Balder the Beautiful Part 9

[165] etienne Aymonier, "Notes sur les coutumes et croyances superst.i.tieuses des Cambodgiens," _Cochinchine Francaise: Excursions et Reconnaissances_, No. 16 (Saigon, 1883), pp. 193 _sq._ Compare _id., Notice sur le Cambodge_ (Paris, 1875), p. 50 _id., Notes sur le Laos_ (Saigon, 1885), p. 177.

[166] Svend Grundtvig, _Danische Volks-marchen_, ubersetzt von A.

Strodtmann, Zweite Sammlung (Leipsic, 1879), pp. 199 _sqq._

[167] Christian Schneller, _Marchen und Sagen aus Walschtirol_ (Innsbruck, 1867), No. 22, pp. 51 _sqq._

[168] Bernbard Schmidt, _Griechische Marchen, Sagen und Volkslieder_ (Leipsic, 1877), p. 98.

[169] J.G. von Hahn, _Griechische und albanesische Marchen_ (Leipsic, 1864), No. 41, vol. i. pp. 245 _sqq._

[170] Laura Gonzenbach, _Sicilianische Marchen_ (Leipsic, 1870), No. 28, vol. i. pp. 177 _sqq._ The incident of the bone occurs in other folk-tales. A prince or princess is shut up for safety in a tower and makes his or her escape by sc.r.a.ping a hole in the wall with a bone which has been accidentally conveyed into the tower; sometimes it is expressly said that care was taken to let the princess have no bones with her meat (J.G. von Hahn, _op. cit._ No. 15; L. Gonzenbach, _op. cit._ Nos. 26, 27; _Der Pentamerone, aus dem Neapolitanischen ubertragen_ von Felix Liebrecht (Breslau, 1846), No. 23, vol. i. pp. 294 _sqq._). From this we should infer that it is a rule with savages not to let women handle the bones of animals during their monthly seclusions. We have already seen the great respect with which the savage treats the bones of game (_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_ ii. 238 _sqq._, 256 _sqq._); and women in their courses are specially forbidden to meddle with the hunter or fisher, as their contact or neighbourhood would spoil his sport (see below, pp. 77, 78 _sq._, 87, 89 _sqq._). In folk-tales the hero who uses the bone is sometimes a boy; but the incident might easily be transferred from a girl to a boy after its real meaning had been forgotten. Amongst the Tinneh Indians a girl at p.u.b.erty is forbidden to break the bones of hares (above, p. 48). On the other hand, she drinks out of a tube made of a swan's bone (above, pp. 48, 49), and the same instrument is used for the same purpose by girls of the Carrier tribe of Indians (see below, p. 92). We have seen that a Tlingit (Thlinkeet) girl in the same circ.u.mstances used to drink out of the wing-bone of a white-headed eagle (above, p. 45), and that among the Nootka and Shuswap tribes girls at p.u.b.erty are provided with bones or combs with which to scratch themselves, because they may not use their fingers for this purpose (above, pp. 44, 53).

[171] Sophocles, _Antigone_, 944 _sqq._; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, ii.

4. I; Horace, _Odes_, iii. 16. I _sqq._; Pausanias, ii. 23. 7.

[172] W. Radloff, _Proben der Volks-litteratur der turkischen Stamme Sud-Siberiens,_ iii. (St. Petersburg, 1870) pp. 82 _sq._

[173] H. Ternaux-Compans, _Essai sur l'ancien Cundinamarca_ (Paris, N.D.), p. 18.

[174] George Turner, LL.D., _Samoa, a Hundred Years ago and long before_ (London, 1884), p. 200. For other examples of such tales, see Adolph Bastian, _Die Voelker des Oestlichen Asien_, i. 416, vi. 25; _Panjab Notes and Queries_, ii. p. 148, -- 797 (June, 1885); A. Pfizmaier, "Nachrichten von den alten Bewohnern des heutigen Corea,"

_Sitzungsberichte der philosoph. histor. Cla.s.se der kaiser. Akademie der Wissenschaften_ (Vienna), lvii. (1868) pp. 495 _sq._

[175] Thomas J. Hutchinson, "On the Chaco and other Indians of South America," _Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London_, N.S.

iii. (1865) p. 327. Amongst the Lengua Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco the marriage feast is now apparently extinct. See W. Barbrooke Grubb, _An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London, 1911), p. 179.

[176] Monier Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in India_ (London, 1883), p. 354.

[177] H. Vambery, _Das Turkenvolk_ (Leipsic, 1885), p. 112.

[178] Hans Egede, _A Description of Greenland_ (London, 1818), p. 209.

[179] _Revue des Traditions Populaires_, xv. (1900) p. 471.

[180] _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 145 _sqq._

[181] H.E.A. Meyer, "Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the Encounter Bay Tribe, South Australia," _The Native Tribes of South Australia_ (Adelaide, 1879), p. 186.

[182] E.J. Eyre, _Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia_ (London, 1845), ii. 304.

[183] E.J. Eyre, _op. cit._ ii. 295.

[184] R. Brough Smyth, _The Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and London, 1878), i. 236.

[185] Samuel Gason, in _Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, xxiv.

(1895) p. 171.

[186] Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1899), p. 473; _idem, Northern Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1904), p. 615.

[187] James Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_ (Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881), pp. ci. _sq._

[188] Rev. William Ridley, "Report on Australian Languages and Traditions," _Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, ii. (1873) p.

268. Compare _id., Kamilaroi and other Australian Languages_ (Sydney, 1875), p. 157.

[189] A.W. Howitt, _The Native Tribes of South-East Australia_ (London, 1904.), pp. 776 _sq._, on the authority of Mr. J.C. Muirhead. The Wakelbura are in Central Queensland. Compare Captain W.E. Armit, quoted in _Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, ix. (1880) pp. 459 _sq._

[190] _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 196, 207.

[191] Ch. Keysser, "Aus dem Leben der Kaileute," in R. Neuhauss's _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_ (Berlin, 1911), iii. 91.

[192] M.J. van Baarda, "Fabelen, Verhalen en Overleveringen der Galelareezen," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-Landen Volkenkinde van Nederlandsch-Indie_, xlv. (1895) p. 489.

[193] J.L. van der Toorn, "Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer der Padangsche Bovenlanden," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie_, x.x.xix. (1890) p. 66.

[194] W.H.I. Bleek, _A Brief Account of Bushman Folk-lore_ (London, 1875), p. 14; compare _ibid._, p. 10.

[195] Rev. James Macdonald, "Manners, Customs, Superst.i.tions and Religions of South African Tribes," _Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, xx. (1891) p. 138; _id., Light in Africa_, Second Edition (London, 1890), p. 221.

[196] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), p. 238; Mr.

Warren's Notes, in Col. Maclean's _Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs_ (Cape Town, 1866), p. 93; Rev. J. Macdonald, _Light in Africa_, p. 221; _id., Religion and Myth_ (London, 1893), p. 198. Compare Henri A. Junod, "Les conceptions physiologiques des Bantou Sud-Africains et leurs tabous," _Revue d'Ethnographie et de Sociologie_, i. (1910) p. 139. The danger of death to the cattle from the blood of women is mentioned only by Mr. Kidd. The part of the village which is frequented by the cattle, and which accordingly must be shunned by women, has a special name, _inkundhla_ (Mr. Warner's Notes, _l.c._).

[197] Rev. J. Roscoe, "The Bahima, a Cow Tribe of Enkole," _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, x.x.xvii. (1907) p. 106.

[198] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 419.

[199] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 96.

[200] Rev. J. Roscoe, "Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,"

_Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, x.x.xi. (1901) p. 121; _id._, "Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda," _Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, x.x.xii. (1902) p. 39; _id., The Baganda_, p. 352.

[201] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 459.

[202] C.W. Hobley, "Further Researches into Kikuyu and Kamba Religious Beliefs and Customs," _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, xli. (1911) p. 409.

[203] Mervyn W.H. Beech, _The Suk, their Language and Folklore_ (Oxford, 1911), p. 11.

[204] H.S. Stannus, "Notes on some Tribes of British Central Africa,"

_Journal of the Royal Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, xl. (1910) p. 305; R.

Sutherland Rattray, _Some Folk-lore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja_ (London, 1907), p. 191. See above, p. 27.

[205] Jakob Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stamme_ (Berlin, 1906), p. 192.

[206] Anton Witte, "Menstruation und p.u.b.ertatsfeier der Madchen in Kpandugebiet Togo," _Baessler-Archiv_, i. (1911) p. 279.

[207] Th. Noldeke, _Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sa.s.saniden, aus der arabischen Chronik des Tabari ubersetzt_ (Leyden, 1879), pp. 33-38. I have to thank my friend Professor A.A. Bevan for pointing out to me this pa.s.sage. Many ancient cities had talismans on the preservation of which their safety was believed to depend. The Palladium of Troy is the most familiar instance. See Chr. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_ (Konigsberg, 1829), pp. 278 _sqq._, and my note on Pausanias, viii. 47. 5 (vol. iv. pp. 433 _sq._).

[208] J. Mergel, _Die Medezin der Talmudisten_ (Leipsic and Berlin, 1885), pp. 15 _sq._

[209] Maimonides, quoted by D. Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_ (St. Petersburg, 1856), ii. 483. According to the editor (p.

735) by the East Maimonides means India and eastern countries generally.