimate association with nature, have done much to dispel. It is the effort of the most far-seeing of our nature-poets some- what to revive it. Turning now to the tabus or geasa of the Conchobhar and Cuchulainn cycle of tales, you will excuse me if, in order to make my meaning clear, I remind you that in general terms, many of the tabus of savage races are founded upon the idea that certain men, usually kings, have a special spiritual influence upon their fellow-men, and that the well-being of these persons is essential to the well- being of the entire tribe. It becomes, in consequence, a matter of the first importance that a life so precious to the tribe should be guarded and preserved. Any defect or illness of the king, who, in some early states of society, is regarded as a divine being, is believed to entail similar suffering on his people. So much is this the case that any serious defect is still, in some countries, sufficient to * Cath Ruis na Rig Jor BSinn, edited by Rev. E. Hogan, S.J., Todd Lecture Series, vol. iv. 53 I incapacitate a king from retaining his sovereignty. The king or chief has, in fact, a double existence, a personal and a vicarious one; but his personal life has to give way, as it were, before his more important function of represen- tative of his people. To ensure their well-being, his per- r sonal life is submitted to control, even at times to the ex- I tent of entire loss of liberty or volition. In order to pre- serve him in perfect health and safety, his existence is compassed about with a number of minute observances, so much so, indeed, that in some cases he is reduced to a con- dition of perpetual confinement, or of imbecility. The life of the king or divine-man may thus become an existence of vicarious suffering for the good of his tribe. The regulations and observances which are more or less binding on every member of the society, fall with exceptional severity on the chief, so that, as has been said of a chieftain of one African tribe, " when he ascends the throne, he is lost in an ocean of rites and tabus." ' I will not trouble you with examples, which are probably more familiar to those present than they are to myself. An immense number of instances are collected in that book of great research and extraordinary interest, Mr. Frazer's Golden Bough. Now we find in Irish literature that the chief heroes of I the Ultonian or Ulster cycle (the cycle which comprehends the deeds of Cuchulainn and his compeers) are, from birth to death, encircled by similar tabus, and that these tabus or geasa, while they affect more or less all the heroes, accumu- late, as it were, upon the head of the two central figures, ■ King Conchobhar and Cuchulainn. There is in the Book ' of Leinster, in the tract describing the glories and wisdom I of Conchobhar's reign, a very remarkable passage, which Jseems to bring these kingly tabus into line with those of lother races. The passage runs thus: " Sooth to say, very * great was the reverence that Ulster yielded to Conchobhar ' Dapper, Dacriptiim di CAfrigtUy p. 336, quoted Fraier, Golden Bough, itt ed., vol. i., p. 116. 54 Old Irish TabuSj or Geasa. ; upon earth was not a human creature wiser than he. [Yet] never did he pass judgment, for to do so was not permitted to him ; which was to ensure that never should he utter a false judgment, and so his fruit should not be any the worse. On the earth, moreover, was not a hero of might greater than his ; yet never was he suffered to encounter danger ; [this was done] for the preservation of the king's son. In battles and contests heroes and paladins of war and mighty men were ever in front of him, that he should not be imperilled." ^ This passage, if we could find nothing elsewhere to explain it, would be mysterious in the extreme. We have a king whose wisdom, in the opinion of his subjects, surpassed that of every human creature, yet who was never permitted to make a decision lest he should fail when put to the test ; * and it is, in fact, always Sencha, Morann, or some other adjudicator who decides a dispute in the tales ; never the king, in spite of his supposed wisdom. In the discussion about the bringing up of Cuchulainn the king alone gives no opinion and makes no claim. The matter is decided by others. Again, we have a king who is counted the bravest upon earth, yet who was never permitted to enter battle or encounter danger, and though the tales give instances in which the king does take part in conflicts of importance, ^ we shall see that this was not frequently the case. Clearly his wisdom and courage were both supposititious, having never been tested by experience ; and we have the curious spectacle of this all-wise and valiant chief reduced by the unwritten decree of his people to a condition of inactivity, perhaps of imbecility. The reason given for this condition of things is equally curious. It is not for the preservation of the king's own person and reputation, but for a vicarious ' Book of Leinster^ fac. pp. lo6a, 33- 107b,' i6. - As in the Battle of Rosnaree and the Siefje of Howth, in both of which ihc king took part. Old Irish Tabus^ or Geasu. 55 'purpose, namely, "the preservation of the king's son." and that "his fruit should not be the worse." It is difiicult at first sight to see how the king's son could be imperiUed by any danger undergone by his father, still more by any false judgment that he might utter. It seems only possible to explain it by comparison with such similar ideas as we find holding good among other primitive peoples, in which the ruler suffers vicariously for his tribe. The condition of inactivity in which the king usually remained is accounted for by a curious incident, in which it is stated that Cet, one of the chiefs of Connaught, the hereditary foes of Ulster, had in a moment of jealousy and revenge struck the king in the head with a ball compounded out of the brains of Mesgegra, the slain king of Leinster. It would seem to have been the custom of the warriors to harden the brains of their slain foes into balls, which were laid up in one of the kingly houses as trophies of valour. This ball, which had lodged in the king's head, had never been extracted, because Fingen, the royal leech, had assured the king that to take it out of his head would cause immediate death, whereas if it remained he could, if he exercised great caution, still live for many years. It was carefully impressed upon him that he must never under any circumstances whatever allow himself to be " aroused to anger or to passion, or to ride on horseback or to run." ' " The blemish," said his people, " is a small thing for us compared with his death." So his head was healed, and stitched with a thread of gold, because the king had golden hair. " So long as he lived, namely, for seven years, he continued in that precarious condition ; he was incapable of action and i could only remain sitting still." It was on the occasion on which he received the tidings of the death of Christ at Ihe hands of the Jews that, being aroused from his lethargy tnto sudden and furious energy by his desire to revenge ' L L., fol. 79. n 56 Old Irish Tabus ^ or Geasa. this monstrous act, the ball fell out of his head and he died. The mention of riding on horseback, as well as the Christian denouement of this story, show that it belongs, in part at all events, to a later age ; it was probably an attempt to give what appeared a rational explanation of the ces noiden Ulad which, in all the oldest tales, is the explanation offered for the inactivity of the king at critical moments. It is of this belief that we have now to speak. The ces noiden Ulad was an extraordinary weakness or prostration which at certain times, and especially at critical moments for the province, overtook not only the king, but all the grown warriors of Ulster. The only exemptions were women, children, and Cuchulainn, who is said, according to this account, not to have been born in the province. In times of great emergency the whole of Ulster's fighting men are represented as being incapable of motion or activity of any kind. No appeal or necessity could arouse them from their stupor. This "curse," as it is forcibly called, was sup- posed to be a punishment upon the king for an act of extreme brutality and heartlessness committed upon one of the ancient goddesses of Eire, who in mortal form had married a liegeman of the province. In the Great Defeat of the Plain of Murthemne, the final rout in which Cuchu- lainn fell, the monarch was unable to lift hand or foot to help him. He and all the male population of Ulster were lying in their several palaces " in the Pains," and none could go to his aid. The theme of the great epic of the Tdin b6 Cuailgne, the Iliad of ancient Ireland, turns upon the same incapacity of the warriors to do an)rthing to save their province from invasion at the moment of its greatest peril from the allied forces of the South and West. Alone and unaided we find Cuchulainn month after month sustaining single-handed the unequal conflict, holding at bay by the valour of his single arm the deadly foes of Ulster. There is a fine passage in the beginning of the Tdin, in which Meave, the Amazonian Old Irish labus, or Geasa. Queen of Coonaught, leader of the allied hosts, goes to consult a woman seer on the fortunes of the war, on the eve before the setting forth of the troops. One by one she re- counts the chiefs and leaders of the Ulster host, whom her heralds have reported to be lying helpless and prostrate each within the security of his own fortress. At each warning utteredby the prophetess, who foretells the rout and final over- throw of Meave's great host ("I see red on thy hosts, I see crimson,") the Queen's anger breaks forth anew, and she cries triumphantly,"Nought is there that we need fear from Ulster." For the whole of the winter months, from November to February, in Irish reckoning from the Monday before Sam- hain (Hallowe'en) to the Wednesday after Imbolc (February ist), the weary conflict goes on, Cuchulainn holding back and destroying the hosts of Meave, until, overcome by weariness, he feels his strength departing. At this moment his mortal father, Sualtach, takes it upon himself to arouse Ulster. On Cuchulainn's grey horse he pushes his way right up to the gates of Emain Macha, the palace built on the very spot on which, according to the legend, the curse had fallen, and named after the goddess who had called it down. A silence as of death reigns over the dwelling of the king. '" In Ulster, men are slain, women carried captive, cattle driven off : ' " Sualtach cries ; yet from Ulster he has no answer. Close to Emania's rampart he pressed, again repeating his warning: " Men are being slain, women carried captive, kine driven ; " but a second time no answer came. Then he penetrated even to the Stone of Hostages and again gave forth his cry. "Who are taken, and who are they that take?" asked the Druid Cathbad. " Ailell and Meave are they that have harried and banished you," said Sualtach; "your women, your little boys, and your cattle, and your horses they have carried away ; in the valleys and passes of Conaille-Muirthcmne, Cuchulainn, alone and unaided, delays and impedes the four great 58 Old Irish Tabus^ or Geasa. • provinces of fiire, all which unto the world's utmost end never can be requited." " Death and destruction fall upon him who presumes to challenge the king/' quoth Cathbad. But Conchobhar said: "The word is true that Sualtach says." '* Ay, true indeed," all Ulster as one man made answer. Then Conchobhar awoke from his lassitude, and he sent a messenger of his household to number and call to arms the warriors of Ulster ; but through the con- fusion of mind caused by his recent trance and pains as of child-birth, the king enumerated to him their dead as well as their living.' It would appear that the length of the warrior's trance depended upon the condition of the king ; for when the messenger goes forth with the royal command, all Ulster springs, as one man, to arms. From a mythological point of view this long trance, ex- tending from October to February (i>. throughout the winter season), would seem to suggest the decay and sleep of nature during these months; while the solitary conflict of Cuchulainn with the forces of Meave, the forces of death and darkness, may symbolise the solitary efforts of the sun to break through its chains. If we regard Cuchulainn as the Irish Sun-hero, such a conception would be in all respects a natural one. Probably, however, there is some physical origin also for the occurrence. Old romance writers sought to explain the curious phenomenon of the prostration of an entire province at moments of urgent need for activity by such fine imaginative conceptions as the Tale of Macha ; modern theorists have ascribed it to a custom similar to that known as the couvade.^ There is, however, no instance on record, so far as I am aware, of the couvade being extended to a whole tribe or nation ; nor is there any sign in Irish literature of the prostration of the Ultonians having originated in the same cause. It has * Pennant mentions an instance of the couvade in his Tour in Scotland, vol. ii. . p. 91 quoted, by Wm. Mackenzie in his Gaelic IncantcUions^ Charms y and Blessings of the Hebrides. Old Irish Tabus^ or Geasa. 59 nothing whatever to do with the concerns of a particular family; it concerned the whole grown male population, save, by special exemption, Ciichulainn; and it lasted, according to the tale of The Debility of the Ultonians for five days, but actually (at least at the period of the Tdin B6 Cuailgne) for about four months, during which time Cuchulainn sustained the combat single-handed. There is in Jevons's Introduction to the History of Religion a passage that seems to throw a possible light on this singular matter. In speaking of Taboos of Time, he gives the following examples of inactivity of a somewhat similar sort to that which afflicted Ulster. "On the day of a chief's death, " he says, quoting from Ellis's Tshi-speaking Peoples, " work of all kinds is tabooed ; everything done on that day is defiled. The Tshi-speaking Negroes celebrate an annual feast for the dead, generally lasting for eight days, and the whole eight days are termed ' eight seats, ' because it is a period of rest during which no work may be per- formed. " Again he says, quoting from Gage's New Survey of the West Indies : " In the New World, the funeral ceremonies lasted five days, and in all that time no fire was permitted to be kindled in the city, except in the kingfs house and temples; nor yet was any corn ground nor market kept, nor durst any go out of his house. " So on the Gold Coast, ''on a day sacred and set apart for the offering of sacrifice to a local god, the inhabitants abstain from all work, smear their bodies with white clay, and wear white clothes in sign of mourning .... On the Slave Coast every tribal and local god has, with the exception of Mawn, his holy day." ^ It is apparently, then, a common practice among certain tribes or nations to keep special periods of time with rigid abstinence from work or activity of any kind. These periods of repose are attributable to one of two causes : the ' F. B. Jevons, Introd, to the History of Religion^ pp. 65, 66. 6o Old Irish Tabus^ or Geasa. sacrifice to a deity or the funeral solemnities of a defunct chief. Now in Ireland, funeral ceremonies were most care- fully observed, generally for several days at a time. As in Greece, most of the great fairs or feasts of Eire, in- cluding not only exchange of produce but games and races, as well as the promulgation of the laws, were commemo- rative of the death of some notable person, and took place in connection with the burial-mound. They were attended by all married men, and were days of general holiday and festivity. It is at least a curious coincidence that in the tale of Macha the debility of the Ultonians should be associated with one of these great assemblies or fairs, at which time the " curse " was said to have originated. The period of five days and nights there assigned as the dura- tion of the ces noiden Ulad also curiously coincides with the term of days over which the rites mentioned by Gage extended. It was probably the real length of the Ultonian abstention from work and warfare, but exaggerated in the Tdin for mythologfical reasons, or the more to cover Cuchulainn with glory. If in the northern province, there were in fact such regularly recurring periods of enforced inactivity, they would naturally become known throughout fiire, and the enemies of Ulster would be likely to choose these moments as especially propitious for warfare, knowing that the Ulster warriors were unable to break through their geasa and enter the field against them. Macha, it is true, foretold that the ** curse " would fall, not at regular intervals, but when special danger threatened the province ; but it is equally simple to read the prophecy the other way, and to suppose that the enemies of Ulster waited until the moment of the ces noiden Ulad to begin their raids and cattle-lifting on the borders. Some such cause of the mysterious inactivity of the Ultonians seems at least to supply a more adequate explana- tion than by ascribing it to the couvade, in which only one special family could have been involved, and which Old Irish Tabus, or Geasa. 6i L therefore in no way accounts for the prostration of the entire male population of the province. As is but natural, the tabus of the Cuchulainn cycle accumulate around the head of the two chief semi-divine personages, Cuchulainn and Conchobhar. Conall, Fergus, Cormac conhinges (Conchobhar's son), and other chiefs are all more or less affected by them, but not to the same de- gree. A good number of thes^ geasa may be ascribed to precaution, another series to early ideas of morality, and a large number to primitive notions of honour. They formed, indeed, a traditional code of chivalrous practice. Some, like those in the Book of Rights were evidently hereditary, others were laid upon the infant before or after birth, others were inspired by motives of revenge or the desire to injure their object. They were generally, especially the birth- tabus, prescribed by Druids ; but anyone seems to have had the power to inflict them, and they appear to have been equally binding, however imposed. They often resulted in serious evil, as the prohibition of Fergus to refuse a feast, which led to the tragical death of the Sons of Usnach, or the strict geasa left by Cuchulain n with Aife for the guidance of their son Conla, which resulted in the death of the youth at the hand of his own father. A tabu of special interest is the Polluted Stream tabu, common among many nations ; o( which an example will be found in the Tdin B6 Cuailgne, where Loch mdr refuses to do combat with Cuchulainn at the ford at which his brother had fallen, because it had been polluted by his death. A curious tabu which appears in the Finn saga and which appears explicable by a comparison with the ideas of other nations, is that of Diarmuid O'Duibhne's prohibition to pass through a wicket-gate. When a difficulty arises as to a means of exit, he deliberately leaps over the obstacle rather than break his geasa. At first sight this seems a purely inconsequent prohibition, without purpose or meaning, yet similar objections to passing through or under obstacles are 62 Old Irish Tabus^ or Geasa. entertained among some nations at the present day. The head being regarded among primitive peoples as peculiarly sacred, as the seat of a spirit very sensitive to injury or disrespect, the danger anticipated is that any drop of water, blood, or other matter falling on it from above should pollute it. Mr. Frazer gives a great number of curious examples illustrating the wide prevalence of the idea. The following is almost an exact parallel to the Irish case. He says : " Gattanewa, a Marquesan chief, and all his fariiily, scorned to pass a gateway that is ever closed, or a house with a door ; all must be as open and free as their unrestrained manners. Often I have seen him walk the whole length of our barriers in preference to passing be- tween our watercasks, and at the risk of his life scramble over loose stones of a wall rather than go through a gate- way.*' ^ A similar idea may very possibly have prevailed in Ireland. The geasa of Cuchulainn form the substance of a special tract. Very great importance is attached to them, and thev exceed in strictness and multiplicity those of any other hero of the cycle. In the tract which forms the beginning of a piece entitled, " The Violent Deaths of Goll and Garb," a list of them is given.' It commences thus : " The tabus and many burdens which lay on Cuchulainn, on the famous stripling of the Red Branch, on the son of Conchobhar's sister, on the bright-mantled one of Line, on the guardian of the Kine of Magh Breagh. These were his tabus : to name himself to a single warrior ; to swerve a foot from his path before single combat ; to refuse single combat ; to enter an assembly without leave ; to go with a single warrior to an assembly.'* These were evidently honour-tabus. Others have a moral purpose, and one seems to refer to his excessive activity as the sun-hero. * D. VoxiQXy Journal of a Cruise made in the Pacific Ocean^ ii., 65, quoted Frazer, Golden Bough, 1st ed., i., 190. ' T^. L. fac. p. 107, b. 22-3a " A tabu of his was that the sun should rise upon him in Emain-Macha ; it was he, on the contrary, who should rise before it." More curious are the tabus of Cortnac conloinges, Conchobhar's son, which are fully set forth in the tale of the " Destruction of the Bruidhen da Choga," at which place, one of ancient Ireland's most famous houses of hospitality, he met his death through the breaking of his geasa. They were laid upon him at birth by Cathbad the Druid. "Many and great tabus," says the romance, " stood against Cormac, It was tabu to him to be borne by horses yoked with an ashen yoke; it was tabu to him to swim at one time with the birds of Loch Lo ; to have a stag with golden horns in front of his hounds ; to have contact with the dewy moisture of Cluain-Finnabhrach. To go astray in passing out of one province into another was forbidden to him, and it was forbidden to him to listen to Craiphtine's harp. It was tabu to him to pass dry-foot over the Shannon, to be by women accompanied over old Athmore, and for his hounds to pursue the swift hare of Magh- Sainbh. These were Cormac's tabus, which on the night when he was born were laid on him by Cathbad the Magician." In the tale we find that he was obliged to break his geasa, and his death was the result. P'or instance, he had been a former lover of the wife of Craiphtine, the most noted harpist in Eire, and on the night of the attack on Cormac, Craiphtine, in a fit of jealousy, standing outside where Cormac was unaware of his presence, played an air so sweet and enervating that the youth, overcome by its melody, fell an easy prey to his enemies. Curious and fan- tastic as some of these tabus appear, and utterly inexplicable to us, they are not more curious than many of the semi- historic prohibitions of the Book of Rigkls. They at all events show that such ideas were familiar in Ireland. In the same manner the death of Cuchulainn is over- poweringly certified to him when one after another his 64 Old Irish Tabus f or Geasa. geasa are broken. His approaching end is surroanded bjr omens. When he rises to go forth to the battle of Muirthemne in which he feO, " his mantle's border chanced under his feet, so that he unwittingly was put sitting. He from that misadventure upspringing rose again, red for shame, and the golden pin in his mantle flew upwards, then downwards falling, pierced his foot through to the earth. ' True,' said Cdchulainn, ' the cloak-pin is a foe, the cloak a friend, it warns me.' " When he leaps into his chariot his weapons fall down beneath his feet ; his horse, the Grey of Macha, refuses to come at his call ; the M6rrigan, the God- dess of War and Conflict, breaks his chariot-wheels : all this to him a " mighty foreshadowing of evil." The " Washer of the Ford " who foretells the death of heroes, is seen by Cuchulainn washing his bloody gear. When his mother, Dechtire^ meets him to offer him a cup, the drinking of which iiad ever presaged victory, it is thrice filled with blood. He answers : " Lady, as regards thyself, there is no fault ; it is that my geasa are destroyed, and my life's end is near ; from the men of £ire I shall not return alive to-day." ^ There is no doubt that all the chief personages of this cycle were regarded as the direct descendants, or it would be more correct to say, as avatars or re-incamations of the early gods. Not only are their pedigrees traced up to the Tuatha D6 Danann, but there are indications in the birth-stories of nearly all the principal personages that they are looked upon simply as divine beings reborn on the human plane of life. These indications are mysterious, and most of the tales which deal with them show signs of having been altered, perhaps intentionally, by the Christian transcribers. The doctrine of re-birth was naturally not one acceptable to them. In such stories as that which de- tails the marvellous transformations of the two Sidh swine- » Brisleck nUr Maige Murthemne, or Great Defeat of Murthemne's Plain, MS. 17 12, Brit. Mus., Egerlon 132, fol. i. Old Irish Tabus, or Geasa. 65 herds who eventually became the two terrible bulls who play their part in the Tain Bo Cuailgne ; or of the goddess Etain, who becomes the mortal wife of a king of Ireland (stories which were probably less familiar, and therefore less liable to undergo change), the re-birth doctrine is distinctly laid down ; and it corresponds with the indications in the other tales. Conchobhar, moreover, is spoken of as a terrestrial god; and Dechtire, his sister, and the mother of Ciichulainn, is called 2 goddess. ' In the case of Ctichulainn himself, it is distinctly noted that he is the avatar of Lugh lamhfada (long-hand), the sun-deity of the earliest cycle. Lugh appears to Dechtire, the mother of Ciichulainn, and tells her that he himself is her little child, i.e. that the child is a re-incarnalion of himself; and Ciichulainn, when inquired of as to his birth, points proudly to his descent from Lugh. When, loo, it is proposed to find a wife for the hero, the leason assigned is, that they "knew that his re-birth would be of himself." Before leaving the subject, it maybe interesting to point out, that among the Welsh Mabinogion, it is only in those in which, by the test of language. Professor Rhys discovers a Goidelic or Gaelic influence, that we find geasa playing a part. Out of the twelve tales translated by Lady Charlotte "luest and included by her under the general title of Mabinogion, there are five of Gaelic or Irish origin, viz. KilhwchandOhven, or the Hunting of TwrchTrwyth; PywII, Prince of Dyved; Branwen, Daughter of Llyr; Manawyddan son of Llyr; and Math, son of Mathonwy. These tales stand quite apart from the others, and have peculiarities of their own. They deal with the adventures of the various children of Don, the Irish Tuatha De Danann, and in them I geasa play an important part. To place a person under V geasa is in Welsh called "swearing him a swear" {tyngu \ tynghed), but it is more usually translated " to swear him a I destiny." Professor Rhys has pointed out in the volume b ' dia lalmaidc, >ee L. U. lOlb ; Ciiihulainn mi dta dechliri, L. L. tajb. ^^^H xii> whi I Goi ' Kil 66 Old Irish Tabus^ or Geasa. of th6 International Folklore Congress, 1891 (pp. 149-152), that Lady Charlotte has not always done this phrase justice in her translation. ^ One of her notes to Manawyddan ab Llyr, taken from a Triad relating the adventures of this prince, alludes to the same matter. ** Three makers of Golden Shoes, of the Isle of Britain, Caswallawn son of Beli : ; Manawyddan, son of Llyr Llediath, when he went as far as Dyved laying restrictions, &c.'* It is in these tales that we find the greatest number of resemblances to Irish romance ; and whether they date from a period before the " Gael of the East of the Sea " {i.e. Cornwall and South Wales) parted from the " Gael of the West,*' or whether they belong to the period of the later immigrations from Ireland, it is interesting to find the same features predominating, features distinct in character from those found in the purely Welsh or Brythonic stories of North Wales. I I am indebted to the author for these references. See Professor Rhys' Notes on the Hunting of Twrch Trwyth^ Trans, CymmrodorUm Soc.^ 1S94-5, pp. 1-37. The Goidels in Wales ^ Archaologia Cambrensis for 1895, PP- '^-39, and Goidelic Words in Brythonic^ ibid,^ pp. 264-302. COLLECTANEA. A Buddhist Wheel of Life from Japan. The picture of which the frontispiece is a reduced reproduction, was given to me by my friend Professor Anesaki of Tokio, at present resident in Kiel. In the description of it which appeared in Man (January, igoi), was included a translation, by the late Mr. T. Watters, of the Chinese text at the foot of the picture. It will not be necessary therefore to do more here than supply a key to the picture, and call attention to the points interesting to folk- . lorists. Commencing with the nave, we find Buddha seated in the ^ centre (the white circle showing perhaps that he is supposed to be outside the wheel ; on the other hand it may be that the corporeal Buddha is regarded as a part of the illusion of this worid, and "therefore placed within the wheel); in the yellow circle are a dove, a serpent, and a pig, emblematic of evil cravings, malice, and stupidity. In the body of the wheel, which is conceived as continually revolving, are five " Resorts," or " Ways of Life " — Hell at the bottom, in a very simplified form, however, and hardly suggestive of the Inferno of Dante, or likely ' to have given him ideas for it ; at the top is Yama, god of the dead, and on either side of him good and bad angels ; below are the various punishments— on the right the hot hell, in the centre a person having his (or perhaps her) tongue torn out, a requital reserved for slanderers ; on the extreme left we have perhaps the cold hell, and above it a person is held by the hair by a demon before a mirror to see his or her sins in it ; the actual occurrence in the mirror seems to be a murder, committed by hurling the victim over a precipice. In the next Resort we have the tantalised ghosts. The details are here unfortunately not sufficiently clear in the original to make a good picture. The tantalised ghosts are here represented as emaciated human beings, who, when they endeavour to eat and drink, find that everything which they touch turns to fire. They are elsewhere repreiienled with large stomachs, mouths the .size of 68 Collectanea. a pinhole, throats the size of a hair ; this detail in the picture is Japanese. The other three Ways of Life explain themselves ; it may, how- ever, be noted that in the " Resort of Man " there are four continents. Of these the Eastern one is that of " Men," i.e. the Chinese in this case, who apparently, like so many other peoples, apply this term to themselves par excellence. In the north we should find the country of horses, but what is actually represented is a man engaged in binding sheaves. It is not clear how this feature comes into the picture. The Gilyaks who live north of the Amur get their com by exchange from the Chinese; it is true they formerly cultivated millet, and the picture may refer to this ; for though drawn by a native of Japan it is clearly almost entirely under the influence of Chinese ideas. The original name — country of horses — seems equally to demand explanation; the term can hardly refer to the present neighbours of the Chinese. It would be interesting to learn how far back the name can be traced and how far there is a historical basis for it. The same remark applies to the country on the west — the country of oxen ; it is difficult to see how this can refer to any period except one antecedent to the introduction of the ox in North China, where it is employed in ploughing ; and even then it is not clear to what neighbours it refers ; the nomadic hordes of Central Asia would surely be too far away. On the rim are buckets containing human beings, some dis- appearing head downwards typifying death, ue. passing out of one form of existence, and others emerging head upwards, typifying birth, i,e, entering upon a new form of existence; the buckets are naturally at the end of the spokes which divide the ** Ways of Life." The whole is held in the grasp of the great Demon of Impermanency, who is, unlike many of the figures, of a thoroughly Japanese type. It is interesting to note that he has points of connection with the mediaeval Devil. The white circle of Nirvana is at the top of the picture. The small figures round the wheel are typical of the twelve Niddncu^ or Causes of Existence. There are eighteen pictures, five going to the twelfth Niddna and three to the eleventh. The series commences with (i) the demon in the centre (typifying ignorance), then follow (2) a wheel (elemental matter), (3) a monkey (consciousness), (4) a man crossing a stream (perhaps the rise of self-consciousness), Stray Notes on "Japanese Folklore. 69 ■ (5) a naked man (the senses), (6) a man and woman in contact, r (7) figures typifying pain and pleasure, (8) a wfoman with children (affection), (9) a man drawing water, (10) the God Brahma (existence), (11) three st^es of life, and finally (12) scenes typifying pain and sorrow. The meaning is very often doubtful, and I there/ore pass over some of the scenes without suggesting what they typify. As I have elsewhere pointed out, we see in the three-headed figure representing BrahmS a small head above the other three ; this is usually a feature of the images of Avalokita, who was in later limes depicted with several heads ; in view of the capricious nature, however, of Japanese art in these respects it is a question what is really intended. The first scene of the twelfth Nidana represents a funeral ; on the bier supported by the bearers is a Swastika, for which we have in English no popular name like the German " Hakenkreuz." There does not seem to be any significance attached in the Far East to the direction of the bent arms of this emblem, which as here depicted is left-handed. I am not quite sure what meaning we should attach to it here. In China it is the custom to have it on the grave-clothes, prepared many years before the person L expects to die, when its influence is supposed to conduce to ^longevity. This can hardly be the case here unless it is the living I who are to reap the benefit of it. On the other hand there is no l:ieason to regard it as merely decorative in its object. The picture was the work of the grandfather of Professor I Anesaki ; it is dated 1850. There is another picture of the same I sort in existence in Japan, dated a few years earlier. It seems L very probable that both go back to a Chinese original of great age, [ but of this I have so far no proof- The details of three of the ■Kesorts are distinctly old Chinese. I hope at a future period to e able to give the whole history of the picture. N. W. Thomas. Strav Notes on Japankse Folkloek. The following notes of Japanese superstitions were communi- I cated to me at various times in the course of conversation on 1 European folklore, by Professor Anesaki of Tokio. 70 Collectanea. If a man feeds a thousand white hares in his house, one of his daughters will, marry an emperor. [From Heike-monogaiuri^ a thirteenth-century poem.] At the Oharai or great purification, (end of July and February), an idol was formerly thrown into the river as a scapegoat. Formerly a man whose house took fire was taboo. During drought, torchlight possessions are sometimes made to a shrine on the top of a mountain. The idol is sometimes bound with cords until rain comes (but ct/oum. Anth, Inst.^ xxvi., 30). Domestic pigeons are not eaten ; they are fed in the temples. The pigeon is the sacred bird of the Minamoto clan, at the crises of whose history a white pigeon appears ; there are many white pigeons in the temple of the clan-god Hatchiman. Sailors feed black cats, which can foretell change of weather. Three-coloured cats (termed mikt) are more powerful in magic than others. Swallows in cages are bought merely to set them free. They are also released during funeral rites. Pigeons are set free at the launch of a ship.^ " This custom being more unusual than the others noted, and in itself of some interest, I add the following parallels : (a) The Valav^ of Madagascar have each their special Fady\ in some cases this includes all animals which have hair or feathers ; in other cases only indi- vidual species. They say that the souls of their forefathers have entered these animals, and when they are kept in captivity, buy them and set them at liberty ; if they are dead, they bury them {Globus, xliv., 284). (b) On August 1st (New Year's Day), the Armenians set free pigeons and losects (Erman, Arckiv., xv., 144). (c) At Champ d'ioux (Nivemais), the lord of the manor had to release a wren annually (Holland, ii.; 297). (d) At Paris, swallows are purchased and set at liberty (Holland, ii., 321. Cf. R^' ^^ Trad, Pop.y iv., 229 ; Globus, xlviii., 186). (b) On March 22nd, cakes in the form of larks are made in the Ukraine and thrown into the air ; this probably points to a similar custom (Reinsberg- Dttringsfeld, Ethnogr. Curiositaten, i., 128). It seems clear that these cases, in their present form, cannot be referred to a single origin. In the case of the Festival Customs it seems possible that we may regard the bird as a scapegoat (cf. Volkskunde, vi., 155). The Battas of Sumatra set free a swallow as a means of getting rid of a curse. {Allg. Missions Zeitschr,, xii., p. 478.) The Japanese custom is commonly, but perhaps on insufficient grounds, attributed to a Buddhist origin ; the Madagascar custom seems clearly totemistic ; the Ukraine custom may be no more than a celebra- tion of the return of spring- Folklore Notes from South-west Wilts. 71 In pictures, the quail seems to be associated in some way with millet Carp are eaten for luck. On May 5th a carp cut out in paper or cloth is hung on a pole. Professor Anesaki sends me a picture of this, of which he says : " This is a picture of popular May-festival in Japan. The 5th of May is celebrated to felicitate the future career of boys. Carp, sweet-flag (in this picture), oak-leaves, are all the symbols of victory or power. This day was originally the festival celebrating the subjugation of the devils of pestilence, the reminiscence of which remains in the use of sweet-flag leaves and flowers, because this grass is believed to have medical powers. The festival is called * Gogatz-no-sek ' (May-festival) or * Ayame-no-sek ' (Sweet- flag festival)." The intestines of executed criminals were formerly eaten ; this was believed to give strength. A person's nails were also boiled in water, which was then dnmk by any one who wished to acquire his qualities. Chips from a gravestone, (especially of a man who has been executed or died a violent death), bring luck in speculation. A tooth falling out portends the death of a relative. To find the body of a drowned person, a piece of paper with a magic formula is thrown into the water and stops over the spot where the body is. The southern (?) Chinese bury one boot in the coffin and keep the other in the house ; the dead will then visit the house. N. W. Thomas. Folklore Notes from South-west Wilts The district from which these notes have been collected is in South-west Wilts, in a valley running north and south between the downs and ending at Warminster. Most of them come from Hill Deverill and Longbridge Deverill, two adjoining parishes about halfway down the valley. Dorset and Somerset are but a few miles off; the country is hilly ; the villages are self-contained, and the population is not scattered. Longbridge DeveriU is at the junc- 72 Collectanea. tion of two main routes, the Warminster and Shaftesbury road, and the road from Heytesbury to Bruton and Wincanton; but Hill till 1854 had only field roads and footpaths. The Manor Farm at Hill Deverill, often mentioned below, has buildings going back to about 1500; it is built on the edge of a marsh made by the river Deverill, and stands by itself in a lonely and dreary situation. The materials have been collected by me during the last twelve years, mostly from old agricultural labourers and their wives, some of whom are still living; and the information has come practically first-hand, both from the labouring class and from other natives of these parishes, except where I have noted otherwise. It will be convenient to follow the classification of Mr. Gomme in his Handbook to Folk-Lore (1890). I have been scrupulously exact to preserve as far as possible the precise words and form of sentence in which the narrations were given, and not to add or edit where there were any gaps ; but for purposes of convenience I have not generally attempted to keep the dialectical forms of words. The date of receiving the narration is given in every case. I Superstitious Belief, Trees. — If a branch was blown down off certain old ash trees at the Manor Farm, this portended the death of one of the family living there. (1889.) GoBLiNDOM. — Ghosts. — ^The great-grandfather of my informant was driving his master to Hindon one night, and '* sum'at clung on to the carriage behind. ' Drive, Jim, as hard as you can,' he said, and sum'at came out, and they never seed the going on't ; and the horses ran with sweat when they got into Hindon." ''A Deverill man was courting at Hindon, and he walked home down Lord's Hill, and he seed sum'at, and he said, ' If thou be the devil, appear bodily;' and he seed sum'at as had eyes as big as a tea-saucer ; he didn't know how he got home, and the sweat poured down him like rain, and every single hair of his head did stand on end ; and he never seed the going on't." (1889.) On " Midsummer night " my informant went, as a boy, about 1833, to the churchyard at Hill, " to see them come out and in;" he wanted to see the ghost of his " butty " (his companion in Folklore Notes from South-west Wilts. fieldwork). Men without beads have been seeu in the church, and a little child, and " a turr'ble sight o' galleysome (fearsome) things." (1894.) There is a coach with a headless coachman on Lord's Hill. A woman in white rustled past John B on the Manor House A tall lady in silk rustled past my informant, "just at the turn into the turnpike road, when I was carrying some tracen (traces)." (1894.) Round the last of the family of Coker, who owned the Manor, , have gathered the following stories. (He died in 1736.) " Old Coker " is seen silting, or heard riding (see below) j he has been seen sitting " on the dreshol (threshold) of the bam, so that they had to go in another way." (1894.) Two children "came out and danced before" a woman working at the Manor Farm. A former tenant-farmer (Mr. C ) has been seen sitting on a stile in the Bradley Road (1889); and (1897) in Brixton Deverill a dwelling-house is haunted; "Old Coker did come again " before it was altered. But besides these, there is invisible agency. An unseen hand pelts with stones Joe G as he works at the Farm. Something "galleys" (frightens) the horses ploughing. Invisible hands place a jug of drink, while men are threshing in the bam. Pots will not stay on the fire at a farmhouse at Kingston Deverill, but jump off; and apples on the floor overhead dance about. (1895.) Where the under-carter slept, at the Manor Farm, something would "come and pull the clothes off hJm " (1894) ; " two may- dens " would do this (1899). "I'll throw my shoe at 'ee," said he; and at Tytherington something would come at night in a certain house, and lay the " hangles " (pot-hooks) on a la^e hearth-stone. ( i S99,) And (1890) one of the farm lads opened the barn early in the morning, and heard the cake-cutter going of itself. Laying Spirits. — There was a spirit in a house at Heytesbury, and the "parsons" were summoned to "conjure" it (accent on the d), but they all "gied out" and were "mastered," except Parson Smith. A spirit should be accosted thus, solemnly ; " In the name of the Lord, why troubles! ihou here ? " Spirits cannot address you, you must speak to them first. (18S9.) 74 Collectanea. The spirit of Lord appeared to his widow in a certain room ; she had wrapped herself in a lamb's skin. The "parsons went to c6njure it," but Parson S was the only one who suc- ceeded ; " the other parsons gied out, and if it had not been for Parson S they would have been torn in pieces." After con- versation, the spirit asked, ''What is the simplest thing in the world?" The Parson said, "A lamb." Then the ghost was laid. The Parson wanted to lay the ghost in the Red Sea, but the ghost begged not to be put there. Lady was dressed in a lamb's skin, because a spirit will tear ^ou in pieces if you do not answer its questions, but it will not hurt a lamb's skin. Others say (1893) that Lady went once a year, wearing a sheepskin inside out, to talk with her husband. On that night there was a fearful storm ; my informant's house was "unheled" (thatch blown off). (When there was a great tempest, people would say, "They're conjuring.") This laying can be dated. " It was nine days before I had my second son, and the night when a woman named C at Sutton had twins;" that is, somewhere about 1854. (1894.) Apparitions, — My informant's wife was ill of small-pox, and as he was passing by Longbridge Deverill churchyard, on his way to sleep at another house, he seemed to see a funeral, and as it were the corpse carried on men's shoulders. Soon his son came running after him to call him back, and told him his wife was dead. (1895.) The ''Spectral Hunt'' is attached to the name of "OldCoker," who drives his hounds round "Gun's Church," the name of a round barrow on a down at the south-east extremity of Hill parish, or through his "grounds" by the house, "horses galloping and chains ratding," and the horn sounding. (1889.) The devil appeared in the form of a hare at the hanging of two men on Warminster Down in 1813 ; it started out among the spectators, and no one dared stop it. (1889.) The devil appeared in the form of a dog one Palm Sunday when there was the annual gathering on Longbridge Deverill Cow- down ; some one said the devil was there in the shape of a dog. " Sum'at was there, anyhow," and they all ran away. " After that there were no more gatherings." (1898.) A certain farmer said he would revisit his farm on a lonely moor near and run about it in the shape of a rat. (1895.) He Folklore Notes from South-'west Wilts. 75 Bbad a reputation for wickedness, and it is a fact thai the dead of ) his family were buried not in the churchyard but in his fields ; he died about i860. Thus, in a thunderstorm, he would say of a peal of thunder, if his wife was frightened, " Thai's a good rush- bowl " (rushbowls are skittles). Witchcraft. — One old man of an older generation was spoken of as being able lo " rule the planets." (1896.) A certain thatcher, who came from Hampshire, is said to have bewitched cows. (1889,) Buried Treasure. — There is treasure buried in certain fields. The view given me is, that there were not the present facihties for keeping money, and therefore the owners were reduced to hide it ; and the appearances of persons are due to the owners of the buried money harbouring round the place and drawing atten- tion to it. Or in another form, Mr. C sees a light by a certain old tree in " conigre " (rabbit warren) on his farm. He asks the estate-steward for the tree, and when it is grubbed, a " bushel of guineas " is found. ?er plate is buried in a well in the field beyond Hill Church ; some call it the " church plate." (1894.) And somewhere there is a golden cofBn buried. A pot jumps about in a house ; they dig underneath and find |lnoney. (1893.) GENERAt Superstition.— Tht head. — If a child had two " crowns " on his head, that is, two places from which the hair radiates, it was a sign that he would "eat his bread in tnro nations." (1898.) Cock-erowing. — At night, cocks crow at the hour, and crow the humber of the hour. (1898.} il. Traditionai Customs. Fe-stivals. — On Palm Sunday there were gatherings on Long- bridge Deverill Cow-down to play "trap," going up by "Jacob's ladder." The young men, with the elders to watch them, would " beat the ball " up Cow-down and then play trap. And on Palm Sunday the women and children would go out inlo the fields "to tread the wheat" (1897.) 76 Collectanea. Crockerton Revel (1893). (I give the infonnation, but cannot verify the historical fact underlying it) Thomas ^ Becket " used to come to Crockerton Revel dressed like a gentleman, and he would depart through the wood dressed like a beggar, in rags, having spent all his money at the Revel." He is said to have consecrated Longbridge Deverill Church, which is the parish church ; and certainly the oldest stone work in it is of about his date. The Revel is on the first Sunday after the Translation of Thomas ^ Becket, the day of which is July 7 th. The following story is told me about Wishford, a village some twelve miles off, on the Great Western Railway line next to and north-west of Wilton. An oak-bough is cut annually on May 29th and hauled down into the village. It is then decked with ribbons and hung from the church tower, and the day is kept as a Revel. It gives the villagers the right of getting dead wood from Grovely Wood. (1896.) Oxen were said to kneel on the night of the Nativity. My informant when a boy would propose to go out to the farmyard opposite where he lived and see them. This belief is not much heard of now. (1898.) Children's Games. — Dred-the-wold-'ooman's needle. Turn the-barrel. Local Custom. — The church land at Lx)ngbridge Deverill is let " by the candle." I am not aware of the custom anywhere else in this immediate neighbourhood, but it exists at Alder- maston, near Newbury. III. Traditional Narratives, An old man would tell a story in the following way : " There were a time, 'tweren't in my time, neither in your time, nit (nor yet) in anybody else's time ; 'twere when magpies builded in old men's beards and turkey-cocks chewed bacca;^ all over hills, dales, mountains, and valleys, so far as I shall tell you to-night, or to-morrow night, or ever I shall tell you before I've done, if I can." (1895.) * Apparently something is lost here. Folklore Notes from South-west Wilts. Creation Mvth. — This small fragment can be illustrated from other parts of the world : " I've heard 'em say that Adam v made and then put up again' a wold (old) hurdle to dry." (1895.) Fragments of Ballad (?). — T/ie Comical Man. n had a river to cross, I 10 slay where he was." (1S95-) A fragment not identified (1895). " Jack-in-bog ■ ■ . ■ put meal for the horse and straw foi Ihe lion." Place Traditions. — It is not the function of folklore to chronicle the facts of history that are known independently, but rather the popular additions to these facts. For example, the names attached to fields by which the names of former occupiers are preserved need not be mentioned, except where a story has become attached. But I give some such traditions of history (1889). The story of King Alfred and the cakes is localised at Brixton Deveril!, in the grass ground south of the rectory. Alfred is called " him of Stourton." (At Kingsettle Hill, Stourton, some few miles off, is a tower built about 1722 as being the spot where he " erected his standard against Danish invaders.") The dim past is called the time " when there was a king in every county." In the Manor Farm Hill, "a romantic place "{1893), "traitors" were shut up (1889). Coker, the former owner (died 1736), is said to be " a robber, and many went into the house that never came out." There are blood-marks on one bedroom floor. " He was a robber, and used to go about at night with men and rob. He kept a cannon at the round window." The house was like "a den of thieves" (1894). Some connect it with smugglers (1894). The following traditions are preserved of the Civil Wars. The farmer's house at Hill Deverill that goes with the mill was a rendezvous or headquarters. Upon the shoulder of the hill south-east of the Manor Farm cannon were said to have been mounted, and to have battered down the " houses " which stood on the rising ground south of the church. It is interesting, how- 78 Collectanea. ever, to know that the " brows " and ridges in these fields, which this tradition calls the remains of houses, are really the site of a British village, of which traces may also be seen, though less conspicuously, in the rising ground behind the Manor House, and indeed all over the high ridge of Cold Kitphen and Bid- combe, to the western boundary of the parish (1889). A beam in the bam at Rye Hill Farm is called " Coker's bed- stead." The timber is said to have been brought from a bam that was pulled down at the Manor Farm (Coker's). The " Devil's parrock " (dialectical for paddock) is so called, because horses when ploughing there, or when going alone in the drove hard by, would be frightened by something and run away (1894). " Gun's Church," a round barrow on the eastern boundary, has been already mentioned as having the " Spectral Hunt " localised at it. At Longbridge Deverill people were afraid to go up the Church Lane in the dark, lest "woolpacks should roll down from the thicket " upon them ; and kegs of brandy are said to have rolled from it (1895). A fragment of wall abutting on the road from Warminster to Longbridge Deverill, north of the churchyard, is called "the Jew's wall." The story attached is that a Jew was murdered on Lord's Hill, and that they would not bury him in the churchyard, so he was buried outside, at this spot. Historically, this wall is the remains of the wall that ran round the yard of the Manor House, which was standing in 1660. The following is the origin of Cley Hill, near Warminster, a round isolated prominent hill with a small knob on it, and by its side a smaller hill joined to it ; so that it is said — « Big Cley Hill do wear a hat, Little Cley Hill do laugh at that." (Warminster, 1874.) The folk of Devizes had offended the devil, who swore he would serve them out. So he went " down the country " (i.e. into Somerset), and found a big " hump " and put it on his back, to carry it and fling it at them. On his journey back he met a man and asked him the way to Devizes. The man replied. That's just what I want to know myself. I started for Devizes Folklore Notes from South-west Wilts. 79 when my beard was black, and now it's grey, and I haven't got there yet. The devil replied, " If that's bow it is, I won't carry this thing no further, so here goes," and he flung the "girt (great) hump" ofThis shoulder, and there it is. (Watminsler, 1893.) Adjoining the mill at Boreham, one mile east of Warminster, is a meadow in which, local tradition says, hay will not be made without rain ; or when the grass is cut, rain will fall. The story is this : It had once been rainy for some time when the farmer wished to make his hay. A fine Sunday came, and he then hid his watch under one of the pooks (cocks). Then with his fork he turned over all the other pooks, and when people asked him why he was making hay on a Sunday, he explained that he had lost his watch under one of the pooks, and therefore was turning them over. So saying, he turned over the last pook which re- mained unturned, and there discovered the watch, and gained his real end.' (Bishopstrow, 1894), Foik-Sayiiigs, Rhymes. — The thumb and fingers. ■■ Tom Thumbkin Tom I6si«i Belly bOsten Long Iftsten Liitle pig a rOslcn (This comes from North Wilts, 1894.) A lullaby. " Hush-a-hye, hahby, The beggar shnn'l have'ee No more shall the maggotly-pye (magpie) ; The took nor the raven Shan'l car" thee to heaven (cany). So hush-a.bye, babby, hy-byc." (Hfard about 1870.) 8o Collectanea. Of the seasons. '* March will search April will try May will prove Whether you Uve or die." (1898.) Children's rhyme. '* Stare, stare, like a bear, And then you'll know me anywhere." (Homingsham, 1898.) Written in pencil, 1840, upon the whitewashed church porch. Hill. " When life is past and death is come, Happy is thic ' that well hath done." (1896.) Fragment for lying-in (?). . " Pins and needles, victuals and clouts." (1889.) A charm used when pulling out a tooth. Children look up the chimney and say. '* Burn, bum, blue tooth. Please God send me a new tooth." (1895.) And the tooth is thrown into the fire. A rhyme to make a " gramfer-grig " (that is a wood-louse) curl into a ball. " Gramfer-grig killed a pig. Hung 'en up in comer ; Gramfer cried and piggy died, And all the fiin was over. " ( i S94. } Another version of line 2. ** Covered him with clover." (1896.} A rhyme. '* There once was a man with a girt black beard ; He kissed all the maidens, and made them afeard. » 1 «( That man " Folklore Notes from South-west Wilts. 8r A rhyme of Shrovetide. " Dame, a yuur pan hpl ? L&rd Rnd corn is desi ; I've come a-shroving, 'Ti5 but once a year. So up to the flilch. And cut a girt sttlch ; If your hens don't lay, I'll steal your cock away Before nexl Shtove Tuesday." A rhyme for a child. " Draw a bucket of walei For my lady's daughter, MUk the cow Sar" the sow (serve), And turn (he ducks lo wafer." (1899.) Place-Rhymes and Savings.— Rhymes representing what the church bells of the neighbouring parishes " say." Sotton Veney bells (eight), " Poor old John Long is dead and goni:." Monk ton Deverill (two). Longbridge Deverill. " Up on cow.duH'n. cow-cla(s. and c Thy dog bit my dog and made him Horningshat " Fire-pan, poker, tongs." ; reputation of Maiden Bradley is glanced at in the lines " The Bradley man has gone to sleep, And 'tis a pily lo wake him." ; Great Bear is called in Longbridge Deverill, "Jack and his learn going to pit," that is, to the coal-pit to fetch coal. The explanation Is this : it was the custom for farmers, and still con- linues, to send a waggon at night lo the Radstock pits for coal, la distance of some fourteen miles. Now, roughly speaking, the ; Bear moves in the same direction as a waggon leaving the tnllage for the coal-piis would take. Thus children, going out at VOL- XII. G 82 Collectanea. night (say to some meeting) in the school-room, would say as they went, " There's Jack and his team going to pit," and in coming out, they would notice how far he had moved. (1893.) If anyone had not heard the cuckoo by Warminster Fair (April 23rd), people would say, " You must go to Warminster Fair and buy one." (1898.) Flowers,— K child told my informant (1898) that with "lords and ladies," they try, by seeing which break off, which will go to hell, and which to heaven ; " and even some of the little ladies go to hell." There is a great number of fanciful flower-names in this district which contain children's folk-stories condensed, and the Wiltshire Words (English Dialect Society, 1893) contains many from v^irious districts. From this district come " Granny jump out o' bed " (monkshood), "Sweethearts" (goose-grass), Granfer-griddle-goosey- gander (early purple orchis), a few miles off; Quiet Neighbours (red spur valerian) ; Hand of God (nipple-wort). Proverbs. — It is not easy to define a " proverb." Lowell, in the introduction to the Biglow Papers^ remarks that almost every country has some good die-sinker in phrase, whose mintage passes into the currency of the whole neighbourhood." The following are examples of pure mother-wit, and some are plainly original, though others are familiar : — " Children be first a yearm-ache (arm-ache), and a'ter^^-ards a heart ache." ** She was very onkind, but God is good and the world is wide." " We change, the seasons don't." *' 'Tis no good selling a breakfast and buying a dinner." *' You can't go through the world in glassen slippers." "Her'd lie abed till her wur vinny"^ (one old woman of another given to shamming). " A would skin a vlint vur a varden and spwile (spoil) a tenpenny nayl in doin' on't." " More store, more stink." " A lie's a lie, though the king tell it." " What's the good o' going to law when the court's in hell ? " " What be you a lookin' vor ? Lookin' for last year's snow ? " (said pettishly to an old woman poking about the house). " Ees, her wur a proper vool. Her wur missis of a public-house and left it for to be missis I (( Vinny " is used of blue-moulded cheese. L Folklore Notes from South-west Wilts. 83 of a teaty-pit " (potato-pit) (of an innkeeper's widow who married a labourer),' t" What sort of man is the new fatmer?" "Oh, lilce a crooked road, in and out." " Our Tom he's too wuld and loo stiff for a souldier ; perhaps they'd have en, if a were oiled and plyed," " My uncle worked seven years o' Sundays." The meaning is that he worked Iq\ forty-nine years; he was a shepherd, and therefore had to work on Sundays. If the number of Sundays he had worked during his life were added together, they would make seven years; multiply 52 Sundays by 49=™ 2,548; divide this by 365, and you get seven years. Similes from Animal Life. — " They ran like two young grey- hounds." " I can't get out of Dobbin's pace." " Need to have a head Hke a hawk." "As cunning as a young rook." "The poor baby's arm's no thicker than a lamb's tail a'ter It's been skinned." Various. — " What, be I to be shrowded like a wuld potly ? " (said by a man when told by the doctor that he would have to lose his arm, i.e. lopped like an old pollard). " These yere cats be passon and clerk " (one white, the other black). " I be just like a almanack, I can tell the changes coming" (said by a rheumatic woman). " Chatter-watter " is a good expression for " tea." Two good terms of abuse are " Thee girt maa-kin " (malkin, a long, thin haking-slick). " Thee little truckle-muxen " (little girl playing about in the mud). "Passon gied'em a physic- ball 'smaroin' in church." (All between 1888 and 1900,) This small collection from a small locality, though possessing little that is remarkable, still illustrates fairly well the outlines of folklore ; and it is probable that much more might be gathered in other places like these, particularly in the region of popular superstition, as well as fragments of history with local interpreta- tions and additions. John U. Powell, M.A. 84 Collectanea. Folktales from the iEcEAN. (Continued from voL xi., p. 456.) XV. The Accursed Schoolmaster. (Lesbos.) In a certain town there was a schoolmaster, who was one of the Accursed. Every day he used to eat a little girl. The king's daughter was one of his pupils. One day she came to school earlier than usual, and went up-stairs and saw him feasting on a girl. She ran down quickly and said nothing to anyone about it, but she said to herself, " I will go to-morrow and see if he does this every day." She went, and found him eating another little girl. On the third morning, as she was watching, he noticed her and caught her, and asked her if she had told anyone about it She swore she had not (if she had, he would have eaten her too) ; but he cut her with razors and tortured her to make her confess. When he had tortured her enough, he carried her away and put her on the roof of the palace of another king, and left her there. This king was young, and lived with his mother. In the night he was awakened by the cries of a child overhead : " O blessed Mary, O my mother, help me : what shall I do ? " He ran and called his mother, and she said, " Wait until dawn, and we will go and see what it is." In the morning they went up on the roof, and found the little girl thus vilely used and half dead of wounds and cold and hunger. They took every care of her, and in a month or two she was well. Then the king said to his mother, " I will take her to wife ; she came and fell on our roof and she is my Kismet (fate)." " Marry her if you will," said his mother, " but remember we do not know what race she comes of. She may be of the Jews, or the Turks, or the Gipsies." But the king persisted in his resolve ; and when the girl was old enough he married her. She became with child, and just before the time of her delivery the king had to go away to war. He begged his mother to take every care of his young wife, and she promised him that she would cherish her as she cherished himself. The ypung queen gave birth to a beautiful boy ; but in the night came the Accursed One and took away the child, and persuaded her that she had eaten it. In the morning, when her mother-in-law came to see the baby, it was gone ; and when she Folktales from the yEgean. 85 asked after it, the young mother said, " I have eaten it." When the king arrived his mother told him what had happened, and said she supposed his wife must belong to some tribe who were accustomed to eat their children. But although the king was very sorry, his love was still in its place, and he spoke no word of rebuke to his wife. Again the young queen found herself with child, and again the king had to go to war, and commended her to his mother. This time the child was a beautiful girl, and the queen begged them to give her a roast lamb and lots to eat. In the ^night, however, the Accursed schoolmaster came back and took the child, and again made her think she had eaten it ; and this was all the reply her mother-in-law could get in the morning when she asked what had become of it. The king, when he came back and heard of it, was very sorry, but still was steadfast in his love, and would not talk to his wife about it. Again the queen conceived, and again the king had to go to war a little while before the babe was born. It was a lovely boy, and that night the mother asked them to give her a live lamb to eat, and when she was alone, she swaddled the lamb in the baby's clothes, and locked the baby up. But the Accursed, when he came, discovered the deceit, and made her bring him the child ; and in the morning, when the queen-mother asked where it was, the answer was the same as before : " I ate it." This time the king, when his mother told him that his wife had eaten the third child too, was wroth, and threw his queen into a dungeon, and gave orders that she should be starved ; but from time to time her servants managed to bring her food, and so she kept her life in her. One day the schoolmaster appeared before her in the dungeon, leading three children (he had not eaten them, but taken' great care of them). " Here are your children," said he ; " but I will slay yourself and your husband." When the servants came to bring her food they recognised the children at once from their marks, and ran and told their master. When he came, the queen told him her whole story — how she was a king's daughter, and how the schoolmaster had ill-used her and cast her on the roof, and how he had come and stolen her children and persuaded her that she had eaten them, and of his threat to kill the king and her. " I will keep awake at night," said the king. 86 Collectanea. and never closed his eyes ; and when the wall opened and the Accursed One came into their chamber, he shot an arrow at him and killed him. XVI. Melidoni> (Lesbos : told by Mersini. Cf. for the incidents No. VI.) There was once a poor fisherman who had three daughters, and they were getting old enough to want husbands ; and, as is the wont of girls at that age, they were becoming very troublesome and quarrelsome. Their father was very poor; by his craft he made only just enough to keep his family alive. One day, when he was at the caf^, the cafezi asked him why he looked so sad. " I am thinking," said the fisherman, " how it will be possible to get a husband for my eldest daughter." Said the cafezi, " If you make yourself so miserable as that, you will have a fit of apoplexy, and your daughter will be worse off than ever. Go and pray to God, and make a cast with your net in the name of your daughter's luck." " Alas," said the fisherman, " what will a few pounds of fish be?" Nevertheless he took the cafezi's advice, and went for his nets, and made a cast in the name of his daughter's luck. Out came a great haul, 200 okes of fish ! He went and sold them for 800 piastres ; and taking the money in his pocket, he said, " Whoever will take my daughter with this money is welcome to her." On the road he met a youth whose appearance pleased him. " Good day," said he, " where do you come from?" "From Moria,"^ answered the boy. "If you would like to marry my daughter," said the fisherman, " here is 800 piastres ; it's all I can give you." " I may as well," said the boy to himself (he was a muleteer by trade); " it's enough for me to buy a horse and a pair of breeches for myself and a dress for my wife. So he answered, " All right," and went home with the fisherman and married his daughter. In a year or two the cafezi noticed the fisherman looking very dismal again, and said to him, " I suppose it will be your second * fieXidwvfi, "sorrow," or "care" : a Homeric word surviving still in this tale. * A village near Mytilenc. Folktales from the ^gean. daughter this time that you want to marry? But what is the use of sitting with a face like that ? You managed to marry the first ; you ought to know how to set about it to dower the second. Go again, and pray, and cast your nets for her luclt." So the fisher- man went and cast his nets for his second daughter's luck ; and this time he got 300 okes of fish, which he sold for 2,000 piastres On his road he met a youth who took his fancy. " Good day, where are you from ? " " From Thermi," " Well, if you will marry my daughter, here is 2,000 piastres; it's all 1 have," The young man was a grocer's assistant, and he thought, " Well, that's enough to set up a small shop." So he consented, and ihey were married. When it came to the youngest daughter's turn, the favourite, the cafezi saw the fisherman looking sadder than ever. " Well," said he, " what's the matter now ? " Said the fisherman, " I can't think how to get a dowry for my youngest daughter." The cafezi persuaded him to do the same as before, and again he went and cast his nets for his youngest daughter's luck. When he went to pull them up he could not move them, and he called all the boat- men and the steamer to come and help. They all pulled with all their might ; and when they drew the net up, what do you think there was in it? One enormous lobster! The fisherman sent into town for two carts, and on those they put the lobster, and the fisherman took it home with him. He called his daughter and said to her, "Here, this is your luck; you must marry the lobster ! " So she was married to the lobster, and her father and mother left her alone with it, and went away to another place. The poor girl sat weeping, and had just cried herself to sleep, when she woke up with a start, and found by her side a very handsome young man, richly dressed. " Don't be afraid," said he. " 1 am your husband, and the lobster is my ship." ' At his command, tables with all kinds of delicacies were brought in, and they feasted logethRr, and then went to bed. Thus they lived together for some time, and she was very happy, but her husband told her that if she ever saw him when her own people were with her she was on no account to tell who I Ihat tapa^oi. 88 Collectanea. he was. One day her mother and sisters came to see what she was doing, and whether she were alive or dead. They found her sitting and watching the lobster. Her mother said, "My poor child, you must be hungry. Shall we give you food?" "No," said the daughter, " I want nothing ; you gave me the lobster, and I watch over it." As they were all sitting at the window, the prince came by on a white horse with all his suite in gorgeous raiment. As he passed, the mother said, " Look what a handsome prince; he must have heard how pretty you are, and that's why he comes riding past here. What would you think of him for a husband?" But her daughter said, "Do you suppose that a prince would think of a poor girl like me ? I am quite content with the husband you have given me." Next day the prince came by on his chestnut horse, and he and his attendants were more richly dressed than before. The mother said, " He must be in love with you." But her daughter answered as before. Then her mother and sisters said she must be out of her wits to care nothing about so fine a prince, and to be content with the lobster. On the third day her husband came riding past on his black horse, and his dress and the trappings of his horse glittered with diamonds. " Just look at him now," said the mother and sisters ; " how beautiful he is ? He came to see you ; you may be sure of it." Then her daughter said, " You are very silly. I can have him and his diamonds when I want them, for he is my husband." The prince stopped for an instant and said, " Good-bye, and if ever you see me again , you will be lucky." In a moment he was gone. Now he had told his wife his name— it was Meiidoni. Without delay she ordered for herself three leather dresses, and three pair of boots with iron soles, and a basket and an axe, and set out to look for him. On and on she went, and for a whole year saw neither man nor sheep, and fed like a beast on grass and herbs. At the year's end she came to a place with trees and a dry pond, and in the mud lay an ogress, with her eyelids hanging down over her face. Taking a piece of wood, the girl inserted it under the eyelids, and cut them short with her axe ; then she threw water over the ogress' face, and ran away and hid behind a tree. The ogress had been blind for fifteen years, and when she found her blindness cured, she called out, " Come here, whoever you are ! Folktales from the yEgean. If you are a woman I will make you a queen, and if you are a man I will make you a king." But the girl waited in hiding, and only came out when the ogress swore by her strength not to hurt her. Then the ogress asked her what she wanted, and the girl said, " I am looking for Melidoni." " Stay with me to-night," said the ogress. " I have two sisters, and we have one son between us, and when he comes home to-night I will ask him, and we will see if he can lell you." Then she turned her into a button and put her in her pocket. At night when the ogress' son came home, he said, " Surely I smell human flesh ! " " Nonsense," said the ogress, " how can any mortal come here to our land? You must have been with man- kind to-day, and you have brought the scent of them away with you. And, by the way, did you hear what has become of Melidoni?" " Melidoni?" said her son. "Oh, yes, I heard he had married a beautiful girl, but she had betrayed him." Next day, when her son was gone, the ogress turned the girl into her proper shape again, and told her, " You must journey on until you find my second sister, who is in the same state thai you found me in, and from her you may find out what you want." Putting on her second dress and pair of boots (for the first were quite worn out), the girl started off and journeyed on for a year, and saw not even a bird the whole time. At the year's end she came to a tree, and beside it another slough, with the blind ogress lying in it. She cut her eyehds as she had done to the other, and cured her loo. This ogress had been blind for eighteen years, and she was very grateful. " Come to me," she called out. " I will make you a queen if you are a woman, and a king if you are a man." But the girl did not leave her hiding-place behind the tree until she heard the ogress swear by her courage that she would not hurt her. " What shall I do for you ? " asked the ogress. " I want to find Melidoni," said the girl. " To-night, my son Is coming," said the ogress, " and perhaps he will know where Melidoni is ; but I must hide you, or he will eat you." So she made her into a thimble, and put her into her pocket. When her son came in, he said, " I smell human flesh." But his mother said, " How can any mortal come here, where no bird can fly ? You have been with mankind to-day, and have brought their scent with you ; and, by the way, did you hear anything of Melidoni ? " " Yes," said he, " I saw him in the shape of an angry black cloud, 9^ Collectanea. and he spoke, and said he had married a beautiful maiden, but she had been faithless to him." Next morning at dawn the ogress said to the girl, " Take this pan and these three apples, until you come to a well ; and then knock one of the apples against the pan, and Melidoni will appear before you. He is my younger sister's son, and he will appear, not in his own form, but in many others. But don't let him persuade you to give him a kiss, for then all will be lost ; but you may give him the apples if he asks for them." The girl put on the third dress and the third pair of boots, and journeyed on and on until she came to the well. She knocked the pan once, and a man, not her husband, appeared before her, and asked her what she was doing there. " I am Melidoni's wife " said she, "and I am looking for him." " Give me a kiss," said he, " and I will take you to him." She replied : ** Never shall Melidoni's kiss be slave to any pleading; For Melidoni's sake I'm lost, but now I am succeeding." Then, as he could not get the kiss, he asked for one of the apples, and she gave him one. He began to press her more, and said, "Just let me kiss you on one cheek." But she steadfastly refused, and always answered him with the same couplet. Then he asked for another apple, and she gave it him ; and then again for a kiss, but that she would not give him. But the third apple she gave him, and when he had it he said, " Now if you won't give me a kiss I'll take you to my mother, and she'll eat you up ;" and he blew on her and changed her into a button, and put her in his pocket. Then he took her to the house of his mother, the third ogress. When he came in his mother said, " I smell human flesh." " It is because I have been with mankind," he said ; and they sat down together to dine. When Melidoni saw his mother was in a good humour, he said to her, " Suppose my wife were here, would you eat her ? " " No," said his mother. " I'm sure / would," said he ; " and do you mean to say you wouldn't ? " " No, I would not," said the ogress. " Swear by your courage," said her son, " that you wouldn't eat her." His mother swore it, and he took the button out of his pocket and changed it into the girl, and said, " Here she is," and left her with his mother. Next day his mother said to her, " I am going out, and you Folktales from the y£gean. 91 must sweep the house. There are forty rooms in it, and ihey must all be swept and not swept before I come back." The girl sat down and cried, and as she was crying her husband (but not in his own forml stood before her, and asked her why she was crying. She told him her story. Then he promised to help her if she would give him a kiss. " Never," she said ; " Never shall Melidoni's kiss be slave lo an; pleniJiiig ; For Mcliduni'i sake I'm lost, bm now I am succeeding." " Well, you are obstinate," said he ; " but I'll tell you what to do. First sweep the house clean, and then put the dust on the broom and scatter it about." So she did ; and when the ogress came back and saw the task performed, she said, " You are either a witch or a witch's daughter, or else my son told you." She replied, " I am neither a witch nor a witch's daughter, nor did any one tell me. Cod gave me light, and I did ii." Next day the ogress told her to cook and not cook the meat She sat down to cry again ; and as she cried her husband stood before her in another shape, and begged her for a.kiss. " Never," she replied : " Well," he said, " you are a very obstinate girl, but I am sorry for you, and I will tell you what to do. Cut half the meat and put it on to boil, and cut the rest into little bits and throw it in the pot when you see the ogress coming." So she did, and the ogress again said as before, and received the same answer. Next day the ogress said, " My son is going to be married next week, and I want to bake bread for his wedding. You must go lo my sister's and fetch yeast from her house." As the girl went crying on her way her husband met her in the shape of a boy of thirteen years, and asked her him her story. " I am Melidoni father is going to marry again. G will help you." " No," said she : oing? She t ," he said, "and my ; a kiss, auntie, and I o any pleading ; V I am succeeding." " But just let me kiss your hand," said he. " Not even my foot," g2 Collectanea. said she. " You are not nice," said he ; " but for the sake of my father's soul I will tell you what to do. You will come to a place where thorns grow in the road ; and you must take off your shoes and walk over them and say, * Why, what nice thorns ; it is just like walking on cotton. I wish we had thorns like these at home.' Then you will come to a fig-tree, and its figs are full of worms ; you must eat one, and say, * What delicious figs ; I wish we had a fig-tree like this at home.' Outside the ogress' house stand a donkey and a dog ; the donkey has bones under his nose and the dog has straw. You must give the bones to the dog and the straw to the donkey. In the courtyard is a fountain, from one side of which flows blood and from the other pus. You must drink from it and say, * What nice water this is. I wish we had water like it at home.' The yeast you will find at the top of the stairs. You must sweep the stairs and run off with it." The girl did as she was bid. She passed the thorns and the fig-tree (she ate two figs instead of one), and the dog, and the donkey, and the fountain ; and with her dress she swept the stair, and carried off the yeast. As she ran away with it, it called out, " Mistress, mistress." The ogress got up and saw her, and called out, " Drown her, fountain ; " but the fountain would not drown her ; and then, " Eat her, donkey and dog ; " but they would not eat her ; and then, " Fall on her, fig-tree ; " but the fig-tree would not fall on her. Then she cried, " Embrace her, thorns ; " but the thorns would not ; so she got back safe with the yeast. The day before the wedding the ogress said to her, " My son is to be married to-morrow ; " then giving her a mattress, a loaf of bread, a donkey, and a dog, she went on, " You must fill this mattress with feathers, and give the dog his fill to eat, and the donkey must come back dancing, and you must bring me the loaf back untouched." The girl went and sat down with her back against a stone and began to cry. Then her husband appeared to her in his proper form, and said, " Behold me ; I am your husband. I have been disguising myself so long to try you, and I have found you faithful. Now you may kiss me and I will tell you what to do." " No," she said, " not until we get home," and she would not yield. Then he told her to call on the birds, and say, " Melidoni is going to be married ; " and they would come and shed their feathers, and she was to fill the mattress, and there would be enough over for the dog to eat. When she got near Folktales from the ^gean. 93 home she was to beat the donkey and make it kick (for that is the way a donkey dances). " Next day," said he, " you will come to the wedduig, and we will give you torches to hold. As they bum down you must bear the pain, but when you are told to throw them down, throw them at the bride and set her hair alight." So the girl did as she had been told that day, and the next day, at the wedding, she was given two torches to hold. When the pitch ran down they burnt her very much, and she called out, " Oh ! " The bridegroom turned round, and said, ** Throw them down." But instead of throwing them down she threw them at the bride and set her hair on fire. I was there and ran like everybody else to put out the flames ; but it was all of no use, and the bride was burnt up, and in the tumult the prince and his old love slipt away and went home to her father's house. There they found that her father and mother had burnt the lobster shell; so they lived always together, and her husband never left her again. XVII. Thirteen, (Calymnos : told by Yannis Kephalouchos, aged about 50, labourer.) Once upon a time there were in Calymnos an old man and woman who had seven sons. Skilful reapers were they, and used to earn about a pound a day between them; but instead of bringing home all their earnings they spent most of them in drink at the tavern, and used to come home of an evening with little more than a couple of dollars. The mother and the youngest brother used to scold the six eldest for wasting their earnings thus ; so they determined to go across to Asia Minor and find work there, but to leave the youngest at home to fetch water and do errands for the old folks. But he discovered their plan ; and when they started in a boat he took another boat himself at once, and followed until he met them in Asia Minor. They went up the country looking for work. One day they came to a great plain covered with ripe standing corn. Well, they thought, this corn wants reaping and there seems no one to do it, so they fell to, making sure that the owner would appear and pay them wages. Soon the owner, who was an ogre, did 94 Collectanea. appear, and asked what they meant by reaping his com. They told him what they had been thinking. " Well," said the ogre, " look here ; I have seven daughters. If you can reap as quickly as I can bind I will marry you to my daughters ; but if I catch you up I'll eat you." The youngest, who was the clever one of the family, directed his brothers to make the trusses of corn much smaller than they were used to do at Calymnos ; then, said he, he will never catch us up. All that day they reaped, and the ogre could not bind fast enough to catch them up. In the evening he invited them to his castle to dine and pass the night. In the middle of the hall slept the ogre and Mrs. Ogre, on one side of them his seven daughters, and on the other the seven reapers. The youngest very wisely kept awake ; for in the middle of the night he heard the ogress say to her husband, " Now they're asleep, get up and kill them for breakfast." As many times as the ogre got up to cut their throats the youngest brother coughed loudly, and back went the ogre to bed ; until at length it was morning and his brothers woke up too, and he told them what had happened. All that day they reaped ; and at evening there was only one day's work left ; but the ogre was behind in his binding. That night again the youngest kept awake, and heard the ogre say to the ogress, " We'll put out the light to-night, and then I'll get up and cut their throats." The moment the light was out the youngest brother got up and took off the seven daughters' headkerchiefs, and put them on his own and his brothers' heads, and their fezzes he put on the daughters' heads. The ogre got up to cut the throats of the seven brothers ; but when he felt the kerchief on the first one's head, " A pretty mistake," said he, " I was going to make," and went over to the other side, and cut all his daughters' throats, and then he went back to bed again and to sleep. Then the youngest reaper awoke his brothers and off they started and ran for their lives. In the morning said the ogress, " Let's get up and cook them." But when they came there were their seven daughters all stiff and stark, and the seven brothers gone. Off went the ogre to catch them ; but when he was close upon their heels they reached a river and crossed it, and he could go no further. From the other bank the youngest called out to him, " This is nothing, the worst is to come, and if you want to know my name, it is Thirteen." Folktales from the Aigean. 95 I They journeyed on until they came to a city, where ihey settled 'a a house near the king's palace. The king sent (or the strangers "and questioned them. Now the six elder brothers were very jealous of the youngest, and when they had told the king how he had cheated the ogre, they went on : "The ogre has a coverlet with forty-one bells, and our brother is clever enough to fetch it for you," So the king commanded him lo fetch the coverlet. " How can 1 ? " said he. But the king gave him the choice either to fetch it or be killed. So away went poor Thirteen, and on his road he came across a cat and some mice quarrelling about the division of a carcass. He divided it for them so skilfully that they asked him how they could assist him. At first he laughed at their offer ; but when they insisted, he told them of his errand. " That's a simple matter," said the mice, "we'll fill the bells up with cotton;" and off they went and did this- Thirteen entered the ogre's castle at night when the ogre and ogress were in bed, and began slowly pulling the coverlet off. " Don't pull the clothes all over to your side," said the ogre to his wife. " I didn't," said she. " You did," said he. And they quarrelled till they went lo sleep again. Then Thirteen worked the coverlet off and ran away with it. When the ogre woke, "Why, you've got the whole thing now," said he. " You've got it yourself," said she. They struck a match to see which was right, when lo, and behold, the coverlet had vanished. " It's that Thirteen," said the ogre, and off he started to catch the thief. But Thirteen had crossed the river before the ogre caught him up, and called out, from the other side, " The worst is yet to come." Then he brought the coverlet to the king. The six brothers now said lo the king, "You see now how clever our brother is. The ogre has a finer thing than that coverlet — a talking horse. Our brother could fetch you that if you want it." The king sent for Thirteen, and said, " You must go and fetch me the ogre's talking horse, or else I will kill you." Thirteen was in despair, but he was obliged to go. He found his way into the ogre's stable, and began to saddle the horse, but it called out, " Master, Master." Then out rushed the ogre and caught Thirteen, and carried him in to the ogress. " I've got him," he said, " and now we'll cook him. Light the oven, and while lies roasting I'll go and ask my brother to come and dine 96 Collectanea. with as. I shall be very hungry before I get back, so hang up one of his forequarters outside the door, ready for me to eat at once." So the ogre started for his brother's castle, and the ogress lighted an enormous fire in the oven. She put Thirteen in before it was quite hot, but he kept slipping out. '' Can't you make it hotter," he said, *'so that I may be roasted the moment I'm in, because this is very disagreeable ? "" The ogress piled on more sticks, saying, " If you don't know how to keep inside I'll show you," and in she got into the oven herself. Thirteen slammed the oven door and oasted the ogress to a turn ; then he cut off her fore-quarter and hung it up outside the castle door. On the bed he piled a lot of sticks and threw the counterpane over them. Mounting the horse, away be rode. The ogre came back with his brother, and seizing the fore- quarter devoured it Then he went in and saw the roast carcass served up on the table, and what he thought was his wife covered up in bed. ** Poor thing," he thought, " she was tired with cooking, and has gone to sleep." But when he looked at the roasted carcass he knew it was his wife's. Calling down upon Thirteen the most terrible curses, he started out to catch him. Thirteen was waiting for him on the far side of the river, and called out again, " The worst is to come, and take care of your- self this time." When he had brought the horse to the palace, his wicked brothers said to the king, "l/jok how clever he is ; he is so clever that he could bring the ogre himself." And the king sent for him and ordered him to do this on pain of death. There was no help for it. Thirteen begged the king to give him a sharp woodman's axe and a few dozen big nails. Furnished with these he set forth disguised as a blackamoor, and started cutting down the ogre's finest trees. The ogre hearing the crash of the timber ran out to see what was the matter ; but Thirteen, as he approached, went on hacking away, all the time repeating loudly to himself, " Curse that Thirteen ! Curse that Thirteen !" "What are you doing? " asked the ogre. " I'm cutting wood to make a coffin to put that Thirteen in," said he ; " he has played me some nasty tricks." " And me too," said the ogre, and helped him until he had finished the coffin. " You are much of a size, Thirteen and you," said Thirteen. " Would you mind getting in and seeing if the fit is right ? " So in got the ogre, and Thirteen put on the lid, and knocked in one nail. Crnffping Animals' Ears. 97 "Can you move now?" asked he. "Yes," said the Ogre. Then he knocked another nail in. "Can you move now?" "A little." Then a third nail. "Can you move now?" "Not a bit." " Thai's right," said Thirteen. " I am Thirteen," said he, and nailed down the rest of the lid, and carried the ogre in the box to the king. The King decreed that the ogre should be roasted after they had had a look at him ; and the six brothers said " Our brother who nailed the box down must open it." So they heated a large oven, and Thirteen went and opened the box, and out jumped the ogre ; but before he was well out Thirteen got out of the way, and the ogre went for the six brothers and gobbled them up. Then he saw Thirteen and chased him ; but Thirteen dodged him skilfully ; and at length he so managed that the clumsy ogre in trying to catch him fell head foremost into the oven, and thus he was roasted. Then the king gave Thirteen his daughter in marriage and made him heir of his kingdom. W. R. Paton. Cropping Animals' Ears. (Vol. xi., p. 456-) Cream -stealing cats have their left ears cut off in the Highlands. Stewart, 'Twixt Ben Nevis and Glencoe, p. 238. Among precautions against witchcraft, " as soon as a calf is dropt they immediately lacerate the ear by slitting it with a knife." (Neighbourhood of Helrasley,) Brand, iii., zo, ai, quoting The Yorkshireman, 1846. " Chats entiers vont au sabat le samedi ; mais si Ton leur avail CDup^ de la queue ou des oreilles, ils n'y seniient jamais admis." Dumaine, Tinchebray, p. 585, n. iiz. " Lorsqu'on conduit une vache au laureau, on ne manque jamais pour la faire concevoir . . . . de fendre en quatre la derniere articulation de sa queue." La SicoTifcRE : Le D^parttment de rOme, p. 339. " Einem neugekauften Pferde wird im Friihjahr aus dem Schweif etwas Blut genommen, und dasselbe dem Thiere eingegeben .... damit es dablciben moge." Holzmaver, Osiliana, p. 109. N- W. Thomas, H.M. QUEEN VICTORIA. I feel it my duty, as President of the Folk-Lore Society, to offer some expression, however inadequate, of the deep sorrow felt by the members of the Society in all parts of the Emjiire on the mournful occasion of the death of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and of the loyal and loving remembrance with which they regard Her long and glorious rule ; and I cannot do so more suitably than in the pages of the Society's official oi^an. It is in the British Empire, which has to so large an extent grown and been consolidated during Her Majesty's reign, and which includes within its bounds countless races of every degree of civilisation and mental development, from the lowest to the highest, that the student of folklore has to seek many of the most precious materials of his study. Under Her Majesty's rule every religious belief of these races has been respected, their customs have been regarded with consideration, and their prejudices conciliated ; and the study of folklore, a science the very existence of which is bounded by Her Majesty's reign, has thus been rendered possible, All these races are now united in one common sorrow. The loss of the " Great White Queen " is to us and to them the same, and this is a point of sympathy between us and them not to be lost sight of by those who are brought into contact with the subject races. Mutual sympathy ought to help forward mutual under- standing. Upon all these grounds, the members of the Folk-Lore Society claim a special share in the universal grief which has fallen upon the subjects of the Queen ; and on their behalf I desire to offer an expression of respectful condolence to Her illustrious Son, whose declaration when entering upon His great heritage has touched al! hearts. Long may King Edward VH. and Queen Alexandra live to carry down to remote posterity the traditions of Victoria and of Albert the Good ! E. W. Brabrook, Pmident igar. J F Em^llP, .Q WEATHERCOCKS. Correspondence. gg Weathercocks. (Vol. Xi.. p. 322.) In 1870 and the few succeeding years I made about forty-five drawin){s of weathercocks. 1 knew nothing of any meaning they might have, though I used lo think that there must be a meaning ; curiosity of form was sufficient attraction to induce me lo make a drawing. Some of those I have depicted are on buildings which, I believe, have been since pulled down. Amongst them are not a few representations of animals. On Hendon Church (St. Mary's) a lamb and flag, which (I was told by the landlady of an inn close to the church) was said to be the only one of its kind in England ; on Llanfair Caer Einion Church, Montgomeryshire, a cock ; 1 have seen this on many churc'hes in Wales, England, and the neighbourhood of Boulogne- sur-Mer, whatever might be the dedication of the church ; on Neasdon House, Middlesex, a stag ; on a stable at Neasdon, a running fox ; on Bridge House, Hendon, Middlesex, a peacock (the tail not spread) ; on Clovelly Church, Devonshire, a bird of some kind, certainly not a cock ; on the lantern of the Inner Temple Hall, London, a winged horse (the crest, I believe, of the Society) ; at Friern Barnet, Middlesex, a flying swallow ; at Greenford, Middlesex, a bear's or boar's head (Plate II., A). Weathercocks with representations of fabulous animals are, on Seaford Town Hall, Sussex, a horse's head and forelegs (the two feet holding an anchor) joined to a fish's body with a long waving tail (B) ; at Clay Hill, Beckenham, Kent, a dragon's head (C) ; a similar one at Caroline Mount, Chingford, Essex ; on another house at Chingford, another form of dragon's head (D). Many weathercocks have a form as of a ribbon with its end slit and waving in the wind, of which E, from Hanger Hill, Ealing, Middlesex, is a fairly typical example. But the question may arise : Is this very common form of weathercock a debased form of the dragon's head? for F, from Luccombe Church, Somersetshire, would seem to be a transition from the one to the other. Very many weathercocks are in the form of arrows with more or less ornate feathering. The vane of the weathercock of Merton Church, Surrey, is pierced with representations of the sun, moon, and a star. On the weathercock of Twyford Chapel, Middlesex, lOO Correspondence. are the letters I H ; a part which probably had the letter S has been broken away. At Bury Street, Edmonton, Middlesex, is an angler drawing a fish out of the water ; the action of the figure is very good ; he is in late seventeenth-century costume. Much might be said about the fanciful scroll-work which sup- ports the post of the weathercock and the four letters which are around it, but I suppose that this is a matter of art rather than of olklore. At a meeting of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, held on the 13th March, 1876, a paper on the Church of St. Michael, Queenhithe, was read by the rector, the Rev. G. L. Gibbs. In his paper he stated that '* it was said " that the ship forming the weathercock of the church had been used as a measure of the amount of com which was the Queen's due from every ship entering the port of Queenhithe. A ship in full sail was also the device on the weathercock of the now demolished Church of St. Mildred, Poultry. There are several curious weathercocks on other churches in the City of London, but I can only at present call to mind three : on St. Clave, Hart Street, a royal crown; on St. Lawrence Jewry, a gridiron, the symbol of St. Lawrence ; on St. Peter, Comhill, a single key, not the two cross-keys which are the symbol of St. Peter. A young man in the City told me that he had once seen the dragon of Bow Church steeple in a builder's yard, where it was undergoing repairs, and that he had been told that when the dragon of Bow Church and the grasshopper of the Royal Exchange were both together in the same builder's yard the streets of London would run with blood. J. P. Emslie. Alphabet used in Consecrating a Church. (Vol. xi., p. 105.) In answer to A. E. O. E.'s question, Professor Albrecht Dieterich of Giessen, the distinguished author oi Abraxas (\Z^\) and Nekyia (1893) has sent me an offprint of his paper in the Rheinisches Museum fiir PhilologiCy vol. Ivi., entitled " ABC-Denkmaeler." In this exhaustive study the author surveys the entire field — Greek, Correspondence. >''.■■ Roman, Etruscan, Sanskrit, Norse, Medijeval— of monunieil^.I^nd literary use of the alphabet, and shows that it always had "been and still is of a magi^ai nature. The alphabetic series, wfietHer simple, reduplicated, or transposed, was in itself a potent chani>,-*' and one which was handed on by Paganism to Christianity. T'j\e_.- particular usage to which A. E. O. E. alludes will be found in the-;* latest editions of the PontiJicaU Romanum (e.g. on p. 130 of the Ratisbon edition, 1891). It precedes an exorcism by the con- secrating bishop, the purport of which is to keep the devil out of the precincts of the newly-consecrated church. The compilers of the Pontifical evidently thought that the Latin and Greek alpha- bets conjoined were enough to frighten even the devil. Alfred Nutt. HUSBAND-AND-WIFE StORY. (Vol. xi., p. 375.) Professor Sayce's Cairene story, No. n, is similar to Macchia- velli's very witty story of the Devil who married a wife. The name of this story is Belphegor. As far as I remember, it was first published in a small book of stories by Firenzuola (?), as being his, and not Macchiavelli's, but it is certainly the latter's. It is translated in Italian Taks, with Cruikshank's plates. W. R. Paton. Head of Corpse between the Thighs. (Vol.xi., p. 413.) In Professor York Powell's review of Dr. Boer's edition of Grtttis Saga, reference is made to an ancient custom of burying the head of a corpse between the thighs, the head being described in the Saga as " thigh -forked." About three years ago I visited and examined a remarkable church near Barnsley, and immediately after my visit wrote the following note {inter alia) : " Built into the west wall of the tower of Roystoii Church, near to2 .•../'. Correspondence. Bari^9l^,*on the north side of the western doorway, and near the grorupdv is part of the lid of a stone coffin. ^'•Phe breadth of the stone is i foot ii inches ; the thickness in 'Hve middle (it slopes away to each side) is 3^ inches, so far as ./.jit- can now be measured. The length is 3 feet. The cross carved •./'•on the lid is that which is known in heraldry as a cross crosslet .•^•- On making inquiry from the sexton and gravedigger, the foUow- ./ ing account was given to me. When the font was removed from its old position under the tower, and the floor of the church lowered about a foot, the excavators came upon a coffin lid, which was formed of two stones. The stones covered a stone coffin, in which lay a skeleton. The skeleton was perfect, but the head had been removed from its natural position, and lay between the thighs, near the pelvis. The stone on which the cross is carved was built into the tower by the gravedigger. The other stone which completed the coffin lid was left in situ when the remains were covered up. The gravedigger spoke of it with horror." In an article called "Eaten with Honour" [^Contemporary JRevieWy June, 1897) Professor Flinders Petrie speaks of a civilised people of about 3000 B.C. who had exquisite handicrafts, but who " habitually cut the heads from their dead and ate some portion of the bodies." He afterwards describes bodies in tombs which had been dismembered and the flesh eaten. The lid of the coffin at Royston is shaped like those of Roman coffins found at York. [See Wellbeloved's Eboracuvu) In many old stone coffins a place for the head is cut at one end. I ought to have asked the sexton, whose name is Joseph Haigh, whether he remembered such a thing in the coffin just referred to. S. O. Addy. The Divining Rod in U.S.A. « (Vol. xi., p. 434.) In connection with Mr. Rouse's note on divining rods for metals in the last number of Folk-Lore^ the following extract from the specification of an English patent, granted in 1889 (No. 1,919) to a Texas farmer, may be of interest : " The object of this invention is to enable precious metals to be discovered by a process com- monly known as divination; and it consists in a composition which Coriespon de n ct 103 has a strong attraction and affinity for gold and silver, the attraction reseinbhng somewhat that of magnetism. In carrying my invention into practice, I place the composition in a vial or flask, seal it tightly, and suspend it by means of a string, The composition referred to is made up of gold, silver, quicksilver, and copper, the ingredients being placed in a small vial or flask, together with a quantity of dilute nitric or tartaric acid or pure alcohol." (An accompanying drawing shows a flask with a cord or string, about 20 inches long, secured to the neck, and the cork or stopper sealed tight, as by wax.) " In iising my gold and silver finder, the instru- ment is held, preferably, by the thumb and forefinger of the right hand and steadied with the left hand ; it shoiild be held steady, but not cramped. Then, if there are any precious metals in the immediate neighbourhood, the flask will be attracted by such metals and will move toward them at first and will then vibrate, thus indicating the presence of the metaJ sought for. To protect and conceal the contents of the flask, I cover it with paper, cloth, or tin." A. R. Wright. The Bumble-bek in Magic, (Vol, xi., p. 438-) I have not met with the bumble-bee as a familiar spirit in Guernsey, though much of the folklore of the islands refers to the subjects of magic and witchcraft. But the following note from the MS. collections of the late Miss Annie Chepmell, who was a repertory of local folklore, may interest Miss Peacock : " Motuhe, or, as pronounced in Guernsey, ' Mouque ' (cf. O. Fr. mouskes, moui^ue), a fly. When a man sells his soul to the Devil, a demon is given to him for his servant and familiar spirit. It waits upon him constantly in the form of a fly. A wizard is known by his meiigue as surely as by his having no shadow." Miss Chepmell, who was sixty-nine at the time of her death in 1899, had lived in Guernsey all her life, and as a Guernsey woman had always heard and known our island traditions. She lent me the notebook from which the above extract is taken, for use in the notes to the volume of Guernsey Folklore, compiled by the late Sir Edgar MaccuUoch, which I am now editing at the request of the Bailiff and Royal Court of Guernsey. Edith F, Carey. 1 04 Correspondence. Customs in the Building Trade. (Vol. xi., p. 457.) In the December number of Folk-Lore I see a letter on London Building Trade Customs. I never heard before of drink being served out when the first chimney is finished, but I believe it is comnv^n throughout the country, certainly in the north, to have what is called a " rearing " — namely, a supper or " spree " — when the roof principals are fixed. I remember an amusing instance of this at Heywood, in I^ancashire, where the proprietor — being a teetotaler of rather austere religious principles — on being approached for a contribution to the " rearing," would not give money to encourage drunkenness among the men, but presented each of them with a cheap copy of the Bible, which of course found its way to the nearest " pawn-shop " for what it would fetch, and the language used was scarcely in accordance with any religion whatever. I believe that forty years ago the same custom prevailed in the vicinity of New York, I will not say in the city itself, but in adjacent districts of New Jersey, bordering on Staten Island Sound. W. Henry Jewitt. Irish Burial Custom. (See antCy p. 3.) "I send you an Irish pipe, value a fraction of a penny. It has an interest attached to it, however, which .... you will appre- ciate, and perhaps you do not possess a specimen. In a few places in the west of Ireland the usual pipes and tobacco — universal at country wakes — are brought also to the graveyard and a fresh dis- tribution made. Matches being not always carried by the pea- santry, a lighted turf may be procured from a neighbouring cottage to supply the necessary light for the pipes. The pipes are left in the rude box beside the newly-filled grave, or if the supply runs short a few are kept to put upon it. These are religiously left alone; but I could not overcome the inclination to take speci- mens, one for myself and one for you, from the old graveyard at Salruck. You will find the place close to the head of Killary Harbour, or rather at the head of the Little Killary, in Murray (map, p. 226)." John Cooke. 66, Morehampton Road, Dublin, 8 Dec, 1900. (To E. Sidney Hartland, Esq.) Correspiindence. 105 Sacrifice to Avert Shipwreck. There are a curtain number of allusions in the Greek Romances which have interest for students of folklore. Here is a passage which recalls the story of Jonah : Eii^afiiotr ^iKoad^av to Kaff '\a^{vi\v V bpiifia, vii. : [During a storm, the helmsman says :] "Fellow-voyagers, buffeted upon the waves, and about to die, fierce is the wind, the waves unceasing, and rising to the clouds. The mast is broken, the vessel full of water, and 1 have strength no longer lo resist the mountainous waves and the violent blasts that blow against us. I have had shipwreck enough : Poseidon is wholly against us. Why not follow the islanders' law, and pour libations of supplication ? To cast lots is the law ; why not cast lots for the victim?" .... The lot fell on Hysmine for death, .... "Poseidon," said one, "seeks the girl; the lot fell on her: she is victim and ransom for our lives." [Then she was stript naked and cast overboard.] W. H. D, Rouse. Spectral Light in Corsica. A story is lold in M. Gaston Vuillier's Jvr^o/U/i Isles, trans- lated by Frederic Breton, regarding a light which is ai times to be seen at Busso. A certain lord of sporting tastes kept a monk as chaplain, one of whose duties it was to say prayers when the lord returned from the chase. One evening he came home late ; the prayers had been said, and the monk had gone to bed. " Furious with rage the lord rushed to the chaplain's room and Striped his sword through the priest's body, From that time the monk returns each night lo the village, wandering about with a lighted taper in his hand, searching for the site of the chapel in order to say mass as he did in the time of the old lord." That the light exists seems certain. M. Vuillier saw it one evening, and the next day made inquiries to satisfy himself that he was not the victim of hallucination. " Many other people," he tells his readers, "have had their curiosity aroused by this nocturnal phenomenon, but none has ever been able to determine 1 08 Reviews. them so ; and this volume is the first instalment of the results of two expeditions and of many months' residence among them and their neighbours the Coras. The author here presents us with an account of the gods and goddesses of the Huichols, and a full description, accompanied by beautiful plates and other illustrations, of the various ceremonial objects connected with their cult. The Huichols are polytheists, sufficiently advanced in civilisation to carve images of their divinities and to have god-houses, dignified by Mr. Lumholtz with the name of temples. Huichol philosophy of life, he tells us, is summed up in a sentence actually uttered by his Huichol servant : " To pray for luck to Tatevali [the god of fire] and to put up snares for the deer — that is to lead a perfect life." Tatevali, Grandfather Fire, is therefore the principal god, and his mother, Takotsi Nakawe, Grandmother Growth, is the chief goddess. The number of divinities is unlimited, "since every hill and every rock of peculiar shape is considered a deity. . . . However, it would be a mistake to assume that all gods are in reality different. ... A great number are necessarily only different impersonations of the same god." Water-holes and springs are their dwelling- places. "Women are considered as the daughters of the goddesses and men as the sons of the gods, each one belonging to a par- ticular god. Each god has his animals, which, as an Indian once explained to me, stand in the same relation to the god as do the hens to the master of the house." Images of the gods do not as a rule stand in the temples. They are placed in excavations beneath, or in other secret places, often in some remote cave. In the temple is found a kind of altar on which are seen sacred disks representing the god's domain, and painted or carved with symbols of his attributes and relations to the world. They are consecrated by being smeared with deer's blood. Where images of the more important gods are found, they stand on such disks. Among other ceremonial objects in the temples are votive chairs and stools for the god, arrows painted with symbols of the god and having various votive objects attached, shields (both front-shields, usually circular or polygonal, and back- shields or beds, ordinarily oblong), symbolic eyes, and votive bowls. Most of these objects indicate some prayer by the persons deposit- ing them. The large collection made by the author furnishes abundant illustrations, which are minutely described and their 'j^i p.*^ .& Iymbolism of thk HuicHOL Indians. By Carl I.umholtz. (Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, '. iii. Anthropology, ii.) n HAVE already had the pleasure of drawing attention in these iges to Dr. Roas' monograph on the Mythology of the Bella Coola Indians, and that of Mr. Teit on the Thompson Indians. ■The present work by Mr. Lumholtz deals with the beliefs of a ^very different people of the North American continent. It is equaily the fruit of the munificence and the large comprehension of the value of the scientific study of savage peoples displayed by our cousins across the water. Naturally and properly iheir atten- tion is chiefly devoted to the elucidation of human pre-history on the western continent. This is a field of the utmost importance. The unity of race amid a variety of conditions, and the develop- ment of an indigenous culture almost untouched by external influences, amid an environment of fauna and flora very ditferent from those of the old world, may be expected lo throw new and striking lights on the problems of the evolution of civilisation. Mr. Carl I.umholt/ is one of the latest recruits to the band of trained American anthropologists. His previous experience in Borneo and Australia has stood him in good stead. His quick- ness of observation, the minute accuracy which nothing escapes, and the insight bom of sympathy with savage modes of thought, are worthy of the best traditions of American science. The Huichol Indians were practically unknown lo science until he went among them. They inhabit the southern part of the Sierra Madre del Norte in Central Mexico. Through this moun- I tainous territory the River Chapalagana, a tributary of the Rio Grande de Santiago, runs in a deep ravine, whose sides broaden- Fing out rise to heights of from 8,ood to 10,000 feet. Here the Huichols have been able lo defy civilisation. Missionaries indeed came to teach them, but they have been long since expelled. "To-day there is no priest among them, the churches are in ruins, and the Huichols are living in the same state of barbarism as when Cortes first put foot on Mexican soil." They are thus an ideal hunting-ground for the ethnologist. Mr. Lumholtz found no Reviews. UAnn^e Sociologique, publiee sous la direction de Emile Durkheim, Professeur de Sociologie k la Faculty des Lettres de rUniversit^ de Bordeaux. Troisiime Annte (i 898-1 899). Paris : Fdix Alcan. 1900. The " M^moires Originaux " of the third volume of this valuable periodical are but little concerned directly with the study of folk- lore. The first article is by M. Frederic Ratzel on the Soil in its relations with Society and the State. Insisting that these relations have been imperfectly taken into account by sociological students^ he points out that the relation of society to the soil is always con- ditioned by a double necessity, that of habitation and that of food- supply; and he discusses very briefly how the evolution of the family and of the state is affected by the conditions of the soil. The essay is suggestive : it might have been lengthened with advantage. Passing over M. Gaston Richard's article on Social Crises and the Conditions of Criminality as dealing with a subject, however interesting, with which we are not here concerned, we encounter the piece de resistance in M. Steinmetz's article on the Classifica- tion of Social Types and a Catalogue of Peoples. The author contends that the great want of sociology (on the interpretation put upon this word see my notice of the previous volume, vol. xi., p. 96), which embraces ethnology and a good deal beside, is a proper classification of peoples and of cultures. The absence of a sound classification universally accepted leads to all sorts of blunders, and to the elaboration of theories which are flights of fancy and nothing more, but which by their brilliance and plausi- bility mislead the inquirer and delay the progress of science. From demonstrating the possibility and utility of such a classifi- cation, M. Steinmetz passes to the consideration of the various systems which have been proposed. These he subjects to a keen criticism, finally sketching the classification he himself proposes. His system is partly psychological, partly economic. First of all, he classes human societies under four heads, according to the predominant character of their intellectual life. The first head is that of the Urmenschen^ a purely hypothetical class, wanting reli- gion, wanting the idea of soul, of spirit, of fetish, even wanting animism; but it must have preceded the second. The second head is that of Savages. Here animism is developed under the Reviews. 1 11 form of spiritism, ancestor-worship, and fetishism. Savages have not yet felt the need of system in their conceptions ; theit intel- lectual force is loo feeble for such an effort. The next head, therefore, comprises peoples who display the aptitude for system- arising and unifying ideas. The great mythologies and hierarchies of superhuman beings are now produced ; inventions, even of great importance, are made ; magnificent philosophical poems are conceived j even a certain erudition is acquired. Egypt, China, and the Middle Ages of Europe, among others, belong to this class. The remaining head comprehends the scientific age begmning with the Renaissance and the sixteenth century. Free criticism, a methodical and scientific attitude towards the entire universe, is its essential characteristic. This progressive series, however, does not fulfil all the require- ments. It is necessary to have another division founded on the general character of the economic life. Here the first class is that of Collectors, again a hypothetical, or almost purely a hypothetical class, who collect the gifts of nature with no other instruments than the simplest tools hardly fashioned at all, and who forthwith consume whatever they collecL Next come the Hunters; third, the Fishers ; fourth, the Agricultural Nomades, or Hunter-Agri- culturists. The fifth and sixth classes are those of the Lower and Higher Agricuhurists. The seventh class comprehends the Pastoral Nomades. The eighth is a class disringuished by com- plexity of conditions — division of labour, industrial progress, increased commerce ; but the industries are carried on in small workshops by a few hands, and often in the household as accessory to agriculture. In this class are comprehended the European peoples during the greater part of the Middle Ages, the Chinese and others. The ninth class is the period of Manufacture, marked by greater concentration of labour and the rudimentary employ- ment of natural forces. The tenth and last class is characterised by what M. Steinmetz terms Industry; division of labour pushed to its extreme limits, regular employment of natural forces, such as steam, electricity, and explosives, as the basis of all production, and the entire economic life founded on international commerce. These classes, although beginning with the lowest and ending with the highest, are not necessarily like the last in an ascending series ; and each of them is subdivided into various species. It will be seen that the scheme is sufficiently complex for all require- i 1 2 Reviews. ments. M. Steinmetz pleads for its adoption as a working hypothesis, insisting on the need of at least some system of classi- fication of all known societies and their historical phases, if science is to make progress. FinaUy, he calls for a catalogue raisonnS of peoples and of their historical phases, of the method of which he sketches an outline. It remains to be seen whether his system of classification will meet with the approval of scientific workers and whether his call will be answered. In any case the essay is well worth reading, if only for the analysis and criticism of the systems hitherto proposed. The remainder of the volume is occupied with excellent reviews of works interesting to students of folklore and other branches of anthropology. E. Sidney Hartland. The Making of Religion. By Andrew Lang, M.A., LL.D. 2nd Edition, 1900. Longmans and Co. 5s. net. We are glad for more reasons than one that our distinguished ex-President has so soon been called upon to prepare a second edition of the work which in Folk- Lore for 1898 and 1899 gave rise to a memorable polemic between himself and his successor, Mr. Hartland. In the first place, the fact indicates the growing interest of the public in the subject, which Mr. Lang treats with all the charm that his practised pen and ready wit bestow upon even the driest and most abstruse of problems. In the second place, it has given him the opportunity of adding a preface, which we think in some respects minimises the differences between him- self and his critics, and removes the slight trend towards paradox that is the besetting sin of a brilliant writer. The readers oi Folk-Lore will recollect that the work falls under two divisions — the first eight chapters dealing with the origin of the belief in spirits, and the following nine chapters with the origin of the idea of a Supreme Being, when the notion of spirit has been attained. These two branches of the subject are sharply divided — so much so that Mr. Lang says that the students who are interested in and familiar with one of them neither know nor care anything about the other, and this he holds to be the natural result 113 i a too restricted specialism. In the first branch of the subject I compares the mystical phenomena of savage life with the ■modem instances examined by psychical research among the civilised, suggests (what we are more than ready to admit) that the evidence of the former is at least as good as that of the latter, and produces instances of clairvoyance, crystal vision, apparitions, possessions, and fetishism to prove it. In the second part, he traces the evolution of the idea of God up to a high point in very low races, analyses what is known of the beliefs of savage peoples 1 a Supreme Being, and solves the difficulties of the question by jverting to the old degeneration theory. In the preface to the new edition, in dealing with the first part of the book, he urges upon such anthropologists as can observe savages in their homes the closer scientific study of those psychi- cal conditions, as of hallucination and the hypnotic trance, in which the belief in spirits may probably have had some at least of its origins. In dealing with the second part, he does not accredit the lower races with more than dim surmises as to a Supreme Being, and a belief in "a kind of germinal Supreme Being," and this he thinks need not at all have arisen in the notion of spirits. As soon as man had an idea of making things, he might form conjectures as to a Maker of things which he himself could not make, and gradually clothe that Maker with powers and attributes which would include the ideas of fatherhood and goodness and regard for the ethics of his children. The author sees nothing in this beyond the limited mental powers of any beings that deserve to be called human, and relies largely in support of his view upon the evidence of Mr. Howitt as to the beliefs in a Supreme Being entertained by some of the Australian tribes. This he admits, however, not to be confirmed by the recent researches of Messrs. Spencer and (iitlen among the Arunta of Central Australia, and even suggests that these Arunta may have degenerated in religion and dropped the moral attributes the other Australian tribes are reputed to have conferred on their deities. While the decline of belief in the supernatural is not necessarily a sign of degeneration, and while it is a commonplace as old as Bacon's Wisdom of the Ancients that early religious conceptions become modified in course of lime into mythical beliefs, we must still hold that it has not yet been proven that any savage tribe VOL. XII I 1 1 4 Reviews. has lost any high ideal of religion or of morals that it had ever previously reached. The ethical teaching, such as it is, which Mr. Howitt reports to be given to the Blackfellows at their initia- tion, does not appear to be of great eflfect in the diffusion of sweetness and light among them. Perhaps, however, the same might be said of the ethical teaching current among the more civilised races. Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx. By John Rhys, M.A., D.Litt H. Frowde. 1901. 2 vols. Price 21s. Professor Rhys is an ideal collector of folklore. To begin with, he was bom and brought up in its midst. It is not given to every man to have been tended in childhood by a nurse who belonged to a family of hereditary hare-witches, so that the neighbours blamed his mother for putting her child into the charge of so untrustworthy a being ; nor to have been instructed by his aunt in the history of the reaper whose soul left his body and wandered round the harvest-field in the shape of a little black man, while the body slumbered peacefully among the sheaves. Then his chosen field of work is his native country, where of course he not only speaks the language of the people, but speaks it as one of themselves : a point of tenfold importance among the Welsh, who are sometimes more reserved with a stranger who speaks their language than with one who does not. To these enormous initial advantages he adds the enthusiasm of the local patriot, the educated man's sense of the value of evidence; perseverance, sense of humour, genial bonhomie, and immense power of winning confidence. He elicits fairy stories from a peasant-woman casually met at a railway station, and spends a fortnight in trying to draw forth the legend of " the lord of Castellmarch who had horse's ears " from an aged blacksmith. For more than twenty years past he appears to have been in the habit of revisiting his native country with the definite object of collecting folklore ; he has corresponded with all who could help him in the work, and he has made at least one expedition to the Isle of Man for the same purpose. The matter so gathered fills the greater part of the two volumes before us. Revieivs. 115 We open them, and find ourselves transported to realms where fairies eat bread and cheese and buy and sell in markets ; where church bells ring beneath the waves, and King Arthur and bis knights sleep in the secret recesses of the mountains ; where sacred fish are guarded in wells, where your next-door neighbour may be a fairy changeling, and where a man may die from the effect of having an oath forced upon him by a foe. And as we journey, our RUide beguiles the way with racy humorous talk of all things relevant and irrelevant ; of his own opportunities of collecting when a village schoolmaster in Anglesey, lost because he had grown up " without learning to observe anything except the Sabbath ; " of the baleful influence of Mr. Robert Lowe on elementary education ; of Welsh etymologies and the skulls of ritualistic clergy ; of the unpleasantness of life when folklore was in full flower ; and of the (ajjocrypha! ?) German philosopher who, ordering dinner at an English hotel, wound up by saying, " And hereafter I vill become a Velsh rabbit ! " Are we through the looking-glass ? or are we not ? We do not greatly care ; we yield ourselves up to hear the voice of the charmer. But sooner or later the magic volumes must be closed, and the prosaic unromantic Sassenach nibs his eyes, shakes himself free from the glamour of Faery, and in the clear cold light of the twentieth century begins to say disagreeable things. Surely we have read this before ! This chapter has appeared in Folk-Lore, that in Y Cymnirodor. Some were written so far back as 1881 ; the final chapter of all is an expansion of Professor Rhys's presidential address to the Mythological Section of the Folklore Congress. Now it is very well to collect and reprint old papers, but they ought to be reprinted as such. Professor Rhys does not of course imply that they are newly written, but no one would suspect from the title-page that his book is a collec- tion of essays, " chips from a " Welsh " workshop," and not a single connected work. And the want of coherence necessarily resulting from such a method of composition cannot but detract from the usefulness of the book. Professor Rhys begs us in his preface not to imagine that "there is no method in my madness;" and in fact, through the midst of digressions, recantations, speculations, and what we can only call "shots," we do dimly discern that he has a definite aim in view, namely, to see what light Welsh and Manx folklore throw 1 1 6 Reviews. on the ethnology of the Welsh people. In this he would have been more successful if he had looked further afield, and by com- paring Celtic and non-Celtic folklore had ascertained what features (if any) are peculiar to the former. But though he occasionally makes a good point, as when he discusses the popular calendar of the Isle of Man, the value of his inductions suffers from the few- ness of the facts on which they are based. Even with regard to his favourite thesis, that the Welsh belief in fairies arises partly (for he considers that belief in water-spirits is another source of nearly equal importance) from traditional memories of an abori- ginal or prehistoric race preceding the Celts, we feel that the existence of such a race may help to account for belief in the fairies, rather than that belief in the fairies is evidence of the existence of such a race ; which last, if we mistake not, is what the writer would have us suppose. But Professor Rhys's naive way of " thinking aloud " in print tends to obscure the thread of his arguments, though it gives an inimitable impress of in- dividuality to his writings. We will not attempt to follow him into the thorny paths of Welsh heroic legend. Some day, perhaps, he will tell a meeting of the Society definitely what he considers the Aryan and what the non-Aryan elements of Welsh tradition. Meanwhile we can but thank him for the amusing, provoking, fascinating book now before us. GuiNGAMOR, Lanval, Tvolet, The Were-wolf (Bisclaveret). Four lais rendered into English prose from the French of Marie de France and others. By Jessie L. Weston. With designs by Caroline Watts. (Arthurian Romances un- represented in Malory, No. iii.). Nutt. 2S. Miss Weston has again placed the public in her debt by a fresh series of adaptations of tales which, though not contained in Malory, may be held to have belonged to that stratum of mediaeval romance from which the materials of the Arthurian cycle proper were drawn. In her former adaptations the author dealt with romances belonging to what may be called the period of conscious work, when the romance-writer moulded his story after a distinct literary conception of his own. In this present volume she " goes 117 behind the work of these masters of their craft to that great mass of floating tradition from which the Arthurian epic gradually shaped itseif, and of which fragments remain to throw here and there an unexpected light on certain features of the story, and to tantalise us with hints of all that has been lost past recovery." The connection of these tales with the Arthurian legend is some- times of the slightest. A few lines from Chretien de Troyes links the unnamed actors in the tale of Guingamor with Arthurian romance ; a side hint from Malory serves to introduce the Lai du Bisclavtrtt, in which again no name is introduced. But the general principle on which Miss Weston works is a sound one. " At the time that the longer Arthurian romances took shape there were also current a number of short poems, both in Breton and in French, the latter in the precise metre adopted for the longer poems, connecting the Arthurian story with a great mass of floating popular folktale, which short poems were known to the writers of the longer and more elaborate romances. Are we seriously called upon to believe that they made absolutely no use of them ? Such a solution of the Arthurian problem I can scarcely think likely in the long run to be accepted by students. The Arthurian legend has its roots in folk-tradition, and the abiding charm of its literary presentment Is in reality due to the persistent vitality and per- vasive quality of that folklore element." That the Arthurian story-tellers spread wide their nets is becoming more apparent by every fresh study of the subject ; but what is of still greater interest is the discovery, hardly realised as yet, that the main elements of Celtic romance, wherever the tales of the disconnected cycles are capable of being compared together in their more primitive state, are found to be, to a large extent, the same. The number of parallels between Breton, Cymric, and Irish romance is constantly accumulating, and they are much more apparent in these early lais than in the more sophisticated romances of later date. Miss ^Veston has pointed out some of these ; there are others over- looked not only by her, but also by Dr. Schofield, in his recent study of the Lays of Graelent and Lanval. In the story of Guingamor both these writers point out that the Incident of the rape of the maiden's clothes by the knight while she is bathing is paralleled in the Norse tradition of the swan-maidens, who are forced to become the wives of the three brothers who discover them bathing in a lonely lake and get possession of their swan-garments. But 1 1 8 Reviews. a still closer variant exists in the story of Nessa, mother of Con- chobar, in Irish romance. " Once Nessa had gone upon a quest into a wilderness, and seeing a clear beautiful spring of water the maiden went off alone to bathe. While she was bathing Cathbad passed by and saw her. He bared his sword above her head and stood between the maiden and her dress and weapons. ' Spare me I ' she cried. * Grant then my three requests,' replied the Druid. *They are granted,' she said. * I stipulate that thou be loyal to me, and that I have thy friendship, and that for so long as I live thou wilt be my one only wife,' said he. * It is better for me to consent than to be killed by thee, and my weapons gone,' said she." ^ The Irish story is of interest, because it preserves the three conditions on which the garments will be returned, and the use made of them in securing the fay to wife. This, which seems to be an integral part of the origind legend, and which is preserved in the kindred stories of Graelent, and the middle High German poem of Friedrich von Schwaben, who introduces it from the Eddie lay, is lost in Guingamor, in which the fay-maiden is repre- sented as offering herself voluntarily to the knight. It is, we incline to believe, one of those incidents which have been intro- duced into Celtic legend from the Norse by way of Ireland. The long sojourn of the Norsemen in that country and the perpetual movement between Iceland and Ireland during that period will probably be found to have influenced Irish literature in much the same proportion as Irish literature influenced Icelandic romance. Many of the resemblances to Norse legend in the Tristan tale, and in other tales and lays of the Cymric and Breton romance, may, we believe, be thus accounted for rather than by direct transmission. Among other Irish parallels not specifically mentioned by Miss Weston we may point out that the beautiful description of the attendent niaidens in the stories of Launfal or Lanval, and Guin- gamor, who bring to their mistress a basin of gold finely wrought and a snow-white towel, and comb her hair as she stands half- dressed for the bath, recalls almost word for word the description of the fay in the " Wooing of Etain," while the charge of the fay to Guingamor that he shall neither eat nor drink on his return * MS. Stowe, 992 Brit. Mus., and LI., foL ii6a, i. Reviews. 119 to earth from fairyland, lest he be undone, reminds the reader of ihe return of Oisfn (Ossian) from Tir na n-6g. Many of the details of this story are reminiscent of Irish methods of description. Of the four tales adapted by Miss Weston, two aru from the undoubted iats of Marie de I-'rance and another, Guingamor, is attributed to her. It maybe looked upon as a variant ofGraeleni and Lanval, This tale, and that of Tyoiet, have been edited by M. Gaston Paris for Romania (viii.) from a manuscript of the thirteen century preserved in the Biblioth^que Nalionale. (No. 1,104, of the Nouvelles Aii/uisitions du Fonds Franfah.) \Ve should prefer that Miss Weston had left untranslated the word Bretagne, which in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was used in- discriminately for Armorica and Britain. To translate it " Brittany " is to prejudice her readers in favour of her own clearly expressed opinion ; "They are Breton iats ; Arthur is a Breton king." The two of these lais which distinctly mention Arthur deny the latter assertion, the former is at least problematical Out of the twenty- four lais in the above-mentioned collection which bears the title Ci commenctnt les lais de Bretaigne, only a portion are really Breton lays. The word was evidently loosely used for lays of a certain class which resembled Breton compositions, and it is at the present moment of the utmost importance that the mind of the reader should be perfectly unbiassed as lo the Cymric or Gaelic or Armorican origin of these folk-tales. A wider study of com- parative Celtic romance is requisite before any certainty can be arrived at on this point. The spelling of " were-wolf " is also open lo objections. The middle English form, here the preferable one, s to have been " wer-wolf," liice the middle High German or Teutonic. In the only passage in which il is found in Anglo- Saxon, i.e. in the Laws of Cnut, where it applies to the devil, it is spelt " were-wulf," but we are not here dealing with Anglo- Saxon tales. Otherwise the judgment of the author is seldom at fault. Eleanor Hijll. 1 20 Reviews. CURIOSITis DE LA ViE EnFANTINE : 6tUDES DE FOLKLORE. Par Aug. Gitt^e. Paris et Verviers : Bibliotheque Gilon. 1899. M. GiTT^E has printed, or reprinted, here a number of charming studies on folklore, of which the majority are devoted to the folk- lore of child-life. Together they form just such an introduction to the study of folklore as the ordinary reader is likely to appreciate. There is hardly any scientific work more useful just now than the popularisation of the study of folklore. The writer who with com- petent knowledge and discretion knows how to entice his fellow- countrymen and fellow -countrywomen to the preservation and study of these priceless remains of the past is doing a service both to science and to patriotism. This is what M. Gittee has attempted, and he deserves to succeed. Whether he is explaining what folk- lore is, or pleading for a folklore museum, or discoursing on children's rhymes or children's games, he is equally interesting. The subjects, however, which give a name to the little volume do not exhaust its contents. His chapters on Midsummer and Christmas observances are well worth reading. In the former he takes as his text a Walloon superstition that St. John does not go away without his fish, in other words, that Midsummer day never passes without some are being drowned; and he refers it to a tradition of pagan sacrifices to water-spirits. Among Christmas observances he fastens on the custom at Li^ge and elsewhere in Belgium of firing guns. This he contends is a relic of the ter- mination of a midwinter feast given to the dead. When it was all over the spirits were driven away with shouts and noise. One of M. Gitt^e's chapters discusses the researches of the Psychical Society with a gravity which would delight Mr. Andrew Lang. Without coming to any positive conclusion about them, he points out their importance in the consideration of many facts belonging to anthropology or to history, such as the ancient oracles and savage sorcery. Mr. Lang has himself pointed out their bearing on the miracles alleged on behalf of more than one religion. An able article on M. B^dier's book on Les Fabliaux concludes the volume. M. Gittee fully accepts M. B^dier's reasoning, and recalls the fact that he had already in 1892 given expression to Reviews. 121 the same opinions on the impossibility of determining the place of ori^n of most of out folktales. There can be no doubt that this is the view which must prevail ; and M. GJttife is right in recog- nising how substantial a contribution towards the settlement of the controversy was made by M. Bedier. E. SiDNEV Haktland. PoPULAK Studies in Mvthologv, Romance, and Folklore. Nos. I to 7. David Nutt. 5d. each, 1. Celtic and Mediseval Romance. By Alfred Nutt.. 2. Folklore : What is it, and what is the Good of it? By E. S. Hartland. 3. Ossian and the Ossianic Literature. By Alfred Nutt. 4. King Arthur and bis Knights, By Jessie L. Weston. 5. The Popular Poetry of the Finns. By Charles J. Billson. 6. The Fair)' Mythology of Shakespeare. By Alfred Nutt. 7. Mythology and Folktales. By E. S. Hartland. These little books should be very welcome to all who wish to begin the study of folklore. The ordinary reader, with vague ideas of the Arthurian legends or Scandinavian sagas, roused into further interest in the subject perhaps by Mr. Andrew Lang or Professor Max Miiller, finds the difficulty of starting on a sys- tematic course of study by himself almost insurmountable. The field open to him is alarmingly vast, the materials for work are most inaccessible, the information he can get hold of either vague or forbiddingly erudite. To such an one these booklets bring exactly what he needs, a chart across these untravelled seas, a map of the unknown champain. Out of the mass that comes under the name of folklore, they mark off regions, as it were, within the limits of which study and investigation seem possible even to the beginner, and give, in a simple but by no means superficial manner, such summaries of special branches of the subject as will guide the student in the choice of a line of study and show him where to seek his materials and what to look for as he goes along. The books are not of a dry text-book quality ; they are pleasant reading and rouse the desire to read more. It 122 Reviews. is no reflection on the otliers of the series if we say that Mr. Nutt's contributions to it are specially interesting. He has fascinating subjects in the Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare and the literature of Ossian, and he treats them as one who brings out of his treasure things new and old. The bibliographical appen- dices to each booklet are also most valuable as an aid to further study. The importance of a knowledge of folklore to us as Englishmen and Christians is well set forth in Mr. Hartland's lecture, contained in No. 2 of the "Popular Studies"; it is a sub- ject to which all intelligent workers can contribute something and in which no contribution is valueless. We live among un- noticed survivals of ancient beliefs and customs, and the observa- tion and record of these are always of worth for the science of ethnology. It is only here and there that a man of genius will arise who will know how to reveal to others the laws which underlie the strange workings of the human mind from earliest times, but the truth of his conclusions will depend to a great extent on the fulness and accuracy of the records which smaller men have col- lected for him beforehand, and in this collection every honest student of folklore can take a part. Such books as those before us will be of immense use if they encourage a host of workers to come into this hitherto unreaped field. [As this series appeals rather to the general public than to members of the Society, it seemed well to depart from our usual custom and to test its suitability for its purpose by entrusting the earlier numbers to a non-member for reviewal. The above is the result of the test. — Ed.] Man. a Monthly Record of Anthropological Science. To be published under the direction of the Anthropological Insti- tute of Great Britain and Ireland. Nos. i and 2. A PERIODICAL such as this would certainly supply a need in this country, but it will have to be better done than these two numbers. With all goodwill to the intention, we are bound to say that they are thin. It is very doubtful whether the venture can be a success if only sixteen pages are given to a number. A single article in Reviews. 123 foreign review of this type often fills more than sixteen pages, and here we have quite a number of different subjects attempted, not lo spealc of reviews. The best article is one by Mr. N. VV. Thomas, on a Pictorial ReprestHlalion of the Wheel of Life from Japan, with coloured plate. The number is worth having for this alone. Every student of Buddhism has heard of the Wheel of Life, but it was unknown until quite lately what was meant by it. Mr. Thomas gives a translation of the inscriptions and descriptions which accompany it, which in matter is full enough, if in style it is a trifle rough ; but considering the rarity of these things, and their interest, we should wish for descriptions of the others, or at least references to find them by, Messrs. Evans and Hogarth give a tantalising sketch of the Cretan discoveries, hinting at greater finds in store and appealing for money. We note that they speak of the Cnossos palace as a "sanctuary of the Cretan god of the double axe," and of the royal " throne- room." We cannot let this pass without ask- ing for evidence (1) that the double axe, which is scratched on some of the concrete blocks in the palace was meant for a divine symbol, (z) that the room with the throne was the throne- room. It should not be forgotten that other symbols besides the axe are scratched about the palace, that there is no axe in the similar i>alace at Phaistos, but other symbols only, that there is nothing to show whether the marks were meant to be seen at all. ■ They were probably all covered with stucco. As to the " throne- room," was it usual in Crete for the king to hold audience in his bath ? The " royal bath " is in the same room, and we might fairly call this throne a drying-seat. The other pages of this number are notes or reviews. A quarter of the second number is filled with an obituary notice of Max Miiller, and one page is devoted to an interesting tomb-find from China, one to Californian basket-work, and one to Slonehenge. The fact is that Man consists of the miscellaneous minor notes contributed to the Journal of tiu Anthropological Institute, and here pubUshed separately for general circulation in the hope of promoting popular interest in anthropology. Such an attempt has, of course, our warmest sympathy, but we fear that the " scrappy " effect inevitably produced by the wide field to be covered in the very limited space at command will render success very difficult of attainment. 1 24 Reviews. AcHTZiG Marchen der Ljutziner Esten. Gesammelt von OsKAR Kallas. (Kaheksakiimmend Lutsi Maarahva Muin- asjuttu Kogunud Oskar Kallas). (Verhandlungen der Ge- lehrten £stnischen Gesellschaft, 2o»*«' Band, 2^ Heft, pp. 83-405.) Dorpat: Jurjew. 1900. The present collection of tales was formed among a community of Catholic Esthonians who live, interspered with Letts, in the neighbourhood of the town of Liutzin, in the Government of Vitebsk, a little to the south-east of the frontiers of Livonia. An extremely interesting account of these people is given in the pre- face, commencing with a short resumi of what has been previously published respecting them. As they have been cut off from their compatriots for the last two centuries, it is not surprising that the original language is rapidly disappearing, and that in many places Lettish and Russian have taken its place. But where it still exists, not only does the language still retain its original purity, but some of the tales are almost identical with those which have been col- lected in Esthonia proper. Occasionally a word has acquired a special meaning. Thus we read (p. 99) : " The word * saks ' is known, but no longer indicates German nationality, but, as in the Baltic Provinces, the better classes. * Saks ' also means the Devil, the Homed One." From the traditions of the people, who assert that they came from " Sweden," Professor Kallas comes to the conclusion that they emigrated from Livonia about the middle or end of the seventeenth century, and that they were probably Lutherans at that time, though they are now Catholics. Though a Catholic catechism, of which the title page is given, was pub- lished in Esthonian and German in 1771, this was for the use of the few Catholics in Esthonia itself, and nothing of the kind was found among the Esthonian Catholics of Liutzin. A few pages tin; devoted to the author's account of how he gained the con- lUlrncc of the people ; but we will now pass on to the stories. Tlu^ KHthonian text of these is given in full, but twelve only are hitnNlAted in full into German, only German abstracts being given (if thn others. Muny of the stories are familiar ; thus the very first gives us a ^v^t^lMh of the hero who discomfits an impostor by showing the \\\\\\\\ huigUciN of the monster he has killed. Other stories belong ^v\ \\\\^ Twin Hrothers type; the Gold Child type; the Fortunate Reviews. "5 Younger Son ; the Devil outwitted ; the Journey to Hell ; the Singing Bone type, &c. There are also a few a.niniaJ (ales. Some of the stories, however, are more decidedly of a Finnish-Ugrian character, such as those which relate to various artifices by which God outwits the Devil, and those in which many-headed demons are introduced, Both these features are common in Tartar folk- tales. W. F. KiRBV Songs of Modern Greece : wtth Introductions, Transla- tions, AND NoTKS. By G. F. Abbott, B.A. Cambridge University Press. 5s. net. Modern Greece is full of interest for the student of folklore; and in spite of the labours of Schmidt and others it is an almost un- worked field. A great deal may be learnt from the popular ptoetry. The contents of this volume have not been chosen for their bearing on folklore, yet they conLiin a good deal. Unfor- tunately, as Mr. Abbott has not indicated his sources, it is not safe to conclude that a given piece is genuine popular poetry. In fact, several of the pieces are taken from the works of Valaorites and Solomos, who were indeed inspired by the popular muse, but wrote as self-conscious artists. We can, however, praise Mr. Abbott's introductions and notes with a clear conscience. They are very interesting, and throw light on the customs of marriage and of burial, the feast and the dance. We watch the warrior in his Homeric struggles, and listen to the wandering rhapsode, who accompanies his recitations on the lyre. There is a certain amount that is new in the volume, and new or not it is all fresh, for Mr. Abbott has seen, and therefore he has spoken. We do not propose to discuss the poems from a literary standpoint ; suffice it to say, many of them are graceful and stirring, whilst all have the elements of true poetry, and the translation is correct and pleasing. The book is worth getting. w BIBLIOGRAPHY. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 1900, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED. All English books are published in London^ all French books in Paris^ unless otherwise stated. Arnold (E. V.). The Rig Veda. D. Nutt. i6mo. 56 pp. (Popular Studies, No. 9.) Boyle (Virginia Frazer). Devil Tales. Illustrated by A. B. Frost. New York and London : Harper Brothers. 211 pp. Caxton (W.). The Golden Legend, or Lives of the Saints. Dent. i2mo. 7 vols, x., 298; vi., 285; vi., 306: vi., 274; vi., 258; vi., 274; vi., 292 pp. De Visser (M. W.). De Graecorum Diis non referentibus Speciem Humanam. Lugduni Batavorum : Los. 8vo. iv., 283 pp. Fletcher (Alice C). Indian Story and Song from North America. Boston : Small, Maynard, and Co. xiv., 126 pp. Frazer (J. G.). The Golden Bough, a Study in Magic and Religion. Macmillan. 2nd Edition, 1901. 3 vols, xxviii., 467; X., 471; X., 490. 36s. Laisnel de la Salle. Souvenirs du Vieux Temps. Le Berry : Croyances et L^gendes. Maisonneuve. i6mo. 415 pp. Lang (Andrew). The Making of Religion. Longmans. 2nd Edition, xxv., 355 pp. 5s. net. NiEBOER (H. J.). Slavery as an Industrial System : Ethnological Researches. The Hague : Nijhoff. 8vo. xxvii., 474 pp. Rhys (John). Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx. Henry Frowde. 1 901. 2 vols. 8vo. xlviii., 718 pp. 21s. Rolland (E.) Flore Populaire, ou Histoire Naturelle des Plantes dans leurs Rapports avec la Linguistique et le Folk-lore. Tome iii. Rolland. 8vo. 378 pp. Roscher (W. H.). Ephialtes, eine pathologische-mythologische Abhandlung iiber die Alptraiime und Alpdamonen des klas- sischen Altertums. Leipzig : Teubner. Imp. 8vo. 133 pp. Rouse (W. H. D.). The Jataka. Vol. iv. Cambridge University Press. Price 12s. 6d. Schulte (Fritz) Psychologie der Naturvolker. Entwickelungs- psychologische Charakteristik des Naturmenschen in intel- Bihliograph v . 127 lektueller, aesthethischcr, ethJscher, und religioser Beziehung. Eiiie naturliche Schopfungsgeschichie menschlichen Vorslel- lens, Wollens und Glaubens. Leipzig ; Veil & Co, 8vo, viii., 39a pp. StBiLLOT (P ). Les Coquillages de Mer. (Melanges Tradition- nistes pubiiifs par Paul S^billot et Julien Vinson). Maison- neuve. i6mo. v., iii pp. Contes des Landes et des Greves. Reniies : Cailliere. Sq. 8vo. xi., 306 pp. PERIODICALS. Tht ConttHts of Periodicals txduiively devoted to Folklore are not noted. L'Antbropoloffie, xi., 4, S. Reinaeh, Quelques observations sur le tabou. Antiquary, December, 1900. A. H. Ball, An Indian Child's Burial in Assiniboia. February, 1901, W. E. A. Axon, A Fifteenth-century Life of St. Dorothea. Archiv fiir ReligionswisBenscliaft, iii, 4. H. Steintkal, Allge- meine Einleitung in die Mylhologie (Schluss). K Losch, Mythologische Studien im Gebiet des Baldermythus. Proceedings of the Cotteswold Katnralists' Field Club, ziii, 3. E. C. ScoMl, The Common Fields at Upton Saint Leonard's and the recent inclosure (1897). EngliBh EiBtorical Review, vol. xv., p. 625. A. Ji. IVAitnvay, Customs of Che Western Pyrenees. Transactions of the Devonshire ABSociation, 1900. P. P. S. Amery, Seventeenth Report of the Committee on Devonshire Folklore. [Several curious items, of which the most in- teresting is perhaps that of the discovery of a bottle con- taining a dark fluid corked with a cork stuck with pins, said to he a " witch's bottle," in the churchyard at Monkleigh.J Fortnightly Review, Pebrnary, 1900. A, Lang, The Golden Hough [review of], Indian Antiquary, November, December. Sir J. M.Campbell, Notes on the Spirit Basis of Belief and Custom. R. C. Temple, The Thirty-seven Nats (Spirits) of the Burmese. T. L. Barlow, F. McNair, and W. Crooke, Folk-tales from the Indus Valley, 128 Bibliography. InternationaleB Arehiv fur Bthnogpraphie, ziii, 6. W, von Biilaw^ Beitrage zur Ethnographie der Samoa-Inseln. H. Ling Roth^ Artificial Skin-Marking in the Sandwich Islands. 6. O. Sierich^ Samoanische Marchen. Supplement T, Koch^ Zum Animismus der Siidamerikanischen Indianer [an im- portant contribution to the literature of the subject, drawn chiefly from German sources]. Journal of Hellenic Studies, voL zx, p. 99. Jane E, Harrison^ Pandora's Box. Man, a Monthly Record of Anthropolog^ical Science. No. 1, January, N, W. Thomas^ A Buddhist Wheel of Life. /. Rhys^ On certain Wells in Ireland. No. 2, February, E, S. Hart- land^ Problems of Early Religion, Certain Wells in Ireland. Anthropological Institute. Imp. 8vo. i6 pp. monthly. Notes and Queries, December Sth, 1900. Isaac Taylor, Nature Myths. A' y. Davy, A Good Friday Superstition. December 15th. Mayhew, Sparrow-mumbling. Reliquary and Illustrated ArchflDologist, vii, 1. T, H. Bryant, John Schome : a Mediaeval Worthy [who conjured the Devil into a boot]. K^vue F^libr^enne, Tome xiv, 1898 et 1899. G, Doncieux, UEscrivette, £tude de folklore national. Kevue de I'Histoire des Religions, xlii, 2. Congres International de FHistoire des Religions (Paris, 1900), Proces-verbaux, et discours de Naville, Bonet-Maury, et de Gubematis. E, L, M. Conard, Les Id^es des Indiens Algonquins relatives i la vie d'outre-tombe. Khenisches Museum fur Philologrie, vol. Ivi. 1900. Alb. Dieterich, ABC-Denkmaler [a most exhaustive and erudite article on the distribution and original (magical) significance of the Alphabet used as a formula]. The Scottish Review, October, 1900. Olaf Davidson, The Folk- lore of Icelandic Fishes. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd Series, xviii, 1. W. F, Baildon, On a Sixteenth-century Leaden Charm, found at Lincoln's Inn. [Similar to one described and discussed in the Reliquary and Illustrated Archceologist, July, 1897. Better evidence as to the age of the object and the person against whom it was directed is desirable.] 3folk*Xore. TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. Vol. XII-] JUNE, 1901. [No. II. WZDHXSDAT, FEBRUABT gOth, 1901. ' The President (Mr. E. W. Brabrook, C.B.) in the Chair. The minutes of the December Meeting were read and con- . firmed. The President read an Address to His Majesty King I Edward VII. on the demise of Her late Majesty Queen I Victoria, prepared by him at the request of the Council. It E was unanimously resolved that the same be adopted by the I Society and presented in the usual way. The election of the following new members wasannounced, iviz.: Mrs A. Newton, Mr. C. H. Chase, Mr. A. Baldwin, I Mr. H. A. Rose, Miss E, W. Allen, Mr. G. H. Hampton, f MissE. M. Cobham, Miss Thompson. Mr. D. F. de I'H. I Ranking, and Miss C. R. Coleridge. The resignation of Mr. J. L. Andre, Mrs. Morris, Mr. F. I L. Gardner, Miss C. Burdon, and the Ecole des Hautes I £tudes (Sofia) were also announced. Mrs. Gomme exhibited and presented to the Society a Kirn Maiden or Dolly, copied by Miss Swan from those made at Duns, in Berwickshire, fifty years ago, and Mr. Gomme read a letter from Miss Swan describing it [p 2 15] . Votes of thanks were accorded to Mrs. Gomme and Miss Swan. Mr. N. W. Thomas read some notes on Animal Super- stitions in Asia Minor [p. 189], upon which Mr. Kirby, Mr, Ordish, and Mr. im Thurn offered some observations. VOL. XII. K 1 30 Min utes of Meeting. Mr. E. F. im Thurn read a paper on the " Games of the Red-men of Guiana" [p. 132], illustrated by lantern slides, and in the discussion which followed Mr. Gomme and the President took part. The Meeting terminated with votes of thanks to Mr. N. W. Thomas and Mr. im Thurn for their papers. The following books and pamphlets, presented to the Society since the November Meeting, were laid upon the table. I. The Annual Report (1900) on British New Guined^ presented by the Government of Queensland. 2 Prods- verbaux Sommaires du Congr^s Internationale des Tra- ditions Populaires (1900), presented by M. Paul S^billot. 3. Transactions of the Japan Society^ vol. v., presented by the Society ; 4. Leggende Tifernate and (5). Amuleti Italiani Antichi e Contemporanei, by Giuseppe Bellu«ci, both presented by the Author. 6. On Norman Tympana^ with especial reference to those in Derbyshire^ by Dr. T. N. Brushfield, presented by the Author. 7. Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society y N.S., vol iv., Part i, presented by the Society. 8. Folklore of the Australian Aborigines y by R. H. Matthews, presented by the Author. 9. De Grsecorum Diis non referentibus Speciem humanam^ by M. W. de Visser, presented by the Author. 10. The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal, vol. xxiii., No. I, presented by the Smithsonian Institution. 11. An Etymological Dictionary of the Assamese Language (Hem Kosha), by the late Srijut Hem Chandra Barua of Chandra of Gauhati, edited by Captain P. R. Gurdon and Srijut Hem Chandra Gosain, presented by the Assam Government. Minutes of Meeting. WEDNESDAY, MARCH SOtb, 1901. Ww/ Meeting of the Folk-Lore Society and the Anthropological Institute. I Chair was taken by Mr. E. W. Brabrook, President of the Society. f The minutes of the previous Meeting of the Society were read and confirmed. Dr. A. C, Haddon exhibited a Wren-bush from co. Wicklow, and lantern slides of a Wren-bush being carried round, and of a wren-box from the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Farnham. He also exhibited two specimens of Yule Doos (Christmas cakes) from Newcastle-on-Tyne. A vote of thanks was accorded to him for these exhibits. Mr. Brabrook then vacated the chair, which was at his request taken by the President of the Anthropoiogical Institute, Dr. A. C. Haddon, Dr. W. H- R. Rivers then read a note on " Primitive Orientation" [p. 210], illustrated by a lantern slide. A short discussion followed, in which Mr. Brabrook, Miss Grove, Mr. Lewis, and Dr. Gaster took part. A vote of thanks to Dr. Rivers for his communication having been passed. Mr. Wilfred Godden read a paper by Miss Gertrude M. Godden, entitled, "The Legend of the Sand-Rope and other Futile Tasks, B.C. 400 — A.D. 1900," which was illus- trated by lantern slides. Miss Godden exhibited the following objects illustrative of her paper: — i. A specimen of Fulgurite from Poland, lent by Mr. F. W. Rudler. 2. Photographs of Greek vases and other classical monuments, showing futile tasks. 3. A drawing of an unpublished Greek vase recently acquired by the British Museum, showing Greek futile tasks. 4. Sketches of scenes of futile-task-stories in Cornwall, by Mr. W. Godden. 5. Photographs of scenes of futile-task- stories in Denmark, Scotland, and England. In the discussion which followed, Mr. Kirby, Dr. Gaster, Mr. P. Redmond, Mr. N. W. Thomas, Mr. Brabrook, and the Chairman took part. The Meeting terminated with a vote of thanks to Miss Godden for her paper and to Mr. Wilfred Godden for reading it. GAMES OF THE RED-MEN OF GUIANA.^ BY BVERARD F. IM THURN, C.B., CJC.G. {Read at Meeting of 20th February , 1901). A SOCIETY such as this has use for two different classes of workers — for some who observe and record facts, and for others who from these recorded facts make theories. It is in the former and humbler capacity that I come before you to-night. I propose by word of mouth and by picture to set before you facts as to the games of the Red-men of Guiana, noted during a twenty years' life among them ; and I leave to others the task of evolving, by the comparative method, theories as to these games — a task which can probably not be performed till much fuller records from all the world over shall have been accumulated. My players of games are the Red-men, the so-called " Indians " of the country immediately south of the Orinoco River, who are still in much the same condition as when the sea coast and the river banks of these parts were first explored by rival Dutch and Spanish adventurers of the sixteenth century. At that time the vast mangrove swamps at the mouths of the rivers, places where there is no dry ground, and con- sequently no possibility of cultivation, were occupied by the Warau Indians, who are almost certainly the remnants of the earliest inhabitants of that land of whom we have any knowledge. In the more habitable places afforded by the sand reefs which lie just inland from these swamps were the Ara- waks, who had been driven southward on to this part of the mainland from the West Indian Islands in front of the fiercer Caribs, who were at the moment slowly making their way south. Various bodies of the Carib race had reached the main- land long before, and each of these under a new tribal name * Considerable parts of this paper were printed in 1890 in TtV/Mn', a Guiana journal. L of the Red-men of Guiana. 133 had made its way inland and had established itself inaseparate part of Guiana. Thus of these early Carib immigrants, the Akawois and the Partamonas had penetrated through the Warau swamps and the Arawak sand reefs, and had divided between them the forest country between the sand reefs and the open plains (locally called savannahs) of the far interior ; and the Wapianas, the Macusis, and the Arekunas had passed up the great Orinoco river till they reached the savannahs on the right bank and had then struck across inland and had taken up distinct areas on the savannah reaching toward the Amazon. But the True Caribs — the main body, that is to say, which we now know by that name — were, when the Dutch and Spaniards came, only just reachingthose parts. They were raiding in widely-scattered warlike bands among the tribes already settled, and were in the act of winning for themselves a home and country. At that moment first came into those parts white men, Dutch and Spanish adventurers; and, as the development of a photographic negative is arrested by the fixing salt, so the spread of the Red-man over this part of Guiana was arrested by the incoming of the white man. The tribes which had already divided up the land between them remained in their places, and the wandering bands of the Caribs stood still each on the spot where it happened to be. And so, with but slight tribal movements, the distribution has remained to this day. As a matter of fact the Spaniards never established them- selves in the parts with which I am dealing, nor even pene- trated into these to any considerable extent ; and the Dutchmen, who established themselves in the homes of the Arawaks. made friends with that people — for which reason the Arawaks are more changed than any other tribe — but deliberately adopted the wise policy of befriending the other Red men with as Utile interference as possible — for which reason these other Red men remain to this day almost unaltered in habits and ways of thought. It is only 134 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. just now, when the attraction of gold and diamonds is at last spreading white men throughout Guiana, that the whole nature of the Red-man's system of life is inevitably to be effaced. All these details are not really apart from my subject; for my fragmentary record of the games of these people will only gain full value if hereafter, when other similar records have been accumulated, the diffusion of ideas as illustrated in games can be detected as a correlative of the diffusion of the tribes themselves. Yet another point must I deal with in this long preface. The attempt to define at all fully the connotation of the word " games " would be hazardous ; but I take the risk. A game, it appears to me, is the pleasurable exercise of any of the bodily or mental faculties without any other purpose on the part of the player than either (i) developing the faculty exercised or (2) developing in the player a fervid state of mind — in this case generally for quasi-religious pur- poses. I do not now intend to examine or prove the truth of this definition. I only wish to point out that it includes not only all that we civilised folk class in common thought as games, but also — and this is more easily illustrated in less complex states of civilisation than ours — all simple games of imitation, whether, as in the case of many children's games, of the doings of their elders, or, as in many games both of children and adults, of the doings of animals, games of endurance, and such as evoke many other qualities, and (to come to much more complex forms of games) dances in all their many forms, uncivilised and civilised, religious and non-religious. The simplest and earliest form of game, whether we regard the life of the individual or of the race, is the imitation by children of their elders. Without going to primitive folk, we can see such games as playing at soldiers, at marrying, burying, preaching, coaching. In a church paper a few years ago there was a serious complaint that Games of the Red-men of Guiana. 135 I parents allowed their children to play at Jack-the-Ripper. In our state such games arc of course survivals with the utility almost gone out of them. But among the Guiana folk such games are the education of the children. The boys' earliest and only toys are little bows and arrows, blow-pipes, and the few other things which the adult Red- man uses; his ordinary games are the use of these; and he never ceases from the practice of these games till, his implements of sport having grown with his own body, he finds that he has imperceptibly become a man, with a man's habits and utensils. The girl, on the other hand, has as her toys some clay, with which she makes little vessels of the few conventional shapes, little baskets in which she at first pre- tends to carry loads, and a few sticks which she makes into a frame on which she puts together a hammock ; and she too grows up with such things and finds herself a woman. It is curious, and I think characteristic, that one of the simplest of games, which has developed again and again among many different peoples and has taken on an infinity of elaborate forms — I mean ball-play — is almost unrepre- sented among these utilitarian Red-men. I never saw any ball-game except among the Arekunas of Roraima. There the men, not the boys, sometimes stand in a great circle beat- ing a small ball of native rubber from one player to the other, each with his hand beating it down on to the ground in such a way as to make it rebound towards some particular player, whose duty it is to beat it to another player. The rarity of ba!!-play in Guiana, and the fact that it appears to be practised only by adults, looks rather as though it had not been spontaneously developed, but adopted from some other people. But in addition to the games which are followed from babyhood to adolescence, and which are merely imitations of the adult's few serious arts of life, there are in Guiana games freely joined in by the boys and lads which are dramatic representations of the more complex doings of their 136 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. elders, or of the habits of animals. These also probably have their recognised educational value, taking the place of the story-books and natural history books of our state. One of the most elaborate of the story-book games is played by the Macusi lads of the savannahs on the western slopes of the Pacaraima Mountains. It must be explained that a visit from those parts to town is, or was till within the last few years, a very rare event, falling to the lot of but very few, and making a correspondingly deep impression. When such journeys do occur, a principal feature in them is the purchase and bringing home of a number of small articles to which the travellers take a fancy. So this important event has given rise to a game. The players, seated on the ground one behind the other, and each clasping the player in front of him, form a long line, which by the motion of feet and thighs drags itself slowly forward, swaying from side to side, and imitating the forward rolling motion of a long and well-manned canoe. (Plate III.) Two other players — who have not been to town — pass along the line, and as they come to each squatting figure seize a foot and make the owner name for each toe some object that he is supposed to be taking home — a razor it may be for the big toe, a gun for the next, cloth for the next, hair-oil for the next, and a "chimney-pot" hat for the little toe. The greater the imagination shown in the choice of goods, the louder are the shouts of laughter from the spectators. Each player having accounted for his treasures, the incidents of the return voyage are acted. First, rain overtakes the travellers, that is, the two detached players seize a long pole by the two ends, and applying this to one side of the line of squatting travellers, forced them on to their sides and to the ground, as heavy rain stops the progress of paddlers. Next, the travellers turn over on to their backs, but still in line. Then the two home-stayers hold the pole longitudinally over first one and then another of u i n ^ ^^^ tail, ^^■taostn Games of the Red-men of Guiana. 137 prostrate travellers, each of whom in turn seizes the lole with his tingers and toes, and is carried across the playground and placed, still flat on his back, in another place. This is portaging the boats and goods overland, to avoid the worst falls on the homeward journey. Next the two home-stayers, one after the other, run quickly along the line, finding room for their feet in among the legs of Uie line of prostrate travellers, who, it must be remembered, placed as closely as possible the one beside the other, id who endeavour, by the movements of their legs, to iset the runners. The boat is being guided through the itricate groups of rocks which in the dry season block the Team, Then the home-stayers, taking each traveller in ;rn by the head, raise the perfectly stiffened body on to its , It is the fallen limber being moved from the creek which the canoe now has to pass. This done, each ilayer in the line falls forward on to his hands and feet, his lighs the highest part of him. Thus the closely pressed idies of the players form a long tunnel through which ;h player in turn has to creep from the end of the line to ike his place at the other end, as a canoe along a tree- ■ched creek, (Plate IV.) The following are some of the ways in which the Macusi ids play animal. In the kaikoosi, or jaguar game, all but iree of the players form one long procession, each player ith his hands on the shoulders of the one immediately in int of him, and then the whole procession winds here and lere, with rhythmic sway of bodies from side to side, and with rhythmic monotonous chanting of the words " Kaikoosi brahma celertbt." ("There is no jaguar here to-day."} Then from the onlookers comes one of the three players omitted from the procession. Moving on his two hands and one leg, the other leg held high in the air to represent tail, he is the jaguar whose task it is to catch the hinder- lost member of the procession before its leader, encumbered his followers, can turn and face the dangerous beast, 138 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. and then to carry him off and place him among the spectators. (Plate V.) The next has then to be caught, and so on until all the members of the procession have been removed to the aguar*s lair among the spectators. The two other players, not involved in the procession are two small boys who, on "all-threes," imitate the jaguar cubs, running here and there after the full-grown kaikoosi, doing nothing else, but adding considerably to the picturesqueness of the scene. In the monkey game, all form in single file and move in procession, but very quickly, and with ever quicker and quicker movement, until a considerable pace is attained ; they wind round and round the open space and across and across it till, at a sudden signal from the leader, the line is instantly broken ; each bigger lad has one or two smaller player^ on his shoulders (Plate VI), all chattering and squealing and gesticulating, and running hither and thither. It is a troop of monkeys suddenly alarmed and angered. Another game is of an acoorie {Dasyprocta aguti) in a pen and the attempts of a jaguar to get at it. The players form a ring, their faces inwards, their arms round each other's necks. Inside the circle one player crouches as an acoorie in- side a pen. Outside the pen another player watches ; it is the jaguar looking with hungry eye on the acoorie. (Plate VII.) He tries to get the acoorie out between the bars of its pen — that is, between the legs of the circle of players. But the living pen whirls round and round, and it is long before the jaguar succeeds in grasping the acoorie and dragging it out. A flock of vicissi duck resting on the ground in a close- packed, irregular-shaped group is well imitated in another game. The leading duck, at some supposed sign of danger, starts the whole flock, which now darts backward and forward in straight duck-like flights in among the houses, imitating the curious characteristic whistling of the vicissi. Again, a procession forms and moves, while a single s '< w ^^3C?*^'-> ^ r Gatnes of the Red-men of Guiana. player hovers in front of the leader of the tile until, with the cry of a hawk, he strikes down one side of the file to seize the hindmost of its members, each one of whom, startled by the sudden cry, crouches as a chick behind a hen, and only the hindmost man runs up the line, on the opposite side to the hawk. If the latter is quick enough to effect this uncaught, he is safe for that time ; otherwise he is carried off and placed among the onlookers, and this is continued until the whole brood of chickens has been captured by the hawk. Or, all but one of the players squat on the ground, each behind and clasping his neigh- bour's neck with his arms, and all forming a long line. The one man left out, representing an ant-eater, creeps up to the foremost man and, after scratching on the ground with his hands, seizes the foremost player by his feet, throws him over his shoulders, and so conveys him, head down- ward, across the playing ground, and places him among the spectators. This is no easy task when the prey is a well-grown boy, and if the boys are small, two are carried at once. It is an ant-eater supplying himself with ants. Again, one boy squats in Indian fashion while the others dance round him in wild disorder and confusion, buzzing like a swarm of wasps, occasionally darting forward and rumpling the hair and otherwise worrying the sitter. The latter bears this patiently until he sees his chance, when, with the eagerness of a monkey who sees his opportunity of catching a troublesome wasp, he seizes and disposes in turn of one after another of his tormentors. Though the games as yet described are played generally by boys, the young men join most heartily in every one of them. And among the Arawaks grown men and women, as well as children, play somewhat similar and equally simple games of imitation. The trumpet-bird or viarracaba game is simplicity itself, and yet no one who knows the habits of the trumpet-bird {Psophia crepitans) could fail to recognise what is being imitated. The players in single 140 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. file, each with his or her hands on the shoulders of the player next in front, march and hop about the settlement, entering and prying everywhere, emerging from the most unexpected directions, always imitating the curious boom- ing note of the warracaba. I have seen adult Arawaks play a most realistic monkey game distinguished by unusually rough fun. The players in line simply rushed, sometimes over the roofs of the houses, tearing off bits of thatch and pretending to chew these, up and along the rafters of the house, throwing down the many small properties there stored, into the kitchen, upsetting the pot, devouring or destroying all food that came in the way, driving out the women who were baking bread, scattering the fire ; and all the while chattering and grin- ning as vehemently as any troop of real monkeys. The women scuttled at the very sight of the coming troop. The old man of the settlement and his wife, in real anxiety for their goods, tried to protect what they could, tearing it even out of the monkeys' hands, or throwing food to the monkeys to distract their attention from more valuable properties. At last the old man, with the help of one or two bystanders, secured the more violent of the players, and, despite some too genuine scratchings and bitings, managed to fasten them by ropes round their loins, monkey- wise, to the posts of houses. At last five had been so caught and tied in one house ; and then, if there had been uproar before, there was pandemonium now. The captives screamed and shrieked and yelled ; they rolled as far as their cords would allow, and tore with their teeth everything that came in their way : food, clothes, hammocks, pans, and calabashes. With difficulty I saved a young chicken which one monkey had seized and was about to eat alive ; and my camera, which unfortunately was standing by, had to be most closely guarded. One monkey took into his mouth and spat out, mouthfuls of salt and of red peppers {Capsicums), At last, everything within reach having been either destroyer-' Games of the Red-men of Guiana. 141 ' or removed, the captives took to fighting each other, in iine heaving heap of humanity. And the whole mighty j^roar only ceased when all were literally too tired to do Then rest and refreshment, in the shape of paiwarie, pic native fermented drink) followed, and the usual good nuniour reigned everywhere. The games which 1 have hitherto spoken are of the simplest possible description, and may probably be found mutatis mutandis among a great many other races. But 1 have now to speak of a few of a highly specialised kind, and which have almost certainly been slowly developed each in the tribe to which it seems peculiar. These too seem to have lost much of the educational character of the earlier kind, and yet almost certainly wrap up a good deal of the history of the tribes that play them. The whipping game, called macquari, of the Arawaks is a curious performance, the essential feature of which, the mutual whipping, is, I suppose, unique. If the purpose of the game is the cultivation of a habit of endurance, analogies may be drawn between this game and all of the many habits of self-torture practised, and most stoically endured, by almost all people below a certain stage of civilisation. ^ut I am not aware that elsewhere than among the Arawaks his habit has taken the particular form of extremely severe mutual whipping carried on simultaneously with extreme |7jollification. Brett and Schomburgk write of it as a funeral rite, prac- tised in commemoration of some important dead Arawak ; l)ut I have never been able to confirm this statement. ' It U true that the game is very rarely practised now, and but few Arawaks retain the correct form and ritual of the cere- mony, and that in Schomburgk's and Brett's time the game ■luisl have been much more frequently practised. Their ' The laic Rev. C. D. Dance, in his valuable if somewhul ill-artanEed Sj^'Uts frem a Guianesf teg-ioei, axinhiAci a funeral purpose lo Ihe macquari itiic. ihough wilhout giving any itapoitani evidence of the fact. 142 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. chance of obtaining information was therefore betterthan any that can now be had. But if the game really was a funeral rite, it seems to me strange that within one generation all knowledge of this has died out from the minds of the Arawaks. Futhermore, there is a circumstance connected with the game which may easily have misled the earlier writers. A grave is prepared before the game begins, and in this grave, at the conclusion of the game, a burial does take place, attended by all the players. But the thing buried is not a corpse, but is the apparatus of the game, the whips and whistles which have been used, and which are then ceremoniously buried, to be dug up and used — all that is left of them — with the addition of whatever new material may be requisite, when the game is again to be played. The macquari game is carried on with much drinking of paiwarie, and has at least in these latter days developed into a regular paiwarie orgy. Probably it was always so. The headman of the place where the macquari is to be held sends out his invitations long before the day appointed, each guest being given a knotted string or a notched stick, the knots or the notches on which represent the number of days before the game.^ The time appointed is, as indeed in all their games and dances, when the moon will be full ; for the proceedings are carried on steadily through day and night. As regards the instruments to be used, I think, but am not quite sure, that the hosts always make and supply these. Possibly, however, the guests make and bring their own share. The essential parts of the whip are the handle, which is a stout stick, some twenty inches long and perhaps an inch ' Early one December, stopping for the night at an Indian settlement at no great distance from a mission, the headman of the place insisted upon my preparing for him a cord knotted with a number of knots to correspond with the days before Christmas ; and when, sympathising with the devotional inten- tions which I mentally attributed to him, I asked him why he was so anxious for Christmas, he replied that ** he wanted to have a good drink." Games of the Red-meti of Guiana. i43 and a half in diameter, and the lash, from two to two and a half feet long, which is made of a bundle of parallel strands of the remarkably tough fibres of the silk-grass, round which is very tightly and closely bound more silk-grass ; the whole is then heavily beeswaxed, and forms as severe a cutting implement as any single lash could. But over these essential parts of the whip is put a thin covering, by way of ornament, of the far weaker uncleaned fibre {libisiri) of the xla palm {Mauritia flexuosd); and the ends of this are allowed to hang loose at each end of the handle, so as to make a sort of ornamental tassel which is stained red. A touch or two of other colour is added by tying on a few bright feathers. In the above description the essential pans of the whip have been carefully distinguished from the ornamental. It will easily be understood, remembering the nature of the materials used for these two parts, that the former, the handle and the lash, are of a very tough and enduring nature, while the mere ornamental parts are of very perish- able nature. When, therefore, after the game is for the time over, the whips — or some of them, for I think only a few are ever so treated — are buried, the ornamental parts quickly decay, while the handle and lash endure. It is these latter which are dug up on the occasion of the next playing of the game, and are then, under the name of " macquari grandfathers " {Macqttareeichi), placed (I am not sure that they are actually used on this second occasion) among the whips to be then used. It is as though the vitality of the sport were preserved from occasion to occasion ; as if the macquari of one genera- tion, reduced we might almost say to skin and bone, looked on as a grandfather might at the play of the macquaries of the next generation — surely a curious and characteristic idea, and one which may obviously have given rise to the idea that the game has the nature of a funeral rite. Two wooden whistles are made, about three inches long, roughly carved and painted to resemble plovers — whistling 144 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. birds be it remembered. These are, I think, used by the two chief male players. More of these instruments may sometimes be made and used, but I know of no case. Whips and whistles are essential implements to the macquari game. Whether the other instruments which I have now to describe are also essential, or whether they really belong to some other game, perhaps more than one, which has in some way nowadays got mixed up with the macquari, I know not, but I have seen the following all used. The honore — named from the Arawak name for the heron {Ardea cocoi) — is also a rough, very rough, wooden representation of a bird. It is used always by the women, and sometimes by the men in place of the macquari whip, the blow given with it being of course merely formal and not severe. ^ A large bundle of aeta fibre is tied up to imitate the shape, in natural size, of a sloth. The two front limbs of this creature are tied together at the toes, in such a way that when the loop thus made is slipped over the neck of one of the players it hangs down his back like a sloth hanging by its front legs round his neck. This seems to be a sort of badge of disgrace hung on any player who is in some way a defaulter in the game. Rattles, or shak-shaks^ made of small round gourds, enclosing some pebbles, are mounted at the end of very long sticks (eight or nine feet), and are adorned with tassels of 3eta fibre. One of these is provided for each female player. For most of the other games observed, special clothing, scanty but appropriate, is provided, For the macquari I * Mr. Dance, in his Guianese Log-book^ already quoted, page 273, alludes to the " Honora, the crane or heron dance," as distinct from the macquar. He may be right ; and, in that case, it must be understood that the honore element which I saw in the macquari was only accidentally mixed up with the true ritual of the latter game. Games of the Red-men of Gutana HS liiave noticed only one such preparation, which is that the Pwomen cover their heads with small pieces of white natural cotton fibre. But as the Arawaks are by far the most civilised of the tribes, and have, with very few exceptions, almost invariably adopted shirt, trousers, and, in the case 1 of the women, ordinary dresses, we may suppose that the radition of the appropriate dress for the macquari has >een lost When, in addition to the things already mentioned, a sufficient quantity of paiwarie has been prepared, all is ready for the game, which will last for a day and night or more, according as the paiwarie lasts out. The guests arrive the afternoon before the first day of the regular dance. As they arrive they are met at the waterside by the hosts, provided with whips. The guests stand to be whipped, and, in turn, the whips being handed over to them for that purpose, whip their hosts. So, I whipping and being whipped in turn all the way, the pro- Icession moves up to the houses.' Before daylight the next morning the women are astir, and hand to each player a small calabash of paiwarie which has been especially prepared twenty-one days beforehand. I Now paiwarie is undrinkable the first two days after made, is in perfection on the third, and rapidly f deteriorates afterwards. As a rule, no one would think of drinking paiwarie more than four days old. But on this occasion each player takes a dose of thoroughly spoiled paiwarie, and it is perhaps hardly necessary to throw light [ on what goes on under cover of the darkness that morning, ■ but by dawn each player feels within himself a void which Ronly much fresh paiwarie can fill. Soon after, play begins. At 6rst chiefly the men take part ' I remember overhearing in a discussion as to which of two scltlcmeDts "■ Aould be the scene of an intended macquari dance, an BrEninent put forward Ihet one of the two was much more suitable, as being furlhcsl from ihe watei- lide, and therefore allowing more scope for their initial whipping. VOL. XII. I. 146 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. in it, though after a time some of the women occasionally break into the line and take part. At first too the pro- ceedings are more like that of an ordinary paiwarie dance, the players standing opposite to each other in two lines, their arms round each other's necks or waists, and these two lines approach and retreat from each other with much rhythmic stamping. Suddenly this play is abandoned and the real business of the macquari begins. This may be said to take chiefly two forms, alternating, in the first of which only the men take part, while the women share in the second. ^ In the former, in which the really serious business takes place, two lines of men and boys stand facing each other, each provided with a whip, and the two at one end having the two whistles. The members of the opposite rank stamp rhythmically at each other, all keeping up a constant shouting of Yau-au (like au in German Frau)^ all waving their whips. Suddenly the two with the whistles pass down from their end, between the lines, to the opposite end, the two lines meanwhile moving up in an opposite direction. More stamping follows, and then the two whistlers begin excitedly whistling at each other. This is done with the most comical vehemence, the two holding their heads in opposite directions to each other while whistling, and each at regular intervals reversing the direction in which his head is held. Then takes place for the first of many times what I may call a complimentary whipping. Each man raises his whip high over his head and brings it down with a great show of force and violence, as though bent on cutting open the calf of the opposite player's leg; as a matter of fact, however, the stroke ends in the merest, gentlest, flick of the leg. After that the whistlers rush back, as they came, to their original positions at the other end of the line. These proceedings are repeated several times, till at last the lines break up, and the women at once bring round to each player calabashes of paiwarie. Games of the Red-men of G. M7 But it is also now that the serious business of the thing begins, any pair, or any pairs of the players, challenging each other to a real use of the whip. The two challengers stand apart. One puts forward his leg, planting it firmly ; generally he turns his back, and consequently his calf, to- wards his opponent, but sometimes faces him exposing his shin. The opposite man stoops and stretches out his whip 90 as carefully to measure the distance to which the lash will reach, then, rising, he carefully poises it over his head, and flogs, one single stroke, butwithall his might and main. The crack is like a loud pistol shot. The first time 1 saw and heard the blow given, seeing not the slightest flinching of the recipient's body, not a twitching of his lips, I was fully per- suaded that there was some trick in the thing, that the blow was little or nothing else than mere sound and fury. Express- ing something of this, the flogged_man turned toward me his calf, and right across it, extending nearly round on to the shin, was a bleeding gash. The stroke having been given, the two players at once began to dance against each other for a few seconds, the flogged man during this shouting out au the flogger yau. Then the same man receives a second stroke, which is sometimes, according to a rapidly made sign, a second serious stroke like the first, sometimes a merely complimentary stroke. Then follows another few seconds of dancing and shouting. Then the one who flogged before is now flogged in the same way, either only the first or both strokes being serious, according as were those he had inflicted. Then the two returned to the body of players, in the best of humours, hang up their whips, go to the paiwarie trough, and drink together. The whole business, the two lines of dancers, the pairs of challengers, and the flogging, are repeated again and again throughout the day and night, and, if the paiwarie lasts out, throughout the next day and the next night, and sometimes, I am told, yet longer. From time to time all the players, men and boys alike, give and take their share 148 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. of blows, some, however, being more eager than others for this part of the entertainment, in proportion, as it seemed to me, to the skill which each attributed to himself in scientifically and forcibly inflicting the cuts. Watching with the greatest care, I have never detected the slightest flinching or sign of dread of the blow, nor any sign of ruffled temper. Yet I have seen men, and even small boys, after twelve hours of this work, with their calves so cut about that they could not put their feet to the ground with- out pain ; and in the case of one boy, whom I took into my service immediately after one of these performances, the scars lasted for months. I may add that the two challengers are in all cases suitably matched, boys challenging boys, and men challenging opponents worthy of their lash. But the performance so far described is occasionally slightly varied, and it is in this second form that the women take part. It seems a milder, perhaps a later, form of the genuine game; and it seems itself to admit of a good deal of variation. The women who take part in it are armed, not with whips, but each either with the long skak-shak or rattle, which has already been described, or with the wooden figure of a heron. The leader of the men also has one of these wooden birds in place of his more usual whip. Two lines are formed, the men and women standing indiscriminately facing each other. These two lines make the usual series of advances and retreats to and from each other, those players who have whips shaking these, those who have rattles shaking these by hitting the stick part of them at regular intervals with their disengaged hands ; and those who have honores shake these at each other. Then a pause is called, the players, men and women alike, put forward their calves, and each receives either with whip or honore a quite gentle courteous tap. Sometimes, too, the players instead of dancing opposite to each other in two opposing lines within the house, vary the proceedings by Games of the Red-men of Guiana. 149 I marching round and round the house in double-Rled proces- \ sion, stopping from time to time to give and take the I complimentary strokes. In a curious dance, perhaps a variety of the macquari, * time is beaten for the dancers by two old women, or an old man and a woman, rarely two young persons, who squat opposite to each other in the centre of the dancing square with this board between them. Each is provided with a rough wooden figure of a man called warau, which [ word as thus used by the Arawaks signifies "barbarian," a person not an Arawak ; or sometimes in place of this ■ail each has a bundle of a few straight sticks from two I to three feet long. Whatever instrument is used, it is I beaten by each player on the board to a sort of rough tune I and with an accompaniment of rhythmic chanting.' The 1 words of this chant, as I am assured, are now unintelligible nonsense ; frequent reference is, however, evidently made to the ourafia, or labba. In a circle outside these beaters of time stand a few, apparently rarely more than four or six, of the young men. Each of these is provided with his macquari whip, which he holds by its two extreme ends, his arms being thus outstretched to their full span. The extreme end of the lash, held in the left hand, is pointed I toward the centre of the circle, and is held so as almost to I touch the ground ; the opposite end, held in the right hand, L is held as high as may be from the ground. Thus the I bodies of the circle of dancers are all inclined inward, the I lashes of their whips pointing to a common centre, at which I lies the square board. Suddenly, at a signal from the time- I beaters in the centre, and always in time with this beating, I the men come forward with a curious little running motion, ' In Nature, for Septembei Sth, 1E99, il is suited Ihal Ihe Mincopies hnve but one musical insiniinenl, which consists " merely of a hard wood board, of spedsl shape," which is used for sounding a ihylhmical lime foi dancing. It il used only as a musical inslnimcnt, and so illustrates a step in advance of ihe I Australian, who taps with his stick upon his " casting boaid " or the samcpur- I pose, without etiiploying a separate insUuoienl. 150 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. y i 1 I and the circle contracts. The time-beaters beat on, now faster, now slower, and as they beat the circle of dancers round them advance and retreat, faster or slower, and as they dance, in constant alternation, the points of the whips are now raised toward the sky, so that the men's figures are bent backward out of the circle, now are turned, as at first described, down toward the ground. Description entirely fails to give any idea of the curious gracefulness of this measured swaying backward and forw-ard of bodies, and of the unusual grace and unusual activity of these dancers. After a time the women occasionally break in and increase the circle of dancers, to the destruction of the gracefulness and, it must be said, rapidity of the dance. The Warau game, called taratoo^ or naha^ in which the most marked feature is that each player is provided with a large shield made of palm-leaf stalks, is both, as far as I know, unrecorded as played by any other people, and is remark- able for certain features peculiar to it. Chief of these are that it is the only game, except mere children's games, known to me which is not accompanied by drinking, and that there is a real element of contention in it, in that it is used as a practical means, a trial by ordeal, of settling disputes which may have arisen between distinct groups of Waraus, generally between two groups respectively occupying adjacent rivers or creeks. The absence of drinking may, perhaps, be explained in this way. The usual fermented liquor used in the Indian games of Guiana is either paiwarie or casiri^ both of which are the ordinary every-day drink, one might almost say meat and drink, of all the Indians of Guiana except the Waraus. The latter — of course I speak of them now in their natural state, in which they are now only found in British Guiana, near the mouths of the Barima and Amakuru rivers — have never risen to the level, if I may so speak, of a good drink ; they live, apparently, curiously uncomfortable lives, hidden away between the mud and the Games of the Red-men of Guiana. 151 gloom, in dense jeta-palm swamps at the edge of the sea. The ground there is nowhere dry enough for the growth of cassava ; agriculture, even in the simple form practised by rthe other tribes, is unattempted and is indeed impossible; Mnd consequently the great food supply which the other tribes use, in the form of cassava bread and paiwari, is unattainable and unused by the Waraus. They seem indeed, in their purely natural state — which is perhaps no longer exhibited anywhere unless on some of the more remote and intricate windings of the mouths of the Orinoco — to have been in litlle more enviable state thao the Digger Indians of California, or the Fuegians, generally accounted the most miserable of human beings. Even game is very scarce in the sea-adjacent swamps where live the Waraus, who use instead fish and crabs. But one food supply they have of a marvellously all-suf- ficient, if unsatisfactory, character, the a^ta palm [Mauritia flexuosa) ; and on this, if we except the fish and crabs, they live exclusively. The pith of the aeta palm and the pulp round the fruits of the same tree serve them as bread-stuff; the fermented sap of the seta palm alone seems to save them from quite always quenching their thirst with water. For some reason, possibly with a natural and wise instinct for the preservation of the palms, which are so much to them, they only sparingly use this liquor, the drawing of which means the destruction of the tree. Unlike the other Indians, the Waraus therefore are not naturally habituated to the incessant use of fermented liquor; and for this reason it is perhaps that, also unlike the other Indians, they do not use it at their national game. The energy, emulation, and excitement shown by the Waraus in their liquorless game, is at least equal to that shown by the paiwarie-filled game-players of other tribes. The second remarkable feature of the shield-game is that I it serves as a trial by ordeal. The Waraus of one river are Kaccused, say, by the Waraus of a neighbouring river of 152 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. having stolen some pots, or some other such offence. The dispute between the two parties waxes hot. But instead of an interchange of blows, the headmen of the two parties meet, and these two arrange that their followers shall assemble at some appointed place, and at a date sufficently far ahead to allow of due preparation, and shall then fight it out — or play it out. A tree is chosen, and on one and the other side of this tree each of the two captains respectively make a number of masks indicating the number of days before the strife. They make the tree look, as one civil- ised Warau once picturesquely described to me, like a news- paper. The two parties now return each to their own homes, and there occupy themselves until the day of strife in the preparation of their shields and personal ornaments. After the strife, it may be as well here to say, the vanquished will, in the case above supposed, good-temperedly pay to the victors the amount of the damage which by ordeal they have been shown to have done. The shields, one of which each man prepares for himself are made in this way. Three sticks of light wood, the centre one much slighter, but also nearly double the length of the other two, are laid at distances of about fifteen inches, parallel to each other on the ground. The two outer sticks are perhaps four feet long, the middle one seven or even eight feet. Across the front of these parallel sticks pieces of the leaf stems of the aeta palm, all cut to one length, perhaps thirty inches, are laid parallel to each other and close together. These are then tightly bound with the fibre from the aeta leaf in the place which they now occupy. The result is a compact, dense shield of acta stalks, square or oblong in shape, above the top of which the two outer of the three upright sticks projects five or six inches, while the centre of these sticks projects several feet. To give additional strength to the shield, a stick of light strong wood is bound across the top of the aeta stalks, crossing the three projecting sticks at right angles, and Games of the Red-men of Guiana, 153 another stick, this time a stout piece of palm-leaf stalk, is bound on similarly at the bottom of the shield. Into three holes made in this lowest horizontal stick the lower ends of the three upright projecting sticks are inserted. Great tassels of flowing acta fibre, partly dyed red, are now bound, by way of ornament, on to the three sticks which project over the top of the shield, and the outer face of the shield, also by way of ornament, is painted in quaint barbaric patters with certain white, red, and yellow ochreous earths. The shield is now complete. It should be added, however, that each maker prepares his shield of a size suitable for himself, so that these vary in size from that of the big full- sized man to that of the small boy. The personal adornment is of a very simple nature, its con- stituents, if we exclude the few beads or teeth which a very few of the Waraus are rich enough to have and to wear habitually, are only acta fibre and coloured earths. Yet it is a fact, easily paralleled among other Red-men, that a great variety of taste, and some very good taste, is indi- vidually shown. Among the group of players all individuals may be discovered varying from the sloven's state to that of the well and worthily dressed man — 1 had almost said gentleman. Yet the latter has nothing over his bright clean skin but a loin-cloth or lap a few inches wide, a few bunches and twisted strands of straw-coloured palm fibre — these latter sometimes partly dyed to a pretty and congruous red colour — and possibly a few patches of coloured earths, and sometimes of plant juices. Here is the description of one special player, in a sense as well and as becomingly dressed a man as I ever saw, His waist-cloth was of clean white calico, and was the only European thing about him. It was kept in place by a thick girdle of loosely twisted palm fibres. Round each of his legs, just below the knees, and round his arms, just above the elbows, were similar girdles, each ending in a long and flowing loose end. From round his neck to below his waist hung a thick sort of cloak of etitirely loose fibres; and 154 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. round his head was a fibre fillet ending at the back in a bunch of long loose ends which hung down over his neck. The whole of his hands to above the wrists, and the whole of his feet to above the ankles, were dyed of that deep Indian-red colour (procured from Bixa orelland) which is, strangely enough, so becoming to the red skin of a Red-man. The whole of his clothing, except the paint, I could hold in one small bundle in my hand; yet in this full dress he looked only not a dandy because perfectly becomingly dressed. When the appointed day comes and the players are gathered together, each with his quaint shield and many flowing tassels, the group presents, as a whole, as picturesque an appearance as can well be imagined, the almost solely prevalent colours of which are soft and well-blended reds, yellows, and browns. After all this preparation the game is simplicity itself. Each party is drawn up in a long single line, the two lines facing each other in such a way that each player has immediately facing him a player of the opposite side of about his own size. There is much stamping of feet and much threatening shaking of shields, now held high over head ; and there is much shouting of the word saki^ sakiy sakiy each series of shouts ending in a general roar. Then suddenly the two lines take a half turn, and march off and about in single file, but the two sides in parallel lines ; the stamping, the shield-shaking, and the shouting being still kept up. Those who, judging by the unfortunate stray Red- men seen dazed in the town, think these people naturally dejected and low-spirited, would quite change their opinion did they see these same Red-men wildly excited and in the highest of spirits during this game. Suddenly the march- ing ceases, and the two ranks resume their places opposite to each other. Each man gets his shield against that of his opposite foe, and now in silence each pushes against his opponent, each strives might and main, heart and soul, to Games of the Red-men of Guiana. 155 [push his opponent back from the line and if possible to I overthrow him. Then follows more marching; and the whole thing is repeated time after time till all are too weary to do more. Then the thing ends. It would often be difficult for any but the most observant onlooker to tell which side had got the better; but they themselves know, I and the vanquished admit their defeat. Forfeit is paid, or r arrangement is made to pay the forfeit at some convenient f time. Lastly, all separate in the best of tempers. An account, written at the time, of a very curious cere- ' monial feast, which I saw held, apparently with strictest and most accurate ceremony, by the Partamonas, must bring this paper to a close. In the course of an overland journey in the interior of this colony, 1, with four of my Pomeroon Indians and a large crowd of Macusi carriers, [arrived at the village of Araiwaparoo before noon, and there I found great preparations in hand for a dance which is called parasheera, and seems to be practised especially by the Macusi and Akawoi. Parasheera seems to be the name not only of the dance but also of each of the performers, who, fantastically clothed, arrived at the appointed settlement for the dance. Even when we reached Araiwaparoo in the morning, the wooded kbeights round us from time to time re-echoed to frequent rshouts; these, however, for some hours died away each |(ime they were raised without anything apparently happen- ■ ing or anyone appearing. There seemed a good deal of ■ Ihesitation and unwillingness in answering my questional i about these shouts, and an air of mystery seemed to per- ("vade the whole village. I however induced one of my ■ Macusi travelling-companions to throw some light on the Imatter. He told me that it was the parasheera gathering, PEach party of two or three, being the male inhabitants of l^ne household from some part of the neighbouring lavannah, as they come, shouting and yelling, to some spot the forest, appointed as a gathering place, near the 156 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. village where the feast is to be held, hush their cries and wait till the other parasheeras, each party of whom seems to come from a separate, more or less distant settlement, come up. Only when the representatives from all the invited settlements have thus gathered together at the appointed place in the forest at some little distance from the place appointed for the feast, does the whole party move forward together When we arrived at Araiwaparoo, and for some hours afterwards, the mysterious parasheera were thus gathering in our neighbourhood, unseen, but most certainly heard, and apparently not to be talked of. At last, just before four o'clock, the excitement reached its highest pitch, and seemed to pass into a new phase. The men and boys of the settlement rushed into one of the houses, and presently came out fantastically painted with the finest white clay. The headman had a broad band of this pigment entirely across his face so as to cover both eyes and meet the ears on either side ; he looked exactly as though blindfolded with a white handkerchief. The same man had also various bands of the same white sub- stance round his body and legs. Each of his party was also painted, but differently, with this same substance. Otherwise they had no ornament, and no clothing beyond the ordinary narrow waistcloth. Each had a whistle formed of one, two, or three very slender pieces of bamboo, arranged, when there was more than one of these, like pan-pipes. This instrument is called kimitiy and from this instrument the whole of the party is also called kimiti. Those who amuse themselves with far-fetched fancied points of analogy between different languages may be especially in- terested to hear that this ^m/V/ performed exactly the office of a reception committee. Some of the kimiti frantically waved small joints of smoke-dried meat. Then, with endless wild and most fantastic caperings and posturings, and with most vehement sounding of their shrill whistles, the kimiti darted like a flock of wild duck down the path toward the Games of the Red-men of Guian 157 forest, whence the parasheera were to emerge. The approach of the latter was indicated by the growing roar which they raised, which, by the way, contrasted curiously, and doubtless intentionally, with the piercingly shrill sounds of the equally, but differently, noisy kimiti. I At last, just as the two bodies of different noises approached land blended in a most truly marvellous inharmonious har- rmony, the first of the long single-filed procession of new- comers came in sight just at the edge of the forest His entire body was concealed in a clothing of the pale yellow- green young leaves of the a;ta palm {Maurilia flexuosd). A skirt of the same, plaited together at the top, but other- wise hanging loose, hung from round his waist to his heels. A similar cloak of the same hung from round his neck so as to overlap the skirt; and a curiously plaited arrangement of the same leaves encircled his head, part serving as a far- extending halo-like crown, part hanging down visor-like r his face so as to overlap the top of the cloak. He ■ 'held in his hand a long wand of trumpet-wood {Cecropia 1 peltata), pierced with holes so as to serve as a rude musical instrument, and surmounted by a large flat representation of the sun or moon, or some star, or of some animal or bird, made of carved and painted soft wood. The procession as it emerged from the bush was com- posed of thirty-five of these fantastic figures [Parasheera), each dressed exactly as above described ; except that in each case the figure which surmounted the trumpet-wood dancing-stick represented some different object of the heaven or of the earth, or in some few cases was re- placed by a long rattling band of rattle-seeds [TheveCia nereifolia). Almost all the performers were grown men, but the last half-dozen or so were boys of various sizes down to the smallest. The first three men were accom- panied by their wives, who were, however, not in the rank, but walked, or rather pranced, each by the side of her husbaud, her hand on his shoulder. These women were 1 58 Games of the Red-men of Guiana. entirely without clothing or ornament except the usual small bead apron, and each had as solemn a face as if she were taking part in the gloomiest or most sacred of rites. As the party of parasheera and the kimiti met, the former blew, though that had seemed impossible, more vehemently and more deeply through their deep-toned trumpets, the latter redoubled — nay, increased beyond the power of words to express — their ear-splitting whistling. All, of both parties, postured and capered, and stamped, and waved their sticks till the whole was welded into as strange a phenomenon of sight and sound as eye ever saw, ear ever heard, or mind ever conceived. Thus the parasheera came on, slowly but steadily, and as they did so the kimiti whirled round and round the advancing line, even while at the same time they were posturing and capering as frantically as ever. Whether by accident or design, the long procession closed around me, yelling, shrieking, and roaring, and waving their dancing sticks so closely round my head that I had continually to duck to avoid them. The headman — who had led the procession — alone remaining outside, the procession passed into the house, and there formed a circle, faces inward, round the paiwarie trough. And now, as Mr. Rider Haggard would write, a thing most surprising to me happened. The kimiti, with the exception of the leader, instead of going in to share the feast with the parasheera, retired quickly into their own house, washed off their clay adornments, and came out and, except the head man of the settlements, set about their ordinary occupations. Except as a sort of a reception committee, the men of Araiwaparoo itself — the male hosts as it were — took almost no part in the feast. The headman of the parasheera, who, as has been told, instead of entering the drinking-house with the others remained without, now sat down outside the door and was there entertained, not for one hour or two, but until I left the place the next morning, by the leader of the kimiti with pepperpot and cassava, with much paiwarie, and Games of the Red-men of Guiana. 159 with an endless interchange of every ejaculatory conversa- tion. From within the house the most fiendish noise was issuing. The whole parly posturing in the most curious way, going through what I can only describe as the most solemnly ridiculous and fantastic posturings, their bodies energetically, yet steadily, bent from the hips alternately backward and forward, while at the same time their stamp- ling feet moved the whole circle of them round and round the Ipaiwarie trough. All were chanting as loudly and Sonorously as possible a short continuously repeated bentence, erantan eivorki, which being interpreted by one W my own Macusis, was said to mean " that they had come Ho drink like hogs." This sentence, apparently more appo- Mitc of meaning than they intended, really signified that they, fen the character of bush-hogs (or peccaries), had come to ^^rink. And to a very large extent they justified their fstalement that they had come to drink like hogs, both in its apparent and in its intended signification ; for while they wrtainly did, as a rabid total abstainer might say, drink like ■bogs, make beasts of themselves, they at the same time cleverly managed to keep up the whole time a somewhat Sclose suggestion of a herd of peccaries. Their stamping Svas as the stamping of a herd of these animals, and every vand then they interrupted the chanting of their sentence I utter a series of fiendish shrieks, always immediately followed by a rapid and vehement imitation of the grunt- ings of a herd of bush-hogs when disturbed by some un- fltpected sight or sound. But even the monotony of the Planted sentence was occasionally, perhaps once every half- ir, altered by the adoption of new words. Sometimes it (ras erantan meopoi wai cjy, " we have come to a bad mlace ; " that is to say they had had to mount a steep hill ■each the drinking-place. This was followed by sugges- ions that, they having taken so much trouble, it was to be loped that at least the drink was good and plentiful. r6o Games of the Red-men of Guiana. Sometimes it was ewoto wai e re kay^ *' we stamp the ground like bush-hogs ; " and certainly they did stamp on the ground, " earth-shakers " they were like, but much more vehement than any bush-hogs. Then again, they were shouting in chorus that ''hog want our dancing-sticks, bat we not let hog have them." The three women who had come with the party of para- sheera were not actually included in the circle of dancers ; but they solemnly pranced round just outside the circle, each behind her husband, with her hand still on his shoulder. The women of the settlement of Araiwaparoo had from the first kept within the drinking house, and were now in- side the circle of dancers, where they were busily employed in handing calabashes of paiwarie or casiri to the thirsty dancers. With almost no variation this went on all night. Every now and then two or three of the dancers retired from the circle and the house to free themselves by vomiting of the superfluity of liquor. And later on in the night a few occasionally fell down as they danced, only, however, to re- cover themselves in a marvellously short time and resume their places in the circle. The caperings of course got wilder, the shouts more disordered, and the dresses much dis- arranged. Two or three of the women of the place, one carrying her new-born baby under her arm, took part in the procession for a few minutes. Sometimes, too, nature seemed to be going to have her way and the proceed- ings slacked, but whenever this happened the watchful kimiti rushed, into their own house, adorned themselves afresh each time with white paint, and entering the dancing house, frantically capered round outside the circle of the parasheera, stimulating the latter by frantic whistlings and shouts to fresh exertions and fresh potations — and never in vain. When I left the place the next morning the proceedings were still in full vigour, except that the headman of the Folklore of Lincolnshire. i6i parasheera and the leader of the kimiti no longer sat talk- ing at the door, but lay there prostrate and overcome. I was assured that the proceedings would continue as long as the paiwarie lasted, which might be all that day and partly on into the next night, but that as soon as the liquor was finished the procession would move off, with as near the same ceremony as their state allowed, to the next settlement, and would there go through the same performance. I was fortunate in seeing them only at the first settlement, but the party was engaged to visit three others. In each case, I was told, the number of the parasheera would be swelled by the men and boys of each of the settlements at which they had already danced. P THE FOLKLORE OF LINCOLNSHIRE. {Read at Meeting ofigth December, rgoo.) When the popular beliefs of Lincolnshire are compared with the traditions of more picturesque districts of the United Kingdom, it is at once seen that its folklore is prosaic. The fertile stretches of agricultural land forming the three divisions of the county, known as Lindsey, Kesteven, and Holland, support a population which, taken as a whole, has little poetic susceptibility, notwithstanding its probable descent from some of the scalds of the Viking age. On the one hand, the unromantic landscapes charac- teristic of the shire have done little to arouse the imaginative faculty, and on the other, social disorder has but rarely been acute enough to become a mental stimulus. The traditionary superstition of the county, then, is lacking in the beauties which distinguish the conceptions of the Celtic peoples. VOL. XII H I f}2 Folklore of Lincolnshire. I have; been unable to detect any near relationship \,t\wt'rn tlH! folklore of Lincolnshire and that of S/ ;iri^iin;ivia, although our place-names and dialect still \»*'AT wihifSH to thc! settlement of the Northmen between the \\uu\\nT ;\ut\ thr Kens. The folklore of the shire, as I know it, li;i«t \\\\\r. or no originality. One tradition has its fellow in S'Tiuu I'f another in Ireland, a third in Russia, a fourth in l;'nrri;trk, and so on ; but so far as yet appears, there is no f ofif ifMnf;il area, the b(»liefs of which have a special kinship 7/it|i our ^nijierstitions. Yet my experience must not be t;ih fi ;n ;illogrther conclusive. Although I have spent ii'.ifly ;ill rny life in thtU \y iK'lore they will spcak openly, unless they li^i|/j/« ri to h'lray llnir thoughts unintentionally in general ' M./M:-.;itiofi. l*or this reason it is scarcely possible yi t I/, I i,itif \t> a cjcfinite conclusion as to a connection \t*\'/ttt\i I jri' olnsliire and Scandinavian beliefs. It is /iot|i « ;il,|r that as in other districts of England — it may l/< ^.;ij'l of lMiro|i( — there is a paucity of genuine Christian luytholo^^y, for the divination still practised on the eves of rrrtain saints' rlays i.s crntirely heathen in its origin. The dih|iosv.«-sHed nature-deities appear to have fallen out of memory soon after their overthrow. But the far older shamanism with which tlwty had become connected has not yet entirely vanished. And after all, it may be that the gods are not so dead .'is thi aj^ricullumlly speaking, behind the tiniL's. 172 Folklore of Lincolnshire. fragmentary form of the legend relating to the sparrows occurs in another part of Lincolnshire, and other examples of the story have been found beyond the borders of the county.^ Supernatural beings in animal shape are now less fre- quently seen than in earlier days, yet their appearence is still vouched for by some elderly people. Shag-foal^ or as he is also called Tatterfoal^ a mischievous goblin who seems to be one aspect of Puck, manifests himself most frequently as a foal in its rough winter coat. Of late years he has seldom been met with, and it is possible that he has been disconcerted by the drainage and cultiva- tion of fen, marsh, and low-lying moorland. It must be con- fessed, however, that local belief scarcely attributes to him the fondness for water which distinguishes the Irish pooka^ the Scotch kelpie^ and many of the goblin horses of conti- nental Europe. Black dogs with eyes glowing like hot embers, phantom calves, white rabbits, and other eerie animals, are sometimes said to haunt places where murder or suicide has been committed. But it is by no means clear whether these apparitions are considered to be spec- tres of the dead in brute form, or demons from the infernal regions. After some consideration I have come to the con- clusion that they are probably the former. The belief in shape-shifting still exists, that is certain. In Lincolnshire, witches can take on themselves animal guise at will. They have been known to assume the appearance of a hare, a magpie, or a cat. One of the witches whom I myself have seen, was credited with being able to change himself into a dog or a toad, that he might injure the pigs, bullocks, and other live stock of his neighbours. With us, be it observed, the word " witch " is often masculine, and it is noteworthy in this connection that Bunyan speaks of ** Simon the * Anielie Rosquet, Iji Normandie Romanesque et Mervcillcusey p. 219. A. C. Fryer, Llanttvit Major (1893), p. 35. Stirling, Artists in Spain^ quoted in Card. Wiseman's Essays, p. 406. Folklore of Lincolnshire. 173 I Witch," meaning Simon Magus.' This use is correct ; the Middle English wicche, a wizard, a witch being both mascu- I line and feminine ; Anglo-Saxon wicca masculine, wicce feminine. Another male witch living in the same parish with the man above mentioned, had received the evil eye by descent, and had therefore to take precautions against its blasting too freely, since if he looked at any living thing, whether animal or vegetable by nature, before eating in the morning, it straightway withered and died. That sorcery still holds its own in the district lying to the west of the Trent is shown by the following notes on the subject sent to my father a short time ago by a close observer of folk-custom. " The survival in England of the belief in witchcraft is sometimes questioned. Lady Rosalind Northcote* appears to doubt whether it survives in Devonshire. 1 think I may safely say that it still lingers in the Isle of Axholme. A few years ago a girl friend of mine, when staying in a farmhouse in the next village to this, noticed that before the farmer's wife began to churn she threw a little salt into the churn and a little into the fire. When asked why she did this, she replied that it was to ' keep the witch out o' chum.' She did not mean her butter to be ' witched.' Some weeks after this was told me, one of my neighbours asked me if I could take a pound or two of butter from her, as she had made more than she had customers for. 1 asked, jestingly, [ whether it was 'witched,' and was surprised to find my question taken quite seriously. The woman assured me I that she ' always took care o' that,' and when I asked how, she said she always used the salt-charm just described. When I pressed her to say whether she really believed in ' See Precenlor Vtrablea' eililion of Ihe Pili-rim's Frogrcss, nole lo p. q^ J- uid p. 98. Ct also a reference lo the Warwickshire use, in Alhetueum, L October 13, 1900, p. 474, 3id cdIuiud. ' Folklore, vol. xi., p. 316 1 74 Folklore of Lincolnshire. witches and charms she hesitated a little, but finally said that she ' wasn't sure ' that she did, but she had always known this charm used for this purpose and ' thought it as well to be safe.' " ^ ** Some fifteen years since," continues Mr. Peacock's correspondent, '' I communicated some notes on popular weather lore to a local paper. Shortly afterwards a man from a neighbouring village whom I knew very well called upon me. His manner was mysterious and shamefaced, and I could not at first make out what he wanted. At lengthj however, he said that he had read my letters about the weather and the moon and such like, and knowing that I was ' lamed ' in these matters he wished to lay his trouble before me, in the hope that I might be able to help him. His story was this. He had for years been * living tally ' with a woman — that is, in cohabitation without marriage— and the vicar of the parish had been * at ' him to marry her. ' He said something would happen to me, if I didn't' He had not done so, and the ' something ' had happened." *^ * It's t'ould vicar as has witched me,' he said. I tried in vain to laugh and then to argue him out of his belief. It was well known, he said, that such things had happened and he had several instances pat. I told him that witches were usually old women, whereas the vicar — ! ! ! ! But all was of no use ; I must ' take it off him ; ' he was sure that I could. " Perceiving that his case was one of a troubled conscience complicated with chronic dyspepsia, I prescribed a strong purgative and marriage with the woman. He took both doses and found relief." Such is the testimony of one intimately acquainted with village life in Lincolnshire. The work of sorcerers and people gifted with the evil ' Salt is thus used in North Lincolnshire, cfist of the Trent, also. I have often seen my mother's servants throw it into the churn and into the fire, at Bottesford. Folklore of Lincolnshire. eye may be counteracted in various ways. Sprigs of the far-famed " Wicken-tree " (^Pyrus aucuparia), which seems to be generally so used throughout Northern Europe, are supposed to prevent ati witch-work if kept about a house or farmstead, especially if tied in the form of a cross. A horse-shoe placed with the points upwards or a "witch- stone," is also effectual- Any stone with a hole through it, if found without being searched for, will serve as a " witch- stone," but the longer it has been used for this purpose the more efficacy it possesses. Old Mrs. V , who owned one till she gave it to a correspondent of mine who makes a study of village-lore, told him that every house in the parish where she dwelt was probably provided with a stone, Mrs. M , an inhabitant of the same village, had another of these amulets, and she was of opinion that they acted equally well whether concealed in the pocket or exposed to view. A common way of using them, I learn on the same authority, is to hang one behind the outermost door of the house which it is to protect, thus , securing the entrance of the dwelling. Flints seem to be kthe favourite stones with us, but Mr. John Nicholson, author lof Folklore of East Yorkshire, says (p. 87) that thin flat loolite stones having a natural perforation are found in I abundance on the Yorkshire coast, and are tied to door-keys for suspended by string behind the cottage door to keep I witches out. " As a relic of this custom, a reel, from which I the cotton has been used, is often tied on a bunch of keys." ■In Lincolnshire I have noticed one instance of a perforated flint being tied to a bunch of keys, though the person who attached it to them professed ignorance of any special reason for doing so. Cotton reels are commonly thus used, perhaps simply from custom in many instances. My father has a fine neolithic stone hammer with a perforation for the handle, which was discovered in a little square chamber con- l^ved beneath the door-stone of an old house which used I stand opposite to the Methodist chapel at Messingham. 176 Folklore of Lincolnshire. " Greybeards," and other oid-fashioned vesselsi or frag- ments of iron, are sometimes found embedded beneath the foundation, the threshold, or the hearthstone of ancient dwellings, to hinder witchcraft. Such vessels may con- tain horse-shoe nails, other scraps o£ iron, needles, pins, and any small trifles supposed to injure sorcerers or divert their attention. An animal's heart stuck full of pins, and concealed within the fabric or under the walls of the build- ing to be guarded, was not long ago a great protection. Whether it was a substitute serving in place of the animal or human being which in heathen days was walled up in new buildings, has yet to be proved. Burning some of the thatch from a witch's house will thwart her; and grass from a new-made grave is also of use. Not many years ago, a man in the wapentake of Yarborough took a " stee " — that is, a ladder — to the wall of a churchyard, climbed over just after a burial, and plucked blades of grass from the sod on the freshly-filled grave. These blades were to put under his wife's pillow, because she was bewitched. To make a witch appear, a cake stuck full of pins should be burnt on a girdle, or pan, over a fire. People who deal in innocent magic are but rarely sup- posed to practise the black art also. Generally speaking, the wise-man and the witch are quite distinct and even opposed to each other; the former being employed to counteract the misdoings of the latter, and showing him- self as inimical to those dealing with the powers of dark- ness as was the great god Thor himself. An instance of the possible combination of the two professions was, how- ever, furnished not long since by the Rev. J. Conway Walter, who sends me the following extract from the autobiography of Thomas Wilkinson Wallis, of Louth. " In Louth there was a man named Stainton who had the reputation of being a wizard. Prior to Mr. Brown's illness he met this man at the public-house, and said to him, * If I Folklore of Lincolnshire. lyy yah be a wizard, wizard me. ' Brown was ill soon after this and believers in witchcraft said he was bewitched. On one occasion the foreman of John Wright (second husband of Brown's mother) of Haugh came into the sick-room and said to him, 'John, 1 am sure you are bewitched, and you will be cured if you do what I am going to tell you. Send for this man, Stainton, and get him close to your bedside, and stick an open penknife into him. Draw blood and you will be cured.'" Brown did not try the remedy. Whether he recovered witness deponeth not. If Stainton, the wizard here mentioned, were really, as Mr. Walter's letter to me implies, the same person as the wise man who consulted his book by the aid of a bumble- bee, of whom he was once told by his clerk at Woodhall [Folklore xi., 438] the case is curious and exceptional. I regard it as unorthodox and degenerate folklore. Workers of useful magic can make charms against witch- craft, reveal the sex of creatures yet unborn, foretell future events, and perform strange cures. Within the memory of people still living, there was a wise man at Lincoln of whom the following story is told. A Market-Rasen witch laid a spell on the cow of a neigh- bour, so that the animal would not go into her shed to be milked. The daughter of the owner, a woman who now lives " on the other side o£ Doncaster," was therefore sent to the wise man to see what he could do. She did not know in which street of Lincoln his house was, but as she was going through the city uncertain of her way, a man came out of a door and asked her name. After one or two more questions he informed her that he was the person whom she was seeking, and that he had been expecting her to come. He then took her into an inner room of his house left her there, and in a little while returned with a red-hot poker, which he thrust into the fire-grate, kindling the wood and coal arranged in it. You may go home," he said, " it will be all right now." VOL, Xli N 178 Folklore of Lincolnshire. And the spell was, in truth, broken. At the very time the fire began to burn at Lincoln the witch was heard to scream with agony at Rasen. Another person troubled by the same old woman is said to have "drawn blood" by cutting her across the fingers with a chopper, and after that she had no further power to injure him. Sometimes people who do not practise professionally as wise men or wise women, yet have inborn knowledge by which their friends may benefit. An instance in point is the following story, which was related to me by an old woman in 1885. " When Mrs. Blank lived i' th' Marsh, i' B. parish, she ed* a bairn /at was overlooked, an' hed n't noa ewse at all i' his legs. He was windlin' awaay as fast as he could, while \i.e, until] th' wife o' th' captain o' a vessil 'at pot in at Whitton [on the Humber] tell'd his muther te saay a set o' words ower sum barberries — barberries is like beans, an' thaay gits 'em at druggists — an' pot 'em i' a bag roond lad neck. Then he'd cum all raaight, sh' said. An' he did. Just th' fost week or two, he seemed to goa back'ard an* cried an' frettid at neet : bud afore very long he was as raaight as th' rest on 'em. An' noo him an' his bruthers is all preachers." (Preaching, I may add, was an hereditary gift, for the boy's father, though said by his critics to be quite illiterate, was a " local " whose sermons and exhortations were popularly believed to have brought conviction of sin to many a stubborn heart.) While the dread of witchcraft has even yet a far firmer hold on many people than they are willing to allow to strangers, the closely allied belief in luck and ill-luck is quite as strong and still more general. A greater number of actions than can be counted are placed under taboo. It is, for instance, most unlucky to praise a person, or thing, very highly. And many people of good middle-class education feel that to say you have Folklore of Lincolnshire. escaped a misfortune invilcs it to fall on you. To turn back without fulfilling the intention with which you set forth, or to take anything out of the house before it has been applied to the use for which it was brought in, is very unwise. In sweeping a floor the dust should never be swept out of the door, lest luck should be swept away with it. A lantern left on a table all night brings misfortune ; probably because lanterns are frequently used in the hours of darkness when men, horses, or cattle are ill. In a certain house in the wapentake of Manley, when one was set on the table for a very short time " there was a six-pound farrier's bill to pay for a cow." To carry all your eggs to market in one basket is foolhardy ; evil will follow. And to bring the small yolkless eggs, known as wind-eggs, into the house at any time is to do a terrible thing. No farmer should count his lambs too closely during the lambing season. This idea is, it may be guessed, connected with the notion that to reckon very accurately gives the powers of evil information which they can use against the objects under consideration. " Brebis catnpt^es, le hup les mange" I have seen a shepherd in obvious embarrassment because his employer knew so little of his own business that, though usually the most easy of masters, he would insist on learn- Ljng every morning the exact number of lambs his flock had ■ produced. For a cognate reason, it may be, some people ' when asked how old they are reply, "' As old as my tongue, and a little bit older than my teeth. M. Gaidoz remarks in Melusine (ix., 35) that old people ought not to I tell their age, and when importuned to reveal it they should ■■rsnswer that they are as old as their little finger. Inhabit- lants of Godarville, Hainault, reply, " I am the age of a calf, pvcry year twelve months." To spit for luck on the ground or on money when buying r selling is a custom still frequently observed. It is usual Iso for the seller to give the purchaser " luck-money." Dn a certain day in August, 1898, a large number of mar- J So Folklore of Lincolnshire. buyers kept aloof from the auction sale in Lincoln .„«.. ket because "luck-money'' was withheld. The Lincoln Butchers' Association asserted that the money always had been given till the auction system was introduced, and that it ought still to be allowed at the rate of one shilling on cattle and a penny on sheep. The auctioneers, who found their customers from a distance less conservative, proved obstinate, however, declaring that the Corporation of Lincoln would not permit them to make a grant of " luck- money." The old custom will therefore fall out of use. Indeed, a large number of traditionary practices and beliefs appear to be doomed to extinction or to severe modification. Not only do gossiping newspapers and penny novelettes distract the thoughts of the young from interest in the lore of *' idle-headed eld," the changing of the population also does its work of destruction. In almost ' every village, strangers are now replacing the old families which have lived there or in the surrounding parishes from before the time that manorial records first began. Ere many years have passed away, the old methods of thought will have dropped out of existence or have taken new shapes in accordance with the necessities of the average school- boarded intellect. Nevertheless, at the present time much might still be done in collecting folklorfe. For a little while yet there will be a crop to gather in. The pity is that in Lincoln- shire as in many other counties there is a dearth of har- vesters to bring together what might still be stored. Every village and hamlet possesses its own variant of some of the popular superstitions of Europe, but this fact is generally unrecognised, and people with the opportunity to discover or the inclination to record, our local credulities are not easy to find. COLLECTANEA. Stories and other Notes from the Upper Congo. (Collected by the Rev. J. H. Weeks, Baptist Missionary, Monsembe Station, Upper Congo River.) It may interest you to know how these stories were obtained. Soon after we opened this station, in August, 1896, I tried to get some native stories from the boys, but failed in every attempt. I felt sure, however, that they had some, and it was not until one evening early in 1892 that I was successful. On that evening while I was writing, some boys were sitting on the floor at my feet talking. After a time I noticed that one was talking and the others listening intently. I made a mental note of it, and the next day I asked him to write out on a slate for me the palaver he had told the boys on the previous evening. He did so, and I found it was a native story. I gave him a small present and asked him to write some more, which he did, and in a short time I had four or five boys writing stories on my verandah, and very often one boy who knew a story, but could not write, sat and told it to one who could, and then shared the spoil. We have between sixty and seventy native stories, and the majority of them was handed down by one chief, who, although he died before we came here, is still spoken of with respect on account of his knowledge of the ancient myths and customs. These stories, or most of them, have been printed in the original, to use : first, as a reading book for our school ; secondly, as a storehouse of native idioms for our own use ; thirdly, so as to have them in a handy and permanent form for reference.^ Some of the stories are witty and amusing; others are only remarkable for the way in which they account for the present state * The thanks of the Society are due to Mr. Weeks for the copy of this work which he has kindly presented to the library. — Ed. of affiurs b the ph^kai ^ „^ >nMght mio the a«in^ nxiai. ^ his li^rf ."^T^ give a dear »n the loUowi,^. taasoaocs 1 sh.2^2 »!1^' ^"""^^ *P to wtiw Hikww but he« ^ »K^,^ f "* « possible - to oeamess. amd unnecessary detaUed expon^^,.^^ to L— Lo LA MOTV WAwu iXfiketo, p. ,,) His name was Mokwete. He possessed a number of - but he lived in a hunting camp. He made traps with r^JS cane. One day he went to look, and found an animal tram^ when he had taken the animal, he said to his wives : « My " ' take this animal and cook it'' They cooked it, and when iT^^ finished they dinded it into two portions : one the)- took to h^ and the other they kept for themseh-es. The husband took^ and ate it, but was not filled. ^ By-and-by he caught another animal ; then he said : « I hav caught plenty plenty animals, but 1 myself ha^-e never eaten to repletion, because of my numerous wives." Another day he went and found another animal trapped, and then he deceived his wives by calling out: "Wives of Mokwete, wives of Mokwete!" They answered: "Yes." He said: "Should your husband come with meat, you must not eat ; if you eat, you are dead." They answered: "Very well." The wives waited a little, and, looking, saw their husband coming with an animal. He put it down, and told his wives to take and cook it The wives cooked all the meat, and brought it all to him. The husband said : " Why have you not taken some meat?" They said : "A person told us just now, * Should your husband come with meat, you must not eat it.' " Then he ate it, and sang. He went to look at his traps and found another animal. He Klartcd again for that place from which he had called to his wives. A boy was visiting the place, who when he saw him, hid himself \\\i\ hollow tree. He looked, and saw a person come staggeringly «ilv>ug and throw something heavily down, then he said: "Wives s^\ Mokwete ! " They answered : " Yes." " Should your husband i\»uu* with meat you must not eat it, if you eat it you are dead." { \w lH>y looked and found that it was his father who was deceiving Slories from the Upper Congo. his mothers. He went at once and told his mothers that " the person who is calling now is father," His mothers said : " II is untrue." He answered : " You doubt it, come and look then." They went and beheld their husband standing calling to his wives. When they saw their husband there they returned, and afterwards when he came with meal they cooked it for him. He went again, then the wives said : " Let us run away." They fled, ihey broke the saucepans, they put out the fire, and ran to their towns and told the people i " We would have stayed if wc could have eaten of the animals our husband killed ; he lulled one and we ale of it, he killed another and refused us ; we felt angry and ran away." Vou see women got the habit of running away from this, and in the same way people became liars. The last two lines contain the moral to the story. They are very fond of rounding off their stories with reasons for the present state of things. There is only one remark to make on this story. The women would have the full sympathy of all who heard the story, and the man would be condemned for his selfishness, but applauded for the cunning way in which he tried to deceive his wives. Voices telling them what to do would be accepted as very probable, for they come quite within the sphere of their philosophy, II,— Lo LA Ensulunkl'tu na Lokanga. (Miketo, p. 4.) Concerning the Owl and the Partridge. They had been fishing in a pond when the owl killed the partridge, skinned it, dressed himself in it, and so, changed into a partridge, went to the town. The partridge's son asked the owl, saying : " Where is my mother ? " The owl, deceiving him, said : " Why, I am your mother." The young partridge cried : " Those are the arras of my mother." Then his grandfather said to the owl : " Why did you kill the partridge ? Behold, you now wear the skin of the partridge, and why are you deceiving the partridge's son ? " They killed the owl, he died in revenge for the partridge, and they buried him in the road on the way to the well. The little boys [i.e. little paruidges] went lo draw water; they passed along in numbers, having with them the partridge's son ; 184 Collectanea. when they reached the place where the owl had been buried all the boys passed without spitting, but the partridge's son spat on the grave. They drew the water and were returning to the town, when the owl stopped them and asked each one : *' Did you spit here?" But each one denied doing it. When the partridge's son was passing, he who spat there, the owl asked : " Did you spit here?" and he answered : "Yes." Then the spirit [mungoli = dis- embodied spirit] of the owl tied him and killed him. For this reason the people are afraid of spirits, because he [the owl's spirit] killed the partridge's son. This story illustrates two customs and one belief among these people. 1. The law of revenge. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, is carried out literally. When A. wounds B., B.'s only desire is to wound A. to the same extent ; but should he go beyond, A. has the right to square the account by wounding B. again. Should A. wound B., and B. in return wound A. so badly that he dies, then A.'s family will use every effort to either kill B. or one of his family. In the eyes of the natives the one who killed B. or one of his family would be held guiltless. They would say that he was simply doing his duty by a member of his family. Should a slave kill a chief, the death of the slave would not square off the death of a chief, so the slave's master would be held responsible, and either he or one of his family would have to pay the balance due. We have had examples of each of these points here. 2. The respect due to the dead. The owl had paid the debt of his crime, therefore why insult his grave ? The custom was very prevalent when we came here, not to mention a dead person's name directly ; but if it were necessary to speak about him, some little characteristic was mentioned. As we talk so freely about our dead, they are not now so careful as formerly. 3. The spirits of fairly good people go to " Longa" (the nether region), but specially bad ones wander through the forests or remain about their graves. Such spirits are invested with all kinds of power, (a) They bring sickness on a town, but can be driven out by proper means through the agency of a " medicine man." (b) They bring sickness on an unfavoured individual, but the medicine man has power, under conditions, to drive the sickness thus caused away, (c) They sometimes take possession of a man Stories from the Upper Co7igo. 185 and talk through him, telling the people what tliey are to do. The signs of such possession are : the body quivering, the eyes frenzied, the language obscure — being generally the ancient obso- lete language of the elder folk. When under the sway of the Spirit \mo»gol}\ they deliver messages from some well-known deceased person to some living person. This has, however, quite recently fallen into disrepute here, because it has been used as a means to get slaves, &c., by the person so possessed out of others. Sundry Notes. . Charms are used to protect inanimate objects from malign P influences. Among the Bangalas it is the custom to tie a small palm-plant to I the central post when building a house, otherwise some enemy • will bewitch it, and cause it to leak badly, or throw it out of the perpendicular, or spoil it in some way or other. The palm-plant is always used, but frequently it is supplemented with other charms, according to the experience or predilection of the builder. Canoes are protected, during construction, from cracks, bad shape, &c., by a seed pod or a piece of candelabra euphorbia tied to them. The man while making the canoe will abstain from water, and drink only sugar-cane wine, or from some particular food. Should he through carelessness happen to partake of the tabooed article something will spoil the canoe. There is scarcely a thing manufactured except under the protecting influence of a charm. Fishing-nets, smithy-work, stools, houses, canoes, pottery, all have their own special charms ; and those who make them also have each his own charm to protect his skill from the malign influence of any witchcraft that may be exercised against him by his enemies. 3. Charms are used in dealing with living things. No attempt is made to capture elephants until an elaborate ceremony, lasting from one to three days, has been performed. When elephants are known to be in the neighbourhood, a man will call a fetish-doctor to impart to him the necessary skill to ensure success. The fee Co the "doctor" will be either a lump sum down or a commission on the sale of the slaughtered animal's flesh, or both. Sometimes a " doctor " will visit a town in the Lvicinlty of elephants, and after performing certain rites will sally Ifortb with people from the town to trap and kilt. Helpers will 1 8 6 CGlIectfinea. take a part of the flesh if the hunt is saccessfix], but if otherwise the *' doctor'' excuses himself bj saving that a more powerful charm than his has been used by^ an enemj to counteract his and bring about £ulure. As hippopotami are more plentiful than elephants^ the requisite ceremony to ensure success in killing them is neither so elaborate nor so long ; crocodiles^ however, bdng very cunning, no attempt is made to catch them without much ceremony. As fish are very common, no specially prepared charms are necessary to catch them, unless large quantities are wanted, or expeditions of an extensive kind are made. The first fish caught by a bd b given to his parents^ or those who stand in that relationship to him. otherwise he wiU £sl11 under the ban of a curse. The first fish caught in the season is given to the person who greets the owner first on stepping ashore, or he wiU have no further luck. The giving away of the firstfruit of skill in manufisLCture, in fuming, in hunting, &c., is widely observed. 3. '* Likundu " is the native term for an occult power supposed to be possessed and exercised by many individuals; both its possession and exercise may be without the knowledge of the person who is supposed to possess it. A person is accused of possessing " likundu " when he or she is extraordinarily successful in hunting, fishing, skilled bbour, or the accumulation of wealth. There is apparently only a certain amount of skill extant, only a certain number of fish to be caught, only a certain amount of wealth to be gained ; and for a person to excel all others is a proof that he is using evil means to his own advantage, and in thus defrauding others of their share he lays himself open to the charge of possessing " likundu." The charge of having "likundu" is sometimes brought play- fully against a person, and is then simply equivalent to our phrase " you arc too clever," but when used seriously against one it causes much annoyance, and can only be disproved by either drinking the ordeal or refraining from doing that which has brought the charge. There is a man in this town who will not set traps for the palm-rat now, because his success has laid him open to the charge of having " likundu." A person who possesses this " likundu " may unconsciously cause the hunting skill of any hunter in his family to fail. There is a hunter of hippopotami in Stories from the Upper Congo. 187 this town who for a considerable time was very successful in his expeditions, Soon after we started our mission work he utterly failed in his hunt for them, and could not kill a single one. He returned to the town after one of his unsuccessful hunts and accused his nephew, a lad of ten or twelve, of having exercised his " likundu " against him. The lad denied the charge, but on having the " ordeal " administered it was satisfactorily proved to those concerned that he had " likundu," consequently his brother paid a heavy fine to the disappointed hunter who had been the supposed victim of his evil through unconscious machinations. He has done little or no hunting since. It is a common belief that girls and lads "have plenty likundu." This belief perhaps originated, but is cerUiinly strengthened, by the fact that the ordeal-drink is an intoxicant, and as girls and lads are not inured to its effects they become quickly intoxicated and fall, but after having taken it a few times they are able to resist its effects, or as the natives say: "they have no more 'likundu,'" 4. Ordeals used are as follows : — The most common one in this district is " nka," on the Lower Congo "nkasa," It is the outer skin of the rootlets of a certain tree; when the skin is scraped off it looks like the combings from plush velvet. A piled teaspoonful is given. If the person is guilty he will soon fall intoxicated ; should he not fall intoxicated his innocency is proved. If two persons, the accused and the accuser, take it, as often happens, the one who falls first is the guilty party. Should the accused fall he is guilty, should, how- ever, the accuser fall first his accusation is thereby proved false. The next in favour is the " hlela " or wild yam. About a pound . is boiled and administered in lumps to the subject. The " nka " I is never given in sufficient quantity to kill, but the "lilela" is r very often fatal in its action. " Mokungu " is very seldom used. The bark of a certain tree is broken off, and the inner skin of the bark carefully scraped ; the juice from this skin is pressed and dropped into the eye. If the eye is blinded the person is guilty, 5. A few years ago, it was the custom in this district that when j the fishing season began badly, the parties interested contributed I towards the purchase of a slave, generally an old person, who 1 «as bound hand and foot, and thrown into the river to propitiate I the water-spirits. As the people who contributed the necessary 1 88 Collectanea, amount fished continuously and zealously to gain as much benefit as possible from the appeased disposition of the water-sfniits, diey of course were very successful, and put to the credit of their sacrifice what was really due to their zeal. There is to-dayin the district above this, a man with one eye who was sacrificed in this way. While in the water his bonds became unfastened, and on swimming to land be told the people that the water-spirits had sent him back because they did not want a one-eyed man. His wit saved him. 6. I will close with two or three observations on the drinking customs of these people. The liquor generally used is fennented sugai-cane water. (Palm wine is drunk, but is very scarce.) The canes are cut into lengths of two feet, stripped of the hard outer skin, put mto heavy canoe-shaped troughs, and pounded with heavy pestles until Uie fibres are cnished and separated. The mode of pressing the juice out is one that I have seen illustrated as an old Egyptian one. Two strong uprights are fixed in the ground, and at a convenient height a horizontal cross-piece is placed. Rope a quarter of an inch thick is plaited into an oblong web two feet long by about one foot three inches wide, with loops at each end ; the cross-bar is threaded through one end, and a short stout stick is passed through the loops at the other or lower end ; a large handful of juicy fibre is placed on the web and held in position while the lower stick is turned two or three times until the fibre is enclosed in the web, then the lower stick is turned repeatedly until the fibre is pressed dry ; the juice runs into a slanting canoe beneath, and is drained ofl" into jars. This process generally takes place in the morning, some fermented wine is added to the fresh juice, and by the early afternoon the whole is effervescing and ready to be drunk. A jar of about three gallons can be bought for a couple of yards of calico. A man buys a jar of wine, beats his drum in a certain way to call his friends, who, after a few minutes, begin to gather from various parts of the town, often followed by a wife carrying a stool and some article out of which the man is to drink. One has a bottle, another a saucepan, another an old coffee-pot, another a jug, another an enamel mug or a glass. A man is chosen to dole out the wine. The majority drink in the ordinary way, but some drink in a manner peculiar to themselves. One draws his wine through a tube ; another has a cloth dropped over his head while A nimal Superstitions. 189 drinking; another places some fine-shredded grass over the mouth of his bottle and draws the wine through that ; another takes a part of a plantain leaf, makes a channel down the middle, puts one end into his mouth, and pours the wine out of his cup on to the top end of the leaf, from whence it runs down the groove into his mouth. All these various modes of drinking are rigidly followed out of regard to the strictest injunctions of some medicine-man, who has told them that in order to prevent the return of a sickness from which they have suffered or to escape some disease they must drink wine in such and such a manner or not at all. When a man is " on the booze," he sticks a leaf in his hair to show it, and then no notice is taken of any stupid or insulting remark he may make, or any business transactions he may enter upon. John H. Weeks. Animal Superstitions. I. From Symiy Asia Minor, {Ante, p. 129.) [The following are a selection from the notes collected for me by Mr. Demosthenes Chaviaras, and translated by Mr. W. R. Paton.] I. The sponge- fishers think it an evil omen if they see an octopus at the first place they touch at on their way to their fish- ing ; they refrain from catching it. Children's clothes on which a cat kittens ^re thrown away, as are those over which a bitch that has just littered passes. When they hear the owl's cry they think it a good omen ; the women say to it : e/iayas KaXii ya^ircLpia Kat aovvov icaXa fAayrara, " Good news for us and good messages from you." Children who catch an owl hold it by the beak and say these verses : KovKKov (iaba fiaiayil vuts \opevei ^ fiavva aov ; T6vpiKa kL iipfiiyiKa kI dp/ievo7roX/rcji (suffers without having been injured). The fat of a kind of vulture and of the ftavp^ Sjiyida is used against rheumatism and colds. The hair of the dog which has bitten a man is used to cure the bite. The hair must be removed together with a portion of the skin ; the dog cures the wound so caused by licking it. There- fore they say ironically to some one who has been ill-used by a bad man, " Cut a hair off him." To cure a person in danger of being choked by a bone they 192 Collectanea. hold the muzzle of a puppy not yet weaned to his mouth, and its breath helps him to swallow it For a fish-bone they use a cat. [Also in Cos and Calymnos. — W. R. P.] With the prickle on the back of the hpuKaiva (a sea-fish) they prick those suffering from toothache. To cure a bruise, a person is put naked in a warm sheepskin. 3. At Easter they make KovWovpia (a cake) in the shape of snakes ; in his mouth they put a red egg and peppercorns or cloves for the eyes. . On the avyoK^KKas^ large twisted Easter ffoXX<$vpca, they put little birds made of the same dough. 4. After the funeral salt fish, bread, and wine are served to the grave-diggers ; meat was formerly forbidden at the fiajcap/ac (the ancient 7Fepih€iTya\ the feast given to the relations and friends of the deceased 5. Skulls of animals are put in the garden as scarecrows. The horns of stags or oxen are sometimes seen over the doors of houses. II. From Aidin^ Turkey. Collected by Mr. J. Kletropoulos. The vulture {karidl) is not killed by Turks ; the swallow, crane, large snake are also respected; so is the kaplan^ or panther of West Asia Minor. It is regarded as the king of beasts; whoever kills one is imprisoned for twenty-four hours and then rewarded. The camel is only killed and eaten on solemn occasions in Asia Minor. The partridge is killed because it once betrayed the prophet ; its legs are red because they were dipped in the blood of Hassan- Husein. The pig is not called tomuz^ but hinzir, "demon." Greeks call the wild pig fiovxrepdy (i.e. iio\Bripov) instead of its proper name. The dog is often called keip (scurfy) instead of kiotek^ its proper name. [At weddings in Aidin a pigeon is eaten by the bride and bridegroom. — W. R. P.] Animal Superstitions. III. From SUradz^ Poland. Cotlecied by M. I. de Piatkowska . A goat is kept for Inck. A wolf, crow, pigeon, or magpie in he house bring ill-luck. A stork seen for the first time in flight is lucky, on the ground unlucky. There will be a good millet year if many cockchafers are seen. Earth taken from the ground on which wild geese have rested, and put under a tame goose when it is sitting, will ensure a good brood. When you see the swallow for the first time in spring, you must sit down ; this prevents sore feet in summer. The first butterfly should be caught to ensure riches j you should turn your money when you hear the cuckoo, the frog, or the stork for the first time. The swallow, nightingale, lark, stork, and ow! are not killed, nor their nests touched. Bees and ants are also spared, and the word used for " die " is the same for them as for human beings. The spider is not killed. Sparrows are killed with whips. At Christmas and during the Carnival, young men disguise themselves as animals— bear, horse, or monkey— and go round the village. They also appear at weddings disguised as bears. Owl-feathers burnt in charcoal are good for fumigating rheumatic Imbs ; the- flesh of the owl is also good for rheumatic patients ; so is that of the stork, but you are not allowed to kill it. A tree-frog held in the hand cures excessive perspiration. To cure consumption you should eat the fiesh of a cat and wear its skin on your chest. Cataract is called "hen-blindness"; to cure it, take a black cock, hold it in a riddle, make it look at the setting sun, and look at the sun yourself; then throw the cock on the ground, jump on the top of a hedge, and imitate the crowing of a cock three times. On the eve of St Andrew, girls who wish to get married take a black cat and hold it over the fire ; then they throw barley on the fire and say : " Barley, burn ; cat, mew ; and let my dear one come." To divine which will be married first, girls put bread before a dog and see which piece it eats first. Clay whistles are made in the shape of cocks, dogs, and pigs. The souls of the drowned take the form of a horse or dt^, VOL. xn. o 194 Collectanea. Witches appear as frogs, wild geese, black cats, and crows. The bear was once a human being ; he frightened Christ by his growling, and received his present form. The cuckoo was formerly a girl; she disturbed Christ by crying "cuckoo" and was turned into a bird The cuckoo becomes a hawk in winter. The swallow was once a girl who was made captive by the Tartars ; she prayed to be allowed to return to her country and was changed into a bird. The stork brings children out of a well (? spring). A woman was once carried o£f by a bear and produced two young bear-cubs. Cocks, owls, and stags' heads made of wood are found on the houses. Eagles, owls, and hawks are killed and nailed to the front of the house. N. W. Thomas. Vine-grafting in Southern France. My authority for the following is Madame Gasquet, wife of Mon- sieur Joachim Gasquet of Aix-en-Provence, formerly Mademoiselle Marie Girard of Saint-Remy-de-Provence. She is a singularly intelligent woman, and possessed of a retentive and accurate memory. She is (I may also mention) a beautiful woman, tall and well formed, and as a girl had a remarkably pure and sweet expression of countenance. In April, 1894, Mile. Girard, as she then was, was aged about nineteen, and was staying with her foster-mother, Liso Gonfaut, at her mas^ or farm, the Mas Pelissier, or Viret. It lies at the eastern end of the northern slope of the Alpilles, a chain of sharp, peaked, rugged, low mountains, running eastward from the Rhone near Tarascon. Formerly they were well wooded, now the upper part is almost all bare rock, but the slopes or foothills grow almonds, olives, and vines, according to the altitude. Mile. Girard told me of the vine-grafting when I first met her in the autumn of 1894, but not wishing to trust to my memory only I' wrote to her last autumn (1899) ^or exact details, and in reply she sent me a copy of a letter written by her at the time to her fianci^ M. Gasquet, from which I quote the following passages : Vine-gmfting tn Southern France. Mile. Girard to M. Gasquet, \z Avril, 1894. " J'etais dans les environs de Romaninl depuis d^ji une quinz- aine de jours. Je m'etais mel^e le p'us possible i la vie simple des paysans. Puerile un peu, j'avais voulu errer dans les ruines vfetue de blanc ; une vieille robe de bure blanche, belle de ligne, mes cheveux ^pandus, un immense beret blanc, me composaient la toilette rev&. ' Un matin, la ntblo iTabrUu (brumes d' Avril) 'm'avail forc^e d'errer un peu i I'aventure sans point de repaire bien distinct. Je courrais de morne en morne, Candis que, semblable i d'enor- mes fiocons de lumiere, des lambeaux de btouillard Irainaient partout. Les amandiers k perte de vue s'cvaporaienl dans le soleil. Je m'etais eloignee beaucoup, sans doute, car dejk les terres rosdtres de la Vallongue etaient la. Un dernier amandier gigantesque tcrminait le sentier, que de nouveaux defrichements avaient sacrifi^. J'allais resolument partir i travers la terre iabourde, quand des aboiements furieux retentirent, partis d'un groupe de chenes-verts oil je distinguais vaguement la forme de trois honimes couchds, ' Sounas li chin I'* m'&riai-je. Obeis- sant, les chiens retournerent pres du maltre, qui, imperieux, les fit s'eCendre. " II y avail un grand vieillard raaigre, i barbe blanche, I'allure superbe et presque thedtrale, tant les moindres gestes etaient soignes ; un homme de vingt-cinq i trente aus, nerveux, et i I'air sombre,^ et un enfant de seize ans. Le vieillard me salua d'un large geste de la main, et me dit avec un inexprimable melange de fierte et d'dmotion : — - " ' Je suis le maltre grefleur des 30,000 pieds de vigne qui sont li. Dans mon pays,* pour que la vigne soit prosp^re, il faut que la sort conduise la fille la plus saine, la meilleure, el la plus belle, de la commune. Cette fille doit greffer le plus beau pied de ' The ruins of a castle that belonged to the Seigneuisof LeaBaux.— C A. J. ' "Call off the dc^ I" ' " Le bailc [bailiff] du marquis de Poizi, propri^tnirc des vignes et de Romanin."— M. G. to C. A. J., iQ Mars, 1900. < " II DC me par la pas on bon Pioven^Bl, mais en languedocEen de Toulouse ; puis en fian^ais, quand 11 devina la difficult^ que j'avais ^ compiendre. II s'eipiinia coiteclemenl et pompeuseroenl." — M. G. lo C. A. J., ;o Mais, 1900. 196 Collectanea. chacun des cdt^ d'oii peut venir le malheur. Du midi il n'y a ricn ii craindrc, c'est le soleil, mais de ci et de \ky c'est le phyl- loxera, le mildieu, la mine ! Jamais dans cette valine perdue je n'aurais cru rencontrer la vierge qui doit donner ses vertus k la vigne, et j'^tais inquiet tout au fond de moi. Voudrez-vous, belle enfant, que par vous la r^colte soit abondante le vin plus g^n^reux ? * " " * Je veux bien, mais je ne sals pas.' *' " * Qu* k cela ne tienne, nous allons vous montrer.' " " La le^on fut courte, et dis que j'eus compris, nous partions, le vicillard, I'enfant, et moi, car M'homme' ^tait parti marquer d'une branche de romarin fleuri les trois plus beaux pieds des trois c6t^s k preserver. '' Arrives pr^s du cep, le vieillard ^tendait gravement sa limou- sine^ k terre^ pour m'y faire m'agenouiller, et je greffais le pre- mier plant ; puis, 1^-bas au versant uba dis Aupiho^ le second. Au troisi^me, comme je penchais un peu trop la t^te pour nouer d'aplomb la ligature, mes cheveux glisserent. Prompt comme Teclair, I'enfant arracha la branche fleurie marquant le cep, et d'un geste adorable maintint mes cheveux, en s'dcriant, ' Anavon toucala terro/^"^ " Le vieillard me dit simplement, * Enfant^ vous grhmaci^ fugues urauso,^ " * Mile. Girard inquired some time later how the vineyard had fared, and heard that only the plants she grafted had flourished ; the rest were not dead, but had failed owing to the carelessness of the farmer. Madame Gasquet to Mrs, Janvier. " Aix-en-Provence, 14 Decembre, 1899. " Je ne sais d'oii peut venir cette l^gende adorable. La greffe des vignes amdricaines est toute rdcente, et, helas ! le peuple a perdu rhabitude de donner un sens symbolique k ses actes, et la vivante po^sie de la terre vit sur son passd. On garde bien la tradition, mais on ne crde pas de nouveaux mythes. * A striped wrapi a sort of blanket. * The northern slope of the Alpilles. ■ " It was going to touch the ground !" [Cf. Folk-Lore^ vol. xi., p. 448, 1. 24. — Ed.] * ** Child, I thank you ; may you be happy 1 " Folktales frc 1 the ■97 " Dans le Lot-et-Garonne, j'ai entendu dire i une vieille ferame I tres int^ressanie et un peu sorci&re, avec laquelle j'ai caus^ des journ^es, que, pour greffer les vignes autrefois (alors que I'on greffait un malaga sur d'aiiciens pieds fran^is, de mgme pour les I pfiches que Toti greffe sur des arbres sauvages), une jeune fille pubire (condition absolue) doit greffer le premier plant de chaque rang^e. Dans le pays I'usage n'esi plus observ^, et quand j'ai demande pourquoi i la vieille Peirusseto, elle n'a su que me dire ' Les vieux avaient dit qu'il fallait le faire.' " Peirusseto lived near Monerabeau, in that corner of the depart- ' ment of Lot-et-Garonne which is between the departments of Gers and Les Landes (ancient Gascony). Mme. Gasquel visited the district in November, 1899. Mr. Fernand Lundgren told me a few days ago that among the Navajo Indians (North America) it is the custom that the first row or planting of maize shall be done by young girls. This custom is falling into disuse, but at one time it was considered absolutely necessary. Catharine A. Janvier. March, 1900. Folktales from the 'sostom makes Diogenes tell truth), a criminal is sacrificed on the fifth day of the feast (Ellis, TJu Tshi-Speaking Peoples^ p. 229). If, by the way, the word Sacaea is derived from the verb whence comes Sdkl (Persian, the wine-pourer) then Sacaea is a Semitic word and therefore cannot be Persian, and may suggest a Babylonian origin. This suggestion is not made by Mr. Frazer. Andrew Lang. Mr. Frazer's work has exerted an influence over and won an authority among his fellow students denied to any since the appearance of Professor Tylor's Primitive Culture, There are reasons why this should be so, over and above the author's immense range of reading and great literary skill in handling and displaying to the best advantage a mass of facts which, presented otherwise, would be simply unreadable. But it does not seem to 238 Reviews. me that any of Mr. Frazer's reviewers have adequately recognised the force and cogency of his appeal to folklorists. I speak of Mr. Frazer's appeal, but, as he himself has insisted, the hypotheses which he has so ably championed are originally due to Mannhardt. It would be unfair, however, to separate master and disciple, discoverer and expositor. Whatever may be the final decision of advancing knowledge upon their hypotheses, their names will remain indissolubly linked together in the history of folklore scholarship. The Mannhardt-Frazer hypothesis has won such immediate and widespread recognition because it satisfies psychological require- ments of which every student is conscious, although very few are at the trouble of formulating them. It supplies, w^hat it was dimly felt the earlier hypotheses did not supply, an adequate explanation of the facts involved. This does not of course prove that it is true ; no one knows better than the student of folklore how far apart adequacy and truth may be. Ninety-nine per cent, of humanity have accepted and acted upon the most grotesquely absurd explanations of fact because they were nevertheless felt to be adequate. What then briefly speaking is the nature of the facts which the hypothesis essays to connote and interpret, and wherein does its special adequacy lie ? The customs and beliefs involved are in the first place wide- spread, covering as they do not only the Europaeo-Asiatic area in which all the higher civilisations have developed, but being met with also in districts and among cultures historically unconnected with that area. In the second place, they are found at all stages of recorded history, their range in time being as wide as their range in space. In the third place, they are singularly per- sistent in outline and animating spirit. Fourthly, unlike certain products of folk-fancy — story, song, riddle — they do not impress one at first sight as possessing an inherent capacity for wandering, for passing from one people to another. This impression may be wrong, but I believe that the most determined transmissionist, who is quite convinced e.g. that Cinderella originated in one definite centre whence it spread around, would hesitate to explain the prevalence of May-day or harvest customs in the same way. We may fairly conclude that the appeal and sanction of these beliefs and customs must have their roots in something practi- The Golden Bough. 239 cally common to all mankind, seeing that they are met with almost semper et ubique. These roots are, according to the Mannhardt-Frazer hypothesis, the overpowering interest felt by mankind in the germination and growth of the food-crop, and the anxious desire to promote processes recognised by experience as uncontrollable by purely material means, but upon the proper completion of which depends the welfare of the community. The adequacy of the hypothesis is self-evident. Nearly every race of mankind has passed, or is passing, through an agri- cultural stage, and whilst agriculture, as it is in all early com- munities, is a self-contained and empiric craft, the welfare of the crop is of absolutely paramount importance. If, as the hypothesis assumes, certain practices do promote that welfare, they must^ for the average man and woman, have a significance, an import, tran- scending every other body of practices. Thus the ritual possesses the most awful of all sanctions — dread of starvation ; thus the mytholog}' which informs and animates the ritual appeals to everyone, and not merely to the higher minds of the community. If any ritual, if any mythology, could count upon persistent sur- vival after what may be called their social and economic justifica- tion has ceased to be operative, it would be these. And as a matter of fact, of all survivals of lower into higher culture these are the most marked and the most persistent. What may be termed the central, the essential, adequacy of the hypothesis is reinforced by secondary considerations. The ani- mating spirit of the practices is influence exerted by imitation, mimetic magic. But this forcedly originates and develops the dramatic faculty. And if the craving for food be the most insistent physical demand of man, delight in dramatic represen- tation is one of the most potent of his psychical emotions. Man lives by bread — man does not live by bread alone : these two statements contain in germ the Mannhardt-Frazer hypo- thesis, the one which I firmly hold to explain most adequately the largest body of those diverse and well-nigh innumerable practices, opinions, and fancyings designated folklore. If this be so, Mr. Frazcr can regard with perfect equanimity the bulk of the criticisms passed upon his work. P"or it so happens that his avowed object is, comparatively speaking, unimportant. He essays to show that the facts involved in the Arician custom are best explained by reference to the great 240 Reviews. body of agricultural ritual of which Mannhardt and he have traced the outline and interpreted the spirit. Interesting if true — if not true, the failure of the essay in no wise discredits the main hypothesis. It is the exposition of facts necessitated by the attempted solution of the problem that constitutes the value of the work ; the solution itself is of little moment Personally I keep a very open mind regarding Mr. Frazer's solution of the Arician problem, as I also do regarding his explanation of many of the subsidiary questions which arise therefrom. The point I wish to emphasise is the psychological adequacy of the main hypothesis ; it not only fits the facts, it arises naturally and unforcedly out of the facts. Alfred Nutt. For a woman to have the last word is perhaps not an unpre- cedented event in the history of the world, yet I should not have attempted to say anything on this subject had it not been sug- gested to me by one to whose opinion much deference is due, that it would be part of my editorial duty to close the discussion. Not even the most adverse of critics can fail to admire the extraordinary erudition, the skill in weaving fragments together, the intuition, insight, and originality, displayed by Dr. Frazer. Nor is it possible to read his great work without feeling that in the courtesy he shows to his opponents, the good taste with which he touches on "burning questions," and the candour and humility with which he acknowledges former mistakes, he sets us all an example worthy of imitation. But I am very glad to observe that there seems to be no disposition in the Society to take his views for granted, or to accept his theories without a close individual examination of his grounds for them. There is a natural tendency among students to confuse theories with discoveries, and to work from the theories of a great master as if they were axioms of science; to mistake them for proven facts, and to reason from them as a starting-point instead of from the evidence on which they rest, or which other inquirers have brought to light. It is a tendency against which all honest seekers after truth will rightly be on their guard. ^^ Al agister dixit " is a principle fatal to the advancement of science. Espe- cially it is so to a science such as ours, which is incapable of practical demonstration like the physical sciences, but (to borrow The Golden Bough. 241 Mr. Hartland's quotation), deals with matters * in the dark back- ward and abysm of time," of which our knowledge must always be more or less scanty, vague, and uncertain, liable to be interpreted in different ways and modified as fresh evidence comes to light. It would be a great misfortune if the study of folklore were ever to become cramped by a blind following of the leader, or if its students were to be classified as the orthodox adherents of such a teacher and the unorthodox dissenters from his doctrine. The amount of independent criticism that has been called forth by the Golden Bought both in these pages and elsewhere, is then a healthy sign, of good omen for the future. In one case Dr. Frazer seems to me to have laid himself open to criticism by himself starting an unnecessary difficulty and then inventing hypotheses to get over it. I mean as regards the Purim and Passover celebrations. If, as he suggests and as Dr. Gaster and others deny, it was the custom of the Jews to slay a human victim at Purim, the fact that our Lord was crucified at the Passover and not at Purim would not, I think, be a valid objection to the idea that some of the ceremonies attendant on such a custom may have been carried out in His case. It is not at all necessary for those who like to accept this view to assume a mistake as to the date in the Gospel narrative. The transference of customs from one date to another is an everyday occurrence : witness, for example, our English customs of lighting bonfires on the fifth of November and carrying oak-boughs on the twenty-ninth of May. Nor do our populace wait for Guy Fawkes' Day to mark their opinion of offenders against domestic peace by "riding the stang" for them (a custom, by the way, to which I think Dr. Frazer nowhere refers). Moreover, any expression of popuku: feeling is apt to reproduce old traditional forms. I remember being much struck with this on seeing a form of Fifth of November celebration at Folkestone in 1893, which closely resembled an old Corpus Christi civic trades' procession. I made inquiries, and found it had been newly introduced within the last few years ; and in this case the " reversion to type " was quite an unconscious one on the part of the performers.^ I/b. custom of showing mock honour • Full details of this will be found in Folk-Lore^ vol. v., p. 38. An account of a Provenfal May Festival which I expect to turn out to be another case in point will, I hope, appear in a future number of Folk-Lore, VOL. XII. R 242 Reviews. to a condemned criminal at the Purim feast existed at one time among the Jews, it might easily suggest a similar treatment of our Lord to the minds of His captors at the Passover; supposing always that the nature of the accusation against Him were not sufficient by itself to suggest it to them. But in neither case ought we to assume that the whole procedure must necessarily have been carried out, because a resemblance to certain features of it can be traced. By doing so, Dr. Frazer has involved himself in a whole web of conjectures, possibilities, and imaginings. This may seem like criticism of a detail, but it leads up to my main point. The recrudescence of old folklore in modem shapes, and still more, the assumption of a common form by practices having different origins, are subjects which call for more attention than they have yet received, and which are of first-rate importance in arriving at a correct interpretation of folklore. Long ago I urged that " the sources of folklore are not one but many," and I have since seen no reason to alter my opinion. With some, Animism seems to fill up the whole range of vision ; with others, Totemism ; with others, the Evil Eye and its kindred superstitions ; with others. Agricultural Sacrifice. But the fate of the solar mytho- logists should be a warning to us. There is no master-key. Dr. Frazer acknowledges this in his preface ; but he is greater at synthesis than he is at analysis : he catches at points of likeness, and does not seem sufficiently to recognise the possibility of vary- ing origins underlying similar externals. If we add to this, that like almost all thinkers possessed with a great idea, he sometimes pursues his speculations without pausing to consider the difficulties his theories would involve in practice, and even allows himself to make one hypothesis the groundwork of another, I think we may see the causes to which the various criticisms directed against his work may be traced. But it is one thing to destroy and quite another to build up ; and Dr. Frazer's severest critics are perhaps the best able to appreciate the labour, the research, and the con- structive skill displayed in his building. We may disagree with him as to the distinctive features and relative positions of Magic and Religion ; we may show that one piece of evidence is unduly pressed into his service, and that another has no trustworthy basis of fact ; we may feel that he is rather a speculative philosopher than a sound historical critic, and that it is difficult to correlate his notions of early political institutions with the results of other The Golden Bough. 243 researches into the subject ; we may even think the Golden Bough itself too slender a twig to sustain the weight of learning hung upon it ; but at present we have not found a more satisfactory explanation of our popular annual customs than Dr. Frazer's theory that a large proportion of them (though perhaps not so many as he thinks) originated in rites— call them magical or call them religious — intended to promote the fertility of Nature. Charlotte S. Burne. De Graecorum diis non referentibus speciem humanum. Marinus Willem de Visser. Lugduni-Batavorum, G. Los, 1900. The extent to which scientific anthropology has penetrated classical studies, and is helping to revolutionise and reconstitute our knowledge of pagan antiquity, is illustrated by Dr. de Visser's thesis for his degree at the university of Ley den. The body of the work is a collection from classical and post-classical writers, and from coins and inscriptions of all kinds, of references to Greek superstitions concerning plants, animals, stocks, and stones directly or indirectly indicative of the worship of divinities having other than human forms. This collection is preceded and followed by an interesting introduction and comments. Aph proving Schultze's definition of fetishism, which extends not merely to the worship of terrestrial objects like rocks, trees, animals, mountains, seas, and rivers, but also of the sun, moon, stars, and clouds. Dr. De Visser goes on to discuss totemism. The explanation of totemism which he accepts is that of Wilken, namely, that particular species of animals and plants are venerated because it is believed that the souls of departed clansmen have passed into them. This theor}% whether true or not, has the advantage of yielding an intelligible connection between totemism and the cult of the dead. The author favours the opinion that many Greek superstitions are ultimately referable to totemism. R 2 1 244 Reviews. Discussing the questions why many deities have incongruous attributes, and why several kinds of animals or plants are often under the tutelage of one and the same deity, he contends that there is no difference of kind between the higher gods and the lower orders of spiritual beings, and suggests that a definite deity of a lofty personality has in these cases taken the place oV an anonymous demon, or that the latter has become absorbed by the new and higher divinity. This theory of conflation, as it may be called, has been heard of before. The process is, indeed, well known to have gone on in connection with the conversion of the barbarians to Christianity, and its results are visible in the folklore of all Europe. Yet I am not sure that it has received enough consideration at the hands of anthropological students for the purpose of explaining the characteristics of the classical gods. Dr. De Visser regards animism as the savage philosophy of religion ; and in discussing the various causes of reverence for animals, trees, stocks, and stones he refers them all in the last resort to animism. Now the degree of accuracy with which this theory represents the facts very much depends on the definition of animism. It must at least be made to include that presumably earlier habit of regarding all external objects as endowed with personality and consciousness similar to human, without raising questions as to a soul. But this is a larger range of meaning than Dr. De Visser gives it. He even makes fetishism dependent on animism, since he holds it to be the worship of an object because it is the abode of a spirit {quia animi domus est). His discussion of the steps by which anthropomorphism con- quered is very interesting. He is undoubtedly right in his conten- tion against Botticher that the worship of stocks {loava) is only due in part to their being relics of trees. Idolatry, he thinks, arises from the union of fetishism (as above defined) with anthro- pomorphism. In the final chapter he turns to answer the question why are there more traces of the worship of stones, stocks, trees, and animals in Greece after the Christian era than before. It is curious at first sight that both the later monuments and the later literary sources are more productive of evidence than the earlier. Dr. De Visser accounts for this phenomenon by a general reaction against anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism, which began by raising the divine ideal to a height of majesty and beauty hitherto unattained, ended by degrading the gods to the condition of mere Reviews. 245 humanity. Aphrodite lost all sublimity when she lasciviously displayed her charms to every eye. Apollo was shorn of dignity and glory when he became, in marble or in bronze, a mere youth playing with a lizard. The consequent reaction was reinforced by the superstitions of all kinds that spread through the Roman empire on the break-up of the ancient local and tribal faiths, and in the universal ferment that preceded and accompanied the advent of Christianity. This subject, however, is beyond the scope of Dr. De Visser's thesis, and he does no more than indicate the solution of the problem. Dr. De Visser's book, as this sketch will show, is a valuable con- tribution to anthropology. His collection of texts will be very useful to students. And the accompanying commentary, though it may not approve itself in all details, is the work of one who is thoroughly versed in the literature of his subject, and has carefully weighed the various theories between which he has had to choose. English anthropologists share with Wilken and Marillier the fore- most places among his authorities. E. Sidney Hartland. Res iNDiCiE. 1. The/dtaka^or Stories of the Buddha^ s former Births, Vol. IV. Translated by W. H. D. Rouse, M.A. Cambridge. 1901. 2. Popular Studies in Mythology^ Romance^ and Folklore, No. 9. The Rigveda, By Professor E. V. Arnold. D. Nutt. 1900. 3. Occasional Essays on Native South Indian Life, By S. P. Rice, Indian Civil Service. Longmans. 1901. \os, 6d, We have here three works on Indian subjects of varying inte- rest and value. I need hardly recommend to readers of Folk Lore the new Cambridge translation of the Jataka, of which this, the fourth instalment, translated by Mr. Rouse, is quite up to the level of its predecessors. He has given us a readable English version of the crabbed Pali text, and has been particularly successful in the metrical versions. He has added some valuable notes, and we can only regret that the plan of this edition did not admit of more ample annotation. None of the stories in this instalment \ 246 Reviews. are of special novelty, but there are some interesting examples of familiar folktales and incidents. Thus, in No. 439, we have the Indian form of the Jonah legend, and the incident of the ship impeded in its course by the ill-omened passenger, for which there are many Indian parallels, as for instance in the Kathd Sarit Sdgara (i., 139; ii., 629). No. 472 is a variant of the Potiphar's wife saga, which is also common in other Indian collections. In No. 481 we have the incident of the goat knocking down the knife with which her own slaughter is to be accomplished — the At| T^iv fiaxmpay of the Greek tale from Zenobius and Strabo. In No. 489 the tale of the man who could not be made to laugh or fear appears in a shape somewhat different from the form familiar to us in Grimm (No. 4). In Nos. 454 and 461 we have interest- ing variants of the Krishna saga and the Rimayana. Among other interesting points incidentally referred to, I may note tree- worship and tree-marriage (pp. 97, 294) ; an annual ploughing festival, as in China (104) ; the birth-tree and the naming of a child from it (188); the juggler disappearing into the sky by climbing a rope, of which the /ocus classicus is Yule^s Marco Polo^ i., 308 ; the wearing of leaves as clothing, like the JuHngs of our own day (269). Professor Arnold has made the most of the scanty space at his disposal in his study of the Rig Veda, which forms a useful intro- duction to the more detailed treatment of the subject in Professor Macdoneirs Vedic Mythology and Dr. 01denberg*s Die Religion des Veda. The study of Vedic mythology is now being conducted on saner lines, as the solar-myth interpretation is giving place to an investigation of the connection of the hymns with local Indian belief, and the stratification of the collection is being more closely examined. Mr. Rice has broken fresh ground in his studies of the South Indian races, but his book is not likely to be of much service to students of folklore and anthropology, with the problems of which he exhibits only slight acquaintance. We should have welcomed a more detailed study of the Savaras and kindred jungle tribes, of whom little is known. But Mr. Rice's account of them is too slight to be of much practical use. At the same time the book contains some matters of interest. Thus, in founding a new- village the ground is ploughed and sown with a little grain (p. 39). Mr. Rice can suggest no reason for this ; but it is almost Reviews. 247 certainly a fertility charm. And so with the mock struggles and games which are leading incidents in the marriage rites (p. 47), which are probably some form of mimetic or sympathetic magic. In one of the Uriya States there is a curious mode of counting the period of the Raja's reign which deserves investigation. **The first year of the reign is called not one^ but iabho or * gain.' The counting then proceeds in the ordinary course, but, with the exception of the figure 10, all figures ending with 7 or o are omitted. This is cdW^d onko. Thus, if a Raja has reigned 21^ years, he would be said to be in the 25th onko^ 7, 17 and 20 being omitted " (p. 96). Thus, all years ending in 7 or o are apparently unlucky, except 10. The rule is a curious one, if correctiy reported, and in default of further investigation I hesitate to suggest an explanation. W. Crooke. ENCVCLOPiEDIA BiBLICA : A CRITICAL DICTIONARY OF THE Ijterary, Political, and Religious History, ARCHiEO- LOGY, Geography, and Natural History of the Bible. Edited by Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M.A., D.D., and J. Suther- land Black, M.A., LL.D. Vol. II. London : A. and C. Black. 1 90 1. Subscription price for the whole, ;^3 3J. Last year in these columns {Foik-Lore, xi., 99 seq,) I called the attention of students of anthropology to the first volume of this important work. The new instalment is of equal if not greater value. With the literary and critical articles we have no immediate con- cern, but scholars will hardly find elsewhere a more exhaustive dis- cussion of biblical problems of the greatest moment than in the articles on the Gospels^ by Dr. Abbott and Professor Schmiedel ; Egypt ^ by Dr. W. Max M tiller ; Eschatoiogy^ with special reference to death and mourning customs, by Dr. Charles ; Genesis, by Dr. Moore ; the Hexateuchy by Professor Cheyne ; Israel, by Professor Guthe ; Jerusalem, the joint work of Dr. G. A. Smith, the late Dr. Robertson-Smith, and Colonel Conder; Job, by Professor Cheyne ; John, son of Zebedee, by Professor Schmiedel ; and Judith, by one of our members, Dr. Gaster, who has dis- covered at least one very early version of the story. Of more immediate interest to readers of Folk-Lore are the articles which deal with anthropological matters. I can only refer 248 Reviews. briefly to some suggestive contributions. Thus, Dr. Moore deals with the curious divination by means of the Ephod, which was probably some form of idol; when Jacob seeks the paternal benediction he wears the skins of sacrificial animals, of which many instances are collected ; in the story of Tobit we have the use of fish-gall in the treatment of eye-disease, and the same remedy appears to be still used in Persia ; the worship of sacred fish is discussed by Mr. Stanley Cook ; the avenging of blood by Dr. Driver ; Dr. Cheyne's investigation of the story of Hiel and the foundation-sacrifice, and the same scholar's article on Jonah, where he accepts Dr. Tylor's suggestion that it is connected with the Semitic Dragon-Myth. He also regards the story of Jephthah's daughter as a case of human sacrifice connected with the Tammuz- Adonis Myth. Of special importance are the purely anthropological articles, particularly those by Dr. Benzinger on the Family^ with a discus- sion of birth and marriage rites and legal obligations ; on Fasting as a preparation for the sacramental meal ; on Government^ including the sept and tribe, and on Kinship, Dr. Morris's article on Idolatry and Primitive Religion is interesting, but a little thin. Folklore students will turn perhaps with most interest to Professor Noldeke's article on Esther^ which has been used by Dr. Frazer in the new edition of The Golden Bough, The book is admirably printed, and the means adopted to eco- nomise space are most ingenious. It is supplied with good maps and all really necessary illustrations. The new Encyclopaedia is certainly far ahead of anything of the kind at present available for English readers. W. Crooke. The English Dialect Dictionary. Edited by Joseph Wright, Ph.D., D.C.L., Professor of Comparative Philology in the University of Oxford. Parts IX. and X. : Flyer — Gyver. 15s. net. We should not ordinarily notice a work of this sort, but the Dialect Dictionary contains a great deal of folklore. We propose therefore calling attention to such parts of it as are important for our members, and leaving aside the purely Hnguistic parts. As Reviews. 249 for the latter, a few words will suffice; to the student of the English language the book is indispensable. The clearness of its arrangement, its thoroughness, and the editor's sobriety of judgment make it worthy to rank in its own department with Dr. Murray's great work. For ourselves, the Dictionary is valuable in two respects. In the first place, it contains a good deal of matter not elsewhere published. Take the children's games, for example. Mrs. Gomme's delightful volumes have recorded the best of them, but there are many which do not come within the scope of her work. Every game, however, has a name ; and under that name in the Dictionary the game will be found. The descriptions given are brief, of course, but sufficient for their purpose, and in the case of games not hitherto described the accounts given are full enough to explain them to those who do not know. When they have been described, a reference will be found to the authority. There is new matter under FoXy French^ Frincy-Francy, Funny^ G<^fft Geggy Green Grass, And secondly, the Dictionary gives 5it a glance the geographical distribution of the games, which may turn out sometimes to be a matter of some importance. Turning now to other subjects, we find a great deal of interest touching feudal customs and others connected with the tenure of land. The ancient Forrep-land is still known in Sussex ; the Great Foude is, or lately was, the King of Norway's representative in Shetland. Under Free-bench will be found the description of a rite, by which a widow who had proved too frail recovered her claim to her husband's copyhold lands, and which is ill suited to the dignity of a manor court. Rural custom is described under Fond-plough^ Fool-pioughy Geese-dance^ Guiser ; social custom under Feet- washing (447), Goodingy Grigglingy Groaning-cake, Lastly, for quaint superstitions we may consult Forspeaky Frogy and Gabriel Ratchet, These items do not by any means exhaust the interest of the book, which we cordially recommend to our members as a useful guide until Mr. Gomme has given us his Dictionary of British Folk-Lore, 250 Reviews. L'Origine della Favola Greca e I Suoi rapporti con le FAVOLE ORIENTALI. Del Dr. MiCHELE MaRCHIAN6. Trani : V. Vecchi. 1900. Since the *' discovery " of the Sanskrit language by Sir William Jones, the origin of fable has been a favourite battlefield of the scholars. First come the Indianists in a compact phalanx, long to remain in possession of all the strong places. To them enter, with fanfare and taratantara, with thunder, stormwind, day, night, and dawn, the Mythologists, headed by that redoubtable warrior, now at rest. Max Miiller. Lastly, like a cloud of light cavalry and mounted infantry, the Anthropological host, Mr. Andrew Lang in the van on a wiry Basuto pony or an Australian charger, and attended by totems, fetiches, hobgoblins, and high gods. And now, from a well-defined battlefield the theatre of war has become a scene of inextricable confusion, every leader harrying the rest on his own account, or holding some isolated kopje with his own devoted commando. Like the Pythagorean world, all was chaos, until Dr. Marchianb, like Nous, strides in and attempts to set things in order. Hence this book. It must be admitted that the earlier parts of it produce a melancholy impression. Author after author, book upon book, one theory after another, marches past in state, only to be inspected, reprimanded, and sent to his own place. Fables Greek and fables Indian, fables Hebrew, Egyptian, Arabian, Syriac, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Cilician, Cyprian, Carian, Lydian, Phrygian, Sybaritic, Sicilian, Milesian, all come in for their turn ; their resemblances are examined, their divergencies ticketed, and each is put in its own appropriate pigeonhole for future use. The amount of labour unwisely applied, by those who start with a fixed idea, and work everything round to it, makes one weep. Yet after all, even these have done their part ; each has his measure of grain, even when Dr. Marchianb has blown away the chaff. He is no merciful critic, and men who like Ldveque have been rash and too ready to jump to conclusions make but a sorry figure before him. We would pay a tribute of respect to the great learning and accuracy shown in this section ; nothing seems to have been omitted, and the student could find no more satisfactory collection of facts than he will find here. When we come to the author's constructive part, he is less satisfactory. In tracing the fable to a very remote origin, he is Reviews. 251 no doubt right. There was doubtless a time when men lived not otherwise than the beasts of the field, when they understood the beasts better, and when it was natural to suppose them endowed with speech and thought. These fables may have been taken in earnest, and the type may have then originated. But when he speaks of the beasts influencing men's language by their cries, so that a large part of it is based upon them, or when he assumes that the earliest dramatic representations of the human race were a kind of beast-life mimicry. Dr. Marchianb goes beyond his evidence. It is comforting to find, though, that in spite of an imagination somewhat too luxuriant. Dr. Marchianb comes to much the same conclusion as Mr. Jacobs in his -^sop ; viz., that the literary fable, as we know it, was first born in Greece. He examines its traces in Greek literature, and its connection with myth and proverb, with acuteness and in a most interesting way ; and his conclusion may be regarded as a step onwards in the history of the question. We very fitly end with his final words, which on the evidence we cannot but agree with : " Modern criticism, then, must reconsider its judgment as to the origin of fable ; and regarding its many independent origins as the incipient and rudimentary expression of human thought, and as a confused detritus of popular wisdom, ii must restore that literary form to Greece ; arguments irrefutable support the claim ; it is well suited to the Greek genius ; and a long tradition has never deflied it." Devil Tales. By Virginl\ Frazer Boyle, illustrated by A. B. Krost. Harper Brothers, New York and London. Though these tales profess to be such as used to be told to the children of planters by their Negro nurses when slavery still pre- vailed in the Southern States of America, from their form they cannot be strictly speaking regarded as a direct contribution to Negro folklore. Nevertheless they are capital stories and very well told. The title is perhaps a little misleading. The devil that figures in these pages is not of the awe-inspiring kind ; he is more inclined to make us laugh than to make the skin creep. Even when so serious a matter as lack of wood to keep the fires 252 Reviews. of hell burning causes the fire to go out, the trouble the devil has to get a fresh light is amusing. And the fire went out because the devil was so long away courting a very pretty Negro girl. The authoress has certainly interwoven into the woof and web of these tales a great deal of folklore, of which it is only necessary to give a few specimens. The hoodoo or Negro wizard figures largely, and generally as a beneficent personage that gives his neighbours charms to counteract the machinations of the devil and the spells of other hoodoos. He can even combine this function with the office of exhorter or evangelist No hoodoo can withstand a man that strikes him with a rod of green grape-vine, cut when the sap is flowing. But then the hoodoo must be on his own ground, not in a strange place. He may possess the power to give the devil a human heart, the better to torment him. But a hoodoo, however great, cannot cross running water without breaking the spell that gives him power, and his charms, too, cannot take effect across running water. Yet he can sometimes evade this obstacle by drying the water up. The jay sold itself to the devil for a half-filled ear of com, and henceforth is bound to bring loads of wood to keep the fire of the infernal regions in full blaze every Friday. The crow, too, has to serve the devil in the same way, but only once a week, and can refuse to work oftener. John Abercrombv. Paul S^billot — Cuentos Bretones — Cuentos Populares de Campesinos, Pescadores y Marineros. Traducidos por Manuel Machado. Paris : Gamier Hermanos. 1900. A TRANSLATION into Spanish of a selection of M. Sebillot's Breton tales. Wherever I have tested it the translator has done justice to the sense of the very charming originals, but the style has, perhaps inevitably, acquired a slightly more literary flavour. The introduction includes a short sketch of the life and an enumera- tion of the writings of M. Sebillot, which give some idea of the extraordinary industry of one to whom folklore owes much. E. Sidney Hartland. BIBLIOGRAPHY. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. All English books are published in London^ all French books in Paris ^ and all 1901 ; unless otherwise stated. Barrows (David Prescott). The Ethno-Botany of the Coa- huilla Indians of Southern California. Chicago University Press. 1900. 8vo. 82 pp. Cheyne (T. K.), and Black (J. Sutherland). Encyclopedia Biblica. Vol. ii. A. and C. Black. Roy. 8vo. 1,344 pp. Clark-Hall (John R.). Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, a Translation into Modern English Prose. Swan Sonnenschein. 8vo. xlvi., 204 pp. NiNA-RoDRiGUES (Dr.). L'Animisme Fetichiste des N^gres de Bahia. Bahia: ReisandCo. 1900. Cr. 8vo. 158 pp. [A valuable account of fetishism as practised among the negroes at Bahia, including discussions of the neuropathic aspects of some of the rites, and of the fetishistic beliefs and practices retained by the nominal converts to Christianity.] Orain (A.). Contes de Tllle-et-Vilaine. Maisonneuve. i6mo. 303 PP- Panzer (F.). Hilde-Gudrun. Eine Sagen-und-literargeschicht- liche Untersuchung. 8vo. Halle : Niemeyer. xvi., 452 pp. Petsch (R.)- Formelhafte Schliisse in Volksmarchen. Berlin. Weidmannsche Buchhandlung. 1900. 8vo. xL, 185 pp. Rice (Stanley P.). Occasional Essays on Native South Indian Life. Longmans. 8vo. 223 pp. los. 6d. RoussEL (A.). L^gendes Morales de Tlnde empnint^es au Bhagavata Purana et au Mahabharata. Traduites du San- scrit. Vol. ii. Maisonneuve. i6mo. 361 pp. S^BiLLOT (P.). Le Folk-lore des Pecheurs. Maisonneuve. i6mo. xii., 389 pp. South African Native Races Committee. The Natives of South Africa : their Economic and Social Condition. Murray. 8vo. XV., 360 pp. Weston (Jessie L.). The Romance Cycle of Charlemagne and his Peers (Popular Studies, No. 10). D. Nutt. 46 pp. Wiedemann (K. A.). The Realms of the Egyptian Dead (The Ancient East Series, No. i). D. Nutt. 68 pp. 2 54 Bibliography. PERIODICALS. The Contents of Periodicals exclusively devoted to Folklore are not noted, L'Anthropologie, xi., 5, 6. M, Delafosse, Sur des Traces pro- bables de la Civilisation Egyptienne et d^Hommes de Race Blanche a la Cote d'l voire (suite). American Anthropologist, N.S., ii^ 4. S. Culin^ Philippine Games. American Antiquarian, Jan.-Feb. A, F, Chamberlaiuy Philippine Folklore. G. A, Dorsey^ Games of Makah Indians. March- April, y". Frasery Indian Words of Relationship in Australian tribes. Archsological Report, Ontario, 1900. F, Hamilton^ Rough Notes on Native Tribes of South Africa. [These notes accompany some ethnographical specimens ob- tained by the writer while correspondent for the Globe during the war, and sent to the Museum at Toronto.] Archiv fiir Beligionswissenschafk, iv., 1. B, Lauftr^ Zwei Legenden des Milaraspa. 7^ Branky, Zu den Ehrenstrafen. P, SchellhaSy Zur Maya Mythologie. Berlin Museum fiir Vdlkerkunde. Veroffentlichungen vii., 1-4. W, Grube, Zur Pekinger Volkskunde. Notizblatt, ii., 2. Hahl^ Uber Sitten auf Ponape. K. T. Preuss^ Der Affe in der mexikanische Mythologie. A. Bastian^ Zum SeelenbegrifT in der Ethnologic. British School at Athens (Annual of), vi. (1899-1900). /. C. Lawson, A Beast-dance in Scyros. Bureau of Ethnology, 17th Ann. Bep., Pt. 2. C. Mindeleff, Navaho Houses [some religious and social details]. J. JV, Fezvkes, Archaeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 [shrines, prayer-sticks, &c.]. Church Quarterly Review, April. Frazer's ** Golden Bough " [review of]. Fortnightly Review, April. A, Lang, Mr. Frazer's Theory of the Crucifixion. Globus, Ixxix., 1 and 2. C. Af. Pleyte, Die Mentawei-Inseln und ihre Bewohner. 2. P, F. MuIIer^ Folkloristische Ewhetexte. 6. A". T. Preuss, Mexikanische Thonfiguren [amulets in form of gods]. Die Verehrung der Meteoriten. 7. Ozaki, Die Heisswasserprobe in Japan. 8. P. F. Kaindi, Aus der Volksiiberlieferung der Bojken (Ruthenia). Bibliography. 255 Harper's Magazine, April. W, H, Tribe^ Snake-worshippers of India. Indian Antiquary, January. /. Burgess^ Notes on Jaina Mytho- logy. M, N. Venkataswami^ Folklore in the Central Pro- vinces. March. Sir J, M, Campbell^ Notes on the Spirit Basis of Belief and Custom. M, N, Venkataswami^ Folklore in the Central Provinces. Internationales Archiv fUr Ethnography^ xiii., 6. O. Stench, Samoanische Marchen. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. zzx. {Jan, to June,) If. M, Chadwick^ The Oak and the Thunder-god. R, Koettlitz, Notes on the Galla of Walega and the Bertal. H. Pope-Hen fiessey, Notes on the Jukos and other Tribes of the Middle Benue. J, Strange, Nootka Sound [some details of religious belief and practice]. Journal of Hellenic Studies, zzi., 1. P. Gardner, A New Pandora Vase. A. J, Evans, Mycenean Tree and Pillar Cult. Literary Guide, May. J. M^ Robertson, Mr. Frazer's Theory of the Crucifixion. Longman's Magazine, May. A, Lang (**At the Sign of the Ship "), The " Borrowing Days " in Egypt and the Expulsion of Winter. Madras Qovemment Museum. Bulletin iv., 1. E, Thurston, Todas of the Nilgiris. Meriah Sacrifice Post. Walking through Fire (Hot Ashes). Malaialis of the Shevaroys. Sorcery in Coimbatore. 5. Appadorai Iyer and E, Thurston, Nayadis of Malabar. [Mr. Thurston's anthropological bulletin is always good. His researches and those of his assistants among the less known tribes of Southern India have been continued, and we here get some of the results. Of special interest are his notes on a visit to the Todas, his account of a Meriah Sacrificial Post (probably the only one now in existence), which he has obtained for the museum, and the details relating to the customs of the wild mountain- tribe of the Nayadis. Among the last the ceremony of choosing a husband by the marriageable girl presents some very curious features.] 256 Bibliography. Man, March. F, Fawcett, Notes on the Dombs of Jeypur. Edge- Fartingion^ Note on a Matuatonga [Maori sacred image]. April. N, JV. Thomas^ Animal Folklore in Georgia. Hittheilungen des Seminars fur Orientalische Spracheiiy vol. iii., 1900. R, Lange, Japanische Kinderlieder. F. H. Brincker^ Charakter, Sitten, und Gebrauche der Bantu Deutsch-Siid- west Afrikas. C. Velten^ Die Spitznamen der Europaer bei den Suaheli. Monthly Review, April. E, S. Hartland^ The Native Problem in our New Colonies. Notes and Queries, January 5th. The Danaids. Northumberland Marriage Custom. A Devil's Dam in a Cossack Stanitza. Counting Buttons. Smock Marriages. January 12th. Flower Divination (daisy-picking). Nature Myths. January 19th. Gipsy Wedding. Cure for Sterility. Lights and Buried Treasure. Evil Eye. January 26th. Mussulman Legend of Job. Lizard Folklore. Water in Death Chamber. Corpse on board Ship. Pebmary 2nd. Corpse Superstition. Ram- hunting at Eton. The Ladybird. Keeches (Christmas cakes in bird-form). February 9th, Superstitious Cures (S. America). White Marks on Horses (Hindustan). February 16th, Nature Myths. Wedding Custom. Boulder Stones March 9th. Ram-hunting at Eton. March 16th. Yorkshire Marriage Custom. March 23rd. Lizard Folk- lore. Animal Superstitions (Hindustan). March dOth. Mock Bull-fight on Christmas Eve (Bolivia). Nursery Rime. Popular Science Monthly, Ivii., 7. F, Boas^ The Religious Beliefs of the Central Eskimo. Revue de TEiBtoire des Religions, xlii., 3. Z. Legcr^ Intro- duction ^ r^tude de la Mythologie Slave. S. Reincuh^ L'Orphisme dans la IV° Eglogue de Virgile. Revue d'Histoire et de Litt^rature religieuses, vi., 2, F, Cumont, Lc Taurobole et le culte de Bellona. Taveta Chronicle, January, 1901. A. C. HolliSy A Wataveta Ngasu [marriage feast]. April. A, C, Hollis^ Laws of Divorce and Inheritance ; Criminal Law of Wataveta. Zeitschrifb f'lir Socialwissenschaft, iv., 2. R, Lasch, Die Anfange des Gewerbestandes. 3folfe*Xore. TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLKLORE SOCIETY. Vol. XII.] SEPTEMBER, 1901. [No. III. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17th, 1901. Mr. Alfred Nurr (Vice-President) in the Chair. The minutes of the previous Meeting were read and con- firmed. The Chairman laid on the table a copy of Dr. Maclagan's Argyllshire Pastimes y being the extra volume published by the Society for the year 1900. The Chairman also read the formal acknowledgment received from the Home Office of the address presented by the Society to His Majesty King Edward VII. on the occa- sion of the death of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria. The election of the following new members was announced, viz. : Messrs. Hirschfeld Brothers, Mr. S. E. Bensusan, Mr. A. E. Swanson, Mr. T. V. Holmes, Mr. E. Lovett, Professor A. Dietrich, and the Fulham Libraries. The resignation of Miss R. Higford was also announced. Mr. E. Lovett read a paper on "The Ancient and Modem Game of Astragals" [p. 280], in illustration of which he exhibited the following objects, viz. : Ancient : I. Photograph of Tanagra Group in British Museum representing Girls playing Astragals, B.C. 300. lA. Ditto of Marble Figure, full size, later Greek period. British Museum. VOL. XII. s 258 Minutes of Meeting. 2. Roman Bronze Astragali. 3. Astragalus of Bison, rubbed down as a die. Mound burial, N. America. 4. Ditto of Bos longifrons. Lake dwellings, Switzerland. Modern : 5. Typical set of bone Astragals. 6. Set of four bones and ball. Gironde, France. 7. " Set '^ of foot bones of pig. " Five Bones." Kent. 8. " Five stones " of Diorite (road metal). Croydon. 9. *' Fivies." Quartzite pebbles. Scotland. 10. " Five stones." Drift pebbles. Essex. 11. Five wooden cubic astragals. Worcestershire. 12. Five discs of potsherd. Norfolk. 13. Ditto. Yorkshire. 14. Four pebbles and ball. " Cobbles." Kent. 15. " Marble and dubbs" (made in Germany). Houndsditch. 16. Nine quartzite pebbles, as played at Neuch&tel, Switzerland. 17. Five stones called "Jacks." Warwickshire. 18. Five stones called "Jack o' five stones." Worcester- shire. 19. Tamarind stones from Gujerat, as played in India. Miss Violet Turner gave an exhibition of the game of Astragals (locally known as Snobs) sls played in Derbyshire. Mrs. W. Price exhibited (i) a photograph of the Grave- yard at Salruck, Connemara [reproduced, Plate viii., cf. p. 104], and (2) a photograph of a Wedding-dance Mask of plaited straw, used in County Mayo, Ireland, of which a specimen may be seen in the Society^s case at the Archaeo- logical Museum, Cambridge [Plate ix. See vol. iv., p. 123]. Miss Ella Sykes read a paper on "Persian Folklore" [p. 261]. A discussion on Mr. Lovett^s and Miss Sykes' papers followed, in which Dr. Gaster, Mr. Longvvorth Dames, Dr. Ranking, Mr. Gomme, Mr. Letts, Mr. P. Redmond, and the Chairman took part. I Minutes of- Meeting. 259 The Meeting terminated with votes of thanks to Mr. Lovett and Miss Sykes for their papers, and to Miss Violet Turner for her exhibition. The following books and pamphlets which had been presented to the Library since the last Meeting of the Society were laid on the table, viz. : — I. Schwetzerisches Archiv fur Volkskunde^ March, 1901. 2. Y Cymmrodor^ vol xiv., presented by ' the Cymmrodorion Society. 3. Archivio delta R. societh Romanay vol. 23, parts 3 and 4 , presented by the Societh. 4. Journal of the Anthropological Institute^ vol. xxx. (new series iii.), 1900. WEDNESDAY, MAT 16th, 1901. The President (Mr. E. W. Brabrook) in the Chair. The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. The election of the following new members was announced, viz. : Mr. J. L. Freeborough and the Reading Public Library. The Chairman referred in sympathetic terms to the loss the science of Anthropology and Folklore has sustained by the deaths of the Rev. Dr Chalmers and Miss Christian Maclagan. Mr. E. Lovett exhibited some crescents and discs used as amulets and charms in various parts of the world. Miss Burne also exhibited some charms against the Evil Eye from Portugal and Italy. Mr. F. T. Elworthy read a paper entitled " Dischi Sacri," of which he exhibited a number of specimens, and illustrated his lecture by lantern slides, from the figures given in his work Horns of Honour} A discussion followed, in which Dr. Gaster, Mr. Kirby, Dr. Ranking, * Reviewed in Folklore^ vol. xi., p. 402. S 2 1 26o Minutes of Meeting. Miss Burne, the Rev. — Cornish, and the President took part. The Meeting terminated with votes of thanks to Mr. Lovett and Miss Burne for their exhibits and to Mr. Elworthy for his paper. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19th, 1901. Joint Meeting of the Anthropological Institute and Folk-Lore Society. The Chair was taken by Dr. A. C. Haddon, the President of the Institute. The minutes of the last Meeting of the Institute having been read and confirmed, Dr. Haddon vacated the Chair, which at his request was taken by Mr. Brabrook, the President of the Society. The Chairman referred in sympathetic terms to the loss the Society has sustained in the death of Miss Florence Grove. A collection of Musquakie beadwork, presented by Miss M. A. Owen to the Society, was exhibited, upon which Mr. E. S. Hartland offered some observations, the catalogue raisonn^ promised by Miss Owen not having yet reached England. In the discussion which followed, Mr. Henry Balfour f Curat or of the Pitt-Rivtrs Museum at Oxford), Dr. Haddon, Colonel Temple, the Rev. J. Sibree, and the Chairman took part. At the request of the Chairman Mr. Hartland undertook to convey to Miss Owen the expression of the very deep sense of gratitude the Society was under for her munificent donation. A paper on ''Japanese Gohei/* by Mr. W. G. Aston, was read by Mr. Balfour, and a paper on ''The Spirit of Vegeta- tion," by Mr. E. Tregear, by Mr. N. W. Thomas. The Meeting terminated with votes of thanks to Mr. Aston and Mr. Tregear for their papers. PERSIAN FOLKLORE. BY ELLA c. SYKES, AUTHOR OF Through Persia on a Side-saddle^ AND The Story-book of the Shah, {Read at Meeting of 17M Aprils 1901.) I MAKE no pretensions to possess any special knowledge of this interesting subject. My only claim on your attention is that, during a residence of over two years in Persia, I collected various items of folklore, which may perhaps be new to some of those present. Strabo says : " Man is eager after knowledge, and the love of legend is but the prelude thereto. This is why children begin to listen (to fables) and are acquainted with them before any other kind of knowledge." Persians of all ranks are like children in their love of stories. From the Shah downwards they listen with delight to the public story-tellers, most of whom belong to the order of dervishes, and make the round of the country, always drawing small crowds in every town. Some eight hundred years ago the poet Firdusi collected all the old legends referring to the rise of the Persian nation, and made from them a fine epic poem, entitled the Shah Nameh, or Book of Kings. The principal character, however, is not a king, but a hero, the mighty Rustum, who is the Hercules of Persia, and whose won- drous exploits rival those of that illustrious Grecian hero. So much a part of the national tradition is Rustum, that a specially strong man, if referred to in conversation, would be at once compared to him, and all over the north of Persia, the scene of his exploits, villages named Rustum- abad frequently occur. Scarcely less celebrated is Sohrab, Rustum's ill-fated son ; and the fine passage in Firdusi, where the champion of the world, unwitting of the relationship, kills his own child in single combat, is well known by every Persian possess- ing any claim to culture. Time fails to tell of Prince 262 Persian Folklore. Isfundiyar, whose deeds of valour equalled those of Rustum, with whom he had a celebrated fight, lasting two days. The old champion, now aged some hundreds of years, was pressed so hard by his youthful opponent, that he was obliged to have recourse to the aid of the Simurgh, a creature half-bird, half-beast, before he could vanquish the prince. It is but a step from these legends to the ghouls^ divSy jinnSy and afreetSy in which all Persians, even those who are well educated, have a firm belief. The Ghoul haunts lonely places, and its aim is to lure travellers from their path and then devour them. Its real form is monstrous beyond words, and it indulges in blood- curdling yells and shrieks; but it has the power of assuming any shape it pleases, and often appears in the guise of a camel or mule, or even in that of its intended victim's relatives or friends. Both Rustum and Isfundiyar had repeated combats with these appalling creatures, which now specially haunt the "Valley of the Angel of Death,** not far from Koom. They are supposed to be the at- tendants of Azrael, or Death, and feast on the departed. Persians say that a true believer, who utters the name of the Prophet in all sincerity, can never be harmed by a ghoul; but all the same, no one will run the risk of going into a graveyard or of wandering among ruins if he can possibly avoid it. A Persian gentleman of my acquaintance con- fessed to being afraid of these horrible chimeras, but said that in my company he would venture into the most deserted ruin, because he knew that no ghoul would appear were an European present. The reason he gave was that these Persian bogies only revealed themselves to those who believed in them. Divs or Demons are supposed to take the form of cat- headed men with horns and hoofs, and the hero Rustum's most celebrated exploit was the slaying of the great White Demon which lived in a cave on Mount Demavend. No PERSIAN FOLKLORE. BY ELLA C. SYKES, AUTHOR OF Through Persia on a Side-saddUy AND The Story-book of the Shah, {Read at Meeting of 17M Aprils 1901.) I MAKE no pretensions to possess any special knowledge of this interesting subject. My only claim on your attention is that, during a residence of over two years in Persia, I collected various items of folklore, which may perhaps be new to some of those present. Strabo says : " Man is eager after knowledge, and the love of legend is but the prelude thereto. This is why children begin to listen (to fables) and are acquainted with them before any other kind of knowledge." Persians of all ranks are like children in their love of stories. From the Shah downwards they listen with delight to the public story-tellers, most of whom belong to the order of dervishes, and make the round of the country, always drawing small crowds in every town. Some eight hundred years ago the poet Firdusi collected all the old legends referring to the rise of the Persian nation, and made from them a fine epic poem, entitled the Shah Natnehy or Book of Kings, The principal character, however, is not a king, but a hero, the mighty Rustum, who is the Hercules of Persia, and whose won- drous exploits rival those of that illustrious Grecian hero. So much a part of the national tradition is Rustum, that a specially strong man, if referred to in conversation, would be at once compared to him, and all over the north of Persia, the scene of his exploits, villages named Rustum- abad frequently occur. Scarcely less celebrated is Sohrab, Rustum's ill-fated son ; and the fine passage in Firdusi, where the champion of the world, unwitting of the relationship, kills his own child in single combat, is well known by every Persian possess- ing any claim to culture. Time fails to tell of Prince 266 Persian Folklore. It is a usual custom to slay a goat in order to ensure prosperity to any personage on entering a town. On the approach of the traveller, the goat is killed in the middle of the road, then its head is placed on one side and its body on the other, the man thus honoured riding between the different parts of the animal and across its blood. Some- times sweetmeats are thrown under the hoofs of the rider's horse for the same purpose. Morier mentions that in travelling through a disturbed part of Persia his muleteer happened to kill a snake. The man cut it in half, and throwing the two parts on different sides of the road, he explained to his master that this act would save them from any marauding band that might be on their track.^ It is unlucky to commence walking with the left foot, or for a gazelle to cross on the left of a rider, and all Persian women consider that disaster is sure to overtake them if they start off on a journey without giving some money to the poor. Once my horse, shying, was within an ace of precipitating us both into the moat round Kerman, and a Persian gentleman with our party told me that the incident was owing to my lack of charity as we started. A way of ensuring a successful journey, which is common to both Persians and Parsees, is to show a mirror to the traveller, and at the same time to offer him a glass of water on which floats the head of a flower, or to burn certain herbs before him. During our journeys in Persia my brother and I have been speeded on our way in this manner two or three times both by Parsees and by Persians. My little Parsee maid also used often to wave the smoke of a burning herb before me when we left one camp to go to another. She would assure me that this ceremony would guarantee me against all kinds of accidents. To sneeze once when starting on any expedition is an evil omen, and as far as I could make out it is equally un- lucky whether the traveller himself or anyone else per- ' Morier, A Jourtuy through Persia in i8o8 atid 1809, p. 316. Persian Folklore. 267 petrates the sneeze. Persians in such a case will stare hard at the sun in order to induce a second or third sneeze. If they are unsuccessful in doing this, they can betake themselves to repeating a certain invocation to Allah ; but most Persians will give up the expedition, believing firmly that it can only end in disaster. Curiously enough, how- ever, Persians believe, on the other hand, that if they are desiring anything ardently, and someone sneezes at that moment, that their wish is sure to be granted. My brother's Persian secretary always attributed a bad accident to the fact that someone had sneezed just as he was mounting his horse. As his companions were Englishmen, he felt ashamed to decline the ride, but the sequels of a bolting horse and a broken arm made him chary about giving up his superstitions from that time. He also assured me that he owed the schooling he had had in England to the fact that when, as quite a child, he was wishing to go to that country, someone had sneezed. On investigation, I found that a lapse of several years had occurred between this lucky sneeze and its consummation, and I pointed out this fact to him. It made no difference, however, in his belief in that particular sneeze. It is unlucky to name a horse after a Persian, as if any evil befalls the animal, the same injury will overtake the man after whom it is called. This fact was brought home to me in a curious way. We had bought a horse from a Persian gentleman, and had, in ignorance of this supersti- tion, called it after its former owner. When I met this latter after a lapse of some two years, I was struck by his eager inquiries as to the health of this horse, and at last elicited the real reason of this unusual interest. If any accident occurs to a rider, his horse being hurt but he himself escaping unscathed, the Persians say, " The horse has become a sacrifice, " meaning that the injury meant for the rider has descended on his steed. During our travels in Baluchistan an incident of this kind happened to 268 Persian Folklore. my brother, and the horse which he was riding was killed. As the animal was a great pet with us both I felt the loss keenly, greatly to the surprise of our servants, who con- sidered that I ought to have rejoiced, as the horse had averted the evil intended for my brother. Throughout Persia there is a very strong belief in the Evil Eye, Every European on entering the country is warned never to admire anything belonging to a Persian without using the expression " Mashallah " (God is great) to avert it. If this be omitted harm is sure to follow. Rich Persians frequently dress their children in shabby clothes in order to avert the Evil Eye. A friend of mine once took her children by invitation to visit a Persian lady of rank in Tehran who had one small son. The child did not make its appearance for a considerable time, and then was carried into the room dressed in clothes no better than would be worn by a peasant's baby. This was because the mother feared that the European lady might admire her son and so bring illness upon him. A few days after this my friend's Persian nurse came to her in great agitation, saying that some Europeans had admired one of her charges and had omitted to say " Mashallah." Oddly enough the child fell ill the next day, proving to the satisfaction of the nurse that the evil eye had been cast upon it. Old hags are popularly credited with this unpleasant power, and no superstitious Persian will look at one if he can avoid it. Blue is the favourite colour to ward off the Evil Eye, and camels, horses, and mules have beads fastened on their tails, or even wear blue necklaces in the case of highly valued animals. Children frequently wear a sheep's eye brought by a pilgrim from Mecca who has been there on the day of the great holocaust of sheep. A turquoise is stuck into this eye, and the whole, put into an amulet-case, is sewn on to the child's cap. Another powerful charm is a verse from the Koran, placed in the bazu-hand or amulet-box, which is Persian Folklore. 269 then bound on the fore-arm. A metal hand with one finger extended is also used for the same purpose. A wild pig kept in the stables is supposed to keep the evil eye off the horses, who seem to be peculiarly liable to this malign in- fluence. A groom who broke the knees of one of our horses was sharply reprimanded by my brother for his careless riding. He answered promptly that the accident was no fault of his, because a man had admired the horse, and as he did not add the word " Mashallah" it was not surprising that the animal came to harm. This is only one of dozens of examples that came under my notice, showing the deeply- seated belief in the evil eye. Curiously enough, a stable constitutes bast or sanc- tuary in Persia. While living at Kerman, we frequently found some refugee or other in our stable, come to implore my brother's good offices with the Governor. On one occasion, when we were in Baluchistan, the Governor of the province threatened to bastinado his soldiers for misconduct. We were in camp at the time and our horses were tethered in a grove of palm-trees. To my amusement the soldiers repaired in a body to this grove, and refused to move from among our horses until the Governor promised to overlook their offence. While on the subject of sanctuary, I may mention that every shrine has this privilege, and in most Persian towns there are quarters in which any malefactor is safe, notably at the sacred city of Koom. To hold on to the English flag- staff, or to grasp the coat of any great personage, also con- fers sanctuary. ^ * [Sanctuary. " Among Bedouin tribes there is an ancient law called the law of * dakhal/ An escaped prisoner, or a man in danger of being captured by an enemy, may by this law claim refuge in the tent of an Arab, even in the encampment of an opposing tribe. The refugee enters the tent, takes bold of the robe of the occupant, and exclaims : * Ya dakhaliek,' and thus becomes a * dakhiel,* or prot^^. A true Arab will defend his * dakhiel' with his life. The law of * dakhal ' is, however, only in full force among those tribes who are, by their strength or geographical position, independent of the Turkish Government. Among tribes in which the law is maintained a 270 Persian Folklore. Medicine in Persia is more or less a question of charms. A hot disease requires a cold remedy, and vice versi. The advice of the astrologers is always taken as to summoning the doctor, and they are again consulted before his medicine be swallowed. The doctor's principal stock-in-trade is a brass bowl with the signs of the Zodiac and texts of the Koran engraved outside. The inner surface is incised with a mass of short prayers — a prayer for each disease. To each prayer belongs a small key with the name of the disease. The method of procedure is simple in the extreme. The doctor fills the bowl with water, makes a feint of unlocking with one of the keys the prayer alluding to his patient's disease, and tells the sick man to swallow the water. If this be done in a believing spirit, a cure is sure to follow. Here is another example of a faith-cure. A European lady-doctor was asked by a Persian patient for a token in order that she might be admitted to her presence. For lack of anything better the lady-doctor gave a safety-pin, but her patient did not appear at the appointed time. Shortly after, however, the token was returned with thanks, the patient alleging that she had been cured by drinking the water in which she had placed the safety-pin. Many other remedies are resorted to. If anyone is at the point of d^ath, a pearl ground up will act as a power- ful restorative, while powdered rubies and emeralds are man who proved false to his dakhiel would be disgraced for life. The expres- sion * Ya dakhaliek/ is used by town Arabs as a term of endearment, imply- ing perfect reliance and trust." — M. E. Rogers, Domestic Life in Palestine, p. 391 (published by Bell and Daldy in 1862, and probably long since out of print). Miss Rogers, the sister of the well-known *' Rogers Bey "(Mr. E. T. Rogers, H.B.M. Consular Service), had unusual opportunities of observing Palestinian life and manners. In the preceding pages she describes how the young sons of an Arab chieftain of Djebel Nablous, who had been worsted in a local strife in which the Turkish authorities took sides with the opposite party, sought her protection at the British Vice-Consulate at Haifa, clinging piteously to her skirts with cries of ** Va dakhaliek !'' and entreaties to be kept from faUing into the hands of the Turkish Ciovernor. C. S. Hirnk.j Persian Folklore. administered as tonics, and to sew a patient up in a raw hide is another remedy. If a person is badly burnt, the wounds are sometimes smeared over with soot from the bottom of the cooking vessels, and to drink quantities of pomegranate juice is another cure for the same thing. A child suffering from water on the brain was brought to a Persian doctor, who assured the parents that it was possessed by a demon. He advised them to lay it in a newly-dug grave during the night, saying that in the morn- ing it would either be cured or the demon would have made away with it. The parents followed the prescription faith- fully, and their surprise was great to find their child next morning sleeping soundly in its strange cradle, neither better nor worse. When the child of one of my friends was very ill, the servants implored her to allow them to try a charm in order to cure it. They mixed grease and charcoal, with which they made crosses on the child's forehead, the palms of its hands, and the soles of its feet. Then one of them took a roasted egg, and holding it in his two hands, raised them towards heaven, invoking at the same time the names of all the people whom he especially loved and respected. Another charm used when a Persian is ill, and his disease does not yield to the remedies of the doctor, is to bring eggs into his room and plaster them over with mud, calling each by the name of some possible enemy. The eggs are then baked on the hearth, and the one that cracks first tells which enemy it is that has bewitched him. To escape from his power, the egg must be thrown into running water at a cross-road if possible. Another method used to cure a sick man supposed to be bewitched, is for his wife to beg for fragments of food from all his acquaintances. This she does in the belief that if her husband can eat of the food of his enemy he will he cured. She makes a kind of porridge of all the pieces thai 272 Persian Folklore. she has collected, and when the sick man has swallowed it he is supposed to recover. One of our Persian servants, whom we had taken with us from the capital to Kerman, became very queer in his behaviour, and one day he took French-leave, and made his way back to his home, some six hundred miles away. The other servants were at no loss for an explanation of his conduct. They said immediately that his wife at Tehran had bewitched him in order to get him home again. Near Kerman a small stream trickled out of a well of rock. Popular superstition ascribed this to a blow from the hand of Ali, and women desiring to become mothers would drink the water and hang candles and rags on the bushes near, in order to attract the notice of the saint. Not far from this was a cave in which sick women put food. If this were eaten during the night, it was a sign that the Peri-banou or queen of the fairies would cure them. Some families possess a stone as an antidote against scorpion and tarantula bites. They say it is formed of the hardened tears of a certain Persian prince, who was turned by enchantment into an ibex, and wandered among the mountains, eternally bewailing his cruel fate. Throughout Baluchistan are ziaratSy or shrines, consisting of small enclosures of rough stones. In the middle of these is always a heap of boulders, among which sticks fluttering with rags are placed. These rags are pieces of the garments of devotees, who imagine that in this way they are calling the attention of the holy man who is buried there, and who will cure their complaints and intercede for them with Allah. Often fine ibex or moufflon horns are placed on the stones to do honour to the saint, and usually there are camel-bells, presumably to attract his attention. As these shrines are extremely common in Baluchistan, I used to wonder what qualities went to make a saint, and was interested when at a place called Manish to find that the Persian Folklore. 273 late Governor was buried under a huge cairn of stones with the usual accompaniments of fluttering rags and ibex horns. The Baluchis informed us that this man's claim to saintship Lconsisted in the fact that he had never robbed the poor. jFrom an Oriental point of view, the man who has it in his tower to oppress and to amass money as a result of his ippressions, and refrains from doing so, is worthy of every lossible honour. The natives themselves were often not ■■very clear as to the saintly personages buried beneath the liinnumerable cairns of stones. In reading Mr. Floyer's ■ book, Unexplored Baluchistan, I noticed that he says mp. 39) that he sometimes started a eiarai or shrine himself Lby collecting together a small heap of stones as he walked Ion ahead of his caravan. His camel-drivers, when they |-came up to the spot, imagined that this must be the grave I of some dervish, and at once cast their quota of boulders ^on the cairn. Occasionally I noticed a shrine walled round with upright Bslabs of a sort of shale, on which were scratched animals F-and figures ; a proceeding quite contrary to the tenets of Mohammedanism, which does not allow anything human or animal to be depicted. In some siarats the head and feet of the saint were marked by s!ate monoliths, and these were often placed several yards apart ; the idea being, I believe, to give an impression in this way of the grandeur of the departed. Often 1 observed large round places swept clean of the ^lack shingle and formed into a circle with low upright F stones, a small pile of stones being left in the centre. Dr. Bellew, in his book From the Indus to the Tigris, says (p. 54) they are called chaps, a word meaning " clapping of -hands," and that on the occasions of weddings the Baluchis lance here, keeping time to the muiiic by clapping their inds, and the musicians take up their position on the stones. lie explanation, however, given to me about these places was, that they were used as points for the people to 274 Persian Folklore. assemble and hear parts of the iameh or passi6n play recitedi the dervish who conducted these religious exercises sitting in the centre. Perhaps both explanations are right. The folklore of places is interesting. For examplci the fort of Aibi in Baluchistan had a stuffed dummy warrior always hanging over the parapet. We were informed that the figure had been placed there by a dervish, who had assured the Baluchis that by this means their castle was rendered impregnable. The volcano Demaveud in the Elburz Range is the scene of many of the Persian legends, and was the home of demons and genii, besides being the resting place of the blessed on their way to paradise. Kuh-i-Shah| or " The Mountain of the Saint," in S.E. Persia, a peak 1 3,700 feet in height, is dedicated to a holy man who is supposed to cause explosions in the mountain during the summer months. Whether these explosions take place or not I am unable to say, but my brother's huntsmen firmly believed in them. My brother and I ascended this mountain in July, 1895, and found a heap of stones at the summit, on which was laid a large collection of coins, beads, brass rings, and, odd to relate, a Queen Victoria token. As the mountain was not a volcano there was nothing to account for the theory of these supposed explosions. Kuh-i-Chehel-Tun or " The Mountain of the Forty Beings," in Baluchistan, is supposed to be haunted by forty children, turned by enchantment into goats, which cease- lessly fling down stones on all who dare to climb their fastnesses. We will now turn to the subject of Games, 1. A ball is hit into the air with a gaudily-painted stick. Whoever catches it calls out Goal geriftun^ a corruption of Gul geriftun (I have taken the flower.) Who misses is pelted. 2. A row of walnuts are put on a ridge and knocked off by another walnut thrown at four to five yards' distance. Persian Folklore. 3. A chain gathered up in the hand is thrown out so as to touch another player. 4. An oblong is drawn with divisions, and stones are kicked into them, each division counting so much. 5. The Jereed, in which horsemen throw javelins at one another; the men aimed at, ducking to avoid the missile. 6. The Dogfie/a-Basi {ihrowing game) is played on horse- back. The players fling a stick on the ground with great force and catch it up as it rebounds. 7. A lemon is thrown into the air and then fired at from horseback. S. An egg placed on a little mound of sand is fired at by horsemen passing it at full gallop. 9 Chess, a kind of draughts, pitch and toss, marbles (played with pebbles), and a species of rounders and fives, are all known in Persia, as well as card-games. 10. My brother, Major Sykes, has had some success in reviving /o/(j, which is said to have had its origin in Persia. I'ln the SiaA Namek is an account of a game played by the vPersian hero, Siawush, before Afrasiyab, King of Tartary, iMy brother has sent home copies of old tiles on which K'the game is depicted in a spirited manner. The originals lare about the date of Shah Abbas, and the king is intro- fduced as watching the game. No rUs, the Persian New Year's Day, which takes place F shout March 2ist, as the sun passes into Aries, is a day of general rejoicing, marking the end of winter and the beginning of spring. It is a festival dating from remote antiquity, and has nothing to do with Mohammedanism. l£very Persian dons new clothes, all ser^■ants being given :w costumes by their masters. There is a feast in every luse, and among the food are dishes of springing barley ^nd lighted candles. On this day the -Shah shows himself Ko his subjects, gives Kalats or robes of honour, and distributes largess; while ceremonious visits of congratula- tion are paid to him and to his representatives in all the 276 Persian Folklore. cities in Persia. Persians have a superstition that whatever a man is doing on this day, he will be fated to do the same thing throughout the whole year ; therefore they are always anxious not to be travelling at Na rilzy not wishing to be unsettled for a twelvemonth. At this season, according to Dr. Wills, ^ the dervishes or professional beggars erect tents before the houses of prominent personages, make a pretence of a garden by sticking twigs in the ground, and then blow a cow's horn incessantly with the cry " Ya hue!" (my right) . They refuse to leave until they have been given a good present of money. A Persian bride is given a piece of gold for luck. She carries bread and salt into her husband's house to ensure plenty, and kisses her father's hearth as she leaves her old home. The Shah has the right to see every woman in his kingdom unveiled, and the royal glance is believed to bring good luck to those on whom it is cast. I will now say a few words about the Gahres or Fire- Worshippers, commonly called Parsees by Europeans, the word Parsee or Farsi merely meaning Persian. These are the descendants of the old inhabitants of the land, who clung to their faith when Persia was overrun by the conquering Arabs. They are to be found at Tehran, but are principally at Yezd and Kerman, and also in the villages near these latter cities, and of course at Bombay. They are looked down upon by the Persians, who will not allow them to ride through the towns, and restrict the townsmen to ugly mustards and browns in their costumes, not allowing them to wear the flowing Persian ahha or cloak. The peasants wear curious helmet-shaped felt caps. Moreover the Gabres are restricted as to what trade they may follow, and in consequence the race has taken to agriculture, all the best gardeners in Persia being fire-worshippers. The women go about with their faces uncovered, and have a ' Dr. Wills, In the Land of the Lion and the Stitty p. 46. picturesque dress composed of a gay chintz jacket, fu!l trousers which are embroidered in many coloured stripes, and half a dozen wraps for the head ; the fifth consisting of a white veil falling in graceful folds down the back, but not concealing the face, and the last being a large checked cotton sheet worn over the head and wrapt round the body for out-door use. Little Gabre girls wear a small coif, and the hair falls from it in long plaits, but the women would look upon it as immodest to allow anyone to see their head without its coverings. The Gabres, as is well known, follow the tenets of Zoro- aster, and have the Zendavesta as their Sacred Book. They believe in Ormuzd, the Good Spirit, and in Ahriman, the Principle of Evil, and worship fire as a deity. At the city of Yezd is the chief temple of the fire worshippers, who believe that the flame which burns on the altar there has never been extinguished through the centuries. When Gabres settle in any other part of Persia they always get some of the sacred fire from Yezd to place in their temples. The priests who attend to this fire wear a veil over their mouths in order not to pollute the holy flame with their breath, and it is on account of this thai no Gabre will blow out a flame. My little Parsee maid always extin- guished a candle with her fingers when she entered my service.^ The Gabre men wear a threefold cord round their waists, signifying good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. This they untie and retie five times daily at the hours of prayer. They reverence the dog, which in the Zendavesta is the special animal of Ormuzd, and a dog is often called in to decide whether a man be dead or not. If it eats the bread laid on the breast of the supposed corpse, life is ex- tinct, but if it refuses the food there is still hope. ' The Shah's band plays at sunset every day nl Tehran, and Ihis performance is supposed iq be a Zordiisirian cuslom, surviving from ihe limes when ihe wo WM worshipped. 278 Persian Folklore. Herodotus says that the corpse of every male Persian had to be torn by a dog or by a beast of prey. At the present day the dead are exposed on towers to be eaten by vultures and crows. If the birds pick out the right eye of a corpse first, it is a sign that the soul has gone to the Zoroastrian Paradise. If, however, the left eye is attacked first, the fate of the departed soul is a gloomy one.^ There is considered to be such defilement in touching a corpse, that a special class of Parsees do all the burying, and even relatives will not assist a man if they think he may breathe his last while they are touching him. Close to the Dakhma^ or Tower of Silence, at Kerman, in S.E. Persia, was a house with unglazed windows. The relatives of deceased Gabres were in the habit of setting out a substantial meal in the upper room of this house, affirming that the spirit, just after its separation from the body, was greatly in need of nourishment. The Parsees never wash anything on a Tuesday, saying that no article can be cleansed on that day. My Parsee maid used to hang a small white shell on any possession that she was afraid of losing, affirming that it was an infallible charm. I have selected a few Proverbs and Saws which are characteristic of the country. Here is a beggar's refrain : — "Khodaguft, 'bidde,' Shaitan guft, 'nidde.'" It means, "God says 'give,' but Satan says, * Don't give.''' " Stretch your legs no further than your carpet," is equi- valent to our " Cut your coat according to your cloth." * [At the end of the 17th century, it was the custom in Kebraboth, a suburb of Ispahan, to let a cock out of the house in which the dead body lay. If it was caught and carried off by a fox, it was believed that the deceased person would be happy in the next life. If this test failed, or was ambiguous in its issue, the corpse was decorated and hung up on the wall of the cemeter>- with wooden forks for the test related by Miss Sykes. (Olearius, Persianische Reise- heichreibwtg, p. 49S-) N. W. THOMAS.] " The jackal dipped himself in indigo, and then thought he was a peacock." explains itself. " This camel is at your gate," is tlie same as " This sin is laid at your door." " When you are in a room be of the same colour as the people in it," is the Persian for " Do at Rome as the Romans do." "The swiftest horse is apt to stumble," is " More haste worse speed," and our familiar proverb, " Don't look a gift- horse in the mouth, " is found also in Persia. " A cut string may be joined again, but the knot always remains," is used in speaking of a broken friendship. " Only a Mazanderani dog can catch a Mazanderani fox," is the equivalent to our " Set a thief to catch a thief." " Often to be kind to the tiger is to be cruel to the lamb," seems to have no equivalent. " If you have a fine horse it becomes a gift, or pishkash." This proverb alludes to the way in which princes and those in authority despoil those under them. ■' A Persian receiving a toman (a coin worth about four shillings) at once buys a led horse," is a saying sati- rizing the national love of tashakhus or show. " Our fathers never saw this even in a dream," is a com- mon expression denoting astonishment. " All pains can be forgotten in forty days, but the pain of being deprived of food lasts forty years." " A fool said, ' My father was vizier to the Sultan,' and I answered, ' What is that to you ?' " This is a Persian way of snubbing anyone who may boast of his ancestry. "War at the outset is good if it ends in peace," is the Persian manner of saying that it is good to begin a friend- ship with a little aversion. " Man is the slave of his benefactor." "The innocent man may go to the foot of the scaffold, but he will never ascend it." 28o The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. " If you become rich and your head is not turned, you are a man." " New sleeves get a good dinner." This proverb alludes to the story that a shabbily-dressed mollah was turned away from a feast. On returning in a new coat lie was given the place of honour at the entertainment, and re- peated the saying at intervals during the evening in a bewildered manner. THE ANCIENT AND MODERN GAME OF ASTRAGALS. BY B LOVETT. {Read at Meeting of I'jth Aprils 1901.) A FEW years ago, during a visit to Holland and Belgium, I noticed in the poorer parts of some of the towns children playing a game upon doorsteps with small metal objects, which upon investigation proved to be white metal copies of the Astragalus or knuckle-bone. I soon found some of these for sale in the toy shops, where I purchased them at prices ranging from three a penny to about a penny each. They were of great interest to me, as they seemed to be a direct descendant of the bronze Astragali of the Roman period, and they prompted me to collect a few notes and specimens to illustrate the devolution and differentiation of this very ancient game. The game of Astragals, so called because it was played with the Astragalus or knuckle-bone of an animal, usually a sheep, is of great antiquity. A beautiful group (one of the Tanagra terra-cottas) in the British Museum, representing two girls playing the game, is recorded as B.C. 800, and a lO^ijble figure of an astragalus player, life-size, of later date. The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. 281 may also be seen there. There are also other figures and pictures, Pompeian and others, of which I hope to give a detailed list in later notes. In Horace's Satires, Book II., we read: " Servius Oppidius, a rich man according to ancient reckoning, is said to have divided his two farms at Carnucium between his two sons, and when dying to have .said this to his boys, after they had been called to his bed- I side ; ' Ever since I saw you, Aulus, carrying your knuckle- bones and nuts in the loose fold [of your toga], giving them away and playing with them, but you, Tiberius, counting them and solemnly hiding them in holes, 1 have feared that different kinds of madness may seize you, and that _)'(ja will I follow Nomentanus and you Cicula-' " ' In the British Museum are several Astragali in bronze, fcrock-crystal.agate, &c., of ancient Greek and Roman times, I together with certain dice of which they are doubtless the ■ origin. But it is to their use in games of skill rather than as gambling dice to which I have devoted these notes, and unhappily I have not been able, so far, to ascertain any details as to how the game of skill was anciently played, \ beyond the figures and mural designs already referred to. I take the following from the Report of National Museum, ISmithsonian Institution, Washington, U.S., for 1896: " Knuckle-bones have been used as implements in games f from remote antiquity. There are several distinct ways in Rwhich they are thus employed. One was as Jackstones, ■described by classical authors as played principally by 1 and children with five bones. Among the Syrians pat the present day they are used by children in games resembling marbles, being knocked from a ring drawn on the ground with others which are sometimes weighted with . lead. " A favourite and almost universal use of knuckle-bones I games was as dice in games of chance. Among the ' Nomenlanus, used by Horace as a lype ot a prodigal and spendthrift [ a very cautious money .lender. 282 The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. Greeks and Romans numerical values were attributed to the four long sides, the two pointed ends not being counted. The two broad sides, respectively convex and concave, counted three and four, while of the narrow sides, the flat counted one and the indented six. The numbers two and five were wanting. Several names, both Greek and Latin, are recorded for each of the throws. Two persons played together at this game, using four bones, which they threw into the air or emptied out of dicebox [fritillus). The numbers on the four sides of the four bones admitted of thirty-five different combinations. The lowest throw of all was four aces, but the value of a throw was not in all cases the sum of the four numbers turned up. The highest in value was that called VenuSy, in which the numbers cast up were all different. Certain other throws were called by particular names, taken from gods, illustrious men and women, and heroes. These bones, marked and thrown as above described, were also used in divination. " Among the Turks, Arabs, and Persians, the four throws with a single knuckle-bone receive the names of the four ranks of human society. Thus among the Persians, according to Dr. Hyde, they were called as follows : Supinum : — Dudz = * thief.* Pronum : — Dihban=* peasant.' Planum : — ^Vezir. Fortuosum :— Shah. "The Arabic name for the bones is Kdb (plural Kabat)y meaning Ankle ^ referring to their source. Two bones are now commonly used — one from the right and the other from the left leg of a sheep. I regard them as the direct ancestors of cubical dotted dice, the name of which in Arabic is the same as that of the bones. The dice used in Arabic countries are made in pairs, and the most popular and universal game is one with two dice, Kdbatam, " Games with knuckle-bones are a favourite amusement in Spanish-American countries, and it is claimed that they wT/ie Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. 283 existed among the [ndians before the discovery. Dr. Carl Lurnholtz found them among the Tarahumara, who attribute numerical values to the different sides. Among the Papago, in Arizona, Mr. W. J. McGee found a single knuck'e-bone of a bison, used in playing a game called Tan-wan, of which a specimen collected by him is exhibited in the U.S. National Museum. In Costa Rica, Dr. T, M. Calnek states that the Indians in the vicinity of San Jos^ continually play with the Astragalus of an ox or cow, using a single bone : they call the game by the name of Choque suelo. They are also used by the Indians in Peru. Their Quichua name tava would appear to be derived from the Spanish taba, but this is contrary to the opinion of Dr. Emilio Montez, who exhibited a prehistoric copy of a knuckle-bone in terra-cotta, from Cuzco, in his collection at the Columbian Exposition, There are nine Astragalus bones from the Lengua tribe, Chaco Indians, in the Hossler collections from Paraguay, in the Field Columbian Museum, ' Knuckle-bones of various animals, some worked and ihowing wear, have been found associated with Indian Pemains in various parts of the United States. Mr. C. B. Moore found a fossil llama Astragalus in a mound on ■ Murphy Bland, Florida, and a large fossil Astragalus, not identified, in a mound on Ossabow Island, Georgia. They are also reported from stone graves, Tennessee. They -were always found in pots, and in the case of children's Eraves the bones as well as the pots were always smaller. showed wear and polish. There are also numerous 'records from earth mounds in Arkansas, the bones being those of deer and bison ; some have been squared for use as dice, others showed the high polish of much wear." This concludes the Washington report, except in the ramifications of the use of the Astragalus as a die pure and simple. My inquiries as regards our own country have yielded aery poor results very few of our museums preserving any 284 The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. records of the game, either ancient or modern. I have been able to gather, however, a few very interesting specimens showing considerable variety in the objects used in the game.^ The classical name " Astragals " seems to be entirely unknown. None of my correspondents had ever heard of it. Instead of it we get Knuckle-bones, Knuckle-downs, Five-bones, Five-stones, Jacks, Jack o' five-stones, Fivies, Dibs, Dabbers, Chuckies, Chuckie-stones, and " Marbles and Dubs," the latter word seeming to be a corruption of Dibs and Dabbers. The word '* Jack," too, is curious, more especially as in the Swiss form of the game we get a King, Queen, Jack (or knave), and pawns — a remarkable mixture of Cards, Chess, and Astragals. The materials employed in the game of Astragals of to-day differ almost as much as do the names themselves, and are equally devoid of any marked local feature or peculiar character. For example, in my small collection I possess the Astragalus bone series, which is the type ; another from near Bordeaux, in which the unjoined ends of the metatarsal bone of a lamb are used ; and a third from Faversham, Kent, of the short phalanges of a pig. Pebbles of suitable shape are very widely used, and I have them from Suffolk, Worcestershire, and Kent, besides records from Scotland, Ireland, and Cornwall. I have seen small selected pieces of diorite, used for road-making, turned into Astragals in London and in my own town, Croydon ; whilst trimmed pieces of potsherds are employed in Yorkshire, Suffolk, and Sussex. In Worcestershire I found small home-made cubes of wood thus used, merging thereby into dice ; and the Belgian and Dutch metal ones already referred to are a pleasing illustration of an attempt to perpetuate the Greek and Roman Astragali. It has, however, been reserved for Germany to produce the most prosaic and uninteresting machine-made materials for this ancient game. * See list of exhibits, ante^ p. 257. The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. 285 This consists of a stone marble and four little fluted stone- ware cubes in assorted glazed colours. This "up-to-date" monstrosity is sold largely in Houndsditch by the name of " Marbles and Dubs," and in my many local inquiries this has frequently been the sole result, correspondents sending me sets of these " made-in-Germany " knuckle-bones, as of local interest. Another curious aspect of the game is the use of a ball, or marble, and four, bones or stones, instead of five bones or stones and no ball. I am inclined to think that this is a some- what modern modification of the game, to enable young children or unskilled players to the more enjoy it. It is very widely spread, for I saw it played thus in Belgium, and I have a set from Bourg, near Bordeaux, another from Kent, and the " made-in-Germany " variety from many places. A Parsee friend of mine tells me that so far as he knows the only game played in India at all corresponding to Astragals is played with tamarind seeds (Chinchora), and the game is called Oochard&o, It occurs chiefly in the province of Gujerat. The game is played chiefly (as might be expected) by women and children, and by from two to six individuals, arranged equally, of course. Adults use one hand only, but children are allowed to use two. A great number of seeds are used, and the winner is the one who succeeds, when throwing up, in catching the greater or greatest number upon the back of the hand. This aspect of the game appears to me to be a very degraded form of Astragals, to which it seems to have many similarities, differing only in being made exceedingly easy for the benefit of a race to whom an easy game of skill would naturally appeal. The following is a description of the game as played in Scotland under the name of *' Chuckies." Onesey. — Take five white stones in the palm of the right hand, toss up and catch one on the back of the hand, toss it up and quickly catch up one of the 286 The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. fidlen stones and catch the <»ie yoa have tossed up before it fidit to the ground. Put one aside and do as before till all are caught up. Twosey, — Take up one, throw it up and quickly, catch up two and the &lling one, put two aside, toss up one and catch up the other two and the fidlingone. Threesey, — ^Same as before, but catch up three, then one. Fmrsey, — Same as before, only catch up four and the fedling one. Sweep the House, — Place four stones in a square, then say while yon toss up the fifth, " Sweep the house.*' Draw your forefinger in firont of one stone and catch the fidling one. Toss again and say, " Lift a chair," catch up one from the square and the felling one. Keep one in hand, toss up one again and say, " Sweep below," draw finger over the comer where yon lifted stone from and catch falling one ; toss again and say, " Put it dovm," put down the supposed stone and do the same at all the comers. Dttttger, — Scatter stones, take one, toss it up, catch up one and the fidling one; toss up both, catch up one and the two felling ones, and so on till all five are in your hand. Crawly. — ^Toss up &ve, catch as many as possible on back of hand, then keeping them there cautiously gather in the scattered stones under the hand. CaUk Fishey, — ^Toss up five, catch as many as possible on back of hand, then by a quick movement throw forward and catch in palm again. Catch FlHhey.~-Thtow up one and catch up all four, and then catch the felling one without turning up palm, but with the same forward movement, with a grab as it were. Caws in /[>rfv.— Place tip of left-hand fingers on ground, put one stone between each finger. Toss up the fifth and say, '' Put the cows in the byre," push one stone under the hand and catch the felling one. Repeat till all are pushed under the left hand, £an^ the Dyke, — ^Place four stones in line, toss up the fifth, catch up the first and the third and the felling one. Toss up again and catch up the other twa Deaf and Crack. — Same as in first movement, only in catching the first it must crack on the caught up one in the palm of the hand, the second must not touch, the third must not, and so on. This ends the game. My friend M. Alfred Godet, Curator of the Museum of Ntuchatel, Switzerland, sent me specimens of the game as li^ knows it, and writes me as follows : v^Xhis game has replaced, if I mistake not, here the game ^ Hockeets or Osselets, similar to the Dutch example of' .^jy^A you sent me a specimen. I do not think anything The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. 287 like it has been found here. The game I can remember as far back as between 1840 and 1850. " The game consists of nine stones : The King^ black; the Queen, white ; the Knave, brown or green ; and six Pawns of yellowish white quartz. " A flat surface is generally selected upon which to play, if possible rather soft or elastic, a hard cushion or a dress stretched across the knees. There may be several players. " Let us suppose two players, A. and B. " A. takes in his right hand all the stones and throws them up, not too high, and catches them upon the back of his hand. Then three alternatives present themselves. " I . He catches one stone only, the others have rolled off to the right or left. In this case the player A, con- tinues (see later) ; *' 2. He fails to catch any of the stones, in which case B. continues to play ; or " 3. He has caught most of the stones, the others having rolled off. In this case the player can, ist, work the stones close together by means of the muscles on the back of his hand ; 2nd, throw down some and take care that the others do not fall ; 3rd, only retain one upon the back of the hand, and proceeds to the next part of the game ; but it is very important that he retains in any case at least one stone upon the back of his hand, otherwise the play reverts to his opponent. "A. now throws up, by a rapid movement, the one or more stones resting upon the back of his hand, and must catch them in his palm. If he fails, the game passes to B. ''A. then takes one of the stones (if he has caught more than one he selects that of least value), throws it up, rapidly gathering with a stroke of the hand as many of the stones as possible resting on the cushion or ground, catching in its fall the one he threw up. This continues till he has 288 The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. picked up all the stones, but failure consists in missing the stone thrown up or dropping one of those picked up. Sometimes a good player will gather up all the stones at one coup if they happen to be in a group, which does not often occur. If he does, however, he has won the first part of the game. " Now suppose A. at his first throw picked up a pawn, and with this thrown up, the king, then the queen, then the knave, then one or two pawns, and then misses his fifth or sixth try. B. then takes the rest of the stones that are on the cushion, throws them up as at the start of the game, and catches them on the back of his hand, dropping those which inconvenience him and only taking care of the one or more which suit him. This he throws into the air, catching it in the palm of his hand, and with this stone he gathers those which rest upon the cushion (as before). When he has collected all of them, supposing that he has succeeded in doing so, the first player, A., places upon the cushion one of the stones which he has won. This will be of the lowest value he has, a pawn for example. " B. tries to take it by throwing one of his pawns up (in the usual way). " A. then throws down his second pawn, B. tries to take it as before, after the pawns (B. still winning) A. gives up his jack. B. then throws up two stones in order to be able to take this piece. A. then yields the queen and B. has to throw up three stones in order to capture it. Lastly, A. yields his king and B. has to throw up and catch four pawns to enable him to pick up this piece. Should he succeed in thus picking up all the stones without dropping any he wins. *' In the other event, A. again takes up the game with the stones left upon the cushion, B. in his turn giving up one by one his pawns, jack, queen, and king. ** Sometimes the game lasts a long while. It is very The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. 289 easy to learn and to play; some pick it up upon seeing it once, and with a little exercise soon become proficient." I have obtained a few other descriptions of the playing [ of this game, but they differ only in minor points from those ' mentioned. As these few remarks are intended more as an introduction to the subject than a treatise thereon, I shall be greatly indebted to any members of the Fo!k-Lore Society for any future assistance in recording and collecting notes and specimens, so that a fairly comprehensive history I of the ancient game of Astragals with all its recent I ramifications may be thus obtained. Note I. I have in my possession a knuckle-bone of a very similar type to Mr, Lovett's Greek and Roman exhibits, which was dug up at the ancient site of Akra in the Bannu district on the North-west Frontier of India. It is of bronze, or perhaps copper, and is a very fair imitation of a real knuckle-bone. Judging from the evidence of sculptures, coins, engraved gems, &c,, found on the same site, it pro- bably may be referred either to the Greek kingdom of Bactria and N.W. India (B.C. 250 to B.C. 50) or to the Scythic kingdoms of the Sakas and Kushans which fol- lowed immediately after it. At the present day gambling by means of knuckle-bones {of sheep) is extremely common on the N.W. Frontier, especially among the Baloches, and the legendary ballads allude to it. Dilmalikh, a very lavish hero of one slory, I laments that he was reduced by his extravagance to cutting grass for his tivciihood and being called " Uncle" by the Rind maidens. All his horses and their trappings have, he says, " gone with the coloured knuckle-bones." The story will be found in the " Legend of Mir Chakar," of which I contributed a translation to Colonel Temple's Legends of the Punjab. M. LoNGWORTH Dames. Note II. This game is well known among schoolboys under the 290 The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. name of " knuckle-bones/' or *' dibs." When I was at school at Aldenham, in Hertfordshire, in 1860-67, it was played principally from October to April. The great ambition of every player was to possess a set of knuckle-bones, but as a substitute cubes cut from the horse-chestnut were often used. The mode of play was identical with the description of the game as played in Scotland, with some additions and variations. It may be conceived that the knuckle-bones were origin- ally used as a means of divination, and afterwards degene- rated into a child^s game in the same manner as the present use of playing cards arose from the ancient " Tarots " used for divination. In this connection it might be of importance to notice the numerical values which Mr. Lovett mentions as being ascribed to the different sides of the bones, in case it should appear that they in any way correspond with the Pythagorean system of numbers which was so largely used in divination. D. F. DE l'Hoste Ranking. Note III. — The Game of "Snobs" as played in Derbyshire. (See p. 257.) Five snobs are used — the manufactured cubes — ^but no marble. Any number of people can play, and when one player fails in any action the next one goes on. Whoever gets to the end first, wins. I. Single ones, — Take five in your hand, throw them up, and catch as many as you can on the back of your hand . Throw those up from the back and catch in the palm. Put down all you catch except one.* Throw that one up, and while it is in the air pick up one of those you did not catch on the back of hand, and catch the one thrown up. Put it down and repeat from,* till you have finished the balance you did not catch. II. Single twos, — Take all five in your palm, put them on the table again,* throw up one, and while it is up, pick up two of the 'others, catch the thrown one, put down two, and repeat from* till you finish. III. Single threes. — Take all in your palm, put them carelessly on the table, pick up one, throw it up and pick up three while it is in the air, put three down and throw one up, and pick up the remaining one. IV. Single fours. — Take five in your hand, throw up one, put down four, and catch the thrown one. V. Double ones. Take up five, throw up and catch on the back of the hand as many as you can, throw up those you catch, pick up another, catch all, and so on till you have picked up all five. VI. Double twos. — Like single twos, as double ones are like single ones, except that you do not put down again those you take up, but keep them in your hand and throw them up with the others. The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. 291 VII. Deublt linn. — Pm M on table, lake up one, ihrow il up and take ■.'1^ three ; throw lip four and pick up the fifth. VIII. Dsuble fiurs.—lhe same, only take up four instead of three, IX. Jiaki. — Exactly like single raies, only that you have to make each stone dink agoitist the other in your hand as you catch it. X. NoJinJli. — The same, only don't let them clink. XI. Creeps. — Take all in hand, throw up and cnlch on bock of hand, take those not caught between lingers, throw i;ip those on back of hand, and catch in palm without letting the rest drop from between fingers. XII. Potato Sets.—TaVe all in palm, throw up, catch on back of hand, throw up those caught, and caich in palm, throw up one, put down rest while it IS up, and catch again in palm ; throw it up again, and pick up Buotbei, catch it again, throw up second, put down nrst by the rest, catch second, pick up third, throw up third, put down second, catch third, &c., till all four are put down in a heap, throw up fifth, pick up the fourth, catch fifth, and end with all in your hand. XIII. Stiaps.^Kitcxly like the !>ingle sets (i-iv), except that you catch over- hand instead of with palm uppermost. The game may, at pleasure, be continued through " double snaps," as T-riii, but catching nvei-hand. C. Violet Turner. The name " Snobs" has been noted at Derby and Matlock, and in South Notts, but at Tutbury, Staffordshire, about ten miles south-west of Derby, the game is called "Jacky- e five-stones," and generally in South Staffordshire "Jacky- stones." No five pla nar Sec Fot Ch; |,NoTE IV. — Abstract of Information rfxeived Mr. Lovett since the Meeting. " Knuckledovins" Buckhurst Hill, Essex. Played with five marbles or stones. Fourteen complete "games" (or rather figures) are played with the right hand and fourteen with the lefL The names of the figures are in the order given : First Sum, LSecond Sum, Third Sum ; Onesey, Twosey, Threesey, Foursey ; Bonks, Creeps, Cracks, No Cracks, Everlastings, ^ Changelings, and Aniens. They correspond very nearly with the first eleven figures of the Derbyshire variant, adding the following figures : Sonis. — Four in palm, one between finger and thumb, throw up latter, and while in air put down remBining four on ground and catch No, i. Place No. I Bgainbetween finger and thumb, throw it into air, while in air pick up teinaining four again and catch No. l. £ver/aslingj.— -Five in palm, throw all up and catch on back of hand i if five so caught, throw up all from back of hand and catch in palm ; if less, throw up those caught and catch in palm. Retain these in palm, then Ihrow up one from finger and thumb, picking up one from ground while in air, catch falling one. Again throw up one and pick up another, repeating process till u a 292 The Ancient and Modern Game of Astragals. Changelings, — Five in palm, throw all up and catch on back of hand ; if five so caugnt, throw up all from back of hand and catch in palm ; if less, throw up those caught, and catch in palm, picking up one from ground at same moment Repeat. Amens. — Four in palm, one between finger and thumb ; throw up the one and catch in palm. £. Linder. 2. ^^ Dabbers.** Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks. Played with four stones and a marble. The figures are given in full, to show the variant induced by the use of the marble kept constantly bouncing. Pinks. (To find order of players). — Throw up four stones and catch as many as possible on back of tiand. Throw up and catch in palm. Each player has three throws. The player who catches most stones in the three throws starts first, and so on in order. Ones, — ^Throw down four stones. Bounce marble, pick up one stone with- out touching the rest, and catch marble. Repeat for each stone. Half-twos — Throw down four stones. Bounce marble, pick up two together and catch marble. Pick up the other two separately. Twos, — As in "ones," but pick up two stones each time. Threes, — As in " ones," but pick up three stones together and then one. Fours. — As in " ones," but pck up all four together Upsets. — Take four stones m hand, bounce marble, put down stones and catch marble. Bounce marble again, pick up stones, and catch marble. Creeps. — Throw up four stones and catch as many as possible on back of hand. Those which fall, to be picked up between fingers. Throw up those on back of hand and catch in palm, retaining those between fingers. Clicks, — As in " ones," but each stone and marble must click. No Clicks. — As in "clicks" but stone and marble not to click. Little Maids, — Three stones taken. Throw up and catch as many as possible on back of hand. Throw up and catch in palm. Throw up again, pick up others and catch. Big Maids. — As in ** little maids " but four stones used. First Everlastings, — As in **big maids" but no stone caught must after- wards be dropped. Second Everlastings, — Throw down four stones. Bounce marble, pick up one stone, and catch marble. Bounce again and pick up number two, still holding number one, and repeat until all four are picked. Third Everlastings. — Throw out four stones, and play as in "second everlastings," putting down number one and picking up number two whilst marble was bouncing. Longs, — Place two stones about a yard apart. Bounce marble, pick them up together. Shorti. — Two stones a foot apart, then as in " longs." E. Linder. Compare the Wakefield variant^ Gomme's Traditional GatneSy i., 125. 3. Other correspondents describe '* Jacks/' played at Whitefield and Haslingden, near Manchester^ with four cubes and a ** dobber,*' or marble ; played in youth at Bolton-Ie-Moors, by Mrs. Hannah Woodcock, born 18 14, with four bits of wood and a dobber. The game played was the Westminster variety described in Traditional THE PAGANISM OF THE ANCIENT PRUSSIANS. TIANSLATBD I The Paganism of the Ancient Prussians. 293 Games, 1., 126, but the last part was called " Driving Pigs to Market." The playplace is generally mentioned as the doorstep or the hearthstone. Some account of the classical game will be found in Traditional Games, i., 239, s.v. " Hucklebones/' and refe- rences to the several British variants recorded by Mrs. Gomme have already been given, ante, p. 106. . 4. The game is known in Persia, where, says my inform- mant, it is played by boys of the lower classes — E. c. Svkes. ^^H Tt ^^^^n'HERE was printed at Spiers {Spiral) in the year 1582 by ^^^^ Barnardus D'Albinus a volume, now become infinitely rare, of which the contents are thus described on the title page : " About the religion, sacrifices, wedding and funeral rites of the Russians, Moscovites, and Tartars, by various authors." Mr. Arthur Evans possesses a copy, which he has kindly lent to me. All the pieces are in Latin, and the first is a long controversial dialogue in which are discussed the respective merits of the new Lutheran religion and the faith of Muscovy, The discussion was held in Moscow early in the year 1570, and no less a personage than Ivan the Terrible is put forward to assail the Lutheran faith, which is defended by the minister of Christ, John Rohita. Many cruelties perpetrated by the Muscovite tyrant against Lutherans are detailed in the course of the dialogue, and serve to dispel the opinion one often hears expressed, that the history of the Russian State has never, like that of other countries, been sullied by purely religious persecu- tions. The gem of the collection, however, is the tract about 294 Th^ Paganism of the Ancient Prussians^ the superstitions of the Borussi or Prussians, which fills pp. 257-264. It is so little known, that I have thoagbt it iworthy to be translated. It was written about 1553, and a£Fords us a pleasing picture of the old paganism of Prussia, which in that age still survived, hardly touched, in remote country places. The Borussi or Prussians were, of course, Slavs by race and akin to the RuthenL — ^F. C. C. About the Reugion and Sacrifices of the Ancient Prussians. An Epistle ofyohn Meletius to George Sabine} My son Jerome, who is usually very much delighted with your writings, gave me to read that elegy of yours which you wrote to the Cardinal Peter Bembo, and in which you mention the custom of sacrificing a goat and of worshipping snakes found among some oi the Sarmatian races. I could not help writing to you details I have ascertained of the vain cults of those peoples. Indeed, I expect you will not be sorry to understand more fully the customs and idolatry of tribes among which a certain destiny has sum- moned you, and in the neighbourhood of which you are passing your life. For many superstitious rites and idola- trous cults are still kept up in these regions, which as a fresh-comer you may not yet have learned about. This is why I have made up my mind to communicate to you what- ever I have found out about them. Not to trouble you wth a longer preface, I will begin by describing the sacrifices with which formerly the Borussi, Samogitae, Lithuanians, Ruthenians, and Livonians wor- shipped the demons as if they were gods, and still continue to do so in secret in many places. Then 1 will describe ' Meletius wa