Footnotes (continued 3)

A. G. Morice, “Notes, archaeological, industrial, and sociological, on the Western Dénés,” Transactions of the Canadian Institute, iv. (1892-93) pp. 203-206. The honorific totems of the Carrier Indians may perhaps correspond in some measure to the sub-totems or multiplex totems of the Australians. As to these latter see Totemism and Exogamy, i. 78 sqq., 133 sqq.

670.

See above, pp. 153 sq.

671.

James Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, p. 357 (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, April, 1900). Among the Shuswap of British Columbia, when a young man has obtained his personal totem or guardian spirit, he is supposed to become proof against bullets and arrows (Fr. Boas, in Sixth Report of the Committee on the North-Western Tribes of Canada, p. 93, separate reprint from the Report of the British Association, Leeds meeting, 1890).

672.

H. R. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 683. In a letter dated 16th Dec. 1887, Mr. A. S. Gatschet, formerly of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, wrote to me: “Among the Toukawe whom in 1884 I found at Fort Griffin [?], Texas, I noticed that they never kill the big or grey wolf, hatchukunän, which has a mythological signification, ‘holding the earth’ (hatch). He forms one of their totem clans, and they have had a dance in his honor, danced by the males only, who carried sticks.”

673.

The Laws of Manu, ii. 169, translated by G. Bühler (Oxford, 1886), p. 61 (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxv.); J. A. Dubois, Mœurs, Institutions et Cérémonies des Peuples de l'Inde (Paris, 1825), i. 125; Monier Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India (London, 1883), pp. 360 sq., 396 sq.; H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda (Berlin, 1894), pp. 466 sqq.

674.

Lampridius, Commodus, 9; C. W. King, The Gnostics and their Remains, Second Edition (London, 1887), pp. 127, 129. Compare Fr. Cumont, Textes et Monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, i. (Brussels, 1899) pp. 69 sq., 321 sq.; E. Rohde, Psyche3 (Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903), ii. 400 n. 1; A. Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie (Leipsic, 1903), pp. 91, 157 sqq.

675.

Above, p. 110; compare pp. 107, 120 sq., 132, 133.

676.

Above, p. 120.

677.

Above, p. 106.

678.

Above, p. 145. In the myth the throwing of the weapons and of the mistletoe at Balder and the blindness of Hother who slew him remind us of the custom of the Irish reapers who kill the corn-spirit in the last sheaf by throwing their sickles blindfold at it. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 144. In Mecklenburg a cock is sometimes buried in the ground and a man who is blindfolded strikes at it with a flail. If he misses it, another tries, and so on till the cock is killed. See K. Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Mecklenburg (Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 280. In England on Shrove Tuesday a hen used to be tied upon a man's back, and other men blindfolded struck at it with branches till they killed it. See T. F. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs (London, 1876), p. 68. W. Mannhardt (Die Korndämonen, Berlin, 1868, pp. 16 sq.) has made it probable that such sports are directly derived from the custom of killing a cock upon the harvest-field as a representative of the corn-spirit. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 277 sq. These customs, therefore, combined with the blindness of Hother in the myth, suggest that the man who killed the human representative of the oak-spirit was blindfolded, and threw his weapon or the mistletoe from a little distance. After the Lapps had killed a bear—which was the occasion of many superstitious ceremonies—the bear's skin was hung on a post, and the women, blindfolded, shot arrows at it. See J. Scheffer, Lapponia (Frankfort, 1673), p. 240.

679.

Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxiv. 12; J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 ii. 1010. Compare below, p. 282.

680.

The Satapatha Brahmana, xii. 7. 3. 1-3, translated by J. Eggeling, Part v. (Oxford, 1900) pp. 222 sq. (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. xliv.); Denham Rouse, in Folk-lore Journal, vii. (1889) p. 61, quoting Taittīrya Brāhmana, I. vii. 1.

681.

Col. E. T. Dalton, “The Kols of Chota-Nagpore,” Transactions of the Ethnological Society, N.S. vi. (1868) p. 36.

682.

Jens Kamp, Danske Folkeminder (Odense, 1877), pp. 172, 65 sq., referred to in Feilberg's Bidrag til en Ordbog over Jyske Almuesmål, Fjerde hefte (Copenhagen, 1888), p. 320. For a sight of Feilberg's work I am indebted to the kindness of the late Rev. Walter Gregor, M.A., of Pitsligo, who pointed out the passage to me.

683.

E. T. Kristensen, Iydske Folkeminder, vi. 380, referred to by Feilberg, l.c. According to Marcellus (De Medicamentis, xxvi. 115), ivy which springs from an oak is a remedy for stone, provided it be cut with a copper instrument.

684.

A. Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks2 (Gütersloh, 1886), pp. 175 sq., quoting Dybeck's Runa, 1845, pp. 62 sq.

685.

A. Kuhn, op. cit. p. 176.

686.

Quoted by A. Kuhn, op. cit. pp. 180 sq. In Zimbales, a province of the Philippine Islands, “a certain parasitic plant that much resembles yellow moss and grows high up on trees is regarded as a very powerful charm. It is called gay-u-ma, and a man who possesses it is called nanara gayuma. If his eyes rest on a person during the new moon he will become sick at the stomach, but he can cure the sickness by laying hands on the afflicted part.” See W. A. Reed, Negritos of Zambales (Manilla, 1904), p. 67 (Department of the Interior, Ethnological Survey Publications, vol. ii. part i.). Mr. Reed seems to mean that if a man who possesses this parasitic plant sees a person at the new moon, the person on whom his eye falls will be sick in his stomach, but that the owner of the parasite can cure the sufferer by laying his (the owner's) hands on his (the patient's) stomach. It is interesting to observe that the magical virtue of the parasitic plant appears to be especially effective at the new moon.

687.

A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 97 § 128; L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden (London, 1870), p. 269. See above, p. 86.

688.

John Hay Allan, The Bridal of Caölchairn (London, 1822), pp. 337 sq.

689.

Rev. John B. Pratt, Buchan, Second Edition (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and London, 1859), p. 342. “The corbie roup” means “the raven croak.” In former editions of this work my only source of information as to the mistletoe and oak of the Hays was an extract from a newspaper which was kindly copied and sent to me, without the name of the newspaper, by the late Rev. Walter Gregor, M.A., of Pitsligo. For my acquaintance with the works of J. H. Allan and J. B. Pratt I am indebted to the researches of my learned friend Mr. A. B. Cook, who has already quoted them in his article “The European Sky-God,” Folk-lore, xvii. (1906) pp. 318 sq.

690.

M. Martin, “Description of the Western Islands of Scotland,” in J. Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels (London, 1808-1814), iii. 661.

691.

See James Sowerby, English Botany, xxi. (London, 1805), p. 1470: “The Misseltoe is celebrated in story as the sacred plant of the Druids, and the Golden Bough of Virgil, which was Aeneas's passport to the infernal regions.” Again, the author of the Lexicon Mythologicum concludes, “cum Jonghio nostro,” that the Golden Bough “was nothing but the mistletoe glorified by poetical license.” See Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta, iii. (Copenhagen, 1828) p. 513 note. C. L. Rochholz expresses the same opinion (Deutscher Glaube und Brauch, Berlin, 1867, i. 9). The subject is discussed at length by E. Norden, P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneis Buch VI. (Leipsic, 1903) pp. 161-171, who, however, does not even mention the general or popular view (publica opinio) current in the time of Servius, that the Golden Bough was the branch which a candidate for the priesthood of Diana had to pluck in the sacred grove of Nemi. I confess I have more respect for the general opinion of antiquity than to dismiss it thus cavalierly without a hearing.

692.

Virgil, Aen. vi. 203 sqq., compare 136 sqq. See Note IV. “The Mistletoe and the Golden Bough” at the end of this volume.

693.

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 40 sqq., ii. 378 sqq. Virgil (Aen. vi. 201 sqq.) places the Golden Bough in the neighbourhood of Lake Avernus. But this was probably a poetical liberty, adopted for the convenience of Aeneas's descent to the infernal world. Italian tradition, as we learn from Servius (on Virgil, Aen. vi. 136), placed the Golden Bough in the grove at Nemi.

694.

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 12.

695.

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 186, 366 note 2.

696.

A custom of annually burning or otherwise sacrificing a human representative of the corn-spirit has been noted among the Egyptians, Pawnees, and Khonds. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 238 sq., 245 sqq., 259 sq. We have seen that in Western Asia there are strong traces of a practice of annually burning a human god. See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 84 sqq., 98 sq., 137 sq., 139 sqq., 155 sq. The Druids appear to have eaten portions of the human victim (Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxx. 13). Perhaps portions of the flesh of the King of the Wood were eaten by his worshippers as a sacrament. We have found traces of the use of sacramental bread at Nemi. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 94 sqq.

697.

It has been said that in Welsh a name for mistletoe is “the tree of pure gold” (pren puraur). See J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 ii. 1009, referring to Davies. But my friend Sir John Rhys tells me that the statement is devoid of foundation.

698.

Virgil, Aen. vi. 137 sq.:— “Latet arbore opaca Aureus et foliis et lento vimine ramus.”

699.

This suggestion as to the origin of the name has been made to me by two correspondents independently. Miss Florence Grove, writing to me from 10 Milton Chambers, Cheyne Walk, London, on May 13th, 1901, tells me that she regularly hangs up a bough of mistletoe every year and allows it to remain till it is replaced by the new branch next year, and from her observation “the mistletoe is actually a golden bough when kept a sufficiently long time.” She was kind enough to send me some twigs of her old bough, which fully bore out her description. Again, Mrs. A. Stuart writes to me from Crear Cottage, Morningside Drive, Edinburgh, on June 26th, 1901: “As to why the mistletoe might be called the Golden Bough, my sister Miss Haig wishes me to tell you that last June, when she was in Brittany, she saw great bunches of mistletoe hung up in front of the houses in the villages. The leaves were bright golden. You should hang up a branch next Christmas and keep it till June!” The great hollow oak of Saint-Denis-des-Puits, in the French province of Perche, is called “the gilded or golden oak” (Chêne-Doré) “in memory of the Druidical tradition of the mistletoe cut with a golden sickle.” See Felix Chapiseau, Le Folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche (Paris, 1902), i. 97. Perhaps the name may be derived from bunches of withered mistletoe shining like gold in the sunshine among the branches.

700.

H. Gaidoz, “Bulletin critique de la Mythologie Gauloise,” Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, ii. (Paris, 1880) p. 76.

701.

See below, pp. 291 sq.

702.

See above, pp. 65 sq.

703.

J. V. Grohmann, Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 97, § 673.

704.

J. V. Grohmann, op. cit. p. 97, § 676; A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 94, § 123; I. V. Zingerle, Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes2 (Innsbruck, 1871), p. 158, § 1350.

705.

C. Russwurm, “Aberglaube in Russland,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, iv. (1859), pp. 152 sq.; Angelo de Gubernatis, Mythologie des Plantes (Paris, 1878-1882), ii. 146.

706.

P. Sébillot, Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne (Paris, 1882), ii. 336; id., Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne (Paris, 1886), p. 217.

707.

J. E. Waldfreund, “Volksgebräuche und Aberglauben in Tirol und dem Salzburger Gebirg,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, iii. (1855), p. 339.

708.

H. Runge, “Volksglaube in der Schweiz,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, iv. (1859), p. 175.

709.

O. Frh. von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen (Prague, n.d.), pp. 311 sq. Compare Theodor Vernaleken, Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich (Vienna, 1859), pp. 309 sq.; M. Töppen, Aberglauben aus Masuren2 (Danzig, 1867), pp. 72 sq. Even without the use of fern-seed treasures are sometimes said to bloom or burn in the earth, or to reveal their presence by a bluish flame, on Midsummer Eve; in Transylvania only children born on a Sunday can see them and fetch them up. See J. Haltrich, Zur Volkskunde der Siebenbürger Sachsen (Vienna, 1885), p. 287; I. V. Zingerle, Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes2 (Innsbruck, 1871), p. 159, §§ 1351, 1352; K. Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebrauche aus Mecklenburg (Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 285, § 1431; E. Monseur, Folklore Wallon (Brussels, n.d.), p. 6, § 1789; K. Haupt, Sagenbuch der Lausitz (Leipsic, 1862-1863), i. 231 sq., No. 275; A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 76, § 92; F. J. Wiedemann, Aus dem inneren und äusseren Leben der Ehsten (St. Petersburg, 1876), p. 363.

710.

I. V. Zingerle, op. cit. p. 103, § 882; id., in Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, i. (1853), p. 330; W. Müller, Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren (Vienna and Olmütz, 1893), p. 265. At Pergine, in the Tyrol, it was thought that fern-seed gathered with the dew on St. John's night had the power of transforming metals (into gold?). See Ch. Schneller, Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol (Innsbruck, 1867), p. 237, § 23.

711.

I. V. Zingerle, Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes,2 pp. 190 sq., § 1573.

712.

A. Schlossar, “Volksmeinung und Volksaberglaube aus der deutschen Steiermark,” Germania, N.R., xxiv. (1891) p. 387.

713.

Ernst Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 242-244.

714.

J. V. Grohmann, Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren, p. 97, § 675; W. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, Second Edition (London, 1872), p. 98; C. Russwurm, “Aberglaube in Russland,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, iv. (1859) p. 152.

715.

L. Bechstein, Deutsches Sagenbuch (Leipsic, 1853), p. 430, No. 500; id., Thüringer Sagenbuch (Leipsic, 1885), ii. pp. 17 sq., No. 161.

716.

For gathering it at midsummer, see above, pp. 86 sq. The custom of gathering it at Christmas still commonly survives in England. At York “on the eve of Christmas-day they carry mistletoe to the high altar of the cathedral, and proclaim a public and universal liberty, pardon and freedom to all sorts of inferior and even wicked people at the gates of the city, toward the four quarters of heaven.” See W. Stukeley, The Medallic History of Marcus Aurelius Valerius Carausius, Emperor in Britain (London, 1757-1759), ii. 164; J. Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain (London, 1882-1883), i. 525. This last custom, which is now doubtless obsolete, may have been a relic of an annual period of license like the Saturnalia. The traditional privilege accorded to men of kissing any woman found under mistletoe is probably another relic of the same sort. See Washington Irving, Sketch-Book, “Christmas Eve,” p. 147 (Bohn's edition); Marie Trevelyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales (London, 1909), p. 88.

717.

A. A. Afzelius, Volkssagen und Volkslieder aus Schwedens älterer und neuerer Zeit (Leipsic, 1842), i. 41 sq.; J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 iii. 289; L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden (London, 1870), pp. 266 sq. See above, p. 69. In the Tyrol they say that if mistletoe grows on a hazel-tree, there must be a treasure under the tree. See J. N. Ritter von Alpenburg, Mythen und Sagen Tirols (Zurich, 1857), p. 398. In East Prussia a similar belief is held in regard to mistletoe that grows on a thorn. See C. Lemke, Volksthümliches in Ostpreussen (Mohrungen, 1884-1887), ii. 283. We have seen that the divining-rod which reveals treasures is commonly cut from a hazel (above, pp. 67 sq.).

718.

Above, pp. 90-92.

719.

Fern-seed is supposed to bloom at Easter as well as at Midsummer and Christmas (W. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 98 sq.); and Easter, as we have seen, is one of the times when fires are ceremonially kindled, perhaps to recruit the fire of the sun.

720.

Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore (London, 1883), p. 242.

721.

Marie Trevelyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales (London, 1909), p. 88.

722.

Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 251.

723.

Above, pp. 82 sq.

724.

Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 94: “Calx aqua accenditur et Thracius lapis, idem oleo restinguitur, ignis autem aceto maxime et visco et ovo.”

725.

See above, p. 85.

726.

Virgil, Aen. vi. 179-209.

727.

Virgil, Aen. vi. 384-416.

728.

Above, pp. 86, 282.

729.

Above, p. 85.

730.

Pausanias, x. 30. 6.

731.

J. Six, “Die Eriphyle des Polygnot,” Mittheilungen des kaiserlich deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts, Athenische Abtheilung, xix. (1894) pp. 338 sq. Compare my commentary on Pausanias, vol. v. p. 385.

732.

The sarcophagus is in the Lateran Museum at Rome. See W. Helbig, Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen Klassischer Altertümer in Rom2 (Leipsic, 1899), ii. 468.

733.

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 19 sqq.

734.

Die Edda, übersetzt von K. Simrock8 (Stuttgart, 1882), p. 264.

735.

S. Powers, Tribes of California (Washington, 1877), p. 171.

736.

S. Powers, Tribes of California, p. 287.

737.

Max Girschner, “Die Karolineninsel Namöluk und ihre Bewohner,” Baessler-Archiv, ii. (1912) p. 141.

738.

A. A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (Strasburg, 1897), pp. 91 sq., referring to Rigveda, vi. 3. 3, x. 79. 7, ii. 1. 14, iii. 1. 13, x. 1. 2, viii. 43. 9, i. 70. 4, ii. 1. 1. Compare H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda (Berlin, 1894), pp. 120 sq.

739.

Edward M. Curr, The Australian Race (Melbourne and London, 1886-1887), i. 9, 18.

740.

James Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1900) p. 422, compare p. 435.

741.

James Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, p. 346 (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, April, 1900).

742.

J. Teit, op. cit. p. 374.

743.

The Shuswap Indians of British Columbia entertain a similar belief. It has been suggested that the fancy may be based on the observation that cold follows a thunder-storm. See G. M. Dawson, “Notes on the Shuswap people of British Columbia,” Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, ix. (1891) Section ii. p. 38.

744.

R. Wuttke, Sächsische Volkskunde2 (Dresden, 1901), p. 369.

745.

Henri A. Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe (Neuchatel, 1912-1913), ii. 291. The Thonga imagine that lightning is caused by a great bird, which sometimes buries itself in the ground to a depth of several feet. See H. A. Junod, op. cit. ii. 290 sq.

746.

Dr. James A. Chisholm (of the Livingstonia Mission, Mwenzo, N.E. Rhodesia), “Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Winamwanga and Wiwa,” Journal of the African Society, No. 36 (July, 1910), p. 363.

747.

S. Powers, Tribes of California (Washington, 1877), p. 287. The dread of lightning is prominent in some of the customs observed in Patiko, a district of the Uganda Protectorate. If a village has suffered from lightning, ropes made of twisted grass are strung from peak to peak of the houses to ward off further strokes. And if a person has been struck or badly shaken, “an elaborate cure is performed upon him. A red cock is taken, his tongue torn out, and his body dashed upon the house where the stroke fell. Then the scene changes to the bank of a small running stream, where the patient is made to kneel while the bird is sacrificed over the water. A raw egg is next given to the patient to swallow, and he is laid on his stomach and encouraged to vomit. The lightning is supposed to be vomited along with the egg, and all ill effects prevented.” See Rev. A. L. Kitching, On the Backwaters of the Nile (London, 1912), p. 263.

748.

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 349 sqq.

749.

W. Warde Fowler, “The Oak and the Thunder-god,” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, xvi. (1913) pp. 318 sq. My friend Mr. Warde Fowler had previously called my attention to the facts in a letter dated September 17th, 1912.

750.

Dr. W. Schlich's Manual of Forestry, vol. iv. Forest Protection, by W. R. Fisher, Second Edition (London, 1907), pp. 662 sq. Mr. W. Warde Fowler was the first to call the attention of mythologists to this work.

751.

Experiments on the conductivity of electricity in wood go to shew that starchy trees (oak, poplar, maples, ash, elm, sorbus) are good conductors, that oily trees (beech, walnut, birch, lime) are bad conductors, and that the conifers are intermediate, the Scotch pine in summer being as deficient in oil as the starchy trees, but rich in oil during winter. It was found that a single turn of Holz's electric machine sufficed to send the spark through oakwood, but that from twelve to twenty turns were required to send it through beech-wood. Five turns of the machine were needed to send the spark through poplar and willow wood. See Dr. W. Schlich, Manual of Forestry, vol. iv. Forest Protection, Second Edition (London, 1907), p. 664. In the tropics lightning is said to be especially attracted to coco-nut palms. See P. Amaury Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush (London, 1913), p. 73.

752.

As to the Greek belief and custom, see H. Usener, Kleine Schriften, iv. (Leipsic and Berlin, 1913), “Keraunos,” pp. 471 sqq.; The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 361. As to the Roman belief and custom, see Festus, svv. Fulguritum and Provorsum fulgur, pp. 92, 229, ed. C. O. Müller (Leipsic, 1839); H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, vol. ii. pars i. (Berlin, 1902) pp. 10 sq., Nos. 3048-3056; L. Preller, Römische Mythologie3 (Berlin, 1881-1883), i. 190-193; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer2 (Munich, 1912), pp. 121 sq. By a curious refinement the Romans referred lightning which fell by day to Jupiter, but lightning which fell by night to a god called Summanus (Festus, p. 229).

753.

J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 iii. 64, citing a statement that lightning strikes twenty oaks for one beech. The statistics adduced by Mr. W. Warde Fowler seem to shew that this statement is no exaggeration but rather the contrary.

754.

W. Warde Fowler, “The Oak and the Thunder-god,” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, xvi. (1913) pp. 317-320.

755.

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 356 sqq.

756.

The suggestion is Mr. W. Warde Fowler's (op cit. pp. 319 sq.).

757.

Pliny, Natur. Hist. xvi. 249.

758.

See above, p. 85.

759.

J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 153. See above, p. 85.

760.

This interpretation of Balder's death was anticipated by W. Schwartz (Der Ursprung der Mythologie, Berlin, 1860, p. 176), who cut the whole knot by dubbing Balder “the German thunder-and-lightning god” and mistletoe “the wonderful thunder-and-lightning flower.” But as this learned writer nursed a fatal passion for thunder and lightning, which he detected lurking in the most unlikely places, we need not wonder that he occasionally found it in places where there were some slight grounds for thinking that it really existed.

761.

On the relation of the priest to Jupiter, and the equivalence of Jupiter and Juno to Janus (Dianus) and Diana, see The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 376 sqq.

762.

“I quite agree how humiliating the slow progress of man is, but every one has his own pet horror, and this slow progress or even personal annihilation sinks in my mind into insignificance compared with the idea or rather I presume certainty of the sun some day cooling and we all freezing. To think of the progress of millions of years, with every continent swarming with good and enlightened men, all ending in this, and with probably no fresh start until this our planetary system has been again converted into red-hot gas. Sic transit gloria mundi, with a vengeance” (More Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by Francis Darwin, London, 1903, i. 260 sq.).

763.

Since this passage was written the hope which it expresses has been to some extent strengthened by the discovery of radium, which appears to prolong indefinitely the prospect of the duration of the sun's heat, and with it the duration of life on its attendant planets. See (Sir) George Howard Darwin's Presidential Address to the British Association, Report of the 75th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (South Africa, 1905), pp. 28 sq.; F. Soddy, The Interpretation of Radium, Third Edition (London, 1912), pp. 240 sqq.; E. Rutherford, Radio-active Substances and their Radiations (Cambridge, 1913), pp. 653-656. At the same time it should be borne in mind that even if the atomic disintegration and accompanying liberation of energy, which characterize radium and kindred elements, should prove to be common in different degrees to all the other elements and to form a vast and till lately unsuspected store of heat to the sun, this enormous reserve of fuel would only defer but could not avert that final catastrophe with which the solar system and indeed the whole universe is remorselessly threatened by the law of the dissipation of energy.

764.

See above, vol. i. pp. 15 sq.

765.

Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, Hymns and Incantations with Illustrative Notes on Words, Rites, and Customs, dying and obsolete: orally collected in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and translated into English (Edinburgh, 1900), ii. 312.

766.

Above, vol. i. pp. 315 sqq.

767.

The late Rev. P. Dehon, S.J., “Religion and Customs of the Uraons,” Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. i. No. 9 (Calcutta, 1906), p. 141.

768.

“Every clan (Familienstamm) has a definite thing which is forbidden to all the members of the clan, whether it be a particular kind of meat, or a certain fish, or as here the stalk of a gourd.”

769.

“The place in Nguu, where the ghost is said to dwell.”

770.

“In Ukami.”

771.

C. Velten, Schilderungen der Suaheli (Göttingen, 1901), pp. 195-197.

772.

Miss Alice Werner, The Natives of British Central Africa (London, 1906), p. 82. In a letter Miss Werner tells me that she learned these particulars at Blantyre in 1893, and that the chief lived in the neighbourhood of Mlanje.

773.

Rev. Henry Rowley, Twenty Years in Central Africa (London, N.D.), pp. 36 sqq. For a reference to this and all the other works cited in this Note I am indebted to the kindness of Miss Alice Werner.

774.

Rev. David Clement Scott, A Cyclopaedic Dictionary of the Mang'anja Language spoken in British Central Africa (Edinburgh, 1892), p. 315.

775.

Edward Steere, Swahili Tales (London, 1870), pp. 441-453. The young man in the story is spoken of now as the nephew and now as the son of the man he murdered. Probably he was what we should call a nephew or brother's son of his victim; for under the classificatory system of relationship, which seems to prevail among the Bantu stock, to whom the Swahili belong, a man regularly calls his paternal uncle his father.

776.

Above, vol. i. pp. 104 sq.

777.

Virgil, Aen. vi. 205 sqq.:— “Quale solet silvis brumali frigore viscum Fronde virere nova, quod non sua seminat arbos, Et croceo fetu teretis circumdare truncos: Talis erat species auri frondentis opaca Ilice, sic leni crepitabat bractea vento.”

778.

W. Schlich, Manual of Forestry, vol. iv. Forest Protection, by W. R. Fisher, M.A., Second Edition (London, 1907), p. 412. French peasants about Coulommiers think that mistletoe springs from birds' dung. See H. Gaidoz, “Bulletin critique de la Mythologie Gauloise,” Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, ii. (1880) p. 76. The ancients were well aware that mistletoe is propagated from tree to tree by seeds which have been voided by birds. See Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, ii. 17. 5; Pliny, Naturalis Historia, xvi. 247. Pliny tells us that the birds which most commonly deposited the seeds were pigeons and thrushes. Can this have been the reason why Virgil (Aen. vi. 190 sqq.) represents Aeneas led to the Golden Bough by a pair of doves?

779.

James Sowerby, English Botany, xxi. (London, 1805) p. 1470.

780.

C. Fraas, Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae (Munich, 1845), p. 152.

781.

H. O. Lenz, Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer (Gotha, 1859), p. 597, quoting Pollini.

782.

J. Lindley and T. Moore, The Treasury of Botany, New Edition (London, 1874), ii. 1220. A good authority, however, observes that mistletoe is “frequently to be observed on the branches of old apple-trees, hawthorns, lime-trees, oaks, etc., where it grows parasitically.” See J. Sowerby, English Botany, xxi. (London, 1805) p. 1470.

783.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, x. 689, s.v. “Gloucester.”

784.

H. Gaidoz, “Bulletin critique de la Mythologie Gauloise,” Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, ii. (1880) pp. 75 sq.

785.

Angelo de Gubernatis, La Mythologie des Plantes (Paris, 1878-1882), ii. 216 sq. As to the many curious superstitions that have clustered round mandragora, see P. J. Veth, “De Mandragora,” Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, vii. (1894) pp. 199-205; C. B. Randolph, “The Mandragora of the Ancients in Folk-lore and Medicine,” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. xl. No. 12 (January, 1905), pp. 487-537.

786.

W. Schlich, Manual of Forestry, vol. iv. Forest Protection, Second Edition (London, 1907), pp. 415-417.

787.

E. B. Stebbing, “The Loranthus Parasite of the Moru and Ban Oaks,” Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, v. (Calcutta, 1910) pp. 189-195. The Loranthus vestitus “is a small branching woody plant with dirty yellowish green leaves which are dark shining green above. It grows in great clumps and masses on the trees, resembling a giant mistletoe. The fruit is yellowish and fleshy, and is almost sessile on the stem, which it thickly studs” (ib., p. 192). The writer shews that the parasite is very destructive to oaks in India.

788.

H. O. Lenz, Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer (Gotha, 1859), p. 598, notes 151 and 152.

789.

C. Fraas, Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae (Munich, 1845), p. 152.

790.

H. O. Lenz, Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer (Gotha, 1859), pp. 599 sq.

791.

Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, iii. 7. 5, iii. 16. 1, De Causis Plantarum, ii. 17; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 245-247. Compare Dioscorides, De materia medica, ii. 93 (103), vol. i. pp. 442 sq., ed. C. Sprengel (Leipsic, 1829-1830), who uses the form ixos instead of ixia. Both Dioscorides (l.c.) and Plutarch (Coriolanus, 3) affirm that mistletoe (ixos) grows on the oak (δρῦς); and Hesychius quotes from Sophocles's play Meleager the expression “mistletoe-bearing oaks” (ἰξοφόρους δρύας, Hesychius, s.v.).

792.

Theophrastus, Opera quae supersunt omnia, ed. Fr. Wimmer (Paris, 1866), pp. 537, 545, 546, s.vv. ἰξία, στελίς, ὑφέαρ.

793.

F. Fraas, Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae (Munich, 1845), p. 152.

794.

H. O. Lenz, Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer (Gotha, 1859), p. 597, notes 147 and 148.

795.

Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, ii. 17. 2, ἐπεὶ τό γε τὴν μὲν ἀείφυλλον εἶναι τῶν ἰξιῶν (τὴν δὲ φυλλοβόλον) οὐθὲν ἄτοπον, κἂν ἡ μὲν (ἐν) ἀιφύλλοις ἡ δὲ ἐν φυλλοβόλοις ἐμβιῴη.

796.

His letter is undated, but the postmark is April 28th, 1889. Sir Francis Darwin has since told me that his authority is Kerner von Marilaun, Pflanzenleben (1888), vol. i. pp. 195, 196. See Anton Kerner von Marilaun, The Natural History of Plants, translated and edited by F. W. Oliver (London, 1894-1895), i. 204 sqq. According to this writer “the mistletoe's favourite tree is certainly the Black Poplar (Populus nigra). It flourishes with astonishing luxuriance on the branches of that tree.... Mistletoe has also been found by way of exception upon the oak and the maple, and upon old vines” (op. cit. i. 205).

797.

Prof. P. J. Veth, “De leer der signatuur, III. De mistel en de riembloem,” Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, vii. (1894) p. 105. The Dutch language has separate names for the two species: mistletoe is mistel, and Loranthus is riembloem.

798.

His letter is dated 18th February, 1908.

799.

But Sir Francis Darwin writes to me:—“I do not quite see why Loranthus should not put out leaves in winter as easily as Viscum, in both cases it would be due to unfolding leaf buds; the fact that Viscum has adult leaves at the time, while Loranthus has not, does not really affect the matter.” However, Mr. Paton tells us, as we have just seen, that in winter the Loranthus growing on the oaks of Mount Athos has no leaves, though its yellow berries are very conspicuous.