The Golden Bell Volume 1, The Magic Art in the Evolution of Kings, Volume 1 by James Fraser. This is a LibriVox recording, or the LibriVox recordings from the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recorded by Leon Harvey. Section 4, Chapter 3, Sympathetic Magic, Sub-Chapter 2, Homeopathic or Imitative Magic, Part 2, Sympathetic Magic to Ensure Food Supply. Further, Homeopathic, and in general, Sympathetic Magic plays a great part in the measures taken by the rude hunter or fishermen to secure an abundant supply of food. On the principle that like produces like, many things are done by him and his friends in deliberate invitation of the result which he seeks to attain, and on the other hand, many things are scrupulously avoided because they bear some more or less fanciful resemblance to others which would really be disastrous. Nowhere is the theory of Sympathetic Magic more systematically carried into practice for the maintenance of the food supply than in the barren regions of Central Australia. Here the tribes are divided into a number of totem clans, each of which is charged with the duty of propagating and multiplying their totem for the good of the community by means of magical ceremonies and incantations. Intituma or magical ceremonies for the increase of the totemic animals and plants in Central Australia. The great majority of the totems are edible animals and plants, and the general results supposed to be accomplished by these magical totemic ceremonies or intitiuma, as they are run to call them, is that a supply in the tribe of food and other necessaries. Often the tribes consist of an imitation of the effect which the people desire to produce. In other words, their magic is of the homeopathic or imitative sort. Thus among the adrunter, the men of the witchery grub totem perform a series of elaborate ceremonies for multiplying the grub, which the other members of the tribe use as food. One of the ceremonies is a pantomime representing the fully developed insect in an act of emerging from the chrysalis. A long narrow structure of branches is set up to imitate the chrysalis case of the grub. In this structure, a number of men who have the grub for their totem sit and sing of the creature in its various stages, then they shuffle out of it in a squatting posture, and as they do, they sing of the insect emerging from the chrysalis. This is supposed to multiply the numbers of the grubs. Emu ceremony. Again, in order to multiply emus, which are an important article of food, the men of the emu totem in the adrunter tribe proceed as follows. The clearest small spot of the ground, and opening veins in their arms, they let the blood stream out until it serves the ground, for a space of about three square yards is soaked with it. When the blood is dried and caked, it forms a hard and fairly impermeable surface, on which they paint the sacred design of the emu totem, especially the parts of the bird which they like best to eat, namely the fat and the eggs. Round this painting, the men sit and sing. Afterwards, performers, wearing headdresses to represent the long neck and small head of the emu, mimic the appearance of the bird as it stands aimlessly peering about in all directions. Hakia flower ceremony. Again, men of the Hakia flower totem in the adrunter tribe perform a ceremony to make the hakaia tree burst into blossom. A scene in the ceremony is a little hollow, by the side of which grows the ancient hakaia tree. In the middle of the hollow is a small warm block of stone, supposed to represent a mass of hakaia flowers. Before the ceremony begins, an old man of the totem carefully sweeps the ground clean, then stokes the stone, hauled over with his hands. After that, the men sit round the stone and chant invitations to the tree to flower much, and to the blossoms to be filled with honey. Finally, at the request of the old leader, one of the young men opens a vein in his arm and lets the blood flow freely over the stone while the rest continue to sing. The flow of blood is supposed to represent the preparation of the favorite drink of the natives, which is made by steeping the hakaia flower in water. As soon as the stone is covered with blood, the ceremony is complete. Kangaroo ceremony. Again, the men of the kangaroo totem in the adrunter tribe perform ceremonies for the multiplication of kangaroos at a certain rocky ledge, which, in the opinion of the natives, is for the spirits of kangaroos, ready to go forth and inhabit kangaroo bodies.  At the ceremony, these two blocks are rubbed with a stone by two men, and the rocky ledge below is decorated with alternate vertical stripes of red and white to indicate the red fur and white bones of the kangaroo. After that, a number of young men sit on the ledge, open veins in their arms, and allow the blood to spurtle over the edge of the rock on which they are seated. This pouring out of the blood of the kangaroo, men on the rock, is thought to drive out the spirits of the kangaroo in all directions, and so to increase the number of the animals. While it is taking place, the other men sit below watching the performers and singing songs referred to the expected increase of kangaroos. Grass seed ceremony. In the Ketish tribe, when the headman of the grass seed told him to make the grass grow, he takes two sacred sticks of stones, sharinga, of the well-known ball, brawra pattern, smears them with vedalka, and decorates them with lines and dots of down to represent grass seed. He then rubs the sticks of stones together so that the down flies off in all directions. The down is supposed to carry with it some virtue from the sacred stick or stone whereby the grass seed is made to grow. For days afterwards, the headman walks about by himself from the bush singing the grass seed and carrying one of the sacred brawras, sharinga with him. At night, he hides the implant in the bush and returns to camp, where he may have no intercourse with his wife. For doing all this time, he is believed to be so full of magic power to ride from the brawra that if he had intercourse with her, the grass seed would not grow properly and his body would swell up when he tasted of it. When the seed begins to grow, he still goes on singing to make it grow more, but when it is fully grown, he brings back the sacred implement to his camp, hidden in bark, and having gathered a store of the seed, he leaves it with the men of the other half of the tribe, saying, he eat the grass seed in plenty, it is very good and grows in my country. Mana ceremony A somewhat similar ceremony is performed by men of the Mana Tautum in the Aranta tribe for the increase of their Tautum. This Mana is a product of the Mulgatri, a casea annura and resembles a better known sugar mana of gum trees. When the men of the Tautum wish to multiply the Mana, they resort to a great boulder of gray rock curiously straight with black and white seams, which is thought to represent a massive Mana, deposited there long ago by a man of the Tautum. The same significance is attributed to other smaller stones which rest on the top of the boulder. The head man of the Tautum begins the ceremony by digging up a sacred bullwara, charinga, which is buried in the earth at the foot of the boulder. It is supposed to represent a lump of Mana and to have lane there ever since the remote al-karinga, or dream time, the father's part of which these savages have any conception. Next the head man climbs to the top of the boulder and rubs it with the bullwara, after that he takes the smaller stones and whips them, rubs the same spot on the boulder. Men time the other men, sitting round about chant lilly an invitation to the dust produced by the rubbing of the stones to go out and generate a plentiful supply of Mana on the Mulgatris. Finally the twigs of the Mulga help the leader sweeps away the dust which is gathered on the surface of the stone. His intention is to cause the dust to settle on the Mulgatris and so produce Mana. Euro ceremony. Again a rocky gorge that emerges in range. There are numbers of little heaps of rounded water worn stones carefully arranged on beds of leaves and hidden away under piles of rougher quartzite blocks. In the opinion of the waramanga tribe these rounded stones represent euros that is a species of kangaroo. According to their size they stand for younger old male or female euros and the old man of the euro totem who happens to pass a spot may take the stones out, smear them with red ochre and rub them well. This is supposed to cause the spirits of euros to pass out from the stones and be born as animals thus increasing the food supply. Cockatoo ceremony. Again in the waramanga tribe Miserys, Spencer and Gillon saw and heard a ceremony which is believed to multiply white cockatoos to a wonderful extent. From 10 o'clock one evening until after sunrise next morning the head man of the white cockatoo totem held in his hand a rude effigy of the cockatoo and imitated the harsh cry of the bird with excess pressing monotony all night long. When his voice failed him his son took up the call and relieved the old man until such time as his father was rest enough to begin again. Homieopathic or imitative character of these rites. In this last ceremony the homieopathic or imitative character of the rite is particularly plain. The shape of the bird which is to be multiplied is mirrored by an effigy as cry is imitated by the human voice. In others of the ceremonies just described the homieopathic principle works by means of stones which resemble in shape the edible animals or plants that their natives desire to increase. We shall see presently that the Melanesians similarly attribute fertilizing virtues to stones of certain shapes. Use of human blood in these ceremonies. Meantime it deserves to be noticed that in some of these Australian rites for the multiplication of the totemic animals the blood of the men of the totem plays an important part. Similarly in a ceremony performed by men of the Diary tribe for the multiplication of carpet snakes and iguanas the performers wear on themselves and the blood the drips from their wounds is poured on a sand hill in which the mythical ancestor is believed to be buried and from which carpet snakes and iguanas are confidently expected to swarm forth. Again when the head man of the fish totem in the Wonk Gomgaru tribe desires to make fish plentiful he paints himself all over with red ochre and taking little pointed bones goes into a pool. There he pierces his scrotum and the skin around the navel with the bones and sits down the water. The blood from the wounds as it nibbles with the water is supposed to give rhinos to fish. In all these cases clearly a fertilizing virtue is described to human blood. The description is interesting and may possibly go some way to explain a widely spread custom of voluntary wounds and mutilations in religious or magical rites. It may therefore be worth even at the cost of a digression to ensure a little more closely into the custom as it practiced by the rude savages of Australia. Blood poured into graves. In the first place then the dairy customer pouring blood over the supposed remains of the ancestor in his sand hill closely resembles the custom observed by some of the Australian Aborigines at the graves of their relatives. Thus among the tribes on the river Darling several men used to stand by the open grave and cut each other's heads with the boomerang then hold their bleeding heads over the grave so that the blood dripped on the corpse at the bottom of it. If the deceased was highly esteemed the bleeding was repeated after some of the being thrown on the corpse. Among the Aranta it is customary for the women in Kingsfolk to cut themselves of the grave so that blood flows upon it. Again at the Vase River in Western Australia before the body was lowered into the graves the natives used to gash their thighs and at the flowing of the blood they all said I have bought blood and they stamped the foot forcibly on the ground sprinting the blood around them then wiping the wounds with a wisp of leaves they threw it all bloody on the dead man after that they let the body down into the grave blood given to the sick and aged further is a common practice with the central Australians to give human blood to the sick and aged with the purpose of strengthening them and in order that the blood may have this effect it need not always be drunk by the infirm person it is enough to sprinkle it on his body for example a young man will often open a vein in his arm and let the blood trickle over the body of an older man in order to strengthen his aged friend and sometimes the old man will drink a little of the blood so in illness the blood is sometimes applied outwardly as well as inwardly the patient both drinking it and having a rubbed over his body sometimes apparently he only drinks it the blood is drawn from a man or woman who is related to the sufferer either by blood or marriage and the notion always is to convey to the sick person some of the strength of the blood giver in the Wimbayo tribe if a man had nearly killed his wife in a peroxysm of rage woman was laid on the ground and the husband's arms been tightly bound above the elbows the medicine man opens his veins and then and let the blood flow on the prostrate body of the victim to the man group faint the intention of thus bleeding the man or the woman was apparently to restore her to life by means of the blood drawn from her assailant blood used by an avenging party again before an avenging party starts to take the life of distant enemy all the men stand up open their veins in their genital organs with sharp flints or pointed sticks and allow the blood to spur over each other's thighs the ceremony is supposed to strengthen the men mutually and also to knit them so closer together that treachery henceforth becomes impossible sometimes for the same purpose blood is drawn from the arm and drunk by the men of the avenging party and if one of them refuses thuster pledge himself the others will force his mouth open and pour the blood into it after that evening wishes to play the traitor and to give the don't man warning he cannot do so he is bound by a physical necessity to side with the avengers whose blood he has swallowed blood of circumcision and subconcision uses made of it further it is worthwhile to notice some uses made of human blood in connection with the ceremonies of circumcision and subconcision which all lads of the central australian tribes have to undergo before they are recognized as full grown for example the blood drawn from them at these operations is caught in a hollow shield and taken to certain kinsmen or kinswomen who drink it or have it smeared on their breasts and foreheads the motive of this practice is not mentioned but on the analogy of the preceding customs we may conjecture that it is to strengthen the relatives who partake of the blood this interpretation is confirmed by an analogous used in queens land of the blood drawn from a woman at the operation which in the female sex corresponds to subconcision in the male for that blood mixed with another ingredient is kept and drunk as a medicine by anistic person who may be in the camp at the time or over it is corroborated by a similar use of the foreskin which has been removed by circumcision for among the southern renter his piece of skin is given to the younger brother of the circumcised lad and he swallows it in the belief that it will make him grow strong and tall in the tribe at foulers bay who practice both circumcision and subconcision the seven foreskin is swallowed by the operator perhaps in order to strengthen the lads sympathetically in some tribes in northwest australia it is the lad himself who swallows his own foreskin mixed with kangaroo flesh while the other tribes the same region the seven portion is taken by the relations deposited under the bark of a large tree the possible significance of this ladder trip into the foreskin will appear presently among the cold cuddles of cloning lee in northern queens land the foreskin is strung on twine made of human hair and is then tied around the mother's neck to keep off the devil and the were among a tribe the old men draw blood from their own subconcised eerie thrills in presence of the lads who a few days before have undergone the operation of subconcision the object of this custom we are told is to promote the healing of the young men's wounds and strengthen them generally is not appear that a blood of the old men is drunk by or smeared upon the youths similarly is supposed to benefit them sympathetically without direct contact anodines based on the principle of homeopathic magic a similar action of blood at a distance may partially explain a very singular custom observed by the elemental women at the moment when a lad has been subconcised the operation is performed at a distance form but within hearing of the woman's camp when the boy is seized in order to be operated on the men of the party raise a loud shout of pierre that sound the women immediately assemble in their camp and the boy's mother cuts gashes across the stomach and shoulders of the boy's sisters around elder sisters and old women who furnished the boy with a sacred fire at circumcision and all the women whose daughters here would be allowed to marry and while she cuts she imitates a sound made by the men who are subconcising her son these cuts generally leave behind them a definite series of skies they have a name of their own or enough and are often resembled by definite lines on the bullwaters what the exact meaning of this extraordinary ceremony may be i cannot say but perhaps one of its supposed effects maybe to relieve the boys pain by transferring it to his women kind in like manner when they're one among the men are fighting each other with blazing torches the women burn themselves with light twigs and the belief that by doing so they prevent the men from inflicting serious injuries to each other the three further receive some support from certain practices formally observed by the natives inhabiting the coast of new south wales before lads had their noses bored the medicine men threw themselves into contortions on the ground and after pretending to suffer great pain were delivered of bones which were to be used to the ceremony of nose boring the lads were told that the more the medicine men suffered the less pain they themselves would feel again among the same natives when a woman was in labor a female friend would tie one end to the cord when the sufferers neck and rubber and gums with the other and till they bled possibly in order to draw away the pain from the mother to herself for a similar reason perhaps in some hour the blood was being drawn from my virgin bride her friends young and old beat their heads with stones till they bled fertilizing virtue attributed to blood of circumcision and subincision lastly in some tribes the blood shared at the circumcision and subincision of lads is collected in paper bug and buried in the bank of a pool where water lilies grow this is supposed to promote the growth of the lilies needless to say this root attempted horticulture is not prompted by a symbol delight in contemplating these beautiful bright blue flowers which bloom in the australian wilderness digging the surface of pools by countless thousands the savages feed on the stems and roots of the lilies that is why they desire to cultivate them fertilizing virtue attributed to foreskin in the last practice of fertilizing virtue is clearly attributed to the blood of circumcision and subincision the annula tribe who among others observe the custom obviously ascribe the same virtue to the severed foreskin where they bury it also by the side of the pool there were among going to attain the same opinion of this part of the person where they place the foreskin in a hole made by a witchety grub in a tree believing that it will cause a plentiful supply of these edible grubs among the unmatured the customer is somewhat different but taken in connection with their traditions it is even more significant the boy puts his severed foreskin on a shield covers it up with a broad spear thrower then carries it in the darkness of night the study woman should see what he is doing to a whole tree in which he deposits it he tells no one where he is hidden it except a man who stands to him in the relation of father's sister's son nowadays there is no special relation between the boy and the tree but formally the case seems to have been different for according to tradition the early mythical ancestors of the tribe placed their foreskins in their nanja trees that is in the local totem trees the trees from which their spirits came forth at birth and to which they would return after death belief of the central australian tribes in the reincarnation of the dead if it seems highly probable such a custom as that recorded by the petition ever failed his intention could hardly be any other than that of securing the future birth and reincarnation of the owner of the foreskin where he should have died and his spirit returned to its abode in the tree for among all these central tribes the belief is firmly rooted that the human soul undergoes an endless series of reincarnations the living men and women of one generation being nothing but the spirits of their ancestors come to life again and destined to be themselves reborn in the persons of their descendants during the interval between two incantations the souls live in their nanja spots or local totem centers which are always natural objects such as trees or rocks each totem clan has a number of such totem centers scattered over the country they're the souls the dead men and women of the totem but of no other congregate during their disembodied state and hence the issue and a born again in human form where a favorable opportunity presents itself it might well be thought that a man's new birth would be facilitated if in his last time he could lay upon a stock of vital energy for the use of his disembodied spirit after death that he did apparently by detaching a portion of himself namely the foreskin and deposited it in the nanja tree or rock or whatever it might be circumcision perhaps intended to ensure reincarnation is it possible that in this belief and this practice we have the long lost care to the many of circumcision in other words cannot be that circumcision was originally intended to ensure the rebirth at some future time of the circumcised man by disposing of the severed portion of his body in such a way as to provide him with a stock of energy on which his disembodied spirit could draw when the critical mode of reincarnation came around the conjecture is confirmed by the observation that among the kikyu of British East India the ceremony of circumcision used to be regularly combined with the graphic pretense of rebirth enacted by the novice either should prove to be intended the clue to the meaning of circumcision it would be natural to look for an explanation of subincision along the same lines subincision possibly also designed to security birth now we have seen a blood of subincision is used both to strengthen relatives and to make water lilies grow hence we make injure that the strengthening and fertilizing virtue of the blood was applied like the force can circumcision to lay up a store of energy in the nanja spot against the time when the man's feeble ghost would need it the intention of both ceremonies would thus be to ensure the future reincarnation of the individual by quickening the little totem center the home of his disembodied spirit with a vital portion of himself that portion whether the foreskin or the blood was in a manner seed sown to grow up and provide his immortal spirit with a new body when his old body should have molded in this dust knocking out of teeth in australia perhaps practiced for the same purpose perhaps the same theory may as so to explain another initiatory right practiced by some of the australian aborigines namely knocking out of teeth this is the principal ceremony of initiation amongst the tribes of eastern and southern australia and it is often practice though not as an initiatory right by the central tribes with whom the essential rights of initiation by circumcision at subincision on the hypothesis here suggested we should expect to find the tooth regarded as a vital part of the man which was sacrificed to ensure another life for him after death the durability of the teeth compared to the corruptible nature of the greater part of the body might be a sufficient reason with a savage philosopher for choosing this portion of the corporal frame on which to pin his hope of immortality the evidence our disposal certainly does not suffice to establish this explanation of the right there are some factors seem to point at this direction in the first place the extracted tooth is supposed to remain in sympathetic connection with the man from who it has been removed and a proper care is not taken of it he may fall ill with some victorium tribes the practice was for the mother of the lad to choose a young gum tree and the son's teeth in the bark at the fork of two of the top most bows even afterwards the tree was held in a sense sacred it was made known only to certain persons of the tribe and the youth himself was never allowed to learn where his teeth had been deposited when he died the tree was killed by fire thus in a fashion the tree might be said to be bound up with the life of the man whose teeth are contained since when he died he was destroyed further among some of the central tribes the extracted tooth is thrown away as far as possible in the direction of the spot where the man's mother is supposed to have had her camp in the fire ops legendary time which is known as the alcovinga may not this be done to secure the rebirth for the man's spirit in that place in the gananji tribe the extracted tooth is buried by the man's or woman's mother's beside a pool for the purpose of stopping the rain and increasing the number of water lilies that grow in the pool extraction of teeth associated with the rain thus the same fertilizing virtue is ascribed to the tooth which is attributed to the foreskin severed circumcision and to the blood-dryed subincision while the drawing of teeth should be supposed to stop rain I cannot guess curiously enough among the central tribes generally the extraction of teeth as a special association with rain and water thus among the aranta is practiced chiefly by the members of the rain or water totem and it is nearly not quite obligatory on all the men and women of that totem whereas it is merely optional with the members of the other clans further the ceremony is always performed among the aranta immediately after the magical ceremony for the making of rain in the waramanga tribe the knocking out of the teeth generally takes place towards the end of the wet season when the waterholes are full and the natives do not wish any more rain to fall moreover it is always performed on the banks of a waterhole the persons to be operated on entering the pool fill their mouths with water spit it out in all directions and splash the water over themselves taking care to wet thoroughly the crown of the head immediately afterwards the tooth is knocked out the chingili also knock out teeth towards the close to the wet season and they think they've had enough of rain the extracted tooth is thrown into the waterhole in the belief that it will drive rain and clouds away i merely note without attempting to account for this association between the extraction of teeth and the stopping of rain extraction of tooth used to determine a man's country and totem the natives of the kb York peninsula in queensland use the extraction of the tooth to determine both the man's totem and the country to which he belongs while the tooth has been knocked out they mentioned the various districts owned or frequented by the lad's mother her father or other of her relatives the one which happens to be mentioned at the moment when the tooth breaks away is a country to which the lad belongs in the future that is the country where he will have the right to hunt and to gather roots and fruits further the bloody spittle which he ejects after the extraction of the tooth is examined by the old men who trace some likeness between it and a natural object such as an animal a plant or a stone henceforth that object will be the young man's ahri or totem some light is thrown on this ceremony by a parallel custom which the natives of the penny father river in queensland observe at the birth of the child they believe that every person's spirit undergoes a series of reincarnations and that during the interval between two successive reincarnations the spirit stays in one or other or the horns of anjia the being who causes conception and women by putting mud babies into their wombs belief in the reincarnation among the natives of the penny father river in queensland hence in order to determine where the new baby spirit resided since it was last in the flesh they mentioned anjia's horns one after the other while the grandmother is cutting the child's navel stream and the place which happens to be mentioned when the navel stream breaks is a spot where the spirit lodged since its last incarnation that is the country to which the child belongs there he will have the right of hunting when he grows up hence according to the home from which the spirit came to dwell among men a child may be known as a baby obtained from a tree a rock or a pool of fresh water anjia with whom the souls of the dead live till their time comes to be born again is never seen but you may hear him laughing in the depths of the woods among the rocks down in the lagoons and among the mangrove swamps hence we may fairly infer that the country assigned to a man of the Cape York peninsula at the extraction of his tooth is one where his spirit turret during the interval which elapsed since its last incarnation his totem which is determined at the same time may possibly be the animal plant or other natural object in which his spirit resided since its last embodiment in human form or perhaps rather in which a part of his spirit may be supposed to lodge outside his body during life a lot of you is favored by the belief of the tribe of the pain father river whose practice at childbirth so closely resembles that of the Cape York natives at puberty for the pen father people hold that during a man's life a portion of his spirit lodges outside of his body in his afterbirth however that may be it seems probable that among the Cape York natives the customer knocking out the tooth is closely associated with a theory of reincarnation perhaps the same theory explains a privilege enjoyed by the Camilla already tribe of New South Wales they claim the superiority of his surrounding tribes and enforce their claim by extracting from them the teeth knocked out of puberty the extraction of this tribune might have passed for a mere assertion of suzerainity worried not that a Calamari knocked out their own teeth also perhaps the extracted teeth were believed secure to their present possessors a magical control over their former owners not only during life but after death so that armed with them the Camilla already could help or hinder the rebirth of their departed friends or enemies australian initiatory rights meant to serve cure rebirth thus if i am right the essential feature in all three great initiatory rights so the australians is a removal of a vital part of the person which shall serve as a link between two successive incarnations by preparing for the Norse a new body to as his spirit when its present tabernacle shall have been worn out certain funeral rites also intended to ensure reincarnation now if there is any trouble in this suggestion we should expect to find that measures to ensure reincarnation had also taken at death and burial this seems in fact to be done for in the first place the practice of pouring the blood of kinsmen and kinswomen into the grave is obviously susceptible of this explanation since in accordance with the australian usages which i cited the blood might well be thought to strengthen the feeble ghost for a new birth australian funerals ceremonies intended to ensure the reincarnation of the dead the same maybe said of the australian custom a depositing hair with the dead for it is a common notion that the hair is the seed of strength again it has been a rule with some australian tribes to bury their dead on the spot where they were born this was very natural if they desire the dead man to be born again further the common australian practice of depositing the dead in trees may in some cases at least have been designed to facilitate rebirth for trees are often the places in which the souls the dead reside after which they come forth to be born again in human shape thus the unmatschera and catech tribes bury very age women and decrepit old men in the ground but the bodies of children young women and men in the prime of life are laid on platforms among the bowels of trees in regard to children we are definitely told that this is done in the hope that before very long his spirit may come back again into the body of a woman in all probability that of its former mother further the oranta who bury their dead are careful to leave a low depression on one side of the mound in order that the spirit may pass out and in and this depression always faces towards the dead man's or woman's camping ground in the alcaringa or remote past that is the spot which he or she inhabited in spirit form is not this done to let the spirit root itself off its decaying taper knuckle and repair to the place where in due time it will find a new and better body in this connection the final burial rites in the bin bingar halluna and marrow tribes are worthy of remark among these people the bones the dead are after a series of ceremonies deposited in a hollow log in which the dead man's totem is painted this log is in place with the bones in the bowels of tree beside a pool so that if possible it overhangs the water for about three wet seasons the father and son of the deceased who placed the log there are alone are allowed to eat water lilies out of that pool and no woman is permitted to go near the spot there the bones of the dead man remain till the log rots and they fall into the water or are carried away by a flood when the burial rites are all over the spirit of the deceased returns to its man guy spot that is to the place where it dwells in the interval between two successive incarnations sooner or later it will be born again these rites seem therefore clearly to be a preparation for the new rebirth belief in reincarnation and measures taken to secure it among other peoples as the belief in reincarnation is shared by many peoples besides the australians is natural to suppose that funeral rites intended to facilitate the rebirth of the deceased may be found in other parts of the world elsewhere i have cited examples of these rites here i will add a few more it is especially the bodies of dead infants which are the object of such ceremonies for since their lives have been cut prematurely short it seems reasonable to give their souls a chance of beginning again and lengthening out their existence on earth to its natural clothes reincarnation among the bagishu or montagans but it is not always dead babies only whom the living seek thus to bring back to life for example we read that round about mount elgon in east africa the custom of throwing out the dead is universal among all the clans of bagishu except in the case of the youngest child or the old grandfather or grandmother for whom like the child a prolonged life on earth is desired when it is desired to perpetuate on the earth the life of some old man or woman or there are some young baby the corpse is buried inside the house or just under the eaves until another child is born to the nearest relation of the corpse this child male or female takes the name of the corpse and the bagishu family belief that the spirit of the dead has passed into this new child and lives again on earth the remains are then dug up and thrown out into the open reincarnation among the tribes of the lower congo similarly among the tribes of the lower congo a baby is always buried near the house of its mother never in the bush they think that if the child is not buried near its mother's house she will be unlucky and never have any more children it's believed that the only new thing about the child is its body the spirit is old and formerly belonged to some deceased person what may have the spirit of some living person they have two reasons for believing this the child speaks only of strange things the mother has never taught it's so that they believe the old spirit is talking to the child again if the child is like its mother father uncle they think it has the spirit of the person it resembles and that that person will soon die hence the parent will resent it if you say that the baby is like him or her thus it appears that the argument for the pre-existence of the human soul which Plato and Wordsworth drew from reminiscence is fully accepted by some negro tribes of west africa reincarnation in india in the bill of sport district of india a stillborn child or one who has passed away before the chutty the sixth day the day of purification is not taken out of the house of a burial but is placed in an earthen vessel a gutter and is buried in the doorway or in the yard of the house some say that this is done in order that the mother may bear another child it is said that among the cons of india on the day after a death some boiled rice and a small fowl are taken to the place where the body was burned there the fowl is split down the breast and placed on the spot after which it is eaten and the soul that departed is invited to enter a newborn child on the fifth day after the death the gongs perform the ceremony of bringing back the soul they go to the riverside and call out the name of the deceased then they enter the river catch a fish or an insect and take it at home place it among the sainted dead of the family believing that the spirit of their lost one has thus been brought back to the house sometimes the fish or insect is eaten in order that the spirit which it contains may be born again as a child reincarnation among the gulons when a baby died within a month or two of birth the hurons did not dispose of its little body like those of grown pebble by depositing it on a scaffold they buried it beside the road in order so they said that the child might enter secretly into the womb of some woman passing by and be born again into the world reincarnation among the ancient Greeks some of the ancient rules observed with regard to funerals in the greek island of seos have been ingeniously explained by mr fb jevons as designed to secure the rebirth of the departed in one of the women of the family the widespread customer burying the dead in the house was perhaps instituted for the same purpose and the ancient greek practice of sacrificing to the dead man at the grave on his birthday may possibly have originated in the same train of thought for example sacrifices were annually offered on their birthdays to hypocrites by the kohans to erratus by the sick unions and to epicures by his disciples rights to procure the rebirth of edible animals and plants now too we can fully understand the meaning of the bloody ritual in the ceremonies for the multiplication of the totem animals and plants we have seen that is strengthening and fertilizing virtue is attributed to human blood what more natural than it should be poured out by the men of the totem on the spot in which the disembodied spirit of the totem animals or plants are waiting for reincarnation clearly the rite seems intended to enable these spirits to take bodily shape and be born again in order that they may again serve as food if not to the men of the totem clan at least to all the other members of the tribe later on we shall find that the attempt to reincarnate the souls of dead animals in order that their bodies may be eaten over again is not peculiar to the australian savages but is practiced with many curious rites by peoples in other parts of the world general theory of intertuma and initially rites in australia do sum up briefly the general theory to which the foregoing facts have thus far led us i would say that just as the intertuma tribes of the australians are for the most part magical ceremonies intended to secure the re-embodiment of the spirits of edible animals and plants so their initiatory rites may perhaps be regarded as magical ceremonies designed mainly to ensure the reincarnation of human souls now the motive for procuring the rebirth of animals and plants is simply the desire to eat them cannibalism in australia may not these have been one of the motives for attempting to resuscitate the human dead it would seem so for all the tribes the Gulf of Carpentaria who have been examined by Spencer and Gillan eat their dead and the ceremonies and traditions of the are entered indicate that their ancestors also at the bodies of their fellow tribesmen in this respect the practice of the bin bingar tribe is particularly instructive for among them the bodies of the dead are cut up and eaten not by men of the same tribal subclass as the deceased but by men belonging to the subclasses which compose the other intermarrying half of the tribe this is exactly enogalist to the practice which at present prevails as to the eating of the totem animal or plant among all these central and northern tribes among them each clan that has an edible animal or plant for its totem is supposed to provide the animal or plant for all the other clans to eat and similarly among the bin bingar the men of any particular subclass do actually provide their own bodies for the members of the other intermarrying half of their tribe to devour and just as in the far past the members of a totem clan appear to have subsisted regularly although not exclusively and perhaps not even mainly on their totem animal plant so at a remote time they seem regularly to have eaten each other thus the wild dog clan of the aranta has many traditions that their ancestors killed and ate wild dog men and women such traditions probably preserve a true reminiscence of a state of things still more savage than the present practice of the bin bingar at that more or less remote time if we may trust the scattered hints of custom and legend which are the only evidence we have to go upon the men and women of a totem clan in defiance of their customs at a later age regularly cohabitate with each other ate their totems and devoured each other's dead bodies in such a state of things there was no sharp line of distinction drawn either in theory or in practice between a man and his totem and this confusion is again confirmed by the legends on which it is often difficult to make out whether the totemic ancestors spoken of is a man or an animal and have measured were taken to resuscitate both it may well have been primarily in order that both might be Asian again Australian totemism not a religion the system was thoroughly practiced in its aim only the means it took to compass its ends were mistaken it was a no-sense religion unless we are prepared to bestow the name of religion on the business of the grazier at the market gardener for these savages certainly bred animals and plants and perhaps bred men for much the same reasons that a crazier and a market gardener breed cattle and vegetables whereas the methods of the crazier and market gardener rest upon the laws of nature and therefore do really produce the effects they aim at the methods of these savages are based on a mistaken conception of natural law and therefore totally fail to bring about the attended result only they do not perceive their failure currently nature if we may personify here for a moment draws available for their eyes and herself works behind the veil whose wonders of reproduction which the poor savage vainly fancies that he has bought by his magical ceremonies and incantations present function of totemism in central australia in short totemism as it exists at present amongst these tribes appears to be mainly accrued almost childlike attempt to satisfy the primary wants of man especially under the harder conditions to which he is subject to the deserts of central australia by magically creating everything that a savage stands in need of and food first of all but to say so is not to affirm that this has been the purpose and the only purpose of australian totemism from the beginning that beginning lies far behind us in the past and is therefore necessarily much more obscure and uncertain than the function of totemism as a fully developed system to which alone the preceding remarks are applicable our examination of the magical rites performed by the australians for the maintenance of the food supply has led us into this digression it is time to pass through ceremonies practice for the same purpose and on the same principles by her peoples in other parts of the world end of section four section five of the golden bow volume one the magic art and the evolution of kings by james phraser this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information on a volunteer please visit libra vox.org recorded by leon harvey the golden bow volume one chapter three sub chapter two homeopathic or imitative magic part four homeopathic magic or imitative magic in fishing and hunting the indians of british columbia live largely upon the fish which are bowed in their season rivers if the fish do not come into season and the indians are hungry a nook-toe wizard will make an image of a swimming fish and put it into the water in the direction on which the fish generally appear this ceremony accompanied by a prayer to the fish to come will cause them to arrive at once the islanders of torus straits use models of dugong and turtles to charm dugong and total to their destruction the toradges of sensual celebs believe they're things of the same sort attract each other by means of their indwelling spirits or vital ether hence they hang up dual bones of deer and wild pigs in their houses in order that their spirits which animate these bones may draw the living creatures of the same kind into the path of the hunter in the island of nyas where a wild pig has fallen into the pit prepared for it the animal is taken out and his back is rubbed with nine fallen leaves in the belief that this will make nine more wild pigs fall into the pit just as the nine leaves fell from the tree in the east indian islands of sepa rua heril koa and nois a lot when a fisherman is about to set a trap for fish in the sea he looks out for a tree of which the fruit has been much pecked at by birds from such a tree he cuts a stout branch and makes of it the principal post in his fish trap where he believes that just as the tree lured many birds to its fruit so that branch cut from that tree will lure many fish into the trap the western tribe's a british newkini employ a charm to aid the hunter in spearing dugong or turtle a small bale which haunts coconut trees is placed in the hole of the spear halft into which the spearhead fits this is supposed to make the spearhead stick fast in the dugong or turtle just as the beetle sticks fast to a man's skin when it bites him when a cambodian hunter has set his nets and taken nothing he strips himself naked goes some way off then stalls up to the net as if he did not see it lets himself be caught in it and cries hello what's this i'm afraid i'm caught after that the net is sure to catch game a pantomime that the same sword has been acted within living memory in our Scottish highlands the reverend james mcdonald now of rey in katherness tells us that in his boyhood when he was fishing with companions about localeen and they had had no bites for a long time he used to make a pretense of throwing one of their fellows overboard and hauling him out of the water as if he were a fish after that trout or silk were beaten into nibble according as the boat was on fresh assault water before a carrier indian goes out to sneer martins he sleeps by himself for about 10 nights beside the fire with a little stick pressed down on his neck this naturally causes the full stick of his trap to drop down on the neck of the mutton among the galorees would have a district in the northern part of howl mayha a large island to the western new guinea it is a maxim that when you were loading your gun to go shooting you should always put the bullet in your mouth before you insert it in the gun for by so doing you practically eat the game that is to be hit by the bullet which therefore cannot possibly miss the mark amal who has baited a trap for crocodiles and as a waiting results his careful needing his curry always to begin by swelling three lumps of rice successively but this helps the bait to slide more easily down the crocodile's throat he is equally scrupulous not to take any bones out of his curry for if he did it seems clear that their sharp point stick on which the bait is skewered would similarly work itself loose and the crocodile would get off with the bait answering these circumstances it is prudent for the hunter before he begins his meal to get somebody else to take the bones out of his curry otherwise he may at any moment have to choose between swarming a bone while losing the crocodile negative magic or taboo this last rule is an instance of the things which the hunter abstains from doing less from a principle that like produces like that should spoil his luck for it is to be observed that the system of sympathetic magic is not merely composed of positive precepts and comprises a very large number of negative precepts that is prohibitions it tells you not merely what to do but also what to leave undone the positive precepts are charms the negative precepts are taboos in fact the whole doctrine of taboo or at all events the large part of it would seem to be only a special application of sympathetic magic which is two great laws of similarly and content though these laws are certainly not formulated in so many words or even conceived in the abstract by the savage they have nevertheless implicitly believed by him to regulate the course of nature quite independently of human will he thinks that if he acts in a certain way certain consequences will inevitably follow in virtue of one or other of these laws and if the consequences of a particular act appear to him likely to prove disagreeable or dangerous he is naturally careful not to act in that way this he should incur them in other words he abstains from doing at which accordance with his mistaken notions of cause and effect he falsely believes what injure him in short he subjects himself to a taboo this taboo is so far a negative application of practical magic positive magical sorcery says do this in order that so and so may happen negative magic or taboo says do not do this this to so and so should happen the aim of positive magic or sorcery is to produce a desired event the aim of negative magic or taboo is to avoid an undesirable one but both consequences the desirable and the undesirable are supposed to be brought about in accordance with the laws of similarity and contact and just as the desired consequence is not really affected by the observance of a magical ceremony so the dreaded consequence does not really result from the violation of a taboo if the supposed evil necessarily followed a breach of taboo the taboo would not be a taboo but a preceptor morality or common sense it is not a taboo to say do not put your hand in a fire it is a rule of common sense because the forbidden act entails a real not an imaginary evil in short those negative precepts which we call taboo are just as vain and futile as those positive precepts which we call sorcery the two things are merely opposite sides or poles of one great disastrous fallacy a mistaken conception of the association of ideas of that fallacy sorcery is the positive and taboo the negative if we give the general name of the magic to the whole and Ronius system both theoretical and practical then taboo may be defined as the negative side of practical magic to put this in tabular form on tables displayed on the page we have a tree diagram of magic leading on to a theoretical magic as a pseudo science and practical magic as a pseudo art with practical leading on to positive magical sorcery and negative magical taboo taboo is to be observed in fishing and hunting on the principle of sympathetic magic I have made these remarks on taboo in its relations to magic because I am about to give some instances of taboo is observed by hunters fishermen and others and I wish to show that they fall under the head of sympathetic magic being only particular applications of that general theory thus it is a rule with the galeries that when you have caught fish and strung them on a line you may not cut the line through or next time you go fishing your fishing line will be sure to break among the eskimos of baffin land boys are forbidden to play cat's cradle because they did so their fingers might in later life become entangled in the harpoon line here the taboo is obviously an application of the law of similarity which is the basis of homeopathic magic as the child's fingers are entangled by the string in playing cat's cradle so they will be entangled by the harpoon line when he is a man and hunts whales spinning taboo in certain cases on the principle homeopathic magic again among the huzzles who inhabit the wooded northeastern slopes of the carpathian mountains the wife of a hunter may not spin while the husband is eating or the game will turn and wind like the spindle and the hunter will be unable to hit it here again the taboo is clearly derived from the law of similarity so too in most parts of ancient Italy women were forbidden by law to spin on the high roads as they walked to even to carry those spindles openly because any such action was believed to injure the crops probably the notion was that the twirling of the spinner would twirl the corn stalks and prevent them from growing straight so too among the enos of sargarine a pregnant woman may not spin nor twist ropes for two months before her delivery because they think that if she did so the child's guts might be entangled like the thread for a like reason in billus bore a district of india when the chief man at the village meeting council no one should twirl a spindle or they think that if such a thing would have happened the discussion like the spindle would move in a circle and never be wound up in these indian islands of separeria herokei and noes herlalt anyone who comes to the house of a hunter must walk straight in he may not loiter at the door for worry to do so the game would in like manner stop in front of the hunter's nose and then turn back instead of being caught in the trap for a similar reason it is a rule with the torreges of central salibs that no one may stand or loiter on the ladder of a house where there is a pregnant woman where such delay would retire the birth of the child and in various parts of sumatra the woman herself in these circumstances is forbidden to stand at the door or on the top rung of the house letter under pain of suffering hard labor for her imprudence in neglecting so elementary a precaution taboos observed in the search for camphor on the principle homeopathic magic malaise engaged in the search for camphor eat their food dry and take care not to pound their salt fine the reason is that the camphor occurs in the former small grains deposited in the cracks of the trunk of the camphor tree accordingly it seems plain to the malaise that if while seeking for camphor he were to eat his salt finally ground the camphor would be found also in fine grains whereas by eating his salt course he ensures that the grains of the camphor will also be large camphor hunters in borneo use the leathery sheath of the leaf stall of the penang palm as a plate for food and during the whole of the expedition they will never wash the plate for fear that the camphor might dissolve and disappear from the crevice of the tree apparently they think that to wash their plate would be to wash out the camphor crystals from the trees in which they are embedded taboos observed by hunters on the principle of homeopathic magic in laos a province asiam our inocerous hunter will not wash himself for fear that as a consequence the wounds inflicted on the inocerous might not be mortal and that the animal might disappear in one of the caves full of water in the mountains the chief product of some parts of laos is lack this is a redness gum exuded by a red insect on the young branches of trees to which the little creatures have to be attached by hand or who engage in the business of gathering the gum and staying from washing themselves especially from cleansing their heads less by removing the parasites from their hair they should detach the other insects from the bowels some of the brazilian indians would never bring a slaughtered deer into their hut without first hamstringing it believing that if they fail to do so they and their children would never be able to run down their enemies apparently they thought that by hamstringing the animal they the same stroke deprived their foremen of the use of their legs no arocaro indian would break a marrow bone in a hut for they think that were he to do so their horses would break their legs in the prairie again a blackfoot indian who has set a trap for eagles as watching it would not eat rose buds on the account for he argues that if he did so add an eagle a lighted near the trap the rose buds in his own stomach would make the bird itch and the result that instead of swallowing the bait the eagle would merely sit and scratch himself following this train of thought the eagle hunter also refrains from using an owl when he is looking after his snares or surely if he were to scratch with an owl the eagle would scratch him the same disastrous consequence would follow if his wives and children at home used an owl while he is out after eagles and accordingly they are forbidden to handle the tool in his absence for fear of putting him in bodily danger homeopathic taboos and contagious taboos or the foregoing taboos being based on a law similarity may be called homeopathic taboos the cologne's and indian tribe of eastern peru make use of poisoned arrows in the chase but there are some animals such as armadillos certain kinds of falcons and aspecies of vulture which they would on no account shoot at with these weapons for they believe that between the poison arrows which they use and the supply of poison at home there exists a sympathetic relation of such a sort that if they shot at any of these creatures with poison shafts or the poison home would be spoiled which would be a great loss to them here the exact train of thought is not clear but we may suppose that the animals in question believe to possess a power of counteracting and annoying the effect of the poison and by consequently if they are touched by it or the poison including the story that at home would be robbed of its virtue however that may be it is plain that the superstition rests on the law of contact on the notion namely the things which have once been in contact remain sympathetically in contact with each other always the poison in which the hunter wounds an animal has once been in contact with the store of poison at home hence if the poison in the wound loses its venom so necessarily with all the poison at home these may be called contagious taboos foods tabooed on the principle of homeopathic magic among the taboos observed by savages none perhaps more numerous or important than the prohibitions to eat certain foods now such prohibitions many are demonstrably derived from the law of similarity and are accordingly examples of negative magic just as a savage eats many animals or plants in order to acquire certain desirable qualities with which he believes them to be in doubt so he avoids eating many other animals and plants least he should acquire certain undesirable qualities with which he believes them to be infected in eating the former he practices positive magic it abstaining from the latter he practices negative magic many examples of such positive magic will meet us later on here i will give a few instances of such negative magic or taboo i like i say taboos on food based on the principle of homeopathic magic for example in Madagascar soldiers are forbidden to eat a number of foods list on the principle of homeopathic magic they should be tainted by certain dangerous or undesirable properties which are supposed to in here in these particular vans thus they may not taste hedgehog as it is feared that this animal from its propensity of quarreling up into a ball when alarmed will impart a timid shrinking disposition to those who by take of it again no soldier should eat nox's knee list like nox he should become weak in the knees and unable to march further the warrior should be careful to avoid partaking of a cock that has died fighting or anything that has been speared to death and no male animal maybe only can't be killed in his house while he is away at the wars for it seems obvious that if he were to eat the cock that had died fighting he would himself be slain on the field of battle if he were to partake of the animal that had been speared he would be speared himself if a male animal were killed in his house during his absence he would himself be killed in like manner and perhaps at the same instant further the malagasy soldier must assure kidneys because in the malagasy language the word for kidney is the same as that or shot so shot it would certainly be if he ate out a kidney kafra and zulu taboos on food based on the principle of homeopathic magic again a kafra has been known to refuse to eat two mice caught at the same time in one trap alleging that were he to do so his wife would give birth to twins yet the same man would eat freely of mice if they were caught singly clearly he imagined that if he ate the two mice he would be infected with a virus of doublets it would communicate the infection to his wife amongst the zulus there are many foods which are similarly forbidden on homeopathic principles it may be well to give some specimens of these prohibitions as they have been described by the zulus themselves there is among the black men they say the custom of abstaining from certain foods if a cow has the calf taken from her dead and the mother to dies before the calf is taken away young people who have never had a child abstain from the flesh of that cow i do not mean to speak of girls there is not even a thought of whether they can eat it what is said that the cow will produce a similar evil among women so that one of them will be like the cow when she is in childbirth be unable to give birth like the cow and die together with her child on this account therefore a flesh of such a cow is abstained from further pigs flesh is not eaten by girls on any account for it is an ugly animal his mouth is ugly it snout is long therefore girls do not eat it thinking if they eat it a resemblance to the people appear among their children they abstain from it from that account there are many things which are abstained from among black people through fear of bad resemblance Porter said there was a person who once gave birth to an elephant and a horse but we do not know if that is true but they now abstain from on that account through thinking that they will produce an evil resemblance of eaten and the elephant is said to produce an evil resemblance for when it is killed many parts of his body resemble those of a female its breasts for instance are just like those of a woman young people therefore fear to eat it there's only eaten on account of famine when there is no food and each of the young women say is no matter if I do give birth to an elephant and live that is better than not to give birth to it and die of famine so it is eaten from new necessity another thing which is abstained from is the entrails of cattle men do not eat them because they are afraid if they eat them the enemy will stab them in the bowels young men do not eat them they are eaten by old people another thing which is not eaten is the underlip of a bullock Porter said a young person must not eat it or he will produce an evil resemblance to the child the lip of the child will tremble continually for the lower lip of the bullock moves constantly they do not therefore eat it for if a child of a young person is saying with his mouth trembling it is said it was injured by its father who ate the lower lip of a bullock also another thing which is abstained from is that portion of the pouch of a bullock which is called amtala for the amtala has no willy it has no pile it is merely smooth and hard it is therefore said if it is eaten by young people their children will be born without hair and their heads will be buried like a man's knee it is therefore abstained from magical delivery the reader may have observed that in some of the foregoing examples of taboos the magical influence is supposed to operate at considerable distances thus among the black feet indians the wives and children of an eagle hunter are forbidden to use in all during his absence lest the eagles would scratch the distant husband and father and again no male animal may be killed in the house of a malagasy soldier while he was away at the wars this the killing of the animal shouldn't tell the killing of the man this belief in the sympathetic influence exerted on each other by persons or things at a distance is of the essence of magic whatever doubt science may entertain as to the possibility of action at a distance magic is none faith in telepathy is one of its first principles a modern advocate of the influence of mind upon mind at a distance would have no difficulty in convincing a savage the savage believed in it long ago and what is more he added on his belief with a logical consistency such as his civilized brother in the faith is not yet so far as i'm aware exhibited in his conduct the savage is convinced not only that magical ceremonies affect persons and things are far off but that the simplest acts of daily life may do so too hence on important occasions the behavior of friends and relations at a distance is often regulated by more or less elaborate code of rules the neglect of which may be the one set of persons would it is supposed entail misfortune or even death on the absent ones in particular when a party of men are out hunting or fighting their kinsfolk at home we're often expected to do certain things or to abstain from doing certain others for the sake of ensuring the safety and success of the distant hunters or warriors i will now give some instances of this magic telepathy both in its positive and in its negative aspect telepathy and hunting among the ducks shams hot and hot etc in laos when an elephant hunter is starting for the chase he warns his wife not to cut her hair or oil her body in its absence for if she cut her hair the elephant would burst the toils if she or herself it would slip through them when a duak village has turned out the hunt wild pigs in the jungle the people who stayed home may not touch oil or water with their hands during the absence of their friends for if they did so the hunters would all be butter fingered and the prey would slip through their hands in setting out to look for the rare and precious evil wood on the mountains jam business and join their wives whom they leave at home not to scold or quarrel in essence for such domestic brawls would lead to their husbands being vented in pieces by bears and tigers a hot and taut woman whose husband is out hunting must do one of two things all the time he's away either she must light a fire and keep it burning till he comes back or if she does not choose to do that she must go to the water and continue to splash it above on the ground when she is tired we've thrown the water about though a place may be taken by a servant but the exercise must in any case be kept up without cessation to see splash the water or to let the fire out would be equally failed to the husband's prospect of a successful bag in yule island tourist rates when the men are gone to fetch sago the fires lit and carefully kept burning the whole time of their absence for the people believe that if it went out the voyagers would feral at the other end of the world the left similarity of object to extinguish brandon water while any members of the family are at fishing since they do so would spoil their luck telepathy and hunting among the konegs eskimos and california indians among the konegs of alaska a traveler once observed a young woman lying wrapped in a bearskin in the corner of a hut on asking whether she were ill he learned that her husband was out whale fishing and that until his return she had to lie fasting in order to ensure a good catch among the eskimos of alaska similar notions prevail the women during the wailing season remain in comparative idleness as it is considered not good for them to sew while the men are out in the boats if doing this period any garments should need to be repaired the women must take them far back out of sight of the sea and then them there a little tense it was just one person and sit and while the crews are at sea no work should be done at home which would necessitate perennial hewing or any kind of noise and in the huts of men who are away in the boats no work of any kind whatever should be carried on when the eskimos of evalik and iglulik are away hunting on the ice the bedding may not be raised up because they think that to do so would cause the eyes to crack and drift off and so the men might be lost and among these people in the winter when the new moon appears boys must run out of the snowhouse take a handful of snow and put it into the cat hole it is believed that this helps the hunter to capture the seal and bring it home when the major indians of california were engaged and driving deer into the snares which they are prepared for them and which consists of fences stretched from tree to tree the women and children who were left behind in the village had to observe a variety of regulations the women had to keep quiet and spend much of the time indoors the children must not romp shout jump over things kick run or fall down or throw stones if these balls were broken it was believed that the deer would become unmanageable and would jump the fence so that the whole drive would be unsuccessful telepathy and hunting among the gilliacs duke getters etc while a gilliac hunter is pursuing the game in the forest his children at home are forbidden to make drawings on wood or on sand for they fear that if the children did so the paths in the forest will become as perplexed as the lines in the drawings so that the hunter might lose his way and never return a russian political prisoner once taught some gilliac children to read and write but their parents forbade them to write when any of their father was away from home for it seemed to them that writing was a peculiarly complicated form of drawing and they stood at her cast at the idea of the danger to which such a drawing would expose the hunters out in the wild woods among the duke getters of northeastern Siberia when a young man is out hunting his unmarried sister at home may not look at his footprints nor eat certain parts of the game killed by him if she leaves the house while he is absent at the chase she must keep her eyes fixed on the ground and may not speak of the chase nor ask any questions about it when an uber of northeastern africa goes to l or bead for the first time it tells his wife not to wash or oil herself and not to wear pearls around her neck during his absence because by doing so she would draw down on him the most terrible misfortunes when the bushmen around hunting any bad shots they may make are set down to such causes as that the children at home are playing on the men's beds or the lake and that the wires are without such things to happen are playing for their husbands in different marksmanship to let the in hunting supposed disastrous in effect of wife's infidelity elephant hunters in east africa believe that if their wives prove unfaithful in their absence this gives the elephant power over the pursuer who will accordingly be killed or severely wounded hence if a hunter hears of his wife's misconduct he abandons the chase and returns home either way go-go hunter is unsuccessful or is attacked by a lion he trips it to his wife's misbehavior at home and returns to her in great breath when he is away hunting she may not let any one pass behind her or stand in front of her as she sits and she must lie on her face in bed the moxos indians of eastern bolivia thought that if a hunter's wife was unfaithful to him in his absence he would be bitten by a serpent or a jaguar accordingly if such an accident happened to him it was sure to entail the punishment and often the death of the woman whether she was innocent or guilty an elucian hunter of sea otters thinks that he cannot kill a single animal if during his absence from home his wife should be unfaithful or his sister unchaste telepathy in the search for the sacred cactus the we called indians of mexico treat as a demigod a species of cactus which throws the aether to a state of ecstasy the plant does not grow in their country and has to be fetched every year by men who make a journey of 43 days for the purpose meanwhile the wives at home contribute to the safety of their absent husbands by never walking fast much less running while the men are on the road they also do their best to ensure the benefits which in the shape of rain good crops and so forth are expected to flow from the sacred mission with the intention they subject themselves to severe restrictions like those imposed upon their husbands during the whole of the time which elapses to the festival of the cactus is held neither party washes except on certain occasions and then only with water brought from the distant country where the holy plant grows they also fast much eat no salt and abound district continents anyone who breaks this law is punished with illness and more ever jeopardizes the result which all are striving for health like a life fighter became by giving the cactus the gourd of the god of fire but in as much as the pure fire cannot benefit the impure men and women must not only remain chased for the time being but must also purge themselves from the taint to pass sin hence four days after the men have started the women gather and confess to grandfather fire which what men they have been in love with prom childhood till now they may not admit a single one however they did so the men would not find a single cactus so to refresh their memories each one prepares a string with his main not so she has had lovers this she brings to the temple and standing before the fire she mentions aloud all the men she has scored on her string name after name having entered her confessions she throws a string into the fire and when the god is concerned it in his pure flame her sins are forgiven her and she departs in peace from now on the women are averse even to letting men pass near them the cactus seekers themselves make in like manner a clean breast of all their frailties for every peccadillo they tie a knot on a string and after they have talked toward the five winds they deliver the rosary of their sins to the leader who burns it in the fire telepathy in the search for camphor many of the indigenous tribes of sarawak are firmly persuaded that were the wives to commit adultery while their husbands are searching for camphor in the jungle the camphor obtained by the men would evaporate husbands can discover by certain knots in the tree when their wives are unfaithful and it's said that in former days many women were killed by jealous husbands or no better evidence than that of these knots further the wives dare not touch a comb while their husbands are away collecting the camphor however they did so the intersties between the fibers the tree instead of being filled with the precious crystals would be empty like the spaces between the teeth of a comb telepathy and hunting fishing and trading while men of the taeripi and want to motto tribe of eastern newkini are away hunting fishing fighting or on any long journey the people remain at home must observe strict chastity and may not let the fire go out those of them who stay in the men's clubhouses must further abstain from eating certain foods and from touching anything that belongs to others a breach of these rules might it is believed and tell the failure of the expedition to that but the newkinia among the tribes of gilvic bay in northwestern newkini where the men are gone on a long journey as to saram or taidor the wives and sisters left at home sing to the moon accompanying the lay with the booming music of gongs the singing takes place in the afternoons beginning two or three days before the new moon and lasting for the same time after it if the silver sickle of the moon is seen in the sky there is a loud cry of joy asked why they do so they answer now we see the moon and so do our husbands and now we know that they are well if we did not sing they would be sick or some other misfortune would be for them on nights when the moon is at the full the natives adori in north eastern newkini go out fishing in the lagoons the motive proceeding is to poison the water with the pound of roots of a certain plant which has a powerful narcotic effect the fish are stunted by it and are so easily caught while the men are at work on the moonlit water the people on the shore must keep as still as death with their eyes fixed on the fishermen but no woman with child may be among them for if she were there and looked at the water the poison would be at once lose its effect and the fish would escape telepathy in the kei islands in the kei islands in the southwestern newkini as soon as a vessel there's about to sail for a distant port has been launched the part of the beach on which she lay is covered as speedily as possible with palm branches and becomes sacred no one may dance forth cross that spot till the ship comes home to cross the sooner would cause a vessel to perish or over all the time that the voyage lasts three or four young girls especially chosen for the duty I suppose remain in sympathetic connection with the mariners and to contribute by their behavior to the safety and success of the voyage I know I cannot accept for the most necessary purpose may they're quite the room that has been a sight of them more than that so long as the vessels believe to be at sea they must remain absolutely motionless crouched on their mats with their hands clasped between their knees they may not turn their heads to the left or the right or make any other movement whatsoever if they did it would cause a boat to pitch a toss and they may not eat any sticky stuff such as rice bolding coconut milk for the stickiness of the food would clog the passage of the boat through the water when the sailors as opposed to have reached their destination the strictness of these rules is somewhat relaxed but during the whole time that the voyage lasts the girls are forbidden to eat fish which have sharp burns or strings such as the sting rate the sufferings I say you should be involved in sharp sting trouble telepathy in war where beliefs like these prevail as to the sympathetic connection between friends at a distance we need not wonder that above everything else or with its stern hit stirring appeal to some of the steepest and tenderest of human emotions should quicken any anxious relations left behind a desire to turn the sympathetic bond to the utmost account for the benefit of the dear ones who may at any moment be fighting and dying far away hence to secure an end so natural and laudable friends at home are apt to resort to devices which will strike us as pathetic or ludicrous according as we may consider their object or the means adopted to effected schlepathy in war among the DX thus in some districts of Borneo when a dyac is outhead hunting his wife or if he is unmarried his sister must wear a sword day and night in order that she may always be thinking of his weapons and she may not sleep during the day or go to bed before two in the morning let her husband or brother should thereby be surprised in his sleep by an enemy in other parts of Borneo when the men are away on a warlike expedition their mats are spread in their houses just as if they were at home and the fires are kept till late in the evening and light of the game before dawn in order that the men may not be cold further the roofing of the house is open before daylight to prevent the distant husbands brothers and sons from sleeping too late and so being surprised by the enemy while the melee of the peninsula is away at the wars his pillows and sleeping mat at home must be kept rolled up if anyone else were to use them the absent warriors courage would fail and disaster would befall him his wife and children may not have their hair cut in his absence nor may he himself have his hair shorn telepathy and war among the sea dyaks among the sea dyaks of Banting and Sarawak women strictly observe an elaborate code of rules while the men are away fighting some of the rules are negative and some are positive but all the like are based on the principles of magic homeopathy and telepathy amongst the mother following the women must wake very early in the morning and open the windows as soon as it is light otherwise their absent husbands will oversleep themselves the women may not oil their hair or the men will slip women may neither sleep nor doze by day or the men will be drowsy on the march the women must cook and scatter popcorn on the veranda every morning so will the men be agile in their movements the rooms must be kept very tidy all boxes being placed near the walls for if anyone were to stumble over them the absent husbands would fall and beat the mercy of the foe at every meal a little rice must be left in the pot and put aside so will the men far away always have something to eat and need never go hungry on no account may the women sit at the loom till their legs grow cramped otherwise their husbands will likewise be stiff in their joints and unable to rise up quickly or to run away from the foe so in order to keep their husbands joint supple the women often vary their labors at the loom by waking up and down the veranda further they may not cover up their faces or the men would not be able to find their way through the tall grass or jungle again the women may not so with an ill or the men will tread on the sharp spikes set by the enemy in the path should a wife prove unfaithful why her husband is away he will lose his life in the enemy's country some years ago all these rules and more were observed by the women of venting while their husbands were fighting for the english against rebels but alas these tender precautions availed them little for many a man whose faithful wife was keeping watch and warred for him in home found a soldier's grave telepathy and war among the shans the timorees and the toradges among the shans of perma the wife of an absent warrior has to observe certain rules every fifth day she rests and does not work she feels an earthen complate with water to the brim and puts flowers into it every day if the water sinks or the flowers fade it is an omen of death or over she may not sleep on her husband's bed doing his absence but she sweeps the bedding clean and lays it out every night in the island of timore while war is being waged the high priest never quits the temple his food is brought to him or cooked inside day and night he must keep the fire burning for if you were to let it die out disaster before the warriors and would continue so long as the earth was cold moreover he must drink only hot water during the time the army is absent for every drought of cold water would damp the spirits of the people so that they could not extinguish the enemy among the toradges so central sleeves when a party of men is out hunting for heads the villagers who stay at the home and especially the wives of the head hunters have to observe certain rules in order not to hinder the absent men at their task in the first place the entrance to the lobo or spirit house is shut for the spirits of the fathers who live in that house are now away with the warriors watching over and guiding them and if anyone entered their house in their absence they would hear the noise and return and would be very angry at being thus called back from the campaign moreover the people at home have to keep the house tidy the sleeping mats of the absent men must be hung on beds not rolled up as they were to be away for a long time their wives and ex-of kin may not quit the house at night every night her light burns in the house and a fire must be kept up constantly at the foot of the house ladder garments turbans and headdressers may not be laid aside at night for the terminal headdress were put off the warriors turbine might drop from his head in the battle and the wives may sow no garments when the spirit of the head hunter returns home in his sleep which is the toradja expression for a soldier's dream he must find everything there in good order and nothing that could vex him by the observance of these rules say the toradjas the solves of the head hunters are covered or protected in order to make them strong that they may not soon grow weary rice is strewn morning and evening on the floor of the house women too go about costly with a certain plant of which the pods are so light and feathery that they're easily wafted by the wind for that helps to make the men nimble-footed telepathy and war among the galala reese and the key islanders when galala reese men are going away to war they are accompanied down to the boats by the women but after the leave taking is over the women in returning to their houses must be careful not to stumble or fall and the house they may neither be angry nor lift up weapons against each other otherwise the men will fall and be killed in battle similarly we saw that among the champs domestic brawls at home are supposed to cause the search of regal wood to fall prey to wild beasts in the mountains further galala reese women may not lay down the chopping knives in the house while their husbands are at the wars the knives must always be hung up on hooks the reason for the rule is not given we may conjecture that it is a fear list if the chopping knives were laid down by the women at home the men will be able to lay down their weapons in the battle or at other inopportune moments in the key islands when the warriors are departed the women return indoors and bring in certain baskets containing fruits and stones these fruits and stones they anoint and place on a board murmuring as they do so oh lord sun moon let the bullets rebound from our husband's brother's patrol through other relations just as rain drops rebound from these objects which are smeared with oil as soon as the first shot is heard the baskets are put aside and the women seating their fans rush out of their houses then waving their fans in the direction of the enemy they run through the village while they sing oh golden fans let our bullets hit and those of the enemy miss in this custom the ceremony of anointing stones in order that the bullets marry coil from the men like raindrops from the stones is a piece of pure homeopathic or imitative magic but the prayer to the sun as he will be pleased to give effect to the charm is a religious and perhaps later addition the waving of the fans seems to be a charm to direct the bullets toward or away from their mark according to say a discharge from the guns of friends or foes to levity and war among the malagasy an old historian of madagascar informs us that while the men are at the wars and until they return the women and girls see it's not day and night to dance and neither lie down or take food in their own houses and although they are voluptuously inclined they were not for anything in the world have an intrigue with another man while their husband is at the war believing firmly that if that happened their husband would be either killed or wounded they believe that by dancing they impart strength courage and good fortune to the husbands accordingly during such times they give themselves no rest and this custom they observe very religiously similarly a traveler of the 17th century writes that a madagascar when the man is in battle or under march the wife continuously dances and sings and will not sleep or eat in her own house nor admit of the use of any other man unless sheep he desires to be rid of her own for they entertain this opinion among them that if they suffer themselves to be overcome in an intestine war at home their husbands must suffer for it being engaged in a foreign expedition but on the contrary if they believe themselves chastedly and dance justly that they're their husbands by some certain sympathetic operation will be able to vanquish all their combatants we have seen that among hunters in various parts of the world the infidelity of the wife at home is believed to have a disastrous effect on her absent husband in the bay bar archipelago and among the way go go of east africa when the men are at the wars women at home are bound to chastity and the bay bar archipelago they must fast besides under similar circumstances in the islands of lete moa and la core women and children are forbidden to remain inside of the houses and to twine thread or weave telepathy and war among the west africa among the cheese speaking pebbles the gold coast the wives and men who are away with the army paint themselves white and adorn their persons with beads and charms on the day when a battle is expected to take place they run about armed with guns or sticks carved to look like guns and taking green pawpaws fruit shaped somewhat like a melon they hack them with knives as if they were chopping off the heads of the foe the pantomime is no doubt merely an imitative charm to enable the men to do to the enemy as women do to the pawpaws in the west african town of fremen while the ashanti war was raging some years ago mr. Fitzgerald mariot saw a dance performed by women whose husbands had gone as carriers to the war they were painted white and wore nothing but a short petticoat at their head was a shriveled ought sorceress in a very short white petticoat her black hair arranged in a sort of long projecting horn and her black face breasts arms and legs profusely adorned with white circles in christen's all carried along white brushes made of buffalo or horse tails and as they danced they sang our husbands have gone to ashanti land may they sweep their enemies off the face of the earth to levity and war among the american indians among the thompson indians of british columbia when the men were on the war path the women performed dances at frequent intervals these dances were believed to ensure the success of the expedition the dancers flourished their knives through long sharp pointed sticks forward or two sticks with hook dance repeatedly backward and forward throwing the sticks forward was symbolic of piercing or warding off the enemy and drawing them back was symbolic of drawing their own men from danger the hook at the end of the stick was particularly well adapted to serve the purpose of a lifesaving apparatus the women always pointed their weapons towards the enemy's country they painted their faces red and sang as they danced and they prayed to the weapons to preserve their husbands and help them to kill many foes some had eagledowns stuck on the points of their sticks when the dance was over these weapons were hidden every woman whose husband was at the war thought she saw hair or a piece of a scalp on the weapon when she took it out she knew that her husband had killed an enemy but if she saw a stain of blood on it she knew he was wounded or dead when the men of the yuki tribe of indians in california were away fighting the women at home did not sleep they danced continually in a circle chanting and waving leafy wands they said that if they danced all the time their husbands would not grow tired among the hater indians of the queen charlotte islands when the men had gone to war the women at home would get up very early in the morning and pretend to make war by falling upon their children and feigned to take them for slaves this was supposed to help their husbands to go and do likewise if a wife were unfaithful to her husband and while he was away on the war path he would probably be killed for ten nights all the women at home lay with their heads towards point of the compass to which the war canoes are paddled away then they changed about for the warriors were supposed to be coming home across the sea a masette the hater women danced and sang war songs all the time the husbands were away at the wars and they had to keep everything about them in a certain order it was thought that a wife might kill her husband by not observing these customs telepathy and war among the kafus of the hindu kush in the kafur district of the hindu kush while the men are out raiding the women abandoned their work in the fields and assembled the villagers to dance day and night the dancers are kept up most of each day and the whole of each night so george robertson who reports the custom more than one watched the dancers dancing at midnight and in the early morning and could see by the fitful glow of the wood fire how haggard and tired they looked it how gravely and earnestly they persisted in what they regarded as a serious duty the dancers of these kafurs are said to be performed in order of certain of the national gods but when we consider the customer connection with the others which has just been passed a review we very recently surmised that it is or was originally in its essence a sympathetic charm intended to keep the ebsen warriors away from the list they should be surprised in their sleep by the enemy when a band of caribindians of the orenoko had gone on the warpath their friends left in the village used to calculate as nearly as they could the exact moment when the ebsen warriors would be advancing to attack the enemy then they took two lads lay them down on a bench and inflicted the most severe scourging on their bare backs this the use submitted to without a murmur supported their sufferings by the firm conviction in which they had been bred from childhood that on the constancy and forgery with which they bore the cruel ordeal depended the velo as success of their comrades in the battle homeopathic magic had making drums homeopathic magic had making drums so much for the savage theory of telepathian war and the chase we pass now to other cases of homeopathic or imitative magic while marriageable boys of the meki or district in perdition newkini are making their drums they have to live alone in the forest and observe a number of rules which are based on the principle of homeopathic magic the drums will be used in the dancers and in order that they may give out a note great care must be taken in their construction the boys spend from two days to a week at the task having chosen a suitable piece of wood they scrape the outside into shape with a shell and hollow at the inside by burning it with a hot coal to the sides very thin the skin of an iguana made supple by being steeped in coconut milk is unstretched over the hollow and tightened with string and glue all the time a boy is at work with his drums he must carefully avoid women for a woman or a girl would see him the drum would split and sound like an old cracked pot if he ate fish a bone would prick him and the skin of the drum would burst if he ate a red banana it would choke him and the drum would give a dull stifled note if he tasted great coconut the white hands like the white particles of the nut would gnaw the body of the drum if he cooked his food in the ordinary round belly pot he would grow fat that would not be able to dance and the girls would despise him and say your belly's big it is a pot moreover he must strictly shun water for if he accidentally touched it with his feet his hands or his lips before the drum was quite hollow out he would throw the instrument away saying I have touched water my hot coal will be put out I should never be able to hollow out my drum various applications of homeopathic magic a highland witch can sink a ship by homeopathic remitative magic she has only to set a small round dish floating in a milk pan full of water and then to crew knows bell when the dish upsets in a pan the ship will go down in the sea they say there once three witches from Harris left home at night after placing the milk pans thus on the floor and strictly charging a serving mate to let nothing come near it but while the girl was not looking a duck came in and squatted about in the water on the floor next morning the witches returned and asked if anything had come to the pan the girl said no whereupon one of the witches said to the other what a heavy say we had last night coming round come back in if a wolf has carried off a shape or pig the Estonians have a very simple mode of making him drop it they let fall anything that they happen to have at hand such as a cap or a glove or was perhaps still better they left a heavy stoner then let it go by that act while the breath of homeopathic magic they compelled the wolf to let go his booty end of section five