H.—ANTHROPOLOGY 157 
’ 
liament requested the King to prohibit plays of ‘ Robin Hood, King of May 
onthe Sabbath. In France Robin des Bois and Marian are found in the 
thirteenth century as characters in the Whitsuntide pastourelles—a fact 
which rather suggests that the whole story came to England with the 
Normans, more especially as in other northern lands this drama took the 
somewhat different form which is familiar to us as the story of William 
Tell. The latter was long believed to be an historical character, but the 
story is now recognised as a widespread myth. 
Before leaving this part of the subject I should like to touch on two 
forms of the traditional narrative which are much relied upon by those 
who believe in the historicity of tradition—the Icelandic saga and the 
quasi-historical traditions of Polynesia. The most famous of the Ice- 
landic sagas is probably that of Burnt Njal, and the central incident in it 
is the burning of Njal and his sons in their house. When, however, we 
come to examine this story, we find that it is merely a variant of the Irish 
story of Naisi. Let us take one incident. When Skarphedinn and his 
brothers are shut up in the burning house, Gunnar, a man whose relatives 
Skarphedinn has slain, climbs up and looks over the wall ; Skarphedinn 
throws a tooth at him, hitting him in the eye, and causing his eyeball to 
fall out on to his cheek. Naisi and his brothers are shut up in a house, 
and before Conchobar orders his men to set fire to it he sends Trendorn, 
a man whose relatives Naisi has slain, ‘ to see whether her own shape 
‘remained on Deidre.’ He peeps through a small upper window ; Naisi 
throws a draughtsman at him and hits him in the eye, so that his eyeball 
falls out on to his cheek. I have no douht that Naisi and Skarphedinn are 
names for a northern variant of Heracles, whose adventures and death 
formed part of the ritual drama. 
For Polynesian traditions I shall rely on Mr. Percy Smith, and he, 
though he firmly believes in the historicity of these traditions, nevertheless 
gives us a number of hints that they are really accounts of ritual drama. 
Thus he tells us that ‘ much of the old history of the Polynesians was 
* regarded as sacred, and its communication to those who would make an 
‘improper use of it would inevitably—in the belief of the old priests— 
“bring down disaster on the heads of the reciters. . . . This teaching 
“sc. of the tribal lore] was accompanied by many ceremonies, incanta- 
“tions, invocations, etc. . . . There was a special sanctity attached to 
“many things taught; deviation from the accepted doctrine, or history, was 
“supposed to bring down on the offender the wrath of the gods.’17_ He 
later tells us that ‘ there was a class of roving actors and players, who were 
also the custodians of much of the historic traditions,’ and that ‘ the 
“history of Onokura is a very remarkable one . . . the narrative is inter- 
“spersed with songs and recitative, which would take many hours in 
‘delivery. It is, in fact, a regular “‘ South Sea opera.” ’ 18 
If these traditional narratives were really history, and if the teaching 
of history followed the same course in this country as it is alleged to in 
Polynesia, we should find professors imploring their pupils not to make an 
improper use of the Constitutions of Clarendon ; boys learning the names 
of Henry VIII’s wives with incantations and invocations ; people con- 
1S. Percy Smith, Hawatki, pp. 14-15. 18 [bid., pp. 138, 222. 
