Chapter VI: Notes

[148.1] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 431, citing Duncker.

[149.1] xxix. _Sacred Books_, 180; cf. 395.

[149.2] _Meddygon Myddfai_, 269. Concerning this work see my article on “Old Welsh Folk-Medicine” in ix. _Y Cymmrodor_, 227. Both MSS. comprised in the book badly want careful reprinting and proper editing.

[150.1] _Ibid._, 262, 263; Friend, 115, 124, 581. Rosemary with grains of mastic was given by physicians in the seventeenth century to cure barrenness. Ploss, i. _Weib_, 434. A Gipsy charm quoted by Leland from Dr. von Wlislocki prescribed oats to be given to a mare out of an apron or gourd, with an incantation expressly bidding her “Eat, fill thy belly with young!” _Gip. Sorc._, 84.

[150.2] W. A. Clouston, in Burton, iii. _Suppl. Nights_, 576, quoting _Indian N. and Q._

[150.3] i. Risley, 256.

[151.1] Leland, _Gip. Sorc._, 101.

[151.2] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 439, citing von Wlislocki.

[151.3] _Ibid._, citing Krauss.

[151.4] Von Schulenburg, 232.

[151.5] J. B. Andrews, in ix. _Rev. Trad. Pop._, 111.

[151.6] Featherman, _Chiapo-Mar._, 444.

[151.7] Ploss, i. _Kind_, 30, 32; H. Ling Roth, in xxii. _Journ. Anthr. Inst._, 209. In the island of Aurora a woman sometimes takes it into her head “that the origin, or beginning, of one of her children is a cocoa-nut, or bread-fruit, or something of that kind;” and this gives rise to a prohibition of the object for food, just as in the case of a totem. Rev. Dr. Codrington, in xviii. _Journ. Anthr. Inst._, 310; ii. _Rep. Austr. Ass._, 612. I hardly know how to account for this notion except by the suggestion that such a woman may have eaten the fruit in question about the time her pregnancy commenced, and thence have been led to believe that the pregnancy was in some way due to it. Dr. Codrington, however, upon inquiry, informs me that he never heard of any belief of the kind. It is perhaps worth noting as a coincidence, if nothing more, that on Lepers’ Island the two intermarrying divisions are called _branches of fruit_, “as if,” says Dr. Codrington, “all the members hang on the same stalk.” Codrington, _Melanesians_, 26.

[152.1] Meier, _Sagen_, 476, 474. It is a saying at Pforzheim: To make a nut-tree bear, let a pregnant woman pick the first nuts. Grimm, _Teut. Myth._, 1802.

[153.1] Dr. Krauss, in iii. _Am Urquell_, 276. In Silesia stones are put on the trees on Christmas Eve to make them bear the more. Grimm _Teut. Myth._, 1825.

[154.1] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 431, 432, 434, 445, citing various authorities. Compare Queen Isolte’s lily, referred to _ante_, page 91. What is the meaning of the attribution, widely spread in Europe, of children to trees or vegetables? See, for examples, iv. _Am Urquell_, 224 _et seqq._; Zingerle, _Sagen_, 110; Finamore, _Trad. Pop. Abr._, 56. In England children are said to come out of the parsley-bed.

[154.2] _Gen._ xxx. 14. _Early Trav._, 434.

[155.1] Von Wlislocki, _Volksgl. Zig._, 90.

[155.2] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 439.

[155.3] Clouston, in Burton, iii. _Suppl. Nights_, 576, citing Pandit Natésa Sástri in _Indian N. and Q._

[155.4] Southey, iii. _Commonplace Bk._, 20, 75.

[155.5] Von Wlislocki, _Volksgl. Siebenb. Sachs._, 54.

[156.1] Von Wlislocki, _Volksgl. Zig._, 13. Compare the story given in the last chapter, _ante_ p. 124.

[156.2] Krauss, _Sitte und Brauch_, 531; Ploss, i. _Weib_, 432, 440, 441, 443, 431, citing various authorities.

[156.3] Schröder, 171, citing Hartknoch; Ploss, i. _Weib_, 445.

[157.1] Sextus Placitus, i. _Sax. Leechd._, 345.

[157.2] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 431, 432, citing Nachtigall and Junk.

[157.3] Von Wlislocki, _Volksgl. Siebenb. Sachs._, 103. In Transylvania hare’s flesh, especially the testicles, is also esteemed a specific against impotence and childlessness. _Ibid._, 169.

[157.4] Leland, _Gip. Sorc._, 101.

[157.5] Von Wlislocki, _Volksdicht._, 314.

[158.1] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 442.

[158.2] J. Spinner of Lemberg, in iv. _Am Urquell_, 125.

[158.3] xxx. _Sacred Bks._, 110.

[159.1] iii. _Sax. Leechd._, 69.

[159.2] Theal, 201.

[159.3] Eug. Polain, in ii. _Bull de F.L._, 82.

[159.4] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 434, 443.

[159.5] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._, x. 85.

[159.6] Wolf, _Niederl. Sag._, 227; ii. _Bull de F.L._, 82.

[160.1] ii. Witzschel, 244; Von Wlislocki, _Volksgl. Siebenb. Sachs._, 152.

[160.2] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 443, citing von Wlislocki in general terms. The statement is repeated (as usual without giving his authority) by Leland, _Gip. Sorc._, 101.

[160.3] Krauss, _Sitte und Brauch_, 531.

[160.4] Victor Mindeleff, in viii. _Rep. Bur. Ethn._, 32.

[160.5] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 435, citing Sandreczki.

[161.1] Tuchmann, in vi. _Mélusine_, 109, quoting Rehatsek, _Journ. Anthrop. Soc. Bombay._

[161.2] Clouston, in Burton, iii. _Suppl. Nights_, 576 note, quoting Pandit Natésa Sástri, _Indian N. and Q._

[162.1] Von Wlislocki, _Volksgl. Zig._, 66. Wherever this work is cited, it must be understood, unless otherwise expressed, to deal with the Gipsies of the Danubian countries, where alone, the author says, they are unsophisticated.

[162.2] Von Wlislocki, in iii. _Am Urquell_, 7.

[162.3] B. W. Schiffer, in iii. _Am Urquell_, 147.

[162.4] A. F. Dörfler, in iii. _Am Urquell_, 269.

[163.1] Von Wlislocki, _Volksleb. Mag._, 77. According to the same author, the afterbirth of a boy or girl placed under the bed will ensure the procreation of a child of the same sex; but the husband must be careful which side he gets into bed--on the right for a boy, on the left for a girl. _Ibid._, 80.

[163.2] Von Wlislocki, _Volksgl. Zig._, 103.

[164.1] i. Lane, 393, 394.

[164.2] Brinton, _Myths_, 253.

[164.3] v. _Rep. Bur. Ethn._, 111, translating _Relations des Jesuites_ (1636). In the Banks’ Islands are certain spirits called _Nopitu_. It is believed that a woman sometimes hears one of them say: “Mother, I am coming to you,” and feels it entering into her; and it is afterwards born as an ordinary child. Codrington, 154. This does not appear to be a case of migration.

[165.1] iii. _Sax. Leechd._, 66.

[165.2] Von Wlislocki, _Volksgl. Siebenb. Sachs._, 75, 152.

[165.3] Schiffer, in iv. _Am Urquell_, 187.

[165.4] Kohlrusch, 324.

[166.1] Rev. W. Gregor, in iii. _Folklore_, 68.

[166.2] i. _Leg. Panj._, 2.

[167.1] vi. _Mélusine_, 111, quoting _Panjab N. and Q._, and _Indian N. and Q._

[169.1] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 436, 437, 438, 439, referring to various authorities. The Kich Negresses about Adaël, west of the White Nile, in Equatorial Africa, however, think it necessary to wash in liquids much less innocent than water, unless they want to be sterile. Kara Kirghiz women spend a night beside a holy well. v. Radloff, 2. The ceremonies they practise are not mentioned.

[169.2] Jevons, _Plutarch’s Roman Questions_, ci.; iii. _L’Anthropologie_, 548, 558; _Congress_ (1891) _Report_, 345; Kolbe, 163; Rodd, 94; Dalton, _passim_; Ploss, i. _Weib_, 445, citing Böder; Winternitz, _Altind. Hochz._, 47, 101.

[170.1] Hahn, _Tsuni_-ǁ_goam_, 87.

[170.2] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 443, citing Wuttke. In Hainaut a profusion of fruit on the nut-trees prognosticates many bastards during the year. Harou, 28.

[170.3] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 446.

[170.4] Frazer, ii. _Golden Bough_, 238, note, quoting Monier-Williams, _Religious Life and Thought in India_.

[171.1] T. J. Hutchinson, in iii. _Trans. Ethnol. Soc., N.S._, 327.

[171.2] i. Preller, 389; Ovid, _Fasti_, ii. 425.

[171.3] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 435.

[171.4] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 445; Grimm, _Teut. Myth._, 1794.

[172.1] Grimm, _Teut. Myth._, 1795.

[172.2] De Charencey, _Le Fils_, 26.

[172.3] v. Radloff, 2. Among the Southern Slavs the bride is unveiled beneath an apple-tree and the veil is sometimes hung on the tree. Krauss, _Sitte und Brauch_, 450.

[173.1] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 437, 439. For other amulets, see _ibid._, 441; Klunzinger, 399.

[173.2] Codrington, 184.

[173.3] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 439.

[174.1] A. H. Kiehl, in vi. _Journ. Anthr. Inst._, 359.

[174.2] Augustine, _Civ. Dei_, vi. 9; Ploss, i. _Weib_, 435, quoting Thomas Bartholinus.

[174.3] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 436.

[174.4] Bérenger-Féraud, 201, quoting Yéménier.

[175.1] _County F.L., Suffolk_, 124, quoting _Corolla Varia_ by Rev. W. Hawkins (1634), and deeds of the monastery relating to the property and the bull. The rite had evidently been mutilated.

[176.1] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 444; Bérenger-Féraud, 200. Other Breton cases are referred to by Sébillot, i. _Trad. et Sup._, 51.

[176.2] vi. _Mélusine_, 154, quoting the _Temps_; 258, quoting _Byegones_.

[177.1] Zingerle, _Sitten_, 26. Ploss, i. _Weib_, 444, reproduces a photograph of one of these votive figures bought by the author in a wax-chandler’s shop at Salzburg as recently as 1890.

[177.2] Featherman, _Nigritians_, 139, quoting Hecquard.

[178.1] Ploss, i. _Weib_, 442, quoting Riedel.

[178.2] Winternitz, 23, 75; Schroeder, 123.

[178.3] Casalis, 265; Tylor, _E. Hist._, 109; M. Delafosse, in iv. _L’Anthropologie_, 444.

[179.1] vi. _Mélusine_, 231, quoting Doolittle.

[179.2] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._, x. 51. See also Ælian, _Nat. Anim._, xvii. 15. As to the power of flowers to imprint themselves by their smell on the fœtus, see Vasconcellos, 201.

[179.3] v. _Mélusine_, 248.

[180.1] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._, viii. 67; Aug. _Civ. Dei_, xxi. 5.

[180.2] Marsden, 297.