Chapter XVI: Father Jove and Mother Vesta (2)

As it is believed that fire may impregnate human beings, so conversely
some people seem to imagine that it may be impregnated by them. Thus
Mr. T. R. Glover, Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, writes to
me (18th June 1906): “A curious and not very quotable instance of (I
suppose) Sacred Marriage was brought to my notice by Mr. Brown of the
Canadian Baptist Mission to the Telugus. He said that in Hindoo
temples (in South India chiefly?) sometimes a scaffolding is erected
over a fire. A man and a woman are got to copulate on it and allow the
human seed to fall into the fire.” But perhaps this ceremony is only
another way of conveying the fertilising virtue of the fire to the
woman, in other words, of getting her with child.

Footnote 761:

Above, pp. 215, 221.

Footnote 762:

Suidas, Harpocration, and _Etymologicum Magnum_, _s.v._ Ἀμφιδρόμια;
Hesychius, _s.v._ δρομάφιον ἧμαρ; Schol. on Plato, _Theaetetus_, p.
160 E. On this custom see S. Reinach, _Cultes, mythes, et religions_,
i. (Paris, 1905) pp. 137-145. He suggests that the running of the
naked men who carried the babies was intended, by means of sympathetic
magic, to impart to the little ones in after-life the power of running
fast. But this theory does not explain why the race took place round
the hearth.

Footnote 763:

The custom has been practised with this intention in Scotland, China,
New Britain, the Tenimber and Timorlaut Islands, and by the Ovambo of
South Africa. See Pennant’s “Second Tour in Scotland,” Pinkerton’s
_Voyages and Travels_, iii. 383; Miss C. F. Gordon Cumming, _In the
Hebrides_, ed. 1883, p. 101; _China Review_, ix. (1880-1881) p. 303;
R. Parkinson, _Im Bismarck-Archipel_, pp. 94 _sq._; J. G. F. Riedel,
_De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua_, p. 303;
H. Schinz, _Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika_, p. 307. A similar custom was
observed, probably for the same reason, in ancient Mexico and in
Madagascar. See Clavigero, _History of Mexico_, translated by Cullen,
i. 31; W. Ellis, _History of Madagascar_, i. 152. Compare my note,
“The Youth of Achilles,” _Classical Review_, vii. (1893) pp. 293 _sq._

Footnote 764:

Compare E. Samter, _Familienfeste der Griechen und Römer_ (Berlin,
1901), pp. 59-62.

Footnote 765:

W. R. S. Ralston, _The Songs of the Russian People_, pp. 120 _sq._
Ralston held that the Russian house-spirit Domovoy, who is supposed to
live behind the stove, is the modern representative of an ancestral
spirit. Compare _ibid._ pp. 84, 86, 119.

Footnote 766:

Evidence of this view will be adduced later on. See _The Golden
Bough_, Second Edition, iii. 456.

Footnote 767:

See above, pp. 185 _sq._

Footnote 768:

L. v. Schroeder, _Die Hochzeitsbräuche der Esten_ (Berlin, 1888), pp.
129 _sq._

Footnote 769:

See above, p. 197.

Footnote 770:

Th. Mommsen, _History of Rome_, New Edition (London, 1894), i. 215
_sq._; J. Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii. 2nd Ed., p.
326; W. Warde Fowler, _Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic_,
p. 147. For another derivation of their name see below, p. 247.

Footnote 771:

See above, p. 207.

Footnote 772:

H. Vaughan Stevens, “Mitteilungen aus dem Frauenleben der Ôrang
Belendas, der Ôrang Djâkun und der Ôrang Lâut,” bearbeitet von Dr. Max
Bartels, _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xxviii. (1896) pp. 168 _sq._
The writer adds that any person, boy, man, or woman (provided she was
not menstruous) might light the fire, if it were more convenient that
he or she should do so. Thus the co-operation of a married man and an
unmarried girl, though apparently deemed the best, was not the only
permissible way of igniting the wood. The good faith or at all events
the accuracy of the late German traveller H. Vaughan Stevens is not, I
understand, above suspicion; but Mr. Nelson Annandale, joint author of
_Fasciculi Malayenses_, writes to me of him that “he certainly had a
knowledge and experience of the wild tribes of the Malay region which
few or none have excelled, for he lived literally as one of
themselves.”

Footnote 773:

Prof. Vl. Titelbach, “Das heilige Feuer bei den Balkanslaven,”
_Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, xiii. (1900) pp. 2-4. The
ceremony witnessed by Prof. Titelbach will be described later on in
this work. Kinglake rode through the great Servian forest on his way
from Belgrade to Constantinople, and from his description (_Eothen_,
ch. ii.) we gather that it is chiefly composed of oak. He says:
“Endless and endless now on either side the tall oaks closed in their
ranks, and stood gloomily lowering over us.”

Footnote 774:

Ch. Gilhodes, “La Culture matérielle des Katchins (Birmanie),”
_Anthropos_, v. (1910) p. 629.

Footnote 775:

M. Martin’s “Description of the Western Islands of Scotland,” in
Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, iii. 611. The first edition of
Martin’s work was published in 1703, and the second in 1716.

Footnote 776:

J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_, 4th ed., i. 504.

Footnote 777:

E. Casalis, _The Basutos_, pp. 267 _sq._

Footnote 778:

Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Antiquit. Rom._ ii. 68; Valerius Maximus,
i. 1. 7.

Footnote 779:

J. Lecœur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_, ii. (Condé-sur-Noireau,
1887) p. 27; B. Souché, _Croyances, présages et traditions diverses_
(Niort, 1880), p. 12.

Footnote 780:

Polybius, xii. 13. In Darfur a curious power over fire is ascribed to
women who have been faithful to their husbands. “It is a belief among
the Forians, that if the city takes fire, the only means of arresting
the progress of the flames is to bring near them a woman, no longer
young, who has never been guilty of intrigue. If she be pure, by
merely waving a mantle, she puts a stop to the destruction. Success
has sometimes rewarded a virtuous woman” (_Travels of an Arab
Merchant_ [Mohammed Ibn-Omar El-Tounsy] _in Soudan_, abridged from the
French by Bayle St. John (London, 1854), p. 112). Compare R. W.
Felkin, “Notes on the For Tribe of Central Africa,” _Proceedings of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, xiii. (1884-1886) p. 230.

Footnote 781:

Solinus, xxii. 10. The Celtic Minerva, according to Caesar (_De bello
Gallico_, vi. 17), was a goddess of the mechanical arts.

Footnote 782:

J. Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, pp. 73-77; P. W. Joyce, _Social History
of Ancient Ireland_, i. 260 _sq._

Footnote 783:

Giraldus Cambrensis, _The Topography of Ireland_, chaps.
xxxiv.-xxxvi., translated by Thomas Wright; P. W. Joyce, _Social
History of Ancient Ireland_, i. 334 _sq._ It is said that in the
island of Sena (the modern _Sein_), off the coast of Brittany, there
was an oracle of a Gallic deity whose worship was cared for by nine
virgin priestesses. They could raise storms by their incantations, and
turn themselves into any animals they pleased (_Mela_, iii. 48); but
it is not said that they maintained a perpetual holy fire, though Ch.
Elton affirms that they did (_Origins of English History_, p. 27). M.
Salomon Reinach dismisses these virgins as a fable based on Homer’s
description of the isle of Circe (_Odyssey_, x. 135 _sqq._), and he
denies that the Gauls employed virgin priestesses. See his article,
“Les Vierges de Sena,” _Revue Celtique_, xviii. (1897) pp. 1-8; _id._,
_Cultes, mythes, et religions_, i. (Paris, 1905) pp. 195 _sqq._ To me
the nuns of St. Brigit seem to be most probably the successors of a
Celtic order of Vestals. That there were female Druids is certain, but
it does not appear whether they were virgins. See Lampridius,
_Alexander Severus_, 60; Vopiscus, _Aurelianus_, 44; _id._,
_Numerianus_, 14 _sq._

Footnote 784:

Prof. Vl. Titelbach, “Das heilige Feuer bei den Balkanslaven,”
_Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, xiii. (1900) p. 1.

Footnote 785:

_Laws of Manu_, iv. 53, translated by G. Bühler (_Sacred Books of the
East_, vol. xxv. p. 137).

Footnote 786:

Martin Haug, _Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of
the Parsees_ 3rd Ed., (London, 1884), p. 243, note 1. Strabo describes
the mouth-veil worn by the Magian priests in Cappadocia (xiv. 3. 15,
p. 733). At Arkon, in the island of Rügen, there was a shrine so holy
that none but the priest might enter it, and even he might not breathe
in it. As often as he needed to draw in or give out breath, he used to
run out of the door lest he should taint the divine presence with his
breath. See Saxo Grammaticus, _Historia Danica_, bk. xiv. p. 824, ed.
P. E. Müller (p. 393 of Elton’s English translation).

Footnote 787:

P. W. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_, i. 335 _sq._;
Standish H. O’Grady, _Sylva Gadelica_, translation (London, 1892), pp.
15, 16, 41.

Footnote 788:

See above, pp. 94 _sq._

Footnote 789:

See above, p. 229.

Footnote 790:

Douglas Hyde, _A Literary History of Ireland_ (London, 1899), p. 158.
The tradition of the oak of Kildare survives in the lines,

“_That oak of Saint Bride, which nor Devil nor Dane
Nor Saxon nor Dutchman could rend from her fane_,”

which are quoted by Mr. D. Fitzgerald in _Revue Celtique_, iv.
(1879-1880) p. 193.

Footnote 791:

Douglas Hyde, _op. cit._ pp. 169-171. At Kells, also, St. Columba
dwelt under a great oak-tree. The writer of his Irish life, quoted by
Mr. Hyde, says that the oak-tree “remained till these latter times,
when it fell through the crash of a mighty wind. And a certain man
took somewhat of its bark to tan his shoes with. Now, when he did on
the shoes, he was smitten with leprosy from his sole to his crown.”

Footnote 792:

Garcilasso de la Vega, _Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_, pt. i. bk.
iv. chaps. 1-3, bk. vi. chaps. 20-22 (vol. i. pp. 292-299, vol. ii.
pp. 155-164, Markham’s translation); P. de Cieza de Leon, _Travels_,
p. 134 (Markham’s translation); _id._, _Second Part of the Chronicle
of Peru_, pp. 85 _sq._ (Markham’s translation); Acosta, _Natural and
Moral History of the Indies_, bk. v. chap. 15 (vol. ii. pp. 331-333,
Hakluyt Society). Professor E. B. Tylor discredits Garcilasso’s
description of these Peruvian priestesses on the ground that it
resembles Plutarch’s account of the Roman Vestals (_Numa_, 9 _sq._)
too closely to be independent; he thinks that “the apparent traces of
absorption from Plutarch invalidate whatever rests on Garcilasso de la
Vega’s unsupported testimony.” See his _Researches into the Early
History of Mankind_, 3rd Ed., pp. 249-253. In particular, he stumbles
at the statement that an unfaithful Peruvian priestess was buried
alive. But that statement was made by Cieza de Leon, who travelled in
Peru when Garcilasso was a child, and whose book, or rather the first
part of it, containing the statement, was published more than fifty
years before that of Garcilasso. Moreover, when we understand that the
punishment in question was based on a superstition which occurs
independently in many parts of the world, the apparent improbability
of the coincidence vanishes. As to the mode of kindling the sacred
fire, Professor Tylor understands Plutarch to say that the sacred fire
at Rome was kindled, as in Peru, by a burning-glass. To me it seems
that Plutarch is here speaking of a Greek, not a Roman usage, and this
is made still clearer when his text is read correctly. For the words
ὑπὸ Μήδων, περὶ δὲ τὰ Μιθριδιατικά should be altered to ὑπὸ Μαίδων
περὶ τὰ Μιθριδιατικά. See H. Pomtow in _Rheinisches Museum_, N. F. li.
(1896) p. 365, and my note on Pausanias, x. 19. 4 (vol. v. p. 331).
Thus Plutarch gives two instances when a sacred fire was extinguished
and had to be relit with a burning-glass; but both instances are
Greek, neither is Roman. The Greek mode of lighting a sacred fire by
means of a crystal is described also in the Orphic poem on precious
stones, verses 177 _sqq._ (_Orphica_, ed. E. Abel, p. 115). Nor were
the Greeks and Peruvians peculiar in this respect. The Siamese and
Chinese have also been in the habit of kindling a sacred fire by means
of a metal mirror or burning-glass. See Pallegoix, _Description du
royaume Thai ou Siam_, ii. 55; A. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen
Asien_, iii. 516; J. H. Plath, “Die Religion und der Cultus der alten
Chinesen,” _Abhandlungen der k. bayer. Akademie der Wissen_, i. Cl.
ix. (1863) pp. 876 _sq._ Again, the full description of the golden
garden of the Peruvian Vestals, which may sound to us fabulous, is
given by Cieza de Leon in a work (the _Second Part of the Chronicle of
Peru_) which it is unlikely that Garcilasso ever saw, since it was not
printed till 1873, centuries after his death. Yet Garcilasso’s brief
description of the garden agrees closely with that of Cieza de Leon,
differing from it just as that of an independent witness naturally
would—namely, in the selection of some other details in addition to
those which the two have in common. He says that the virgins “had a
garden of trees, plants, herbs, birds and beasts, made of gold and
silver, like that in the temple” (vol. i. p. 298, Markham’s
translation). Thus the two accounts are probably independent and
therefore trustworthy, for a fiction of this kind could hardly have
occurred to two romancers separately. A strong confirmation of
Garcilasso’s fidelity is furnished by the close resemblance which the
fire customs, both of Rome and Peru, present to the well-authenticated
fire customs of the Herero at the present day. There seems to be every
reason to think that all three sets of customs originated
independently in the simple needs and superstitious fancies of the
savage. On the whole, I see no reason to question the good faith and
accuracy of Garcilasso.

Footnote 793:

B. de Sahagun, _Histoire des choses de la Nouvelle Espagne_, pp. 196
_sq._, 386; Acosta, _Natural and Moral History of the Indies_, bk. v.
ch. 15 (vol. ii. pp. 333 _sq._, Hakluyt Society); A. de Herrera,
_General History of the vast Continent and Islands of America_, iii.
209 _sq._, Stevens’s translation (London, 1725, 1726); Clavigero,
_History of Mexico_, i. 264, 274 _sq._; Brasseur de Bourbourg,
_Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l’Amérique
Centrale_, i. 289, iii. 661; H. H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the
Pacific States_, ii. 204 _sqq._, 245, 583, iii. 435 _sq._ However,
Sahagun (pp. 186, 194), Acosta (vol. ii. p. 336) and Herrera seem to
imply that the duty of maintaining the sacred fire was discharged by
men only.

Footnote 794:

Brasseur de Bourbourg, _op. cit._ ii. 6; H. H. Bancroft, _op. cit._
iii. 473. Fire-worship seems to have lingered among the Indians of
Yucatan down to about the middle of the nineteenth century, and it may
still survive among them. See D. G. Brinton, “The Folk-lore of
Yucatan,” _Folk-lore Journal_, i. (1883) pp. 247 _sq._

Footnote 795:

Letter of the Rev. J. Roscoe, dated Kampala, Uganda, 9th April 1909.

Footnote 796:

Aulus Gellius, x. 15. 22; Ateius Capito, cited by Plutarch, _Quaest.
Rom._ 50. On the other hand, Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ iv. 29, says
that the Flamen might marry another wife after the death of the first.
But the statement of Aulus Gellius and Ateius Capito is confirmed by
other evidence. See J. Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii.
2nd Ed., 329, note 8. As to the rule see my note, “The Widowed
Flamen,” _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 407 _sqq._

Footnote 797:

Aulus Gellius, x. 15. 7; Festus, p. 106, ed. C. O. Müller.

Footnote 798:

Livy, v. 52. 13 _sq._ In later times the rule was so far relaxed that
he was allowed to be absent from Rome for two nights or even longer,
provided he got leave from the chief pontiff on the score of
ill-health. See Aulus Gellius, x. 15. 14; Tacitus, _Annals_, iii. 71.

Footnote 799:

Tacitus, _Annals_, iii. 58; Dio Cassius, liv. 36. As to the honours
attached to the office, see Livy, xxvii. 8. 8; Plutarch, _Quaest.
Rom._ 113.

Footnote 800:

See _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, i. 241 _sqq._

Footnote 801:

P. Kretschmer, _Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache_
(Göttingen, 1896), pp. 127 _sqq._; O. Schrader, _Reallexikon der
indogermanischen Altertumskunde_, pp. 637 _sq._ For a different
derivation of the name Flamen see above, p. 235. Being no philologer,
I do not pretend to decide between the rival etymologies. My friend
Prof. J. H. Moulton prefers the equation _Flamen_ = _Brahman_, which
he tells me is philologically correct, because if _Flamen_ came from
_flare_ we should expect a form like _flator_ rather than _flamen_.
The form _flator_ was used in Latin, though not in this sense.

Footnote 802:

W. Crooke, _The Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and
Oudh_, i. 30-32. Compare Monier Williams, _Religious Thought and Life
in India_, pp. 364, 365, 392.

Footnote 803:

Aulus Gellius, x. 15.

Footnote 804:

Homer, _Iliad_, xvi. 233-235; Sophocles, _Trachiniae_, 1166 _sq._;
Callimachus, _Hymn to Delos_, 284-286.

Footnote 805:

Ch. Hartknoch, _Selectae dissertationes historicae de variis rebus
Prussicis_, p. 163 (bound up with his edition of Düsburg’s _Chronicon
Prussiae_, Frankfort and Leipsic, 1679); Simon Grunau, _Preussischer
Chronik_, ed. M. Perlbach, i. (Leipsic, 1876) p. 95.

Footnote 806:

W. Crooke, _op. cit._ i. 31-33.

Footnote 807:

W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India_
(Westminster, 1896), ii. 194 _sq._

Footnote 808:

J. C. Nesfield, in _Panjab Notes and Queries_, ii. p. 12, § 77.

Footnote 809:

_Rigveda_, iii. 29, translated by R. T. H. Griffith (Benares,
1889-1892), vol. ii. pp. 25-27; _Satapatha Brâhmana_, translated by J.
Eggeling, part i. p. 389, note 3, part ii. pp. 90 _sq._, part v. pp.
68-74; _Hymns of the Atharva-Veda_, translated by M. Bloomfield, pp.
91, 97 _sq._, 334, 460; W. Caland, _Altindisches Zauberritual_, pp.
115 _sq._; A. Kuhn, _Herabkunft des Feuers_, 2nd Ed., pp. 40, 64-78,
183-185; H. Zimmer, _Altindisches Leben_, pp. 58, 59. The _sami_ wood
is sometimes identified with the _Acacia Suma_ (_Mimosa Suma_); but
the modern Bengalee name of _Prosopis spicigera_ is _shami_ or _somi_,
which seems to be conclusive evidence of the identity of _Prosopis
spicigera_ with _sami_. The _Prosopis spicigera_ is a deciduous thorny
tree of moderate size, which grows in the arid zones of the Punjaub,
Rajputana, Gujarat, Bundelcund, and the Deccan. The heart of the wood
is of a purplish brown colour and extremely hard. It is especially
valued for fuel, as it gives out much heat. See G. Watt, _Dictionary
of the Economic Products of India_, _s.v._ “Prosopis spicigera.” For a
reference to this work I am indebted to the kindness of the late
Professor H. Marshall Ward.

Footnote 810:

A. Kuhn, _op. cit._ pp. 40, 66, 175.

Footnote 811:

_Hymns of the Atharva-Veda_, translated by M. Bloomfield, pp. 97
_sq._, 460; W. Caland, _Altindisches Zauberritual_, pp. 115 _sq._

Footnote 812:

See above, pp. 195 _sqq._, 230 _sqq._

Footnote 813:

_Rigveda_, x. 95, translated by R. T. H. Griffith, _Satapatha
Brâhmana_, translated by J. Eggeling, part v. pp. 68-74. Compare H.
Oldenberg, _Die Literatur des alten Indien_ (Stuttgart and Berlin,
1903), pp. 53-55. On the story see A. Kuhn, _Herabkunft des Feuers_,
2nd Ed., pp. 71 _sqq._; F. Max Müller _Selected Essays on Language,
Religion, and Mythology_ (London, 1881), i. 408 _sqq._; Andrew Lang,
_Custom and Myth_ (London, 1884), pp. 64 _sqq._; K. F. Pischel and
Geldner, _Vedische Studien_, i. (Stuttgart, 1889), pp. 243-295. It
belongs to the group of tales which describe the marriage of a human
with an animal mate, of a mortal with a fairy, and often, though not
always, their unhappy parting. The story seems to have its roots in
totemism. See my _Totemism and Exogamy_, ii. 566 _sqq._ It will be
illustrated more at length in a later part of _The Golden Bough_.

Footnote 814:

Homer, _Hymn to Mercury_, 108-111 (where a line has been lost; see the
note of Messrs. Allen and Sikes); Theophrastus, _Histor. plant._ v. 9.
6; _id._, _De igne_, ix. 64; Hesychius, _s.v._ στορεύς; Schol. on
Apollonius Rhodius, _Argon._ i. 1184; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xvi. 208;
Seneca, _Nat. Quaest._ ii. 22; A. Kuhn, _Herabkunft des Feuers_, 2nd
Ed., pp. 35-41; H. Blumner, _Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe
und Künste_, ii. 354-356. Theophrastus gives the name of _athragene_
to the plant which, next to or equally with ivy, makes the best board;
he compares it to a vine. Pliny (_l.c._) seems to have identified it
with a species of wild vine. According to Sprengel, the _athragene_ is
the _Clematis cirrhosa_ of Linnaeus, the French _clématite à vrilles_.
See Dioscorides, ed. C. Sprengel, vol. ii. p. 641. As to the kinds of
wood employed by the Romans in kindling fire we have no certain
evidence, as Pliny and Seneca may have merely copied from
Theophrastus.

Footnote 815:

Pausanias, i. 31. 6, with my note.