[11] Dall, Alaska, p. 89.
[12] Teit, ‘Thompson Indians of British Columbia,’ in Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, ‘Anthropology,’ i. 346.
[13] Sagard, Le grand voyage du pays des Hurons, p. 255.
[14] Frazer, op. cit. ii. 415 sqq.
Besides the creatures which primitive man treats with respect because he dreads their strength and ferocity or on account of the benefits he expects from them, there is yet a third class of animate beings which he sometimes deems it necessary to conciliate, namely, vermin that infest the crops.[15] Among the Saxons of Transylvania, in order to keep sparrows from the corn, the sower begins by throwing the first handful of seed backwards over his head, saying, “That is for you, sparrows.”[16] And of the Drâvidian tribes of Mirzapur we are told that, when locusts threaten to eat up the fruits of the earth, the people catch one, decorate its head with a spot of red lead, salaam to it, and let it go; after which civilities the whole flight immediately departs.[17]
[15] Ibid. ii. 422 sqq.
[16] Heinrich, quoted ibid. ii. 423.
[17] Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India, ii. 303.
Domestic animals are frequently objects of superstitious reverence.[18] They are expected to reward masters who treat them well, whereas those who harm them are believed to expose themselves to their revenge. Among the Eskimo about Behring Strait dogs are never beaten for biting people, lest the inua or shade of the dog should become angry and prevent the wound from healing.[19] Butchers are often regarded as unclean, and the original reason for this was in all probability the idea that they were haunted by the spirits of the animals they had slain. Among the Guanches of the Canary Islands it was unlawful for anybody but professional butchers to kill cattle, and a butcher was forbidden to enter other persons’ houses, to touch their property, and to keep company with any one not of his own trade.[20] In Morocco a butcher, like a manslayer, is thought to be haunted by jnûn (jinn), and it seems that in this case also the notion of haunting jnûn has replaced an earlier belief in troublesome ghosts.[21] So, too, the ancient Troglodytes of East Africa, who derived their whole sustenance from their flocks and herds, are said to have looked upon butchers as unclean.[22] In the rural districts of Japan it is believed that a butcher will have a cripple among his descendants.[23]
[18] See Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 296 sqq.