Chapter VIII: The Killing of the Tree-Spirit (4)

(M220) Thus we see that people swing in order to procure a plentiful supply of fish and game as well as good crops. In such cases the notion seems to be that the ceremony promotes fertility, whether in the vegetable or the animal kingdom; though why it should be supposed to do so, I confess myself unable to explain. There seem to be some reasons for thinking that the Indian rite of swinging on hooks run through the flesh of the performer is also resorted to, at least in some cases, from a belief in its fertilising virtue. Thus Hamilton tells us that at Karwar, on the west coast of India, a feast is held at the end of May or beginning of June in honour of the infernal gods, “with a divination or conjuration to know the fate of the ensuing crop of corn.” Men were hung from a pole by means of tenter-hooks inserted in the flesh of their backs; and the pole with the men dangling from it was then dragged for more than a mile over ploughed ground from one sacred grove to another, preceded by a young girl who carried a pot of fire on her head. When the second grove was reached, the men were let down and taken off the hooks, and the girl fell into the usual prophetic frenzy, after which she unfolded to the priests the revelation with which she had just been favoured by the terrestrial gods. In each of the groves a shapeless black stone, daubed with red lead to stand for a mouth, eyes, and ears, appears to have represented the indwelling divinity.(735) Sometimes this custom of swinging on hooks, which is known among the Hindoos as _Churuk Puja_, seems to be intended to propitiate demons. Some Santals asked Mr. V. Ball to be allowed to perform it because their women and children were dying of sickness, and their cattle were being killed by wild beasts; they believed that these misfortunes befell them because the evil spirits had not been appeased.(736) These same Santals celebrate a swinging festival of a less barbarous sort about the month of February. Eight men sit in chairs and rotate round posts in a sort of revolving swing, like the merry-go-rounds which are so dear to children at English fairs.(737) At the Nauroz and Eed festivals in Dardistan the women swing on ropes suspended from trees.(738) During the rainy season in Behar young women swing in their houses, while they sing songs appropriate to the season. The period during which they indulge in this pastime, if a mere pastime it be, is strictly limited; it begins with a festival which usually falls on the twenty-fifth of the month Jeyt and ends with another festival which commonly takes place on the twenty-fifth of the month Asin. No one would think of swinging at any other time of the year.(739) It is possible that this last custom may be nothing more than a pastime meant to while away some of the tedious hours of the inclement season; but its limitation to a certain clearly-defined portion of the year seems rather to point to a religious or magical origin. Possibly the intention may once have been to drive away the rain. We shall see immediately that swinging is sometimes resorted to for the purpose of expelling the powers of evil. About the middle of March the Hindoos observe a swinging festival of a different sort in honour of the god Krishna, whose image is placed in the seat or cradle of a swing and then, just when the dawn is breaking, rocked gently to and fro several times. The same ceremony is repeated at noon and at sunset.(740) In the Rigveda the sun is called, by a natural metaphor, “the golden swing in the sky,” and the expression helps us to understand a ceremony of Vedic India. A priest sat in a swing and touched with the span of his right hand at once the seat of the swing and the ground. In doing so he said, “The great lord has united himself with the great lady, the god has united himself with the goddess.” Perhaps he meant to indicate in a graphic way that the sun had reached that lowest point of its course where it was nearest to the earth.(741) In this connexion it is of interest to note that in the Esthonian celebration of St. John’s Day or the summer solstice swings play, along with bonfires, the most prominent part. Girls sit and swing the whole night through, singing old songs to explain why they do so. For legend tells of an Esthonian prince who wooed and won an Islandic princess. But a wicked enchanter spirited away the lover to a desert island, where he languished in captivity, till his lady-love contrived to break the magic spell that bound him. Together they sailed home to Esthonia, which they reached on St. John’s Day, and burnt their ship, resolved to stray no longer in far foreign lands. The swings in which the Esthonian maidens still rock themselves on St. John’s Day are said to recall the ship in which the lovers tossed upon the stormy sea, and the bonfires commemorate the burning of it. When the fires have died out, the swings are laid aside and never used again either in the village or at the solitary alehouse until spring comes round once more.(742) Here it is natural to connect both swings and bonfires with the apparent course of the sun, who reaches the highest and turning point of his orbit on St. John’s Day. Bonfires and swings perhaps were originally charms intended to kindle and speed afresh on its heavenly road “the golden swing in the sky.” Among the Letts of South Livonia and Curland the summer solstice is the occasion of a great festival of flowers, at which the people sing songs with the constant refrain of _lihgo, lihgo_. It has been proposed to derive the word _lihgo_ from the Lettish verb _ligot_, “to swing,” with reference to the sun swinging in the sky at this turning-point of his course.(743)

(M221) At Tengaroeng, in Eastern Borneo, the priests and priestesses receive the inspiration of the spirits seated in swings and rocking themselves to and fro. Thus suspended in the air they appear to be in a peculiarly favourable position for catching the divine afflatus. One end of the plank which forms the seat of the priest’s swing is carved in the rude likeness of a crocodile’s head; the swing of the priestess is similarly ornamented with a serpent’s head.(744)

(M222) Again, swings are used for the cure of sickness, but it is the doctor who rocks himself in them, not the patient. In North Borneo the Dyak medicine man will sometimes erect a swing in front of the sick man’s house and sway backwards and forwards on it for the purpose of kicking away the disease, frightening away evil spirits, and catching the stray soul of the sufferer.(745) Clearly in his passage through the air the physician is likely to collide with the disease and the evil spirits, both of which are sure to be loitering about in the neighbourhood of the patient, and the rude shock thus given to the malady and the demons may reasonably be expected to push or hustle them away. At Tengaroeng, in Eastern Borneo, a traveller witnessed a ceremony for the expulsion of an evil spirit in which swinging played a part. After four men in blue shirts bespangled with stars, and wearing coronets of red cloth decorated with beads and bells, had sought diligently for the devil, grabbling about on the floor and grunting withal, three hideous hags dressed in faded red petticoats were brought in with great pomp, carried on the shoulders of Malays, and took their seats, amid solemn silence, on the cradle of a swing, the ends of which were carved to represent the head and tail of a crocodile. Not a sound escaped from the crowd of spectators during this awe-inspiring ceremony; they regarded the business as most serious. The venerable dames then rocked to and fro on the swing, fanning themselves languidly with Chinese paper fans. At a later stage of the performance they and three girls discharged burning arrows at a sort of altar of banana leaves, maize, and grass. This completed the discomfiture of the devil.(746)

(M223) The Athenians in antiquity celebrated an annual festival of swinging. Boards were hung from trees by ropes, and people sitting on them swung to and fro, while they sang songs of a loose or voluptuous character. The swinging went on both in public and private. Various explanations were given of the custom; the most generally received was as follows. When Bacchus came among men to make known to them the pleasures of wine, he lodged with a certain Icarus or Icarius, to whom he revealed the precious secret and bade him go forth and carry the glad tidings to all the world. So Icarus loaded a waggon with wine-skins, and set out on his travels, the dog Maera running beside him. He came to Attica, and there fell in with shepherds tending their sheep, to whom he gave of the wine. They drank greedily, but when some of them fell down dead drunk, their companions thought the stranger had poisoned them with intent to steal the sheep; so they knocked him on the head. The faithful dog ran home and guided his master’s daughter Erigone to the body. At sight of it she was smitten with despair and hanged herself on a tree beside her dead father, but not until she had prayed that, unless the Athenians should avenge her sire’s murder, their daughters might die the same death as she. Her curse was fulfilled, for soon many Athenian damsels hanged themselves for no obvious reason. An oracle informed the Athenians of the true cause of this epidemic of suicide; so they sought out the bodies of the unhappy pair and instituted the swinging festival to appease Erigone; and at the vintage they offered the first of the grapes to her and her father.(747)

(M224) Thus the swinging festival at Athens was regarded by the ancients as an expiation for a suicide or suicides by hanging. This opinion is strongly confirmed by a statement of Varro, that it was unlawful to perform funeral rites in honour of persons who had died by hanging, but that in their case such rites were replaced by a custom of swinging images, as if in imitation of the death they had died.(748) Servius says that the Athenians, failing to find the bodies of Icarius and Erigone on earth, made a pretence of seeking them in the air by swinging on ropes hung from trees; and he seems to have regarded the custom of swinging as a purification by means of air.(749) This explanation probably comes very near the truth; indeed if we substitute “souls” for “bodies” in the wording of it we may almost accept it as exact. It might be thought that the souls of persons who had died by hanging were, more than the souls of the other dead, hovering in the air, since their bodies were suspended in air at the moment of death. Hence it would be considered needful to purge the air of these vagrant spirits, and this might be done by swinging persons or things to and fro, in order that by their impact they might disperse and drive away the baleful ghosts. Thus the custom would be exactly analogous, on the one hand, to the practice of the Malay medicine-man, who swings to and fro in front of the patient’s house in order to chase away the disease, or to frighten away evil spirits, or to catch the stray soul of the sick man, and, on the other hand, to the practice of the Central Australian aborigines who beat the air with their weapons and hands in order to drive the lingering ghost away to the grave.(750) At Rome swinging seems to have formed part of the great Latin festival (_Feriae Latinae_), and its origin was traced to a search in the air for the body or even the soul of King Latinus, who had disappeared from earth after the battle with Mezentius, King of Caere.(751)

(M225) Yet on the other hand there are circumstances which point to an intimate association, both at Athens and Rome, of these swinging festivals with an intention of promoting the growth of cultivated plants. Such circumstances are the legendary connexion of the Athenian festival with Bacchus, the custom of offering the first-fruits of the vintage to Erigone and Icarius,(752) and at Rome the practice of hanging masks on trees at the time of sowing(753) and in order to make the grapes grow better.(754) Perhaps we can reconcile the two apparently discrepant effects attributed to swinging as a means of expiation on the one side and of fertilisation on the other, by supposing that in both cases the intention is to clear the air of dangerous influences, whether these are ghosts of the unburied dead or spiritual powers inimical to the growth of plants. Independent of both appears to be the notion that the higher you swing the higher will grow the crops.(755) This last is homoeopathic or imitative magic pure and simple, without any admixture of the ideas of purification or expiation.

(M226) In modern Greece and Italy the custom of swinging as a festal rite, whatever its origin may be, is still observed in some places. At the small village of Koukoura in Elis an English traveller observed peasants swinging from a tree in honour of St. George, whose festival it was.(756) On the Tuesday after Easter the maidens of Seriphos play their favourite game of the swing. They hang a rope from one wall to another of the steep, narrow, filthy street, and putting some clothes on it swing one after the other, singing as they swing. Young men who try to pass are called upon to pay toll in the shape of a penny, a song, and a swing. The words which the youth sings are generally these: “The gold is swung, the silver is swung, and swung too is my love with the golden hair”; to which the girl replies, “Who is it that swings me that I may gild him with my favour, that I may work him a fez all covered with pearls?”(757) In the Greek island of Karpathos the villagers assemble at a given place on each of the four Sundays before Easter, a swing is erected, and the women swing one after the other, singing death wails such as they chant round the mimic tombs in church on the night of Good Friday.(758) On Christmas Day peasant girls in some villages of Calabria fasten ropes to iron rings in the ceiling and swing on them, while they sing certain songs prescribed by custom for the occasion. The practice is regarded not merely as an amusement but also as an act of devotion.(759) “It is a custom in Cadiz, when Christmas comes, to fasten swings in the courtyards of houses, and even in the houses themselves when there is no room for them outside. In the evenings lads and lasses assemble round the swings and pass the time happily in swinging amid joyous songs and cries. The swings are taken down when Carnival is come.”(760) The observance of the custom at Christmas, that is, at the winter solstice, suggests that in Calabria and Spain, as in Esthonia, the pastime may originally have been a magical rite designed to assist the sun in climbing the steep ascent to the top of the summer sky. If this were so, we might surmise that the gold and the golden hair mentioned by youths and maidens of Seriphos as they swing refer to “the golden swing in the sky,” in other words to the sun whose golden lamp swings daily across the blue vault of heaven.

(M227) However that may be, it would seem that festivals of swinging are especially held in spring. This is true, for example, of North Africa, where such festivals are common. At some places in that part of the world the date of the swinging is the time of the apricots; at others it is said to be the spring equinox. In some places the festival lasts three days, and fathers who have had children born to them within the year bring them and swing them in the swings.(761) In Corea “the fifth day of the fifth moon is called _Tano-nal_. Ancestors are then worshipped, and swings are put up in the yards of most houses for the amusement of the people. The women on this day may go about the streets; during the rest of the year they may go out only after dark. Dressed in their prettiest clothes, they visit the various houses and amuse themselves swinging. The swing is said to convey the idea of keeping cool in the approaching summer. It is one of the most popular feasts of the year.”(762) Perhaps the reason here assigned for swinging may explain other instances of the custom; on the principles of homoeopathic magic the swinging may be regarded as a means of ensuring a succession of cool refreshing breezes during the oppressive heat of the ensuing summer.

ADDENDA.

P. 104. _The sacred precinct of Pelops at Olympia._—It deserves to be noted that just as Pelops, whose legend reflects the origin of the chariot-race, had his sacred precinct and probably his tomb at Olympia, in like manner Endymion, whose legend reflects the origin of the foot-race,(763) had his tomb at the end of the Olympic stadium, at the point where the runners started in the race.(764) This presence at Olympia of the graves of the two early kings, whose names are associated with the origin of the foot-race and of the chariot-race respectively, can hardly be without significance; it indicates the important part played by the dead in the foundation of the Olympic games.

P. 188. _A man is literally reborn in the person of his son._—This belief in the possible rebirth of the parent in the child may sometimes explain the seemingly widespread dislike of people to have children like themselves. Examples of such a dislike have met us in a former part of this work.(765) A similar superstition prevails among the Papuans of Doreh Bay in Dutch New Guinea. When a son resembles his father or a daughter resembles her mother closely in features, these savages fear that the father or mother will soon die.(766) Again, in the island of Savou, to the south-west of Timor, if a child at birth is thought to be like its father or mother, it may not remain under the parental roof, else the person whom it resembles would soon die.(767) Such superstitions, it is obvious, might readily suggest the expedient of killing the child in order to save the life of the parent.

INDEX.

Ababua, the, 65

Abbas, the Great, 157

Abchases, their memorial feasts, 98, 103

Abdication, annual, of kings, 148;
of father when his son is grown up, 181;
of the king on the birth of a son, 190

Abeokuta, the Alake of, 203

Abipones, the, 63

Abraham, his attempted sacrifice of Isaac, 177

Abruzzi, the, 66, 67; burning an effigy of the Carnival in the, 224;
Lenten custom in the, 244 _sq._

Abstract notions, the personification of, not primitive, 253

Academy at Athens, funeral games held in the, 96

Acaill, Book of, 39

Accession of a Shilluk king, ceremonies at the, 23 _sq._

Acropolis at Athens, the sacred serpent on the, 86 _sq._

Adonis or Tammuz, 7

Aesculapius restores Hippolytus or Virbius to life, 214

Africa, succession to the soul in, 200 _sq._

—— North, festivals of swinging in, 284

Agathocles, his siege of Carthage, 167

Agrigentum, Phalaris of, 75

Agrionia, a festival, 163

Agylla, funeral games at, 95

Ahaz, King, his sacrifice of his children, 169 _sq._

Akurwa, 19, 23, 24

Alake, the, of Abeokuta, custom of cutting off the head of his corpse, 203

Alban kings, 76

Albania, expulsion of Kore on Easter Eve in, 265

Alcibiades of Apamea, his vision of the Holy Ghost, 5 _n._3

Alexander the Great, funeral games in his honour, 95

Algonkin women, their attempts to be impregnated by the souls of the
dying, 199

Altdorf and Weingarten, Ash Wednesday at, 232

Alus, sanctuary of Laphystian Zeus at, 161, 164

Amasis, king of Egypt, 217

Amelioration in the character of the gods, 136

American Indians, their Great Spirit, 3

Andaman Islanders, their ideas as to shooting stars, 60

Angamis, the, 13

Angel of Death, 177 _sq._

Angola, the Matiamvo of, 35

Angoni, the, of British Central Africa, 156 _n._2

Angoy, king of, 39

Anhouri, Egyptian god, 5

Animals sacred to kings, 82, 84 _sqq._;
transformations into, 82 _sqq._

Annam, natives of, their indifference to death, 136 _sq._

Annual abdication of kings, 148

—— renewal of king’s power at Babylon, 113

—— tenure of the kingship, 113 _sqq._

Antichrist, expected reign of, 44 _sq._

Aphrodite, the grave of, 4

Apollo, buried at Delphi, 4;
servitude of, 70 _n._1, 78;
and the laurel, 78 _sqq._;
as slayer of the dragon at Delphi, 78, 79, 80 _sq._;
at Thebes, 79;
purged of the dragon’s blood in the Vale of Tempe, 81

Ardennes, effigies of Carnival burned in the, 226 _sq._

Ares, the grave of, 4

Ariadne and Theseus, 75

Ariadne’s Dance, 77

Arician grove, ritual of the, 213

Arizona, mock human sacrifices in, 215

Arnold, Matthew, on the English middle class, 146

Artemis, Munychian, sacrifice to, 166 _n._1; mock human sacrifice in the
ritual of, 215 _sq._

Artemisia, wife of Mausolus, 95

Ascanius, 76

Ascension Day, 222 _n_.1; the “Carrying out of Death” on, at Braller, 247
_sqq._

Ash Wednesday, Burial of the Carnival on, 221;
death of Caramantran on, 226;
effigies of Carnival or of Shrove Tuesday burnt or buried on, 226, 228
_sqq._

_Asherim_, sacred poles, 169

Ass, son of a god in the form of an, 124 _sq._;
the crest or totem of a royal family, 132, 133

“Assegai, child of the,” 183

Asses and men, redemption of firstling, 173

Assyrian eponymate, 116 _sq._

Astarte, the moon-goddess, 92

Astronomical considerations determining the early Greek calendar, 68 _sq._

Athamas and his children, legend of, 161 _sqq._

Athena, human sacrifices to, 166 _n._1

Athenaeus, 143

Athenian festival of swinging, 281

Athens, funeral games at, 96;
hand of suicide cut off at, 220 _n._

Attacks on kings permitted, 22, 48 _sqq._

Aun or On, king of Sweden, 57; sacrifices his sons, 160 _sq._, 188

Aurora Australis, fear entertained by the Kurnai of the, 267 _n._1

Australia, custom of destroying firstborn children among the aborigines
of, 179 _sq._;
magical rites for the revival of nature in Central, 270

Australian aborigines, their ideas as to shooting stars, 60 _sq._

—— funeral custom, 92

Avebury, Lord, 146 _n._1, 273

Baal, Semitic, 75;
human sacrifices to, 167 _sqq._, 195

Babylon, festival of Zagmuk at, 110, 113

Babylonian gods, mortality of the, 5 _sq._

—— legend of creation, 110

—— myth of Marduk and Tiamat, 105 _sq._, 107 _sq._

Bacchic frenzy, 164

Baganda, the, 11

Ball, V., 279

Ballymote, the Book of, 100

Balwe in Westphalia, Burying the Carnival at, 232

Banishment of homicide, 69 _sq._

Banna, a tribe accustomed to strangle their firstborn children, 181 _sq._

Barber, Rev. Dr. W. T. A., 145 _n._, 275

Barcelona, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 242

Barongo, the, 10, 61

Bashada, a tribe accustomed to strangle their firstborn children, 181
_sq._

Bashkirs, their horse-races at funerals, 97

Bath of ox blood, 201

Battle of Summer and Winter, 254 _sqq._

Bautz, Dr. Joseph, on hell fire, 136 _n._1

Bavaria, Whitsuntide mummers in, 207 _sq._;
Carrying out Death in, 233 _sqq._;
dramatic contests between Summer and Winter in, 255 _sq._

Bear, the soul of Typhon in the Great, 5

Beast, the number of the, 44

Beating cattle to make them fat or fruitful, 236

Beauty and the Beast type of tale, 125 _sqq._

Bedouins, annual festival of the Sinaitic, 97

Behar, custom of swinging in, 279

Beheading the King, a Whitsuntide pageant in Bohemia, 209 _sq._

Bengal, kings of, their rule of succession, 51

Bengkali, East Indian island, 277

Benin, king of, represented with panther’s whiskers, 85 _sq._;
human sacrifices at the burial of a king of, 139 _sq._

Berosus, Babylonian historian, 113

Berry, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” in, 241 _sq._

Bhagats, mock human sacrifices among the, 217 _sq._

Bhuiyas, the, of north-eastern India, 56

Bilaspur, temporary rajah in, 154

Birds of omen, stories of their origin, 126, 127 _sq._

Black, Dr. J. Sutherland, 260 _sq._

Black bull sacrificed to the dead, 95

—— ox, bath of blood of, 201

—— ram sacrificed to Pelops, 92, 104

Bland, J. O. P., 274 _sq._

Blemishes, bodily, a ground for putting kings to death, 36 _sqq._

Blood of victims in rain-making ceremonies, 20;
bath of ox, 35;
human, offered to the dead, 92 _sq._, 104;
of sacrifice splashed on door-posts, house-posts, etc., 175, 176 _n._1;
of human victims smeared on faces of idols, 185

Boemus, J., 234

Bohemia, Whitsuntide mummers in, 209 _sqq._;
“Carrying out Death” in, 237 _sq._

Bones of sacrificial victim not broken, 20

Bonfire, jumping over, 262

Boni, in Celebes, 40

Book of Acaill, 39

Borans, their custom of sacrificing their children, 181

Bororos, the, of Brazil, 62

Bourges, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 242

Bourke, Captain J. G., 215

Boxers at funerals, 97

Brahmans, the ceremonial swinging of, 150, 156 _sq._

Braller in Transylvania, 230; “Carrying out Death” at, 247 _sqq._

Brasidas, funeral games in his honour, 94

Brazilian Indians, their indifference to death, 138

Breezes, magical means of securing, 287

Bridegroom of the May, 266

Bringing in Summer, 233, 237, 238, 246 _sqq._

Britomartis and Minos, 73

Brittany, Burial of Shrove Tuesday or of the Carnival in, 229 _sq._

Brockelmann, C., 116

Bronze ploughs used by Etruscans at founding cities, 157

Brother and sister marriages in royal families, 193 _sq._

Buddhist monks, suicide of, 42 _sq._

Budge, E. A. Wallis, 5 _n._3

Buginese of Celebes, their custom of swinging, 277

Bull, Pasiphae and the, 71; as symbol of the sun, 71 _sq._;
the brazen, of Phalaris, 75;
said to have guided the Samnites, 186 _n._4

—— and cow, represented by masked actors, 71

Bull-headed image of the sun, 75, 76, 78

Burgebrach in Bavaria, straw-man burnt on Ash Wednesday at, 232

Burial alive of the aged, 11 _sq._;
in jars, 12 _sq._;
of infants to secure rebirth, 199 _sq._;
of Shrove Tuesday, 228

Burning an effigy of the Carnival, 223, 224, 228 _sq._, 229 _sq._, 232
_sq._

—— effigies of Shrove Tuesday, 227 _sqq._;
of Winter at Zurich, 260 _sq._

“Burying the Carnival,” 209, 220 _sqq._

Busoga, mock human sacrifice in, 215

Cabunian, Mount, 3

Cadiz, custom of swinging at, 284

Cadmea, the, 79

Cadmus, servitude of, for the slaughter of the dragon, 70 _n._1, 78;
the slayer of the dragon at Thebes, 78 _sq._

—— and Harmonia, their transformation into serpents, 84;
marriage of, 88, 89

Caffres, the, 65

Caiem, the caliph, 8

Calabria, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” in, 241;
custom of swinging in, 284

Calendar, the early Greek, determined by astronomical considerations, 68
_sq._;
closely bound up with religion, 69;
the Syro-Macedonian, 116

_Calica Puran_, an Indian law-book, 217

Calicut, rule of succession observed by the kings of, 47 _sqq._, 206

California, Indians of, 62

Cambodia, Kings of Fire and Water in, 14;
annual abdication of the king of, 148

Canaanites, their custom of burning their children in honour of Baal, 168

Canada, Indians of, their ceremony for mitigating the cold of winter, 259
_sq._

Caramantran, death of, on Ash Wednesday in Provence, 226

Carinthia, ceremony at the installation of a prince of, 154 _sq._

Carman, the fair of, 100, 101

Carnival, Burying the, 209, 220 _sqq._;
swings taken down at, 287

“Carnival (Shrovetide) Fool,” 231

Carolina, king’s son wounded among the Indians of, 184 _sq._

Carrier Indians, succession to the soul among the, 199

“Carrying out Death,” 221, 233 _sqq._, 246 _sqq._

Carthaginian sacrifice of children to Moloch, 75;
to Baal, 167 _sq._

Cassange, in Angola, king of, 203;
human sacrifice at installation of king of, 56 _sq._

Cassotis, oracular spring, 79

Castaly, the oracular spring of, 79

Catalonia, funeral of Carnival in, 225

Cattle sacrificed instead of human beings, 166 _n._ 1

Caucasus, funeral games among the people of the, 97 _sq._

Cauxanas, Indian tribe of the Amazon, kill all their firstborn children,
185 _sq._

Cecrops, half-serpent, half-man, 86 _sq._

Celebes, sanctity of regalia in, 202; the Toboongkoos of, 219

Celts of Gaul, their indifference to death, 142 _sq._

Cemeteries, fairs held at, 101, 102

Chaka, a Zulu tyrant, 36 _sq._

Chama, town on the Gold Coast, 129

Chariot-race at Olympia, 91, 104 _sq._, 287

—— races in honour of the dead, 93

Chewsurs, their funeral games, 98

Cheyne, Professor T. K., 86 _n._4

Chilcotin Indians, their practice at an eclipse of the sun, 77

“Child of the assegai,” 183

Children sacrificed to Moloch, 75;
sacrificed by the Semites, 166 _sqq._;
dislike of parents to have children like themselves, 287

Chinese indifference to death, 144 _sqq._, 273 _sqq._;
reports of custom of devouring firstborn children, 180

Chiriguanos, the, of South America, 12

Chirol, Valentine, 274

Chitomé, a pontiff in Congo, the manner of his death, 14 _sq._

Christmas, custom of swinging at, 284

Chrudim in Bohemia, effigy of Death burnt at, 239

Chukchees, voluntary deaths among the, 13

Circassia, games in honour of the dead in, 98

Circumcision of father as a mode of redeeming his offspring, 181;
mimic rite of, 219 _sq._

Cities, Etruscan ceremony at the founding of, 157

Cloud-dragon, myth of the, 107

Cluis-Dessus and Cluis-Dessous, custom of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 241
_sq._

Cnossus, Minos at, 70 _sqq._;
the labyrinth at, 75 _sqq._

Cobra, the crest of the Maharajah of Nagpur, 132 _sq._

Cock, king represented with the feathers of a, 85

Colchis, Phrixus in, 162

Congo, the pontiff Chitomé in, 14

Conjunction of sun and moon, a time for marriage, 73

Consecration of firstlings, 172

Contempt of death, 142 _sqq._

Contests, dramatic, between actors representing Summer and Winter, 254
_sqq._

Conti, Nicolo, 54

Conybeare, F. C., 5 _n._3

Cook, A. B., 71 _n._2, 78 _n._2, 79 _n._1, 80, 81 _n._1, 82 _ns._1 and 3,
89 _n._5, 90

Corannas of South Africa, custom as to succession among the, 191 _sq._

Corea, custom of swinging in, 284 _sq._

Cornaby, Rev. W. A., 273

Cornford, F. M., 91 _n._7

Corn-harvest, the first-fruits of the, offered at Lammas, 101 _sq._

—— -spirit called the Old Man or the Old Woman, 253 _sq._

Cornwall, temporary king in, 153 _sq._

Corporeal relics of dead kings confer right to throne, 202 _sq._

Courtiers required to imitate their sovereign, 39 _sq._

Cow as symbol of the moon, 71 _sq._

Crane, dance called the, 75

Crassus, Publicius Licinius, 96

Creation, myths of, 106 _sqq._;
Babylonian legend of, 110

Creator, the grave of the, 3

Crete, grave of Zeus in, 3

Criminals sacrificed, 195

Crocodile clan, 31

Cromm Cruach, a legendary Irish idol, 183

Cronus buried in Sicily, 4;
his sacrifice of his son, 166, 179;
his treatment of his father and his children, 192;
his marriage with his sister Rhea, 194

Crooke, W., 53 _n._1, 157 _n._5, 159 _n._1

Crown of laurel, 78, 80 _sqq._;
of oak leaves, 80 _sqq._;
of olive at Olympia, 91

Crowning, festival of the, at Delphi, 78 _sqq._

Cruachan, the fair of, 101

Crystals, superstitions as to, 64 _n._6

Cupid and Psyche, story of, 131

Cutting or lacerating the body in honour of the dead, 92 _sq._, 97

Cuttle-fish, expiation for killing a, 217

Cychreus, king of Salamis, 87

Cycle, the octennial, based on an attempt to reconcile solar and lunar
time, 68 _sq._

Cyclopes, slaughter of the, 78 _n._4

Cytisorus, 162

Czechs of Bohemia, 221

Daedalus, 75

Dahomey, royal family of, related to leopards, 85;
religious massacres in, 138

Daira or Mahadev Mohammedans in Mysore, 220

Dalton, Colonel E. T., 217

Danakils or Afar of East Africa, 200

Dance of youths and maidens at Cnossus, 75 _sqq._;
Ariadne’s, 77

Dardistan, custom of swinging in, 279

Darfur, Sultans of, 39

Dassera festival of Nepaul, 277

Daura, a Hausa kingdom, 35;
custom of succession to the throne in, 201

David, King, and the brazen serpent, 86

Dead, souls of the, associated with falling stars, 64 _sqq._;
rebirth of the, 70;
sacrifices to the, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97;
human blood offered to the, 92 _sq._, 104

Dead kings, worship of, 24 _sq._;
their spirits thought to possess sick people, 25 _sq._;
of Uganda consulted as oracles, 200 _sq._

—— man’s hand used in magical ceremony, 267 _n._1

—— One, the, name applied to the last sheaf, 254

—— Sunday, 239;
the fourth Sunday in Lent, 221;
also called Mid-Lent, 222 _n._1

Death of the Great Pan, 6 _sq._

—— preference for a violent, 9 _sqq._;
natural, regarded as a calamity, 11 _sq._;
European fear of, 135 _sq._, 146;
indifference to, displayed by many races, 136 _sqq._;
the Carrying out of, 221, 233 _sqq._, 246 _sqq._;
conception of, in relation to vegetation, 253 _sq._;
in the corn, 254;
and resurrection of Kostrubonko at Eastertide, 261;
and revival of vegetation, 263 _sq._

Death, effigy of, feared and abhorred, 239 _sq._;
potency of life attributed to, 247 _sqq._

—— the Angel of, 177 _sq._

De Barros, Portuguese historian, 51

Deer, descent of Kalamants from a, 126 _sq._;
sacrificed instead of human beings, 166 _n._.1

Delos, Theseus at, 75

Delphi, tombs of Dionysus and Apollo at, 3 _sq._;
festival of Crowning at, 78 _sqq._

Dengdit, the Supreme Being of the Dinka, 30, 32

Deputy, the expedient of dying by, 56, 160

Dictynna and Minos, 73

Dinka, the, of the White Nile, 28 _sqq._;
totemism of the, 30 _sq._

Diomede, human sacrifices to, 166 _n._1

Dionysus, the tomb of, at Delphi, 3;
human sacrifice consummated by a priest of, 163;
boys sacrificed to, 166 _n._1

Dislike of people to have children like themselves, 287

Diurnal tenure of the kingship, 118 _sq._

Divine king, the killing of the, 9 _sqq._

—— kings of the Shilluk, 17 _sqq._

—— spirit incarnate in Shilluk kings, 21, 26 _sq._

Dodge, Colonel R. I., 3

Dog killed instead of king, 17

Doreh Bay in New Guinea, 287

Dorians, their superstition as to meteors, 59

Dragon, drama of the slaughter of the, 78 _sqq._, 89;
myth of the, 105 _sqq._

Dragon-crest of kings, 105

Dramatic contests of actors representing Summer and Winter, 254 _sqq._

Dreams, revelations in, 25

Drenching leaf-clad mummer as a rain-charm, 211

Driver, Professor S. R., 170 _n._5, 173 _n._1

Ducks and ptarmigan, dramatic contest of the, 259

Dyak medicine-men, their practice of swinging, 280 _sq._

Dyaks of Sarawak, story of their descent from a fish, 126;
sacrifice cattle instead of human beings, 166 _n._1;
their sacrifices during an epidemic, 176 _n._1;
their custom of swinging, 277

Dying, custom of catching the souls of the, 198 _sqq._

Dying by deputy, 56, 160

Eames, W., 273

Ears of sacrificial victims cut off, 97

Easter, first Sunday after, 249;
swinging on the Tuesday after, 283;
custom of swinging on the four Sundays before, 284

Easter Eve in Albania, expulsion of Kore on, 265

Eastertide, death and resurrection of Kostrubonko at, 261

Eating the bodies of aged relations, custom of, 14

Echinadian Islands, 6

Eclipse of the sun and moon, belief of the Tahitians as to, 73 _n._2;
practice of the Chilcotin Indians at an, 77

Ecliptic perhaps mimicked in dances, 77

Effigies of Carnival, 222 _sqq._;
of Shrove Tuesday, 227 _sqq._;
of Death, 233 _sqq._, 246 _sqq._;
seven-legged, of Lent in Spain and Italy, 244 _sq._;
of Winter burnt at Zurich, 260 _sq._;
of Kupalo, Kostroma, and Yarilo in Russia, 262 _sq._

Effigy, human sacrifices carried out in, 217 _sqq._

Egbas, the, 41

Egypt, temporary kings in Upper, 151 _sq._;
mock human sacrifices in ancient, 217

Egyptian gods, mortality of the ancient, 4 _sqq._;
influence on Christian doctrine of the Trinity, 5 _n._3;
kings called bulls, 72;
trinities of gods, 5 _n._3

Eimine Ban, an Irish abbot, 159 _n._1

Eldest sons sacrificed for their fathers, 161 _sqq._

Elliot, R. H., 136

Emain, fair at, 100

Embalming as a means of prolonging the life of the soul, 4

Encheleans, the, 84

Endymion at Olympia, 90; his tomb at Olympia, 287

English middle class, their clinging to life, 146

Ἐννέωρος βασίλευε, 70 _n._3

Eponymate, the Assyrian, 116 _sq._

Eponymous magistrates, 117 _n._1

Equinox, the spring, custom of swinging at, 284;
drama of Summer and Winter at the spring, 257

Erechtheum, the, 87

Erechtheus or Erichthonius in relation to the sacred serpent on the
Acropolis, 86 _sq._;
voluntary death of the daughters of, 192 _n._3

Ergamenes, king of Meroe, 15

Erichthonius, 86. _See_ Erechtheus

Erigone, her suicide by hanging, 281 _sq._

Erzgebirge, Shrovetide custom in the, 208 _sq._

Esagil, temple of Marduk at Babylon, 113

Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, 116

Esquimaux, suicide among the, 43;
their magical ceremony in autumn, 259

Esthonian belief as to falling stars, 66 _sq._;
celebration of St. John’s Day, 280;
custom on Shrove Tuesday, 233, 252 _sq._

Esthonians, their ideas of shooting stars, 63

Ethiopia, kings of, chosen for their beauty, 38 _sq._

Ethiopian kings of Meroe put to death, 15

Etruscan ceremony at founding cities, 157

Euphorion of Chalcis, Greek author, 143, 144

Europa, her wanderings, 89;
and Zeus, 73

European beliefs as to shooting stars, 66 _sqq._;
fear of death, 135 _sq._, 146

Evans, Sebastian, 122 _n._1

Eve, Easter, in Albania, 265

Eve of St. John (Midsummer Eve), Russian ceremony on, 262

Ewe negroes, the, 61

Expiation for killing sacred animals, 216 _sq._

Eyeo, kings of, put to death, 40 _sq._

Ezekiel, on the sacrifice of the firstborn, 171 _sq._

E-zida, the temple of Nabu, 110

Fairs of ancient Ireland, 99 _sqq._

Fashoda, the capital of the Shilluk kings, 18, 19, 21, 24

Father god succeeded by his divine son, 5

Fazoql or Fazolglou, kings of, put to death, 16

Fear of death entertained by the European races, 135 _sq._, 146

“Feeding the dead,” 102

_Feriae Latinae_, 283

Feronia, a Latin goddess, 186 _n._4

Fertilising power ascribed to the effigy of Death, 250 _sq._

Festival of the Crowning at Delphi, 78 _sq._;
of the Laurel-bearing at Thebes, 78 _sq._, 88 _sq._

Festus, on “the Sacred Spring,” 186

Feuillet, Madame Octave, 228 _sq._

Fez, mock sultan in, 152

Fighting the king, right of, 22

Fiji, voluntary deaths in, 11 _sq._;
custom of grave-diggers in, 156 _n._2;
rule of succession in, 191

Finger-joints, custom of sacrificing, 219;
mock sacrifice of, _ib._

Fire, voluntary death by, 42 _sqq._;
and Water, kings of, in Cambodia, 14

Firstborn, sacrifice of the, 171 _sqq._;
killed and eaten, 179 _sq._;
sacrificed among various races, 179 _sqq._

—— -fruits offered to the dead, 102;
of the corn offered at Lammas, 101 _sq._;
of the vintage offered to Icarius and Erigone, 283

Firstlings, Hebrew sacrifice of, 172 _sq._;
Irish sacrifice of, 183

Fish, descent of the Dyaks from a, 126

Fison, Rev. Lorimer, 156 _n._2

Five years, despotic power for period of, 53

Flight of the priestly king (_Regifugium_) at Rome, 213

Florence, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, 240 _sq._

Florida, sacrifice of firstborn male children by the Indians of, 184

Fool, the Carnival, burial of, 231 _sq._

Foot, custom of standing on one, 149, 150, 155, 156

—— -race at Olympia, 287

Franche-Comté, effigies of Shrove Tuesday destroyed in, 227

Freycinet, L. de, 118 _n._1

Frosinone in Latium, burning an effigy of the Carnival at, 22 _sq._

Funeral of Kostroma, 261 _sqq._

—— -games, 92 _sqq._

—— -rites performed for a father in the fifth month of his wife’s
pregnancy, 189

Futuna in the South Pacific, 97

Galton, Sir Francis, 146 _n._2

Game of Troy, 76 _sq._

Games, funeral, 92 _sqq._

Gandharva-Sena, 124, 125

Ganges, firstborn children sacrificed to the, 180 _sq._

Gazelle Peninsula in New Britain, 65

Gelo, tyrant of Syracuse, 167

Genesis, account of the creation in, 106

Ghost, the Holy, regarded as female, 5 _n._3

Ghosts propitiated with blood, 92;
propitiated with games, 96;
anger of, 103

Giles, Professor H. A., 275

Girls’ race at Olympia, 91

Gladiators at Roman funerals, 96;
at Roman banquets, 143

Goats sacrificed instead of human beings, 166 _n._1

Gobir, a Hausa kingdom, 35

God, the killing and resurrection of a god in the hunting, pastoral, and
agricultural stages of society, 221

God’s Mouth, 41

Gods, mortality of the, 1 _sqq._;
created by man in his own likeness, 2 _sq._;
succeeded by their sons, 5;
progressive amelioration in the character of the, 136

Golden apples of the Hesperides, 80

—— fleece, ram with, 162

—— swords, 75

Goldmann, Dr. Emil, 155 _n._1

Goldziher, I., 97 _n._7

Gomes, E. H., 176 _n._1

Gonds, mock human sacrifices among the, 217

Good Friday, 284

Gore, Captain, 139 _n._1

Gospel to the Hebrews, the apocryphal, 5 _n._3

_Graal_, _History of the Holy_, 120, 134

Grape-cluster, Mother of the, 8

Gray, Archdeacon J. H., 145

Great Pan, death of the, 6 _sq._

—— Spirit, the, of the American Indians, 3

—— year, the, 70

Greece, human sacrifices in ancient, 161 _sqq._;
swinging as a festal rite in modern, 283 _sq._

Greek mode of reckoning intervals of time, 59 _n._1

Greenlanders, their belief in the mortality of the gods, 3

Grey hair a signal of death, 36 _sq._

—— hairs of kings, 100, 102, 103

Grimm, J., 155 _n._1, 221, 240, 244

Groot, Professor J. J. M. de, 180 _n._7, 275

Grove, the Arician, 213

Guatemala, catching the soul of the dying in, 199

Guayana Indians, 12

Gypsies, ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” among the, 243

Hair, grey, a signal of death, 36 _sq._

Halae in Attica, mock human sacrifice at, 215

Hale, Horatio, quoted, 11 _sq._

Hamilton, Alexander, quoted, 48

Hamilton’s _Account of the East Indies_, 278

Hammurabi, king of Babylon, 110

Hand of dead man in magical ceremony, 267 _n._1;
of suicide cut off, 220 _n._

Hanging of an effigy of the Carnival, 230 _sq._

Harmonia and Cadmus, 84;
marriage of, 88, 89

Harvest ceremonies, 20, 25

Harz Mountains, ceremony at Carnival in the, 233

Hausa kings put to death, 35

Hawaii, annual festival in, 117 _sq._

Hawk in Egypt, symbol of the sun and of the king, 112

Heads of dead kings removed and kept, 202 _sq._

Hebrew sacrifice of the firstborn, 171 _sqq._

Hebrews, apocryphal Gospel to the, 5 _n._3

Heitsi-eibib, a Hottentot god, 3

Heliogabalus, the emperor, 92

Heliopolis, 5;
the sacred bull of, 72

Hell fire in Catholic and Protestant theology, 136

Helle and Phrixus, the children of King Athamas, 161 _sqq._

Hephaestion, 95

Hera, race of girls in honour of, at Olympia, 91;
the sister of her husband Zeus, 194

Heraclitus, on the souls of the dead, 12

Hercules in the garden of the Hesperides, 80

Hermapolis, 4

Hermes, the grave of, 4

Heruli, the, 14

Hesperides, garden of the, 80

Hieraconpolis, 112

_High History of the Holy Graal_, 120, 134

Hippodamia at Olympia, 91;
grave of the suitors of, 104

Hippolytus or Virbius killed by horses, 214

Hindoo belief as to shooting stars, 67;
of the rebirth of a father in his son, 188

Hinnom, the Valley of, 169, 170

Hirpini, guided by a wolf (_hirpus_), 186 _n._4

Hodson, T. C., 117 _n._1

Hoeck, K., 73 _n._1

Hofmayr, P. W., 18 _n._1, 19 _n._2

Holm-oak, 81 _sq._

Holy Ghost, regarded as female, 5 _n._3

—— Saturday, 244

Homeric age, funeral games in the, 93

Homicide, banishment of, 69 _sq._

Homoeopathic or imitative magic, 283, 285

Hooks, Indian custom of swinging on, 278 _sq._

Horse-mackerel, descent of a totemic clan from a, 129

—— -races in honour of the dead, 97, 98, 99, 101;
at fairs, 99 _sqq._

Horses, Hippolytus killed by, 214

Horus, the soul of, in Orion, 5

Hottentots, the mortal god of the, 3

Howitt, A. W., 64

Human flesh, transformation into animal shape through eating, 83 _sq._

Human sacrifices at Upsala, 58;
in ancient Greece, 161 _sqq._;
mock, 214 _sqq._;
offered by ancestors of the European races, 214;
to renew the sun’s fire, 74 _sq._

Huntsman, the Spectral, 178

Huron Indians, their burial of infants, 199

Ibadan in West Africa, 203

Ibn Batuta, 53

Icarus or Icarius and his daughter Erigone, 281 _sq._, 283

Ida, oracular cave of Zeus on Mount, 70

Ihering, R. von, 187 _n._4

Ijebu tribe, 112

Ilex or holm-oak, 81 _sq._

Immortality, belief of savages in their natural, 1;
firm belief of the North American Indians in, 137

Impregnation by the souls of the dying, 199

Incarnation of divine spirit in Shilluk kings, 21, 26 _sq._

India, sacrifice of firstborn children in, 180 _sq._;
images of Siva and Pârvati married in, 265 _sq._

Indians of Arizona, mock human sacrifice among the, 215;
of Canada, their ceremony for mitigating the cold of winter, 259 _sq._

Indifference to death displayed by many races, 136 _sqq._

Indra and the dragon Vrtra, 106 _sq._

Infanticide among the Australian aborigines, 187 _n._6;
sometimes suggested by a doctrine of transmigration or reincarnation of
human souls, 188 _sq._;
prevalent in Polynesia, 191, 196;
among savages, 196 _sq._

Infants, burial of, 199

Ino and Melicertes, 162

Intervals of time, Greek and Latin modes of reckoning, 59 _n._1

_Invocavit_ Sunday, 243

Ireland, the great fairs of ancient, 99 _sqq._

Irish sacrifice of firstlings, 183

Iron-Beard, Dr., a Whitsuntide mummer, 208, 212, 233

Isaac about to be sacrificed by his father Abraham, 177

Isaacs, Nathaniel, 36 _sq._

Isis, the soul of, in Sirius, 5

Isle of Man, May Day in the, 258

Isocrates, 95

Israelites, their custom of burning their children in honour of Baal, 168
_sqq._

Isthmian games instituted in honour of Melicertes, 93, 103

Italy, seven-legged effigies of Lent in, 244 _sq._

Jack o’ Lent, 230

Jagas, a tribe of Angola, their custom of infanticide, 196 _sq._

Jaintias of Assam, 55

Jambi in Sumatra, temporary kings in, 154

Japan, mock human sacrifices in, 218

Jars, burial in, 12 _sq._

Java, Sultans of, 53

Jawbone of king preserved, 200 _sq._

Jeoud, the only-begotten son of Cronus, sacrificed by his father, 166

Jerome, on Tophet, 170

“Jerusalem, the Road of,” 76

Jerusalem, sacrifice of children at, 169

Jinn, death of the King of the, 8

Jordanus, Friar, 54

Joyce, P. W., 100 _n._1, 101

Judah, kings of, their custom of burning their children, 169

Jukos, kings of the, put to death, 34

Jumping over a bonfire, 262

June, the twenty-ninth of, St. Peter’s Day, 262

Jŭok, the great god of the Shilluk, 18

Jupiter, period of revolution of the planet, 49

Justin, 187 _n._5

Kaitish, the, 60

Kalamantans, their descent from a deer, 126 _sq._

Kali, Indian goddess, 123

Kamants, a Jewish tribe, 12

Kanagra district of India, 265

Karpathos, custom of swinging in the island of, 284

Katsina, a Hausa kingdom, 35

Kayans of Borneo, mock human sacrifices among the, 218

Keonjhur, ceremony at installation of Rajah of, 56

Kerre, a tribe accustomed to strangle their firstborn children, 181 _sq._

Khlysti, the, a Russian sect, 196 _n._3

Khonds of India, their human sacrifices, 139

Kibanga, kings of, put to death, 34

Killer of the Elephant, 35

Killing the divine king, 9 _sqq._

—— of the tree-spirit, 205 _sqq._;
a means to promote the growth of vegetation, 211 _sq._

—— a god, in the hunting, pastoral, and agricultural stages of society,
221

King, the killing of the divine, 8 _sqq._;
slaying of the, in legend, 120 _sqq._;
responsible for the weather and crops, 165;
abdicates on the birth of a son, 190;
at Whitsuntide, pretence of beheading the, 209 _sq._

King of the Jinn, death of the, 8

—— of the Wood at Nemi, 28, 205 _sq._, 212 _sqq._

—— and Queen of May, marriage of, 266

King Hop, 149, 151

King’s daughter offered as prize in a race, 104

—— jawbone preserved, 200 _sq._

—— life sympathetically bound up with the prosperity of the country, 21,
27

—— skull used as a drinking-vessel, 200

—— son, sacrifice of the, 160 _sqq._

—— widow, succession to the throne through marriage with, 193

Kingdom, the prize of a race, 103 _sqq._ _See also_ Succession

Kings, divine, of the Shilluk, 17 _sqq._;
regarded as incarnations of a divine spirit, 21, 26 _sq._;
attacks on, permitted, 22, 48 _sqq._;
worship of dead, 24 _sq._;
killed at the end of a fixed term, 46 _sqq._;
related to sacred animals, 82, 84 _sqq._;
personating dragons or serpents, 82;
addressed by names of animals, 86;
with a dragon or serpent crest, 105;
the supply of, 134 _sqq._;
temporary, 148 _sqq._;
abdicate annually, 148

—— killed when their strength fails, 14 _sqq._

—— of Dahomey and Benin represented partly in animal shapes, 85 _sq._

—— of Fire and Water, 14

—— of Uganda, dead, consulted as oracles, 200 _sq._

Kingship, octennial tenure of the, 58 _sqq._;
triennial tenure of the, 112 _sq._;
annual tenure of the, 113 _sqq._;
diurnal tenure of the, 118 _sq._;
burdens and restrictions attaching to the early, 135;
modern type of, different from the ancient, 135

Kingsley, Mary H., 119 _n._1

Kingsmill Islanders, 64

Kirghiz, games in honour of the dead among the, 97

_Kirwaido_, ruler of the old Prussians, 41

Königgrätz district of Bohemia, Whitsuntide custom in the, 209 _sq._

Kore expelled on Easter Eve in Albania, 265

Koryaks, voluntary deaths among the, 13

Kostroma, funeral of, 261 _sqq._

Kostrubonko, funeral of, 261

Krapf, Dr. J. L., 183 _n._1

Krishna, Hindoo festival of swinging in honour of, 279

Kupalo, funeral of, 261, 262

Kurnai, their fear of the Aurora Australis, 267 _n._1

Kutonaqa Indians of British Columbia, their sacrifice of their firstborn
children to the sun, 183 _sq._

La Rochelle, burning of Shrove Tuesday at, 230

Labyrinth, the Cretan, 71, 74, 75, 76, 77

Labyrinths in churches, 76;
in the north of Europe, 76 _sq._

Lada, the funeral of, 261, 262

Laevinus, M. Valerius, 96

Laius and Oedipus, 193

“Lame reign,” 38

Lammas, the first of August, 99, 100, 101, 105

Lampson, M. W., 146 _n._1, 273

Lancelot constrained to be king, 120 _sq._, 135

Lang, Andrew, 130 _n._1

Laodicea in Syria, human sacrifices at, 166 _n._1

Laos, a province of Siam, 97

Laphystian Zeus, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165

Last sheaf called “the Dead One,” 254

Latin festival, the great (_Feriae Latinae_), 283

—— mode of reckoning intervals of time, 59 _n._1

Latins, sanctity of the woodpecker among the, 186 _n._4

Latinus, King, his disappearance, 283

Laughlan Islanders, 63

Laurel, sacred, guarded by a dragon, 79 _sq._;
chewed by priestess of Apollo, 80

Laurel-Bearer at Thebes, 88 _sq._

—— -Bearing Apollo, 79 _n._3

—— -bearing, festival of the, at Thebes, 78 _sq._, 88 _sq._

—— wreath at Delphi and Thebes, 78 _sqq._

_Laws of Manu_, 188

Learchus, son of King Athamas, 161, 162

Lechrain, Burial of the Carnival in, 231

Leipsic, “Carrying out Death” at, 236

Lengua Indians, 11;
of the Gran Chaco, 63;
their practice of killing firstborn girls, 186;
their custom of infanticide, 197

Lent, the fourth Sunday in, called Dead Sunday or Mid-Lent, 221, 222
_n._1, 233 _sqq._, 250, 255;
personified by an actor or effigy, 226, 230;
fifth Sunday in, 234, 239;
third Sunday in, 238;
Queen of, 244;
symbolised by a seven-legged effigy, 244 _sq._

Leonidas, funeral games in his honour, 94

Leopard Societies of Western Africa, 83

Leopards related to royal family of Dahomey, 85

Lepidus, Marcus Aemilius, 96

Lepsius, R., 17 _n._2

Lerida in Catalonia, funeral of the Carnival at, 225 _sq._

Lerpiu, a spirit, 32

Letts, celebration of the summer solstice among the, 280

Leviathan, 106 _n._2

Liebrecht, F., 7 _n._2

Life, human, valued more highly by Europeans than by many other races, 135
_sq._

_Limu_, the Assyrian eponymate, 117

Lion, king represented with the body of a, 85

Lisiansky, U., 117 _sq._

“Little Easter Sunday,” 153, 154 _n._1

Logan, W., 49

Lolos, the, 65

Lombardy, the Day of the Old Wives in, 241

“Lord of the Heavenly Hosts,” 149, 150, 155, 156

Lostwithiel in Cornwall, temporary king at, 153 _sq._

Lous, a Babylonian month, 113, 116

Lucian, 42

Lug, legendary Irish hero, 99, 101

Lugnasad, the first of August, 101

Lunar and solar time, attempts to harmonise, 68 _sq._

Luschan, F. von, 85 _n._5, 86 _n._1

Lussac, Ash Wednesday at, 226

Lycaeus, Mount, Zeus on, 70;
human sacrifices on, 163

Macahity, an annual festival in Hawaii, 117

Macassars of Celebes, their custom of swinging, 277

Macdonald, Rev. J., 183 _n._2

Maceboard, the, in the Isle of Man, 258

Macgregor, Sir William, 203 _n._2

Macha, Queen, 100

McLennan, J. F., 194 _n._1

Magic, the Age of, 2;
homoeopathic or imitative, 283, 285

Magical ceremonies for the revival of nature in spring, 266 _sqq._;
for the revival of nature in Central Australia, 270

_Maha Makham_, the Great Sacrifice, 49

Mairs, their custom of sacrificing their firstborn sons, 181

Malabar, custom of _Thalavettiparothiam_ in, 53;
religious suicide in, 54 _sq._

Malayans, devil-dancers, practise a mock human sacrifice, 216

Malays, their belief in the Spectral Huntsman, 178

Malta, death of the Carnival in, 224 _sq._

Manasseh, King, his sacrifice of his children, 170

Mandans, their notions as to the stars, 67 _sq._

Man-god, reason for killing the, 9 _sq._

Mangaians, their preference for a violent death, 10

Manipur, the Naga tribes of, 11;
mode of counting the years in, 117 _n._1;
rajahs of, descended from a snake, 133

Mannhardt, W., 249 _n._4, 253, 270

_Manu_, _Laws of_, 188

Maoris, the, 64

Mara tribe of northern Australia, 60

_Mardi Gras_, Shrove Tuesday, 227

Marduk, New Year festival of, 110;
his image at Babylon, 113

—— and Tiamat, 105 _sq._, 107 _sq._

_Mareielis_ at Zurich, 260

Marena, Winter or Death, 262