Chapter V Notes
[112.1] Humboldt, Voyage aux Régions Equinoxiales, viii. 273.
[113.1] Alcide d’Orbigny, Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale, ii. (Paris and Strasburg, 1839-1843) pp. 99 sq. As to the thieving propensities of the Patagonians, the author tells us that “they do not steal among themselves, it is true; but their parents, from their tender infancy, teach them to consider theft from the enemy as the base of their education, as an accomplishment indispensable for every one who would succeed in life, as a thing ordained by the Evil Spirit, so much so that when they are reproached for a theft, they always say that Achekenat-Kanet commanded them so to do” (op. cit. p. 104). Achekenat-Kanet is the supernatural being who, under various names, is revered or dreaded by all the Indian tribes of Patagonia. Sometimes he appears as a good and sometimes as a bad spirit. See A. d’Orbigny, op. cit. ii. 87.
[114.1] Plato, Laws, ix. 8, pp. 865 d-866 a; Demosthenes, xxiii. pp. 643 sq.; Hesychius, s.v. ἀπενιαυτισμός.
[114.2] Aeschylus, Choëphor. 1021 sqq., Eumenides, 85 sqq.; Euripides, Iphig. in Taur. 940 sqq.; Pausanias, ii. 31. 8, viii. 34. 1-4.
[114.3] Demosthenes, xxiii. pp. 643 sq.
[114.4] Demosthenes, xxiii. pp. 645 sq.; Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, 57; Pausanias, i. 28. 11; Pollux, viii. 120; Helladius, quoted by Photius, Bibliotheca, p. 535 a, lines 28 sqq. ed. I. Bekker (Berlin, 1824).
[115.1] Plato, Laws, ix. 8, p. 866 C D.
[115.2] Polybius, iv. 17-21.
[115.3] Plutarch, Praecept. ger. reipub. xvii. 9.
[115.4] Pausanias, ii. 31. 8.
[115.5] C. W. Hobley, “Kikuyu Customs and Beliefs,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xl. (1910) p. 431. The nature of the ceremonial pollution (thahu) thus incurred is explained by Mr. Hobley (op. cit. p. 428) as follows: “Thahu, sometimes called ngahu, is the word used for a condition into which a person is believed to fall if he or she accidentally becomes the victim of certain circumstances or intentionally performs certain acts which carry with them a kind of ill luck or curse. A person who is thahu becomes emaciated and ill or breaks out into eruptions or boils, and if the thahu is not removed will probably die. In many cases this undoubtedly happens by the process of auto-suggestion, as it never occurs to the Kikuyu mind to be sceptical on a matter of this kind. It is said that the thahu condition is caused by the ngoma or spirits of departed ancestors, but the process does not seem to have been analysed any further.” See also above, pp. [93], [105].
[116.1] Aeschylus, Eumenides, 280 sqq., 448 sqq.; id., quoted by Eustathius on Homer, Iliad, xix. 254, p. 1183, ἐπιτήδειος ἐδόκει πρὸς καθαρμὸν ὁ σῦς, ὡς δηλοῖ Αἰσχύλος ἐν τῷ, πρὶν ἂν παλαγμοῖς αἵματος χοιροκτόνου αὐτός σε χρᾶναι Ζεὺς καταστάξας χεροῖν; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonaut. iv. 703-717, with the notes of the scholiast. Purifications of this sort are represented in Greek art. See my note on Pausanias ii. 31. 8 (vol. iii. pp. 276 sqq.).
[116.2] Lieutenant Thomas Shaw, “The Inhabitants of the Hills near Rajamahall,” Asiatic Researches, Fourth Edition, iv. (London, 1807) p. 78, compare p. 77.
[116.3] See above, pp. [44] sqq.
[116.4] Missionary Autenrieth, “Zur Religion der Kamerun-Neger,” Mitteilungen der geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena, xii. (1893) pp. 93 sq.
[117.1] V. Solomon, “Extracts from Diaries kept in Car Nicobar,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 227.
[117.2] See my note on Pausanias, ii. 31. 8 (vol. iii. pp. 276 sqq.).
[117.3] This was the view of C. Meiners (Geschichte der Religionen, Hanover, 1806-1807, ii. 137 sq.), and of E. Rohde (Psyche3, Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903, ii. 77 sq.).
[117.4] καθαίρονται δ᾽ ἄλλως αἵματι μιανόμενοι οἶον εἴ τις εἰς πηλὸν ἐμβὰς πηλῷ ἀπονίζοιτο, Heraclitus, in H. Diels’s Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, Zweite Auflage, i. (Berlin, 1906) p. 62.
[117.5] Pausanias, viii. 34. 3.
[118.1] Rev. J. H. Bernau, Missionary Labours in British Guiana (London, 1847), pp. 57 sq.; R. Schomburgk, Reisen in Britisch-Guiana (Leipsic, 1847-1848), ii. 497.
[118.2] J. Dumont D’Urville, Voyage autour du monde et à la recherche de la Pérouse (Paris, 1832-1833), iii. 305.
[118.3] John Bradbury, Travels in the Interior of America (Liverpool, 1817), p. 160.
[118.4] Pomponius Mela, Chorogr. ii. 12, p. 35, ed. G. Parthey (Berlin, 1867).
[118.5] A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford, 1909), p. 27.
[119.1] Major A. G. Leonard, The Lower Niger and its Tribes (London, 1906), pp. 180, 181 sq.
[119.2] Mrs. Leslie Milne, Shans at Home (London, 1910), p. 192. Among the Shans “in a case of capital punishment more than one executioner assisted, and each tried to avoid giving the fatal blow, so that the sin of killing the culprit should fall upon several, each bearing a part. The unfortunate man was killed by reason of repeated sword cuts, no one of which was sufficient to kill him, and died rather from loss of blood than from one fatal blow” (Mrs. Leslie Milne, op. cit. pp. 191 sq.). Perhaps each executioner feared to be haunted by his victim’s ghost if he actually despatched him.
[119.3] Vincenzo Dorsa, La Tradizione greco-latina negli usi e nelle credenze popolari della Calabria Citeriore (Cosenza, 1884), p. 138.
[119.4] J. Liorel, Kabylie du Jurjura (Paris, N.D.), p. 441.
[120.1] Lieut.-Colonel J. Shakespear, “The Kuki-Lushai clans,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xxxix. (1909) p. 380; id., The Lushei Kuki Clans (London, 1912), pp. 78 sq.
[120.2] J. H. West Sheane, “Wemba Warpaths,” Journal of the African Society, No. 41 (October, 1911), pp. 31 sq.
[120.3] Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 165 sqq.
[120.4] Rev. E. Casalis, The Basutos (London, 1861), p. 258.
[121.1] Father Porte, “Les Réminiscences d’un missionnaire du Basutoland,” Les Missions catholiques, xxviii. (1896) p. 371.
[122.1] Psanyi is half-digested grass found in the stomachs of sacrificed goats (H. A. Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe, ii. 569).
[122.2] Henri A. Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe (Neuchâtel, 1912-1913), i. 453-455. I have omitted some of the Thonga words which Mr. Junod inserts in the text.
[123.1] N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De Bare’e-sprekende Toradja’s van Midden-Celebes, i. (Batavia, 1912) p. 239.
[123.2] Sir H. Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902), ii. 743 sq.; C. W. Hobley, Eastern Uganda (London, 1902), p. 20.
[123.3] Extract from a type-written account of the tribes of Mount Elgon, by the Hon. Kenneth R. Dundas, which the author kindly sent to me.
[123.4] Sir H. Johnston, op. cit. ii. 794; C. W. Hobley, op. cit. p. 31.
[123.5] Pausanias, viii. 34. 3; compare Strabo, xii. 2. 3, p. 535.
[124.1] E. Torday and T. A. Joyce, “Notes on the Ethnography of the Ba-Yaka,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxvi. (1906) pp. 50 sq.
[124.2] J. G. Frazer, “Folk-lore in the Old Testament,” in Anthropological Essays presented to E. B. Tylor (Oxford, 1907), p. 108.
[124.3] “Relation des Natchez,” Recueil de Voyages au Nord, ix. 24 (Amsterdam, 1737); Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, Nouvelle Édition, vii. (Paris, 1781) p. 26; Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France (Paris, 1744), vi. 186 sq.
[125.1] Ch. Keysser, “Aus dem Leben der Kaileute,” in R. Neuhauss’s Deutsch Neu-Guinea (Berlin, 1911), iii. 147 sq.
[125.2] Ch. Keysser, op. cit. p. 132.
[126.1] R. E. Guise, “On the Tribes inhabiting the mouth of the Wanigela River, New Guinea,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxviii. (1899) pp. 213 sq.
[126.2] Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1884), p. 369.
[127.1] Franz Boas, Chinook Texts (Washington, 1894), p. 258.
[128.1] K. Vetter, “Über papuanische Rechtsverhältnisse, wie solche namentlich bei den Jabim beobachtet wurden,” Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck-Archipel, 1897, p. 99; B. Hagen, Unter den Papuas (Wiesbaden, 1899), p. 254.
[128.2] Rev. J. H. Weeks, Among Congo Cannibals (London, 1913), p. 268; compare id., “Anthropological Notes on the Bangala of the Upper Congo River,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xl. (1910) p. 373.
[129.1] C. W. Hobley, “Kikuyu Customs and Beliefs,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Intitute, xl. (1910) pp. 438 sq. As to the sanctity of the fig-tree (mugumu) among the Akikuyu, see Mervyn W. H. Beech, “The sacred fig-tree of the A-kikuyu of East Africa,” Man, xiii. (1913) pp. 4-6. Mr. Beech traces the reverence for the tree to the white milky sap which exudes from it when an incision is made in the bark. This appears to have suggested to the savages the idea that the tree is a great source of fertility to men and women, to cattle, sheep, and goats.
[129.2] N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De Bare’e-sprekende Toradja’s van Midden-Celebes, i. (Batavia, 1912) pp. 285, 290 sq. In recent years the wars between the tribes have been suppressed by the Dutch Government.
[130.1] Compare The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, i. (London, 1913) pp. 136 sq., 278 sq., 468 sq.
[130.2] Rev. E. B. Cross, “On the Karens,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, iv. No. 2 (New York, 1854), pp. 312 sq.
[130.3] Bringaud, “Les Karins de la Birmanie,” Les Missions catholiques, xx. (1888) p. 208.
[131.1] W. H. Keating, Narrative of an Expedition to the Sources of St. Peter’s River (London, 1825), i. 109, quoting Mr. Barron.
[131.2] Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France (Paris, 1744), vi. 77, 122 sq.; J. F. Lafitau, Mœurs des sauvages amériquains (Paris, 1724), ii. 279.
[131.3] H. von Rosenberg, Der malayische Archipel (Leipsic, 1878), p. 461. Compare J. L. van Hasselt, “Die Papuastämme an der Geelvinkbai (Neuguinea),” Mitteilungen der geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena, ix. (1891) p. 101.
[131.4] K. Vetter, “Über papuanische Rechtsverhältnisse,” in Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck-Archipel (1897), p. 94; B. Hagen, Unter den Papuas (Wiesbaden, 1899), p. 266.
[131.5] Stefan Lehner, “Bukaua,” in R. Neuhauss’s Deutsch Neu-Guinea (Berlin, 1911), iii. 444.
[131.6] George Brown, D.D., Melanesians and Polynesians (London, 1910), pp. 142, 145.
[132.1] John Jackson, in J. E. Erskine’s Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific (London, 1853), p. 477.
[132.2] C. Wiese, “Beiträge zur Geschichte der Zulu im Norden des Zambesi,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xxxii. (1900) pp. 197 sq.
[132.3] Rev. Samuel Mateer, The Land of Charity, a Descriptive Account of Travancore and its People (London, 1871), pp. 203 sq.
[132.4] E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1899) p. 423.
[133.1] Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, “A Study of Siouan Cults,” Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1894), p. 420.
[133.2] Dr. P. H. Brincker, “Character, Sitten, und Gebräuche speciell der Bantu Deutsch-Südwestafrikas,” Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalischen Sprachen zu Berlin, iii. dritte Abteilung (1900), pp. 89 sq.
[133.3] Rev. R. H. Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa (London, 1904), p. 220; M. Abeghian, Der armenische Volksglaube (Leipsic, 1899), p. 11.
[133.4] H. A. Rose, “Hindu Birth Observances in the Punjab,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xxxvii. (1907) pp. 225 sq.
[133.5] G. F. D’ Penha, “Superstitions and Customs in Salsette,” The Indian Antiquary, xxviii. (1899) p. 115.
[133.6] Census of India, 1911, vol. xiv. Punjab, Part I. (Lahore, 1912) p. 303. As to these perturbed and perturbing spirits in India, see further W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), i. 269-274. They are called churel.
[134.1] E. M. Gordon, Indian Folk Tales (London, 1908), p. 47.
[134.2] Rev. P. Dehon, S.J., “Religion and Customs of the Uraons,” Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. i. No. 9 (Calcutta, 1906), pp. 139 sq.
[134.3] Lieut.-Colonel H. W. G. Cole, “The Lushais,” in Census of India, 1911, vol. iii. Assam, Part I. (Shillong, 1912) p. 140.
[135.1] Mrs. Leslie Milne, Shans at Home (London, 1910), p. 96. The custom of carrying the dead out of the house by a special opening, which is then blocked up to prevent the return of the ghost, has been observed by many peoples in many parts of the world. For examples see The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, i. 452 sqq.
[136.1] Ch. Gilhodes, “Naissance et Enfance chez les Katchins (Birmanie),” Anthropos, vi. (1911) pp. 872 sq.
[136.2] Van Schmidt, “Aanteekeningen nopens de zeden, etc., der bevolking van de eilanden Saparoea, etc.,” Tijdschrift voor Neêrlands Indie, v. Tweede Deel (Batavia, 1843), pp. 528 sqq.; G. Heijmering, “Zeden en gewoonten op het eiland Timor,” Tijdschrift voor Neerlands Indië, vii. Negende Aflevering (Batavia, 1845), pp. 278 sq., note; B. F. Matthes, Bijdragen tot de Ethnologie van Zuid-Celebes (The Hague, 1875), p. 97; W. E. Maxwell, “Folk-lore of the Malays,” Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 7 (June 1881), p. 28; W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic (London, 1900), p. 325; J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua (The Hague, 1886), p. 81; B. C. A. J. van Dinter, “Eenige geographische en ethnographische aanteekeningen betreffende het eiland Siaoe,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xli. (1899) p. 381; A. C. Kruijt, “Eenige ethnografische aanteekeningen omtrent de Toboengkoe en de Tomori,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xliv. (Rotterdam, 1900) p. 218; id., Het Animisme in den Indischen Archipel (The Hague, 1906), p. 252; G. A. Wilken, Handleiding voor de vergelijkende Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië (Leyden, 1893), p. 559; J. H. Meerwaldt, “Gebruiken der Bataks in het maatschappelijk leven,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelineggnootschap, xlix. (1905) p. 113. The common name for these dreaded ghosts is pontianak. For a full account of them see A. C. Kruijt, Het Animisme in den Indischen Archipel, pp. 245 sqq.
[137.1] J. Perham, “Sea Dyak Religion,” Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 14 (Singapore, 1885), pp. 291 sq.
[137.2] W. W. Skeat and C. O. Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula (London, 1906), ii. 109.
[137.3] T. de Pauly, Description ethnographique des peuples de la Russie (St. Petersburg, 1862), Peuples ouralo-altaïques, p. 71.
[137.4] A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia (London, 1904), p. 474.
[137.5] A. W. Howitt, op. cit. p. 473.
[137.6] H. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben (Berlin, 1879), p. 402.
[138.1] Rev. Father Julius Jetté, “On the Superstitions of the Ten’a Indians,” Anthropos, vi. (1911) p. 707.
[138.2] T. de Pauly, Description ethnographique des peuples de la Russie (St. Petersburg, 1862), Peuples ouralo-altaïques, p. 71.
[138.3] (Sir) H. H. Risley, The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Ethnographic Glossary, ii. (Calcutta, 1891) pp. 75 sq. Compare E. T. Atkinson, The Himalayan Districts of the North-Western Provinces of India, ii. (Allahabad, 1884) p. 832; W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), ii. 57.
[139.1] Rev. G. Whitehead, “Notes on the Chins of Burma,” Indian Antiquary, xxxvi. (1907) pp. 214 sq.
[139.2] Relations des Jésuites, 1639, p. 44 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858).
[140.1] Rev. Peter Jones, History of the Ojebway Indians (London, N.D.), pp. 99 sq.
[141.1] “Sitten und Gebräuche der Lengua-Indianer, nach Missionsberichten von G. Kurze,” Mitteilungen der geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena, xxiii. (1905) pp. 17 sq., 19 sq., 21 sq. The Cross River natives of Southern Nigeria, like the Lengua Indians, cut off the diseased members of a corpse, in the belief that if they did not do so the person would suffer from the same disease at his next reincarnation. See Charles Partridge, Cross River Natives (London, 1905), pp. 238 sq.
[142.1] Charles A. Sherring, Western Tibet and the British Borderland (London, 1906), pp. 127-132.
[142.2] Lieutenant Herold, “Bericht betreffend religiöse Anschauungen und Gebräuche der deutschen Ewe-Neger,” Mitteilungen von Forschungsreisenden und Gelehrten aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten, v. Heft 4 (Berlin, 1892), p. 155; H. Klose, Togo unter deutscher Flagge (Berlin, 1899), p. 274.
[143.1] Franz Boas, in Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 92 (Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Leeds, 1890, separate reprint).
[143.2] Franz Boas, in Tenth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 45 (Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Ipswich, 1895, separate reprint).
[144.1] Franz Boas, in Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, pp. 23 sq. (Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Leeds, 1890, separate reprint).
[144.2] Franz Boas, in Seventh Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 13 (Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Cardiff, 1891, separate reprint).
[145.1] James Teit, “The Thompson Indians of British Columbia,” pp. 332 sq. (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, April, 1900).
[146.1] James Teit, “The Lillooet Indians” (Leyden and New York, 1906), p. 271 (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History).
[147.1] Franz Boas, in Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, pp. 43 sq. (Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1889, separate reprint).
[148.1] Father Guis (de la Congrégation du Sacré-Cœur d’Issoudun, Missionnaire en Nouvelle-Guinée), “Les Canaques, mort-deuil,” Les Missions catholiques, xxxiv. (Lyons, 1902) pp. 208 sq.
[149.1] Elsewhere I have illustrated the fear of the dead as it is displayed in funeral customs (“On certain Burial Customs as illustrative of the Primitive Theory of the Soul,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xv. (1886) pp. 64 sqq.).
[150.1] J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, iv. (Leyden, 1901) pp. 436 sqq., especially pp. 450, 464.
[150.2] J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, iv. 450 sq.
[151.1] J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, iv. 457-460.
[151.2] The Greek orator Antiphon observes that the presence of a homicide pollutes the whole city and brings the curse of barrenness on the land (Antiphon, ed. F. Blass, Leipsic, 1871, pp. 13, 15, 30). See further L. R. Farnell, The Evolution of Religion (London, 1905), pp. 139 sqq.