The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume 2 (of 3) / The Belief Among the Polynesians

by James George Frazer

WORKS BY SIR J. G. FRAZER

THE
BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY
AND THE
WORSHIP OF THE DEAD
Vol. I.

THE BELIEF AMONG THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA, THE TORRES STRAITS ISLANDS, NEW GUINEA, AND MELANESIA.
THE GIFFORD LECTURES, ST. ANDREWS, 1911-1912.

8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

Mr. Edward Clodd in the DAILY CHRONICLE.—"'If a man die, shall he live again?' is a question asked chiliads before Job put it, and the generations of mankind repeat it. In this profoundly interesting volume, Professor Frazer, out of the treasury of his knowledge, and with consummate art of attractive presentment, gives the answers devised by the Lower Races."

FOLK-LORE.—"It displays all the best qualities, both in respect of style and matter, that characterise Dr. Frazer's former works."

NEW STATESMAN.—"Dr. Frazer does not profess to explain the ultimate source of religion, but only to attempt to follow the steps of its growth among the races of men. It is his aim to set before us a continent of facts known, or partly known, to the anthropologists, not a solution of the mystery of the Universe. That aim he has achieved with masterly success and lucidity."

Mr. A. E. Crawley in NATURE.—"The analysis of belief and practice among the aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits, New Guinea, and Melanesia, which occupies nearly 400 pages of this volume, is a masterly performance."

GUARDIAN.—"The bare facts which Dr. Frazer sets before us are of an absorbing interest.... The Biblical student may gain much from the perusal of Dr. Frazer's work."

OBSERVER.—"The importance of the work which Dr. Frazer has undertaken cannot be overrated. His study of religion is a contribution to human knowledge of such quality that the country to which he belongs may well be proud of him.... Dr. Frazer has arranged the mass of detail from which he has had to draw with a skill and judgment which in the work of another man would be surprising; and he tells each story with the point and clarity of an artist, so that, apart from the book's high mission, it could be read as a storehouse of good tales. His comments, moreover, are always brief and decisive."

THE GOLDEN BOUGH
A STUDY IN MAGIC AND RELIGION

Third Edition, revised and enlarged. 8vo.

Part I. The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings. Two volumes. 25s. net.
II. Taboo and the Perils of the Soul. One volume. 12s. 6d. net.
III. The Dying God. One volume. 12s. 6d. net.
IV. Adonis, Attis, Osiris. Two volumes. 25s. net.
V. Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild. Two volumes. 25s. net.
VI. The Scapegoat. One volume, 12s. 6d. net.
VII. Balder the Beautiful: The Fire-festivals of Europe And the Doctrine of the External Soul. Two volumes. 25s. net.
Vol. XII. Bibliography and General Index. 25s. net.

TIMES.—"The book is a great book, in just the sense in which the work of Darwin, Zola, or Balzac is great. It has explored and mapped out a new world. But it combines artistry with science. Not only does it describe the greater part of the magical and religious beliefs and practices of the lower races and peasant peoples of the world, with a scientific precision and completeness superior to those of the encyclopædic biologist; it also narrates, with greater truth and vividness than has ever been essayed, the tragi-comedy of human superstition."

Mr. A. E. Crawley in NATURE.—"This new edition is something more than a mere enlargement. It is a new book, or a series of books; yet it is the same 'Golden Bough.' The reader will find it full of good things, new and old. He will also realise that 'The Golden Bough' is a great book, one of the great books of our time."

THE GOLDEN BOUGH: A Study in Magic and Religion.
Abridged Edition. With Frontispiece. 8vo. 18s. net.

This abridgment has been prepared in response to numerous requests that the work should be issued in a more compendious form. While the book has been greatly reduced in bulk, by omission of all the notes and occasional condensation in the text, all the main principles of the complete work are retained, together with a sufficient amount of evidence to illustrate them clearly. Nothing has been added, and no change has been made in the author's views. It is hoped that in this abridged form the book may prove welcome to students and general readers who cannot afford to buy and read the complete edition.

FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend, and Law.
Three vols. 8vo. 37s. 6d. net.

TIMES.—"The idea of illustrating the Old Testament by analogies drawn from the myths, customs, and superstitions of various primitive peoples is not, of course, a new one ... but no one has hitherto published anything to be compared with the vast and varied store of information which Sir James Frazer now places before us.... His book is a mine of instructive facts for which all future students of the subject will be grateful."

NATURE.—"These three volumes should be the household companion of every religious teacher, nay, of every one who cares or dares to see what that latest daughter of science, folk-lore, has to say about the cherished beliefs from the Old Testament, absorbed in infancy, and rarely visualised differently in later life."

SPECTATOR.—"We may say at once that Sir James Frazer's new work is profoundly interesting, and that it throws a flood of light on many familiar episodes and references."

TOTEMISM AND EXOGAMY. A Treatise on Certain Early Forms of Superstition and Society. With Maps.
Four vols. 8vo. 50s. net.

Mr. A. E. Crawley in NATURE.—"That portion of the book which is concerned with totemism (if we may express our own belief at the risk of offending Prof. Frazer's characteristic modesty) is actually 'The Complete History of Totemism, its Practice and its Theory, its Origin and its End.'... Nearly two thousand pages are occupied with an ethnographical survey of totemism, an invaluable compilation. The maps, including that of the distribution of totemic peoples, are a new and useful feature."

THE MAGICAL ORIGIN OF KINGS. (Formerly published as "Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship.")
8vo. 10s. 6d. net.

ATHENÆUM.—"It is the effect of a good book not only to teach, but also to stimulate and to suggest, and we think this the best and highest quality, and one that will recommend these lectures to all intelligent readers, as well as to the learned."

PSYCHE'S TASK. A Discourse concerning the Influence of Superstition on the Growth of Institutions.
Second Edition, revised and enlarged. To which is added "The Scope of Social Anthropology."
8vo. 6s. 6d. net.

OUTLOOK.—"Whether we disagree or agree with Dr. Frazer's general conclusions, he has provided us with a veritable storehouse of correlated facts, for which, and for the learning that has gone to their collection, and for the intellectual brilliance that has gone to their arrangement, we can never be sufficiently grateful."

PAUSANIAS'S DESCRIPTION OF GREECE. Translated with a Commentary, Illustrations, and Maps.
Second Edition. Six vols. 8vo. 126s. net.

ATHENÆUM.—"All these writings in many languages Mr. Eraser has read and digested with extraordinary care, so that his book will be for years the book of reference on such matters, not only in England, but in France and Germany. It is a perfect thesaurus of Greek topography, archæology, and art."

STUDIES IN GREEK SCENERY, LEGEND AND HISTORY. Selected from Sir J. G. Frazer's Commentary on Pausanias.
Globe 8vo. 5s. net.

GUARDIAN.—"Here we have material which every one who has visited Greece, or purposes to visit it, most certainly should read and enjoy.... We cannot imagine a more excellent book for the educated visitor to Greece."

SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY, AND OTHER LITERARY PIECES.
Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. net.

DAILY TELEGRAPH.—"These various studies, biographical, fantastic, and romantic, are the fine flower of scholarship and taste, touched continually by the golden light of imagination, and full of that interpretative sympathy which is half-sister to creation."

LETTERS OF WILLIAM COWPER. Chosen and Edited, with a Memoir and a few Notes, by Sir J. G. Frazer.
Two vols. Globe 8vo. l0s. net.

[Eversley Series.

Mr. Clement Shorter in the DAILY CHRONICLE.—"The introductory Memoir, of some eighty pages in length, is a valuable addition to the many appraisements of Cowper that these later years have seen.... Dr. Frazer has given us two volumes that are an unqualified joy."

ESSAYS OF JOSEPH ADDISON. Chosen and Edited, with a Preface and a few Notes, by Sir J. G. Frazer.
Two vols. Globe 8vo. 10s. net.

[Eversley Series.

NATION.—"Sir James Frazer, who writes a Preface, quite in the Addison manner, has done his work of selection as only a scholar of his breadth and distinction could achieve."