514 



NA TURE 



[September 25, 1890 



Before strangers entered a district they (the strangers) 

 had to undergo certain ceremonies, so as to be disarmed 

 of their magical powers, which might do harm to the 

 king. Great precaution must be observed at meals, in 

 order that they might not be seen eating or drinking, &c. 

 An interesting description of the Mikado's mode of life, 

 written two hundred years ago, illustrates well some of 

 these taboos. 



A great number of instances relating to the various 

 ideas of what the soul is and of what it can do are given. 

 Thus, "it is a common rule with primitive people not to 

 awaken a sleeper, because his soul is away and might not 

 have time to get back ; so if the man wakeneth without 

 his soul he would fall sick." Some people believe a 

 man's soul to be in his shadow, others in the reflection of 

 his form by water ; thus the " Zulus will not look into a 

 dark pool, because they think there is a beast in it which 

 will take away their reflections, so that they die." Very 

 curious instances are given of people running after souls, 

 the methods adopted for catching them, examples of the 

 recall and recovery of souls, &c. 



Chapter iii. concerns the "killing of the god." As the 

 author showed in the preceding chapter that the divine 

 priest or king had to undergo horrible taboos, so in this 

 one he points out that, in consequence of the great value 

 attached to his life, the only means of preserving it from 

 inevitable decay necessitated a violent death. He applies 

 this argument to the king of the wood. " He too had 

 to be killed, in order that the divine spirit, incarnate 

 in him, might be transferred in unabated vigour to his 

 successor. The rule that he held oflice till a stronger 

 should slay him might be supposed to secure both the 

 preservation of his divine life in full vigour, and its trans- 

 ference to a suitable successor as soon as that vigour 

 began to be impaired." In order to confirm the con- 

 jecture that the king of the wood was formerly put to 

 death at the expiration of a set time, the author first of 

 all finds the evidence that can be adduced of a custom of 

 periodically killing his counterparts, the human repre- 

 sentatives of the tree spirit. As an illustration of these 

 we may mention that in Saxony and Thuringia there is a 

 Whitsuntide ceremony called "chasing the wild man out 

 of the bush," or fetching the wild man out of the wood, the 

 tree spirit or spirit of vegetation being represented by 

 the wild man. 



The next step taken in the argument is to show that 

 the " custom of killing the god, and the belief in his 

 resurrection, originated, or at least existed, in the hunting 

 and pastoral stage of society, when the slain god was an 

 animal ; and survived into the agricultural stage, when 

 the slain god was the corn, or a human being represent- 

 ing the corn." To do this a great number of examples 

 are taken into consideration ; the spring customs of the 

 European peasantry are referred to, among, which the 

 most important are known as "burying the carnival" 

 and " driving or carrying out death." The ceremonies 

 carried on in connection with Osiris, Adonis, Thammuz, 

 Attis, and Dionysus by the Egyptians, Syrians, Baby- 

 lonians, Phrygians, and Greeks, were similar to those in 

 Northern and Western Europe demonstrating the death 

 and resurrection of vegetation. We may here mention 

 that although some writers identify Osiris with the sun, 

 the author is inclined to treat him as a deity of vegeta- 

 NO. TO9I, VOL. 42] 



tion. Here we fancy modern Egyptologists who are not 

 dependent either upon Diodorus or Plutarch will join 

 issue with him. In like manner Dionysus, though he is 

 often conceived and represented in animal shape, is here 

 understood to be a deity of vegetation, for " the custom of 

 killing a god in animal form . . . belongs to a very early 

 stage in human culture, and is apt in later times to be mis- 

 understood. The advance of thought tends to strip the 

 old animal and plant gods of their bestial and vegetable 

 husk, and to leave their human attributes (which are 

 always the kernel of the conception) as the final and sole 

 residuum. In other words, animal and plant gods tend 

 to become purely anthropomorphic." 



In the remaining few pages of this chapter the spirit 

 of vegetation is discussed in examples of the corn spirit ; 

 the various names given to this spirit in the different 

 countries being the old man, the old woman, corn mother, 

 maiden, &c. In all these cases the idea is that the spirit 

 of the corn is driven out of the corn last cut or last 

 threshed, and lives in the barn during the winter. Hence 

 the idea brings us in presence of the Egyptian view that 

 Osiris represents the latent Ra. At sowing-time he goes 

 out again to the fields to resume his activity as an 

 animating force among the newly sown corn. 



In some cases human sacrifices were made to promote 

 the fertility of the fields. Among many examples given is 

 that of the Indians of Guayaquil (Ecuador), who sacrificed 

 human blood and the hearts of men when they sowed 

 their fields ; and there are instances when the victims for 

 these sacrifices were actually kept and fattened up in 

 order that the crops might be good, and that their death 

 might insure immunity from all disease and accidents. 



The second volume begins with examples of the corn 

 spirit being represented in animal forms, such as a gander, 

 goat, hare, cat, and fox. During the course of this dis- 

 cussion the author connects this corn spirit in animal 

 form with the ancient deities of vegetation— Dionysus, 

 Demeter, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris. He first of all points 

 out, with the help of numerous references to 'ancient 

 authorities, how these deities were represented in animal 

 form: Dionysus was represented as a goat and some- 

 times as a bull ; Demeter as a pig, &c. He then argues 

 that since the corn spirit was represented by animals,^ 

 such as pigs, goats, &c., these animals are nothing more 

 nor less than the corn gods in animal form. 



The next point he wishes to prove is that the " custom 

 of killing the god had been practised by peoples in the 

 hunting, pastoral, and agricultural stages of society ; " 

 the gods whom the hunters and shepherds adored and 

 killed were "animals pure and simple, not animals 

 regarded as embodiments of other supernatural beings."^ 

 Of the many examples given concerning this point, we 

 will here give a short extract of the bear festival of the 

 Ainos : — 



"Towards the end of winter a young bear is caught 

 and brought into the village. At first he is suckled by an 

 Aino woman ; afterwards he is fed on fish. When he 

 grows so strong that he threatens to break out of the 

 wooden cage in which he is confined, the feast is held. 

 But it is a peculiarly striking fact that the young bear is 

 not kept merely to furnish a good meal ; rather he is 

 regarded and honoured as a fetish or even as a sort of 

 higher being." 



