Chapter XIII: Farewell to Nemi (11)

665 Fr. Boas, in _Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_,
pp. 47 _sq._ (separate reprint from the _Report of the British
Association_, Leeds meeting, 1890); _id._, “The Social Organization
and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians,” _Report of the
United States National Museum for 1895_; (Washington, 1897), pp. 632
_sq._ But while the initiation described in the text was into a wolf
society, not into a wolf clan, it is to be observed that the wolf is
one of the regular totems of the Nootka Indians. See Fr. Boas, in
_Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p. 32.

666 Fr. Boas, in _Tenth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_,
pp. 49 _sq._, 58 _sq._ (separate reprint from the _Report of the
British Association_, Ipswich meeting, 1895). It is remarkable,
however, that in this tribe persons who are being initiated into the
secret societies, of which there are six, are not always or even
generally brought back by an artificial animal which represents
their own totem. Thus while men of the eagle totem are brought back
by an eagle which rises from underground, men of the bear clan
return on the back of an artificial killer-whale which is towed
across the river by ropes. Again, members of the wolf clan are
brought back by an artificial bear, and members of the raven clan by
a frog. In former times the appearance of the artificial totem
animal, or of the guardian spirit, was considered a matter of great
importance, and any failure which disclosed the deception to the
uninitiated was deemed a grave misfortune which could only be atoned
for by the death of the persons concerned in the disclosure.

M208 In these initiatory rites the novice seems to be killed as a man and
restored to life as an animal.

667 See above, p. 213.

668 This is the opinion of Dr. F. Boas, who writes: “The close
similarity between the clan legends and those of the acquisition of
spirits presiding over secret societies, as well as the intimate
relation between these and the social organizations of the tribes,
allow us to apply the same argument to the consideration of the
growth of the secret societies, and lead us to the conclusion that
the same psychical factor that molded the clans into their present
shape molded the secret societies” (“The Social Organization and the
Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians,” _Report of the United
States National Museum for 1895_, p. 662). Dr. Boas would see in the
acquisition of a _manitoo_ or personal totem the origin both of the
secret societies and of the totem clans; for according to him the
totem of the clan is merely the _manitoo_ or personal totem of the
ancestor transmitted by inheritance to his descendants. As to
personal totems or guardian spirits (_manitoos_) among the North
American Indians, see _Totemism and Exogamy_, iii. 370 _sqq._; as to
their secret societies, see _id._, iii. 457 _sqq._; as to the theory
that clan totems originated in personal or individual totems, see
_id._, iv. 48 _sqq._

M209 Honorific totems among the Carrier Indians. Initiatory rites at the
adoption of a honorific totem. Simulated transformation of a novice
into a bear. Pretence of death and resurrection at initiation.

669 A. G. Morice, “Notes, archaeological, industrial, and sociological,
on the Western Dénés,” _Transactions of the Canadian Institute_, iv.
(1892-93) pp. 203-206. The honorific totems of the Carrier Indians
may perhaps correspond in some measure to the sub-totems or
multiplex totems of the Australians. As to these latter see
_Totemism and Exogamy_, i. 78 _sqq._, 133 _sqq._

M210 Significance of these initiatory rites. Supposed invulnerability of
men who have weapons for their guardian spirits.

670 See above, pp. 153 _sq._

671 James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, p. 357 (_The
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of
Natural History_, April, 1900). Among the Shuswap of British
Columbia, when a young man has obtained his personal totem or
guardian spirit, he is supposed to become proof against bullets and
arrows (Fr. Boas, in _Sixth Report of the Committee on the
North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p. 93, separate reprint from the
_Report of the British Association_, Leeds meeting, 1890).

M211 Initiatory rite of the Toukaway Indians.

672 H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_
(Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 683. In a letter dated 16th Dec. 1887,
Mr. A. S. Gatschet, formerly of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington,
wrote to me: “Among the Toukawe whom in 1884 I found at Fort Griffin
[?], Texas, I noticed that they never kill the big or grey wolf,
_hatchukunän_, which has a mythological signification, ‘holding the
earth’ (_hatch_). He forms one of their totem clans, and they have
had a dance in his honor, danced by the males only, who carried
sticks.”

M212 Traces of the rite of death and resurrection among more advanced
peoples.

_ 673 The Laws of Manu_, ii. 169, translated by G. Bühler (Oxford, 1886),
p. 61 (_The Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxv.); J. A. Dubois,
_Mœurs, Institutions et Cérémonies des Peuples de l’Inde_ (Paris,
1825), i. 125; Monier Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in
India_ (London, 1883), pp. 360 _sq._, 396 _sq._; H. Oldenberg, _Die
Religion des Veda_ (Berlin, 1894), pp. 466 _sqq._

674 Lampridius, _Commodus_, 9; C. W. King, _The Gnostics and their
Remains_, Second Edition (London, 1887), pp. 127, 129. Compare Fr.
Cumont, _Textes et Monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de
Mithra_, i. (Brussels, 1899) pp. 69 _sq._, 321 _sq._; E. Rohde,
_Psyche_3 (Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903), ii. 400 n. 1; A. Dieterich,
_Eine Mithrasliturgie_ (Leipsic, 1903), pp. 91, 157 _sqq._

M213 The motive for attempting to deposit the soul in a safe place
outside of the body at puberty may have been a fear of the dangers
which, according to primitive notions, attend the union of the
sexes.
M214 Balder’s life or death in the mistletoe.

675 Above, p. 110; compare pp. 107, 120 _sq._, 132, 133.

676 Above, p. 120.

677 Above, p. 106.

678 Above, p. 145. In the myth the throwing of the weapons and of the
mistletoe at Balder and the blindness of Hother who slew him remind
us of the custom of the Irish reapers who kill the corn-spirit in
the last sheaf by throwing their sickles blindfold at it. See
_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 144. In Mecklenburg a cock
is sometimes buried in the ground and a man who is blindfolded
strikes at it with a flail. If he misses it, another tries, and so
on till the cock is killed. See K. Bartsch, _Sagen, Märchen und
Gebräuche aus Mecklenburg_ (Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 280. In England
on Shrove Tuesday a hen used to be tied upon a man’s back, and other
men blindfolded struck at it with branches till they killed it. See
T. F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), p.
68. W. Mannhardt (_Die Korndämonen_, Berlin, 1868, pp. 16 _sq._) has
made it probable that such sports are directly derived from the
custom of killing a cock upon the harvest-field as a representative
of the corn-spirit. See _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i.
277 _sq._ These customs, therefore, combined with the blindness of
Hother in the myth, suggest that the man who killed the human
representative of the oak-spirit was blindfolded, and threw his
weapon or the mistletoe from a little distance. After the Lapps had
killed a bear—which was the occasion of many superstitious
ceremonies—the bear’s skin was hung on a post, and the women,
blindfolded, shot arrows at it. See J. Scheffer, _Lapponia_
(Frankfort, 1673), p. 240.

M215 The view that the mistletoe contained the life of the oak may have
been suggested by the position of the parasite among the boughs.
Indian parallel to Balder and the mistletoe.

679 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxiv. 12; J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 ii.
1010. Compare below, p. 282.

_ 680 The Satapatha Brahmana_, xii. 7. 3. 1-3, translated by J. Eggeling,
Part v. (Oxford, 1900) pp. 222 _sq._ (_The Sacred Books of the
East_, vol. xliv.); Denham Rouse, in _Folk-lore Journal_, vii.
(1889) p. 61, quoting _Taittīrya Brāhmana_, I. vii. 1.

681 Col. E. T. Dalton, “The Kols of Chota-Nagpore,” _Transactions of the
Ethnological Society_, N.S. vi. (1868) p. 36.

M216 Analogous superstitions attaching to a parasitic rowan.

682 Jens Kamp, _Danske Folkeminder_ (Odense, 1877), pp. 172, 65 _sq._,
referred to in Feilberg’s _Bidrag til en Ordbog over Jyske
Almuesmål_, Fjerde hefte (Copenhagen, 1888), p. 320. For a sight of
Feilberg’s work I am indebted to the kindness of the late Rev.
Walter Gregor, M.A., of Pitsligo, who pointed out the passage to me.

683 E. T. Kristensen, _Iydske Folkeminder_, vi. 380, referred to by
Feilberg, _l.c._ According to Marcellus (_De Medicamentis_, xxvi.
115), ivy which springs from an oak is a remedy for stone, provided
it be cut with a copper instrument.

684 A. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks_2
(Gütersloh, 1886), pp. 175 _sq._, quoting Dybeck’s _Runa_, 1845, pp.
62 _sq._

685 A. Kuhn, _op. cit._ p. 176.

686 Quoted by A. Kuhn, _op. cit._ pp. 180 _sq._ In Zimbales, a province
of the Philippine Islands, “a certain parasitic plant that much
resembles yellow moss and grows high up on trees is regarded as a
very powerful charm. It is called _gay-u-ma_, and a man who
possesses it is called _nanara gayuma_. If his eyes rest on a person
during the new moon he will become sick at the stomach, but he can
cure the sickness by laying hands on the afflicted part.” See W. A.
Reed, _Negritos of Zambales_ (Manilla, 1904), p. 67 (_Department of
the Interior, Ethnological Survey Publications_, vol. ii. part i.).
Mr. Reed seems to mean that if a man who possesses this parasitic
plant sees a person at the new moon, the person on whom his eye
falls will be sick in his stomach, but that the owner of the
parasite can cure the sufferer by laying his (the owner’s) hands on
his (the patient’s) stomach. It is interesting to observe that the
magical virtue of the parasitic plant appears to be especially
effective at the new moon.

687 A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 97 §
128; L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), p. 269. See
above, p. 86.

M217 The fate of the Hays believed to be bound up with the mistletoe on
Errol’s oak.

688 John Hay Allan, _The Bridal of Caölchairn_ (London, 1822), pp. 337
_sq._

689 Rev. John B. Pratt, _Buchan_, Second Edition (Aberdeen, Edinburgh,
and London, 1859), p. 342. “_The corbie roup_” means “the raven
croak.” In former editions of this work my only source of
information as to the mistletoe and oak of the Hays was an extract
from a newspaper which was kindly copied and sent to me, without the
name of the newspaper, by the late Rev. Walter Gregor, M.A., of
Pitsligo. For my acquaintance with the works of J. H. Allan and J.
B. Pratt I am indebted to the researches of my learned friend Mr. A.
B. Cook, who has already quoted them in his article “The European
Sky-God,” _Folk-lore_, xvii. (1906) pp. 318 _sq._

M218 The life of the Lachlins and the deer of Finchra.

690 M. Martin, “Description of the Western Islands of Scotland,” in J.
Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_ (London, 1808-1814), iii. 661.

M219 The Golden Bough seems to have been a glorified mistletoe.

691 See James Sowerby, _English Botany_, xxi. (London, 1805), p. 1470:
“The Misseltoe is celebrated in story as the sacred plant of the
Druids, and the Golden Bough of Virgil, which was Aeneas’s passport
to the infernal regions.” Again, the author of the _Lexicon
Mythologicum_ concludes, “_cum Jonghio nostro_,” that the Golden
Bough “was nothing but the mistletoe glorified by poetical license.”
See _Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, iii.
(Copenhagen, 1828) p. 513 note. C. L. Rochholz expresses the same
opinion (_Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, Berlin, 1867, i. 9). The
subject is discussed at length by E. Norden, _P. Vergilius Maro,
Aeneis Buch VI._ (Leipsic, 1903) pp. 161-171, who, however, does not
even mention the general or popular view (_publica opinio_) current
in the time of Servius, that the Golden Bough was the branch which a
candidate for the priesthood of Diana had to pluck in the sacred
grove of Nemi. I confess I have more respect for the general opinion
of antiquity than to dismiss it thus cavalierly without a hearing.

692 Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 203 _sqq._, compare 136 _sqq._ See Note IV. “The
Mistletoe and the Golden Bough” at the end of this volume.

M220 If the Golden Bough was the mistletoe, the King of the Wood at Nemi
may have personated an oak spirit and perished in an oak fire.

_ 693 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 40 _sqq._, ii. 378
_sqq._ Virgil (_Aen._ vi. 201 _sqq._) places the Golden Bough in the
neighbourhood of Lake Avernus. But this was probably a poetical
liberty, adopted for the convenience of Aeneas’s descent to the
infernal world. Italian tradition, as we learn from Servius (on
Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 136), placed the Golden Bough in the grove at
Nemi.

_ 694 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 12.

_ 695 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 186, 366 note 2.

M221 A similar tragedy may have been enacted over the human
representative of Balder in Norway.

696 A custom of annually burning or otherwise sacrificing a human
representative of the corn-spirit has been noted among the
Egyptians, Pawnees, and Khonds. See _Spirits of the Corn and of the
Wild_, i. 238 _sq._, 245 _sqq._, 259 _sq._ We have seen that in
Western Asia there are strong traces of a practice of annually
burning a human god. See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition,
pp. 84 _sqq._, 98 _sq._, 137 _sq._, 139 _sqq._, 155 _sq._ The Druids
appear to have eaten portions of the human victim (Pliny, _Nat.
Hist._ xxx. 13). Perhaps portions of the flesh of the King of the
Wood were eaten by his worshippers as a sacrament. We have found
traces of the use of sacramental bread at Nemi. See _Spirits of the
Corn and of the Wild_, ii. 94 _sqq._

M222 The name of the Golden Bough may have been applied to the mistletoe
on account of the golden tinge which the plant assumes in withering.

697 It has been said that in Welsh a name for mistletoe is “the tree of
pure gold” (_pren puraur_). See J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4
ii. 1009, referring to Davies. But my friend Sir John Rhys tells me
that the statement is devoid of foundation.

698 Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 137 _sq._:—

“_Latet arbore opaca_
_ Aureus et foliis et lento vimine ramus._”

699 This suggestion as to the origin of the name has been made to me by
two correspondents independently. Miss Florence Grove, writing to me
from 10 Milton Chambers, Cheyne Walk, London, on May 13th, 1901,
tells me that she regularly hangs up a bough of mistletoe every year
and allows it to remain till it is replaced by the new branch next
year, and from her observation “the mistletoe is actually a golden
bough when kept a sufficiently long time.” She was kind enough to
send me some twigs of her old bough, which fully bore out her
description. Again, Mrs. A. Stuart writes to me from Crear Cottage,
Morningside Drive, Edinburgh, on June 26th, 1901: “As to why the
mistletoe might be called the Golden Bough, my sister Miss Haig
wishes me to tell you that last June, when she was in Brittany, she
saw great bunches of mistletoe hung up in front of the houses in the
villages. The leaves were _bright golden_. You should hang up a
branch next Christmas and keep it till June!” The great hollow oak
of Saint-Denis-des-Puits, in the French province of Perche, is
called “the gilded or golden oak” (_Chêne-Doré_) “in memory of the
Druidical tradition of the mistletoe cut with a golden sickle.” See
Felix Chapiseau, _Le Folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche_ (Paris,
1902), i. 97. Perhaps the name may be derived from bunches of
withered mistletoe shining like gold in the sunshine among the
branches.

700 H. Gaidoz, “Bulletin critique de la Mythologie Gauloise,” _Revue de
l’Histoire des Religions_, ii. (Paris, 1880) p. 76.

M223 The yellow hue of withered mistletoe may partly explain why the
plant is thought to disclose yellow gold in the earth. Similarly
fern-seed is thought to bloom like gold or fire and to reveal buried
treasures on Midsummer Eve. Sometimes fern-seed is thought to bloom
on Christmas night. The wicked weaver of Rotenburg.

701 See below, pp. 291 _sq._

702 See above, pp. 65 _sq._

703 J. V. Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_
(Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 97, § 673.

704 J. V. Grohmann, _op. cit._ p. 97, § 676; A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche
Volksaberglaube_2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 94, § 123; I. V. Zingerle,
_Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes_2 (Innsbruck,
1871), p. 158, § 1350.

705 C. Russwurm, “Aberglaube in Russland,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche
Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, iv. (1859), pp. 152 _sq._; Angelo de
Gubernatis, _Mythologie des Plantes_ (Paris, 1878-1882), ii. 146.

706 P. Sébillot, _Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_
(Paris, 1882), ii. 336; _id._, _Coutumes populaires de la
Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1886), p. 217.

707 J. E. Waldfreund, “Volksgebräuche und Aberglauben in Tirol und dem
Salzburger Gebirg,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und
Sittenkunde_, iii. (1855), p. 339.

708 H. Runge, “Volksglaube in der Schweiz,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche
Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, iv. (1859), p. 175.

709 O. Frh. von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen_
(Prague, N.D.), pp. 311 _sq._ Compare Theodor Vernaleken, _Mythen
und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_ (Vienna, 1859), pp. 309
_sq._; M. Töppen, _Aberglauben aus Masuren_2 (Danzig, 1867), pp. 72
_sq._ Even without the use of fern-seed treasures are sometimes said
to bloom or burn in the earth, or to reveal their presence by a
bluish flame, on Midsummer Eve; in Transylvania only children born
on a Sunday can see them and fetch them up. See J. Haltrich, _Zur
Volkskunde der Siebenbürger Sachsen_ (Vienna, 1885), p. 287; I. V.
Zingerle, _Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes_2
(Innsbruck, 1871), p. 159, §§ 1351, 1352; K. Bartsch, _Sagen,
Märchen und Gebrauche aus Mecklenburg_ (Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 285,
§ 1431; E. Monseur, _Folklore Wallon_ (Brussels, N.D.), p. 6, §
1789; K. Haupt, _Sagenbuch der Lausitz_ (Leipsic, 1862-1863), i. 231
_sq._, No. 275; A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_2 (Berlin,
1869), p. 76, § 92; F. J. Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und äusseren
Leben der Ehsten_ (St. Petersburg, 1876), p. 363.

710 I. V. Zingerle, _op. cit._ p. 103, § 882; _id._, in _Zeitschrift für
deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, i. (1853), p. 330; W. Müller,
_Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren_ (Vienna and
Olmütz, 1893), p. 265. At Pergine, in the Tyrol, it was thought that
fern-seed gathered with the dew on St. John’s night had the power of
transforming metals (into gold?). See Ch. Schneller, _Märchen und
Sagen aus Wälschtirol_ (Innsbruck, 1867), p. 237, § 23.

711 I. V. Zingerle, _Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes_,2
pp. 190 _sq._, § 1573.

712 A. Schlossar, “Volksmeinung und Volksaberglaube aus der deutschen
Steiermark,” _Germania_, N.R., xxiv. (1891) p. 387.

713 Ernst Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_
(Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 242-244.

M224 The golden or fiery fern-seed appears to be an emanation of the
sun’s fire.

714 J. V. Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_,
p. 97, § 675; W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_,
Second Edition (London, 1872), p. 98; C. Russwurm, “Aberglaube in
Russland,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_,
iv. (1859) p. 152.

715 L. Bechstein, _Deutsches Sagenbuch_ (Leipsic, 1853), p. 430, No.
500; _id._, _Thüringer Sagenbuch_ (Leipsic, 1885), ii. pp. 17 _sq._,
No. 161.

M225 Like fern-seed the mistletoe is gathered at the solstices (Midsummer
and Christmas) and is supposed to reveal treasures in the earth;
perhaps, therefore, it too is deemed an emanation of the sun’s
golden fire. The bloom of the oak on Midsummer Eve.

716 For gathering it at midsummer, see above, pp. 86 _sq._ The custom of
gathering it at Christmas still commonly survives in England. At
York “on the eve of Christmas-day they carry mistletoe to the high
altar of the cathedral, and proclaim a public and universal liberty,
pardon and freedom to all sorts of inferior and even wicked people
at the gates of the city, toward the four quarters of heaven.” See
W. Stukeley, _The Medallic History of Marcus Aurelius Valerius
Carausius, Emperor in Britain_ (London, 1757-1759), ii. 164; J.
Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London, 1882-1883),
i. 525. This last custom, which is now doubtless obsolete, may have
been a relic of an annual period of license like the Saturnalia. The
traditional privilege accorded to men of kissing any woman found
under mistletoe is probably another relic of the same sort. See
Washington Irving, _Sketch-Book_, “Christmas Eve,” p. 147 (Bohn’s
edition); Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_
(London, 1909), p. 88.

717 A. A. Afzelius, _Volkssagen und Volkslieder aus Schwedens älterer
und neuerer Zeit_ (Leipsic, 1842), i. 41 _sq._; J. Grimm, _Deutsche
Mythologie_,4 iii. 289; L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London,
1870), pp. 266 _sq._ See above, p. 69. In the Tyrol they say that if
mistletoe grows on a hazel-tree, there must be a treasure under the
tree. See J. N. Ritter von Alpenburg, _Mythen und Sagen Tirols_
(Zurich, 1857), p. 398. In East Prussia a similar belief is held in
regard to mistletoe that grows on a thorn. See C. Lemke,
_Volksthümliches in Ostpreussen_ (Mohrungen, 1884-1887), ii. 283. We
have seen that the divining-rod which reveals treasures is commonly
cut from a hazel (above, pp. 67 _sq._).

718 Above, pp. 90-92.

719 Fern-seed is supposed to bloom at Easter as well as at Midsummer and
Christmas (W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, pp. 98
_sq._); and Easter, as we have seen, is one of the times when fires
are ceremonially kindled, perhaps to recruit the fire of the sun.

720 Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_
(London, 1883), p. 242.

721 Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London,
1909), p. 88.

722 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xvi. 251.

723 Above, pp. 82 _sq._

724 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxxiii. 94: “_Calx aqua accenditur et Thracius
lapis, idem oleo restinguitur, ignis autem aceto maxime et visco et
ovo._”

725 See above, p. 85.

M226 Aeneas and the Golden Bough. Orpheus and the willow.

726 Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 179-209.

727 Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 384-416.

728 Above, pp. 86, 282.

729 Above, p. 85.

730 Pausanias, x. 30. 6.

731 J. Six, “Die Eriphyle des Polygnot,” _Mittheilungen des kaiserlich
deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts, Athenische Abtheilung_, xix.
(1894) pp. 338 _sq._ Compare my commentary on Pausanias, vol. v. p.
385.

732 The sarcophagus is in the Lateran Museum at Rome. See W. Helbig,
_Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen Klassischer Altertümer in
Rom_2 (Leipsic, 1899), ii. 468.

M227 Trees thought by the savage to be the seat of fire because he
elicits it by friction from their wood.

733 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 19 _sqq._

_ 734 Die Edda_, übersetzt von K. Simrock8 (Stuttgart, 1882), p. 264.

735 S. Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Washington, 1877), p. 171.

736 S. Powers, _Tribes of California_, p. 287.

737 Max Girschner, “Die Karolineninsel Namöluk und ihre Bewohner,”
_Baessler-Archiv_, ii. (1912) p. 141.

738 A. A. Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_ (Strasburg, 1897), pp. 91 _sq._,
referring to _Rigveda_, vi. 3. 3, x. 79. 7, ii. 1. 14, iii. 1. 13,
x. 1. 2, viii. 43. 9, i. 70. 4, ii. 1. 1. Compare H. Oldenberg, _Die
Religion des Veda_ (Berlin, 1894), pp. 120 _sq._

739 Edward M. Curr, _The Australian Race_ (Melbourne and London,
1886-1887), i. 9, 18.

M228 Trees that have been struck by lightning are deemed by the savage to
be charged with a double portion of fire.

740 James Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” _Nineteenth Annual Report of
the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1900) p.
422, compare p. 435.

741 James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, p. 346 (_The
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of
Natural History_, April, 1900).

742 J. Teit, _op. cit._ p. 374.

743 The Shuswap Indians of British Columbia entertain a similar belief.
It has been suggested that the fancy may be based on the observation
that cold follows a thunder-storm. See G. M. Dawson, “Notes on the
Shuswap people of British Columbia,” _Transactions of the Royal
Society of Canada_, ix. (1891) Section ii. p. 38.

744 R. Wuttke, _Sächsische Volkskunde_2 (Dresden, 1901), p. 369.

745 Henri A. Junod, _The Life of a South African Tribe_ (Neuchatel,
1912-1913), ii. 291. The Thonga imagine that lightning is caused by
a great bird, which sometimes buries itself in the ground to a depth
of several feet. See H. A. Junod, _op. cit._ ii. 290 _sq._

746 Dr. James A. Chisholm (of the Livingstonia Mission, Mwenzo, N.E.
Rhodesia), “Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Winamwanga and
Wiwa,” _Journal of the African Society_, No. 36 (July, 1910), p.
363.

747 S. Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Washington, 1877), p. 287. The
dread of lightning is prominent in some of the customs observed in
Patiko, a district of the Uganda Protectorate. If a village has
suffered from lightning, ropes made of twisted grass are strung from
peak to peak of the houses to ward off further strokes. And if a
person has been struck or badly shaken, “an elaborate cure is
performed upon him. A red cock is taken, his tongue torn out, and
his body dashed upon the house where the stroke fell. Then the scene
changes to the bank of a small running stream, where the patient is
made to kneel while the bird is sacrificed over the water. A raw egg
is next given to the patient to swallow, and he is laid on his
stomach and encouraged to vomit. The lightning is supposed to be
vomited along with the egg, and all ill effects prevented.” See Rev.
A. L. Kitching, _On the Backwaters of the Nile_ (London, 1912), p.
263.

M229 Theory that the sanctity of the oak and the relation of the tree to
the sky-god were suggested by the frequency with which oaks are
struck by lightning.

748 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 349 _sqq._

749 W. Warde Fowler, “The Oak and the Thunder-god,” _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, xvi. (1913) pp. 318 _sq._ My friend Mr.
Warde Fowler had previously called my attention to the facts in a
letter dated September 17th, 1912.

750 Dr. W. Schlich’s _Manual of Forestry_, vol. iv. _Forest Protection_,
by W. R. Fisher, Second Edition (London, 1907), pp. 662 _sq._ Mr. W.
Warde Fowler was the first to call the attention of mythologists to
this work.

751 Experiments on the conductivity of electricity in wood go to shew
that starchy trees (oak, poplar, maples, ash, elm, _sorbus_) are
good conductors, that oily trees (beech, walnut, birch, lime) are
bad conductors, and that the conifers are intermediate, the Scotch
pine in summer being as deficient in oil as the starchy trees, but
rich in oil during winter. It was found that a single turn of Holz’s
electric machine sufficed to send the spark through oakwood, but
that from twelve to twenty turns were required to send it through
beech-wood. Five turns of the machine were needed to send the spark
through poplar and willow wood. See Dr. W. Schlich, _Manual of
Forestry_, vol. iv. _Forest Protection_, Second Edition (London,
1907), p. 664. In the tropics lightning is said to be especially
attracted to coco-nut palms. See P. Amaury Talbot, _In the Shadow of
the Bush_ (London, 1913), p. 73.

752 As to the Greek belief and custom, see H. Usener, _Kleine
Schriften_, iv. (Leipsic and Berlin, 1913), “Keraunos,” pp. 471
_sqq._; _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 361. As to
the Roman belief and custom, see Festus, _svv._ _Fulguritum and
Provorsum fulgur_, pp. 92, 229, ed. C. O. Müller (Leipsic, 1839); H.
Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, vol. ii. pars i. (Berlin,
1902) pp. 10 _sq._, Nos. 3048-3056; L. Preller, _Römische
Mythologie_3 (Berlin, 1881-1883), i. 190-193; G. Wissowa, _Religion
und Kultus der Römer_2 (Munich, 1912), pp. 121 _sq._ By a curious
refinement the Romans referred lightning which fell by day to
Jupiter, but lightning which fell by night to a god called Summanus
(Festus, p. 229).

M230 This explanation of the Aryan worship of the oak is preferable to
the one formerly adopted by the author.

753 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 iii. 64, citing a statement that
lightning strikes twenty oaks for one beech. The statistics adduced
by Mr. W. Warde Fowler seem to shew that this statement is no
exaggeration but rather the contrary.

754 W. Warde Fowler, “The Oak and the Thunder-god,” _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, xvi. (1913) pp. 317-320.

_ 755 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 356 _sqq._

756 The suggestion is Mr. W. Warde Fowler’s (_op cit._ pp. 319 _sq._).

M231 The sacredness of mistletoe was perhaps due to a belief that the
plant fell on the tree in a flash of lightning.

757 Pliny, _Natur. Hist._ xvi. 249.

758 See above, p. 85.

759 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 i. 153. See above, p. 85.

M232 Hence the stroke of mistletoe that killed Balder may have been a
stroke of lightning.

760 This interpretation of Balder’s death was anticipated by W. Schwartz
(_Der Ursprung der Mythologie_, Berlin, 1860, p. 176), who cut the
whole knot by dubbing Balder “the German thunder-and-lightning god”
and mistletoe “the wonderful thunder-and-lightning flower.” But as
this learned writer nursed a fatal passion for thunder and
lightning, which he detected lurking in the most unlikely places, we
need not wonder that he occasionally found it in places where there
were some slight grounds for thinking that it really existed.

M233 The King of the Wood and the Golden Bough.

761 On the relation of the priest to Jupiter, and the equivalence of
Jupiter and Juno to Janus (Dianus) and Diana, see _The Magic Art and
the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 376 _sqq._

M234 Looking back at the end of the journey. M235 The movement of human thought in the past from magic to religion. M236 The movement of thought from religion to science. M237 Contrast between the views of natural order postulated by magic and by science respectively. M238 The scientific theory of the world not necessarily final. M239 The shadow across the path.

762 “I quite agree how humiliating the slow progress of man is, but
every one has his own pet horror, and this slow progress or even
personal annihilation sinks in my mind into insignificance compared
with the idea or rather I presume certainty of the sun some day
cooling and we all freezing. To think of the progress of millions of
years, with every continent swarming with good and enlightened men,
all ending in this, and with probably no fresh start until this our
planetary system has been again converted into red-hot gas. _Sic
transit gloria mundi_, with a vengeance” (_More Letters of Charles
Darwin_, edited by Francis Darwin, London, 1903, i. 260 _sq._).

763 Since this passage was written the hope which it expresses has been
to some extent strengthened by the discovery of radium, which
appears to prolong indefinitely the prospect of the duration of the
sun’s heat, and with it the duration of life on its attendant
planets. See (Sir) George Howard Darwin’s Presidential Address to
the British Association, _Report of the 75th Meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science_ (South Africa, 1905),
pp. 28 _sq._; F. Soddy, _The Interpretation of Radium_, Third
Edition (London, 1912), pp. 240 _sqq._; E. Rutherford, _Radio-active
Substances and their Radiations_ (Cambridge, 1913), pp. 653-656. At
the same time it should be borne in mind that even if the atomic
disintegration and accompanying liberation of energy, which
characterize radium and kindred elements, should prove to be common
in different degrees to all the other elements and to form a vast
and till lately unsuspected store of heat to the sun, this enormous
reserve of fuel would only defer but could not avert that final
catastrophe with which the solar system and indeed the whole
universe is remorselessly threatened by the law of the dissipation
of energy.

M240 The web of thought. M241 Nemi at evening: the _Ave Maria_ bell.

764 See above, vol. i. pp. 15 _sq._

M242 Snake Stones in the Highlands.

765 Alexander Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica, Hymns and Incantations with
Illustrative Notes on Words, Rites, and Customs, dying and obsolete:
orally collected in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and
translated into English_ (Edinburgh, 1900), ii. 312.

M243 Witches as cats among the Oraons.

766 Above, vol. i. pp. 315 _sqq._

767 The late Rev. P. Dehon, S.J., “Religion and Customs of the Uraons,”
_Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol. i. No. 9 (Calcutta,
1906), p. 141.

M244 African parallels to Balder. M245 The worshipful ghost in the cave. M246 The man who could only be killed by the stalk of a gourd.

768 “Every clan (_Familienstamm_) has a definite thing which is
forbidden to all the members of the clan, whether it be a particular
kind of meat, or a certain fish, or as here the stalk of a gourd.”

769 “The place in Nguu, where the ghost is said to dwell.”

770 “In Ukami.”

771 C. Velten, _Schilderungen der Suaheli_ (Göttingen, 1901), pp.
195-197.

M247 The man who could only be killed by a splinter of bamboo.

772 Miss Alice Werner, _The Natives of British Central Africa_ (London,
1906), p. 82. In a letter Miss Werner tells me that she learned
these particulars at Blantyre in 1893, and that the chief lived in
the neighbourhood of Mlanje.

773 Rev. Henry Rowley, _Twenty Years in Central Africa_ (London, N.D.),
pp. 36 _sqq._ For a reference to this and all the other works cited
in this Note I am indebted to the kindness of Miss Alice Werner.

774 Rev. David Clement Scott, _A Cyclopaedic Dictionary of the Mang’anja
Language spoken in British Central Africa_ (Edinburgh, 1892), p.
315.

M248 The man who could only be killed by a copper needle.

775 Edward Steere, _Swahili Tales_ (London, 1870), pp. 441-453. The
young man in the story is spoken of now as the nephew and now as the
son of the man he murdered. Probably he was what we should call a
nephew or brother’s son of his victim; for under the classificatory
system of relationship, which seems to prevail among the Bantu
stock, to whom the Swahili belong, a man regularly calls his
paternal uncle his father.

M249 These stories confirm the view that Balder may have been a real man
who was deified after death.

776 Above, vol. i. pp. 104 _sq._

M250 Two species of mistletoe, the _Viscum album_ and the _Loranthus
europaeus_. Common mistletoe (_Viscum album_).

777 Virgil, Aen. vi. 205 _sqq._:—

“_Quale solet silvis brumali frigore viscum_
_ Fronde virere nova, quod non sua seminat arbos,_
_ Et croceo fetu teretis circumdare truncos:_
_ Talis erat species auri frondentis opaca_
_ Ilice, sic leni crepitabat bractea vento._”

778 W. Schlich, _Manual of Forestry_, vol. iv. _Forest Protection_, by
W. R. Fisher, M.A., Second Edition (London, 1907), p. 412. French
peasants about Coulommiers think that mistletoe springs from birds’
dung. See H. Gaidoz, “Bulletin critique de la Mythologie Gauloise,”
_Revue de l’Histoire des Religions_, ii. (1880) p. 76. The ancients
were well aware that mistletoe is propagated from tree to tree by
seeds which have been voided by birds. See Theophrastus, _De Causis
Plantarum_, ii. 17. 5; Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_, xvi. 247. Pliny
tells us that the birds which most commonly deposited the seeds were
pigeons and thrushes. Can this have been the reason why Virgil
(_Aen._ vi. 190 _sqq._) represents Aeneas led to the Golden Bough by
a pair of doves?

779 James Sowerby, _English Botany_, xxi. (London, 1805) p. 1470.

780 C. Fraas, _Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae_ (Munich, 1845), p.
152.

781 H. O. Lenz, _Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer_ (Gotha, 1859), p.
597, quoting Pollini.

782 J. Lindley and T. Moore, _The Treasury of Botany_, New Edition
(London, 1874), ii. 1220. A good authority, however, observes that
mistletoe is “frequently to be observed on the branches of old
apple-trees, hawthorns, lime-trees, oaks, etc., where it grows
parasitically.” See J. Sowerby, _English Botany_, xxi. (London,
1805) p. 1470.

_ 783 Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Ninth Edition, x. 689, _s.v._
“Gloucester.”

784 H. Gaidoz, “Bulletin critique de la Mythologie Gauloise,” _Revue de
l’Histoire des Religions_, ii. (1880) pp. 75 _sq._

785 Angelo de Gubernatis, _La Mythologie des Plantes_ (Paris,
1878-1882), ii. 216 _sq._ As to the many curious superstitions that
have clustered round mandragora, see P. J. Veth, “De Mandragora,”
_Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, vii. (1894) pp. 199-205;
C. B. Randolph, “The Mandragora of the Ancients in Folk-lore and
Medicine,” _Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences_, vol. xl. No. 12 (January, 1905), pp. 487-537.

_ M251 Loranthus europaeus._

786 W. Schlich, _Manual of Forestry_, vol. iv. _Forest Protection_,
Second Edition (London, 1907), pp. 415-417.

787 E. B. Stebbing, “The Loranthus Parasite of the Moru and Ban Oaks,”
_Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, New
Series, v. (Calcutta, 1910) pp. 189-195. The _Loranthus vestitus_
“is a small branching woody plant with dirty yellowish green leaves
which are dark shining green above. It grows in great clumps and
masses on the trees, resembling a giant mistletoe. The fruit is
yellowish and fleshy, and is almost sessile on the stem, which it
thickly studs” (_ib._, p. 192). The writer shews that the parasite
is very destructive to oaks in India.

788 H. O. Lenz, _Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer_ (Gotha, 1859), p.
598, notes 151 and 152.

789 C. Fraas, _Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae_ (Munich, 1845), p.
152.

790 H. O. Lenz, _Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer_ (Gotha, 1859),
pp. 599 _sq._

M252 Both sorts of mistletoe known to the ancients and designated by
different words.

791 Theophrastus, _Historia Plantarum_, iii. 7. 5, iii. 16. 1, _De
Causis Plantarum_, ii. 17; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xvi. 245-247. Compare
Dioscorides, _De materia medica_, ii. 93 (103), vol. i. pp. 442
_sq._, ed. C. Sprengel (Leipsic, 1829-1830), who uses the form
_ixos_ instead of _ixia_. Both Dioscorides (_l.c._) and Plutarch
(_Coriolanus_, 3) affirm that mistletoe (_ixos_) grows on the oak
(δρῦς); and Hesychius quotes from Sophocles’s play _Meleager_ the
expression “mistletoe-bearing oaks” (ἰξοφόρους δρύας, Hesychius,
_s.v._).

M253 Doubts as to the identification of the ancient names for mistletoe.

792 Theophrastus, _Opera quae supersunt omnia_, ed. Fr. Wimmer (Paris,
1866), pp. 537, 545, 546, _s.vv._ ἰξία, στελίς, ὑφέαρ.

793 F. Fraas, _Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae_ (Munich, 1845), p.
152.

794 H. O. Lenz, _Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer_ (Gotha, 1859), p.
597, notes 147 and 148.

795 Theophrastus, _De Causis Plantarum_, ii. 17. 2, ἐπεὶ τό γε τὴν μὲν
ἀείφυλλον εἶναι τῶν ἰξιῶν (τὴν δὲ φυλλοβόλον) οὐθὲν ἄτοπον, κἂν ἡ
μὲν (ἐν) ἀιφύλλοις ἡ δὲ ἐν φυλλοβόλοις ἐμβιῴη.

M254 Did Virgil compare the Golden Bough to common mistletoe or to
_Loranthus_? Some enquirers decide in favour of _Loranthus_.

796 His letter is undated, but the postmark is April 28th, 1889. Sir
Francis Darwin has since told me that his authority is Kerner von
Marilaun, _Pflanzenleben_ (1888), vol. i. pp. 195, 196. See Anton
Kerner von Marilaun, _The Natural History of Plants_, translated and
edited by F. W. Oliver (London, 1894-1895), i. 204 _sqq._ According
to this writer “the mistletoe’s favourite tree is certainly the
Black Poplar (_Populus nigra_). It flourishes with astonishing
luxuriance on the branches of that tree.... Mistletoe has also been
found by way of exception upon the oak and the maple, and upon old
vines” (_op. cit._ i. 205).

797 Prof. P. J. Veth, “De leer der signatuur, III. De mistel en de
riembloem,” _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, vii. (1894)
p. 105. The Dutch language has separate names for the two species:
mistletoe is _mistel_, and _Loranthus_ is _riembloem_.

798 His letter is dated 18th February, 1908.

M255 Reason for preferring common mistletoe. Perhaps Virgil confused the
two species.

799 But Sir Francis Darwin writes to me:—“I do not quite see why
_Loranthus_ should not put out leaves in winter as easily as
_Viscum_, in both cases it would be due to unfolding leaf buds; the
fact that _Viscum_ has adult leaves at the time, while _Loranthus_
has not, does not really affect the matter.” However, Mr. Paton
tells us, as we have just seen, that in winter the _Loranthus_
growing on the oaks of Mount Athos has no leaves, though its yellow
berries are very conspicuous.