CHAPTER VI—Magicians as Kings
[1193] The government of the western islanders of Torres Straits is similar. See A. C. Haddon, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. 263 sq. So, too, the Bantoc Igorot of the Philippines have no chiefs and are ruled by councils of old men. See A. E. Jenks, The Bantoc Igorot (Manila; 1905), pp. 32 sq., 167 sq.
[1194] Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 9–15, 154, 159–205; id., Northern Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 20–27, 285–297, 309 sq., 316; A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, pp. 320–326.
[1195] A. W. Howitt, op. cit. p. 303.
[1196] A. W. Howitt, op. cit. p. 313.
[1197] A. W. Howitt, op. cit. p. 314.
[1198] A. W. Howitt, op. cit. pp. 297–299. For more examples of headmen who are also magicians see ib. pp. 301 sq., 302, 317.
[1199] Scott Nind, “Description of the Natives of King George’s Sound (Swan River Colony),” Journal of the R. Geographical Society, i. (1832) p. 41.
[1200] Sir W. MacGregor, British New Guinea (London, 1897), p. 41.
[1201] Le R. P. Guis, “Les Papous,” Les Missions Catholiques, xxxvi. (1904) p. 334.
[1202] J. Chalmers, “Toaripi,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxvii. (1898) p. 334.
[1203] E. Beardmore, “The Natives of Mowat Daudai, New Guinea,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xix. (1890) p. 464.
[1204] C. G. Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Guinea (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 455 sq.
[1205] M. Krieger, Neu-Guinea (Berlin, n.d.), p. 334.
[1206] R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), p. 46.
[1207] R. H. Codrington, op. cit. p. 52. As to the mana or supernatural power of chiefs and others, see ibid. pp. 118 sqq.; above, pp. [227] sq. I have pointed out (p. [111], note 2) that this supernatural power supplies, as it were, the physical basis of magic.
[1208] Father A. Deniau, “Croyances religieuses et mœurs des indigènes de l’île Malo (Nouvelles-Hébrides),” Les Missions Catholiques, xxxiii. (1901) p. 347.
[1209] R. H. Codrington, op. cit. p. 56.
[1210] C. Ribbe, Zwei Jahren unter den Kannibalen der Salomo-Inseln (Dresden-Blasewitz, 1903), pp. 173 sq.
[1211] C. G. Seligmann, The Melanesians of New Guinea (Cambridge, 1910), p. 702.
[1212] G. Brown, D.D., Melanesians and Polynesians (London, 1910), p. 270.
[1213] Rev. G. Brown, op. cit. p. 429.
[1214] G. Turner, Samoa, pp. 320–322.
[1216] O. Baumann, Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle (Berlin, 1894), pp. 187 sq.
[1217] O. Baumann, op. cit. p. 173.
[1218] H. Cole, “Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 321.
[1219] Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902), ii. 830.
[1220] O. Baumann, Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle, p. 164.
[1221] Baron C. C. von der Decken, Reisen in Ost-Afrika, ii. (Leipsic and Heidelberg, 1871) p. 24.
[1222] M. Merker, Die Masai (Berlin, 1904), pp. 18 sq. I have slightly abridged the writer’s account.
[1223] M. Merker, Die Masai, p. 21. As to the medicine-men of the Masai, see further A. C. Hollis, The Masai (Oxford, 1905), pp. 324–330.
[1224] O. Baumann, Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle, p. 164.
[1225] A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford, 1909), pp. 49 sq.
[1226] Sir H. Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate, ii. 851.
[1227] Sir H. Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate, ii. 779.
[1228] W. E. R. Cole, “African Rain-making Chiefs, the Gondokoro District, White Nile,” Man, x. (1910) pp. 90–92; Yuzbashi, “Tribes on the Upper Nile,” Journal of the African Society, No. 14 (January, 1905), pp. 228 sq.; Brun-Rollet, Le Nil Blanc et le Soudan (Paris, 1855), pp. 227 sq.; F. Spire, “Rain-making in Equatorial Africa,” Journal of the African Society, No. 17 (October, 1905), pp. 15–21.
[1229] Emin Pasha, quoted by Fr. Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 1894), pp. 778–780.
[1230] F. Spire, “Rain-making in Equatorial Africa,” Journal of the African Society, No. 17 (October, 1905), pp. 16–18, 21.
[1231] G. Schweinfurth, The Heart of Africa³ (London, 1878), i. 144 sq.
[1232] E. D. Pruyssenaere, “Reisen und Forschungen im Gebiete des Weissen und Blauen Nil,” Petermanns Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsheft, No. 50 (Gotha, 1877), pp. 27 sq.
[1233] Sir H. Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate, ii. 555.
[1234] G. Casati, Ten Years in Equatoria (London and New York, 1891), ii. 57, compare i. 134.
[1235] Ch. Wunenberger, “La Mission et le royaume de Humbé, sur les bords du Cunène,” Les Missions Catholiques, xx. (1888) p. 262.
[1236] E. Torday and T. A. Joyce, “Notes on the Ethnography of the Ba-Yaka,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxvi. (1906) pp. 48, 51.
[1237] E. Torday and T. A. Joyce, “On the Ethnology of the South-Western Congo Free State,” Journal of the R. Anthropological Institute, xxxvii. (1907) p. 140.
[1238] O. Lenz, Skizzen aus Westafrika (Berlin, 1878), p. 87.
[1239] A. Mansfeld, Urwald-Dokumente, Vier Jahre unter den Crossflussnegern Kameruns (Berlin, 1908), p. 161.
[1240] Ch. Partridge, Cross River Natives (London, 1905), pp. 201 sq. The care taken of the chief’s cut hair and nails is a precaution against the magical use that might be made of them by his enemies. See The Golden Bough, Second Edition, i. 375 sqq.
[1241] Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir (London, 1904), p. 114. “The chief collects to himself all medicines of known power; each doctor has his own special medicine or medicines, and treats some special form of disease, and the knowledge of such medicines is transmitted as a portion of the inheritance to the eldest son. When a chief hears that any doctor has proved successful in treating some case where others have failed, he calls him and demands the medicine, which is given up to him. Thus the chief becomes the great medicine-man of his tribe, and the ultimate reference is to him. If he fail, the case is given up as incurable” (H. Callaway, Religious System of the Amazulu, part iv. pp. 419 sq., note). The medicines here referred to are probably for the most part magical rather than medicinal in our sense of the term.
[1242] Dudley Kidd, op. cit. p. 115.
[1243] W. Grant, “Magato and his Tribe,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxv. (1905) p. 267.
[1244] L. Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa (London, 1898), p. 154.
[1245] R. Moffat, Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa (London, 1842), p. 306.
[1246] E. A. Maund, “Zambesia, the new British Possession in Central South Africa,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1890, p. 651.
[1247] Father C. Croonenberghs, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, liii. (1881) pp. 262 sq., 267 sq.
[1248] See above, pp. [344], 345, 346.
[1249] J. B. Labat, Relation historique de l’Éthiopie occidentale (Paris, 1732), ii. 172–176.
[1250] H. Hecquard, Reise an der Küste und in das Innere von West Afrika (Leipsic, 1854), p. 78.
[1251] A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste, i. 354, ii. 230.
[1252] J. Leighton Wilson, Western Africa (London, 1856), pp. 129 sq.; Miss Mary H. Kingsley, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxix. (1899) p. 62.
[1253] P. Kollmann, The Victoria Nyanza (London, 1899), p. 168.
[1254] Mgr Livinhac, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, lx. (1888) p. 110.
[1255] D’Unienville, Statistique de l’Ile Maurice (Paris, 1838) iii. 285 sq.
[1256] A. van Gennep, Tabou et Totémisme à Madagascar (Paris, 1904), p. 118, quoting Leguével de Lacombe, Voyage à Madagascar (Paris, 1840), i. 229 sq. Probably the Antimoirona are identical with the Antimores.
[1257] Emin Pasha, quoted by Fr. Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 1894), pp. 779 sq.
[1258] Schol. on Apollonius Rhodius, Argon. ii. 1248 καὶ Ἡρόδωρος ξένως περὶ τῶν δεσμῶν τοῦ Προμηθέως ταῦτα. εῖναι γὰρ αὐτὸν Σκυθῶν βασιλέα φησί· καί μὴ δυνάμενον παρέχειν τοῖς ὑπηκόοις τὰ ἐπιτήδεια, διὰ τὸν καλούμενον Ἀετὸν ποταμὸν ἐπικλύζειν τὰ πεδία, δεθῆναι ὑπὸ τῶν Σκυθῶν.
[1259] Ammianus Marcellinus, xxviii. 5. 14.
[1260] Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 73.
[1261] G. Turner, Samoa, pp. 304 sq.
[1262] A. Pfizmayer, “Nachrichten von den alten Bewohnern des heutigen Corea,” Sitzungsberichte der philos.-histor. Classe der kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften (Vienna), lvii. (1868) pp. 483 sq. It would seem that the Chinese reported similarly of the Roman emperors. See Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, pp. 41, 44, 52, 58, 70, 78.
[1263] N. B. Dennis, Folklore of China (London and Hongkong, 1876), p. 125. An account of the Peking Gazette, the official publication of the Chinese government, may be read in Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, Nouvelle Edition, xxi. 95–182.
[1264] Mgr Havard, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, vii. (1834) pp. 470–473.
[1265] Gio. Filippo de Marini, Historia et relatione del Tunchino et del Giappone (Rome, 1665), pp. 137 sq.; Relation nouvelle et curieuse des royaumes de Tunquin et de Lao, traduite de l’Italien du P. Mariny (sic) Romain (Paris, 1666), pp. 258 sq.
[1266] H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 146.
[1267] Geo. Catlin, Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians⁴ (London, 1844), i. 40 sq.
[1268] W. L. Hardisty, “The Loucheux Indians,” Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1866, pp. 312, 316.
[1269] Rev. J. Jetté, “On the Medicine-Men of the Ten’a,” Journal of the R. Anthropological Institute, xxxvii. (1907) p. 163. By the Ten’a the writer means the tribe which is variously known as the Tinneh, Déné, Dindjie, etc., according to the taste and fancy of the speller.
[1270] Roland B. Dixon, “The Northern Maidu,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. xvii. part iii. (New York, 1905) p. 267.
[1271] Roland B. Dixon, op. cit. pp. 328, 331.
[1272] S. Powers, Tribes of California (Washington, 1877), pp. 372 sq.
[1273] S. Power, op. cit. pp. 380 sq.
[1274] F. A. Thevet, Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique, autrement nommée Amérique (Antwerp, 1558), p. 65 [wrongly numbered 67].
[1275] C. F. Phil. v. Martius, Zur Ethnographie Amerikas, zumal Brasiliens (Leipsic, 1867), p. 76.
[1276] G. Kurze, “Sitten und Gebräuche der Lengua-Indianer,” Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena, xxiii. (Jena, 1905) pp. 19, 29.
[1277] Sir R. Schomburgk, Reisen in Britisch-Guiana, i. 169 sq., compare id. i. 423, ii. 431; (Sir) Everard F. im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana (London, 1883), pp. 211, 223 sq., 328, 333 sq., 339 sq.
[1278] W. W. Skeat and C. O. Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula (London, 1906), ii. 196 sq.
[1279] W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic (London, 1900), p. 36.
[1280] G. Maan, “Enige mededeelingen omtrent de zeden en gewoonten der Toerateya ten opzichte van de rijstbouw,” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xlvi. (1903) p. 339. The name Toorateya or “inlander” is only another form of Toradja.
[1281] H. Low, Sarawak (London, 1848), pp. 259 sq.
[1282] W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 59.
[1283] T. J. Newbold, Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, ii. 193; W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, pp. 23–29.
[1284] G. J. Harrebomée, “Een ornamentenfeest van Gantarang (Zuid-Celebes),” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xix. (1875) pp. 344–351; G. K. Niemann, “De Boegineezen en Makassaren,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, xxxviii. (1889) pp. 270 sq.; D. F. van Braam Morris, in Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xxxiv. (1891) pp. 215 sq.; A. C. Kruijt, “Van Paloppo naar Posso,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xlii. (1898) pp. 18, 25 sq.; L. W. C. van den Berg, “De Mohammedaansche Vorsten in Nederlandsch-Indië,” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, liii. (1901) pp. 72–80.
[1285] A. Moret, Le Rituel du culte divin journalier en Égypte (Paris 1902) pp. 94 sq.
[1286] Sir William MacGregor, “Lagos, Abeokuta, and the Alake,” Journal of the African Society, No. 12 (July, 1904), p. 472.
[1287] E. Perregaux, Chez les Achanti (Neuchatel, 1906), p. 140.
[1288] J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stämme (Berlin, 1906), pp. 76, 78, compare pp. 101 sq.
[1289] A. Bastian, Völkerstämme am Brahmaputra (Berlin, 1883), p. xi.
[1290] Herodotus, iv. 5–7. Compare K. Neumann, Die Hellenen im Skythenlande, i. (Berlin, 1855) pp. 269 sq.
[1291] Pausanias, ix. 40. 11 sq.
[1292] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, ed. R. Wagner, p. 185. On public talismans in antiquity see Ch. A. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, pp. 278 sqq.; and my note on Pausanias, viii. 40. 11.
[1293] The Laws of Manu, ix. 246 sq., translated by G. Bühler, p. 385 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxv.).
[1294] Homer, Odyssey, ii. 409, iv. 43, 691, vii. 167, viii. 2, xviii. 405; Iliad, ii. 335, xvii. 464, etc.
[1295] Homer, Odyssey, xix. 109–114. The passage was pointed out to me by my friend Prof. W. Ridgeway. Naturally this view was not shared by the enlightened Greeks of a later age. See Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, 31 sqq.; Polybius, Hist. vi. 6 sq.
[1296] Nicolaus Damascenus, bk. vi. frag. 49, in Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum, ed. C. Müller, iii. 381, Ἡν γὰρ δὴ κακίστος, καί ἄλλως βασιλεύοντος αὐτοῦ ηὔχμησεν ἡ γῆ.
[1297] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, iii. 5. 1.
[1298] Ammianus Marcellinus, xxviii. 5. 14.
[1299] Snorro Starleson, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway (trans. by S. Laing), saga i. chs. 18, 47. Compare F. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde (Heilbronn, 1879), p. 7; J. Scheffer, Upsalia (Upsala, 1666), p. 137. In 1814 a pestilence broke out among the Chukchees of north-eastern Siberia, which carried off many of the people and spread its ravages among the herds of reindeer. The shamans declared that the spirits were angry and would not stay the plague till the virtuous Kotchène, one of the most venerated chiefs, had been offered to them in sacrifice. No one was found hardy enough to raise a sacrilegious hand against him, and the shamans had to force the chief’s own son to cut his father’s throat. See De Wrangell, Le Nord de la Sibérie (Paris, 1843), i. 265–267.
[1300] Saxo Grammaticus, Historia Danica, bk. xiv. p. 779, ed. P. E. Müller.
[1301] P. W. Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland (London, 1903), i. 56 sq.; J. O’Donovan, The Book of Rights (Dublin, 1847), p. 8, note. Compare Bérenger-Féraud, Superstitions et survivances, i. 492.
[1302] S. Johnson, Journey to the Western Islands (Baltimore, 1815), p. 115.
[1303] J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow, 1900), p. 5. As to the banner see also Th. Pennant, “Second Tour in Scotland,” in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, iii. 321 sq.
[1304] J. G. Dalyell, The Darker Superstitions of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 62 sqq.
[1305] Memoirs of John Evelyn, Esq., New Edition (London, 1827), ii. 151 sq., under July 6th, 1660. Angel gold were gold coins with the figure of an angel stamped on them. As to Charles’s triumphal entrance into London, see Evelyn, op. cit. ii. 148 sq.
[1306] Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq., edited by Lord Braybrook, Second Edition (London, 1828), i. 187, compare ib. p. 110, iii. 192.
[1307] T. B. Macaulay, History of England, chap. xiv. vol. iii. pp. 478–481 (First Edition, London, 1855).
[1308] J. Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, Ninth Edition (London, 1822), i. 18 sq.
[1309] T. J. Pettigrew, Superstitions connected with the History and Practice of Medicine and Surgery (London, 1844), pp. 117–154; W. G. Black, Folk-Medicine (London, 1883), pp. 140 sqq.; W. E. H. Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1892), i. 84–90. Down to the end of the eighteenth century it was believed in the Highlands of Scotland that some tribes of Macdonalds had the power of curing a certain disease by their touch and the use of a particular set of words. Hence the disease, which attacked the chest and lungs, was called “the Macdonald’s disease.” We are told that the faith of the people in the touch of a Macdonald was very great. See Rev. Dr. Th. Bisset, “Parish of Logierait,” in Sir John Sinclair’s Statistical Account of Scotland, iii. (Edinburgh, 1792) p. 84.
[1310] Baron Roger, “Notice sur le gouvernement, les mœurs et les superstitions du pays de Walo,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), viii. (1827) p. 351.
[1311] W. Mariner, An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, Second Edition (London, 1818), i. 434, note.
[1312] To this subject we shall recur later on. Meantime I may refer the reader to The Golden Bough, Second Edition, i. 319 sqq., 343; Psyche’s Task, pp. 5 sqq.
[1313] A Roman name for jaundice was “the royal disease” (morbus regius). See Horace, Ars poetica, 453; Celsus, De medicina, iii. 24. Can this have been because the malady was believed to be caused and cured by kings? Did the sight or touch of the king’s red or purple robe ban the yellow tinge from the skin of the sufferer? As to such homoeopathic cures of jaundice, see above, pp. [79] sqq.
[1314] Proyart’s “History of Loango, Kakongo, and other Kingdoms in Africa,” in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, xvi. 573.