Chapter XXI: Conclusion (1)

It is fairly obvious that the observance of tabooed and unlucky days must be included among the many superstitions which have retarded the progress of mankind. They hinder individual initiative and tend to prevent the undertaking of lengthy enterprises which may be interrupted by the recurrence of an unfavourable period. Their extensive development compels fitful, intermittent labour, rather than a steady and continuous occupation. The Burman, for example, “is so fettered by his horoscope and the lucky and unlucky days for him recorded therein, which are taught him in rhymes from childhood, that the character has been given him by strangers of alternate idleness and energy. But both are enforced by the numerous days and seasons when he may not work without disaster to himself. Unlucky days cause him so much fear that he will resort to all sorts of excuses to avoid business on them. Similarly, on lucky days he will work beyond his strength, because he is assured of success.”[936] Again, it is said that Europeans in India usually fail to realize the great influence which ideas of lucky and unlucky days exert on the conduct of the people. Superstitious avoidance of unpropitious occasions will often explain the failure of the natives to obey a court summons or to keep their appointments with government officers.[937] These remarks, by keen observers, are capable of a wide application to various primitive races. The belief in unfavourable seasons may even directly affect political and social progress, where, as in modern Ashanti and in ancient Rome, assemblies could not be held, or courts of justice stand open, or armies engage the enemy, when the unlucky day came round. It is equally obvious that all such beliefs play into the hands of the astrologer and magician, tending further to strengthen the bonds with which superstition enchains its votaries.

From the economic point of view it deserves to be pointed out how the extensive development of tabooed and unlucky days seriously limits production and thus lowers the efficiency of labour. In Hawaii the seasons of strict abstinence regularly observed during eight months of the year reached a total of seventy-two days, while from time to time still other _tabu_ days were appointed by the priests.[938] In Ashanti an old writer calculated that there were only from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty days in the year during which business of any importance could be safely undertaken.[939] Few peoples have more holidays than the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Their religious festivals occupy more than half the year. It is a noteworthy fact, however, that the Hopi celebrate their longest and most important ceremonies during the months from harvest time to planting, when there is little work to be done. “Although the Pueblo farmer may thoroughly believe in his ceremonial system as efficacious, his human nature is too practical to consume the precious planting time with elaborate ceremonials.”[940] In modern China and Korea so many festivals in honour of deities are observed as holidays that they take the place, to a certain extent, of the Sabbath institution.[941] Among the ancient Egyptians the unlucky days varied in number according to the different months, six, for instance, occurring in Paophi, seven each in Choiak and Phamenoth, and five in Pharmuthi. It may be reckoned that “popular superstition rendered useless about one-fifth of the year.”[942] The Athenian festivals are estimated to have occupied from fifty to sixty days of the year. The irregular distribution of these holidays throughout the months, and especially their congestion in spring and autumn, must have caused much interference with the routine of daily life.[943] In some city-states the festivals were more numerous: at Tarentum, in the days of its prosperity, the people are said to have had more holidays than working days.[944]

In the old Roman calendar, out of three hundred and fifty-five days, nearly one-third (one hundred and nine) were marked as _nefasti_, that is, as unlawful for judicial and political business. These days belonged wholly to the gods, while eleven more days of the year were shared by the divine and the human inhabitants of the city.[945] We know on the evidence of Cicero that in the last century of the republic the numerous days when courts could not sit had become a resource on which a wealthy criminal could speculate as a means of delaying and evading justice; while Suetonius enumerates among the praiseworthy reforms of Augustus the cutting-down of non-judicial days by thirty, “in order that crimes might not escape punishment or business be impeded by delay.”[946] Of the _dies nefasti_ sixty-one, including the Ides of every month, the Kalends of three months, and the Nones of July, were numbered in the republican calendar among the public festivals—_feriæ publicæ_—on which the state expected the citizens to abstain, as far as possible, from their private business and labour.[947] But the number of rest days observed really reached a larger total, when we remember that, besides the extraordinary _feriæ_, proclaimed from time to time, there was a marked tendency during the last two centuries of the republic to extend over several days festivals to which originally only one day had been allotted. This was for the purpose of giving time for an elaborate programme of public games (_ludi_), consisting of chariot-races, stage plays, and other forms of popular amusement. As the Roman passion for holidays and their attendant spectacles increased, we find the number of days devoted to them rising from sixty-six in the reign of Augustus to eighty-seven in that of Tiberius, and, under Marcus Aurelius, to a hundred and thirty-five. By the middle of the fourth century their number had reached one hundred and seventy-five.[948] For the lower classes at Rome the gladiatorial combats, chariot-races, and dramatic shows formed the chief pleasure of life. The once-sovereign people of Rome became a lazy, worthless rabble, fed by the state and amused with the games. Of them it was well said by an ancient satirist that they wanted only two things to make them happy—“bread and the games of the circus.”[949]

Many of the holy days in the religious calendar of Christendom were borrowed, as is well known, from the public festivals of ancient paganism. This must be the chief reason for the observance of so many non-working days during the Middle Ages. Their number was largely reduced in Protestant Europe as the result of the Reformation, which did away with the majority of saints’ days. In Catholic countries, however, there is still an excessive amount of time devoted to religious celebrations. Mexico, for instance, is described as “a land of holidays. Counting Sundays, there are one hundred and thirty-one in the Mexican calendar, and it is asserted that more than half of the people observe them all.... On certain of these days all Mexico takes to the festival, and it usually requires from one to three days for the _peons_ to sober up and get back to regular work again.”[950] The Greek Church, as a celebrated traveller and historian once pointed out, requires her followers to observe so many holy days “as practically to shorten the lives of the people very materially. I believe that one-third of the number of days in the year are ‘kept holy,’ or rather, _kept stupid_, in honour of the saints: no great portion of the time thus set apart is spent in religious exercises and the people don’t betake themselves to any animating pastimes, which might serve to strengthen the frame, or invigorate the mind, or exalt the taste.”[951] In Russia commercial and educational progress is hindered by the multitude of saints’ days. “The _dies nefas_, when work is tabooed, becomes a serious handicap in the race of modern life. These saints’ days, together with the Sundays, rob the Russian of nearly one-third of his time, for they leave him only about two hundred and fifty days for work. He would sooner work on a Sunday than on a saint’s day.”[952] In eastern Galicia, where a calendar is in use which permits the observance of the religious festivals of both the Roman and the Greek churches, the number of holidays or non-working days is considerably in excess of one hundred, rising in some districts to one hundred and fifty, and in others reaching the amazing total of two hundred.[953] To what extremes the practice of abstaining from labour on holy days may extend is further illustrated in Abyssinia, where the numerous fasts and feasts are so strictly kept as to render about six months of the year prohibited for any secular employments.[954]

Human nature, it has been said, is always ready for the shift from fast to feast, from Sabbath to Saturnalia. To the student of primitive religion and sociology nothing is more interesting than the contemplation of that unconscious though beneficent process which has converted institutions, based partly or wholly on a belief in the imaginary and the supernatural, into institutions resting on the rock of reason and promoting human welfare. Though the origin of tabooed and unlucky days must be sought in gross superstition, sooner or later they acquire a secular character and may then be perpetuated as holidays, long after their earlier significance has disappeared. The transition, with all its subtle and manifold results on the organization of society, may be followed under our own eyes. The passage of the holy day into the holiday, beginning in the lower culture, promises to reach its culmination in the secularizing of all the great festivals of the Christian year. This evolutionary movement, whether for weal or woe, at least provides a singularly instructive illustration of the close relations between religion and social progress, which must ever impress the inquirer into the early history of mankind.

FOOTNOTES

[1] _Leviathan_, chap. xi.

[2] For the leading facts relating to the institution of taboo see Sir J. G. Frazer, “Taboo,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_,⁹ xxiii, 15-18; _idem_, _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, London, 1911; N. W. Thomas, “Taboo,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_,¹¹ xxvi, 337-341; L. Marillier, “Tabou,” _La grande encyclopédie_, xxx, 848 _sq._; A. Bros, _La religion des peuples non-civilisés_, Paris, 1907, pp. 185-213; C. H. Toy, _Introduction to the History of Religions_, Boston, 1913, pp. 239-264.

[3] A list of the equivalents of tabu in the languages of Polynesia and Melanesia will be found in William Churchill, _The Polynesian Wanderings_, Washington, 1911, pp. 263 sq.

[4] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_,² London, 1856, p. 101.

[5] E. Tregear, _The Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, Wellington (N.Z.), 1891, p. 472.

[6] William Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, London, 1859, iv, 385.

[7] The proper term for “prohibit” was _rahui_ (_ibid._, iv, 386).

[8] R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_, Oxford, 1891, p. 215. In the Banks Islands and in the New Hebrides the word _rongo_ is employed to indicate the naturally holy character which certain objects may possess, quite independently of any human sanction or prohibition (_ibid._, p. 181).

[9] R. H. Nassau, _Fetichism in West Africa_, London, 1904, p. 80.

[10] A. van Gennep, _Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar_, Paris, 1904, pp. 12 _sqq._, 23.

[11] As Sir James Frazer has pointed out (_Encyclopædia Britannica_,⁹ xxiii, 18), the Greeks usually discriminated the two ideas, ἁγνός being devoted to the sense of “sacred” and ἐναγής to that of “unclean” or “accursed.” The two words, of course, have no connection, ἁγνός being related to Skt. _yaj-_, “sacrifice” and ἐναγής to Skt. _āgas-_, “sin” (E. Boisacq, _Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque_, Heidelberg and Paris, 1907, pt. i, 7, 9). Among the Romans _sacer_ always continued to retain the double meaning; it may be closely rendered by _tabu_. Compare Servius on Vergil, _Æneis_, iii, 75. The late W. Robertson Smith referred to the fact that the Hebrew _ṭāmē_ “is not the ordinary word for things physically foul; it is a ritual term and corresponds exactly to the idea of taboo” (_Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_,² London, 1903, p. 309). For a list of Biblical passages containing _ṭāmē_ see Brown, Driver, and Briggs, _A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament_, Boston, 1906, p. 379.

[12] The notion of transmissibility has been especially developed by such writers as A. E. Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_, London, 1902, _passim_, Hubert and Mauss, “Esquisse d’une théorie générale de la magie,” _L’année sociologique_, 1904, vii, 108 sqq.; F. B. Jevons, _An Introduction to the History of Religion_,⁴ London, 1908, pp. 59-68, and R. R. Marett, _The Threshold of Religion_,² London, 1914, pp. 99-121.

[13] On the general belief in the omnipresence of demons and their action in causing human ills see Sir J. G. Frazer, _The Scapegoat_, London, 1913, pp. 72-108.

[14] J. S. Polack, _Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders_, London, 1840, i, 234.

[15] Hose and McDougall, _The Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, London, 1912, i, 26.

[16] C. W. Hobley, “Kikuyu Customs and Beliefs. _Thahu_ and its Connection with Circumcision Rites,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, 1910, xl, 428.

[17] R. C. Thompson, _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, London, 1904, ii, pp. xxxix _sqq._

[18] For an extensive presentation of the ethnographic evidence see Sir J. G. Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, London, 1911, pp. 131-223; _idem_, _Balder the Beautiful_, London, 1913, i, 22-100, ii, 225-278. The whole subject is most suggestively treated by Professor A. van Gennep, _Les rites de passage_, Paris, 1909.

[19] Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, iv, 387 sqq.

[20] _Idem_, _Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii or Owhyhee_, London, 1826, p. 366; _idem_, _Polynesian Researches_, iv, 387 _sq._; J. J. Jarves, _History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands_,² Boston, 1843, p. 57.

[21] Ellis, _Narrative_, pp. 366 _sq._; compare _idem_, _Polynesian Researches_, iv, 388.

[22] H. T. Cheever, _The Island World of the Pacific_, Glasgow [1851], p. 63.

[23] Ellis, _Narrative_, p. 368; Hiram Bingham, _A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands_, Hartford, 1849, pp. 177 _sq._ Describing his experiences at Kihoro, the missionary Ellis could not restrain his admiration of the conduct of the native converts on Sunday: “No athletic sports were seen on the beach; no noise of playful children shouting as they gambolled in the surf, nor distant sound of the cloth-beating mallet was heard through the day; no persons were seen carrying burdens in or out of the village, nor any canoes passing across the bay. It could not but be viewed as the dawn of a bright sabbatic day for the dark shores of Hawaii” (_Polynesian Researches_, iv, 408). For similar statements see C. S. Stewart, _A Visit to the South Seas_, London, 1832, pp. 277 _sqq._, 302 _sq._

[24] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_, Philadelphia, 1845, ii, 13. “The _tabu_ system,” wrote an early missionary, “making sacred certain times, persons, and places, and containing many restrictions and prohibitions, may easily be interpreted as a relic, much changed and corrupted, from the ancient ceremonial observances of the Jews” (Sheldon Dibble, _History of the Sandwich Islands_, Lahainaluna, 1843, p. 27). The resemblances between the Polynesian institution and certain customs recorded in the Old Testament impressed another early writer, who refers to taboo as “ce singulier usage, en partie politique, au moins dans quelques-uns de ses effets, mais éminemment religieux dans son origine, non moins que l’interdit des Hébreux, avec lequel il avait des rapports frappans, qui n’ont point encore été signalés, quoique méritant assurément toute l’attention du philosophe et du moraliste” (J. A. Moerenhout, _Voyages aux îles du grand océan_, Paris, 1837, ii, 6).

[25] W. D. Alexander, _A Brief History of the Hawaiian People_, New York, 1899, p. 55. The author’s work is based largely on unpublished Hawaiian manuscripts and the early archives of the government.

[26] Alexander, _op. cit._, pp. 56 _sq._ Elsewhere this excellent authority describes the Hawaiian prayers as in some measure magical incantations, which, to secure the desired effect, required to be repeated without the slightest mistake. “During the most important class of prayers, called _aha_, it was necessary that absolute silence should be preserved, as the least noise would break the spell and destroy the whole effect of the charm” (_ibid._, p. 50). A similar precaution, as is well known, characterized the ritual of a Roman sacrifice.

[27] For additional data on this subject see Jarves, _op. cit._, pp. 51 _sq._, and David Malo, _Hawaiian Antiquities_, Honolulu, 1903, pp. 210-248. The latter work, translated from the Hawaiian by N. B. Emerson, is an exceptionally valuable repository of native lore.

[28] Alexander, _op. cit._, pp. 59 _sqq._; Malo, _op. cit._, pp. 186-210. This New Year’s festival with its accompanying taboo is also referred to in an early work entitled _Voyage of H.M.S. Blonde to the Sandwich Islands in the Years 1824-1825_, London, 1826, pp. 11 _sq._ According to A. Fornander (_An Account of the Polynesian Race_, London, 1878, i, 119 _sq._) the Hawaiian year consisted of twelve 30-day months with five additional _tabu_ days intercalated at the end of Welehu. If this statement be correct, the Hawaiian epagomenal days would furnish a remarkable parallel to those of the ancient Mexicans and Egyptians (below, pp. 279 _sqq._). But the best authorities agree that the Hawaiian year was strictly lunar, with months of 29 and 30 days in alternation and an occasional intercalary month.

[29] Alexander, _op. cit._, pp. 52 _sq._, 62 _sq._

[30] _Ibid._, pp. 50 _sqq._; Dibble, _op. cit._, 25 _sq._; Malo, _op. cit._, p. 56. The latter authority, a native writer intimately versed in Hawaiian antiquities, declares that the seasons of taboo were not observed during the four _makahiki_ months of the year, when the regular religious services were suspended for games and ceremonies in honour of the god Lono. The same point is made by Judge Fornander (_op. cit._, i, 123 _n._²), whose information was derived from the Hon. S. M. Kamakau, an intelligent Hawaiian, born and brought up under the heathen _régime_. On these Hawaiian Sabbaths see below, pp. 88, 188, 233, 258, 303.

[31] J. A. Moerenhout, _Voyages aux îles du grand océan_, Paris, 1837, i, 516 _sq._ See further Mathias G— [Garcia] (_Lettres sur les îles Marquises_, Paris, 1843, p. 210), who refers to the first day of fishing as “un jour de silence et de repos, _tapu_ pour ceux qui restent à la maison.”

[32] William Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, London, 1835, p. 85.

[33] James Cowan, _The Maoris of New Zealand_, Melbourne and London, 1910, pp. 116 _sq._ The _kumara_ crop was sacred, all persons engaged in its cultivation were temporarily tabooed, and the offering of the first-fruits of the _kumara_ formed a very solemn religious ceremony (E. Tregear, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1890, xix, 110). Compare Richard Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, London, 1855, p. 57.

[34] E. Tregear, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1890, xix, 110. No food might be cooked on the day before a war-party set out (_ibid._, p. 108). Mr. Tregear, an excellent authority, declares that in New Zealand “there were no long periods of silence such as the kings of Hawaii laid on their people by proclaiming _tapu_” (_ibid._, p. 122). Another writer assures us that the Maori “had no days more sacred than others” (Taylor, _op. cit._, p. 92). Yet in one part of New Zealand it was customary to celebrate the new year with a _karakia_, or magical incantation and prayer; in another place there was a _karakia_ when the new moon appeared; and in still another place “the most sacred day of the year was that appointed for hair-cutting; the people assembled from all the neighbouring parts, often more than a thousand in number; the operation being commenced with _karakia_, the operator and his obsidian (substitute for scissors) being thus rendered peculiarly sacred” (_ibid._, p. 93).

[35] John Martin, _An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands ... from the Extensive Communications of Mr. William Mariner_, Boston, 1820, pp. 381-385. Mariner passed four years among the Tonga Islanders as the adopted son of the king Finow. His picturesque, but apparently reliable, narrative describes the natives in their aboriginal state before the arrival of Christian missionaries.

[36] Not only was all work prohibited at the time of the _inachi_, but even any one’s appearance abroad, unless for the purposes of the ceremony, was interdicted (Martin-Mariner, _op. cit._, p. 383 _n._²). The Tongans observed a like restriction after a death. When a corpse was being taken to the burying-ground, all persons in the roadway or the adjacent fields were obliged to keep out of sight, under pain of becoming tabooed. Those who showed themselves at such a time were generally killed on the spot (_ibid._, pp. 243 _sq._, 394).

[37] This Samoan religious system has been fully described by Sir J. G. Frazer, who believes that it exhibits “what seems to be the passage of pure totemism into a religion of anthropomorphic gods with animal and vegetable attributes, like the deities of ancient Greece” (_Totemism and Exogamy_, London, 1910, ii, 152).

[38] George Turner, _Samoa_, London, 1884, pp. 29 _sq._

[39] _Ibid._, p. 60.

[40] _Ibid._, pp. 26 _sq._, 41, 44, 47, 49, 53, 57.

[41] Turner, _Samoa_, p. 269.

[42] _Ibid._, p. 279.

[43] J. E. Erskine, _Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific_, London, 1853, pp. 245 _sq._

[44] Basil Thomson, _The Fijians_, London, 1908, p. 114.

[45] _U.S. Exploring Expedition_, Philadelphia, 1846, vi, 67 _sq._ (_Ethnography and Philology_, by H. Hale).

[46] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_, Philadelphia, 1845, iii, 90 _sq._ This festival bore the name of _tambo nalanga_ (_ibid._, iii, 342).

[47] In Samoa the second half of the year was called the _palolo_ season, from the appearance of this singular worm for three days in the course of a year. If the last quarter of the moon is late in October, the _palolo_ is found the day before, the day of, and the day after that quarter. Should the last quarter of the moon be early in October, the worm does not come till the last quarter of the November moon (Turner, _Samoa_, p. 207). The _palolo_, it may be noted, is not an entire animal, but only the “propagation-body” of a sea-annelid (apparently _Eunice Viridis_ Gray), which lives in holes in the coral stone and comes to the surface for the act of fertilization. It is found in various parts of Polynesia, including Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, and also in Melanesia (New Hebrides and Banks Islands). See A. Krämer, _Die Samoa-Inseln_, Stuttgart, 1903, ii, 399-406, and B. Friedländer, “Notes on the _palōlo_,” _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, 1898, vii, 44-46.

[48] L. Fison, “The _nanga_, or Sacred Stone Enclosure, of Wainimala, Fiji,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1885, xiv, 18. The solemn rite of initiation into the _nanga_ was always celebrated at the time of the New Year’s festival, late in October or early in November. This Fijian festival, called _solevu ni vilavou_, corresponded to the Tahitian and Hawaiian _makahiki_ (A. B. Joske, “The _nanga_ of Viti Levu,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, 1889, ii, 259). On the _nanga_ see further H. Webster, “Totem Clans and Secret Associations in Australia and Melanesia,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, 1911, xli, 506 _sq._

[49] S. P. Smith, in _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, 1892, i, 40.

[50] Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, iv, 387.

[51] W. T. Pritchard, _Polynesian Reminiscences_, London, 1866, pp. 149 _sq._; George Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, London, 1861, p. 229; _idem_, _Samoa_, p. 146. See also A. Bastian, _Inselgruppen in Oceanien_, Berlin, 1883, p. 55.

[52] For an interesting description of the regulations imposed on the fishermen themselves see W. H. Furness, 3d., _The Island of Stone Money_, Philadelphia, 1910, pp. 38 _sq._ On taboos observed by hunters and fishers, generally, see Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 190-223.

[53] F. W. Christian, _The Caroline Islands_, London, 1899, p. 290.

[54] A close observer, G. A. J. van der Sande, did not notice any special rest days among the natives with whom he came in contact, and whose customs he has so fully described (_Nova Guinea_, Leiden, 1907, iii, 270).

[55] C. G. Seligmann, _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_, Cambridge, 1910, p. 275.

[56] Quoted in Turner, _Samoa_, p. 349. The custom mentioned in the text must now be obsolete. It is not referred to in Dr. Seligmann’s exhaustive account of the Koita and Motu tribes.

[57] It would seem that among the Bornean tribes, generally, the chief is responsible for the proper observation of the omens and for the regulation of taboos affecting an entire community. Compare Hose and McDougall, _The Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, London, 1912, i, 65.

[58] W. H. Furness, 3d., _The Home-life of Borneo Head-hunters_, Philadelphia, 1902, pp. 160-169.

[59] _Permantong_ is the term used by the Kayan of the Baram District; among the Kayan in the valley of the Kapuas River, Dutch Borneo, the word is _pantang_, the regular Malay equivalent of _tabu_. Both these forms are possibly derived from the Malay _hantu_, a word meaning demon or evil spirit, with the prefix _per_ and the affix _an_. The Malay word in full would thus be _per-hantu-an_, meaning “possessed by spirits” or “bewitched.” _Lali_ is probably a pure Kayan word and means both “prohibited” and “sacred” (Furness, _op. cit._, p. 160; A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, Leiden, 1904-1907, i, 109). According to Messrs. Hose and McDougall _malan_ and _parit_ are the proper Kayan words for taboo, though _lali_ and _tulah_ are used as their _lingua franca_ equivalents. _Malan_ applies to acts involving risks to the entire community, _parit_ to those involving risk to the individual committing the forbidden act (_Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, i, 14 _n._¹).

[60] On these omen animals see further Sir Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, London, 1862, i, 191 _sqq._; J. Perham, in H. L. Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_, London, 1896, i, 191-201; A. C. Haddon, _Head-hunters_, London, 1901, pp. 384 _sqq._; E. H. Gomes, _Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo_, London, 1911, pp. 47 _sq._, 152 _sqq._, 298; Hose and McDougall, _op. cit._, ii, 51-114 (with some interesting parallels between the modern Kayan and the Roman auspices). Compare W. D. Wallis, “Divination and Omens in Borneo and in Ancient Rome,” _Classical Journal_, 1914, ix, 272-274.

[61] Furness, _op. cit._, p. 161.

[62] Furness, _op. cit._, pp. 162 _sq._

[63] Furness, _op. cit._, pp. 164 _sq._

[64] This period of seclusion is employed by the Kayan in various games and masquerades, which, if they have a recreative value, possess as well a religious or magical meaning in the minds of the people. During the sowing festival the men play at spinning tops, the youths engage in athletic sports, and maskers, disguised by wooden helmets and bandages of banana leaves, simulate the actions of evil spirits. On the magical significance of games in primitive agriculture, see Sir J. G. Frazer, _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, London, 1912, i, 92-112.

[65] A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, Leiden, 1904-1907, i, 166 _sqq._

[66] Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._, i, 107.

[67] The Kayan call the full moon the “evil moon” and at this time build neither houses nor boats, and do not go forth on the search for omens (_ibid._, i, 415).

[68] Translated by Dr. Nieuwenhuis as “sitzen, nicht arbeiten.”

[69] A. W. Nieuwenhuis, “Religiöse Zeremonien beim Häuserbau der Bahau-Dajak am obern Mahakam in Borneo,” _Verhandlungen des II internationalen Kongresses für allgemeine Religionsgeschichte_, Basel, 1905, pp. 107-119; compare _idem_, _Quer durch Borneo_, ii, 174.

[70] “At certain seasons of the moon, just before and just after the full, the [Sea] Dyaks do not work at their farms; and what with bad omens, sounds, signs, adverse dreams, and deaths, two-thirds of their time is not spent in farm labour” (Charles Brooke, _Ten Years in Sarawak_, London, 1866, i, 149).

[71] Leo Nyuak, “Religious Rites and Customs of the Iban or Dyaks of Sarawak,” translated from the Dyak by the Very Rev. Edm. Dunn, _Anthropos_, 1906, i, 410 _sq._

[72] _Ibid._, i, 176.

[73] _Ibid._, i, 181.

[74] _Ibid._, i, 416 _sq._

[75] Betara, otherwise _petara_, is the ordinary Sea Dyak name for deity. The word is incorrectly translated as “Great Spirit”; in general belief there are many _petara_. These gods, it may be noted, are separated by no distinct line of demarcation from the thousands of _antu_, or spirits, with which the Dyak has peopled his universe. See J. Perham, “_Petara_, or Sea Dyak Gods,” _Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1881, no. 8; H. L. Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_, London, 1896, i, 168-182.

[76] Brooke Low, in Roth, _op. cit._, i, 401. See also _idem_, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1893, xxii, 24. Many primitive peoples are accustomed to trace a direct connection between sexual sins and the welfare of the crops. As Sir James Frazer has shown, this superstition has undoubtedly contributed to a stricter observance of the rules of sexual morality, both among the married and the unmarried. See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, London, 1911, ii, 104-119.

[77] Sir Hugh Low, _Sarawak_, London, 1848, pp. 260-262. See also Sir Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, London, 1862, i, 175 _sqq._ According to this writer _porikh_ is the Land Dyak expression equivalent to _pamali_.

[78] William Chalmers, in Roth, _op. cit._, i, 401.

[79] Mrs. S. B. Scott, “Harvest Festivals of the Land Dyaks,” _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, 1908, xxix, 236-280.

[80] Mrs. S. B. Scott, “Harvest Festivals of the Land Dyaks,” _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, 1908, xxix, 244 _sqq._

[81] St. John, _op. cit._, i, 163.

[82] _Ibid._, i, 160. The Sea Dyak make an interesting distinction between _mali_ and _penti_, the former absolutely forbidding certain kinds of work to a person under the ban, the latter allowing it to be undertaken, if started by some one not subject to the taboo. For instance, though both parents are _penti_ during the wife’s pregnancy, the expectant mother may engage in basket-making and mat-weaving, provided some other woman begins the work for her; and the husband may dig a trench or erect a post, if the hands of others are first set to the task. Taboos of this sort prevail until the child cuts its first teeth (F. W. Leggatt, in Roth, _op. cit._, i, 98).

[83] Sir Hugh Low observes that among the Land Dyak the favourite remedies for the cure of internal diseases are turmeric and spices, taken in huge quantities; “but for anything at all serious, recourse is had to the _pamali_, both in medical and surgical cases” (_Sarawak_, p. 308).

[84] St. John, _op. cit._, i, 175 _sq._ (Land Dyak). Mr. Charles Hose declares that at such times the inhabitants of a Kayan communal house may taboo their private rooms to the other inmates. Small fines are imposed for infringing the rule, if the act is unintentional, but when a man forces his way into a tabooed house, a serious quarrel, ending in bloodshed, may result (_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1894, xxiii, 170). “It is an old custom among the Iban for a stranger, before climbing the ladder of a house, to ask in a loud voice whether there is no taboo” (L. Nyuak, in _Anthropos_, 1906, i, 175).

[85] The Murik on the Baram River, a community of hardworking farmers, in addition to the communal taboos observed by them at sowing, also keep a _lemalli_ of seven days, when the paddy crop is about to be harvested. “For the first three days of this no one stirs out of the house, no work is done, and no sexual intercourse is allowed” (R. S. Douglas, in _Sarawak Museum Journal_, 1911, i, 146 _sqq._).

[86] See below, p. 165.

[87] The _elpanam_ consists of several large structures, which serve as a guest-house for strangers and as a town-hall for feasts and public gatherings. The institution is found under different names in many of the East Indian islands, and even more widely. See H. Webster, _Primitive Secret Societies_, New York, 1908, pp. 8 _sqq._

[88] V. Solomon, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902, xxxii, 215 _sq._ See also C. B. Kloss, _In the Andamans and Nicobars_, London, 1903, pp. 293 _sqq._

[89] V. Solomon, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902, xxxii, 210; Kloss, _op. cit._, pp. 297 _sq._ Another kiala festival, also followed by alternate periods of rest and work, appears to be observed in connection with fishing (Kloss, _op. cit._, p. 295).

[90] R. van Eck, in _Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië_, 1879, n.s., viii, 58 _sqq._ Van Eck’s account is reproduced by J. Jacobs, _Eenigen tijd onder de Baliërs_, Batavia, 1883, pp. 190 _sqq._

[91] R. Friederich, in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1877, n.s., ix, 77. On the _petara_ see above, p. 35 _n._²

[92] F. Krämer, “Der Götzendienst der Niasser,” _Tijdschrift voor indische taal- land- en volkenkunde_, 1890, xxxiii, 486 _sqq._

[93] Hinlopen and Severin, _ibid._, 1855, iii, 329 _sq._

[94] A. Maass, “_Ta-kä-käi-käi tabu_,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1905, xxxvii, 155 _sq._ The greater part of this valuable article is concerned with the analogies between the taboo system in the Mentawi Islands and related systems in Indonesia and Polynesia.

[95] W. A. Pickering, _Pioneering in Formosa_, London, 1898, p. 71.

[96] W. Joest, in _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte_, 1882, p. (62) (bound with _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, vol. xiv).

[97] G. Taylor, in _Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_, 1889, n.s., xi, 233; _idem_, “Folklore of Aboriginal Formosa,” _Folk-lore Journal_, 1887, v, 150.

[98] J. P. Finley and William Churchill, _The Subanu_, Washington, 1913, pp. 31 _sq._

[99] The word is also spelled _tengau_ and translated “holiday.” See W. C. Clapp, “A Vocabulary of the Igorot Language,” _Bureau of Science, Division of Ethnology, Publications_, Manila, 1908, v, 198.

[100] A. E. Jenks, “The Bontoc Igorot,” _Ethnological Survey Publications_, Manila, 1905, i, 205 _sqq._

[101] From a letter to the author, dated December 10, 1910. In a second letter, under date March 8, 1911, Professor Jenks writes, “I believe the rest days are first for the purpose of having time for religious observances—this fact necessitated the rest. I never proved this point, however.”

[102] Jenks, _op. cit._, p. 213.

[103] “It is safe to say that one feast is held daily in Bontoc by some family to appease or win the good will of some _anito_ [ancestral spirit]” (Jenks, _op. cit._, p. 198).

[104] Some, if not all, of the Igorot peoples of northern Luzon are familiar with the idea of taboo as applied to individuals or to families at certain critical times. The Ibaloi Igorot equivalent of taboo is _pidiu_. A man, while in the peculiarly solemn condition of _pidiu_, “must not bathe, must not admit visitors into his house, and must not work, travel, etc.,” under penalty of punishment by the _making_, or departed souls, for transgression of the regulations (O. Scheerer, “The Nabaloi Dialect,” _Ethnological Survey Publications_, Manila, 1905, ii, 167). But these prohibitions do not seem to be socialized.

[105] T. C. Hodson, “The _genna_ amongst the Tribes of Assam,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1906, xxxvi, 92-103; _idem_, “Some Nāga Customs and Superstitions,” _Folklore_, 1910, xxi, 296-312; _idem_, “Genna,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_,¹¹ xi, 596; _idem_, _The Nāga Tribes of Manipur_, London, 1911, pp. 164-186.

[106] “The word _genna_ is used in two ways: (1) it may mean practically a holiday—_i.e._, a man will say, ‘My village is doing _genna_ to-day,’ by which he means that, owing either to the occurrence of a village festival or some such unusual occurrence ... his people are observing a holiday; (2) _genna_ means anything forbidden” (A. W. Davis, in _Census of India, 1891, Assam_, i, 249).

[107] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 167 _sq._ Among some of the Manipuri Naga the various _genna_ are marked by rope-pulling contests, when the women and girls have a tug-of-war with the men. This is described as a means of taking omens for the future of the crops (_ibid._, p. 168). The Naga ceremonial is a serious business, but among the Meithei, the Hinduised neighbours of the Naga, the tug-of-war has dwindled into a mere pastime (Hodson, in _Folklore_, 1910, xxi, 300). On the magical significance of the games played by the Kayan of Borneo during their periods of seclusion, see above, p. 31 _n._¹

[108] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 166 _sq._, 175.

[109] _Ibid._, pp. 109, 167, 175.

[110] _Ibid._, pp. 166 _sq._, 173.

[111] _Ibid._, pp. 151 _sq._, 174. According to another account the festival occurs on the night of the December new moon. The shades of the dead are supposed to visit the living at this time (S. E. Peal, in _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1898, xxx, 355).

[112] Hodson, _op. cit._, pp. 109, 144, 173, 175 _sq._ The Naga west of the Doyang River are said to have a _genna_ also at the annual ceremony of making new fire for the village. The fire, produced by friction, is first used in burning down the jungle before the sowing of the crops (W. Crooke, _Natives of Northern India_, London, 1907, p. 45; E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, Calcutta, 1872, p. 43). The Angami Naga mark by a three days’ _genna_ the first full moon of the lunar year (D. Prain, in _Revue coloniale internationale_, 1887, v, 489).

[113] John Butler, in _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, 1875, n.s., xlv, i, 316. This observer describes the _kennie_ as a system of taboo, “singularly similar to that in vogue among the savages inhabiting the Pacific islands.”

[114] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, p. 167, citing C. A. Soppitt, _Account of the Kachcha Nāgas_, p. 10.

[115] Hodson, _op. cit._, p. 141. The _khullakpa_, also called _gennabura_, or “authorizer of _genna_,” is himself subject to a number of vexatious restrictions designed to prevent any impairment of the efficiency of his sacred office. On these taboos see below, pp. 233 _sq._ It is worthy of note that the _khullakpa_ enjoys a good deal of indirect authority because of his power to close a village and declare a _genna_. An individual who violated any of the taboos imposed by him would be obliged to pay a fine, the proceeds being used to provide a substantial repast for the village elders (Hodson, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1901, xxxi, 307).

[116] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 177, 180. The Naga of eastern Assam strictly taboo a house where tattooing is being done (W. H. Furness, 3d., in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902, xxxii, 466).

[117] T. C. Hodson, _The Meitheis_, London, 1908, p. 118. It is significant that the Moirang, a more or less backward and isolated Meithei tribe, still keep up something like a system of communal _genna_ connected with agricultural operations (_ibid._, p. 119).

[118] P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_, London, 1907, p. 158.

[119] A. Playfair, _The Garos_, London, 1909, p. 114; see below, p. 57 _n._¹

[120] Edward Stack, _The Mikirs_, edited by Sir Charles Lyall, London, 1908, p. 43.

[121] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, p. 20. The Mishmi have household _genna_ whenever the members of a family are visited by illness or misfortune of any kind. Possibly there are also village rites of the same nature. See R. Wilcox, in _Selections from the Records of the Bengal Government_, Calcutta, 1855, no. 23, p. 64.

[122] J. Shakespear, _The Lushei Kuki Clans_, London, 1912, p. 69.

[123] _Ibid._, pp. 72 _sq._, 75, 78, 80, 87; C. A. Soppitt, _A Short Account of the Kuki-Lushai Tribes_, Shillong, 1887, p. 19.

[124] T. H. Lewin, _The Hill Tracts of Chittagong_, Calcutta, 1869, p. 78. Captain Lewin’s interesting work was republished under the title _Wild Races of South-eastern India_ (London, 1870), where the reference to the _khang_ will be found on pp. 196 _sq._

[125] Lewin, _Hill Tracts_, p. 94; _idem_, _Wild Races_, p. 236 (Mro).

[126] R. F. St. Andrew St. John, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1873, ii, 240.

[127] B. S. Carey and H. N. Tuck, _The Chin Hills_, Rangoon, 1896, i, 198.

[128] _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States_, edited by Scott and Hardiman, Rangoon, 1900, pt. i, vol. i, pp. 425 _sq._

[129] A. R. McMahon, _The Karens of the Golden Chersonese_, London, 1876, p. 292.

[130] Sir R. C. Temple, “Burma,” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iii, 37. Similarly, the Yabim of German New Guinea require all the inhabitants of a village to remain at home on the morning after the birth of a child. This is regarded as a necessary precaution, if the fruits of the fields and gardens are not to be spoiled by the noxious influences emanating from a woman in childbed (K. Vetter, in _Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck-Archipel_, 1897, xiii, 87).

[131] R. G. Woodthorpe, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1897, xxvi, 27 _sqq._; Sir J. G. Scott, “Buddhism in the Shan States,” _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1911, n.s., xliii, 931. On taboos affecting intercourse with strangers see, in general, Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 101-116.

[132] _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States_, pt. i, vol. i, p. 515.

[133] S. R. Clarke, _Among the Tribes in South-west China_, London, 1911, p. 63.

[134] For instances of “magical telepathy” in hunting, fishing, and warfare see Frazer, _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i, 119-134.

[135] As Messrs. Hose and McDougall judiciously observe, the cult of omen-birds found among the Kayan of Borneo, though it hampers their undertakings at almost every turn and might seem to be wholly foolish and detrimental, has really “two great practical advantages: namely, it inspires confidence, and it promotes discipline and a strong sense of collective unity and responsibility. It is not improbable, then, that the advantages of this seemingly senseless cult outweigh its drawbacks, which, in the shape of endless delays and changes of plans, are by no means small” (_Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, i, 170 _n._¹).

[136] On the sociological conception of crisis see W. I. Thomas, _Source Book for Social Origins_, Chicago, 1909, pp. 16 _sqq._; R. R. Marett, _The Threshold of Religion_,² London, 1914, pp. 198 _sqq._

[137] On the primitive ideas of death see particularly R. Hertz, “Contribution à une étude sur la représentation collective de la morte,” _L’année sociologique_, 1905-1906, x, 48-137; E. S. Hartland, “Death and Disposal of the Dead (Introductory),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iv, 411-444; W. H. R. Rivers, “The Primitive Conception of Death,” _Hibbert Journal_, 1912, x, 393-407; Sir J. G. Frazer, _The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead_, London, 1913, i, 31-58; A. van Gennep, _Les rites de passage_, Paris, 1909, pp. 209-236; L. Lévy-Bruhl, _Les fonctions mentales dans les sociétés inférieures_, Paris, 1910, pp. 321-330, 352-396. For a useful collection of ethnographic evidence see E. Samter, _Geburt, Hochzeit, und Tod_, Leipzig, 1911.

[138] A. E. Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_, London, 1902, pp. 95 _sqq._; L. R. Farnell, _The Evolution of Religion_, London, 1905, pp. 96 _sqq._; E. Westermarck, _The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, London, 1906-1908, ii, 535 _sqq._

[139] On the sociological aspects of these and other superstitions see H. Webster, “Influence of Superstition on the Evolution of Property Rights,” _American Journal of Sociology_, 1910, xv, 794-805; H. Berkusky, “Der Einfluss abergläubischer Vorstellungen auf das wirtschaftliche und soziale Leben der Naturvölker,” _Zeitschrift für Socialwissenschaft_, 1913, n.s., iv, 489-498, 567-584.

[140] Above, pp. 24, 25, 26.

[141] H. O. Forbes, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1884, xiii, 420.

[142] A. Maass, “_Ta-kä-käi-käi tabu_,” _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1905, xxxvii, 155; J. G. F. Riedel, _ibid._, 1885, xvii, 69.

[143] J. G. F. Riedel, _De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_, The Hague, 1886, pp. 168 (Seranglao and Gorong archipelagoes), 197 (Watubela Islands), 223 (Kei Islands), 341 (Babar Archipelago), 414 (Keisar Island).

[144] D. C. Worcester, in _Philippine Journal of Science_, 1906, i, 844. Compare F. C. Cole, in _American Anthropologist_, 1909, n.s., xi, 337 (Tenguian).

[145] C. B. Kloss, _In the Andamans and Nicobars_, London, 1903, pp. 303 _sqq._

[146] Annandale and Robinson, _Fasciculi Malayensis_, London, 1903-1904, i, 83.

[147] Brooke Low, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1892, xxi, 122; _idem_, in Roth, _Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_, i, 155.

[148] L. Nyuak, in _Anthropos_, 1906, i, 413.

[149] E. H. Gomes, _Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo_, London, 1911, p. 139.

[150] Above, p. 36.

[151] De Crespigny, in _Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_, 1858, ii, 348.

[152] Hose and McDougall, _op. cit._, ii, 37 _sq._ The Kayan on the Mahakam River require all those who have been polluted by taking part in burial ceremonies to undergo a two days’ _melo_, or ceremonial abstention from work (Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._, ii, 119).

[153] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, pp. 99, 174, 177.

[154] Hodson, _op. cit._, pp. 100, 152, 166, 174. Compare _idem_, “Mortuary Ritual and Eschatological Beliefs among the Hill Tribes of Assam,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1909, xii, 449.

[155] Hodson, _Nāga Tribes_, p. 88. “We find among the Naga tribes that, if a woman died in childbirth (an event of rare occurrence), the child was never allowed to live, because they believed it to be an evil spirit, a disembodied ghost, incarnated in the mother whose death it had caused” (_idem_, “Some Nāga Customs and Superstitions,” _Folklore_, 1910, xxi, 301). Among the Kabui Naga not only does the death of a woman in childbirth necessitate a five days’ village _genna_, but the same period of restriction is also imposed after the death of a child dying in infancy (J. Shakespear, “Customs at Death among the Manipuris and Cognate Clans,” _Folklore_, 1912, xxiii, 466 _sqq._).

[156] P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_, London, 1907, p. 143.

[157] R. F. St. Andrew St. John, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1873, ii, 240.

[158] A. Coussot and H. Ruel, _Douze mois chez les sauvages du Laos_, Paris, 1898, p. 205; A. Cabaton, “Indo-China (Savage Races),” Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, vii, 232.

[159] F. Fawcett, in _Folklore_, 1912, xxiii, 42.

[160] A. K. Iyer, _The Cochin Tribes and Castes_, Madras, 1909, i, 265.

[161] C. H. Rao, in _Anthropos_, 1909, iv, 181.

[162] H. Hosten, “Pahāria Burial Customs (British Sikkim),” _Anthropos_, 1909, iv, 673, 675.

[163] S. C. Das, _Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet_, London, 1902, p. 256.

[164] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_, London, 1904, p. 253; Farewell, in W. F. W. Owen, _Narrative of Voyages to explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar_, London, 1833, ii, 397. A Kafir chief, on succeeding to power, is said to have declared a taboo of all field work for an entire year and to have put to death every woman who became pregnant during this period (_Globus_, 1889, lvi, 62).

[165] Joseph Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country_, London, 1857, p. 216.

[166] E. Casalis, _Les Bassoutos_, Paris, 1859, p. 275.

[167] P. Kollmann, _Der Nordwesten unserer ostafrikanischen Kolonie_, Berlin, 1898, p. 77.

[168] W. S. Routledge and Katherine Routledge, _With a Prehistoric People_, London, 1910, p. 172.

[169] R. Lasch, “Die Ursache und Bedeutung der Erdbeben im Volksglauben und Volksbrauch,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, 1902, v, 236-257, 369-383; B. Struck, “African Ideas on the Subject of Earthquakes,” _Journal of the African Society_, 1909, viii, 398-411.

[170] A. C. Hollis, _The Nandi_, Oxford, 1908, pp. 17, 20, 100. The rules imposed by Nandi custom on persons ceremonially unclean include abstinence from work. For instance, after Nandi girls have been operated upon at puberty, they must stay in their mothers’ huts in complete seclusion for a month or more. After recovering from the effects of the operation, they may be married. But if no husbands appear, the girls continue to live in a secluded state for several weeks longer. If they go abroad, they must always wear long masks and veils; they must not stand near anybody or call a person by name; they may not enter a cornfield or a cattle-kraal; and they may do no work. Again, a Nandi bride, for an entire month after her marriage, is waited on by the bridegroom’s mother, since it is unlawful for a bride during this period to perform labour. Similarly, a Nandi mother, after the birth of a child, is unclean and may not do any housework for a month (_ibid._, pp. 59 _sq._, 63 _sqq._). Among the Habbe of the western Sudan a man, whose wife is menstruating, dares not undertake any journey, hunt, or sow (L. Desplagnes, _Le plateau central nigérien_, Paris, 1904, p. 227).

[171] C. W. Hobley, _Eastern Uganda_, London, 1902, p. 28 (_Occasional Papers of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, no. 1).

[172] Sir H. H. Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_, London, 1902, ii, 176 _sqq._

[173] W. Munzinger, _Ostafrikanische Studien_, Schaffhausen, 1864, p. 528 (Barea and Kunama).

[174] Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, ii, 283.

[175] H. E. Standing, “Malagasy _fady_,” _Antananarivo Annual_, 1883, no. 7, p. 74. Compare A. Grandidier, _ibid._, 1891, no. 15, p. 316; A. van Gennep, _Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar_, Paris, 1904, pp. 100 _sqq._, 203.

[176] Thomas Gage, _A New Survey of the West-Indies_,⁴ London, 1699, p. 160.

[177] C. MacCauley, in _Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, p. 521.

[178] Hans Egede, _A Description of Greenland_, London, 1745, pp. 149 _sq._

[179] F. Boas, in _Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History_, 1901, xv, 121 _sq._ With these regulations may be compared the restrictions which, among the Kwakiutl of British Columbia, are imposed on a man who has eaten human flesh as a ceremonial rite and who, therefore, is considered unclean. He must not approach his wife for an entire year, nor is he allowed either to gamble or to work during this time (Boas, “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians,” _Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1895_, pp. 537 _sq._).

[180] F. Boas, in _Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, pp. 427, 613 _sq._; compare _idem_, “Die Sagen der Baffin-Land Eskimos,” _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte_, 1885, p. (164) (bound with _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, vol. xvii). These Eskimo observe like restrictions after the capture of whales, seals, and walruses, which form their principal food supply.

[181] H. W. Elliott, _Our Arctic Province_, New York, 1887, p. 389.

[182] E. W. Nelson, in _Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, p. 319.

[183] _Ibid._, p. 312. Similarly, a hunter who has participated in the capture of a whale is not allowed to do any work for the next four days, that being the time during which the ghost of the whale is supposed to stay with its body (_ibid._, p. 438).

[184] J. Murdock, in _Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, p. 424. The Alaskan Eskimo are now being rapidly converted to Christianity or, rather, are accepting as many of the Christian teachings as can be assimilated by them to their old pagan observances. The missionary they regard as a shaman and his prohibitions, especially those relating to Sunday observance, they treat as so many new taboos to be added to their long catalogue of restrictions. “An Eskimo who is a great admirer of the white people (and some Eskimo are not) said to me once that some Eskimo foolishly maintained that white men were less intelligent than Eskimo are. But he said that he had a crushing reply to those who made this statement. He would say to them: ‘Our wise men have taboos on food and drink, they have taboos on clothing and methods of travel, on words and thoughts; but until the white man came did we ever hear of Sunday? Did the wisest of us ever think of the fact that a _day_ might be taboo?’” (V. Stefánsson, “On Christianizing the Eskimo,” _Harper’s Magazine_, 1913, cxxvii, 674; _idem_, _My Life with the Eskimo_, New York, 1913, p. 412; compare pp. 36 _sq._, 89 _sqq._, 374 _sq._, 416 _sqq._)

[185] W. Bogoras, in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_, xi, 521.

[186] W. Jochelson, _ibid._, x, 104 _sq._

[187] W. G. Sumner, “The Yakuts,” abridged from the Russian of Sieroshevski, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1901, xxxi, 107.

[188] W. H. Bennett, in Hastings’s _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, iv, 499.

[189] A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart_,³ edited by E. H. Meyer, Berlin, 1900, p. 461.

[190] George Henderson, _Survivals in Belief among the Celts_, Glasgow, 1911, p. 296 (Isle of Iriskay).

[191] On feasts of All Souls, in general, see Sir J. G. Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,³ London, 1914, ii, 51-83; on the public expulsion of evils see _idem_, _The Scapegoat_, London, 1913, pp. 109-169. Compare also P. Sartori, _Die Speisung der Toten_, Dortmund, 1903, pp. 48-55.

[192] Above, pp. 13, 21 _sq._, 31, 40 _sqq._, 51, 57.

[193] E. Casalis, _Les Bassoutos_, Paris, 1859, p. 275. The king of the Matabele was obliged to abstain from food and drink on the new moon following the beginning of the Matabele year. The late ruler, Lobengula, compromised this self-denying ordinance by drinking beer only out of a bottle. During the new-moon day “he was supposed to have communication with the spirits of his ancestors, and he abstained altogether from business” (L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_, London, 1900, p. 156).

[194] J. F. Cunningham, _Uganda and its Peoples_, London, 1905, pp. 12 _sq._ The Bahima demons, a numerous company, are mostly identified with the various maladies from which the natives suffer. See Sir H. H. Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_, London, 1902, ii, 631 _sq._