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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 01:46:16 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 01:46:16 -0700 |
| commit | 73c6fcddcd6b99857be4c0be157b914a76d73dd7 (patch) | |
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diff --git a/21852-h/21852-h.htm b/21852-h/21852-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..587e6d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/21852-h/21852-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,15896 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Folklore as an Historical Science, by George Laurence Gomme. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + a {text-decoration: none;} + + img {border: none;} + + ins.correction {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + /* replace default underline with delicate gray line */ + + ins.greek {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: thin dotted red;} + /* replace default underline with delicate red line */ + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; padding: 1em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .lowercase {text-transform: lowercase;} + + .dropcap {float: left; padding-right: 3px; font-size: 350%; line-height: 83%;} + /* Plain dropcaps */ + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 85%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: .2em; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i0bq {display: block; margin-left: -2.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + .tdl {text-align: left; vertical-align: top;} /* left align cell */ + .tdr {text-align: right; vertical-align: top;} /* right align cell */ + .tdlsc {text-align: left; vertical-align: top; font-variant: small-caps;} /* left align cell small caps font */ + .tdlscp {text-align: left; vertical-align: top; font-variant: small-caps; padding-left: 1em;} /* left align cell small caps font with padding */ + .tdrp {text-align: right; vertical-align: top; padding-right: 3em;} /* right align cell with padding */ + .tdc {text-align: center; vertical-align: top;} /* center text in cell */ + + .padding {padding-bottom: 2em; padding-top: 2em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Folklore as an Historical Science, by +George Laurence Gomme + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Folklore as an Historical Science + +Author: George Laurence Gomme + +Release Date: June 18, 2007 [EBook #21852] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLKLORE AS AN HISTORICAL SCIENCE *** + + + + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Sam W. and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>FOLKLORE AS AN<br /> +HISTORICAL SCIENCE</h1> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h4>BY</h4> +<h2>GEORGE LAURENCE GOMME</h2> + +<p class="padding"> </p> + +<h4>WITH TWENTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS</h4> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<h3>METHUEN & CO.<br /> +36 ESSEX STREET W.C.<br /> +LONDON</h3> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>First Published in 1908</i></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p><a name="Illus01" id="Illus01"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 272px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_01.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_01th.jpg" width="272" height="400" +alt="Pedlar''s Seat, Swaffham Church, Norfolk." +title=""PEDLAR'S SEAT," SWAFFHAM CHURCH" /></a> +<span class="caption">"PEDLAR'S SEAT," SWAFFHAM CHURCH</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><span class="smcap lowercase">CHAPTER</span></td> + <td class="tdlsc"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">I.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">History and Folklore</td> + <td class="tdr"><i>pages</i> <a href="#Page_1">1-122</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Introductory</td> + <td class="tdrp"><i>pages</i> <a href="#Page_1">1‑13</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">History and Local and Personal Traditions</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_13">13-46</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">History and Folk-tales</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_46">46-84</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Traditional Law</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_84">84-100</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Mythology and Tradition</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_100">100-110</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Historians and Tradition</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_110">110-120</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp"> </td> + <td class="tdrp"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">II.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">Materials and Methods</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_123">123-179</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Traditional Material</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_123">123-129</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Myth, Folk-tale, and Legend</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_129">129-153</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Custom, Belief, and Rite</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_154">154-179</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp"> </td> + <td class="tdrp"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">III.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">Psychological Conditions</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_180">180-207</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp"> </td> + <td class="tdrp"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">IV.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">Anthropological Conditions</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_208">208-302</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Primitive Influences</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_211">211-238</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Earliest Types of Social Existence</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_238">238-261</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Australian Totem Society tested by the Evidence</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_262">262-274</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Totem Survivals in Britain</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_274">274-296</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp">Synopsis of Culture-structure of Semangs of Malay Peninsula</td> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#Page_297">297-302</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp"> </td> + <td class="tdrp"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">V.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">Sociological Conditions</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_303">303-319</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp"> </td> + <td class="tdrp"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">VI.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">European Conditions</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_320">320-337</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp"> </td> + <td class="tdrp"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">VII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">Ethnological Conditions</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_338">338-366</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlscp"> </td> + <td class="tdrp"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlsc">Index</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_367">367-371</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="List of Illustrations"> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdr"><span class="smcap lowercase">PAGE</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">Pedlar's Seat, Swaffham Church, Norfolk</td> + <td class="tdr"><i><a href="#Illus01">Frontispiece</a></i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">Carved Wooden Figure of the Pedlar in Swaffham Church</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus02">8</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">Carved Wooden Figure of the Pedlar's Dog in Swaffham Church</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus03">8</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">Nos. 1-3 are taken from photographs, and show how the +story of the Pedlar of Swaffham has been interpreted in +carving. The costume of the Pedlar is noticeable.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Pedlar of Lambeth and his Dog, +figured in the window (now destroyed) of Lambeth Church</span> (from +Allen's <i>History of Lambeth</i>)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus04">20</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Pedlar of Lambeth and his Dog as +drawn in 1786 for Ducarel's</span> <i>History of Lambeth</i></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus05">22</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">Nos. 4 and 5 illustrate the +traces of the Pedlar legend in Lambeth, and the costume of the Pedlar, though +later than that shown in the Swaffham carving, exhibits analogous features +which are of interest to the argument.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Plan of the Site of the "Heaven's Walls" +at Litlington, near Royston, Cambridgeshire</span> (reprinted from +<i>Archæologia</i>)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus06">43</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Sketch of Litlington Field</span> +(reprinted from <i>Archæologia</i>)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus07">44</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">Nos. 6 and 7 show the site +and general appearance of this interesting relic of the Roman occupation of +Britain.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">8.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Stone Monuments Erected as Memorials +in a Kasya Village</span> (reprinted from <i>Asiatic Researches</i>)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus08">55</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">9.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Stone Seats at a Kasya Village</span> +(reprinted from <i>Asiatic Researches</i>)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus09">55</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>10.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">View in the Kasya Hills, showing Stone Memorials</span> +(reprinted from <i>Asiatic Researches</i>)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus10">56</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">No. 8 shows the practice +among the primitive hill-tribes of India of erecting memorials in stone to +tribal heroes, and No. 9 is a curious illustration of the stones used as +seats by tribesmen at their tribal assemblies. No. 10 is a general view of +the site occupied by these stone monuments.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">11.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Auld Ca-knowe: Calling the +Burgess Roll at Hawick</span> (reprinted from Craig and Laing's <i>Hawick +Tradition</i>)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus11">98</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">12.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Hawick Moat at Sunrise</span> +(reprinted from Craig and Laing)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus12">99</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">The tribal gathering is +well illustrated by No. 11, and the moat hill is shown in No. 12.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">13.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">One of Five Stone Circles in the +Fields Opposite the Glebe of Nymphsfield</span> (reprinted from Sir William +Wilde's <i>Lough Corrib</i>)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus13">101</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">14.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Carn-an-Chluithe To Commemorate the +Defeat and Death of the Youths of the Dananns</span> (reprinted from Wilde)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus14">102</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">15.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Cairn of Ballymagibbon, near the +road passing from Cong To Cross</span> (reprinted from Wilde)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus15">102</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">Nos. 13-15 are selected +from Sir William Wilde's admirable account of the great conflict on the field +of Moytura. They serve to show that the fight was an historical event.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">16.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">Altar dedicated to the Field Deities of Britain, found +at Castle Hill on the wall of Antoninus Pius</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus16">105</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">It is important to remember +that the Romans recognised the gods of the conquered people, and this is one +of the most important archæological proofs of the fact.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">17.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">Roman Sculptured Stone found at Arniebog, Cumbernauld, +Dumbartonshire, showing a naked Briton as a captive</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus17">112</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">To the evidence derived +from classical writers as to the nakedness of some of the inhabitants of +early Britain, it is possible to add the evidence of the memorial stone. +This example is reproduced from Sir Arthur Mitchell's <i>Past in the +Present</i>, and there is at least one other example.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>18.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Representation of an Irish Chieftain +seated at Dinner</span> (from Derrick's <i>The Image of Ireland</i>, by kind +permission of Messrs. A. & E. Black)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus18">183</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">This is reproduced from +the very excellent reprint (1883) of this remarkable book, published +originally in 1581. The whole book is historically valuable as showing +the undeveloped nature of Irish culture. The flesh was boiled in the +hide, the fire is lighted in the open camp, and the entire rudeness of +the scene depicts the people "whose usages I behelde after the fashion +there sette downe."</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">19.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Long Meg and her Daughters</span> +(from a photograph by Messrs. Frith)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus19">193</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">20.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Stone Circles on Stanton Moor</span> +(from <i>Archæologia</i>)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus20">193</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">Nos. 19 and 20 are +illustrations of two of the lesser-known circles about which the people +hold such curious beliefs.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">21.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Chinese representation of Pygmies +going about arm-in-arm for mutual protection</span> (from Moseley's +<i>Notes by a Naturalist on H.M.S. Challenger</i>, by permission of +Mr. John Murray)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus21">242</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">22.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Semang of Kuala Kenering, Ulu +Perak</span> (from Skeat and Blagden's <i>Pagan Races of the Malay +Peninsula</i>, by permission of Messrs. Macmillan)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus22">242</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">23.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Negrito Type: Semang of Perak</span> +(from the same)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus23">243</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">24.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Semang of Kedah having a meal</span> +(from the same)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus24">244</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">25.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Tree Hut, Ulu Batu, about twelve +miles from Kuala Lumpur, Selangor</span> (from the same)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus25">298</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">The old-world traditions +and the scientific observation of pygmy people are illustrated in No. 21 +and Nos. 22-25 respectively. Though much has been written about the +Pygmies, Messrs. Skeat and Blagden's account of the Semang people is by +far the most thorough and important.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">26.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Rite of Baptism on the Font at +Darenth, Kent</span> (from Romilly Allen's <i>Early Christian Symbolism</i>)</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus26">324</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">The crude paganism on the +sculptured stone is confirmatory of the pagan elements preserved in custom, +and this illustration from Kent, one of the earliest centres of Christianity +in Britain, is singularly interesting from this point of view.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> +27 and 28.</td> + <td class="tdlsc">Two Scenes from the Anglo-Saxon Life of St. Guthlac by +Felix of Crowland, depicting the attack of the Demons</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Illus27">351</a>, <a href="#Illus28">352</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><p style="text-indent: 1em;">These two plates belong to +a series of eight which illustrate the life of the saint. They are less +primitive in form than the story which they illustrate. By contrast with +the remaining six, however, which are purely ecclesiastical in character, +they show how this early episode kept its place among the events of the +saint's life.</p></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> +</table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>f I have essayed to do in this book what should +have been done by one of the masters of the science +of folklore—Mr. Frazer, Mr. Lang, Mr. Hartland, +Mr. Clodd, Sir John Rhys, and others—I hope it will +not be put down to any feelings of self-sufficiency on +my part. I have greatly dared because no one of them +has accomplished, and I have so acted because I feel +the necessity of some guidance in these matters, and +more particularly at the present stage of inquiry into +the early history of man.</p> + +<p>I have thought I could give somewhat of that +guidance because of my comprehension of its need, for +the comprehension of a need is sometimes half-way +towards supplying the need. My profound belief in +the value of folklore as perhaps the only means of +discovering the earliest stages of the psychological, +religious, social, and political history of modern man +has also entered into my reason for the attempt.</p> + +<p>Many years ago I suggested the necessity for guidance, +and I sketched out a few of the points involved +(<i>Folklore Journal</i>, ii. 285, 347; iii. 1-16) in what was +afterwards called by a friendly critic a sort of grammar +of folklore. The science of folklore has advanced far +since 1885 however, and not only new problems but +new ranges of thought have gathered round it. Still,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> +the claims of folklore as a definite section of historical +material remain not only unrecognised but unstated, +and as long as this is so the lesser writers on folklore will +go on working in wrong directions and producing much +mischief, and the historian will judge of folklore by the +criteria presented by these writers—will judge wrongly +and will neglect folklore accordingly.</p> + +<p>I hope this book may tend to correct this state of +things to some extent. It is not easy to write on such +a subject in a limited space, and it is difficult to avoid +being somewhat severely technical at points. These +demerits will, I am sure, be forgiven when considered +by the light of the human interest involved.</p> + +<p>All studies of this kind must begin from the standpoint +of a definite culture area, and I have chosen our +own country for the purpose of this inquiry. This +will make the illustrations more interesting to the +English reader; but it must be borne in mind that +the same process could be repeated for other areas +if my estimate of the position is even tolerably accurate. +For the purpose of this estimate it was necessary, +in the first place, to show how pure history was +intimately related to folklore at many stages, and +yet how this relationship had been ignored by both +historian and folklorist. The research for this purpose +had necessarily to deal with much detail, and to +introduce fresh elements of research. There is thus +produced a somewhat unequal treatment; for when +illustrations have to be worked out at length, because +they appear for the first time, the mind is apt to wander +from the main point at issue and to become lost in the +subordinate issue arising from the working out of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> +chosen illustration. This, I fear, is inevitable in +folklore research, and I can only hope I have overcome +some of the difficulties caused thereby in a fairly satisfactory +manner.</p> + +<p>The next stage takes us to a consideration of +materials and methods, in order to show the means and +definitions which are necessary if folklore research is +to be conducted on scientific lines. Not only is it +necessary to ascertain the proper position of each +item of folklore in the culture area in which it is found, +but it is also necessary to ascertain its scientific +relationship to other items found in the same area; +and I have protested against the too easy attempt to +proceed upon the comparative method. Before we +can compare we must be certain that we are comparing +like quantities.</p> + +<p>These chapters are preliminary. After this stage we +proceed to the principal issues, and the first of these +deals with the psychological conditions. It was only +necessary to treat of this subject shortly, because the +illustrations of it do not need analysis. They are +self-contained, and supply their own evidence as to the +place they occupy.</p> + +<p>The anthropological conditions involve very different +treatment. The great fact necessary to bear in +mind is that the people of a modern culture area have +an anthropological as well as a national or political +history, and that it is only the anthropological history +which can explain the meaning and existence of +folklore. This subject found me compelled to go +rather more deeply than I had thought would be +necessary into first principles, but I hope I have not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span> +altogether failed to prove that to properly understand +the province of folklore it is necessary to know +something of anthropological research and its results. +In point of fact, without this consideration of folklore, +there is not much value to be obtained from it. It is +not because it consists of traditions, superstitions, +customs, beliefs, observances, and what not, that +folklore is of value to science. It is because the +various constituents are survivals of something much +more essential to mankind than fragments of life which +for all practical purposes of progress might well +disappear from the world. As survivals, folklore +belongs to anthropological data, and if, as I contend, we +can go so far back into survivals as totemism, we must +understand generally what position totemism occupies +among human institutions, and to understand this we +must fall back to human origins.</p> + +<p>The next divisions are more subordinate. Sociological +conditions must be studied apart from their +anthropological aspect, because in the higher races the +social group is knit together far more strongly and +with far greater purpose than among the lower races. +The social force takes the foremost place among the +influences towards the higher development, and it is +necessary not only to study this but to be sure of the +terms we use. Tribe, clan, family, and other terms +have been loosely used in anthropology, just as state, +city, village, and now village-community, are loosely +used in history. The great fact to understand is that +the social group of the higher races was based on +blood kinship at the time when they set out to take +their place in modern civilisation, and that we cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> +understand survivals in folklore unless we test them by +their position as part of a tribal organisation. The +point has never been taken before, and yet I do not see +how it can be dismissed.</p> + +<p>The consideration of European conditions is chiefly +concerned with the all-important fact of an intrusive +religion, that of Christianity, from without, destroying +the native religions with which it came into contact, +conditions which would of course apply only to the +folklore of European countries.</p> + +<p>Finally, I have discussed ethnological conditions in +order to show that certain fundamental differences in +folklore can be and ought to be explained as the results +of different race origins. We are now getting rid of +the notion that all Europe is peopled by the descendants +of the so-called Aryans. There is too much evidence +to show that the still older races lived on after they were +conquered by Celt, Teuton, Scandinavian, or Slav, and +there is no reason why folklore should not share with +language, archæology, and physical type the inheritance +from this earliest race.</p> + +<p>In this manner I have surveyed the several conditions +attachable to the study of folklore and the +various departments of science with which it is inseparably +associated. Folklore cannot be studied +alone. Alone it is of little worth. As part of the +inheritance from bygone ages it cannot separate itself +from the conditions of bygone ages. Those who +would study it carefully, and with purpose, must consider +it in the light which is shed by it and upon it +from all that is contributory to the history of man.</p> + +<p>During my exposition I have ventured upon many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span> +criticisms of masters in the various departments of +knowledge into which I have penetrated; but in all +cases with great respect. Criticism, such as I have +indulged in, is nothing more than a respectful difference +of opinion on the particular points under discussion, +and which need every light which can be thrown upon +them, even by the humblest student.</p> + +<p>I am particularly obliged to Mr. Lang, Mr. Hartland, +Dr. Haddon, and Dr. Rivers, for kindly reading my +chapter on Anthropological Conditions, and for much +valuable and kind help therein; and especially I owe +Mr. Lang most grateful thanks, for he took an immense +deal of trouble and gave me the advantage of his +searching criticism, always in the direction of an endeavour +to perfect my faulty evidence. I shall not +readily part with his letters and MS. on this subject, +for they show alike his generosity and his brilliance.</p> + +<p>To my old friend Mr. Fairman Ordish I am once +more indebted for help in reading my sheets, and I am +also glad to acknowledge the fact that two of my sons, +Allan Gomme and Wycombe Gomme, have read my +proofs and helped me much, not only by their criticism, +but by their knowledge.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">24 Dorset Square, N.W.</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2>FOLKLORE AS AN HISTORICAL SCIENCE</h2> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + + +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>HISTORY AND FOLKLORE</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>t may be stated as a general rule that history and +folklore are not considered as complementary +studies. Historians deny the validity of folklore +as evidence of history, and folklorists ignore the essence +of history which exists in folklore. Of late years it is +true that Dr. Frazer, Prof. Ridgeway, Mr. Warde +Fowler, Miss Harrison, Mr. Lang, and others have +broken through this antagonism and shown that the +two studies stand together; but this is only in certain +special directions, and no movement is apparent that +the brilliant results of special inquiries are to bring +about a general consideration of the mutual help which +the two studies afford, if in their respective spheres the +evidence is treated with caution and knowledge, and if +the evidence from each is brought to bear upon the +necessities of each.</p> + +<p>The necessities of history are obvious. There are considerable +gaps in historical knowledge, and the further<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +back we desire to penetrate the scantier must be the +material at the historian's disposal. In any case there +can be only two considerable sources of historical knowledge, +namely, foreign and native. Looking at the subject +from the points presented by the early history of +our own country, there are the Greek and Latin writers +to whom Britain was a source of interest as the most +distant part of the then known world, and the native +historians, who, witnessing the terribly changing events +which followed the break-up of the Roman dominion +over Britain, recorded their views of the changes and +their causes, and in course of time recorded also some of +the events of Celtic history and of Anglo-Saxon history. +Then for later periods, no country of the Western +world possesses such magnificent materials for history +as our own. In the vast quantity of public and private +documents which are gradually being made accessible +to the student there exists material for the illustration +and elucidation of almost every side and every period +of national life, and no branch of historical research is +more fruitful of results than the comparison of the +records of the professed historian with the documents +which have not come from the historian's hands.</p> + +<p>All this, however, does not give us the complete +story. Necessarily there are great and important gaps. +Contemporary writers make themselves the judges of +what is important to record; documents preserved in +public or private archives relate only to such events as +need or command the written record or instrument, or +to those which have interested some of the actors and +their families. Hence in both departments of history, +the historical narrative and the original record, it will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +be found on careful examination that much is needed to +make the picture of life complete. It is the detail of +everyday thought and action that is missing—all that +is so well known, the obvious as it passes before every +chronicler, the ceremony, the faith, and the action +which do not apparently affect the movements of civilisation, +but which make up the personal, religious and +political life of the people. It is always well to bear in +mind that the historical records preserved from the past +must necessarily be incomplete. An accident preserves +one, and an accident destroys another. An incident +strikes one historian, and is of no interest to another. +And it may well be that the lost document, the unrecorded +incident, is of far more value to later ages +than what has been preserved. This condition of historical +research is always present to the scientific +student, though it is not always brought to bear upon +the results of historical scholarship.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> But the scope of +the historian is gradually but surely widening. It is +no longer possible to shut the door to geography, +ethnography, economics, sociology, archæology, and +the attendant studies if the historian desires to work his +subject out to the full.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> It is even getting to be +admitted that an appeal must be made to folklore, +though the extent and the method are not understood. +After all that can be obtained from other realms of +knowledge, it is seen that there is a large gap left still—a +gap in the heart of things, a gap waiting to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +filled by all that can be learned about the thought, +ideas, beliefs, conceptions, and aspirations of the +people which have been translated for them, but not +by them, in the laws, institutions, and religion which +find their way so easily into history.</p> + +<p>The necessities of folklore are far greater than and +of a different kind from those of history. Edmund +Spenser wrote three centuries ago "by these old +customs the descent of nations can only be proved +where other monuments of writings are not remayning,"<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +and yet the descent of nations is still being +proved without the aid of folklore. It is certain that +the appeal will not be made to its fullest extent unless +the folklorist makes it clear that it will be answered in +a fashion which commands attention. It appears to +me that the preliminary conditions for such an appeal +must be ascertained from the folklore side. History +has not only justified its existence, but during the long +period of years during which it has been a specific +branch of learning it has shown its capacity for proceeding +on strictly scientific and ever-widening lines. Folklore +has neither had a long period for its study nor a +completely satisfactory record of scientific work. It is, +therefore, essential that folklore should establish its +right to a place among the historical sciences. At +present that right is not admitted. It is objected to by +scholars who will not admit that history can proceed +from anything but a dated and certified document, and +by a few who do not admit that history has anything +to do with affairs that do not emanate from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +prominent political or military personages of each period. +It is silently, if not contemptuously ignored by almost +every historical inquirer whose attention has not been +specially directed to the evidence contained in traditional +material. Thus between the difficulties arising +from the interpretation of texts which, originating in +oral tradition, have by reason of their early record +become literature, and the difficulties arising from the +objections of historians to accept any evidence that is +not strictly historical in the form they assume to be +historical, traditional material has not been extensively +used as history. It has also been wrongly defined by +historians. Thus, to give a pertinent example, so good +a scholar as Mr. W. H. Stevenson, in his admirable +edition of Asser's <i>Life of King Alfred</i>, lays to the +crimes of tradition an error which is due to other +causes. Indeed, he states the cause of the error +correctly, but does not see that he is contradicting +himself in so doing. It is worth quoting this case. +It has to do with the identification of "Cynuit," a place +where the Danes obtained a victory over the English +forces, and Kenwith Castle in Devonshire has been +claimed as the site of the struggle and "a place known +as Bloody Corner in Northam is traditionally regarded +as the scene of a duel between two of the chieftains in +877, and a monument recording the battle has been +erected."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Mr. Stevenson's comment upon this is: +"We have in this an instructive example of the worthlessness +of 'tradition' which is here, as so frequently +happens elsewhere, the outcome of the dreams of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +local antiquaries, whose identifications become gradually +impressed upon the memory of the inhabitants;" +and he then proceeds to show that this particular tradition +was produced by the suggestion of Mr. R. S. +Vidal in 1804. Of course, the answer of the folklorist +to this charge against the value of tradition is that the +example is not a case of tradition<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> at all. On the contrary, +it is a case of false history, started by the local +antiquary, adopted by the scholars of the day, perpetuated +by the government in its ordnance survey of +the district, and kept alive in the minds of the people +not by tradition but by a duly certified monument +erected for the express purpose of commemorating the +invented incident. There is then no tradition in any +one of the stages through which the episode has +passed. It is all history and false history. Historians +cannot shake off their responsibilities by looking upon +the local antiquary as the responsible author of tradition. +They cannot but admit that the local antiquary belongs +to the historical school, even though he is not a fully +equipped member of his craft, and because he blunders +they must not class him as a folklorist. They must bring +better evidence than this to show the worthlessness of +tradition. In the meantime it is the constant definition +of tradition as worthless, the relegation of worthless +history "to the realms of folklore,"<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> which does so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +much harm to the study of folklore as a science.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +Because the historian misnames an historical error as +tradition, or fails to discover, at the moment he +requires it, the fact which lies hidden in tradition, he +must not dismiss the whole realm of tradition as useless +for historical purposes.</p> + +<p>Let us freely admit that the historian is not altogether +to blame for his neglect and for his ignorance of tradition +as historical material. He has nothing very definite +to work upon. Even the great work of Grimm is +open to the criticism that it does not <i>prove</i> the antiquity +of popular custom and belief—it merely states the +proposition, and then relies for proof upon the accumulation +of an enormous number of examples and the +almost entire impossibility of suggesting any other +origin than that of antiquity for such a mass of non-Christian +material. Then the great work of Grimm, +ethnographical in its methods, has never been followed +up by similar work for other countries. The philosophy +of folklore has taken up almost all the time of our +scholars and students, and the contribution it makes to +the history of the civilised races has not been made out +by folklorists themselves. It does not appear to me +to be difficult to make out such a claim if only scientific +methods are adopted, and the solution of definite problems<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +is attempted;<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> and if too the difficulties in the +way of proof are freely admitted, and where they +become insuperable, the attempt at proof is frankly +abandoned. I believe that every single item of folklore, +every folk-tale, every tradition, every custom and superstition, +has its origin in some definite fact in the +history of man; but I am ready to concede that the +definite fact is not always traceable, that it sometimes +goes so far back as to defy recognition, that it sometimes +relates to events which have no place in the +after-history of peoples who have taken a position +on the earth's surface, and which, in the prehistory +stage, belong to humanity rather than to peoples. +Folklore, too, is governed by its own laws and rules +which are not the laws and rules of history. These +concessions, however, do not mean the introduction +of the term "impossible" to our studies. They +mean rather a plea for the steady and systematic +study of our material, on the ground that it has +much to yield to the historian of man, and to +the historians of races, of peoples, of nations, and of +countries.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus02" id="Illus02"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 232px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_02.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_02th.jpg" width="232" height="400" +alt="Carved wooden figure of the pedlar in Swaffham Church." +title="CARVED WOODEN FIGURE OF THE PEDLAR IN SWAFFHAM CHURCH" /></a> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus03" id="Illus03"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 281px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_03.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_03th.jpg" width="281" height="400" +alt="Carved wooden figure of the pedlar's dog in Swaffham Church." +title="CARVED WOODEN FIGURE OF THE PEDLAR'S DOG IN SWAFFHAM CHURCH" /></a> +<span class="caption">CARVED WOODEN FIGURES IN SWAFFHAM CHURCH, NORFOLK</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>We cannot, however, show that this is so without +facing many difficulties created for the most +part by folklorists themselves. In the first place +it is necessary to overtake some of the earlier conclusions +of the great masters of our science. The +first rush, after the discovery of the mine, led to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>the vortex created by the school of comparative mythologists, +who limited their comparison to the myths +of Aryan-speaking people, who absolutely ignored the +evidence of custom, rite, and belief, and who could see +nothing beyond interpretations of the sun, dawn, +and sky gods in the parallel stories they were the +first to discover and value. We need not ignore all +this work, nor need we be ungrateful to the pioneers +who executed it. It was necessary that their view +should be stated, and it is satisfactory that it was +stated at a time early in the existence of our science, +because it is possible to clear it all away, or as much of +it as is necessary, without undue interference with the +material of which it is composed.</p> + +<p>The school of comparative mythologists did not, +however, entirely control the early progress of the +study of folklore. There was always a school who +believed in the foundation of myth being derived from +the facts of life. Thus Dr. Tylor, in a remarkable +study of historical traditions and myths of observation,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +long ago noted that many of the traditions current +among mankind were historical in origin. Writing +nearly forty years ago, he had to submit to the influence, +then at its height, of Adalbert Kuhn and Max +Müller, and he conceded that there were many traditions +which were fictional myths. I think this concession +must now be much more narrowly scrutinised, and +preparation made for the conclusion that every genuine +myth is a myth of observation, the observation by men +in a primitive state of culture, of a fact which had +struck home to their minds. The question is, to what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +part of human history does the central fact appertain? +Here is undoubtedly a most difficult problem. What +the student has to do is to admit the difficulty, and to +state, if necessary, that the fact preserved by tradition +is not in all cases possible to discover with our present +knowledge. This is a perfectly tenable position. +Human imagination cannot invent anything that is +outside of fact. It may, and of course too frequently +does, misinterpret facts. In attempting to explain and +account for such facts with insufficient knowledge, it +gets far away from the truth, but this misinterpretation +of fact must not be confused with the fact itself. In a +word, it must be borne in mind by the student of tradition +that every tradition which has assumed the form +of saga, myth, or story contains two perfectly independent +elements—the fact upon which it is founded, and +the interpretation of the fact which its founders have +attempted.</p> + +<p>There is further than this. The other branch of +traditional material, namely that relating to custom, +belief, and rite, rests upon a solid basis of historic fact; +customs which are strange and irrational to this age are +not in consequence to be considered the mere worthless +following of practices which owe their origin to accident +or freak; beliefs which do not belong to the established +religion are not in consequence to be considered as +mere superstition; rites which were not established +by authority are not in consequence to be classed as +mere specimens of popular ignorance. But the difficulties +in the way of getting all this accepted by the +historian are many, and, again, not a few of them are the +creation of the folklorist himself. Not only has he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +neglected to classify and arrange the scattered items of +custom, belief, and rite, and to ascertain the degree of +association which the scattered items have with each +other, but he has set about the far more difficult and +complex task of comparative study without having +previously prepared his material.</p> + +<p>The historian and the folklorist are thus brought +face to face with what is expected from both, in order +that each may work alongside of the other, using each +other's materials and conclusions at the right moment +and in the right places. The folklorist has the most to +do to get his results ready, and to explain and secure +his position. He has been wandering about in a +somewhat inconsequential fashion, bent upon finding +a <i>mythos</i> where he should have sought for a <i>persona</i> +or a <i>locus</i>, engaged in an extensive quest after parallels +when he should have been preparing his own material +for the process of comparative science, seeking for +origins amidst human error when he should have +turned to human experience. He has to change all +this waywardness for systematic study, and this will +lead him in the first place to disengage from the results +hitherto obtained those which may be accepted and +which may form the starting-point for future work. +But his greatest task will be the reconsideration of +former results and the rewriting of much that has +been written on the wrong lines, and when this is +done we shall have the historian and folklorist meeting +together in the spirit which Edmund Spenser +so finely and truly described three centuries ago in +his treatment of Irish history: "I do herein rely +upon those bards or Irish chronicles ... but unto<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +them besides I add mine own reading and out of them +both together with comparison of times likewise of +manners and customs, affinity of words and manner, +properties of natures and uses, resemblances of rites +and ceremonies, monuments of churches and tombs +and many other like circumstances I do gather a likelihood +of truth, not certainly affirming anything, but by +conferring of times language monuments and such like +I do hunt out a probability of things which I leave to +your judgment to believe or refuse."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>I shall of course not be able to undertake either +of these tasks. I shall attempt, however, to indicate +their scope and importance; and as a preliminary to +the consideration of the definite departments into which +the subject falls, it is advisable, I think, to test the +relationship of tradition to history by means of one +or two illustrations. It may be that the illustrations I +shall give are not accepted by all students, that some +better illustration is forthcoming by further research. +This is one of the drawbacks from which tradition +suffers, and must suffer, until our studies are much +further advanced than they are at present. But I am +glad to accept this possibility of error as part of the +case for the study of tradition, because the error of one +student cannot be held to disqualify the whole subject. +It only amounts to saying that the particular fact which +seems to me to be discoverable in the examples dealt +with has to be surrendered in favour of another particular +fact. My conclusions may be dismissed, but +that which is not dismissible is the discoverable fact, +and it is only when the true fact is discovered in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +each traditional item that previous inferences may be +neglected or ignored and inquiry cease.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>The evidence of historic events which enter into +tradition relates principally to the earliest periods, but +much of it relates to periods well within the domain +of history and yet reveals facts which history has either +hopelessly neglected or misinterpreted. We shall find +that these facts, though frequently relating to minor +events, often have reference to matters of the highest +national importance, and perhaps nowhere more +definitely is this the case than in the legends connected +with particular localities. Of one such tradition +I will state what a somewhat detailed examination +tells in this direction. It will, I think, serve as a +good example of the kind of research that is required +in each case, and it will illustrate in a rather special +manner the value of these traditions to history.</p> + +<p>The <i>locus</i> of the legend centres round London +Bridge. The earliest written version of this legend is +quoted from the MSS. of Sir Roger Twysden, who +obtained it from "Sir William Dugdale, of Blyth Hall, +in Warwickshire, in a letter dated 29th January,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +1652-3." Sir William says of it that "it was the +tradition of the inhabitants as it was told me there," +and Sir Roger Twysden adds of it that: "I have since +learnt from others to be most true." This, therefore, is +a very respectable origin for the legend, and I will +transcribe it from Sir William Dugdale's letter which +begins "the story of the Pedlar of Swaffham-market is +in substance this":—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"That dreaming one night if he went to London he +should certainly meet with a man on London Bridge which +would tell him good news he was so perplext in his mind +that till he set upon his journey he could have no rest; to +London therefore he hasts and walk'd upon the Bridge for +some hours where being espyed by a shopkeeper and asked +what he wanted he answered you may well ask me that question +for truly (quoth he) I am come hither upon a very vain +errand and so told the story of his dream which occasioned +the journey. Whereupon the shopkeeper reply'd alas good +friend should I have heeded dreams I might have proved +myself as very a fool as thou hast, for 'tis not long since that +I dreamt that at a place called Swaffham Market in Norfolk +dwells one John Chapman a pedlar who hath a tree in his +backside under which is buried a pot of money. Now therefore +if I should have made a journey thither to day for such +hidden treasure judge you whether I should not have been +counted a fool. To whom the pedlar cunningly said yes verily +I will therefore return home and follow my business not heeding +such dreams hence forward. But when he came home +being satisfied that his dream was fulfilled he took occasion to +dig in that place and accordingly found a large pot of money +which he prudently conceal'd putting the pot amongst the +rest of his brass. After a time it happen'd that one who +came to his house and beholding the pot observed an inscription +upon it which being in Latin he interpreted it that under +that there was an other twice as good. Of this inscription the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +Pedlar was before ignorant or at least minded it not but when +he heard the meaning of it he said 'tis very true in the shop +where I bought this pot stood another under it which was +twice as big; but considering that it might tend to his further +profit to dig deeper in the same place where he found that he +fell again to work and discover'd such a pot as was intimated +by the inscription full of old coins: notwithstanding all which +he so conceal'd his wealth that the neighbours took no notice +of it."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p></div> + +<p>Blomefield thought it "somewhat surprising to find +such considerable persons as Sir William Dugdale +and Sir Roger Twysden to patronise or credit such a +monkish legend and tradition savouring so much of +the cloister, and that the townsmen and neighbourhood +should also believe it," but I think we shall have +reason to congratulate ourselves that so good a folk-tale +was preserved for us of this age.</p> + +<p>The next and, it appears, an independent version, is +given in the <i>Diary of Abraham de la Pryme</i>, under the +date November 10th, 1699:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Constant tradition says that there lived in former times, +in Soffham (Swaffham), <i>alias</i> Sopham, in Norfolk, a certain +pedlar, who dreamed that if he went to London bridge, and +stood there, he should hear very joyfull newse, which he at +first sleighted, but afterwards, his dream being dubled and +trebled upon him, he resolv'd to try the issue of it, and +accordingly went to London, and stood on the bridge there +two or three days, looking about him, but heard nothing +that might yield him any comfort. At last it happen'd that +a shopkeeper there, hard by, haveing noted his fruitless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +standing, seeing that he neither sold any wares nor asked +any almes, went to him and most earnestly begged to know +what he wanted there, or what his business was; to which +the pedlar honestly answer'd, that he had dream'd that if he +came to London and stood there upon the bridg, he should +hear good newse; at which the shopkeeper laught heartily, +asking him if he was such a fool as to take a journey on +such a silly errand, adding, 'I'll tell thee, country fellow, +last night I dream'd that I was at Sopham, in Norfolk, a +place utterly unknown to me, where methought behind a +pedlar's house in a certain orchard, and under a great oak +tree, if I digged I should find a vast treasure! Now think +you,' says he, 'that I am such a fool to take such a long +jorney upon me upon the instigation of a silly dream? No, +no, I'm wiser. Therefore, good fellow, learn witt of me, +and get you home, and mind your business.' The pedlar, +observeing his words, what he had sayd he had dream'd and +knowing they concenterd in him, glad of such joyfull newse +went speedily home, and digged and found a prodigious +great treasure, with which he grew exceeding rich, and +Soffham church being for the most part fal'n down he set +on workmen and reedifyd it most sumptuously, at his own +charges; and to this day there is his statue therein, cut in +stone, with his pack at his back, and his dogg at his heels; +and his memory is also preserved by the same form or +picture in most of the old glass windows, taverns, and ale-houses +of that town unto this day."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p></div> + +<p>Now this version from Abraham de la Pryme was +certainly obtained from local sources, and it shows the +general popularity of the legend, together with the +faithfulness of the traditional version.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> But other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +evidence of the traditional force of the story is to be +found. Observing that De la Pryme's <i>Diary</i> was not +printed until 1870, though certainly the MS. had been +lent to antiquaries, it is curious that the following +almost identical account is told in the <i>St. James's +Chronicle</i> of November 28th, 1786:—<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A Pedlar who lived many Years ago at Swaffham, in +Norfolk, dreamt, that if he came up to London, and stood +upon the Bridge, he should hear very joyful News; which he +at first slighted, but afterwards his Dream being doubled +and trebled unto him, he resolved to try the Issue of it; and +accordingly to London he came, and stood on the Bridge for +two or three Days, but heard nothing which might give him +Comfort that the Profits of his Journey would be equal to +his Pains. At last it so happened, that a Shopkeeper there, +having noted his fruitless standing, seeing that he neither +sold any Wares, or asked any Alms, went to him, and +enquired his Business; to which the Pedlar made Answer, +that being a Countryman, he had dreamt a Dream, that if he +came up to London, he should hear good News: 'And art +thou (said the Shopkeeper) such a Fool, to take a Journey +on such a foolish Errand? Why I tell thee this—last Night +I dreamt, that I was at Swaffham, in Norfolk, a Place +utterly unknown to me, where, methought, behind a Pedlar's +House, in a certain Orchard, under a great Oak Tree, if I +digged there, I should find a mighty Mass of Treasure. +Now think you, that I am so unwise, as to take so long a +Journey upon me, only by the Instigation of a foolish Dream! +No, no, far be such Folly from me; therefore, honest +Countryman, I advise thee to make haste Home again, and +do not spend thy precious Time in the Expectation of the +Event of an idle Dream.' The Pedlar, who noted well his +Words, glad of such joyful News, went speedily Home, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +digged under the Oak, where he found a very large Heap of +Money; with Part of which, the Church being then lately +fallen down, he very sumptuously rebuilt it; having his +Statue cut therein, in Stone, with his Pack on his Back and +his Dog at his Heels, which is to be seen at this Day. And +his Memory is also preserved by the same Form, or Picture, +on most of the Glass Windows of the Taverns and Ale-houses +in that Town."</p></div> + +<p>The differences in these versions are sufficient to +show independent origin. The identities are sufficient +to illustrate, in a rather remarkable manner, how closely +the words of the tradition were always followed. It +appears from the last words of the contributor to the +<i>St. James's Chronicle</i>, who signed himself "Z," that +he heard it by word of mouth about the time of his +writing it down,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> so that there is more than a hundred +years between him and the Dugdale version, which was +also recorded from "constant tradition."</p> + +<p>In Glyde's <i>Norfolk Garland</i> (p. 69), is an account of +this legend, but with a variant of one incident. The +box containing the treasure had a Latin inscription on +the lid, which John Chapman could not decipher. He +put the lid in his window, and very soon he heard +some youths turn the Latin sentence into English:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Under me doth lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Another much richer than I."<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And he went to work digging deeper than before, +and found a much richer treasure than the former. +Another version of this rhyme is found in <i>Transactions</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +<i>of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society</i> (iii. 318) as +follows:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Where this stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is another as good."<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And both these versions are given by Blomefield.</p> + +<p>Now if there were no other places besides Swaffham in +Norfolk to which this legend is applied the interest in it +would, of course, not be very great. But there are many +other places, and we will first note those in Britain. +The best is from Upsall, in Yorkshire, as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Many years ago there resided, in the village of Upsall, +a man who dreamed three nights successively that if he went +to London Bridge he would hear of something greatly to his +advantage. He went, travelling the whole distance from +Upsall to London on foot; arrived there, he took his station +on the bridge, where he waited until his patience was nearly +exhausted, and the idea that he had acted a very foolish part +began to rise in his mind. At length he was accosted by a +Quaker, who kindly inquired what he was waiting there so +long for? After some hesitation, he told his dreams. The +Quaker laughed at his simplicity, and told him that <i>he</i> had +had last night a very curious dream himself, which was, that +if he went and dug under a certain bush in Upsall Castle, in +Yorkshire, he would find a pot of gold; but he did not know +where Upsall was, and inquired of the countryman if he knew, +who, seeing some advantage in secrecy, pleaded ignorance +of the locality, and then, thinking his business in London +was completed, returned immediately home, dug beneath the +bush, and there he found a pot filled with gold, and on the +cover an inscription in a language which he did not understand. +The pot and cover were, however, preserved at the +village inn, where one day a bearded stranger like a Jew, +made his appearance, saw the pot, and read the inscription on +the cover, the plain English of which was—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0bq">"'Look lower, where this stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0bq">Is another twice as good.'<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +The man of Upsall hearing this resumed his spade, returned +to the bush, dug deeper, and found another pot filled with +gold, far more valuable than the first. Encouraged by this +discovery, he dug deeper still, and found another yet more +valuable.</p> + +<p>"This is the constant tradition of the neighbourhood, and +the identical bush yet exists (or did in 1860) beneath which +the treasure was found; a burtree, or elder, <i>Sambucus nigra</i>, +near the north-west corner of the ruins of the old castle."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p></div> + +<p>It would be tedious to go through other English +versions,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> but I must point out that it is connected +with a London district. This is shown not by the +actual presence of the legend, which has died out in +London, but by its representation in the parish church +of Lambeth. The legend so strongly current at Swaffham, +in Norfolk, is represented in the church in the +shape of a carving in wood of a figure to represent the +pedlar, and below him the figure of what is locally +called a dog.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> A comparison of this carving with the +representation of the pedlar's window formerly existing +in Lambeth Church, but which was sacrilegiously removed +in 1884 by the late vicar of the parish, shows much +the same general characteristics, and search among the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>parish books shows it to relate to a pedlar known by the +name of Dog Smith, who left property still known by the +name of the "Pedlar's Acre" to the parish.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> All this +suggests that we have here the last relics of the pedlar +legend located in London.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus04" id="Illus04"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 338px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_04.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_04th.jpg" width="338" height="400" +alt="The Pedlar of Lambeth and his dog, figured in the window (now destroyed) +of Lambeth Church (from Allen's "History of Lambeth")." +title="THE PEDLAR OF LAMBETH AND HIS DOG" /></a> +<span class="caption">THE PEDLAR OF LAMBETH AND HIS DOG<br /> +FIGURED IN THE WINDOW (NOW DESTROYED) OF LAMBETH CHURCH</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>The next stage in the history of this legend shows it +to belong to the world's collection of folk-tales. There +is, however, a preliminary fact of great significance to +note, namely that two non-British versions refer to +London Bridge. Thus a Breton tale refers to London +Bridge, and the interest of this story is sufficiently +great to quote it here from its recorder straight from +the Breton folk:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Long ago, when the timbers of the most ancient of the +vessels of Brest were not yet acorns, there were two men in +a farmhouse in the Côtes du Nord disputing, and they were +disputing about London Bridge. One said it was the most +beautiful sight in the world, while the other very truly said, +'No! the grace of the good God was more beautiful still.' +And as the dispute went on, 'Let us,' said one of them, +'settle it once and for all, and in this way: let us now this +moment go out along the high-road and let us ask the first +three men we meet as to which is the most beautiful—London +Bridge or the grace of the good God? And which ever way +they decide, he who holds the beaten opinion shall lose to +the other all his possessions, farm and cattle and horses, +everything.' So each being confident he was right, they +went out: and the first man they met declared that though +the grace of the good God was beautiful, London Bridge was +more beautiful still; and the second the same, and the third. +And the man whose opinion was beaten, a rich farmer, gave +up all he had and was a beggar.</p> + +<p>"'Now,' said he to himself when the other, taking his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +horse by the bridle, had left him—'now let me go and see this +London Bridge which is so wonderfully beautiful;' and, +being very manful and stout, he set out at once to walk, and +walking on and on was there by nightfall. But, good +Christian that he was, he could see in it nothing to shake his +belief that the grace of the good God was more beautiful +still.</p> + +<p>"Soon the bridge was silent, and the last to cross it had +gone home; and he, notwithstanding his losses, tired out +and sleepy, lay down and fell into a doze there; and, while +he was dozing, there came by two men, and one of them, standing +quite close by him, said to the other, 'The night is fine, +the wind gentle, the stars clear! On such a night whoever +were to collect the dew would be able to heal the blind.' +'It is true,' answered the other; 'but none know of it.' And +they passed on, quietly as they had come. Thereupon up +rose the beggared farmer, and with basin and cup set about +collecting the dew; and in a very short time performed with +it the most wonderful cures; finally curing the daughter of a +neighbouring Emperor who had been blind from her birth, +and whom her grateful father gave to him at once in +marriage, since directly she set eyes on him she loved +him."<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus05" id="Illus05"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 314px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_05.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_05th.jpg" width="314" height="400" +alt="The pedlar of Lambeth and his dog as drawn in 1786 for Ducarel's +"History of Lambeth"." +title="THE PEDLAR OF LAMBETH" /></a> +<span class="caption">THE PEDLAR OF LAMBETH<br /> +FROM DUCAREL'S "HISTORY OF LAMBETH," 1786</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>The second non-British variant, which also attaches +to London Bridge, is to be found in the <i>Heimskringla</i>,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> +and I will quote William Morris's translation:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"West in Valland was a man infirm so that he was a +cripple and went on knees and knuckles. On a day he was +abroad on the way and was asleep there. That dreamed he +that a man came to him glorious of aspect and asked +whither he was bound and the man named some town or +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>other. So the glorious man spoke to him: Fare then to +Olaf's church the one that is in London and thou wilt be whole. +Thereafter he awoke, and fared to seek Olaf's church and at +last he came to London bridge and there asked the folk of +the city if they knew to tell him where was Olaf's church. +But they answered and said that there were many more +churches there than they might wot to what man they were +hallowed. But a little thereafter came a man to him who +asked whither he was bound and the cripple told him. And +sithence said that man: We twain shall fare both to the +church of Olaf for I know the way thither. Therewith they +fared over the bridge and went along the street which led to +Olaf's church. But when they came to the lich gate then +strode that one over the threshold of the gate but the cripple +rolled in over it and straightway rose up a whole man. +But when he looked around him his fellow farer was +vanished."</p></div> + +<p>I shall have to refer again to these Breton and Norse +versions, because of their retention of London Bridge +as the locale of the story, in common with all the versions +which have been found in Britain. In the meantime +it is to be noted that the remaining non-British +variants are told of other bridges and other places. +Holland, Denmark, Italy, Cairo, have their representative +variants;<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> and it thus presents to the student of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +tradition an excellent example for inquiry as to the +value to history of legends world-wide in their distribution +attaching themselves to historical localities.</p> + +<p>There are some obvious features about this group of +traditions, which at once lead to interesting questions. +There is first the fact that all the British variants of the +treasure stories centre round London Bridge; secondly, +there is the extension beyond Britain to the Breton +variant and the Norse variant, both non-British +legends, of which the <i>locus</i> is London Bridge. From +these two facts it is clear that London Bridge had +some special influence at a period of its history which +dates before the separation of the Breton folk from +their Celtic brethren in Britain, for the Bretons would +not after their separation acquire a London Bridge +tradition; and again at a period of its history when +Norse legend and saga were fashioning. In the one +case the myth-makers must have been Celts of the +fourth century, and the only bridge known to these +Celts must have been that belonging to Roman Lundinium; +in the other case the myth-makers were +Norsemen, and the bridge known to them was the +later bridge so frequently referred to in the chronicle +accounts of the Danish and Norse invasions of +England.</p> + +<p>It is not difficult, by a joint appeal to history +and folklore, to trace out from this very definite +starting-point the events which brought about this +particular specialisation of the world-spread treasure +myths.</p> + +<p>Obviously the first point to note is that London +Bridge loomed out greatly in the minds and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +understanding of people at two distinct periods of its history.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> +That the first period relates to its building is suggested +by the date supplied by the evidence of the Breton +version. The people who wondered at its building, +or the results of its building, were certainly not the +builders themselves, and we thus see a distinction in +culture between the bridge builders and the wonder +builders. This condition is exactly provided for by +the building of the earliest London Bridge. It was a +work of the Romans of Lundinium,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> and the people +who stood in wonder at this great enterprise were not +the Roman engineers and builders, accustomed to such +undertakings all over the then known world, and they +must therefore have been the surrounding non-Roman +people, who were the Celtic tribesmen. Now the culture-antagonism +between the Romans of Lundinium and +the Celts of Britain is, I believe, a factor of great importance,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> +though almost universally neglected by our +historians, because they do not study the facts of early +history on anthropological lines. Not only is it discoverable, +as I think, from the facts of history, but the +facts of tradition confirm the facts of history at all +points. Thus I think it is important, if we can, to +obtain independent testimony of the attitude of the +surrounding people to the builders of London Bridge. +We can do this by reference to the peasant beliefs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +concerning bridges, as, for instance, in Ireland, where +on passing over a bridge they invariably pulled off +their hats and prayed for the soul of the builder of the +bridge,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> and to the fact that the Romans themselves +looked upon bridge-building as a sacred function, and +would no doubt use this part of their work to the +fullest extent, in order to impress the barbarism opposed +to them.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> The extent of this impression may probably +be contained in the old and widely spread nursery +rhyme of "London Bridge is Broken Down," an +examination of which has led Mrs. Gomme to conclude +that it contains reference to an ancient belief that the +building of the bridge was accompanied by human +sacrifice.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> This conclusion is confirmed by the preservation +in Wales of a bridge-sacrifice tradition. It +relates to the "Devil's Bridge" near Beddgelert. +"Many of the ignorant people of the neighbourhood +believe that this structure was formed by supernatural +agency. The devil proposed to the neighbouring inhabitants +that he would build them a bridge across the +pass, on condition that he should have the first who +went over it for his trouble. The bargain was made, +and the bridge appeared in its place, but the people +cheated the devil by dragging a dog to the spot and +whipping him over the bridge."<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> This is a distinct +trace of a substituted animal sacrifice for an original +human sacrifice. But this is a practice which sends +us back to the most primitive times, and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +particular we are referred to an exact parallel in India, +where, on the governing English determining to build +a bridge of engineering proportions and strength +over the Hoogley River at Calcutta, the native Hindu +tribesmen immediately believed that the first requirement +would be a human sacrifice for the foundation.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> +The traditions attaching to London Bridge are therefore +identical with the current beliefs concerning the +Hoogley Bridge, and the culture-relationship of the +bridge-builders to the surrounding people in both cases +is that of an advanced civilisation to tribesmen. Now +if these conditions of modern India are repetitions +of the conditions of ancient Britain in the days of +Lundinium, and of this there can be but little doubt, +there is no difficulty in understanding to what part of +history these traditions have led us. We are again in +the days when London Bridge was a marvel—a marvel +which sent travelling through the Celtic homes of +Britain a new application of the treasure myth which they +had inherited from remote ancestors. The marvel lived +on through the ages when London was in the unique +position of being an undestroyed city in Saxon times,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +times which witnessed the destruction of all other cities +of Roman foundation,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> and the sending forth of the +Celtic refugees to Brittany.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> The accumulation during +a long-continuing period of conceptions of treasure being +found by way of the bridge leading to London, would +become the direct force for keeping the tradition alive; +and while the facts of history show us the important +position of London during the period which witnessed +the departure of the Celtic Bretons to their continental +home,<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> the facts of tradition show us the Celtic tribesmen +deeming it a way to wealth through the magic +potency of dreamland. The Celtic tribesmen stood +outside Roman Lundinium. Its life was not their life, +and their conversion of its position into a mythic +treasure house or a mythic road to treasure, and their +association of it with the bloody rites of the foundation +sacrifice, are in strict accord with the historical relationship +of the tribal life of Celtic Britain to the city life of +Roman Lundinium.</p> + +<p>I may be permitted perhaps to emphasise this significant +accordance of history and tradition when working +together. I have already alluded to the fact that I +have worked out the history of London independently, +and upon lines quite different from the present study.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +I have therefore a wider grasp of the two currents of +history and folklore in this particular case than could +in the ordinary way fall either to the historian or to the +folklorist. That I can find in both just the complementary +facts which help to realise the whole situation, +to fill in the gaps of history which nowhere directly +tells of the relationship of Roman Lundinium to the +British Celts, to extend the outlook of folklore which +nowhere recognises that there was a great Roman city +of Lundinium which would dominate the minds of +those not trained to city life, is a fortunate circumstance +which neither historian nor folklorist is likely to repeat +frequently, and I am entitled, I think, to claim the +utmost from it. I can at least claim that it answers all +the facts in a way that has not yet been accomplished. +Thus Sir John Rhys has discussed the treasure legend +and he can only account for it as part of the mythical +trappings of Arthur into which "London Bridge is +introduced," because London Bridge "formerly loomed +very large in the popular imagination as one of the +chief wonders of London." Sir John Rhys refers for +confirmation of this to the "notion cherished as to +London and London Bridge by the country people of +Wales even within my own memory," and then goes on +to say that "the fashion of selecting London Bridge as +the opening scene of a treasure legend had been set +perhaps by a widely spread English story," that of the +Pedlar of Swaffham.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> All this is very unsatisfactory. +Modern notions of this sort would not set the fashion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +two centuries ago, nor extend it to Brittany. Nor is +the suggestion in accord with other evidence as to the +extension of tradition. What has happened is that the +Arthur cycle has appropriated two London Bridge +traditions and has worked them up into the Arthur +form, the traditions themselves belonging to the far +older period to which I have here referred them—a +period when the burial of treasure was a necessary +corollary to the events which were happening.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> Buried +treasure legends are found all over the country. They +belong to the period of conquest and fighting. They +are the evidence which tradition yields of the unrest of +the times which caused them to arise. They are the +fragments of history which tradition has preserved, +while history has coldly passed them by.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +With this in the background as the <i>corpus</i> of a +legend-covered London Bridge, we come to the second +period.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +London Bridge to the Norsemen of the tenth and +eleventh centuries was a place of fierce fighting and +struggle, a place of victory and death. The saga +takes pains to describe this wondrous bridge<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> before +it describes the great fight there and its capture by +King Olaf, a fight which produced a war-rhyme which, +in Laing's version, begins with the same words as the +English nursery rhyme, "London Bridge is broken +down!"<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> and which Morris renders as a tribute to +King Olaf, "thou brakest down London Bridge." +There is little wonder, then, that the men of King Olaf +took back with them to saga-land a great memory of +this bridge and this fight, transferred to it their own +variant of the world-wide treasure legend, and made +a legend not of money treasure, but of regained health +to a crippled warrior. The corresponding non-British +version of Brittany helps us to understand that the +cure of disease was originally associated with the gains +of treasure, and in the Norse version the treasure incident +is altogether dropped, but in its place is the +recovery of health, a treasure more in accord with the +sterner needs and recollections of a great fight. The +Norse story is helpful to us as showing how London +Bridge could enter into the legends of a people, and +remain with them even after that people was no longer +living in Britain, and it becomes therefore a valuable +addition to the evidence for the more ancient transference +from Britain to Brittany of the original legend.</p> + +<p>Altogether the piecing together of the items of historical +value in this legend is most complete. We have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +not only recovered for history hitherto lost conceptions +of the place held by Roman Lundinium among the Celtic +tribesmen, but we have recovered also evidence of +the true culture-position of the Celtic tribesmen towards +their Roman conquerors. The examination of this +legend may have been long and tedious, but the result +is, I think, commensurate. It illustrates the power of +tradition to set historical data in their proper environment, +to restore the proportion which they bear to unrecorded +history, and if the student will but follow the +evidence carefully, I think he will find these results.</p> + +<p>We will take a step forward, and turn from local to +personal attachments of tradition. There is a whole +class of traditions attached to personages about whose +historical existence there can be but little doubt, and +just because of the accretion of tradition round them +their historical existence has oftentimes been denied. +The most famous example in our history is of course +King Arthur, and so great an authority as Sir John +Rhys is obliged to resort to a special argument to account +for the problems he is faced with. He argues, and +argues strongly, for an historic Arthur—an Arthur who +was the British successor of the Roman emperor after +Britain had ceased to be a part of the Roman Empire.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> +But because of the myths which have grown round +him, he suggests that there must also have been "a +Brythonic divinity named Arthur," and we are thus +introduced to a dual study of history and myth which +does not appear to me to take us very far, and which,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +in fact, just separates history from myth, instead of +showing where they join hands. This dual conception +of myth is indeed a rather favourite resort of those +scholars who cannot appreciate the evidence that +proves a character in a mythic tradition to be an actual +historical personage. It is the basis of the famous +Sigfried-Arminius controversy. It does duty in many +less important cases,<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> and most frequently in connection +with northern mythology, where the line between +mythic and historical events gathering round a hero is +generally so finely drawn as to be almost imperceptible. +But it is so obviously a piece of special pleading on +self-created lines that other explanation is needed. And +another explanation is to be obtained if only students +will rely upon the evidence of tradition itself instead +of appealing to every fancy derived from sources which +have nothing to do with tradition.</p> + +<p>The history of King Arthur has been the subject of +inquiry too frequently for it to be possible in these +pages to discuss the dual theory as it has been applied +to him, but I will attempt to show that it is quite +unnecessary thus to explain the history of King Arthur +by turning to the history of another of our great heroic +figures, one of the greatest to my mind, who, like +Arthur, has secured not only a fair share of special +tradition belonging to himself personally, but a larger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +share than others of that corpus of tradition which has +descended from our earliest unknown ancestors, and +become attached to the historical hero of later times—I +mean, Hereward, the last of the Saxon defenders of his +land against William the Norman.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> The analysis of the +Hereward legend affords a good example of the process +by which tradition is preserved by historical fact, and in +its turn helps to unravel the real history which lies at +the source. Instead, therefore, of attempting to travel +over the voluminous literature which is the outcome of +the King Arthur story, I will use for the same purpose +the shorter story of Hereward the Englishman.</p> + +<p>We start with the fact that Hereward is unknown to +history until his great stand in the Island of Ely +against the might of William, the conqueror of England. +And yet to the banners of this "unknown" +chieftain there flocked the discontented heroism of +England, men ranking from the noble to the peasant, +and including such great figures as Morcar, Edwine, +and Waltheof. I always think, too, that the little band +of Berkshire men, who started across the country to +join Hereward in the fens, and were intercepted and +cut to pieces by a Norman troop,<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> give us more than +a passing glimpse at the estimation in which Hereward +was held by his countrymen. Such a man commanding +so much, in face of so much, could not have been +the unknown person which history makes him.</p> + +<p>How then can we ascertain why he was held in such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +estimation? History being quite silent, tradition +steps into the gap. It is the tradition recorded in post-Herewardian +times, be it noted. In this great body of +tradition, contained in a Latin MS. of the twelfth +century, he journeys to Scotland, where he slew a bear +and saved the people whom it had oppressed; from +thence to Cornwall, where he fought and slew a great +champion, the lover of the princess; from thence to +Ireland, where he assisted the King in war, and back +again to Cornwall to rescue again the princess from +a distasteful wooer, and, finally, to Flanders. Even in +the camp of the Norman, which he visits in traditional +fashion, he has an adventure with witches which takes +us to the worship of wells. Much of his adventure +is but the application of well-known traditional events,<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> +and it is important to note that the geography of +the supposed travels belongs to the very home of +tradition, the unknown territories of the Celts, Ireland, +Cornwall, and Scotland.</p> + +<p>Now all this tradition is certainly not true of Hereward. +But what it does is to certify to his greatness in +the eyes of his countrymen, to show that his countrymen +were anxious to explain why he was so great in +<span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span> 1070, and why before that date he was unknown +to them. This is an important point to have gained. +It shows the vacuum which was occupied by tradition +because contemporary, or nearly contemporary, +thought required it to be filled up. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +popular mind abhors a vacuum as much as the +material world of nature does. It will fill it with its +own conceptions, if it cannot fill it with recognised +facts. Hereward must have been a famous man when +he took his stand in the fens of Ely. That his biographers +explain his fame by the application of ancient +traditions is only saying that his countrymen reckoned +his fame as of the very highest; ordinary current events +of the day would not suit their ideas of the fitness of +things. Hereward was as Alfred had been, as Arthur +had been, and so he must have his share of the national +tradition, even as these heroes had. To say less of +him was to have put him below the others. And +history in this case could not help, for it was in the +hands of Hereward's enemies, and they were careful to +say nothing or very little of English heroes at this +period. The great battle of Hastings had been lost, +but of all the English men who had fought and died +there we only know of three names beyond those of the +king and his house. Leofric the abbot of Peterborough, +Godric the sheriff of Berkshire, and Asgar +the sheriff of London, have become known by accident, +as it were. All others are unnamed and unhonoured. +Therefore, when the great deeds of Hereward came to +be chronicled, it was not enough to say he was at +Hastings; the deeds of old must be chronicled of him +as they had been chronicled of others.</p> + +<p>This accretion of popular tradition to account for the +fame of Hereward when he took command at Ely, +though it proclaims in the strongest terms that Hereward +was famous in the eyes of his countrymen, displaces +history therefore. Putting the case in this way,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +we may proceed to examine what recorded history +exactly has to say of Hereward, and then by noting +what it has left unsaid, we may perhaps be able to fill +the gap by a reasonable deduction from the facts. In +Domesday there are clearly two Herewards, one having +lands in Lincolnshire in the time of King Edward and +<i>not</i> at the date of the survey, the other having lands in +Warwickshire in the time of King Edward and <i>also</i> +at the date of the survey. Here we have two widely +different counties and two widely different conditions, +and it is right with all the evidence to conclude that +they relate to different personages. The Lincolnshire +Hereward is the hero of the fens. He held of the +abbot of Peterborough, and Ulfcytil, who was appointed +in 1062, was the abbot in question. This +brings us to only four years before the battle of Hastings, +and another entry in Domesday, thanks to the +scholarship of Mr. Round, proves that Hereward +was deprived of his Lincolnshire lands not before but +after the great fights at Hastings and in the fens. +Therefore the story shapes itself somewhat in this +fashion. Hereward was in England in 1062. He was +then a man of the abbot of Peterborough; that is to +say, a tenant bound to perform military service to his +lord. His lord, the abbot, was at Hastings with his +tenants, and fought there. That Hereward of all the +abbot's tenants should have followed his lord to +Hastings is more than likely; the strange thing would +be that he should not have done so. That going +thither nameless among the many, he should gain +experience under Harold, though no fame has come to +him through the historians from a field where Saxon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +fame was buried; that his own genius should make +him use his experience when need arose; that among +the English all survivors from that field who were still +unwilling to bow the knee to William would be +reckoned as heroes by their depressed countrymen; +that on this account alone he would be given rank +above Morcar, who had kept away from Hastings—are +the conclusions to be drawn legitimately from the +silence as well as the actual records of history, compared +with the story told by tradition. History and +tradition are in accord, not in conflict; the gaps of +history are filled by tradition—that tradition which was +suitable and worthy of so great a hero, namely the +ancient tradition told of all heroes. Reopening these +gaps and putting in its right place the tradition which +had hitherto prevented them from being seen, we are +able to appeal to history to yield up the true story of +one of the greatest of English heroes, a story which +shows him to have been at Hastings by the side of +Harold, to have won fame there, to have continued the +fight for English liberty as leader of the English +patriots, and to have earned a place in the unsung +English epic.</p> + +<p>But his place in English tradition helps us to understand +the value and position of tradition in such cases. +The traditions clustering round the name of Hereward +do not compel us to interpret them as Hereward facts. +The historian, however, need not on this account fear +for Hereward. He should rather value the traditions +as evidence of the greatness of the English hero among +the conquered English. They applied to him the +legends of their oldest heroes. All that was delightful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +to them in tradition was attached to their present hero. +He was worthy of a place among their greatest. And +thus the fact of added tradition brings out the estimate +of the worth of the hero to those among whom he lived +and for whom he fought.</p> + +<p>The traditions themselves belong to far other times, +and the facts contained in them must be interpreted from +the oldest ideas of our race. It is only by thus disengaging +the traditions which have grown round the +historical person that the correct interpretation of the +position can be attempted, and when that is done we +are left, not with a mass of uncertain and misleading +testimony about a national hero, but with certain definite +historical facts belonging to Hereward, and certain +traditions attached to Hereward, certifying to his +great place in the popular estimation, telling of facts +which do not, it is true, belong to Hereward, but which, +in a special sense, belong to the people who were +reverencing Hereward.</p> + +<p>If I have made it clear from these examples that the +explanation of historic fact and mythic tradition in +combination does not lead either to the discrediting of +history or to the creation of new mythic realms, I +need not dwell much longer on this class of illustrations +of the relationship between history and tradition. Over +and over again, in the local records, are examples to be +found where history is in close contact with tradition, +and I am far more inclined to question the evidence +which proves the falseness of any authenticated tradition +than I am to trust all the statements which do duty +for history. It is not only the traditions looming largely +in popular interest, but some of the smallest local<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +traditions which throw light on great historical events. +They may tell us not merely of the great historical +event, but of the peculiar relationship of parts of the +kingdom to that event, which no purely historical evidence +could by any possibility explain. One of the most +striking examples is, perhaps, the Sussex tradition of +"Duke" William as a conqueror.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> The title Duke is +here faithfully recorded of the great conqueror, who +everywhere else in England, both in historical documents +and in the popular language, is referred to as +king. The explanation is, if the identification of this +tradition with the great Norman king is correct, that +Sussex being more or less separated from the rest of +the country by its great weald, carried its own tradition +of the bloody field at Hastings sufficiently long and +uninterrupted for it to be stamped upon the minds of +the people in its original form, and thus to remain. No +better evidence could be found for the relationship of +Sussex to this great event. All the chapters in Mr. +Freeman's great history do not impress the imagination +so strongly as this one fact, that William the Conqueror +has always been Duke William to the Sussex folk. He +was Duke William to the fen folk, too. They fought +for their belief and were compelled to accept his kingship. +The Sussex folk fought, too, and they handed +down their conception of the great fight to their children.</p> + +<p>A good example of a slightly different kind occurs +in connection with Kett's rebellion in Norfolk. It +was associated with a prophecy that said, "there +shulde lande at Walborne hope the proudest prince of +Christendome, and so shall come to Moshold heethe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +and there shuld mete with other ij kinges, and shall +fyght and shalbe put down: and the whyte lyon shuld +optayne" the mastery. And yet this prophecy goes +much further back, for the Danes are said to have +landed at Weybourne Hope in their invasions, and the +old <ins class="correction" title="'ryhme' in original">rhyme</ins> +is still remembered in the county:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"He that would England win<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must at Weybourn Hope begin."<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a><br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>This is an example of the forcible revival of an ancient +tradition to suit a later fact, and is evidence of the +enormous impression which the event to which it refers +had upon the locality. Kett's rebellion was one thing +to the nation at large and quite another thing to this +district of Norfolk, and the great events of the tenth +century preserved in legend were equated with the +minor events of the sixteenth century, thus enabling +us to understand better the depth of the local feeling +which produced these events.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus06" id="Illus06"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_06.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_06th.jpg" width="400" height="269" +alt="Plan of the site of the "Heaven Walls" at Litlington, +near Royston, Cambridgeshire (reprinted from "Archæologia")." +title="PLAN OF THE SITE OF THE "HEAVEN WALLS" AT LITLINGTON, +ROYSTON, CAMBRIDGESHIRE" /></a> +<span class="caption">PLAN OF THE SITE OF THE "HEAVEN WALLS" AT LITLINGTON, +ROYSTON, CAMBRIDGESHIRE</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>Both local and personal traditions are of interest in +the unravelling of the meaning of historical events, and +the forces at the back of them, and I will add a note of +one or two examples of those humbler traditions which +confirm or enhance the value of the historical record. +They are of the greatest importance if correctly understood. +They include such examples, for instance, as +Mr. Kemble notes when he says, "I have more than +once walked, ridden, or rowed, as land and stream +required, round the bounds of Anglo-Saxon estates, and +have learned with astonishment that the names recorded +in my charter were those still used by the woodcutter or +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>the shepherd of the neighbourhood."<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> This is remarkable +testimony to the persistence of tradition. It is the +commencing point of a whole series of examples which +go to show that embedded in the memories of the +people, and supported by no other force but tradition, +there are innumerable traces of historic fact.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<p>A stage forward, in the same class of tradition, are +those examples of special names which indicate an +important or impressive event, the real nature of +which is only revealed by modern discovery. Thus +perhaps the "White Horse Stone" at Aylesford, in +Kent, the legend of which is that one who rode a +beast of this description was killed on or about this +spot,<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> may take us back to the great battle at Crayford, +where Horsa was killed. Another kind of local tradition +is perhaps more instructive. Immediately contiguous +to the north side of the Roman road at +Litlington, near Royston, were some strips of unenclosed, +but cultivated, land, which in ancient deeds +from time immemorial had been called "Heaven's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +Walls." Traditional awe attached to this spot, and +the village children were afraid to traverse it after dark, +when it was said to be frequented by supernatural +beings. Here is subject for inquiry. Both words +in the name are significant. Why the allusion to +Heaven; why is a field called walls? The problem +was solved in 1821, for in that year some labourers +were digging for gravel on this spot, and they struck +upon an old wall composed of flint and Roman brick. +This accidental discovery was followed up by Dr. +Webb, and the wall was found to enclose a rectangular +space measuring about thirty-eight yards by twenty-seven, +and containing numerous deposits of sepulchral +urns containing ashes of the dead. It was clear +from the results of the excavations that here was +one of those large plots of ground environed by +walls to which the name of <i>ustrinum</i> was given +by the Romans,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> a fact which was preserved in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>name long after the site had lost every trace of its +origin.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus07" id="Illus07"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_07.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_07th.jpg" width="400" height="240" +alt="Sketch of Litlington Field, (reprinted from "Archæologia")." +title="LITLINGTON FIELD" /></a> +<span class="caption">LITLINGTON FIELD</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>I will refer to one more local example. In Dorsetshire +and Wiltshire fairs are held upon sites which +are often marked by the remains of ancient works, or +distinguished by some dim tradition of vanished importance.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> +One has only to refer to the history of the +market as "a contribution to the early history of +human intercourse" as Mr. Grierson puts it,<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> and to +the extremely important and archaic constitution of the +market, a glimpse of which has been afforded by Sir +Henry Maine, alone among scholars who have investigated +earliest English institutions, to know how +valuable such a note as this must be if it can be confirmed +by extended research. Local investigation of +these places and their traditions would, no doubt, lead +to many points in the tribal settlement of the district, +an important fact of history nowhere found in history.</p> + +<p>No one, I think, taking into consideration this view<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +of the relationship of local and personal traditions to +history will deny that history is likely to gain much by +the proper interpretation of such traditions. Every +yard of British territory has its historic interest, and +there are innumerable peaks above the general level +which should be worth much to national history. Every +epoch of British history has its great personage, who +in popular opinion stands out from among his fellows. +When once it is understood that traditions attaching to +places and persons yield facts of a kind worth searching +for, there will arise the desire to obtain all that is now +obtainable from this source, and to add thereto the +deductions to be drawn from their geographical distribution.</p> + + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>If the accretion of myth around the lives of great +historic personages, and the persistence of tradition +in historic localities, may be accepted as one phase +of the necessary relationship of tradition to history, +we may proceed to inquire how far the unattached +traditions, the folk-tales pure and simple, contain +or are based upon historic details. These details +will not tell us of any one historic personage, or relate +to any one historic locality, but will relate to +the peoples before personages and localities figured +in their history, and will explain facts in culture-history +rather than in political history. We shall be +approaching the period before written history had +begun, and for which, so far as written history is +concerned, we are dependent upon foreign or outside +authority. I think, perhaps, Dr. Karl Pearson has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +put the case for this view in the best form. "As we +read fairy stories to our children," he says,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"we may study history for ourselves. No longer oppressed +with the unreal and the <i>baroque</i>, we may see primitive human +customs and the life of primitive man and woman cropping +out at almost every sentence of the nursery tale. +Written history tells us little of these things, they must +be learnt, so to speak, from the mouths of babes. But +there they are in the <i>Märchen</i>, as invaluable fossils for those +who will stoop to pick them up and study them. Back in +the far past we can build up the life of our ancestry—the +little kingdom, the queen or her daughter as king maker, +the simple life of the royal household, and the humble candidate +for the kingship, the priestess with her control of the +weather and her power over youth and maid. In the dimmest +distance we can see traces of the earlier kindred group +marriage, and in the near foreground the beginnings of that +fight with patriarchal institutions which led the priestess to +be branded by the new Christian civilization as the evil-working +witch of the Middle Ages."<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p></div> + +<p>I should not have ventured to quote this long passage +if my own studies, before Dr. Pearson's book +was published in 1897, had not led me to much the +same conclusions.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> But Dr. Pearson assists me in +a special way. His methods are scientific. He is +not a folklorist because he loves folklore, but because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +he sees in it the materials for elucidating the early life +of man. He is not, so to speak, prejudiced in its +favour. He brings to his aid the practical mind of +the statistician and the psychologist, and his conclusions +may not, therefore, be put on one side as easily +as those of myself and other students of folklore.</p> + +<p>It is due to the folklorist, however, to say that +this aspect of the folk-tale had already been discovered +by one of the greatest of the earlier collectors of +traditional lore, the late Mr. J. F. Campbell. Thus, +writing, in 1860, of his grand collection of "Highland +Tales," Mr. Campbell very truly says: "The +tales represent the actual everyday life of those who +tell them, with great fidelity. They have done the +same, in all likelihood, time out of mind, and that which +is not true of the present is, in all probability, true of +the past; and therefore something may be learned of +forgotten ways of life."<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> Readers of Mr. Campbell's +books well know how he has traced out from these traditions +from the nursery, identical customs with Highland +everyday life, and relics also of a long-forgotten past +state of things; how he points to the records of the +stone age and the iron age in these representatives of +the scientific memoirs of the past; how very significantly +he answers his own supposition, that if these +tales "are dim recollections of savage times and savage +people, then other magic gear, the property of giants, +fairies, and bogles, should resemble things which are +precious now amongst savage or half-civilized tribes, or +which really have been prized amongst the old inhabitants +of these islands or of other parts of the world."<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +This is an extremely important conclusion on the +relationship of history and tradition, and it will be well +to illustrate it by turning to some obvious details of +primitive life, which are to be seen with more or less +clearness enshrined in the folk-tales which have been +preserved in our own country.</p> + +<p>In Kennedy's <i>Fireside Stories of Ireland</i>, it is related +in one of the tales that there was no window to the mud-wall +cabin, and the door was turned to the north;<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> +and then, again, we have this picture given to us in +another story: on a common that had in the middle of +it a rock or great pile of stones overgrown with furze +bushes, there was a dwelling-house, and a cow-house, +and a goat's-house, and a pigsty all scooped out +of the rock; and the cows were going into the byre, +and the goats into their house, but the pigs were grunting +and bawling before the door.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> This takes us to the +surroundings of the cave-dwelling people.</p> + +<p>Then in other places we come across relics of ancient +agricultural life preserved in these stories. In the Irish +story of "Hairy Rouchy" the heroine is fastened by +her wicked sisters in a pound,<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> an incident not mentioned +in the parallel Highland tale related by Campbell.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> +Many Irish stories contain details of primitive life that +the Scottish variants do not contain. The field that +was partly cultivated with corn and partly pasture for +the cow,<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> the grassy ridge upon which the princess +sat, and the furrows wherein her two brothers were +lying,<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> are instances.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +A great question arises here. If the Scotch story does +not mention the primitive incident mentioned in the Irish +story, does it mean that the Irish story has retained for +a longer time the details of its primitive original? Or +does it mean that it has absorbed more of surrounding +Irish life into it than the Scotch story has of surrounding +Scottish life?</p> + +<p>These details must have a place in the elucidation +of Irish folk-tales, because they have a very distinct +place indeed in primitive institutions; and it hence +becomes a question to folklorists as to how they have +entered into, or escaped from, the narrative of traditional +story. It appears to me that the appearance +or non-appearance of these phases of early life are +typical of what has been going on with the plot +and structure of folk-tales as long as they have remained +the traditional treasures of the people. A +story identical in all the main outlines of plot will be +varied in matters of detail, according to the people who +are using it in their daily routine of story-telling. But +this variation is always from the primitive to the +cultured, from the simple to the complex. The mud-cabin +or cave-dwelling in Irish story would have developed +into the palace in stories of a richer country like +England; the old woman, young girl, master and servant, +would become perhaps the queen, princess, king +and vassal; just as in Spanish and Portuguese stories +the giant of other European tales is represented by +"the Moor." If this process of change is a factor +in the life of the folk-tale, it follows that those folk-tales +which contain the greatest number of primitive +details are the most ancient, and come to us more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +directly from the prehistoric times which they represent.</p> + +<p>We may gather warrant for such a conclusion if we +pass from small details to a distinct institution. The +institution which stands out most clearly in early history +is the tribe, and I will therefore turn to an element +of ancient tribal life, and an element which has to do +with the practical organisation of that life, namely, the +tribal assembly. We find that the folk-tale records +under its fairy or non-historic guise many important +recollections of the assembly of the tribe. One very +natural feature of this assembly in early times was its +custom of meeting in the open air—a custom which +in later times still obtained, for reasons which were +the outcome of the prejudices existing in favour of +keeping up old customs. These reasons are recorded +in the formula of Anglo-Saxon times, that meetings +should not be held in any building, lest magic might +have power over the members of the assembly.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + +<p>Before turning to the tales of our own country, I will +first see whether savage and barbaric tales have recorded +anything on the subject, for their picture of the +tribal assembly, when revealed in the folk-tale, belongs +to the period which might have witnessed the making +of the story, and which certainly witnessed the tribal +organisation of the people as a living institution. +Dr. Callaway, in his <i>Nursery Tales and Traditions +of the Zulus</i>, relates a story of "the Girl-King." +"Where there are many young women," says the +story, "they assemble on the river where they live, +and appoint a chief over the young women, that no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +young woman may assume to act for herself. Well, +then they assemble and ask each other, 'Which among +the damsels is fit to be chief and reign well?' They +make many inquiries; one after another is nominated +and rejected, until at length they agree together to +appoint one, saying, 'Yes, so and so shall reign.'"<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> +However far this may be actually separated from the +political assembly of the Zulus, there is no doubt we +have here a folk-tale adaptation of events which were +happening around the relators of the tale. This is +all I am anxious to state, indeed. What in the folk-tale +was related of the girl-king, was a reflex only of +what happened when the political chieftain himself was +concerned.</p> + +<p>This, perhaps, is still better illustrated if we turn to +India. In the story of "How the Three Clever Men +outwitted the Demons," told by Miss Frere in her <i>Old +Deccan Days</i>, it is related how "a demon was compelled +to bring treasure to the pundit's house, and on +being asked why he had been so long away, answered, +'All my fellow-demons detained me, and would hardly +let me go, they were so angry at my bringing you so +much treasury; and though I told them how great and +powerful you are, they would not believe me, but will, +as soon as I return, judge me in solemn council for +serving you.' 'Where is your council held?' asked +the pundit. 'Oh! very far, far away,' answered the +demon, 'in the depths of the jungle, where our rajah +daily holds his court.' The three men, the pundit, the +wrestler, and the pearl-shooter, are taken by the demon +to witness the trial.... They reached the great jungle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +where the durbar (council) was to be held, and there he +(the demon) placed them on the top of a high tree just +over the demon rajah's throne. In a few minutes they +heard a rustling noise, and thousands and thousands of +demons filled the place, covering the ground as far as +the eye could reach, and thronging chiefly round the +rajah's throne."<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p> + +<p>A classical story told by Ælian gives us another interesting +example of this feature of early political life. +It is said of the Lady Rhodopis, who was alike fair and +frail, that of all the beautiful women in Egypt, she was +by far the most beautiful; and the story goes that one +time when she was bathing, Fortune, which always was +a lover of whatever may be the most unlikely and unexpected, +bestowed upon her rank and dignity that +were alone suitable for her transcendent charms; and +this was the way what I am now going to tell came to +pass. Rhodopis, before taking a bath, had given her +robes in charge to her attendants; but at the same time +there was an eagle flying over the bath, and it darted +down and flew away with one of her slippers. The +eagle flew away, and away, and away, until it got +to the city of Memphis, where the Prince Psammetichus +was sitting in the open air, and administering +justice to those subject to his sway; and as the eagle +flew over him it let the slipper fall from its beak, and it +fell down into the lap of Psammetichus. The prince +looked at the slipper, and the more he looked at it, the +more he marvelled at the beauty of the material and the +dainty minuteness of its size; and then he cogitated +upon the wondrous way in which such a thing was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +conveyed to him through the air by a bird; and then it was +he sent forth a proclamation to all parts of Egypt to try +to discover the woman to whom the slipper belonged, +and solemnly promised that whoever she might be he +would make her his bride.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + +<p>A very beautiful legend, which has been preserved +by the Rev. W. S. Lach-Szyrma,<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> carries into its fairy +narrative more of the realities of tribal life. Mr. Lach-Szyrma +obtained it from a peasant's chap-book, but it +professes to be an ancient Slovac folk-tale:—</p> + +<p>"An orphan girl is left with a cruel stepmother, who +has a daughter who is bad-tempered and disagreeable, +and extremely jealous of her. She becomes the +Cinderella of the house, is ill-treated and beaten, but +submits patiently. At last the harsh stepmother is +urged by her daughter to get rid of her. It is winter, +in the month of January; the snow has fallen, and the +ground is frozen. The cruel stepmother in this dreadful +weather bids the poor girl to go out in the forest, +and not to come back till she brings some violets with +her. After many entreaties for mercy the orphan is +driven out, and goes out in the snow on the hopeless +errand. As she enters the forest she sees a little way +on in the deep glade, under the leafless trees, a large +fire burning. As she draws near she perceives around +the fire are twelve stones, and on the stones sit twelve +men. The chief of them, sitting on the largest stone, +is an old man with a long snowy beard, and a great +staff in his hand. As she comes up to the fire the old +man asks her what she wants. She respectfully replies +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>by telling them, with many tears, her sad story. The +old man comforts her. 'I am January; I cannot give +you any violets, but brother March can.' So he turns +to a fine young man near him and says, 'Brother +March, sit in my place.' Presently the air around +grows softer. The snows around the fire melt. The +green grass appears, the flower-buds are to be seen. +At the orphan girl's feet a bed of violets appear. She +stoops and plucks a beautiful bouquet, which she brings +home to her astounded stepmother."</p> + +<p><a name="Illus08" id="Illus08"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_08.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_08th.jpg" width="400" height="327" +alt="Stone monuments erected as memorials in a Kasya village (reprinted from +"Asiatic Researches")." +title="STONE MONUMENTS AS MEMORIALS (KASYA)" /></a> +<span class="caption">STONE MONUMENTS AS MEMORIALS (KASYA)</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus09" id="Illus09"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_09.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_09th.jpg" width="400" height="138" +alt="Stone seats at a Kasya village (reprinted from "Asiatic Researches")." +title="STONE SEATS AT A KASYA VILLAGE" /></a> +<span class="caption">STONE SEATS AT A KASYA VILLAGE<br /> +(2 FEET TO 6 FEET IN DIAMETER)</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>How clearly this is a representation of the tribal +assembly worked into the folk-tale, where January +and the months are the tribal chiefs, may be illustrated +by a comparison with the actual events of Indian tribal +life. Within the stockaded village of Supar-Punji, in +Bengal, are two or three hundred monuments, large +and small, all formed of circular, solid stone slabs, supported +by upright stones, set on end, which enclose the +space below. On these the villagers sit on occasions +of state, each on his own stool, large or small, according +to his rank in the commonwealth.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a></p> + +<p>Now evidence such as this, showing how the folk-tale +among primitive people gets framed according to the +social conditions within which it originates, will help +us to realise the peculiar value of similar features +which may be found in the folk-tales of our own country. +English tales are nearly destitute of such illustrations +of primitive tribal life as this. Some of the giant +stories of Cornwall, such as that relating to the loose, +uncut stones in the district of Lanyon Quoit, on whose +tors "they do say the giants sit,"<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> may refer to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +tribal assembly place, but it is shorn of all its necessary +details, and we do not get many examples even in this +shortened form.</p> + +<p>Curiously enough, too, we find but little mention in +the Scotch tales of the open-air gatherings of the tribe. +The following quotation may refer to the custom perhaps, +but it is not conclusive: "On the day when +O'Donull came out to hold right and justice...." +(there were twelve men with him).<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> Another story +is more exact. Mr. Campbell took it down from a +fisherman in Barra (ii. 137). The hero-child Conall +tends the sheep of a widow with whom he lodged. +"To feed these sheep he broke down the dykes which +guarded the neighbours' fields. The neighbours made +complaint to the king, and asked for justice. The king +gave foolish judgment, whereat his neck was turned +awry, and the judgment-seat kicked. Conall gave a +correct decision and released the king. He did this a +second time, and the people said he must have king's +blood in him." This allusion to the kicking of the +judgment-seat is a very instructive illustration of tribal +chieftainship and comes within that branch of the +subject with which we are now dealing.</p> + +<p>But when we pass from Britain to Ireland, there is +at once a great storehouse of examples to be given. +In Dr. Joyce's <i>Old Celtic Romances</i> there are some +remarkable passages, which give us a good picture of +the assemblies of primitive times. These passages, it +should be noted, occur quite incidentally during the +course of the story—they belong to the same era as the +fairy-legend, the giant, and the witch, and taken as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>types of what was going on everywhere in prehistoric +times, they tell us much that is very valuable.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus10" id ="Illus10"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_10.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_10th.jpg" width="400" height="310" +alt="View in the Kasya Hills, showing stone memorials (reprinted from +"Asiatic Researches")." +title="VIEW IN THE KASYA HILLS SHOWING STONE MEMORIALS" /></a> +<span class="caption">VIEW IN THE KASYA HILLS SHOWING STONE MEMORIALS</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>A great fair-meeting was held by the King of Ireland, +Nuada of the Silver Hand, on the Hill of Usna. +Not long had the people been assembled, when they +beheld a stately band of warriors, all mounted on white +steeds, coming towards them from the east, and at +their head rode a young champion, tall and comely. +"This young warrior was Luga of the Long Arms.... +This troop came forward to where the King of Erin +sat surrounded by the Dedannans, and both parties +exchanged friendly greetings. A short time after this +they saw another company approaching, quite unlike +the first, for they were grim and surly-looking; namely, +the tax-gatherers of the Fomorians, to the number of +nine nines, who were coming to demand their yearly +tribute from the men of Erin. When they reached the +place where the king sat, the entire assembly—the +king himself among the rest—rose up before them." +Here, without following the story further, the assembling +in arms, the payment of the tributes at the council-hill, +the sitting of the king and his assembly, are all +significant elements of the primitive assembly. In a +later part of the same story we have "the Great Plain +of the Assembly" mentioned (p. 48). Another graphic +picture is given a little later on, when the warrior Luga, +above mentioned, demands justice upon the slayers of +his father, at the great council on Tara hill. Luga +asked the king that the chain of silence should be +shaken; and when it was shaken, when all were +listening in silence, he stood up and made his plea, +which ended in the eric-fine being imposed upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +three children of Turenn, the accomplishment of which +forms the basis of the fairy-tale which follows (p. 54). +Then, in another place in the same tale, when the +brothers are on their adventurous journey, fulfilling +their eric-fine, they come to the house of the King of +Sigar; and it "happened that the king was holding +a fair-meeting on the broad, level green before the +palace."</p> + +<p>In another story the hero Maildun asks the island +queen how she passes her life, and the reply is, +"The good king who formerly ruled over this +island was my husband. He died after a long reign, +and as he left no son, I now reign, the sole ruler +of the island. And every day I go to the Great +Plain, to administer justice and to decide causes +among my people."</p> + +<p>The beginning of another story is—"Once upon +a time, a noble, warlike king ruled over Lochlann, +whose name was Colga of the Hard Weapons. On +a certain occasion, this king held a meeting of his chief +people, on the broad, green plain before his palace of +Berva. And when they were all gathered together, +he spoke to them in a loud, clear voice, from where he +sat high on his throne; and he asked them whether +they found any fault with the manner in which he ruled +them, and whether they knew of anything deserving +of blame in him as their sovereign lord and king. +They replied, as if with the voice of one man, that they +found no fault of any kind."</p> + +<p>The last example is also a valuable one. A dispute +has occurred respecting the enchanted horse, the Gilla +Dacker, and "a meeting was called on the green to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +hear the award." Speeches are made and the awards +are given.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p> + +<p>I think it will be admitted that the folk-tales of Britain +refer back in such cases to the organisation of the tribe +in early times, and the only possible conclusion to be +drawn from this fact is that they too belong to early +times and that they have brought with them to modern +days these valuable fragments of history which are +hardly to be discovered in any other historical document.</p> + +<p>We have thus shown that the folk-tale contains many +fragmentary details of ancient social conditions, and +further that it contains more than mere details in the +larger place it assigns to important features of tribal +institutions. It now remains to see whether apart from +incident the very structure and heart of the folk-tale +is founded upon conceptions of life. I will take as an +example the well-known story of Catskin. This story +contains one remarkable feature running through many +of the variants, and a second which is found in practically +all of them. Both these features are perfectly +impossible to modern creative fancy, and I venture to +think we shall find their true origin in the actual facts +of primitive life, not in the wondrous flight of primitive +fancy.</p> + +<p>The opening incidents of "Catskin" are thus related:—</p> + +<p>"A certain king, having lost his wife, and mourned +for her even more than other men do, suddenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +determines, by way of relieving his sorrows, to marry his +own daughter. The princess obtains a suspension of +this odious purpose by requiring from him three beautiful +dresses, which take a long time to prepare. These +dresses are a robe of the colour of the sky, a robe of +the colour of the moon, a third robe of the colour of +the sun, the latter being embroidered with the rubies +and diamonds of his crown. The three dresses being +made and presented to her, the princess is checkmated, +and accordingly asks for something even more valuable +in its way. The king has an ass that produces gold coins +in profusion every day of his life. This ass the princess +asked might be sacrificed, in order that she might have +his skin. This desire even was granted. The princess, +thus defeated altogether, puts on the ass's skin, rubs +her face over with soot, and runs away. She takes a +situation with a farmer's wife to tend the sheep and +turkeys of the farm."</p> + +<p>The remainder of the story much resembles Cinderella's +famous adventures, and I need not repeat it +here. The pith of the story turns upon the fact that a +father purposes to marry his own daughter, or, in some +versions, his daughter-in-law; and the daughter, +naturally, as we say, objecting to this arrangement, +runs away, and hence her many adventures. This +famous story, told by English nurses to English +children, long before literature stepped across the +sacred precincts of the nursery, is also told in Ireland +and Scotland. It is also current in France, +Italy, Germany, Russia, Lithuania, and many other +nations; and throughout all these versions, differing, +of course, in some matters of detail, the selfsame<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +incident is observable—the father wishing to +marry his own daughter, and the daughter running +away.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> This incident, therefore, must be older than the +several nations who have preserved it from their +common home, where the tale was originally told with +a special value that is now lost. It must then belong +to primitive man, and not to civilised man, and must be +judged by the standard of morals belonging to primitive +man. It is not sufficient, or, indeed, in any way to +the point, to say that the idea of marrying one's own +daughter is horrible and detestable to modern ideas; +we must place ourselves in a position to judge of +such a state of affairs from an altogether different +standpoint. And what do we find in primitive society? +We find that women were the property, not the help-mates, +of their husbands. And the question hence +arises, in what relation did the children stand in respect +to their parents? The answer comes from almost all +parts of the primitive world that, in certain stages of +society, the children were related to their mother only. +It is worth while pausing one moment to give evidence +upon the fact. Thus McLennan says of the Australians, +"it is not in quarrels uncommon to find children of the +same father arrayed against one another, or indeed, +against their father himself; for by their peculiar law +<i>the father can never be a relative of his children</i>."<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> This +is not the language, though it is the evidence, of the +latest research, and another phase of it is represented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +by the custom, as among the Ahts of Vancouver Island, +that in case of separation while the children are +young, the children go always with the mother to their +own tribe.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p> + +<p>Here we see that the relationship between father and +daughter was in no way considered in ancient society +of the type to which Australians and Ahts belonged, +and it is now one of the accepted facts of anthropology +that at certain stages of savage life fatherhood +was not recognised. That this non-relationship +of the father very often resulted in the further stage +of the father marrying his daughter, is exemplified by +many examples. The story of Lot and his daughters, +for instance, will at once occur to the reader, and +upon this Mr. Fenton has some observations, to +which I may refer the student who wishes to pursue +this curious subject further,<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> while Mr. Frazer, in +his recent study of Adonis, has discussed the practice +with his usual extent of knowledge.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> Again, it should +be remembered that in our own chronicle histories +Vortigern is said to have married his own daughter, +though the legend and the supposed consequences of +the marriage have been twisted from their original +primitive surroundings by the monkish chroniclers, +through whom we obtain the story.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> Turning next to the +daughter-in-law, supposing that the difference between +"daughter" and "daughter-in-law" (query stepdaughter) +in the story variants is a vital difference, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +not an accidental difference, there is curious and important +evidence from India. The following custom prevails +among certain classes of Sudras, particularly the +Vella-lahs in Koimbator: "A father marries a grown-up +girl eighteen or twenty years old to his son, a boy of +seven or eight, after which he publicly lives with his +daughter-in-law, until the youth attains his majority, +when his wife is made over to him, generally with half +a dozen children. These children are taught to address +him as their father. In several cases this woman +becomes the common wife of the father and son. She +pays every respect due to her wedded husband, and +takes great care of him from the time of her marriage. +The son, in his turn, hastens to celebrate the marriage +of his acquired son, with the usual pomps, ceremonies, +and tumasha, and keeps the bride for himself as his +father had done."<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> But even further than this, ancient +Hindu law allowed the father, who had no prospect of +having legitimate sons, to "appoint" or nominate a +daughter who should bear a son to himself, and not to +her own husband.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> Sir Henry Maine gives the formula +for this remarkable appointment, and then goes on to +say that some customs akin to the Hindu usage of appointing +a daughter appear to have been very widely +diffused over the ancient world, and traces of them are +found far down in history.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p> + +<p>What we have before us, therefore, to guide us +in the view we take of the story incident of a father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +marrying his own daughter, may be summarised as +follows:—</p> + +<p>1. The father is not related to his daughter, and hence +examples occur of fathers marrying daughters.</p> + +<p>2. The custom of marrying a daughter-in-law.</p> + +<p>3. The custom of nominating a daughter to bear a +son.</p> + +<p>From any one of these facts of primitive life we +arrive at the central incident in the story of Catskin: +the father could marry his daughter without specially +shocking the society of the primitive world, simply because, +according to primitive ideas, father and daughter, +as we call her, were not related.</p> + +<p>We now arrive at the second incident—the running +away of Catskin. This again is a very early form of +marriage custom. Women of primitive times often +objected to the forced marriages, and they expressed +their objection very often by running away. In the instance +of Catskin the running away was successful, +as we all know; but in most instances the unwilling +bride was captured and forced to surrender. Mr. +Farrer, in his <i>Primitive Manners and Customs</i>, quite +clears the ground for the refutation of an argument +that might be applied if we did not know the customs +of primitive society. It might be asked, why did Catskin +run away if the custom was a usual one? For the +same reason, we answer, that the women of savage +society often do run away—objection to the marriage.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +Thus we have to note that the two principal features +of our ordinary Catskin story are explainable by a +reference to primitive manners and customs; and it +seems to me much easier and much more reasonable to +thus explain the origin of the Catskin story, than first +of all to create a "lovely myth," as the mythologists +would undoubtedly have a right to call it, of the Sun +pursuing the Dawn, and then to say that the Catskin +story is simply a relation of this myth.</p> + +<p>The opening incident of the Catskin story, as thus +interpreted, is not an isolated case of the survival of +primitive marriage customs in popular stories. If it +were so, there would be considerable difficulty in +the way of supporting this interpretation. But it is +only saying of Catskin what can be said of other +stories. "There are traces," says Mr. Campbell, +speaking of his Highland stories, "of foreign or +forgotten laws and customs. A man buys a wife as +he would a cow, and acquires a right to shoot her, +which is acknowledged as good law."<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> Yes, this is +good savage law and custom there is no doubt, and +Lord Avebury and Mr. McLennan have illustrated +it by examples. But in the Highland story of the +"Battle of the Birds" the wife is sought to be purchased +for a hundred pounds (Campbell, i. 36), and in +the Irish story of the "Lazy Beauty and her Aunts" +we find something like bride-capture and purchase as +well.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> So, again, if we turn to India the same kind of +evidence is forthcoming of another part of the primitive +ceremony. "Do not think," retorted the Malee<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +in a story collected by Miss Frere, "that I'll make +a fool of myself because I'm only a Malee, and +believe what you've got to say because you're a great +Rajah. If you mean what you say, if you care for my +daughter and wish to be married to her, come and be +married; but I'll have none of your new-fangled forms +and court ceremonies hard to be understood; let the +girl be married by her father's hearth, and under her +father's roof."<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> And in another story of the "Chundun +Rajah" we have "the scattering rice and flowers +upon their heads;"<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> the significance of both of which +customs are fully known.</p> + +<p>These illustrations of the contact, the necessary contact, +of tradition and history show that contact to be +equally true of the folk-tale as it is of the local or +personal legend. They all point to the substratum +of fact underlying tradition, to the absorption by +tradition of many features of the life by which it +is surrounded, or to the absorption by some great +historic person or event of the living tradition of +his time or place. This contact is a fact equally +important to history and to folklore. It cannot be +neglected by either. It stands for something in the +analysis which every student must give of the material +with which he is working, and that something has a +value, sometimes great and sometimes small, which +must influence the estimate of the material which both +history and folklore supply in the unravelling of man's +past.</p> + +<p>I will now finally give a more complicated example +of the folk-tale as illustrative of the connection<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +between history and tradition. Mr. J. F. Campbell +printed a tale in the second volume of the <i>Transactions +of the Ethnological Society</i> (p. 336), which +had been sent to him in Gaelic by John Davan, in +December, 1862—that is, after the publication of the +fourth volume of his <i>Highland Tales</i>. The tale is +only in outline, but in quite sufficient fulness for my +present purpose, as follows:—</p> + +<p>There was a man at some time or other who was well +off, and had many children. When the family grew +up the man gave a well-stocked farm to each of his +children. When the man was old his wife died, and he +divided all that he had amongst his children, and lived +with them, turn about, in their houses. The sons and +daughters got tired of him and ungrateful, and tried to +get rid of him when he came to stay with them. At +last an old friend found him sitting tearful by the wayside, +and learning the cause of his distress, took him +home; there he gave him a bowl of gold and a lesson +which the old man learned and acted. When all the +ungrateful sons and daughters had gone to a preaching, +the old man went to a green knoll where his +grandchildren were at play, and pretending to hide, he +turned up a flat hearthstone in an old stance,<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> and +went out of sight. He spread out his gold on a big +stone in the sunlight, and he muttered, "Ye are +mouldy, ye are hoary, ye will be better for the sun." +The grandchildren came sneaking over the knoll, and +when they had seen and heard all that they were intended +to see and hear, they came running up with, +"Grandfather, what have you got there?" "That which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +concerns you not; touch it not," said the grandfather; +and he swept his gold into a bag and took it home to +his old friend. The grandchildren told what they had +seen, and henceforth the children strove who should +be kindest to the old grandfather. Still acting on the +counsel of his sagacious old chum, he got a stout little +black chest made, and carried it always with him. +When any one questioned him as to its contents, his +answer was, "That will be known when the chest is +opened." When he died he was buried with great +honour and ceremony, and then the chest was opened +by the expectant heirs. In it were found broken potsherds +and bits of slate, and a long-handled, white +wooden mallet with this legend on its head:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"So am favioche fiorum,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thabhavit gnoc annsa cheann,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do n'fhear nach gleidh maoin da' fein,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ach bheir a chuid go leir d'a chlann."<br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Here is the fair mall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To give a knock on the skull<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the man who keeps no gear for himself,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But gives all to his bairns."<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Wright, in his collection of Latin stories, published +by the Percy Society in 1842 (pp. 28-29), gives a +variant of this tale under the title of "De divite qui +dedit omnia filio suo," and, so far as can be judged +by the abstract, the parallel between the two narratives, +separated by at least five centuries of time, is remarkably +close. The latter part is apparently different, for +the Latin version tells how the man pretended that the +chest contained a sum of money, part of which was to +be applied for the good of his soul, and the rest to +dispose of as he pleased. But at the point of death<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +his children opened the chest. "Antequam totaliter +expiraret, ad cistam currentes nihil invenerunt nisi +malleum, in quo Anglicè scriptum est:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Wyht suylc a betel be he smyten,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That al the werld hyt mote wyten,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That gyfht his sone al his thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And goht hym self a beggyn.'"<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Here, then, is a case whereby to test the problem of +the position of folk-tales as historical material. Did the +people adopt this tale from literature into tradition and +keep it alive for five centuries; or did some early and +unconscious folklorist adapt it into literature? The +literary version has the flavour of its priestly influence, +which does not appear in the traditional version; and I +make the preliminary observation that if literature could +have so stamped itself upon the memory of the folk as +to have preserved all the essentials of such a story as +this, it must have been due to some academic influence +(of which, however, there is no evidence), and this +influence would have preserved a nearer likeness to +literary forms than the peasant's tale presents to us. +But the objection to this theory is best shown by an +analysis of the tale, and by some research into the +possible sources of its origin.</p> + +<p>The story presents us with the following essential +incidents:—</p> + +<p>1. The gift of a well-stocked farm by a father to each +of his children.</p> + +<p>2. The surrender of all property during the owner's +lifetime.</p> + +<p>3. The living of the old father with each of his +children.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +4. The attempted killing of the old man.</p> + +<p>5. The mallet bearing the inscription.</p> + +<p>6. The rhyming formula of the inscription.</p> + +<p>Mr. Campbell notes the first and third of these incidents +in his original abstract of the story,<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> but of the +remaining second, fourth, fifth, and sixth no note has +hitherto been taken.</p> + +<p>Of the first incident, the gift of a well-stocked farm +by a father to each of his children, Mr. Campbell says: +"This subdivision of land by tenants is the dress and +declaration put on by a class who now tell this tale." +But it also represents an ancient system of swarming +off from the parent household when society was in a +tribal stage. The incident of the tale is exactly reproduced +in local custom. In the island of Skye the +possessor of a few acres of land cut them up only a few +years ago into shreds and patches to afford a separate +dwelling for each son and daughter who married.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> In +Kinross, in 1797, the same practice prevailed. "Among +the feuars the parents are in many instances disposed +to relinquish and give up to their children their landed +possessions or the principal part of them, retaining +only for themselves some paltry pendicle or patch of +ground."<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> In Ireland and in Cornwall much the +same evidence is forthcoming, and elsewhere I have +taken some pains to show that these local customs are +the isolated survivals in late times of early tribal practices.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a></p> + +<p>We next turn to the second essential incident of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +tale—the surrender of the estate during the owner's +lifetime. This is a well-marked feature of early +custom, and Du Chaillu has preserved something +like the survival of the ritual observances connected +with it in his account of the Scandinavian practice. +On a visit to Husum he witnessed the ceremonial +which attended the immemorial custom of the farm +coming into possession of the eldest son, the father +still being alive. The following is Mr. Du Chaillu's +description, and the details are important: "The +dinner being ready, all the members of the family came +in and seated themselves around the board, the father +taking, as is customary, the head of the table. All at +once, Roar, who was not seated, came to his father and +said, 'Father, you are getting old; let me take your +place.' 'Oh, no, my son,' was the answer, 'I am not +too old to work; it is not yet time: wait awhile.' +Then, with an entreating look, Roar said, 'Oh, father, +all your children and myself are often sorry to see you +look so tired when the day's labour is over: the work +of the farm is too much for you; it is time for you to +rest and do nothing. Rest in your old age. Oh, let +me take your place at the head of the table.' All the +faces were now extremely sober, and tears were seen in +many eyes. 'Not yet, my son.' 'Oh, yes, father.' +Then said the whole family, 'Now it is time for you to +rest.' He rose, and Roar took his place, and was then +the master. His father, henceforth, would have nothing +to do, was to live in a comfortable house, and to +receive yearly a stipulated amount of grain or flour, +potatoes, milk, cheese, butter, meat, etc."<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> Without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +stopping to analyse this singular ceremony in detail, it +is important to note that old age is the assigned cause +of resignation by the father of his estate; that the +ceremony is evidently based upon traditional forms, +the meaning of which is not distinctly comprehended +by the present performers; that the father is supported +by his successor. As a proof that we have +here a survival of very ancient practice, it may be +noticed that in Spiti, a part of the Punjab, an exact +parallel occurs. There the father retires from the headship +of the family when his eldest son is of full age, +and has taken unto himself a wife; on each estate there +is a kind of dower-house with a plot of land attached, +to which the father in these cases retires.<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> In Bavaria +and in Würtemberg the same custom obtains,<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> and the +sagas of the North also confirm it as an ancient +custom.<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> + +<p>Of the third incident in the tale, the living of the +father with his children, Mr. Campbell says this points +to the old Highland cluster of houses and to the farm +worked by several families in common,<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> and I think we +have here the explanation why the father in Scotland +did not have his "dower-house," as he did in Scandinavia +and in Spiti.</p> + +<p>We next come to the fourth incident, the attempted +killing of the old father. Now, from some of the +earliest accounts of travels in Britain, we know that +the death of the aged by violence was a signal element +of the native customs. "They die only when they have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +lived long enough; for when the aged men have made +good cheere and anoynted their bodies with sweet ointments +they leape off a certain rocke into the sea." +That we have in this episode of the story, remains of +customs which once existed in the North, Mr. Elton +affords proof, both from saga-history and from the +practice of later times, when "the Swedes and Pomeranians +killed their old people in the way which was +indicated by the passage quoted above."<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> It is the +custom of many savage tribes, and the observances +made use of are sometimes suggestive of the facts of +the tale we are now analysing. Thus, among the +Todas of the Nilgiri Hills, they place the old people in +large earthen jars with some food, and leave them to +perish;<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> while among the Hottentots, Kolben says, +"when persons become unable to perform the least +office for themselves they are then placed in a solitary +hut at a considerable distance, with a small +stock of provisions within their reach, where they +are left to die of hunger, or be devoured by the wild +beasts."<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> + +<p>The important bearing of these incidents of barbarous +and savage life upon our subject will be seen when +we pass on to our fifth incident, namely, the significant +use of the mallet. Some curious explanations have +been given of this. Mr. Thorns once thought it might +be identified with Malleus, the name of the Devil.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> +Nork has attempted with more reason to identify it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +with the hammer of Thor.<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> But the real identification +is closer than this. Thus, it is connected with the +Valhalla practices, already noted, by the fact that if an +old Norseman becomes too frail to travel to the cliff, in +order to throw himself over, his kinsman would save +him the disgrace of dying "like a cow in the straw," +and would beat him to death with the family club.<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> +Mr. Elton, who quotes this passage, adds in a note +that one of the family clubs is still preserved at a farm +in East Gothland.<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> Aubrey has preserved an old English +"countrie story" of "the holy mawle, which (they +fancy) hung behind the church dore, which, when the +father was seaventie, the sonne might fetch to knock +his father in the head, as effœte, & of no more use."<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> +That Aubrey preserved a true tradition is proved by +what we learn of similar practices elsewhere. Thus, in +fifteenth-century MSS. of prose romances found in +English and also in Welsh, Sir Perceval, in his adventures +in quest of the Holy Grail, being at one time ill +at ease, congratulates himself that he is not like those +men of Wales, where sons pull their fathers out of bed +and kill them to save the disgrace of their dying in +bed.<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> Keysler cites several instances of this savage +custom in Prussia, and a Count Schulenberg rescued +an old man who was being beaten to death by his sons +at a place called Jammerholz, or "Woful Wood;" +while a Countess of Nansfield, in the fourteenth +century, is said to have saved the life of an old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +man on the Lüneberg Heath under similar circumstances.</p> + +<p>Our investigation of barbarous and savage customs, +which connect themselves with the essential incidents of +this Highland tale, has at this point taken us outside the +framework of the story. The old father in the tale was +not killed by the mallet, but he is said to have used it +as a warning to others to stop the practice of giving up +their property during lifetime. We have already seen +that this practice was an actual custom in early times, +appearing in local survivals both in England and +Scotland. Therefore the story must have arisen at a +time when this practice was undergoing a change. We +must note, too, that the whole story leads up to the +finding of a mallet with the rhyming inscription written +thereon, connecting it with the instrument of death to +the aged, but only on certain conditions. If, then, we +can find that the rhyming inscription on the mallet has +an existence quite apart from the story, and if we can +find that mallets bearing such an inscription do actually +exist, we may fairly conclude that the story, which, in +Scotland, is the vehicle of transmission of the rhyme, +is of later origin than the rhyme itself.</p> + +<p>First of all, it is to be noted under this head that +Wright, in a note to the Latin story we have already +quoted, gives from John of Bromyard's <i>Summa Predicantium</i> +another English version of the verse—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Wit this betel the smieth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And alle the worle thit wite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thevt the ungunde alle thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And goht him selve a beggyng,"<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>which shows, I think, the popularity of the verse in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +vernacular. Clearly, then, the Latin version is a translation +of this, and not <i>vice <ins class="correction" title="'versa' in original">versâ</ins></i>. +It must have been a rhyming formula in the vernacular, which had a +life of its own quite outside its adoption into literature.</p> + +<p>This inferential proof of the actual life of the English +rhyming formula is confirmed by actual facts in the case +of the corresponding German formula. Nork, in the +volume I have already quoted, collects evidence from +Grimm, Haupt, and others, which proves that sometimes +in front of a house, as at Osnabrück, and sometimes at +the city gate, as in several of the cities of Silesia and +Saxony, there hangs a mallet with this inscription:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Wer den kindern gibt das Brod<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Und selber dabei leidet Noth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Den schlagt mit dieser keule todt"—<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>which Mr. Thoms has Englished thus:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Who to his children gives his bread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thereby himself suffers need,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With this mallet strike him dead."<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a><br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>These rhymes are the same as those in the Scottish +tale and its Latin analogue, and that they are preserved +on the selfsame instrument which is mentioned in the +story as bearing the inscription is proof enough, I +think, that the mallets and their rhyming formulæ are +far older than the story. They are not mythical, the +story is; their history is contained in the facts we have +above detailed; the life of the folk-tale commences +when the use or formula of the mallet ceases to be part +of the social institutions.</p> + +<p>To the rhyming formulæ, then, I would trace the rise +of the mythic tale told by the Highland peasant in 1862<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +to Mr. J. F. Campbell. The old customs which we +have detailed as the true origin of the mallet, and its +hideous use in killing the aged and infirm, had died out, +but the symbol of them remained. To explain the +symbol a myth was created, which kept sufficiently +near to the original idea as to retain evidence of its +close connection with the descent of property; and thus +was launched the dateless, impersonal, unlocalised story +which Mr. Campbell has given as a specimen of vagrant +traditions, which "must have been invented after +agriculture and fixed habitations, after laws of property +and inheritance; but it may be as old as the lake-dwellings +of Switzerland, or Egyptian civilisation, or +Adam, whose sons tilled the earth."<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> I would venture +to rewrite the last clause of this dictum of the great +master of folk-tales, and I would suggest that the +story, whatever its age as a story, tells us of facts in +the life of its earliest narrators which do not belong to +Teutonic or Celtic history. The Teuton and the Celt, +with their traditional reverence for parental authority, +at once patriarchal and priestly, would retain, with +singular clearness, the memory of traditions, or it may +be observations, of an altogether different set of ideas +which belonged to the race with which they first came +into contact. But whether the story is a mythic interpretation +by Celts of pre-Celtic practices, or a pre-Celtic +tradition, varied as soon as it became the +property of the Celt to suit Celtic ideas, it clearly takes +us back to practices very remote, to use Mr. Elton's +forcible words, from the reverence for the parents' +authority which might have perhaps been expected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +from descendants of "the Aryan household."<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> These +practices lead us back to a period of savagery, of which +we have to speak in terms of race distinction if we +would get at its root.<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> The importance of such a conclusion +cannot be overrated, for it leads directly to the +issue which must be raised whenever an investigation +of tradition leaves us with materials, which are promptly +rejected as fragments of Celtic history because they are +too savage, but which need not therefore be rejected as +history, because they may be referred further back than +Celtic history.</p> + +<p>If we proceed by more drastic methods, by the methods +of statistics, we shall arrive at much the same conclusion.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> +Taking the first twelve stories in Grimm's +great collection, we find that seven of them yield +elements which we are entitled to call savage, because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +they are so far removed from the European culture +amidst which the folk-tales have lived, and because these +elements belong not to the accidentals of the stories but +to the essentials. Thus, if we divide the folk-tale into +its components, we shall find that it consists of three +features:—</p> + +<p>1. The story radicals, or essential plot;</p> + +<p>2. The story accidentals, or illustrative points;</p> + +<p>3. Modern gloss upon the events in the story—</p> + +<p>and if we go on to allocate the various incidents of +the stories to these three heads, we get the following +common results with regard to seven out of the twelve +first stories of Grimm's great collection:—</p> + +<h4>I.—<span class="smcap">Frog Prince</span></h4> + +<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="Table of common results"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%"> </td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story radicals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story accidentals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Added features</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Modern gloss</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1. Savage elements</td> + <td class="tdl">Youngest daughter<br /> +<br /> +Fountain or well the locality of leading incident<br /> +<br /> +Frog prince—totem<br /> +<br /> +Frog prince stays at the house of his future wife<br /> +<br /> +Exogamous marriage, the prince coming from a foreign country</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">2. Fantastic element</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdl">Faithful servant whose heart is bound by iron bands</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">3. Rank and splendour</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdl">Kingly state and its trappings—the princess wears +a crown on ordinary occasions, and yet opens the door to a visitor while +at dinner</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> +<h4>III.—<span class="smcap">Our Lady's Child</span></h4> + +<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="Table of common results"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%"> </td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story radicals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story accidentals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Added features</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Modern gloss</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1. Savage elements</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdl">Naked forest woman captured for wife<br /> +<br /> +Suspicion that she is a cannibal</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">3. Rank and splendour</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdl">Virgin Mary and heaven the central features of the +heroine's adventures</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">4. Moral characteristics</td> + <td class="tdl">Punishment for curiosity</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<h4>IV.—<span class="smcap">The Youth who Wants to Learn to Shudder</span></h4> + +<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="Table of common results"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%"> </td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story radicals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story accidentals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Added features</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Modern gloss</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1. Savage elements</td> + <td class="tdl">Winning of wife by service<br /> +<br /> +Succession to kingship through wife—female kinship<br /> +<br /> +Treasure guarded by spirits</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">2. Fantastic element</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdl">The adventures in the haunted castle</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">3. Rank and splendour</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdl">Kingly state</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">4. Moral characteristics</td> + <td class="tdl">Bravery</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> +</table> + + +<h4>V.—<span class="smcap">The Wolf and Seven Little Kids</span></h4> + +<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="Table of common results"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%"> </td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story radicals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story accidentals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Added features</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Modern gloss</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1. Savage elements</td> + <td class="tdl">Talking animals<br /> +<br /> +Cutting open of the animal to free the swallowed kids, and refilling the +stomach with stones</td> + <td class="tdl">Criticism upon men as compared with animals, 'truly men +are like that'</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> +<h4>VI.—<span class="smcap">Faithful John</span></h4> + +<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="Table of common results"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%"> </td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story radicals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story accidentals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Added features</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Modern gloss</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1. Savage elements</td> + <td class="tdl">Capture of bride<br /> +<br /> +Talking of animals<br /> +<br /> +Three taboos—<br /> + Horse<br /> + Garment<br /> + Sucking of breasts<br /> +<br /> +Sacrifice of children and sprinkling of their blood on a stone<br /> +<br /> +Human origin of stone pillar</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">3. Rank and splendour</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdl">Kingly state and great wealth in gold and riches</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">4. Moral characteristics</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdl">Punishment for curiosity</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<h4>IX.—<span class="smcap">The Twelve Brothers</span></h4> + +<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="Table of common results"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%"> </td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story radicals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story accidentals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Added features</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Modern gloss</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1. Savage elements</td> + <td class="tdl">Going [causing to go] away of sons, so that the +inheritance should fall to the daughter<br /> +<br /> +Change of brothers into ravens<br /> +<br /> +Life dependent on an outside object</td> + <td class="tdl">Forest life</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">3. Rank and splendour</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdl">Kingly state</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">4. Moral characteristics</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<h4>XI.—<span class="smcap">Brother and Sister</span></h4> + +<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="Table of common results"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%"> </td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story radicals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Story accidentals</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Added features</td> + <td class="tdc" style="width: 20%">Modern gloss</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1. Savage elements</td> + <td class="tdl">Transformation of hero into roebuck after drinking at stream</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + <td class="tdc">—</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +There are thus savage elements in seven out of +twelve stories, and the question becomes an important +one as to how this is. They are the stories of the +nursery, told by mothers to children, stories kept alive +by tradition, and the only possible answer to our +question is that they contain fragments of the early +culture-history of the ancestors, or at all events the +predecessors, of those who have preserved them for our +use. An occasional savage incident might have been +considered a freak of the original narrator, or a borrowing +by one of the countless late narrators of these +stories brought home from savage countries; but +statistics disprove both of these suppositions. It is not +accidental but persistent savagery we meet with in +the folk-tale. It is also the savagery to be found +amongst modern peoples still in the savage stage of +culture.</p> + +<p>This is proved in a very complete manner by Mr. +MacCulloch, whose study provides the material for a +statistical survey of story incidents founded on primitive +custom and belief.<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> They are the most ancient +history to which we have access. That this history is +contained in the folk-tales of modern peasantry shows +it to have come from that far-off period which saw the +earliest condition of these people. It is still history, if +it tells us of a life which preceded the written record. +It is history of the most valuable description, for it +is to be found nowhere else as relating to the remotest +period of European civilisation. The modern savage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +is better off in this respect. He has an outside historian +in the traveller and the anthropologist of modern days. +The savage who was ancestor to our own people had +no such means of becoming known to history, or had +but very limited means, and it is only in the deathless +tradition that we can trace him out.</p> + +<p>These conclusions have been drawn from that great +class of tradition preserved by historic peoples in +historic times, and yet unmistakably pointing to prehistoric +culture. We have been able to show the +methods to be adopted for, and the results of, disengaging +the myth which has gravitated to the +historic person or place from the historic facts which +have become part of the legend, and to trace out in the +folk-tale facts which belong to a culture far removed +from civilised life. There are thus revealed two +distinct centres of influence, the traditional centre and +the historic centre, and it is obvious that the question +must be asked—which is the more important? It seems +to me equally obvious that the answer must be given in +favour of the historic. History is indebted to tradition +for preserving some of the most remote facts of racial +or national life, which but for tradition would have +been lost, and if we are content to use this tradition +as a storehouse from which we may provide ourselves +with ancient historical documents, we can trace out +therefrom points in the history of any given country +wherever the traditions have been preserved.</p> + +<p>The folk-tale, in point of fact, equally with the personal +and local legend, comes into close contact with history. +The periods of history in the folk-tales are different from +those in the legends, but together these periods reach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +from prehistoric culture to historic event. We cannot, +however, call this extent of time a continuous period, +and we cannot point to definite stages within the +detached periods. Much more research must be accomplished +before it will be possible to claim such results +as these. I have indicated some points of difficulty, +some methods of treatment which appear to me to be +wrong, and to which I shall have again to refer later on; +but in the meantime, from the necessarily incomplete +evidence which I have been able to produce, it is, I +think, abundantly clear that folklore has to be studied +from its historical surroundings if we would draw from +it all that it is capable of telling.</p> + + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>In the meantime it is well to bear in mind that there +is one important department of history which has +always been frankly and unhesitatingly accepted as +history and yet which has no stronger foundation than +tradition, and tradition of the most formal kind. I +allude to the early laws of most of the peoples who +have become possessed of an historic civilisation. +These laws have all been preserved by tradition, are in +rhyme or rhythm in order to assist the memory, have +become the sacred repository of a school or class of +priests, and have finally been reduced to writing by a +great lawgiver, who by the act of giving the people +written laws has had attributed to him supernatural +origin and powers. That history should have accepted +from tradition such an important section of its material +is worth consideration by itself, apart from its bearing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +on the present study, and I shall proceed, therefore, to +set out some of the chief facts in this connection.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that in the tribal society of +Indo-European peoples the laws and rules which +governed the various members of the tribe were deemed +to be sacred and were preserved by tradition. The +opening clauses of the celebrated Laws of Manu illustrate +this position. "The great sages approached +Manu, who was seated with a collected mind, and +having worshipped him spoke as follows: Deign, divine +one, to declare to us precisely and in due order the +sacred laws of each of the four chief castes and of the +intermediate ones. For thou, O Lord, alone knowest +the purport, the rites, and the knowledge of the soul +taught in this whole ordinance of the self-existent +which is unknowable and unfathomable."<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> They were +not only sacred in origin but they dealt with sacred +things, and Sir Henry Maine has drawn the broad +conclusion that "there is no system of recorded law, +literally from China to Peru, which, when it first +emerges into notice, is not seen to be entangled with +religious ritual and observance."<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> In Greece the lawgivers +were supposed to be divinely inspired, Minôs +from Jupiter, Lykurgos from the Delphic god, +Zaleukos from Pallas.<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> The earliest notions of law +are connected with Themis the Goddess of Justice.<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +Rome it is to Romulus himself that is attributed the +first positive law, and it is by a college of priests that +the laws were preserved.<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> In Scandinavia the laws +were in the custody and charge of the temple priests, +and the accumulated evidence for the sacred origin +and connection of the laws is to be found in the sagas.<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> +Among the Celtic peoples it is well known that the +laws were preserved and administered by the Brehons, +who are compared with the Hindu Brahmins by Sir +Henry Maine, "with many of their characteristics +altered, and indeed, their whole sacerdotal authority +abstracted by the influence of Christianity."<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> In the +Isle of Man the laws were deemed sacred and known +only to the Deemsters.<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a></p> + +<p>In all cases laws were preserved by tradition and not +by writing and evidence, and the superior value +attached to the traditional record appears everywhere. +The oldest record of Hindu law agrees with the best +authority that it was not founded on writing but +"upon immemorial customs which existed prior to and +independent of Brahminism."<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> In Greece the very +nature of the <i>themistes</i> shows that they were judgments +dependent upon traditional custom. In Rome it is the +subject of definite research that the "greater part of +Roman law was founded on the <i>mores majorum</i>."<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> In +Scandinavia the law speaker was obliged to recite the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +whole law within the period to which the tenure of his +office was limited.<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> The Celtic laws are based upon +customs handed down from remote antiquity,<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> and late +down in English law it was admitted as a principle +that if oral declarations came into conflict with +written instruments the former had the more binding +authority.<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a></p> + +<p>One of the means by which this sacred tradition was +preserved was through the medium of rhythm and +verse. Thus, as Sir Henry Maine explains,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The law book of Manu is in verse, and verse is one of +the expedients for lessening the burden which the memory +has to bear when writing is unknown or very little used. But +there is another expedient which serves the same object. +This is Aphorism or Proverb. Even now in our own country +much of popular wisdom is preserved either in old rhymes or +in old proverbs, and it is well ascertained that during the +middle ages much of law, and not a little of medicine, was preserved +among professions, not necessarily clerkly, by these +two agencies."<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +In Greece the same word, <ins class="greek" title="nomos">νόμος</ins>, was used for custom +and law as for song. The <ins class="greek" title="rhêtra">ῥήτρα</ins> (declared law) of +Sparta and Taras was in verse; the laws of Charondas +were sung as <ins class="greek" title="skolia">σκόλια</ins> at Athens,<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> and Strabo refers to the +Mazacenes of Cappadocia as using the laws of Charondas +and appointing some person to be their law-singer +(<ins class="greek" title="nomôdos">νομωδός</ins>), who is among them the declarer of the laws.<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a></p> + +<p>Sir Francis Palgrave, noticing the same characteristic +of Teutonic law, says:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It cannot be ascertained that any of the Teutonic nations +reduced their customs into writing, until the influence of increasing +civilisation rendered it expedient to depart from their +primeval usages; but an aid to the recollection was often +afforded as amongst the Britons, by poetry or by the condensation +of the maxim or principle in proverbial or antithetical +sentences like the Cymric triads. The marked alliteration of +the Anglo-Saxon laws is to be referred to the same cause, +and in the Frisic laws several passages are evidently written +in verse. From hence, also, may originate those quaint and +pithy rhymes in which the doctrines of the law of the old +time are not unfrequently recorded."<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a></p></div> + +<p>Again, the editors of the Brehon Law Tracts point +out that early laws are handed down "in a rhythmical +form; always in language condensed and antiquated +they assume the character of abrupt and sententious proverbs. +Collections of such sayings are found scattered +throughout the Brehon Law Tracts."<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> The sagas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +contain many verses which partake of the character of +legal formulæ, and in Beowulf there seems to be a +definite example. It occurs in the passage describing +Beowulf engaged in his fatal combat with the fiery +dragon, when his "companions," stricken with terror, +deserted him, on which Wiglaf pronounced the following +malediction:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Now shall the service of treasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">and the gifts of swords,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">all joy of paternal inheritance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">all support<br /></span> +<span class="i0">of all your kin depart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">every one of your family<br /></span> +<span class="i0">must go about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">deprived of his rights<br /></span> +<span class="i0">of citizenship;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">when far and wide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">the nobles shall learn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">your flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">your dishonourable deed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death is better<br /></span> +<span class="i0">to every warrior<br /></span> +<span class="i0">than disgraced life."<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Mr. Kemble remarks on this passage, that it is not +improbable that the whole denunciation is a judicial +formula, such as we know early existed, and in regular +rhythmical measure.<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a></p> + +<p>These early examples may be followed up by others +preserved to modern times. The most significant of +these occurs in the Church ceremony of marriage, which +preserves in the vernacular the ancient rhythmical +formula of the marriage laws, and the antiquity of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +the Church ritual is proved from the fact that it is accompanied +and enforced by the old rhythmical verse, +which is indicative of early legal or ceremonious usage.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"With this rynge I the wed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this gold and silver I the geve,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">and with my body I the worshipe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">and with all my worldely cathel I the endowe."<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a><br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Sir Francis Palgrave has noticed the subject, and +points out that the wife is taken</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"to have and to hold<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">from this day forward<br /></span> +<span class="i0">for better, for worse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">for richer, for poorer,<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">in sickness and in health,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">to love and to cherish,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">till death us do part<br /></span> +<span class="i0">and thereto I plight thee my troth."<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>These words are inserted in our service according to +the ancient canon of England, and even when the Latin +mass was sung by the tonsured priest, the promises +which accompany the delivery of the symbolical pledge +of union were repeated by the blushing bride in a more +intelligible tongue.<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> This is a curious and significant +fact, and as we trace out these rhythmical lines farther +back in their original vernacular, the more clearly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +distinct is their archaic nature. According to the usage +of Salisbury the bride answered:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I take thee, John,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">to be my wedded husband,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">to have and to hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">fro' this day forward<br /></span> +<span class="i0">for better, for worse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">for richer, for poorer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">in sycknesse, in hele,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">to be bonere and buxom [obedient]<br /></span> +<span class="i0">in bedde and at borde<br /></span> +<span class="i0">till death do us part<br /></span> +<span class="i0">and thereto I plight thee my trothe."<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a><br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The Welsh manual in the library of the Dean and +Chapter of Hereford has a slight variation in the form, +and an older spelling:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ich N. take thee N.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">to my weddid wyf,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">for fayroure for foulore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">for ricchere for porer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">for betere for wers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">in sicknesse and in helthe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">forte deth us departe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">and only to the holde<br /></span> +<span class="i0">and tharto ich plygtte my treuthe."<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a><br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>To this may be added the many local examples of +the preservation of laws or legal formulæ by means of +their form in verse. The most interesting of these, +perhaps, is that by which the Kentishman redeemed his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +land from the lord by repeating, as it was said, in the +language of his ancestors:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Nighon sithe yeld<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nighon sithe geld,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And vif pund for the were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere he become healdere."<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The first verse,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Dog draw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stable stand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Back berend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bloody hand"<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>justified the verderer in his punishment of the offender. +In King Athelstane's grant to the good +men of Beverley, and inscribed beneath his effigy +in the Minster,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Als fre<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mak I the<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As heart may think<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or eigh may see,"<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>we have perhaps the ancient form of manumission or +enfranchisement,<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> just as we have the surrender by a +freeman who gave up his liberty by putting himself +under the protection of a master, and becoming his +man, still preserved among children, when one of them +takes hold of the foretop of another and says:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Tappie, tappie, tousie, will ye be my man?"<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a><br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>All over the country we meet with these rhyming or +rhythmical formulæ which have legal +<ins class="correction" title="'signifiance' in original">significance</ins>. In +the north the chief of the Macdonalds gave grants in +the following form:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I, Donald, chief of the Macdonalds, give here, in my +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +castle, a right to Mackay, to Kilmahumag, from this day till +to-morrow and so on for ever."</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0bq">"Mise Donull nau Donull,<br /></span> +<span class="i0bq">Am shuidh air Dun Donuill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0bq">Toirt còir do Mhac-aigh air Kilmahumaig,<br /></span> +<span class="i0bq">O'n diugh gus a màireach<br /></span> +<span class="i0bq">'S gu la bhràth mar sin."<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a><br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>At Scarborough there is an old proverbial saying +as to "Scarborough Warning," which has had various +accounts given of its origin,<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> but the true explanation +of which is that it is the fragment of an ancient legal +formula of the kind we are investigating. Abraham +De la Pryme describes it in his seventeenth-century +diary as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Scarburg Warning is a proverb in many places of the +north, signifying any sudden warning given upon any +account. Some think it arose from the sudden comeing +of an enemy against the castle there, and haveing dischargd +a broad side, then commands them to surrender. +Others think that the proverb had it's original from other +things, but all varys. However, this is the true origin +thereof.</p> + +<p>"The town is a corporation town, and tho' it is very poor +now to what it was formerly, yet it has a ... who is +commonly some poor man, they haveing no rich ones amongst +them. About two days before Michilmass day the sayd +... being arrayed in his gown of state he mounts +upon horseback, and has his attendants with him, and the +macebear[er] carrying the mace before him, with two fidlers +and a base viol. Thus marching in state (as bigg as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +lord mare of London) all along the shore side, they make +many halts, and the cryer crys thus with a strange sort of a +singing voyce, high and low:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0bq">"'Whay! Whay! Whay!<br /></span> +<span class="i0bq">Pay your gavelage, ha!<br /></span> +<span class="i0bq">Between this and Michaelmas Day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0bq">Or you'll be fined I, say!'<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>"Then the fiddlers begins to dance, and caper and plays, +fit to make one burst with laughter that sees and hears +them. Then they go on again and crys as before, with the +greatest majesty and gravity immaginable, none of this +comical crew being seen so much as to smile all the time, +when as spectators are almost bursten with laughing. This +is the true origin of the proverb, for this custome of gavelage +is a certain tribute that every house pays to the +... when he is pleased to call for it, and he gives +not above one day warning, and may call for it when he +pleases."<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a></p></div> + +<p>Rhyming tenures have been frequently noted but +never understood. They occur in many parts of the +country. The tithingman of Combe Keynes, in +Dorsetshire, is obliged to do suit at Winforth Court, +and after repeating the following incoherent lines, +pays threepence and goes away without saying another +word:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"With my white rod<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I am a fourth post<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That three pence makes three<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God bless the King, and the lord of the franchise<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Our weights and our measures are lawful and true<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good morrow Mr. Steward I have no more to say to you."<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a><br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>It is hardly necessary to quote more examples. +They are not unknown to the historian, but because +they are in rhyme they have been hastily assumed to +be spurious or even burlesque.<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> But the evidence of a +rhyming formula is the opposite to this. It is evidence +of their genuineness, and if some of the words appear +to be nonsensical it is due to the fact that the sense of +the old formula has been misunderstood, and has then +become gradually altered.</p> + +<p>All these rhyming tenures, indeed, find their place +among the traditional examples of legal formulæ.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +They are the local offshoots preserved because of their +legal significance, preserved by those interested from +their legal side. Because they are not preserved in the +formal codes they need not be neglected, and they +must not be misunderstood. They are not to be put +on one side by the historian as freaks of local landowners. +They are real descendants by traditional +lines from the times when laws were not written, but +kept alive in the memory by means of such assistance +as rhyme could supply, and from the tribesmen who +thus treasured the law they obeyed.<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a></p> + +<p>That this branch of recorded law is not only early +but tribal is undoubted, but perhaps it will be well to +refer to tribal rhyming formulæ of an independent +kind in order to show by parallel evidence the tribal +characteristics. In 1884 Mr. Posnett drew attention to +this important subject, and noted that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Dr. Brown, in an attempt to sketch the origin of poetry—an +attempt which attracted the attention of Bishop Percy in +his remarks introductory to the <i>Reliques</i>—proposed more +than one hundred years ago to discover the source of the +combined dance, song, melody, and mimetic action of +primitive compositions in the common festivals of clan life. +The student of comparative literature will probably regard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +Dr. Brown's theory as a curious anticipation of the historical +method in a study which, in spite of M. Taine's efforts, has +made so little progress as yet. The clan ethic of inherited +guilt and vicarious punishment has attracted considerable +attention. But the clan poetry of the ancient Arabs and of +the bard-clans, surviving in the Hebrew sons of Asaph or the +Greek Homeridæ, has not received that light from comparative +inquiry which the closely connected problems of primitive +music and metre would alone amply deserve."<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a></p></div> + +<p>Not much has been done since this was penned. Max +Müller had previously, in 1847, declared that the Rig +Veda consisted of the clan songs of the Hindu people,<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> +but the importance of such a conclusion has been +entirely neglected. In the meantime evidence is accumulating +that in Britain there are still preserved many +examples of clan songs. Thus Lord Archibald Campbell +has published, in the first volume of his <i>Waifs and +Strays of Celtic Tradition</i>, some sixteen or seventeen +sagas. Some of these are clan-traditions; and the +editor notes as evidence of their antiquity the fact +that none of them makes any mention of firearms. +These clan-traditions all relate to feuds and vendettas; +and in one case it is expressly recorded that the descendants +of one of the foes of the clan, in their account +of the incident narrated, "altered this tradition and +reversed the main facts." This has been followed by a +volume definitely devoted to "clan-traditions,"<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> while +in the <i>Carmina Gadelica</i> and many of the Highland +incantations there are preserved specimens of ancient +clan songs.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +The most interesting of the tribal songs is that preserved +at the Hawick Common riding. The burgh +officers form the van of a pageant which insensibly +carries us back to ancient times, and in some verses +sung on the occasion there is a refrain which has been +known for ages as the slogan of Hawick. It is "Teribus +ye teri Odin," which is probably a corruption of +the Anglo-Saxon, "Tyr habbe us, ye Tyr ye Odin"—May +Tyr uphold us, both Tyr and Odin.</p> + +<p>Fortunately Dr. Murray has investigated this formula, +and I will quote what he says:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A relic of North Anglian heathendom seems to be preserved +in a phrase which forms the local slogan of the town +of Hawick, and which, as the name of a peculiar local air, and +the refrain, or 'owerword' of associated ballads, has been +connected with the history of the town back to 'fable-shaded +eras.' Different words have been sung to the tune from +time to time, and none of those now extant can lay claim to +any antiquity; but associated with all, and yet identified with +none, the refrain '<i>Tyr-ibus ye Tyr ye Odin</i>,' Tyr hæb us, ye +Tyr ye Odin! Tyr keep us, both Tyr and Odin! (by which +name the tune also is known) appears to have come down, +scarcely mutilated, from the time when it was the burthen of +the song of the gleó-mann or scald, or the invocation of a +heathen Angle warrior, before the northern Hercules and the +blood-red lord of battles had yielded to the 'pale god' of the +Christians."</p></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus11" id="Illus11"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_11.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_11th.jpg" width="400" height="253" +alt="The Auld Ca-knowe: calling the Burgess Roll at Hawick (reprinted from +Craig and Laing's "Hawick Tradition")." +title="THE AULD CA-KNOWE: CALLING THE BURGESS ROLL" /></a> +<span class="caption">THE AULD CA-KNOWE: CALLING THE BURGESS ROLL</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus12" id ="Illus12"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_12.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_12th.jpg" width="400" height="252" +alt="The Hawick Moat at sunrise (reprinted from Craig and Laing)" +title="HAWICK MOAT AT SUNRISE" /></a> +<span class="caption">HAWICK MOAT AT SUNRISE</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>And in a note Dr. Murray adds:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The ballad now connected with the air of 'Tyribus' commemorates +the laurels gained by the Hawick youth at and +after the disastrous battle, when, in the words of the writer,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0bq">"'Our sires roused by "Tyr ye Odin,"<br /></span> +<span class="i0bq">Marched and joined their king at Flodden.'<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +Annually since that event the 'Common-Riding' has been +held, on which occasion a flag or 'colour' captured from a +party of the English has been with great ceremony borne by +mounted riders round the bounds of the common land, granted +after Flodden to the burgh; part of the ceremony consisting +in a mock capture of the 'colour' and hot pursuit by a large +party of horsemen accoutred for the occasion. At the conclusion +'Tyribus' is sung, with all the honours, by the actors +in the ceremony, from the roof of the oldest house in the +burgh, the general population filling the street below, and +joining in the song with immense enthusiasm. The influence +of modern ideas is gradually doing away with much of the +parade and renown of the Common-Riding. But 'Tyr-ibus +ye Tyr ye Odin' retains all its local power to fire the lieges, +and the accredited method of arousing the burghers to any +political or civil struggle is still to send round the drums and +fifes, 'to play Tyribus' through the town, a summons analogous +to that of the Fiery Cross in olden times. Apart from +the words of the slogan, the air itself bears in its wild fire all +the tokens of a remote origin."<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a></p></div> + +<p>We could not get better evidence than this of the survival +of tribal custom, custom that is distinctly connected +with tribes rather than with places or individuals, with +groups of people who, now bound together by local +considerations and influences, have only recently passed +away from the far more ancient influences of the tribe. +Alike in the forms of historical codes and in traditional +local remains, we have found evidence of the use of +rhyme for the preservation of unwritten rules and +forms; and this use restores to tradition an important +branch of its material.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +We have thus ascertained that there is direct and acknowledged +indebtedness of history to tradition. Its +extent covers a wide area of culture progress, and of +unbroken continuity from tribal to historic times. The +legal codes of the barbaric tribes of Western Europe +are the direct successors of the traditional originals; +and because these legal codes, equally with their unwritten +predecessors, cannot be dispensed with by the +historian, they find their place unquestioned among +genuine historical material. They are no more, and +no less, historical than other traditional material. They +are part of the life of the people rescued from prehistoric +days, and they tell us of these days by the same sanction +and the same methods as the rest of the traditional +material which has been so strangely and so persistently +neglected by the historian. The whole of tradition, and +not selected parts of it, must be brought into use if we +would follow scientific method, and I claim this for the +study of folklore on the strength of the results which +have now been brought together.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus13" id="Illus13"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_13.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_13th.jpg" width="400" height="204" +alt="One of five stone circles in the fields opposite the Glebe of +Nymphsfield (reprinted from Sir William Wilde's "Lough Corrib")" +title="ONE OF FIVE STONE CIRCLES IN THE FIELDS OPPOSITE THE GLEBE OF +NYMPHSFIELD" /></a> +<span class="caption">ONE OF FIVE STONE CIRCLES IN THE FIELDS OPPOSITE THE +GLEBE OF NYMPHSFIELD</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus14" id="Illus14"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_14.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_14th.jpg" width="400" height="174" +alt="Carn-an-Chluithe to commemorate the defeat and death of the youths of +the Dananns (reprinted from Wilde)" +title="CARN-AN-CHLUITHE" /></a> +<span class="caption">CARN-AN-CHLUITHE<br /> +TO COMMEMORATE THE DEFEAT AND DEATH OF THE YOUTHS OF THE DANANNS</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus15" id="Illus15"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_15.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_15th.jpg" width="400" height="213" +alt="The cairn of Ballymagibbon, near the road passing from Cong to Cross +(reprinted from Wilde)" +title="THE CAIRN OF BALLYMAGIBBON NEAR THE ROAD PASSING FROM CONG TO +CROSS" /></a> +<span class="caption">THE CAIRN OF BALLYMAGIBBON NEAR THE ROAD PASSING FROM +CONG TO CROSS</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>Here, however, we are close up to an important +point of controversy. The mythologists claim tradition +as theirs. It does not, they assert, give us the +history but the mythology of our race. It tells us not +of the men but of the gods. In explaining how this +comes about, however, they have fallen into errors +which it is not only necessary to correct but which +are fundamental in their effects. We shall be better +able later on to discuss the extremely important +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>question of the position of the prehistoric tradition +amidst historic life and surroundings, if we try to +understand what the mythologists have done and not +done in their attempts to claim exclusive property in +the folk-tale. They have entirely denied or ignored all +history contained in the folk-tale, and they have +proceeded upon the assumption, the bald assumption +not accompanied by any kind of proof, that the folk-tale +contains nothing but the remnants of a once +prevalent system of mythology. They ignore all the +proofs brought forward by folklorists to the contrary, +such proofs, for instance, as Mr. Knowles, Sir Richard +Temple and others have produced concerning the +Hindu folk-tale. What is not true of the Hindu folk-tale +cannot be true of its Celtic or Teutonic or Scandinavian +parallel, and yet in the most recent study of +Celtic tradition, Mr. Squire takes its mythic origin +for granted, and works through his ingenious statement +without let or hindrance from other points of +view. But even his thorough-going methods compel +him to stop short at certain points, and to admit that he +has come across historic fact. Thus he agrees that the +Fir-Bolgs "were not really gods but the pre-Aryan race +which the Gaels, when they landed in Ireland, found +already in occupation,"<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> and yet when he treats +of the fight of the Fir-Bolgs with the Tuatha dé +Danann, and is confronted with Sir William Wilde's +proofs that the monuments on the plain of Moytura +are in agreement with the traditions concerning +them, and point to the account of the battle being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +historical,<a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> all that Mr. Squire can admit is that "certainly +the coincidences are curious." He disposes of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +them on the ground that the "people of the goddess +Danu are too obviously mythical to make it worth while +to seek any standing ground for them in the world of +reality." That standing ground might be found connected +with the Tuatha dé Danann in many places, but +Mr. Squire will have it that it is impossible, because "it +was about this period that the mythology of Ireland +was being rewoven into spurious history."<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a> It is not, +however, upon the mistakes of other inquirers<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> that +the mythologists may rest a good claim for their own +view. The <i>Historia Britonum</i> of Geoffrey of Monmouth +disposes of neither the myths nor the history of +the Celts. It shows myth in its secondary position, in +the handling of those who would make it all history, +just as now there are scholars who would make it all +myth. In front of the legends attaching to persons +and places is the history of these persons and places. +Behind these legends lies the domain of the unattached +and primitive folk-tale, Mr. Campbell's <i>Highland Tales</i>, +Kennedy's <i>Fireside Stories of Ireland</i>, and those English +tales which have been rescued by Mr. Clodd and +others. This makes it impossible to see in the hero-legends +naught else than the intangible realm of Celtic +gods and goddesses.</p> + +<p>Equally impossible is it to create for them a home in +a system of "state religion," and yet a state religion +is a necessary part of the evidence for mythological +origins.<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> There was no Celtic state. Emphatically this +was so. Everything we know about the Celts of +Britain, both before and after the Roman conquest, both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +in Britain, where the Roman power was upheld for four +centuries, and in Ireland, where the Roman power never +penetrated, the Celts were possessed of a tribal, not a +state polity; lived in tribal strongholds, not in Celtic +cities; occupied tribal territories, not countries formed +into states; elected tribal chiefs in primitive fashion, +and not kings with state ceremonial; and when they +come under the dominion of an incipient state policy +after the conquest of the English and the Northmen, +their laws are promulgated and codified, and show that +both Welsh and Irish codes are tribal, not state law.</p> + +<p>Not only do I fail to discover a state religion of the +Celts, but I do not find it among the Teutons. There is +greater evidence of discrepancies than of agreement in +all the European religions, but these have not been +dwelt upon by scholars. Professor York Powell, in +one of his illuminating studies on Teutonic heathendom, +is the only authority I know of who argues +against the idea of a systematised religion. "It is +important that we should at once throw aside the +idea that there was any <i>system</i>, any organized pantheon +in the religion of these peoples. Their tribes +were small and isolated, and each had its own peculiar +gods and observances, although the mould of each +faith was somewhat similar. Hence there were varieties +of religious customs among the Goths, Swedes, Saxons, +and Angles."<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus16" id="Illus16"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 244px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_16.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_16th.jpg" width="244" height="400" +alt="Altar dedicated to the field deities of Britain, found at Castle Hill +on the wall of Antoninus Pius" +title="ALTAR DEDICATED TO THE FIELD DEITIES OF BRITAIN" /></a> +<span class="caption">ALTAR DEDICATED TO THE FIELD DEITIES OF BRITAIN<br /> +FOUND AT CASTLE HILL ON THE WALL OF ANTONINUS PIUS</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>Now if there was no state there could be no state +religion. What existed of worship and religion +was tribal. These are the historical facts, which +have been neglected by students of myth and saga. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>I shall have to point out in greater detail presently +what these tribal conditions mean to studies in folklore, +but the word of warning and protest must come here, +for it is unconsciously the conception of a Celtic state +religion which gives even the semblance of possibility +for Celtic mythology to be found in every hero-legend. +It is, in short, the neglect of this among other historical +facts which has led the folklorist into error of a somewhat +magnificent kind. He attempts to create out of +the myths of a people a mythology which provides +gods to be worshipped, faiths to be organised, and beliefs +to be the standards of life and conduct. Thus, as I +have pointed out elsewhere,<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> Sir John Rhys has, in his +acute identification of the worship of the water-god +Lud on the Thames and of Nod on the Severn,<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> introduced +the idea of a great Celtic worship established on +these two great rivers as parts of a definite system of +Celtic religion, whereas examination proves that the +parallel faiths of two perfectly distinct Celtic tribes, the +Silures on the Severn and the Trinovantes on the +Thames, were welded into a common worship of the +god of the waters by the masters of Celtic Britain, the +Romans. There was no Celtic organisation which +commanded both Severn and Thames until the Romans +occupied the country, and occupying the country they +adopted into their own religion the native gods and, +fortunately for us, recorded their adoption in the pavements +of their houses or their temples.<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +Mr. A. B. Cook goes much further than Sir John +Rhys. He attempts to dig out the European sky-god +from all sorts of queer places, all sorts of forgotten +records, thereby producing a wealth of folklore parallels +for which every student must be profoundly thankful. +But he does not make it anywhere clear that this +universal god was gloriously apparent to his worshippers. +There is no established connection between +the sky-god and those who worshipped the sky-god, +and we seek in vain amidst all the brilliant researches, +which have been held to produce evidence of the sky-god, +for evidence that he was worshipped by the Aryan-speaking +Celt and Teuton. In point of fact, we never +get at the worshippers at all. There is the assumption +of a state mythology without any evidence for the +existence of the state.</p> + +<p>In place of this obvious necessity we get an immense +abstraction, worked out with all the subtle ingenuity +and learning of the Cambridge professor. Mr. Cook +has, in fact, used the materials he has collected with +such amazing care to project therefrom just those +mythological conceptions which Celt and Teuton would +have worked out for themselves if they, like the Hindu +and the Greek, had developed the state while they +were still free to develop their own native beliefs. +This they never did, and so their fire worship did not +advance beyond its early stages. It was separated +from nature worship to become the servant of the +European tribes. It helped them to develop tribal and +family institutions. It produced for them a tribal and +family worship. It did not get beyond this, because +Roman institutions and Christianity stood in the way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +and prevented tribal fire worship from becoming +anthropomorphised into a mythology. This need not +cause us to doubt that the analogies claimed by these +scholars are true analogies. There were among the +Celtic peoples, as among other branches of the race to +which Celt, Greek, Teuton, Scandinavian, and Hindu +belonged, the incipient elements which would go to +make up a national or state mythology, when the nation +or the state emerged, as it did emerge in the case of +Greece and of Rome, from its tribal originals. But the +Celtic state did not emerge from tribalism in Britain; +the Celtic heroes were always tribal heroes. They +were, as Hereward and Arthur were, real human flesh +and blood, fighting and raiding and loving and feasting +in their tribal fashion as the later heroes did in their +national fashion; because of their success as tribal +heroes they had attached to them the tribal myths; +because they died as nobly as Cuchulain died they +left imperishable records among those for whom they +died. They were more than gods to the Celtic tribesman—they +were kinsmen.</p> + +<p>The false conception of a state religion before there +was a state, appears in other studies not primarily based +upon folklore research, and not having in view anthropological +results. It is the basis of the remarkable +researches of Sir Norman Lockyer as to the astrological +and solar origin of Stonehenge and other circles, and +in his chapter which deals with the question, "Where +did the British worship originate?" he finds himself +bound to the theory of a borrowed civilisation which +established the solar system.<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a> This borrowed civilisation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +is Egyptian, but it is too much to ask mythology +to supply not only a complete system of belief but +a civilisation which belongs to it. What is needed is +independent evidence of the civilisation. Without +such independent evidence it is impossible to accept +the deduction drawn only from one sphere of information.</p> + +<p>The error of transferring to the domain of mythology +events and occurrences which belong to history, is +followed by an error of another sort, namely, the transferring +to some general department of human belief the +particular beliefs of a people, or of tribes of people. It +is wrong to continue to label particular cults as nature +myths, when they have already been transferred from +that position to a more definite position among the beliefs +of a people. Thus even so good a scholar as Mr. +A. B. Cook, rightly interpreting Greek evidence of the +hill-top fires and of the house fire, yet denies to the +exactly corresponding Irish evidence the same interpretation, +and argues that "the ritual of Samain, at which +all the hearths in Ireland were supplied with fresh fire +from a common centre at Tlachtga [is] almost certainly +solar," and that "we shall not be far wrong if we suppose +that the solar fires of Beltaine were the ritual of +the sky god connected with the Ash of Uisnech."<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a> Mr. +Frazer, too, has interpreted these bonfires as mainly +sun charms, and he sees in the Balder myth, and in the +peasant customs all over Europe, which he asserts +illustrate this myth, an ancient ritual which originally +marked the beginning of the new year, when the tree<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +spirit, or spirit of vegetation, was burned, the special +reasons why the deity of vegetation should die by fire +being that as "light and heat are necessary to vegetable +growth, on the principle of sympathetic magic, by +subjecting the personal representative of vegetation to +their influence you secure a supply of these necessaries +for trees and crops."<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a> Mr. Frazer goes far afield for evidence. +He does not see that the fire ceremonies which +he collects from all Europe have a specialised significance, +even in their last stages of existence as survivals, +which is not found among the Incas, the African tribes, +the hill tribes of India, and the Chinese, whom he cites +as providing the required parallels. Parallel practices +are not necessarily evidence of parallels in culture, and +it is the failure to locate properly the several examples +in relationship to each other which produces a loose and +inadequate conception of the relics of fire worship in +European countries, and the refusal to recognise its +special place as the cult of a tribal people.<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a> Another +example of this fundamental error takes us in the very +opposite direction to that of Dr. Frazer. Thus Dr. +Gummere, in a recent study dealing with Germanic +origins,<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a> sees nothing in the fire cult of the Indo-European +people but a branch, and apparently an +undeveloped branch, of general nature worship, not +specially Germanic or Indo-European, not specialised +by the tribes and clans of these people into a cult far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +more closely connected with their doings and their life +than mere participation in the general primitive nature +worship could have afforded.</p> + +<p>The danger of searching for a general system of +belief and worship from the beliefs and rites of peoples +not ethnically, geographically, or politically connected +is very great, and I venture to think that even Mr. +Frazer's remarkable researches into the agricultural +rites of European peoples do not take count of one +important consideration. I think his constructive hypothesis +is too complex in process and too systematic in +form to have been the actual living faith of the varied +paganism of the European peoples. It would have +meant as organised an institution as the Christian +Church itself, and of this there is no evidence whatever. +It would have meant an exclusive agricultural +ceremony, and of this there is strong evidence to the +contrary. It would have meant a deep system of +philosophy, penetrating from the highest to the lowest +of the people, and of this there is no evidence. The +plain fact is that the historical conditions have been +altogether left out of consideration in these matters, +and we consequently do not get a complete study. We +get the advocate's position. The case for the mythological +interpretation of folklore has been put with full +strength, but it is not the entire case.</p> + + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>This short survey of the relationship of tradition to +history would not answer its purpose if we did not +consider the complementary position which history<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +bears to tradition. This may best be done by reference +to the period before that occupied by contemporary +native record. The history here alluded to is, properly +speaking, only derived from one source, namely, the +works of foreign or outside authorities. It is written +by observers from a civilised country, travelling among +the more primitive peoples of another land, and the +Greek and Latin authors who relate particulars of +early Britain were of this class. Their narratives have +to be compared with the traditions written down as +history by professed historians, who lived long after the +events happened to which the traditions are said to +relate, but who recorded the traditions of the people +preserved in the monasteries by devotees who were of +the people, or by the songs and rhymes which, as +Henry of Huntingdon states explicitly, were used for +the purpose.</p> + +<p>Both the observations of the foreign historians and +travellers and the recorded traditions from native +sources have been treated with scant courtesy whenever +they cannot be explained according to the views of +each particular inquirer into the period to which they +refer. They have been alternatively the subject of dispute +or neglect by students for a long series of years. +They consist of items which do not fit in with Celtic +or Teutonic institutions as we know them from other +and more detailed sources. They offend against the +national pride because they tell of a condition of +savagery. They do not appeal to the historian, because +the historian knows little and cares nothing at all about +the condition of savagery. If, therefore, they are not +rejected as true history, they are purposely neglected.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +They are in any event never taken into consideration +by the right method, and they stand over for examination +by any one who will take the trouble to deal with +them by the light and test of modern research.</p> + +<p>It is not my purpose to deal with these matters now, +but it is advisable that we should try to understand two +things—first, how they have been dealt with by the +historian; secondly, their true place in history.</p> + +<p>The Greek and Latin authors who have stated of +peoples living in Britain many characteristics which +do not belong to civilisation or even to the borders of +civilisation, range from Pytheas the Greek in the +middle of the fourth century before our era down to +the Latin poets of the early fifth century anno Domini. +They all refer to the British savage. He is cannibalistic, +incestuous, naked, possesses his wives in common, +lives on wild fruits and not cultivated cereals, indulges +in head-hunting, has no settled living-place which can +be called a house, and generally betrays the characteristics +of pure savagery.<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> Altogether there is a fairly +substantial range of material for the formation of a +reasonable conception of the condition of savagery in +Britain.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus17" id="Illus17"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 221px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_17.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_17th.jpg" width="221" height="400" +alt="Roman sculptured stone found at Arniebog, Cumbernauld, Dumbartonshire, +showing a naked Briton as a captive" +title="ROMAN SCULPTURED STONE FOUND AT ARNIEBOG, CUMBERNAULD, DUMBARTONSHIRE, +SHOWING A NAKED BRITON AS A CAPTIVE" /></a> +<span class="caption">ROMAN SCULPTURED STONE FOUND AT ARNIEBOG, CUMBERNAULD, +DUMBARTONSHIRE, SHOWING A NAKED BRITON AS A CAPTIVE</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +We need not dwell long upon the earlier of our +historians who have neglected or contested the statements +of the authorities they use. They hardly possessed +the material for scientific treatment, and personal +predilections were the governing factors of any opinion +which is expressed. John Milton, in his brave attempt +to tell the story of early England, does not so much as +allude to these disagreeable points. Hume disdainfully +passes by the whole subject and practically begins +with the Norman conquest. Lappenberg says of the +group marriage of the Britons that it "is probably a +mere Roman fable."<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> Innes accepts the views of the +classical authorities and argues from them in his own +peculiar way,<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> but Sullivan will have it that the +materials afforded from classical sources are worthless: +"they consist of mere hearsay reports without any +sure foundation, and in many cases not in harmony +with the results of modern linguistic and archæological +investigations."<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> Neither Turner nor Palgrave has +any doubt as to the authority of these early accounts,<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> +and Dr. Giles accepts the accounts which he so usefully +collected from the original authorities.<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a></p> + +<p>The modern historian cannot, however, be so incidentally +treated. He lives in the age of the comparative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +sciences and of anthropological research. He +sometimes uses, though in a half-hearted and incomplete +fashion, the results of inquirers in these fields of +research, but he nowhere deals with the problem fully. +His sins are not general, but special. He agrees with +one statement of his original authority and disagrees +with another, and we are left with a chaos of opinion +founded upon no accepted principle. If the earlier +historians accepted or rejected historical records without +much reason for either course, the later historians have +no right to follow them. The terms "savage" and +"barbarian," indulged in by the Greek and Roman +writers, cannot be rejected by modern authorities simply +because they are too harsh. They cannot be considered +merely in the nature of accusations against the standing +and position of our ancestors, made by advocates +anxious to blacken the national character. Even +scholars like Mr. Skene, Mr. Elton, and Sir John +Rhys, though inclined to weigh these passages by the +light of ethnographic research, throw something like +doubt upon the exact extent to which they may be +taken as evidence. Mr. Elton, though admitting that +the early "romances of travel" afford some evidence +as to the habits of our barbarian ancestors, cannot +quite get as far in his belief as to think that the account +of "the Irish tribes who thought it right to devour +their parents" is much more than a traveller's tale.<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> +Sir John Rhys is not quite sure that the account by +Cæsar of the communal marriages of the British is +"not a passage from some Greek book of imaginary +travels among imaginary barbarians which Cæsar had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +in his mind,"<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> though he notes elsewhere that "the +vocabulary of the Celts will be searched in vain for +a word for son or daughter as distinguished from boy +or girl" as a fact of no little negative importance in +relation to Cæsar's "ugly account;"<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a> and he has +similar doubts to express, noteworthy among them +being the passage from Pliny which illustrates the +Godiva story.<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a> Mr. Skene lays stress upon the fact +that Tacitus "neither alludes to the practice of their +staining their bodies with woad nor to the supposed +community of women among them;" and he offers +some kind of excuse for the Roman evidence as to the +tattooing with representations of animals,<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a> evidence +which Sir John Rhys, too, is chary of accepting in its +full sense. Mr. Pearson reluctantly accepts Cæsar's account +of the group marriage and the human sacrifice of +the Druids, but he ignores all else, including the attested +cannibalism of the Atticotti, though he mentions +that tribe in another connection.<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a> Sir James Ramsay +agrees that the Britons tattooed their bodies with woad, +recognises the fact that their matrimonial customs were +polyandric, and that brother-and-sister marriage obtained, +and generally accepts the prevalent ideas as to +Celtic Druidism with its sacrificial rites and the system +of "state worship." He rests his views for much of +this upon the anthropological evidence in support of it.<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +Mr. Lang on behalf of Scotland, and Dr. Joyce on +behalf of Ireland, have their say on the evidence. +Mr. Lang seems to accept Cæsar's evidence "if +correctly reported," throws doubts upon the ethnological +value of such customs, and declares roundly +that to found theories upon such evidence as archæology +provides "is the province of another science, not +of history."<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a> Dr. Joyce says that in early Greek +and Roman writers there is not much reliable information +about Ireland, though he believes them +when they talk of students from Britain residing in +Ireland and of books existing in Ireland in the fourth +century.<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a></p> + +<p>This meagre result from the historians seems to me +to be most unfortunate. Even when the testimony of +early writers is accepted, it is accepted without the +necessary filling in which such an acceptance warrants. +Bare acceptance does not tell us much. Each recorded +fact has a relationship to surrounding facts, should +lead us to associated facts which, escaping observation +by early writers, can nevertheless be restored. In +history they are isolated and unconnected, because of +the faults of the historian who records them. Anthropologically +they belong to a wider grouping, reveal a +connection with each other which is otherwise unsuspected, +and prepare themselves for treatment on a +larger platform. The historian has used them for the +unprofitable controversy ranging round the question +of early Celtic civilisation, whereas they clearly belong +to the history of early man, and even the folklorist does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +not disdain to cast them on one side when they do not +suit his purpose.<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a></p> + +<p>It is still more unfortunate that Sir Henry Maine +should have sought to enhance the value of his Indian +evidence by contrasting it with what he calls "the +slippery testimony concerning savages which is +gathered from travellers' tales,"<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a> and that Mr. Herbert +Spencer should have replied to this in an angry note, +declaring that he was aware "that in the eyes of most, +antiquity gives sacredness to testimony, and that so +what were travellers' tales when they were written in +Roman days have come in our days to be regarded as +of higher authority than like tales written by recent or +living travellers."<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> The scorn passed upon "travellers' +tales," the application of the term "romance" to the +early descriptions of voyages, have done the same +amount of mischief to these early chapters of history +as the constant disbelief in the value of tradition has +done to the testimony of folklore.</p> + +<p>Now I do not recall these controversies, or lay stress +upon what appear to me to be the shortcomings of the +historian and folklorist in their relationship to each +other, for the purpose of reawakening old antagonisms. +I have merely selected a few illustrations of the present +position of the subject in order that it may be seen how +essential it is to proceed on other lines. All the items<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +which have formed the subject of dispute, together +with others which have escaped attention—items which +have found their way into history by accident, which +are by nature fragmentary and isolated, which do not +connect up with anything that is distinctively Celtic or +Teutonic, and which do not apparently fit in with any +standard common to themselves—must command attention +if only because they alone cannot be cut out of +history when items standing side by side with them are +allowed to remain, and in the end it can, I think, be +shown that they command attention because of their +inherent value.</p> + +<p>The method of investigation as to the importance +and significance of these earliest historical records +must be anthropological. They are in point of fact so +much anthropological data relating to Britain. It is +no use calling them history, and then defining that +history as bad history simply because as history the +recorded facts do not appear to be credible. As a +matter of fact they belong to the prehistory period of +Britain, and to test their value scientific methods are +required.</p> + +<p>In the first place, anthropology shows that there is no +<i><ins class="correction" title="'prima' in original">primâ</ins> facie</i> +necessity for calling them Celtic, thus +identifying them with that portion of our ancestry +which is Celtic in race; for there is evidence of a non-Celtic +race existing in prehistoric times, and existing +down to within historic times, if not to modern times. +Mr. Willis Bund has recently summarised the evidence +from archæology, philology, and tradition as it appears +in a particularly valuable local study of ancient +Cardiganshire, stating it "to be agreed that there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +more than one race of early inhabitants, and two of +the sources say that there was an original race and at +least two distinct races of invaders," and further, "that +whoever the original inhabitants were they were not +Celts."<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> These original inhabitants, who were not Celts, +have left their remains in the barrows and megalithic +monuments which still exist in various parts of the +country, and anthropologists show that they have not +entirely disappeared from among the race distinctions +observable among the people of these islands. If it is +possible to proceed from this to another stage, and to +show from the British evidence what Mr. Risley has so +well illustrated from the Indian evidence, namely, that +gradations of race types as shown by anthropometrical +indices correspond with gradations of social precedence +and social organisation,<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id="FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> it may yet be possible +to prove that the people who were not Celts +were the people with whom originated those recorded +customs and beliefs which are rejected as too savage +for the Celt. Unfortunately, we know nothing about +them, except the isolated scraps which are to be picked +up from the early historians. This compels us to turn +to other sources of information, and when we do this +we find that British folklore preserves in traditional +custom, rite, belief, and folk-tale, parallels to each +and every item of savagery mentioned by the early +historians of Britain; and further, that anthropology +shows clearly enough that among the customs and +beliefs of primitive races there are to be found parallels +to every item of custom and belief recorded of early<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +Britain. This gets rid of one of our greatest difficulties, +and disposes of Dr. Sullivan's unwarranted +assertion to the contrary (<i>ante</i>, p. 113). The recorded +customs and beliefs of early Britain are proved by this +means not to be impossible or improbable factors in +the elements of the British prehistoric race. It will +not be possible to term them inventions of romance or +of false testimony, simply on the ground that they are +not found elsewhere. On the contrary it will, I think, +be difficult to resist the conclusion that inventions such +as these, covering a wide and ascertained area of +sociological and early religious development, could +hardly have been made by historians having the +limited range of knowledge possessed by the native +and classical writers who are responsible for the facts. +It is an easy, but not a satisfactory method of criticism +to declare what is not to one's liking to be invention +and romance, and it has until late years been difficult +to combat such an argument. The battle has raged +round wordy disputes, the merits of which are governed +by the abilities of the respective disputants; that +this is no longer possible is due to the fact that there +have entered into the fray the methods and results of +folklore which prevent the terms invention and romance +from being applied, except where there is good independent +reason for their use.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I have now dealt with all the points which appear to +be necessary in order to show the inherent relationship +of folklore to history, and I have shown causes for +resisting the claims of mythology to appropriate what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +it chooses of folklore, and then to reject all the rest +from consideration. I have dealt (1) with examples of +local traditions and hero-traditions, in their relation to +history and historical conditions; (2) with the folk-tale +in its retention of details of early historic conditions, and +of the picture of early tribal organisation, and in that +its structure is based upon the events of savage social +conceptions; (3) with the early laws and rules of tribal +society preserved by tradition and accepted in historical +times; (4) with the claims of mythology to interpret the +meaning of folk-tales, and the reasons for rejecting +this claim; and (5) with the treatment by historians of +statements by classical writers as to the condition of the +peoples inhabiting Britain before the dawn of civilisation. +I think it will be admitted that, without pretending +in any way to have exhausted the evidence, or +even to have thoroughly comprehended and satisfactorily +stated it under each of these heads, a very +considerable claim has been made out for the historical +value of folklore. If so much has been gained +it will rest with folklorists to pursue investigations on +these lines, and it will remain with the historian to +consider the results wherever his research leads him +into domains where the evidence of folklore is obtainable.</p> + +<p>It will be seen that the problems which the two +sciences, history and folklore, have to solve in conjunction +are not a few and that they are extremely complex. +They cannot be solved if history and folklore are separated; +they may be solved if the professors in each work +together, both recognising what there is of value in the +other. History in its earliest stages is either entirely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +dependent upon foreign authorities, or it has to follow +the practice of the earlier and unscientific historian and +to deny that there is any history, or at all events any +history worth recording, before the advent, perhaps +the accidental advent, of an historian on native ground. +History in its later stages is dependent upon the personal +tastes or ability of each historian for the record +of events and facts. Folklore in its earliest stages has +brought down from the most ancient times memories +of ancient polity, faith, custom, rite, and thought. In +its later stages it has preserved custom, rite, and belief +amid the attacks of the progressive civilisation which has +been developed, and it has clothed heroes of later times +with the well-worn trappings of those of old. Combined +history and folklore can restore much of the picture of +early times, and can work through the fulness of later +times with some degree of success. There is needed for +this work, however, a clear conception of the position +properly held by both sciences, together with established +rules of research. This is more particularly +needed in the department of folklore. I do not pretend +to be able to formulate these rules. In the subjects +dealt with in this chapter I have indicated a few of the +points which must be raised, and my object will be in +the remaining chapters to set forth some of the conditions +which it appears to me necessary to consider in +connection with the problems with which folklore is +concerned as one of the historical sciences.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Mr. Kemble gives an important illustration of this proposition in his +<i>Saxons in England</i>, i. 331.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> I would refer the reader to Prof. York Powell's brilliant lecture on +"A Survey of Modern History," printed in his biography by Mr. Oliver +Elton, ii. 1-13, for an admirable summary of this view.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>View of the State of Ireland</i>, 1595, p. 478.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Asser's <i>Life of Alfred</i>, by W. H. Stevenson, 262.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> It is not worth while unduly emphasising this point, but the peculiar +habit of classing fictional literature as folklore and thereupon condemning +the value of tradition is very prevalent. Mr. Nutt, in dealing with +the Troy stories in British history, adopts this method, and denies +the existence of historic tradition on the strength of it, <i>Folklore</i>, xii. +336-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> This expression was recently allowed in our old friend <i>Notes and +Queries</i> in a singularly unsuitable case, 10th ser. vii. 344.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> I am not sure this is always the fault of those who are not folklorists. +I recently came across a dictum of one of the most distinguished folklorists, +Mr. Andrew Lang, which is certainly much in the same direction. +"As a rule tradition is the noxious ivy that creeps about historical truth, +and needs to be stripped off with a ruthless hand. Tradition is a collection +of venerable and romantic blunders. But a tradition which clings +to a permanent object in the landscape, a tall stone, a grassy, artificial +tumulus, or even an old tree, may be unexpectedly correct."—<i>Morning +Post</i>, 2 November, 1906.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> It is worth while referring to Mr. MacRitchie's article in <i>Trans. +International Folklore Congress</i> on the historical aspect of Folklore; +but Professor York Powell has said the strongest word in its favour in +his all too short address as President of the Folklore Society, see +<i>Folklore</i>, xv. 12-23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Chapter xi. of Tylor's <i>Early History of Mankind</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Spenser, <i>View of the State of Ireland</i>, 1595 (Morley reprint), 77.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Perhaps the most remarkable testimony to the foundation of the +folk-tale and ballad in the events of history is to be found in a statement +made to the <i>Tribune</i>, 14 September, 1906, by Mr. Mitra, once proprietor +and editor of the <i>Deccan Post</i>, with regard to the agitation +against the partition of Bengal into two provinces. Mr. Mitra deliberately +states that "the best test of finding out Hindu feeling towards the +British Government is to see whether there are any ballads or nursery +rhymes in the Bengali language against the British. You can have +it from me, and I challenge contradiction, that there is no single ballad +or nursery rhyme in the Bengali language which is against the British." +This is where the soul of the people speaks out.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> It is printed, and I have used this print, in Blomefield's <i>History of +Norfolk</i> (1769), iii. 506, from which source I quote the facts concerning it. +Sir William Dugdale's account goes on to connect it with a monument in +the church, but this part of the local version is to be considered presently.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> See the <i>Diary</i> printed by the Surtees Society, p. 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> The legend was also printed in that popular folk-book, <i>New Help to +Discourse</i>, so often printed between 1619 and 1656, and Mr. Axon transcribed +this version for the <i>Antiquary</i>, xi. 167-168; and see my notes in +<i>Gent. Mag. Lib. English Traditions</i>, 332-336.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> I happen to possess the original cutting of this version preserved +among my great-grandfather's papers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> These words are, "I am not a Bigot in Dreams, yet I cannot help +acknowledging the Relation of the above made a strong Impression +on me."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Leeds Mercury</i>, January 3rd, 1885, communicated by Mr. Wm. +Grainge of Harrogate.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Mr. Axon says it is current in Lancashire and in Cornwall, <i>Antiquary</i>, +xi. 168; Sir John Rhys gives two Welsh versions in his <i>Celtic +Folklore</i>, ii. 458-462, 464-466; a Yorkshire version in ballad form is to +be found in Castillo's <i>Poems in the North Yorkshire Dialect</i> (1878), under +the title of "T' Lealholm Chap's lucky dreeam," <i>Antiquary</i>, xii. 121; +an Ayrshire variant relates to the building of Dundonald Castle, and is +given in Chambers's <i>Pop. Rhymes of Scotland</i>, 236.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Blomefield, <i>Hist. of Norfolk</i>, iii. 507, suggests that the animal +carving represents a bear. There is nothing to confirm this and readers +may judge for themselves by reference to the illustrations, which are +from photographs taken in Swaffham Church.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> I discussed the details in the <i>Antiquary</i>, vol. x. pp. 202-205.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> This story was communicated by "W.F." to the <i>St. James's Gazette</i>, +March 15th, 1888. Its continuation, in order to point a moral, does not +belong to the real story, which is contained in the part I have quoted.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Saga Library</i>, <i>Heimskringla</i>, iii. 126.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> These have been collected and commented upon with his usual learning +and research, by Mr. Hartland in the <i>Antiquary</i>, xv. 45-48. Blomefield, +in his <i>History of Norfolk</i>, iii. 507, points out that the same story is +found in Johannes Fungerus' <i>Etymologicon Latino-Græcum</i>, pp. 1110-1111, +though it is here narrated of a man at Dort in Holland, and in +<i>Histoires admirables de nostre temps</i>, par Simon Goulart, Geneva, 1614, +iii. p. 366. Professor Cowell, in the third volume of the <i>Cambridge Antiquarian +Society Transactions</i>, p. 320, has printed a remarkable parallel +of the story which is to be found in the great Persian metaphysical and +religious poem called the Masnavi, written by Jaláluddin, who died +about 1260. J. Grimm discussed these treasure-on-the-bridge stories in +<i>Kleinere Schriften</i>, iii. 414-428, and did not attach much value to them.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> It is not unimportant in this connection to find that London itself +assumes an exceptional place in tradition. Mr. Frazer notes a German +legend about London, <i>Golden Bough</i> (2nd ed.), iii. 235; Pausanias, v. 292. +Mr. Dale has drawn attention to the Anglo-Saxon attitude towards +Roman buildings in his <i>National Life in Early English Literature</i>, 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> See <i>Archæologia</i>, xxv. 600; xxix. 147; xl. 54; <i>Arch. Journ.</i>, i. 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> I have worked this point out in my <i>Governance of London</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Bishop Kennett, quoted in <i>Notes and Queries</i>, fourth series, ix. 258.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Mommsen's account of the Pontifex Maximus should be consulted, +<i>Hist. Rome</i>, i. 178; and <i>cf.</i> Fowler, <i>Roman Festivals</i>, 114, 147, 214.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Mrs. Gomme, <i>Traditional Games</i>, i. 347.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Bingley, <i>North Wales</i>, 1814, p. 252.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> See my <i>Folklore Relics of Early Village Life</i>, 29; Tylor, <i>Primitive +Culture</i>, i. 97. This case was reported in the newspapers at the time of +its occurrence. It came to England from the <i>London and China Telegraph</i>, +from which the <i>Newcastle Chronicle</i>, 9 February, 1889, copied +the following statement:—</p> + +<p>"The boatmen on the Ganges, near Rajmenal, somehow came to +believe that the Government required a hundred thousand human heads +as the foundation for a great bridge, and that the Government officers +were going about the river in search of heads. A hunting party, consisting +of four Europeans, happening to pass in a boat, were set upon +by the one hundred and twenty boatmen, with the cry 'Gulla Katta,' +or cut-throats, and only escaped with their lives after the greatest +difficulty."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> I have worked out this fact in my <i>Governance of London</i>, 46-68, +202-229.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> See Turner, <i>Hist. of Anglo-Saxons</i>, ii. 207-222; <i>Y Cymmrodor</i>, +xi. 61-101.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> A passage in William of Malmesbury points to the fact of the Bretons +in the time of Athelstan looking upon themselves as exiles from the land +of their fathers. Radhod, a prefect of the church at Avranches, writes +to King Athelstan as "Rex gloriose exultator ecclesiæ ... deprecamur +atque humiliter invocamus qui in exulatu et captivitate nostris meritis +et peccatis, in Francia commoramur" etc., <i>De Gestis Regum Anglorum</i> +(Rolls Ed.), i. 154.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Rhys, <i>Celtic Folklore</i>, ii. 466. Sir John Rhys acknowledges his +indebtedness to me for lending him my Swaffham notes, but at that time +I had not formed the views stated above and Sir John Rhys confessed +his difficulty in classifying and characterising these stories (p. 456).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> In the <i>Anglo-Saxon Chronicle</i>, anno 418, and in <i>Ethelward's +Chronicle</i>, <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span> 418, it is recorded that "those of the Roman race who +were left in Britain bury their treasures in pits, thinking that hereafter +they might have better fortune, which never was the case."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Buried treasure legends are worth examining carefully, especially +with reference to their geographical distribution, with a view of ascertaining +how far they follow the direction of the Roman, English, Danish +and Norman Conquests. See Henderson, <i>Folklore of Northern Counties</i>, +320, for Yorkshire examples, and <i>Folklore Record</i>, i. 16, for an interesting +Sussex example.</p> + +<p>The Danish part of Lincoln, near Sleaford, has numerous treasure +legends, see Rev. G. Oliver, <i>Existing Remains of Ancient Britons between +Lincoln and Sleaford</i>, pp. 29 <i>et seq.</i></p> + +<p>Mr. W. J. Andrew has proved in the <i>British Numismatic Journal</i> +(1st ser. i. 9-59) that traditions of buried treasure may be verified a +thousand years after the laying down of the hoard. This has reference +to the famous Cuerdale find of coins. The people of Walton-le-Dale, on +the Ribble, had a legend that if you stood on a certain headland and +looked up the valley to Ribchester "you would gaze over the greatest +treasure that England had ever seen." The farmers tried excavations, +and the divining rod is said to have been used.</p> + +<p>The tradition was true. In May, 1840, the hoard was accidentally +found, near Cuerdale Hall, within forty yards of the stream, by men +who were repairing the southern bank. A willow tree, still in its prime, +was planted to mark the spot. We do not know how much bullion was +scattered by the finders, but there was recovered a mass of ingots, +armlets, chains, rings, and so on, amounting to 1000 oz., with over +7000 silver coins. They lay in a crumbling leaden case, within a +decomposed chest of wood. There were about 1060 English silver +coins, whereof 919 were of the reign of King Alfred. There were +2020 from Northumbrian ecclesiastical mints, and 2534 of King Canute, +with 1047 foreign coins, mainly French. The treasure had belonged to the +Scandinavian invaders in the host of the Danish Kings of Northumbria, +and very many bore the mark of York, the Danish capital. The chest +was the treasure-chest of the Danes. The money had been seized in +England, 890-897; on French coasts, 897-910; and collected among the +Danes of Northumbria about 911. In that year, we know, the Danes +raided Mercia, and were followed by the English King and thoroughly +defeated. Their treasurer, Osberth, was killed, and it is argued that +the Danes fell back by the Roman road, and were trying to cross into +Northumbria by the ford at Cuerdale, but that, the ford being dangerous, +they were obliged to bury their treasure-chest forty yards on the southern +bank of the river. They were unable to cross, were cooped up in a bend +of the stream, and were all put to the sword. Mr. Lang discussed this +from the folklore point of view in the <i>Morning Post</i>, 2nd November, 1906, +and concludes that "granting that none who knew the site of the deposit +escaped, the theory marches well, and quite accounts for the presence of +the hoard where it was found. The Danish rearguard defending the line +of the Darwen would know that their treasure was hurried forward and +probably concealed, but would not know the exact spot."</p> + +<p>Another good example is recorded in the <i>Antiquary</i>, xiv. 228. Further +Henderson notes that the Borderers of England and Scotland entrusted +their buried treasure to the brownie (<i>Folklore of Northern Counties</i>, 248). +This is exactly the same idea which exists throughout India. "Hidden +treasures are under the special guardianship of supernatural beings. +The Singhalese, however, divide the charge between demons and cobra +capellas. Various charms are resorted to by those who wish to gain +the treasures. A pujâ is sufficient with the cobras, but the demons +require a sacrifice. Blood of a human being is the most important, but +the Kappowas have hitherto confined themselves to a sacrifice of a white +cock, combining its blood with their own, drawn by a slight puncture in +the hand or foot. A Tamil, however, has resorted to human sacrifice as +instanced by a case reported in the <i>Ceylon Times</i>."—<i>Indian Antiquary</i>, +1873. ii. p. 125.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Morris, <i>Heimskringla</i>, ii. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Laing's <i>Heimskringla</i>, ii. 260.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Rhys, <i>The Arthurian Legend</i>, 7. Squire, in his recent <i>Mythology of +the British Islands</i>, states the case for "the mythological coming of +Arthur" in cap. xxi. of his book.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> As, for instance, in the case of Taliesin and Ossian, see Squire, +<i>Mythology of the British Islands</i>, 318; Rhys, <i>Celtic Mythology</i>, 551; +Nutt's Notes to <i>Mabinogion</i>.</p> + +<p>I suppose the most ancient example of the duplication process is that +of Dion Cassius (iii. 5), who suggests an earlier Romulus and Remus in +order to account for the early occupation of the Palatine Hill at Rome. +Middleton's <i>Anc. Rome</i>, 45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> It is interesting to find that, with independent investigation, Mr. +Bury explains on the lines I adopt the traditional part of the life of +St. Patrick. See his <i>Life of St. Patrick</i>, p. 111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Freeman, <i>Hist. Norm. Conq.</i>, iv. 467.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Wright, <i>Essays</i>, i. 244, notes this point; see also Freeman, <i>Hist. +Norm. Conq.</i>, iv. 828, and the preface to my edition of Macfarlane's +<i>Camp of Refuge</i> (Historical Novels Series), where I have discussed this +subject at length.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Journ. Anthrop. Inst.</i>, iii. 52.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Russell, <i>Kett's Rebellion</i>, p. 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Kemble's <i>Horæ Ferales</i>, 108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Perhaps the most interesting example in a minor way comes from +Shrewsbury. In the Abbey Church, forming part of a font, is the upper +stone of a cross (supposed to have been the Weeping Cross) which +was discovered at St. Giles's churchyard. It had been immemorially +fixed in the ditch bank, and all traces of its origin were quite lost, except +that an old lady, who was born in 1724, remembered having seen in +her youth, persons kneeling before this stone and praying. The transmission +of the tradition through very nearly three centuries proved +correct, for on its being loosened by the frosts of a severe winter, it +fell, and its religious distinction became immediately apparent from the +sculpture with which it was adorned.—<i>Eddowes' Shrewsbury Journal</i>, 5th +October, 1889.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Gent. Mag. Lib. Popular Superstitions</i>, 121. The importance of +this tradition may be tested by reference to my book on the <i>Governance +of London</i>, 96-98.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> <i>Archæologia</i>, xxvi. 369-370. One could give many additional examples +from all parts of the country, and undoubtedly they are worth collecting. +I cannot refrain from quoting the following, as it is from an out-of-the-way +source. At Seagry, in Wilts, is an ancient farm, one field of which +was known as "Peter's Orchard." The author of a local history +records the following: "It has been handed down from generation to +generation that in a field on this farm a church was built on the +site of an ancient heathen burial ground. In order to test the accuracy +of this tradition, in the autumn of 1882 I had excavations made on the +spot, which I will now describe. The field contains about ten acres, +and presents a very singular appearance. In removing the sods, about +two feet from the surface we discovered extensive stone foundations, +extending for a considerable distance over the field. From the charred +appearance of the stones they had evidently suffered from fire, thus +supporting the tradition of some of the oldest inhabitants that the +ancient church had been destroyed by fire. On continuing the search +we found, about two feet below these foundations, a quantity of early +British pottery, the remains of broken urns, some charred bones, and +heads of small spears. The following is an extract from a letter which +I have received from a gentleman, whose family have been connected with +this parish for over two hundred years, and who has given me great +assistance. He says: My father was born at Startley in 1784, and +remained there until about 1840. Both he and my grandfather were +deeply imbued with old folklore. I well remember them constantly +speaking of the firm belief handed down to them of the heathen burial +places at Seagry, and of the supposed ruins of a church and some +religious house at Seagry. I think the discoveries made (on the very +spot mentioned by tradition) in August, 1882, are abundant proof that +after the lapse of more than nine centuries actual verification of the +carefully transmitted tradition has at last been found."—<i>Bath Herald</i>, +1st September, 1883. If references to other examples were needed I +should like to note Sir William Wilde's illustration as to "how far the +legend, the fairy tale, the local tradition, or the popular superstition +may have been derived from absolute historic fact."—<i>Lough Corrib</i>, +121, 123.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> <i>Echoes from the Counties</i> (1880), p. 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Grierson, <i>The Silent Trade</i> (1903).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Pearson's <i>Chances of Death</i>, ii. 90. The reader should consult Dr. +Pearson's entire study on this subject, chapters ix. and x., which may +be compared with Mr. MacCulloch's <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>, 5-15, and +more particularly with Mr. Hartland's <i>Science of Fairy Tales</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> In 1881 I read a paper before the Folklore Society on "Some +Incidents in the story of the Three Noodles by means of reference to +facts," <i>Folklore Record</i>, iv. 211, and in 1883 I published in the <i>Antiquary</i>, +two papers on "Notes on Incidents in Folk-tales," based upon +the same idea.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Introduction, p. lxix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Introduction, p. lxxvii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Page 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Tales of the Highlands</i>, i. p. 251.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Kennedy, <i>loc. cit.</i>, p. 77.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> See Beda, <i>Hist. Ecclesia</i>, lib. i. cap. 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> See vol. i. p. 253.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Miss Frere's <i>Old Deccan Days</i>, p. 279.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Ælian, <i>Var. Hist.</i>, lib. xiii. cap. xxxiii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> <i>Folklore Record</i>, vol. iv. p. 57.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, xvii. p. 502.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> <i>Folklore Record</i>, vol. iii. p. 284.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Campbell's <i>Popular Tales of the West Highlands</i>, i. 308.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Joyce, <i>Old Celtic Romances</i>, 38, 75, 153, 177, 270. In the <i>Silva +Gadelica</i>, by Mr. Standish O'Grady, the assembly is described sitting in a +circle, vol. ii. p. 159, and Tara is also described, vol. ii. 264, 358, 360, 384.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Miss Cox's admirable study and analysis of the Cinderella group of +stories includes the Catskin variants, which number seventy-seven.—<i>Cinderella</i>, +pp. 53-79.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> <i>Studies in Ancient History</i>, p. 62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Sproat's <i>Scenes and Studies of Savage Life</i>, p. 96.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> See his <i>Early Hebrew Life</i>, p. 85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Frazer, <i>Adonis, Attis, and Osiris</i>, 27-28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Todd and Herbert, <i>Irish Version of Nennius</i>, p. 89.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> <i>Indian Antiq.</i>, iii. 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> <i>Laws of Manu</i> (Bühler), ix. 127; <i>Apastamba Gautama</i> (Bühler), +xxviii. 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Sir Henry Maine in his <i>Early Law and Custom</i>, p. 91.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> A most remarkable instance of an actual case of running away +from a marriage, resulting in adventures which might easily become +folk-tale adventures if the story were once started on its traditional life, +is to be found in Shooter's <i>Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country</i>, +pp. 60-71.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> <i>West Highland Tales</i>, vol. i. p. lxix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Kennedy's <i>Fireside Stories of Ireland</i>, p. 64.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> <i>Old Deccan Days</i>, p. 52.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 233.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> "Standing-place."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> <i>Journ. Ethnol. Soc.</i>, <i>loc. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> <i>New Statistical Account of Scotland</i>, xiv. 273.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Ure's <i>Agriculture of Kinross</i>, 57.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> <i>Archæologia</i>, l. 195-214.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Du Chaillu's <i>Land of the Midnight Sun</i>, i. 393.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> Tupper, <i>Punjab Customary Law</i>, ii. 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> <i>Cobden Club Essays—Primogeniture.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> Morris, <i>Saga Library</i>, ii. 194.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> <i>Journ. Ethnol. Soc.</i>, ii. 336.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> Elton, <i>Origins of English History</i>, 91; <i>cf.</i> Du Chaillu, <i>Land of the +Midnight Sun</i>, i. 393; Morris's <i>Sagas</i>, ii. 194.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Breeks, <i>Hill Tribes of India</i>, 108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> Mavor's <i>Collection of Voyages</i>, iv. 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> <i>Anecdotes and Traditions</i> (Camden Soc.), 85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> <i>Mythologie der Volkssagen und Volksmärchen.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> Geiger, <i>Hist. Sweden</i>, 31, 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> Elton, <i>Origins of English History</i>, 92.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> Aubrey, <i>Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme</i>, 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> Nutt, <i>Legend of the Holy Grail</i>, 44.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, 1850, i. 250-252.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> <i>Journ. Ethnol. Soc.</i>, ii. 337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> Elton's <i>Origins</i>, 92.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> Mr. Jacobs (<i>Folklore</i>, i. 405) objected to my interpretation of this +story because—first, the Latin rhyme appearing in the Gaelic tale, the +twelfth-century Latin story and the German inscription "tell for the +origination of the story in one single place in historic times;" and, +secondly, because a Kashmir story (Knowles' <i>Folk-tales of Kashmir</i>, 241), +based on the same main incident, omits the minor incident of the mallet +altogether. The answer to the first objection is that the Latin rhyme has +been attached, in historic times, to the ancient folk-tale; and to the +second objection, that the Kashmir story preserves the main incident +of surrender of property upon reaching old age, and omits the more +savage incident of killing, because the Kashmir people are in a stage of +culture which still allowed of the surrender of property, but, like the +Scandinavians, did not allow of the killing of the aged. Similarly, an +English parallel to this form of the variant is preserved by De la Pryme +in his <i>Diary</i> (Surtees Society), 162. It must be remembered that the +Kashmiris occupy a land which is referred to by Herodotos (iii. 99-105) +as in the possession of people who killed their aged (<i>cf.</i> Latham, +<i>Ethnology of India</i>, 199); and if my reading of the evidence is correct, +this is also the case of the Highland peasant.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Dr. Pearson advocates statistical methods in his <i>Chances of Death</i>, +ii. 58, 75-77, and shows by examples the value of them.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> MacCulloch, <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>: "Some of the things which in +these old-world stories form their fascination, have had their origin +in sordid fact and reality" (p. vii).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> Bühler, <i>Laws of Manu</i>, i.: "In Vedic mythology Manu is the heros +eponymos of the human race and by his nature belongs both to gods +and to men" (p. 57). <i>Cf.</i> Burnell and Hopkins, <i>Ordinances of Manu</i>, +p. 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> <i>Early Law and Custom</i>, 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> Pausanias, iii. 2(4).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> Maine, <i>Ancient Law</i>, 4; Grote, <i>Hist. of Greece</i>, iii. 101.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> Ortolan, <i>Hist. Roman Law</i>, 50; Maine, <i>Early Law and Custom</i>, 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> Morris, <i>Saga Library</i>, i. p. xxx; Dasent, <i>Burnt Njal</i>, i. xlvi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> <i>Early Law and Custom</i>, 162.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> Manx Society Publications, xviii. 21-22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> Strabo, lib. xv. cap. 1, pp. 709, 717; J. D. Mayne, <i>Hindu Law and +Usage</i>, 4, 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> Mackenzie, <i>Roman Law</i>, 11; <i>cf.</i> Pais, <i>Anc. Legends of Roman +Hist.</i>, 139.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> Dasent, <i>Burnt Njal</i>, i. p. lvii, and Vigfusson and Powell, <i>Origines +Islandicæ</i>, i. 348.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> <i>Anc. Laws of Ireland</i>, iv. p. vii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> This appears very strongly in the famous twelfth-century law case +which Longchamp pleaded so successfully. <i>Rotuli curia Regis</i>, i. +p. lxii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> <i>Early Law and Custom</i>, 9; <i>cf.</i> Burnell and Hopkins, <i>Ordinances of +Manu</i>, pp. xx, xxxi. It is worth while quoting here the following interesting +note from a letter from the Marquis di Spineto printed in +Clarke's <i>Travels</i>, viii. 417:—</p> + +<p>"From the most remote antiquity men joined together, and wishing +either to amuse themselves or to celebrate the praises of their gods sang +short poems to a fixed tune. Indeed, generally speaking, <i>the laws by +which they were governed</i>, the events which had made the greatest +impression on their minds, the praises which they bestowed upon their +gods or on their heroes were all sung long before they were written, and +I need not mention that according to Aristotle this is the reason why the +Greeks gave the same appellation to laws and to songs."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> The references are all given in Smith's <i>Dict. of Greek and Roman +Antiquities</i> sub <ins class="greek" title="nomos">νόμος</ins>. Aristotle in the <i>Problems</i>, 19, 28, definitely says, +"Before the use of letters men sang their laws that they might not forget +them, as the custom continues yet among the Agathyrsoi."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> Lib. xii. cap. ii. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> <i>Hist. English Commonwealth</i>, 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> <i>Anc. Laws of Ireland</i>, iv. pp. viii, x.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> Hampson's <i>Origines Patriciæ</i>, 106-107; Kemble, line 5763 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> Proctor's <i>History of the Book of Common Prayer</i>, p. 410.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> <i>Hist. Eng. Commonwealth</i>, ii. p. cxxxvi. Littleton points out the +legal antiquity and importance of these words: "no conveyance can be +made without them." See Wheatley's <i>Book of Common Prayer</i> (quoting +Littleton), p. 406.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> The York manual had the additional clause, "for fairer for fouler." +See Wheatley, <i>loc. cit.</i>, p. 406.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> Palgrave, <i>loc. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> <i>Manuale et processionale ad usum insiquis ecclesiæ Evoracensis</i>, +Surtees Society, 1875. See also <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, 1752, p. 171; +Proctor's <i>History of the Book of Common Prayer</i>, p. 409, for other +examples.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> Palgrave, <i>English Commonwealth</i>, i. 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> Chambers, <i>Popular Rhymes of Scotland</i>, 115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> Sinclair's <i>Stat. Acc. of Scotland</i>, x. 534.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> Chambers, <i>Book of Days</i>, January 19; Nichols, <i>Fuller's Worthies</i>, +494.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> <i>Diary of De la Pryme</i> (Surtees Society), 126. It may be noted here +that Kelly, <i>Curiosities of Indo-European Traditions</i>, 179, notes the preservation +of an ancient law for the preservation of the oak and the hazel +in a traditional proverbial rhyme.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> Hazlitt, <i>Tenures of Land</i>, 80; other examples refer to the Hundred +of Cholmer and Dancing, in Essex, 75; to Kilmersdon, in Somersetshire, +182; to Hopton, in Salop, 165. John of Gaunt is responsible for +many of these curious and interesting remains of tribal antiquity. +Bisley's <i>Handbook of North Devon</i>, 28, refers to one relating to the +manor of Umberleigh, near Barnstaple, and I have a note from Mr. +Edmund Wrigglesworth, of Hull, of a parallel to this being preserved +by tradition only. There is a tradition respecting the estate of Sutton +Park, near Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, which states that it formerly +belonged to John of Gaunt, who gave it to an ancestor of the present +proprietor, one Roger Burgoyne, by the following grant:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I, John of Gaunt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do give and do grant,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Roger Burgoyne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the heirs of his loin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both Sutton and Potton<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until the world's rotten."<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Potton was a neighbouring village to Sutton. There is a moated site +in the park called "John o' Gaunt's Castle," see <i>Notes and Queries</i>, +tenth series, vi. 466. <i>Cf.</i> Aubrey, <i>Collections for Wilts</i>, 185, for an example +at Midgehall; Cowell's <i>Law Interpreter</i>, 1607, and the <i>Dictionarum +Rusticum</i>, 1704, for the custom of East and West Enborn, in +Berks, which was made famous by Addison's <i>Spectator</i> in 1714.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> Sometimes these are called "burlesque conveyances." See an +example quoted in <i>Hist. MSS. Commission</i>, v. 459.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> It is well to bear in mind the great force of ancient tribal law, which +was personal, upon localities. Nottingham is divided into two parts, +one having primogeniture and the other junior right as the rule of +descent. Southampton and Exeter have also local divisions. But +perhaps the most striking example is at Breslau, where there co-existed, +until 1st January, 1840, five different particular laws and observances +in regard to succession, the property of spouses, etc., the application of +which was limited to certain territorial jurisdictions; not unfrequently +the law varied from house to house, and it even happened that one house +was situated on the borders of different laws, to each of which, therefore, +it belonged in part; Savigny, <i>Private Int. Law</i>, cap. i. sect. iv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> <i>Academy</i>, February, 1884; <i>Percy Reliques</i>, edit. Wheatley, i. 384.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> <i>Trans. British. Association</i>, 1847, p. 321.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> Series No. V., published in 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> <i>Philological Society Papers</i>, 1870-2, pp. 18, 248; Dr. Murray gives the +air in an appendix. See also a note by Mr. Danby Fry in the <i>Antiquary</i>, +viii. 164-6, 269-70; and <i>The Hawick Tradition</i>, by R. S. Craig and +Adam Laing, published at Hawick in 1898.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> Squire, <i>Mythology of the British Islands</i>, 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> Wilde, <i>Lough Corrib</i>, 210-248. Sir William Wilde has studied the +details of this great fight with great care, and it is impossible to ignore +his evidence as to the monuments of it being extant to this day among +the recorded antiquities of Ireland. The battle lasted four days. The +first day the Fir-Bolg had the best of the fighting, and pillar-stones +erected to the heroes who fell are still in situ. Clogh-Fadha-Cunga, or +long stone of Cong, which stood on the old road to the east of that +village and a portion of which, six feet long, is still in an adjoining wall, +being erected to Adleo of the Dananians, and Clogh-Fadha-Neal, or +long stone of the Neale, at the junction of the roads passing northwards +from Cross and Cong, commemorating the place where the king stood +during the battle. After the battle each Fir-Bolg carried with him a +stone and the head of a Danann to their king who erected a great cairn +to commemorate the event, and this must be the cairn of Ballymagibbon +which stands on the road passing from Cong to Cross. The well of +Mean Uisge is identified as that mentioned in the MS. accounts of the +battle, connected with a striking incident. After a careful examination +of the locality, says Sir William Wilde, with a transcript of the ancient +MS. in his hand, he was convinced of the identity of a stone heap +standing within a circle as the place where the body of the loyal Fir-Bolg +youth was burned. The second day's battle surged northwards, +and at the western shores of Lough Mask, Slainge Finn, the king's +son, pursuing the two sons of Cailchu and their followers, slew them +there, and "seventeen flag stones were stuck in the ground in commemoration +of their death," and by the margin of the lake in the island +of Inish-Eogan there stands this remarkable monument to this hour. +The line of the Fir-Bolg camp can still be traced with wonderful accuracy. +Caher-Speenan, the thorny fort, was a part of this camp, and still +exists. More to the south-east, on the hill of Tongegee, are the remains +of Caher-na-gree, the pleasant fort, and still further to the east are +Lisheen, or little earthen fort, and Caher-Phætre, pewter fort. Other +forts also exist to give evidence both of the Fir-Bolg and the Danann +lines. The Danann monuments are situate in the fields opposite the +glebes of Nymphsfield. Five remarkable stone circles still remain +within the compass of a square mile, and there are traces of others. +The Fir-Bolgs were defeated on the fourth day and their king Eochy +fell fighting to the last. "A lofty cairn was raised over his body, +and called Carn Eathach, from his name." On the grassy hill of +Killower, or Carn, overlooking Lough Mask, stands to this hour the +most remarkable cairn in the west of Ireland, and there is little doubt +this is the one referred to in the ancient tradition as commemorating the +death of the last Fir-Bolg king in Erin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> Squire, <i>op. cit.</i>, 76, 138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> Squire, <i>op. cit.</i>, 230.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> Squire, <i>Mythology</i>, 399.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> See <i>Life and Writings</i> by Oliver Elton, ii. 224.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> <i>Governance of London</i>, 110-113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> <i>Celtic Heathendom</i>, 125-133.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> See Bathurst, <i>Roman Antiquities of Lydney Park</i>, plates viii., xiii., for +the famous example dealt with by Sir John Rhys; and Stuart, <i>Caledonia +Romana</i>, 309, plate ix. fig. 2, for a dedication to the "Deities of Britain."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> See his <i>Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments</i>, chap. xxii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> See <i>Folklore</i>, xv. 306-311, for the Greek evidence; and xvii. 30, 164, +for the Irish evidence.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> Frazer, <i>Golden Bough</i> (2nd ed.), iii. 236-316. Mr. Frazer, however, is +inclined to review his explanation of bonfires as sun-charms; see his +<i>Adonis, Attis and Osiris</i>, 151, note 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> The specialisation of the fire cult is illustrated by the Hindu myth +of the Angiras, see Wilson, <i>Rig Veda Sanhita</i>, i. p. xxix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> Gummere, <i>Germanic Origins</i>, 400-2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> It will be convenient to give the references for the various details of +savage life in Britain. The original extracts are all given in <i>Monumenta +Historica Britannica</i> and in Giles' <i>History of Ancient Britons</i>, vol. ii. +Ireland—cannibalism: Strabo, iv. cap. 5, 4, p. 201, Diodoros, v. 32; +promiscuous intercourse: Strabo; birth ceremony: Solinus, xxii. +Scotland—human sacrifice: Solinus, xxii.; promiscuous intercourse, +Solinus, cap. xxii., Xiphilinus from Dio in <i>Mon. Brit. Hist.</i>, p. lx., +and St. Jerome adv. Jovin., v. ii. 201; nakedness, Herodian in <i>Mon. +Brit. Hist.</i>, p. lxiv, and Xiphilinus, <i>ibid.</i>, p. lx. Britain—head-hunting, +Strabo, iv. 1-4, pp. 199-201, Diodoros, v. 29; tattooing, Cæsar, +<i>De bello Gallico</i>, v. 12, Pliny, <i>Nat. Hist.</i>, xxii. i. (2); promiscuous intercourse, +Cæsar, <i>ibid.</i>, v. 14, Xiphilinus in <i>Mon. Brit. Hist.</i>, p. lvii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> <i>History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings</i>, i. 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> Innes' <i>Critical Essay</i>, 45, 51, 56, 240.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> O'Curry's <i>Manners and Customs of Ancient Irish</i>, i. p. vi. Dr. +Whitley Stokes has criticised O'Curry's translations as bad, "not from +ignorance, but to a desire to conceal a fact militating against theories +of early Irish civilisation."—<i>Revue Celtique</i>, iii. 90-101.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> Turner, <i>Hist. of Anglo-Saxons</i>, i. 64-74; Palgrave, <i>Eng. Com.</i>, +i. 467-8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> Giles' <i>History of Anc. Britons</i>, i. 231, referring to parallel customs +among the Chinese.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> Elton, <i>Origins of English History</i>, 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> Rhys, <i>Celtic Britain</i>, 55.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> <i>Celtic Heathendom</i>, 320, note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> I have dealt with this in my <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, 36-40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> Skene, <i>Celtic Scotland</i>, i. 59, 84.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> Pearson, <i>Hist. of England during the Early and Middle Ages</i>, i. 15, +21, 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> Ramsay, <i>Foundations of England</i>, i. 9, 11, 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> Lang, <i>Hist. of Scotland</i>, i. 3-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> Joyce, <i>Social Hist. of Ireland</i>, i. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> In addition to Mr. Lang and Dr. Joyce, who are folklorists as well +as historians, and who as we have seen do deal with these records +scientifically, the folklorist goes out of his way to reject these records. +Thus Mr. Squire says that "the imputation" which Cæsar makes as to +polyandrous customs "cannot be said to have been proved," <i>Mythology +of the British Islands</i>, 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> <i>Village Communities</i>, 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> <i>Principles of Sociology</i>, i. 714.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> <i>Arch. Cambrensis</i>, 6th ser. v. 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> <i>Journ. Anthrop. Inst.</i>, xx. 259.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>MATERIALS AND METHODS</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>he materials of folklore consist of traditional +tales (so called) and traditional customs and +superstitions (so called), the feature of both +groups being that at the time of first being recorded +and reduced to writing they existed only by the force +of tradition. There is no fixed time for the record. It +is sometimes quite early, as, for instance, the examples +which come to us from historians; it is generally quite +late, namely, the great mass of examples which, during +the past century or so, have been collected directly +from the lips or observances of the people, sometimes +by the curious traveller or antiquary, lately by the professed +folklorist.</p> + +<p>The consideration of the relationship of history and +folklore has cleared the ground for definitions and +method. Before the material of which folklore consists +can be considered by the light of method, we +must get rid of definitions which are often applied to +folklore in its attributed sense. Folk-tales are not +fiction or art, were not invented for amusement, are not +myth in the sense of being imaginative only.<a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> Customs +and superstitions are not the result of ignorance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +and stupidity. These attributes are true only if folk-tales, +customs, and superstitions are compared with +the literary productions and with the science and the +culture of advanced civilisation; and this comparison is +exactly that which should never be undertaken, though +unfortunately it is that which is most generally adopted. +The folk-tale may be lent on occasion to the artist—to +Mr. Lang, to Mr. Jacobs, and their many copyists; and +these artists may rejoice at the wonderful results of the +unconscious art that resides in these products of tradition, +but the folk-tale must not be wholly surrendered. +It does not belong to them. It does not belong to art +at all, but to science. That it is artistic in form is an +addition to its characteristics, but has nothing whatever +to do with its fundamental features. Similarly +with legend. It may be lent to Malory, to Tennyson, +to Longfellow, to the literary bards of the romance +period, for the purpose of weaving together their story +of the wonderful; but it must not be surrendered to the +romancist, and, above all things, the romances must +never be allowed to enter the domain of folklore. +Romances may be stripped of their legends so that the +source of legendary material may be fully utilised, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +the romances themselves belong to literature, and must +remain within their own portals. And so with customs. +They may be pleasing and reveal some of the +beauties of the older joyousness of life which has passed +away, it is to be regretted, from modern civilisation; +they may be revived in May-day celebrations, in +pageants, in providing our schools with games which +tell of the romance of living. But they do not belong +to the lover of the beautiful or to the revivalists. +Equally with the folk-tale they belong to science. And +so also with superstitions. The Psychical Research +Society, the spiritualists, the professional successors of +the mediæval witch and wizard, may turn their attention +to traditional superstitions; but the folklorist refuses +to hand them over, and claims them for science.</p> + +<p>This use of traditional material for modern purposes +is not the only danger to proper definitions. There is +also its appearance in the earlier stages of literature. +The traditional narrative, the myth, the folk-tale or the +legend, is not dependent upon the text in which it +appears for the first time. That text, as we have it, was +not written down by contemporary or nearly contemporary +authority. Before it had become a written document +it had lived long as oral tradition.<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> In some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +cases the written document is itself centuries old, the +record of some early chronicler or some early writer +who did not make the record for tradition's sake. +In other cases the written document is quite modern, +the record of a professed lover of tradition. This +unequal method of recording tradition is the main source +of the difficulty in the way of those who cannot accept +tradition as a record of fact. In all cases the test of its +value and the interpretation of its testimony are matters +which need special study and examination before the +exact value of each tradition is capable of being determined. +The date when and the circumstances in +which a tradition is first reduced to literary form are important +factors in the evidence as to the credibility of +the particular form in which the tradition is preserved; +but they are not all the factors, nor do they of themselves +afford better evidence when they are comparatively ancient +than forms of much later date and of circumstances +far different. It cannot be too often impressed upon +the student of tradition that the tradition itself affords +the chief if not the only sure evidence of its age, its +origin, and its meaning; for the preservation of tradition +is due to such varied influences that the mere fact +of preservation, or the particular method or date of preservation, +cannot be relied upon to give the necessary +authority for the authenticity of the tradition. Tradition +can never assume the position of written history, +because it does not owe its origin, but only its preservation, +to writing.</p> + +<p>Documentary material is examined as to its palæographical +features, as to the testimony afforded by its +author or assumed author, as to its credibility in dealing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +with contemporary events or persons, as to its date, +and in other ways according to the nature of the document. +Traditional material has nothing to do with all +this. It has no palæography; it has no author, and if a +personal author is assigned to any given fragment or +element it is generally safe to ignore the tradition as the +product of a later age; it does not deal with persons +nor, as a rule, with specific events; it has no date. It +has therefore to undergo a process of its own before it +can be accepted as historical evidence, and this process, +if somewhat tedious, is all the more necessary because +of the tender material of which tradition is composed. +This will be made clearer if we understand exactly what +the different classes of tradition are and how they stand +to each other.</p> + +<p>Considering the materials of folklore in their true +sense and not their attributed sense then, we may proceed +to say something as to methods. Definitions and +rules are needed. No student can attack so immense a +subject without the aid of such necessary machinery, +and it is because the attempt has been so often made ill-equipped +in this respect, that the science of folklore has +suffered so much and has remained so long unrecognised. +Already, in dealing with the relationship of +history and folklore, one or two necessary distinctions +in terms have been anticipated. We have discovered +that the impersonal folk-tale is distinguished in a fundamental +manner from the personal or local legend, and +that the growth of mythology is a later process than +the growth of myth. These distinctions need, however, +to be systematised and brought into relationship with +other necessary distinctions. The myth and the folk-tale<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +are near relations, but they are not identical, and it +is clear that we need to know something more about +myth. Because mythic tradition has been found to +include many traditions, which of late years have been +claimed to belong to a definitely historical race of +people, it must not be identified with history. This +claim is based upon two facts, the presence of myth in +the shape of the folk-tale and the preservation of much +mythic tradition beyond the stage of thought to which it +properly belongs by becoming attached to an historical +event, or series of events, or to an historical personage, +and in this way carrying on its life into historic periods +and among historic peoples. The first position has +resulted in a wholesale appropriation of the folk-tale to +the cause of the mythologists; the second position has +hitherto resulted either in a disastrous appropriation of +the entire tradition to mythology, or in a still more disastrous +rejection both of the tradition and the historical +event round which it clusters. Historians doubting the +myth doubt too the history; mythologists doubting +the history reject the myth from all consideration, and +in this way much is lost to history which properly +belongs to it, and something is lost to myth.</p> + +<p>If, therefore, I have hitherto laid undue stress +upon the foundation of tradition in the actual facts of +life, and upon the close association of tradition with +historic fact, it is because this side of the question has +been so generally neglected. Everything has been +turned on to the mythic side. Folk-tales have been +claimed as the exclusive property of the mythologists, +and those who have urged their foundation on the facts +of real life have scarcely been listened to. There is,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +however, no ground for the converse process to be +advocated. If tradition is not entirely mythology it is +certainly not all founded on sociology, and the mythic +tradition in the possession of a people advanced in +culture has to be considered and accounted for. It is +myth in contact with history, and the contact compels +consideration of the result.</p> + + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>The first necessity is for definitions. Careful attention +to what has already been said will reveal the fact +that tradition contains three separate classes, and I +would suggest definition of these classes by a precise +application of terms already in use: The <i>myth</i> belongs +to the most primitive stages of human thought, and is +the recognisable explanation of some natural phenomenon, +some forgotten or unknown object of human +origin, or some event of lasting influence; the <i>folk-tale</i> +is a survival preserved amidst culture-surroundings +of a more advanced stage, and deals with events +and ideas of primitive times in terms of the experience +or of episodes in the lives of unnamed human beings; +the <i>legend</i> belongs to an historical personage, locality, +or event. These are new definitions, and are suggested +in order to give some sort of exactness to the terms +in use. All these terms—myth, folk-tale, and legend—are +now used indiscriminately with no particular definiteness. +The possession of three such distinct terms +forms an asset which should be put to its full use, and +this cannot be done until we agree upon a definite +meaning for each.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +The first place must be given to mythic tradition. +This is not special to our own, or to any one branch +of the human race. It belongs to all—to the Hindu, +the Greek, the Slav, the Teuton, the Celt, the Semite, +and the savage. It goes back to a period of human +history which has only tradition for its authority, in +respect of which no contemporary records exist, and +which relates to a time when the ancestors of now +scattered peoples lived together, and when they were +struggling from the position of obedient slaves to all +the fears which unknown nature inflicted on them, to +that of observers of the forces of nature.</p> + +<p>Traditions which are properly classed as myth are +those which are too ancient to be identified with historical +personages, and too little realistic to be a +relation of historical episodes. They are rather the +explanations given by primitive philosophers of events +which were beyond their ken, and yet needed and +claimed explanation. In this class of tradition we are in +touch with the struggles of the earliest ancestors of man +to learn about the unknown. Our own research in the +realms of the unknown we dignify by the name and +glories of science. The research of our remote ancestors +was of like kind, though the domain of the unknown +was so different from our own. It was primitive science.</p> + +<p>The best type of this class of myth is, I think, the +creation myth.<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> Everywhere, almost, man has for a +moment stood apart and asked himself the question, +Whence am I?—stood apart from the struggle for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +existence when that struggle was in its most severe +stages. The answer he has given himself was the +answer of the Darwin of his period. From the narrow +observation of the natural man and his surroundings, +governed by the enormous impressions of his own life, +the answer has obviously not been scientific in our sense +of the term. But it was scientific. It was the science of +primitive man, and if we have to reject it as science not +so good as our science, nay, as not science at all judged +by our standard, we must not deny to primitive man +the claim of having preceded modern man in his observation +and interpretation of the world of nature.</p> + +<p>The range of the creation myth is almost world-wide. +It includes examples from all quarters, and examples of +great beauty as well as of singular, almost grotesque +hideousness; the New Zealand myth is surely the best +type of the former, and perhaps the Fijian of the latter. +As Mr. Lang says: "all the cosmogonic myths waver +between the theory of construction, or rather of reconstruction +and the theory of evolution very rudely conceived."<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a></p> + +<p>It is not necessary to quote a large number of examples, +because I am not concerned with their variety +nor with their essentials. I am only anxious to point +out their existence as evidence of the scientific character +of primitive myth.<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> It is not to the point to say that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +the science was all wrong. What is to the point is to +say that the attempt was made to get at the origin of man +and his destiny. Mr. Lang thinks that "the origin of +the world and of man is naturally a problem which has +excited the curiosity of the least developed minds," but +in the use of the term "naturally," I think the stupendous +nature of the effort made by the least developed minds +is entirely neglected, and we miss the opportunity of +measuring what this effort might mean.</p> + +<p>When savages ask themselves, as they certainly <i>do</i> +ask themselves, whence the sky, whence the winds, the +sun, moon, stars, sea, rivers, mountains and other +natural objects, they reply in terms of good logic applied +to deficient knowledge. All the knowledge they possess +is that based upon their own material senses. And therefore, +when they apply that knowledge to subjects outside +their own personality, they deal with them in terms of +their own personality. How did the sky get up there, +above their heads—the sky evidently so lovingly fond +of the earth, so intimately connected with the earth?</p> + +<p>The New Zealand answer to these questions is a +great one, by whatever standard it is measured. +Heaven and earth, they say, were husband and wife, so +locked in close embrace that darkness everywhere prevailed. +Their children were ever thinking amongst +themselves what might be the difference between darkness +and light. At last, worn out by the continued +darkness, they consulted amongst themselves whether +they should slay their parents, Rangi and Papa, <i>i.e.</i> +heaven and earth, or whether they should rend them +apart. The fiercest of their children exclaimed, "Let us +slay them!" but the forest, another of the sons, said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +"Nay, not so. It is better to rend them apart, and to +let heaven stand far above us and the earth to lie under +our feet. Let the sky become as a stranger to us, but +the earth remain close to us as our nursing-mother." +The brothers consented to this proposal with the exception +of Tawhiri-ma-tea, the father of winds and storms; +thus five of the brothers consented and one would not +agree. Then each of the brothers tries to rend his +parents, heaven and earth, asunder. First the father +of cultivated food tries and fails; then the father of +fish and reptiles; then the father of uncultivated food; +then the father of fierce human beings. Then at last +slowly uprises Tane-mahuta, the father of forests, birds, +and insects, and he struggles with his parents; in vain +he strives to rend them apart with his hands and arms. +Lo, he pauses; his head is now firmly planted on his +mother, the earth; his feet he raises up and rests against +his father, the skies; he strains his back and limbs with +mighty effort, and at last are rent apart Rangi and +Papa, who shriek aloud with cries and groans. But +Tane-mahuta pauses not, he regards not their shrieks +and cries; far, far beneath him he presses down the +earth; far, far above him he thrusts up the sky. Then +were discovered a multitude of human beings whom +heaven and earth had begotten, and who had hitherto +lain concealed. But Tawhiri-ma-tea, the wind and +storm, the brother who had not consented, is angry at +this rending apart of his parents, and he rises and +follows his father, the sky, and fights fiercely with the +earth and his brothers.<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +The explanation of this myth is simple. Unaided +by the facts of science, the New Zealand savages could +only think of the facts of their own experience. Only +two personalities could produce the various products of +the world; therefore the earth was the mother and the +sky the father. But they are now separated and apart. +Only a personality could have separated, and the forest, +root-sown in the earth, branch-up in the sky, is evidently +the means of this separation. And so, satisfactorily to +their own minds, these rude savages settled the question +of the origin of heaven and earth.</p> + +<p>The close similarity of this to the story of Kronos +has frequently been pointed out; but a Greek story is +always worth repeating. Near the beginning of things +Earth gave birth to Heaven. Later, Heaven became the +husband of Earth, and they had many children. Some +of these became the gods of the various elements, +among whom were Okeanos, and Hyperion, the sun. +The youngest child was Kronos of crooked counsel, +who ever hated his mighty sire. Now the children of +Heaven and Earth were concealed in the hollows of +Earth, and both the Earth and her children resented this. +At last they conspired against their father, Heaven, and, +taking their mother into the counsels, she produced Iron +and bade her children avenge her wrongs. Fear fell +upon all of them except Kronos, and he determined to +separate his parents, and with his iron weapon he +effected his object. All the brothers rejoiced except one, +Okeanos, and he remained faithful to his father.<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id="FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +It would be well for the sake of the story itself to +give a creation myth from India, but I shall have other +use for it than its particular charm.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'In the beginning, when Twashtri came to the creation +of woman, he found that he had exhausted his materials in +the making of man, and that no solid elements were left. +In this dilemma, after profound meditation, he did as follows. +He took the rotundity of the moon, and the curves of +creepers, and the clinging of tendrils, and the trembling of +grass, and the slenderness of the reed, and the bloom +of flowers, and the lightness of leaves, and the tapering +of the elephant's trunk, and the glances of deer, and the +clustering of rows of bees, and the joyous gaiety of sunbeams, +and the weeping of clouds, and the fickleness of the +winds, and the timidity of the hare, and the vanity of the +peacock, and the softness of the parrot's bosom, and the +hardness of adamant, and the sweetness of honey, and +the cruelty of the tiger, and the warm glow of fire, and the +coldness of snow, and the chattering of jays, and the cooing +of the <i>kókila</i>, and the hypocrisy of the crane, and the fidelity +of the <i>chakrawáka</i>, and compounding all these together, he +made woman and gave her to man. But after one week, +man came to him and said: Lord, this creature that you +have given me makes my life miserable. She chatters incessantly +and teases me beyond endurance, never leaving me +alone; and she requires incessant attention, and takes all +my time up, and cries about nothing, and is always idle; +and so I have come to give her back again, as I cannot live +with her. So Twashtri said: Very well; and he took her +back. Then after another week, man came again to him +and said: "Lord, I find that my life is very lonely, since I +gave you back that creature. I remember how she used to +dance and sing to me, and look at me out of the corner of +her eye, and play with me, and cling to me; and her laughter +was music, and she was beautiful to look at, and soft to +touch; so give her back to me again. So Twashtri said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +Very well; and gave her back again. Then after only +three days, man came back to him again and said: Lord, I +know not how it is; but after all I have come to the conclusion +that she is more of a trouble than a pleasure to me; +so please take her back again. But Twashtri said: Out on +you! Be off! I will have no more of this. You must +manage how you can. Then man said: But I cannot live +with her. And Twashtri replied: Neither could you live +without her. And he turned his back on man, and went on +with his work. Then man said: What is to be done? for I +cannot live either with her or without her.'"<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a></p></div> + +<p>Now this myth has, so far as its central fact is concerned, +its counterpart in Celtic folklore. In the +Welsh Mabinogi of Math, son of Mathonwy, it is related +how Arianrod laid a destiny upon her son, whom +she would not recognise, that he should never have +a wife of the race that now inhabits the earth, and how +Gwydion declared that he should have a wife notwithstanding. +"They went thereupon unto Math, the son +of Mathonwy, and complained unto him most bitterly +of Arianrod. Well, said Math, we will seek, I and +thou, by charms and magic, to form a wife for him out +of flowers. So they took the blossoms of the oak, and +the blossoms of the broom, and the blossoms of the +meadow-sweet, and produced from them a maiden, the +fairest and most graceful that man ever saw." No one +can doubt that this interesting fragment of Welsh +tradition takes us back to a creation legend of the same +order as the Indian legend, and that the two widely +separated parallels belong to the period when men were +carving out for themselves theories as to the origin of +women in relation to men.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +It is impossible to deny a place among these myths +of creation to the Hebrew tradition of Adam and Eve +in the Garden of Eden. The first chapter of Genesis +is the answer which the early Hebrews gave to the +scientific question as to the origin of man. How much +it cost them to arrive at this conclusion one cannot +guess, one only knows that it has become a glory to +the ages of Hebrew history, as well as to the civilisation +of Christianity. Unfortunately it has become much +more. The science of the primitive Hebrew has been +adopted as the God-given revelation to all mankind. +It is the function of folklore to correct this error, to +restore the Hebrew tradition to its proper place among +the myths of the world which have answered the cry of +early man for the knowledge of his origin. There is +no degradation here. Science is no longer in doubt +as to the origin of man within the evolutionary process +of the natural world, and it rightly rejects the first +chapter of Genesis as of value to modern research. But +science should accept it as a chapter in the history of +anthropology, a chapter which has only proved not to +be true, because of the limited range of early man in +the facts about man, but a chapter, nevertheless, which +has the inherent value of a faithful record of man's +search after truth. This is a great position. This is +the revelation which is made to us from the first +chapter of Genesis, and when the theologian is bold +and able enough to step outside the formularies of his +ancient faith, and reach the magnificent world of +thought which lies in front of him by the revelations of +scientific discovery, he will consider the anthropological +interpretation of the Hebrew Bible as one of the necessary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +elements of his equipment. There is on present +lines a whole world of thought between science and +religion, although they both have the same object. +They both seek the great unknown. Science, however, +gives up all efforts in the past which have proved futile +and erroneous, cheerfully surrenders all errors of +research and interpretation, starts investigation afresh, +begins new discoveries, and rewrites the story they +have to tell. Religion, on the other hand, comes to +a full stop when once she has made or accepted a discovery, +when once she has pronounced that the great +unknown has become known to her votaries and supporters. +She is skilful to use the results of science up +to the point where they serve her purpose, and to use +the terms of science in order to build up her shattering +position. But she does not advance. She does not +accept the first chapter of Genesis as a wonderful +revelation of the early stages of human investigation +into the realms of the unknown, but still keeps to her +old formula of a revelation of the deity as to the origin +of man, and she does not see that by this attitude she +is lessening every day her capacity for teaching truth.</p> + +<p>I think the attitude of science to the Hebrew tradition +is only a little less unfortunate than that of religion. +Professor Huxley employed all the resources of his +great knowledge to disprove the scientific accuracy of +the tradition, and when one rereads his chapters on this +subject<a name="FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> one wonders at the absence of the sense of +proportion. Perhaps it was necessary, considering the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +place which the Hebrew tradition occupies in civilised +thought, to show its utter inconsistency with the facts +of nature, but it was equally necessary to show that it +has its place in the history of human thought. The +folklorist replaces it among the myths of creation, and +then proceeds to analyse and value it. The Hebrew is +shown by the myth he adopted to have frankly acknowledged +that the origin of man and of the world was undiscoverable +by him. Whatever older myths he once +possessed, he discarded them in favour of a mythic +God-creator, and this is only another way of stating +that the mystery of man's origin could not, to the +Hebrew mind, be met by such a myth as the New +Zealander believed in, or as the Kumis believed in, but +could only be met by the larger conception of a special +creation. The Hebrew could not find his answer in +nature, so he appealed to super-nature. His God was +the unknown God, and the realm of the unknown God +was the unknowable. Though in terms this may not +be the interpretation of the Hebrew creation myth, its +ultimate resolve is this; and because modern science +has penetrated beyond this confession of the unknown +origin of man to the evolution of man, it should not +therefore treat contemptuously the effort of early +Hebrew science. Because it is not possible to admit +this effort as part of modern science, it must not be +rejected from the entire region of science. It must be +respected as one of the many efforts which have made +possible the last effort of all which proclaims that man +has kinship with all the animal world.</p> + +<p>These points illustrate the unsatisfactory attitude of +science and religion to myth. There is still to notice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +the unsatisfactory attitude of the folklorist. Wrong +interpretation of special classes of myth is, of course, +to be anticipated in the commencement of a great study +such as folklore; but there are also wrong interpretations +of the fundamental basis of myth. Thus even +Mr. Frazer, with all his vast research into savage +thought and action, doubts the possession of good +logical faculty by mankind. If mankind, he says, had +always been logical and wise, history would not be a +long chronicle of folly and crime.<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_191_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a> But surely we cannot +doubt man's logical powers. They have been too +strong for his facts. He has applied mercilessly all the +powers of his logical faculties upon isolated observations +of phenomena, and it is this limited application +which has produced the folly and crime. I venture to +think that civilised man shares with the savage of to-day, +and with the primitive ancestors of all mankind, the +charge of applying perfectly good logic to an insufficiency +of facts, and producing therefrom fresh chapters +of folly and crime.</p> + +<p>If myth is correctly defined as primitive science, as +I have ventured to suggest, it is important to know +how it assumes a place among the traditions of a +people. Primitive science was also primitive belief. +If it accounted for the origin of mankind, of the sun, +moon, and stars, of the earth and the trees, it accounted +for them as creations of a higher power than man, or, +at all events, of a great and specially endowed man, +and higher powers than man were of the unknown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +realm. The unknown was the awful. Primitive science +and primitive belief were therefore on one and the +same plane.<a name="FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> They were subjects to be treated with +reverence and with awe. The story into which the +myth was so frequently woven is not a story to those +who believe in the truth of the myth. It assumes the +personal shape, because the personal is the only +machinery by which primitive man is capable of expressing +himself. It was held only by tradition, +because tradition was the only means of transmitting +it, and it was of a sacred character, because sacred things +and beliefs were the only forces which influenced primitive +thought. When it was repeated to new generations +of learners, it was not a case of story-telling—it +was a matter of the profoundest importance. Everywhere +among the lowest savagery we find the secrets of +the group kept from all but the initiated, and these +secrets are the traditions which have become sacred, +traditions expressed sometimes in ceremonial, sometimes +in rites, sometimes in narratives. Thus the +mythological and religious knowledge of the Bushmen +is imparted in dances, and when a man is ignorant of +some myth, he will say, "I do not dance that dance," +meaning that he does not belong to the group which +preserves that particular sacred chapter.<a name="FNanchor_193_193" id="FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a> The Ashantees +have an interesting creation myth which is stated to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +the foundation of all their religious opinions.<a name="FNanchor_194_194" id="FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a> Mr. +Howitt, in his important chapter on "Beliefs and Burial +Practices,"<a name="FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a href="#Footnote_195_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a> seems to me to exactly interpret the savage +mind. The first thing he notes is the belief—a belief +that "the earth is flat, surmounted by the solid vault +of the sky," that "there is water all round the flat +earth," that the sun is a woman, and that the moon +was once a man who lived on earth, and so on. Then, +secondly, he notes the manner in which these beliefs +are translated to and held by the people, the myth in +point of fact—unfortunately, Mr. Howitt calls it a +legend—wherein it is perfectly obvious that the +Australian is interpreting the facts of nature in the +only language known to him to be applicable, namely,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +that of his own personality. Messrs. Spencer and +Gillen produce much the same kind of evidence,<a name="FNanchor_196_196" id="FNanchor_196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> and +describe a ceremony among the northern tribes connected +with the myth of the sun, which ends in a +newly initiated youth being brought up, "shown the +decorations, and had everything explained to him."<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id="FNanchor_197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_197_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> +Among the central tribes the same authorities describe +minutely the initiation ceremonies, during which the +initiate boy "is instructed for the first time in any of +the sacred matters referring to totems, and it is by +means of the performances which are concerned with +certain animals, or rather, apparently with the animals, +but in reality with Alcheringa individuals who were +the direct transformations of such animals, that the +traditions dealing with this subject, which is of the +greatest importance in the eyes of the natives, are +firmly impressed upon the mind of the novice, to +whom everything which he sees and hears is new and +surrounded with an air of mystery."<a name="FNanchor_198_198" id="FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_198_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> Sir George +Grey, speaking of the traditions of the Maori which +he collected, says his reader will be in "the position of +one who listens to a heathen and savage high priest, +explaining to him in his own words and in his own +energetic manner, the traditions in which he earnestly +believes, and unfolding the religious opinions upon +which the faith and hopes of his race rest."<a name="FNanchor_199_199" id="FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_199_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +"school of mythology and history," as it is significantly +termed in John White's <i>Ancient History of the +Maori</i>, was "Whare-Kura, the sacred school in which +the sons of high priests were taught our mythology and +history," and it "stood facing the east in the precincts +of the sacred place of Mua." The school was opened by +the priests in the autumn, and continued from sunset to +midnight every night for four or five months in succession. +The chief priest sat next to the door. It was +his duty to commence the proceedings by repeating a +portion of history; the other priests followed in succession, +according to rank. On the south side sat the +old and most accomplished priests, "whose duty it +was to insist on a critical and verbatim rehearsal of +all the ancient lore."<a name="FNanchor_200_200" id="FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_200_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a> The American-Indian account, +by the Iroquois, of how myths were told to an ancient +chief and an assembly of the people on a circular open +space in a deep forest, wherein was a large wheel-shaped +stone, from beneath which came a voice which +told the tale of the former world, and how the first +people became what they are at present,<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id="FNanchor_201_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_201_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> is in exact +accord with this evidence. The priestly novice among +the Indians of British Guiana is taught the traditions +of the tribe, while the medicine man of the Bororó +in Brazil has to learn certain ritual songs and the +languages of birds, beasts, and trees.<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id="FNanchor_202_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_202_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a></p> + +<p>I do not want to press the point too far, because +evidence is not easy to get on account of the incomplete<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +fashion in which it has been collected and presented to +the student. The records of native life are divided off +into chapters arranged, not on the basis of native ideas, +but on the basis of civilised ideas, and from this cause +we get myth and belief in different chapters as if they +had no connection with each other; we get myths treated +as if they were but the fancy-begotten amusements of +the individual, instead of the serious ideas of the collective +people about the elements of nature to which they +have directed their attention. Mr. J. A. Farrer comes +practically to this correct conclusion,<a name="FNanchor_203_203" id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_203_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a> while Mr. Jevons +seems to me to have arrived at the same result in spite +of some false intermediate steps, due to his failure to +discriminate between myth and mythology.<a name="FNanchor_204_204" id="FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a> Failures +of this kind are of almost infinite loss to scientific +research. They stop the results which might flow from +the stages correctly reached, and hide the full significance +which arises from the fact that man's aspirations +are always so much in excess of his accomplished acts. +Poetry, philosophy, prayer, worship, are all short of the +ideal; and the question may surely arise whether the +actual accomplishments of man in civilisation, as compared +with those of man in savagery, afford any sort of +indication of the distance between man's accomplishment +and his aspiration at any age. If man has never +travelled at one moment of time, or at one definite +period of life, all this distance in thought, it may still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +be possible to use this distance between savage and +cultured accomplishment as a standard of measurement +between accomplishment and ideal, wherever the +material for such a purpose is available. If folklorists +will keep such a possibility in mind, whenever +they are called upon to investigate myth, it will at +all events save them from proceeding upon lines which +cannot lead to progress in the investigation of human +history.</p> + +<p>The primitive myth does not include all that properly +comes within the definition of myth. There must be +included the myth formed to explain a rite or ceremony, +which originating in most ancient times has been +kept up at the instance of a particular religion or cult, +but the meaning and intent of which has been forgotten +amidst the progress of a later civilisation. +Pausanias is the great storehouse of such myths as +this, and Mr. Lang has, more than any other scholar, +examined and explained the process which has +gone on.</p> + +<p>There is also included in this secondary class of +myth, the myths upon which are founded the great +systems of mythology. The Hindu mythology, in spite +of all that has been done to place it on the pedestal of +primitive original thought, is definitely relegated to the +secondary position by its best exponents. The Vedic +religion is tribal in form, and in the pre-mythological +stage.<a name="FNanchor_205_205" id="FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a> In the Rámáyaná and Mahábhárata, on the +contrary, "we trace unequivocal indications of a departure +from the elemental worship of the Vedas, and +the origin or elaboration of legends which form the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +great body of the mythological religion of the Hindus."<a name="FNanchor_206_206" id="FNanchor_206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a> +The pre-mythological and the mythological stages of +Hindu religion, therefore, are both discoverable from +the traditional literature which has descended from +both ages, and this fact is important in the classification +of the various phases of tradition. When once +it is admitted that the beginnings of mythology are to +be traced in one section of the people who are supposed +to derive a common system of mythology from a common +home, future research will hesitate to interpret, +as Kuhn and Max Müller and their school have done, +the traditions of Celts, Teutons, and Scandinavians as +the detritus of ancient mythologies instead of the +beginnings of what, under favourable conditions, might +have grown into mythologies. Mythological tradition +is essentially a secondary not a primary stage. This +fact is overlooked by many authorities, and I have +noted some of the unfortunate results. It is not overlooked +by those who study the principles of their subject +as well as the details. Thus, as Robertson-Smith has +so well explained, "mythology was no essential part +of ancient religion, for it had no sacred sanction and +no binding force on the worshippers.... Belief in +a certain series of myths was neither obligatory as +a part of true religion, nor was it supposed that by +believing a man acquired religious merit and conciliated +the favour of the gods. What was obligatory +or meritorious was the exact performance of certain +sacred acts prescribed by religious tradition. This +being so, it follows that mythology ought not to take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +the prominent place that is too often assigned to it +in the scientific study of ancient faiths."<a name="FNanchor_207_207" id="FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a> This is +exactly the position, and all that I have advanced for +the purpose of aiming at a classification of the various +kinds of tradition is in accord with this view.</p> + +<p>All that I am anxious to prove, all that it is possible to +prove, from these considerations of the position occupied +by myth, is that myths constitute a part of the serious life +of the people. They belong to the men and women, perhaps +some of them to the men only and others to the +women only, but essentially to the life of the people.</p> + +<p>I do not think that even Mr. Hartland in his special +study of the subject has quite understood this. He +begins at a later period in the history of tradition, the +period of story-telling proper, when myths have become +folk-tales,<a name="FNanchor_208_208" id="FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_208_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a> and he treats this period as the earliest +instead of the secondary stage of myth. In this stage +something has happened to push myth back from the +centre of the people's life to a lesser position—a new +religious influence, a new civilisation, a new home, any +one of the many influences, or any combination of influences, +which have affected peoples and sent them +along the paths of evolution and progress.</p> + +<p>It is in this way that we come upon the folk-tale. +The folk-tale is secondary to the myth. It is the primitive +myth dislodged from its primitive place. It has +become a part of the life of the people, independently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +of its primary form and object and in a different sense. +The mythic or historic fact has been obscured, or has +been displaced from the life of the people. But the +myth lives on through the affections of the people for the +traditions of their older life. They love to tell the story +which their ancestors revered as myth even though it has +lost its oldest and most impressive significance. The +artistic setting of it, born of the years through which it +has lived, fashioned by the minds which have handed +it down and embellished it through the generations, +has helped its life. It has become the fairy tale or the +nursery tale. It is told to grown-up people, not as +belief but as what was once believed; it is told to +children, not to men; to lovers of romance, not to worshippers +of the unknown; it is told by mothers and +nurses, not by philosophers or priestesses; in the +gathering ground of home life, or in the nursery, not +in the hushed sanctity of a great wonder.<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id="FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_209_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +The influence of changing conditions upon the +position of mythic tradition is well illustrated by +Dr. Rivers in his account of the Todas. This people, +he says, "are rapidly forgetting their folk-tales and the +legends of their gods [that is, their myths], while their +ceremonial remains to a large extent intact and seems +likely to continue so for some time." Dr. Rivers attributes +this to the effect of intercourse with other +people. This intercourse has had no missionary results +and has not therefore affected their religious rites and +ceremonies, but has shown itself largely in the form of +loss of interest in the stories of the past.<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id="FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_210_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a> In other +words, and in accordance with the definitions I am +suggesting, the primitive myths of the Todas have +definitely assumed a secondary position as folk-tale, and +not a strong position at that, while religion has clung +to rite and formula.</p> + +<p>Primitive myth dislodged in this fashion is sometimes +preserved in a special manner and for religious +purposes in its ancient setting as a belief, or as a +tradition belonging to sacred places and appertaining +to sacred things. This is what has happened to the +Genesis myth of the Hebrews; it has also happened to +some of the sacred myths of the Hindus, and perhaps +to some of the sacred myths of the Greeks. In this +position the myth may even be reduced to writing, and +where this happens all the sacredness appertaining to +tradition is transferred to the written instrument.</p> + +<p>Thus in Arkadia, Pausanias tells us, was a temple of +Demeter, and every second year, when they were celebrating +what they called the greater mysteries, they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +took out certain writings which bore on the mysteries, +and having read them in the hearing of the initiated, +put them back in their place that same night.<a name="FNanchor_211_211" id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_211_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a> In India +examples occur of land being held for telling stories +at the Ucháos or festivals of the goddess Dévi.<a name="FNanchor_212_212" id="FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_212_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a> The +colleges of Rome, composed of men specially skilled +in religious lore, and charged with the preservation of +traditional rules regarding the more general religious +observances, the proper fulfilment of which implied a +certain amount of information, and rendered it necessary +for the state in its own interest to provide the +faithful transmission of that information, have been +described by Mommsen.<a name="FNanchor_213_213" id="FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_213_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a></p> + +<p>I pass to the third class of tradition, namely, the +legend, and this need not detain us long. We have +already illustrated it by the notes on history and folklore, +and by its very nature it belongs essentially to +the historic age. In dealing with legend, there is first +to determine whether its characters are historical, or +are unknown to history. If the former, there is next +to disengage those parts of the tradition which, by their +parallels to other traditions, or by their nature, may +be safely certified as not belonging to the historical +hero or to the period of the historical hero. If the +latter, the details must be analysed to see what elements +of culture are contained therein. In both cases tradition +will have served a purpose, and that purpose +must be sought. Tradition does not attach itself to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +an historical personage without cause. There is +necessity for it, and in the case of Hereward the +necessity was proved to have been the great gap in +the history of a national hero. Tradition does not preserve +details of primitive culture-history without cause, +and in the examples already quoted it has been shown +that this cause rests upon the indissoluble links which +the uncultured peasant of to-day has with the pre-cultured +past of his race. He will have forgotten all +about his tribal life and its consequences, but will +retain legends which are founded upon tribal life. He +will have lost touch with ideas which proclaim that man +or woman not of his tribe is an enemy to be feared or +attacked, but will gladly relate legends which deal +with events growing out of a state of perpetual strife +among the ancestors of people now in friendship. He +will not understand the personal tie of ancient times, +but will listen to the legends attached to places in such +strange fashion as to make places seem to possess a +personal life full of events and happenings. He will +know nothing of giants and ogres, but will love the +legends which tell of heroes meeting and conquering +such beings. The history of the school books is +nothing to him, but the history unknowingly contained +in the legends is very real, and is applied over and over +again to such later events as by force of circumstances +become stamped upon the popular mind and thus +succeed in displacing the original. It would be an +important contribution to history to have these legends +collected and examined by a competent authority. They +would be beacon lights of national history preserved in +legend.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +It will be readily conceded, I think, that in attempting +these definitions of the various classes of tradition, and +in illustrating them from the records of man's life in +various parts of the world, it has been impossible for +me to deal with certain points in the problem before +us. In particular I have not considered the favourite +subject of the diffusion of folk-tales. I do not believe +in a general system of diffusion, such a system, I mean, +as would suffice to account for the parallels to be found +in almost all countries.<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id="FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a> I think diffusion occupies a +very small part indeed of the problem, and that it only +takes place in late historical times. It is a large subject, +and I have virtually stated my answer to the theory of +diffusion in the definitions and classifications which I +have ventured to put forward. It may be considered by +some that other facts in the conditions of myth, folk-tale, +and legend would not confirm the general outline I +have given of the three classes of tradition to which +I have applied these terms; and of course there are +many side issues in so great a problem. I would not +urge the correctness of the views I have put forward +as applicable to every part of the world, or to every +phase in the history of tradition; but I would urge +that in the great centres of traditional life they are +practically the only means of arriving at the position +occupied by tradition, and that in all cases they form +a working hypothesis upon which future inquirers may +well base their researches.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>Of late years there have been placed alongside of +the traditional myth, folk-tale, and legend many other +products of tradition—customs, ceremonies, practices, +and beliefs, and it has been argued, and argued +strongly and convincingly, that the tradition which +has brought down the saga and song as far-off echoes +of an otherwise unrecorded past has also brought down +these other elements which must also belong to the +same distant past. This argument is now no longer +seriously disputed. But there still remains open for +discussion the exact kind of evidence which these +elements of tradition supply, the particular period or +people from which they have descended, the particular +department of history to which they relate. All this is +highly disputed.</p> + +<p>Folklore has in this department been greatly aided +by Dr. Tylor's impressive terminology, whereby the +custom, ceremony, practice, and belief which have come +down by tradition are classed as "survivals." This +term implies an ancient origin, and the necessary +work of the student is to get back to the original. +Until very lately the fact of survival has carried with it +the presumption of ancient origin, but Mr. Crawley +has raised an objection which I think it is well to meet. +He urges that "the history of religious phenomena +exemplifies in the most striking manner the continuity +of modern and primitive culture; but there is a tendency +on the part of students to underestimate this +continuity, and, by explaining it away on a theory of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +survivals, to lose the only opportunity we have of deducing +the permanent elements of human nature."</p> + +<p>This sentence at once prepares us for much that +follows; but Mr. Crawley leaves the point itself untouched, +except by implication, until he is in the +middle of his book, and then we have his dictum that +"it may be finally asserted that nothing which has to +do with human needs ever survives as a mere survival."<a name="FNanchor_215_215" id="FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_215_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a> +It will at once be seen that we have here a new estimate +of the force which survivals play in the evidence of +human progress. They prove the continuity of modern +and primitive culture. They are part and parcel of +modern life, filling a vacuum which has not been filled +by modern thought, carrying on, therefore, the standard +of religious belief and religious ideal from point to +point until they can be replaced by newer ideas and +concepts. This definition of survivals is very bold. +It answers Mr. Crawley's purpose and argument in a +way which no other fact in human history, so far as we +can judge, could answer it. It is the basis upon which +his whole argument is founded. Occupying such an +important place, it should have received explicit investigation, +instead of being treated as a sort of side +issue of incidental importance.</p> + +<p>When explicit investigation is undertaken, Mr. +Crawley's case must, I think, break down. Survivals +are carried along the stream of time by people whose +culture-status is on a level with the culture in which +the survivals originated. It matters not that these +people are placed in the midst of a higher civilisation +or alongside of a higher civilisation. When once the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +higher civilisation penetrates to them, the survival is +lost. There is not continuity between modern and +primitive thought here, but, on the contrary, there is +strong antagonism, ending with the defeat and death +of the primitive survival. This is the evidence wherever +survivals can be studied, whether in the midst of +our own civilisation, or even of primitive civilisations, +which constantly exhibit traces of older beliefs and +ideas being pushed out of existence by newer. It is, +indeed, a mistake to suppose, as some authorities +apparently do, that survivals can only be studied when +they are embedded in a high civilisation. It is almost +a more fruitful method to study them when they appear +in the lower strata; and even in such a case as the +Australian aborigines I think that it is the neglect +of observing survivals that has led to some of the +erroneous theories which have recently been advanced +against Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's conclusions.</p> + +<p>For the purpose of examining survivals in custom, +rite, and belief, we have nothing more than a series of +notes of customs and beliefs obtaining among the +lower and lowest classes of the people, and not being +the direct teaching of any religious or academic body. +These notes are very unequal in value, owing to the +manner in which they have been made. They are often +accidental, they are seldom if ever the result of trained +observation, and they are often mixed up with theories +as to their origin and relationship to modern society +and modern religious beliefs. To a great extent the +two first of these apparent defects are real safeguards, +for they certify to the genuineness of the record, a certificate +which is more needed in this branch of inquiry than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +perhaps in any other. But with regard to the third +defect there is considerable danger. An inquirer with +an object is so apt to find what he wishes to find, either +by the exercise of his own credulity or the ingenuous +extension of inquiry into answer; whereas the inquirer +who is content to note with the simplicity of those who +occupy themselves by collecting what others have not +collected, may be deficient in the details he gives, but +is seldom wrong or violently wrong in what he has +recorded. In every direction, however, great caution +is needed, and especially where any section of custom +and belief has already been the subject of inquiry. +It is indeed almost safe to say that all research into +custom and belief, even that of such masters as Tylor, +Lang, Hartland, Frazer, and others, needs re-examination +before we can finally and unreservedly accept the +conclusions which have been arrived at.</p> + +<p>Such an examination must be directed towards +obtaining some necessary points in the life-history of +each custom, rite, and belief. We have to approach +this part of our work guided by the fact that folklore +cannot by any possibility develop. The doctrine of +evolution is so strong upon us that we are apt to apply +its leading idea insensibly to almost every branch of +human history. But folklore being what it is, namely +the survival of traditional ideas or practices among a +people whose principal members have passed beyond +the stage of civilisation which those ideas and practices +once represented, it is impossible for it to have +any development. When the original ideas and practices +which it represents were current as the standard +form of culture, their future history was then to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +looked for along the lines of development. But so soon +as they dropped back behind the standard of culture, +whatever the cause and whenever the event happened, +then their future history could only be traced along the +lines of decay and disintegration. We are acquainted +with some of the laws which mark the development of +primitive culture, but we have paid no attention to the +influences which mark the existence of survivals in +culture. For this purpose we must first ascertain what +are the component parts of each custom or superstition; +secondly, we must classify the various elements in +each example; and thirdly, we must group the various +examples into classes which associate with each other +in motif and character.</p> + +<p>By this treble process we shall have before us examples +of the changes in folklore, and demonstrably +they are changes of decay, not of development. By +grouping and arranging these changes it may be +possible to ascertain and set down the laws of change—for +that there are laws I am nearly certain. It is +these laws which must be discovered before we can +go very far forward in our studies. Every item of +custom and superstition must be tested by analysis to +find out under which power it lives on in survival, and +according to the result in each case, so may we hope +to find out something about the original from which +the survival has descended.</p> + +<p>Each folklore item, in point of fact, has a life history +of its own, and a place in relationship to other +items. Just as the biography of each separate word +in our language has been investigated in order to +get at Aryan speech as the interpretation of Aryan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +thought, so must the biography of each custom, superstition, +or story be investigated in order to get at Aryan +belief or something older than Aryan belief. We must +try to ascertain whether each item represents primitive +belief by direct descent, by symbolisation, or by +changes which may be discovered by some law +equivalent to Grimm's law in the study of language.</p> + +<p>Analysis of each custom, rite, or belief will show it +to consist of three distinct parts, which I would distinguish +by the following names:—</p> + +<p>1. The formula.</p> + +<p>2. The purpose.</p> + +<p>3. The penalty or result.</p> + +<p>It will be found that these three component parts +are not equally tenacious of their original form in +all examples. In one example we may find the +formula either actually or symbolically perfect, while +the purpose and penalty may not be easily distinguishable. +Or it may happen that the formula remains +fairly perfect; the purpose may be set down to the +desire of doing what has always been done, and the +penalty may be given as luck or ill-luck. Of course, +further variations are possible, but these are usually the +more general forms.</p> + +<p>I will give an example or two of these phases of +change or degradation in folklore. First, then, where +the formula is complete, or nearly so, and the purpose +and penalty have both disappeared. At Carrickfergus +it was formerly the custom for mothers, when giving +their child the breast for the last time, to put an egg in +its hand and sit on the threshold of the outer door with +a leg on each side, and this ceremony was usually done<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +on a Sunday. Undoubtedly I think we have here a +very nearly perfect formula; but what is its purpose, +and what is the penalty for non-observance? Upon +both these latter points the example is silent, and +before they can be restored we must search among the +other fragments of threshold customs and see whether +they exist either separately from the formula or with a +less perfect example. Secondly, where the formula +has disappeared and the purpose and penalty remain, +nearly the whole range of those floating beliefs and +superstitions which occupy so largely the collections +of folklore would supply examples. But I will select +one example which will be to the point. When the +Manx cottager looks for the traces of a foot in the +ashes of his firegrate for the purpose of seeing in what +direction the toes point, the penalty being that, if they +point to the door, a death will occur, if to the fireplace, +a birth,<a name="FNanchor_216_216" id="FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_216_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a> there is no trace of the ancient formula. It is +true we may find the missing formula in other lands; +for instance, among some of the Indian tribes of +Bombay. There the formula is elaborate and complete, +while the purpose and the penalty are exactly the same +as in the Isle of Man. But this hasty travelling to +other lands is not, I contend, legitimate in the first +place. We must begin by seeing whether there is not +some other item of folklore, perhaps now not even connected +with the house-fire group of customs and superstitions, +whose true place is that of the lost formula of +this interesting Manx custom. And when once we +have taught ourselves the way to restore these lost +formulæ to their rightful places, the explanation of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +mere waifs and strays of folklore will be attended with +some approach to scientific accuracy, and we shall then +be in a position to get rid of that shibboleth so dear to +the non-folklore critic, that all these things we deal +with are "mere superstitions."</p> + +<p>Thirdly, when the formula is complete, or nearly so, +and the purpose and penalty become generalised. At +St. Edmundsbury a white bull, which enjoyed full ease +and plenty in the fields, and was never yoked to the +plough or employed in any service, was led in procession +in the chief streets of the town to the principal +gate of the monastery, attended by all the monks singing +and a shouting crowd. Knowing what Grimm has +collected concerning the worship of the white bull, +knowing what is performed in India to this day, there +is no doubt that this formula of the white bull at +St. Edmundsbury has been preserved in very good +condition. The purpose of it was, however, not so +satisfactory. It is said to have taken place whenever a +married woman wished to have a child; and the penalty +is lost in the obvious generalisation that not to perform +the ceremony is not to obtain the desired end.<a name="FNanchor_217_217" id="FNanchor_217_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_217_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a></p> + +<p>The second process, that of classification of the +various elements in each example, will reveal some +characteristics of folklore, which, so far as I know, +have never yet been taken count of. One very important +characteristic is the prevalence of a particular +belief attached to different objects in different places. +Thus Sir John Rhys in his examination of Manx<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +folklore stopped short in his explanation of the +superstition of the first-foot, because he had heard +that, while in the Isle of Man it was attached to +a dark man, elsewhere it was attached to a fair +man. Of the examples where, on New Year's morning, +it is held to be unlucky to meet a dark person, +I may mention Lincolnshire, Durham, Yorkshire, and +Northumberland. It is, on the contrary, <i>lucky</i> to meet, +as first-foot, a dark-haired man in Lancashire, the Isle +of Man, and Aberdeenshire.<a name="FNanchor_218_218" id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_218_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> In these cases we get the +element of "dark" or "fair" as the varying factor of +the superstition; but instances occur in Sutherlandshire, +the West of Scotland, and in Durham, where the varying +factor rests upon sex—a man being lucky and a +woman being unlucky.</p> + +<p>Similarly of the well-known superstition about telling +the bees of the death of their owner, in Berkshire, +Bucks, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumberland, Lincolnshire, +Lancashire, Monmouthshire, Notts, Northumberland, +Shropshire, Somersetshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, +Wilts, Worcestershire, it appears that a relative may perform +the ceremony, or sometimes a servant merely, while +in Derbyshire, Hants, Northants, Rutland, and Yorkshire +it must be the heir or successor of the deceased +owner. Again, while in the above places the death of +the owner is told to the bees, in other places it is told to +the cattle, and in Cornwall to the trees;<a name="FNanchor_219_219" id="FNanchor_219_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_219_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a> and, in other +places, marriages as well as death are told to the bees.<a name="FNanchor_220_220" id="FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_220_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a></p> + +<p>In some cases the transfer from one object to another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +of a particular superstition is a matter of absolute +observation. Thus, the labourers in Norfolk considered +it a presage of death to miss a "bout" in corn +or seed sowing. The superstition is now transferred to +the drill, which has only been invented for a century. +Again, in Ireland, it is now considered unlucky to +give any one a light for his pipe on May-day—a very +modern superstition, apparently. But the pipe in this +case has been the means of preserving the old superstition +found in many places of not giving a light from +the homestead fire.</p> + +<p>I will just refer to one other example, the well-known +custom of offering rags at sacred wells. Sir +John Rhys thought that the object of these scraps +of clothing being placed at the well was for transferring +the disease from the sick person to some one +else. But I ventured to oppose this idea, and considered +that they were offerings, pure and simple, to +the spirit of the well, and referred to examples in +confirmation. Among other items, I have come across +an account of an Irish "station," as it is called, +at a sacred well, the details of which fully bear +out my view as to the nature of the rags deposited +at the shrine being offerings to the local deity. One +of the devotees, in true Irish fashion, made his offering +accompanied by the following words: "To St. Columbkill—I +offer up this button, a bit o' the waistband o' +my own breeches, an' a taste o' my wife's petticoat, in +remimbrance of us havin' made this holy station; an' +may they rise up in glory to prove it for us in the last +day."<a name="FNanchor_221_221" id="FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a> I shall not attempt to account for the presence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +of the usual Irish humour in this, to the devotee, most +solemn offering; but I point out the undoubted nature +of the offerings and their service in the identification +of their owners—a service which implies their power +to bear witness in spirit-land to the pilgrimage of those +who deposited them during lifetime at the sacred +well.<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id="FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a></p> + +<p>Now, in all these cases there is an original and +a secondary, or derivative, form of the superstition, +and it is our object to trace out which is which. Do +the rags deposited at wells symbolise offerings to the +local deity? If so, they bring us within measurable +distance of a cult which rests upon faith in the power +of natural objects to harm or render aid to human +beings. Does the question of first-foot rest upon the +colour of the hair or upon the sex of the person? I +think, looking at all the examples I have been able to +examine, that colour is really the older basis of the +superstition, and, if so, ethnological considerations are +doubtless the root of it. Again, if the eldest son of +the deceased owner of bees appears in the earliest form +of the death-telling ceremony, we have an interesting +fragment of the primitive house-ritual of our ancestors.</p> + +<p>When, however, we come upon the worship of +local deities, when we can suggest ethnological +elements in folklore, and when we can speak of the +house-father, and can see that duties are imposed upon +him by traditional custom, unknown to any rules of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +civilised society, we are in the presence of facts older +than those of historic times. It is thus that folklore +so frequently points back to the past before the age of +history. Over and over again we pause before the +facts of folklore, which, however explained, always +lead us back to some unexplored epoch of history, +some undated period, which has not revealed its +heroes, but which has left us a heritage of its mental +strivings.</p> + +<p>The method of using these notes of custom, rite, +and belief for scientific purposes is therefore a very +important matter. It is essential that each single item +should be treated definitely and separately from all +other items, and, further, that the exact wording of the +original note upon each separate item should be kept +intact. There must be no juggling with the record, no +emendations such as students of early literary work +are so fond of attempting. Whatever the record, it +must be accepted. The original account of every +custom and belief is a corpus, not to be tampered +with except for the purpose of scientific analysis, and +then after that purpose has been effected all the parts +must be put together again, and the original restored +to its form.</p> + +<p>The handling of each custom or belief and of its +separate parts in this way enables us, in the first place, +to disentangle it from the particular personal or social +stratum in which it happens to have been preserved. +It may have become attached to a place, an object, a +season, a class of persons, a rule of life, and may have +been preserved by means of this attachment. But +because every item of folklore of the same nature is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +not attached to the same agent wherever that particular +item has been preserved, it is important not to stereotype +an accidental association as a permanent one. +Moreover, the modern association is not necessarily the +ancient association, and there is the further difficulty +created by writers on folklore classifying into chapters +of their own creation the items they collect or +discuss.<a name="FNanchor_223_223" id="FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_223_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> In the second place, we are enabled to +prepare each item of folklore for the place to which it +may ultimately be found to belong. The first step in +this preparation is to get together all the examples of +any one custom, rite, or belief which have been preserved, +and to compare these examples with each other, +first as to common features of likeness, secondly as +to features of unlikeness. By this process we are +able to restore what may be deficient from the insufficiency +of any particular record—and such a restoration +is above all things essential—and to present for +examination not an isolated specimen but a series of +specimens, each of which helps to bring back to +observation some portion of the original. The reconstruction +of the original is thus brought within sight.</p> + +<p>Generally, it may be stated that the points of likeness +determine and classify all the examples of one +custom or belief; the points of unlikeness indicate the +line of decay inherent in survivals.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +This partial equation and partial divergence between +different examples of the same custom or belief allows a +very important point to be made in the study of survivals. +We can estimate the value of the elements +which equate in any number of examples, and the value +of the elements which diverge; and by noting how +these values differ in the various examples we shall +discover the extent of the overlapping of example with +example, which is of the utmost importance. A given +custom consists, say, of six elements, which by their +constancy among all the examples and by their special +characteristics may be considered as primary elements, +in the form in which the custom has survived. Let us +call these primary elements by algebraical signs, <i>a</i>, <i>b</i>, <i>c</i>, +<i>d</i>, <i>e</i>, <i>f</i>. A second example of the same custom has four +of these elements, <i>a</i>, <i>b</i>, <i>c</i>, <i>d</i>, and two divergences, which +may be considered as secondary elements, and which +we will call by the signs <i>g</i>, <i>h</i>. A third example has +elements <i>a</i>, <i>b</i>, and divergences <i>g</i>, <i>h</i>, <i>i</i>, <i>k</i>. A further +example has none of the primary elements, but only +divergences <i>g</i>, <i>h</i>, <i>i</i>, <i>l</i>, <i>m</i>. Then the statement of the +case is reduced to the following:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="40%" summary="Table of elements"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1 =</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>a</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>b</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>c</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>d</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>e</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>f</i>.</td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">2 =</td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><i>a</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>b</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>c</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>d</i></td> + <td class="tdl">+</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>g</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>h</i>.</td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">3 =</td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl"><i>a</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>b</i></td> + <td class="tdl">+</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>g</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>h</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>i</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>k</i>.</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">4 =</td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdl">+</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>g</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>h</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>i</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>l</i>,</td> + <td class="tdl"><i>m</i>.</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The first conclusion to be drawn from this is that the +overlapping of the several examples (No. 1 overlapping +No. 2 at <i>a</i>, <i>b</i>, <i>c</i>, <i>d</i>, No. 2 overlapping No. 3 at <i>a</i>, <i>b</i> + <i>g</i>, <i>h</i>, +No. 3 overlapping No. 4 at + <i>g</i>, <i>h</i>, <i>i</i>) shows all these +several examples to be but variations of one original<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +custom, example No. 4, though possessing none of the +elements of example No. 1, being the same custom as +example No. 1. Secondly, the divergences <i>g</i> to <i>m</i> +mark the line of decay which this particular custom has +undergone since it ceased to belong to the dominant +culture of the people, and dropped back into the position +of a survival from a former culture preserved only +by a fragment of the people.<a name="FNanchor_224_224" id="FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a></p> + +<p>The first of these conclusions is not affected by the +order in which the examples are arranged; whether we +begin with No. 4 or with No. 1, the relationship of +each example to the others, thus proved to be in intimate +association, is the same. The second conclusion +is necessarily dependent upon what we take to be "primary +elements" and "secondary elements;" and the +question is how can these be determined? As a rule it +will be found that the primary elements are the most +constant parts of the whole group of examples, appearing +more frequently, possessing greater adherence to a +common form, changing (when they do change) with +slighter variations; while the secondary elements, on +the other hand, assume many different varieties of form, +are by no means of constant occurrence, and do not +even amongst themselves tend to a common form. The +primary elements, therefore, constitute the form of the +custom which represents the oldest part of the survival. +They alone will help us to determine the origin of the +custom, whether by features represented in the elements +thus brought together or by comparison with ancient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +custom elsewhere or with survivals elsewhere similarly +reconstituted. Altogether these elements, thus linked +together by the tie of common attributes, are parts of +one organic whole, and it is on this reconstructed +organism we have to rely for the evidence from tradition.</p> + +<p>When any given custom or belief has undergone +this double process of analysis of its component parts +and classification of its several elements, another process +has to be undertaken, namely, to ascertain its association +with other customs or beliefs, in the same +country or among the same people, each of which customs +or beliefs, being treated in exactly the same manner, +is found to exhibit some degree of relationship in +origin, condition, or purpose to the whole group under +examination. In this way classification, analysis, and +association go hand in hand as the necessary methods +of studying survivals. Without analysis we cannot +properly arrive at a classification; without classification +we cannot work out the association of survivals.</p> + +<p>The process is perhaps highly technical and complicated. +It may not be of interest to all to discuss the +process by which results are attained when what is +most desired are the results themselves. But in truth +the two parts of this study cannot well be separated. +To judge of the validity of the results one must know +what the process has been, and too often results are +jumped at without warrant; items of custom and usage +or of belief and myth are docketed as belonging to a +given phase of culture, a given group of people, when +they have no right to such a place in the history of +man. It is not only distasteful to the inquirer, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +almost impossible to dislodge any item of folklore once +so placed, and thus much of the value of the material +supplied by folklore is lost or discounted.</p> + +<p>Custom, rite, and belief treated in this fashion become +veritable monuments of history—a history too +ancient to have been recorded in script, too much an +essential part of the folk-life to have been lost to tradition. +We may hope to restore therefrom the surviving +mosaic of ancient institutions, ancient law, and +ancient religion, and we may further hope, with this +mosaic to work upon, to restore much of the entire +fabric which has been lying so many centuries beneath +the accumulated and accumulating mass of new developments +representing the civilisation of the Western +world.</p> + + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>It is only here that we can discover the point where +we may properly commence the work of comparative +folklore. An item of folklore which stands isolated is +practically of no use for scientific investigation. It +may be, as we have seen, that the myth is in its +primary stage as a sacred belief among primitive +people, in its secondary or folk-tale stage as a sacred +memory of what was once believed, in its final or +legendary stage when it does duty in preserving the +memory of a hero or a place of abiding interest. It +may be, as we have seen, that the custom, rite, or +belief is a mere formula without purpose or result, +a mere traditional expression of a purpose without +formula or result, a mere statement of result without +formula or purpose. We must know the exact position<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +of each item before we begin to compare, or we may +be comparing absolutely unlike things. The exact +position of each item of folklore is not to be found +from one isolated example. It has first to be restored +to its association with all the known examples of its +kind, so that the earliest and most complete form may +be recorded. That is the true position to which it has +been reduced as a survival. This restored and complete +example is then in a position to be compared +either with similar survivals in other countries on the +same level of culture, or within the same ethnological +or political sphere of influence, or with living customs, +rites, or beliefs of peoples of a more backward state +of culture or in a savage state of culture. Comparison +of this kind is of value. Comparison of a less technical +or comprehensive kind may be of value in the hands +of a great master; but it is often not only valueless +but mischievous in the hands of less experienced writers, +who think that comparison is justified wherever similarity +is discovered.</p> + +<p>Similarity in form, however, does not necessarily +mean similarity in origin. It does not mean similarity +in motive. Customs and rites which are alike in +practice can be shown to have originated from quite +different causes, to express quite different motifs, and +cannot therefore be held to belong to a common class, +the elements of which are comparable. Thus to take +a very considerable custom, to be found both in folk-tales +and in usage, the succession of the youngest son, +it is pretty clear that among European peoples it +originated in the tribal practice of the elder sons going +out of the tribal household to found tribal households<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +of their own, thus leaving the youngest to inherit the +original homestead. But among savage peoples where +the youngest son inherits the homestead, he does not +do so because of a tribal custom such as that to be +found in the European evidence. It is because of the +conditions of the marriage rites. Thus among the +Kafir peoples of South Africa</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"the young man of the commonality, who being a young +man has had but little or no means of displaying his sagacity—a +quality with them most frequently synonymous with +cunning—commences for himself in a small way. Hence, +too, being polygamous, and his wives being bought with +cattle, his first wife is taken from a position accordant with +that of a young, untried, and poor or comparatively poor +man. Hence also it happens that his wives increase in +number, and in—so to speak—position, in accordance with +his wealth, and with his reputation for wisdom and sagacity, +which may have raised him to the rank of headman of a +district, and one of the Chief's counsellors. It is, therefore, +only when old in years that he takes to himself his 'great +wife,' one of greater social and racial position than were his +previous wives, and her son, that is, her eldest son, who is +consequently the father's youngest or nearly his youngest, +becomes his 'great son,' and par excellence the heir. If +the father be a Chief, this son becomes the Chief at his +father's death.</p> + +<p>"As, however, subordinate heirs, the father after some +consultation and ceremony chooses out of his other sons, +secondly 'the son of his right hand,' and thirdly, 'the son +of his grandfather.' If the father be a Chief, these two +are after his death accounted as Chiefs in the tribe, subordinate +to the 'great son,' and even if through their +superior energy, the size of the tribe requiring emigration +to pastures new, or other causes, one or both of them break +off, and with their respective inheritance or following form a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +separate tribe or tribes, yet they are federally bound to their +great brother, and their successors to his successors, and +recognise him as their supreme or national Chief. Thus +Krili, the Chief of the Amagcaleka tribe across the Kei, was +also paramount Chief of all the Amaxosas, including his +own tribe, and those this side the Kei, who are divided into +the two great divisions—each of which includes several +tribes—of the Amangquika and Amandhlambi, which latter +has among it the Amagqunukwebi, a tribe of Caffre intermingled +with Hottentot blood, and therefore rather looked +down upon."<a name="FNanchor_225_225" id="FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_225_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a></p></div> + +<p>Dr. Nicholson, from whom I quote this evidence, +goes on to say that the</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"custom then of the heirship of the youngest, appears to me +to have not unlikely grown up among a polygamous race, +and to have arisen both from considerations of self security +and from those of race and rank."</p></div> + +<p>Quite independently of Dr. Nicholson I had come to +the same conclusion;<a name="FNanchor_226_226" id="FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_226_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a> and Dr. Nicholson, after handsomely +acknowledging my priority in the "discovery," +very properly alludes to the not unimportant fact of +two workers in the same field coming to like conclusions. +It is remarkable that the same distinction between +the succession of the youngest son and of the +son of the youngest wife appears in folk-tales.<a name="FNanchor_227_227" id="FNanchor_227_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_227_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> Now +clearly it would be quite wrong to suggest a parallel +between the heirship of the youngest among the Kafir +peoples of Africa and heirship of the youngest among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +the tribal people of early Europe. They are not comparable +at all points, and it is just where the point +of comparison fails that it becomes so important to +science.<a name="FNanchor_228_228" id="FNanchor_228_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_228_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a></p> + +<p>I will take one other example, and this is the important +practice of human sacrifice which looms so +largely in anthropological research, and which is considered +by so good an authority as Schrader to have +taken a prominent place among the Aryans,<a name="FNanchor_229_229" id="FNanchor_229_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_229_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a> though he +takes his examples, not from language, but from the +unexamined customs of the Greeks, Romans, northerns, +Indians, and Persians. We know more about the development +of sacrifice now that Professor Robertson +Smith has dealt with the Semitic part of the evidence. +Without resting on the fact that the occurrence of human +sacrifice in a country occupied by Aryan-speaking +people does not, of itself alone, imply that the rite +was Aryan, it is far more important to point out that +among the higher races "the feeling that the slaying +involves a grave responsibility and must be justified by +divine permission" appears, and "care was taken to +slay the victim without bloodshed, or to make believe +that it had killed itself."<a name="FNanchor_230_230" id="FNanchor_230_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_230_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a> This feeling marks distinctly +the Greek sacrifice as at Thargelia and in the +Leukadian ceremony, the Roman sacrifice at the +Tarpeian Rock, the sacrifice at the Valhalla rock of the +northerns, while among the Hindus there is much to +show that the idea of human sacrifice in some of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +the early writings is a literary borrowing from the +Hebrews; and that if it ever prevailed among the +Aryas of India it was very early superseded by +the sacrifice of animals.<a name="FNanchor_231_231" id="FNanchor_231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a> Colonel Dalton has given +good reasons for his views "that the Hindus derived +from the aboriginal races the practice of human +sacrifices."<a name="FNanchor_232_232" id="FNanchor_232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a> Although, then, Greek ritual and Greek +myth are full of legends which tell of sacrifices +once human, but afterwards commuted into sacrifices +where some other victim is slain or the dummy of +a man is destroyed;<a name="FNanchor_233_233" id="FNanchor_233_233"></a><a href="#Footnote_233_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> although the significant Hindu +ceremonial of so throwing the limbs of an animal +slaughtered to be burnt with the dead that every +limb lies upon a corresponding part of the corpse;<a name="FNanchor_234_234" id="FNanchor_234_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_234_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a> +although Teuton, Celt, and Norse<a name="FNanchor_235_235" id="FNanchor_235_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_235_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a> are credited +with the practice by authorities not to be questioned, +it appears by the evidence that the European +form of human sacrifice has little in common with +the savage form except in the nature of the victim. It +occurred, as Grimm states, when some great disaster, +some heinous crime, had to be retrieved or purged, a +kind of sacrifice, says Mr. Lang, not necessarily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +savage except in its cruelty; and the victims were not +tribesmen, but captive enemies, purchased slaves, or +great criminals.</p> + +<p>These two examples will serve as warning against the +too general acceptance of the custom and belief of savage +and barbaric races, as identical with the custom and +belief of early or primitive man. Such identification is +in the main correct; but it is correct not because it has +been proved by the best methods to be so, but because, +of all possible explanations, this is the only one that +meets the general position in a satisfactory manner. +In many cases, however, it is monstrously incorrect, +and it is the incorrect conclusion which weighs far more +against the acceptance of the results of folklore than +do the correct conclusions in its favour.</p> + +<p>The work which has to be accomplished by the comparative +method of research is of such magnitude that +it needs to be considered. The labour and research +might in point of volume be out of proportion to the +results, and it may be questioned, as it has already been +questioned by inference, whether it is worth the while. +The first answer to this objection is that all historical +investigation is justified, however much the labour, +however extensive the research. Secondly, considering +the very few results which the study of folklore has +hitherto produced upon the investigations into prehistoric +Europe, it must be worth while for the student +of custom and belief to conduct his experiments upon +a recognised plan in order to get at the secret of +man's place in the struggle for existence, which is determined +more by psychological than by physical +phenomena. Thirdly, if the psychical anthropology<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +of prehistoric times is to be sought for in the customs +and beliefs of modern savages, it is of vital importance +to anthropological science that this should be established +by methods exactly defined. Whatever of traditional +custom and belief is capable of bearing the test and of +being definitely labelled as belonging to prehistoric +man, becomes thereafter the data for the psychical +anthropology of civilised man. Edmund Spenser understood +this when his official duties took him among the +"wild" Irish. "All the customs of the Irish," he says, +"which I have often noted and compared with that I +have read, would minister occasion of a most ample +discourse of the original of them, and the antiquity of +that people, which in truth I think to be more ancient +than most that I know in this end of the world; so as if +it were in the handling of some man of sound judgment +and plentiful reading, it would be most pleasant and +profitable."<a name="FNanchor_236_236" id="FNanchor_236_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_236_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a></p> + +<p>Comparative folklore, then, to be of value must be +based upon scientific principles. The unmeaning custom +or belief of the peasantry of the Western world of civilisation +must not be taken into the domains of savagery +or barbarism for an explanation without any thought as +to what this action really signifies to the history of the +custom or belief in question. No doubt the explanation +thus afforded is correct in most cases, and perhaps it +was necessary to begin with the comparative method in +order to understand the importance and scope of the +study of apparently worthless material. A new stage in +comparative folklore must now be entered upon. It +must be understood what the effective comparison of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +traditional peasant custom or belief with a savage +custom or belief really amounts to. The process +includes the comparison of an isolated custom or belief +belonging, perhaps secretly, to a particular place, a +particular class of persons, or perhaps a particular +family or person, with a custom or belief which is part +of a whole system belonging to a savage race or tribe; +of a custom or belief whose only sanction is tradition, +the conservative instinct to do what has been done by +one's ancestors, with a custom or belief whose sanction +is the professed and established polity or religion of a +people; of a custom or belief which is embedded in a +civilisation, of which it is not a part and to which it is +antagonistic, with a custom or belief which helps to +make up the civilisation of which it is part. In carrying +out such a comparison, therefore, a very long journey +back into the past of the civilised race has been performed. +For unless it be admitted that civilised people +consciously borrow from savages and barbaric peoples +or constantly revert to a savage original type of mental +and social condition, the effect of such a comparison is +to take back the custom or belief of the modern peasant +to a date when a people of savage or barbaric culture +occupied the country now occupied by their descendants, +the peasants in question, and to equate the custom or +belief of this ancient savage or barbaric culture with +the custom or belief of modern savage or barbaric +culture. The line of comparison is not therefore simply +drawn level from civilisation to savagery; but it consists, +first, of two vertical lines from civilisation and savagery +respectively, drawn to a height scaled to represent the +antiquity of savage culture in modern Europe, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +then the level horizontal line drawn to join the two +vertical lines. Thus the line of comparison is</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="50%" summary="Savagery"> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" style="text-align: center; padding-bottom: .5em;">Ancient savagery</td> + <td colspan="2" style="text-align: center; padding-bottom: .5em;">Ancient savagery</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="width: 25%;"> </td> + <td style="border-top: 1pt black solid; border-left: 1pt black solid; width: 25%;"> </td> + <td style="border-top: 1pt black solid; border-right: 1pt black solid; width: 25%;"> </td> + <td style="width: 25%;"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td style="border-left: 1pt black solid;"> </td> + <td style="border-right: 1pt black solid;"> </td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td style="border-left: 1pt black solid;"> </td> + <td style="border-right: 1pt black solid;"> </td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">Savagery</td> + <td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">Civilisation</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>We thus arrive at some conception of the work to be +accomplished by and involved in comparative folklore. +The results are worth the work. They relate to stages +of culture in the countries of civilisation which are +recoverable by no other means. The stages of culture +are practically lost to history. In ancient Greek and +Roman history, and in ancient Scandinavian history, +there are priceless fragments of information which tell +us much. But these fragments are not the complete +story, and they belong to relatively small areas of +European history. Every nation has the right to go +back as far in its history as it is possible to reach. It +can only do this by the help of comparative folklore. +In our own country we have seen how history breaks +down, and yet historical records in Britain are perhaps +the richest in Europe. The traditional materials known +to us as folklore are the only means left to us, and we +can only properly avail ourselves of these when we have +mastered the methods of science which it is necessary +to use in their investigation.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> Mr. MacCulloch, in the title of his interesting book, the <i>Childhood of +Fiction</i>, has emphasised this mischievous idea. I am not convinced to +the contrary by the evidence he gives as to the popularity of the folk-tale +among all peoples (p. 2). Indeed, the book itself is an emphatic testimony +against its title. Mr. MacCulloch evidently began with the idea +that the folk-tale belonged to the domain of fiction. Thus the opening +words of his book are: "Folk-tales are the earliest form of romantic +and imaginative literature—the unwritten fiction of early man and of +primitive people in all parts of the world;" whereas as he nears the end +of his study he observes: "Thus, in their origin, folk-tales may have +had some other purpose than mere amusement; they may have embodied +the traditions, histories, beliefs, ideas, and customs of men at an early +stage of civilisation" (p. 451). Mr. MacCulloch himself proves this to +be the case, and it is therefore all the more unfortunate that he should +have stamped his very important study with the word "fiction."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> A folk-tale of the Veys, a North African people, explains this view +most graphically in its opening sentences. The narrator begins his tale +by saying: "I speak of the long time past; hear! It is written in our old-time-palaver-books—I +do not say <i>then</i>; in old time the Vey people had +no books, but the old men told it to their children and they kept it; +afterwards it was written" (<i>Journ. Ethnol. Soc.</i>, N.S., vi. 354). A parallel +to this comes from Ireland: "What I have told your honour is true; and +if it stands otherwise in books, it's the books which are wrong. Sure +we've better authority than books, for we have it all handed down from +generation to generation" (Kohl's <i>Travels in Ireland</i>, 140).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> I am the more willing to take this as my illustration of myth +because, strangely enough, Mr. MacCulloch has omitted it from the +examples he uses in his <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> <i>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</i>, i. 166.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> Mr. Jeremiah Curtin has collected and published the <i>Creation Myths +of Primitive America</i> (London, 1899), and his introduction is a specially +valuable study of the subject. I printed the Fijian myth from Williams' +<i>Fiji and Fijians</i>, i. 204, and the Kumis myth from Lewin's <i>Wild Races of +South-east India</i>, 225-6, in my <i>Handbook of Folklore</i>, 137-139, and Mr. +Lang, in cap. vi. of his <i>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</i> deals with a sufficient +number of examples. <i>Cf.</i> also Tylor, <i>Primitive Culture</i>, cap. ix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> Grey, <i>Polynesian Mythology</i>, 1-15. I have only summarised the full +legend on the lines adopted by Dr. Tylor.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> On the Kronos myth consult Farnell, <i>Cults of the Greek States</i>, +i. 23-31, who gives an admirable summary of the evidence as it at present +stands; Harrison and Verrall, <i>Mythology and Monuments of Anc. Athens</i>, +192; Lang, <i>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</i>, i. 295-323.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> Mr. Crawley discovered this story in Mr. Bain's <i>A Digit of the +Moon</i>, 13-15, and printed it in his <i>Mystic Rose</i>, 33-34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> "The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature," and +"Mr. Gladstone and Genesis," in <i>Science and Hebrew Tradition</i>, cap. +iv. and v.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> <i>Adonis, Attis and Osiris</i>, 4, 25. Mr. Jevons, too, lays stress upon +"the source of errors in religion" as human reason gone astray, +<i>Introd. to Hist. of Religion</i>, 463.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> Mr. Jevons practically arrives at this conclusion from a different +standpoint. "Beliefs," he says, "are about facts, are statements +about facts, statements that certain facts will be found to occur in a +certain way or be of a certain kind" (<i>Introd. to Hist. of Religion</i>, 402). +Mr. Curtin, <i>Creation Myths of Primitive America</i> (p. xx), confirms the +view I take.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a><a href="#FNanchor_193_193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> Orpen, <i>Cape Monthly Magazine</i>. Quoted in Lang's <i>Myth, Ritual, +and Religion</i>, i. 71.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a><a href="#FNanchor_194_194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> This myth is, I think, worth giving, because of its obvious object +to account for the difference between white and black races. It is as +follows: "In the beginning of the world God created three white men +and three white women, and three black men and three black women. +In order that these twelve human souls might not thenceforth complain +of Divine partiality and of their separate conditions, God elected that +they should determine their own fates by their own choice of good and +evil. A large calabash or gourd was placed by God upon the ground, +and close to the side of the calabash was also placed a small folded +piece of paper. God ruled that the black man should have the first +choice. He chose the calabash, because he expected that the calabash, +being so large, could not but contain everything needful for himself. +He opened the calabash, and found a scrap of gold, a scrap of iron, and +several other metals of which he did not understand the use. The +white man had no option. He took, of course, the small folded piece of +paper, and discovered that, on being unfolded, it revealed a boundless +stock of knowledge. God then left the black men and women in the +bush, and led the white men and women to the seashore. He did not +forsake the white men and women, but communicated with them every +night, and taught them how to construct a ship, and how to sail from +Africa to another country. After a while they returned to Africa with +various kinds of merchandise, which they bartered to the black men and +women, who had the opportunity of being greater and wiser than the +white men and women, but who, out of sheer avidity, had thrown away +their chance."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a><a href="#FNanchor_195_195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> <i>Native Tribes of South-east Australia</i>, cap. viii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a><a href="#FNanchor_196_196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> <i>Northern Tribes of Central Australia</i>, cap. xxii.; <i>Native Tribes of +Central Australia</i>, cap. xviii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a><a href="#FNanchor_197_197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> Spencer and Gillen, <i>Northern Tribes</i>, 624; <i>cf. Native Tribes of +Central Australia</i>, 564.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a><a href="#FNanchor_198_198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> Spencer and Gillen, <i>Native Tribes of Central Australia</i>, 229.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a><a href="#FNanchor_199_199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> Grey, <i>Polynesian Mythology</i>, p. xi. <i>Cf.</i> Taylor, <i>Te Ika a Maui</i>, +where myths told by the priests are given in cap. vi. and vii., and <i>Trans. +Ethnological Soc.</i>, new series, i. 45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a><a href="#FNanchor_200_200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> White's <i>Anc. Hist. of the Maori</i>, i. 8-13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a><a href="#FNanchor_201_201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> Curtin, <i>Creation Myths of Primitive America</i>, p. xxi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a><a href="#FNanchor_202_202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> Im Thurn, <i>Indians of Guiana</i>, 335; Landtman, <i>Origin of Priesthood</i>, +117.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a><a href="#FNanchor_203_203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> <i>Primitive Manners and Customs</i>, cap. i. "Some Savage Myths and +Beliefs," and cap. viii., "Fairy Lore of Savages."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a><a href="#FNanchor_204_204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> <i>Introd. to Hist. of Religion</i>, 263. Of course I do not accept Mr. +J. A. Stewart's "general remarks on the <ins class="greek" title="mythologia">μυθολογία</ins> or story-telling myth" +in his <i>Myths of Plato</i>, 4-17. All Mr. Stewart's research is literary in +object and result, though he uses the materials of anthropology.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a><a href="#FNanchor_205_205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> H. H. Wilson, <i>Rig Veda Sanhita</i>, i. p. xvii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a><a href="#FNanchor_206_206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> H. H. Wilson, <i>Vishnu Purana</i>, i. p. iv; <i>Rig Veda Sanhita</i>, +i. p. xlv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a><a href="#FNanchor_207_207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> <i>Religion of the Semites</i>, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208_208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> Mr. Hartland passes rapidly in his opening chapter from the myth +as primitive science to the myth as fairy tale, from the savage to the +Celt (<i>Science of Fairy Tales</i>, pp. 1-5), and I do not think it is possible to +make this leap without using the bridge which is to be constructed out +of the differing positions occupied by the myth and the fairy tale.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a><a href="#FNanchor_209_209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> It will be interesting, I think, to preserve here one or two instances +of the actual practice of telling traditional tales in our own country. +Mr. Hartland has referred to the subject in his <i>Science of Fairy Tales</i>, +but the following instances are additional to those he has noted, and +they refer directly back to the living custom. They are all from Scotland, +and refer to the early part of last century. "In former times, +when families, owing to distance and other circumstances, held little +intercourse with each other through the day, numbers were in the habit +of assembling together in the evening in one house, and spending the +time in relating the tales of wonder which had been handed down to +them by tradition" (Kiltearn in Ross and Cromarty; Sinclair, <i>Statistical +Account of Scotland</i>, xiv. 323). "In the last generation every farm and +hamlet possessed its oral recorder of tale and song. The pastoral +habits of the people led them to seek recreation in listening to, and in +rehearsing the tales of other times; and the senachie and the bard were +held in high esteem" (Inverness-shire, <i>ibid.</i>, xiv. 168). "In the winter +months, many of them are in the habit of visiting and spending the +evenings in each other's houses in the different hamlets, repeating the +songs of their native bard or listening to the legendary tales of some +venerable senachie" (Durness in Sutherlandshire, <i>ibid.</i>, xv. 95).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a><a href="#FNanchor_210_210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> W. H. R. Rivers, <i>The Todas</i>, 3-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a><a href="#FNanchor_211_211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> Pausanias, viii. cap. xv. § 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a><a href="#FNanchor_212_212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> <i>Journ. Roy. Asiatic Soc.</i>, ii. p. 218.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a><a href="#FNanchor_213_213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> <i>Hist. of Rome</i>, i. pp. 177-179. <i>Cf.</i> Gunnar Landtman, <i>Origin of +Priesthood</i>, p. 77.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a><a href="#FNanchor_214_214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> Perhaps Mr. Lang's study of "Cinderella and the Diffusion of Tales" +in <i>Folklore</i>, iv. 413 <i>et seq.</i>, contains the best summary of the position.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a><a href="#FNanchor_215_215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> Crawley, <i>Tree of Life</i>, 5, 144.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216_216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> Train, <i>Hist. of Isle of Man</i>, ii. 115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a><a href="#FNanchor_217_217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> The ceremony is fully described in <i>Relics for the Curious</i>, i. 31; +<i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, 1784 (see <i>Gent. Mag. Library</i>, xxiii. 209), quoting +from a tract first published in 1634; and see <i>Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot.</i>, +x. 669.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218_218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> See <i>Folklore</i>, iii. 253-264; Rhys, <i>Celtic Folklore</i>, i. 337-341.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a><a href="#FNanchor_219_219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> Couch, <i>Hist. of Polperro</i>, 168.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a><a href="#FNanchor_220_220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> I have investigated the bee cult at some length, and it will form part +of my study on <i>Tribal Custom</i> which I am now preparing for publication.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221_221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> Carleton, <i>Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a><a href="#FNanchor_222_222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> Mr. Eden Phillpotts mentions in one of his Cornish stories exactly +this conception. Rags were offered. "Just a rag tored off a petticoat +or some such thing. They hanged 'em up around about on the thorn +bushes, to shaw as they'd 'a' done more for the good saint if they'd had +the power."—<i>Lying Prophets</i>, 60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a><a href="#FNanchor_223_223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> I gave an example of this false classification of folklore in accord +with its apparent modern association in my preface to <i>Denham Tracts</i>, +ii. p. ix. The left-leg stocking divination is not associated with dress, +but with the left-hand as opposed to the right-hand augury, and I +pointed out that the district of the Roman wall, the <i>locus</i> of the Denham +tracts, thus preserves the luck of the left, believed in by the Romans, +in opposition to the luck of the right believed in by the Teutons. See +Schrader, <i>Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples</i>, 253-7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a><a href="#FNanchor_224_224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> I elaborated this plan of comparative analysis in a report to the +British Association at Liverpool, in 1896 (see pp. 626-656), illustrating it +from the fire customs of Britain.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a><a href="#FNanchor_225_225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> <i>Archæological Review</i>, ii. 163-166; <i>cf.</i> the Rev. J. Macdonald in +<i>Folklore</i>, iii. 338.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a><a href="#FNanchor_226_226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> <i>Athenæum</i>, 29th December, 1883; <i>Archæologia</i>, vol. l. p. 213.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_227_227" id="Footnote_227_227"></a><a href="#FNanchor_227_227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> See MacCulloch's <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>, chap. xiii., where this distinction +is noted, though its significance is not pointed out.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_228_228" id="Footnote_228_228"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228_228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> Dr. Rivers has dealt with a very similar case of dual origin in connection +with bride capture, see <i>Journ. Roy. Asiatic Soc.</i>, 1907, p. 624.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_229_229" id="Footnote_229_229"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229_229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> Schrader's <i>Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples</i>, 422.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230_230" id="Footnote_230_230"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230_230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> Robertson Smith's <i>Religion of the Semites</i>, 397.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_231_231" id="Footnote_231_231"></a><a href="#FNanchor_231_231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> Monier Williams, <i>Indian Wisdom</i>, pp. 29-31. The word-equations +for sacrifice are given by Schrader, <i>op. cit.</i>, 130, 415.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_232_232" id="Footnote_232_232"></a><a href="#FNanchor_232_232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> <i>Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal</i>, xxxiv. p. 7. On the influence of the +aboriginal races <i>cf.</i> Monier Williams, <i>Indian Wisdom</i>, 312-313; Steel +and Temple's <i>Wide Awake Stories</i>, 395; Campbell, <i>Tales of West +Highlands</i>, l. p. xcviii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_233_233" id="Footnote_233_233"></a><a href="#FNanchor_233_233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> Lang, <i>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</i>, i. p. 271.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_234_234" id="Footnote_234_234"></a><a href="#FNanchor_234_234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> H. H. Wilson, <i>Religion of the Hindus</i>, ii. 289. I compare this with +the custom of the cow following the coffin mentioned by Mannhardt, <i>Die +Gotterwelt</i>, 320, and the soul shot or gift of a cow at death recorded by +Brand, ii. 248.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_235_235" id="Footnote_235_235"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235_235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> <i>Cf.</i> Olaus Magnus, pp. 168, 169, for the significant Norse ceremony.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_236_236" id="Footnote_236_236"></a><a href="#FNanchor_236_236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> Spenser, <i>View of the State of Ireland</i>, 1595 (Morley reprint), 73.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>lthough the great mass of folklore rests upon +tradition and tradition alone, an important aid +to tradition comes from certain psychological +conditions which we must now consider. At an early +stage all students of folklore will have discovered that +it is not entirely to tradition that folklore is indebted +for its material. There are still people capable of +thinking, capable of believing, in the primitive way +and in the primitive degree. Such people are of +course the descendants of long ancestors of such +people—people whose minds are not attuned to the +civilisation around them; people, perhaps, whose +minds have been to an extent stunted and kept back +by the civilisation around them. There can be no +doubt that civilisation and all it demands of mankind +acts as a deterrent upon the minds of some living +within the civilisation zone, and belonging apparently +to the civilised society. This is the root cause of +some of the lunacy and much of the crime which apparently +exists as a necessary adjunct of civilisation, +and it leads to various forms of thought inconsistent +with the knowledge and ideas of the age. +When these forms of thought are not concentrated into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +a new religious sect by the operation of social laws, +they become what is sometimes called mere superstition, +that kind of superstition which consists of using the +same power of logic to a narrow set of facts which primitive +man was in the habit of using, and thus repeating +in this age the methods of primitive science. We +cannot quite understand this in the age of railways +and schools and inventions, but it will be understood +better if we go back for only a generation or two to +those parts of our country which are most remote from +civilising influences, and obtain some information as to +their condition.</p> + +<p>This cannot be better accomplished than by referring +to a Scottish author writing, in 1835, of the superstitions +then prevailing in Scotland. "Our whole +genuine records," says Dalyell,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"teem with the most repulsive pictures of the weakness, +bigotry, turbulence, and fierce and treacherous cruelty of the +populace. False and corrupt innovations of literature, a compound +of facts and fiction, intermingling the old and the new +in heterogeneous assemblage, would persuade us to think +much more of our forefathers than they thought of themselves. +Scotland, until the most modern date, was an utter stranger +to civilisation, presenting a sterile country with a famished +people, wasted by hordes of mendicants readier to seize than +to solicit—void of ingenious arts and useful manufactures, +possessed of little skill and learning, plunged in constant +war and rapine, full of insubordination, disturbing public +rule and private peace. For waving pendants, flowing +draperies, brilliant colours, eagles' feathers, herons' plumes, +feasts or festivals so splendid in imagination, let naked limbs, +scanty, sombre garments to elude discovery by the foe, bits of +heath stuck in bonnets if they had them, precarious sustenance, +abject humility and all those hardships inseparable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +from uncultivated tribes and countries be instituted as a juster +portrait of earlier generations."<a name="FNanchor_237_237" id="FNanchor_237_237"></a><a href="#Footnote_237_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a></p></div> + +<p>This statement as to Scotland is correctly drawn from +social conditions which have now passed away, but +which, down to the beginning of last century, belonged +to the ordinary life of the people. Thus it is recorded +that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"over all the highlands of Scotland, and in this county in +common with others, the practice of building what are called +head-dykes was of very remote antiquity. The head-dyke +was drawn across the head of a farm, when nature had +marked the boundary betwixt the green pastures and that +portion of hill which was covered totally or partially with +heath. Above this fence the young cattle, the horses, the +sheep and goats were kept in the summer months. The +milch cows were fed below, except during the time the farmer's +family removed to the distant grazings called sheilings. +Beyond the head-dyke little attention was paid to boundaries. +These enclosures exhibit the most evident traces of extreme +old age."<a name="FNanchor_238_238" id="FNanchor_238_238"></a><a href="#Footnote_238_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a></p></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus18" id="Illus18"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_18.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_18th.jpg" width="400" height="264" +alt="Representation of an Irish chieftain seated at dinner (from +Derrick's "The Image of Ireland")" +title="REPRESENTATION OF AN IRISH CHIEFTAIN SEATED AT DINNER, 1581" /></a> +<span class="caption">REPRESENTATION OF AN IRISH CHIEFTAIN SEATED AT +DINNER, 1581<br /> +FROM DERRICKE'S "IMAGE OF IRELAND"</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>In Ireland the same conditions obtained so late as the +sixteenth century; the native Irish retained their wandering +habits, tilling a piece of fertile land in the spring, +then retiring with their herds to the booleys or dairy +habitations, generally in the mountain districts in the +summer, and moving about where the herbage afforded +sustenance to their cattle.<a name="FNanchor_239_239" id="FNanchor_239_239"></a><a href="#Footnote_239_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a> An eighteenth-century +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>traveller in Ireland was assured that the quarter called +Connaught was "inhabited by a kind of savages," and +there is record of the capture of a hairy dwarf near +Longford, who appears hardly to belong to civilisation.<a name="FNanchor_240_240" id="FNanchor_240_240"></a><a href="#Footnote_240_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a> +Similar conditions obtained in the northern counties of +England, and in other parts.<a name="FNanchor_241_241" id="FNanchor_241_241"></a><a href="#Footnote_241_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a> Special circumstances +kept the borderland outside the influences of ordinary +civilised thought and control, and these circumstances +have been recorded by an eighteenth-century observer, +from whom I will quote one or two facts as to the mode +of life of these people: "That they might be more +invisible during their outrodes and consequently less +liable to the effects of their enemies' vigilance, the +colour of their cloathes resembled that of the scenes of +their employment or of their season of action, that is, +of a brown heath and cloudy evening. Thus examples +of what might condemn their conduct were never +offered to them, and immemorial custom seemed as it +were to sanctify their wildness. Every border-man, +almost without exception, was brought up in a state +which we would call unhappy, and every circumstance +of his life tended to confirm his partiality for an uncertain +bed and unprovided diet."<a name="FNanchor_242_242" id="FNanchor_242_242"></a><a href="#Footnote_242_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a></p> + +<p>The evidence which this acute observer collected led +him to conclude that the "almost uniform train of +circumstances which affected these countries from their +border situation, and the little difference there was +between one of the dark ages and another, strongly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +induce me to believe that the Northern people were +little altered in manners from very remote times to those +immediately <ins class="correction" title="'preceeding' in original">preceding</ins> +the reign of Queen Elizabeth," and this is confirmed by what we +actually find from the report of the Commissioners appointed +to settle the peace of the Marches by fixed and established +ordinances, who collected "their ordinances from the +traditional accounts of ancient usages that had been +sanctified as laws by the length of time which they had +endured. These laws were different from most others, +nay, almost peculiar to the men to whom they belonged."<a name="FNanchor_243_243" id="FNanchor_243_243"></a><a href="#Footnote_243_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +I need not continue these notes as to the backwardness +of portions of the country compared with its +general level of culture, because I have dealt with the +evidence elsewhere.<a name="FNanchor_244_244" id="FNanchor_244_244"></a><a href="#Footnote_244_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a> What I am anxious to point out +here is that the faculty of such people as these to think, +not in terms of modern science but in terms of their +own psychological conditions, must have been pronounced. +If they ever put the question to themselves +as to the origin of things, they would answer themselves +according to the life impressions they were then +receiving, and according to the limited range of their +actual knowledge. As with the creators of the traditional +myths, the scientific inquirers of primitive times, +so with these non-advanced people of later times, they +would deal with the problems they did not understand +in fashions suitable to their own understanding. It +has always appeared to me that the impressions of the +surrounding life are not sufficiently regarded in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +influence upon primitive thought. They press down +upon the mind, and enclose it within barriers so that it +can only act through these surroundings. Child-life is, +in this respect, much the same as the life of primitive +man. A child thinks and acts in terms of his nursery, +his school, or his playground. Thus a memory of my +own is to the point. When quite a child, probably +about eight or nine years old, I was entrusted with +the changing of a small cheque drawn by my father in +a country town where we were staying. I had never +seen a cheque before. I remember the ceremony of +writing it and the care with which the necessary +instructions were given to me, and I remember the +amazement with which I received the golden sovereigns. +But my mind dwelt upon this strange thing +called a cheque, and after a time I deliberately came to +the conclusion that my father was allowed to get money +for these cheques on condition only that he wrote them +without a mistake and without a blot. The conception +is absurd until we come to analyse the cause of it. My +young life at that time was receiving its greatest impressions, +its all-absorbing impressions, from my +school exercises in writing. It was a copybook life for +the time being, and when I turned to ask my question +as to origins, as every human being has asked himself +in turn, I could express myself only in copybook +terms. It is so with the primitive mind. It can only +express itself in the terms of its greatest impressions, +and it is in this way that primitive animism, sympathetic +magic and other conceptions obtained from +the results of anthropological research, are to be found +in much the same degree wherever humanity is found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +in primitive conditions. As Mr. Hickson puts it so +well: "Just as the little black baby of the negro, the +brown baby of the Malay, the yellow baby of the +Chinaman, are in face and form, in gestures and +habits, as well as in the first articulate sound they +mutter, very much alike, so the mind of man, whether +he be Aryan or Malay, Mongolian or Negrito, has, in +the course of its evolution, passed through stages +which are practically identical. In the intellectual +childhood of mankind natural phenomena, or some +other causes, of which we are at present ignorant, have +induced thoughts, stories, legends, and myths, that in +their essentials are identical among all the races of the +world with which we are acquainted;"<a name="FNanchor_245_245" id="FNanchor_245_245"></a><a href="#Footnote_245_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a> or to take one +other example from the experience of travellers, Mr. +Mitchell, speaking of the Australians, says: "I found a +native still there, and on my advancing towards him +with a twig he shook another twig at me, waving it +over his head, and at the same time intimating with it +that we must go back. He and the boy then threw up +dust at us with their toes (<i>cf.</i> 2 Sam. xvi. 13). +These various expressions of hostility and defiance +were too intelligible to be mistaken. The expressive +pantomime of the man showed the identity of the +human mind, however distinct the races or different the +language."<a name="FNanchor_246_246" id="FNanchor_246_246"></a><a href="#Footnote_246_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a></p> + +<p>This identity is shown in many other ways to have +been operating, perhaps to be operating still, upon +minds not attuned to the civilisation around them. +The resistance of agriculturists to change is well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +known.<a name="FNanchor_247_247" id="FNanchor_247_247"></a><a href="#Footnote_247_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a> The crooked ridges of the open-field system +were believed to be necessary because they were supposed +to deceive the devil,<a name="FNanchor_248_248" id="FNanchor_248_248"></a><a href="#Footnote_248_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> while a superstitious dislike +was entertained against winnowing machines, because +they were supposed to interfere with the elements.<a name="FNanchor_249_249" id="FNanchor_249_249"></a><a href="#Footnote_249_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> +This is nothing but a modern example of sympathetic +magic produced by the introduction of the new +machine.</p> + +<p>I need not go through the researches of the masters +of anthropology to explain what the psychological +evidence exactly amounts to, and the realms of primitive +thought and experience which it connotes.<a name="FNanchor_250_250" id="FNanchor_250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_250_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a> It +will, however, be useful for the purpose of our present +study, if we can find among the peasantry of our +country (perchance from those districts where we have +noted conditions under which primitive thought might +retain a continuous hold) examples of belief or superstition +which belongs rather to psychological than to +traditional influences. The interpretation of dreams, the +belief in spirit apparitions, the practice of charms, all +belong to this branch of our subject, though I shall +illustrate the points I wish to bring out by reference to +less common departments.</p> + +<p>It was only in the seventeenth century that a learned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +divine of the Church of England was shocked to hear +one of his flock repeat the evidence of his pagan beliefs +in language which is as explicit as it is amusing; and I +shall not be accused of trifling with religious susceptibilities +if I quote a passage from a sermon delivered +and printed in 1659—a passage which shows not a +departure from Christianity either through ignorance +or from the result of philosophic study or contemplation, +but a sheer non-advance to Christianity, a passage +which shows us an English pagan of the seventeenth +century.</p> + +<p>"Let me tell you a story," says the Reverend Mr. +Pemble, "that I have heard from a reverend man out +of the pulpit, a place where none should dare to tell a +lye, of an old man above sixty, who lived and died in +a parish where there had bin preaching almost all his +time.... On his deathbed, being questioned by a +minister touching his faith and hope in God, you would +wonder to hear what answer he made: being demanded +what he thought of God, he answers that he was a good +old man; and what of Christ, that he was a towardly +youth; and of his soule, that it was a great bone in his +body; and what should become of his soule after he +was dead, that if he had done well he should be put into +a pleasant green meadow."<a name="FNanchor_251_251" id="FNanchor_251_251"></a><a href="#Footnote_251_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a></p> + +<p>Of the four articles of this singular creed, the first +two depict an absence of knowledge about the central +features of Christian belief, the latter two denote the +existence of knowledge about some belief not known to +English scholars of that time. If it had so happened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +that the Reverend Mr. Pemble had thought fit to tell +his audience only of the first two articles of this creed, +it would have been difficult to resist the suggestion +that they presented us merely with an example of +stupid, or, perhaps, impudent, blasphemy caused by +the events of the day. But the negative nature of the +first two items of the creed is counterbalanced by the +positive nature of the second two items; and thus this +example shows us the importance of considering +evidence as to all phases of non-belief in Christianity.</p> + +<p>Passing on to the two items of positive belief, it is +to be noted that the soul resident in the body in the +shape of a bone is no part of the early European belief, +but equates rather with the savage idea which identifies +the soul with some material part of the body, such as +the eyes, the heart, or the liver; and it is interesting to +note in this connection that the backbone is considered +by some savage races, <i>e.g.</i>, the New Zealanders, as +especially sacred because the soul or spiritual essence +of man resides in the spinal marrow.<a name="FNanchor_252_252" id="FNanchor_252_252"></a><a href="#Footnote_252_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a> And there is a +well-known incident in folk-tales which seems to owe +its origin to this group of ideas. This is where the +hero having been killed, one of his bones tells the +secret of his death, and thus acts the part of the soul-ghost.</p> + +<p>In the pleasant green fields we trace the old faiths of +the agricultural peasantry which, put into the words of +Hesiod, tell us that "for them earth yields her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +increase; for them the oaks hold in their summits acorns, +and in their midmost branches bees. The flocks bear +for them their fleecy burdens ... they live in +<i>unchanged happiness</i>, and need not fly across the sea in +impious ships"—faiths which are in striking contrast to +the tribal warrior's conception as set forth by the Saxon +thane of King Eadwine of Northumbria. "This life," +said this poetical thane, "is like the passage of a bird +from the darkness without into a lighted hall where you, +O King, are seated at supper, while storms, and rain, +and snow rage abroad. The sparrow flying in at our +door and straightway out at another is, while within, +safe from the storm; but soon it vanishes into the darkness +whence it came."</p> + +<p>Such faiths as these, indeed, show us primitive ideas +at their very roots. This seventeenth-century pagan +depended upon himself for his faith. He worked out +his own ideas as to the origin of soul and heaven and +God and Christ. They were terms that had filtered +down to him through the hard surroundings of his life, +and he set to work to define them in the fashion of the +primitive savage. We meet with other examples. Thus +among the superstitions of Lancashire is one which +tells us of the lingering belief in a long journey after +death, when food is necessary to support the soul. A +man having died of apoplexy, near Manchester, at a +public dinner, one of the company was heard to remark: +"Well, poor Joe, God rest his soul! He has at least +gone to his long rest wi' a belly full o' good meat, and +that's some consolation," and perhaps a still more remarkable +instance is that of the woman buried in +Cuxton Church, near Rochester, who directed by her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +will that the coffin was to have a lock and key, the key +being placed in her dead hand, so that she might be +able to release herself at pleasure.<a name="FNanchor_253_253" id="FNanchor_253_253"></a><a href="#Footnote_253_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a></p> + +<p>These people simply did not understand civilised +thought or civilised religion. To escape from the +pressure of trying to understand they turned to think +for themselves, and thinking for themselves merely +brought them back to the standpoint of primitive +thought. It could hardly be otherwise. The working +of the human mind is on the same plane wherever and +whenever it operates or has operated. The difference +in results arises from the enlarged field of observation. +When the Suffolk peasant set to work to account for +the existence of stones on his field by asserting that the +fields produced the stones, and for the origin of the so-called +"pudding-stone" conglomerate, that it was a +mother stone and the parent of the pebbles,<a name="FNanchor_254_254" id="FNanchor_254_254"></a><a href="#Footnote_254_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a> he was +beginning a first treatise on geology; and when +the Hampshire peasant attributes the origin of the +tutsan berries to having germinated in the blood of +slaughtered Danes,<a name="FNanchor_255_255" id="FNanchor_255_255"></a><a href="#Footnote_255_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a> other counties following the same +thought, I am not at all sure that he is not beginning +all over again the primitive conception of the origin +of plants.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus19" id="Illus19"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_19.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_19th.jpg" width="400" height="252" +alt="Long Meg and her Daughters (from a photograph by Messrs. Frith)" +title="LONG MEG AND HER DAUGHTERS" /></a> +<span class="caption">LONG MEG AND HER DAUGHTERS</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus20" id="Illus20"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 395px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_20.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_20th.jpg" width="395" height="400" +alt="Stone circles on Stanton Moor (from Archæologia)" +title="STONE CIRCLES ON STANTON MOOR" /></a> +<span class="caption">STONE CIRCLES ON STANTON MOOR</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>This beginning shows the mark of the primitive +mind, and that it was operating in a country dominated +by scientific thought is the phenomenon which makes +it so important to consider psychological conditions +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>among the problems of folklore. They account for +some beliefs which may not contain elements of pure +tradition. When the Mishmee Hill people of India +affirm of a high white cliff at the foot of one of the hills +that approaches the Burhampooter that it is the remains +of the "marriage feast of Raja Sisopal with the +daughter of the neighbouring king, named Bhismak, +but she being stolen away by Krishna before the ceremony +was completed, the whole of the viands were left +uneaten and have since become consolidated into their +present form,"<a name="FNanchor_256_256" id="FNanchor_256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a> we can understand that the belief is +in strict accord with the primitive conditions of thought +of the Mishmee people. Can we understand the same +conditions of the parallel English belief concerning the +stone circle known as "Long Meg and her daughters,"<a name="FNanchor_257_257" id="FNanchor_257_257"></a><a href="#Footnote_257_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a> +and of that at Stanton Drew;<a name="FNanchor_258_258" id="FNanchor_258_258"></a><a href="#Footnote_258_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a> or of the allied beliefs +in Scotland that a huge upright stone, Clach Macmeas, +in Loth, a parish of Sutherlandshire, was hurled to +the bottom of the glen from the top of Ben Uarie by +a giant youth when he was only one month old;<a name="FNanchor_259_259" id="FNanchor_259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_259_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> and +in England that "the Hurlers," in Cornwall, were +once men engaged in the game of hurling, and were +turned into stone for playing on the Lord's Day; that +the circle, known as "Nine Maidens," were maidens +turned into stone for dancing on the Lord's Day;<a name="FNanchor_260_260" id="FNanchor_260_260"></a><a href="#Footnote_260_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a> that +the stone circle at Stanton Drew represents serpents +converted into stones by Keyna, a holy virgin of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +fifth century;<a name="FNanchor_261_261" id="FNanchor_261_261"></a><a href="#Footnote_261_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a> and that the so-called snake stones found +at Whitby were serpents turned into stones by the +prayers of the Abbess Hilda.<a name="FNanchor_262_262" id="FNanchor_262_262"></a><a href="#Footnote_262_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a> These are only examples +of the kind of beliefs entertained in all parts of the +United Kingdom,<a name="FNanchor_263_263" id="FNanchor_263_263"></a><a href="#Footnote_263_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a> and they seem based upon psychological, +rather than traditional conditions.</p> + +<p>The giant and the witch, or wizard, are terms applied +to the unknown personal agent. "The two standing +stones in the neighbourhood of West Skeld are said to +be the metamorphosis of two wizards or giants, who +were on their way to plunder and murder the inhabitants +of West Skeld; but not having calculated +their time with sufficient accuracy, before they could +accomplish their purpose, or retrace their steps to their +dark abodes, the first rays of the morning sun appeared, +and they were immediately transformed, and remain to +the present time in the shape of two tall moss-grown +stones of ten feet in height."<a name="FNanchor_264_264" id="FNanchor_264_264"></a><a href="#Footnote_264_264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a> This is paralleled by +the Merionethshire example of a large drift of stones +about midway up the Moelore in Llan Dwywe, +which was believed to be due to a witch who "was +carrying her apron full of stones for some purpose +to the top of the hill, and the string of the apron +broke, and all the stones dropped on the spot, where +they still remain under the name of Fedogaid-y-Widdon."<a name="FNanchor_265_265" id="FNanchor_265_265"></a><a href="#Footnote_265_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a> +Giant and witch in these cases are generic +terms by which the popular mind has conveyed a conception +of the origin of these strange and remarkable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +monuments, whether natural or constructed by a long-forgotten +people; and we cannot doubt that such beliefs +are generated by the peasantry of civilisation from a +mental conception not far removed from that of the +primitive savage. Neither their religion nor their education +was concerned with such things, so the peasants +turned to their own realm and created a myth of origins +suitable to their limited range of knowledge.</p> + +<p>It may perhaps be urged that such beliefs as these +are on the borderland of psychological and traditional +influences. Witches and giants certainly belong to +tradition, but on the other hand they are the common +factors of the natural mind which readily attributes personal +origins to impersonal objects. I am inclined on +the whole to attribute the beliefs attachable to the unexplained +boulders or unknown monoliths to the eternal +questionings in the minds of the uncultured peasants of +uncivilised countries similar to those of the unadvanced +savage. That the peasant of civilisation should confine +his questionings to the by-products of his surroundings +and not to the greater subjects which occupy +the minds of savages, is only because the greater +subjects have already been answered for him by the +Christian Church.<a name="FNanchor_266_266" id="FNanchor_266_266"></a><a href="#Footnote_266_266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +There is a point, however, where psychological and +traditional conditions are in natural conjunction, and +I will just refer to this. That matters of legal importance +should be preserved by the agency of tradition +has already been shown to belong to that part of history +for which there are no contemporary records, and its +importance in this connection has been proved. Equally +important from the psychological side is the fact that +law is also preserved by tradition where people are +unaccustomed to the use of writing, or by reason of +their occupation have little use for writing. To illustrate +this, I will quote an excellent note preserved by +a writer on Cornish superstitions.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"There is an old 'vulgar error'—that no man can swear +as a witness in a court of law to any thing he has seen +through glass. This is based upon the formerly universal +use of blown glass for windows, in which glass the constant +recurrence of the greenish, and barely more than semi-transparent +bull's eyes, so much distorted the view that it +was unsafe for a spectator through glass to pledge his oath +to what he saw going on outside. Now, through our present +glass, this belief is relegated to the region of forgotten things, +but nevertheless it has hold on Westcountry people still. I +was, some years since, investigating the case of a derelict +ship which had been found off the Scilly Islands, and towed +by the pilots into a safe anchorage for the night. Next +morning the pilots going out to complete their salvage, saw +some men on board the derelict casting off the anchor rope +by which they had secured her, but they distinctly declined +to swear to the truth of what they had seen, and it turned +out that they had seen through glass, by which they meant +a telescope. In the same case I found that when these pilots +(men intelligent much beyond the average, as all Scillonians +are) had, on boarding the derelict (which had, of course,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +been deserted by her crew), found a living dog, they had +deliberately thrown it overboard. They explained this act of +cruelty to me by saying that a ship was not derelict if on +board of her was found alive 'man, woman, child, dog, or +cat.' And it turned out, on after-investigation, that these +were the very words used in an obsolete Act of Parliament +of one of the early Plantagenet kings, forgotten centuries +ago by the English people, but borne in mind as a living fact +by the Scillonians."<a name="FNanchor_267_267" id="FNanchor_267_267"></a><a href="#Footnote_267_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a></p></div> + +<p>In some special departments elementary psychological +conditions operate in a considerable degree—operate +to produce not waifs and strays of primitive thought +and belief, but whole classes. Thus in the curious +accretion of superstition around the objects connected +with church worship, the same agencies are at work. +The general characteristic of popular beliefs which +originated with, or have grown up around the consecrated +objects of the Church, is that such objects are +beneficent in their action when employed for any given +purpose. Thus, as Henderson says of the North of +England, "a belief in the efficacy of the sacred elements +in the Eucharist for the cure of bodily disease is widely +spread." Silver rings, made from the offertory money, +are very generally worn for the cure of epilepsy. Water +that had been used in baptism was believed in West +Scotland to have virtue to cure many distempers; it +was a preventive against witchcraft, and eyes bathed +with it would never see a ghost. Dalyell puts the +evidence very succinctly. "Everything relative to +sanctity was deemed a preservative. Hence the relics +of saints, the touch of their clothes, of their tombs, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +even portions of structures consecrated to divine offices +were a safeguard near the person. A white marble +altar in the church of Iona, almost entire towards the +close of the seventeenth century, had disappeared late +in the eighteenth, from its demolition in fragments to +avert shipwreck." And so what has been consecrated, must not +<ins class="correction" title="'bedesecrated' in original">be desecrated</ins>. +In Leicestershire and Northamptonshire +there is a superstitious idea that the removal +or exhumation of a body after interment bodes death or +some terrible calamity to the surviving members of the +deceased's family.<a name="FNanchor_268_268" id="FNanchor_268_268"></a><a href="#Footnote_268_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a></p> + +<p>In the West of Ireland there were usually found +upon the altars of the small missionary churches one or +more oval stones, either natural waterwashed pebbles +or artificially shaped and very smooth, and these were +held in the highest veneration by the peasantry as +having belonged to the founders of the churches, and were +used for a variety of purposes, as the curing of diseases, +taking oaths upon them, etc.<a name="FNanchor_269_269" id="FNanchor_269_269"></a><a href="#Footnote_269_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a> Similarly the using +of any remains of destroyed churches for profane purposes +was believed to bring misfortune,<a name="FNanchor_270_270" id="FNanchor_270_270"></a><a href="#Footnote_270_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a> while the land +which once belonged to the church of St. Baramedan, +in the parish of Kilbarrymeaden, county Waterford, +"has long been highly venerated by the common people, +who attribute to it many surprising virtues."<a name="FNanchor_271_271" id="FNanchor_271_271"></a><a href="#Footnote_271_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a> In 1849 +the people of Carrick were in the habit of carrying away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +from the churchyard portions of the clay of a priest's +grave and using it as a cure for several diseases, and +they also boiled the clay from the grave of Father +O'Connor with milk and drank it.<a name="FNanchor_272_272" id="FNanchor_272_272"></a><a href="#Footnote_272_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a> One of the superstitious +fancies of the Connemara folk in 1825 was +credulity with respect to the gospels, as they are +called, which "they wear round their neck as a +charm against danger and disease. These are prepared +by the priest, and sold by him at the price +of two or three tenpennies. It is considered sacrilege +in the purchaser to part with them at any time, +and it is believed that the charm proves of no efficacy +to any but the individual for whose particular +benefit the priest has blessed it. The charm is written +on a scrap of paper and enclosed in a small cloth bag, +marked on one side with the letters I. H. S. On one +side of the paper is written the Lord's Prayer, and after +it a great number of initial letters."<a name="FNanchor_273_273" id="FNanchor_273_273"></a><a href="#Footnote_273_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a></p> + +<p>Such examples could be multiplied indefinitely, but no +folklorist has properly classified such beliefs and endeavoured +to ascertain their place in the science of folklore.<a name="FNanchor_274_274" id="FNanchor_274_274"></a><a href="#Footnote_274_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a> +It is clear they have arisen not from tradition, +but from a new force acting on minds which were not +yet free to receive new influences without going back +to old methods of thought.</p> + +<p>How completely the sanctity of the church exercises +a constant influence upon the minds of men, thus substituting +a new form of belief when older forms were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +thrust on one side by the advance of the new religion, +is perhaps best illustrated by a practice in early +Christian times for giving sanctity to the oath. Among +the Jews the altar in the Temple was resorted to by +litigants in order that the oath might be taken in the +presence of Yahveh himself, and "so powerful was +the impression of this upon the Christian mind, that +in the early ages of the Church there was a popular +superstition that an oath taken in a Jewish synagogue +was more binding and more efficient than anywhere +else."<a name="FNanchor_275_275" id="FNanchor_275_275"></a><a href="#Footnote_275_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a> In exactly the same way the altar of the +Christian Church is used in popular belief after its use +in Church ceremonial has been discontinued. Thus, to +get in beneath the altar of St. Hilary Church, Anglesey, +by means of an open panel and then turn round +and come out is to ensure life for the coming year,<a name="FNanchor_276_276" id="FNanchor_276_276"></a><a href="#Footnote_276_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a> and +the white marble altar in Iona which has been entirely +demolished by fragments of it being used to avert +shipwreck has already been referred to.<a name="FNanchor_277_277" id="FNanchor_277_277"></a><a href="#Footnote_277_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a> These are +cases where there has been a throwing back from the +new religion to the objects connected with the old +religion, and they are paralleled by the practice of +Protestants appealing to the Roman Catholic priesthood +for protection against witchcraft, and of Nonconformists +believing that the clergy of the Episcopal +Church possess superior powers over evil spirits.<a name="FNanchor_278_278" id="FNanchor_278_278"></a><a href="#Footnote_278_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +Psychological evidence is therefore important. One +can never be quite sure to what extent civilised man +is free from creating fresh myths in place of acquired +scientific result, and to what extent this influences the +production of primitive beliefs, or allows of the acceptance +of traditional belief on new ground. The great +mass of traditional belief has come through the ages +traditionally, that is, from parent to child, from neighbour +to neighbour, from class to class, from locality to +locality, generation after generation. Occasionally +this main current of the traditional life of a people is +swollen by small side streams from fresh psychological +sources. Individual examples, such as those I have +cited, have perhaps always been present, but their effect +must have died away with the passing of those with +whom they originated. There are, however, stronger +effects than these, coming not from individuals, but +from classes. Thus the votaries and enemies of witchcraft +produced a more lasting effect. Witchcraft, as +Dr. Karl Pearson, I think, conclusively proves, and as +I have helped to prove,<a name="FNanchor_279_279" id="FNanchor_279_279"></a><a href="#Footnote_279_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a> is founded upon traditional +belief and custom, but its remarkable revival in the +Middle Ages was in the main a psychological phenomenon. +Traditional practices, traditional formulæ, +and traditional beliefs are no doubt the elements of +witchcraft, but it was not the force of tradition which +produced the miserable doings of the Middle Ages and +of the seventeenth century against witches. These +were due to a psychological force, partly generated by +the newly acquired power of the people to read the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +Bible for themselves, and so to apply the witch stories +of the Jews to neighbours of their own who possessed +powers or peculiarities which they could not understand, +and partly generated by the carrying on of traditional +practices by certain families or groups of +persons who could only acquire knowledge of such +practices by initiation or family teaching. Lawyers, +magistrates, judges, nobles, and monarchs are concerned +with witchcraft. These are not minds which +have been crushed by civilisation, but minds which +have misunderstood it or have misused it. It is unnecessary, +and it is of course impossible on this occasion +to trace out the psychic issues which are contained +in the facts of witchcraft, but it may be advisable to +illustrate the point by one or two references.</p> + +<p>I will note a few modern examples of the belief in +witchcraft:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In 1879 extraordinary stories were current among the +populace of Caergwrle. Mrs. Braithwaite supplied a Mrs. +Williams with milk, but afterwards refused to serve her, and +the cause was as follows: Mrs. Braithwaite had up to that +time been very successful in churning her butter, but about +a month ago the butter would not come. She tried every +known agency; she washed and dried her bats, but all to no +purpose. The milk would not yield an ounce of butter. +Under the circumstances she said Mrs. Williams had witched +her. The neighbours believed it, and Mrs. Williams was +generally called a witch. Hearing these reports, Mrs. +Williams went to Mrs. Braithwaite to expostulate with her, +when Mrs. Braithwaite said, 'Out, witch! If you don't +leave here, I'll shoot you.' Mrs. Williams thereupon applied +to the Caergwrle bench of magistrates for a protection order +against Mrs. Braithwaite. She assured the Bench she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +in danger, as every one believed she was a witch. The +Clerk: What do they say is the reason? Applicant: Because +she cannot churn the milk. Mr. Kryke: Do they see you +riding a broomstick? Applicant (seriously): No, sir. The +Bench instructed the police officer to caution Mrs. Braithwaite +against repeating the threats."<a name="FNanchor_280_280" id="FNanchor_280_280"></a><a href="#Footnote_280_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a></p></div> + +<p>The next example is from Lancashire:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"At the East Dereham Petty Sessions, William Bulwer, +of Etling Green, was charged with assaulting Christiana +Martins, a young girl, who resided near the Etling Green +toll-bar. Complainant deposed that she was 18 years of +age, and on Wednesday, the 2nd inst., the defendant came +to her and abused her. The complainant, who looks scarce +more than a child, repeated, despite the efforts of the magistrates' +clerk to stop her, and without being in the least +abashed, some of the worst language it was possible to +conceive—conversation of the most gross description, alleged +to have taken place between herself and the defendant. +They appeared to have got from words to blows and, while +trying to fasten the gate, the defendant hit her across the +hand with a stick. She alleged that there was no cause +for the abuse and the assault, so far as she knew, and in +reply to rigid cross-examination as to the origin of the +quarrel, adhered to this statement. Mrs. Susannah Gathercole +also corroborated the statement as to the assault, adding +that the defendant said the complainant's mother was a witch. +Defendant then blazed forth in righteous indignation, and, +when the witness said she knew no more about the origin of +the quarrel, he said, 'Mrs. Martins is an old witch, gentlemen, +that is what she is, and she charmed me, and I got +no sleep for her for three nights, and one night at half-past +eleven o'clock, I got up because I could not sleep, and went +out and found a "walking toad" under a clod that had been +dug up with a three-pronged fork. That is why I could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +rest; she is a bad old woman; she put this toad under +there to charm me, and her daughter is just as bad, gentlemen. +She would bewitch any one; she charmed me, and I +got no rest day or night for her, till I found this "walking +toad" under the turf. She dug a hole and put it there to +charm me, gentlemen, that is the truth. I got the toad out +and put it in a cloth, and took it upstairs and showed it to my +mother, and "throwed" it into the pit in the garden. She +went round this here "walking toad" after she had buried it, +and I could not rest by day or sleep by night till I found +it. The Bench: Do you go to church? Defendant: Sometimes +I go to church, and sometimes to chapel, and sometimes +I don't go nowhere. Her mother is bad enough to +do anything; and to go and put the "walking toad" in the +hole like that, for a man which never did nothing to her, she +is not fit to live, gentlemen, to go and do such a thing; it +is not as if I had done anything to her. She looks at +lots of people, and I know she will do some one harm. +The Chairman: Do you know this man, Superintendent +Symons? Is he sane? Superintendent Symons: Yes, sir; +perfectly."<a name="FNanchor_281_281" id="FNanchor_281_281"></a><a href="#Footnote_281_281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a></p></div> + +<p>In Somerset belief in witchcraft still lingers in nooks +and corners of the west, as appears from a case brought +before the magistrates of the Wiveliscombe division.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Sarah Smith, the wife of a marine store dealer, residing at +Golden Hill, was for some time ill and confined to her bed. +Finding that the local doctor could not cure her, she sent for +a witch doctor of Taunton. He duly arrived by train on +St. Thomas's day. Smith inquired his charge, and was +informed he usually charged 11<i>s.</i>, remarking that unless he +took it from the person affected his incantation would be of +no avail. Smith then handed it to his wife, who gave it to +the witch doctor, and he returned 1<i>s.</i> to her. He then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +proceeded to foil the witch's power over his patient by tapping +her several times on the palm of her hand with his +finger, telling her that every tap was a stab on the witch's +heart. This was followed by an incantation. He then gave +her a parcel of herbs (which evidently consisted of dried bay +leaves and peppermint), which she was to steep and drink. +She was to send to a blacksmith's shop and get a donkey's +shoe made, and nail it on her front door. He then departed."<a name="FNanchor_282_282" id="FNanchor_282_282"></a><a href="#Footnote_282_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a></p></div> + +<p>Such examples as these may be added to from various +parts of the country, but they do not compare with the +terrible case at Clonmel, in county Tipperary, which +occurred in 1895. The evidence showed that the +husband, father, and mother of the victim, together with +several other persons, were concerned in this matter, +and one of the witnesses, Mary Simpson, stated "that +on the night of March 14th she saw Cleary forcibly +administer herbs to his wife, and when the woman did +not answer when called upon in the name of the +Trinity to say who she was, she was placed on the fire +by Cleary and the others. Mrs. Cleary did not appear +to be in her right senses. She was raving."<a name="FNanchor_283_283" id="FNanchor_283_283"></a><a href="#Footnote_283_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a> The +whole record of the trial is of the most amazing description, +pointing back to a system of belief which, +if based upon traditional practices, has been fed by +entirely modern influences. Such records as these +stretch back through the ages, and almost every village, +certainly every county in the United Kingdom, has its +records of trials for witchcraft, in which clergy and +layman, judge, jury, and victim play strange parts,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +if we consider them as members of a civilised community. +Superstition which has been preserved by +the folk as sacred to their old faiths, preserved by tradition, +has remained the cherished possession, generally +in secret, of those who practise it. The belief in witchcraft +is a different matter. Though it has traditional +rites and practices it has been kept alive by a cruel and +crude interpretation of its position among the faiths +of the Bible, and it has thus received fresh life.</p> + +<p>The miserable records of witchcraft illustrate in a +way no other subject can how the human mind, when +untouched by the influences of advanced culture, has +the tendency to revert to traditional culture, and they +demonstrate how strongly embedded in human memory +is the great mass of traditional culture. The outside +civilisation, religious or scientific, has not penetrated +far. Science has only just begun her great work, and +religion has been spending most of her efforts in +endeavouring to displace a set of beliefs which she calls +superstition, by a set of superstitions which she calls +revelation. Not only have the older faiths not been +eradicated by this, but the older psychological conditions +have not been made to disappear. The folklorist +has to make note of this obviously significant +fact, and must therefore deal with both sides of the +question, the traditional and the psychological, and +because by far the greater importance belongs to the +former it does not do to neglect the importance, though +the lesser importance, of the latter.</p> + +<p>It assists the student of tradition in many ways. +People who will still explain for themselves in primitive +fashion phenomena which they do not understand,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +and who remain content with such primitive explanations +instead of relying upon the discoveries of science, +are just the people to retain with strong persistence the +traditional beliefs and ideas which they obtained from +their fathers, and to acquire other traditional beliefs +and ideas which they obtain from neighbours. One +often wonders at the "amazing toughness" of tradition, +and in the psychological conditions which have +been indicated will be found one of the necessary explanations.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_237_237" id="Footnote_237_237"></a><a href="#FNanchor_237_237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> Dalyell, <i>Darker Superstitions of Scotland</i>, 197-198.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_238_238" id="Footnote_238_238"></a><a href="#FNanchor_238_238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> Robertson, <i>Agriculture of Inverness-shire</i>. For Argyllshire see <i>New +Stat. Account of Scotland</i>, vii. 346; Brown, <i>Early Descriptions of Scotland</i>, +12, 49, 99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_239_239" id="Footnote_239_239"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239_239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> Wilde, <i>Catalogue of Museum of Royal Irish Academy</i>, 99; Joyce, +<i>Social Hist. of Anc. Ireland</i>, ii. 27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_240_240" id="Footnote_240_240"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240_240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> <i>Tour in Ireland</i>, 1775, p. 144; <i>Gent. Mag.</i>, v. 680.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_241_241" id="Footnote_241_241"></a><a href="#FNanchor_241_241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> Hutchinson, <i>Hist. of Cumberland</i>, i. 216.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_242_242" id="Footnote_242_242"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242_242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> James Clarke, <i>Survey of the Lakes</i>, 1789, p. xiii; <i>Berwickshire Nat. +Field Club</i>, ix. 512.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_243_243" id="Footnote_243_243"></a><a href="#FNanchor_243_243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> Clarke, <i>Survey of the Lakes</i>, pp. x, xv. Referring to the statutes +enacted as a result of the Commissioners' work the facts are as follows: +There were certain franchises in North and South Tynedale and Hexhamshire, +by virtue of which the King's writ did not run there. [Tynedale, +though on the English side of the border, was an ancient franchise of the +Kings of Scotland.] In 1293 Edward I. confirmed this grant in favour of +John of Balliol (1 Rot. Parl., 114-16), and the inhabitants took advantage +of this immunity to make forays and commit outrages in neighbouring +counties. In the year 1414, at the Parliament holden at Leicester, +"grievous complaints" of these outrages were made "by the Commons +of the County of Northumberland." It was accordingly provided +(2 Henry V., cap. 5) that process should be taken against such offenders +under the common law until they were outlawed; and that then, upon a +certificate of outlawry made to lords of franchises in North and South +Tynedale and Hexhamshire, the offender's lands and goods should be +forfeited. In 1421 the provisions of this statute were extended to like +offenders in Rydesdale, where also the King's writ did not run (9 Henry V., +cap. 7). Still these excesses continued in Tynedale. By an enactment +of Henry VII. (2 Henry VII., cap. 9) this "lordship and bounds" +were annexed to the county of Northumberland. "Forasmuch," the +preamble sets forth, "as the inhabitants and dwellers within the lordships +and bounds of North and South Tyndale, not only in their own persons, +but also oftentimes accompanied and confedered with Scottish ancient +enemies to this realm, have at many seasons in time past committed and +done, and yet daily and nightly commit and do, great and heinous +murders, robberies, felonies, depredations, riots and other great trespasses +upon the King our Sovereign lord's true and faithful liege people +and subjects, inhabiters and dwellers within the shires of Northumberland, +Cumberland, and Westmoreland, Exhamshire [<i>sic</i>], the bishopric of +Durham and in a part of Yorkshire, in which treasons, murders, robberies, +felonies, and other the premises, have not in time past in any manner of +form been punished after the order and course of the common law, by +reason of such franchise as was used within the same while it was in the +possession of any other lord or lords than our Sovereign lord, and thus +for lack of punishment of these treasons, murders, robberies and felonies, +the King's true and faithful liege people and subjects, inhabiters and +dwellers within the shires and places before rehearsed, cannot be in any +manner of surety of their bodies or goods, neither yet lie in their own +houses, but either to be murdered or taken or carried into Scotland and +there ransomed, to their great destruction of body and goods, and utter +impoverishing for ever, unless due and hasty remedy be had and found," +it is therefore provided that North and South Tynedale shall from thenceforth +be gildable, and part of the shire of Northumberland, that no +franchise shall stand good there, and the King's writ shall run, and his +officers and all their warrants be obeyed there as in every other part of +that shire. Further, lessees of lands within the bounds are to enter into +recognisances in two sureties to appear and answer all charges.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_244_244" id="Footnote_244_244"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244_244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> See my <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, cap. vi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_245_245" id="Footnote_245_245"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245_245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> Hickson, <i>North Celebes</i>, 240.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_246_246" id="Footnote_246_246"></a><a href="#FNanchor_246_246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> Mitchell's <i>Australian Expeditions</i>, i. 246.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247_247" id="Footnote_247_247"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247_247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> See my <i>Village Community</i>, 18; Stewart's <i>Highlanders of Scotland</i>, +i. 147, 228.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_248_248" id="Footnote_248_248"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248_248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> <i>Notes and Queries</i>, second series, iv. 487.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_249_249" id="Footnote_249_249"></a><a href="#FNanchor_249_249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> Wild, <i>Highlands, Orcadia and Skye</i>, 196.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_250_250" id="Footnote_250_250"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250_250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> The psychology of primitive races is now receiving scientific attention, +thanks chiefly to Dr. Haddon and the scholars who accompanied +him upon his Torres Straits expedition in 1898. The volume of the +memoirs of this expedition which relates to psychology has already been +published, and students should consult it as an example of scientific +method.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_251_251" id="Footnote_251_251"></a><a href="#FNanchor_251_251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> One is reminded of the famous Shakespearian emendation whereby +Falstaff on his death-bed "babbled o' green fields."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_252_252" id="Footnote_252_252"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252_252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> Shortland, <i>New Zealanders</i>, 107. An Algonquin backbone story is +quoted by MacCulloch, <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>, 92, and he says, "the spine +is held by many people to be the seat of life," 93 and <i>cf.</i> III. <i>Cf.</i> Frazer, +<i>Adonis, Attis, and Osiris</i>, 277.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_253_253" id="Footnote_253_253"></a><a href="#FNanchor_253_253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> <i>Gent. Mag. Lib.</i>, <i>Popular Superstitions</i>, 122.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_254_254" id="Footnote_254_254"></a><a href="#FNanchor_254_254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> <i>County Folklore, Suffolk</i>, 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_255_255" id="Footnote_255_255"></a><a href="#FNanchor_255_255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> <i>Hardwick's Science Gossip</i>, vi. 281; <i>cf.</i> Worsaae, <i>Danes and Norwegians</i>, +25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_256_256" id="Footnote_256_256"></a><a href="#FNanchor_256_256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> <i>Journ. Asiatic Soc., Bengal</i>, xiv. 479.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_257_257" id="Footnote_257_257"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257_257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> King, <i>Munimenta Antiqua</i>, i. 195-6; <i>Gent. Mag. Lib.</i>, <i>Archæology</i>, +i. 319-321; Hutchinson, <i>Hist. Cumberland</i>, i. 226.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_258_258" id="Footnote_258_258"></a><a href="#FNanchor_258_258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> <i>Arch. Journ.</i>, xv. 204.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_259_259" id="Footnote_259_259"></a><a href="#FNanchor_259_259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> Sinclair, <i>Stat. Acct. of Scotland</i>, xv. 191.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_260_260" id="Footnote_260_260"></a><a href="#FNanchor_260_260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> <i>Journ. Anthrop. Inst.</i>, i. 2; <i>Gent. Mag. Lib.</i>, <i>Archæology</i>, i. 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_261_261" id="Footnote_261_261"></a><a href="#FNanchor_261_261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> <i>Archæologia</i>, xxv. 198.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_262_262" id="Footnote_262_262"></a><a href="#FNanchor_262_262"><span class="label">[262]</span></a> <i>Gent. Mag.</i>, 1751, pp. 110, 182.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_263_263" id="Footnote_263_263"></a><a href="#FNanchor_263_263"><span class="label">[263]</span></a> Some Irish examples are collected in <i>Folklore Record</i>, v. 169-172.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_264_264" id="Footnote_264_264"></a><a href="#FNanchor_264_264"><span class="label">[264]</span></a> Sinclair, <i>Stat. Acct. of Scotland</i>, xv. 111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_265_265" id="Footnote_265_265"></a><a href="#FNanchor_265_265"><span class="label">[265]</span></a> <i>Trans. Cymmrodorion Soc.</i> (1822), i. 170.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_266_266" id="Footnote_266_266"></a><a href="#FNanchor_266_266"><span class="label">[266]</span></a> It is not worth while, perhaps, to pursue this part of our subject +into further regions. It is to be sought for in innumerable pamphlets, +such, for instance, as those relating to the Civil War. Beesley, <i>Hist. of +Banbury</i>, 334, mentions one, the title of which I will quote: "A great +Wonder in Heaven shewing the late Apparitions and prodigious noyses +of War and Battels seen on Edge Hill neere Keinton," and the contents +are "Certified under the hands of William Wood Esq and Justice for the +Peace in the said Countie, Samuel Marshall, Preacher of God's Word in +Keinton, and other Persons of Qualitie." The date is exactly three +months after the battle of Edgehill, "London, printed for Thomas +Jackson, January 23rd, 1642-3."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_267_267" id="Footnote_267_267"></a><a href="#FNanchor_267_267"><span class="label">[267]</span></a> <i>West of England Magazine</i>, February, 1888.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_268_268" id="Footnote_268_268"></a><a href="#FNanchor_268_268"><span class="label">[268]</span></a> Henderson, <i>Folklore of the Northern Counties</i>, 146; Napier, <i>Folklore of +West of Scotland</i>, 140; Dalyell, <i>Darker Superstitions of Scotland</i>, 142; +<i>Choice Notes</i> (<i>Folklore</i>), 8; Brand, iii. 300; Dyer, <i>English Folklore</i>, 146, +153 (Hereford, Lincoln, and Yorks).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_269_269" id="Footnote_269_269"></a><a href="#FNanchor_269_269"><span class="label">[269]</span></a> Wilde, <i>Catalogue of Royal Irish Academy</i>, 131.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_270_270" id="Footnote_270_270"></a><a href="#FNanchor_270_270"><span class="label">[270]</span></a> <i>Folklore Record</i>, iv. 105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_271_271" id="Footnote_271_271"></a><a href="#FNanchor_271_271"><span class="label">[271]</span></a> Rev. R. H. Ryland, <i>Hist. of Waterford</i>, 271.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_272_272" id="Footnote_272_272"></a><a href="#FNanchor_272_272"><span class="label">[272]</span></a> Wilde, <i>Beauties of the Boyne</i>, 45; Croker, <i>Researches in South of +Ireland</i>, 170; <i>Revue Celtique</i>, v. 358.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_273_273" id="Footnote_273_273"></a><a href="#FNanchor_273_273"><span class="label">[273]</span></a> Blake, <i>Letters from the Irish Highlands</i>, 130-131.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_274_274" id="Footnote_274_274"></a><a href="#FNanchor_274_274"><span class="label">[274]</span></a> <i>Church Folklore</i>, by Rev. J. E. Vaux, is a collection of material, +and does not attempt to give any indication of its value.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_275_275" id="Footnote_275_275"></a><a href="#FNanchor_275_275"><span class="label">[275]</span></a> Lea, <i>Superstition and Force</i>, 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_276_276" id="Footnote_276_276"></a><a href="#FNanchor_276_276"><span class="label">[276]</span></a> <i>Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc.</i>, xxv. 142; Rev. W. Bingley, <i>North Wales</i>, +216-217.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_277_277" id="Footnote_277_277"></a><a href="#FNanchor_277_277"><span class="label">[277]</span></a> Sacheverell, <i>Voyage to Isle of Man</i>, 132.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_278_278" id="Footnote_278_278"></a><a href="#FNanchor_278_278"><span class="label">[278]</span></a> Tylor, <i>Primitive Culture</i>, i. 115; Landt, <i>Origin of the Priesthood</i>, +85; Henderson, <i>Folklore of Northern Counties</i>, 32-33; <i>Folklore Record</i>, +i. 46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_279_279" id="Footnote_279_279"></a><a href="#FNanchor_279_279"><span class="label">[279]</span></a> Pearson's <i>Chances of Death</i>, ii. cap. ix., "Woman as Witch;" +Gomme, <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, 48-62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_280_280" id="Footnote_280_280"></a><a href="#FNanchor_280_280"><span class="label">[280]</span></a> <i>Daily Chronicle</i>, 15th February, 1879.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_281_281" id="Footnote_281_281"></a><a href="#FNanchor_281_281"><span class="label">[281]</span></a> <i>Leigh Chronicle</i>, 19th April, 1879.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_282_282" id="Footnote_282_282"></a><a href="#FNanchor_282_282"><span class="label">[282]</span></a> <i>Somerset County Gazette</i>, 22nd January, 1881.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_283_283" id="Footnote_283_283"></a><a href="#FNanchor_283_283"><span class="label">[283]</span></a> <i>Standard</i>, 3rd April, 1895. The full details are reprinted in <i>Folklore</i>, +vi. 373-384.</p></div> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONDITIONS</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>n dealing with the folklore of any country, it is +important to note the general bearing of anthropological +conditions. The earliest inhabitants, to +whom part of the folklore belonged, and the later +peoples, to whom part belonged, have both arrived at +their ultimate point of settlement in the country where +we discover their folklore after being in touch with +many points of the world's surface. They are both +world-people as well as national people—they belonged +to anthropology before they came under the dominion +of history. This important fact is often or nearly +always neglected. We are apt to treat of Greek and +Roman and Briton, of Cretan, Scandinavian, and +Russian, as bounded by the few thousands of years of +life which have fixed them with their territorial names, +and to ignore all that lies behind this historic period. +There is, as a matter of fact, an immense period behind +it, reckoned according to geological time in millions +of years, and this period, longer in duration, more +strenuous in its influences upon character and mind, +containing more representatives in peoples, societies, +and races than the later period, has affected the later +period to a far greater extent than is generally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +conceded or understood. We cannot understand the later +period without knowing something of the earlier +period.</p> + +<p>There is more than this; for the dominating political +races occupying European countries to-day were, in +most cases, preceded by a non-political people. Thus, +if we turn to Britain for illustration, we find evidence +of a people physically allied with a race which cannot +be identified with Celt or Teuton,<a name="FNanchor_284_284" id="FNanchor_284_284"></a><a href="#Footnote_284_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a> philologically allied +with a people which spoke a non-Aryan language,<a name="FNanchor_285_285" id="FNanchor_285_285"></a><a href="#Footnote_285_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a> +archæologically allied with the prehistoric stone-circle +and monolith builders,<a name="FNanchor_286_286" id="FNanchor_286_286"></a><a href="#Footnote_286_286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a> and we find custom, belief, and +myth in Britain retaining traces of a culture which is +not Celtic and not Teutonic, and which contains survivals +of the primitive system of totemism.<a name="FNanchor_287_287" id="FNanchor_287_287"></a><a href="#Footnote_287_287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a> These +four independent classes of evidence have to be combined +if we would ascertain the true position they +occupy in the history of Britain, and it is perfectly clear +that, apart from general considerations, a direct appeal +to anthropology is necessary to help out the deficiencies +of both history and folklore. The questions involved in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +totemism alone compel us to this course. It is questionable +whether there is any existing savage or barbaric +people who are non-totemic in the sense of either not +possessing the rudimentary beginnings of totemism, or +not having once possessed a full system of totemism. +Totemism, at one stage or another of its development, +is, in fact, one of the universal elements of man's life, +and all consideration of its traces in civilised countries +must begin with some conception of its origin. Its +origin must refer back to conditions of human life +which are also universal. Special circumstances, +special peoples, special areas could not have produced +totemism unless we proceed to the somewhat violent +conclusion that beginning in one area it has spread +therefrom to all areas. I know of no authority who +advocates such a theory and no evidence in its favour. +We are left therefore with the proposition that the +origin of totemism must be sought for in some universal +condition of human life at one of its very early stages, +which would have produced a state of things from +which would inevitably arise the beliefs, customs, and +social organisations which are included under the term +totemism.</p> + +<p>There is therefore ample ground for a consideration +of anthropological conditions as part of the necessary +equipment of the study of folklore as an historical science. +Unfortunately, authorities are now greatly divided on +several important questions in anthropology, and it is +not possible to speak with even a reasonable degree of +certainty on many things. This compels further research +than the mere statement of the present position, +and I find myself obliged even for my present limited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +purpose to suggest many new points beyond the stage +reached by present research. There is one advantage +in this. It allows of a hypothesis by which to present +the subject to the student, and a working hypothesis is +always a great advantage where research is not founded +entirely on actual observation by trained experts in the +field. Where, therefore, I depart from the guidance of +conclusions already arrived at by scholars in this +department of research, it will be in order to substitute +an opinion of my own which I think it is +necessary to consider, and the whole study of the +anthropological problems in their relation to folklore +will assume the shape of a restatement of the entire +case.</p> + +<p>I am aware that a subject of this magnitude is too +weighty and far-reaching to be properly considered in +a chapter of a book not devoted to the single purpose, +but it is necessary to attempt a rough statement of the +evidence, though it will take us somewhat beyond the +ordinary domain of folklore; but, while dealing with +the anthropological position at sufficient length to +make a complicated subject clear, if I can do so, I +shall limit both my arguments and the evidence in +support of them to the narrowest limits.</p> + + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>Mr. Wallace, I think, supplies the dominant note of +the anthropological position when he suggests, though +in a strangely unsatisfactory terminology, that it is the +conscious use by man of his experience which causes his +superior mental endowments, and his superior range of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +development.<a name="FNanchor_288_288" id="FNanchor_288_288"></a><a href="#Footnote_288_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a> We must lay stress upon the important +qualification "conscious." It is conscious use +of experience which is the great factor in man's +progress. It is the greatest possession of man in his +beginning, and has remained his greatest possession +ever since. His experience did not always lead him +to the best paths of progress, but it has led him to +progress.</p> + +<p>Even Mr. Wallace did not appreciate the full significance +of this principle. The conscious adoption of a +natural fact, of an observation from nature, or an +assumed observation from nature, for social purposes, +is an altogether different thing from the unconscious +knowledge which man might have been possessed of, +but which he never put to any use in his social development. +Anthropologists must note not the natural facts +known to later man or known to science, but the facts, +or assumed facts, which early man consciously adopted +for his purpose during the long period of his development +from savage to civilised forms of life. The +unconscious acts of mankind are of no use, or of very +little use. It is only the conscious acts that will lead +us along the lines of man's development. Man did +not begin to build up his social system with the +scientific fact of blood kinship through father and +mother, but he evolved a theory of social relationship +which served his purpose until the fact of blood kinship +supplied a better basis. At almost the first point +of origin in savage society we see man acting consciously, +and it is amongst his conscious acts that we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +must place those traces of a sort of primitive legislation +which have been found.<a name="FNanchor_289_289" id="FNanchor_289_289"></a><a href="#Footnote_289_289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a></p> + +<p>Now this being the basis of anthropological observation, +we have to apply it to the question of man's +earliest progress. It is at its base an economic +question. Primitive economics dominated the movements +and condition of early man in a far more +thorough manner than modern economics affect civilisation, +and between the two systems lies the whole +history of man. It reveals man adapting the social +unit to the productive powers of its food supply, and +developing towards the adaptation of the productive +powers of food supply to the social unit. In the +various stages that accompany this great change, there +is no defined separation of peoples according to stages +of culture, savage, barbaric, or civilised. There is +nothing to suggest that all peoples do not come from +one centre of human life. On the contrary, the +evidence is strong that the primal stages in human +evolution are traceable in all the culture stages, and, +therefore, that they fit in with the general conclusions +of anthropologists and naturalists as to man's origin in +one definite centre, and his gradual spreading out from +that centre.</p> + +<p>I will take the chief conclusions arrived at in respect +of this condition of birth at one centre and subsequent +spreading out. Darwin has summarised the problem +between the monogenists and polygenists in a manner +which still ranks as a sufficient statement of the case, +and his conclusion that "all the races of man are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +descended from a single primitive stock"<a name="FNanchor_290_290" id="FNanchor_290_290"></a><a href="#Footnote_290_290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a> is accepted +by the most prominent naturalists,<a name="FNanchor_291_291" id="FNanchor_291_291"></a><a href="#Footnote_291_291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a> and confirmed by +recent discoveries, which go to prove that this primitive +stock began in miocene or pliocene times in the +Indo-Malaysian intertropical lands.<a name="FNanchor_292_292" id="FNanchor_292_292"></a><a href="#Footnote_292_292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a></p> + +<p>Anthropologists, who have been deeply interested +in the controversy ranging round the origin of man, +have in a remarkable manner neglected to take into +full account the most significant phenomenon of spreading +out.<a name="FNanchor_293_293" id="FNanchor_293_293"></a><a href="#Footnote_293_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a> They either neglect it altogether, or they +relegate it to so small a place in their argument as to +become a practical neglect. They treat of man as if he +were always in a stationary condition, and exclude the +important condition of movement as an element in his +development. Mr. Spencer's general dictum that geological +changes and meteorological changes, as well as +the consequent changes of flora and fauna, must have +been causing over all parts of the earth perpetual emigrations +and immigrations,<a name="FNanchor_294_294" id="FNanchor_294_294"></a><a href="#Footnote_294_294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a> does not help much, because it +refers to special and cataclysmic events. Lord Avebury,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +though stating the true case, unfortunately contents +himself at the end of his book on prehistoric man with +a short summary of the evidence as to the equipment of +primitive man in mental and social qualities when he +began the great movement, and gives only a few lines +to his conclusion that "there can be no doubt that he +originally crept over the earth's surface little by little, +year by year, just, for instance, as the weeds of Europe +are now gradually but surely creeping over the surface +of Australia."<a name="FNanchor_295_295" id="FNanchor_295_295"></a><a href="#Footnote_295_295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Keane is the first authority who thinks it appropriate +to commence his treatise on man with an examination +of the facts which show that "the world was +peopled by migration from one centre by pleistocene +man ... who moved about like other migrating +faunas, unconsciously, everywhere following the lines +of least resistance, advancing or receding, and acting +generally on blind impulse rather than of set purpose;"<a name="FNanchor_296_296" id="FNanchor_296_296"></a><a href="#Footnote_296_296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a> +and it still remains with Dr. Latham to have +formulated some fixed principles of the migratory movement +in his admirable though, of course, wholly inadequate +summary of man and his migrations. I will +quote the passage in full: "So long as any continental +extremities of the earth's surface remained unoccupied—the +stream (or rather the enlarging circle of migration) +not having yet reached them—the <i>primary</i> migration +is going on; and when all have got their complement, +the primary migration is over. During this primary +migration, the relations of man, thus placed in movement +and in the full, early and guiltless exercise of his +high function of subduing the earth, are in conflict<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +with physical obstacles and with the resistance of the +lower animals only. Unless, like Lot's wife, he turn +back upon the peopled parts behind him, he has no +relations with his fellow-men—at least none arising out +of the claim of previous occupancy. In other words, +during the primary migration, the world that lay before +our progenitors was either brute or inanimate. But +before many generations have passed away, all becomes +full to overflowing, so that men must enlarge their +boundaries at the expense of their fellows. The migrations +that now take place are <i>secondary</i>. They differ +from the primary in many respects. They are slower, +because the resistance is that of humanity to humanity, +and they are violent, because dispossession is the object. +They are partial, abortive, followed by the fusion of +different populations, or followed by their extermination +as the case may be."<a name="FNanchor_297_297" id="FNanchor_297_297"></a><a href="#Footnote_297_297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a> This passage, written so +long ago as 1841, is still applicable to the facts of +modern science, and there is only to add to it that the +migration of man from a common centre, where life +was easy, to all parts of the world, where life has been +difficult, must have been undertaken in order to meet +some great necessity, and must have become possible +by reason of some great force which man alone possessed. +The necessity was economic; the force was +social development. If the movement has not been +geographically ever forward, it has been ethnographically +constant.<a name="FNanchor_298_298" id="FNanchor_298_298"></a><a href="#Footnote_298_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a> Movement always; sometimes the +pressure has come from one direction, sometimes from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +another; sometimes it has caused compression and at +other times expansion; sometimes it has sent humanity +to inhabit regions that required generations of victims +before it could hold its own. At all times the essential +condition of life has been that of constant movement in +face of antagonistic forces.<a name="FNanchor_299_299" id="FNanchor_299_299"></a><a href="#Footnote_299_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a> In whatever form the +movement has come about, movement of a very definite +character has taken place over an immense period of +time, and sufficient to cover practically the whole earth +with descendants from the original human stock. This +conclusion is enormously strengthened by the accumulating +evidence for the world-wide area covered by the +remains of man's earliest weapon, the worked stone +implement. It is everywhere. It is practically co-extensive +with man's wanderings, and the greatness of +the territory it covers marks it off as another of the +universal relics of man's primitive life. Of no other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +weapon or instrument or associated object can this be +said. The bow and arrow are unknown to the Australians +and other peoples; pottery is unknown to the +Bushmen and other peoples; the use of fire in cookery +is not found among the South Sea Islanders, and is +not claimed for other peoples.<a name="FNanchor_300_300" id="FNanchor_300_300"></a><a href="#Footnote_300_300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a> We can get behind +the development of these and other arts and come upon +the ruder people who had not arrived at the stage +they represent. But we cannot get behind the worked +flint. It must have been the chief material cause of +man's success in the migratory movement, and with +the social development accompanying it must have +made migration not only possible, but the only true +method of meeting the earliest economic difficulties. +It also provides us with the elements of a chronological +basis. Behind palæolithic times there is an immensity +of time when man struggled with his economic difficulties +and spread out slowly and painfully. During +palæolithic times the movement was more rapid and +more general. Obstacles were overcome by palæolithic +man becoming superior to his enemies by the +use of weapons, and use of weapons caused, or at all +events aided, the development of social institutions +capable of bearing the new force of movement.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +These two factors of economic necessity and social +development are of equal importance in man's history, +and they interlace at all points. They lead straight to +the necessity for always taking count of the fact that +man is primarily a migratory being, and that he has +spread over the earth. Everywhere we find man. +There is no habitable part of the world where he has +not found a home. But we do not find him under +equal conditions everywhere, and the different conditions +afford evidence of the main lines of development. +Roughly speaking, it may be put in this way. +In the savage world the people appear as aborigines, +that is to say, the first and only occupiers of the +territory where they are located. In the barbaric world +the condition of aboriginal settlement is tinged with +the result of conquest, namely, the pushing out or +absorption of the aboriginal folk in favour of a more +powerful and conquering folk. In the political world, +and in the political world only, there is not only the +element of conquest, but the definite aim of conquest, +which is to retain the aboriginal or conquered people +as part of the political fabric necessary to the settlement +of the conqueror, and at the same time to keep +intact the superior position of the conqueror. In the +savage world, society and religion are based upon +locality; in the barbaric world there is the first sign +of the element of kinship consciously used in the effort +of conquest, which dies away gradually as successful +settlement, by which conqueror and conquered become +merged in one people, follows conquest; in the political +world, and in the political world only, kinship is elevated +into a necessary institution, is made sacred to the minds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +of tribesmen, and becomes an essential part of the +religion of the tribe in order to keep the organisation +of the tribal conquerors intact and free from the +perils of dissolution when conquerors and conquered +become members of one political unit. The savage +and barbaric worlds are the homes of the backward +peoples, the non-advanced or fossilised types of early +humanity. The political world is the domain for the +most part of the Aryan-speaking people, and of the +Semitic people, and of those people who in Egypt +within the Mediterranean area, and in China in the +eastern Asian area, have built up civilisations which +have only recently come under scientific observation.</p> + +<p>These distinctions are not made by anthropologists +as a rule, yet I cannot but think they are in the main +the true distinctions which must be made if we are to +arrive at any general conception of the progress of man +from savagery to civilisation. The distinctions which +seem to hold the field against those I have suggested, +are those of hunter, pastoral, and agricultural. I say +seem to hold the field, because they have never been +scientifically worked out. They are stated in textbooks +and research work almost as an axiom of anthropology, +but their claim to this position is singularly +weak and unsatisfactory, and has never been +scientifically established. They are only economical +distinctions, not social, and they do not properly +express related stages. Hunting, cattle keeping, and +agriculture are found in almost all stages of social +evolution, and I, for one, deny that in the order they +are generally given, they express anything approaching +to accurate indication of the line of human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +progress. The distinctions I have suggested do not, of +course, contain everything indicative of human progress. +They are the first broad outlines to be filled up +by the details of special peoples, special areas, and +special ages. They involve many sub-stages which +need to be properly worked out, and for which a +satisfactory terminology is required. In the meantime, +as measuring-posts of man's line of progress, they +express the most important fact about man, namely, +that his present enforced stationary condition has +followed upon an enormous period of enforced movement. +That movement has finally resulted in the +presence of man everywhere on the earth's surface. +This has been followed by the continued moving of +savage man within the limited areas to which he has +been finally pushed; by the movement of barbaric +man from one place of settlement to another place +of settlement, again within limited areas; and by +the movement of political man through countries and +continents of vast extent, and the final overlordship +of political man over savage and barbaric man whom +he has subjected and used for his purpose of final +settlement in the civilised form of settlement. It will +be apparent from the terms I have used to express the +three chief stages in man's progress, that I give a +special significance to the use of blood kinship as a +social force, and in the sequel I think this special +significance will be justified.<a name="FNanchor_301_301" id="FNanchor_301_301"></a><a href="#Footnote_301_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a></p> + +<p>No one can properly estimate the tremendous amount<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +of movement which preceded these later limitations to +movement. Savage and barbaric races are now hemmed +in by the forces of modern civilisation. This was not +the case even a few hundred years ago, and though we +cannot say when constant movement all over the world +was stayed, we can form some idea of the comparatively +late period when this took place by a contemplation of +the very recent growth of the political civilisations +known to history. At the most, this can only be +reckoned at some ten thousand years. At the back of +this short stretch of time, or of the successive periods +at which the new civilisations have arisen, there are +recollections of great movements and great migrations. +Egypt, Babylonia, India, Persia, Greece, and Rome +have preserved these recollections by tradition, and +tradition has been largely confirmed by archæology. +Celts and Teutons have preserved parallel traditions +which are confirmed by history observed from without. +These traditions and memorials of the migration period +have not been scientifically examined in each case, but +where scholars have touched upon them, great and unexpected +results have been produced.<a name="FNanchor_302_302" id="FNanchor_302_302"></a><a href="#Footnote_302_302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +There was time enough, before these late and special +movements which led to civilisation, for man, in the +course of peopling the earth, to be brought at various +stages to a standstill, and such a change in his life-history +would have its own special results. One of the +most momentous of these results is the fossilisation of +social and mental conditions. Man stationary, or +movable by custom within restricted areas, would live +under conditions which must have produced forms of +culture different from those under which man lived +when he was always able to penetrate, not by custom +but by the force of circumstances, into the unknown +domain of unoccupied territory; and the fossilisation +of his culture at various stages of development, in +accord with the various periods of his being brought +to a standstill, would be the most important result.<a name="FNanchor_303_303" id="FNanchor_303_303"></a><a href="#Footnote_303_303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +Whenever man was compelled to move onward the social +forces which were demanded of him, as he proceeded +from point to point, must have been quite different from +those which he could have adopted if he had been allowed +to stay in areas which suited him, if he could have +selected his settlement grounds and awaited events. +The calmness of the latter methods would perhaps +have led to the unconscious development of social +forms; the roughness of the actual method of constant +movement led to the conscious adoption of social forms +which has altered man's history. These considerations +bring us to the conclusion that it is during the period +of migratory movement that man has developed the +social and religious elements with which the anthropologist +finds him endowed, when at last in modern +days he has been brought within the ken of scientific +observation, and that therefore it is as a migratory not +a stationary organism that the evolution of human +society has to be studied, aided by the fact that enforced +stationary conditions have produced in the savage world +examples of perhaps the most remote as well as the +more recent types of primitive humanity.</p> + +<p>This last possibility, however, is not admitted by +the best authorities. They endeavour to use biological +methods in order to get behind existing savagery for +the earliest period of human savagery. Darwin is not +satisfied with the evidence as to promiscuity, strong +as it appeared to him to be, and he pronounced it to +be "extremely improbable" in a state of nature, and +falls back upon the evidence of the rudimentary stages +of human existence, there being, as among the gorillas, +but one adult male in the band, and "when the young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +male grows up, a contest takes place for the mastery, +and the strongest, by killing and driving out the others, +establishes himself as the head of the community."<a name="FNanchor_304_304" id="FNanchor_304_304"></a><a href="#Footnote_304_304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a> +Mr. McLennan nowhere states the evidence for his first +stage of human society—the primitive horde without +any ideas of kinship, and based upon a fellowship of +common interests and dangers<a name="FNanchor_305_305" id="FNanchor_305_305"></a><a href="#Footnote_305_305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a>—but arrives at it by +argument deduced from the conditions of later stages +of development, and from the necessary suppositions +as to the pre-existing stage which must have led to the +later. Mr. Westermarck leads us straight to the evidence +of the lower animals, from which he arrives at +the small groups of humans headed by the male, and +provides us with the theory of a human pairing +season.<a name="FNanchor_306_306" id="FNanchor_306_306"></a><a href="#Footnote_306_306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a> Mr. Morgan claims that no exemplification +of mankind in his assumed lower status of savagery +remained to the historical period,<a name="FNanchor_307_307" id="FNanchor_307_307"></a><a href="#Footnote_307_307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a> presumably meaning +the anthropo-historical period. And finally, Mr. Lang +definitely claims that conjecture, and conjecture alone, +remains as the means of getting back to the earliest +human origins.<a name="FNanchor_308_308" id="FNanchor_308_308"></a><a href="#Footnote_308_308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a></p> + +<p>There is great danger in relying too closely upon +conjecture. We shall be repeating in anthropology +what the analytical jurists accomplished in law and +jurisprudence, and it will then soon become necessary +to do for anthropology what Sir Henry Maine did for +comparative jurisprudence, namely, demonstrate that +the analytical method does not take us back to human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +origins, but to highly developed systems of society. +Law, in the hands of the analytical jurists, is merely +one part of the machinery of modern government. +Social beginnings in the hands of conjectural anthropologists +are merely abstractions with the whole history +of man put on one side. Mr. Lang in leading the way +towards the analytical method in anthropology has +avoided many of its pitfalls, but his disciples are not +so successful. Thus, when Mr. Thomas declares that +"custom which has among them [primitive peoples] +far more power than law among us, determines whether +a man is of kin to his mother and her relatives alone, +or to his father and father's relatives, or whether both +sets of relatives are alike of kin to them,"<a name="FNanchor_309_309" id="FNanchor_309_309"></a><a href="#Footnote_309_309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a> he is neglecting +the whole significance and range of custom. +His statement is true analytically, but it is not true +anthropologically until we have ascertained what this +custom to which he refers really is, whence it is derived, +how it has obtained its force, what is its range +of action, how it operates in differentiating among the +various groups of mankind—in a word, what is the +human history associated with this custom.</p> + +<p>We must, however, at certain points in anthropological +inquiry have recourse to the conjectural +method. Its value lies in the fact that it states, and +states clearly, the issue which is before us, and it is +always possible to take up the conjectural position +and endeavour to ascertain whether the neglected +facts of human history which it expresses can be +recovered. Its danger lies in the neglect of certain +anthropological principles which can only be noted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +from definite examples, and the significance of which +can only be discovered by the handling of definite +examples. I will refer to one or two of the principles +which I have in mind. Thus, it is necessary to distinguish +between what is a practice and what is a rule. +A practice precedes a rule. A practice incidental to +one stage of society must not be confused with a rule, +similar to the practice, obtaining in a different stage of +society. Again, it must be borne in mind that identity +of practice is no certain evidence of parallel stages of +culture, and already it has been pointed out that identical +practices do not always come from the same +causes. Thirdly, it has to be borne in mind that +primitive peoples specialise in certain directions to an +extreme extent, and correspondingly cause neglect in +other directions. The normal, therefore, has to give +way to the special, and it is the degree of specialisation +and the degree of neglect which are measuring +factors of progress; in other words, it is the conscious +adoption of certain rules of life with which we alone +have to do.</p> + +<p>These principles are apt to be wholly neglected, and, +indeed, the last-mentioned element in the evolution of +human society does not enter into the calculations of +analytical anthropologists. They provide for the normal +according to scientific ideas of what the normal is. +They either neglect or openly reject what cannot be +called abnormal, because it appears everywhere, but +which they are inclined to treat as abnormal because it +does not fit into their accepted lines of development. +That which I have ventured to term specialisation and +neglect is a great and important feature in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +anthropology. It obtains everywhere in more or less degree, +and accounts for some of the apparently unaccountable +facts in savage society, where we are frequently encountered +by a comparatively high degree of culture +associated with a cruel and debasing system of rites +and practices which belong to the lowest savagery. +Dr. Haddon has usefully suggested the term "differential +evolution" for this phenomenon in the culture +history of man,<a name="FNanchor_310_310" id="FNanchor_310_310"></a><a href="#Footnote_310_310" class="fnanchor">[310]</a> and as I find myself in entire agreement +with this distinguished anthropologist as to the +facts<a name="FNanchor_311_311" id="FNanchor_311_311"></a><a href="#Footnote_311_311" class="fnanchor">[311]</a> which call for a special terminology, I gladly +adopt his valuable suggestion.</p> + +<p>It is advisable to explain this phenomenon by +reference to examples, and I will take the point of +specialisation first. Even where industrial arts have +advanced far beyond the primitive stage we are considering, +we have the case of the Ahts, with whom +"though living only a few miles apart, the tribes +practise different arts and have apparently distinct +tribal characteristics. One tribe is skilful in shaping +canoes, another in painting boards for ornamental +work, or making ornaments for the person, or instruments +for hunting and fishing. Individuals as a rule +keep to the arts for which their tribe has some repute, +and do not care to acquire those arts in which other +tribes excel. There seems to be among all the tribes +in the island a sort of recognised tribal monopoly in +certain articles produced, or that have been long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> +manufactured in their own district. For instance, a +tribe that does not grow potatoes, or make a particular +kind of mat, will go a long way year after +year to barter for those articles, which if they liked they +themselves could easily produce or manufacture."<a name="FNanchor_312_312" id="FNanchor_312_312"></a><a href="#Footnote_312_312" class="fnanchor">[312]</a> +The remarkable case of the Todas specialising in +cattle rearing and dairy farming is another example. +Other people, both higher and lower in civilisation +than the Todas, keep cattle and know the value of +milk, but it is reserved for the Todas alone to have +used this particular economic basis of their existence +as the basis also of their social formation and their +religious life.<a name="FNanchor_313_313" id="FNanchor_313_313"></a><a href="#Footnote_313_313" class="fnanchor">[313]</a> The result is that they neglect other +forms of social existence. They are not totemists, +though perhaps they have the undeveloped germs of +totemistic beliefs.<a name="FNanchor_314_314" id="FNanchor_314_314"></a><a href="#Footnote_314_314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a> Their classificatory system of relationship +makes their actual kinship scarcely recognisable; +they "have very definite restrictions on the +freedom of individuals to marry," and have a two-class +endogamous division, but their marriage rite is +merely the selection of nominal fathers for their +children.<a name="FNanchor_315_315" id="FNanchor_315_315"></a><a href="#Footnote_315_315" class="fnanchor">[315]</a> Throughout the careful study which we +now possess, thanks to Dr. Rivers, of this people, +there is the dominant note of dairy economy superimposing +itself upon all else, and even religion seems +to be in a state of decadence.<a name="FNanchor_316_316" id="FNanchor_316_316"></a><a href="#Footnote_316_316" class="fnanchor">[316]</a> I do not know that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +anywhere else could be found a stronger example of the +results of extreme specialisation upon the social and +mental condition of a people. As a rule such specialisation +does not extend to a whole people, but rather +to sections, as, for instance, among the Gold Coast +tribes of Africa who "transmit the secret of their +skill from father to son and keep the corporation to +which they belong up to a due degree of closeness by +avoiding intermarriage with any of the more unskilled +labourers,"<a name="FNanchor_317_317" id="FNanchor_317_317"></a><a href="#Footnote_317_317" class="fnanchor">[317]</a> and Dr. Bucher, who has worked +out many of the earliest conditions of primitive +economics, concludes that it may be safely claimed +that every "tribe displays some favourite form of +industrial activity in which its members surpass the +other tribes."<a name="FNanchor_318_318" id="FNanchor_318_318"></a><a href="#Footnote_318_318" class="fnanchor">[318]</a> This rule extends to the lowest type +of man, as, for instance, among the Australians. Each +tribe of the Narrinyeri, says Taplin, have been +accustomed to make those articles which their tract +of country enabled them to produce most easily; one +tribe will make weapons, another mats, and a third +nets, and then they barter them one with another.<a name="FNanchor_319_319" id="FNanchor_319_319"></a><a href="#Footnote_319_319" class="fnanchor">[319]</a></p> + +<p>The evidence for industrial evolution is full of cases +such as these, and they are extremely important to +note, because it is not the mere existence of particular +customs or particular beliefs among different peoples +which is the factor to take into account, but the use or +non-use, and the extent of the use or non-use, to +which the particular customs or beliefs are put in each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +case.<a name="FNanchor_320_320" id="FNanchor_320_320"></a><a href="#Footnote_320_320" class="fnanchor">[320]</a> Let me turn from the phenomenon of over-specialisation +to that of neglect, and for this purpose I +will take the simple fact of blood kinship. Existing +obviously everywhere through the mother, and not +obviously but admittedly through the father among +most primitive peoples, there are examples where both +maternal kinship and paternal kinship are neglected +factors in the construction of the social group. The +Nahals of Khandesh, for instance, neglect kinship +altogether, and exist perfectly wild among the mountains, +subsisting chiefly on roots, fruits, and berries, +though the children during infancy accompany the +mother in her unattached freedom from male control,<a name="FNanchor_321_321" id="FNanchor_321_321"></a><a href="#Footnote_321_321" class="fnanchor">[321]</a> +just as Herodotos describes the condition of the +Auseans "before the Hellenes were settled near +them."<a name="FNanchor_322_322" id="FNanchor_322_322"></a><a href="#Footnote_322_322" class="fnanchor">[322]</a> Similarly, among many primitive peoples, +kinship with the mother is recognised while kinship +with the father is purposely neglected as a social +factor. Thus, among the Khasia Hill people, the +husband visits his wife occasionally in her own home, +where "he seems merely entertained to continue the +family to which his wife belongs."<a name="FNanchor_323_323" id="FNanchor_323_323"></a><a href="#Footnote_323_323" class="fnanchor">[323]</a> This statement, +so peculiarly appropriate to my purpose, is not merely +an accident of language. With the people allied to +the Khasis, namely, the Syntengs and the people of +Maoshai, "the husband does not go and live in his +mother-in-law's house; he only visits her there. In +Jowai, the husband came to his mother-in-law's house +only after dark," and the explanation of the latest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +authority is that among these people "the man is +nobody ... if he be a husband he is looked upon +merely as <i>u shong kha</i>, a begetter."<a name="FNanchor_324_324" id="FNanchor_324_324"></a><a href="#Footnote_324_324" class="fnanchor">[324]</a></p> + +<p>The neglect of maternal and paternal kinship respectively +in these two cases is obvious. They are recognised +physically. But they are not used as part of the +fabric of social institutions. Physical motherhood or +fatherhood is nothing to these people, and one must +learn to understand that there is wide difference between +the mere physical fact of having a mother and +father, and the political fact of using this kinship for +social organisation. Savages who have not learnt the +political significance have but the scantiest appreciation +of the physical fact. The Australians, for instance, +have no term to express the relationship between +mother and child. This is because the physical fact is +of no significance, and not as Mr. Thomas thinks because +of the meagreness of the language.<a name="FNanchor_325_325" id="FNanchor_325_325"></a><a href="#Footnote_325_325" class="fnanchor">[325]</a> Our field +anthropologists do not quite understand the savage in +this respect. It is of no use preparing a genealogical +tree on the basis of civilised knowledge of genealogy +if such a document is beyond the ken of the people to +whom it relates. The information for it may be +correctly collected, but if the whole structure is not +within the compass of savage thought it is a misleading +anthropological document. It is of no use translating +a native term as "father," if father did not mean +to the savage what it means to us. It might mean +something so very different. With us, fatherhood +connotes a definite individual with all sorts of social,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +economical, and political associations, but what does it +mean to the savage? It may mean physical fatherhood +and nothing more, and physical fatherhood may be a +fact of the veriest insignificance. It may mean social +fatherhood, where all men of a certain status are fathers +to all children of the complementary status, and social +fatherhood thus becomes much more than we can understand +by the term father.</p> + +<p>We cannot ignore the evidence which over-specialisation +in one direction and neglect in other directions +supply to anthropology. It shows us that human +societies cannot always be measured in the scale of +culture by the most apparent of the social elements +contained in them. The cannibalism of the Fijians, +the art products of the Maori, the totemism of the +Australian blacks, do not express all that makes up the +culture of these people, although it too often happens +that they are made to do duty for the several estimates +of culture progress. It follows that a survey of the +different human societies might reveal examples of the +possible lowest in the scale as well as various advances +from the lowest; or in lieu of whole societies in the +lowest scale, there might be revealed unexceptional +examples of the possible lowest elements of culture +within societies not wholly in the lowest scale. It will +be seen how valuable an asset this must be in anthropological +research. It justifies those who assert that existing +savagery or existing survival will supply evidence +of man at the very earliest stages of existence. It is the +root idea of Dr. Tylor's method of research, and it is an +essential feature in the science of folklore.</p> + +<p>Evidence of this nature, however, needs to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +exhaustively collected, and to be subjected to the most +careful examination, as otherwise it may be used for +the merest <i>a priori</i> argument of the most mischievous +and inconclusive description. It involves consideration +of whole human groups rather than of particular sections +of each human group, of the whole corpus of +social, religious, and economical elements residing in +each human group rather than of the separated items. +Each human group, having its specialised and dormant +elements, must be treated as an organism and not as +a bundle of separable items, each one of which the +student may use or let alone as he desires. That +which is anthropological evidence is the indivisible +organism, and whenever, for convenience of treatment +and considerations of space, particular elements only +are used in evidence, they must be qualified, and the +use to which they are provisionally put for scientific +purposes must be checked, by the associated elements +with which the particular elements are connected.</p> + +<p>The human groups thus called upon to surrender +their contributions to the history of man are of +various formations, and consist of various kinds +of social units. There is no one term which can +properly be applied to all, and it will have been noted +that I have carefully avoided giving the human groups +hitherto dealt with any particular name, and only +under protest have I admitted the terms used by +the authorities I have quoted. I think the term +"tribe" is not applicable to savage society, for it +is used to denote peoples in all degrees of social +evolution, and merely stands for the group which is +known by a given name, or roams over a given district.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +But the use of this term is not so productive of harm +as the use of the term "family," because of the +universal application of this term to the smallest social +unit of the civilised world, and because of the fundamental +difference of structure of the units which +roughly answer to the definition of family in various +parts of the world. It is no use in scientific matters to +use terms of inexact reference. As much as almost +anything else it has led to false conclusions as to the +evolution of the family, conclusions which seem to +entangle even the best authorities in a mass of contradictions. +I cannot think of a family group in savagery +with father, mother, sons, and daughters, all delightfully +known to each other, in terms which also belong +to the civilised family, and still less can I think of these +terms being used to take in the extended grouping of +local kinships. One of our greatest difficulties, indeed, +is the indiscriminate use of kinship terms by our descriptive +authorities. We are never quite sure whether the +physical relationships included in them convey anything +whatever to the savage. If he knows of the physical +fact, he does not use it politically, for blood kinship as +a political force is late, not early, and the early tie was +dependent upon quite other circumstances. Over and +over again it will be found stated by established +authorities that the family was the primal unit, the +grouped families forming the larger clan, the grouped +clans forming the larger tribe. This is Sir Henry +Maine's famous formula, and it is the basis of his +investigation into early law and custom.<a name="FNanchor_326_326" id="FNanchor_326_326"></a><a href="#Footnote_326_326" class="fnanchor">[326]</a> It is founded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +upon the false conception of the family in early history, +and upon a too narrow interpretation of the stages of +evolution. When we are dealing with savage society, +the terms family and tribe do not connote the same +institution as when we are dealing with higher forms +of civilisation. There is something roughly corresponding +to these groupings in both systems, but they +do not actually equate. When we pass to the Semitic +and the Aryan-speaking peoples, both the family and +tribe have assumed a definite place in the polity of the +races which is not to be found outside these peoples.</p> + +<p>So strongly has the family impressed itself upon the +thought of the age that students of man in his earliest +ages are found stating that "the family is the most +ancient and the most sacred of human institutions."<a name="FNanchor_327_327" id="FNanchor_327_327"></a><a href="#Footnote_327_327" class="fnanchor">[327]</a> +This proposition, however, is not only denied by other +authorities, as, for instance, Mr. Jevons, who affirms +that "the family is a comparatively late institution in +the history of society,"<a name="FNanchor_328_328" id="FNanchor_328_328"></a><a href="#Footnote_328_328" class="fnanchor">[328]</a> but it rests upon the merely +analytical basis of research, separated entirely from those +facts of man's history which are discoverable by the +means just now suggested. One is, of course, quite +prepared to find the family among civilisations older +than the Indo-European, and yet to find that it is a +comparatively late institution among Indo-European +peoples. As a matter of fact, this is the case; for the +two kinds of family, the family as seen in savage society<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +and the family as it appears among the antiquities of +the Indo-European people, are totally distinct in origin, +in compass, and in force; while welded between the two +kinds of family is the whole institution of the tribe. +It is no use introducing the theory adopted by Grote, +Niebuhr, Mommsen, Thirlwall, Maine, and other authorities +who have studied the legal antiquities of +classical times, that the tribe is the aggregate of original +family units. Later on I shall show that this cannot be +the case. The larger kinship of the tribe is a primary +unit of ancient society, which thrusts itself between the +savage family and the civilised family, showing that the +two types are separated by a long period of history +during which the family did not exist.</p> + +<p>It has taken me some time to explain these points in +anthropological science, which appear to me not to have +received proper consideration at the hands of the +masters of the science, but which are essential factors +in the history of man and are necessary to a due consideration +of the position occupied by folklore. The +chief results obtained are:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>(1) Migratory man would deposit his most rudimentary +social type not at the point of starting his +migration, but at the furthest point therefrom.</p> + +<p>(2) Custom due to the migratory period would continue +after real migratory movement had ceased, +and from this body of custom would be derived +all later forms of social custom.</p> + +<p>(3) Non-kinship groups are more rudimentary than +kinship groups, and are still observable in +savage anthropology.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +(4) Anthropological evidence must be based upon the +whole of the characteristics of human groups, +not upon special characteristics singled out for +the purpose of research.</p></div> + +<p>It is with these results we have to work. They +will help us to see how far the facts of anthropology, +which begin far behind the historical world, have to do +with the problems presented by folklore as a science +having to deal with the historical world.</p> + + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>We may now inquire where anthropology and folklore +meet. It is significant in this connection that in order to +reach back to the earliest ages of man, our first appeal +seems to be to folklore. The appeal at present does not +lead us far perhaps, but it certainly acts as a finger post +in the inquiry, for Dr. Kollmann, rejecting the evidence +of the Java <i>Pithecanthropus erectus</i> as the earliest +palæontological evidence of man, advances the opinion +that the direct antecedents of man should not be sought +among the species of anthropoid apes of great height +and with flat skulls, but much further back in the +zoological scale, in the small monkeys with pointed +skulls; from which, he believes, were developed the +human pygmy races of prehistoric ages with pointed +skulls, and from these pygmy races finally developed +the human race of historic times. And he relies upon +folklore for one part of his evidence, for it is this descent +of man, he thinks, which explains the persistency with +which mythology and folklore allude to the subject of +pygmy people, as well as the relative frequency with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +which recently the fossils of small human beings +belonging to prehistoric times have been discovered.<a name="FNanchor_329_329" id="FNanchor_329_329"></a><a href="#Footnote_329_329" class="fnanchor">[329]</a> +It must not be forgotten, too, that this remote period +is found in another class of tradition, namely, that to +which Dr. Tylor refers as containing the memory of +the huge animals of the quaternary period.<a name="FNanchor_330_330" id="FNanchor_330_330"></a><a href="#Footnote_330_330" class="fnanchor">[330]</a></p> + +<p>It must be confessed that we do not get far with this +evidence alone. If it proves that the true starting point +is to be found in folklore, it also proves that folklore +alone is not capable of working through the problem. +Anthropology must aid here, and I will suggest the +lines on which it appears to me it does this.</p> + +<p>Our first effort must be made by the evidence suggested +by the conjectural method. This leads us to +small human groups, each headed by a male who drives +out all other males and himself remains with his females +and his children. Sexual selection thus acts with primitive +economics<a name="FNanchor_331_331" id="FNanchor_331_331"></a><a href="#Footnote_331_331" class="fnanchor">[331]</a> in keeping the earliest groups small in +numbers, and creating a spreading out from these +groups of the males cast out. We have male supremacy +in its crudest form accompanied by an enforced male +celibacy, so far as the group in which the males are +born is concerned, on the part of those who survive +the struggle for supremacy and wander forth on their +own account. Marking the stages from point to point, +in order to arrive at a systematic method of stating the +complex problem presented by the subject we are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +investigating, we can project from this earliest condition +of man's life two important elements of social evolution, +namely—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>(<i>a</i>) Younger men are celibate within the natural groups +of human society, or are driven out therefrom.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Men thus driven out will seek mates on their own +account, and will secure them partly from the +original group as far as they are permitted or +are successful in their attempts, and partly by +capture from other local groups.</p></div> + +<p>The first of these elements strongly emphasises the +migratory character of the earliest human groups. The +second shows how each group is relieved of the incubus +of too great a number for the economic conditions by +the double process of sending forth its young males, and +of its younger females being captured by successful +marauders.</p> + +<p>Let us take a fuller note of what the conditions of +such a life might be. There is no tie of kinship +operating as a social force within the groups; there is +the unquestioned condition of hostility surrounding +each group, and there is the enforced practice of providing +mates by capture. Of these three conditions the +most significant is undoubtedly the absence of the +kinship tie. If then we use this as the basis for grouping +the earliest examples of social organisation, we +proceed to inquire whether there are any examples of +kinless society in anthropological evidence.</p> + +<p>Following up the clue supplied by folklore, we may +see whether the pygmy people of anthropological observation +answer in any way to those conjectural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +conditions.<a name="FNanchor_332_332" id="FNanchor_332_332"></a><a href="#Footnote_332_332" class="fnanchor">[332]</a> I think they do. Thus, we find that the +pygmy people are in all cases on the extreme confines +of the world's occupation ground; that they occupy +the territory to which they have been pushed, not that +which they have chosen. As the most primitive representatives, +they are the last outposts of the migratory +movements. Dr. Beke has preserved an account of +the pygmies which even in its terminology assists in +their identification as a type of the remotest stages of +social existence. Dr. Beke obtained certain information +about the countries south-west of Abyssinia, from +which Latham quotes the following:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The people of Doko, both men and women, are said to +be no taller than boys nine or ten years old. They never +exceed that height even in the most advanced age. They go +quite naked; their principal foods are ants, snakes, mice, and +other things which commonly are not used as food.... +They also climb trees with great skill to fetch down the +fruits, and in doing this they stretch their hands downwards +and their legs upwards.... They live mixed together; +men and women unite and separate as they please.... The +mother suckles the child only as long as she is unable to find +ants and snakes for its food; she abandons it as soon as it +can get its food by itself. No rank or order exists among +the Dokos. Nobody orders, nobody obeys, nobody defends +the country, nobody cares for the welfare of the nation."<a name="FNanchor_333_333" id="FNanchor_333_333"></a><a href="#Footnote_333_333" class="fnanchor">[333]</a></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +This evidence is confirmed in many directions. It +coincides with the account by Herodotos of the expedition +from Libya which met with a pygmy race,<a name="FNanchor_334_334" id="FNanchor_334_334"></a><a href="#Footnote_334_334" class="fnanchor">[334]</a> and with +a seventeenth-century account of a Dutch expedition to +the north from the south, who "found a tribe of people +very low in stature and very lean, entirely savage, without +huts, cattle, or anything in the world except their +lands and wild game."<a name="FNanchor_335_335" id="FNanchor_335_335"></a><a href="#Footnote_335_335" class="fnanchor">[335]</a> Captain Burrows' account of +the Congoland pygmies agrees in all essentials, and +he particularly notes that they "have no ties of family +affection such as those of mother to son or sister to +brother, and seem to be wanting in all social qualities;" +they have no religion and no fetich rites; no burial +ceremony and no mourning for the dead; in short, he +adds, "they are to my thinking the closest link with +the original Darwinian anthropoid ape extant."<a name="FNanchor_336_336" id="FNanchor_336_336"></a><a href="#Footnote_336_336" class="fnanchor">[336]</a> The +evidence of the African pygmy people everywhere confirms +these views, and differences of detail do not alter +the general results.<a name="FNanchor_337_337" id="FNanchor_337_337"></a><a href="#Footnote_337_337" class="fnanchor">[337]</a></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus21" id="Illus21"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_21.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_21th.jpg" width="400" height="173" +alt="Chinese representation of pygmies going about arm-in-arm for mutual +protection (from Moseley's "Note by a Naturalist on H.M.S. +Challenger")" +title="CHINESE REPRESENTATION OF PYGMIES GOING ABOUT ARM-IN-ARM FOR MUTUAL +PROTECTION" /></a> +<span class="caption">CHINESE REPRESENTATION OF PYGMIES GOING ABOUT +ARM-IN-ARM FOR MUTUAL PROTECTION</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus22" id="Illus22"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_22.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_22th.jpg" width="400" height="316" +alt="Semang of Kuala Kenering, Ulu Perak (from Skeat and Blagden's +"Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula")" +title="SEMANG OF KUALA KENERING, ULU PERAK" /></a> +<span class="caption">SEMANG OF KUALA KENERING, ULU PERAK</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus23" id="Illus23"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_23.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_23th.jpg" width="400" height="345" +alt="Negrito type: Semang of Perak (from Skeat and Blagden's +"Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula")" +title="NEGRITO TYPE: SEMANG OF PERAK" /></a> +<span class="caption">NEGRITO TYPE: SEMANG OF PERAK</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>Following this up we get the greatest assistance from +Asia.<a name="FNanchor_338_338" id="FNanchor_338_338"></a><a href="#Footnote_338_338" class="fnanchor">[338]</a> The Semang people of the Malay Peninsula +are a short race, the male being four feet nine inches +in height, with woolly and tufted hair, thick lips and +flat nose, and their language is connected with the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>group of which the Khasi people is a member.<a name="FNanchor_339_339" id="FNanchor_339_339"></a><a href="#Footnote_339_339" class="fnanchor">[339]</a> They +subsist upon the birds and beasts of the forest, and +roots, eating elephants, rhinoceros, monkeys, and rats. +They are said to have chiefs among them, but all +property is common. Their huts or temporary dwellings, +for they have no fixed habitations but rove +about like the beasts of the forest, consist of two posts +stuck in the ground with a small cross-piece and a few +leaves or branches of trees laid over to secure them +from the weather, and their clothing consists chiefly of +the inner bark of trees.<a name="FNanchor_340_340" id="FNanchor_340_340"></a><a href="#Footnote_340_340" class="fnanchor">[340]</a> They use stone or slate +implements. The authority for this information does +not directly state their social formation, but in a footnote +he compares them to the Negritos of the Philippine +Islands, "who are divided into very small societies very +little connected with each other." This is confirmed +by Mr. Hugh Clifford, who relates a story told to him +in the camp of the Semangs, which tells how these +people were driven to their present resting-place, "not +for love of these poor hunting grounds," but because +they were thrust there by the Malays who stole their +women. One further point is interesting; they have +a legend of a people in their old home, composed of +women only. "These women know not men, but +but when the moon is at the full, they dance naked in +the grassy places near the salt-licks; the evening wind +is their only spouse, and through him they conceive +and bear children."<a name="FNanchor_341_341" id="FNanchor_341_341"></a><a href="#Footnote_341_341" class="fnanchor">[341]</a> All this has been confirmed and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +more than confirmed by the important researches of +Messrs. Skeat and Blagden in their recently published +work on these people. There is no necessity to do +more than refer to the principal features brought out +by these authorities. In the valuable notes on environment, +we have the actual facts of the migratory movement +drawn clearly for us;<a name="FNanchor_342_342" id="FNanchor_342_342"></a><a href="#Footnote_342_342" class="fnanchor">[342]</a> their nomadic habits, rude +nature-derived clothing, forest habitations and natural +sources of food are described;<a name="FNanchor_343_343" id="FNanchor_343_343"></a><a href="#Footnote_343_343" class="fnanchor">[343]</a> the evolution of their +habitations from the natural shelters, rock shelters, +caves, tree buttresses, branches, etc., is to be traced;<a name="FNanchor_344_344" id="FNanchor_344_344"></a><a href="#Footnote_344_344" class="fnanchor">[344]</a> +they belong to the old Stone Age, if not to a previous +Wood and Bone Age;<a name="FNanchor_345_345" id="FNanchor_345_345"></a><a href="#Footnote_345_345" class="fnanchor">[345]</a> they have no organised body +of chiefs, and there is no formal recognition of kinship; +marital relationship is preceded by great ante-nuptial +freedom;<a name="FNanchor_346_346" id="FNanchor_346_346"></a><a href="#Footnote_346_346" class="fnanchor">[346]</a> the name of every child is taken "from +some tree which stands near the prospective birthplace +of the child; as soon as the child is born, this name is +shouted aloud by the <i>sage femme</i>, who then hands over +the child to another woman, and buries the after-birth +underneath the birth-tree or name-tree of the child; as +soon as this has been done, the father cuts a series of +notches in the tree, starting from the ground and +terminating at the height of the breast;"<a name="FNanchor_347_347" id="FNanchor_347_347"></a><a href="#Footnote_347_347" class="fnanchor">[347]</a> the child +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>must not in later life injure any tree which belongs to +the species of his birth-tree, and must not eat of its +fruit. There is a theory to accompany this practice, +for birds are believed to be vehicles for the introduction +of the soul into the newborn child, and all human souls +grow upon a soul-tree in the other world, whence they +are fetched by a bird which is killed and eaten by the +expectant mother;<a name="FNanchor_348_348" id="FNanchor_348_348"></a><a href="#Footnote_348_348" class="fnanchor">[348]</a> but there seems to be no evidence +of any religious cult or rite, and what there is of mythology +or legend is probably borrowed.<a name="FNanchor_349_349" id="FNanchor_349_349"></a><a href="#Footnote_349_349" class="fnanchor">[349]</a> The details in +this case are of special importance, as they form a complete +set of associated culture elements, and I shall have +to return to them later on.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus24" id="Illus24"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_24.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_24th.jpg" width="400" height="283" +alt="Semang of Kedah having a meal (from Skeat and Blagden's +"Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula")" +title="SEMANG OF KEDAH HAVING A MEAL" /></a> +<span class="caption">SEMANG OF KEDAH HAVING A MEAL</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>I shall not attempt to exhaust the evidence to be +derived from the pygmy people. What has been said +of the examples I have chosen may in all essentials be +said of the remaining examples. But it is perhaps +advisable to be assured that the evidence of kinless +people is not confined to the stunted and dwarfed +races, for it has been argued that the pygmies are +nothing but the ne'er-do-wells of the stronger races, +and may not therefore be taken as true racial types. +This may be true, but it does not affect my case, +because I am not depending so much upon the +physical characteristics of these people as upon their +culture characteristics. These are definite and conclusive, +and they are repeated among people of higher +physical type. Thus the Jolas of the Gambia district +have practically no government and no law; every +man does as he chooses, and the most successful thief +is considered the greatest man. There is no recognised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +punishment for murder or any other crime. Individual +settlement is the only remedy, and the fittest +survives. There is no formality in regard to marriage, +or what passes for marriage, amongst them. Natural +selection is observed on both sides, and the pair, after +having ascertained a reciprocity of sentiment, at once +cohabit. They do not intermarry with any other +race.<a name="FNanchor_350_350" id="FNanchor_350_350"></a><a href="#Footnote_350_350" class="fnanchor">[350]</a></p> + +<p>It is possible to proceed from this to other regions +of man's occupation ground. In America, the evidence +of the modern savage is preceded by most interesting +facts. If we compare Dr. Brinton's conclusions as to +the spread of the American Indians from the north to +the south, and as to the development of culture in the +favoured districts being of the same origin as the undeveloped +culture of the less favoured and of absolutely +sterile districts, with Mr. Curtin's altogether +independent conclusions as to the growth of the +American creation myth with its cycle of first people +peaceful and migratory, and its cycle of second people +"containing accounts of conflicts which are ever recurrent," +we are conscious that mythic and material +remains of great movements of people are in absolute +accord,<a name="FNanchor_351_351" id="FNanchor_351_351"></a><a href="#Footnote_351_351" class="fnanchor">[351]</a> an accord which leads us to expect +that the peoples who were pushed ever forward +into the most desolate and most sterile districts of +southern America would be the most nearly savage of +all the American peoples. This is in agreement with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> +Darwin's estimate of the Fuegians who wander about +in groups of kinless society,<a name="FNanchor_352_352" id="FNanchor_352_352"></a><a href="#Footnote_352_352" class="fnanchor">[352]</a> and it is in accord with +other evidence. Thus the Zaparos, belonging to the +great division of unchristianised Indians of the oriental +province of Ecuador, have the fame of being most +expert woodsmen and hunters. To communicate with +one another in the wood, they generally imitate the +whistle of the toman or partridge. They believe that +they partake of the nature of the animals they devour. +They are very disunited, and wander about in separate +hordes. The stealing of women is much carried on +even amongst themselves. A man runs away with +his neighbour's wife or one of them, and secretes himself +in some out of the way spot until he gathers +information that she is replaced, when he can again +make his appearance, finding the whole difficulty +smoothed over. In their matrimonial relations they +are very loose—monogamy, polygamy, communism, +and promiscuity all apparently existing amongst them. +They allow the women great liberty and frequently +change their mates or simply discard them when they +are perhaps taken up by another. They believe in a +devil or evil spirit which haunts the woods, and call +him Zamáro.<a name="FNanchor_353_353" id="FNanchor_353_353"></a><a href="#Footnote_353_353" class="fnanchor">[353]</a></p> + +<p>In all these cases, and I do not, of course, exhaust +the evidence, there is enough to suggest that the social +forms presented are of the most rudimentary kind. +Conjecture has not and, I think, cannot get further +back than such evidence as this. The social grouping +is supported by outside influences rather than internal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +organisation; neither blood kinship nor marital kinship +is recognised; hostility to all other groups and from +other groups is the basis of inter-groupal life. To +these significant characteristics has to be added the +special birth custom and belief of the Semang pygmies. +It is clear that the soul-bird belief and the tree-naming +custom are different phases of one conception of social +life, a conception definitely excluding recognition of +blood kinship, and derived from the conscious adoption +of an experience which has not reached the stage +of blood kinship, but which includes a close association +with natural objects. All this makes it advisable +to take fuller count of pygmy culture than has hitherto +been given to it. The pygmies have in truth always +been a problem in man's history. From the time +of Homer, Herodotos, and Aristotle, the pygmies +have had their place among the observable types of +man, or among the traditions to which observers have +given credence. In modern times they have been +accounted for either as peoples degraded from a higher +level of culture, or as peoples who have never advanced. +But whether we look upon these people as the last remnants +of the primitive condition of hostility or whether +they are reversions to that condition by reason of like +causes, they bring before us what conjectural research +has prepared us for. The first supposition is neither +impossible nor incredible. The slow spreading-out in +hostile regions would allow of the preservation of some +examples of preference for unrestrained licence at the +expense of constant hostility, in place of a modified +peacefulness at the expense of restricted freedom in +matters so dear to the human animal as sexual choice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +and power. The second supposition contains an element +of human history which must find a place in anthropological +research. The possible phases of social +formation are very limited. If any section of mankind +cannot develop in one direction, they will stagnate at +the stage they have reached, or they will retrograde to +one of the stages from which in times past they have +proceeded. There is no other course, and the very +limitations of primitive life prevent us from considering +the possibility of any other course. Either of these +alternatives allows us to consider the examples of hostile +inter-grouping as sufficient to supply us with the vantage +ground for observation of man in his earliest +stages of existence. Perhaps each of them may contain +somewhat of the truth. But whatever may be considered +as the true cause of the pygmy level of culture, there +is an underlying factor which must count most strongly +in its determination, namely, that these people are the +people who in the process of migration have been pushed +out to the last strongholds of man. Whether they could +not or would not conform to the newer condition of +stationary or comparatively stationary society is not +much to the point in presence of the fact that nowhere +have they conformed to this standard of existence. Moreover +we are entitled to the argument, which has been +the main point advanced in connection with the anthropological +problems we are discussing, that the most +primitive type of man must of necessity be sought for, +and can only be found at the extremes of the migration +movement wherever that is discernible.<a name="FNanchor_354_354" id="FNanchor_354_354"></a><a href="#Footnote_354_354" class="fnanchor">[354]</a></p> + +<p>The question now becomes, can we by means of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +recognisable links proceed from the rudimentary kinless +stage of society to the earliest stage of kinship +society? This is a most difficult problem, but it must be +solved. If the rudimentary kinless groups do indeed +constitute a factor in human evolution, they are a most +important factor. If they do not constitute such a factor, +they can only be accidental productions, the sport of exceptional +circumstances not in the line of evolution, and +as such they are not of much use in anthropology. It will +be seen, therefore, that the connection between rudimentary +kinless society and the earliest, or representatives +of the earliest, kinship society, is an essential part +of an inquiry into origins.</p> + +<p>It may be approached first from the conjectural basis. +On this basis it may be asserted that the victorious +male of the primary groups would remain victorious +only just so long as he could continue to adjust the +conditions on the primary basis, and preserve his +females to himself. New conditions would arise whenever +the limitation of the food lands produced a degree +of localisation of the hitherto movable groups. There +would then have crept into human experience the +necessity for something of common action among a +wider range than the simple group. This is a new +force, and social evolution is henceforth going to +operate in addition to, perhaps to a limited extent in +substitution of, the constant movement towards new +food lands. The single male would no longer be the +victorious male by himself; and sharing his power +with other males meant the reduction of his power in +his own group. Called away for something more than +the defence of his own primary group of females, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> +would leave the females with the practical governance +of the primary groups. This tendency would develop. +Wherever the constant movement outwards became +stayed by geographical or other influences, the groups +which experienced the shock of stoppage would undergo +change. The female in the various primary groups +would become a static element, and the male alone +would follow out in the more restricted area the older +force of movement which he had learned during the +period of unrestricted scope.<a name="FNanchor_355_355" id="FNanchor_355_355"></a><a href="#Footnote_355_355" class="fnanchor">[355]</a> He would have to find +his mates during his roamings, instead of the former +condition of fighting for them during the group movements; +and his relationship to the primary groups +would be therefore fundamentally changed. From +being the central dominant head, he would become +a constantly shifting unit. The female under these +conditions would become the centre of the new social +unit, and the male would become the hunter for food +and the fighter against enemies. The new social forces +would thus consist of local units commanded by the +female, and revolving units composed of the males, +and there would arise therefrom cleavage between the +economic conditions of the two sexes.</p> + +<p>That primitive economics bear the impress of sex +cleavage is borne out by every class of evidence, and +it is in this circumstance that we first come upon +societies distinguished by containing two of the most +important social elements, exogamy and totemism.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +Before, however, examining examples of societies containing +the two elements of exogamy and totemism, it will +be necessary to say something by way of preliminaries +on these two elements themselves. They have rightly +been made the subject of important special inquiry by +anthropological scholars, as being in fact the key to the +question of social evolution, and we shall clear the +ground considerably by first of all turning to the principal +authorities on the subject, and ascertaining the +present position of the inquiry.</p> + +<p>I must however note, in the first place, that as I have +stated the case, exogamy and totemism appear as two +separate and distinct elements, whereas it is usual to +consider exogamy as an essential part of totemism. +I cannot, however, see that this is so. In advanced +totemism, it is true, they are found as inseparable +parts of one system, but they may well have started +separately and coalesced later. In point of fact, all the +evidence points in this direction, and if we cease to +consider exogamy as a necessary element of totemism, +we can advance investigation more rapidly and with +greater accuracy.</p> + +<p>We come very quickly upon what may be termed +natural exogamy. Male working with male outside the +groups formed by women and the younger offspring +would produce a natural exogamy, which would have +followed upon the exogamy produced by hostile capture +of women, and two streams of influence would +thus tell in favour of the evolution of a system of +formal exogamy, and Dr. Westermarck's theory of a +natural avoidance of housemates, with all its wealth +of evidence, helps us at this point.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +The position is not so clear as to totemism. If we +begin, however, with a clear understanding that it is not +a part of the machinery of exogamous grouping, but +an independent growth of its own, we shall have +gained an important point, for the contrary opinion +has very often obscured the issue and prevented research +in the right direction.</p> + +<p>It will be advisable to have before us the principal +theories as to the origin of totemism. There are practically +three—Mr. Frazer's, Mr. Lang's, and Mr. Baldwin +Spencer's. Mr. Frazer considers totemism to be "in +its essence nothing more or less than an early theory of +conception, which presented itself to savage man at a +time when he was still ignorant of the true cause of +the propagation of the species." Mr. Frazer explains +this theory further by saying that "naturally enough, +when she is first aware of the mysterious movement +within her, the mother fancies that something has that +very moment passed into her body, and it is equally +natural that in her attempt to ascertain what the thing +is, she should fix upon some object that happened to +be near her, or to engage her attention at the critical +moment."<a name="FNanchor_356_356" id="FNanchor_356_356"></a><a href="#Footnote_356_356" class="fnanchor">[356]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Lang rejects Mr. Frazer's theory <i>in toto</i>, and +propounds his own as due to the naming of savage +societies, and to a sort of natural exogamy produced by +practically the same set of conditions as I have already +described. Mr. Lang's totemism began in the primary +groups, and began with exogamy as a necessary part +of it. "Unessential to my system," says Mr. Lang, +"is the question how the groups got animal names, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> +long as they got them, and did not remember how they +got them, and as long as the names according to their +way of thinking indicated an essential and mystic +rapport between each group and its name-giving +animal. No more than these three things—a group +animal name of unknown origin; belief in a transcendental +connection between all bearers human and +bestial of the same name; and belief in the blood +superstitions (the mystically sacred quality of the +blood as life)—was needed to give rise to all the totemic +creeds and practices including exogamy," and further, +"we guess that for the sake of distinction, groups +gave each other animal and plant names. These became +stereotyped we conjecture, and their origin was +forgotten. The belief that there must necessarily be +some connection between animals and men of the +same names led to speculation about the nature of the +connection. The usual reply to the question was that the +men and animals of the same name were akin by blood. +The kinship <i>with animals</i> being particularly mysterious +was peculiarly sacred. From these ideas arose tabus, +and among others that of totemic exogamy."<a name="FNanchor_357_357" id="FNanchor_357_357"></a><a href="#Footnote_357_357" class="fnanchor">[357]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Baldwin Spencer, and with him Dr. Haddon, +consider totemism to have arisen from economic +conditions. Primitive human groups, says Dr. Haddon, +"could never have been large, and the individuals +comprising each group must have been closely related. +In favourable areas each group would have a tendency +to occupy a restricted range, owing to the disagreeable +results which arose from encroaching on the territory +over which another group wandered. Thus, it would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +inevitably come about that a certain animal or plant, or +group of animals or plants, would be more abundant in +the territory of one group than in that of another."<a name="FNanchor_358_358" id="FNanchor_358_358"></a><a href="#Footnote_358_358" class="fnanchor">[358]</a></p> + +<p>These theories are not necessarily mutually destructive, +though they seem to me even collectively not to contain +the full case for totemism. Mr. Frazer does not +account for woman's isolation at the time of conceptual +quickening, for the closeness of her observation of local +phenomena, and for the separateness of her ideas from +the actual facts of procreation. Mr. Lang overloads his +case. He is accounting not for the origin of totemism, +but for the origin of all, or almost all, that totemism +contains in its most developed forms—"all the totemic +creeds and practices including exogamy" as he says. +He postulates a name-giving process by drawing upon +the conceptions as to names by advanced savage thought, +and he does not account for the fact that according to his +theory, animals and plants must not only have been +named, but named upon some sort of system known to +a wide area of peoples, before totemistic names for the +groups could have been given to them. Mr. Spencer's +and Dr. Haddon's theory is perhaps open to the doubts +caused by Mr. Lang's criticism of it that there is only +one case of a known economic cause for totemism—an +Australian case where two totem kins are said to have +been so called "from having in former times principally +subsisted on a small fish and a very small opossum;"<a name="FNanchor_359_359" id="FNanchor_359_359"></a><a href="#Footnote_359_359" class="fnanchor">[359]</a> +but on the other hand it does supply a <i>vera causa</i>, the +actual evidence for which may well have passed away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +with the development of totemism, without leaving +survivals.</p> + +<p>All these theories, however, are the result of considerable +research and experience, and it is more than +probable that they may each contain fragments of the +truth which need the touch of combination to show how +they stand in relation to the problem which they are +propounded to solve. There are features of totemism +which are not noticed by any of these distinguished +authorities. By using the hitherto unnoticed features, +I think it possible to produce a theory as to the origin +of totemism, which will contain the essential features of +those theories now prominently before the world.</p> + +<p>I will set down the order in which the problem can +be approached from the standpoint already reached, +and we may afterwards try to ascertain what proof is +to be derived from totemic societies of the rudest type.</p> + +<p>Now totemism is essentially a system of social grouping, +whose chief characteristic is that it is kinless—that +is to say, the tie of totemism is not the tie of blood +kinship, but the artificially created association with +natural objects or animals. It takes no count of fatherhood, +and only reckons with the physical fact of motherhood. +It is not the actual fatherhood or the actual +motherhood which is the fundamental basis of totemism, +but the association with animal, plant, or other +natural object. This is evidently the fact, whatever +view is taken of totemism, and that totemism is, in its +origin and principle, a kinless, not a kinship system, +is the first fact of importance to bear in mind throughout +all inquiry. Thus Messrs. Spencer and Gillen say +"the identity of the human individual is often sunk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +in that of the animal or plant from which he is supposed +to have originated."<a name="FNanchor_360_360" id="FNanchor_360_360"></a><a href="#Footnote_360_360" class="fnanchor">[360]</a></p> + +<p>The next fact of importance is that as it commences at +birth time, it must be closely associated with the mother +and her actions as mother. This leads us to the +observation that it is through the agency of the mother +that the totem name is conferred upon their children, and +to the necessary antecedent fact that women must have +themselves possessed the name they conferred—possessed, +that is, either the name as a personal attribute +and valued as such, or else the power of evolving the +name and the capacity of using it with totemic significance. +I conclude from this, therefore, that the search +for the origin of totemism must be made from the +women's side of the social group. Such a search +would lead straight to the industrialism of early woman, +from which originated the domestication of animals, +the cultivation of fruits and cereals, and the appropriation +of such trees and shrubs as were necessary to +primitive economics.<a name="FNanchor_361_361" id="FNanchor_361_361"></a><a href="#Footnote_361_361" class="fnanchor">[361]</a> The close and intimate relationship +with human life which such animals, plants, and +trees would assume under the social conditions which +have been postulated as belonging to this earliest stage +of evolution, and the aid which these friendly and +always present companions would render at all times +and under most circumstances, would generate and develop +many of those savage conceptions which have +become known to research. As human friends they +would become part of humanity, just as Livingstone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +notes of an African people that they did not eat the +beef which he offered to them because "they looked +upon cattle as human and living at home like men,"<a name="FNanchor_362_362" id="FNanchor_362_362"></a><a href="#Footnote_362_362" class="fnanchor">[362]</a> +an idea which is also the basis of the custom in India +not to taste fruit of a newly planted mangrove tree +until it is formally "married" to some other tree.<a name="FNanchor_363_363" id="FNanchor_363_363"></a><a href="#Footnote_363_363" class="fnanchor">[363]</a> +These are but the fortunate instances where definite +record in set terms has been made. At the back of +them lies a whole collection of anthropomorphic conceptions, +indulged in by man at all stages of his career.<a name="FNanchor_364_364" id="FNanchor_364_364"></a><a href="#Footnote_364_364" class="fnanchor">[364]</a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +As superhuman agencies for pregnancy and birth, they +would do what the human father in the society we are +contemplating could not be expected to do, for he +would be seldom present during the long period of +pregnancy; he would have shared with other males +the privileges of sexual intercourse, and he would +therefore not be so closely in companionship with the +women of the local groups as the friendly animal, +plant, or tree who did so much for the mothers. There +would thus be formed the groundwork for the fashioning +of that most incredible of all beliefs, well founded, +as Mr. Hartland has proved both from tradition and +belief,<a name="FNanchor_365_365" id="FNanchor_365_365"></a><a href="#Footnote_365_365" class="fnanchor">[365]</a> that the human father was not father, and that +other agencies were responsible for the birth of +children.</p> + +<p>Gathering up the several threads of this argument, it +seems to me that there is within this sphere of primitive +thought and within these conditions of primitive life, +ample room for the growth of all the main conceptions +belonging to totemism; and it will be seen how necessary +it is to separate totemism at its beginning from +totemism in its most advanced stages. Totemism has +not come to man fully equipped in all its parts. It +is like every other human institution, the result of a +long process of development, and the various stages of +development are important parts of the evidence as to +origins. At the beginning, it was clearly not connected +with blood kinship and descent; it was as clearly not +connected with any class system of marriage. But its +beginnings would allow of these later growths, would +perhaps almost engender these later growths.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +Thus, the primary notion of the totem birth of +children would, when blood kinship and descent became +a consciously accepted element in social development, +easily slide into the belief of a totemic ancestor +and kinship with the totem; the protection and assistance +afforded by the totem to the women of the primary +groups who became the mothers of new generations, +would easily grow into a sort of worship of the totem; +the adoption of the totem name from the circumstances +of birth implying the origin of the name from within +the group and not from without would, as aggregation +took the place of segregation, give way before the +association of groups of persons with common interests; +the aggregate totem name would come to the separate +local totems as soon as, but not before, aggregation had +taken the place of segregation in the formation of the +social system, and this was not at the earliest stage; the +close association of the totems with groups of mothers +who always took the fathers of their children from +without the mother group, would readily develop into +differentiating the mother totems within the group +from the totems of the fathers without the group, +and this differentiation would produce a special relationship +between the sexes based upon the difference of +totems instead of upon the sameness of them; and +finally there would be produced first a two-class division +founded on sex—all the mothers and all the fathers—and, +only in a developed form, a two-class division +founded on the accepted totem name.</p> + +<p>If this is a probable view of the course of totemic +evolution, we may more confidently refer to its final +stages for further evidence. Advanced totemic society<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> +shows a constant tendency to substitute blood kinship +for the association with natural objects: first, blood +kinship with the mother, then with the mother and the +father, finally recognised through the father only. At +this last stage, blood kinship has practically succeeded +in expelling totemic association altogether in favour of +tribal kinship by blood descent, for totemism with male +descent as the basis of the social group is totemism in +name only; the names of totemism remain but they are +applied to kinship tribes or sections of tribes, and they +do duty therefore as a convenient name-system without +reference to their origin in definite association with the +naming animal or plant; and it is already in position +to surrender also the names and outward signs. Blood +kinship is therefore the destroyer, not the generator, of +totemism, and we are therefore compelled to get at +the back of blood kinship if we want to find totem +beginnings.</p> + +<p>This is an important aspect of the case, and it is one +which, I think, cannot be ignored. We have found +that rudimentary totemism was the basis of a social +system founded on artificial associations with animal or +plant, was therefore kinless in character; and we have +found that when totemism has been carried on into +a society developed upon the recognition of blood kinship, +blood kinship became antagonistic to totemism, +and ultimately displaced it. These two facts point to +the rudimentary kinless system as the true origin of +totemism.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p> +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>Now we may test these conclusions by applying the +theory they contain to an actual case of totemic society. +It would be well to choose for this purpose a people +who had specialised their totemic organisation, and +there are only two supreme instances of this among the +races of the world—the North American Indians and +the Australians. Everywhere else, where totemism +exists, it is not the dominant feature of the social +organisation. In Asia and in Africa totemism is subordinate +to, or at all events in close or equal association +with, other elements, and we cannot be quite sure +that we have in these cases pure totemism. North +American totemism is in the most advanced stage. +Australian totemism is to a very considerable degree +less advanced, and it is therefore to Australian totemism +I shall turn for evidence.</p> + +<p>But even here it is necessary to bear in mind that +primitive as the Australians are, they are not so primitive +as to be in the primary stages of totemic society. +They have developed, and developed strongly along +totemic lines, and we know that such development +once started has the capacity to proceed far. What we +have to do, therefore, is to attempt to penetrate beneath +the range of development, to search for the social +group at the farthest from the centre point from which +migration started, to discover, if we can, relics of group +hostility, hostile capture of women and of kinless +society, all of which belong to the primary stage from +which totemic development has taken place. If we +can do this, we may hope to arrive at the origin of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +totemism, and we are more likely to accomplish it in +the case of the Australians than with any other people. +If we cannot, as Mr. Lang alleges, anywhere see +"absolutely primitive man and a totemic system in the +making,"<a name="FNanchor_366_366" id="FNanchor_366_366"></a><a href="#Footnote_366_366" class="fnanchor">[366]</a> we may go back along the lines from which +totemism has developed in Australian society and see +somewhat of the process of the making.</p> + +<p>We may commence with evidence of the survival of +the most primitive human trait, the condition of hostility +among the local groups produced by the struggle +for women. "The possession of a girl appears to +be connected with all their ideas of fighting ... +after a battle the girls do not always follow their +fugitive husbands from the field, but frequently go +over as a matter of course to the victors, even with +young children on their backs."<a name="FNanchor_367_367" id="FNanchor_367_367"></a><a href="#Footnote_367_367" class="fnanchor">[367]</a> Mr. Curr puts the +evidence even more definitely in a primitive setting +when he informs us of "the young bachelors of the +tribe carrying off some of the girl wives of the grey-beards," +leaving the old territory and settling at the +first convenient place within thirty or forty miles of the +old territory. I call this state of things "survival,"<a name="FNanchor_368_368" id="FNanchor_368_368"></a><a href="#Footnote_368_368" class="fnanchor">[368]</a> +because it is the existence in totemic society of the +fundamental basis of pre-totemic society. It is checked +in Australian totemic society by rules which show a +strong development from the primitive. Thus the +successful warrior may not take any of his captives +to himself; "if a warrior took to himself a captive who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +belonged to a forbidden class, he would be hunted +down like a wild beast," is the evidence of Mr. Fison, +who allows it to be "a strong statement, but it rests +upon strong evidence."<a name="FNanchor_369_369" id="FNanchor_369_369"></a><a href="#Footnote_369_369" class="fnanchor">[369]</a> This is the exogamous class +system operating even in the case of conflict, when +men have resorted to their primitive instincts and their +primitive methods.</p> + +<p>This discovery of primitive hostility accompanying the +obtaining of wives leads us to look for other survivals +of the earliest conditions, and we come upon mother-right +groups in which the females in each local group +are the sexual companions of males from outside their +own social group. This is shown by the Kamilaroi +organisation, where "a woman is married to a thousand +miles of husbands."<a name="FNanchor_370_370" id="FNanchor_370_370"></a><a href="#Footnote_370_370" class="fnanchor">[370]</a> This phrase may be textually an +exaggeration of actual fact, but it undoubtedly expresses +a condition of things which actually existed. Women +in Australian society must look outside their class, and +in general outside their totem, for their sexual mates, and +they must expect to be claimed as rightful sexual mates +by men whom they have never seen and who live at great +distances. Carry this state of things but a few steps +back, and we must come to a condition of localised +female groups with males moving from group to group. +Surely there is something more here than savage +organisation. The something more is the development +into a system of one of the results of the enforced +migratory conditions of early man, namely, the migratory +instincts of the males moving outside the +female local groups and thus producing natural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +exogamy. This is what appears to me to be clearly a +distinct element in the Australian system. But there +is a new element in juxtaposition with it. The new +element is the organisation into marriage classes—not +every man from without, but only special men from +without, are allowed the sexual companionship.</p> + +<p>Now in both these cases, where we have apparently +penetrated to the most primitive conditions, we are also +brought up abruptly against conditions which are not +primitive, namely, the exogamous class system, and +we are bound to conclude that this class system thus +shows itself to be an intruding force which has not, +however, been strong enough to quite obliterate the +older forces of hostile marriage-capture and mother-right +society.</p> + +<p>Our next quest is therefore to find out, if we can, an +explanation of these two contrasted elements in Australian +totemic society, and for this purpose it is advisable +to still further narrow down the range of inquiry to one +special section of the Australian peoples. For this +purpose I shall take the Arunta. There has been much +controversy about this people. Mr. Lang argues that +the presence of exogamous classes and male descent +shows the Arunta to be more advanced than other +Australian peoples;<a name="FNanchor_371_371" id="FNanchor_371_371"></a><a href="#Footnote_371_371" class="fnanchor">[371]</a> Messrs. Spencer and Gillen that +the survival of totem beliefs, which are local and unconnected +with the class system, proves them to be +the least advanced. In this country Mr. Hartland and +Mr. Thomas side with Mr. Lang; Mr. Frazer with +Messrs. Spencer and Gillen.</p> + +<p>The first point of importance to note about the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +Arunta people is that they occupy the least favourable +districts for food supply.<a name="FNanchor_372_372" id="FNanchor_372_372"></a><a href="#Footnote_372_372" class="fnanchor">[372]</a> This means that they have +been pushed there. They did not choose such a location—in +other words, they are among the last units of +the migration movements which peopled Australia; they +are among the last people to have become stationary as +a group, and to have been compelled to resort to the +development of social organisation in lieu of constantly +swarming off from the centre or from the last stopping +place to the ends. This tells for primitive, not advanced, +conditions.</p> + +<p>The next point is the totem system. Messrs. Spencer +and Gillen, describing one special case as an example +of the rest, give us the following particulars. The +Arunta believe that the most marked features of the +district they inhabit, the gaps and the gorges, were +formed by their Alcheringa ancestors. These Alcheringa +are represented as collected together in companies, +each of which consisted of a certain number of individuals +belonging to one particular totem. Each of +these Alcheringa ancestors carried about with him or +her one or more of the sacred stones called churinga. +These are the general traditions related by the Arunta +of to-day to explain their own customs, and let it be +noted that the explanation does not necessarily lead us +to the primitive conceptions of the Arunta people, but +to their present conceptions as to unknown facts. The +local example is found close to Alice Springs, where +there are deposited a large number of churinga carried +by the witchetty grub men and women. A large +number of prominent rocks and boulders, and certain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +ancient gum trees, are the nanja trees and rocks of +these spirits. If a woman conceives a child after having +been near to this gap, it is one of these spirit individuals +which has entered her body, and when born must of +necessity be of the witchetty grub totem; "it is, in +fact, nothing else but the reincarnation of one of the +witchetty grub people of the Alcheringa;" the nanja +tree, or stone, ever afterwards is the nanja of the child, +and there is special connection between it and the child, +injury to the nanja object meaning injury to the nanja +man.<a name="FNanchor_373_373" id="FNanchor_373_373"></a><a href="#Footnote_373_373" class="fnanchor">[373]</a> There is evidence that the reincarnation theory +is not admissible,<a name="FNanchor_374_374" id="FNanchor_374_374"></a><a href="#Footnote_374_374" class="fnanchor">[374]</a> and, indeed, it does not seem +warranted on the facts presented by the authors. With +this unnecessary element out of the way, then, there is +left a system of local totemism, arising at birth and +depending upon the mother, without reference in any +way to the father, associated with natural features, rocks +and trees, and showing in a special way a curious +system of sex cleavage by the men of the group being +the exclusive guardians of the sacred churinga, and the +women the active power by which the churinga becomes +connected with the newly-born member of the totem +group.<a name="FNanchor_375_375" id="FNanchor_375_375"></a><a href="#Footnote_375_375" class="fnanchor">[375]</a></p> + +<p>Now at this point we may surely refer back to the +custom and belief of the Semang people of the Malay +Peninsula, and I suggest that we have the closest +parallel between Semang belief and custom and Arunta +totemism, not quite the same formula perhaps, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +assuredly the same fundamental conception of every +child at birth being in intimate association with objects +of nature, and this association being the determining +force of the newly-born man's social status and class, +lasting all through life. In each case the kinless +basis of totemism is thus fully shown. The totem +names given by women, or assumed on account of the +conditions attachable to women as mothers, did not +extend to the human fathers. The fathers may be +known or unknown to the mothers, but they did not +become associated with the totems which the mothers +associated with their children. To the extent of fatherhood, +therefore, totemism of this type was clearly not +based upon the natural fact of blood kinship, but upon +the conscious adoption of a non-kinship form of society. +To the extent of motherhood also it was not based upon +blood kinship, for it was the local totem, not the +mother's totem, which became the totem of the newly-born +member of the group. We thus have an entirely +non-kinship form of society to deal with, a kinless +society, "where there is no necessary relationship +of any kind between that of children and parents."<a name="FNanchor_376_376" id="FNanchor_376_376"></a><a href="#Footnote_376_376" class="fnanchor">[376]</a> +Primitive man consciously adapted certain of his observations +of nature to his social needs, and among +these observations the fact of actual blood kinship +with father and mother played no part. It would appear +therefore that totemism at its foundation was +based upon a theoretical conception of relationship +between man and animal or plant. Place of birth, +association with natural objects, not motherhood and +not fatherhood, are the determining factors.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> +We may proceed to inquire as to the social form +which has become evolved from this kinless system.</p> + +<p>In the case of the Semangs we have the kinless +totemic belief and custom existing within a kinless +society. In the case of the Arunta we have the kinless +totemism existing in a society based on a kinless +organisation still, but containing also full recognition +of motherhood,<a name="FNanchor_377_377" id="FNanchor_377_377"></a><a href="#Footnote_377_377" class="fnanchor">[377]</a> and perhaps recognition of physical +fatherhood.<a name="FNanchor_378_378" id="FNanchor_378_378"></a><a href="#Footnote_378_378" class="fnanchor">[378]</a> There is, therefore, an important distinction +in the social position of the two parallel systems. +Among the Semang people, their totemic belief and +custom do not carry with them a superstructure of +society. They form the substantive cult of the +scattered social groups, which are kinless groups dependent +upon ties local in character and derived from +the conscious use of the facts of nature surrounding +them. Among the Arunta people, on the contrary, the +totem belief and custom are contained within a social +system of extraordinary dimensions and proportions. +Of course, the obvious questions to raise are—have the +Semang people lost a once existing social system connected +with their totemic cult? Have the Arunta +people had imposed upon them a social system which +has not destroyed their primitive totemic cult?</p> + +<p>To answer these questions I can only deal with +the Semang evidence as it appears in researches of +great authority and weight, and there is undoubtedly +in all the evidence produced by Messrs. Skeat and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +Blagden, and the authorities they use, nothing whatever +to suggest that Semang totemism once possessed +above it an elaborate social organisation of the usual +totemic type. There is indeed, the myth which points +to a two-class exogamous division for marital purposes,<a name="FNanchor_379_379" id="FNanchor_379_379"></a><a href="#Footnote_379_379" class="fnanchor">[379]</a> +but there is more than myth for the unrestricted +intercourse of the sexes both before and after marital +rights.<a name="FNanchor_380_380" id="FNanchor_380_380"></a><a href="#Footnote_380_380" class="fnanchor">[380]</a> In every other direction we get simple +groups fashioned on no larger basis than nomadic +roaming and journeying to fresh food grounds. On +the other hand, there is much to suggest that the +Arunta have a dual system of organisation; one, in +which the primitive types are still surviving, the +second, a more advanced type which covers but does +not crush out the first. If this is so, it is clear that +the parallel between Semang and Arunta totemism is +considerably closer than at first appears.</p> + +<p>It will be necessary, therefore, to deal with the two +principal signs of alleged Arunta progress, male +descent and the exogamous classes. I see no evidence +whatever of male descent; male ascendancy, a very +different thing, appears, but there cannot strictly be +male descent where fatherhood is unrecognised. And +here I would interpose the remark that the use of the +term descent, male descent and female descent, in +these studies is far too indiscriminate.<a name="FNanchor_381_381" id="FNanchor_381_381"></a><a href="#Footnote_381_381" class="fnanchor">[381]</a> Descent means +succession by blood kinship by acknowledged sons or +daughters, and this is exactly what does not always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> +occur. Sonship and daughtership in our sense of the +term are not always known to savagery. They were +not known to the Arunta males, for fatherhood was +not recognised by them and motherhood was not definitely +used in the social sense. All that the Arunta +can be said to have developed is a mother-right society +with male ascendancy in the group.<a name="FNanchor_382_382" id="FNanchor_382_382"></a><a href="#Footnote_382_382" class="fnanchor">[382]</a> Group sons +succeeded to group fathers, but individual descent +from father to son there is not.</p> + +<p>There remain the exogamous classes. In the first +place, it is necessary to get rid of a difficulty raised by +Mr. Lang. "In no tribe with female descent can a +district have its local totem as among the Arunta.... +This can only occur under male reckoning of descent."<a name="FNanchor_383_383" id="FNanchor_383_383"></a><a href="#Footnote_383_383" class="fnanchor">[383]</a> +But surely so acute an observer as Mr. Lang would +see that with female descent right through, as it exists +among the Khasia and Kocch people of Assam, local +totem centres are just as possible as with male descent. +Mr. Lang is conscious of some discrepancy here, for +a little later on he repeats the statement that local totem +centres "can only occur and exist under male reckoning +of descent," but adds the significant qualification +"in cases where the husbands do not go to the +<ins class="correction" title="apostrophe missing in original">wives'</ins> +region of abode."<a name="FNanchor_384_384" id="FNanchor_384_384"></a><a href="#Footnote_384_384" class="fnanchor">[384]</a> This is the whole point. Where +husbands do go to the wives' region of abode, as they +do among the Khasis and the Kocch, female descent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +would allow of the formation of local totem centres. +This is not far from the position of the Arunta. They +are mother-right societies. The mother secures the +totem name. The father, <i>de facto</i>, is not father according +to the ideas of the Arunta people, is at best +only one of a group of possible fathers according to +the practices of the Arunta people. Therefore, the +local totem centre is formed out of a system which may +be called a mother-right system for the purpose of +scientific description, but which is not even a mother-right +system to the natives, because motherhood is not +the foundation of the local group.</p> + +<p>Secondly, we have the important fact, which Mr. +Lang has duly noted, though he does not apparently +see its significance in the argument as to origins, that +the class system "arose in a given centre and was +propagated by emigrants and was borrowed by distant +tribes."<a name="FNanchor_385_385" id="FNanchor_385_385"></a><a href="#Footnote_385_385" class="fnanchor">[385]</a> Messrs. Spencer and Gillen distinctly affirm +that the "division into eight has been adopted (or +rather the names for the four new divisions have been) +in recent times by the Arunta tribe from the Ilpirra +tribe which adjoins the former on the north, and the +use of them is at the present time spreading southwards."<a name="FNanchor_386_386" id="FNanchor_386_386"></a><a href="#Footnote_386_386" class="fnanchor">[386]</a> +This view is supported by the widespread +organisation of eaglehawk and crow, and by the +general homogeneity of Australian social forms. It is +clear, therefore, that room is made for the external +organisation of the class system and the consequent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +production of the dual characteristics of the Arunta—the +joint product of the fossilisation of mother-right +society at the end of the migration movement, and the +superimposing upon this fossilisation, with its tendency +towards the class system, of the fully organised class +system. The two systems are not now fully welded in +the Arunta group. Whatever view is taken of these, +whether they be considered advanced or primal, the +undoubted dualism has to be accounted for, and the +best way of accounting for this dualism is, I submit, +that of differential evolution. Further study of Messrs. +Spencer and Gillen's work, together with the criticisms +of various scholars, Mr. Lang, Mr. Hartland, Mr. +Frazer, Mr. Thomas, and others, convinces me that +the extreme artificiality of the class system is due +partly to a want of understanding of the entire facts, +and partly to the <i>ad hoc</i> adoption by the natives themselves +of new plans to meet difficulties which must +arise out of a too close adhesion to their rules. Mr. +Lang has allowed me to see a manuscript note of his, +in which he points out that the inevitable result of +the one totem to the one totem rule of marital relationship,—that +is, totem A always intermarrying with +totem B, males and females from both totems, and +with no others,—is the consanguineous relationship of +all the members of the two totems. The rule for non-consanguineous +marriage has therefore broken down, +and when it breaks down the Australian introduces a +new rule which satisfies immediate necessities. When +this in turn breaks down a further new rule is made, +and this is the way I think the differing rules resulted. +They represent, therefore, not varying degrees of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> +culture progress, but only varying degrees of artificial +social changes, and they spring from the oldest conditions +of all where there is no class system at all.<a name="FNanchor_387_387" id="FNanchor_387_387"></a><a href="#Footnote_387_387" class="fnanchor">[387]</a> Arunta +society is not a "sport" under this view, but a product—a +product to be accounted for and explained by +anthropological rules, derived not only from Australian +society but from the general facts of human society +which have remained for observation by the science of +to-day. The parallel between Semang and Arunta, +therefore, helps us in two ways. It enables us to go back +to Semang totemism as an example of primitive kinless +society, and forward to Arunta totemism as an example of +early development therefrom. We have, in point of fact, +discovered the datum line of totemism. Upon this +may be constructed the various examples according to +their degrees of development, and we may thus see in +detail the commencing elements of totemism as well +as the means by which we may proceed from the commencing +elements to the more advanced elements, and +finally to the last stages of totemic society where +blood kinship is fully recognised and used, where, in +fact, totemic tribes as distinct from totemic peoples +take their place in the world's history.</p> + + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>I do not propose in this chapter to proceed further +with this inquiry. It will not advance my object, nor +is it absolutely necessary. Totemism in the full has +been described adequately by Mr. Frazer in his valuable +abstract of the evidence supplied from all parts of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> +the world, and there is not much in dispute among the +authorities when once the stage of origin is passed. +There is danger, however, at the other extreme, +namely, the attempt to discover totemism in impossible +places in civilisation. Mr. Morgan has shown us totemic +society in its highest form of development, untouched +by other influences of sufficient consequence to divert +its natural evolution. This, I think, is the merit of +Mr. Morgan's great work, and not his attempt, his +futile attempt as I think, to apply the principles of +totemic society to the elucidation of societies that have +long passed the stage of totemism. In particular, the +great European civilisations are not totemic, nor are +they to be seen passing from totemism. It is true that +Mr. Lang, Mr. Grant Allen, and others have attempted +to trace in certain features of Greek ritual and belief, +and in certain tribal formations discoverable in Anglo-Saxon +Britain, the relics of a living totemism in the +civilised races of Europe;<a name="FNanchor_388_388" id="FNanchor_388_388"></a><a href="#Footnote_388_388" class="fnanchor">[388]</a> but I do not believe +either of these scholars would have endorsed his +early conclusions in later studies. Mr. Grant Allen +did not, so far as I know, repeat this theory after +its first publication, and Mr. Lang has given many +signs of being willing to withdraw it. The fact is, +there is no necessity to think of Greek or English +totem society because in Greece and England there +are traces of totem beliefs. We may disengage them +from their national position and put them back to the +position they occupied before the coming of Greek or +Englishman into the countries they have made their own.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +In that position there may well have been totemic +peoples in Britain of the type we have been considering +from Australia. I have already indicated that totemic +survivals in folklore have been the subject of a special +study of my own which still in the main stands good, +and for which I have collected very many additional +illustrations and proofs. I discovered that folklore +contained some remarkably perfect examples of totemic +belief and custom, and also a considerable array of +scattered belief and custom connected with animals +and plants which, unclassified, seemed to lead to no +definite stage of culture history, yet when classified, +undoubtedly led to totemism. The result was somewhat +remarkable. At many points there are direct parallels +to savage totemism, and the whole associated group of +customs received adequate explanation only on the +theory that it represented the detritus of a once existing +totemic system of belief.</p> + +<p>The present study enables me to take the parallel to +primitive totemism much closer. One of the perfect +examples was of a local character. This was found in +Ossory. Giraldus Cambrensis tells an extraordinary +legend to the following effect: "A priest benighted in +a wood on the borders of Meath was confronted by a +wolf, who after some preliminary explanations gave +this account of himself: There are two of us, a man +and a woman, natives of Ossory, who through the +curse of one Natalis, saint and abbot, are compelled +every seven years to put off the human form and +depart from the dwellings of men. Quitting entirely +the human form, we assume that of wolves. At the +end of the seven years, if they chance to survive, two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +others being substituted in their places, they return to +their country and their former shape."<a name="FNanchor_389_389" id="FNanchor_389_389"></a><a href="#Footnote_389_389" class="fnanchor">[389]</a> Here is a +saintly legend introduced to explain the current tradition +of the men of Ossory, that they periodically +turned into wolves. Fynes Moryson, in 1603, ridiculed +the beliefs of "some Irish who will be believed as men +of credit," that men in Ossory were "yearly turned +into wolves."<a name="FNanchor_390_390" id="FNanchor_390_390"></a><a href="#Footnote_390_390" class="fnanchor">[390]</a> But an ancient Irish MS. puts the +matter much more clearly in the statement that the +"descendants of the wolf are in Ossory,"<a name="FNanchor_391_391" id="FNanchor_391_391"></a><a href="#Footnote_391_391" class="fnanchor">[391]</a> while the +evidence of Spenser and Camden explains the popular +beliefs upon even more exact lines. Spenser says +"that some of the Irish doe use to make the wolf +their gossip;"<a name="FNanchor_392_392" id="FNanchor_392_392"></a><a href="#Footnote_392_392" class="fnanchor">[392]</a> and Camden adds that they term them +"Chari Christi, praying for them and wishing them +well, and having contracted this intimacy, professed to +have no fear from their four-footed allies." Fynes +Moryson expressly mentions the popular dislike to +killing wolves, and they were not extirpated until the +eighteenth century.<a name="FNanchor_393_393" id="FNanchor_393_393"></a><a href="#Footnote_393_393" class="fnanchor">[393]</a> Aubrey adds that "in Ireland +they value the fang-tooth of an wolfe, which they set in +silver and gold as we doe ye Coralls;"<a name="FNanchor_394_394" id="FNanchor_394_394"></a><a href="#Footnote_394_394" class="fnanchor">[394]</a> and Camden +notes the similar use of a bit of wolf's skin.<a name="FNanchor_395_395" id="FNanchor_395_395"></a><a href="#Footnote_395_395" class="fnanchor">[395]</a></p> + +<p>In the local superstitions of Ossory, therefore, we +have several of the cardinal features of savage totemism, +the descent from the totem-animal, the ascription<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> +to the totem of a sacred character, the belief in its protection, +and a taboo against killing it. I will venture +to suggest, however, that to these important features +there is to be added a parallel in survival to the Semang +and Arunta features where the local circumstances of +birth are the determining forces which supply the +totem name, for the relationship of "gossip," "god-sib," +is clearly of the same character as that of the +soul-tree of the Semang and the alcheringa of the +Australian.<a name="FNanchor_396_396" id="FNanchor_396_396"></a><a href="#Footnote_396_396" class="fnanchor">[396]</a> The condition of survival has altered the +detail of the parallel, but the parallel is on the same +plane.</p> + +<p>The wolf as gossip to the men of Ossory leads us on +to inquire whether any other animal had such close +connections with human beings. In Erris, a part of +Connaught, "the people consider that foxes perfectly +understand human language, that they can be propitiated +by kindness, and even moved by flattery. They +not only make mittens for Reynard's feet to keep him +warm in winter, and deposit these articles carefully +near their holes, but they make them sponsors for +their children, supposing that under the close and long-established +relationship of Gossipred they will be +induced to befriend them."<a name="FNanchor_397_397" id="FNanchor_397_397"></a><a href="#Footnote_397_397" class="fnanchor">[397]</a> Thus it appears that the +selfsame conception which the men of Ossory had in +the thirteenth century for the wolf, the men of Erris<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> +had for the fox in the nineteenth century. No explanation +from the dry details of the natural history +of these animals is sufficient to account for this curious +parallel, and we must turn to ancient beliefs for the +explanation.</p> + +<p>The general attitude of the men of Erris towards the +fox is confirmed as an attribute of totemism when we +come to examine a special local form of it. This we +can do by turning to Galway. The Claddagh fishermen +in Galway would not go out to fish if they +saw a fox: their rivals of a neighbouring village, not +believing in the fox, do all they can to introduce a fox +into the Claddagh village.<a name="FNanchor_398_398" id="FNanchor_398_398"></a><a href="#Footnote_398_398" class="fnanchor">[398]</a> These people are peculiar +in many respects, and are distinctively clannish. They +retain their old clan-dress—blue cloaks and red petticoats—which +distinguishes them from the rest of the +county of Galway, and it may be conjectured that the +present-day custom of naming from the names of fish—thus, +Jack the hake, Bill the cod, Joe the eel, Pat the +trout, Mat the turbot, etc.<a name="FNanchor_399_399" id="FNanchor_399_399"></a><a href="#Footnote_399_399" class="fnanchor">[399]</a>—may be a remnant of the +mental attitude of the folk towards that belief in kinship +between men and animals which is at the basis +of totemism. But, returning to the fox, we have in +the belief that meeting this animal would prevent them +from going out to fish, a parallel to the prohibition +against looking at the totem which is to be found +among savage people, and we have in the neighbours' +disbelief in the fox and a corresponding belief in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +hare,<a name="FNanchor_400_400" id="FNanchor_400_400"></a><a href="#Footnote_400_400" class="fnanchor">[400]</a> that local distribution of different totems which +is also found in savagery. But all these particulars +about the relationship of the fox to the Claddagh +fishermen receive unexpected light when we inquire +into the biography of their local saint, named MacDara. +This saint is the patron saint of the fishermen +who, when passing MacDara's island, always dip +their sails thrice to avoid being shipwrecked. But +then, in the folk-belief, we have this remarkable fact, +that MacDara's real name was Sinach, a fox<a name="FNanchor_401_401" id="FNanchor_401_401"></a><a href="#Footnote_401_401" class="fnanchor">[401]</a>—an +instance, it would seem, of a totem cult being transferred +to a Christian saint. Thus, then, in the superstitions +of these Claddagh fisherfolk we can trace the +elements of totemism, the root of which is contained, +first, in the nominal worship of a Christian saint, and +second, in the actual worship of an animal, the fox.</p> + +<p>These examples of local totemism may be followed by +a remarkable example of tribal or kinship totemism. +It was noted by Mr. G. H. Kinahan in his researches +for Irish folklore, and is mentioned quite incidentally +among other items, the collector himself not fully +perceiving the importance of his "find." This really +enhances the value of the evidence, because it destroys +any possibility of an objection to its validity—a really +important matter, considering the remarkable character +of this survival of totem-stocks in Western Europe. +The exact words of Mr. Kinahan are as follows:—</p> + +<p>"In very ancient times some of the clan Coneely, +one of the early septs of the county, were changed by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +'art magick' into seals; since then no Coneely can +kill a seal without afterwards having bad luck. Seals +are called Coneelys, and on this account many of +the name changed it to Connolly."<a name="FNanchor_402_402" id="FNanchor_402_402"></a><a href="#Footnote_402_402" class="fnanchor">[402]</a> The same local +tradition is mentioned by Hardiman in one of his +notes to O'Flaherty's <i>Description of West or H-iar +Connaught</i>,<a name="FNanchor_403_403" id="FNanchor_403_403"></a><a href="#Footnote_403_403" class="fnanchor">[403]</a> but the note is equally significant of +genuineness from the fact that the tradition is styled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +"a ridiculous story." It strengthens Mr. Kinahan's +note in the following passage: "In some places the +story has its believers, who would no more kill a seal, +or eat of a slaughtered one, than they would of a human +Coneely."</p> + +<p>The clan Coneely is mentioned both by Mr. Kinahan +and by Mr. Hardiman as one of the oldest Irish septs; +and that it is widely spread, and not congregated into +one locality, is to be inferred from the description of +the tradition as prevalent in Connaught, especially +from Mr. Hardiman's words, describing that "in some +places" the story has its believers now; and hence +we may conclude that wherever the clan Coneely are +situated there would exist this totem belief.</p> + +<p>The full significance of these facts may best be tested +by reference to the conditions laid down by Dr. +Robertson Smith for the discovery of the survivals +of totemism among the Semitic races. These conditions +are as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'(1) The existence of stocks named after plants and +animals'—such stocks, it is necessary to add, being scattered +through many local tribes; (2) the prevalence of the +conception that the members of the stock are of the blood +of the eponym animal, or are sprung from a plant of the +species chosen as totem; (3) the ascription to the totem of +a sacred character which may result in its being regarded +as the god of the stock, but at any rate makes it be regarded +with veneration, so that, for example, a totem animal is not +used as ordinary food. If we can find all these things +together in the same tribe, the proof of totemism is complete; +but even when this cannot be done, the proof may be +morally complete if all the three marks of totemism are +found well developed within the same race. In many cases,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> +however, we can hardly expect to find all the marks of +totemism in its primitive form; the totem, for example, may +have become first an animal god, and then an anthropomorphic +god, with animal attributes or associations merely."<a name="FNanchor_404_404" id="FNanchor_404_404"></a><a href="#Footnote_404_404" class="fnanchor">[404]</a></p></div> + +<p>Now in the Irish case all three of these conditions +are found together in the same tribe, the clan Coneely, +and it is impossible to overlook the importance of such +a discovery. It proves from survivals in folklore that +totemistic people once lived in ancient Ireland, just as +the corresponding evidence proved that the ancient +Semitic stock possessed the totemic organisation.</p> + +<p>We have now examined the most archaic forms of +the survival of totemism in Britain. If we pass on +to inquire whether we can detect the more scattered +and decayed remnants of totem beliefs and customs, +we turn to Mr. Frazer as our guide. From Mr. +Frazer's review of the beliefs and customs incidental +to the totemistic organisation of savage people, it is +possible to extract a formula for ascertaining the classification +of savage beliefs and practices incidental to +totemism. This formula appears to me to properly fall +into the following groups:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>(<i>a</i>) Descent from the totem.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Restrictions against injuring the totem.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Restrictions against using the totem for food.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) The petting and preservation of totems.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) The mourning for and burying of totems.</p> + +<p>(<i>f</i>) Penalties for non-respect of totem.</p> + +<p>(<i>g</i>) Assistance by the totem to his kin.</p> + +<p>(<i>h</i>) Assumption of totem marks.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> +(<i>i</i>) Assumption of totem dress.</p> + +<p>(<i>j</i>) Assumption of totem names.</p></div> + +<p>My suggestion is that if a reasonable proportion of +the superstitions and customs attaching to animals and +plants, preserved to us as folklore, can be classified +under these heads this is exactly what might be expected +if the origin of such superstitions and customs is to be +sought for in a primitive system of totemism which +prevailed amongst the people once occupying these +islands. The clan Coneely and the Ossory wolves are +proofs that such a system existed, and if such perfect +survivals have been able to descend to modern times, +in spite of the influences of civilisation, there is no +<i>primâ facie</i> reason why the beliefs and customs incidental +to such a system should not have survived, even +though they are no longer to be identified with special +clans. When once a primitive belief or custom becomes +separated from its original surroundings, it would be +liable to change. Thus, when the wolf totem of Ossory +passes into a local cultus, we meet with the belief that +human beings may be transformed into animal forms, +as the derivative from the totem belief in descent from +the wolf. Fortunately, the process by which this +change took place is discernible in the Ossory example; +but it will not be so in other examples, and +we may therefore assume that the Ossory example +represents the transitional form and apply it as a key +to the origin of similar beliefs elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Again, if we endeavour to discover how the associated +totem-beliefs of the clan Coneely would appear +in folklore supposing they had been scattered by the +influences of civilisation, we can see that at the various<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +places where members of the clan had resided for some +time there would be preserved fragments of the once +perfect totem-belief. Thus, one place would retain traditions +about a fabulous animal who could change into +human form; another place would preserve beliefs about +its being unlucky to kill a seal (or some other animal +specially connected with the locality); another place +would preserve a superstitious regard for the seal (or +some other local animal) as an augury; and thus the +process of transference of beliefs into folklore, from +one form into other related forms, from one particular +object connected with the clan to several objects connected +with the localities, would go on from time to +time, until the difficulty of tracing the original of the +scattered beliefs and customs would be well-nigh insurmountable +without some key. But having once +proved the existence of such examples as the clan +Coneely and the Ossory wolves, this difficulty, though +still great, is very much lessened. Our method would +be as follows. We first of all postulate that totem +peoples did actually exist in ancient Britain, or whence +such extraordinary survivals? We next examine and +classify the beliefs and customs which are incidental to +totemism in savage society, and having set these forth +by the aid of Mr. Frazer's admirable study on the +subject, we ascertain what parallels to these beliefs and +customs may be found in the folklore of Britain. And +then our position seems to be very clearly defined. We +prove that in folklore certain customs and superstitions +are identical, or nearly so, with the beliefs and customs +of totemism among savage tribes, and we conclude that +this identity in form proves an identity in origin, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> +therefore that this section of folklore originated from +the totemistic people of early Britain.</p> + +<p>I shall not take up all these points on the present +occasion, especially as they have in all essentials appeared +in the study to which I have referred; but as an +example of the scattering of totem beliefs I will refer +to the well-known passage in Cæsar (lib. v. cap. xii.), +from which we learn that certain people in Britain +were forbidden to eat the hare, the cock, or the goose, +and see whether this does not receive its only explanation +by reference to the totemic restriction against +using the totem for food. Mr. Elton, with this +passage in his mind, notices that "there were certain +restrictions among the Britons and ancient Irish, by +which particular nations or tribes were forbidden to +kill or eat certain kinds of animals;" and he goes on to +suggest that "it seems reasonable to connect the rule +of abstaining from certain kinds of food with the +superstitious belief that the tribes were descended from +the animals from which their names and crests or +badges were derived."<a name="FNanchor_405_405" id="FNanchor_405_405"></a><a href="#Footnote_405_405" class="fnanchor">[405]</a></p> + +<p>Let us see whether this reasonable conjecture holds +good. The most famous example is that of Cuchulainn, +the celebrated Irish chieftain, whose name means +the hound of Culain. It is said that he might not eat +of the flesh of the dog, and he came by his death +after transgressing this totemistic taboo. The words +of the manuscript known as the Book of Leinster are +singularly significant in their illustration of this view. +"And one of the things that Cúchulainn was bound +not to do was going to a cooking hearth and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> +consuming the food [<i>i.e.</i> the dog]; and another of the +things that he must not do was eating his namesake's +flesh."<a name="FNanchor_406_406" id="FNanchor_406_406"></a><a href="#Footnote_406_406" class="fnanchor">[406]</a> Diarmaid, whose name seems to be +continued in the current popular Irish name for pig +(Darby), was intimately associated with that animal, +and his life depended on the life of the boar.<a name="FNanchor_407_407" id="FNanchor_407_407"></a><a href="#Footnote_407_407" class="fnanchor">[407]</a> +These examples are so much to the point that we +may examine the cases mentioned by Cæsar from +the same standard.</p> + +<p>Mr. Frazer points out that even among existing +totem-tribes the respect for the totem has lessened or +disappeared, and among the results of this he notes +instances where, if any one kills his totem, he apologises +to the animal. Under such an interpretation as +this, we may surely classify a "memorandum" made +by Bishop White-Kennett about the hare, the first of +the British totems mentioned by Cæsar: "When one +keepes a hare alive and feedeth him till he have occasion +to eat him, if he telles before he kills him that +he will doe so, the hare will thereupon be found dead, +having killed himself."<a name="FNanchor_408_408" id="FNanchor_408_408"></a><a href="#Footnote_408_408" class="fnanchor">[408]</a> But respect for the hare, in +accordance with totem ideas, was carried further than +this at Biddenham, where, on the 22nd September, a +little procession of villagers carried a white rabbit +[a substitute for hare] decorated with scarlet ribbons +through the village, singing a hymn in honour of +St. Agatha. All the young unmarried women who +chanced to meet the procession extended the first two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> +fingers of the left hand pointing towards the rabbit, at +the same time repeating the following doggerel:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gustin, Gustin, lacks a bier,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Maidens, maidens, bury him here.<a name="FNanchor_409_409" id="FNanchor_409_409"></a><a href="#Footnote_409_409" class="fnanchor">[409]</a><br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>This points to a very ancient custom, not yet fully +explained, but which clearly had for its object the +reverential burying of a rabbit or hare. It is characteristic +of the totem animal that it serves as an omen +to its clansmen, and we find that the hare is an +omen in Britain. Boudicca is said to have drawn +an augury from a hare, taken from her bosom, and +which when released pursued a course that was deemed +fortunate for her attack upon the Roman army;<a name="FNanchor_410_410" id="FNanchor_410_410"></a><a href="#Footnote_410_410" class="fnanchor">[410]</a> and +in modern south Northamptonshire the running of a +hare along the street or mainway of a village portends +fire to some house in the immediate vicinity.<a name="FNanchor_411_411" id="FNanchor_411_411"></a><a href="#Footnote_411_411" class="fnanchor">[411]</a> In 1648 +Sir Thomas Browne tells us that in his time there were +few above three-score years that were not perplexed +when a hare crossed their path.<a name="FNanchor_412_412" id="FNanchor_412_412"></a><a href="#Footnote_412_412" class="fnanchor">[412]</a> In Wilts and in +Scotland it was unlucky to meet a hare, but the evil +influence did not extend after the next meal had been +taken.<a name="FNanchor_413_413" id="FNanchor_413_413"></a><a href="#Footnote_413_413" class="fnanchor">[413]</a> Then, too, the prohibition against naming +the totem object is found in north-east Scotland +attached to the hare, whose name may not be pronounced +at sea, and Mr. Gregor adds the significant +fact that some animal names and certain family names<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> +were never pronounced by the inhabitants of some of +the villages, each village having an aversion to one +or more of the words.<a name="FNanchor_414_414" id="FNanchor_414_414"></a><a href="#Footnote_414_414" class="fnanchor">[414]</a> A classification of the beliefs +and customs connected with the hare takes us, indeed, +to almost every phase of totemistic belief, and it is +impossible to reject such a mass of cumulative evidence.</p> + +<p>Of the second of the British food taboos mentioned by +Cæsar we have the most perfect illustration in the +instance of the Irish chieftain, Conaire, who, descended +from a fowl, was interdicted from eating its flesh.<a name="FNanchor_415_415" id="FNanchor_415_415"></a><a href="#Footnote_415_415" class="fnanchor">[415]</a></p> + +<p>Turning next to the goose, we find that at Great +Crosby, in Lancashire, there is held an annual +festival which is called the "Goose Fair," and although +it is accompanied by great feasting, the +singular fact remains that the goose itself, in whose +honour the feast seems to have been held, is considered +too sacred to eat, and is never touched by the +villagers.<a name="FNanchor_416_416" id="FNanchor_416_416"></a><a href="#Footnote_416_416" class="fnanchor">[416]</a> In Scotland also the goose was never +eaten, being too sacred for food.<a name="FNanchor_417_417" id="FNanchor_417_417"></a><a href="#Footnote_417_417" class="fnanchor">[417]</a></p> + +<p>Thus the hare, the fowl, and the goose have retained +their sacred character in a special manner in various +parts of the country, and I may add a further note of +more general significance. In Scotland there exists +a prejudice against eating hares and cocks and hens.<a name="FNanchor_418_418" id="FNanchor_418_418"></a><a href="#Footnote_418_418" class="fnanchor">[418]</a> +In the south-western parts of England the peasant +would not eat hares, rabbits, wild-fowl, or poultry, +and when asked whence this dislike proceeds, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> +asserts that it was derived from his father<a name="FNanchor_419_419" id="FNanchor_419_419"></a><a href="#Footnote_419_419" class="fnanchor">[419]</a>—the +traditional sanction which is so essential to folklore.<a name="FNanchor_420_420" id="FNanchor_420_420"></a><a href="#Footnote_420_420" class="fnanchor">[420]</a></p> + +<p>The ideas surrounding these three special animals +might be easily extended to others, but I will only +observe that Mr. Elton, noting both the classical and +modern accounts of certain districts in Scotland and +Ireland where fish, though abundant, is tabooed as food, +quotes with approval a modern suggestion that this +abstinence was a religious observance.<a name="FNanchor_421_421" id="FNanchor_421_421"></a><a href="#Footnote_421_421" class="fnanchor">[421]</a> That fish +are carved on numerous stones is a curious commentary +on this assertion, while another point to be noted is +that the inhabitants of the various islands have each +their peculiar notions as to what fish are good for +food. Some will eat skate, some dog-fish, some eat +limpets and razor-fish, and as a matter of course, says +Miss Gordon Cumming, those who do not, despise +those who do.<a name="FNanchor_422_422" id="FNanchor_422_422"></a><a href="#Footnote_422_422" class="fnanchor">[422]</a> A prejudice also existed against white +cows in Scotland, and Dalyell ventures upon the acute +supposition that this was on account of the unlawfulness +of consuming the product of a consecrated +animal.<a name="FNanchor_423_423" id="FNanchor_423_423"></a><a href="#Footnote_423_423" class="fnanchor">[423]</a> These are not stray notes of inexperienced +observers, and with two centuries between them it +must be that they contain the essence of the people's +conception—a conception which leads us back to +totemism for its explanation.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> +I do not think we could get closer to totemic beliefs +and ideas than this, nor could we have a better example +of the necessity of examining early historical +data by anthropological tests and by folklore parallels. +Cæsar's words are unimportant by themselves. They +convey nothing of any significance to the modern +reader—a mere dietetic peculiarity which means nothing +and counts for nothing. And yet it might be considered +certain that Cæsar knew that the details he +recorded were of importance in the historical sense. +He did not indicate what the importance was, probably +because he was not aware of it; but because +he was conscious that among the influences which +counted with these people were the food taboos, he +rightly recorded the facts. They have remained unconsidered +trifles until now, when anthropology has +brought them within the range of scientific observation, +and they are now to be reckoned with as part +of the material which tells of the culture conditions +of a section of the early British peoples.</p> + +<p>I must here interpose a remark with reference to +this grouping of the evidence. Apart from the significance +of the superstitions as they are recorded in their +bare condition among the peasantry, there is the +additional fact to note that the superstition against +eating or killing certain animals or birds, or against +looking at them or naming them, etc., is not universal. +It obtains in one place and not in another. If the injunction +not to kill, injure, or eat a certain animal were +simply the reflection of a universal practice, such a +practice might originate in some attribute of the animal +itself which characteristically would produce or tend to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> +produce superstition. But the spread of this class of +superstition in certain districts, and not in others, is +indicative of an ancient origin, and it is exactly what +might be expected to have been produced from totem-peoples. +Unfortunately, neither the negative evidence +of superstitious beliefs nor the local distribution of +superstitious beliefs has ever been considered worthy +of attention. But some little evidence is incidentally +forthcoming, and I would submit that this may be +taken as indicative of what might be obtained more +fully by further research into this neglected aspect of +folklore. I drew Miss Burne's attention to this +subject, and she has noted some particulars in her +valuable <i>Shropshire Folklore</i>.<a name="FNanchor_424_424" id="FNanchor_424_424"></a><a href="#Footnote_424_424" class="fnanchor">[424]</a> But for the most part +this portion of our evidence wants picking out by a long +and tedious process from the mass of badly recorded facts +about popular superstitions. I do not believe in the +generally stated opinion that certain superstitions are +universally believed or practised. It is difficult to +prove a negative, and such evidence is not absolutely +scientific, but when it comes in direct antithesis to +positive, there does not seem any harm in accepting +it. Every class of superstition wants tracing out +geographically, and local variants want careful +noting. I cannot doubt if this were properly done +that many so-called universal superstitions would be +found to be distinctly local. In the meantime, it +is not with universal superstitions that we have to +deal. It is primarily with those local variants which +show us side by side the differences of belief. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> +thus that we can afford evidence of that intermixture +of totem-objects which is to be expected from the +known facts of totem-beliefs and customs. Indeed, +Mr. McLennan has laid it down that "we might +expect that while here and there perhaps a tribe +might appear with a single animal god, as a general +rule tribes and nations should have as many animal +and vegetable gods as there were distinct stocks in +the population ... we should not expect to find the +same animal dominant in all quarters, or worshipped +even everywhere within the same nation."<a name="FNanchor_425_425" id="FNanchor_425_425"></a><a href="#Footnote_425_425" class="fnanchor">[425]</a></p> + +<p>It is important that we should thoroughly understand +what these survivals of totemism in the British +isles really mean. On the extreme west coast of +Ireland, farthest away from the centres of civilisation, +there are found these unique examples of a savage +institution. The argument that they might have been +transplanted thither by travellers from the far west, +where totemism has developed to its highest form, +cannot seriously be advanced. The argument that +they might be the accidental form into which some +merely superstitious fancies of ignorant peasants +happened to have ultimately shaped themselves, is +met by the mathematical demonstration that the ratio +of chance against such a development would be well-nigh +incalculable. The remaining argument is that +they indicate the last outpost, or perhaps one of the +last outposts, of a primitive savage organisation +which once existed throughout these lands. This is +the view that appears to me to be the only possible +one to meet all the conditions of the case; one proof in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> +support of this view being the discovery of evidence in +other parts of the country which shows that totemism has +left its stamp in more or less perfect form upon the traditional +beliefs and practices of the nation. Though we +are not able to identify further complete examples of +the same type as the seal clan of Western Ireland, or +the wolf people of Ossory, we should be able, if the +explanation I have advanced of their origin be the +correct one, to produce examples of the varying forms +which such an institution as totemism must have +assumed when it had been broken up by the advance +of civilising influences. If the seal clan, or the wolf +clan, is in truth the last outpost of a savage organisation, +there will be in the lands less remote from the +centres of civilisation some evidences of the break-up +of savagery as it has been driven westward. Somewhere +in tradition, somewhere in local observances +of beliefs or superstition, there must still be echoes, +more or less faint, but still echoes, from totemism. +Having discovered these undoubted examples of +totemism, the argument shifts its ground. We can +no longer say that the theory of totemism may possibly +explain some of the customs and traditions of the +people. We are, by the logic of the position, compelled +to say that custom and tradition must have +preserved many relics of totemism, and that so far +from seeking to explain custom and tradition by the +theory of totemism, we must seek to explain the +survival of totemism by custom and tradition. I lay +stress on this view of the case because it is hard to +combat the views of those who look upon "mere superstition" +as no explanation of primitive originals. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> +us of the present day the beliefs of the peasantry are +no doubt properly definable as "mere superstition." +But when we examine it as folklore we are seeking for +its origin, not for its modern aspect; we are asking +how "mere superstition" first arose, and in what +forms, not how it exists; we are pushing back the +inquiry from to-day when it exists side by side with a +philosophical and moral religion to the time when it +existed as the sole substitute for philosophy and +morals. Even if it is "mere superstition" it has a +dateless history. It is not conceivable that it suddenly +arose at a particular period before which "mere +superstition" did not exist, and all, both peasant and +chief, were philosophical and moral. It is not conceivable +that the mere superstition of to-day has replaced +bodily the mere superstition of other ages. +Every succeeding age of progress has influenced it, +no doubt, but not eradicated it, and hence the mere +superstition of to-day has just such an unbroken continuity +of history as language or institutions. That +we are able to pick out from among its items undoubted +forms of totemism, and that we may add to +these complete examples a classified grouping of +customs and beliefs in survival parallel to the customs +and beliefs of savage totemism, affords proof that at +least we may carry back that history to the era of +totemism, at whatever point that era may cross the line +of, or come into contact with, political history.</p> + +<p>This is the definite conclusion to be drawn from +the anthropological interpretation of the presence of +totemic beliefs among the survivals of folklore. The +study of the anthropological conditions has occupied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> +a wide range of thought and inquiry, but it leads +us back to a safe basis for research, for it brings +definitely within touch of that realm of man which lies +outside the civilisation wherein folklore is embedded, +the peoples who have made, and the peoples who are +dominated by, that civilisation. The savage of Britain +cannot with this evidence before us be considered as the +mere product of the literature of Greece and Rome. He +is part and parcel of the savagery of the human race. +Anthropology has shown us that savagery reached the +land we now call Britain as part of the general movement +of people which has caused the whole earth to +become a dwelling-place for man, and now that we +know this we must appeal to anthropology whenever +we find that the problems of folklore take us out of the +culture period of a civilisation known to history.<a name="FNanchor_426_426" id="FNanchor_426_426"></a><a href="#Footnote_426_426" class="fnanchor">[426]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p> +<h4>APPENDIX</h4> + +<p>I append a synopsis of the culture-structure of the +Semangs of the Malay Peninsula (references are to +Skeat and Blagden's <i>Pagan Races of the Malay +Peninsula</i> where not otherwise specified), in order that +the position claimed for the one section of totemic +belief may be tested by the remaining characteristics +of Semang culture. I claim that there is nothing that +remains which is inconsistent with the interpretation +given of the totemic items.</p> + +<p><i>Physical</i>:—</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>). Live exclusively in the forest surrounded by +hostile fauna (i. 13).</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>). Food consists of such wild vegetable food as +may happen to fall from time to time in season (i. 109, +341, 525), together with small mammals and birds +(i. 112), fish (i. 113).</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>). As soon as they have exhausted the sources of +food in one neighbourhood they move on to the next +(i. 109).</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>). Fire obtained by friction (i. 111, 113), but meat +is eaten raw (i. 112).</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>). Nudity is alleged (<i>Journ. Indian Archipelago</i>, +i. 252; ii. 258); no satisfactory proof (i. 137); do not +use skins of animals nor feathers of birds (i. 138); a +girdle of fungus string (i. 138, 142, 380); fringe of +leaves suspended from a string (i. 139, 142); necklaces +and ligatures of jungle fibre (i. 144, 145); women wear +a comb made of bamboo as a charm against diseases +(i. 149).</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> +(<i>f</i>). Habitations are rock shelters (i. 173), tree shelters +afforded by branches of trees improved by construction +of a weather screen (i. 174); ground screen of palm +leaves (i. 175).</p> + +<p>(<i>g</i>). Hunt successfully the largest animals, escaping +easily up the trees (i. 202-204).</p> + +<p>(<i>h</i>). Knives made of bamboo, flakes and chips of stone, +knives of bone (i. 249, 269); bow and arrow (i. 251, 255); +not sufficiently advanced to have produced neolithic +implements (i. 268); wooden spear (i. 270).</p> + +<p>(<i>i</i>). Ignorant of pottery, vessels made from big stems +of bamboo (i. 383).</p> + +<p><i>Social</i>:—</p> + +<p>(<i>j</i>). Chief of the group is the principal medicine man, +but is on an equal footing with his men, no caste and +property is in common (i. 497, 499).</p> + +<p>(<i>k</i>). Marriage rights are secured by the presentation +of a jungle knife to the bride's parents and a girdle to +the bride, and the bride never lets the girdle part from +her for fear of its being used to her prejudice in some +magic ceremony; adultery is punishable by death +(ii. 58, 59) [but this information was not obtained from +the most primitive of the Semang people].</p> + +<p>(<i>l</i>). Semang women are common to all men (Newbold, +<i>Political and Stat. Acc. of Settlements in Straits of +Malacca</i>, ii. 379). Great ante-nuptial freedom (ii. 56, +218); "Of the Semang I have not had an opportunity +of personally judging" (ii. 377, Newbold).</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus25" id="Illus25"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 285px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_25.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_25th.jpg" width="285" height="400" +alt="Tree hut, Ulu Batu, about twelve miles from Kuala Lumpur, Selangor (from +Skeat and Blagden's "Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula")" +title="TREE HUT, ULU BATU, ABOUT 12 MILES FROM KUALA LUMPUR, SELANGOR" /></a> +<span class="caption">TREE HUT, ULU BATU, ABOUT 12 MILES FROM KUALA LUMPUR, SELANGOR</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>(<i>m</i>). Eat dead kindred except head (Newbold, ii. 379); +burial takes place in the ground, and the older practice +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>was exposure in trees; the Semang have no dread of +ghosts of the deceased (ii. 89, 91).</p> + +<p>(<i>n</i>). No sacred shrines or places (ii. 197).</p> + +<p>(<i>o</i>). Avoidance of mother-in-law (ii. 204).</p> + +<p>(<i>p</i>). Myth of the ringdove informing the children of +the first woman that they had married within prohibited +degrees of consanguinity, and advising them to separate +and marry "other people" (ii. 218).</p> + +<p>(<i>q</i>). Myth as to ignorance of cause of birth being +dispelled by the cocoanut monkey informing the first +man and woman (ii. 218).</p> + +<p>(<i>r</i>). The Semang are almost ineradicably nomadic, +have no fixed habitation, and rove about like the beasts +of the forest (i. 172; ii. 470).</p> + +<p>(<i>s</i>). Women and girls are not allowed to eat until the +men and boys have finished their repast (i. 116); the +men do most of the hunting and trapping, and the +women take a large share in the collecting of roots and +fruits; all the cooking is performed by the women and +girls (i. 375).</p> + +<p>(<i>t</i>). They are split up into a large number of dialects, +each of which is confined to a relatively small area, and +it often happens that a little [clan] or even a single family +uses a form of speech which is differentiated from other +dialects to be practically unintelligible to all except the +members of the little community itself (ii. 379).</p> + +<p>(<i>u</i>). Natural segregation of the [tribes] into small +[clans] to some extent cut off from one another and +surrounded by settled Malay communities (ii. 379).</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> +(<i>v</i>). The most thoroughly wild and uncivilised +members of our race, regarded by the Malays as little +better than brute beasts, with no recorded history +(ii. 384).</p> + +<p>(<i>w</i>). Nomadic life of the Semang leads them over a +considerable tract of country (ii. 388).</p> + +<p><i>Psychical</i>:—</p> + +<p>(<i>x</i>). Decorative patterns on quivers representing +natural objects, and possessing magical virtue to bring +down various species of monkeys and apes and other +small mammals (i. 417), and as charms for the +men (i. 423).</p> + +<p>(<i>y</i>). Decorative pattern on magic comb worn by +women to serve as a charm against venomous reptiles +and insects, similar design for similar reason sometimes +painted on the breast (i. 41, 420-436).</p> + +<p>(<i>z</i>). Child's name is taken from some tree which +stands near the prospective birthplace of the child. +As soon as the child is born this name is shouted aloud +by the <i>sage femme</i>, who then hands over the child to +another woman, who buries the afterbirth underneath +the birth-tree or name-tree of the child. As soon as +this is done the father cuts a series of notches in the +tree, starting from the ground and terminating at the +height of the breast. The cutting of these notches is +intended to signalise the arrival on earth of a new +human being, since it thus shows that Kari registers +the souls that he has sent forth by notching the tree +against which he leans. Trees thus "blazed" are +never felled. The child must not in later life injure +any tree which belongs to the species of his tree; for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> +him all such trees are taboo, and he must not even eat +their fruit, the only exception being when an expectant +mother revisits her birth-tree. Every tree +of its species is regarded as identical with the birth-tree +(ii. 3, 4). When an East Semang dies his birth-tree +dies too (ii. 5).</p> + +<p>(<i>aa</i>). The child's soul is conveyed in a bird, which +always inhabits a tree of the species to which the birth-tree +belongs. It flies from one tree of the species to +another, following the as yet unborn body. The souls +of first-born children are always young birds newly +hatched, the offspring of the bird which contained the +soul of the mother. If the mother does not eat the +soul-bird during her accouchement the child will be +stillborn or will die shortly after birth (ii. 4, 192, 194, +216). She keeps the soul-bird within the birth-bamboo, +and does not eat it all at once, but piecemeal (ii. 6). +All human souls grow upon a soul-tree in the other +world, whence they are fetched by a bird which was +killed and eaten by the expectant mother (ii. 194).</p> + +<p>(<i>bb</i>). Semang religion, in spite of its recognition of +a thunder-god (Kari) and certain minor deities (so +called), has very little indeed in the way of ceremonial, +and appears to consist mainly of mythology and +legend. It shows remarkably few traces of demon +worship, very little fear of ghosts of the deceased, and +still less of any sort of animistic beliefs (ii. 174). +[As the Kari is the deity common to the Semang +and the people higher in culture than the Semang, +it is difficult to trace out the primitive idea. The +myths also show a common impress, "which is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> +probably mainly due to the same savage Malay element" +(ii. 183).]</p> + +<p>(<i>cc</i>). During a storm of thunder and lightning the +Semang draw a few drops of blood from the region of +the shin bone, mix it with a little water in a bamboo +receptacle, and throw it up to the angry skies (ii. 204).</p> + +<p>(<i>dd</i>). Pretend entire ignorance of a supreme being, +but on pressure confessed to a very powerful yet +benevolent being, the maker of the world (ii. 209).</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_284_284" id="Footnote_284_284"></a><a href="#FNanchor_284_284"><span class="label">[284]</span></a> Beddoe, <i>Races of Britain</i>, cap. ii., and <i>Journ. Anthrop. Inst.</i>, xxxv. +236-7; Boyd-Dawkins, <i>Early Man in Britain</i>, cap. vii. viii. and ix.; +Ripley, <i>Races of Europe</i>, cap. xii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_285_285" id="Footnote_285_285"></a><a href="#FNanchor_285_285"><span class="label">[285]</span></a> Rhys, <i>Celtic Britain</i>, 271; Rhys, <i>Celtic Heathendom</i>, <i>passim</i>; Rhys +and Jones, <i>Welsh People</i>, cap. i. and Appendix B on "Pre-Aryan Syntax +in Insular Celtic," by Professor Morris Jones.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_286_286" id="Footnote_286_286"></a><a href="#FNanchor_286_286"><span class="label">[286]</span></a> Barrows, mounds, tumuli, stone circles, monoliths are generally +admitted to belong to the Stone Age people before the Celts arrived, +and when they are adequately investigated, as Mr. Arthur Evans has investigated +Stonehenge (<i>Archæological Review</i>, vol. ii. pp. 312-330), and +the Rollright Stones (<i>Folklore</i>, vol. vi. pp. 5-51), the evidence of a prehistoric +origin is unquestioned.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_287_287" id="Footnote_287_287"></a><a href="#FNanchor_287_287"><span class="label">[287]</span></a> I have worked out the evidence for this in the <i>Archæological Review</i>, +vol. iii. pp. 217-242, 350-375, and though I do not endorse all I have +written there, the main points are still, I think, good.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_288_288" id="Footnote_288_288"></a><a href="#FNanchor_288_288"><span class="label">[288]</span></a> Wallace, <i>Darwinism</i>, cap. xv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_289_289" id="Footnote_289_289"></a><a href="#FNanchor_289_289"><span class="label">[289]</span></a> Spencer and Gillen, <i>Central Tribes of Australia</i>, 12, 272, 324, +368, 420.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_290_290" id="Footnote_290_290"></a><a href="#FNanchor_290_290"><span class="label">[290]</span></a> <i>Descent of Man</i>, i. cap. vii. 176.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_291_291" id="Footnote_291_291"></a><a href="#FNanchor_291_291"><span class="label">[291]</span></a> <i>Cf.</i> Topinard's <i>Anthropology</i>, part iii., "On the Origin of Man," +pp. 515-535, for the details of the various authorities ranged on the sides +of monogenists and polygenists.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_292_292" id="Footnote_292_292"></a><a href="#FNanchor_292_292"><span class="label">[292]</span></a> Keane, <i>Man, Past and Present</i>, discusses the important evidence +obtained by Dr. Dubois from Java, and Dr. Noetling from Upper Burma, +pp. 5-8. It is only fair to that brilliant scholar, Dr. Latham, to point out +that without the evidence before him to prove the point, he came to the +same conclusion that the original home of man was "somewhere in +intra-tropical Asia, and that it was the single locality of a single pair."—Latham, +<i>Man and his Migrations</i>, 248.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_293_293" id="Footnote_293_293"></a><a href="#FNanchor_293_293"><span class="label">[293]</span></a> The most recent example of this is Mr. Thomas's extraordinary +treatment of the evidence of migration in Australia. It produces in his +mind "novel conditions," but has effects which he cannot neglect, but +which he strangely misinterprets. N. W. Thomas, <i>Kinship Organisations +in Australia</i>, 27-28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_294_294" id="Footnote_294_294"></a><a href="#FNanchor_294_294"><span class="label">[294]</span></a> Spencer, <i>Principles of Sociology</i>, i. 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_295_295" id="Footnote_295_295"></a><a href="#FNanchor_295_295"><span class="label">[295]</span></a> Lord Avebury, <i>Prehistoric Times</i>, 586.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_296_296" id="Footnote_296_296"></a><a href="#FNanchor_296_296"><span class="label">[296]</span></a> <i>Man, Past and Present</i>, pp. 1, 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_297_297" id="Footnote_297_297"></a><a href="#FNanchor_297_297"><span class="label">[297]</span></a> Latham, <i>Man and his Migrations</i>, 155-6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_298_298" id="Footnote_298_298"></a><a href="#FNanchor_298_298"><span class="label">[298]</span></a> The ethnographic movement is a very definite fact in anthropological +evidence, though it has been little noted. Thus "the Coles are evidently +a good pioneering race, fond of new clearings and the luxuriant and +easily raised crops of the virgin soil, and have constitutions that thrive +on malaria, so it is perhaps in the best interest of humanity and cause of +civilisation that they be kept moving by continued Aryan propulsion. +Ever armed with bow, arrows, and pole-axe, they are prepared to do +battle with the beasts of the forest, holding even the king of the forest, +the 'Bun Rajah,' that is, the tiger, in little fear."—Col. Dalton in <i>Journ. +Asiatic Soc., Bengal</i>, xxxiv. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_299_299" id="Footnote_299_299"></a><a href="#FNanchor_299_299"><span class="label">[299]</span></a> Traditions of great migrations exist among most primitive races. +Some of these contain unexpected corroboration from actual discoveries. +Thus the natives of New Zealand had a tradition that their ancestors, +when they arrived in their canoes some four centuries ago, buried some +sacred things under a large tree. It is said that the tree was blown +down in recent times and that the sacred things were discovered. Taplin +records "a good specimen of the kind of migration which has taken +place among the aborigines all over the continent" (<i>The Narrinyeri</i>, p. 4); +and similar evidence could be produced in almost every direction. +Mr. Mathew in <i>Eaglehawk and Crow</i> deals with "the argument from +mythology and tradition" as to the origin of the Australians in a very +suggestive fashion (pp. 14-22). Stanley has preserved an African native +tradition of local groups spreading out from the parent home <i>(Through +the Dark Continent</i>, i. 346).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_300_300" id="Footnote_300_300"></a><a href="#FNanchor_300_300"><span class="label">[300]</span></a> I am aware this is disputed by O. Peschel—<i>Races of Man</i>, 137 <i>et +seq.</i>—but I think the evidence is sufficient; and it must be remembered +that there is direct evidence of the most backward races not using the fire +they possess for cooking, but always eating their animal food raw, as, for +instance, the Semang people of the Malay Peninsula. (See Skeat and +Blagden, <i>Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula</i>, i. 112.) The Andaman +Islanders could not make fire, though they possessed and kept it alive. +This shows that they must have borrowed it and did not previously +possess it.—Quatrefages, <i>The Pygmies</i>, 108. Tylor, <i>Early History of +Mankind</i>, cap. ix., should be consulted.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_301_301" id="Footnote_301_301"></a><a href="#FNanchor_301_301"><span class="label">[301]</span></a> The term political is, I confess, a little awkward, owing to its +specially modern use, but it is the only term which, in its early sense, +expresses the stage of social development represented by a polity as +distinct from a mere localisation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_302_302" id="Footnote_302_302"></a><a href="#FNanchor_302_302"><span class="label">[302]</span></a> It was one of the first efforts of the science of language to endeavour +to trace out the original home of the so-called Aryas and their subsequent +migrations. "Emigration," said Bunsen, "is the great agent in forming +nations and languages" (<i>Philosophy of Hist.</i>, i. 56); and Niebuhr, who +has traced out most of the migrations of the Greek tribes, observes that +"this migration of nations was formerly not mentioned anywhere" +(<i>Anc. Hist.</i>, ii. 212). Quite recently, Professor Flinders Petrie has worked +at the question of European migrations in the Huxley lecture of 1907 +(<i>Journ. Anthrop. Inst.</i>, xxxvi. 189-232), his valuable maps showing "the +movements of twenty of the principal peoples that entered Europe during +the centuries of great movements that are best known to us" (204). In +the meantime, the folklorist has much to do in this direction, and up to +the present he has almost entirely ignored or misread the evidence. I +do not know whether Mr. Nutt would still adhere to his conclusion that +the myth embodied in the Celtic expulsion-and-return formula is undoubtedly +solar (<i>Folklore Record</i>, iv. 42), but a restatement of Mr. +Nutt's careful and elaborate analysis would lead me to trace the myth to +the migration period of Aryan history, just as I agree with von Ihering +that the <i>ver sacrum</i> of the Romans is a rite continued from the migration +period to express in religious formulæ, and on emergency to again carry +out, the ancient practice of sending forth from an overstocked centre +sufficient of the tribesmen and tribeswomen to leave those who remained +economically well-conditioned (<i>The Evolution of the Aryan</i>, 249-290). +Pheidon's law at Corinth, alluded to by Aristotle (<i>Pol.</i>, ii. cap. vi.), could +only be carried out by a sending out of the surplus. See also Aristotle, +<i>Pol.</i>, ii. cap. xii.; and Newman's note to the first reference, quoting similar +laws elsewhere. Both the "junior-right" traditions and customs take us +back to the same conditions. The occupation of fresh territories is an +observable feature of the Russian mir (Wallace, <i>Russia</i>, i. 255; Laveleye +<i>Primitive Property</i>, 34), and Mr. Chadwick has recently called attention +to the corresponding Scandinavian evidence (<i>Origin of the English +Nation</i>, 334).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_303_303" id="Footnote_303_303"></a><a href="#FNanchor_303_303"><span class="label">[303]</span></a> Mr. J. R. Logan long ago pointed out that "the further we go back, +we find ethnic characteristics more uniform," and further concluded that +certain facts observed by himself "lead to the inference that the Archaic +world was connected."—<i>Journ. Indian Archipelago</i>, iv. 290, 291.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_304_304" id="Footnote_304_304"></a><a href="#FNanchor_304_304"><span class="label">[304]</span></a> <i>Descent of Man</i>, pp. 590, 591.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_305_305" id="Footnote_305_305"></a><a href="#FNanchor_305_305"><span class="label">[305]</span></a> <i>Studies in Ancient History</i>, i. 84.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_306_306" id="Footnote_306_306"></a><a href="#FNanchor_306_306"><span class="label">[306]</span></a> <i>History of Human Marriage</i>, cap. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_307_307" id="Footnote_307_307"></a><a href="#FNanchor_307_307"><span class="label">[307]</span></a> <i>Ancient Society</i>, p. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_308_308" id="Footnote_308_308"></a><a href="#FNanchor_308_308"><span class="label">[308]</span></a> <i>Secret of the Totem</i>, p. 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_309_309" id="Footnote_309_309"></a><a href="#FNanchor_309_309"><span class="label">[309]</span></a> N. W. Thomas, <i>Kinship Organisation in Australia</i>, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_310_310" id="Footnote_310_310"></a><a href="#FNanchor_310_310"><span class="label">[310]</span></a> <i>Folklore</i>, xii. 232.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_311_311" id="Footnote_311_311"></a><a href="#FNanchor_311_311"><span class="label">[311]</span></a> Both Dr. Haddon and myself made the same point on a criticism of +Mr. Fraser's <i>Golden Bough</i>, mine being from the Aricia rites, and Dr. +Haddon's from the savage parallels thereto. See <i>Folklore</i>, xii. 223, +224, 232.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_312_312" id="Footnote_312_312"></a><a href="#FNanchor_312_312"><span class="label">[312]</span></a> Sproat's <i>Scenes and Studies of Savage Life</i>, 19. The use of the +term "tribe" in this quotation is, of course, descriptive only. There is +no tribal constitution among the Ahts, and "group" would have been +the preferable term.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_313_313" id="Footnote_313_313"></a><a href="#FNanchor_313_313"><span class="label">[313]</span></a> Dr. W. H. Rivers' recently published work on the Todas is the +best authority.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_314_314" id="Footnote_314_314"></a><a href="#FNanchor_314_314"><span class="label">[314]</span></a> Rivers, <i>op. cit.</i>, 432, 455.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_315_315" id="Footnote_315_315"></a><a href="#FNanchor_315_315"><span class="label">[315]</span></a> Rivers, <i>op. cit.</i>, cap. xxi. 504, 517.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_316_316" id="Footnote_316_316"></a><a href="#FNanchor_316_316"><span class="label">[316]</span></a> Rivers, <i>op. cit.</i>, 452-456.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_317_317" id="Footnote_317_317"></a><a href="#FNanchor_317_317"><span class="label">[317]</span></a> Latham, <i>Descriptive Ethnology</i>, ii, 137.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_318_318" id="Footnote_318_318"></a><a href="#FNanchor_318_318"><span class="label">[318]</span></a> Bucher, <i>Industrial Evolution</i>, 56.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_319_319" id="Footnote_319_319"></a><a href="#FNanchor_319_319"><span class="label">[319]</span></a> Rev. George Taplin, <i>The Narrinyeri; South Australian Aborigines</i>, +40. <i>Cf.</i> Howitt, <i>Native Tribes of South-east Australia</i>, 710-720; +Grierson, <i>The Silent Trade</i>, 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_320_320" id="Footnote_320_320"></a><a href="#FNanchor_320_320"><span class="label">[320]</span></a> <i>Cf.</i> Skeat and Blagden, <i>Pagan Tribes of Malay Peninsula</i>, i, 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_321_321" id="Footnote_321_321"></a><a href="#FNanchor_321_321"><span class="label">[321]</span></a> Graham, <i>Bheel Tribes of Khandesh</i>, 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_322_322" id="Footnote_322_322"></a><a href="#FNanchor_322_322"><span class="label">[322]</span></a> Herodotos, iv. 180.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_323_323" id="Footnote_323_323"></a><a href="#FNanchor_323_323"><span class="label">[323]</span></a> <i>Journ. Asiatic Soc., Bengal</i>, xiii. 625.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_324_324" id="Footnote_324_324"></a><a href="#FNanchor_324_324"><span class="label">[324]</span></a> Major Gurdon, <i>The Khasis</i>, 76, 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_325_325" id="Footnote_325_325"></a><a href="#FNanchor_325_325"><span class="label">[325]</span></a> N. W. Thomas, <i>Kinship Organisations in Australia</i>, 124.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_326_326" id="Footnote_326_326"></a><a href="#FNanchor_326_326"><span class="label">[326]</span></a> Fustel de Coulange's <i>Cité Antique</i>, cap. xiv. and xv., is, however, +the most exaggerated example of this point of view.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_327_327" id="Footnote_327_327"></a><a href="#FNanchor_327_327"><span class="label">[327]</span></a> Lang, <i>Social Origins</i>, 1. The latest exponent of anthropological +principles affirms that "the family which exists in the lower stages of +culture, though it is overshadowed by the other social phenomena, has +persisted through all the manifold revolutions of society."—N. W. +Thomas, <i>Kinship Organisations in Australia</i>, 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_328_328" id="Footnote_328_328"></a><a href="#FNanchor_328_328"><span class="label">[328]</span></a> Jevons' <i>Introd. to Hist. of Religion</i>, 195.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_329_329" id="Footnote_329_329"></a><a href="#FNanchor_329_329"><span class="label">[329]</span></a> See also Prof. Geikie in <i>Scottish Geographical Mag.</i> (Sept. 1897).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_330_330" id="Footnote_330_330"></a><a href="#FNanchor_330_330"><span class="label">[330]</span></a> <i>Early Hist. of Mankind</i>, 303; MacCulloch, <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>, +396; Gould, <i>Mythical Monsters</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_331_331" id="Footnote_331_331"></a><a href="#FNanchor_331_331"><span class="label">[331]</span></a> Mr. Westermarck has collected excellent evidence as to the economic +influences upon savage society (<i>Hist. of Human Marriage</i>, 39-49), and +we may quite properly assume the same conditions for earliest man.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_332_332" id="Footnote_332_332"></a><a href="#FNanchor_332_332"><span class="label">[332]</span></a> A very good summary of the pygmy peoples in all parts of the world +is given by Mr. W. A. Reed in his useful <i>Negritos of Zambales</i>, 13-22. +<i>Cf.</i> Keane, <i>Man, Past and Present</i>, 118-121; Keane, <i>Ethnology</i>, 246-248; +and Sir W. H. Flower, <i>Essays on Museums</i>, cap. xix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_333_333" id="Footnote_333_333"></a><a href="#FNanchor_333_333"><span class="label">[333]</span></a> Latham, <i>Man and his Migrations</i>, 55, 56. Dr. Beke was a most +cautious observer, and I have consulted all his contributions to the +<i>Journal of the Geographical Society</i> (vol. xiii.) and have found no sign +of his retraction of the evidence. His correspondence in the <i>Literary +Gazette</i> of 1843, p. 852, discusses the question of the Dokos being +pygmies, but he adheres to his information as to the absence of social +structure being correct.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_334_334" id="Footnote_334_334"></a><a href="#FNanchor_334_334"><span class="label">[334]</span></a> Lib. ii. 32, 8; <i>cf.</i> Quatrefages, <i>The Pygmies</i>, cap. 1, "The Pygmies +of the Ancients."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_335_335" id="Footnote_335_335"></a><a href="#FNanchor_335_335"><span class="label">[335]</span></a> Lieut.-Col. Sutherland, <i>Memoir respecting the Kaffirs, Hottentots, +and Bosjemans</i>, i. 67 (Cape Town, 1846).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_336_336" id="Footnote_336_336"></a><a href="#FNanchor_336_336"><span class="label">[336]</span></a> Burrows, <i>The Land of Pygmies</i>, 182.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_337_337" id="Footnote_337_337"></a><a href="#FNanchor_337_337"><span class="label">[337]</span></a> Mr. A. B. Lloyd's volume <i>In Dwarfland and Cannibal Country</i>, +p. 96, is the most recent evidence.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_338_338" id="Footnote_338_338"></a><a href="#FNanchor_338_338"><span class="label">[338]</span></a> It is worth noting here that the Chinese traditions of the pygmies +are exceedingly suggestive and curious. See Moseley, <i>Notes by a +Naturalist</i>, 369.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_339_339" id="Footnote_339_339"></a><a href="#FNanchor_339_339"><span class="label">[339]</span></a> Skeat and Blagden, <i>Malay Peninsula</i>, ii. 443.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_340_340" id="Footnote_340_340"></a><a href="#FNanchor_340_340"><span class="label">[340]</span></a> <i>Journ. Indian Archipelago</i>, iv. 425-427; <i>cf.</i> <i>Journ. Anthrop. Inst.</i>, +xvi. 228; Wallace, <i>Malay Archipelago</i>, 452.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_341_341" id="Footnote_341_341"></a><a href="#FNanchor_341_341"><span class="label">[341]</span></a> Clifford, <i>In Court and Kampong</i>, 171-181.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_342_342" id="Footnote_342_342"></a><a href="#FNanchor_342_342"><span class="label">[342]</span></a> Skeat and Blagden, <i>Pagan Races of Malay Peninsula</i>, i. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_343_343" id="Footnote_343_343"></a><a href="#FNanchor_343_343"><span class="label">[343]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, i. 53-4, 139, 169, 172, 341.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_344_344" id="Footnote_344_344"></a><a href="#FNanchor_344_344"><span class="label">[344]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, i. 170.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_345_345" id="Footnote_345_345"></a><a href="#FNanchor_345_345"><span class="label">[345]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, i. 243-248, 268.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_346_346" id="Footnote_346_346"></a><a href="#FNanchor_346_346"><span class="label">[346]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, i. 494; ii. 56, 218.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_347_347" id="Footnote_347_347"></a><a href="#FNanchor_347_347"><span class="label">[347]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, ii. 3. Compare <i>Journ. Indian Archipelago</i>, iv. 427, "they +are called after particular trees, that is, if a child is born under or near a +cocoanut or durian, or any particular tree in the forest, it is named +accordingly," and John Anderson, <i>Considerations relative to Malayan +Peninsula</i>, 1824, p. xli.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_348_348" id="Footnote_348_348"></a><a href="#FNanchor_348_348"><span class="label">[348]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, ii. 4, 192, 194.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_349_349" id="Footnote_349_349"></a><a href="#FNanchor_349_349"><span class="label">[349]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, ii. 174, 209.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_350_350" id="Footnote_350_350"></a><a href="#FNanchor_350_350"><span class="label">[350]</span></a> <i>Archæological Review</i>, i. 13, from an official report published in a +Government Blue Book.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_351_351" id="Footnote_351_351"></a><a href="#FNanchor_351_351"><span class="label">[351]</span></a> Brinton, <i>The American Race</i>; Curtin, <i>Creation Myths of Primitive +America</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_352_352" id="Footnote_352_352"></a><a href="#FNanchor_352_352"><span class="label">[352]</span></a> Darwin, <i>Journal of Researches</i>, 228.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_353_353" id="Footnote_353_353"></a><a href="#FNanchor_353_353"><span class="label">[353]</span></a> <i>Anthropological Inst.</i>, vii. 502-510.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_354_354" id="Footnote_354_354"></a><a href="#FNanchor_354_354"><span class="label">[354]</span></a> Quatrefages, <i>The Pygmies</i>, 24, 48, 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_355_355" id="Footnote_355_355"></a><a href="#FNanchor_355_355"><span class="label">[355]</span></a> There is ample evidence of this characteristic. Thus, of the +Australians of Port Lincoln district, it is said that "the habit of constantly +changing their place of rest is so great that they cannot overcome +it even if staying where all their wants can be abundantly +supplied."—<i>Trans. Roy. Soc., Victoria</i>, v. 178.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_356_356" id="Footnote_356_356"></a><a href="#FNanchor_356_356"><span class="label">[356]</span></a> <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, lxxviii. 455.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_357_357" id="Footnote_357_357"></a><a href="#FNanchor_357_357"><span class="label">[357]</span></a> <i>Secret of the Totem</i>, 125, 140.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_358_358" id="Footnote_358_358"></a><a href="#FNanchor_358_358"><span class="label">[358]</span></a> <i>British Association Report</i>, 1902, p. 745. <i>Cf.</i> Spencer and Gillen, +<i>Northern Tribes of Central Australia</i>, 160<ins class="correction" title="period missing in original">.</ins></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_359_359" id="Footnote_359_359"></a><a href="#FNanchor_359_359"><span class="label">[359]</span></a> Lang, <i>Secret of the Totem</i>, 140, quoting Grey, <i>Vocabulary of the +Dialects of South-west Australia</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_360_360" id="Footnote_360_360"></a><a href="#FNanchor_360_360"><span class="label">[360]</span></a> Spencer and Gillen, <i>Tribes of Central Australia</i>, 119.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_361_361" id="Footnote_361_361"></a><a href="#FNanchor_361_361"><span class="label">[361]</span></a> The reader should consult Mason's <i>Women's Share in Primitive +Culture</i>, and Bucher's <i>Industrial Evolution</i>, for evidence on this point.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_362_362" id="Footnote_362_362"></a><a href="#FNanchor_362_362"><span class="label">[362]</span></a> Livingstone, <i>South Africa</i>, 462.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_363_363" id="Footnote_363_363"></a><a href="#FNanchor_363_363"><span class="label">[363]</span></a> Sleeman, <i>Rambles of an Indian Official</i>, i. 43. "Banotsarg is the +name given to the marriage ceremony performed in honour of a newly +planted orchard, without which preliminary observance it is not proper +to partake of its fruit. A man holding the Salagram personates the +bridegroom, and another holding the sacred Tulsi personates the bride. +After burning a hom or sacrificial fire, the officiating Brahmin puts the +usual questions to the couple about to be united. The bride then perambulates +a small spot marked out in the centre of the orchard. Proceeding +from the south towards the west, she makes the circuit three +times, followed at a short distance by the bridegroom holding in his hand +a strip of her chadar of garment. After this, the bridegroom takes +precedence, making his three circuits, and followed in like manner by +his bride. The ceremony concludes with the usual offerings" (Elliot, +<i>Folklore of North-west Provinces of India</i>, i. 234).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_364_364" id="Footnote_364_364"></a><a href="#FNanchor_364_364"><span class="label">[364]</span></a> Myths explaining the domestication of animals belong to this stage +of culture. The dog is a sacred animal among the Khasis, with certain +totemic associations, and there is a very realistic and humanising myth +relating how the dog came to be regarded as the friend of man (Gurdon, +<i>The Khasis</i>, 51, 172-3). The Kyeng creation legend includes a good +example of animal friendship with man (Lewin, <i>Wild Races of South-east +India</i>, 238-9). The American creation myths afford remarkable testimony +to this view of the case. "Game and fish of all sorts were under +direct divine supervision ... maize or Indian corn is a transformed +god who gave himself to be eaten to save men from hunger and death" +(Curtin, <i>Creation Myths of Primitive America</i>, pp. xxvi, xxxviii). The +Narrinyeri Australians "do not appear to have any story of the origin +of the world, but nearly all animals they suppose anciently to have been +men who performed great prodigies, and at last transformed themselves +into different kinds of animals and stones" (Taplin, <i>The Narrinyeri</i>, +59).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_365_365" id="Footnote_365_365"></a><a href="#FNanchor_365_365"><span class="label">[365]</span></a> <i>Legend of Perseus</i>, i. cap. vi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_366_366" id="Footnote_366_366"></a><a href="#FNanchor_366_366"><span class="label">[366]</span></a> <i>Secret of the Totem</i>, 29.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_367_367" id="Footnote_367_367"></a><a href="#FNanchor_367_367"><span class="label">[367]</span></a> Mitchell, <i>Australian Expeditions</i>, i. 307; <i>cf.</i> Fison and Howitt, +<i>Kamilaroi and Kurnai</i>, 200, 224; Taplin, <i>The Narrinyeri</i>, 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_368_368" id="Footnote_368_368"></a><a href="#FNanchor_368_368"><span class="label">[368]</span></a> Curr, <i>Australian Race</i>, i. p. 193; <i>cf.</i> Smyth, <i>Aborigines of Victoria</i>, +ii. p. 316.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_369_369" id="Footnote_369_369"></a><a href="#FNanchor_369_369"><span class="label">[369]</span></a> Fison and Howitt, <i>Kamilaroi and Kurnai</i>, 66, 285, 289.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_370_370" id="Footnote_370_370"></a><a href="#FNanchor_370_370"><span class="label">[370]</span></a> Fison and Howitt, <i>op. cit.</i>, 68, 73.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_371_371" id="Footnote_371_371"></a><a href="#FNanchor_371_371"><span class="label">[371]</span></a> Lang, <i>Secret of the Totem</i>, 64.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_372_372" id="Footnote_372_372"></a><a href="#FNanchor_372_372"><span class="label">[372]</span></a> Spencer and Gillen, <i>Central Tribes</i>, 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_373_373" id="Footnote_373_373"></a><a href="#FNanchor_373_373"><span class="label">[373]</span></a> Spencer and Gillen, <i>Central Tribes</i>, 120, 124, 133.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_374_374" id="Footnote_374_374"></a><a href="#FNanchor_374_374"><span class="label">[374]</span></a> <i>Globus</i>, xci, a very important criticism of Spencer and Gillen's +work.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_375_375" id="Footnote_375_375"></a><a href="#FNanchor_375_375"><span class="label">[375]</span></a> Spencer and Gillen, <i>op. cit.</i>, 139, 154.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_376_376" id="Footnote_376_376"></a><a href="#FNanchor_376_376"><span class="label">[376]</span></a> Spencer and Gillen, <i>Northern Tribes</i>, 144.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_377_377" id="Footnote_377_377"></a><a href="#FNanchor_377_377"><span class="label">[377]</span></a> <i>Globus</i>, xci, gives important evidence of traces of female descent +among the Arunta.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_378_378" id="Footnote_378_378"></a><a href="#FNanchor_378_378"><span class="label">[378]</span></a> There is conflict of testimony on this point. Spencer and Gillen +deny that the Arunta recognise the fact of paternity in any way (see +<i>Northern Tribes</i>, pp. xiii, 145, 330), and yet talk of the "actual father" +in ceremonial functions (p. 361).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_379_379" id="Footnote_379_379"></a><a href="#FNanchor_379_379"><span class="label">[379]</span></a> Skeat and Blagden, <i>Malay Peninsula</i>, ii. 218.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_380_380" id="Footnote_380_380"></a><a href="#FNanchor_380_380"><span class="label">[380]</span></a> Newbold, <i>Political and State Acc. of Malacca</i>, ii.; Skeat and +Blagden, <i>op. cit.</i>, ii. 56.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_381_381" id="Footnote_381_381"></a><a href="#FNanchor_381_381"><span class="label">[381]</span></a> Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, <i>Central Tribes</i>, 36, give a useful note +on this point.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_382_382" id="Footnote_382_382"></a><a href="#FNanchor_382_382"><span class="label">[382]</span></a> In this they are exactly paralleled by the Khasi people of Assam, +among whom we find a limited sort of male chiefship by succession +through females, and an absolute succession to property by females by +succession through females (Gurdon, <i>The Khasis</i>, 68, 88). Descent +from the female is absolute in both cases, and all we get is male +ascendancy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_383_383" id="Footnote_383_383"></a><a href="#FNanchor_383_383"><span class="label">[383]</span></a> <i>Secret of the Totem</i>, 73.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_384_384" id="Footnote_384_384"></a><a href="#FNanchor_384_384"><span class="label">[384]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, 79.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_385_385" id="Footnote_385_385"></a><a href="#FNanchor_385_385"><span class="label">[385]</span></a> Lang, <i>Secret of the Totem</i>, 148.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_386_386" id="Footnote_386_386"></a><a href="#FNanchor_386_386"><span class="label">[386]</span></a> <i>Central Tribes</i>, 72. Mrs. Langloh Parker's information as to the +origin of the Euahlayi two-class division having arisen from an amalgamation +of two distinct tribes, points to the same facts.—<i>Euahlayi +Tribe</i>, 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_387_387" id="Footnote_387_387"></a><a href="#FNanchor_387_387"><span class="label">[387]</span></a> Spencer and Gillen, <i>Tribes of Central Australia</i>, 96, 99, 106.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_388_388" id="Footnote_388_388"></a><a href="#FNanchor_388_388"><span class="label">[388]</span></a> Lang's Introd. to Bolland's <i>Aristotle's Politics</i> (1877), p. 104; Grant +Allen's <i>Anglo-Saxon Britain</i> (1888), pp. 79-83.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_389_389" id="Footnote_389_389"></a><a href="#FNanchor_389_389"><span class="label">[389]</span></a> <i>Topography of Ireland</i>, lib. ii. cap. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_390_390" id="Footnote_390_390"></a><a href="#FNanchor_390_390"><span class="label">[390]</span></a> <i>Hist. of Ireland</i>, ii. 361.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_391_391" id="Footnote_391_391"></a><a href="#FNanchor_391_391"><span class="label">[391]</span></a> <i>Irish Nennius</i>, p. 205; Lang, <i>Custom and Myth</i>, p. 265; <i>Revue +Celtique</i>, ii. 202.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_392_392" id="Footnote_392_392"></a><a href="#FNanchor_392_392"><span class="label">[392]</span></a> <i>View of the State of Ireland</i>, p. 99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_393_393" id="Footnote_393_393"></a><a href="#FNanchor_393_393"><span class="label">[393]</span></a> Moryson, <i>Hist. of Ireland</i>, ii. 367.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_394_394" id="Footnote_394_394"></a><a href="#FNanchor_394_394"><span class="label">[394]</span></a> Aubrey, <i>Remaines of Gentilisme</i>, 204.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_395_395" id="Footnote_395_395"></a><a href="#FNanchor_395_395"><span class="label">[395]</span></a> Camden, <i>Britannia</i>, iii. 455; iv. 459.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_396_396" id="Footnote_396_396"></a><a href="#FNanchor_396_396"><span class="label">[396]</span></a> The significance of the word "gossip" is worth noting. Halliwell +says it "signified a <i>relation</i> or sponsor in baptism, all of whom were to +each other and to the parents <i>God-sibs</i>, that is, <i>sib</i>, or related by means +of religion." This meaning does not seem to have died out in the +days of Spenser, and his use of the word to describe the relationship of +the men of Ossory to wolves is very significant. For the history of this +important word see Hearn's <i>Aryan Household</i>, 290.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_397_397" id="Footnote_397_397"></a><a href="#FNanchor_397_397"><span class="label">[397]</span></a> Otway, <i>Sketches in Erris</i>, 383-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_398_398" id="Footnote_398_398"></a><a href="#FNanchor_398_398"><span class="label">[398]</span></a> <i>Folklore Record</i>, iv. 98.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_399_399" id="Footnote_399_399"></a><a href="#FNanchor_399_399"><span class="label">[399]</span></a> <i>Ulster Journ. Arch.</i>, ii. 161, 162. They have also another primitive +trait. Their trade emblems are carved on their tombstones. <i>Roy. Irish +Acad.</i>, vii. 260.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_400_400" id="Footnote_400_400"></a><a href="#FNanchor_400_400"><span class="label">[400]</span></a> This I gather from <i>Ulster Journ. Arch.</i>, ii. 164, where it is stated +that the hare is unpropitious.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_401_401" id="Footnote_401_401"></a><a href="#FNanchor_401_401"><span class="label">[401]</span></a> <i>Folklore Journal</i>, ii. 259.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_402_402" id="Footnote_402_402"></a><a href="#FNanchor_402_402"><span class="label">[402]</span></a> <i>Folklore Journal</i>, ii. 259; <i>Folklore Record</i>, iv. 104. Miss Ffennell kindly +informed me at the meeting of the Folklore Society where I read a paper +on the subject, that she had frequently heard the islanders of Achill, off the +coast of Ireland, state their belief that they were descended from seals.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_403_403" id="Footnote_403_403"></a><a href="#FNanchor_403_403"><span class="label">[403]</span></a> Published by the <i>Irish Archæological Society</i>, p. 27; there is a Seal +Island off the coast of Donegal (Joyce, <i>Irish Place-Names</i>, ii. 282); and +some Shetland legends of the seal will be found in <i>Soc. Antiq. Scot.</i>, +i. 86-89. Seals are eaten for food in the island of Harris (see Martin, +<i>Western Islands</i>, 36), and one called the Virgin Mary's Seal is offered +to the minister (Reeves, <i>Adamnan Vita. Columb.</i>, 78, note <i>g</i>). The +attitude of the Irish to seals is shown by the two following notes:— +"At Erris, in Ireland, seals are considered to be human beings under +enchantment, and they consider it unlucky to have anything to do with +seals, and to have one live near their dwelling is considered as productive +of evil to life and property. A story current, in 1841, describes how a +young fisherman came in a fog upon an island whereon lived these +enchanted men in their human form, but when they quitted it they +turned to seals again" (Otway, <i>Sketches of Erris</i>, 398, 403). Off Downpatrick +Head they used to take seals, but have given up the practice, +because once two young fellows had urged their curraghs into a cave where +the seals were known to breed, and they were killing them right and +left when, in the farthest end of the cave and sitting up on its bent tail +in a corner, there sat an old seal. One of the boys was just making +ready to strike him, when the seal cried out, "Och, boys! och, ma +bouchals, spare your old grandfather, Darby O'Dowd." He then proceeded +to tell the boys his story. "It's true I was dead and dacently +buried, but here I am for my sins turned into a sale as other sinners are +and will be, and if you put an end to me and skin me maybe it's +worser I'll be, and go into a shark or a porpoise. Lave your ould forefather +where he is, to live out his time as a sale. Maybe for your own +sakes you will ever hereafter leave off following and parsecuting and +murthering sales who may be nearer to yourselves nor you think." The +story is universally believed, and on the strength of it the people have +given up seal hunting (Otway, <i>Sketches of Erris</i>, 230).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_404_404" id="Footnote_404_404"></a><a href="#FNanchor_404_404"><span class="label">[404]</span></a> <i>Kinship and Marriage in Arabia</i>, 188. <i>Cf.</i> Mr. Jacobs' articles in +<i>Archæological Review</i>, "Are there totem clans in the Old Testament?" +vol. iii. pp. 145-164.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_405_405" id="Footnote_405_405"></a><a href="#FNanchor_405_405"><span class="label">[405]</span></a> <i>Origins of English History</i>, 297.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_406_406" id="Footnote_406_406"></a><a href="#FNanchor_406_406"><span class="label">[406]</span></a> <i>Proc. Roy. Irish Acad.</i>, x. 436; Lang's <i>Custom and Myth</i>, 265; +Elton's <i>Origins of English History</i>, 299-300; <i>Revue Celtique</i>, i. 50; +iii. 176.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_407_407" id="Footnote_407_407"></a><a href="#FNanchor_407_407"><span class="label">[407]</span></a> <i>Rev. Celtique</i>, vi. 232.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_408_408" id="Footnote_408_408"></a><a href="#FNanchor_408_408"><span class="label">[408]</span></a> Aubrey's <i>Remaines of Gentilisme</i>, 102.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_409_409" id="Footnote_409_409"></a><a href="#FNanchor_409_409"><span class="label">[409]</span></a> <i>Folklore Record</i>, i. 243.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_410_410" id="Footnote_410_410"></a><a href="#FNanchor_410_410"><span class="label">[410]</span></a> Xiphilinus in <i>Mon. Hist. Brit.</i>, p. lvii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_411_411" id="Footnote_411_411"></a><a href="#FNanchor_411_411"><span class="label">[411]</span></a> <i>Choice Notes, Folklore</i>, p. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_412_412" id="Footnote_412_412"></a><a href="#FNanchor_412_412"><span class="label">[412]</span></a> <i>Vulgar Errors</i>, p. 320.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_413_413" id="Footnote_413_413"></a><a href="#FNanchor_413_413"><span class="label">[413]</span></a> Aubrey, <i>Gentilisme and Judaisme</i>, 109; Napier, <i>Folklore of West of +Scotland</i>, 26. Consult Mr. Billson's valuable paper on "The Easter +Hare" in <i>Folklore</i>, iii. 441-466.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_414_414" id="Footnote_414_414"></a><a href="#FNanchor_414_414"><span class="label">[414]</span></a> Gregor, <i>Folklore of North-East Scotland</i>, 129, 199.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_415_415" id="Footnote_415_415"></a><a href="#FNanchor_415_415"><span class="label">[415]</span></a> O'Curry, <i>Manners of the Anc. Irish</i>, i. p. ccclxx.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_416_416" id="Footnote_416_416"></a><a href="#FNanchor_416_416"><span class="label">[416]</span></a> <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 3rd +<ins class="correction" title="'Ser.' in original">ser.</ins> iv. 82, 158; Dyer's <i>Popular Customs</i>, 384.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_417_417" id="Footnote_417_417"></a><a href="#FNanchor_417_417"><span class="label">[417]</span></a> Gordon Cumming, <i>Hebrides</i>, 369.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_418_418" id="Footnote_418_418"></a><a href="#FNanchor_418_418"><span class="label">[418]</span></a> Gordon Cumming, <i>Hebrides</i>, 369.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_419_419" id="Footnote_419_419"></a><a href="#FNanchor_419_419"><span class="label">[419]</span></a> <i>Gentleman's Magazine Library, Pop. Sup.</i>, 216.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_420_420" id="Footnote_420_420"></a><a href="#FNanchor_420_420"><span class="label">[420]</span></a> It will be useful to refer to Mr. Thrupp's paper on "British Superstition +as to Hares, Geese, and Poultry" in <i>Trans. Ethnological Society +of London</i>, new ser. vol. v. pp. 162-167.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_421_421" id="Footnote_421_421"></a><a href="#FNanchor_421_421"><span class="label">[421]</span></a> <i>Origins of English History</i>, 170.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_422_422" id="Footnote_422_422"></a><a href="#FNanchor_422_422"><span class="label">[422]</span></a> Gordon Cumming, <i>Hebrides</i>, 365.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_423_423" id="Footnote_423_423"></a><a href="#FNanchor_423_423"><span class="label">[423]</span></a> Dalyell's <i>Darker Superstitions of Scotland</i>, 431. It should be noted +that Dalyell wrote before the age of scientific folklore, and therefore his +observations are founded more upon conjectures derived from the +practices and beliefs themselves than from any theory as to origins.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_424_424" id="Footnote_424_424"></a><a href="#FNanchor_424_424"><span class="label">[424]</span></a> White horse, p. 208; black cat, p. 211, note 3; two magpies, p. 224; +crickets, p. 238; hawthorn, p. 244.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_425_425" id="Footnote_425_425"></a><a href="#FNanchor_425_425"><span class="label">[425]</span></a> <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, xii. 562.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_426_426" id="Footnote_426_426"></a><a href="#FNanchor_426_426"><span class="label">[426]</span></a> It is just possible that the value of investigating Australian totemism +may prove to have a still more direct bearing upon British folklore, for +Huxley's opinion as to the Australoid race is not entirely to be neglected. +He argued that "The Australoid race are dark complexion, ranging +through various shades of light and dark chocolate colour; dark or +black eyes; the hair of the scalp black and soft, silky and wavy; the +skull dolichocephalic. The great continent of Australia is the headquarters +of the Australoid race.... The Dekkan, which is so remarkably +isolated on the north by the valleys of the Ganges and Indus, +beyond these by the Himalaya Mountains, and on the east and west by +the sea, was originally inhabited, and is still largely peopled by men +who completely come under the definition of the Australoid race given +above. In Abyssinia and Egypt there is a smooth-haired, dark-complexioned, +long-headed stock which I am strongly inclined to regard as +a westward extension of the Australoid race. I would venture to suggest +that the dark whites who stretch from Northern Hindostan through +Western Asia, skirt both shores of the Mediterranean, and extend +through Western Europe to Ireland, may have had their origin in a +prolongation of the Australoid race, which has become modified by +selection or intermixture" (Huxley in <i>Prehistoric Congress, 1868</i>, pp. +92-94). This point of view is confirmed by Mr. Mathew's conclusions, +<i>Eaglehawk and Crow</i>, cap. iii.</p></div> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>SOCIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span>erhaps the most important part of the anthropological +aspect of custom, rite, and belief in +tradition is sociological. Perhaps, too, it is the +most neglected. Inquirers into the origin of religion +proceed one after the other to investigate the phenomena +of early beliefs as they interpret the origin of religion, +without one thought of the sociological conditions of the +problem. They interpose, as I have already pointed out, +the theory of a state religion, when such a foundation is +incidentally found to be necessary to carry the imposing +superstructure of Celtic mythology, but they do not +pause to inquire whether the state, suddenly introduced +into the argument, is a discoverable factor; or they +proceed to erect their superstructure of religious origins +without any social foundation whatever, and we are +left with a great concept of abstract thought having no +roots in the source from which it is supposed to be +drawn. The sun-god and the dawn-god, even the +All-father, are traced in the most primitive thought of +man, but it is not deemed necessary to show in what +relation these concepts stand to practical life. It is +here I must refer back to Robertson-Smith's dictum on +mythology, for it is the necessary preliminary to showing +that belief cannot enter into life except through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> +sociological units into which all humanity fits itself; or +rather, I would prefer Robertson-Smith's way of putting +it, "the circle into which a man was born was not +simply a human society, a circle of kinfolk and fellow-citizens, +but embraced also certain divine beings, the +gods of the family and the state, which to the ancient +mind were as much a part of the particular community +with which they stood connected as the human members +of the social group."<a name="FNanchor_427_427" id="FNanchor_427_427"></a><a href="#Footnote_427_427" class="fnanchor">[427]</a> Any proposal to examine a +group of customs, beliefs, and rites which at their +origin take us back to the earliest history of a country +must, therefore, be considered from the sociological +side. The great mass of the material to be used in such +an inquiry is not ancient so far as its date of record is +a test of antiquity, but it is ancient as traditional +survival, and it is not possible to trace back custom and +belief surviving in modern times to the earliest times, +except through the medium of the institutions which +formed the social basis of the peoples to whom such +custom and belief belonged. A custom or belief exists +as a living force before it sinks back into the position of +a survival. It is the lingering effect of this living force +which helps to preserve it for so many ages, and in +the midst of such adverse circumstances, as a survival +among other customs and beliefs existing under a +different living force. It is not possible, therefore, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +ascertain the origin of custom or belief in survival, +except as a fragment of the social institution to which +it originally belonged. No custom or belief has a life +of its own separate from all other. It is joined to +other customs and beliefs in indissoluble co-partnership, +the whole group making up the institutions under +which the race or people to whom they belong live and +flourish. This, as we have already seen, is a most +important principle in the study of survivals. Not only +is it strictly true of all primitive peoples, but it is true +of the early stages of more advanced communities.<a name="FNanchor_428_428" id="FNanchor_428_428"></a><a href="#Footnote_428_428" class="fnanchor">[428]</a> +Indeed it has been put into a phrase used long ago by +an English writer on the manorial tenant, "His religion +is a part of his copyhold,"<a name="FNanchor_429_429" id="FNanchor_429_429"></a><a href="#Footnote_429_429" class="fnanchor">[429]</a> and when the jurist talks +to us in highly technical language of lords, freeholders, +villans, and serfs, we must bear in mind that at any rate +these villans and serfs belonged to a social institution, +one element of which was religion. So, too, must +the folklorist bear in mind that it is not the individual +belief he is concerned with, but with the belief that +belongs to a community. It must be assumed that the +true test of the antiquity of every custom or belief is its +natural and easy assimilation with other customs and +beliefs, equally with itself in the position of a survival, +and the recognition of the whole group thus brought +into relationship as belonging to the institutions of the +people from whom it is derived.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +It is well to understand what this condition of things +exactly means as an element in the study of early +beliefs. It will be dealing with beliefs from their place +in the social habitat; housing them, so to speak, within +the groups of human beings with which they are connected. +It will be considering them as part of the living +organism which the social units of man have created. +All this indicates a method of treating the subject +entirely different from what has hitherto obtained. +Students of early English institutions are content to +construct elaborate arguments from the often conflicting +testimony of historical authorities; students of early +beliefs construct elaborate systems of religious thought +far above the custom and rite with which they are dealing. +The two branches of the same subject are never +brought together to illustrate each other. Early institutions +cannot be separated from early beliefs. Early +beliefs cannot properly be separated from the society of +which they form a component part. We require to +know not only what beliefs a particular people possess, +but in what manner these beliefs generate custom and +rite and take their place among the influences which +affect the social organism. Early man does not live +individually. His life is part of a collective group. +The group worships collectively as it lives collectively, +and it is extremely important to work out the dual conditions. +If the several items of custom and belief preserved +by tradition are really ancient in their origin, +they must be floating fragments, as it were, of an +ancient <i>system</i> of custom and belief—the cultus of the +people among whom they originated. This cultus has +been destroyed, struggling unsuccessfully against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> +foreign and more vigorous systems of religion and +society. To be of service to history each floating fragment +of ancient custom and belief must not only be +labelled "ancient," but it must be placed back in the +system from which it has been torn away. To do this +is to a great extent to restore the ancient system; and +to restore an ancient system of culture, even if the +restoration be only a mosaic and a shattered mosaic, +is to bring into evidence the people to which it +belongs.</p> + +<p>In the previous chapter it was necessary to lay somewhat +special stress upon the system of social organisation +known as totemism, which was not founded upon +kinship. This was traced in survival among the pre-Celtic +peoples of Britain. If we now turn to the Celts +and Teutons of Britain we shall find that we have to +deal with a social organisation founded definitely upon +kinship; and if there are survivals of belief, custom, and +rite, derived from this kinship system, existing side by +side in the same culture area with survivals from the +kinless system, it will be necessary to explain how two +such opposite streams can have been kept flowing.</p> + +<p>It is not difficult in the case of countries occupied by +Celtic or Teutonic peoples to ascertain what the particular +institution was which linked together the beliefs +of the people, though it is not easy to trace out all the +phases of it. It is the tribe—that system of society +which appears as the means by which Greek and +Roman, Celt and Teuton, Scandinavian and Slav, +Hindu and Persian, were able to conquer, overrun, +and finally to settle in the lands which they have +made their own. We know something of the Celtic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> +tribe, less of the Teutonic tribe, but all we know is that +it possesses features in common with the tribe of its +kindred. There is no fact more certainly true as a +result of comparative research than that the tribe is the +common heritage of those people who have become the +dominant rulers of the Indo-European world. I use +this term "tribe" in no formal sense, not in the sense +of its Roman derivation and use, which shows it quite +as a secondary institution, but as the most convenient +term to define that grouping of men with wives, families, +and descendants, and all the essentials of independent +life, which is found as a primal unit of European +society in a state of unsettlement as regards land or +country. The tie which bound all together was personal +not local, kinship with a tribal god, kinship more +or less real with fellow-tribesmen, kinship in status and +rights. We meet with this tribal organisation everywhere +in Indo-European history. It made movement +from country to country possible. It made conquest +possible. Celt and Teuton did not conquer in families +any more than Greek or Hindu did. They conquered +in tribes, and it was because of the strength of the +tribal organisation during the period, first of migration +and wandering and then of conquest, that the settlement +after conquest was possible and was so strong. +Everywhere we find these people conquerors and settlers. +In India, in Iran, in Greece and Rome, in Scandinavia, +in Celtic and Teutonic Europe, in Slavic Europe, they +are moving tribes of conquerors come to settle and rule +the people they conquer.<a name="FNanchor_430_430" id="FNanchor_430_430"></a><a href="#Footnote_430_430" class="fnanchor">[430]</a> When Dr. Ridgeway asks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> +whence came the Acheans,<a name="FNanchor_431_431" id="FNanchor_431_431"></a><a href="#Footnote_431_431" class="fnanchor">[431]</a> he answers the question +much in the same fashion as that in which Dr. Duncker +describes the settlement on the Ganges:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The ancient population of the new states on the Ganges +was not entirely extirpated, expelled, or enslaved. Life and +freedom were allowed to those who submitted and conformed +to the law of the conqueror; they might pass their lives as +servants on the farms of the Aryas (Manu, i. 91). But +though the remnant of this population was spared, the whole +body of the immigrants looked down on them with the pride +of conquerors—of superiority in arms, blood, and character—and +in contrast to them they called themselves Vaiçyas, i.e. +tribesmen, comrades, in other words those who belong to the +community or body of rulers. Whether the Vaiçya belonged +to the order of the nobles, the minstrels and priests or +peasants, was a matter of indifference, he regarded the old +inhabitants as an inferior species of mankind.... In the +new states on the Ganges therefore the population was +separated into two sharply divided masses. How could the +conquerors mix with the conquered? How could their pride +stoop to any union with the despised servants?"<a name="FNanchor_432_432" id="FNanchor_432_432"></a><a href="#Footnote_432_432" class="fnanchor">[432]</a></p></div> + +<p>These two divided masses thus so clearly described +were, in fact, tribesmen and non-tribesmen, just that distinction +which we meet with in Celtic and Teutonic law, +and described in the same terms which Bishop Stubbs +was obliged to use when he set forth the facts of the +Teutonic invasion of Britain.</p> + +<p>The terms are indeed necessary terms. Tribesmen +capable of retaining the tribal organisation during the +period of migration and conquest did not lightly lose +that organisation when they settled. In Sir Alfred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> +Lyall's pure genealogic clan of Central India<a name="FNanchor_433_433" id="FNanchor_433_433"></a><a href="#Footnote_433_433" class="fnanchor">[433]</a> I +recognise the unbroken tribal formation before the +family group has arisen as a political unit. In Mr. +Tupper's argument against the conclusions of Sir +Henry Maine I recognise the Hindu evidence that the +tribe was the earliest social group, breaking up, as later +influences arose, into village communities and joint +families.<a name="FNanchor_434_434" id="FNanchor_434_434"></a><a href="#Footnote_434_434" class="fnanchor">[434]</a> In Bishop Stubbs's masterly analysis of +English constitutional history the tribe appears at the +outset—"the invaders," he says, "came in families +and kindreds and in the full organisation of their tribes +... the tribe was as complete when it had removed to +Kent as when it stayed in Jutland; the magistrate was +the ruler of the tribe not of the soil; the divisions were +those of the folk and the host not of the land; the laws +were the usage of the nation not of the territory."<a name="FNanchor_435_435" id="FNanchor_435_435"></a><a href="#Footnote_435_435" class="fnanchor">[435]</a> +And so I agree with Mr. Skene as to the Celtic tribe +that "the tuath or tribe preceded the fine or clan,"<a name="FNanchor_436_436" id="FNanchor_436_436"></a><a href="#Footnote_436_436" class="fnanchor">[436]</a> +and with the editors of the Irish law tracts that "the +tribe existed before the family came into being and +continued to exist after the latter had been dissolved."<a name="FNanchor_437_437" id="FNanchor_437_437"></a><a href="#Footnote_437_437" class="fnanchor">[437]</a></p> + +<p>We need not go beyond this evidence. The tribe is +the common form into which the early Indo-European +peoples grouped themselves for the purpose of conquest +and settlement. It was their primal unit. It may +have been numerically large or small. It may have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> +been the result of a combination of many smaller +tribes into one great tribe. But in any case and under +any conditions there stands out the tribal organisation, +that great institutional force from which spring all +later institutions. Its roots go back into the remotest +past of Indo-European history; its active force caused +the Indo-European people to become the mightiest in +human history; its lasting results have scarcely yet +ceased to shape the aspirations of political society and +to affect the destinies of nations. The whole life of the +early period was governed by tribal conditions—the +political, social, legal, and even religious conceptions +were tribal in form and expression.</p> + +<p>The tribal institution of the Aryan-speaking peoples +includes a life outside the tribe. That was an outlaw's +life, a kinless outcast, whom no tribesman would look +upon or assist, whom every tribesman considered as an +enemy until he had reduced him to the position of helot +or slave, but for whom every tribe had a place in its +organisation and a legal status in its constitution. But +it was the legal status imposed by the master over the +servant, and the kinless included not only the outcast +from the tribe, but the conquered aboriginal who had +never been within the tribe. It is important to notice +this, for it to some extent measures the strength of the +tribal organisation. It not only allowed for a special +position for all tribesmen, but it allowed for that position +to have a definite relationship to persons who were +not tribesmen, and it is in the combined forces of +tribesmen and non-tribesmen that the tribal organisation +which swept over part of Asia and over all Europe +obtains its greatest power. There are tribal systems<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> +outside the Semitic and the Indo-European, but these +do not have the distinctive features that the tribal +systems of these two great civilising peoples possess. +Like the Semitic and Aryan tribal systems, savage +tribes are fashioned for conquest, but, unlike them, +they are not fashioned for settlement and resettlement, +and perhaps again and again conquest and resettlement. +They spent all their power, or most of +their power, in their one great effort of conquest, and +whether we turn to the American Indian tribes, to the +African tribes, or to the Asiatic tribes we find the same +facts of frequent dissipation of power after sudden and +complete conquest of it. The tribal system which led +to civilisation has a different history. It has, too, a +different constitution in that to the strength of tribesmen +was added the subordination—politically, industrially, +and economically—of non-tribesmen. They were +the people who, in the terms of the northern poem,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">"Laid fences,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enriched the plough lands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tended swine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Herded goats,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dug peat."<a name="FNanchor_438_438" id="FNanchor_438_438"></a><a href="#Footnote_438_438" class="fnanchor">[438]</a><br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Unfortunately the institution of the tribe has never +been properly studied by the great authorities in history, +and students are left without guidance in this +important matter. And yet in any attempt to get back +to the earliest period of history in lands governed by +an Aryan-speaking people we must proceed, can only +proceed, on the basis of the tribe, and it is the failure to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> +understand this which has made so much early history +unsatisfactory and inconclusive and compels us to the +conclusion that the master-hand is still needed to rewrite +in terms of tribal history all that has been written +in terms merely of political history.</p> + +<p>If, however, history from the written records is thus +at fault, so too is history from the traditional records. +No systematic effort has been made to treat the traditional +story or the traditional custom and belief as part +of the tribal history of our race, and yet in the few +cases where it has been so treated the results are obviously +satisfactory. I can illustrate the value of this +point of view by an example drawn from the period +which witnessed the earliest struggles of our race. I +think with Mr. Keary that in those German stories +"which delight above all things in that portrait of the +youngest son of the house—he is the youngest of +three—who is left behind despised and neglected when +his brothers go forth to seek their fortunes," we have +traces of a veritable fact, of an historical condition +where the elder sons actually went forth to conquest +and to settlement and the youngest son remained in +the original home as the hearth-child.<a name="FNanchor_439_439" id="FNanchor_439_439"></a><a href="#Footnote_439_439" class="fnanchor">[439]</a> The position +of hearth-child, surviving as it does in our law of +Borough English, is of great significance, and that we +can by the aid of tradition reach a state of society +which gave birth to it is a point of the greatest importance, +even if we could go no further. But there is a +stage beyond it. The majority of these youngest-son<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> +stories relate to events not to be identified with any +particular tribe or people, but which belong to all the +tribes and peoples whose course of conquest and settlement +took the common form. But if apart from these +all-world stories there exist stories, or if there be but +one story which has become identified with an episode, +a person, or a place belonging to a particular people, +we may claim it as part of the history of that particular +people. It may be that the general story has become +specialised in this one case, or it may be that an entirely +new story has sprung out of the special case. But +whichever be the origin of such a story attached to a +particular people, it must tell us something of that +people at a period when its history was being made +rather than recorded. What it tells may be very little, +may not lead up to anything very great or definite, so +far as later history is concerned; but that for the period +to which it belongs it relates to an episode worthy to +have been kept in the memories of the descendants of +the chief actors in the events is the point to bear in +mind.</p> + +<p>There is one such story which belongs to English +history. One of the most famous of these youngest-son +stories is that of Childe Rowland, and Mr. Jacobs, +on examining its incidents and details, suggests that +"our story may have a certain amount of historic basis +and give a record which history fails to give of the +very earliest conflict of races in these isles."<a name="FNanchor_440_440" id="FNanchor_440_440"></a><a href="#Footnote_440_440" class="fnanchor">[440]</a> Mr. +Jacobs gives good grounds for this conclusion, and +shows up a picture of earliest English history which +is certainly not contained elsewhere, and we are able<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> +by this means to pass from that large group of youngest-son +stories, which have brought with them living +testimony of an ancient institution of our race in its +oldest home, to the narrower but more direct example +which comes to us from events which happened just at +the dawn of history in our own land. It is not necessary +to emphasise the importance of this service to +history at the instance of tradition, for it will be obvious +to every student that many a struggle must have remained +unrecorded and many a hero must have died +unnamed in the events which belong to the period of +tribal conquest and settlement. And to have still with +us the far-off echo of these events is no slight encouragement +to an inquiry which has for its object the +reconstruction of the conditions under which such +events took place.</p> + +<p>This would be all the better understood if we could get +a concrete case for illustration, and, fortunately, this is +possible by turning to the evidence of India. "What +we know of the manner in which the states of Upper +India were founded," says Sir Alfred Lyall,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"gives a very fair sample of the movements and changes of +the primitive world. When the dominant Rajput families lost +their dominion in the rich Gangetic plains one part of their +clan seems to have remained in the conquered country, +having submitted to the foreigner, cultivating in strong +communities of villages and federations of villages and +paying such land tax as the ruler could extract. Another +part of the clan, probably the near kinsmen of the defeated +chief, followed his family into exile, and helped him to carve +out another, but a much poorer, dominion. Here the chief +built himself a fort upon the hill; his clansmen slew or +subdued the tribes they found in possession of the soil, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> +the lands were all parcelled off among the chief's kinsfolk, +the indigenous proprietors being subjected to payment of +a land tax, but not otherwise degraded. When the land grew +too strait for the support of the chief's family or of the sept—that +is, when there were no vacant allotments, a landless son +of the chief would assemble a band, and set forth to make +room for himself elsewhere."<a name="FNanchor_441_441" id="FNanchor_441_441"></a><a href="#Footnote_441_441" class="fnanchor">[441]</a></p></div> + +<p>The evidence from India is fact, the evidence from +England is tradition, and yet I do not think any +student will deny that both fact and tradition are +part and parcel of the same conditions of society, the +same forces operating upon the same material. The +conditions of society in both cases are tribal conditions, +and the common factor having thus been discovered, +it is possible to determine not only the inter-relationship +between fact and tradition, but the means by which we +may estimate the value of both.</p> + +<p>We cannot, however, stop here. I carry on the +same argument from the traditional legend to the +traditional custom and belief, and affirm that it is only +by their position as part of the tribal system that custom +and belief in survival must be tested. If they have descended +from early Celtic or Teutonic custom and belief, +they have descended from tribal custom and belief, +and somewhere in the stages of descent will be found the +link which connects them definitely with the tribe. That +not all custom and belief has so descended is due to the +fact that much of it belongs to the pre-Celtic period, +which was not tribal; some of it, no doubt, to comparatively +modern times, when, as we have already seen, +superstition had taken the place of thought, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> +some phases of early belief belong to conditions which +transcend the division between pre-Aryan and Aryan +folk. On this I will say something by way of explanation +presently. In the meantime it is an extremely +important task to classify survivals into tribal and non-tribal +groups. Those which belong to Celtic or +Teutonic origins must show their tribal origin, for they +could not have come into existence apart from the tribe, +and apart from the tribe they could not have survived +after the break-up of the tribe consequent upon the +development of national and political life. Custom +and belief which do not fit into the ancient tribal +system, therefore, cannot be recognised as ancient +Celtic or ancient Teutonic custom and belief, and contrariwise +when it is seen that they naturally fall into +this system it may be argued that there we must search +for their origin. Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers have +left a curious testimony to this view of the question in +their word "holy" or wholesome. What is wholesome +is so for the whole group. The Anglo-Saxon idea of +holiness implies as its chief element relation to the +tribal life.<a name="FNanchor_442_442" id="FNanchor_442_442"></a><a href="#Footnote_442_442" class="fnanchor">[442]</a></p> + +<p>The classification of survivals in folklore into tribal +and non-tribal items is a lengthy and intricate process. +Some years ago I made a start in a study of fire worship +which I presented to the British Association,<a name="FNanchor_443_443" id="FNanchor_443_443"></a><a href="#Footnote_443_443" class="fnanchor">[443]</a> and +I hope shortly to be ready with a volume on <i>Tribal +Custom</i>, which will embody a fuller study of fire<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> +worship and its accompanying beliefs, together with +a complete study of all the remains of traditional +custom, rite, and belief, which only as the detritus +of the ancient tribal organisation receive adequate +explanation of their presence in the midst of modern +political and religious institutions. If I leave this +part of my subject without further illustration in +this present volume, I must add one important +note upon the persistence of survivals of both kinless +and kinship societies. I have shown that the tribal +system of the advanced races included provision +for non-tribesmen, provision which kept non-tribesmen +outside the tribal bond, and at the same time +kept them tied to the tribe by using them as the +necessary dependent adjunct of the tribe, using them +as bondmen and serfs in point of fact. This extremely +important factor in the history of the tribal +organisation, which has not been properly noticed by +the few authorities who have investigated tribal institutions, +receives additional importance when viewed from +the standpoint of folklore, for it allows for the preservation +of non-tribal cults side by side with tribal cults. +Non-tribesmen preserved their custom, belief, and rite +simply because they were not admitted to the custom, +belief, and rite of the tribe, and this is the explanation +of the existence, in survival, of folklore which goes +back to pre-Celtic times. Some of this pre-Celtic +folklore we have already had before us, and some +of it I have studied in my <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>. +Later on I shall have something more to say on the +subject. Here it is only necessary to emphasise the +importance of having ascertained why it is that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> +Celtic conquerors of Britain and the earliest tribal conquerors +of the Indo-European world generally permitted +to live in their midst what in a sense was +opposed to all that they believed, to all that they +practised, to all that governed them in thought and +action.</p> + +<p>I think this is a strong position upon which to conduct +folklore research. It includes the whole of the historical +position; it takes due count of historical facts +instead of ignoring them. It is based upon a scientific +conception of the meaning of a survival of culture. A +survival is that which has been left stranded amidst +the development that is going on around. Its future +life is not one of development but of decay. We +are not dealing with the evolution of society, but +with the decaying fragments of a social system which +has passed away. We have to trace out its line of +decay from the point where it almost vanishes as the +mere superstition or practice of a peasant or an outcast, +back to phases where it exists in more strenuous +fashion, and finally back to its original position as +part and parcel of a living social fabric. Moreover, +the strength of our position is based upon a scientific +conception of the development of the nation or people +among whom survivals exist. It is not all parts of the +nation which develop at the same rate, at the same time, +and for the same period. There are social strata in +every country, and it is the observance of these strata +which has made it possible for the inquirer of to-day to +use the evidence they afford for historical purposes.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_427_427" id="Footnote_427_427"></a><a href="#FNanchor_427_427"><span class="label">[427]</span></a> <i>Religion of the Semites</i>, 30. It is worth while quoting here Merivale's +note in his Boyle lectures, <i>Conversion of the Northern Nations</i>, 122. +"Pagan temples were always the public works of nations and communities. +They were national buildings dedicated to national purposes. +The mediæval churches, on the other hand, were the erection of individuals, +monuments of personal piety, tokens of the hope of a personal +reward." <i>Cf.</i> Stanley, <i>Hist. Westminster Abbey</i>, 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_428_428" id="Footnote_428_428"></a><a href="#FNanchor_428_428"><span class="label">[428]</span></a> Mr. Granger has a very instructive passage on this point in his +<i>Worship of the Romans</i>, 210-214; <i>cf.</i> Robertson-Smith, <i>Religion of the +Semites</i>, lec. ii.; Mr. MacDonald, <i>Africana</i>, i. 64, notes, too, that "the +natives worship not so much individually as in villages or communities." +Prof. Sayce, studying early religion, says in its outward form it "was +made up of rites and ceremonies which could only be performed collectively."—<i>Science +of Language</i>, ii. 290.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_429_429" id="Footnote_429_429"></a><a href="#FNanchor_429_429"><span class="label">[429]</span></a> Clarke's <i>Survey of the Lakes</i>, 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_430_430" id="Footnote_430_430"></a><a href="#FNanchor_430_430"><span class="label">[430]</span></a> Pritchard's <i>Researches into the Physical Hist. of Mankind</i>, vol. iii., +may still be consulted for an account of the tribal movements in Europe.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_431_431" id="Footnote_431_431"></a><a href="#FNanchor_431_431"><span class="label">[431]</span></a> <i>Early Age of Greece</i>, i. cap. iv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_432_432" id="Footnote_432_432"></a><a href="#FNanchor_432_432"><span class="label">[432]</span></a> <i>History of Antiquity</i>, iv. 116-17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_433_433" id="Footnote_433_433"></a><a href="#FNanchor_433_433"><span class="label">[433]</span></a> <i>Asiatic Studies</i>, i. 173.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_434_434" id="Footnote_434_434"></a><a href="#FNanchor_434_434"><span class="label">[434]</span></a> <i>Punjab Customary Law</i>, ii. 3-59. <i>Cf.</i> Baden-Powell's <i>Indian Vill. +Com.</i>, 230; Duncker, <i>Hist. Antiq.</i>, iv. 115-17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_435_435" id="Footnote_435_435"></a><a href="#FNanchor_435_435"><span class="label">[435]</span></a> Stubbs's <i>Const. Hist.</i>, i. 64. <i>Cf. Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law</i>, 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_436_436" id="Footnote_436_436"></a><a href="#FNanchor_436_436"><span class="label">[436]</span></a> <i>Celtic Scotland</i>, iii. 137, note 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_437_437" id="Footnote_437_437"></a><a href="#FNanchor_437_437"><span class="label">[437]</span></a> <i>Anc. Laws of Ireland</i>, iv. p. 77. <i>Cf.</i> also Mr. Andrews' <i>Old +English Manor</i>, p. 20, and Meyer, <i>Geschichte der Alterthums</i>, 2-3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_438_438" id="Footnote_438_438"></a><a href="#FNanchor_438_438"><span class="label">[438]</span></a> Du Chaillu, <i>The Viking Age</i>, i. 488.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_439_439" id="Footnote_439_439"></a><a href="#FNanchor_439_439"><span class="label">[439]</span></a> Keary, <i>Origin of Primitive Belief</i>, 464-5. Mr. MacCulloch, <i>Childhood +of Fiction</i>, devotes a chapter to the clever-youngest-son group of +tales (cap. xiii.), which should be consulted.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_440_440" id="Footnote_440_440"></a><a href="#FNanchor_440_440"><span class="label">[440]</span></a> <i>Folklore</i>, ii. 194.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_441_441" id="Footnote_441_441"></a><a href="#FNanchor_441_441"><span class="label">[441]</span></a> Sir A. Lyall, <i>Asiatic Studies</i>, 184, and compare pp. 198, 208, 211.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_442_442" id="Footnote_442_442"></a><a href="#FNanchor_442_442"><span class="label">[442]</span></a> <i>Cf.</i> Granger, <i>Worship of the Romans</i>, 211. Mr. Granger uses +terms which I do not quite accept, though his suggestion is entirely good +in principle.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_443_443" id="Footnote_443_443"></a><a href="#FNanchor_443_443"><span class="label">[443]</span></a> <i>Report of British Association</i> (Liverpool Meeting).</p></div> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>EUROPEAN CONDITIONS</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>here are obviously conditions attaching to +European culture history which do not apply +elsewhere, and as obviously the most important, +perhaps the only important one, which it is necessary +to consider in connection with the problems of folklore +is that resulting from the introduction of a non-European +religion and the adoption of this religion as part +of the state machinery in the several countries. This +religion is, of course, Christianity. It came into the +home of a decaying, corrupt, and impossible state +religion wherever the Roman Empire was established +and into the homes of purer and sterner faiths, faiths +that had belonged to the people through all the years +of conquest and settlement, migration and resettlement, +wherever the empire of Rome had not become +established.</p> + +<p>Until the advent of Christianity into Britain the +Celtic peoples possessed their own customs, their own +religious beliefs, their own usages. Until the Anglo-Saxons +came into contact with Christianity in their +new settlements in England, they also possessed their +own customs, usages, and beliefs. So far as Celt and +Teuton were responsible for continuing or allowing to +continue the still older faiths, the faiths of savagery as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> +we have accustomed ourselves to term them, they +brought these faiths also into contact with Christianity, +and Christianity dealt with the problem thus presented +exactly as it dealt with the Celtic and Teutonic faiths, +namely, by treating all alike as pagan, all equally to +be set aside or used in any fashion that circumstances +might demand. Let it be particularly noted that +Christianity did not distinguish between the various +shades of paganism. All that was not Christian was +pagan.</p> + +<p>Christianity was both antagonistic to and tolerant +of pagan custom and belief. In principle and purpose +it was antagonistic. In practice it was tolerant +where it could tolerate safely. At the centre it aimed +at purity of Christian doctrine, locally it permitted +pagan practices to be continued under Christian auspices. +In the earliest days it set itself against all +forms of idolatry and non-Christian practices; in later +days, after the fifth century, says Gibbon,<a name="FNanchor_444_444" id="FNanchor_444_444"></a><a href="#Footnote_444_444" class="fnanchor">[444]</a> it accepted +both pagan practice and pagan ritual.</p> + +<p>The relationship of Christianity to paganism is, +therefore, a very complex subject, and it would not be +possible in this place to work out one tithe of it. Nor +is it needed. The two cardinal facts with which we are +now concerned are the principle of antagonism and the +practice of toleration. As to the former there need not +be any discussion on the fact. Everywhere throughout +Europe its effect is to be seen. It formed the most +solid and systematic arresting force against the natural +development of pagan belief and practice, and it is +this fact of arrested development in pagan belief and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> +practice which is of great importance. We can ascertain +the point of stoppage, note the stage of arrested +development, and trace out the subsequent history of a +custom, belief, or rite so arrested. As a survival in a +state of arrested development, a custom or belief is +observable throughout its later history. All it does is +to decay, and decay slowly, and each stage of decay +may oftentimes be discovered. On the other hand, if +no arrest of development had taken place there would +have been no survival and no decay. The custom or +belief which is not arrested by an opposing culture +becomes a part of the religion or of the institutions of +the nation, and the history of its development becomes, +as a rule, lost in the general advance of religion and +politics—custom develops into law, belief develops into +religion, rite develops into ceremonial, and tradition +ceases to be the force which keeps them alive. The +two classes of custom and belief thus contrasted are of +different value to the student. The one is important +because it contains the germs and goes back to the +origin of existing institutions. The other is important +because, having been arrested by a strong opposing +force, unable to destroy it altogether, it remains as +evidence of custom and belief at the time of its arrestment. +It will be seen at once how far this evidence +may take us. It stretches back into the remotest past. +It survives in the stage at which it was arrested, not of +course in the form in which it then appeared, but in the +decayed form which years of existence beneath the +ever-opposing forces of the established civilisation +must have brought about.</p> + +<p>These opposing forces can be detected in working<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> +order. What can be more indicative of a dual system +of belief than the cry of an old Scottish peasant when +he came to worship at the sacred well?—"O Lord, Thou +knowest that well would it be for me this day an I had +stoopit my knees and my heart before Thee in spirit and +in truth as often as I have stoopit them afore this well. +But we maun keep the customs of our fathers." It +appears over and over again in the lives of early Christian +saints who were only just parting from a living +pagan faith. Thus St. Bega was the patroness of +St. Bees in Cumberland, where she left a holy bracelet +which was long an object of profound veneration; and +in a prefatory statement by the compiler of a small +collection of her miracles, written in the twelfth +century, we learn among other things that whosoever +forswore himself upon her bracelet swiftly incurred +the heaviest punishment of perjury or a speedy death. +It is to be observed that Beagas, the French Bague, +is the Anglo-Saxon denomination for rings, and +Dr. William Bell suggests that holy St. Bega was but +a personification of one of the holy rings which, having +gained great hold upon the minds of the heathen +Cumbrians, it was not politic in their first Christian +missionaries wholly to subvert.<a name="FNanchor_445_445" id="FNanchor_445_445"></a><a href="#Footnote_445_445" class="fnanchor">[445]</a> These rings are, of +course, the doom rings of the Scandinavian temples +which are so often referred to in the Sagas.<a name="FNanchor_446_446" id="FNanchor_446_446"></a><a href="#Footnote_446_446" class="fnanchor">[446]</a></p> + +<p>Baptism, an essentially Christian ceremony, might +off-hand be supposed to contain nothing but evidence +for Christianity. It might at most be expected that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> +details of the ceremony would contain relics of adapted +pagan rites, and this we know is the case. But we can +go beyond even this, and discover in the popular +conception of the rite very clear indications of the +early antagonism between Christianity and paganism—an +antagonism which is certainly some eighteen hundred +years old in this country, and though so old is still +contained in the evidence of folklore.</p> + +<p>An analysis of baptismal folklore shows us that +its most important section is contained under the +group which deals with the effect of non-baptism. +In England we have it prevailing in the border +counties, in Cornwall, Devonshire, Durham, Lancashire, +Middlesex, Northumberland, and Yorkshire, and +in North-East Scotland, that children joined the ranks +of the fairies if they died unchristened, or that their +souls wandered about in the air, restless and unhappy, +until Judgment Day. Various penalties attended the +condition of non-baptism, but perhaps the most significant +is the Northumberland custom of burying an +unbaptised babe at the feet of an adult Christian corpse—surely +a relic of the old sacrifice at a burial which is +indicated so frequently in the graves of prehistoric +times, particularly of the long-barrow period. In +Ireland we have the effect of non-baptism in a still +more grim form. In the sixteenth century the rude +Irish used to leave the right arms of their male children +unchristened, to the intent that they might give a more +ungracious and deadly blow.<a name="FNanchor_447_447" id="FNanchor_447_447"></a><a href="#Footnote_447_447" class="fnanchor">[447]</a></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus26" id="Illus26"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_26.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_26th.jpg" width="400" height="266" +alt="Rite of baptism on the font at Darenth, Kent (from Romilly +Allen's "Early Christian Symbolism")" +title="RITE OF BAPTISM, ON FONT AT DARENTH, KENT" /></a> +<span class="caption">RITE OF BAPTISM, ON FONT AT DARENTH, KENT</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>These, and their allied and variant customs, are +relics, not so much of the absorption by Christian +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>baptism of rites belonging to early paganism as of the +struggle between Christianity and paganism for the +mastery, of the anathemas of Christians against pagans, +and of the terrible answer of the pagan. And what are +we to say to it? Is it that the struggle itself has lasted +all these centuries, or only its memory? My belief is +that the struggle itself has lasted in reality though not +in name.</p> + +<p>But if we have been able to look through the very +portals of Christianity to the regions of paganism behind, +can we not boldly pass through altogether and +recover from folklore much of the lost evidence of our +prehistoric ancestors? I put the question in this way +purposely, because it is the way which is indicated by +the methods and data of folklore, and it is a question +which has much to do with the different views held of +the province of folklore.</p> + +<p>I will answer by referring to the pre-baptismal rites +of washing. In Northumberland we meet with the +analogue of the sixteenth-century Irish practice, for +there the child's right hand is left unwashed that it may +gather riches better<a name="FNanchor_448_448" id="FNanchor_448_448"></a><a href="#Footnote_448_448" class="fnanchor">[448]</a>—the golden coin taking the place +of the ancient weapon in this as in other phases of civilisation. +Not only is the water used for this purpose +heated in the old-fashioned way by placing red-hot irons +in it (<i>i.e.</i> the modern equivalent for stone-boiling), but +in Yorkshire we have the custom that the newborn +infant must be placed in the arms of a maiden before +any one else touches it, two practices represented exactly +in the customs of the Canary Islanders, who were in +the stone age of culture and are considered to be the last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> +remnants of a race which once included Britain among +its lands of occupation.<a name="FNanchor_449_449" id="FNanchor_449_449"></a><a href="#Footnote_449_449" class="fnanchor">[449]</a></p> + +<p>The Rev. C. O'Connor, in his third letter of Columbanus, +gives a very interesting statement of Irish well-worship +in a letter addressed to his brother, the late +Owen O'Connor Don, and which shows the living +antagonism between Christian and pagan belief. He +says:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have often enquired of your tenants what they themselves +thought of their pilgrimage to their wells of Kill +Orcht, Tobbar-Brighde, Tobbar-Muire, near Elphin, and +Moore, near Castlereagh, where multitudes assemble annually +to celebrate what they, in broken English, termed +Patterns; and when I pressed a very old man—Owen Hester—to +state what possible advantage he expected to derive +from the singular custom of frequenting in particular such +wells as were contiguous to an old blasted oak, or an upright +unhewn stone, and what the meaning was of the yet more +singular custom of sticking rags in the branches of such +trees and spitting on them, his answer, and the answer of +the oldest men, was that their ancestors always did it; +that it was a preservative against Geasa-Dravideacht, <i>i.e.</i> the +sorceries of Druids; that their cattle was preserved by it +from infectious disorders; that the davini maithe, <i>i.e.</i> the +fairies, were kept in good humour by it; and so thoroughly +persuaded were they of the sanctity of these pagan practices +that they would travel bareheaded and barefooted from ten +to twenty miles for the purpose of crawling on their knees +round these wells and upright stones and oak trees westward +as the sun travels, some three times, some six, some +nine, and so on, in uneven numbers until their voluntary +penances were completely fulfilled. The waters of Logh-Con +were deemed so sacred from ancient usage that they +would throw into the lake whole rolls of butter as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> +preservation for the milk of their cows against Geasa-Dravideacht."<a name="FNanchor_450_450" id="FNanchor_450_450"></a><a href="#Footnote_450_450" class="fnanchor">[450]</a></p></div> + +<p>Scarcely less important than the effect of the antagonism +of the Church in the production of arrested +development is the effect of the toleration of the Church +for pagan custom and belief. This toleration took the +shape either of allowing the continuation of pagan +custom and belief as a matter not affecting Christian +doctrine or of actual absorption into Church practice +and ritual. The story told to the full is a long and +interesting one. And it still awaits the telling. +Gibbon, in a few sentences, has told us the outline.<a name="FNanchor_451_451" id="FNanchor_451_451"></a><a href="#Footnote_451_451" class="fnanchor">[451]</a> +Other authorities have told us small episodes. I am, +of course, not concerned here with anything more than +to adduce sufficient evidence to establish the fact that +Christian tolerance of paganism has been one of the +assistant causes for the long continuance of pagan survivals.</p> + +<p>I shall not hesitate to begin by quoting at length a +luminous passage from Grimm's great work. In the +preface to his second edition he writes as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Oftentimes the Church prudently permitted, or could not +prevent, that heathen and Christian things should here and +there run into one another; the clergy themselves would not +always succeed in marking off the bounds of the two religions: +their private leanings might let some things pass which +they found firmly rooted in the multitude. In the language, +together with a stock of newly-imported Greek and Latin +terms, there still remained, even for ecclesiastical use, a +number of Teutonic words previously employed in heathen +services, just as the names of gods stood ineradicable in the +days of the week; to such words old customs would still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> +cling silent and unnoticed and take a new lease of life. The +festivals of the people present a tough material: they are so +closely bound up with its habits of life that they will put up +with foreign additions if only to save a fragment of festivities +long loved and tried. In this way Scandinavia, probably +the Goths also for a time, and the Anglo-Saxons down +to a late period, retained the heathenish Yule as all Teutonic +Christians did the sanctity of Easter-tide; and from these +two the Yule-boar and Yule-bread, the Easter pancake, +Easter-sword, Easter-fire, and Easter-dance could not be +separated. As faithfully were perpetuated the name and in +many cases the observances of Midsummer. New Christian +feasts, especially of saints, seem purposely, as well as accidentally, +to have been made to fall on heathen holidays. +Churches often rose precisely where a heathen god or his +sacred tree had been pulled down, and the people trod their +old paths to the accustomed site; sometimes the very walls +of the heathen temple became those of the church, and cases +occur in which idol images still found a place in a wall of the +porch, or were set up outside the door, as at Bamberg +Cathedral there lie Slavic heathen figures of animals inscribed +with runes. Sacred hills and fountains were rechristened +after saints, to whom their sanctity was transferred; +sacred woods were handed over to the newly-founded +convent or the king, and even under private ownership did +not lose their long-accustomed homage. Law usages, particularly +the ordeals and oath-takings, but also the beating +of bounds, consecrations, image processions, spells and formulas, +while retaining their heathen character, were simply +clothed in Christian forms. In some customs there was +little to change: the heathen practice of sprinkling a newborn +babe with water closely resembled Christian baptism; +the sign of the hammer, that of the cross; and the erection +of tree crosses the irmensûls and world trees of paganism."<a name="FNanchor_452_452" id="FNanchor_452_452"></a><a href="#Footnote_452_452" class="fnanchor">[452]</a></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> +This passage, written in 1844, has been abundantly +illustrated by the research of specialists since that date, +and, of course, Mr. Frazer's monumental work will +occur to every reader. But, after all, the chief authority +for the action of the Church towards paganism in this +country is the famous letter of Pope Gregory to the +Abbot Mellitus in <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span> 601, as preserved by the historian +Beda. It is worth while quoting this once +again, for it is an English historical document of +priceless value. "We have been much concerned," +writes the good St. Gregory,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"since the departure of our congregation that is with you, +because we have received no account of the success of your +journey. When, therefore, Almighty God shall bring you to +the most reverend Bishop Augustine our brother, tell him +what I have, upon mature deliberation on the affair of the +English, determined upon, namely, that the temples of the +idols [fana idolorum] in that nation [gente] ought not to be +destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed; let +holy water be made and sprinkled upon the said temples, let +altars be erected and relics placed. For if these temples be +well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the +worship of devils [dæmonum] to the worship of the true God; +that the nation seeing that their temples are not destroyed may +remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the +true God may the more familiarly resort to the places to which +they have been accustomed. And because they have been +used to slaughter many oxen in the sacrifices to devils some +solemnity must be exchanged for them on this account, so +that on the day of the dedication, or the nativities of the +holy martyrs whose relics are there deposited, they may +build themselves huts of the boughs of trees, about those +churches which have been turned to that use from temples +and celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting and no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> +more offer beasts to the devil [diabolo], but kill cattle to the +praise of God in their eating, and return thanks to the giver +of all things for their sustenance."<a name="FNanchor_453_453" id="FNanchor_453_453"></a><a href="#Footnote_453_453" class="fnanchor">[453]</a></p></div> + +<p>The church of St. Pancras at Canterbury is claimed +to be one of the temples so preserved,<a name="FNanchor_454_454" id="FNanchor_454_454"></a><a href="#Footnote_454_454" class="fnanchor">[454]</a> and there have +survived down to our own times examples of the +animal sacrifice which in early Christian days may +well have been preserved by this famous edict.<a name="FNanchor_455_455" id="FNanchor_455_455"></a><a href="#Footnote_455_455" class="fnanchor">[455]</a> But +beyond these illustrations of the two stated objects +of Pope Gregory's letter there are innumerable additional +results from such a policy,<a name="FNanchor_456_456" id="FNanchor_456_456"></a><a href="#Footnote_456_456" class="fnanchor">[456]</a> results which prove +that British pagandom was not stamped out by edict +or by sword, but was rather gradually borne down +before the strength of the new religion—borne down +and pushed into the background out of sight of the +Church and the State, relegated to the cottage homes, +the cattle-sheds and the cornfields, the countryside and +the denizens thereof.<a name="FNanchor_457_457" id="FNanchor_457_457"></a><a href="#Footnote_457_457" class="fnanchor">[457]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> +This is where we must search for it, and I think this +important element in our studies will be better understood +if we turn for one moment to the results of +Christian contact with earlier belief in the one country +where Christianity has set up its strongest political force, +namely, Italy. Dr. Middleton wrote a series of remarkable +letters which tell us much on this point, but +before referring to this, I wish first to quote a hitherto +buried record by an impartial observer<a name="FNanchor_458_458" id="FNanchor_458_458"></a><a href="#Footnote_458_458" class="fnanchor">[458]</a> in the year +1704. It is a letter written from Venice to Sir Thomas +Frankland, describing the travels and observations of +a journey into Italy. The traveller writes:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I cannot leave Itally without making some general observations +upon the country in general, and first as to their +religion; it differs in name only now from what it was in the +time of the ancient heathen Romans. I know this will +sound very oddly with some sort of people, but compare +them together and then let any reasonable man judge of the +difference. The heathen Itallians had their gods for peace<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> +and for war, for plenty and poverty, for health and sickness, +riches and poverty, to whom they addressed themselves and +their wants; and the Christian Itallians have their patron +saints for each of these things, to whom they also address +according to their wants. The heathen sacrificed bulls and +other beasts, and the Christian ones after the same manner +a piece of bread, which a picture in the garden of Aldobrandina +at Rome, painted in the time of Titus Vespasian, +shews by the altar and the priests' vestments to have been +the same as used now. The Pantheon at Rome was dedicated +by the ancients to all the gods, and by the moderns to +all the saints; the temple of Castor and Pollux at Rome is +now dedicated to Cosmo and Damian, also twin brothers. +The respect they pay to the Virgin Mary is far greater than +what they pay to the Son, and whatever English Roman +Catholics may be made to believe by their priests or impose +upon us, it is certain that the devotion to the Madonnas in +Itally is something more than a bare representation of the +Virgin Mary when they desire her intercession. Miracles +they pretend not only to be wrought by the Madonnas themselves, +but there is far greater respect paid to a Madonna in +one place than another, whereas if this statue were only a +bare representation of the Virgin to keep them in mind of +her, the respect would be equal. I visited all the famous +ones, and it would fill a volume to tell you the fopperies +that's said of them. That of Loretto, being what they say +is the very house where the Virgin lived, is not to be +described, the riches are so great, nor the devotion that's +paid to the statue.... The Lady of Saronna is another +famous one and very rich; she is much handsomer than she +of Loretto and a whole church-full of the legend of the +miracles she hath wrought. She is in great reputation, and +it's thought will at last outtop the Lady of Loretto; there is +another near Leghorne that I also visited called <i>La Madonna +della Silva Nera</i>, to whom all Itallian ships that enter that +port make a present of thanks for their happy voyage, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> +salute her with their cannon, and most ships going out give +her something for her protection during their voyage. I +could tire you with she at the Annunciata at Florence, she +within a mile of Bollognia, for whom the magistracy have +piazza'd the road all the way from her station to the city, +that she may not be encumbered with sun or rain when she +makes them a visit, and hundreds more that would fill a +volume of fopperies that I had the curiosity to see, but it +would be imposing too much upon your patience."<a name="FNanchor_459_459" id="FNanchor_459_459"></a><a href="#Footnote_459_459" class="fnanchor">[459]</a></p></div> + +<p>This only confirms Dr. Middleton's conclusions, +which received the approval of Gibbon, and those of +later writers. "As I descended from the Alps," writes +the Rev. W. H. Blunt in 1823,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I was admonished of my entrance into Italy by a little +chapel to the Madonna, built upon a rock by the roadside, +and from that time till I repassed this chain of +mountains I received almost hourly proof that I was wandering +amongst the descendants of that people which is +described by Cicero to have been the most religious of mankind. +Though the mixture of religion with all the common +events of life is anything but an error, yet I could not avoid +regretting that, like their heathen ancestors, the modern +Italians had supplied the place of our great master mover by +a countless host of inferior agents."<a name="FNanchor_460_460" id="FNanchor_460_460"></a><a href="#Footnote_460_460" class="fnanchor">[460]</a></p></div> + +<p>Mr. Blunt goes on to give interesting details of the +close connection between the modern religious festival, +ceremony, or service, and those of classical times, and +the conclusion is obvious. In modern days Dr. +Mommsen has lent the sanction of his great authority +to the identification of the birthday of Christ with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> +that of Mithra,<a name="FNanchor_461_461" id="FNanchor_461_461"></a><a href="#Footnote_461_461" class="fnanchor">[461]</a> and Mr. Leland has given such +numerous identifications not only of the cults of pagan +and Christian Italy, but of the god-names of ancient +Rome with the saint-names or witch-names of modern +times,<a name="FNanchor_462_462" id="FNanchor_462_462"></a><a href="#Footnote_462_462" class="fnanchor">[462]</a> that it seems impossible to deny a place for this +evidence. "It was," says Gibbon,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"the universal sentiment both of the Church and of heretics +that the dæmons were the authors, the patrons, and the objects +of idolatry; those rebellious spirits who had been degraded +from the rank of angels were still permitted to roam upon +earth, to torment the bodies and to seduce the minds of sinful +men. It was confessed, or at least it was imagined, that they +had distributed among themselves the most important characters +of Polytheism, one dæmon assuming the name of Jupiter, +another of Æsculapius, a third of Venus, and a fourth +perhaps of Apollo."<a name="FNanchor_463_463" id="FNanchor_463_463"></a><a href="#Footnote_463_463" class="fnanchor">[463]</a></p></div> + +<p>This, then, is recognition and adoption of pagan beliefs, +not the uprooting of them. If the Roman Jupiter +was a Christian dæmon, his existence at all events was +recognised. But even this negative way of adopting the +old beliefs gave way as the Church spread further. The +tribe of dæmons soon included the popular fairy, elf, +and goblin. And then came the positive adoption of +pagan customs. Gibbon describes how the early +Christians refused to decorate their doors with garlands +and lamps, and to take part in the ceremonial of lifting +the bride over the threshold of the house.<a name="FNanchor_464_464" id="FNanchor_464_464"></a><a href="#Footnote_464_464" class="fnanchor">[464]</a> Both +these customs have survived in popular folklore, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> +spite of the recorded action of the early Church, and +it would be curious to ascertain whether they have +survived by the help of the Church. We cannot +answer that question of historical evidence just now, +but it is a question which, in its wider aspect, as +including many other items of folklore, ought to be +examined into. There is no doubt, however, that by +analogy it can be answered, because we have ample +evidence, if the writings of reformers may be taken as +historical facts and not polemical imaginations, that +many very important customs, among the richest as +well as the poorest treasures of folklore, have been, so +to speak, Christianised by the Church, and that +the Church has taken part in and adopted non-Christian +customs, the survivors of olden-time life +in Europe.<a name="FNanchor_465_465" id="FNanchor_465_465"></a><a href="#Footnote_465_465" class="fnanchor">[465]</a></p> + +<p>Now it is clear from these considerations, and from +the vast mass of information which is gradually being +accumulated on the subject, that not only the arresting +force of Christianity but also its toleration has assisted +in the preservation of pre-Christian belief and custom. +But the preservation has been in fragments only. The +system which supported the older faith and might, if it +had been allowed a natural growth, have produced +a newer religion of its own, was completely shattered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> +It left no preservative force except that of tradition, the +traditional instinct to do what has always been done, to +believe what has always been believed. Pre-Christian +belief and custom has thus become isolated beliefs and +customs in survival. It has been broken up into innumerable +fragments of unequal character, and containing +unequal elements. It has been forced back +into secret action wherever Christianity was wholly +antagonistic, and hence primitive public worship has +tended to become local worship, or household worship, +or even personal worship, while all such worship which +is not the authorised Church worship has tended to become +superstition. Where Christianity was not wholly +antagonistic, it absorbed rites, customs, and even beliefs, +and these primitive survivals have taken their +place in the evolution of Christian doctrine, and thus +become lost to the students of Celtic and Teutonic +antiquities. But even so, there are discoverable points +where the dividing line between non-Christian and +Christian belief has not been obliterated by the process +of absorption. In all cases it is the duty of the student +to note the stage of arrested development in the primitive +rite, custom, or belief, whether it be caused by +antagonism or by absorption. It is at this point, +indeed, that the history of the survival begins. It +is here that we have to turn from the polity, the +religion, or cultus of a people to the belief, practices, +or superstition of that portion of our nation which +has not shared its progress from tribesmen to citizens, +from paganism to Christianity, from vain imaginings +to science and philosophy. It is from this point we +have to turn from the dignity of courts, the doings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> +of armies, and the results of commerce, to the doings, +sayings, and ideas of the peasantry who cannot read, +and who have depended upon tradition for all, or +almost all, they know outside the formalities of law +and Church.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_444_444" id="Footnote_444_444"></a><a href="#FNanchor_444_444"><span class="label">[444]</span></a> <i>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</i> (Bury), iii. 214-15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_445_445" id="Footnote_445_445"></a><a href="#FNanchor_445_445"><span class="label">[445]</span></a> <i>Royal Irish Academy</i>, viii. 258; <i>Brit. Arch. Assoc.</i> (Gloucester +volume), 62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_446_446" id="Footnote_446_446"></a><a href="#FNanchor_446_446"><span class="label">[446]</span></a> "The Story of the Ere Dwellers," Morris, <i>Saga Library</i>, ii. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_447_447" id="Footnote_447_447"></a><a href="#FNanchor_447_447"><span class="label">[447]</span></a> Camden, <i>Britannia</i>, s.v. "Ireland."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_448_448" id="Footnote_448_448"></a><a href="#FNanchor_448_448"><span class="label">[448]</span></a> Henderson, <i>Folklore of Northern Counties</i>, 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_449_449" id="Footnote_449_449"></a><a href="#FNanchor_449_449"><span class="label">[449]</span></a> Glas, <i>Canary Islands</i>, 148.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_450_450" id="Footnote_450_450"></a><a href="#FNanchor_450_450"><span class="label">[450]</span></a> Betham, <i>Gael and Cymbri</i>, pp. 236-8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_451_451" id="Footnote_451_451"></a><a href="#FNanchor_451_451"><span class="label">[451]</span></a> <i>Decline and Fall</i>, iii. p. 214 (edit. Bury).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_452_452" id="Footnote_452_452"></a><a href="#FNanchor_452_452"><span class="label">[452]</span></a> Grimm, <i>Teutonic Mythology</i>, by Stallybrass, iii. pp. 35, 36. A +passage from Hakon's Saga, quoted by Du Chaillu in his <i>Viking Age</i>, +i. p. 464, shows that the northern peoples adopted the same measures.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_453_453" id="Footnote_453_453"></a><a href="#FNanchor_453_453"><span class="label">[453]</span></a> Beda, lib. i. cap. 30; and consult Mr. Plummer's learned notes on +this (vol. ii. 57-61).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_454_454" id="Footnote_454_454"></a><a href="#FNanchor_454_454"><span class="label">[454]</span></a> Stanley, <i>Memorials of Canterbury</i>, 37-38.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_455_455" id="Footnote_455_455"></a><a href="#FNanchor_455_455"><span class="label">[455]</span></a> <i>Cf.</i> my <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, 30-36, 136-140. Compare St. Patrick's +dedication of pagan sacred stones to Christian purposes.—<i>Tripartite +Life of St. Patrick</i>, i. 107.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_456_456" id="Footnote_456_456"></a><a href="#FNanchor_456_456"><span class="label">[456]</span></a> Thus Henry of Huntingdon records that Redwald, King of the East +Angles, after his conversion to Christianity, "set up altars to Christ +and the devil in the same chapel" (lib. iii.).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_457_457" id="Footnote_457_457"></a><a href="#FNanchor_457_457"><span class="label">[457]</span></a> <i>Cf.</i> Kemble, <i>Saxons in England</i>, i. 330-335. Dr. Hearn writes: +"Even as the good Pope Gregory the Great permitted the newly converted +English to retain their old temples and accustomed rites, attaching, +however, to them another purpose and a new meaning, so his +successors found means to utilize the simple beliefs of early animism. +Long and vainly the Church struggled against this irresistible sentiment. +Fifteen centuries ago it was charged against the Christians of that day +that they appeased the shades of the dead with feasts like the Gentiles. +In the Penitentials we find the prohibition of burning grains where a man +had died. In the <i>Indiculus superstitionum et Paganiarum</i> among the +Saxons complaint is made of the too ready canonisation of the dead; +and the Church seems to have been much troubled to keep within +reasonable bounds this tendency to indiscriminate apotheosis. At length +a compromise was effected, and the Feast of All Souls converted to +pious uses that wealth of sentiment which previously was lavished on +the dead" (<i>The Aryan Household</i>, p. 60). And, to close this short note +upon an important subject, Mr. Metcalfe, speaking of the old poetic +literature of the pagan English, says: "It was kidnapped, and its +features so altered and disguised as not to be recognisable. It was supplanted +by Christian poetical legends and Bible lays produced in rivalry +of the popular lays of their heathen predecessors. Finding that the +people would listen to nothing but these old lays, the missionaries +affected their spirit and language, and borrowed the words and phrases +of heathenism" (Metcalfe's <i>Englishman and Scandinavian</i>, p. 155).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_458_458" id="Footnote_458_458"></a><a href="#FNanchor_458_458"><span class="label">[458]</span></a> For some reason not apparent in the document itself, Mrs. S. C. +Lomas, the editor of this report, says this interesting letter gives "a +curious and evidently prejudiced description of the religious houses and +observances." See preface to <i>Hist. MSS. Com. Report on the MSS. of +Chequers Court, Bucks</i>, p. x.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_459_459" id="Footnote_459_459"></a><a href="#FNanchor_459_459"><span class="label">[459]</span></a> <i>Hist. MSS. Com., Chequers Court Papers</i>, pp. 171-2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_460_460" id="Footnote_460_460"></a><a href="#FNanchor_460_460"><span class="label">[460]</span></a> <i>Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs in Italy</i>, p. 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_461_461" id="Footnote_461_461"></a><a href="#FNanchor_461_461"><span class="label">[461]</span></a> <i>Corpus insc. Lat.</i>, i. 409; and <i>cf.</i> Cumont's <i>Mysteries of Mithra</i> +(1903).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_462_462" id="Footnote_462_462"></a><a href="#FNanchor_462_462"><span class="label">[462]</span></a> Leland, <i>Etruscan Roman Remains</i> (1892).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_463_463" id="Footnote_463_463"></a><a href="#FNanchor_463_463"><span class="label">[463]</span></a> <i>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</i> (Bury), ii. 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_464_464" id="Footnote_464_464"></a><a href="#FNanchor_464_464"><span class="label">[464]</span></a> <i>Decline and Fall</i>, ii. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_465_465" id="Footnote_465_465"></a><a href="#FNanchor_465_465"><span class="label">[465]</span></a> Evidence is scattered far and wide in most of the reliable studies in +folklore. Two special books may be mentioned. A great storehouse of +examples is to be found in <i>The Popish Kingdoms</i>, by Thomas Naogeorgus, +Englyshed by Barnabe Googe, 1570, a new edition of which +was published by Mr. R. C. Hope in 1880; and Mr. H. M. Bower has exhaustively +examined one important Italian ceremony in his <i>The Elevation +and Procession of the Ceri at Gubbio</i>, published by the Folklore Society +in 1897.</p></div> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>ETHNOLOGICAL CONDITIONS</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>lready I have had to point out that an +appeal to ethnological evidence is the means +of avoiding the wholesale rejection of custom +and belief recorded of early Britain, because it has +been rejected as appertaining to the historic Celt. I +will now proceed with the definite proposition that the +survivals in folklore may be allocated and explained by +their ethnological bearing.</p> + +<p>Some years ago I advanced this proposition in my +little book entitled <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>. Only haltingly +have my conclusions been accepted, but I nowhere +find them disproved,<a name="FNanchor_466_466" id="FNanchor_466_466"></a><a href="#Footnote_466_466" class="fnanchor">[466]</a> while here and there I find +good authorities appealing to the ethnological element +in folklore to help them in their views. Mr. MacCulloch, +for instance, prefers to go for the basis of the Osiris +and Dionysius myths to an earlier custom than that +favoured by Mr. Frazer and Mr. Grant Allen, namely, +to the practices of the neolithic folk, in Egypt and over +a wide tract of country which includes Britain, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> +dismembering the dead body previous to its burial.<a name="FNanchor_467_467" id="FNanchor_467_467"></a><a href="#Footnote_467_467" class="fnanchor">[467]</a> Mr. +Lang, Mr. Frazer, Mr. Hartland, and others are +strangely reticent on this subject. That Mr. Lang +should be content to trace a story from the Vedas, in +which Urvasi tells Pururavas that he must never let +her see him naked, to "a traditional Aryan law of +nuptial etiquette,"<a name="FNanchor_468_468" id="FNanchor_468_468"></a><a href="#Footnote_468_468" class="fnanchor">[468]</a> seems to be using the heaviest +machinery for the smallest purposes, while for other +and greater purposes he fails to find in ethnological +distinctions, explanations which escape his research.<a name="FNanchor_469_469" id="FNanchor_469_469"></a><a href="#Footnote_469_469" class="fnanchor">[469]</a> +That Mr. Frazer should have been able to examine in so +remarkable a manner the agricultural rites of European +peoples, and only to have touched upon their ethnological +bearings in one or two isolated cases, seems to +me to be neglecting one of the obvious means of +arriving at the solution of the problem he starts out +to solve.<a name="FNanchor_470_470" id="FNanchor_470_470"></a><a href="#Footnote_470_470" class="fnanchor">[470]</a></p> + +<p>I do not want to discount these fragmentary appeals +to the ethnological element in folklore. I accept them +as evidence that the appeal has to be made. I would +only urge that it may be done on more thorough lines, +after due consideration of all the elements of the proposition +and of all that it means to the study of folklore. +We cannot surrender to the palæontologist all +that folklore contains in tradition and in custom as to +pygmy peoples, or to the Egyptologist all that it contains +as to dismemberment burial rites, without at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> +same time realising that if it is correct to refer these +two groups of folklore respectively to the earliest ages +of man's existence as man and to the neolithic stage of +culture, they must be withdrawn from all other classification. +We cannot use the same items of folklore in +two totally different ways. The results of withdrawal +are as important as the results of allocation, and the +necessity for the correct docketing of all groups of folklore +is thus at once illustrated.</p> + +<p>The first point in the argument for ethnological data +being discoverable in folklore is that a survey of the +survivals of custom, belief, and rites in any given +country shows one marked feature, which results in a +dividing line being drawn as between two distinct +classes. This feature is the antagonism which is discoverable +in these classes. On one side of the dividing +line is a set of customs, beliefs, and rites which +may be grouped together because they are consistent +with each other, and on the other side is another set +of customs, beliefs, and rites which may be grouped +together on the same ground. But between these +two sets of survivals there is no agreement. They +are the negations of each other. They show absolutely +different conceptions of all the phases of life +and thought which they represent, and it is impossible +to consider that they have both come from the same +culture source. I have applied the test of ethnology +to such cases in Britain, and this appears to answer the +difficulty which their antagonism presents. It appears +too to be the only answer.</p> + +<p>The subjects which show this antagonism are all of +vital importance. They include friendly and inimical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> +relations with the dead; marriage as a sacred tribal +rite and marriage as a rule of polyandrous society; +birth ceremonies which tell of admittance into a sacred +circle of kinsmen, and birth ceremonies which breathe +of revenge and hostility; the reverential treatment of +the aged folk and the killing of them off; the preservation +of human life as part of the tribal blood, and +human sacrifice as a certain cure for all personal evils; +the worship of waters as a strongly localised cult, preserved +because it is local by whatsoever race or people +are in occupation and in successive occupation of the +locality; totemic beliefs connected with animals and +plants contrasted with ideas entirely unconnected with +totemism—all this, and much more which has yet to be +collected and classified, reveals two distinct streams of +thought which cannot by any process be taken back to +one original source.</p> + +<p>This fact of definite antagonism between different +sets of surviving beliefs existing together in one +country leads to several very important conclusions. +This is the case with the Irish Sids. These beings +are said to be scattered over Ireland, and around +them assembled for worship the family or clan of the +deified patron. While there were thus a number of +topical deities, each in a particular spot where he was +to be invoked, the deities themselves with the rest of +their non-deified but blessed brother spirits had as +their special abode "Lands of the Living," the happy +island or islands somewhere far away in the ocean. +Now this Sid worship, we are told by Irish scholars, +"had nothing to do with Druidism—in fact, was quite +opposed to it," the Sids and the Druids being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> +"frequently found at variance with each other in respect to +mortals."<a name="FNanchor_471_471" id="FNanchor_471_471"></a><a href="#Footnote_471_471" class="fnanchor">[471]</a></p> + +<p>This is the commencing point of the evidence which +proves Druidism to have belonged to the pre-Celtic +people, though finding an adopted home among them. +This is so important a subject and has been so strangely +and inconsistently dealt with by most authorities that it +will be well to indicate where we have to search for the +non-Celtic, and therefore pre-Celtic, origin of Druidism. +The Druidism revealed by classical authorities is, for +the most part, the Druidism of continental peoples and +not of Britain, and I hesitate to accept off-hand that it +is proper to transfer the continental system to Britain +and say that the two systems were one and the same. +There is certainly no evidence from the British side +which would justify such a course, and I think there is +sufficient argument against it to suspend judgment +until the whole subject is before us. If Professor +Rhys is right in concluding that Druidism is at its +roots a non-Celtic religion,<a name="FNanchor_472_472" id="FNanchor_472_472"></a><a href="#Footnote_472_472" class="fnanchor">[472]</a> we must add to this that +it was undoubtedly a non-Teutonic religion. Celts +and Teutons were sufficiently near in all the elements +of their civilisation for this want of parallel in their +relationship to Druidism to be an additional argument +against the Celts having originated this cult. And +then the explanation of the differences between continental +and British Druidism becomes comparatively +easy to understand. The continental Celts, mixing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> +more thoroughly with the pre-Celtic aborigines than +did the British Celts, would have absorbed more of the +pre-Celtic religion than the British Celts, and hence all +the details which classical authorities have left us of continental +Druidism appear as part of the Celtic religion, +while in Britain these details are for the most part absent. +But this is not all. There are certain rites in Britain +noted by the early authorities which are not attached to +any particular cult. They are not Druidic; they are +not Celtic. They are, as a matter of fact, special examples +of rites practised in only one locality, and +accordingly referred to as something extraordinary and +not general. From this it is clearly correct to argue +that the British Celts had in their midst a cult which, +if they did not destroy, they certainly did not absorb, +and that therefore this cult being non-Celtic must have +been pre-Celtic.</p> + +<p>I do not wish to argue this point out further than is +necessary to explain the position which, it appears to +me, Druidism occupies, and I will therefore only add +a note as to the authorities for the statements I have +advanced. The differences between continental and +British Druidism are definite and pronounced,<a name="FNanchor_473_473" id="FNanchor_473_473"></a><a href="#Footnote_473_473" class="fnanchor">[473]</a> the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> +mixture of the continental Celts with the Iberic people, +which they displaced, is attested, by ancient authority +and modern anthropology,<a name="FNanchor_474_474" id="FNanchor_474_474"></a><a href="#Footnote_474_474" class="fnanchor">[474]</a> while the only evidence of +such a mixture in Britain is the prominently recorded +instance of the Picts intermarrying with the Gael,<a name="FNanchor_475_475" id="FNanchor_475_475"></a><a href="#Footnote_475_475" class="fnanchor">[475]</a> and +this has to be set against the close distinction between +tribesmen and non-tribesmen, which is such a remarkable +feature of Celtic law;<a name="FNanchor_476_476" id="FNanchor_476_476"></a><a href="#Footnote_476_476" class="fnanchor">[476]</a> the existence of local +cults in early Britain having all the characteristics of +a ruder and more savage origin, and not identified +with Celticism, is a point derived from our early +authorities.<a name="FNanchor_477_477" id="FNanchor_477_477"></a><a href="#Footnote_477_477" class="fnanchor">[477]</a> These are the main facts of the case,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> +and the subject has to be worked out in considerable +detail before it can be settled.</p> + +<p>There is one other primary subject which bears upon +the question of race distinctions in folklore. With the +fact of conquest to reckon with, the relationship of the +conqueror to the conquered is a matter to consider. In +the European tribal system it was a definite relationship, +so definite that the conquered, as we have seen, +formed an essential part of the tribal organisation—the +kinless slaves beneath the tribal kindred. There was a +place for the kinless in the tribal economy and in the +tribal laws. There was also a place for them in the +tribal system of belief, and the mythic influence of the +conquered is a subject that needs very careful consideration.</p> + +<p>It is an influence which appears in all parts of the +world. Thus, to give a few instances, in New Guinea +they have no idols, and apparently no idea of a +supreme being or a good spirit. Their only religious +ideas consist in a belief in evil spirits. They live a +life of slavish fear to these, but seem to have no +idea of propitiating them by sacrifice or prayer. They +believe in the deathlessness of the soul. A death in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> +the village is the occasion of bringing plenty of ghosts +to escort their new companion, and perhaps fetch some +one else. All night the friends of the deceased sit up +and keep the drums going to drive away the spirits; +they strike the fences and posts of houses all through +the village with sticks. This is done to drive back the +spirits to their own quarters on the adjacent mountain +tops. But it is the spirits of the inland tribes, the +aborigines of the country, that the coast tribes most +fear. They believe, when the natives are in the neighbourhood, +that the whole plain is full of spirits who +come with them. All calamities are attributed to the +power and malice of these evil spirits. Drought, +famine, storm and flood, disease and death are all +supposed to be brought by Vata and his hosts, so that +the people are an easy prey to any designing individuals +who claim power over these. Some disease charmers +and rain-makers levy heavy toll on the people.<a name="FNanchor_478_478" id="FNanchor_478_478"></a><a href="#Footnote_478_478" class="fnanchor">[478]</a></p> + +<p>It appears that the native population of New Zealand +was originally composed of two different races, which +have retained some of their characteristic features, +although in course of time they have in all other +respects become mixed, and a number of intermediate +varieties have thence resulted. From the existence of +two races in New Zealand the conclusion might be +drawn that the darker were the original proprietors of +the soil anterior to the arrival of a stock of true Polynesian +origin, that they were conquered by the latter +and nearly exterminated. There is a district in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> +northern island, situated between Taupo and Hawke's +Bay, called Urewera, consisting of steep and barren +hills. The scattered inhabitants of this region have +the renown of being the greatest witches in the country. +They are very much feared, and have little connection +with the neighbouring tribes, who avoid them if +possible. If they come to the coast the natives there +scarcely venture to refuse them anything for fear of +incurring their displeasure. They are said to use the +saliva of the people whom they intend to bewitch, and +visitors carefully conceal their spittle to give them no +opportunity of working their evil. Like our witches +and sorcerers of old, they appear to be a very harmless +people, and but little mixed up with the quarrels of +their neighbours.<a name="FNanchor_479_479" id="FNanchor_479_479"></a><a href="#Footnote_479_479" class="fnanchor">[479]</a> The Australians, according to +Oldfield, ascribe spirit powers to those residing north +of themselves and hold them in great dread.<a name="FNanchor_480_480" id="FNanchor_480_480"></a><a href="#Footnote_480_480" class="fnanchor">[480]</a></p> + +<p>In Asia the same idea prevails among the native +races. Thus Colquhoun says,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"it was amusing to find the dread in which the Lawas [a +hill tribe] are held by both Burmese and Siamese. This is +due to a fear of being bitten by them and dying of the bite. +They are called by their Burmese neighbours the 'man-bears.' +A singular custom obtains amongst these people +which may perhaps partly account for this superstition. On +a certain night in the year the youths and maidens meet +together for the purpose of pairing. Unacceptable youths +are said to be bitten severely if they make advances to the +ladies."<a name="FNanchor_481_481" id="FNanchor_481_481"></a><a href="#Footnote_481_481" class="fnanchor">[481]</a></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> +The Semang pygmy people, afraid to approach +the Malays even for purposes of barter, "learnt +to work upon the superstition of the Malays by presenting +them with medicines which they pretended +to derive from particular shrubs and trees in the +woods."<a name="FNanchor_482_482" id="FNanchor_482_482"></a><a href="#Footnote_482_482" class="fnanchor">[482]</a> That this is a real superstition of the conquerors +for the conquered is proved from other sources +to which I have referred elsewhere.<a name="FNanchor_483_483" id="FNanchor_483_483"></a><a href="#Footnote_483_483" class="fnanchor">[483]</a></p> + +<p>In Africa it appears as a living force, and we are told +that the stories current in the country of the Ukerewé, +"about the witchcraft practised by the people of Ukara +island, prove that those islanders have been at pains to +spread abroad a good repute for themselves; that they +are cunning, and aware that superstition is a weakness +of human nature have sought to thrive upon it."<a name="FNanchor_484_484" id="FNanchor_484_484"></a><a href="#Footnote_484_484" class="fnanchor">[484]</a></p> + +<p>It appears in more definite form with the Hindus. +The Kathkuri, or Katodi, have a belief that they are +descended from the monkeys and bears which Adi +Narayun in his tenth incarnation of Rama, took with +him for the destruction of Rawun, King of Lanka, and +he promised his allies that in the fourth age they should +become human beings. They practise incantation, and +encourage the awe with which the Hindu regards their +imprecations, for a Hindu believes that a Katodi can +transform himself into a tiger.<a name="FNanchor_485_485" id="FNanchor_485_485"></a><a href="#Footnote_485_485" class="fnanchor">[485]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> +To this day the Aryans settled in Chota-Nagpore and +Singbhoom firmly believe that the Moondahs have +powers as wizards and witches, and can transform themselves +into tigers and other beasts of prey with the view +of devouring their enemies, and that they can witch +away the lives of man and beast. They were in all +probability one of the tribes that were most persistent +in their hostility to the Aryan invaders.<a name="FNanchor_486_486" id="FNanchor_486_486"></a><a href="#Footnote_486_486" class="fnanchor">[486]</a> In Ceylon the +remnants of the aborigines are found in the forests and +on the mountains, and are universally looked upon +and feared as demons, the beliefs engendered therefrom +being exactly parallel to the witch beliefs of our own +country.<a name="FNanchor_487_487" id="FNanchor_487_487"></a><a href="#Footnote_487_487" class="fnanchor">[487]</a></p> + +<p>There is similar evidence among European peoples. +Formerly in Sweden the name of Lapp seems to have +been almost synonymous with that of sorcerer, and the +same was the case with Finn. The inhabitants of the +southern provinces of Sweden believed their countrymen +in the north to have great experience in magic.<a name="FNanchor_488_488" id="FNanchor_488_488"></a><a href="#Footnote_488_488" class="fnanchor">[488]</a> +The famous Gundhild, of Saga renown, was believed +to be a sorceress brought up among the Finns,<a name="FNanchor_489_489" id="FNanchor_489_489"></a><a href="#Footnote_489_489" class="fnanchor">[489]</a> and +even in respect of classical remains Mr. Warde Fowler +"prefers to think of the Fauni as arising from the contact +of the first clearers and cultivators of Italian soil +with a wild aboriginal race of the hills and woods."<a name="FNanchor_490_490" id="FNanchor_490_490"></a><a href="#Footnote_490_490" class="fnanchor">[490]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> +These facts are sufficient to show that the mythic influence +of a conquered race is a factor which may assist +in the discussion of the ethnological conditions of folklore, +and it is obvious that they reveal a very powerful +influence for the continuance of ancient ideas as well +as for the creation of fresh examples of ancient ideas +applied to new experiences. It is well in this connection +to remember certain historical facts connected with +the settlement of the English in Britain.</p> + +<p>From Freeman's <i>Old English History</i> it appears that +at the beginning of the seventh century "the tract of +country which the English then ruled over south of the +Humber, coincided almost exactly with the boundary of +the Gaulish portion of Britain," as distinct from non-Aryan +Britain. This apparent recognition of Celtic +landmarks, says Professor Rhys, by the later invaders, +"is a fact, the historical and political significance of +which I leave to be weighed by others,"<a name="FNanchor_491_491" id="FNanchor_491_491"></a><a href="#Footnote_491_491" class="fnanchor">[491]</a> and I venture +to suggest that one important result is to show Britain +to have contained an Aryan culture-ground and a +non-Aryan culture-ground. If we try to step from +one to the other we quickly discover the mythic relationship +of conqueror to the conquered.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus27" id="Illus27"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_27.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_27th.jpg" width="400" height="205" +alt="A scene from the Anglo-Saxon life of St. Guthlac by Felix of Crowland, +depicting the attack of the demons" +title="SCENE FROM THE LIFE OF ST. GUTHLAC SHOWING THE ATTACKS OF THE +DÆMONES" /></a> +<span class="caption">SCENE FROM THE LIFE OF ST. GUTHLAC SHOWING THE ATTACKS +OF THE DÆMONES</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>Thus in the Anglo-Saxon life of St. Guthlac we have +an interesting glimpse into the conditions of the country +and the attitude of the two hostile races, Celts and +Teutons, to each other.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"There is in Britain a fen of immense size which begins +from the river Granta, not far from the city, which is named +Grantchester ... a man named Tatwine said that he knew +an island especially obscure, which ofttimes many men had +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>attempted to inhabit, but no man could do it on account of +manifold horrors and fears, and the loneliness of the wild +wilderness.... No man ever could inhabit it before the +holy man Guthlac came thither on account of the dwelling +of the accursed spirits there.... There was on the island a +great mound raised upon the earth, which same of yore men +had dug and broken up in hopes of treasure.... Then in +the stillness of the night it happened suddenly that there +came great hosts of the accursed spirits, and they filled the +house with their coming, and they poured in on every side +from above and beneath and everywhere. They were in +countenance horrible, and they had great heads and a long +neck and lean visage; they were filthy and squalid in their +beards, and they had rough ears and distorted face, and +fierce eyes and foul mouths: and their teeth were like horses' +tusks, and their throats were filled with flame, and they were +grating in their voice: they had crooked shanks and knees, +big and great behind, and distorted toes, and shrieked +hoarsely with their voices, and they came with such immoderate +noises and immense horror that it seemed to him +that all between heaven and earth resounded with their +dreadful cries. Without delay, when they were come into +the house, they soon bound the holy man in all his limbs, and +they pulled and led him out of the cottage and brought him +to the black fen and threw and sunk him in the muddy +waters. After that they brought him to the wild places of +the wilderness, among the dense thickets of brambles that +all his body was torn. After they had a long time thus +tormented him in darkness they let him abide and stand +awhile, then commanded him to depart from the wilderness, +or if he would not do so they would torment and try him with +greater plagues."<a name="FNanchor_492_492" id="FNanchor_492_492"></a><a href="#Footnote_492_492" class="fnanchor">[492]</a></p></div> + +<p>These doings are not sufficiently remote from sober +fact for us to be unable to detect human enemies in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> +supposed beings of the spirit world, and this conclusion +is confirmed by a later passage in the same narrative +describing Guthlac awakened from his sleep and hearing +"a great host of the accursed spirits speaking in British +[bryttisc] and he knew and understood their words +because he had been erewhile in exile among them."<a name="FNanchor_493_493" id="FNanchor_493_493"></a><a href="#Footnote_493_493" class="fnanchor">[493]</a> +Guthlac in England is only experiencing what other +saints experienced elsewhere,<a name="FNanchor_494_494" id="FNanchor_494_494"></a><a href="#Footnote_494_494" class="fnanchor">[494]</a> and we cannot doubt we +have in these reminiscences of saintly experience that +mixture of fact with traditional belief which would +follow the priests of the new religions from their +native homes to the cell.</p> + +<p>It is necessary to consider another great element in +human life with reference to its ethnological value, for +folklore has always been intimately associated with it, +and recently, owing to Mr. Frazer's brilliant researches, +this branch of folklore has been almost +unduly accentuated. I mean, of course, agriculture. +Mr. Frazer has ignored the ethnological side of agriculture, +and it has been appropriated by the student of +economics as a purely historical institution. This has +caused a special position to be given to agricultural +rites and customs almost without question and certainly +without examination, and it will be necessary to go +rather closely into the subject in order to clear up the +difficulties which present neglect has produced. I shall +once again draw my illustrations from the British Isles.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Illus28" id="Illus28"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/faahs_28.jpg"> +<img src="images/faahs_28th.jpg" width="400" height="206" +alt="A scene from the Anglo-Saxon life of St. Guthlac by Felix of Crowland, +depicting the attack of the demons" +title="SCENE FROM THE LIFE OF ST. GUTHLAC SHOWING THE ATTACKS OF THE +DÆMONES" /></a> +<span class="caption">SCENE FROM THE LIFE OF ST. GUTHLAC SHOWING THE ATTACKS +OF THE DÆMONES</span> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>I put my facts in this way: (1) In all parts of Great +Britain there exist rites, customs, and usages connected +with agriculture which are obviously and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span>admittedly not of legislative or political origin, and which +present details exactly similar to each other in <i>character</i>, +but differing from each other in <i>status</i>; (2) that +the difference in status is to be accounted for by the +effects of successive conquests; (3) that the identity +in character is not to be accounted for by reference to +manorial history, because the area of manorial institutions +is not coincident with the area of these rites, +customs, and usages; (4) that exact parallels to them +exist in India as integral portions of village institutions; +(5) that the Indian parallels carry the subject +a step further than the European examples because +they are stamped with the mark of difference in race-origin, +one portion belonging to the Aryan people and +the other to the non-Aryan.</p> + +<p>I shall now pick out some examples, and explain +from them the evidence which seems to me to prove +that race-distinction is the key for the origin of these +agricultural rites and usages in Europe as in India. +I have dealt with these examples at some length in +my book on the village community, and I shall +only use such details as I require for my immediate +purpose.</p> + +<p>My first point is that to get at the survivals of the +village community in Britain it is not necessary to +approach it through the medium of manorial history. +Extremely ancient as I am inclined to think manorial +history is, it is unquestionably loaded with an artificial +terminology and with the chains so deftly forged by +lawyers. An analysis of the chief features in the types +of the English village community shows that the +manorial element is by no means a common factor in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> +the series. These types mark the transition from the +tribal form to the village form. In Harris Island we +have the chief with his free tribesmen around him, connected +by blood kinship, living in scattered homesteads, +just like the German tribes described by +Tacitus. Under this tribal community is the embryo +of the village community, consisting of smaller tenantry +and cottar serfs, who live together in minute villages, +holding their land in common and yearly distributing +the holdings by lot. In this type the tribal constitution +is the real factor, and the village constitution the subordinated +factor as yet wholly undeveloped, scarcely +indeed discernible except by very close scrutiny.</p> + +<p>At Kilmorie the tribal community is represented +merely by the scattered homesteads. These are occupied +by a joint farm-tenantry, who hold their lands +upon the system of the village community. Here the +village constitution has gradually entered into, so to +speak, the tribal constitution, and has almost absorbed +it.</p> + +<p>At Heisgier and Lauder the tribal community is represented +by the last link under the process of dissolution, +namely, the free council of the community by +which the village rights are governed, while the village +community has developed to a considerable extent.</p> + +<p>At Aston and at Malmesbury the old tribal constitution +is still kept alive in a remarkable manner, and I +will venture to quote from my book the account of the +evolution at Aston of a tenantry from the older tribal +constitution, because in this case we are actually dealing +with a manor, and the evidence is unique so far as +England is concerned.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> +The first point is that the village organisation, the +rights of assembly, the free open-air meetings, and the +corporate action incident to the manor of Aston and +Cote, attach themselves to the land divisions of sixteen +hides, because although these hides had grown in 1657 +into a considerable tenancy, fortunately as a tenancy +they kept their original unity in full force and so obstinately +clung to their old system of government as to +keep up by <i>representation</i> the once undivided holding of +the hide. If the organisation of the hide had itself disappeared, +it still formed the basis of the village government, +the sixteen hides sending up their sixteen <i>elected</i> +representatives. How the tenancy grew out of the original +sixteen homesteads may perhaps be conjecturally set +forth. In the first place the owners of the yard-lands succeeded +to the place originally occupied by the owners of +the sixteen hides. Instead of the original sixteen group-owners +we have therefore sixty-four individual owners, +each yard-land having remained in possession of an +owner. And then at succeeding stages of this dissolution +we find the yard-lands broken up until, in 1848, +"some farmers of Aston have only half or even a +quarter of a yard-land, while some have as many as +ten or eleven yard-lands in their single occupation." +Then disintegration proceeded to the other proprietary +rights, which, originally appendant to the homestead +only, became appendant to the person and not to the +residence, and are consequently "bought and sold as +separate property, by which means it results that persons +resident at Bampton, or even at great distance, +have rights on Aston and Cote Common." And finally +we lose all trace of the system, as described by Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> +Horde and as depicted by the representative character +of the Sixteens, and in its place find that "there are +some tenants who have rights in the common field and +not in the pasture, and <i>vice versâ</i> several occupiers +have the right of pasture who do not possess any portion +of arable land in the common field," so that both +yard-lands and hides have now disappeared, and absolute +ownership of land has taken their place. Mr. +Horde's MS. enables us to proceed back from modern +tenancy-holding to the holding by yard-lands; the +rights of election in the yard-lands enable us to +proceed back to the original holding of the sixteen +hides.</p> + +<p>At Hitchin, which is Mr. Seebohm's famous example, +we meet with the manorial type. But its features are +in no way peculiar. There is nothing which has not +its counterpart, in more or less well-defined degree, in +the other types which are not manorial. In short, the +manorial framework within which it is enclosed does +little more than fix the details into an immovable setting, +accentuating some at the expense of others, +legalising everything so as to bring it all under the +iron sovereignty which was inaugurated by the Angevin +kings.</p> + +<p>My suggestion is that these examples are but varying +types of one original. The Teutonic people, and their +Celtic predecessors, came to Britain with a tribal, not an +agricultural, constitution. In the outlying parts of the +land this tribal constitution settled down, and was only +slightly affected by the economical conditions of the +people they found there; in the more thickly populated +parts this tribal constitution was superimposed upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> +an already existing village constitution in full vigour. +We, therefore, find the tribal constitution everywhere—in +almost perfect condition in the north, in Wales, +and in Ireland; in less perfect condition in England. +We also find the village constitution everywhere—in +almost embryo form in the north, Wales, and in Ireland; +in full vigour and force in England, especially in that +area which, as already noted, has been identified as the +constant occupation-ground of all the races who have +settled in Britain.</p> + +<p>Now the factor which is most apparent in all these +cases is the singular dual constitution which I have +called tribal and village. It is only when we get to such +cases as Rothwell and Hitchin that almost all traces of +the tribal element are lost, the village element only +remaining. But inasmuch as this village element is +identical in <i>kind</i>, if not in degree, with the village +element in the other types, and inasmuch as topographically +they are closely connected, we are, I contend, +justified in concluding that it is derived from the same +original—an original which was composed of a tribal +community with a village community in serfdom +under it.</p> + +<p>This dual element should, I think, be translated into +terms of ethnology by appealing to the parallel evidence +of India. There the types of the village community +are not, as was thought by Sir Henry Maine and others, +homogeneous. There the dual element appears, the +tribal community at the top of the system, the village +community at the bottom of the system. But in India +a new factor is introduced by the equation of the two +elements with two different races—the tribal element<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> +being Aryan, and the village element non-Aryan. Race-origins +are there still kept up and rigidly adhered to. +They have not been crushed out, as in Europe, by +political or economical activity.</p> + +<p>But if crushed out of prominent recognition in +Europe, are we, therefore, to conclude that their relics +do not exist in peasant custom? My argument is that +we cannot have such close parallels in India and in +England without seeing that they virtually tell the same +story in both countries. It would require a great +deal to prove that customs, which in India belong +now to non-Aryan aborigines and are rejected by the +Aryans, are in Europe the heritage of the Aryan +race.</p> + +<p>The objections to my theory have been formulated by +Mr. Ashley, who follows Mr. Seebohm and M. Fustel +de Coulanges as an adherent of the chronological +method of studying institutions. Like the old school +of antiquaries, this new school of investigators into the +history of institutions gets back to the period of Roman +history, and there stops. Mr. Ashley suggests that because +Cæsar describes the Celtic Britons as pastoral, +therefore agriculture in Britain must be post-Celtic. I +will not stop to raise the question as to who were the +tribes from which Cæsar obtained his evidence. But it +will suffice to point out that if Cæsar is speaking of the +Aryan Celts of Britain—and this much seems certain—he +only proves of them what Tacitus proves of the +Aryan Teutons, what the sagas prove of the Aryan +Scandinavians, what the vedas prove of the Aryan +Indians, what philology, in short, proves of the primitive +Aryans generally, namely, that they were distinctly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +hunters and warriors, and hated and despised the tillers +of the soil.</p> + +<p>It does not, in point of fact, then, help the question +as to the origin of agricultural rites and usages to turn +to Aryan history at all. In this emergency Roman +history is appealed to. But this is just one of those +cases where a small portion of the facts are squeezed in +to do duty for the whole.</p> + +<p>Both M. Fustel de Coulanges and Mr. Seebohm think +that if a Roman origin can be <i>primâ facie</i> shown for the +economical side of agricultural institutions, there is +nothing more to be said. But they leave out of consideration +a whole set of connected institutions. Readers +of Mr. Frazer's <i>Golden Bough</i> are now in possession of +facts which it would take a very long time to explain. +They see that side by side with agricultural economics +is agricultural religion, of great rudeness and barbarity, +of considerable complexity, and bearing the stamp of +immense antiquity. The same villagers who were the +observers of those rules of economics which are thought +to be due to Roman origin were also observers of ritual +and usages which are known to be savage in theory and +practice. Must we, then, say that all this ritual and +usage are Roman? or must we go on ignoring them as +elements in the argument as to the origin of agricultural +institutions? One or the other of these alternatives +must, I contend, be accepted by the inquirer.</p> + +<p>Because the State has chosen or been compelled for +political reasons to lift up peasant economics into manorial +legal rules, thus forcibly divorcing this portion of +peasant life from its natural associations, there is no +reason why students should fix upon this arbitrary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> +proceeding as the point at which to begin their examination +into the origin of village agriculture. Manorial tenants +pay their dues to the lord, lot out their lands in intermixed +strips, cultivate in common, and perform generally +all those interesting functions of village life with which +Mr. Seebohm has made us familiar. But, in close +and intimate connection with these selfsame agricultural +economical proceedings, it is the same body of +manorial tenants who perform irrational and rude customs, +who carry the last sheaf of corn represented in +human or animal form, who sacrifice animals to their +earth deities, who carry fire round fields and crops, +who, in a scarcely disguised ritual, still worship deities +which there is little difficulty in recognising as the +counterparts of those religious goddesses of India who +are worshipped and venerated by non-Aryan votaries. +Christianity has not followed the lead of politics, and +lifted all this portion of peasant agricultural life into +something that is religious and definite. And because +it remains sanctioned by tradition, we must, in considering +origins, take it into account in conjunction +with those economic practices which have been unduly +emphasised in the history of village institutions. In +India primitive economics and religion go hand in +hand as part of the village life of the people; in England +primitive economics and <i>survivals</i> of old religions, +which we call folklore, go hand in hand as part of the +village life of the people. And it is not in the province +of students to separate one from the other when they +are considering the question of origin.</p> + +<p>This is practically the whole of my argument from +the folklore point of view. But it is not the whole of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> +the argument against the theory of the Roman origin +of the village community. I cannot on this occasion +re-state what this argument is, as it is set forth at some +length in my book. But I should like to point out that +it is in reality supported by arguments to be drawn +from ethnological facts. Mr. Ashley surrenders to my +view of the question the important point that ethnological +data, derived from craniological investigation, +fit in "very readily with the supposition that under the +Celtic, and therefore under the Roman rule, the cultivating +class was largely composed of the pre-Celtic +race; and allows us to believe that the agricultural +population was but little disturbed." Economically it +was certainly not disturbed by the Romans. If the +agricultural implements known to and used by the +Romans were never used in Britain after their departure; +if the old methods of land-surveying under the +agrimensores is not to be traced in Britain as a continuing +system; if wattle and daub, rude, uncarpentered +trees turned root upwards to form roofs, were the leading +principles of house-architecture, it cannot be alleged +that the Romans left behind any permanent marks of +their economical standard upon the "little disturbed +agricultural population." Why, then, should they be +credited with the introduction of a system of lordship +and serf-bound tenants, when both lordship and serfdom +are to be traced in lands where Roman power has +never penetrated, under conditions almost exactly +similar to the feudal elements in Europe? If it be accepted +that the early agricultural population of Britain +was non-Aryan; if we find non-Aryan agricultural rites +and festivals surviving as folklore among the peasants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> +of to-day; why should it be necessary, why should it be +accepted as a reasonable hypothesis, to go to the +imperial and advanced economics of Rome to account +for those other elements in the composition of the +village community which, equally with the rites and +festivals, are to be found paralleled among the non-Aryan +population living under an Aryan lordship in +India? The only argument for such a process is one of +convenience. It does so happen that the Roman theory +<i>may</i> account for some of the English phenomena. But, +then, the Celtic and Teutonic, or Aryan theory also +accounts for the same English phenomena, and, what +is more, it accounts for other phenomena not reckoned +by the Roman theory. My proposition is that the +history of the village community in Britain is the +history of the economical condition of the non-Aryan +aborigines; that the history of the tribal community is +the history of the Aryan conquerors, who appear as +overlords; and that the Romans, except as another +wave of Aryan conquerors at an advanced stage of +civilisation, had very little to do with shaping the +village institutions of Britain.<a name="FNanchor_495_495" id="FNanchor_495_495"></a><a href="#Footnote_495_495" class="fnanchor">[495]</a></p> + +<p>It is necessary before leaving this subject to take note +of a point which may lead, and in fact has led to misconception +of the argument. I have stated that all +custom, rite, and belief which is Aryan custom, rite, and +belief, as distinct from that which is pre-Aryan—pre-Celtic +in our own country—must have a position in +the tribal system, and I have said that custom, rite,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> +and belief which cannot be traced back to the tribal +system may be safely pronounced to be pre-tribal in +origin and therefore pre-Celtic, to have survived, +that is, from the people whom the Celts found in occupation +of the country when first they landed on its shores. +I did not interrupt my statement of the case to point +out one important modification of it, because this modification +has nothing to do with the great mass of custom +and belief now surviving as folklore, but I will deal +with this modification now so that I may clear up any +misconception. We have already ascertained that over +and above the custom and belief, which may be traced +back to their tribal origins, there are both customs and +beliefs which owe their origin to psychological conditions, +and there are myths surviving as folk-tales or +legends which owe their origin to the primitive philosophy +of earliest man. Neither of these departments +of folklore enters into the question of race +development. The first may be called post-ethnologic +because they arise in a political society of modern +civilisation which transcends the boundaries of race; +the second may be called pre-ethnologic, because +they arise in a savage society before the great races +had begun their distinctive evolution. The point +about this class of belief is that it has never been +called upon to do duty for social improvement and +organisation, has never been specialised by the Celt +or Teuton in Europe, nor by other branches of the +same race. The myth alone of these two groups +of folklore could have had an ethnological influence, +and this must have been very slight. It remained in +the mind of Aryan man, but has never descended to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> +arena of his practical life. It has influenced his practical +life indirectly of course, but it has never become a brick +in the building up of his practical life. This distinction +between custom and belief which are tribal and custom +and belief which are not tribal, is of vast importance. It +has been urged against the classification of custom, rite, +and belief into ethnological groups that it does not allow +for the presence of a great mass of belief, primitive in +character and undoubtedly Aryan, if not in origin at all +events in fact. The objection is not valid. The custom, +rite, and belief which can be classified as distinctively +Aryan is that portion of the whole corpus of primitive +custom, rite, and belief, which was used by the Aryan-speaking +folk in the building up of their tribal organisation. +They divorced it by this use from the general +primitive conceptions, and developed it along special +lines. It is in its special characteristics that this belief +belongs to the tribal system of the Aryans, not in its +general characteristics. Not every custom, rite, and belief +was so used and developed. The specialisation caused +the deliberate rejection or neglect of much custom, rite, +and belief which was opposed to the new order of things, +and did not affect the practical doings of Aryan life.</p> + +<p>There are thus three elements to consider: (1) the +custom, rite, and belief specialised by the Aryan-speaking +people in the formation and development of their +tribal system; (2) the custom, rite, and belief rejected +or neglected by the Aryan tribesmen; and (3) the +belief which was not affected by or used for the tribal +development, but which, not being directly antagonistic +to it, remained with the primitive Aryan folk as survivals +of their science and philosophy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> +For ethnological purposes we have only to do with +the first group. It is definite, and it is capable of +definite recognition within the tribe. When once it +was brought into the tribal system it ceased to exist in +the form in which it was known to general savage +belief; it developed highly specialised forms, took its +part in the formation of a great social force, a great +fighting and conquering force, a great migratory force. +In accomplishing this task it grew into a solid system, +each part in touch with all other parts, each part an +essential factor in the ever-active forces which it helped +to fashion and control.</p> + +<p>It is in this wise that we must study its survivals +wherever they are to be found, and the study must be +concentrated within certain definite ethnographic areas. +If I were to pursue the subject and choose for my +study the folklore of Britain, I should have to object to +the treatment accorded to British custom, rite, and +belief by even so great an authority as Mr. Frazer, +because they are used not as parts of a tribal system +but as mere detritus of a primitive system of science, or +philosophy. According to my views they had long since +become separated from any such system and it is placing +them in a wrong perspective, giving them a false value, +associating them with elements to which they have no +affinity to divorce them from their tribal connection. The +custom, rite, and belief which were tribal, when they were +brought to their present ethnographic area, cannot be +considered in the varied forms of their survival except +by restoration to the tribal organisation from which +they were torn when they began their life as survivals.</p> + +<p>What I have endeavoured to explain in this way are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> +the principles which should govern folklore research +in relation to ethnological conditions. The differing +races which made up the peoples of Europe before the +era of political history must have left their distinctive +remains in folklore, if folklore is rightly considered as +the traditional survivals of the prehistory period. To +get at and classify these remains we must be clear as +to the problems which surround inquiry into them. +The solution of these problems will place us in possession +of a mass of survivals in folklore which are +naturally associated with each other, and which stand +apart from other survivals also naturally associated +with each other. In these two masses we may detect +the main influences of the great tribal races and the +non-tribal races. We cannot, I think, get much +beyond this. We may, perhaps, here and there, +detect smaller race divisions—Celtic, Teutonic, Scandinavian +or other distinctions, according to the area +of investigation—but these will be less apparent, +less determinable, and will not be so valuable to +historical science as the larger division. To this we +shall by proper investigation be indebted for the +solution of many doubtful points of the prehistoric +period, and it is in this respect that it will appeal to +the student of folklore.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_466_466" id="Footnote_466_466"></a><a href="#FNanchor_466_466"><span class="label">[466]</span></a> Mr. Nutt's presidential address to the Folklore Society in 1899 +does not, I think, disprove my theory. It ignores it, and confines the +problem to legend and folk-tale. Mr. Nutt's powerful, but not conclusive, +study is to be found in <i>Folklore</i>, x. 71-86, and my reply and correspondence +resulting therefrom are to be found at pp. 129-149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_467_467" id="Footnote_467_467"></a><a href="#FNanchor_467_467"><span class="label">[467]</span></a> MacCulloch, <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>, 90-101; Greenwell, <i>British +Barrows</i>, 17, 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_468_468" id="Footnote_468_468"></a><a href="#FNanchor_468_468"><span class="label">[468]</span></a> <i>Custom and Myth</i>, 76.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_469_469" id="Footnote_469_469"></a><a href="#FNanchor_469_469"><span class="label">[469]</span></a> <i>Myth<ins class="correction" title="comma missing in original">,</ins> +Ritual and Religion</i>, ii. 215, compared with Gomme, <i>Ethnology +in Folklore</i>, 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_470_470" id="Footnote_470_470"></a><a href="#FNanchor_470_470"><span class="label">[470]</span></a> I have discussed this point at greater length in <i>Folklore</i>, xii. 222-225.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_471_471" id="Footnote_471_471"></a><a href="#FNanchor_471_471"><span class="label">[471]</span></a> Mr. J. O'Beirne Crowe in <i>Journ. Arch. and Hist. Assoc. of Ireland</i>, +3rd ser., i. 321.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_472_472" id="Footnote_472_472"></a><a href="#FNanchor_472_472"><span class="label">[472]</span></a> Rhys, <i>Lectures on Welsh Philology</i>, 32; <i>Celtic Heathendom</i>, 216; +<i>Celtic Britain</i>, 67-75; Rhys and Brynmôr-Jones, <i>Welsh People</i>, 83.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_473_473" id="Footnote_473_473"></a><a href="#FNanchor_473_473"><span class="label">[473]</span></a> The continental evidence has been collected together in convenient +shape by modern scholars: thus Mr. Stock, in his work on <i>Cæsar +de bello Gallico</i>, notes and compares the evidence of Cæsar, Strabo, +Diodorus Siculus, Ammianus Marcellinus, Mela, Lucan, and Pliny as +it has been interpreted by modern scholars (see pp. 107-113), and he +is followed by Mr. T. Rice Holmes in his study of <i>Cæsar's Conquest +of Gaul</i>, pp. 532-536. The Druidic cult of belief in immortality, +metempsychosis, ritual of the grove, augury, human sacrifice, is all +set out and discussed. These are the continental Druidic beliefs +and practices, and they may be compared with the Druidic Irish +beliefs and practices in Eugene O'Curry's <i>Manners and Customs +of the Ancient Irish</i>, lect. ix. and x. vol. ii. pp. 179-228, and Dr. Joyce's +<i>Social History of Ancient Ireland</i>, i. 219-248, where "the points of +agreement and difference between Irish and Gaulish Druids" are +discussed. Mr. Elton notices the difference between the continental +and the British Druids, but ascribes it to unequal development (<i>Origins +of Eng. Hist.</i>, 267-268). Cæsar's well-known account of the wickerwork +sacrifice is very circumstantial. It is not repeated by either +Diodorus or Strabo, who both refer to individual human sacrifice. +Pliny introduces the mistletoe, oak, and serpent cults, and the other +three authorities are apparently dependent upon their +<ins class="correction" title="'precedessors' in original">predecessors</ins>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_474_474" id="Footnote_474_474"></a><a href="#FNanchor_474_474"><span class="label">[474]</span></a> The mixture of Celt and Iberian is very ably dealt with by Mr. +Holmes in his <i>Cæsar's Conquest of Gaul</i>, pp. 245-322, and by Ripley, +<i>Races of Europe</i>, 461, 467, together with cap. vii. and xii.; see also +Sergi, <i>Mediterranean Race</i>, cap. xii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_475_475" id="Footnote_475_475"></a><a href="#FNanchor_475_475"><span class="label">[475]</span></a> The intermarrying of the Picts with the Celts of the district they +conquered is mentioned in all the chronicles as an important and +significant rite, which determined the succession to the Pictish throne +through the female side (Skene's <i>Chron. of the Picts and Scots</i>, 40, 45, +126, 319, 328, 329). Beda, i. cap. i., mentions female succession. Skene +discusses this point in <i>Celtic Scotland</i>, i. 232-235, and McLennan includes +it in his evidence from anthropological data (<i>Studies in Anc. Hist.</i>, 99).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_476_476" id="Footnote_476_476"></a><a href="#FNanchor_476_476"><span class="label">[476]</span></a> Mr. Seebohm is the best authority for the importance of the non-tribesman +in Celtic law (<i>Tribal System in Wales</i>, 54-60).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_477_477" id="Footnote_477_477"></a><a href="#FNanchor_477_477"><span class="label">[477]</span></a> The local cults in Great Britain which are not Celtic in form, and do +not seem to be connected with Celtic religion on any analogy, are those +relating to Cromm Cruaich, referred to in the <i>Tripartite Life of St. +Patrick</i> (see Whitley Stokes in <i>Revue Celtique</i>, i. 260, xvi. 35-36; +O'Curry, <i>MS. Materials of Anc. Irish History</i>, 538-9; Joyce, <i>Social +History of Ancient Ireland</i>, i. 275-276; Rhys, <i>Celtic Heathendom</i>, 200-201). +I do not follow Rhys in his identification of this cult as a part +of the ceremonies on mounds, and suggest that Mr. Bury in his <i>Life of +St. Patrick</i>, 123-125, gives the clue to the purely local character of this +idol worship which I claim for it. Similarly the overthrow of the +temple at Goodmanham, Godmundingham, described by Beda, ii. +cap. 13, with its priest who was not allowed to carry arms, or to ride on +any but a mare, is the destruction of a successful local cult, not of +a national or tribal religion. I confess that Dr. Greenwell's observations +in connection with his barrow discoveries (<i>British Barrows</i>, 286-331) are +in favour of an early Anglican cultus, but I think his facts may be +otherwise interpreted, and in any case they confirm my view of the +special localisation of this cult.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_478_478" id="Footnote_478_478"></a><a href="#FNanchor_478_478"><span class="label">[478]</span></a> Rev. W. G. Lawes in <i>Journ. Royal Geographical Soc.</i>, new series, iii. +615. <i>Cf.</i> Romilly, <i>From my Verandah</i>, 249; <i>Journ. Indian Archipelago</i> +vi. 310, 329.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_479_479" id="Footnote_479_479"></a><a href="#FNanchor_479_479"><span class="label">[479]</span></a> Dieffenbach, <i>Travels in New Zealand</i>, ii. 7, 10, 59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_480_480" id="Footnote_480_480"></a><a href="#FNanchor_480_480"><span class="label">[480]</span></a> <i>Trans. Ethnol. Soc.</i>, new series, iii. 235.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_481_481" id="Footnote_481_481"></a><a href="#FNanchor_481_481"><span class="label">[481]</span></a> Colquhoun's <i>Amongst the Shans</i>, 52; Bastian, <i>Oestl. Asien</i>, i. +119.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_482_482" id="Footnote_482_482"></a><a href="#FNanchor_482_482"><span class="label">[482]</span></a> Skeat and Blagden, <i>Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula</i>, i. 228; +and compare Rev. P. Favre, <i>Account of Wild Tribes of the Malayan +Peninsula</i> (Paris, 1865), p. 95.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_483_483" id="Footnote_483_483"></a><a href="#FNanchor_483_483"><span class="label">[483]</span></a> <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, 45; and see Tylor, <i>Primitive Culture</i>, i. +112-113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_484_484" id="Footnote_484_484"></a><a href="#FNanchor_484_484"><span class="label">[484]</span></a> Stanley, <i>Through the Dark Continent</i>, i. 253. <i>Cf.</i> Burrows, <i>Land +of the Pigmies</i>, 180, for the state of fear which the pygmies cause to +their neighbours.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_485_485" id="Footnote_485_485"></a><a href="#FNanchor_485_485"><span class="label">[485]</span></a> Latham, <i>Descriptive Ethnology</i>, ii. 457.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_486_486" id="Footnote_486_486"></a><a href="#FNanchor_486_486"><span class="label">[486]</span></a> <i>Journ. As. Soc. Bengal</i>, 1866, ii. 158; see also Geiger, <i>Civilisation +of Eastern Iranians</i>, i. 20-21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_487_487" id="Footnote_487_487"></a><a href="#FNanchor_487_487"><span class="label">[487]</span></a> <i>Journ. Ceylon As. Soc.</i>, 1865-1866, p. 3. <i>Journ. Ind. Archipelago</i>, +i. 328; Tennant, <i>Ceylon</i>, i. 331; J. F. Campbell, <i>My Circular Notes</i>, +155-157.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_488_488" id="Footnote_488_488"></a><a href="#FNanchor_488_488"><span class="label">[488]</span></a> Landtman, <i>Origin of Priesthood</i>, p. 82, quoting the original +authorities.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_489_489" id="Footnote_489_489"></a><a href="#FNanchor_489_489"><span class="label">[489]</span></a> Vigfusson and Powell, <i>Corpus Boreale</i>, ii. 38; and see i. 408.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_490_490" id="Footnote_490_490"></a><a href="#FNanchor_490_490"><span class="label">[490]</span></a> <i>Roman Festivals</i>, 264.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_491_491" id="Footnote_491_491"></a><a href="#FNanchor_491_491"><span class="label">[491]</span></a> Rhys, <i>Lectures on Welsh Philology</i>, 196.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_492_492" id="Footnote_492_492"></a><a href="#FNanchor_492_492"><span class="label">[492]</span></a> <i>Life of St. Guthlac</i>, by Felix of Crowland, edit. C. W. Goodwin, +pp. 21, 23, 27, 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_493_493" id="Footnote_493_493"></a><a href="#FNanchor_493_493"><span class="label">[493]</span></a> <i>Life of St. Guthlac</i>, p. 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_494_494" id="Footnote_494_494"></a><a href="#FNanchor_494_494"><span class="label">[494]</span></a> Wright, <i>Essays on Popular Superstitions of the Middle Ages</i>, ii. 4-10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_495_495" id="Footnote_495_495"></a><a href="#FNanchor_495_495"><span class="label">[495]</span></a> The substance of this part of my subject, with more elaboration in +detail, is taken from a paper I contributed to the <i>Transactions of the +Folklore Congress</i>, 1891.</p></div> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span></p> +<h2>INDEX</h2> + + +<p> +aborigines, savage, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br /> +Abyssinian pygmies, <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br /> +African pygmy people, <a href="#Page_241">241-2</a><br /> +aged, killing of the, <a href="#Page_68">68-78</a><br /> +agricultural custom, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, +<a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, +<a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, +<a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352-3</a>, +<a href="#Page_359">359</a><br /> +Ahts of Vancouver Island, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a><br /> +All Souls, feast of, <a href="#Page_331">331</a><br /> +allocation of folklore items, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br /> +altar superstitions, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +American Indian creation myths, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, +<a href="#Page_258">258</a><br /> +American Indian traditions, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a><br /> +analysis of custom, <a href="#Page_159">159</a><br /> +Andaman islanders, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br /> +animal traditions, <a href="#Page_239">239</a><br /> +animals, domestication of, <a href="#Page_258">258</a><br /> +antagonism in folklore, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br /> +anthropological conditions, <a href="#Page_208">208-302</a><br /> +apparitions, <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br /> +arm, right, left unchristened, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a><br /> +arresting force of Christianity, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a><br /> +Arthur traditions, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33-34</a><br /> +Arunta people (Australians), <a href="#Page_265">265-274</a><br /> +Ashantee creation myth, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br /> +ashes, custom connected with, <a href="#Page_160">160</a><br /> +aspirations of man, <a href="#Page_145">145</a><br /> +association, law of, in folklore, <a href="#Page_166">166-9</a><br /> +Aston and Cote, manor, <a href="#Page_355">355</a><br /> +Australian evidence, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, +<a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, +<a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, +<a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, +<a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, +<a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, +<a href="#Page_262">262-74</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a><br /> +Australoid race, <a href="#Page_296">296</a><br /> +Avebury (Lord), quoted, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></p> + +<p>Balder myth, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +ballads, growth of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br /> +baptism, <a href="#Page_323">323-4</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, +<a href="#Page_328">328</a><br /> +baptismal water, <a href="#Page_197">197</a><br /> +barbaric conquest, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br /> +Beddgelert bridge tradition, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br /> +Bedfordshire evidence, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a><br /> +bees, telling the, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a><br /> +Bega (St.), <a href="#Page_323">323</a><br /> +belief the foundation of myth, <a href="#Page_140">140-6</a><br /> +Beowulf, quoted, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +Berkshire evidence, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +boar as a totem animal, <a href="#Page_287">287</a><br /> +Border civilisation, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183-5</a><br /> +Boudicca, hare portent of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br /> +bow and arrow, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br /> +Breton tradition, <a href="#Page_21">21-22</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br /> +bridges, tradition concerning, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br /> +Britain, totemism in, <a href="#Page_276">276-96</a><br /> +Buckinghamshire evidence, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +bull (white) ceremony, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br /> +Bund (Willis), quoted, <a href="#Page_118">118</a><br /> +burial superstition, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, +<a href="#Page_339">339</a><br /> +Burmese evidence, <a href="#Page_347">347</a><br /> +Bury (J. B.), quoted, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br /> +Bushmen dances, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></p> + +<p>Cæsar, food taboos in Britain, <a href="#Page_286">286-91</a><br /> +Canary Islanders, custom, <a href="#Page_325">325</a><br /> +Catskin story, <a href="#Page_59">59-66</a><br /> +cattle, telling of death to, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +Celtic mythology, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br /> +Celtic tribes of Britain, <a href="#Page_25">25-28</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103-5</a>, +<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a><br /> +Ceylon evidence, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br /> +Chadwick (H. M.), quoted, <a href="#Page_223">223</a><br /> +charms, <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br /> +Cheshire evidence, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +child relationship to parents, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br /> +child thought, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a><br /> +Childe Rowland story, <a href="#Page_314">314-15</a><br /> +children not related to parents, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, +<a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> +Christianity and paganism, <a href="#Page_320">320-37</a><br /> +church ceremony of marriage, <a href="#Page_90">90-1</a><br /> +church, sacred character of objects and buildings, <a href="#Page_197">197-9</a><br /> +churning superstition, <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br /> +civil war pamphlets, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br /> +Claddagh fisherfolk, <a href="#Page_279">279</a><br /> +clan songs, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br /> +class system in Australian totemism, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, +<a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, +<a href="#Page_272">272</a><br /> +classification, false, of folklore, <a href="#Page_166">166</a><br /> +Clonmel witch case, <a href="#Page_205">205</a><br /> +club, for killing the aged, <a href="#Page_74">74-76</a><br /> +cock as a totem animal, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a><br /> +comparative folklore, <a href="#Page_170">170-9</a><br /> +conjectural method of inquiry, <a href="#Page_225">225-6</a>, +<a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a><br /> +conquered, mythic influence of, <a href="#Page_345">345-9</a><br /> +conscious use of experience or observation, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, +<a href="#Page_212">212</a><br /> +conquest in man's history, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br /> +Cook (A. B.), quoted, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +Cornwall evidence, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, +<a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, +<a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, +<a href="#Page_324">324</a><br /> +Crawley (E.), quoted, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br /> +Crayford legend, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br /> +creation myths, <a href="#Page_130">130-9</a><br /> +Cromm Cruaich, <a href="#Page_344">344</a><br /> +Cuchulain, totem descent of, <a href="#Page_286">286</a><br /> +Cuerdale hoard of coins, <a href="#Page_30">30-31</a><br /> +Cumberland evidence, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, +<a href="#Page_323">323</a><br /> +custom, belief, and rite, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, +<a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154-70</a><br /> +Cynuit, fight with Danes at, <a href="#Page_5">5-6</a></p> + +<p>Danish conquest in tradition, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, +<a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, +<a href="#Page_192">192</a><br /> +Darwin (C.), quoted, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, +<a href="#Page_247">247</a><br /> +death beliefs, <a href="#Page_191">191-2</a><br /> +death, telling of, to bees, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +decay the principal force in folklore, <a href="#Page_157">157-9</a>, +<a href="#Page_319">319</a><br /> +definitions, <a href="#Page_129">129</a><br /> +Demeter temple custom, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br /> +Derbyshire evidence, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +descent, use of the term, <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br /> +Devonshire evidence, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, +<a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br /> +differential evolution, <a href="#Page_228">228</a><br /> +diffusion of folk-tales, <a href="#Page_153">153</a><br /> +dog as a totem animal, <a href="#Page_286">286</a><br /> +doom rings, <a href="#Page_323">323</a><br /> +doors, decoration of, <a href="#Page_334">334</a><br /> +Dorsetshire evidence, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br /> +dreams, <a href="#Page_13">13-20</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br /> +Druidism, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342-4</a><br /> +duplication of myth, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br /> +Durham evidence, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, +<a href="#Page_324">324</a></p> + +<p>Easter-tide, <a href="#Page_328">328</a><br /> +economic influences upon early man, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, +<a href="#Page_257">257</a><br /> +Egyptian civilisation, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +Elton (C.), quoted, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, +<a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, +<a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, +<a href="#Page_344">344</a><br /> +Essex evidence, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br /> +ethnographic movements of man, <a href="#Page_216">216</a><br /> +ethnological conditions, <a href="#Page_338">338-66</a><br /> +Eucharist, sacred elements of, <a href="#Page_197">197</a><br /> +European conditions, <a href="#Page_320">320-37</a><br /> +European sky god, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +Evans (Arthur), quoted, <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br /> +Exeter custom, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br /> +exogamy, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></p> + +<p>fact, basis of tradition upon, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, +<a href="#Page_47">47-49</a><br /> +fairs, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br /> +family, the term, <a href="#Page_235">235-7</a><br /> +Farrer (J. A.), quoted, <a href="#Page_145">145</a><br /> +father kinship, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a><br /> +father and daughter marriage, <a href="#Page_59">59-66</a><br /> +female descent, <a href="#Page_271">271</a><br /> +festivals, pagan in origin, <a href="#Page_328">328</a><br /> +fictional literature, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, +<a href="#Page_145">145</a><br /> +Fijian creation myth, <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br /> +<ins class="correction" title="'Firbolgs' in original">Fir-Bolgs</ins>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br /> +fire, non-use of, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br /> +fire worship, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, +<a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, +<a href="#Page_317">317</a><br /> +first foot custom, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a><br /> +fish as a totem, <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br /> +folklore, necessities of, <a href="#Page_4">4-7</a><br /> +folk-tales, <a href="#Page_46">46-84</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, +<a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, +<a href="#Page_148">148-9</a><br /> +food taboos in ancient Britain, <a href="#Page_286">286</a><br /> +formula of custom, <a href="#Page_159">159</a><br /> +fox totem in Connaught, <a href="#Page_278">278-80</a><br /> +Frazer (J.), quoted, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108-9</a>, +<a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, +<a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, +<a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, +<a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, +<a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, +<a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, +<a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a><br /> +Fuegians, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></p> + +<p>Gambia district, peoples of, <a href="#Page_245">245</a><br /> +Genesis creation myth, <a href="#Page_137">137-8</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br /> +geological age of man, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br /> +giants, <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br /> +Gibbon (E.), quoted, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, +<a href="#Page_334">334</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> +Giles (Dr.), quoted, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br /> +Gold coast natives, <a href="#Page_230">230</a><br /> +Gomme (Mrs.), quoted, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br /> +goose as a totem animal, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a><br /> +Gospels used as charms, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br /> +gossip, meaning of, <a href="#Page_278">278</a><br /> +Gregory (Pope), letter of, to Mellitus, <a href="#Page_329">329-30</a><br /> +Greek totemism, <a href="#Page_275">275</a><br /> +Greek laws, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, +<a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br /> +Grey (Sir George), quoted, <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br /> +Grierson (P. J. H.), quoted, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, +<a href="#Page_230">230</a><br /> +Grimm, quoted, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78-81</a>, +<a href="#Page_327">327-8</a><br /> +group (human) the unit of anthropological work, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br /> +Guthlac (St.) legend, <a href="#Page_350">350-2</a></p> + +<p>Haddon (A. C.), quoted, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, +<a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, +<a href="#Page_254">254</a><br /> +Hampshire evidence, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, +<a href="#Page_192">192</a><br /> +hare as a totem animal, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, +<a href="#Page_287">287-9</a><br /> +Harris, island of, <a href="#Page_354">354</a><br /> +Hartland (E. S.), quoted, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, +<a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, +<a href="#Page_265">265</a><br /> +Hawick Common riding, <a href="#Page_98">98-99</a><br /> +Hebrew creation myth, <a href="#Page_137">137-8</a><br /> +Hereward in history and tradition, <a href="#Page_35">35-40</a><br /> +historians, neglect of folklore, <a href="#Page_110">110-20</a><br /> +historical material, <a href="#Page_2">2-4</a><br /> +history and folklore, <a href="#Page_1">1-122</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br /> +holy, the word, <a href="#Page_317">317</a><br /> +"holy mawle," <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br /> +horde, type of society, <a href="#Page_225">225</a><br /> +hostility among primitive groups of mankind, <a href="#Page_264">264</a><br /> +Howitt (A. W.), quoted, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, +<a href="#Page_230">230</a><br /> +hunting stage of society, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br /> +Huxley (T. H.), quoted, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></p> + +<p>idols in Christian churches, <a href="#Page_328">328</a><br /> +Indian evidence, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, +<a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, +<a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, +<a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, +<a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, +<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, +<a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, +<a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, +<a href="#Page_135">135-6</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, +<a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, +<a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, +<a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, +<a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, +<a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, +<a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, +<a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, +<a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a><br /> +industrial evolution, <a href="#Page_228">228-30</a><br /> +Innis (Thomas), quoted, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br /> +institutions and religion, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, +<a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a><br /> +Irish evidence, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, +<a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56-59</a>, +<a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, +<a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, +<a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, +<a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, +<a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, +<a href="#Page_276">276-82</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, +<a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, +<a href="#Page_330">330</a><br /> +Italy, Christian and pagan beliefs in, <a href="#Page_331">331-4</a>, +<a href="#Page_335">335</a></p> + +<p>Java, remains of man in, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br /> +Jevons (F. B.), quoted, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, +<a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, +<a href="#Page_236">236</a><br /> +Jewish temple rite, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +Joyce (Dr.), quoted, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br /> +junior right inheritance, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, +<a href="#Page_172">172-4</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, +<a href="#Page_313">313</a></p> + +<p>Keane (A. H.), quoted, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, +<a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br /> +Keary (J. F.), quoted, <a href="#Page_313">313</a><br /> +Kemble (J. M.), quoted, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, +<a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +Kent evidence, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, +<a href="#Page_330">330</a><br /> +Kentish laws, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br /> +Kilmorie, <a href="#Page_352">352</a><br /> +kinship, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, +<a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, +<a href="#Page_261">261</a><br /> +kinlessness, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, +<a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240-7</a>, +<a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, +<a href="#Page_268">268</a><br /> +Kronos myth, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></p> + +<p>Lambeth pedlar legend, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br /> +Lancashire evidence, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, +<a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, +<a href="#Page_324">324</a><br /> +lands, surrender of, to sons, <a href="#Page_70">70-2</a><br /> +Lang (A.), quoted, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, +<a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, +<a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, +<a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, +<a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, +<a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, +<a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, +<a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, +<a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a><br /> +Lapps as sorcerers, <a href="#Page_349">349</a><br /> +Lappenberg (J. M.), quoted, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br /> +Latham (Dr.), quoted, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, +<a href="#Page_215">215-16</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br /> +Lauder, <a href="#Page_354">354</a><br /> +Law, traditional origin of, <a href="#Page_84">84-100</a>, +<a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a><br /> +left and right superstition, <a href="#Page_166">166</a><br /> +legend, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, +<a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151-2</a><br /> +legislation, primitive, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a><br /> +Leicestershire evidence, <a href="#Page_198">198</a><br /> +Lincolnshire evidence, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, +<a href="#Page_350">350-2</a><br /> +Litlington tradition, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br /> +local traditions, <a href="#Page_13">13-33</a><br /> +locality influence of, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a><br /> +Lockyer (Sir Norman), quoted, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br /> +logic of primitive man, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br /> +London Bridge legends, <a href="#Page_13">13-33</a><br /> +Lud, Celtic god, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br /> +Lundinium (Roman), <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, +<a href="#Page_105">105</a></p> + +<p>Mabinogion creation myth, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br /> +MacCulloch (Mr.), quoted, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, +<a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, +<a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, +<a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> +Maine (Sir Henry), quoted, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, +<a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, +<a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br /> +male descent, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br /> +male groups, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a><br /> +manorial evidence, <a href="#Page_94">94-96</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a><br /> +manumission formula, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br /> +Manx custom, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +Maori myths, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br /> +marriage ceremony, <a href="#Page_90">90-91</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +marriage customs in folk-tales, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +materials and methods, <a href="#Page_123">123-79</a><br /> +McLennan (J. F.), quoted, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, +<a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a><br /> +midsummer festivals, <a href="#Page_328">328</a><br /> +migratory movements of man, <a href="#Page_214">214-17</a>, +<a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, +<a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, +<a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, +<a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a><br /> +monogenists, <a href="#Page_213">213</a><br /> +Morgan (L. H.), quoted, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, +<a href="#Page_275">275</a><br /> +mother influence in totemism, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, +<a href="#Page_267">267</a><br /> +mother kinship, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br /> +Moytura monuments, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br /> +Murray (Dr.), quoted, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +myth, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, +<a href="#Page_130">130-48</a><br /> +mythology, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100-10</a>, +<a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146-8</a>, +<a href="#Page_303">303</a></p> + +<p>names (totem), origin of, <a href="#Page_260">260</a><br /> +natural objects, interpretation of, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br /> +neglect of observation, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br /> +neolithic burial custom, <a href="#Page_339">339</a><br /> +New Guinea evidence, <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br /> +New Zealand myths, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132-3</a>, +<a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, +<a href="#Page_346">346</a><br /> +Nicholson (Dr.), quoted, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a><br /> +Nod, Celtic god, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br /> +Nonconformist appeal to church, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +Norfolk evidence, <a href="#Page_14">14-19</a>, +<a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a><br /> +Norse custom, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a><br /> +Norse tradition, <a href="#Page_22">22-23</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br /> +Northamptonshire evidence, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br /> +Northumberland evidence, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, +<a href="#Page_325">325</a><br /> +<i>Notes and Queries</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +Nottinghamshire evidence, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +nursery rhymes, growth of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br /> +Nutt (A.), quoted, 6, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></p> + +<p>oath-taking customs, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +O'Curry (Eugene), quoted, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br /> +offertory money, <a href="#Page_197">197</a><br /> +oral tradition, force of, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br /> +outlawry, <a href="#Page_311">311</a><br /> +oxen, slaughter of, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></p> + +<p>palæolithic implements, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, +<a href="#Page_218">218</a><br /> +Palgrave (Sir F.), quoted, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br /> +parallel practices as evidence of common origin, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, +<a href="#Page_171">171-6</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a><br /> +pastoral stage of society, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a><br /> +Pearson (Dr. Karl), quoted, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, +<a href="#Page_201">201</a><br /> +Pearson (C. H.), quoted, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br /> +Pedlar of Swaffham legend, <a href="#Page_14">14-19</a><br /> +personal traditions, <a href="#Page_33">33-46</a><br /> +Petrie (Flinders), quoted, <a href="#Page_222">222</a><br /> +Pictish marriage custom, <a href="#Page_344">344</a><br /> +political races, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, +<a href="#Page_221">221</a><br /> +polygenists, <a href="#Page_213">213</a><br /> +pottery, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br /> +Powell (York), quoted, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, +<a href="#Page_104">104</a><br /> +practice and rule, <a href="#Page_227">227</a><br /> +pre-Celtic remains, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118-20</a>, +<a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, +<a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a><br /> +priest's grave superstition, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br /> +priests of old religion regarded as magicians, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +promiscuity, <a href="#Page_224">224</a><br /> +Protestants appeal to Roman Catholicism, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +psychological conditions, <a href="#Page_180">180-207</a><br /> +purpose of custom, <a href="#Page_159">159</a><br /> +pygmy peoples, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241-5</a>, +<a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></p> + +<p>Ramsay (Sir James), quoted, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br /> +record of custom, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a><br /> +religion and folklore, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br /> +religion and myth, <a href="#Page_138">138</a><br /> +religion and science, <a href="#Page_138">138-9</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a><br /> +result in custom, <a href="#Page_159">159</a><br /> +retrogression in human society, <a href="#Page_249">249</a><br /> +Rhodopis tradition, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br /> +rhyming tenures, <a href="#Page_94">94-95</a><br /> +Rhys (Sir John), quoted, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, +<a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, +<a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, +<a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, +<a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, +<a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a><br /> +Ridgeway (Prof.), quoted, <a href="#Page_308">308</a><br /> +right and left superstition, <a href="#Page_166">166</a><br /> +rites explained by myth, <a href="#Page_146">146</a><br /> +Rivers (Dr. W. H. R.), quoted, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, +<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br /> +Robertson-Smith (W.), quoted, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, +<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, +<a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> +Rollright stones, <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br /> +Roman Britain, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, +<a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360-2</a><br /> +romances, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +Rome, ancient customs of, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, +<a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, +<a href="#Page_349">349</a></p> + +<p>sacrifice (human), <a href="#Page_174">174-6</a><br /> +savage customs in Britain, <a href="#Page_112">112-16</a><br /> +savage incidents in folk-tales, <a href="#Page_78">78-82</a><br /> +Scandinavian custom, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, +<a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a><br /> +Scarborough warning, <a href="#Page_93">93-94</a><br /> +science, primitive, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br /> +Scottish evidence, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, +<a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, +<a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, +<a href="#Page_67">67-78</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, +<a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, +<a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, +<a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, +<a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br /> +seal totem in Connaught, <a href="#Page_280">280-2</a><br /> +Semangs of Malay peninsula, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, +<a href="#Page_242">242-5</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, +<a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, +<a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297-302</a>, +<a href="#Page_348">348</a><br /> +sermon quoted, <a href="#Page_189">189</a><br /> +sex cleavage in human evolution, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, +<a href="#Page_260">260</a><br /> +Shrewsbury Abbey Church, tradition, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br /> +Shropshire evidence, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, +<a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a><br /> +Sids, Irish, <a href="#Page_341">341</a><br /> +Skene (W. F.), quoted, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, +<a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a><br /> +sky-god, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +Slavonian tradition, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br /> +snake stones of Whitby, <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br /> +sociological conditions, <a href="#Page_303">303-19</a><br /> +Somersetshire evidence, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, +<a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a><br /> +soul resident in backbone, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, +<a href="#Page_190">190</a><br /> +Southampton custom, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br /> +specialisation of culture, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, +<a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a><br /> +Spencer (Herbert), quoted, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, +<a href="#Page_214">214</a><br /> +Spencer and Gillen, quoted, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, +<a href="#Page_265">265</a><br /> +Spenser (Edmund), quoted, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, +<a href="#Page_177">177</a><br /> +Squire (Mr.), quoted, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, +<a href="#Page_101">101-3</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br /> +stationary conditions of life, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, +<a href="#Page_224">224</a><br /> +state religion, <a href="#Page_103">103-5</a><br /> +Stevenson (W. H.), quoted, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br /> +Stewart (J. A.), quoted, <a href="#Page_145">145</a><br /> +stone circles, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, +<a href="#Page_194">194</a><br /> +Stonehenge, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br /> +Suffolk evidence, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, +<a href="#Page_192">192</a><br /> +Sullivan (W. R.), quoted, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br /> +Surrey evidence, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +survivals, <a href="#Page_154">154-5</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, +<a href="#Page_336">336</a><br /> +Sussex evidence, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></p> + +<p>tappie, tappie, tousie, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br /> +telling tales, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br /> +Teutonic religion, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br /> +Teutonic tribes, <a href="#Page_310">310</a><br /> +Thomas (N. W.), quoted, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, +<a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, +<a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a><br /> +threshold custom, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a><br /> +toad in witchcraft, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br /> +Todas, loss of myth by, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br /> +totemism, <a href="#Page_209">209-10</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, +<a href="#Page_253">253-61</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274-96</a><br /> +transfer of superstition to different objects, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, +<a href="#Page_325">325</a><br /> +treasure legends, <a href="#Page_13">13-24</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br /> +trees, marriage of, India, <a href="#Page_258">258</a><br /> +tribal life in tradition, <a href="#Page_51">51-59</a>, +<a href="#Page_103">103-5</a><br /> +tribal institutions, <a href="#Page_307">307-18</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, +<a href="#Page_364">364</a><br /> +tribe, the term, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a><br /> +Tuatha de Danann, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br /> +Turner (Sharon), quoted, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br /> +Tylor (E. B.), quoted, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, +<a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, +<a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></p> + +<p>Upsall, Yorks, legend from, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></p> + +<p>ver sacrum, <a href="#Page_223">223</a><br /> +Vortigern, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></p> + +<p>water god, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br /> +well worship, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, +<a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a><br /> +Welsh evidence, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, +<a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, +<a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, +<a href="#Page_202">202</a><br /> +Westermarck (Dr.), quoted, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a><br /> +Westmoreland evidence, <a href="#Page_184">184</a><br /> +Wilde (Sir W.), quoted, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br /> +William the Conqueror, Sussex tradition, <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br /> +Wiltshire evidence, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, +<a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, +<a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, +<a href="#Page_354">354</a><br /> +witchcraft, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201-6</a><br /> +wolf totem in Ossory, <a href="#Page_276">276-8</a><br /> +women in early industrialism, <a href="#Page_257">257</a><br /> +Worcestershire evidence, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></p> + +<p>Yorkshire evidence, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, +<a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, +<a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, +<a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, +<a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a><br /> +Yule-tide, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></p> + +<p>Zulu folk-tales, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p><b>Transcriber's Notes:</b></p> + +<p>This book contains some archaic and variant spelling, which has been +retained as printed. Hyphenation has been made consistent where +appropriate, without note. Minor printer errors (missing or transposed +letters or punctuation, etc.) have been amended. These amendments have a +<ins class="correction" title="like this">faint grey dotted underline</ins>. +Hover your mouse over these words to see the original text or a note about +the amendment. The list of amendments is also included below.</p> + +<p>There are a few Greek words in this text, which may require adjustment +of your browser settings to display correctly. A transliteration of +each word is included. Hover your mouse over words underlined with a +<ins class="greek" title="like this">faint red dotted line</ins> to see +them.</p> + +<p>Illustrations have been shifted slightly, so that they are not in the +middle of paragraphs. The frontispiece illustration has been moved to +follow the title page.</p> + + +<p><b>List of Amendments:</b></p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_42">42</a>—ryhme amended to rhyme— +"... the old rhyme is still remembered ..."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_76">76</a>—missing accent added to +"vice versâ".</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_92">92</a>—signifiance amended to +significance—"... rhythmical formulæ which have legal +significance."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_118">118</a>—missing accent added to +"primâ facie".</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_184">184</a>—preceeding amended to +preceding—"... those immediately preceding the reign ..."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_198">198</a>—bedesecrated amended to +be desecrated—"must not be desecrated"</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_271">271</a>—missing apostrophe added—"do +not go to the wives' region of abode."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_368">368</a>—Firbolgs amended to Fir-Bolgs, in +line with other occurrences.</p> + +<p>Footnote <a href="#Footnote_358_358">358</a>—missing period added at +end of footnote.</p> + +<p>Footnote <a href="#Footnote_416_416">416</a>—Ser. made consistent with other occurrences— +amended to "ser."</p> + +<p>Footnote <a href="#Footnote_469_469">469</a>—comma added—"Myth, Ritual and Religion".</p> + +<p>Footnote <a href="#Footnote_473_473">473</a>—precedessors amended to predecessors—"... +apparently dependent upon their predecessors."</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Folklore as an Historical Science, by +George Laurence Gomme + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLKLORE AS AN HISTORICAL SCIENCE *** + +***** This file should be named 21852-h.htm or 21852-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/5/21852/ + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Sam W. and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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