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 Lectures on the early history of the kin 
 
 olln 
 
 3 1924 030 444 131 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
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 the Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 9240304441 31 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE KINGSHIP 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 KINGSHIP 
 
 BY 
 
 J. g: frazer 
 
 HON. D.C.L. OXFORD, HON, LL.D. GLASGOW, HON, UTT.D. DURHAM 
 FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE 
 
 IL0Ttlr0n 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited 
 
 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1905 
 
 All rights reserved 
 

 
TO 
 
 EDMUND GOSSE 
 
 IN 
 
 GRATITUDE AND FRIENDSHIP 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The following lectures were delivered at Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, in the Lent term of this year, 
 under the title of " The Sacred Character and Magical 
 Functions of Kings in Early Society." The general 
 theory here sketched of the evolution of the Kingship 
 formed the subject of two lectures given in London 
 at the Royal Institution last May. In preparing the 
 manuscript for the press I have made a few unim- 
 portant changes, mostly verbal, and added references 
 to my authorities. Otherwise the lectures are printed 
 as they were spoken. Substantially they consist of a 
 series of extracts from the forthcoming third edition 
 of my book The Golden Bough, which will contain 
 fuller information on many points. 
 
 Such prefatory remarks as I may have to make are 
 reserved for that work, but I cannot allow this volume 
 to go forth without an acknowledgment of the debt I 
 owe to my friend Mr. A. B. Cook, Fellow and Lecturer 
 of Queens' College, Cambridge. If I have been able 
 to present my theory of the Arician kingship in a 
 more probable, or at least a more precise, form than 
 before, I owe the improvement chiefly to the stimulating 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 influence of his criticisms, which obliged me to reconsider 
 the whole problem. Moreover, in working out my 
 revised theory I have profited greatly by his learning 
 and acumen, which he has generously placed at my 
 disposal in the spirit of the good old maxim Koiva to, 
 
 J. G. FRAZER. 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 i6tA August 1905. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 LECTURE I 
 
 The history of institutions — Methods of the study — Reasons for preferring 
 the inductive method — King of the Wood at Nemi — Characteristics 
 of Diana at Nemi — Conversion of the festival of Diana into a feast of 
 the Virgin Mary — Egeria — Virbius the mate of Diana — Summary of 
 conclusions . . . Pages 1-27 
 
 LECTURE II 
 
 Priestly kings in antiquity — Relation of Spartan kings to Castor and 
 Pollux — Incarnate gods — Kings as magicians — Principles of magic — 
 Law of Similarity and Law of Contact — Homoeopathic iVIagic and 
 Contagious Magic — Both included under Sympathetic Magic — 
 Examples of Homoeopathic Magic — Magical images — Cures based 
 on Homoeopathic Magic — Use of Homoeopathic Magic in hunting 
 and fishing — Negative Magic or taboo — Savage belief in magical 
 telepathy ...... 28-59 
 
 LECTURE III 
 
 Magical telepathy in war — Homoeopathic Magic in relation to plants, 
 animals, inanimate things, and the dead — Homoeopathic Magic used 
 to annul evil omens — Examples of Contagious Magic — Magical 
 contact between a wounded person and the weapon that hurt him — 
 Magical contact of footprints — Public magicians develop into kings- 
 Rise of monarchy essential to the emergence of mankind from 
 savagery ....... 60-88 
 
 ix 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 LECTURE IV 
 
 The institution of a public order of magicians a great incentive to 
 research — Public magicians expected to regulate the weather — 
 Making rain — Making sunshine — Making or calming wind — 
 Tendency of magicians to develop into kings in Australia, New 
 Guinea, and Melanesia— The evolution complete in Africa — Similar 
 evolution among the Malays— Traces of it in Europe — The divinity 
 of kings . . ■ Pages 89-128 
 
 LECTURE V 
 
 Development of the magician into a god as well as a king- — Incarnate 
 human gods in Polynesia, Africa, and ancient Greece and Germany — 
 Worship of the Brahmans in India — Human gods in Tibet and 
 China — Divinity of the emperors of China and Japan — Worship of 
 the kings of Babylon and Egypt — Summary of the evolution of the 
 Kingship — King of the Wood at Nemi again considered — He seems 
 to have been the mate of Diana, the two being considered as King 
 and Queen of the Wood — Trees regarded as male and female — 
 Marriages of trees and plants . .129-159 
 
 LECTURE VI 
 
 Marriage of the powers of vegetation — May King and Queen in Germany 
 and England — Marriage of the gods in ancient Babylon, Egypt, and 
 Greece — Similar rites in ancient Sweden and Gaul — Marriage of 
 water-gods to human brides — Stories of the Perseus and Andromeda 
 type — The Slaying of the Dragon at Furthest. Romain and the 
 Dragon of Rouen . . 160-193 
 
 LECTURE VII 
 
 The Sacred Marriage — Numa and Egeria — Kings of Rome and Alba 
 personified Jupiter, the god of the oak and the thunder — Sacred 
 marriage of Jupiter and Juno perhaps enacted by the King and 
 Queen of Rome — Roman kings regarded as sons of the fire god by 
 his wives the Vestal Virgins — Sacred fires and Vestal Virgins in 
 Ireland and Peru . 194-228 
 
CONTENTS xi 
 
 LECTURE VIII 
 
 Succession to Latin kingship in female line through marriage with king's 
 daughter — Indifference to paternity of kings — African parallels — 
 Sons of kings go abroad and reign in their wives' country — Succession 
 to kingdom through marriage with late king's widow — Evidence of 
 female kinship among European peoples — Roman kings of plebeian or 
 indigenous race — Abolition of kingship at Rome a patrician revolution 
 — Attempt of Tarquin the Proud to alter succession from female to 
 male line — Roman sovereignty partly hereditary, partly elective — 
 Personal qualities required in candidates for kingship — Possession of 
 princess and of crown determined by athletic contest — King's Flight 
 at Rome . Pages 229-264 
 
 LECTURE IX 
 
 The King's Flight at Rome in relation to the Saturnalia — Human repre- 
 sentatives of Saturn killed at the Saturnalia — Violent deaths of Roman 
 kings — Saturn and Jupiter — Summary of conclusions as to the King 
 of the Wood at Nemi — He represented Jupiter or Janus and mated 
 , with Diana — Janus or Dianus and Diana the equivalents of Jupiter 
 and Juno — Reasons for putting the divine king to death — The 
 King of Calicut an Indian parallel to the King of the Wood at 
 Nemi . . . 265-297 
 
 INDEX . 299-309 
 
LECTURE I 
 
 The history of institutions — Methods of the study — Reasons for pre- 
 ferring the inductive method — King of the Wood at Nemi — 
 Characteristics of Diana at Nemi — Conversion of the festival 
 of Diana into a feast of the Virgin Mary — Egeria — Virbius the 
 mate of Diana — Summary of conclusions. 
 
 The subject of these lectures is " The Sacred Character 
 and Magical Functions of Kings in Early Society." But 
 I must warn you at the outset that you will hear much 
 less about kings than from the title of the lectures you 
 might reasonably expect and perhaps wish to hear. 
 The sacred character and magical functions of kings in 
 early society cannot be understood without some know- 
 ledge of those general forms of superstition of which 
 this aspect of the kingship is a particular expression ; 
 above all, we must acquaint ourselves with the elements 
 of primitive magic, since the ancient king was often 
 little more than the chief magician of his tribe. Several 
 lectures will therefore be devoted to explaining and 
 illustrating the elements of magic, and during their 
 discussion the king will apparently be lost sight of 
 entirely. I mention this at the beginning in order to 
 prevent disappointment. For the same reason, I wish 
 
2 THE HISTORT OF INSTITUTIONS lect. 
 
 to say that the greater part, though not the whole, of 
 the lectures will consist merely of fresh examples or 
 illustrations of principles which I have already stated 
 and exemplified elsewhere ; ^ and, lastly, that, apart 
 from a few introductory remarks, the substance of all 
 that I shall say will be published before long in the 
 new edition of my book, which is now in the press. 
 
 Before addressing myself to the special subject of 
 the lectures, I desire to make a hv^ general observations 
 on the method I have followed in them. 
 
 Anthropology, or the study of man, claims a place 
 for itself among the sciences. Of that study or science 
 the history of institutions, with which we are here con- 
 cerned, forms an important branch. It aims at tracing 
 the growth, development, and decay of all human insti- 
 tutions from the earliest to the latest times, not merely 
 recording the facts in chronological order, but referring 
 them to their general causes in the physical and mental 
 constitution of man and the influence of external nature. 
 Now, if we are to pursue this study in a scientific spirit, 
 we must endeavour to investigate the beliefs and customs 
 of mankind with the same rigorous impartiality with 
 which, for example, the zoologist investigates the 
 habits of bees and ants. To attain that impartiality is 
 indeed much harder for the anthropologist than for the 
 zoologist, for the customs and superstitions even of the 
 lowest savages touch us far more nearly than the habits 
 even of the highest animals. The continuity of human 
 development has been such that most, if not all, of the 
 
 ^ The Golden Bough, a Study in Magic and Religion, 2nd edition, London, 1900. 
 
I THE SCIENTIFIC TEMPER 3 
 
 great institutions which still form the framework of 
 civilised society have their roots in savagery, and have 
 been handed down to us in these later days through 
 countless generations, assuming new outward forms in 
 the process of transmission, but remaining in their 
 inmost core substantially unchanged. Such, for 
 example, to take a few conspicuous instances, are the 
 institution of private property, the institution of 
 marriage, the institution of war, and the worship of 
 a god. Differences of opinion may exist, and have 
 existed, as to the precise value of the inheritance ; as to 
 the fact of it there can be none. Thus in treating even 
 of the rudest savages it is not easy, if I may say so, to 
 keep our eyes fixed inflexibly on the object immediately 
 before us. For we seem to be standing at the sources 
 of human history, and it is difficult to exclude from our 
 mind the thought of the momentous consequences which 
 in other ages and other lands have flowed from these 
 simple beginnings, often from these apparently harmless 
 absurdities. And the further we descend the stream of 
 history, and the nearer we approach to our own age and 
 country, the harder it becomes to maintain an impartial 
 attitude in the investigation of institutions which have 
 been fraught with so much happiness and so much 
 misery for mankind. Yet, if we are to succeed in the 
 inquiry, we must endeavour to approach it without 
 prejudice and to pursue it without passion, bearing in 
 mind that our aim is simply the ascertainment of truth, 
 not the apportionment of praise or blame ; that we are 
 not judges, still less advocates, but merely inquirers ; 
 
4 THE 'DEDUCTIVE METHOD lect. 
 
 that it is for us, in the language of Spinoza, humanas 
 actiones non ridere, non lugere, neque detestari, sed 
 intelligere} 
 
 A science which rests on observation, as all the 
 historical sciences necessarily do, may be taught in one 
 of two ways. Either we may begin with a statement 
 of general principles and then proceed to illustrate it by 
 individual cases ; or, on the contrary, we may begin 
 with the individual cases and from a comparison of them 
 with each other may endeavour to elicit those general 
 laws which, in common parlance, are said to govern the 
 particulars. The former is the deductive method, the 
 latter is the inductive. 
 
 Both methods have, like most other things, their 
 respective advantages and disadvantages. The deduc- 
 tive method is, in appearance at least, the more scientific. 
 There is an air of completeness, symmetry, and precision 
 about it which is very taking. It gives us a bird's-eye 
 view of a subject which is easily grasped by the mind 
 and retained by the memory. It is thus admirably 
 adapted for exposition on the side of the teacher, and 
 for learning on the side of the pupil. In other words, 
 it is the best mode of imparting and acquiring informa- 
 tion, whether for the sake of examinations or for higher 
 ends. For such purposes the inductive method is 
 nearly useless. It plunges us at once into such a sea of 
 
 ^ Spinoza, Traclatus PoUtkuSj i. 4 ; " Cum igitur animum ad Politicam appiicuer'iTK^ 
 nihil quod nwum "vel iriauditum est, sed tantum ea, quae cum praxi optime cotrvemunt^ certa 
 et indubitata ratione demonstrare^ out ex ipsa /lumanae naturae conditione deducere intendi ; 
 et ut ea, quae ad hanc scientiam spectant, eadem animi Ubertate^ qua res Matkematicas 
 solemus, tnquirerem, sedulo curavi^ humanas actiones non ridere^ non lugere^ neque detestariy 
 sed intelligere.^^ 
 
I THE INDUCTIVE METHOD 5 
 
 particulars that it is difficult at first to find our bearings, 
 that is, to perceive the general principles which are to 
 reduce this seeming chaos to order. To adopt a 
 common and expressive phrase, it is hard to see the 
 wood for the trees. Yet the serious disadvantage under 
 which the inductive method thus labours is perhaps 
 more than compensated in another direction by one 
 solid advantage — it is the method of discovery. In all 
 sciences which rest on observation, discovery must ulti- 
 mately proceed from the particular to the general, from 
 the isolated observed instances to the abstract conception 
 which binds them together. Apparent exceptions there 
 are, but on examination they will always, I believe, be 
 found to conform to the rule. Thus if the inductive 
 method is unsuited to the acquisition, it is well suited 
 to the extension, of knowledge ; if it does not train a 
 student for examinations, it trains him for research. 
 
 Apart from this general advantage possessed by the 
 inductive method, there is a special reason why anthro- 
 pology should adhere to it at the present time. In 
 order to make a sound induction large collections of 
 facts are necessary ; hence in the inductive sciences it 
 is essential that a period of collection should precede 
 a period of generalisation. Not until great masses of 
 observations have been accumulated and classified do 
 the general laws which pervade them begin to appear 
 on the surface. Now anthropology in general and the 
 history of institutions in particular are still in the 
 collecting stage. The prime want of the study is not 
 so much theories as facts. This is especially true of 
 
6 STUDT OF THE SAVAGE lect. 
 
 that branch of the study which treats of origins ; for, 
 as I have said, most great institutions may be traced 
 back to savagery, and consequently for the early history 
 of mankind the savage is our most precious document. 
 It is only of late years that the document has received 
 the attention it deserves ; and unfortunately it is perish- 
 ing under our eyes. Contact with civilisation is rapidly 
 effacing the old beliefs and customs of the savage, and 
 is thereby obliterating records of priceless value for the 
 history of our race. The most urgent need of anthro- 
 pology at present is to procure accurate accounts of the 
 existing customs and ideas of savages before they have 
 disappeared. When these have been obtained, when 
 the records existing in our libraries have been fully 
 scrutinised, and when the whole body of information 
 has been classified and digested, the philosophic his- 
 torian will be able to formulate, with a fair degree of 
 probability, those general laws which have shaped the 
 intellectual, social, and moral evolution of mankind. 
 
 That will not be done in our day. The great 
 thinkers, the Newtons and Darwins of anthropology, will 
 come after us. It is our business to prepare for them 
 by collecting, sifting, and arranging the records in order 
 that when, in the fulness of time, the master-mind 
 shall arise and survey them, he may be able to ' detect 
 at once that unity in multiplicity, that universal in the 
 particulars, which has escaped us. The duty at present 
 incumbent on the investigator is therefore to rake 
 together the facts, whether, like some of my friends, he 
 goes for them at the peril of his life to savage lands, 
 
I ROUSSEAU'S DREAM 7 
 
 or merely unearths them at his ease from the dust of 
 libraries. The time has gone by when dreamers like 
 Rousseau could reconstruct the history of society out 
 of their own minds, and their dreams could be accepted 
 as visions of a golden age to come, their voices listened 
 to like angel trumpets heralding the advent of a new 
 heaven and a new earth. It is not for the anthro- 
 pologist of to-day to blow these high notes, to build 
 these gay castles in the clouds. His task is the soberer, 
 duller one of laying, in the patient accumulation of 
 facts, the foundations of a structure more solid and 
 enduring than the glittering fantasies of Rousseau's 
 dream. Yet he too may prove in the end to be a 
 pioneer of revolution, a revolution all the surer and 
 more lasting because it will be slow and peaceful. 
 
 Thus the method of anthropology is. induction, 
 and at present its students are engaged in compiling 
 and arranging their materials rather than in evolving 
 general theories out of them. Yet a certain amount 
 of preliminary generalisation is legitimate and indeed 
 necessary. The work even of observation can hardly 
 be accomplished without some intermixture of theory 
 to- direct the observer's attention to points which he 
 might otherwise overlook or regard as too insignifi- 
 cant to be worthy of record. But these provisional 
 hypotheses should be held very loosely ; we must 
 always be ready to modify or discard them when they 
 are found to conflict with fresh evidence. The advance 
 of knowledge in this, as in every other field, consists in 
 a progressive readjustment of theory to fact, of con- 
 
8 OBSTACLES TO STUDT lect. 
 
 ception to perception, of thought to experience ; and 
 as that readjustment, though more and more exact, can 
 never be perfect, the advance is infinite. 
 
 These considerations may serve to justify or at least 
 excuse two features of anthropological books of the 
 present day which are apt to repel students who might 
 otherwise be attracted to the subject. One of these 
 features is the apparently disproportionate space occu- 
 pied by the bare description and cataloguing of facts, 
 which soon pall on the reader by their number and 
 monotony. The other is the unstable, shifting, dis- 
 cordant nature of the theories put forward to explain 
 the facts. Both features are to be regretted, but they 
 can hardly be avoided at the present stage of inquiry. 
 
 The bearing of these remarks lies, as Captain Cuttle 
 profoundly observed, in their application. In my book 
 I have followed the inductive method, and I intend to 
 adhere to it in my lectures. I started without any 
 general theory of the nature and evolution of the king- 
 ship in early society. The rule of one particular Italian 
 kingship had long puzzled me till I happened to meet 
 with a similar rule in southern India which seemed to 
 throw light on the Italian custom. As soon as I began 
 to formulate my explanation of the two, many kindred, 
 but hitherto apparently disconnected, facts came crowd- 
 ing in upon me, offering, as I thought, the materials for 
 a fairly probable induction as to certain aspects of the 
 kingly office in early society. Thus what I at first 
 intended to be merely an explanation of one particular 
 kingship gradually developed into something like a 
 
I THE KING OF THE PFOOD 9 
 
 treatise on the sanctity of the old kings in general. 
 For my purpose it was therefore essential to enumerate 
 and describe in detail the facts on which I based my 
 induction, since for the most part, so far as I am aware, 
 they had not been put together before. I shall follow the 
 same method for the same reasons in my lectures. The 
 principles which I shall discuss will generally be old, 
 and may be trite to some of you. But the evidence 
 by which I shall illustrate them will for the most part 
 be new, by which I only mean that it has not been 
 published before in my book. If you should find the 
 facts which I shall inflict on you even more tedious 
 than my theories, you will have the consolation of 
 remembering that they are incomparably more valuable. 
 The particular case of a sacred kingship which 
 served as the starting-point of my investigation was the 
 priesthood of Diana at Nemi, which combined the 
 regal with the sacred character ; for the priest bore the 
 title of Rex Nemorensis or King of the Wood, and his 
 office was called a kingdom. As my general inquiry 
 into the early kingship thus centres round Nemi, I shall 
 invite your attention to it for a few minutes before we 
 pass to the survey of a wider field. I shall not detain 
 you long on what to some may be familiar ground, and 
 I shall avoid as far as possible all repetition of what I 
 have already published. 
 
 The Alban hills are a fine bold group of volcanic 
 mountains which rise abruptly from the Campagna in 
 full view of Rome, forming the last spur sent out by 
 
lo THE LAKE OF NEMI lect. 
 
 the Apennines towards the sea. Two of the extinct 
 craters are now filled by two beautiful waters, the Alban 
 lake and its lesser sister the lake of Nemi. Both lie 
 far below the monastery-crowned top of Monte Cavo, 
 the summit of the range, but yet so high above the plain 
 that standing on the rim of the larger crater, at Castel 
 Gandolfo, where the popes had their summer palace, 
 you look down on the one hand into the Alban lake, 
 and on the other away across the Campagna to where, 
 on the western horizon, the sea flashes like a broad 
 sheet of burnished gold in the sun. 
 
 The lake of Nemi is still, as of old, embowered in 
 woods, where the wild flowers blow in spring as freshly 
 as no doubt they did two thousand springs ago. It 
 lies so deep down in the old crater that the calm sur- 
 face of its clear water is seldom ruffled by the wind. 
 On ail sides but one the banks, thickly mantled with 
 vegetation, descend steeply to the water's edge. Only 
 on the north a stretch of flat ground intervenes between 
 the lake and the foot of the hills. Here, under the 
 abrupt declivity now crested by the village of Nemi, 
 the sylvan goddess Diana had an old and famous 
 sanctuary, the resort of pilgrims from all parts of 
 Latium. It was known as the sacred grove of Diana 
 Nemorensis, that is, Diana of the Wood, or perhaps 
 more exactly, Diana of the Woodland Glade. Some- 
 times the lake and grove were called, after the nearest 
 town, the lake and grove of Aricia. A spacious terrace 
 or platform, some seven hundred feet long, contained 
 the sanctuary. On the north and east it was bounded 
 
I DIANA'S SHRINE ii 
 
 by great retaining walls which cut into the hillsides and 
 served to support them. Semicircular niches sunk in 
 the walls and faced with columns formed a series of 
 chapels, which in modern times have yielded a rich 
 harvest of votive offerings. Compared with the extent 
 of the sacred precinct, the temple itself was not large ; 
 but its ruins prove it to have been neatly and solidly 
 built of peperino and adorned with Doric columns. 
 Elaborate cornices of marble and friezes of terra-cotta 
 contributed to the outward splendour of the edifice, 
 which appears to have been further enhanced by tiles of 
 gilt bronze.^ 
 
 The great wealth and popularity of the sanctuary in 
 antiquity are attested by ancient writers as well as by 
 the remains which have come to light in modern times. 
 In the civil war its sacred treasures went to replenish the 
 empty coffers of Octavian.^ But we are not told that 
 he treated Diana as civilly as his uncle Julius Cassar 
 once treated Capitoline Jupiter, borrowing three 
 thousand pounds weight of solid gold from the god 
 and scrupulously paying him back in the same weight 
 of gilt copper.^ However, the sanctuary at Nemi 
 recovered from the drain on its resources, for two 
 centuries later it was still reputed one of the richest in 
 
 ' On the excavations at Nemi see Notizie degli Scam for 1885, 1887, 1888, 
 1889, 1895; Bulletim delV Inaituto di Corrispondaiza Archeohgica, 1885, pp. 
 149-157, 225-242; O. Rossbach, in Verhandlungm der iiitrzigsten f^ersammlmg 
 Deutscker Philologen (Leipsic, 1890), pp. 147-164 ; G. H. Wallis, Illuitraud Catalogue 
 of Classical Antiquities from the Site of the Temple of Diana, Nemi, Italy (preface dated 
 1893). 
 
 ^ Appian, Bellum Civile^ v. 24. 
 
 ^ Suetonius, Divus yuUus, 54. 
 
12 THE OFFERINGS OF PILGRIMS lect. 
 
 Italy.^ Ovid has described the walls hung with fillets 
 and commemorative tablets ; ^ and the abundance of 
 cheap votive offerings and copper coins, which the site 
 has yielded in our time, speaks volumes for the piety 
 and numbers, if not for the opulence and liberality, of 
 the worshippers. Swarms of beggars used to stream 
 forth daily from the slums of Aricia and take their 
 stand on the long slope up which the labouring horses 
 dragged well-to-do pilgrims to the shrine ; and accord- 
 ing to the response which their whines and importunities 
 met with they blew kisses or hissed curses after the 
 carriages as they swept rapidly down hill again.^ Even 
 peoples and potentates of the East did homage to the 
 lady of the lake by setting up monuments in her 
 sanctuary ; and within the precinct stood shrines of the 
 Egyptian goddesses Isis and Bubastis, with a store of 
 gorgeous jewellery.* 
 
 The retirement of the spot and the beauty of the 
 landscape naturally tempted some of the luxurious 
 Roman nobles to fix their summer residences by the 
 lake. Here Lucius Cassar had a house to which, on a 
 day in early summer, only two months after the murder 
 of his illustrious namesake, he invited Cicero to meet 
 the assassin Brutus.^ The emperors themselves appear 
 to have been partial to a retreat where they could find 
 
 ^ Appian, loc, cit, 
 
 2 Ovid, Fasti^ iii. 267 sq, 
 
 ' Juvenal, Sat. iv. 117 sq.; Persius, Sat. vi. 56 with the scholiast's note; 
 Martial, Efigr. ii. 19. 3, xii. 32. lo. 
 
 * W. Henzen, in Hermes, vi. (1872), pp. 6-12 ; Corpus Inscripthnum Latlnarum, 
 xiv. 2215, 2216, 2218. 
 
 ^ Cicero, M Atticum, xv. 4. 5. 
 
I THE EMPERORS AT NEMI 13 
 
 repose from the cares of state and the bustle of the 
 great city in the fresh air of the lake and the stillness of 
 the woods. Here Julius Caesar built himself a costly 
 villa, but pulled it down again because it was not to his 
 mind.^ Here Caligula caused two magnificent barges, 
 or rather floating palaces, to be launched for him on the 
 lake ; ^ and it was while dallying in the woods of Nemi 
 that the sluggard Vitellius received those tidings of 
 revolt which woke him from his dream of pleasure and 
 called him to arms.^ Vespasian had a monument dedi- 
 cated to his honour in the grove by the senate and 
 people of Aricia : Trajan condescended to fill the chief 
 magistracy of the town ; and Hadrian indulged in his 
 taste for architecture by restoring a structure which had 
 been erected in the precinct by a prince of the royal 
 house of Parthia.* 
 
 Such, then, was the sanctuary of Diana at Nemi, a 
 fitting home for the " mistress of mountains and forests 
 green and lonely glades and sounding rivers," as Catullus 
 calls her.* 
 
 Multitudes of her statuettes, appropriately clad in 
 the short tunic and high buskins of a huntress, with the 
 quiver slung over her shoulder, have been found on the 
 spot. Some of them represent her with her bow in her 
 hand or her hound at her side. Bronze and iron spears, 
 and images of stags and hinds, discovered within the 
 
 ^ Suetonius, Divus j^uiius, 46. 
 
 2 Notmie degli Scam, 1895, pp. 361-396, 461-474; R. Lanciani, New Tales of 
 Old Same (London, 1901), pp. 205-214. 
 
 * Tacitus, Hhtor. iii. 36. * C.l.L. liv. 2213, 2216, 4191. 
 
 ^ Catullus, xxxiv. 9 i^^. 
 
14 THE HUNTRESS GODDESS lect. 
 
 precinct, may have been the offerings of huntsmen to 
 the huntress goddess for success in the chase. Similarly 
 the bronze tridents, which have come to light at Nemi, 
 were perhaps presented by fishermen who had speared 
 fish in the lake, or maybe by hunters who had stabbed 
 boars in the forest. For the wild boar was still hunted 
 in Italy down to the end of the first century of our 
 era. The younger Pliny tells us how, with his usual 
 pretty affectation, he sat meditating and reading by the 
 nets, while three fine boars fell into them.^ Indeed, 
 some fourteen hundred years later boar-hunting was a 
 favourite pastime of Pope Leo the Tenth.^ A few rude 
 images of cows, oxen, horses, and pigs dug up on the 
 site may perhaps indicate that Diana was here worshipped 
 as the patroness of domestic animals as well as of the 
 wild creatures of the wood. In like manner her Greek 
 counterpart, Artemis, was a goddess not only of game 
 but of herds. Thus her sanctuary in the highlands of 
 north-western Arcadia, between Clitor and Cynasthae, 
 owned sacred cattle which were driven off by Aetolian 
 freebooters on one of their forays.^ When Xenophon 
 returned from the wars and settled on his estate among 
 the wooded hills and green meadows of the rich valley 
 through which the Alpheus flows past Olympia, he 
 dedicated to Artemis a little temple on the model of her 
 great temple at Ephesus, surrounded it with a grove ot 
 all kinds of fruit-trees, and endowed it not only with a 
 chase but also with a sacred pasture. The chase 
 
 ' Pliny, Efist. i. 6. 
 ^ W. Roscoe, Life and Pontificate of Leo the Tenth,^ iv. 376. 
 ® Polybius, Hist. iv. 18 and 19. 
 
I ANCIENT ITALY 15 
 
 abounded in fish and game of all sorts, and the pasture 
 sufficed to rear swine, goats, oxen, and horses ; and at 
 her yearly festival the pious soldier sacrificed to the 
 goddess a tithe both of the cattle from the sacred 
 pasture and of the game from the sacred chase.^ Again, 
 the people of Hyampolis in Phocis worshipped Artemis 
 and thought that no cattle throve like those which they 
 dedicated to her.^ Perhaps, then, the images of cattle 
 found in Diana's precinct at Nemi were offered to her 
 by herdsmen to ensure her blessing on their herds. 
 
 So to the last, in spite of a few villas peeping out 
 here and there among the trees, Nemi seems to have 
 remained in some sense an image of what Italy had 
 been in the far - off days when the land was still 
 sparsely peopled with tribes of savage hunters or 
 wandering herdsmen, when the beechwoods and oak- 
 woods, with their deciduous foliage, reddening in 
 autumn and bare in winter, had not yet begun, under 
 the hand of man, to yield to the evergreens of the south, 
 the laurel, the olive, the cypress, and the oleander, still 
 less to those intruders of a later age, which nowadays 
 we are apt to think of as characteristically Italian, the 
 lemon and the orange.^ 
 
 Kennst du das Land, wo die Citronen blilhn, 
 Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen gluhn, 
 Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht. 
 Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht ? 
 Kennst du es wohl? 
 
 ^ Xenophon, Anabasis, v. 3. 4-13. 
 
 2 Pausanias, x. 35. 7- 
 
 ^ V. Hehn, Kulturpfianzen und Hausthkre^ (Berlin, 1902), pp. 520 sy. 
 
1 6 THE PRIEST OF NEMI 
 
 But that is modern rather than ancient Italy. 
 
 However, it was not merely in its natural surround- 
 ings that this ancient shrine of the sylvan goddess 
 continued to be a type or miniature of the past. 
 Down to the decline of Rome a custom was observed 
 here which seems to transport us at once from 
 civilisation to savagery. The priest of the goddess 
 bore the title of king, and his office was called a 
 kingdom, but his tenure of the throne was a singular 
 one. He was a runaway slave, who succeeded to 
 office by slaying his predecessor, and he held it only 
 so long as he could make good his title in single 
 combat against all assailants. Any fugitive slave who 
 contrived to break a branch from a certain tree in 
 the grove had the right to fight the priest, and if 
 he killed him he reigned in his stead. Naturally, 
 therefore, the priest kept watch and ward over that 
 tree. The Greek geographer Strabo, who appears 
 to have seen him, describes him as always sword in 
 hand, always on the alert.^ His eyes probably acquired 
 that restless, watchful look which, among the Esquimaux 
 of Bering Strait, is said to betray infallibly the shedder 
 of blood ; for with that people revenge is a sacred duty, 
 and the manslayer carries his life in his hand.^ 
 
 Of the worship of Diana at Nemi there are two 
 features of special importance which I would ask you 
 
 1 Strabo, v. 3. 12 ; Ovid, Fasti, iii. 271 sq. ; id., Ars Am. i. 259 sq. ; Statius, 
 Syl-u. iii. 1. 55 sq. ; Suetonius, Caligula, 35 ; Solinus, ii. 11 ; Pausanias, ii. 27.4; 
 Servius, on Virgil, Aen. vi. 136, 
 
 2 E. W. Nelson, " The Eskimo about Bering Strait," Eighteenth Annual Report of 
 the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part I. (Washington, 1899), p. 293. 
 
I DIANA'S FIRE 17 
 
 to bear in mind. In the first place, the votive offerings 
 found on the spot prove that the goddess was believed 
 to bless men and women with offspring and to grant 
 expectant mothers an easy delivery.^ In the second 
 place, fire seems to have played a foremost part in 
 her ritual. At her annual festival of the thirteenth 
 of August her grove was illuminated, and women 
 whose prayers had been heard by her came crowned 
 with wreaths and bearing lighted torches to the 
 sanctuary in fulfilment of their vows.^ Some one 
 unknown dedicated a perpetually burning lamp in a 
 little shrine at Nemi for the safety of the Emperor 
 Claudius and his family.^ The terra-cotta lamps which 
 have been discovered in the grove * may perhaps have 
 served a like purpose for humbler persons. If so, the 
 analogy of the custom to the Catholic practice of 
 dedicating holy candles in churches would be obvious. 
 
 Moreover, the title of Vesta borne by Diana at 
 Nemi ^ points clearly to the maintenance of a perpetual 
 holy fire in her sanctuary. A large circular basement 
 at the north-east corner of the temple, raised on three 
 steps and bearing traces of a mosaic pavement, probably 
 supported a round temple of Diana in her character of 
 
 ^ Graevius, Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum, xii, col. 808 ; Bulletino del- 
 P Inst, di Corrisf. Arch. 1885, pp. 183 sq. ; Notixie degli Scavi, 1S85, pp. 160, 254 ; 
 id., 1895, p. 424 ; O. Rossbach, of. cit. p. 160 ; G. H. Wallis, op. cit. pp. 4, 15, 17. 
 
 ^ Statius, Syl-u. iii. i. 52-60 ; Gratius Faliscus, Cynegeticim, i. 484 sq. ; Ovid, 
 Fasti, iii. 269 sj, ; Propertius, iii. 24 (30), 9 sq., ed. Paley, As to tlie 13th of 
 August as Diana's day, see Festus, p. 343, ed. C. O. MUUer ; Martial, xii. 67. 2 ; 
 Aasoams, De firiis Romanis, 5 sq. ; C.I.L. xiv. 21 12; W. Warde Fowler, Roman 
 Festivals of the period of the Republic, p. 198, 
 
 ' Notizie degli Scam, 1888, pp. 193 sq. ; 0. Rossbach, op. cit. p. 164. 
 
 * G. H. Wallis, op. cit. pp. 24-26. 
 
 ' C.I.L. xiv. 2213. 
 
 C 
 
1 8 DIANAS DAY lect. 
 
 Vesta, like the round temple of Vesta in the Roman 
 forum.^ The true character of this circular basement 
 was first perceived and pointed out by my acute and 
 learned friend Mr. A. B. Cook.^ Previous writers 
 had taken it for an altar or pedestal. The sacred fire 
 at Nemi would seem to have been tended by Vestal 
 Virgins, for the head of a Vestal in terra-cotta was 
 found on the spot,^ and the worship of a perpetual fire, 
 cared for by holy maidens, appears to have been 
 common in Latium from the earliest to the latest 
 times.* For example, we know that among the ruins 
 of Alba Longa the Vestal fire was kept burning by 
 Vestal Virgins to the end of the fourth century of our 
 era.* 
 
 At the annual festival of Diana, which was held all 
 over Italy on the thirteenth of August, hunting dogs 
 were crowned and wild beasts were not molested ; 
 wine was brought forth, and the feast consisted of a 
 kid, cakes, and apples still hanging in clusters on the 
 boughs.* The Christian Church appears to have 
 sanctified this great festival of the virgin goddess by 
 adroitly converting it into the festival of the 
 Assumption of the Blessed Virgin on the fifteenth 
 of August.^ The discrepancy of two days between 
 
 ' Notizie degli Scam, 1885, p. 478 ; O. Rossbach, ef. cit. p. 158 ; G. H. Wallis, 
 cp. cit, pp. 9 iq, 
 
 ^ Classical Review, October 1902, p. 376. 
 
 ^ G. H. Wall is, op. cit. p. 30. 
 
 * J. Marquardt, RSmische Staatsverivaltung, iii.^ ^jG. 
 
 ^ Juvenal, iv. 60 jy. ; Asconius, In Milonianem, p. 35, ed, Kiesseling and Schoell ; 
 Symmachus, Epist. ix. 128 and 129 ; C.I.L. vi. 2172, xiv. 4120. 
 
 ^ Statius, Sylvae, iii. 1. 55 sqq. ; Gratius Faliscus, Cynegeticon, \. 483-492. 
 
 ' J. Rendel Harris, The Anmtators of the Codex Besiac CLonAon, 1901), pp. 93-102. 
 
I ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 19 
 
 the dates of the festivals is not a fatal argument against 
 their identity ; for a similar displacement of two days 
 occurs in the case of St. George's festival on the twenty- 
 third of April, which is most probably identical with the 
 ancient Roman festival of the Parilia on April twenty- 
 first.^ As to the reasons which prompted this con- 
 version of the festival of the Virgin Diana into the 
 festival of the Virgin Mary some light is thrown by 
 the records of the Eastern Church. Thus in the 
 Syriac text of the treatise called The Departure of my 
 Lady Mary from this World an account is given of the 
 reasons which led to the institution of the festival of 
 the Assumption of the Virgin in August. In the 
 English version of the treatise the passage runs thus : 
 "And the apostles ordered also that there should be 
 a commemoration of the blessed one on the thirteenth 
 of Ab [that is, August : observe that the thirteenth 
 of August is Diana's own day ; another manu- 
 script or manuscripts read on the fifteenth of Ab], 
 on account of the vines bearing bunches (of grapes), 
 and on account of the trees bearing fruit, that clouds of 
 hail, bearing stones of wrath, might not come, and the 
 trees be broken, and their fruits, and the vines with 
 their clusters." ^ Here you will observe that the 
 festival of the Assumption of the Virgin is definitely 
 said to have been fixed on the thirteenth or fifteenth of 
 August for the sake of protecting the ripening grapes 
 
 ' The evidence for this identification will be given in the third edition of The 
 Golden Rough. 
 
 '^ The Journal of Sacred Literature, New Series, vii. (1865), p. 153. 
 
20 THE FESTIVAL OF THE VINES lect. 
 
 and other fruits. This interesting passage was pointed 
 out to me by my learned friend Mr. Rendel Harris. 
 Since then I find that an inference of the same sort has 
 been drawn independently from this passage by the late 
 Professor Lucius of Strasburg in a book published at 
 the end of last year, where he reinforces the argument 
 by other evidence.^ Thus he points out that in the 
 calendars of the Syrian Church the fifteenth of August 
 is repeatedly designated as the Festival of the Mother 
 of God for the vines, and that in the Arabic text of the 
 apocryphal work On the passing of the Blessed Virgin 
 Mary, attributed to the Apostle John, there occurs the 
 following passage : "Also a festival in her honour was 
 instituted on the fifteenth day of the month Ab [that 
 is, August], which is the day of her passing from this 
 world, the day on which the miracles were performed, 
 and the time when the fruits of trees are ripening." ^ 
 Now we hear of vineyards and plantations dedicated to 
 Artemis, fruits offered to her, and her temple standing 
 in an orchard.* Hence we may conjecture that her 
 Italian sister Diana was also revered as a patroness of 
 vines and fruit-trees, and that on the thirteenth of 
 August the owners of vineyards and orchards paid their 
 respects to her at Nemi in order to ensure the safety of 
 the ripening fruit. We have just seen that wine and 
 
 ' E. Lucius, Die jlnfStigc dei Heiligenkults in der christlichen Kirchc (Tflbingen, 
 1904), pp. 488 sq., 521. The writer appears to have overlooked the occurrence of 
 Diana's day on the 13th of August. 
 
 ^ Johanni jiposioli de transitu Beatac Mariae firginis Liter : ex recensione et cum 
 interpretatione Maximiliani Engeri (Elberfeldae, 1854), pp. loi, 103. 
 
 3 Pauly - Wissowa, Real ■ SncyclcfUdie der clasmchen tVissemchaften, ii. 1342- 
 Pausanias, vii. 18. 12 ; Xenophon, Artabasis, v. 3. 12. 
 
I THE FESTIVAL OF ANAITIS 21 
 
 apples still hanging on the boughs were part of the 
 festal cheer on that day. We know, too, that Diana 
 was believed to fill the husbandman's barns with a 
 bounteous harvest/ and in a series of gems, she is repre- 
 sented with a branch of fruit in one hand, and a cup, 
 which is sometimes full of fruit, in the other .^ Even in 
 Scandinavia a relic of the worship of Diana survived 
 in the custom of blessing the fruits of the earth of 
 every sort, which in Catholic times was annually 
 observed at the festival of the Assumption of the 
 Virgin on the fifteenth of August.^ 
 
 There is, I need hardly say, no intrinsic improb- 
 ability in the view that for the sake of edification the 
 Church may have converted a real heathen festival 
 into a nominal Christian one. My learned friend Mr. 
 F. C. Conybeare of Oxford has furnished me with an 
 undoubted instance of such a transformation. He tells 
 me that in the Armenian Church, " according to the 
 express evidence of the Armenian fathers of the year 
 700 and later, the day of the Virgin was placed on 
 September the fifteenth, because that was the day of 
 Anahite, the magnificence of whose feast the Christian 
 doctors hoped thereby to transfer to Mary." This 
 Anahite or Anaitis, as the Greeks called her, the 
 Armenian predecessor of the Virgin Mary, was a 
 great Oriental goddess whose worship was exceedingly 
 popular not only in Armenia but in the adjoining 
 
 ^ Catullus, xxxiv. 17 jyy, 
 
 ^ Fnrtvrinsler, Die aittiken Gemmen, iii. 231, with plates xx. 66, xxii. 18, 26, 30, 
 32, all cited by Mr. A. B. Cook, Classical Review, October 1902, p. 378, note 4. 
 ' Olaus Magnus, Hisloria de Gentium Septentrionalium -variis conditiotiihus, xvi. 9. 
 
22 THE NTMPH EGERIA lect. 
 
 countries. The character of her rites is plainly in- 
 dicated by Strabo,^ himself a native of these regions. 
 
 A mythical personage of some interest and import- 
 ance at Nemi was the water-nymph Egeria. The 
 purling of her stream as it flowed over the pebbles is 
 mentioned by Ovid, who tells us that he had often 
 drunk of its water.^ Women with child used to 
 sacrifice to Egeria, because she was believed, like 
 Diana, to be able to grant them an easy delivery.^ 
 Tradition ran that the nymph had been the wife or 
 mistress of the wise king Numa, that he had consorted 
 with her in the secrecy of the sacred grove, and that 
 the laws which he gave the Romans had been inspired 
 by commune with her divinity.* Plutarch compares 
 the legend with other tales of the loves, of goddesses 
 for mortal men, such as the loves of Cybele and 
 the Moon for the fair youths Attis and Endymion. 
 According to some, the trysting-place of the lovers 
 Numa and Egeria was not in the woods of Nemi, 
 but at Rome, in a grove outside the dripping Porta 
 Capena, where another sacred spring of Egeria gushed 
 from a dark cavern.^ Every day the Roman Vestals 
 
 ^ Strabo, xi. 8. 12, xi. 14. 16, xii. 3. 37. 
 
 " Virgil, Aen. vii. 762 s^q. ; Ovid, Fasti, iii. 273 jyy. ; id., Metam. xv. 482 sqq. ; 
 Strabo, v. 3. 12. 
 
 2 Festus, p. 77, ed. C. O. MiiUer. 
 
 * Ovid, Fasti, iii. 273 sqq. ; id., Metam. xv. 482 sqq. ; Cicero, De Ugibus, 
 i. 1.4; Livy, i. 19. 5, i. 21. 3 ; Plutarch, Numa, 4, 8, 13, 15 ; Dionysius Halicarn. 
 Antiquit. Roman, ii. 60 sq. ; Juvenal, Sat. iii. 12 ; Lactantius, Di-vin. Inst. i. 22 j 
 Servius, on Virgil, Aen. vii. 763. 
 
 ^ Juvenal, Sat. iii. 10 sqq. ; Livy, i. 21. 3. As to the position of this grove and 
 spring see O. Gilbert, Geschichte und Topografhie der Stadt Rom im Altertum, i. 109 
 sqq., ii. 152 sqq.; O. Richter, Tofographie der Stadt Rom^ (Munich, 1902), pp. 
 342 sq. 
 
I THE WJTER OF EGERIA 23 
 
 fetched water from this spring to wash the temple of 
 Vesta, carrying it in earthenware pitchers on their 
 heads.^ In Juvenal's time the natural rock had been 
 encased in marble, and the hallowed spot was profaned 
 by gangs of poor Jews, who were suffered to squat, 
 like gypsies, in the grove. We may suppose that the 
 spring which fell into the lake of Nemi was the true 
 original Egeria, and that when the first settlers moved 
 down from the Alban hills to the banks of the Tiber 
 they brought the nymph with them and found a new 
 home for her in a grove outside the gates. 
 
 The remains of baths which have been discovered 
 within the sacred precinct,^ together with many terra- 
 cotta models of various parts of the human body, 
 suggest that the waters of Egeria were perhaps used 
 to heal the sick, who may have declared their hopes 
 or testified their gratitude by dedicating likenesses 
 of the diseased members to the goddess, in accordance 
 with a practice which still prevails in many parts of 
 Europe. To this day it would seem that the spring 
 of Egeria retains medicinal virtues.^ 
 
 Here I may mention a fine double bust in marble of 
 two water-gods which has been found in the precinct at 
 Nemi. Their heads are turned back to back. One 
 of them is that of a bearded man, the other that of a 
 beardless youth. Their matted hair is tossed wildly 
 about and seems clogged with moisture ; fins spring 
 
 ^ Plutarch, Numa, 13 ; compare Propertius, v. 4. 15 sq. ; Ovid, Fasti, iii. 
 11-14. 
 
 ^ O. Rossbach, op. cit. p. 151 ; compare C.I.L. xiv. 4190. 
 ' R. Lanciani, in Athmaum, October 10, 1885, p. 477. 
 
24 VIRBIUS AND HIPPOLTTUS lect. 
 
 from their brows and from the mouth of the younger ; 
 water-plants cling to their breasts, and similar plants 
 or fish-scales to their cheeks. Both have that wild 
 and troubled look which the ancient artists, with their 
 exquisite taste, loved to give to divinities of the fickle 
 and restless element. The busts are probably the 
 work of a skilful artist of the first century of our era. 
 Inscriptions seem to prove that they were dedicated 
 to Diana.'' 
 
 The last of the mythical beings at Nemi to whom 
 I have to ask your attention is Virbius. Legend had 
 it that Virbius was no other than the young Greek 
 hero Hippolytus whose story is familiar to you all. 
 Two points in it must be borne in mind ; first, he was 
 the favourite of Artemis, the Greek equivalent of 
 Diana, and second, he was killed by his horses, which 
 dragged him at their hoofs to death. But his divine 
 mistress, so runs the tale, had Hippolytus brought 
 to life again, and transported him to the woods of 
 Nemi, where she entrusted him to the nymph Egeria. 
 There he reigned as a king under the name of Virbius, 
 and there he dedicated a sacred precinct to his patroness 
 Diana.^ As to the real character of this mythical 
 Virbius the ancients appear to have been doubtful. 
 Some thought that he was the sun. "But the truth 
 is," says Servius, "that he is a deity associated 
 
 ' W. Helbig, in Noti%ie degli Scavi, 1885, p. 227 ; O. Rossbach, op. cit. p. 159; 
 G. H. Wallis, op. cit. pp. 32 s^. 
 
 ^ Virgil, jien. vii. 761 s^q., with the commentary of Servius ; Ovid, Fasti, Hi. 
 263 sjq., vi. 735 s^^. ; id., Metam. xv. 497 sqq. ; Scholiast on Persius, Sat. vi. 56, 
 PP- 347 '7-1 cd. O. Jahn ; Pausanias, ii. 27. 4 ; ApoUodorus, iii. 10. 3 ; Scholiast on 
 Pindar, Pyth. iii. 96. 
 
I SAINT HIPPOLYTUS 25 
 
 with Diana, as Attis is associated with the Mother 
 of the Gods, and Erichthonius with Minerva, and 
 Adonis with Venus." ^ This statement of the old 
 commentator on Virgil I believe to be of the utmost 
 importance for the understanding both of the Arician 
 worship in general and of the extraordinary rule of 
 succession to the priesthood in particular. I greatly 
 regret that in former editions of my book I missed its 
 significance entirely. The view which it implies of 
 the character of Virbius will form the pivot on which 
 a good deal of our subsequent researches will revolve. 
 Here I will only remark that in his long and chequered 
 career this mythical personage — Hippolytus or Virbius 
 — has displayed a remarkable tenacity of life. For we 
 can hardly doubt that the Saint Hippolytus of the 
 Roman calendar, who was dragged by horses to death 
 on the thirteenth of August, Diana's own day, is no 
 other than the Greek hero of the same name, who, 
 after dying twice over as a heathen sinner, has been 
 happily resuscitated as a Christian saint.^ The merit 
 of tracing the saint's pedigree belongs to Mr. Rendel 
 Harris, who has distinguished himself by other kindred 
 researches in this department of sacred history.^ 
 
 We can now perhaps understand why the ancients 
 identified Hippolytus, the companion of Artemis, with 
 Virbius, who, according to Servius, stood to Diana 
 
 ^ Servius on V\r%i\, Am. vii. 761. 
 
 2 P. Ribadeneira, Flos Sanctorum (Venice, 1763), ii. 93 sq.; Acta Sanctorum, 
 August 13, pp. 4 sqq. (Paris and Rome, 1867). Prudentius lias drawn » picture 
 of the imaginary martyrdom which might melt the stoniest heart {Perhteph. xi. pp. 
 282 tqq., ed. Th. Obbarius). 
 
 ' J. Rendel Harris, Annotators of Codex Bezac (London, 1901), pp. loi sq. 
 
26 DIANA'S MATE lect. 
 
 as Adonis to Venus, or Attis to Cybele. For Diana, 
 like Artemis, appears to have been originally a goddess 
 of fertility in general and of childbirth in particular.^ 
 As such she, like her Greek counterpart, needed a 
 male partner. That partner, if Servius is right, was 
 Virbius. In his character of the founder of the sacred 
 grove and first king of Nemi, Virbius is clearly the 
 mythical predecessor* or archetype of the line of priests 
 who served Diana under the title of Kings of the 
 Wood, and who came, one after the other, to a violent 
 end.^ It is natural, therefore, to conjecture that these 
 priestly kings stood to the goddess of the grove in the 
 same relation in which Virbius stood to her ; in short, 
 that the mortal King of the Wood had for his queen 
 the woodland Diana herself.^ 
 
 Reviewing the evidence as a whole, we may conclude 
 that the worship of Diana in her sacred grove at Nemi 
 was of great importance and immemorial antiquity ; 
 that she was revered as the goddess of woodlands and 
 of wild creatures, probably also of domestic cattle and 
 of the fruits of the earth ; that she was believed to 
 bless men and women with offspring and to aid mothers 
 in childbed ; "that her holy fire, tended by chaste 
 virgins, burned perpetually in a round temple within 
 the precinct ; that associated with her was a water- 
 nymph Egeria, who discharged one of Diana's own 
 
 ^ See, for example, CatuUus's fine poem on her (No. xxxiv.). 
 
 ^ This was pointed out long ago by P. Buttmann [Mythologus, ii. 151). 
 
 ^ Seneca speaks of Diana as " regina nemorum " or " Queen of the Woods " 
 {Hiffolytus, 406), perhaps with a reminiscence of the Rex Nemortmis, as Mr. A. B. 
 Cook has suggested [Classical RevietVj October 1902, p. 373, /*. 3). 
 
I VIRBIUS AT NEMI 27 
 
 functions by succouring women in travail, and who was 
 popularly supposed to have mated with an old Roman 
 king in the sacred grove ; further, that Diana of the 
 Wood herself had a male companion, Virbius by name, 
 who was to her what Adonis was to Venus, or Attis to 
 Cybele ; and, lastly, that this mythical Virbius was 
 represented in historical times by a line of priests 
 known as the Kings of the Wood, who regularly 
 perished by the swords of their successors, and whose 
 lives were in a manner bound up with a certain tree in 
 the grove, because, so long as that tree was uninjured, 
 they were safe from attack. 
 
 This ends what I have to say on Nemi for the 
 present. In the next lecture we shall begin our study 
 of the general principles of magic. 
 
LECTURE II 
 
 Priestly kings in antiquity — Relation of Spartan kings to Castor 
 and Pollux — Incarnate gods — Kings as magicians — Principles 
 of magic — Law of Similarity and Law of Contact — Homoeo- 
 pathic Magic and Contagious Magic — Both included under 
 Sympathetic Magic — Examples of Homoeopathic Magic — 
 Magical images — Cures based on Homoeopathic Magic — Use 
 of Homoeopathic Magic in hunting and fishing — Negative 
 Magic or taboo — Savage belief in magical telepathy. 
 
 In the last lecture we began our consideration of the 
 position of the king in early society. I indicated briefly 
 that the character of sanctity which attaches to the king- 
 ship among many savage and barbarous peoples is a pro- 
 duct of certain primitive modes of thought and of habits 
 based on them, which are very alien to our ways of 
 thinking arid acting, and can only be understood after 
 long and patient study. Instead of attempting to lay 
 down a general scheme of the development of the sacred 
 kingship in early society, I took as the starting-point of 
 our inquiries a particular example of the institution, 
 namely, the titular kingship of the priests of Diana at 
 Nemi ; and I think that this mode of proceeding may 
 be justified, not only by the greater definiteness and 
 precision which we attain by considering an abstract 
 problem in a concrete form, but also by the many 
 
 28 
 
LECT. II PRIESTLT KINGS 29 
 
 interesting questions which are raised by this particular 
 kingship. In the present lecture I propose to begin the 
 examination of these questions. They can only be 
 adequately answered by the comparative method, and 
 accordingly, leaving Nemi and the King of the Wood 
 behind for the present, we must now look about for 
 other examples of sacred kingships and try to discover 
 the ideas on which the institution is based. 
 
 In the first place, then, we saw that the King of the 
 Wood at Nemi, though he bore the kingly title, was, in 
 historical times at any rate, much more a priest than a 
 king. Now this union of priestly duties with a royal 
 title was common in classical antiquity. Rome and 
 Athens furnish the most familiar examples of the 
 practice, but it existed also in many other places. In 
 Greece the duties of these priestly kings, as we learn 
 from Aristotle, were especially associated with the 
 Common Hearth of the city.^ In the island of Cos, for 
 example, the titular king sacrificed to Hestia, the god- 
 ■ dess of the hearth, the equivalent of the Italian Vesta ; 
 and he received the hide and one leg of the victim as 
 his perquisite.^ In Mytilene the kings, of whom there 
 were several, invited to banquets at the Common 
 Hearth those guests whom the state delighted to 
 honour.* In Chios also there were several kings, and 
 if any herdsman or shepherd drove his cows, his sheep, 
 or his swine to pasture in a sacred grove, the first person 
 
 ' Aristotle, Politics, viii. (vi.) 8. 20, p. 1322 b 26 sqq. 
 
 ^ Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum^ No. 616; Ch. Michel, Recueil 
 a'lmcriptiom Grecques, No. 716, 
 
 ' Ch. Michel, Recueil, Nos. 356, 357. 
 
30 PRIESTLY KINGS lect. 
 
 who witnessed the transgression was bound to denounce 
 the transgressor to the kings, under pain of incurring 
 the divine wrath and, what perhaps was more serious, 
 of having to pay a fine to the offended deity.^ 
 In the same island the king was charged with the duty 
 of pronouncing the public curses,^ a spiritual weapon of 
 which much use was made by the ancients. For 
 example, in Teos, public curses were levelled at any one 
 who should prevent the importation of corn into the 
 country. " If any man," so ran the curse, " shall by 
 any manner of means prevent the importation of corn 
 into the land of the Teans, may he perish, he and his 
 family." ^ But that, I need hardly inform you, was in 
 the dark ages, before the invention of tariff reform. 
 The Teans, it is obvious, were " free-fooders." 
 
 You will observe that all these titular kings whom I 
 have mentioned held office in republican states. The 
 general opinion of the ancients seems to have been that 
 such priestly kingships were instituted after the abolition 
 of the monarchy in order to offer the sacrifices and to 
 discharge the religious duties which had formerly fallen 
 within the province of the real king.* The view is not 
 improbable in itself, and it is moreover confirmed by a 
 case in which the descendants of the old kings are 
 known as a matter of history to have retained a shadowy 
 
 ' Dittenberger, 5y//rJg-«,^ No. 570 ; Ch. Michel, Recutil, No. 707. 
 
 ^ P. Cauer, DiUctus Imcriftionum Graecarum^ No. 496 ; Ch. Michel, Reciuil, No. 
 1383. 
 
 ' P. Cauer, op. cit. No. 480 ; Ch. Michel, op. cit. No. 1318. 
 
 ■• Aristotle, Politics, iii. 14. 13, p. 1285 b 14 sjj.; Demosthenes, Contra Neacr. 
 ■§§ 74 m- P- '37° i Plutarch, Sluaeu. Rom. 63 ; Livy, ii. a. i ; Dionysius Halicarn. 
 .^tttiquit. Rom. iv. 74. 4. 
 
II PRIESTLT KINGS 31 
 
 royalty after the real power had departed from them. 
 At Ephesus the descendants of the Ionian kings, who 
 traced their pedigree to Codrus, king of Athens, kept 
 the title of king and certain privileges, such as the right 
 to a seat of honour at the games, to wear a purple robe 
 and carry a staff instead of a sceptre, and to preside at 
 the rites of Eleusinian Demeter.'' So at Cyrene, when 
 the monarchy was abolished, the deposed King Battus 
 was assigned certain domains and allowed to retain some 
 priestly functions.^ 
 
 Thus the classical evidence points to the conclusion 
 that in prehistoric ages, before the rise of the republican 
 form of government, the various tribes or cities were 
 ruled by kings, who discharged priestly duties and 
 probably enjoyed a sacred character as descendants of 
 deities. This conclusion is borne out by the example 
 of Sparta, where the monarchy survived to historical 
 times. For there the two kings were believed to be 
 descended from the supreme god Zeus ; as his offspring 
 they offered all the state sacrifices, received a share of 
 the victims, and held the priesthood of Zeus, one of 
 them acting as priest of Zeus Lacedasmon, the other as 
 priest of Heavenly Zeus.^ 
 
 This combination of royal authority with priestly 
 functions is common in many parts of the world and 
 hardly calls for illustration. To take a single example, 
 among the Matabeles of South Africa the king is at the 
 
 ^ Strabo, xiv. i. 3. 
 ^ Herodotus, iv. 162. 
 
 3 Herodotus, vi. 56 j Xenophon, Respub. Lacedaem, 15, compare id. 13 ; Aris- 
 totle, Politics, iii. 14. 3, p. 1285 a 3 sjq. 
 
32 THE SPARTAN KINGS lect. 
 
 same time high-priest. Every year he offers sacrifices 
 at the great and the little dance, and also at the festival 
 of the new fruits, which ends these dances. On these 
 occasions he prays to the spirits of his forefathers and 
 likewise to his own spirit ; for it is from these higher 
 powers that he expects every blessing.^ 
 
 This example is instructive, because it shows that the 
 king is something more than a priest. He prays not 
 only to the spirits of his fathers, but to his own spirit. 
 He is clearly raised above the common standard of mere 
 humanity ; there is something divine about him. 
 Similarly, we may suppose that the Spartan kings were 
 regarded not merely as descended from the great god 
 Zeus but also as partaking of his divine spirit. This is 
 clearly indicated by a curious Spartan belief mentioned 
 by Herodotus, to which I do not remember that 
 attention has been paid by modern writers. The old 
 historian tells us that formerly both the Spartan kings 
 went forth with the army to battle, but that in later 
 times a rule was made that when one king marched out 
 to fight, the other should stay at home. " And 
 accordingly," says Herodotus, " one of the kings 
 remaining at home, one of the Tyndarids is left there 
 too ; for hitherto both of them were invoked and 
 followed the kings." ^ The Tyndarids, I need hardly 
 say, are the heavenly twins, Castor and Pollux, the sons 
 of Zeus. The belief described by Herodotus clearly 
 
 1 Father Croonenberghs, "La Mission du Zambeze," Missions Catioligues, liv. 
 {1882), p. 453. 
 
 ^ Herodotus, v. 75. 
 
11 CASTOR AND POLLUX 33 
 
 implies that one of these divine beings was supposed to 
 be in constant attendance on each of the two Spartan 
 kings, staying with them where they stayed and going 
 with them wherever they went. From this we may 
 reasonably infer that they were thought to aid the 
 kings, their kinsmen, with their advice and counsel in 
 time of need. Now Castor and Pollux are commonly 
 represented as spearmen, and they were constantly 
 associated or identified, not only with stars, but also 
 with those lurid lights which, in an atmosphere charged 
 with electricity, are sometimes seen to play round the 
 mastheads of ships under a murky sky. Moreover, 
 similar lights were observed by the ancients to glitter in 
 the darkness on the points of spears. Pliny tells us 
 that he had seen such lights flickering on the spears of 
 Roman sentinels as they paced their rounds by night in 
 front of the camp ; ^ and it is said that Cossacks, riding 
 across the steppes on stormy nights, perceive glimmer- 
 ings of the same sort at their lance-heads.^ Since, 
 therefore, the divine brothers Castor and Pollux were 
 believed to be in constant attendance on the Spartan 
 kings, it seems not impossible that they may have been 
 thought to accompany the march of a Spartan army, 
 appearing in the twilight or in the darkness either as 
 stars in the sky or as the sheen of spears on earth. It 
 might further be worth while to consider how far the 
 stories of the appearance of the heavenly twins in battle, 
 charging on their milk-white steeds at the head of the 
 
 1 Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. loi. Compare Seneca, Sjiaest. Natur. i. i. 14. 
 ^ Potocki, Voyages dans Us steps d' Astrakhan et du Cnucase, i. 143. 
 
 D 
 
34 DIVINITT OF KINGS lect. 
 
 earthly chivalry, may not have originated in similar 
 lights seen to glitter in the gloaming on a point here 
 and there in the long hedge of levelled or ported spears. 
 I mean that any two riders on white horses whose 
 spear-heads happened to be touched by the mystic light 
 might easily be taken for Castor and Pollux in person. 
 If there is any truth in this conjecture — and it is only a 
 conjecture — we should conclude that the divine brothers 
 were never seen in broad day, but only at dusk or in 
 the darkness of night. Now their most famous appear- 
 ance was at the battle of Lake Regillus, as to which we 
 are expressly told that it was late in the evening of a 
 summer day before the fighting was over.'' Such state- 
 ments ought not lightly to be dismissed as late inven- 
 tions of a rhetorical historian. The memories of great 
 battles linger long among the peasantry of the neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 However that may be, the evidence of Hero- 
 dotus suffices to prove that an intimate relation 
 was believed to exist between the two Spartan kings 
 and the divine twins Castor and Pollux. And in 
 general there is no doubt that in early society kings 
 have been often thought to be not merely descendants of 
 divinities, but themselves divine and invested with super- 
 natural powers. Thus they are frequently expected to 
 give rain and sunshine in due season, to make the crops 
 grow, and so forth. In short, they are considered and 
 treated as incarnate gods. In early society the divinity 
 that doth hedge a king is no mere figure of speech. 
 
 1 Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. vi. 13 ; Cicero, De tiatura deorum, ii. 2. 6. 
 
n TTPES OF MAN-GOD 35 
 
 Of these incarnate human gods it is convenient to 
 distinguish two types. In the one type the indwelling 
 divinity is conceived as a spirit which has taken up its 
 abode in the man, whether at birth or at a later time ; in 
 the other type it consists essentially in the possession of 
 magical powers of a very high order. Accordingly the 
 one may be called the inspired, the other the magical 
 man-god. Strictly perhaps, according to our notions, 
 the inspired type alone is entitled to rank as a god, 
 while the other is merely a glorified magician. But 
 such sharp distinctions are not drawn by primitive man. 
 To him the two conceptions shade off into each other ; 
 perhaps he might find it hard to define or even perceive 
 the difference between them. Certainly it would not 
 be easy to refer all particular instances definitely to one 
 or other of these heads. I shall therefore not attempt 
 to carry the distinction through. But so far as we can 
 theoretically draw a line of demarcation between them, 
 it appears to be probable that the magical is older than 
 the inspired type. For a consideration both of abstract 
 probability and of the concrete facts points strongly to 
 the conclusion that a belief in magic is older than a 
 belief in gods. On the particular grounds for that 
 conclusion I do not propose to dwell ; an examination 
 of them would lead us too far from our subject. But 
 if it be true that in the evolution of society magic has 
 preceded religion, it becomes probable that magicians 
 may in some cases have gradually developed into kings 
 before it occurred to people to imagine that their rulers 
 were the living incarnations of great spirits or deities. 
 
36 INFLUENCE OF SUPERSTITION lect. 
 
 However, for our immediate purpose the question of 
 the priority of the two types is of little moment, and I 
 shall pass it by. What is essential to the understanding 
 of the character of kings in early society is some 
 acquaintance with the principles of primitive magic, 
 and some notion of the extraordinary hold which that 
 ancient system of superstition has had on the human 
 mind in all ages and in all countries. For whatever 
 else he may have been, the old king seems commonly 
 to have been a magician. 
 
 The idea that the first king was simply the strongest 
 and bravest man of his tribe is one of those facile 
 theories which the arm-chair philosopher concocts with 
 his feet on the fender without taking the trouble to 
 consult the facts. Like many other speculations of 
 that sort it seems so obvious, so consonant to reason, 
 that it must be true, and that to seek to establish it by 
 actual instances would be superfluous. That such 
 instances may occur, I would not deny ; but I believe 
 that, if we could scrutinise the whole evidence, they 
 would be found to be the exceptions rather than the 
 rule. All purely rationalistic speculations of this sort 
 as to the origin of society are vitiated by one funda- 
 mental defect : they do not reckon with the influence 
 of superstition, which pervades the life of the savage 
 and has contributed to build up the social organism to 
 an incalculable extent. We are only beginning dimly 
 to apprehend how many institutions of universal pre- 
 valence, not limited to one race or one religion, may 
 perhaps rest historically on a foundation of savage 
 
II PRINCIPLES OF MAGIC 37 
 
 superstition, that is, on ideas which would now only 
 need to be stated in order to be immediately rejected 
 as false and absurd by every reasonable and educated 
 man, whatever his political or religious creed might be. 
 I say that we are only beginning to apprehend this, for 
 we are only beginning to understand the mind of the 
 savage, and therefore the mind of our savage fore- 
 fathers who created these institutions and handed them 
 down to us. If the time should ever come when what 
 we merely suspect should prove to be true, and the 
 truth should be recognised by all, it may involve a 
 reconstruction of society such as we can hardly dream 
 of. But that is a question for the future, perhaps a 
 stormy future. Here we are concerned with the peace- 
 ful past. 
 
 I was led into making these remarks by the observa- 
 tion that it is impossible to understand the rise of the 
 kingly power without some acquaintance with primitive 
 superstition, and particularly with that branch of it 
 which goes by the name of magic. Accordingly I 
 propose now to devote some time to a consideration of 
 the theory and practice of magic without special refer- 
 ence to the exercise of that art by the early king. 
 
 The principles of thought on which magic is based 
 appear to resolve themselves into two : first, that like 
 produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause ; 
 and, second, that things which have once been in contact 
 continue to act on each other even after the contact 
 has been severed. The former principle may be called 
 the Law of Similarity, the latter the Law of Contact or 
 
38 KINDS OF MAGIC lect. 
 
 Contagion. From the first of these principles — namely, 
 the Law of Similarity — the magician infers that he can 
 produce any effect he desires merely by imitating it : 
 from the second — namely, the Law of Contact or 
 Contagion — he concludes that whatever he does to a 
 material object will affect equally the person with whom 
 the object was once in contact, whether it formed part 
 of his body or not. Charms "based on the Law of 
 Similarity may be called Homoeopathic or Imitative 
 Magic. Charms based on the Law of Contact or 
 Contagion may be called Contagious Magic. The 
 expression Homoeopathic Magic to designate the former 
 species was first employed, so far as I am aware, by 
 Mr. Y. Hirn.^ It seems to me an excellent expression, 
 and I prefer it to the phrase Imitative or Mimetic 
 Magic which, partly following Mr. Sidney Hartland,^ I 
 formerly employed to denote the same thing. For 
 Imitative or Mimetic Magic suggests, if it does not 
 imply, a conscious agent who imitates, and it thereby 
 limits the scope of magic too narrowly. For the same 
 principles which the magician applies in the practice of 
 his art are implicitly believed by him to regulate the 
 operations of inanimate nature ; in other words, he 
 tacitly assumes that the Laws of Similarity and Contact 
 are of universal application and are not limited to 
 human actions. In short, magic is a spurious system 
 of natural law as well as a fallacious guide of conduct, 
 a false science as well as an abortive art. Regarded as 
 
 ' Y. Hirn, Origins of Art (London, 1900), p. 282. 
 2 Folk-lore, viii. (1897), p. 65. 
 
11 KINDS OF MAGIC 39 
 
 a system of natural law, that is, as a statement of the 
 rules which determine the sequence of events through- 
 out the world, it may be called Theoretical Magic : 
 regarded as a set of precepts which human beings 
 observe in order to compass their ends, it may be 
 called Practical Magic. 
 
 I shall return to this distinction later on. Here 
 what I wish to impress on you is not so much the 
 diiference between the theory and the practice of magic 
 as the distinction between the principles of thought that 
 respectively underlie the two branches of magic which 
 I have called Homoeopathic and Contagious. Both 
 principles turn out on analysis to be merely two 
 different misapplications of the association of ideas. 
 HomcEopathic magic is founded on the association of 
 ideas by similarity : contagious magic is founded on 
 the association of ideas by contiguity. Homoeopathic 
 magic commits the mistake of assuming that things 
 which resemble each other are the same : contagious 
 magic commits the mistake of assuming that things 
 which have once been in contact with each other are 
 always in contact. But in practice the two branches 
 of magic are often combined ; or, to be more exact, 
 while homoeopathic or imitative magic may be 
 practised by itself, contagious magic will generally 
 be found to involve an application of the homoeopathic 
 or imitative principle. Thus abstractly stated, the two 
 things may be a little difficult to grasp. You will 
 readily understand them when they are illustrated by 
 concrete examples. Both trains of thought are in fact 
 
40 HOMCEOPATHIC MAGIC lect. 
 
 extremely simple and elementary. It could hardly be 
 otherwise, since they are familiar in the concrete, 
 though certainly not in the abstract, to the crude 
 intelligence not only of the savage, but of ignorant and 
 dull-witted people everywhere. Both branches of 
 magic, the homoeopathic and the contagious, may 
 conveniently be comprehended under the general name 
 of Sympathetic Magic, since both assume that things 
 act on each other at a distance through a secret 
 sympathy, the impulse being transmitted from the 
 one to the other by means of what we may conceive 
 as a sort of invisible ether, not unlike that which, I 
 understand, is postulated by modern science for a pre- 
 cisely similar purpose — namely, to explain how things 
 can physically affect each other through a space which 
 appears to be empty. 
 
 All this will, I hope, be made plain to you by the 
 examples with which I will now illustrate both branches 
 of magic, beginning with the homoeopathic. But here 
 it may be convenient to tabulate as follows the branches 
 of magic according to the laws of thought which 
 underlie them : — 
 
 Sympathetic Magic 
 {Law of Sympathy) 
 
 Homoeopathic Magic Contagious Magic 
 
 {Law of Similarity) {Law of Contact) 
 
 We now take up Homoeopathic or Imitative Magic. 
 Perhaps the most familiar application of the idea 
 
II MAGICAL IMAGES 41 
 
 that like produces like is the attempt which has been 
 made in many ages and in almost all parts of the world 
 to injure or destroy an enemy by injuring or destroying 
 an effigy of him, in the belief that just as the effigy 
 suiFers so does the man, and that when it perishes he 
 must die. Thus the North American Indians believe 
 that by drawing the figure of a person in sand, ashes, 
 or clay, or by considering any object as his body, and 
 then stabbing it with a sharp stick or doing it any other 
 injury, they inflict a corresponding injury on the person 
 represented.^ Among the Chippeway Indians, when a 
 man was ill he used to ask the sorcerer to transfer the 
 disease to some other person to whom he bore a grudge. 
 To effect this, the sorcerer made a small wooden image 
 of the patient's enemy, pierced the heart of the image, 
 and introduced various magical powders into it, while he 
 muttered an appropriate spell.^ So when a Cora Indian 
 of Mexico wishes to kiU a man, he makes a figure of him 
 out of burnt clay, strips of cloth, and so forth, and then, 
 uttering incantations, runs thorns through the head or 
 stomach of the figure to make his victim suffer in the 
 corresponding part of his body. Sometimes the Cora 
 Indian makes a more beneficent use of this sort of 
 homoeopathic magic. When he wishes to multiply his 
 flocks or herds, he makes a figure of the animal he 
 wants in wax or clay, and deposits it in a cave of the 
 mountains ; for these Indians believe that the mountains 
 
 ' J. Morse, Report to the Secretary of War of the U.S. m Indian Affairs (New- 
 haven, 1822), Appendix, p. 102. 
 
 ^ W. H. Keating, Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, 
 u. 159. 
 
42 MAGICAL IMAGES lect. 
 
 are masters of all riches, including cattle and sheep. 
 For every cow, deer, dog, or hen he wants, the Indian 
 has to sacrifice a corresponding image of the creature.^ 
 This may help us to understand the meaning of the 
 figures of cattle, deer, horses, and pigs which were 
 dedicated to Diana at Nemi. They may have been 
 the offerings of farmers or huntsmen who hoped thereby 
 to multiply the cattle or the game. The Peruvian 
 Indians moulded images of fat mixed with grain to 
 imitate the persons whom they disliked or feared, and 
 then burned the effigy on the road where the intended 
 victim was to pass. This they called burning his soul. 
 But they drew a delicate distinction between the kinds 
 of ^materials to be used in the manufacture of these 
 images, according as the intended victim was an Indian 
 or a Viracocha, that is, a Spaniard. To kill an Indian 
 they employed maize and the fat of a llama, to kill a 
 Spaniard they used wheat and the fat of a pig, because 
 Viracochas did not eat llamas, and preferred wheat to 
 maize.^ 
 
 I may observe in passing that the meaning and origin 
 of the name Viracocha, as applied by the Peruvian 
 Indians to the Spaniards, is explained with great frank- 
 ness by an early Italian (not, you will observe, a Spanish) 
 historian of America, who had himself travelled in the 
 country at the time of the Conquest. He says : " When 
 the Indians saw the very great cruelties which the 
 Spaniards committed everywhere on entering Peru, not 
 
 ^ C. Lumholz, Unknown Mexico (London, 1903), i. 485 sq, 
 " P. J. de Arriaga, Extirfacion de la IdoUtria del Piru (Lima, 1621), pp. 25 sq. 
 
II VIRACOCHA 43 
 
 only would they never believe us to be Christians and 
 children of God, as boasted, but not even that we were 
 born on this earth, or generated by a man and born of 
 a woman ; so fierce an animal they concluded must be 
 the offspring of the sea, and therefore they called us 
 Viracocchie, for in their language they call the sea cocchie 
 and the froth vira ; thus they think that we are a 
 congelation of the sea, and have been nourished by the 
 froth ; and that we are come to destroy the world, with 
 other things in which the Omnipotence of God would not 
 suffice to undeceive them. They say that the winds 
 ruin houses and break down trees, and the fire burns 
 them ; but the Viracocchie devour everything, they 
 consume the very earth, they force the rivers, they are 
 never quiet, they never rest, they are always rushing 
 about, sometimes in one direction and sometimes in the 
 other, seeking for gold and silver ; yet never contented, 
 they game it away, they make war, they kill each other, 
 they rob, they swear, they are renegades, they never 
 speak the truth, and they deprive us of our support. 
 Finally, the Indians curse the sea for having cast such 
 very wicked and harsh beings on the land." ^ An 
 explanation of the name Viracocha, much more flatter- 
 ing to Spanish vanity, is given by the Inca Garcilasso 
 de la Vega, himself half a Spaniard.^ But to return to 
 our magic. 
 
 When the Lerons of Borneo wish to be revenged on 
 
 ^ G. Benzoni, History of the New World, pp. 252 ly. (Hakluyt Society). 
 2 Garcilasso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, ii. 65 sqq. (Hakluyt 
 Society], 
 
44 MAGICAL IMAGES lect. 
 
 an enemy they make a wooden image of him and leave 
 it in the jungle. As it decays he dies.^ More elaborate 
 is the proceeding adopted by the Kenyahs of Borneo in 
 similar circumstances. The operator retires with the 
 image to a quiet spot on the river bank, and when a hawk 
 appears in a certain part of the sky he kills a fowl, 
 smears its blood on the image, and puts a bit of fat in 
 the mouth of the figure, saying, " Put fat in his mouth." 
 By that he means, " May his head be cut off, hung up 
 in an enemy's house, and fed with fat in the usual way." 
 Then he strikes at the breast of the image with a small 
 wooden spear, throws it into a pool of water reddened 
 with red earth, and afterwards takes it out and buries it 
 in the ground.^ If an Aino of Japan wishes to compass 
 the destruction of an enemy, he will make a likeness 
 of him out of mugwort or the guelder-rose and bury it 
 in a hole upside down or under the trunk of a rotten 
 tree, with a prayer to a demon to carry off the man's 
 soul or to make his body rot away with the tree. 
 Sometimes an Aino woman will attempt to get rid of 
 her husband in this fashion by wrapping up his head- 
 dress in the shape of a corpse and burying it deep in 
 the ground, while she breathes a prayer that her husband 
 may rot and die with the head-dress. ^ 
 
 Often, however, magical images are employed for 
 more amiable purposes. Thus to shoot an arrow into 
 
 ^ W. H. Furness, The Home^ife of Borneo Head-hunters (Philadelphia, 1902), 
 P- 93- 
 
 ^ Hose and M'Dougall, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxx. (1901), 
 p. 178. 
 
 ^ J. Batchelor, The Ainu and their Folk-lore (London, 1901), pp. 329-331. 
 
11 MAGICAL IMAGES 45 
 
 the heart of a clay image was an ancient Hindoo mode 
 of winning a woman's love ; only the bow-string must 
 be of hemp, the shaft of the arrow must be of black ala 
 wood, its plume an owl's feather, and its barb a thorn. ^ 
 No doubt the wound inflicted on the heart of the clay 
 image was supposed to make a corresponding impression 
 on the woman's heart. Among the Chippeway Indians, 
 we are told, there used to be few young men or women 
 who had not little images of the persons whose love 
 they wished to win. They punctured the hearts of the 
 images and inserted magical powders in the punctures, 
 while they addressed the images by the names of the 
 persons whom they represented, bidding them requite 
 their affection.^ And as the wound of love may be 
 inflicted by means of an image, so by means of an image 
 it may be healed. How that can be done has been 
 described by Heine in a poem based on the experi- 
 ence of one of his own schoolfellows. It is 
 called The Pilgrimage to Kevlaar, and tells how sick 
 people are wont to offer wax models of their ailing 
 members to the Virgin Mary at Kevlaar in order that 
 she may heal them of their infirmities. In Heine's 
 poem a young man lies wasting away for love and 
 sorrow at the death of his sweetheart. So he goes with 
 his mother on pilgrimage to the Virgin at Kevlaar, and 
 offers her the waxen model of a heart, with a prayer 
 that she would be pleased to heal his own wounded 
 
 1 W. Caland, Altmdisches Zauherritual (Amsterdam, 1900), p. 119 ; M. Bloom- 
 field, Hymm of the Atharva-Veda (Oxford, 1897), pp. 358 sq. 
 
 2 W. H. Keating, Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, ii. 159. 
 
46 MAGICAL IMAGES lect. 
 
 heart. Such customs, still commonly observed in some 
 parts of Europe, are interesting because they show how 
 in later times magic comes to be incorporated with 
 religion. The moulding of wax images of ailing 
 members is in its origin purely magical : the prayer to 
 the Virgin or to a saint is purely religious : the com- 
 bination of the two is a crude, if pathetic, attempt to 
 turn both magic and religion to account for the benefit 
 of the sufferer. 
 
 The natives of New Caledonia make use of effigies 
 to maintain or restore harmony between husband and 
 wife. Two spindle-shaped bundles, one representing 
 the man and the other the woman, are tied firmly 
 together to symbolise and ensure the amity of the 
 couple. They are made up of various plants, together 
 with some threads from the woman's girdle and a piece 
 of the man's apron ; a bone needle forms the axis of 
 each. The talisman is meant to render the union of 
 the spouses indissoluble, and is carefully treasured by 
 them both. If, nevertheless, a domestic jar should 
 unfortunately take place, the husband repairs to the 
 family burying-ground with the precious packet. There 
 he lights a fire with a wood of a particular kind, fumi- 
 gates the talisman, sprinkles it with water from a pre- 
 scribed source, waves it round his head, and then stirring 
 the needle in the bundle which represents himself, he 
 says, " I change the heart of this woman that she may 
 love me." If the wife still remains obdurate, he ties a 
 sugar-cane to the bundle, and presents it to her through 
 a third person. If she eats of the sugar-cane, she feels 
 
II MAGICAL CURES 47 
 
 her love for her husband revive. On her side she has 
 the right to operate in hke manner on the bundle which 
 represents herself in order to recover her husband's 
 affection.^ 
 
 Another beneficent use of homoeopathic magic is to 
 heal or prevent sickness. In ancient Greece, when a 
 man died of dropsy, his children were made to sit with 
 their feet in water until the body was burned. This 
 was supposed to prevent the watery disease from attack- 
 ing them.^ Similarly, on the principle of water to water, 
 among the natives of the hiUs near Rajamahall in India, 
 the body of a person who has died of dropsy is thrown 
 into a river : they think that if the corpse were buried, 
 the disorder would return and carry oiF other people.^ 
 
 The ancient Hindoos performed an elaborate cere- 
 mony, based on homoeopathic magic, for the cure of 
 jaundice. Its main drift was to banish the yellow 
 colour to yellow creatures and yellow things, such as 
 the sun, to which it properly belongs, and to procure 
 for the patient a healthy red colour from a living, 
 vigorous source, namely a red bull. With this inten- 
 tion, a priest recited the following spell : " Up to the 
 sun shall go thy heart-ache and thy jaundice : in the 
 colour of the red bull do we envelop thee ! We 
 envelop thee in red tints, unto long life. May this 
 person go unscathed and be free of yellow colour ! 
 
 ' Father Lambert, in Missions Catholiques, xii. (1880), p. 41 ; id., Mceurs et 
 Superstitions da Neo-Cale'doniem (Noumea, 1900), pp. 97 sq, 
 
 ' Plutarch, De sera numinis mndicta 14. 
 
 ' Th. Shaw, "The Inhabitants of the Hills near Rajamahall," Asiatic Researches, 
 iv. 69 (8vo edition, London, 1807). 
 
48 CURES FOR JAUNDICE lect. 
 
 The cows whose divinity is Rohini, they who, more- 
 over, are themselves red {rohinih) — in their every form 
 and every strength we do envelop thee. Into the 
 parrots, into the thrush, do we put thy jaundice, and, 
 furthermore, into the yellow wagtail do we put thy 
 jaundice." While he uttered these words, the priest, 
 in order to infuse the rosy hue of health into the sallow 
 patient, gave him water to sip which was mixed with 
 the hair of a red bull : he poured water over the 
 animal's back and made the sick man drink it : he 
 seated him on the skin of a red bull and tied a piece of 
 the skin to him. Then in order to improve his colour 
 by thoroughly eradicating the yellow taint, he proceeded 
 thus. He first daubed him from head to foot with a 
 yellow porridge made of turmeric or curcuma (a yellow 
 plant), set him on a bed, tied three yellow birds, to wit, 
 a parrot, a thrush, and a yellow wagtail, by means of a 
 yellow string to the foot of the bed ; then pouring water 
 over the patient, he washed oiF the yellow porridge, and 
 with it no doubt the jaundice, from him to the yellow 
 birds. After that, by way of giving a final bloom to 
 his complexion, he took some hairs of a red bull, wrapt 
 them in gold leaf, and glued them to the patient's skin.'' 
 The ancient Greeks held that if a person suffering from 
 jaundice looked sharply at a stone-curlew, and the bird 
 looked steadily at him, he was cured of the disease. 
 " Such is the nature," says Plutarch, " and such the 
 temperament of the creature that it draws out and 
 
 ^ M. Bloomfield, Hjmm of the Athar-va-Veda (Oxford, 1897), pp. 7 m., 263 w. ; 
 W. Caland, Alt'mdUches Zauherritual (Amsterdam, 1900), pp. 75 so. 
 
II CURES FOR JAUNDICE 49 
 
 receives the malady which issues, like a stream, through 
 the eyesight." ^ So well recognised among bird-fanciers 
 was this valuable property of the stone-curlew that when 
 they had one of these birds for sale they kept it carefully 
 covered, lest a jaundiced person should look at it and 
 be cured for nothing.^ The virtue of the bird lay not 
 in the drab colour of its plumage but in its large golden 
 eye, which, if it is not mistaken for a tuft of yellow 
 lichen, is the first thing that strikes the searcher, as the 
 bird cowers, to escape observation, on the ground.* 
 Thus the yellow eye of the bird drew out the yellow 
 jaundice. Pliny tells of another, or perhaps the same, 
 bird, to which the Greeks gave their name for jaundice, 
 because if a jaundiced man saw it the disease left him 
 and slew the bird.* He mentions also a stone which 
 was supposed to cure jaundice because its hue, resembled 
 that of a jaundiced skin.^ In Germany yellow turnips, 
 gold coins, gold rings, saffron, and other yellow things 
 are still esteemed remedies for jaundice, just as a stick 
 of red sealing-wax carried on the person cures the red 
 eruption popularly known as St. Anthony's fire, or the 
 blood-stone with its blood-red spots allays bleeding.* 
 Another cure prescribed in Germany for St. Anthony's 
 fire is to rub the patient with ashes from a house that 
 
 ' Plutarch, Siuaest. Con-uiv. v. 7. 2, 8 sq. ; Aelian, Nai. Animalmm, xvii. 1 3. 
 
 2 Schol. on Aristophanes, Birds, 266 ; Schol. on Plato, Gorgki, p. 494 b. 
 
 ^ Alfred Newton, Dictionary of Birds, p. 129. 
 
 * Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxx. g^. The Greek name for jaundice, and for this singular 
 bird, was ikteros. 
 
 ^ Nat. Hist, xxxvii. 170. 
 
 ' Leoprechting, Aus dem Lechrain (Munich, 1855), p. 92; A. Wuttke, Der 
 diutsche Volksaberglaube^ § 477. 
 
 E 
 
50 CAPILLARY ATTRACriON lect. 
 
 has been burned down ; ^ for, on the principle of homoeo- 
 pathy, it is easy to see that as the fire died out in 
 that house, so St. Anthony's fire will die out in that 
 man. 
 
 An ancient Indian cure for a scanty crop of hair, based 
 on the same principle, was to pour a solution of certain 
 plants over the head of the patient ; this had to be done 
 by a doctor who was dressed in black and had eaten 
 black food, and the ceremony must be performed in 
 the early morning, while the stars were fading in the 
 sky, and before the black crows had risen cawing from 
 their nests.^ The exact virtue of these plants has 
 unfortunately escaped our knowledge, but we can 
 hardly doubt that they were dark and hairy ; while the 
 black clothes of the doctor, his black food, and the 
 swarthy hue of the crows unquestionably combined to 
 produce a crop of black hair on the patient's head. A 
 more disagreeable means of attaining the same end is 
 adopted by some of the tribes of Central Australia. To 
 promote the growth of a boy's hair a man with flowing 
 locks bites the youth's scalp as hard as he can, being 
 urged thereto by his friends, who sit round watching 
 him at his task, while the suiFerer howls aloud with 
 pain.^ Clearly, on the principle of capillary attraction. 
 
 1 A. Wuttke, loc. cit. 
 
 2 M. Bloomfield, Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, pp. 31, 536 sq. ; W. Caland, 
 AltindhcJus Zauhirritual, p. 103. In ancient Indian magic it is often prescribed 
 that charms to heal sickness should be performed at the hour when the stars are 
 vanishing in the sky. See W. Caland, op. cit. pp. 85, 86, 88, 96. Was this in 
 order that the ailment might vanish with the stars ? 
 
 ^ Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia (London, 1904), p. 352 ; 
 id.. Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 251. 
 
II HOMCEOPATHIC DOCTORS 51 
 
 if I may say so, he thus imparts of his own mature 
 abundance to the scarcity of his youthfial friend. 
 
 One of the great merits of homoeopathic magic is that 
 it enables the cure to be performed on the person of the 
 doctor instead of on that of his victim, who is thus 
 relieved of all trouble and inconvenience, while he sees 
 his medical man writhe in anguish before him. For 
 example, the peasants of Perche, in France, labour under 
 the impression that a prolonged fit of vomiting is 
 brought about by the patient's stomach becoming 
 unhooked, as they call it, and so falling down. Accord- 
 ingly, a practitioner is called in to restore the organ to 
 its proper place. After hearing the symptoms he at 
 once throws himself into the most horrible contortions, 
 for the purpose of unhooking his own stomach. Having 
 succeeded in the effort, he next hooks it up again in 
 another series of contortions and grimaces, while the 
 patient experiences a corresponding relief. Fee five 
 francs.' 
 
 Further, great use is made of homoeopathic and in 
 general sympathetic magic for the sake of procuring a 
 plentiful supply of food. The hunter and the fisherman 
 resort to it for this purpose, whether their immediate 
 object is to multiply the game and the fish, or to lure 
 the wild creatures to their destruction. The farmer 
 also employs it in order to cause his crops and fruits 
 to ripen. 
 
 Thus to begin with hunting and fishing, the 
 Toradjas of Central Celebes believe that things of the 
 
 1 F. Chapiseau, Le folk-lcre de la Beucejt du Fcrche (Paris, igoz), i. 172 sj. 
 
52 NEGATIVE MAGIC lect. 
 
 same sort attract each other by means of their indwell- 
 ing spirits or vital ether. Hence they hang up the 
 jawbones of deer and wild pigs in their houses, in 
 order that the spirits which animate these bones may 
 draw the living creatures of the same kind into the 
 path of the hunter.^ The western tribes of British 
 New Guinea employ a charm to aid the hunter in 
 spearing dugong or turtle. A small beetle, which 
 haunts cocoa-nut trees, is placed in the socket of the 
 spear-haft into which the spear- head fits. This is 
 supposed to make the spear -head stick fast in the 
 dugong or turtle, just as the beetle sticks fast to a 
 man's skin when it bites him.^ 
 
 But the system of sympathetic magic is not merely 
 composed of positive precepts ; it 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. The whole doctrine of 
 taboo, in fact, would seem to be only a special applica- 
 tion of sympathetic magic, with its two great laws of 
 similarity and contact. Though these laws are certainly 
 not formulated in so many words by the savage, they 
 are 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 conse- 
 quences will inevitably follow in virtue of one or other of 
 
 ^ A. C. Kruyt, in Verdageii en Mededeelingen der komnk. Akademie -van Wam- 
 schappertj Afdeeling Letterkunde, iv. Reeks, Hi. Deel (Amsterdam, 1899), pp. 203 so. 
 
 ^ B. A. Hely, "Notes on Totemism, etc., among the Western Tribes," Brhish 
 New Guinea^ Annual Report for 1894-95, p. 56, 
 
II NATURE OF TABOO 53 
 
 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 in order 
 not to incur those consequences. In other words, he 
 abstains from doing that which, in accordance with his 
 mistaken notions of cause and efFect, he falsely believes 
 would injure him ; in short, he subjects himself to a 
 taboo. Thus taboo is only a negative application of 
 practical magic. Positive magic, or sorcery, says, 
 " Do this, in order that so and so may happen." 
 Negative magic or taboo says, " Do not do this, lest 
 so and so should happen." Sorcery says, "Act." 
 Taboo says, "Abstain." The aim of positive magic, 
 that is, of sorcery, is to produce a desired event : the 
 aim of negative magic, that is, of taboo, is to avoid 
 an undesirable one. But both consequences, the desir- 
 able and the undesirable, are supposed to be brought 
 about by the same natural agencies, to wit, the law 
 of similarity and the law of contact. And just as the 
 desired consequence is not really effected 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 precept of morality or common sense. It is not a 
 taboo to say, " Do not put your hand in the fire " ; 
 it is a rule of common sense, because the forbidden 
 action 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 
 
54 SORCERT AND TABOO lect. 
 
 sorcery. The two things are merely opposite sides 
 
 or poles of one great disastrous fallacy, a mistaken 
 
 conception of the nature of the association of ideas. 
 
 Of that fallacy, sorcery is the positive, and taboo the 
 
 negative pole. If we give the general name of magic 
 
 to the whole erroneous system, both theoretical and 
 
 practical, then taboo may be defined as the negative 
 
 side of practical magic. To put this in a tabular 
 
 form : — 
 
 Magic 
 \ 
 
 Theoretical Practical 
 
 (Magic as a pseudo-science) (Magic as a pseudo-art) 
 
 Positive Magic Negative Magic 
 
 or or 
 
 Sorcery Taboo 
 
 I have made these remarks on taboo and its relation 
 to magic — a relation which has not yet, I think, been 
 generally apprehended — because I am about to give 
 some instances of taboos observed by hunters and 
 fishermen, and I wished to show that they fall under 
 the head of Sympathetic Magic, being only particular 
 applications of that general theory. 
 
 Among the Esquimaux of Baffin Land boys are 
 forbidden to play at cat's cradle, because if they did 
 so their fingers might in later life become entangled 
 in the harpoon - line.^ Here, as you will readily 
 perceive, the taboo is obviously an application of 
 
 ^ F. Boas, "The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay," Bulletin of the 
 American Museum of Natural Historv, xv. Part i, (1901), p. l6l. 
 
II HOMCEOPATHIC TABOOS 55 
 
 the law of similarity which is the basis of homoeo- 
 pathic 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. Again, among the Huzuls of the 
 Carpathian Mountains, the wife of a hunter may not 
 spin while her husband is eating ; for if she does, the 
 game will turn and wind like the spindle, and the 
 hunter will not be able to hit it.^ Here again the 
 taboo is clearly derived from the law of similarity. 
 This Huzul superstition perhaps enables us to under- 
 stand a curious law of ancient Italy mentioned by 
 Pliny, which forbade women to spin on the high-roads 
 as they walked, or even to carry their spindles openly, 
 because any such action was believed to injure the 
 crops.^ Probably the notion was that the women 
 walking on the high-road would pass fields of corn, and 
 that the twirling of the spindle would twirl the corn- 
 stalks and prevent them from growing straight. To 
 take another example of a taboo based on the law of 
 similarity, that is, on homoeopathic magic. Camphor 
 is found in the form of crystals in the crevices of 
 certain trees in the East Indies. Accordingly, in 
 Borneo, when men are searching for camphor, they 
 may not wash the leaves which they use as plates, lest 
 the camphor should dissolve and disappear from the 
 tree.^ They think, in fact, that to wash their plates 
 
 1 R. F. Kaindl, " Zauberglaube bei den Huzulen," Ghbus, Ixxvi. (1899), p. 273. 
 
 " Pliny, Nat. Hut. xxviii. 28. 
 
 3 W. H. Furness, Home-life of Borneo Head-hunters (Philadelphia, 1902), p. 169. 
 
S6 HOMCEOPATHIC TABOOS lect. 
 
 would be to wash out the camphor crystals from the 
 trees in which they are imbedded. Again, the chief 
 product of some parts of Laos, a province of Siam, is 
 lac. This is a resinous gum exuded by a red insect on 
 the young branches of trees, to which the little 
 creatures have to be attached by hand. All who 
 engage in the business of gathering the gum abstain 
 from washing themselves and especially from cleansing 
 their heads, lest by removing the parasites from their 
 hair they should detach the other insects from the 
 boughs.-' All these may be called homoeopathic 
 taboos. Further, some of the Brazilian Indians would 
 never bring a slaughtered deer into their hut with- 
 out first hamstringing it ; for they believed that if 
 they did not hamstring it, they and their children 
 would never be able to run down their enemies.^ 
 Apparently they thought that by hamstringing the 
 animal they at the same stroke deprived their foes of 
 the use of their legs. Once more, the Cholones, an 
 Indian tribe of Eastern Peru, employ poisoned arrows 
 in the chase ; but there are certain animals, such as 
 armadillos, certain kinds of falcons, and a species of 
 vulture, which they would on no account shoot at with 
 these weapons. For they believe that between the 
 poisoned arrows which they use and the supply of 
 poison at home there exists a sympathetic relation of 
 
 ^ E. Aymonier, Voyage dans le Laos (Paris, 1895-97), '■ 3^^ > compare id.^ Notes 
 sur le Laos (Saigon, 1885), p. 110. 
 
 " A. Thevet, Les singularittK de la France Antarcti^ue, autrement nommee Ameri^ue 
 (Antwerp, 1558), p. 93 j id.^ Cosmographie Uni-verselle (Paris, 1575), ii. 970 
 [wrongly numbered, 936] sq. 
 
11 CONIAGIOUS TABOOS 57 
 
 such a sort that if they shot at any of these creatures 
 with poisoned shafts all the poison at home would be 
 spoilt, 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 are believed to 
 possess a power of counteracting and annulling the effect 
 of the poison, and that consequently if they are touched 
 by it, all the poison, including the store of it at home, 
 would be deprived of its virtue. However that may 
 be, it is plain that the superstition rests on the law 
 of contact, on the idea, namely, that things which 
 have once been in contact with each other remain so 
 sympathetically always. The poison with 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 will all the 
 poison at home. These may be called contagious taboos. 
 This belief of the Cholones Indians, in the sympa- 
 thetic influence exerted on each other by things at a 
 distance, is of the essence of magic. Whatever doubts 
 science may entertain as to the possibility of action at 
 a distance, magic has 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 diffi- 
 culty in convincing a savage ; the savage believed in it 
 long ago, and what is more, he acted on his belief with 
 a logical consistency such as his civilised brother in the 
 faith has not yet, so far as I am aware, exhibited in his 
 
 ^ E. Poeppig, Reiss in Chile, Peru und auf dem Amawmtrome (Leipsic, 1835-36), 
 ii. 323. 
 
58 SAVAGE TELEPATHY lect. 
 
 conduct. For the savage is convinced not only that 
 magical ceremonies afFect persons and things afar off, 
 but that the simplest acts of daily life may in certain 
 circumstances do so also. Hence on momentous occa- 
 sions the conduct of friends and relations at a distance 
 is often regulated by a more or less elaborate code of 
 rules, the neglect of which by the one set of persons 
 would, it is supposed, entail misfortune or even death 
 on their distant friends. Thus, for example, when a 
 party of men are out hunting or fighting, their rela- 
 tions at home are often expected to do certain things, 
 or to abstain from doing certain others, for the sake of 
 ensuring the safety and success of the absent hunters or 
 warriors. How the particular acts or abstinences are 
 supposed to operate is not always plain ; what is clear 
 is that they are really believed to afFect the distant 
 persons for good or evil. 
 
 Thus to take a few instances. When some of the 
 Central Esquimaux are away hunting on the ice, it is 
 forbidden to lift up the bedding at home ; because they 
 think that to do so would cause the ice to crack and 
 drift off, and so the men might be lost.^ The notion 
 seems to be that the lifting of the men's bedclothes 
 would cause the ice on which they are standing to lift 
 also ; and a skater knows that the undulation of the 
 ice is always a sign that it is thin and may give way 
 with him. Again, among the Esquimaux in the 
 winter, when the new moon appears, boys must run 
 
 ^ F. Boas, " The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay," Bulletin of the 
 American Museum of Natural History^ xv. Part i. (1901), p. 149. 
 
II SAVAGE TELEPATHY 59 
 
 out of the snow-house, take a handful of snow, and 
 put it into the kettle. It is believed that this helps the 
 hunter to capture the seal and to bring it home.^ Here 
 the putting of snow in the kettle is probably regarded 
 as a preparation for boiling something in it : it is an 
 imitation of what will happen when the hunter comes 
 home with his bag, and thus it helps by means of 
 imitative magic to bring about that desired result. 
 
 Lastly, in the Baram district of Sarawak, when the 
 men are away searching for camphor in the forest, the 
 women at home dare not touch a comb ; for if they 
 did so, the interstices between the fibres of the tree, 
 instead of being filled with the precious camphor 
 crystals, would be empty, like the spaces between the 
 teeth of a comb.^ This is plainly an application of 
 the law of similarity ; in other words, it is a case of 
 homoeopathic magic. 
 
 These examples may serve to illustrate the savage 
 theory of telepathy, that is, the belief in a magical 
 sympathy which binds together friends at a distance so 
 that their actions mutually affect each other for good 
 or ill. And in regard to negative magic or taboo the 
 foregoing instances have shown that it, like positive 
 magic or sorcery, falls into two great divisions, which 
 may be called respectively Homoeopathic Taboo and 
 Contagious Taboo, according as they are based on the 
 law of similarity or the law of contact. 
 
 ^ F. Boas, op. cit. p. 160. 
 ^ W. H. Furness, Home-life of Borneo Head-hunters, p. 169. 
 
LECTURE III 
 
 Magical telepathy in war — Homoeopathic Magic in relation to 
 plants, animals, inanimate things, and the dead — Homoeopathic 
 Magic used to annul evil omens — Examples of Contagious Magic 
 — Magical contact between a wounded person and the weapon 
 that hurt him — Magical contact of footprints — Public magicians 
 develop into kings — Rise of monarchy essential to the emer- 
 gence of mankind from savagery. 
 
 In the last lecture I explained the two great principles 
 of magic, which may be called the Law of Similarity and 
 the Law of Contact. The law of similarity is the 
 foundation of homoeopathic or imitative magic. The 
 law of contact is the foundation of contagious magic. 
 Both branches of magic assume the possibility of acting 
 on persons and things at a distance. At the end of last 
 lecture I illustrated this primitive belief in telepathy by the 
 rules observed by people at home while their friends are 
 away hunting or searching for precious commodities, such 
 as camphor. Rules of the same sort, based on a belief in 
 the sympathetic connection between persons at a dis- 
 tance, are observed by friends and relations at home 
 while the men are out on the warpath. Thus among 
 the Toradjas of Central Celebes, when a party is away 
 
 hunting for heads, the villagers who stay at home, and 
 
 60 
 
LECT.iii TELEPATHY IN WAR 6i 
 
 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 their fathers, 
 who live in that house, are now away with the warriors, 
 watching over and guarding them ; and if any one 
 entered their house in their absence, the spirits would 
 hear the noise and return in great anger at thus being 
 recalled 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 beams, not rolled 
 up as if they were to be away for a long time : their 
 wives and next-of-kin may not quit the house at night : 
 every night a light burns in the house, and a fire must 
 be kept up constantly at the foot of the house-ladder : 
 garments, turbans, and head-dresses may not be laid 
 aside, for if the turban or head-dress were put ofi^ by 
 friends at home, the warrior's turban might drop from 
 his head in the battle. When the spirit of the head- 
 hunter returns home in his sleep (which Is the Toradja's 
 expression for a soldier's dream) he must find every- 
 thing there in good order and nothing that could vex 
 him. By the observance of these rules, say the 
 Toradjas, the souls of the head-hunters are covered or 
 protected. And in order to make them strong, that 
 they may not soon grow weary, rice is strewed morning 
 and evening on the floor of the house, probably in order 
 to feed and refresh the absent warriors. The women 
 too go about constantly with a certain plant of which 
 the pods are so light and feathery that they are easily 
 
62 TABOOS IN WAR lect. 
 
 wafted by the wind, for that helps to make the men 
 nimble-footed.^ This last custom, as well as the rule 
 as to the wearing of turbans, are clearly applications of 
 the law of similarity. 
 
 Among the Shans of Burma the wife of an absent 
 warrior has to observe certain rules. Every fifth day 
 she rests and does no work. She fills an earthen goblet 
 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. Moreover, she may not sleep in her 
 husband's bed during his absence, but she sweeps the 
 bedding clean and lays it out every night,^ perhaps in 
 order that her husband's soul may repose on it if he 
 should revisit his home in a dream, like the war-broken 
 soldier in Campbell's poem — 
 
 Our bugles sang truce, for the night-cloud had lozoer'd. 
 And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky. 
 
 While marriageable boys of the Mekeo district in 
 British New Guinea are making their drums, they have 
 to live alone in the forest and observe a number of rules 
 which are based on the law of similarity, that is, on 
 the principle of homoeopathic magic. The drums will 
 be used in the dances, and in order that they may give 
 out a resonant sonorous note, great care must be taken 
 in their construction. Having chosen a suitable piece 
 of wood, the lad hollows out the inside by burning it 
 with a hot coal till the sides are very thin. The skin 
 
 1 A. C. Kruyt, " Het Koppensnellen der Toradja's van Midden-Celebes, en zijne 
 .beteekenis," Verslagen en Mededeelingen der konink. Akademie van fVetenschappen, 
 Afdeeling Letterkunde, iv. Reeks, iii. Deel (Amsterdam, 1899), pp. 258 sq. 
 
 2 Indian Antiquary, xxi. (1892), p. 120. 
 
Ill HOMCEOPATHIC TABOOS 6:^ 
 
 of an iguana is then stretched over the hollow and 
 tightened with string and glue. All the time the boy 
 is at work on the drum, he may not eat fish ; for if a 
 fish bone pricked him, the skin of the drum would 
 burst. If he ate a red banana, it would choke him, and 
 the drum would consequently have a dull stifled note : 
 if he tasted grated cocoa-nut, the white ants, like the 
 white particles of the nut, would gnaw the body of the 
 drum : if he touched water, the hot coal with which he 
 burns out the inside of the drum would be extinguished : 
 if he cooked his food in an ordinary round pot, he 
 himself would grow fat and round like a pot, and the 
 girls would jeer at him.^ Again, a Highland witch 
 can sink a ship by homoeopathic magic. She has 
 only to set a small round dish floating in a milk -pan 
 full of water, and then to croon her spell. When the 
 dish upsets in the pan, the ship will go down in the 
 sea. They say that once three witches from Harris 
 left home at night, after placing the milk-pan thus on 
 the floor, and strictly charging a serving-maid to let 
 nothing come near it. But while the girl was not 
 looking, a duck waddled into the room and squattered 
 in the water of the pan. Next morning the witches 
 came home and asked if anything had come near the 
 pan. The girl said " No," whereupon one of the 
 witches remarked, "What a heavy sea we had last 
 night coming round Cabag Head!"^ If a wolf 
 
 ' Father Guis, " Les Canaquea, ce qu'ils font, ce qu'ils disent," Misshm Catholiques, 
 XXX. (1898), p. 29 ; A. C. Haddoti, Head-hunters, p. 257. 
 
 2 T. G. Campbell, TVttchcrafi and Hecmd Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scot- 
 land {G^isgovi, 1902), pp. 21 sq. 
 
64 HOMCEOPATHIC MAGIC lect. 
 
 has carried off a sheep, the Esthonians know a very 
 simple way of making him drop it. They let 
 fall anything they happen to have at hand, such 
 as a cap or a glove, or they lift up a heavy stone 
 and let it go.^ On the principle of homoeopathic 
 magic, that clearly compels the wolf to let go the 
 sheep. 
 
 In the last lecture I mentioned that homoeopathic 
 magic is often employed to make plants grow and bear 
 fruit. Thus among the Huzuls of the Carpathians, 
 when a woman is planting cabbages, she winds many 
 cloths about her head, in order that the heads of the 
 cabbages may also be thick.^ Among the Kurs of East 
 Prussia, when a farmer sows his fields in spring, he 
 carries an axe and chops the earth with it, in order that 
 the corn-stalks may be so sturdy that an axe will be 
 needed to hew them down.^ When Macedonian 
 farmers have done digging their fields, they throw their 
 spades up into the air, and catching them again, exclaim, 
 " May the crop grow as high as the spade has gone ! " * 
 And as plants may be helped, so they may be hindered 
 and marred by homoeopathic magic. The eminent 
 novelist, Mr. Thomas Hardy, was once informed that 
 the reason why certain trees in front of his house, near 
 Dorchester, did not thrive, was that he looked at them 
 before breakfast on an empty stomach. Mr. Hardy 
 
 ^ Boecler-Kreutzwald, Der Ehsten aberglaubische Gebrauche, Weisen und Gewohn- 
 heiten^ p. 122. 
 
 ^ R. F. Kaindl, " ZaubergUube bei den Huzulen," Globus, Ixxvi. (1899), 
 p. 276. 
 
 ^ F. Tetzner, '' Die Kuren in Ost-preusaen," Globus, Ixxv. (1899), p. 148. 
 
 * G. F. Abbott, Macedonian Folk-lore (Cambridge, 1903), p. 122. 
 
Ill MAGIC OF PLANTS 6$ 
 
 told me this himself.^ You will easily perceive that the 
 effect of an empty stomach, conveyed through the eye- 
 sight, must necessarily be prejudicial to trees by empty- 
 ing them, so to say, of sap and nutriment. Thus 
 stated the principle seems almost a truism. 
 
 In these examples people are supposed to influence 
 plants for good or evil by means of homoeopathic 
 magic. But on the same principle plants can recipro- 
 cally influence people. In magic, as I believe in physics, 
 action and reaction are equal and opposite. The 
 Cherokee Indians are adepts in practical botany of this 
 sort. Thus the wiry roots of the catgut plant or devil's 
 shoestring (Tephrosid) are so tough that they can almost 
 stop a ploughshare in the furrow. Hence Cherokee 
 women wash their heads with a decoction of the roots 
 to make the hair strong, and Cherokee ball-players wash 
 themselves with it to toughen their muscles. Again, 
 to help them to spring quickly to their feet when they 
 are thrown to the ground, these Indian ball-players 
 bathe their limbs with a decoction of the small rush 
 {yuncus tenuis), because, so they say, that plant always 
 recovers its erect position, no matter how often it has 
 been trampled down. To improve a child's memory 
 the Cherokees beat up burs in water which has been 
 fetched from a roaring waterfall. The virtue of the 
 potion is threefold. The voice of the Long Man or 
 river-god is heard in the roar of the cataract : the 
 stream seizes and holds whatever is cast upon its surface ; 
 and there is nothing that sticks like a bur. Hence it 
 
 1 Compare Folk-lore, viii. (1897), p. 11. 
 
66 MAGIC OF PLANTS lect. 
 
 seems clear that with the potion the child will drink in 
 the lessons taught by the voice of the waters, will seize 
 upon them like the stream, and will stick fast to them 
 like a bur.^ 
 
 The Sundanese of the Indian Archipelago regard 
 certain kinds of wood as unsuitable for use in house- 
 building, especially such trees as have thorns on them. 
 They think that the life of people who lived in a house 
 made of such timber would be thorny and full of 
 trouble. If a house were built of trees that had fallen 
 or lost their leaves through age, the inmates would die 
 soon ; if it were built of wood taken from a house that 
 had been burnt down, fire would be sure to break out 
 in the new dwelling.^ Before the Cherokee braves 
 went forth to war, the medicine-man used to give each 
 of them a small charmed root which made him abso- 
 lutely invulnerable. On the eve of battle the warrior 
 bathed in a running stream, chewed a portion of the 
 root and spat the juice on his body in order that the 
 bullets might slide from his skin like the drops of 
 water. Some of you may perhaps doubt whether this 
 really made the men bullet-proof. There is a barren and 
 paralysing spirit of scepticism abroad at the present day 
 which is most deplorable. However, the efficacy of this 
 particular charm was proved in the American Civil War ; 
 for three hundred Cherokees served in the army of the 
 
 ' J. Mooney, " Myths of the Cherokee," ISIimteenti Arniual Report of the Bureau 
 of American Ethnology (Washington, 1900), Pt. i. pp. 425 sq. ; compare ;*/., '' Sacred 
 Formulas of the Cherokees,'' Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology 
 (Washington, 1891), p. 329. 
 
 ^ J. Habbema, " Bijgeloof in de Praenger-Regentschappen," Bijdragen tot de 
 Taal- hand' en Volkenkunde van Nedei-landsch Indi'e\ li, (1900), p. 113. 
 
in MAGIC OF THE DEAD 67 
 
 South, and they were never, or hardly ever, wounded 
 in action.^ 
 
 Homoeopathic magic often works by means of the 
 dead ; for just as the dead can neither see nor hear nor 
 speak, so you can render people temporarily blind, 
 deaf, and dumb by means of dead men's bones or any- 
 thing else that is infected with the contagion of death. 
 Burglars in all ages and in many lands have been 
 patrons of this species of magic. In ancient Greece 
 the housebreaker thought he could silence the ' fiercest 
 watch-dog by means of a brand plucked from a funeral 
 pyre.^ To throw the inmates of a house into deep 
 slumber, the Peruvian Indian scatters the dust of dead 
 men's bones.^ The Indians of Mexico employed for 
 this purpose the left forearm of a dead woman ; but 
 the bone had to be stolen. With this they beat on the 
 ground before they entered the house which they in- 
 tended to rob ; that made the inmates to lose all 
 power of speech and motion ; they were as dead, hear- 
 ing and seeing everything, but powerless to stir.* In 
 Europe similar properties were ascribed to the Hand 
 of Glory, which was the dried and pickled hand of a 
 man who had been hanged. If a candle made of the 
 fat of a malefactor who had also died on the gallows 
 was lighted and placed in the Hand of Glory as in a 
 
 ^ J. Mooney, "Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees," Seventh Annual Report of the 
 Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1891), p. 389. 
 
 ^ Aelian, Nat. Amm. i. 38. 
 
 ^ P. J. de Arriaga, Extirfacion de la Idolatria del Piru (Lima, 1621), p. 22. 
 
 " B. de Sahagun, Histoire Ginirale da choses de la Noumlle Espagne (Paris, 1880), 
 blc. iv. ch. 31, pp. 274 s(j. ; E. Seler, Altmexikanische Studien, ii. (Berlin, 1899), pp. 
 5 1 sj. {yeroffentlichungen aui dem ioniglichem Museum fiir FiStkerkunde, vi.). 
 
68 MAGIC OF THE DEAD lect. 
 
 candlestick, it rendered motionless all persons to whom 
 it was presented ; they could not stir a finger any more 
 than if they were dead.^ Sometimes the dead man's 
 hand is itself the candle, or rather bunch of candles, 
 all its withered fingers being set on fire ; but should 
 one member of the household be awake, one finger ot 
 the hand will not kindle.^ When a Blackfoot Indian 
 went out eagle-hunting, he used to take a skull with 
 him, because he believed that the skull would make 
 him invisible like the dead man to whom it had be- 
 longed. Thus the eagles would not be able to see and 
 attack him.^ The Tarahumares of Mexico are great 
 runners, and parties of them engage in races with each 
 other. They believe that the bones of the dead induce 
 fatigue ; hence before a race the friends of one side 
 will bury dead men's bones in the track, hoping that 
 the runners of the other side will pass over them and 
 so be weakened. Naturally they warn their own men 
 to shun the spot where the bones are buried.* The 
 Belep tribe of New Caledonia think they can disable 
 an enemy from flight by means of the leg-bone of a 
 dead foe. They stick certain plants into the bone, and 
 then smash it between stones before the skulls of their 
 ancestors. It is easy to see that this breaks the leg of 
 the living enemy and so hinders him from running away.* 
 
 ^ J. Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, iii. 278 sq. (Bohn's edition). 
 
 ^ W. Henderson, Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England, pp. 239 sgq. j J. 
 W. Wolf, NiederlUndische Sagen (Leipsic, 1843), pp. 363-365. 
 
 * G. B. Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge Tales, p. 238. 
 
 ^ C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico, i. 284. 
 
 ^ Father Lambert, in Missions Catholiques, xi. (1879), p. 43 ; id., Moeurs et 
 superstitions des Neo-CaUdoniens (Noumea, 1900), pp. 30 sq. 
 
Ill MAGIC OF ANIMALS 69 
 
 Again, many animals are conceived to possess pro- 
 perties which might be useful to man, and accordingly 
 the savage seeks to transfer them to himself by means 
 of homoeopathic magic. Thus when a Galla of East 
 Africa sees a tortoise, he will take off his sandals and 
 step on it, believing that this makes the soles of his feet 
 hard like the shell of the animal.^ The Esquimaux of 
 Baffin Land think that if part of the intestines of a fox 
 is placed under the feet of a baby boy, he will become 
 active and skilful in walking over thin ice, like a fox.^ 
 
 The ancient Greeks were of opinion that to eat the 
 flesh of the wakeful nightingale would prevent a man 
 from sleeping ; that to smear the eyes of a blear-sighted 
 person with the gall of an eagle would give him the 
 eagle's vision ; and that a raven's eggs would restore 
 the blackness of the raven to silvery hair. Only, the 
 person who adopted this last mode of concealing the 
 ravages of time had to be most careful to keep his 
 mouth full of oil all the time he applied the raven's 
 eggs to his venerable locks, else his teeth as well as his 
 hair would be dyed raven black, and no amount of 
 scrubbing and scouring would avail to whiten them 
 again.^ The hair-restorer was in fact a shade too 
 powerful, and in applying it you might get more than 
 you bargained for. 
 
 The Huichol Indians of Mexico admire the beautiful 
 
 ^ Ph. Paulitschke, Ethmgrafhie Nordost-AJriias : die geistige Cultur der Danakil, 
 Galla und Somil (Berlin, 1896), p. 27. 
 
 "^ F. Boas, "The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay," Bulletin of the 
 American Museum of Natural History, xv. Pt. i. (1901), p. 160. 
 
 ' Aelian, Nat. Anim. i. 42, 43, and 48. 
 
70 MAGIC OF ANIMALS lect. 
 
 markings on the backs of serpents. Hence when a 
 Huichol woman is about to weave or embroider, her 
 husband catches a large serpent and holds it in a cleft 
 stick, while the woman strokes the reptile with one 
 hand down the whole length of its back ; then she 
 passes the same hand over her forehead and eyes, that 
 she may be able to work as beautiful patterns in the 
 web as the markings on the serpent's back.^ Among 
 the Tarahumares of Mexico men who run races tie 
 deer-hoofs to their backs in the belief that this will 
 make them swift -footed like the deer.^ Cherokee 
 ball-players rub their bodies with eel-skins in order to 
 make themselves as slippery and hard to hold as eels ; 
 and they also apply land-tortoises to their legs in the 
 hope of making them as thick and strong as the legs of 
 these animals. But they are careful not to eat frogs, 
 lest the brittleness of the frog's bones should infect their 
 own bones. They will not wear the feathers of the bald- 
 headed buzzard for fear of themselves becoming bald, nor 
 turkey feathers, lest they should suffer from a goitrous 
 growth on the throat like the red appendage on the 
 throat of a turkey.' Again, the flesh of the common 
 grey squirrel is forbidden to Cherokees who suffer from 
 rheumatism, because the squirrel eats in a cramped 
 position, which would clearly aggravate the pangs of 
 the rheumatic patient.^ 
 
 ^ C. Lumholtz, UnJtnown Mexico, ii. 234.. 
 ' /f/,, ii>, i. 290. 
 
 ^ J. Mooney, " Myths of the Cherokee," Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau 
 of American Ethnology (Washington, 1900), Part i. pp. 262, 284, 285, 306, 308. 
 ■* Id., ib. p. 262. 
 
Ill MAGIC OF ANIMALS 71 
 
 When a Cherokee is starting on a journey on a cold 
 winter morning, he rubs his feet in the ashes of the fire 
 and sings four verses, by means of which he can set the 
 cold at defiance, like the wolf, the deer, the fox, and 
 the opossum, whose feet, so the Indians think, are 
 never frost-bitten. After each verse he imitates the 
 cry and action of the animal, thus identifying himself 
 with it by means of homoeopathic magic. The song 
 he sings may be rendered, " I become a real wolf, a 
 real deer, a real fox, and a real opossum." After 
 stating that he has become a real wolf, the songster 
 utters a prolonged howl and paws the ground like a 
 wolf with his feet. And similarly he mimics the 
 other animals.^ The mole-cricket has claws with which 
 it burrows, and among the Cherokees it is reputed to 
 be an excellent singer. Hence when children are long 
 of learning to speak, their tongues are scratched with 
 the claw of a live mole-cricket in order that they may 
 soon talk as distinctly as the insect. Grown persons 
 also who are slow of speech may acquire a ready flow 
 of eloquence, if only the inside of their throat be 
 scratched on four successive mornings with a mole- 
 cricket.^ The negroes of the Maroni river in Guiana 
 have a somewhat similar cure for stammering. Day 
 and night the shrieks of a certain species of ape re- 
 sound through the forest. Hence, when the negroes 
 kill one of these pests, they remove its larynx and 
 make a cup out of it. If a stammering child drinks 
 
 ^ J. Mooney, " Myths of the Cherokee," Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau 
 of American Ethnology (Washington, 1900), Part i. p. 266. 
 ^ Id., ib. p. 309. 
 
72 MAGIC OF THINGS lect. 
 
 out of such a cup for a few months, it ceases to 
 stammer.^ 
 
 Cherokee parents scratch the hands of their children 
 with the pincers of a live red crawfish, resembling a 
 lobster, in order to give the infants a strong grip, like 
 that of the crawfish.^ This may help us to understand 
 why on the fifth day after birth a Greek child used to 
 receive presents of octopuses and cuttle-fish from its 
 friends and relations.^ For the numerous arms, legs, 
 and tentacles of these creatures seem well calculated 
 to strengthen the grip of a baby's hands and to impart 
 the power of toddling to its little feet. 
 
 On the principle of homoeopathic magic inanimate 
 things as well as plants and animals may be fraught 
 with blessing or bane for mankind ; and the wise man 
 will extract the one or avoid the other as the case may 
 be. Out of an infinity of cases I will cite a very few 
 examples. Thus, on the seventh day after a birth the 
 Toradjas hold a little feast, at which the feet of the 
 child are set on a piece of iron, in order to strengthen 
 its feeble soul with the strong soul of the Iron.* Simi- 
 larly at initiation a Brahman boy is made to tread with 
 his right foot on a stone, while the words are repeated, 
 " Tread on this stone ; like a stone be firm." ^ A 
 Malagese mode of counteracting the levity of fortune 
 is to bury a stone at the foot of the heavy house- 
 
 ^ J. Crevaux, Voyages dam PAmerique du Sud (Paris, 1883), pp. 159 sq, 
 ^ J. Mooney, op. cit, p. 308. 
 ^ Scholiast on Plato, Theaetetus, p. 160 a. 
 
 * A. C. Kruijt, " Het ijzer in Midden-Celebes," Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en 
 Volkenkunde -van Ncdirlandsch Itidi^, liii. (1901), p. 159. 
 
 ^ Griiya-Sitras, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part ii, p. 146, 
 
Ill MAGIC OF STONES 73 
 
 post.^ The common custom of swearing upon a stone 
 may be based partly on a belief that the strength and 
 stability of the stone lend confirmation to the oath. 
 Thus there was a stone at Athens on which the nine 
 archons stood when they swore to rule justly and 
 according to the laws.^ In Laconia an unwrought 
 stone was shown which, according to the legend, 
 relieved the matricide Orestes of his madness as soon 
 as he had sat down on it ; ' and Zeus is said to have 
 cured himself of his love for Hera by sitting down 
 on a certain rock in the island of Leucadia.* In these 
 cases it may have been thought that the wayward and 
 flighty impulses of love and madness were counteracted 
 by the steadying influence of a heavy stone. 
 
 But magical virtue resides in stones by reason of 
 their shape and colour as well as of their weight and 
 solidity. The Indians of Peru employed certain stones 
 for the increase of maize, others for the increase of 
 potatoes, and others again for the increase of cattle. 
 The stones intended to make maize grow were fashioned 
 in the likeness of cobs of maize, and the stones destined 
 to multiply cattle had the shape of sheep.* 
 
 This mode of agriculture is extensively practised by 
 the natives of New Caledonia. Thus in order to make 
 
 1 Father Abinale, "Astrologie Malgache," Missions Catholiques, xi. (1879), p. 
 482. 
 
 ^ Aristotle, Cmstitutim of Athens, 7 and 55 ; Plutarch, Solon, 25 ; Pollux, 
 viii. 86. ^ 
 
 3 Pausanias, iii. 22. i ; compare id. ii. 31. 4. 
 
 ^ Ptolemaeus, Nova Histaria, in Photius, Bihliatheca, p. 153, ed. Bekker ; id. in 
 Mfthograpki Graeci, ed. Westermann, p. 198. 
 
 5 P. J. de Arriaga, Extirfacion de la Idolatria del Piru (Lima, 162 1), pp. 15, 
 16, 25. 
 
74 MAGIC OF STONES lect. 
 
 a plantation of taro thrive, they bury in the field 
 certain stones resembling taros, praying to their 
 ancestors at the same time. A stone marked with 
 black lines like the leaves of a cocoa-nut palm helps 
 to produce a good crop of cocoa-nuts. To make 
 bread-fruit grow, they use two stones, one small and 
 one big, representing the unripe and the ripe fruit 
 respectively. As soon as the fruit begins to form, they 
 bury the small stone at the foot of the tree ; and later 
 on, when the fruit approaches maturity, they replace 
 the small stone by the large one. But the staple food 
 of the New Caledonians is the yam ; hence the number 
 of stones used to foster the growth of yams is corre- 
 spondingly great. Different families have different 
 kinds of stones which, according to their diverse shapes 
 and colours, are supposed to promote the cultivation of 
 the various species of yams. Before the stones are 
 buried in the field they are deposited beside the 
 ancestral skulls, wetted with water, and wiped with 
 the leaves of certain trees. Sacrifices, too, of yams 
 and fish are offered to the dead, with the words, " Here 
 are your offerings, in order that the crop of yams may 
 be good." ^ In these practices of the New Caledonians 
 the magical efficacy of the stones appears to be deemed 
 insufficient of itself to accomplish the end in view ; it 
 has to be reinforced by the spirits of the dead, whose 
 help is sought by prayer and sacrifice. Thus in New 
 Caledonia sorcery is blent with the worship of the 
 
 ^ Father Lambert, Mcsurs et supersliiions des N^o-Caledortiens (Noumea, 1900), 
 pp. 217, 294, 300-302. 
 
Ill THE MAGIC STAR 75 
 
 dead ; in other words, magic is combined with religion. 
 If the stones ceased to be employed, and the prayers 
 and sacrifices to the ancestors remained, the transition 
 from magic to religion would be complete. 
 
 The last example I shall cite of the magical influence 
 of things is drawn from the ancient ritual books of the 
 Hindoos, which lay down a rule that after sunset on his 
 marriage night a man should sit silent with his wife till 
 the stars begin to twinkle in the sky. When the pole- 
 star appears, he should point it out to her, and, 
 addressing the star, say, "Firm art thou ; I see thee, 
 the firm one. Firm be thou with me, O thriving 
 one ! " Then, turning to his wife, he should say, " To 
 me Brihaspati has given thee ; obtaining offspring 
 through me, thy husband, live with me a hundred 
 autumns." '^ The intention of the ceremony is plainly 
 to guard against the fickleness of fortune and the 
 instability of earthly bliss by the steadfast influence of 
 the constant star. It is the wish expressed in Keats's 
 last sonnet : — 
 
 Bright star ! would I were steadfast as thou art — 
 Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night. 
 
 Sometimes homoeopathic or imitative magic is called 
 in to annul an evil omen by accomplishing it in mimicry. 
 The effect is to circumvent destiny by substituting a 
 mock calamity for a real one. In Madagascar this 
 mode of cheating the fates is reduced to a system. 
 
 1 The Grihya-Stitras, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part i. pp. +3, 285 iq.. Part ii. 
 pp. 47 1^., 193 sqq. 
 
76 FORTUNE OUTWITTED lect. 
 
 Here every man's fortune is determined by the day or 
 hour of his birth, and if that happens to be an unlucky 
 one his fate is sealed, unless the mischief can be ex- 
 tracted, as the phrase goes, by means of a substitute. 
 The ways of extracting the mischief are various. For 
 example, if a man is born on the first of February, his 
 house will be burnt down when he comes of age. To 
 take time by the forelock and prevent this catastrophe, 
 the friends of the infant will set up a shed in a field 
 and burn it. To make the ceremony really effective, 
 the child and his mother should be placed in the shed, 
 and only plucked, like brands, from the burning hut 
 before it is too late. Again, dripping November is the 
 month of tears, and he who is born in it is born to 
 sorrow. But in order to disperse the clouds that thus 
 gather over his future, he has nothing to do but to 
 take the lid off a boiling pot and wave it about. The 
 drops that fall from the lid will accomplish his destiny 
 and so prevent the tears from trickling from his eyes. 
 Again, if fate has decreed that a young girl should 
 hereafter become a wife and mother, and should see her 
 children descend before her with sorrow to the grave, 
 she can avert the calamity as follows. She kills a 
 grasshopper, wraps it in a rag to represent a shroud, 
 and mourns over it like Rachel weeping for her 
 children and refusing to be comforted. After burying 
 the insect, she retires from the grave with the air of a 
 person plunged in grief. Thenceforth she looks cheer- 
 fully forward to seeing her children survive her ; for it 
 cannot be that she should mourn and bury them twice 
 
Ill CONTAGIOUS MAGIC 77 
 
 over. Once more, if fortune has frowned on a man at 
 his birth, and penury has marked him for her own, he 
 can easily erase the mark in question by purchasing a 
 couple of cheap pearls, price three half- pence, and 
 burying them. For who but the rich of this world can 
 thus afford to fling pearls away .? ^ 
 
 Thus far we have been concerned chiefly with the 
 homoeopathic or imitative branch of magic, which 
 rests, as I have repeatedly observed, on the law of 
 similarity. It is time to look for a few minutes at the 
 other branch of the art — namely. Contagious Magic. 
 The logical, or perhaps I should rather say the illogical, 
 basis of contagious magic is the law of contact ; that 
 is, the notion that things which have once been con- 
 joined and are afterwards separated remain nevertheless, 
 however great the distance between them, so united by 
 a bond of sympathy that whatever is done to the one 
 affects the other in like manner. 
 
 A curious instance of contagious magic is the 
 belief that between a wounded person and the weapon 
 which inflicted the wound there exists so close a relation 
 that whatever is done to the weapon will correspondingly 
 affect the wounded person for good or evil. Thus in 
 one of the tribes of South -Eastern Australia it is 
 thought that if any one but the medicine-man touches 
 the flint knife with which a certain surgical operation 
 has been performed on a lad, the lad will thereby be 
 
 ' W. Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. 454. sjq. ; Father Abinal, "Astrologie 
 Malgache," Missions Catholiques, xi. (1879), pp. 432-434, 481-483. 
 
78 CONTAGIOUS MAGIC lect. 
 
 made very ill. So seriously is this belief held, that if 
 after the operation the lad should chance to fall sick 
 and die, the man who touched the knife would be 
 killed.-^ Beliefs of precisely the same sort are held to 
 this day almost at our own door, in the eastern 
 counties of England, where people still imagine that 
 they can heal a wound by greasing the instrument 
 which inflicted it. To take a recent example of this 
 superstition, at Norwich in June 1902 a woman named 
 Matilda Henry accidentally ran a nail into her foot. 
 When the nail was extracted, she did not examine the 
 wound nor even take off her stocking, but told her 
 daughter to grease the nail, saying that if that were 
 done, no harm would come of the hurt. Under this 
 treatment the nail recovered, but the woman died of 
 lockjaw a few days afterwards.^ Similarly in Bavaria 
 you are directed to anoint a linen rag with grease and 
 tie it on the edge of the axe that cut you, taking care 
 to keep the sharp edge upwards. As the grease on the 
 axe dries, your wound heals.^ 
 
 The sympathetic connexion supposed to exist between 
 a man and the weapon which has wounded him is prob- 
 ably founded on the notion that the blood on the 
 weapon continues to feel with the blood in his body. 
 For that reason the Papuans of Tumleo, an island off 
 German New Guinea, are careful to throw into the sea 
 the bloody bandages with which their wounds have 
 
 ^ A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South- East Australia (London, 1904), p. 667. 
 2 " Death from Lockjaw at Norwich," Tie People's fVeekly Journal fir Norfolk, 
 July 19, 1902, p. 8. 
 
 ' F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, ii. 305, compare 277. 
 
Ill CONTAGIOUS MAGIC 79 
 
 been dressed, for fear that if these rags fell into the 
 hands of an enemy he might bewitch them thereby. 
 Once when a man with a wound in his mouth, which 
 bled constantly, came to the missionaries to be treated, 
 his faithful wife took great pains to collect all the blood 
 and cast it into the sea.'' But the doctrine of magical 
 contagion is stretched still further, so to include a man's 
 clothes as well as the severed parts of himself. On this 
 doctrine, whatever is done to the clothes is done to the 
 man himself, and he feels the effect even though he may 
 not be wearing the clothes at the time. That is why 
 these same Papuans of Tumleo search most anxiously 
 for the smallest scrap which they may have lost of 
 their scanty garments,^ and why other Papuans, in 
 travelling through the thick forest, will stop and care- 
 fully scrape from a bough any clot of red pomade 
 which may have adhered to it from their greasy 
 heads, lest a sorcerer should get possession of the rag 
 or of the pomade and do them a mischief by means 
 of it.8 
 
 The last example of Contagious Magic which I 
 shall notice is the relation supposed to exist between a 
 man and the impressions left by his body in sand or 
 earth. In virtue of the law of contact the sand or 
 earth which bears the imprint of your body is supposed 
 to remain for all practical purposes an integral part of 
 
 1 M. J. Erdweg, " Die Bewohner der Insel Tumleo, Berlinhafen, Deutsch-Neu- 
 Guinea," Mittieilungen dir anthrofologUchm Geselhchafi in Wim, xxxii. (igoz), 
 p. 287. 
 
 2 M. J. Erdweg, he, cit, 
 
 ' B. Hagen, XJnter den Papua's (Wiesbaden, 1899), p. 269. 
 
8o MAGIC OF FOOTPRINTS lect. 
 
 yourself even when you are far away, so that you will 
 feel any injury done to the imprint as if it were done to 
 your person. In particular, it is a world-wide super- 
 stition that by injuring footprints you injure the f&et 
 that made them. Thus, the inhabitants of Galela, in 
 the East Indies, think that if anybody sticks something 
 sharp into your footprints while you are walking, you 
 will be wounded in your feet.-' In Japan, if a house 
 has been robbed by night and the burglar's footprints 
 are visible in the morning, the injured householder will 
 burn mugwort on them, hoping thereby to hurt the 
 robber's feet so that he cannot run far and the police 
 may easily overtake him.^ Similarly, the Wyingurri 
 tribe in Australia have a magical instrument which they 
 call a sun, because it is supposed to contain the solar 
 heat. By placing it on a man's tracks they think they 
 can throw him into a violent fever, which will soon 
 burn him up.^ Practices of the same sort prevail in 
 some parts of Europe. For example, in Germany, 
 earth from a footprint is tied up in a cloth and hung in 
 the chimney smoke ; as it dries up, so the man withers 
 away or his foot shrivels up.* A Bohemian variation 
 of the charm is to boil the earth from the footprint in a 
 pot along with nails, needles, and broken glass : the 
 
 ^ M. J. van Baarda, " Fabelen, Verhalen en Overleverlngen der Galelareezen," 
 Bijdragen tot de Taal' Land- en Volkenkunde njati Nederlandsch IndiF, xlv. (1895), 
 p. 512. 
 
 2 L. Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (London, 1894), ii, 604. 
 
 3 Spencer and GlUen, Native Tribes of Central -Australia, p. 541. 
 
 ^ J. Hahn, In Zeitschrift der Gesellschafi fUr Erdkimde zu Berlin, iv. (1869), p. 
 503; K. Bartsch, Sagen, M'drchen and Gebr'duche aus Meklenburg, ii. 330, 334, §§ 
 1599, i6ii='*iO; compare p. 332, § 1607 ; R. Andree, Ethnographische Farallelen und 
 Vergleiche, Neue Folge, pp. 8, 11. 
 
Ill MAGIC OF FOOTPRINTS 8i 
 
 man whose footprint has thus been boiled will have a 
 lame leg for the rest of his life.^ 
 
 The same superstition is turned to account by 
 hunters for the purpose of running down the game. 
 Thus the Thompson Indians of British Columbia used 
 to lay charms on the tracks of wounded deer ; after 
 that they deemed it superfluous to pursue the animal 
 any farther that day, for, being thus charmed through 
 its footprints, it could not travel far and would soon 
 die.^ Similarly, Ojebway Indians placed " medicine " 
 on the track of the first deer or bear they met with, 
 supposing that this would soon bring the animal into 
 sight, even if it were two or three days' journey off; 
 for this charm had power to compress a journey of 
 several days into a few hours.^ 
 
 These examples may suffice to illustrate the principles 
 of Contagious Magic. 
 
 We have now concluded our examination of the 
 general theory of magic, but I wish for a short time 
 to direct your attention to certain special applications 
 of the art. 
 
 The examples of magical rites which I have put 
 before you have been drawn almost wholly from what 
 may be called private magic, that is, from magical 
 rites and incantations practised for the benefit or the 
 
 ^ J. v. Grohmann, Aberglauben und GebrSuche aus Bshmcn und Mahren, p. 200, 
 
 § 1402. 
 
 2 J. Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, p. 371 [Memoirs of the Ameri- 
 can Museum of Natural History, vol. ii. Part iv. April 1900). 
 
 3 Peter Jones, History of the Ojebway Indians, p. 371. 
 
 G 
 
82 PUBLIC MAGICIANS lect. 
 
 injury of individuals. But in savage society there is 
 commonly to be found in addition what we may caU 
 public magic, that is, sorcery practised for the benefit of 
 the whole community. Wherever ceremonies of this 
 sort are observed for the common good, it is obvious 
 that the magician ceases to be merely a private prac- 
 titioner and becomes to some extent a public function- 
 ary. The development of such a class of functionaries 
 is of great importance for the political as well as 
 the religious evolution of society. For when the 
 welfare of the tribe is supposed to depend on the 
 performance of these magical rites, the magician 
 becomes a personage of much influence and repute, 
 and may readily acquire the rank and authority of a 
 chief or king. The profession accordingly draws into 
 its ranks some of the ablest and most ambitious men of 
 the tribe, because it holds out to them a prospect of 
 honour, wealth, and power such as hardly any other 
 career could offer. The acuter minds perceive how 
 easy it is to dupe their weaker brother and to play on 
 his superstition for their own advantage. Not that the 
 sorcerer is always a knave and impostor ; he is often 
 sincerely convinced that he really possesses those 
 wonderful powers which the credulity of his fellows 
 ascribes to him. But the more sagacious he is, the 
 more likely he is to see through the fallacies which 
 impose on duller wits. Thus the ablest members of the 
 profession must tend to be more or less conscious 
 deceivers ; and it is just these men who in virtue of 
 their superior ability will generally come to the top 
 
Ill THEIR RISE TO POWER 83 
 
 and win for themselves positions of the highest dignity 
 and the most commanding authority. The pitfalls 
 which beset the path of the professional sorcerer are 
 many, and as a rule only the man of coolest head and 
 sharpest wit will be able to steer his way through them 
 safely. For it must always be remembered that every 
 single profession and claim put forward by the magician 
 as such is false ; not one of them can be maintained 
 without deception, conscious or unconscious. Accord- 
 ingly the sorcerer who sincerely believes in his own 
 extravagant pretensions is in far greater peril and is 
 much more likely to be cut short in his career than the 
 deliberate impostor. The honest wizard always expects 
 that his charms and incantations will produce their 
 supposed effect ; and when they fail, not only really, as 
 they always do, but conspicuously and disastrously, as 
 they often do, he is taken aback : he is not, like his 
 knavish colleague, ready with a plausible excuse to 
 account for the failure, and before he can find one he 
 may be knocked on the head by his disappointed and 
 angry employers. 
 
 The general result is that at this stage of social 
 evolution the supreme power tends to fall into the 
 hands of men of the keenest intelligence and the most 
 unscrupulous character. If we could balance the harm 
 they do by their knavery against the benefits they 
 confer by their superior sagacity, it might well be found 
 that the good greatly outweighed the evil. For more 
 mischief has probably been wrought in the world by 
 honest fools in high places than by intelligent rascals. 
 
84 THE RISE OF MONARCHY lect. 
 
 Once your shrewd rogue has attained the height of his 
 ambition, and has no longer any selfish end to further, 
 he may, and often does, turn his talents, his experience, 
 his resources, to the service of the public. Many men 
 who have been least scrupulous in the acquisition of 
 power have been most beneficent in the use of it, 
 whether the power they aimed at and won was that of 
 wealth, political authority, or what not. In the field of 
 politics the wily intriguer, the ruthless victor, may end 
 by being a wise and magnanimous ruler, blessed in his 
 lifetime, lamented at his death, admired and applauded 
 by posterity. Such men, to take two of the most con- 
 spicuous instances, were Julius Caesar and Augustus. 
 But once a fool always a fool, and the greater the 
 power in his hands the more disastrous is likely to be 
 the use he makes of it. The heaviest calamity in 
 English history, the breach with America, might never 
 have occurred if George the Third had not been an 
 honest dullard. 
 
 Thus, so far as the public profession of magic 
 affected the constitution of savage society, it tended to 
 place the control of affairs in the hands of the ablest 
 man : it shifted the balance of power from the many to 
 the one : it substituted a monarchy for a democracy, or 
 rather for an oligarchy of old men ; for in general the 
 savage community is ruled, not by the whole body of 
 adult males, but by a council of elders. The change, 
 by whatever causes produced, and whatever the char- 
 acter of the early rulers, was on the whole very bene- 
 ficial. For the rise of monarchy appears to be an 
 
Ill ESSENTIAL TO CIVILISATION 85 
 
 essential condition of the emergence of mankind from 
 savagery. No human being is so hidebound by custom 
 and tradition as your democratic savage ; in no state 
 of society consequently is progress so slow and difficult. 
 The old notion that the savage is the freest of mankind 
 is the reverse of the truth. He is a slave, not indeed 
 to a visible master, but to the past, to the spirits of his 
 dead forefathers, who haunt his steps from birth to 
 death, and rule him with a rod of iron. What they 
 did is the pattern of right, the unwritten law to which 
 he yields a blind unquestioning obedience. The least 
 possible scope is thus afforded to superior talent to 
 change old customs for the better. The ablest man is 
 dragged down by the weakest and dullest, who neces- 
 sarily sets the standard, since he cannot rise, while the 
 other can fall. The surface of such a society presents 
 a uniform dead level, so far as it is humanly possible to 
 reduce the natural inequalities, the immeasurable real 
 differences of inborn capacity and temper, to a false 
 superficial appearance of equality. From this low and 
 stagnant condition of affairs, which demagogues and 
 dreamers in later times have lauded as the ideal state, 
 the Golden Age, of humanity, everything that helps to 
 raise society by opening a career to talent and pro- 
 portioning the degrees of authority to men's natural 
 abilities, deserves to be welcomed by all who have the 
 real good of their fellows at heart. Once these elevating 
 influences have begun to operate — and they cannot be 
 for ever suppressed — the progress of civilisation becomes 
 comparatively rapid. The rise of one man to supreme 
 
86 INFLUENCE OF CONQUEST lect. 
 
 power enables him to carry through changes in a single 
 lifetime which previously many generations might not 
 have sufficed to effect ; and if, as will often happen, he 
 is a man of intellect and energy above the common, he 
 will readily avail himself of the opportunity. Even the 
 whims and caprices of a tyrant may be of service in 
 breaking the chain of custom which lies so heavy on the 
 savage. And as soon as the tribe ceases to be swayed 
 by the timid and divided counsels of the elders, and 
 yields to the direction of a single strong and resolute 
 mind, it becomes formidable to its neighbours and 
 enters on a career of aggrandisement, which at an 
 early stage of history is often highly favourable 
 to social, industrial, and intellectual progress. For 
 extending its sway, partly by force of arms, partly 
 by the voluntary submission of weaker tribes, the 
 community soon acquires wealth and slaves, both of 
 which, by relieving some classes from the perpetual 
 struggle for a bare subsistence, afford them an 
 opportunity of devoting themselves to that dis- 
 interested pursuit of knowledge which is the noblest 
 and most powerful instrument to ameliorate the lot 
 of man. 
 
 Intellectual progress, which reveals itself in the 
 growth of art and science and the spread of more 
 liberal views, cannot be dissociated from industrial or 
 economic progress, and that in its turn receives an 
 immense impulse from conquest and empire. It is no 
 mere accident that the most vehement outbursts of 
 activity of the human mind have followed close on the 
 
Ill BENEFITS OF DESPOTISM 87 
 
 heels of victory, and that the great conquering races of 
 the world have commonly done most to advance and 
 spread civilisation, thus healing in peace the wounds 
 they inflicted in war. The Assyrians, the Greeks, the 
 Romans, the Arabs are our witnesses in the past : we 
 may yet live to see a similar outburst in Japan. Nor, 
 to remount the stream of history to its sources, is it 
 an accident that all the first great strides towards civili- 
 sation have been made under despotic and theocratic 
 governments, like those of China, Egypt, Assyria, 
 Mexico, and Peru, where the supreme ruler claimed 
 and received the servile allegiance of his subjects in the 
 double character of a king and a god. It Is hardly too 
 much to say that at this early epoch despotism is the 
 best friend of humanity and, paradoxical as it may 
 sound, of liberty. For after all there is more liberty 
 in the best sense — ^liberty to think our own thoughts 
 and to fashion our own destinies — under the most 
 absolute despotism, the most grinding tyranny, than 
 under the apparent freedom of savage life, where the 
 individual's lot is cast from the cradle to the grave in 
 the iron mould of hereditary custom. 
 
 So far, therefore, as the public profession of magic 
 has been one of the roads by which the ablest 
 men have passed to supreme power, it has con- 
 tributed to emancipate mankind from the thraldom 
 of tradition and to elevate them into a larger, freer 
 life, with a broader outlook on the world. This 
 is no small service rendered to humanity. And 
 when we remember further that in another direction 
 
88 BENEFITS OF MAGIC lect. hi 
 
 magic has paved the way for science, we are forced to 
 admit that if the black art has done much evil, it has 
 also been the source of much good ; that if it is the 
 child of error, it has yet been the mother of freedom 
 and truth. 
 
LECTURE IV 
 
 The institution of a public order of magicians a great incentive to 
 research — Public magicians expected to regulate the weather — 
 Making rain — Making sunshine — Making or calming wind — 
 Tendency of magicians to develop into kings in Australia, 
 New Guinea, and Melanesia — The evolution complete in 
 Africa — Similar evolution among the Malays — Traces of it in 
 Europe — The divinity of kings. 
 
 In the last lecture we ended our consideration of the 
 general theory of magic. I pointed out that in practice 
 the art may be employed for the benefit either of indi- 
 viduals or of the whole community, and that according 
 as it is directed to one or other of these objects it may 
 be called private or public magic. Further, we saw 
 that the public magician occupies a position of great 
 influence, from which, if he is a prudent and able man, 
 he may advance step by step to the rank of a chief or 
 king. Thus an examination of public magic conduces 
 to an understanding of the early kingship, since in 
 savage and barbarous society many chiefs and kings 
 appear to owe their authority in great measure to their 
 reputation as magicians. 
 
 Among the objects of public utility which magic 
 may be employed to secure, the most essential is an 
 
 89 
 
90 PUBLIC MAGICIANS lect, 
 
 adequate supply of food. We have seen that the 
 purveyors of food, the hunter, the fisher, the farmer, all 
 resort to magical practices in the pursuit of their various 
 callings ; but they do so as private individuals for the 
 benefit of themselves and their families, rather than as 
 public functionaries acting in the interest of the whole 
 people. It is otherwise when the rites are performed, 
 not by the hunters, the fishers, the farmers themselves, 
 but by professional magicians on their behalf. In 
 primitive society, where uniformity of occupation is the 
 rule, and the distribution of the community into different 
 classes of workers has hardly begun, every man is more 
 or less his own magician ; he practises charms and 
 incantations for his own good and the injury of his 
 enemies. But a great step in advance has been taken 
 when a special class of magicians has been instituted ; 
 when, in other words, a number of men have been set 
 apart for the express purpose of benefiting the whole 
 community by their skill, whether that skill be directed 
 to the healing of disease, the forecasting of the future, 
 the regulation of the weather, or any other object of 
 general utility. The impotence of the means adopted 
 by most of these practitioners to accomplish their ends 
 ought not to blind us to the immense importance of the 
 institution itself. Here is a body of men relieved, at least 
 in the higher stages of savagery, from the need of earn- 
 ing their livelihood by hard manual toil, and allowed, nay 
 expected and encouraged, to prosecute researches into 
 the secret ways of nature. It was at once their duty 
 and their interest to know more than their fellows, to 
 
IV GERMS OF SCIENCE 91 
 
 acquaint themselves with everything that could aid man 
 in his arduous struggle with nature, everything that 
 could mitigate his sufferings and prolong his life. The 
 properties of drugs and minerals, the causes of rain and 
 drought, of thunder and lightning, the changes of the 
 seasons, the phases of the moon, the daily and yearly 
 journeys of the sun, the motions of the stars, the 
 mystery of life, and the mystery of death, all these 
 things must have excited the wonder of these early 
 philosophers, and stimulated them to find solutions of 
 problems that were doubtless often thrust on their 
 attention in the most practical form by the importunate 
 demands of their clients, who expected them not merely 
 to understand but to regulate the great processes of 
 nature for the good of man. That their first shots at 
 truth fell very far wide of the mark could hardly be 
 helped. The slow, the never-ending approach to truth, 
 as I have pointed out, consists in perpetually forming 
 and testing hypotheses, accepting those which at the 
 time seem best to fit the facts, and rejecting the others. 
 The views of natural causation embraced by the savage 
 magician no doubt appear to us manifestly false and 
 absurd ; yet in their day they were legitimate hypotheses, 
 though they have not stood the test of experience. 
 Ridicule and blame are the just meed, not of those who 
 devised these crude theories, but of those who obsti- 
 nately adhered to them after better had been propounded. 
 Certainly no men ever had stronger incentives in the 
 pursuit of truth than these savage sorcerers. To main- 
 tain at least an appearance of knowledge was absolutely 
 
92 CONTROL OF THE WEATHER lect. 
 
 necessary ; a single mistake detected might cost them 
 their life. This no doubt led them to practise impos- 
 ture for the purpose of concealing their ignorance ; but 
 it also supplied them with the most powerful motive 
 for substituting a real for a sham knowledge, since, if 
 you would appear to know anything, by far the best 
 way is actually to know it. Thus, however justly we 
 may reject the extravagant pretensions of magicians and 
 condemn the deceptions which they have practised on 
 mankind, the original institution of this class of men 
 has, take it all in all, been productive of incalculable 
 good to humanity. They were the direct predecessors, 
 not merely of our physicians and surgeons, but of our 
 investigators and discoverers in every branch of natural 
 science. They began the work which has since been 
 carried to such glorious and beneficent issues by their 
 successors in after ages ; and if the beginning was poor 
 and feeble, this is to be imputed to the inevitable 
 difficulties which beset the pursuit of knowledge rather 
 than to the natural incapacity or wilful fraud of the 
 men themselves. 
 
 Of the things which the public magician sets himself 
 to do for the good of his tribe, one of the chief is to 
 control the weather and especially to ensure an adequate 
 fall of rain. Water is the first essential of life, and in 
 most countries the supply of it depends upon showers. 
 Without rain vegetation withers, animals and men 
 languish and die. Hence in savage communities the 
 rain-maker is a very important personage ; and often a 
 special class of magicians is formed for the purpose of 
 
IV RAIN-MAKING 93 
 
 regulating the heavenly water-supply. The methods 
 by which they attempt to discharge the duties of their 
 office are commonly, though not always, based on the 
 principle of homoeopathic or imitative magic. If they 
 wish to make rain they imitate it by sprinkling water or 
 by mimicking clouds : if their object is to stop rain 
 and to cause drought, they avoid water and resort to 
 warmth and fire for the sake of drying up the too 
 abundant moisture. Examples will illustrate their 
 various modes of procedure. 
 
 Thus in' time of drought the Tarahumares of 
 Mexico will sometimes throw water towards the sky 
 in order that God may replenish his supply. And in 
 the month of May they always burn the grass, so 
 that the whole country is then wrapped in smoke, and 
 travelling becomes difficult. They think that this is 
 necessary to produce rain, clouds of smoke being, in 
 their opinion, equivalent to rain-clouds.-^ In the Mara 
 tribe of Northern Australia the rain -maker goes to 
 a pool and sings over it his magic song. Then he 
 takes some of the water in his hands, drinks it, and 
 spits it out in various directions. After that he throws 
 water all over himself, scatters it about, and returns 
 to the camp. Rain is supposed to follow.^ To make 
 rain a party of Ainos will scatter water by means of 
 sieves, while others will take a porringer, fit it up with 
 sails and oars as if it were a boat, and then push or 
 draw it about the village and gardens, probably to 
 
 ^ C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (London, 1903), i. i8o, 330. 
 ^ Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Auitralia^ pp. 313 sq. 
 
94 RAIN-MAKING lect. 
 
 signify that the country will soon be flooded with 
 water.^ In Laos, a province of Siam, the festival of 
 the New Year takes place about the middle of April. 
 The people assemble in the pagodas, which are 
 decorated with flowers and illuminated. The Buddhist 
 monks perform the ceremonies, and when they come to 
 the prayers for the fertility of the earth, the worshippers 
 pour water into little holes in the floor of the pagoda 
 as a symbol of the rain which they hope Buddha will 
 send down on the rice-fields.^ The custom is clearly 
 one of those combinations of magic with religion which 
 meet us so often in the ritual of comparatively advanced 
 peoples. The Arab historian Makrisi describes a 
 method of stopping rain which is said to have been 
 resorted to by a tribe of nomads in Hadramaut. They 
 cut a bough from a certain tree in the desert, set it on 
 fire, and then sprinkled the burning branch with water. 
 After that the vehemence of the rain abated, just as 
 the water vanished when it fell on the glowing bough.' 
 Some of the eastern Angamis of Manipur are said to 
 perform a somewhat similar ceremony for the opposite 
 purpose, in order, namely, to produce rain. The head 
 of the village puts a burning brand on the grave of a 
 man who has died of burns, and then quenches the 
 brand with water, while he prays that rain may 
 fall. Here the putting out the fire with water, 
 which is an imitation of rain, is reinforced by the 
 
 ^ J. Batchelor, The Ainu and their Folk-lore (London, 1901), p. 333. 
 2 Tournier, Notice surle Laos Francois (Hanoi, 1900), p. 80. 
 
 ^ P. B. Noskowijj, Maqri%ii de valle Hadhramaut lihellus arabice editus et illustratus 
 (Bonn, 1866), pp. 25 sq. 
 
IV STOPPING RAIN 95 
 
 influence of the dead man, who, having been burnt 
 to death, will naturally be anxious for the descent 
 of rain to cool his scorched body and relieve his 
 pangs.^ 
 
 Other people besides the Arabs have used fire as 
 a means of stopping rain. Thus the Telugus of India 
 send a little girl out into the rain with a burning 
 piece of wood in her hand, which she has to show to the 
 falling drops. This is supposed to arrest the downpour.^ 
 At Port Stevens in New South Wales the medicine- 
 men used to drive away rain by throwing fire-sticks 
 into the air, while at the same time they puffed and 
 shouted.' Again, any man of the Anula tribe in 
 Northern Australia can stop rain by simply warming a 
 green stick in the fire, and then striking it against 
 the wind.* 
 
 Among' the Tor adj as of Central Celebes the rain- 
 doctor, whose special business it is to drive away rain, 
 takes care not to touch water either before or after the 
 performance of his professional duties, still less while he 
 is actually engaged in the discharge of them. He does 
 not bathe, he eats with unwashed hands, he drinks 
 nothing but palm wine, and if he has to cross a stream 
 he avoids stepping in the water. Having thus prepared 
 himself for his task, he has a small hut built outside of 
 the village in a rice-field, and in this hut he keeps up a 
 
 1 T. C. Hodson, "The Native Tribes of Manipur," Journal of the Anthropological 
 Institute, xxxi. (1901), p. 308. 
 
 2 Indian Antiquary, xxiv. (1895), p. 359. 
 
 ' A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 398. 
 * Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 315. 
 
96 RAIN-MAKING lect. 
 
 little fire, which on no account may be suffered to go 
 out. In the fire he burns various kinds of wood, which 
 are supposed to possess the property of driving off 
 rain ; and he puffs in the direction from which the rain 
 threatens to come, holding in his hand a packet of 
 leaves and bark which derive a similar cloud-compelling 
 virtue, not from their physiological properties, but from 
 their names, which happen to signify something dry or 
 volatile. If clouds should appear in the sky while he 
 is at work, he takes lime in the hollow of his hand and 
 blows it towards them. Lime, being so very dry, is 
 obviously well adapted to disperse the damp clouds. 
 Should rain afterwards be wanted, he has only to pour 
 water on his fire, and immediately the rain will descend 
 in sheets.-' Again, in Central Celebes, when there has 
 been a long drought and the rice-stalks begin to shrivel 
 up, many of the villagers, especially the young folk, go 
 to a neighbouring brook and splash each other with 
 water, shouting noisily, or squirt water on one another 
 through bamboo tubes. Sometimes they imitate the 
 plump of rain by smacking the surface of the water 
 with their hands, or by placing an inverted gourd on it 
 and drumming on the gourd with their fingers.^ The 
 Karo-bataks of Sumatra have a rain-making ceremony 
 which lasts a week. The men go about with bamboo 
 squirts and the women with bowels of water, and they 
 drench each other or throw the water into the air, and 
 
 ^ A. C. Kruijt, " Regen lokken en regen verdrijven bij de Toradja's van Midden- 
 Celebes," Tijd:chriji •voor Jndische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xliv. (1901), pp. 
 S-io. 
 
 * A. C. Kruijt, op. cit. pp. i sj. 
 
IV RAIN-MAKING 97 
 
 when it drips down on them they cry, " The rain has 
 
 come." ^ 
 
 Sometimes, as we have seen, the rain-charm operates 
 partly or wholly through the dead. An Armenian way 
 of making rain is to dig up a skull and fling it into 
 running water.^ In Halmahera there is a practice of 
 throwing stones on a grave, in order that the ghost may 
 fall into a passion and avenge the disturbance, as he 
 imagines, by sending heavy rain.^ Sometimes, in order 
 to procure rain, the Toradjas of Central Celebes make 
 an appeal to the compassion of the dead. Thus in one 
 of their villages there is the grave of a famous chief, the 
 grandfather of the present ruler. When the land suffers 
 from unseasonable drought, the people go to this grave, 
 pour water on it, and say, " O grandfather, have pity 
 on us ; if it is your will that this year we should eat, 
 then give rain." After that they hang a bamboo tube 
 full of water over the grave ; there is a small hole in 
 the lower end of the bamboo, so that the water drips 
 from it continually. The tube is always refilled with 
 water until rain drenches the ground.* In this ceremony 
 you will observe that religion is blent with magic, for 
 the prayer to the dead chief, which is purely religious, 
 is eked out with a magical imitation of rain at his 
 grave. In order to procure rain the Wagogo of 
 German East Africa sacrifice black fowls, black sheep, 
 and black cattle at the graves of their ancestors, and the 
 
 ' M. Joustra, " De Zending onder de Karo-Batak's, Mededeelingen -van ivege het 
 Nederlandsche ZendeUnggemotschap, xli. (1897), p. 158. 
 
 '^ M. Abeghian, Der armenhche folhglaube (Leipsic, 1899), p. 93. 
 ' A. C. Kruijt, op. cit. p. 6. * A. C. Kruijt, op. cit. pp. 3 sq. 
 
 H 
 
98 RAIN-MAKING lect. 
 
 rain-maker wears black clothes during the rainy season.^ 
 Here again the religious appeal to the spirits of the 
 dead is strengthened by the black colour of the victims 
 and of the clothes, which is an imitation of dark rain- 
 clouds. 
 
 Sometimes the rain- maker resorts to an entirely 
 different mode of obtaining the needed showers. He 
 neither imitates the fall of rain nor prays to his fore- 
 fathers, but attempts to extort the waters of heaven 
 from those supernatural beings who have, so to say, 
 cut him off at the main. The Chinese are adepts in 
 the art of thus taking the kingdom of heaven by 
 storm. If the god does not give rain, they will 
 threaten and beat him ; sometimes they publicly depose 
 him from the rank of deity. On the other hand, if the 
 wished-for showers fall, the god may get a step of 
 promotion by imperial decree.^ It is said that in the 
 reign of Kia-King, fifth emperor of the Manchu 
 dynasty, a long drought desolated several provinces of 
 Northern China. Processions were of no avail ; the 
 rain -dragon hardened his heart and would not let 
 a drop fall. At last the emperor lost patience and 
 condemned the recalcitrant deity to perpetual exile 
 on the banks of the river Illi. The decree was in 
 process of execution : the divine criminal, with a 
 touching resignation, was already traversing the deserts 
 
 ' H. Cole, "Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa," Journal of tht 
 Anthropological Institute^ xxxii. (1902), p. 325. 
 
 ^ Mgr. Rizzolati, in Annales d& la Propagation de laFoi, xvi. (1844), p. 350 5 Mgr. 
 Retord, ilf. xxviii. (1856), p. 102, In Tonquin also a mandarin lias been known to 
 whip an image of Buddha for not sending rain. See Annales de P Association de la 
 Propagation de la Foi, iv. (1830), p. 330, 
 
IV RAIN-MAKING 99 
 
 of Tartary to work out his sentence on the borders of 
 Turkestan, when the judges of the high court of 
 Peking, moved with compassion, flung themselves 
 at the feet of the emperor and implored his pardon 
 for the poor devil. The emperor consented to revoke 
 his doom, and a messenger set off at full gallop to bear 
 the tidings of mercy to the executors of the imperial 
 justice. The dragon was reinstated in his office on 
 condition of performing his duties a little better in 
 future.-' In April 1888 the mandarins of Canton 
 prayed to the god Lung-wong to stop the incessant 
 downpour of rain ; and when he turned a deaf ear to 
 their petitions they put him in a lock-up for five days. 
 This had a salutary effect. The rain ceased and the 
 god was restored to liberty. Some years before, in 
 time of drought, the same deity had been chained and 
 exposed to the sun for days in the courtyard of his 
 temple in order that he might feel for himself the 
 urgent need of rain.^ So when the Siamese are in want 
 of rain, they set out their idols in the blazing sun ; but 
 if they need dry weather, they unroof the temples and 
 let the rain pour down on the idols. They think that 
 the inconvenience to which the gods are thus subjected 
 by the inclemency of the weather will induce them to 
 grant the wishes of their worshippers.' 
 
 You may smile perhaps at the meteorology of the 
 
 ^ Hue, L'empire chinoh, i. 241 sq. 
 
 2 Rev. E. Z. Simmons, "Idols and Spirits," Chinese Recorder and Missionary 
 Journal, xix. (1888), p. 502. 
 
 ' Mgr. Bruguiire, in Annales de I' Association de la Propagation de la Foi, v. (1831), 
 p. 131. 
 
loo RAIN-MAKING lect. 
 
 Far East ; but precisely similar modes of procuring rain 
 have been resorted to in Europe within our own lifetime. 
 By the end of April 1893 there was great distress 
 in Sicily for lack of water. The drought had lasted 
 six months. Every day the sun rose and set in a sky 
 of cloudless blue. The gardens of the Conca d' Oro, 
 which surround Palermo with a magnificent belt of 
 verdure, were withering. Food was becoming scarce. 
 The people were in great alarm. All the most 
 approved methods of procuring rain had been tried 
 without effect. Processions had traversed the streets 
 and the fields. Men, women, and children, telling 
 their beads, had lain whole nights before the holy 
 images. Consecrated candles had burned day and 
 night in the churches. Palm branches, blessed on 
 Palm Sunday, had been hung on the trees. At 
 Solaparuta, in accordance with a very old custom, 
 the dust swept from the churches on Palm Sunday 
 had been spread on the fields. In ordinary years 
 these holy sweepings preserve the crops ; but that 
 year, if you will believe me, they had no effect 
 whatever. At Nicosia the inhabitants, bare-headed and 
 bare-foot, carried the crucifixes through all the wards 
 of the town and scourged each other with iron whips. 
 It was all in vain. The great St. Francis of Paola 
 himself, who annually performs the miracle of rain and 
 is carried every spring through the market-gardens, 
 either could not or would not help. Masses, vespers, 
 concerts, illuminations, fire-works, — nothing could 
 move him. At last the peasants began to lose 
 
IV RAIN-MAKING loi 
 
 patience. Most of the saints were banished. At 
 Palermo they dumped St. Joseph in a garden 
 to see the state of things for himself, and they 
 swore to leave him there in the sun till rain fell. 
 Other saints were turned, like naughty children, 
 with their faces to the wall. Others again, stripped 
 of their beautiful robes, were exiled far from their 
 parishes, threatened, grossly insulted, ducked in horse- 
 ponds. At Caltanisetta the golden wings of St. 
 Michael the Archangel were torn from his shoulders 
 and replaced with wings of pasteboard : his purple 
 mantle was taken away and a clout wrapt about him 
 instead. At Licata the patron saint, St. Angelo, fared 
 even worse, for he was left without any garments at 
 all : he was reviled, he was put in irons, he was 
 threatened with drowning or hanging. " Rain or 
 the rope ! " roared the angry people at him, as they 
 shook their fists in his face.^ 
 
 As the magician thinks he can make rain, so he 
 fancies he can cause the sun to shine and can hasten or 
 stay its going down. Thus the natives of New 
 Caledonia imagine that they can cause a drought by 
 means of a disc-shaped stone with a hole in it. At 
 the moment when the sun rises, the wizard holds this 
 stone in his hand and passes a burning brand repeatedly 
 into the hole, while he says, " I kindle the sun, in 
 
 1 G. VuUlier, "La Sicile, impressions du present et du passe," Tmr du Monde, Ixvii. 
 (1894), pp. 54 sq. As to St. Francis of Paola, who died in 1507 and was canonised 
 by Leo X. in 1519, see P. Ribadeneira, Fhs Sanctorum, cioi Vite de' Santi (Venice, 
 1763), i. 252 sq. J Th. Trede, Das Heidentum in der riimischen Kirche, iii. 45-47. He 
 was sent for by Louis XI. of France, and his fame as a worker of miracles is stiU 
 spread all over the south of Italy. 
 
I02 MAKING SUNSHINE lect. 
 
 order that he may eat up the clouds and dry up our 
 land, so that it may produce nothing."^ When the 
 mists lay thick on the Sierras of Peru, the Indian 
 women used to rattle the silver and copper ornaments 
 which they wore on their breasts, and they blew against 
 the fog, hoping thus to disperse it and make the sun 
 shine through. Another way of producing the same 
 result was to burn salt or scatter ashes in the air.^ The 
 Guar ay o Indians also threw ashes in the air for the 
 sake of clearing up the clouded evening sky. Perhaps 
 the fall of the ashes to the ground was supposed to 
 make the clouds disappear from the sky.^ The offer- 
 ing made by the Brahman in the morning is supposed 
 to produce the sun, for we are told that " assuredly 
 it would not rise, were he not to make that offering." * 
 The ancient Mexicans conceived the sun as the source 
 of all vital force ; hence they named him " He by 
 whom men live." But if he bestowed life on the 
 world, he needed also to receive life from it. And as 
 the heart is the seat and symbol of life, bleeding hearts 
 of men and animals were presented to the sun to 
 maintain him in vigour and enable him to run his 
 course across the sky. Hence the Mexican sacrifices 
 to the sun were magical rather than religious, being 
 designed, not so much to please and propitiate him, as 
 
 ^ Father Lambert, in Missions Catlioliques^ xxv, (1893), p. 116 ; id., Moeurs et 
 Superstitions des Neo-CaUdoniens (Noumea, 1900), pp. 296 sq. The magic formula 
 <iiffers slightly in the two passages : in the text I have followed the second. 
 
 ^ P. J. Arriaga, Extirfacim de la Iddatria del Piru (Lima, 1621), p. 37. 
 
 ^ A. d'Orbigny, Voyage dans VAmerique Meridionale, iii. (Paris and Strasburg, 
 1844), p. 24. 
 
 ^ Satafatha'Brhhmana., translated by J. Eggeling, Part i. p. 328. 
 
IV MAKING SUNSHINE 103 
 
 physically to renew his energies of heat, light, and 
 motion. The constant demand for human victims to 
 feed the solar fires was met by waging war every year 
 on the neighbouring tribes and bringing back bands of 
 captives to be sacrificed on the altar. Thus the cease- 
 less wars of the Mexicans and their cruel system of 
 human sacrifices, the most monstrous on record, 
 sprang in great measure from a mistaken theory of 
 the solar system. No more striking illustration could 
 be given of the disastrous consequences that may flow 
 in practice from a purely speculative error.^ The 
 ancient Greeks believed that the sun drove in a 
 chariot across the sky ; hence the Rhodlans, who 
 worshipped the sun as their chief deity, annually 
 dedicated a chariot and four horses to him, and flung 
 them into the sea for his use.^ Doubtless they thought 
 that after a year's work his old horses and chariots 
 would be worn out. From a like motive, probably, 
 the idolatrous kings of Judah dedicated chariots and 
 horses to the sun,' and the Spartans,* Persians,^ and 
 
 ^ E. J. Payne, History of the New World called America, i. (Oxford, 1892), 
 pp. 520-523 ; K. Th. Preus8, in Verhandlungen der Berliner antkropologiscken 
 Getelhchaft, November 15, 1902, pp. (449) sq., (457) J?. ; id. "Die Feuergotter als 
 Ausgangspunkt zum Verstandniss der mexikanischen Religion," Mittheilungen der 
 anthnfolog. Gesellschaft in Wien, xxxiii. (1903), pp. 157 sq., 163. A Mexican legend 
 relates how in the beginning the gods sacrificed themselves by fire in order to set 
 the sun in motion. See B. de Sahagun, Histoire genirale des clioses de la Nowvelle 
 Esfagne (Paris, 1880), bk. vii. ch. 2, pp. 478 sqq. 
 
 ' Festus, s.v. "October equus," p. 181, ed. C. O. MUUer. 
 
 ^ 2 Kings xxiii. 11. Compare H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilimchrijien 
 und das Alte Testament^ (Berlin, 1902), pp. 369 sq. 
 
 * Pausanias, iii. zo. 4. 
 
 ' Xenophon, Cyropaed. viii. 3. 24; Philostratiis, Vit. Afollon. i. 31. 2; Ovid, 
 Fasti, i. 385 sq. ; Pausanias, iii. zo. 4. Compare Xenophon, Anabasis, iv. 5, 35 ; 
 Trogus Pompeius, i. 10. 5. 
 
I04 REGULATING THE SUN lect. 
 
 Massagetae^ sacrificed horses to him. The Spartans 
 performed the sacrifice on the top of the lofty range 
 of Mt. Taygetus, behind which they saw the great 
 luminary set every night. It was as natural for the 
 inhabitants of the valley of Sparta to do this as it was 
 for the islanders of Rhodes to throw the chariot and 
 horses into the sea, into which the sun seemed to 
 them to sink at evening. For thus, whether on the 
 mountains or in the sea, the fresh horses stood ready 
 for the weary god where they would be most welcome, 
 at the end of his day's journey. 
 
 As some people think they can light up the sun, so 
 others fancy they can retard or stop him. When the 
 sun is going southward in autumn and sinking lower 
 and lower in the Arctic sky, some of the Esquimaux 
 play the game of cat's cradle in order to catch him in 
 the meshes of the string and so prevent his disappear- 
 ance below the horizon. On the contrary, in spring, 
 when the sun is moving northward and mount- 
 ing higher and higher in the heaven, they play the 
 game of cup-and-ball to hasten his return and enable 
 him to bound nimbly upwards, like the ball in the air.^ 
 The whole record of savage superstition could hardly 
 furnish a more glaring instance of the futility of magic 
 than this attempt of the Esquimaux to regulate the 
 sun's course in the sky by playing at cat's cradle and 
 
 ^ Herodotus, i. 216 j Strabo, xi. 8. 6. Many Asiatics held that the sun rode a 
 horse, not a chariot. See Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptiottum Graecarum^ No. 754, 
 with note *. 
 
 ^ Fr. Boas, "The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay," Bulletin of the 
 American Museum of Natural History^ xv. (1901), p. 151. 
 
IV REGULATING THE WIND 105 
 
 cup-and-ball. As some people imagine they can hasten 
 the sun, so others fancy they can jog the tardy moon. 
 The natives of German New Guinea, like many 
 other savages, reckon months by the moon, and some 
 of them have been known to throw stones and spears 
 at the moon in order to accelerate its progress and so 
 to hasten the return of their friends, who were away 
 from home for twelve months, working on a tobacco 
 plantation.^ 
 
 Lastly, the wizard believes that by his ceremonies 
 and incantations he can direct the course of the stormy 
 wind and can make it blow or be still at his pleasure. 
 Thus if a Cherokee wizard desires to turn aside an 
 approaching storm, he faces it and recites a spell with 
 outstretched hand. Then he gently blows in the 
 direction in which he wishes it to go, waving his 
 hand towards that quarter as if he were pushing 
 away the storm.^ The natives of Bibili, an island 
 ofF German New Guinea, are reputed to raise tempests 
 by blowing with their mouths. In stormy weather 
 some of their neighbours will say, "The Bibili 
 folk are at it again, blowing away." ^ The natives 
 of Murray Island in Torres Straits used to make 
 a great wind blow from the south-east by pointing 
 cocoa-nut leaves and other plants at two granitic 
 boulders on the shore. So long as the leaves remained 
 
 ' K. Vetter, Komm icruier und hilf uns ! oder die Arbeit der Neuen Dettehauer 
 Mission in Deutsch Neu-Guinea, ii. (Barmen, 1898), p. 29 ; id. in B. Hagen's Unter 
 den Papua's (Wiesbaden, 1899), p. 287. 
 
 ^ J. Mooney, " Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees," Seventh Annual Report of tic 
 Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1891), pp. 387 sj. 
 
 ' B. Hagen, Unter den Papua's, p. 269. 
 
io6 REGULATING THE WIND lect. 
 
 there, the wind sat in that quarter. But with great 
 discretion they only performed the ceremony during 
 the prevalence of the south-east monsoon. They 
 knew better than to try to raise a south-east wind 
 while the north-west monsoon was blowing.'^ On the 
 top of a mountain in Togo, a district of German 
 West Africa, there resides a fetish called Bagba, who is 
 supposed to control the wind and the rain. His 
 priest is said, like iEolus, to keep the winds shut up in 
 great pots.^ An ancient Greek charm to prevent 
 storms from damaging the crops was to bury a toad 
 in a new earthen pot in the middle of the field.' Even 
 in Christian times, under the reign of Constantine, a 
 certain Sopater suffered death at Constantinople on a 
 charge of binding the winds by magic, because it 
 happened that the corn-ships of Egypt and Syria were 
 detained afar off by calms or head-winds, to the rage 
 and disappointment of the hungry Byzantine rabble.* 
 
 The sketch which I have thus given you of 
 the theory and practice of magic may suffice for our 
 purpose. We now revert to our special subject, the 
 sacred character and magical functions of kings in early 
 society. I have pointed out that among savages the 
 public magician is a personage of such influence that 
 under favourable circumstances he may easily attain to 
 the rank of a chief or king. I shall now put before you 
 
 ' A. C. Haddon, Head-hunters (London, 1901), p. 601 
 
 ^ Lieut. Herold, in Mittheilungai am den Deutschen Schutagebieten, v. (1892), 
 pp. 144 sq.; H. Klose, Togo utiter deutscher Flagge (Berlin, 1899), p. 189. 
 ^ Pliny, Nat. Hist, xviii. 294. Compare Geoponka, ii. 18. 
 * Eunapius, Vitae Soplmtarum : Aedesius, p. 463 (Didot edition). 
 
IV HEADMEN IN AUSTRALIA 107 
 
 some particular cases where this evolution appears either 
 to be in process of taking place or actually to have been 
 accomplished. 
 
 Let us begin by looking at the lowest race of men as 
 to whom we possess comparatively full and accurate in- 
 formation, I mean the aborigines of Australia. These 
 savages are ruled neither by chiefs nor kings. So far as 
 ■their tribes can be said to have a political constitution, 
 it is a democracy or rather an oligarchy of old and 
 influential men, who meet in council and decide on all 
 measures of importance, to the practical exclusion of 
 the younger men. Their deliberative assembly answers 
 to the senate of later times : if we had to coin a word 
 for such a government of elders we might call it a 
 gerontocracy} The elders who in Australia thus 
 meet and direct the affairs of their tribe appear to be 
 for the most part the headmen of their respective totem 
 groups. As you probably know, the Australian abori- 
 gines are divided into a great many clans or stocks, 
 «ach of which stands in a very intimate relation to a 
 particular species of natural objects, generally of animals 
 or plants, which is called its totem. Now in Central 
 Australia, where the barren nature of the country and 
 the almost complete isolation from foreign influences 
 have retarded progress and preserved the natives on the 
 whole in their most primitive state, the headmen of the 
 various totem stocks or clans are charged with the 
 important task of performing magical ceremonies for the 
 
 ^ The government of the natives of the western islands of Torres Straits is 
 similar. See A. C. Haddon, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to 
 Torres Straits, v. 263 sj. 
 
io8 HEJDMEN IN AUSTRALIA lect. 
 
 multiplication of the totems, and as the great majority 
 of the totems are edible animals or plants, it follows 
 that these men are commonly expected to provide the 
 people with food by means of magic. Others have to 
 make the rain to fall or to render other services to the 
 community. In short, among the tribes of Central 
 Australia the headmen are public magicians. Further, 
 their most important function is to take charge of the 
 sacred storehouse, usually a cleft in the rocks or a hole 
 in the ground, where the holy stones and sticks are 
 kept, with which the souls of all the people, both living 
 and dead, appear to be in a manner bound up. Thus,, 
 while the headmen have certainly to perform what we 
 should call civil duties, such as to inflict punishment for 
 breaches of tribal custom, their principal functions are 
 sacred or magical.'^ 
 
 Again, in the tribes of South-Eastern Australia the 
 headman was often, sometimes invariably, a magician. 
 Thus in the southern Wiradjuri tribe the headman was 
 always a wizard or medicine-man. There was one for 
 each local division. He called the people together for 
 the initiation ceremonies or to discuss matters of public 
 importance.^ In the Yerkla-mining tribe the medicine- 
 men are the headmen ; they are called Mobung-bai, 
 from mobung, " magic." They decide disputes, arrange 
 marriages, conduct the ceremonies of initiation, and in 
 certain circumstances settle the formalities to be observed 
 
 ^ Spencer and Glllen, Native Tribes of Central Australia^ pp. 9-15, 154, 159-205 y 
 id., Northern Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 20-Z7, 285-297, 309 sq., 316 ; A. W. 
 Howitt, Native Tribes of South^East Australia, pp. 320-326. 
 
 * A. W. Howitt, op. cit. p. 303. 
 
IV HEADMEN IN AUSTRALIA 109 
 
 in ordeals of battle. " In fact, they wield authority in 
 the tribe, and give orders where others only make 
 requests."^ Again, in the Yuin tribe there was a head- 
 man for each local division, and in order to be fitted 
 for his office he had, among other qualifications, to be 
 a medicine-man ; above all, he must be able to perform 
 magical feats at the initiation ceremonies. The greatest 
 headman of all was he who on these occasions could bring 
 up the largest number of things out of his inside.^ In 
 fact the budding statesman and king must be above all 
 things a conjurer in the most literal sense of the word. 
 Some forty years ago the principal headman of the Dieri 
 tribe was a certain Jalina piramurana, who was known 
 among the colonists as the Frenchman on account of his 
 polished manners. He was not only a brave and skilful 
 warrior, but also a powerful medicine -man, greatly 
 dreaded by the neighbouring tribes, who sent him 
 presents even from a distance of a hundred miles. He 
 boasted of being the " tree of life," for he was the head 
 of a totem consisting of a particular sort of seed which 
 forms at certain times the chief vegetable food of these 
 tribes. His people spoke of him as the plant itself 
 (manyura) which yields the edible seed.' On the whole, 
 it is highly significant that in the most primitive society 
 now open to our observation it is especially the 
 magicians or medicine-men who appear to be in the act 
 of developing into chiefs. 
 
 ^ A. W. Howitt, op. cit. p. 313. 
 ^ A. W. Howitt, op. cit. p. 314. 
 
 '^ A. W. Howitt, op. cit. pp. 297-299. For more examples of headmen who are 
 also magicians, see ib. pp. 301 sq., 302, 317. 
 
no CHIEFS IN NEtF GUINEA lect. 
 
 When we pass from Australia to New Guinea we 
 find that, though the natives occupy a far higher level 
 of culture than the Australian aborigines, the constitu- 
 tion of society among them is still essentially democratic 
 or oligarchic, and chieftainship exists only in embryo. 
 But here also it would seem that the medicine-men are 
 on the road to become chiefs. Thus Sir William 
 MacGregor tells us that in British New Guinea no one 
 has ever arisen wise enough, bold enough, and strong 
 enough to become the despot even of a single district. 
 " The nearest approach to this," says Sir William 
 MacGregor, " has been the very distant one of some 
 person becoming a renowned wizard ; but that has only 
 resulted in levying a certain amount of blackmail." ^ 
 We are told that in the Toaripi or Motumotu tribe of 
 British New Guinea chiefs have not necessarily super- 
 natural powers, but that a sorcerer is looked upon as a 
 chief. Some 'years ago, for example, one man of the 
 tribe was a chief because he was supposed to rule the 
 sea, calming it or rousing it to fury at his pleasure. 
 Another owed his power to his skill in making the rain to 
 fall, the sun to shine, and the plantations to bear fruit.^ 
 It is believed that the chief of Mowat, in British New 
 Guinea, can affect the growth of crops for good or ill, 
 and coax the turtle and dugong to come from all parts 
 of the sea and allow themselves to be caught.* 
 
 ' Sir W. MacGregor, Britisi New Guinea (London, 1897), p. 41. 
 
 2 J. Chalmers, "Toaripi," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxvii. (1898), 
 P- 334- 
 
 ^ E. Beardmore, "The Natives of Mowat Daudai, New Guinea," Journal of the 
 Anthropological Institute, xix. (1890), p. 464. 
 
IV CHIEFS IN MELANESIA 1 1 1 
 
 Again, we hear of a chief of Kolem, in German New 
 Guinea, who enjoyed a great reputation as a sorcerer ; 
 it was believed that he could make wind and storm, 
 rain and sunshine, and visit his enemies with sickness 
 and death.^ 
 
 Turning now to the Melanesian islands, we are told 
 by Dr. Codrington that among these savages " as a 
 matter of fact the power of chiefs has hitherto rested 
 upon the belief in their supernatural power derived 
 from the spirits or ghosts with which they had inter- 
 course. As this belief has failed, in the Banks' Islands, 
 for example, some time ago, the position of a chief has 
 tended to become obscure ; and as this belief is now 
 being generally undermined, a new kind of chief must 
 needs arise, unless a time of anarchy is to begin," ^ 
 According to a native Melanesian account, the authority 
 of chiefs rests entirely on the belief that they hold 
 communication with mighty ghosts, and possess that 
 supernatural power whereby they are able to bring the 
 influence of the ghosts to bear. If a chief imposed 
 a fine, it was paid because the people universally 
 dreaded his ghostly power, and firmly believed that he 
 could inflict calamity and sickness upon such as resisted 
 him. As soon as any considerable number of his 
 subjects began to disbelieve in his influence with the 
 ghosts, his power to levy fines was shaken.^ In the 
 northern New Hebrides the son does not inherit the 
 chieftainship, but he inherits, if his father can manage 
 
 ' M. Krieger, Neu-Guwea (Berlin, n.d.), p. 334. 
 
 ^ R. H. Codrington, The Melanesiam (Oxford, 1891), p. 46. 
 
 ^ R. H. Codrington, op, cit, p. 52. 
 
112 CHIEFS IN AFRICA lect. 
 
 it, what gives him chieftainship, namely, his father's 
 supernatural power, his charms, magical songs, stones 
 and apparatus, and his knowledge of the way to 
 approach spiritual beings.^ 
 
 Still rising in the scale of civilisation, or rather of 
 savagery, we come to Africa, where both the chieftain- 
 ship and the kingship are fully developed ; and here 
 the evidence for the evolution of the chief out of the 
 magician, and especially out of the rain-maker, is com- 
 paratively plentiful. Thus among the Wagogo of 
 German East Africa the main power of the chiefs, we 
 are told, is derived from their art of rain-making. If 
 a chief cannot make rain himself, he must procure it 
 from some one who can.^ The medicine-men of the 
 Masai, according to Sir Harry Johnston, are not 
 uncommonly their chiefs, and the supreme chief is 
 almost invariably a powerfiil medicine-man. These 
 men are priests as well as doctors, skilled in interpreting 
 omens and dreams, in averting ill-luck, and in making 
 rain.^ The head chief is expected not only to make 
 rain, but to destroy the enemies of the Masai in war by 
 means of his magic* With regard to this supreme 
 chief of the Masai I will translate to you the account of 
 his office and functions which Captain Merker gives in 
 his book on the Masai published last year. The 
 writer is a German officer serving in East Africa. 
 
 ' R. H. Codrington, op. cit. p. 56. 
 
 2 H. Cole, " Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa," Journal of the 
 Anthropological Instituts, xxxii. (1902), p. 321. 
 
 ' Sir Harry Jolinston, The Uganda Protectorate fj^oaion, 1902), ii. 830. 
 
 * Baron C. C. von der Declcen, Rehen in Ost-Afrika, ii. (Leipsic and Heidelberg, 
 1871), p. 24. 
 
IV CHIEFS IN AFRICA 113 
 
 He says : " The most prominent clan of the whole 
 Masai people is the En gidon, because to it belong 
 not only the family of the chief (0/ oiboni), but also the 
 family of the magicians. The designation chief is, 
 strictly speaking, not quite correct, since the chief 
 (0/ oiboni) does not govern directly and exercises no 
 real administrative function. He rules only indirectly ; 
 the firm belief of his subjects in his prophetic gifts and 
 in his supernatural power of sorcery gives him an influ- 
 ence on the destinies of the people. Despotism and 
 cruelty, as such we find among all negro rulers, are alien 
 to him. He is not so much a ruler as a national saint or 
 patriarch. The people speak of his sacred person with shy 
 awe, and no man dares to appear before this mighty per- 
 sonage without being summoned. The aim of his policy 
 is to unite and strengthen the Masai. While he allows 
 free play to the predatory instincts of the warriors in 
 raids on other tribes, he guards his own people from 
 the scourge of civil war, to which the ceaseless quarrels 
 of the various districts with each other would otherwise 
 continually give occasion. This influence of his is 
 rendered possible by the belief that victory can only be 
 achieved through the secret power of the war-medicine 
 which none but he can compound, and that defeat 
 would infallibly follow if he were to predict it. Neither 
 he nor his nearest relatives march with the army to war. 
 He supplies remedies, generally in the shape of magical 
 medicines, for plagues and sicknesses, and he appoints 
 festivals of prayer in honour of the Masai god 'Ng ai. 
 He delivers his predictions by means of an oracular 
 
1 14 CHIEFS IN AFRICA lect. 
 
 game like the telling of beads." ^ And just as Samson's 
 miraculous strength went from him when his hair was 
 shorn, so it is believed that the head chief of the Masai 
 would lose his supernatural powers if his chin were 
 shaved. Captain Merker tells us further that so firmly 
 did the Masai believe in the magical gift of healing 
 possessed by the late chief Mbatyan, that people are said 
 to have been often cured of their infirmities by faith 
 alone.^ The same chief, according to Captain Merker, 
 actually discovered a mode of inoculation which protected 
 the catde against the ravages of lung disease. If this 
 statement is correct, we have here a striking instance of 
 a most beneficent scientific discovery made by a savage 
 magician, which illustrates what I have said as to the 
 immense advantages which at a certain stage of social 
 development may flow from the institution of a public 
 body of magicians or medicine-men. 
 
 The Suk and Turkana peoples of East Africa, who 
 are akin to the Masai, distinguish between their chiefs 
 and their medicine-men, who wield great power ; but 
 very often the medicine-man is a chief by virtue of his 
 skill in medicine or occult arts.^ Among the negroes 
 of the Upper Nile the medicine-men are generally 
 the chiefs.* Thus among the Bongo (to quote from 
 Schweinfurth) " good spirits are quite unrecognised, 
 and, according to the general negro idea, no benefit can 
 
 ^ M. Merker, Dk Maiai (Berlin, 1904), pp. 18 sq. I have slightly abridged the 
 writer's account. 
 
 2 M. Merker, of. cit. pp. 20 sq. As to the medicine-men of the Masai, see further 
 A. C. HolUs, The Masai, their Language and Folk-lore (Oxford, 1905), pp. 324-330. 
 
 ^ Sir H. Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate, ii. 851. 
 
 ■* Sir H. Johnston, op. cit. ii. 779. 
 
IV CHIEFS IN AFRICA 115 
 
 ever come from a spirit at all. They affirm that the 
 only thing they know about spirits is that they do 
 mischief, and certain it is that they have no conception 
 either of there being a Creator or any kind and ruling 
 power above. They assert that there is no resource 
 for obtaining communication with spirits except by 
 means of certain roots, which may be of service likewise 
 in employing the powers of evil to Inflict injury on 
 others. To their knowledge of this magic may be 
 attributed much of the influence which the native chiefs, 
 independently of their authorised rule, exercise over the 
 mass of the people in their districts. This may be 
 witnessed among the Bary on the Bahr-el-Gebel, and a 
 hundred other tribes, who yield the greatest deference 
 to the controllers or captains of their communities." ^ 
 In the Dinka or Denka nation, to the north-east of 
 the Bongo, men who are supposed to be In close com- 
 munication with spirits pass for omnipotent ; it is 
 believed that they make rain, conjure away all calami- 
 ties, foresee the future, exorcise evil spirits, know all 
 that goes on even at a distance, have the wild beasts in 
 their service, and can call down every kind of disaster 
 on their enemies. One of these men became the richest 
 and most esteemed chief of the Ki6 tribe through his skill 
 in ventriloquism. He kept a cage from which the roars 
 of imaginary lions and the howls of imaginary hyenas 
 were heard to proceed ; and he gave out that these 
 beasts guarded his house, and were ready at his bidding 
 to rush forth on his enemies. The dread which he 
 
 ' G. Schweinfurth, The Heart of Africa (London, 1878), i. 144 sq. 
 
ii6 CHIEFS IN AFRICA lect. 
 
 infused among the tribe, and beyond it, was incredible : 
 from all sides oxen were sent him as presents, so that 
 his herds were the most numerous of the neighbourhood. 
 Another of these conjurers in the Tuic tribe had a real 
 tame lion and four real fat snakes, which slept in front 
 of his door, to the great awe of the negroes, who could 
 only attribute their pacific demeanour to sorcery.-' But 
 it does not appear that the real lion inspired nearly so 
 much terror as the imaginary one ; from which we may 
 infer that among these people ventriloquism is a more 
 solid basis of political power even than lion-taming. 
 The Lendu tribe, to the west of Lake Albert, in Central 
 Africa, firmly believe that certain people possess the 
 power of making rain. Among them the rain-maker 
 either is a chief or almost invariably becomes one.^ 
 
 Again, the Wanyoro of Central Africa have a great 
 respect for the dispensers of rain, whom they load with 
 a profusion of gifts. The great dispenser, who has 
 absolute and uncontrollable power over the rain, is the 
 king ; but he can divide his power with other persons, 
 so that the benefit may be distributed over various parts 
 of the kingdom.* With regard to the natives of the 
 Nyanza region in general we are told that " they are 
 persuaded that rain only falls as a result of magic, and 
 the important duty of causing it to descend devolves 
 on the chief of the tribe. If rain does not come 
 
 ' E. D. Pruyssenaere, " Reisen und Forschungen im Gebiete des Weissen and 
 Blauen Nil," Fetcrmam's Mittheilmgm : ErgSnzungsheft, No. 50 (Gotha, 1877), 
 pp. 27 SI. 
 
 ^ Sir H. Johnston, op. cit. ii. 555. 
 
 * G. Casati, Ten Tear: In Equatoria (London and New York, 1891), ii. 57, com- 
 pare i. 134. 
 
IV CHIEFS IN AFRICA 117 
 
 at the proper time, everybody complains. More than 
 one petty king has been banished his country because 
 of drought." ^ A CathoHc missionary writes that " a 
 superstition common to the different peoples of equa- 
 torial Africa attributes to the petty kings of the country 
 the exclusive power of making the rain to fall ; in 
 extreme cases the power is ascribed to certain kings 
 more privileged than the rest, such as those of Huilla, 
 Humbe, Vare, Libebe, and others. These kings profit 
 by the superstition in order to draw to themselves many 
 presents of cattle ; for the rain must fall after the 
 sacrifice of an ox, and if it tarries, the king, who is 
 never at a loss for excuses to extricate himself from the 
 scrape, will ascribe the failure to the defects of the 
 victim, and will seize the pretext to claim more cattle." ^ 
 In Western as well as in Eastern and Central Africa 
 we find the same union of chiefly with magical functions. 
 Thus in the Fan tribe the strict distinction between 
 chief and medicine-man does not exist. The chief is 
 also a medicine-man and a smith to boot ; for the Fans 
 esteem the smith's craft sacred, and none but chiefs 
 may meddle with it.^ The head chief of Etatin in 
 Southern Nigeria, like other petty kings in that part 
 of the world, is never allowed to leave his compound, 
 that is, the enclosure in which his house stands. 
 The present incumbent of the office was lately 
 questioned by an English Commissioner, to whom he 
 
 ' Mgr. Livinhac, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, Ix. (1888), p. no. 
 ^ Ch. Wunenberger, " La mission et le royaume de Humbe, sur les bords du 
 Cnnene," Missions Catholiques, xx. (i888), p. 262. 
 
 ' O. Lenz, Skizzm aus Westafrika (Berlin, 1878), p. 87. 
 
ii8 CHIEFS IN AFRICA lect. 
 
 gave the following account of himself and his duties. 
 He said : " The whole town forced me to be head 
 chief. They hanged our big juju [or fetish] (the 
 buffalo's horns) round my neck. Had I refused, I 
 should have had to give them the value of two slaves. 
 It is an old custom that the head-chief here shall never 
 leave his compound. I have been shut up ten years, 
 but, being an old man, I don't miss my freedom. I 
 am the oldest man of the town, and they keep me here 
 to look after the jujus [or fetishes], and to conduct 
 the rites celebrated when women are about to give birth 
 to children, and other ceremonies of the same kind. By 
 the observance and performance of these ceremonies, I 
 bring game to the hunter, cause the yam crop to be 
 good, bring fish to the fisherman, and make rain to 
 fall. So they bring me meat, yams, fish, etc. To 
 make rain, I drink water, and squirt it out, and pray to 
 our big deities. If I were to go outside this compound, 
 I should fall down dead on returning to this hut. My 
 wives cut my hair and nails, and take great care of the 
 parings." ^ Thus from his own account we see that this 
 West African chief is above all a magician, though he 
 also acts as a priest by offering prayer to' the gods. 
 
 As to the relation between the offices of chief and 
 rain-maker among the Caffres of South Africa, I will 
 quote a passage from Mr. Dudley Kidd, a recent and 
 well-informed writer on the subject. He says : " In 
 very old days the chief was the great Rain-maker ot 
 the tribe. Some chiefs allowed no one else to compete 
 
 ^ Ch. Partridge, Cross River Natives (London, 1905), pp. 201 sq. 
 
IV CHIEFS IN AFRICA 119 
 
 with them, lest a successful Rain-maker should be 
 chosen as chief. There was also another reason : the 
 Rain-maker was sure to become a rich man if he gained 
 a great reputation, and it would manifestly never do for 
 the chief to allow any one to be too rich. The Rain- 
 maker exerts tremendous control over the people, and 
 so it would be most important to keep this function 
 connected with royalty. Tradition always places the 
 power of making rain as the fundamental glory of 
 ancient chiefs and heroes, and it seems probable that 
 it may have been the origin of chieftainship. The 
 man who made the rain would naturally become the 
 chief. In the same way, Chaka [the famous Zulu 
 despot] used to declare that he was the only diviner in 
 the country, for if he allowed rivals, his life would be 
 
 insecure." -^ 
 
 A letter, dated from Buluwayo, the 20th of Novem- 
 ber 1880, records that " the king [of the Matabeles] Lo 
 Bengula arrived yesterday evening at his kraal of ' the 
 White Rocks.' He brought with him the rain to his 
 people. For, according to the ideas of the Matabeles, 
 it is the king who ought to ' make the rain and the 
 good season ' in all senses of the word. Now Lo 
 Bengula had chosen well the day and the hour, for it 
 was in the midst of a tremendous storm that the king 
 made his solemn entrance into his capital." " You 
 must know that the arrival of the king and ot the rain 
 give rise every year to a little festival. For the rain is 
 the great benefit conferred by the king, the pledge 
 
 ^ Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir (London, 1904), p. 114. 
 
120 CHIEFS IN AFRICA lect. 
 
 of future harvests and of plenty, after eight months of 
 desolating drought." To bring down the needed 
 showers the king of the Matabeles boils a magic hell- 
 broth in a huge cauldron, which sends up volumes of 
 steam to the blue sky. But to make assurance doubly 
 sure, he has recourse to religion as well as to magic ; 
 for he sacrifices twelve black oxen to the spirits of his 
 fathers and prays to them : " O great spirits of my 
 father and grandfather, I thank you for having granted 
 last year to my people more wheat than to our enemies 
 the Mashonas. This year also, in gratitude for the 
 twelve black oxen which I am about to dedicate to you, 
 make us to be the best-fed and the strongest people in 
 the world !"^ Thus the king of the Matabeles acts 
 not only as a magician, but as a priest ; for he prays 
 and sacrifices to the spirits of his forefathers, as I had 
 occasion to point out in a former lecture. 
 
 The foregoing evidence, somewhat tedious perhaps 
 in its monotony, renders it highly probable that in 
 Africa the king has often been developed out of the 
 public magician, and especially out of the rain-maker. 
 The unbounded fear which the magician inspires and 
 the wealth he often amasses in the exercise of his pro- 
 fession have both contributed to effect his promotion. 
 The miraculous powers ascribed to kings elsewhere are 
 at least consistent with the hypothesis that they too 
 have risen to their present exalted rank from a like 
 lowly origin. Thus the Malays firmly believe that the 
 
 ' Father Ch. Croonenberghs, in Amales de la Fropagatlon de la Foi, liii. (1881), 
 pp. 262 sj., 267 sj. 
 
IV MALAY KINGS 121 
 
 king possesses a personal influence over the works of 
 nature, such as the growth of the crops and the bearing 
 of fruit-trees. The same prolific virtue is supposed 
 to reside, though in a lesser degree, in his delegates, 
 and even in the persons of Europeans who chance to be 
 in charge of districts. In Selangor, one of the native 
 states of the Malay Peninsula, the success or failure of 
 the rice crops is often attributed to a change of district 
 officers.-' Now in the Malay region the link which 
 unites the king or rajah with the magician happens to 
 be unusually plain and conspicuous. That link consists 
 in the regalia. For in some parts at least of the Malay 
 region the regalia are regarded as wonder-working 
 talismans, the possession of which carries with it the 
 right to the throne ; if the king loses them, he thereby 
 forfeits the allegiance of his subjects. Moreover, and 
 this is a fact of great significance, the Malay magician 
 owns certain insignia which are said to be exactly 
 analogous to the regalia of the divine king, and even 
 bear the same name.^ The inference seems almost 
 inevitable that in the Malay region the regalia of the 
 kings are only the conjuring apparatus of their pre- 
 decessors the magicians, and that therefore, in this part 
 of the world at least, the magician is the humble grub 
 or chrysalis which in due time bursts and discloses that 
 gorgeous butterfly, the rajah or king. 
 
 Nowhere apparently is this view of the regalia as the 
 
 ^ W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic (London, 1900), p. 36. 
 
 ^ W. W. Skeat, of. cit. p. 59. As to the regalia, see further id. pp. 23 sq. ; T. J. 
 Newbold, Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of 
 Malacca, ii. 193. 
 
122 MALAY REGALIA lect. 
 
 true fount of regal dignity carried to such lengths as in 
 Southern Celebes. Here the royal authority is sup- 
 posed to be in some mysterious fashion embodied in the 
 regalia, while the princes owe all the power they 
 exercise, and aU the respect they enjoy, to their 
 possession of these precious objects. In short, the 
 regalia reign, and the princes are merely their repre- 
 sentatives. Hence whoever chances to possess the 
 regalia is regarded by the people as their lawful king. 
 For example, if a deposed monarch contrives to keep 
 the regalia, his former subjects remain loyal to him in 
 their hearts, and look upon his successor as a usurper, 
 who is to be obeyed only in so far as he can exact 
 obedience by force. And on the other hand, in an 
 insurrection the first aim of the rebels is to seize the 
 regalia, for if they can only make themselves masters of 
 them, the authority of the sovereign is gone. Thus the 
 regalia are here fetishes which confer a title to the 
 throne, and control the fate of the kingdom. Houses 
 are built for them to dwell in, as if they were living 
 creatures : furniture, weapons, and even lands are 
 assigned to them. Like the ark of God, they are 
 carried with the army to battle, and on various occa- 
 sions the people propitiate them, as if they were gods, 
 by prayer and sacrifice and by smearing them with 
 blood. Some of them serve as instruments of divina- 
 tion, or are brought forth in times of public disaster 
 for the purpose of staying the evil, whatever it may be. 
 For example, when plague is rife among men or beasts, 
 or when there is a prospect of dearth, the Bugineese 
 
IV MALAY REGALIA 123 
 
 bring out the regalia, smear them with bufFalo's blood, 
 and carry them about. For the most part these fetishes 
 are heirlooms of which the origin is forgotten ; some 
 of them are said to have fallen from heaven. Popular 
 tradition traces the foundation of the oldest states to 
 the discovery or acquisition of one of these miraculous 
 objects — it may be a stone, a piece of wood, a fruit, a 
 weapon, or what not, of a peculiar shape or colour. 
 Often the original regalia have disappeared in course of 
 time, but their place is taken by the various articles of 
 property which were bestowed on them, and to which 
 the people have transferred their pious allegiance. The 
 oldest dynasties have the most regalia, and the holiest 
 regalia consist of relics of the bodies of former princes, 
 which are kept in golden caskets wrapt in silk. At 
 Paloppo, the capital of Loowoo, a kingdom on the 
 coast of Celebes, two toy cannons, with barrels like 
 thin gas-pipes, are regalia : their possession is supposed 
 to render the town impregnable. Other regalia of this 
 kingdom are veiled from vulgar eyes in bark-cloth. 
 When a missionary requested to see them, the official 
 replied that it was strictly forbidden to open the 
 bundle ; were he to do so, the earth would yawn and 
 swallow them up. In Bima the principal part of the 
 regalia or public talismans consists of a sacred brown 
 horse, which no man may ride. It is always stabled in 
 the royal palace. When the animal passes the govern- 
 ment fort on high days and holidays, it is saluted with 
 the fire of five guns : when it is led to the river to 
 bathe, the royal spear is carried before it, and any man 
 
124 KINGS IN EUROPE lect. 
 
 who does not make way for the beast, or crosses the 
 road in front of it, has to pay a fine. But the horse is 
 mortal, and when it goes the way of all horse flesh, 
 another steed chosen from the same stud reigns in its 
 place.^ 
 
 The belief that kings and chiefs possess either super- 
 natural powers or wonder-working talismans has left 
 not a few traces of itself in Europe, and even in our 
 own country. The Homeric Greeks thought that the 
 reign of a good king caused the black earth to bring 
 forth wheat and barley, the trees to be loaded with 
 fruit, the flocks to multiply, and the sea to yield fish.^ 
 It was a belief of the ancient Irish that when their 
 kings observed the customs of their ancestors, the 
 seasons were mild, the crops plentiful, the cattle fruit- 
 ful, the waters abounded with fish, and the fruit-trees 
 
 ^ G. J. Harrebom^e, "Een ornamentenfeest van Gantarang (Zuid-Celebes)," 
 Mededeelingen 'van ivege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap^ xix. (1875), pp. 344- 
 351 ; G. K.. Niemann, " De Boegineezen en Makassaren," Bijdragm tot de Taal- 
 Land- en Volkenkunde 'van Nederlandsch Indie\ xxxviii. (1889), pp. 270 sq. ; D. F. van 
 Braam Morris, in Tijdsckrift 'voor Indhche Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xxxiv. (1891), 
 pp. 215 sq. J A. C. Kruijt, "Van Paloppo naar Po^zo,^* Mededeelingen 'van ivege het 
 Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xlii. (1898), pp. 18, 25 5y. ; L. W. C. van den 
 Berg, " De Mohamedaansche Vorsten in Nederlandsch IndiS," Bijdragen tot de Taal- 
 Land- en Volkenkunde 'van Nederlandsch Ind'iS, liii. (1901), pp. 72-80. The Scythian 
 kings treasured as sacred a plough, a yoke, a battle-axe, and a cup, all of gold, which 
 were said to have fallen from heaven : they offered great sacrifices to these sacred 
 things at an annual festival ; and if the man in charge of them fell asleep under the 
 open sky, it was believed that he would die within the year. See Herodotus, iv. 
 5-7. Compare K. Neumann, Die Hellenen im Skythenlande, i. (Berlin, 1855), pp. 
 269 sq. The crown of the Egyptian kings was treated as itself divine. See 
 A. Moret, Le rituel du cube di'vin journalier (Paris, 1902), pp. 94 sq. ; A. Erman, Die 
 Sgyftische Religion (Berlin, 1905), p. 40. Among the Yorubas of West Africa a 
 miraculous or fetish virtue seems to be attributed to the royal crown, and the king 
 sometimes sacrifices sheep to it. See Sir William MacGregor, " Lagos, Abeokuta, 
 and the Alake," Journalof the African Society, No. 12, July 1904, p. 472. The sceptre 
 of Agamemnon was worshipped at Chseronea (Pausanias, ix. 40. ii). 
 ^ Homer, Odyssey, xix. 109-114. 
 
IV KINGS IN EUROPE 125 
 
 had to be propped up on account of the weight of their 
 produce. A canon attributed to St. Patrick enumerates 
 among the blessings that attend the reign of a just king 
 " fine weather, calm seas, crops abundant, and trees 
 laden with fruit." ^ Notions of the same sort have 
 lingered in the Highlands of Scotland down to modern 
 times. When Dr. Johnson travelled in Skye, it was 
 still held that the return of the chief of the Macleods 
 to Dunvegan, after any considerable absence, produced 
 a plentiful catch of herring.^ To this day the family 
 of the same chief owns a banner which is called 
 " Macleod's Fairy Banner " on account of the super- 
 natural powers ascribed to it. When it is unfurled, 
 victory in war attends it, and it relieves its followers 
 from imminent danger. But these virtues it can exert 
 only thrice, and already it has been twice unfurled. 
 When the potato crop failed, the common people 
 desired that the magical banner might be displayed,^ 
 apparently in the belief that the sight of it would 
 produce a fine crop of potatoes. The banner of this 
 highland chief is thus a talisman like the regalia of 
 a Malay rajah. 
 
 Again, in the Middle Ages, German mothers offered 
 their infants to Waldemar First, king of Denmark, 
 to be touched by him, believing that the children 
 would thrive the better for the royal touch ; and for 
 
 ^ p. W. Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland (London, 1903), i. 56 j^. ; 
 J. O'Donovan, The Book of Rights (Dublin, 1847), p. 8 note. 
 
 2 S. Johnson, Journy to the Western Islands (Baltimore, 1815), p. 115. 
 
 ^ J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow, 
 1900), p. 5. 
 
126 KINGS IN EUROPE lect. 
 
 a like reason farmers asked him to throw the seed for 
 them.^ The English kings claimed the power of 
 curing scrofula by their touch ; for which reason the 
 disease was known as the King's Evil. Charles the 
 Second often exercised this miraculous gift of healing, 
 as we know from Pepys, who witnessed the ceremony 
 more than once. Thus on the thirteenth of April 
 1 66 1 he records in his diary: "Met my Lord with 
 the Duke ; and after a little talk with him, I went to 
 the Banquet-house, and there saw the king heale, the 
 first time that ever I saw him do it ; which he did 
 with great gravity, and it seemed to me to be an ugly 
 office and a simple one." ^ In his childhood Dr. Johnson 
 was touched for scrofula by Queen Anne, and he retained 
 in later life a faint but solemn recollection of her as of 
 a lady in diamonds with a long black hood.^ The 
 French kings claimed to possess the same beneficent 
 power, which they are said to have derived from 
 Clovis or St. Louis, while our English kings inherited 
 it from Edward the Confessor.* But probably the 
 barbarous predecessors both of the Saxon and the 
 Merovingian kings had set up similar pretensions long 
 before the dawn of history. Down to last century the 
 West African tribe of the Walos, in Senegal, ascribed 
 
 ^ Saxo Grammaticus, Historia Danica^ bk. xiv. p. 779, ed. P. E. MQUer. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, -^^^'n edited by Lord Braybrook, Second Edition 
 (London, 1828), i. 187 ; compare ib. p. no ; iii. 192. 
 
 ' J. Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson^ (London, 1822), i. 18 sq. 
 
 ^ T. J. Pettigrew, Superstitions connected ivith the History and Practice of Medicine 
 and Surgery (London, 1844), pp. 117-154; W. E. H. Lecky, History of England in 
 the Eighteenth Century (London, 1892), i. 84-90 ; W. G. Black, Folk-medicine 
 (London, 1883}, pp. 140 sqq. 
 
IV KINGS AS PRIESTS 127 
 
 to their royal family the same power of healing by touch. 
 Mothers have been seen to bring their sick children to 
 the queen, who touched them solemnly with her foot 
 on the back, the stomach, the head, and the legs ; 
 then the credulous women went away, persuaded that 
 the children had been made whole.-' 
 
 On the whole, then, we seem to be justified in con- 
 cluding that in many parts of the world the king is the 
 lineal successor of the old magician or medicine-man. 
 When once a special class of sorcerers has been segre- 
 gated from the community and entrusted by it with the 
 discharge of duties on which the public safety and 
 welfare are believed to depend, these men gradually rise 
 to wealth and power, till their leaders blossom out into 
 sacred kings. But the great social revolution which 
 thus begins with democracy and ends in despotism is 
 attended by an intellectual revolution which affects both 
 the conception and the functions of royalty. For as 
 time goes on, the fallacy of magic becomes more and 
 more apparent to the acuter minds and is slowly dis- 
 placed by religion ; in other words, the magician gives 
 way to the priest, who, renouncing the attempt to 
 control directly the processes of nature for the good 
 of man, seeks to attain the same end indirectly by 
 appealing to the gods to do for him what he no longer 
 fancies he can do for himself Hence the king, 
 starting as a magician, tends gradually to exchange the 
 practice of magic for the priestly functions of prayer 
 
 1 Baron Roger, " Notice sur le gouvernement, les moeurs at lea superstitions des 
 Nfegres du pays de Walo," Bulletin de la Sociite de Gc'ografhie (Paris), viii. (1827) 
 p. 351. 
 
128 KINGS AS GODS lect. iv 
 
 and sacrifice. And while the distinction between the 
 human and the divine is still imperfectly drawn, it is 
 often imagined that men may themselves attain to 
 godhead, not merely after their death, but in their 
 lifetime, through the temporary or permanent posses- 
 sion of their whole nature by a great and powerful 
 spirit. No class of the community has benefited so 
 much as kings by this belief in the possible incarnation 
 of a god in human form. The doctrine of that incar- 
 nation, and with it the theory of the divinity of kings 
 in the strict sense of the word, will form the subject of 
 the next lecture. 
 
LECTURE V 
 
 Development of the magician into a god as well as a king — In- 
 carnate human gods in Polynesia, Africa, and ancient Greece 
 and Germany — Worship of the Brahmans in India — Human 
 gods in Tibet and China — Divinity of the emperors of China 
 and Japan — Worship of the kings of Babylon and Egypt — 
 Summary of the evolution of the Kingship — King of the Wood 
 at Nemi again considered — He seems to have been the mate 
 of Diana, the two being considered as King and Queen of the 
 Wood — Trees regarded as male and female — Marriages of 
 trees and plants. 
 
 In the preceding lectures we saw grounds for thinking 
 that in some parts of the world the public magician has 
 often developed into a chief or king, partly through 
 the terror which his reputed skill inspires, partly 
 through the wealth which he gains in the exercise of 
 his profession. Even among tribes such as the Aus- 
 tralians and Papuans, who are too rude to have evolved 
 a regular chieftainship or kingship, we detected some 
 symptoms of the gravitation of political power towards 
 the magicians or medicine-men. Among the American 
 Indians the furthest advance towards civilisation was 
 made under the monarchical and theocratic governments 
 of Mexico and Peru ; but we know too little of the 
 early history of these countries to say whether the 
 
 129 K 
 
I30 WORSHIPFUL MAGICIANS lect. 
 
 predecessors of their deified kings were medicine-men 
 or not. However, among some of the savage Brazihan 
 Indians at the time of the discovery of America, the 
 sorcerer appears to have been treated with a respect 
 which might in time have raised him to the rank of a 
 divine king, if the course of evolution had not been 
 cut short by the intervention of Europeans. Thus one 
 of the earliest settlers on the coast of Brazil, the 
 Frenchman Thevet, reports that the Indians " hold 
 these fages (or medicine-men) in such honour and 
 reverence that, they adore, or rather idolatrise them. 
 You may see the common folk go to meet them, 
 prostrate themselves, and pray to them, saying, ' Grant 
 that I be not ill, that I do not die, neither I nor my 
 children,' or some such request. And he answers, 
 ' You shall not die, you shall not be ill,' and such like 
 replies. But sometimes if it happens that these -pages 
 do not tell the truth, and things turn out otherwise 
 than they predicted, the people make no scruple of 
 killing them as unworthy of the title and dignity of 
 pages.^"'^ 
 
 Among these Indians the magician is, or rather was, 
 plainly on the high road to become a living god as well 
 as a king. To the mind of a savage the distinction 
 between a powerful sorcerer and a god seems not to 
 be a sharp one. His gods are often merely invisible 
 magicians who behind the veil of nature work the same 
 sort of charms and incantations which the human 
 
 ^ F. A. Thevet, Les shgularitex de la France Aiitarctique, autrsmait nommier 
 Amerique (Antwerp, 1558), p. 65 [wrongly numbered 67]. 
 
V SAVAGE IDEA OF GOD 131 
 
 magician works in a visible and bodily form among his 
 fellows. And as the gods are commonly believed to 
 exhibit themselves in the likeness of men to their wor- 
 shippers, it is easy for the magician, with his supposed 
 miraculous powers, to acquire the reputation of being 
 an incarnate deity. Thus beginning as little more than 
 a simple conjurer, the medicine-man or magician tends 
 to blossom out into a full-blown god and king in one. 
 Only in speaking of him as a god we must beware 
 of importing into the savage conception of deity those 
 very abstract and complex ideas which we attach to the 1 
 term. Our ideas on this profound subject are the fruit 
 of a long intellectual and moral evolution, and they are \ 
 so far from being shared by the savage that he cannot \ 
 even understand them when they are explained to him. : 
 Much of the controversy which has raged as to the 
 religion of the lower races has sprung merely from] 
 a mutual misapprehension. The savage does not [ 
 understand the thoughts of the civilised man, and 
 few civilised men understand the thoughts of the 
 savage. When the savage uses his word for god,' 
 he has in his mind a being of a certain sort : when the ■, 
 civilised man uses his word for god, he has in his mind 
 a being of a very different sort ; and if, as commonly \ 
 happens, the two men are equally unable to places 
 themselves at the other's point of view, nothing but 
 confusion and mistakes on both sides can result from , 
 their discussions. If we civilised men insist on limiting \ 
 the name of God to that particular conception of the 
 divine nature which we ourselves have formed, then we 
 
132 HUMAN GODS lect. 
 
 must confess that the savage has no god at all. But 
 we shall adhere more closely to the facts of history 
 if we allow most of the higher savages at least to 
 possess a rudimentary notion of certain supernatural 
 beings who may fittingly be called gods, though not in 
 the full sense in which we use the word. That rudi- 
 mentary notion represents in all probability the germ 
 out of which the civilised peoples have gradually 
 evolved their own high conceptions of divinity ; and 
 if we could trace the whole course of religious develop- 
 ment we might find that the chain which links our 
 idea of the Godhead with that of the savage was one 
 and unbroken. 
 
 With these explanations I shall now give you some 
 instances of gods who are believed by their worshippers 
 to be incarnate in living human beings, whether men or 
 women. The persons in whom a deity is thought to 
 reveal himself are by no means always kings or descend- 
 ants of kings ; the supposed incarnation may take place 
 even in men of the humblest rank. I shall therefore 
 not draw my examples exclusively from royal personages, 
 as I wish to illustrate what we may call the general 
 principle of the deification of living men, in other words, 
 the incarnation of a deity in human form. 
 
 Thus, for example, a Catholic missionary, writing 
 some sixty years ago, tells us that the natives of Futuna, 
 an island in the South Pacific, " are not content with 
 deifying the evils that afflict them : they place gods 
 everywhere, and even go so far as to suppose that the 
 greatest of all the spirits resides in the person of their 
 
V IN AFRICA 133 
 
 prince as in a living sanctuary. From this belief springs 
 a strange mode of regarding their king, and of behaving 
 under his authority. In their eyes the sovereign is not 
 responsible for his acts : they deem him inspired by the 
 divine spirit whose tabernacle he is : hence his will is 
 sacred : even his whims and rages are revered ; and if 
 it pleases him to play the tyrant, his subjects submit 
 from conscientious motives to the vexations he inflicts 
 on them." ^ 
 
 An early Portuguese historian informs us that the 
 king of Sofala, in south-eastern Africa, "is a woolly- 
 haired Kaffir, a heathen who adores nothing whatever, 
 and has no knowledge of God ; on the contrary, he 
 esteems himself the god of all his lands, and is so looked 
 upon and reverenced by his subjects." " When they 
 suffer necessity or scarcity they have recourse to the 
 king, firmly believing that he can give them all that 
 they desire or have need of, and can obtain anything 
 from his dead predecessors, with whom they believe that 
 he holds converse. For this reason they ask the king 
 to give them rain when it is required, and other favour- 
 able weather for their harvest, and in coming to ask 
 him for any of these things they bring him valuable 
 presents, which the king accepts, bidding them return 
 to their homes, and he will be careful to grant their 
 petitions. They are such barbarians that though they 
 see how often the king does not give them what they 
 ask for, they are not undeceived, but make him still 
 
 ^ Missionary Chevron, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xv. (1843), p. 37. 
 Compare id. xiii. (1841), p. 378. 
 
134 HUMAN GODS lect. 
 
 greater offerings, and many days are spent in these 
 comings and goings, until the weather turns to rain, 
 and the Kaffirs are satisfied, believing that the king did 
 not grant their request until he had been well bribed 
 and importuned, as he himself affirms, in order to 
 maintain them in their error." ^ Again, the same early 
 Portuguese historian writes that the Zimbas, or Muzim- 
 bas, another people of south-eastern Africa, " do not 
 adore idols or recognise any god, but instead they 
 venerate and honour their king, whom they regard as a 
 divinity, and they say that he is the greatest and best in the 
 world. And the said king says of himself that he alone 
 is god of the earth, for which reason if it rains when he 
 does not wish it to do so, or is too hot, he shoots arrows 
 at the sky for not obeying him." ^ The Maraves of 
 South Africa have, or had at least some seventy years 
 ago, " a spiritual head to whom they ascribe supernatural 
 powers, revering him as a prophet and designating him 
 by the name of Chissumpe. Besides a considerable 
 territory, which he owns and rules, he receives tribute 
 from all, even from the king. They believe that this 
 being is invisible and immortal, and they consult him as 
 an oracle, in which case he makes himself heard. He 
 is personified by a substitute, whose dignity is hereditary 
 and who is revered exactly like the supposed Chissumpe, 
 with whom he is naturally identical. As he names his 
 own successor, disputes as to the succession do not 
 arise. His oracles are as unintelligible and ambiguous 
 
 ' J. Dos Santos, " Eastern Ethiopia," in G. M'Call Theal's Recordi of South- 
 Eastern Africa, vii. (1901), pp. 190 sq., 199. 
 * J. Dos Santos, op. cit. p. 295. 
 
V IN AFRICA 135 
 
 as can well be imagined. He derives great profit from 
 impostors of both sexes, who purchase the gift of 
 soothsaying from him." ^ 
 
 In the Makalaka hills, to the west of Matabeleland, 
 there lives a human god. The account of him which 
 I shall quote was published in a Catholic missionary 
 journal some quarter of a century ago. This man-god 
 " resides in the depth of a cave, in the midst of a 
 labyrinth. Nobody has ever seen him, but he has sons 
 and daughters, who are priests and priestesses, and dwell 
 in the neighbourhood of the grotto. It is rather odd 
 that not long ago three sons of this god were put to 
 death like common mortals for having stolen wheat 
 from the king. Lo Bengula [the king of the Matabeles] 
 probably thought that they should practise justice even 
 more strictly than other folk. ... In the middle of 
 the (oracular) cavern, they say, there is a shaft, very 
 deep and very black. From this gulf there issue from 
 time to time terrible noises like the crash of thunder. 
 On the edge of the abyss the worshippers tremblingly 
 lay flesh and wheat, fowls, cakes, and other presents to 
 appease the hunger of the dreadful god and secure his 
 favour. After making this offering the poor suppliants 
 declare aloud their wishes and the object of their appli- 
 cation. They ask to know hidden things, future events, 
 the names of those who have cast a spell on them, the 
 
 ' Zeitschrifi fur Allgemeitie Erdhinde, vi. (1856), pp. 273 sq. This is from a 
 German abstract of a work which embodies the results of a Portuguese expedition 
 conducted by Major Monteiro in 183 1 and 1832. The territory of the Maraves is 
 described as bounded on the south by the Zambesi and on the east by the Portuguese 
 possessions. Probably things have changed greatly in the seventy years which have 
 elapsed since the expedition. 
 
136 HUMAN GODS lect. 
 
 issue of such and such an enterprise. After some 
 moments of profound silence there are heard, amid the 
 crash of subterranean thunder, inarticulate sounds, 
 broken words, of which it is hard to make out the 
 sense, and which the medicine-men, who are hand in 
 glove with the makers of thunder, explain to these 
 credulous devotees." ^ 
 
 The Mashonas of South Africa have also a human 
 god, who does not wrap himself up in such a profound 
 mystery as the one I have just described. He was 
 formerly bound to render an annual tribute to the king 
 of the Matabeles in the shape of four black oxen and 
 one dance. A missionary has seen and described the 
 deity discharging the latter part of his duty in front of 
 the royal hut. For three mortal hours without a break, 
 to the banging of a tambourine, the click of castanets, 
 and the drone of a monotonous song, the swarthy god 
 engaged in a frenzied dance, crouching on his hams like 
 a tailor, sweating like a pig, and bounding about with 
 an agility which testified to the strength and elasticity 
 of his divine legs.^ The Sakalavas in the north of 
 Madagascar revere a sovereign whom they call Zanahari 
 antani, " God on earth." He is treated by them with 
 a veneration which resembles idolatry, and the vulgar 
 are simple enough to attribute the creation of the world 
 to his ancestors. His person and property are sacred, 
 and the different parts of his body and his least actions 
 are described by nouns and verbs which are foreign to 
 
 ^ Annahs ds la Propagation de la Foi, lii. (1880), pp. 443-445. 
 ^ Father Croonenberghs, " La mission du Zambize," Missions Catholiques, xiv. 
 (1882), pp. 452 sq. 
 
V IN ANCIENT GREECE 137 
 
 the ordinary language, forming a separate vocabulary 
 known as sacred or princely words.^ 
 
 The deification of living men was not unknown in 
 ancient Greece. Thus the philosopher Empedocles 
 gave himself out to be not merely a wizard but a god. 
 Addressing his fellow-citizens in verses which I will 
 translate, he said : 
 
 O friends, in this great city that climbs the yellow slope 
 Of Agrigentum's citadel, who make good works your scope. 
 Who offer to the stranger a haven quiet and fair. 
 All hail! Among you honoured I walk with lofty air. 
 With garlands, blooming garlands, you crown my noble brow, 
 A mortal man no longer, a deathless godhead now. 
 Where'er I go, the people crowd round and worship pay. 
 And thousands follow seeking to learn the better way. 
 Some crave prophetic vision, some smit with anguish sore 
 Would fain hear words of comfort and suffer pain no more. 
 
 He asserted that he could teach his disciples how to 
 make the wind to blow or be still, the rain to fall and 
 the sun to shine, how to banish sickness and old age, and 
 to raise the dead.^ When Demetrius Poliorcetes restored 
 the Athenian democracy in 307 b.c, the Athenians 
 decreed divine honours to him and to his father 
 Antigonus, both of them being then alive. The two 
 new deities received the title of the Saviour Gods. 
 Altars were set up to them, and a priest was 
 appointed to attend to their worship. The people went 
 forth to meet Demetrius, the Saviour, with hymns and 
 
 ^ V. Noel, "lie de Madagascar ! recherches sur les Sakkalava," Bulletin de la 
 Sociite dc GeographU (Paris), Deuxiime Serie, xx. (1843), p. 56. 
 
 * Diogenes Laertius, l^it. Philosoph. viii. 59-62 ; Fragmenta Philosophorum Grae- 
 corum^ ed. F. G. A. MuUach, i. pp. 12, 14 ; H. Diels, Dte Fragments der Vorsokra- 
 tiker (Berlin, 1903), pp. 214 sq. 
 
138 HUMAN GODS lect. 
 
 dances, with garlands and incense and libations : they 
 lined the streets and sang that he was the only true god, 
 for the other gods slept, or dwelt far away, or were not. 
 In the words of a contemporary poet, which were 
 chanted In public and sung In private : 
 
 Of all the gods the greatest and the dearest 
 
 To the city are come. 
 
 For Demeter and Demetrius 
 
 Together time has brought. 
 
 She comes to hold the Maiden^ s awful rites. 
 
 And he joyous and fair and laughing. 
 
 As befits a god. 
 
 A glorious sight, with all his friends about him. 
 
 He in their midst. 
 
 They like to stars, and he the sun. 
 
 Son of Poseidon the mighty. Aphrodite's son. 
 
 All hail! 
 
 The other gods dwell far away. 
 
 Or have no ears. 
 
 Or are not, or pay us no heed. 
 
 But thee we present see. 
 
 No god of wood or stone, but godhead true. 
 
 Therefore to thee we pray^ 
 
 The ancient Germans believed that there was some- 
 thing holy in women, and accordingly they consulted 
 them as oracles. Their sacred women, we are told, 
 looked on the eddying rivers and listened to the mur- 
 mur or the roar of the water, and from the sight and 
 sound foretold what should come to pass. But often 
 the veneration of the men went further, and they 
 worshipped women as true and living goddesses. For 
 example, in the reign of Vespasian a certain Veleda, of the 
 
 ' Plutarch, Demetrius, 10-13 j Athenaeus, vi. pp. 253 sq. 
 
V IN THE EAST 139 
 
 tribe of the Bructeri, was commonly held to be a deity, 
 and in that character she reigned over her people, her 
 sway being acknowledged far and wide. She lived in a 
 tower on the river Lippe, a tributary of the Rhine. 
 When the people of Cologne sent to make a treaty 
 with her, the ambassadors were not admitted to her 
 presence : the negotiations were conducted through a 
 minister, who acted as the mouthpiece of her divinity 
 and reported her oracular utterances.^ This example 
 shows how easily among our own rude forefathers the 
 ideas of divinity and royalty coalesced. 
 
 At the present day the head of the great Persian 
 sect of the Babites, Abbas EfFendi by name, resides at 
 Acre in Syria, and is held by Frenchmen, Russians, and 
 Americans, especially by rich American ladies, to be an 
 incarnation of God himself. The late Professor S. I. 
 Curtiss of Chicago had the honour of dining with " the 
 Master," as he is invariably called by his disciples, and 
 the deity expressed a kindly hope that he might have 
 the pleasure of drinking tea with the professor in the 
 kingdom of heaven.^ 
 
 But perhaps no country in the world is so prolific of 
 human gods as India. The ancient Indian code known 
 as the Laws of Manu lays it down that a Brahman, " be 
 he ignorant or learned, is a great divinity, just as the 
 fire, whether carried forth (for the performance of a 
 burnt oblation) or not carried forth, is a great divinity." 
 Further it is said in the same code that though Brahmans 
 
 1 Tacitus, Germania, 8 ; id., Histor. iv. 6i, 65, v. 22. Compare K. Mullenhoff, 
 Deutsche Altertumskunde, v. 208 sqq. 
 
 2 S. I. Curtiss, Primiti-ve Semitic Religion to-day (Chicago, 1902), p. 102. 
 
I40 HUMAN GODS lect. 
 
 ' ' employ themselves in all sorts of mean occupations, 
 they must be honoured in every way ; for each of them 
 is a very great deity." ^ And in another ancient Hindoo 
 treatise we read that " verily, there are two kinds of 
 gods ; for, indeed, the gods are the gods ; and the 
 Brahmans who have studied and teach sacred lore are 
 the human gods. The sacrifice of these is divided 
 into two kinds : oblations constitute the sacrifice to the 
 gods ; and gifts to the priests that to the human gods, 
 the Brahmans who have studied and teach sacred lore."* 
 As to the mantras, or sacred texts by means of which 
 the Brahmans exert their miraculous powers, there is 
 a saying everywhere current in India, " The whole 
 universe is subject to the gods ; the gods are subject to 
 the Mantras ; the Mantras to the Brahmans ; therefore 
 the Brahmans are our gods." ^ 
 
 At Chinchvad, a small town about ten miles from 
 Poona in western India, there lives a family of whom 
 one in each generation is believed by a large proportion 
 of the Mahrattas to be an incarnation of the elephant- 
 headed god Gunputty. That celebrated deity was first 
 made flesh about the year 1640 in the person of a 
 Brahman of Poona, by name Mooraba Gosseyn, who 
 sought to work out his salvation by abstinence, mortifi- 
 cation, and prayer. His piety had its reward. The 
 god himself appeared to him in a vision of the night 
 and promised that a portion of his, that is, of Gunputty 's, 
 
 ^ The Laws of Manu, ix. §§ 317, 319, pp. 398, 399, translated by G. Buhler. 
 2 Satapatha-Brahmlina, translated by J. Eggeling, Part i. pp. 309 sq. ; compare 
 id. Part ii. p. 341. 
 
 ^ Monier Williams, Religious Life and Thought in India, pp. 201 sq. 
 
V IN INDIA 141 
 
 holy spirit should abide with him and with his seed 
 after him even to the seventh generation. The divine 
 promise was fulfilled. Seven successive incarnations, 
 transmitted from father to son, manifested the light of 
 Gunputty to a dark world. The last of the direct line, 
 a heavy-looking god with very weak eyes, died in the 
 year 18 10. But the cause of truth was too sacred, and 
 the value of the church property too considerable, to 
 allow the Brahmans to contemplate with equanimity 
 the unspeakable loss that would be sustained by a 
 world which knew not Gunputty. Accordingly they 
 sought and found a holy vessel in whom the divine 
 spirit of the Master had revealed itself anew, and 
 the revelation has been happily continued in an un- 
 broken succession of vessels from that time to this. 
 But a mysterious law of spiritual economy, whose 
 operation in the history of religion we may deplore 
 though we cannot alter, has decreed that the miracles 
 performed by the god-man in these later days cannot 
 compare with those which were wrought by his pre- 
 decessors in days gone by ; and it is even reported 
 that the only sign now vouchsafed by him is the miracle 
 of feeding the multitude, whom he annually entertains 
 to dinner at Chinchvad.-^ To be exact, I should say 
 that I have no information as to this particular deity 
 later than the account of him in the eighteenth volume 
 
 1 Captain Edward Moor, "Account of an hereditary living deity," Asiatic 
 Researches, vii. 381-395 (8vo edition) ; Viscount Valentia, Voyages and Travels, ii. 
 151-159; Ca. Q.o\tm3.-a, Mythology of the Hindus (London, 1832), pp. 106-111 ; 
 Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, xviii. Part iii. (Bombay, 1885), pp. 125 sq. I 
 have to thank Mr. W. Crooke for calling my attention to the second and fourth of 
 these works. 
 
142 HUMAN GODS lect. 
 
 of the Bombay Gazetteer, published some twenty years 
 ago. But I think we may assume that the same 
 providential reasons which prolonged the revelation 
 down to the publication of the Gazetteer have continued 
 it to the present day. 
 
 We are all familiar with the great incarnate god of 
 Lhassa, the Dalai Lama, who has lately fallen from his 
 high estate before the carnal weapons of his Majesty's 
 troops. In the year 1661 or 1662 Fathers Grueber 
 and d'Orville, on their return from Peking to Europe, 
 spent two months at Lhassa, waiting for a caravan, and 
 they report that the Grand Lama was worshipped as a 
 true and living god, that he received the title of the 
 Eternal and Heavenly Father, and that he was believed 
 to have risen from the dead not once but seven times. 
 He lived withdrawn from the business of this passing 
 world in the recesses of his palace, where, seated aloft 
 on a cushion and precious carpets, he received the homage 
 of his adorers in a chamber screened from the garish eye 
 of day, but glittering with gold and silver, and lit up 
 by the blaze of a multitude of torches.^ 
 
 But he is by no means the only man who poses as a 
 god in these regions. A register of all the incarnate 
 gods in the Chinese Empire is kept in the Li fan yuan 
 or Colonial Office at Peking. The number of gods 
 who have thus taken out a license is one hundred and 
 sixty. Tibet rejoices in thirty of them, and northern 
 Mongolia in nineteen, while southern Mongolia is 
 
 ^ Thevenot, Relations de diven •voyages^ iv. Partie (Paris, 1672), "Voyage h la 
 Chine des PP. I. Grueber et d'Orville," pp. i sq., 22. 
 
V IN TIBET AND CHINA 143 
 
 blessed with no less than fifty-seven. The Chinese 
 Government, with a paternal solicitude for the welfare 
 of its subjects, forbids the gods on the register to be 
 reborn anywhere but in Tibet. They fear lest the 
 birth of a god in Mongolia should have serious political 
 consequences by stirring the dormant patriotism and 
 warlike spirit of the Mongols, who might rally round 
 an ambitious native deity of royal lineage, and might 
 seek to win for him, at the point of the sword, a 
 temporal as well as a spiritual kingdom. But besides 
 these public or licensed gods, there are a great many 
 little private gods, or unlicensed practitioners of divinity, 
 who work miracles and bless their people in holes and 
 corners ; and of late years the Chinese Government has 
 winked at the rebirth of these pettifogging deities out- 
 side of Tibet. However, once they are born the 
 Government keeps its eye on themi as well as on the 
 regular practitioners, and if any of them misbehaves, he 
 is promptly degraded, banished to a distant monastery, 
 and strictly forbidden ever to be born again in the flesh.^ 
 At the head of Taoism, the most numerous religious 
 sect of China, is a pope who goes by the name of the 
 Heavenly Master, and is believed to be an incarnation 
 and representative on earth of the god of heaven. His 
 official tide is Chin-yen, or " the True Man." When 
 one of these pontiffs or incarnate deities departs this 
 life, his soul passes into a male member of his family, 
 
 1 E. Pander (Professor at the University of Peking), " Das lamaische Pantheon," 
 Zeitschrift Jilr Ethmhgie, xxi. (1889), p. 76; id. " Geschichte des Lamaismus," 
 Verhandhngen der Berliner GeselUchaft fiir Anthrofohgie, Ethmlogie und Urgeschichte, 
 1889, p. (202). 
 
144 THE TAOIST POPE lect. 
 
 the ancient house of Chang. In order to determine his 
 successor, all the male members of the clan assemble at 
 the palace, their names are engraved on tablets of lead, 
 the tablets are thrown into a vessel full of water, and 
 the one which bears the name of the new incarnation 
 floats on the surface. The reputation and power of the 
 pope are very great. He lives in princely style at his 
 palace on the Dragon and Tiger mountains in the pro- 
 vince of Kiang-si, about twenty-five miles to the south- 
 west of Kuei-ki. The road, which is provided at 
 regular intervals with stone halls for the repose of weary 
 pilgrims, leads gradually upward through a bleak and 
 barren district, treeless and thinly peopled, to the 
 summit of a pass, from which a beautiful prospect 
 suddenly opens up of a wide and fertile valley watered 
 by a little stream. The scene charms the traveller all 
 the more by contrast with the desert country which he 
 has just traversed. This is the beginning of the pope's 
 patrimony, which he holds from the emperor fi-ee of 
 taxes. The palace stands in the middle of a small town. 
 It is new and of no special interest, having been rebuilt 
 after the Taiping rebellion. For in their march north- 
 ward the rebels devastated the papal domains with great 
 fury. About a mile to the east of the palace lie the 
 ruins of stately temples, which also perished in the great 
 rising and have only in part been rebuilt. However, 
 the principal temple is well preserved. It is dedicated 
 to the god of heaven, and contains a colossal image of 
 that deity. The papal residence naturally swarms with 
 monks and priests of all ranks. But the courts and 
 
V THE TJOIST POPE 145 
 
 gardens of the monasteries, littered with heaps of 
 broken bricks and stones and mouldering wood, 
 present a melancholy spectacle of decay. And the 
 ruinous state of the religious capital reflects the decline 
 of the papacy. The number of pilgrims has fallen off, 
 and with them the revenues of the holy see. Formerly 
 the pope ranked with viceroys and the highest dignitaries 
 of the empire : now he is reduced to the level of a man- 
 darin of the third class, and wears a blue button instead of 
 a red. Formerly he repaired every year to the imperial 
 court at Peking or elsewhere in order to procure peace and 
 prosperity for the whole kingdom by means of his cere- 
 monies ; and on his journey the gods and spirits were 
 bound to come from every quarter to pay him homage, 
 unless he considerately hung out on his palanquin a 
 board with the notice, " You need not trouble to 
 salute." The people, too, gathered up the dust or mud 
 from under his feet to preserve it as a priceless talisman. 
 Nowadays, if he goes to court at all, it seems to be not 
 oftener than once in three years ; and his services are 
 seldom wanted except to ban the demons of plague. 
 But he still exercises the right of elevating deceased 
 mandarins to the rank of local deities, and as he gets a 
 fee for every deification, the ranks of the celestial hier- 
 archy naturally receive many recruits. He also draws 
 a considerable revenue from the manufacture and sale of 
 red and green papers inscribed with cabalistic characters, 
 which are infallible safeguards against demons, disease, 
 and calamities of every kind.^ 
 
 ^ Mgr. Danicourt, "Eapport sur I'origine, les progrJs et la decadence de la secte 
 
 L 
 
146 THE CHINESE EMPEROR lect. 
 
 However, in China the greatest of all human gods 
 is the emperor. As to the position which he occupies 
 in the minds of the people, I will quote the words of 
 Professor J. J. M. de Groot, of Leyden, the most 
 eminent living authority, I believe, on Chinese religion. 
 He says : " To no son of China would it ever occur to 
 question the supreme power wielded by the emperor 
 and his proxies, the mandarins, not only over mankind, 
 but also over the gods. For the gods or shen are souls 
 of intrinsically the same nature as those existing in 
 human beings ; why then, simply because they have no 
 human bodies, should they be placed above the emperor, 
 who is no less than a son of Heaven, that is to say, a 
 magnitude second to none but Heaven or the Power 
 above whom there is none — who governs the universe 
 and all that moves and exists therein ? Such absurdity 
 could not possibly be entertained by Chinese reason. 
 So it is a first article of China's political creed that the 
 emperor, as well as Heaven, is lord and master of all 
 the gods, and delegates this dignity to his mandarins, 
 each in his jurisdiction. With them then rests the 
 decision which of the gods are entitled to receive the 
 people's worship, and which are not. It is the imperial 
 government which deifies disembodied souls of men, 
 and also divests them of their divine rank. Their 
 worship, if established against its will or without its 
 consent, can be exterminated at its pleasure, without 
 
 des Tao-sse, en Chine/' Annalei de la Propagation de la Fot, xxx. (1858), pp. 15-20 ; 
 J. H. Gray, China (London, 1878), i. 103 s^. ; Dr. Merz, " Bericht tiber seine erste 
 Reise von Amoy nach Kui-lciang," Zeinchrift der Geselhchafi fur Erdkund: zu Berlin, 
 xxiii. (1888}, pp. 413-416. 
 
V THE MIKADO 147 
 
 revenge having to be feared from the side of the god 
 for any such radical measure ; for the power of even the 
 mightiest and strongest god is as naught compared with 
 that of the august Celestial Being with whose will and 
 under whose protection the Son [that is, the Emperor] 
 reigns supreme over everything existing below the 
 empyrean, unless he forfeits this omnipotent support 
 through neglect of his imperial duties." ^ 
 
 As the emperor of China is believed to be a Son of 
 Heaven, so the emperor of Japan, the Mikado, is sup- 
 posed to be an incarnation of the sun goddess, the 
 deity who rules the universe, gods and men included. 
 Once a year aU the gods wait upon him and spend a 
 month at his court. During that month, the name of 
 which means " without gods," no one frequents the 
 temples, for they are believed to be deserted.^ 
 
 The early Babylonian kings, from the time of Sargon 
 I. till the fourth dynasty of Ur or later, claimed to be 
 gods in their lifetime. The monarchs of the fourth 
 dynasty of Ur in particular had temples built in their 
 honour : they set up their statues in various sanctuaries 
 and commanded the people to sacrifice to them : the 
 eighth month was especially dedicated to the kings, 
 and sacrifices were offered to them at the new moon 
 and on the fifteenth day of each month. ^ 
 
 ' J. J. M. de Groot, Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China, i. (Amsterdam, 
 1903), pp. 17 sq. 
 
 2 Manners and Customs of the Japanese in the Nineteenth Century : from recent Dutch 
 •visitors to Japan and tfie Gerinan of Dr. Ph. Fr. 'von Siebold (London, 1S41), pp. 
 141 sqq. 
 
 ' H. Radau, Early Babylonian History (New York and London, 1900), pp. 307- 
 317. Compare C. Brockelmann, "Wesen und Ursprung des Eponymats in 
 
148 KINGS OF EGTPT lect. 
 
 The ancient kings of Egypt also were worshipped 
 as gods in their lifetime. On this subject the late 
 Sir Peter le Page Renouf says : " It has never been 
 doubted that the king claimed actual divinity ; he was 
 the ' great god,' the ' golden Horus,' and son of Ra [the 
 sun-god]. He claimed authority not only over Egypt, 
 but over ' all lands and nations,' ' the whole world in 
 its length and its breadth, the east and the west,' ' the 
 entire compass of the great circuit of the sun,' ' the sky 
 and what is in it, the earth and all that is upon it,' 
 ' every creature that walks upon two or upon four legs, 
 all that fly or flutter, the whole world offers her pro- 
 ductions to him.' Whatever in fact might be asserted 
 of the sun -god was dogmatically predicable of the 
 king of Egypt. His titles were directly derived from 
 those of the sun-god." ^ To quote now a recent 
 French writer who has devoted a special treatise 
 to the investigation of the sacred character of the 
 Egyptian kings. " In the course of his existence," 
 says M. Moret, " the king of Egypt exhausted all the 
 possible conceptions of divinity which the Egyptians 
 had framed for themselves. A superhuman god by 
 his birth and by his royal office, he became the deified 
 man after his death. Thus all thai: was known of the 
 divine was summed up in him." ^ " The divinity of 
 
 Assyrien," Zeiuchrift fUr Assyriologie, xvi. (1902), p. 394; H. Zimmern, in E. 
 Schrader's Die Keilinschrijien und das Alte Testament^ (Berlin, 1903), pp. 379, 
 639 iq. 
 
 ^ P. le P. Renouf, " The priestly character of the earliest Egyptian civilisation," 
 Procesdings of the Society of Biblical Archteology, xii. (1890), p. 355. 
 
 ^ A. Moret, Du caractire religieux de la Royaute' Pharaimujue (Paris, 1902), pp. 
 278 sj.; compare p. 313. 
 
V KINGS OF EGTPT 149 
 
 the king was recognised in all the circumstances of the 
 public life of the sovereign. It was not enough to 
 worship Pharaoh in the temple ; beyond the limits of 
 the sanctuary he remained the ' good god * to whom all 
 men owed a perpetual adoration. The very name of 
 the sovereign was sacred like his person ; people swore 
 by his name as by that of the gods, and he who took 
 the oath in vain was punished." ^ In particular, the 
 king of Egypt was identified with the great sun-god 
 Ra. " Son of the sun, decked with the solar crowns, 
 armed with the solar weapons, gods and men adored 
 him as Ra, defended him as Ra from the attacks which 
 menaced in him the divine being who, in his human 
 existence, knew the glory and the dangers of being ' an 
 incarnate sun ' and ' the living image on earth of his 
 father Turn of Heliopolis.' " ^ Even the life of the 
 gods depended on the divine life of the king. Gods 
 and men, it was said, " live by the words of his mouth." ^ 
 " O gods," said the king before celebrating divine 
 worship, " you are safe if I am safe. Your doubles 
 are safe if my double is safe at the head of all living 
 doubles. All live if I live." * 
 
 We have now completed our sketch, for it is no 
 more than a sketch, of the evolution of that sacred 
 kingship which attained its highest form, its most 
 absolute expression, in the monarchies of Peru and 
 Egypt, of China and Japan. Historically, the institu- 
 
 ^ A. Moret, op. cit. p. 306. " A. Moret, op. cit. p. 310. 
 
 ' A. Moret, op. cit. p. 299. * A. Moret, of. cit. p. 233. 
 
I50 EVOLXfllON OF KINGSHIP lect. 
 
 tion appears to have originated in the order of public 
 magicians or medicine-men : logically, it rests on a 
 mistaken deduction from the association of ideas. Men 
 mistook the order of their ideas for the order of nature, 
 and hence imagined that the control which they have, 
 or seem to have, over their thoughts, permitted them 
 to exercise a corresponding control over things. The 
 men who for one reason or another, on the ground of 
 the strength or the weakness of their natural parts, 
 were supposed to possess these magical powers in the 
 highest degree, were gradually marked off from their 
 fellows and became a separate class, who were destined 
 to exercise a most far-reaching influence on the political, 
 religious, and intellectual evolution of mankind. Social 
 progress, as we know, consists mainly in a successive 
 differentiation of functions, or, in simpler language, 
 a division of labour. The work which in primitive 
 society is done by all alike and by all equally ill, or 
 nearly so, is gradually distributed among different 
 classes of workers and executed more and more per- 
 fectly ; and so far as the products, material or im- 
 material, of this specialised labour are shared by all, the 
 whole community benefits by the increasing specialisa- 
 tion. Now magicians or medicine-men appear to con- 
 stitute the oldest artificial or professional class in the 
 evolution of society.^ For sorcerers are found in every 
 
 1 In regard to the natives of the western islands of Torres Straits it has been 
 remarked by Dr. A. C. Haddon that the magicians or sorcerers " constituted the 
 only professional class among these democratic islanders '' [Reports of the Cambridge 
 Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. 321). The same observation could be 
 applied to many other savage tribes. 
 
V EVOLUTION OF KINGSHIP 151 
 
 savage tribe known to us ; and among the lowest 
 savages, such as the Australian aborigines, they are the 
 only artificial class that exists. As time goes on, and 
 the process of differentiation continues, the order of 
 medicine-men is itself subdivided into such classes as 
 the healers of disease, the makers of rain, and so forth ; 
 while the most powerful member of the order wins for 
 himself a position as chief and gradually develops into 
 a sacred king, his old magical functions falling more 
 and more into the background and being exchanged for 
 priestly or even divine duties, in proportion as magic is 
 slowly ousted by religion. Still later, a partition is 
 effected between the civil and the religious aspect of the 
 kingship, the temporal power being committed to one 
 man and the spiritual to another. Meanwhile the 
 magicians, who may be repressed but are never extirpated 
 by the predominance of religion, still addict themselves 
 to their old occult arts in preference to the newer ritual 
 of sacrifice and prayer ; and in time the more sagacious 
 of their number perceive the fallacy of magic and hit 
 upon a more effectual mode of manipulating the forces 
 of nature for the benefit of man ; in short, they abandon 
 sorcery for science. I am far from affirming that the 
 course of development has everywhere rigidly followed 
 these lines : it has doubtless varied greatly in different 
 societies : I merely mean to indicate in the broadest 
 outline what I conceive to have been its general trend. 
 Regarded from the industrial point of view, the evolution 
 has been from uniformity to diversity of function : 
 regarded from the political point of view, it has been 
 
152 THE KING OF THE WOOD lect. 
 
 from democracy to despotism. With the later history 
 of monarchy, especially with the decay of despotism and 
 its displacement by forms of government better adapted 
 to the higher needs of humanity, we are not concerned 
 in these lectures : our subject is the growth, not the 
 decline, of a great and, in its time, beneficent institution. 
 
 But if we have thus traced in outline the early history 
 of the kingship, we have still to fill in the details. To 
 do so fully would far exceed not only the time at our 
 disposal but my knowledge and abilities. The task 
 will need the co-operation of many workers. The 
 materials for the history have still in large measure to 
 be collected, sifted, and arranged. In what remains of 
 these lectures I shall confine myself to putting before 
 you some special aspects of the kingship, particularly of 
 the kingship in classical antiquity. 
 
 You will remember that we began our inquiry by 
 considering an individual instance of a sacred king, 
 namely, the priest of Diana, known as the King of the 
 Wood, at Nemi. I said that apart from the greater 
 definiteness and precision attained by starting from 
 concrete facts rather than from general ideas, the priest- 
 hood of Nemi offers some special advantages, because it 
 raises certain questions of great interest, which will 
 repay investigation. I propose therefore to reconduct 
 you to Nemi for a few minutes before starting on 
 another, though much more narrowly limited, tour of 
 observation. 
 
 A review of the classical evidence alone, without any 
 
V IN RELATION TO DIANA 153 
 
 application of the comparative method in the wider 
 sense, led us to conclude that the priest of Diana at 
 Nemi represented in the flesh a certain mysterious 
 mythical being named Virbius, who was said to have 
 been the first King of the Wood, and to have been to 
 Diana what Attis was to Cybele or Adonis to Venus. 
 From this it seems necessarily to follow that the priest 
 himself, as the representative of Virbius, stood in the 
 very same relation to the goddess, and as the relation 
 was that of a mortal lover to an immortal goddess, 
 we conclude that the priest was regarded as the mate 
 or consort of Diana. 
 
 Now our survey of divine kings and other human 
 incarnations of deities has probably prepared you to 
 admit that the King of the Wood at Nemi may well 
 have been something more than a mere priest, that he 
 may have been supposed to embody, as well as to 
 represent, the mythical being Virbius ; in short, that 
 he may have posed as a god as well as a king, and that 
 his predecessors may have attained to that exalted 
 position by the exercise of those magical functions which 
 have so often paved the way to kingship and godhead. 
 If that were so, he would be no unsuitable mate for a 
 goddess. Now Diana at Nemi was called the Lady of 
 the Woods {Nemorensis), while her priest bore the title 
 of Lord or King of the Wood (Rex Nemorensis). 
 When we take this into consideration along with the 
 story of Virbius and his representation by the priest, 
 we seem justified in inferring that the priest and the 
 goddess passed in popular estimation for a loving 
 
154 PERSONIFICATION OF TREES lect. 
 
 couple, the King and Queen, or Lord and Lady of the 
 Woods. 
 
 At this point I would remind you that the priest of 
 Nemi not only bore a title which connected him with 
 the woods in general or at least with the sacred grove 
 in particular, but that, further, he stood in a peculiar 
 relation to one individual tree in the grove, since he 
 might only be attacked by a candidate for office who 
 had broken a bough from that tree. Taken together 
 with his sylvan title and his intimate association with the 
 goddess of the grove, this circumstance may perhaps, 
 without undue straining, be interpreted to mean that 
 his life was in a manner bound up with that of the tree, 
 or to put it in another form, that he was a human 
 representative or incarnation of a tree-spirit. And in 
 regard to his divine partner, Diana, so far as she was a 
 goddess of the woods, it is probable that she was the 
 lineal descendant of a tree-nymph ; for primitive man 
 ascribes an individual spirit, whether a nymph or a 
 faun, to each single tree long before he arrives at the 
 general conception of a god or goddess of the woods. 
 
 Now I am not going to inflict upon you a tedious 
 dissertation on tree-worship, but there is one side or 
 aspect of tree-worship to which I must direct your 
 attention, if we are fully to understand the King and 
 Queen of the Wood at Nemi. That side or aspect 
 is the personification of the spirits of trees and plants as 
 male and female respectively. Such a personification, 
 as you are no doubt aware, is not purely fanciful, for 
 plants as well as animals have their sexes. How far the 
 
V AS MALE AND FEMALE 155 
 
 real distinction of male and female plants has been 
 observed by savages I am not prepared to say. It is 
 asserted that the Maoris have observed it, and that they 
 have separate names for the different sexes of some 
 trees.^ However that may be, it is certain that the 
 ancients had made the discovery : Pliny says that 
 naturalists distinguished the sexes of all trees and plants. 
 And they turned the discovery to practical account in 
 the cultivation of the date-palm by fertilising the tree 
 artificially.^ Among the Sabasans of Harran the month 
 during which the palms were thus fertilised bore the 
 name of the Date Month, and at this time they cele- 
 brated the marriage festival of all the gods and 
 goddesses.^ Many of you may have noticed in the 
 British Museum the great sculptured slabs from Assyria 
 on which a winged figure is represented standing in 
 front of a tree and holding in his hand what looks like 
 a pine-cone. The scene has been ingeniously explained 
 by Professor E. B. Tylor as the artificial fertilisation 
 of the palm.* 
 
 Different, however, from such true and fruitful 
 marriages of trees are the false and barren marriages 
 which have played a part in the popular superstitions of 
 various lands. These latter are certainly to be attri- 
 
 ^ Elsdon Best, *' Maori Nomenclature," yournal of the ^Anthropological Institute-, 
 xxxii. {1902), p. 197. 
 
 ^ Herodotus, i. 193 j Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, ii. 8. 4 ; Pliny, Nat. 
 Hist. xiii. 31, 34 sq. 
 
 ^ D. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, ii. 26, 251. 
 
 * E. B. Tylor, in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaology, xii. (1890), pp. 
 383-393. On the artiAcial fertilisation of the date-palm, see C. Ritter, Vergleichende 
 Erkunde von Arabien., ii. 8ii, 827 sq. 
 
156 MARRIAGE OF PLANTS lect. 
 
 buted not to a perception of the truth that plants have 
 in fact their sexes, but merely to that primitive mode of 
 thought which leads ignorant people everywhere to 
 extend by analogy the relations of human life to every 
 department of nature. These purely superstitious 
 marriages of plants are common in India. For example, 
 if a Hindoo has planted a grove of mangos, neither he 
 nor his wife may taste of the fruit until he has formally 
 married one of the trees, as a bridegroom, to a tree ot 
 a diiFerent sort, commonly to a tamarind-tree, which 
 grows near it in the grove. If there is no tamarind to 
 act as a bride, a jasmine will serve the turn. The 
 expenses of such a marriage are often considerable, for 
 the more Brahmans are feasted at it the greater the 
 glory of the owner of the grove. A family has been 
 known to sell its golden and silver trinkets, and to 
 borrow all the money they could, in order to marry a 
 mango-tree to a jasmine with due pomp and ceremony.^ 
 Another plant which figures as a bride in Hindoo rites 
 is the tulasi or Holy Basil (Ocymum Sanctum). It is a 
 small shrub, not too big to be grown in a large flower- 
 pot, and is often placed in rooms ; indeed, there is hardly 
 a respectable Hindoo family that does not possess one. 
 In spite of its humble appearance, the shrub is pervaded 
 by the essence of the great god Vishnu and his wife 
 Lakshmi, and is itself worshipped daily as a deity. The 
 plant is especially a woman's divinity, being regarded as 
 an embodiment of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi, or of Rama's 
 
 ' sir W. H. Sleeman, Rambles and Reccllectims of an Indian Official (Westminster, 
 1893), i. 38 sq. 
 
V MARRIAGE OF PLANTS 157 
 
 wife Sita, or of Krishna's wife Rukmini. Women 
 worship it by walking round it and praying or offering 
 flowers and rice to it. Now this sacred plant, as the 
 embodiment of a goddess, is annually married to the 
 god Krishna in every Hindoo family. The ceremony 
 takes place in November. In Western India they often 
 bring an idol of the youthful Krishna in a gorgeous 
 palanquin, followed by a long train of attendants, to 
 the house of a rich man to be married to the basil ; and 
 the festivities are celebrated with great pomp.-' Again, 
 as the wife of Vishnu, the holy basil is married to the 
 Salagrama, a black fossil ammonite resembling a ram's 
 horn, which is regarded as an embodiment of Vishnu. 
 In North- Western India this marriage of the plant to the 
 fossil has to be performed before it is lawful to taste of 
 the fruit of a new orchard. A man holding the fossil 
 personates the bridegroom, and another holding the 
 basil represents the bride. After burning a sacrificial 
 fire, the officiating Brahman puts the usual questions to 
 the couple about to be united. Bride and bridegroom 
 walk six times round a small spot marked out in the 
 centre of the orchard.^ Further, no well is considered 
 lucky until the holy fossil has been solemnly wedded to 
 
 ^ J. A. Dubois, Mxurs, Institutions et Ceremonies des peuples de I'Inde (Paris, 1825), 
 ii. 448 sq. ; Monier Williams, Religious Life and Thought in India^ pp. 333-335 ; 
 W. Croolce, Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), ii. 
 no sq. 
 
 2 Sir Henry M. Elliot, Memoirs on the History, Folk-lore, and Distribution of the 
 Races of the North-Western Provinces of India, edited by J. Beames (London, 1869), i. 
 233 sq. As to the Salagrama, see G. Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products oj 
 India, vi. Part ii, (London and Calcutta, 1893), p. 384; G. Oppert, "Note sur les 
 SSlagramas," Comptes Rendus de VAcadimie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (Paris, 
 1900), pp. 472-485. 
 
158 MARRIAGE OF PLANTS lect. 
 
 the holy basil, which stands for the garden that the 
 well is intended to water. The relations assemble ; the 
 owner of the garden represents the bridegroom, while a 
 kinsman of his wife personates the bride. Gifts are 
 given to the Brahmans, a feast is held in the garden, 
 and after that both the garden and the well may be used 
 without danger.^ In these customs I would ask you 
 to note particularly the personation of the plant by a 
 human being. The principle of that personation has 
 been widely applied, and, if I am right, goes far to 
 explain the priesthood of Nemi. 
 
 The same marriage of the sacred fossil to the sacred 
 plant is celebrated annually by the Rajah of Orchha at 
 Ludhaura. A former Rajah used to spend a sum equal 
 to about thirty thousand pounds, being one-fourth of 
 his revenue, on the ceremony. On one occasion over a 
 hundred thousand people are said to have been present 
 at the rite, and to have been feasted at the expense of 
 the Rajah. The procession consisted of eight elephants, 
 twelve hundred camels, and four thousand horses, all 
 mounted and elegantly caparisoned. The most sumptu- 
 ously decorated of the elephants carried the fossil god 
 to pay his^bridal visit to the little shrub goddess. On 
 such an occasion all the rites of a regular marriage are 
 performed, and afterwards the newly-wedded pair 
 are left to repose together in the temple till the next 
 year.^ 
 
 Here in Europe the marriage of the powers of 
 
 ^ W. Crooke, op. cit. i. 49. 
 '^ Sir W. H. Sleeman, of. cit. i. 147-149, 175. 
 
V KING AND QUEEN OF MAT 159 
 
 vegetation still survives in the ceremonies of May Day ; 
 for the King and Queen of May undoubtedly personify 
 the reawakening energies of trees and flowers, of woods 
 and meadows. But the consideration of these cere- 
 monies must be reserved for the next lecture. 
 
LECTURE VI 
 
 Marriage of the powers of vegetation — May King and Queen in 
 Germany and England — Marriage of the gods in ancient 
 Babylon, Egypt, and Greece — Similar rites in ancient Sweden 
 and Gaul — Marriage of water-gods to human brides — Stories 
 of the Perseus and Andromeda type — The Slaying of the Dragon 
 at Furth — St. Romain and the Dragon of Rouen. 
 
 In the last lecture we concluded our survey of what we 
 
 may call the King's Progress, I mean the process by 
 
 which the divine king has been gradually evolved out 
 
 of the old magician or medicine-man. The general 
 
 notion which we have thus gained of the evolution of 
 
 the sacred kingship may now be applied to the particular 
 
 instance of that institution from which we started in the 
 
 first lecture. The title of the King of the Wood, 
 
 bestowed on the priest of Nemi, along with his relation 
 
 to the woodland goddess Diana, suggest that the two 
 
 together personified the powers of vegetation in general 
 
 and of the woods in particular, and that their union may, 
 
 on the principles of homoeopathic magic, have been 
 
 regarded as a means to ensure the reproduction of that 
 
 plant life on which, in the last resort, both men and 
 
 animals depend for their subsistence. Customs of the 
 
 same sort survive in an attenuated form in the rites 
 
 which are still observed in some parts of Europe at 
 
 w5o 
 
LECT. VI MARRIAGE OF PLANTS i6i 
 
 the popular festivals of May Day, Whitsuntide, and 
 Midsummer. In all these customs the essence of the 
 rite appears to be a mimic marriage of the powers of 
 vegetation, who after their long winter sleep manifest 
 their renewed activity in the bursting green of the trees 
 and the varied hues of the opening flowers. And we 
 should fail to understand the meaning of the pageant if 
 we regarded it merely as a dramatic representation of 
 the great change that takes place on earth in spring and 
 early summer. Our study of sympathetic magic, and 
 especially of its imitative branch, has prepared us to 
 believe that in its origin, though certainly not at the 
 present time, the mimic marriage of the powers of 
 vegetation, whether represented by trees or leaf-clad 
 mummers, was a magical ceremony, a charm designed 
 to bring about the result which it simulated ; in other 
 words, that it was intended to quicken the growth of 
 leaves and blossoms, of grass and flowers, and of the 
 fruits of the earth in general. 
 
 I shall not detain you with a long description of 
 these ceremonies, but shall merely give you as samples 
 a few instances which have come to my knowledge 
 within the last few years. But there are some general 
 features of the rites which it is important to apprehend 
 because they bear directly on the worship of Nemi, if 
 my view of that worship is correct. First, then, the 
 human representatives of vegetation are often treated 
 and spoken of as kings and queens ; second, the claim 
 to these mock kingships is often determined by a contest 
 of physical strength or agility ; and thirdly, the real or 
 
 M 
 
1 62 MAT-TREES IN GERMANY lect. 
 
 pretended union of the human King and Queen of May 
 would seem to have been originally an essential part of 
 the rite, being regarded as a sympathetic charm to 
 promote, on the principle of imitation or homoeopathy, 
 the fertility of the woods, the meadows, and the fields. 
 Thus the license which is known to have attended these 
 customs in the past was not an accidental excess, but on 
 the contrary was probably regarded as an indispensable 
 feature of the ceremonies, if they were really to produce 
 the intended result. 
 
 With these explanations you will be able to under- 
 stand the very serious meaning which these apparently 
 gay frivolous festivals had for our forefathers : life must 
 have been thought to depend on their performance, and 
 death, universal death, to follow their omission. For 
 how could men and beasts live if there should be spring 
 no more } 
 
 To take now a few examples of these customs. A 
 German writer thus describes the May and Whitsuntide 
 festivals, as they used to be held in Saxony. He says 
 that "people were not content with bringing the 
 summer symbolically (as king or queen) into the 
 village ; they brought the fresh green itself from the 
 woods even into the houses : that is the May or Whit- 
 suntide trees, which are mentioned in documents from 
 the thirteenth century onwards. The fetching in of 
 the May-tree was a festival. The people went out into 
 the woods to seek the May {majum quaerere), brought 
 young trees, especially firs and birches, to the village, 
 and set them up before the doors of the houses or of 
 
VI MAT-TREES IN GERMANY 163 
 
 the cattle-stalls or in the rooms. Young fellows erected 
 May-trees before the chambers of their sweethearts. 
 Besides these household Mays, a great May-tree or 
 May-pole, which had also been brought in solemn pro- 
 cession to the village, was set up in the middle of the 
 village or in the market-place of the town. It had 
 been chosen by the whole community, who watched 
 over it most carefully. Generally the tree was stripped 
 of its branches and leaves, nothing but the crown being 
 left, on which were displayed, in addition to many- 
 coloured ribbons and cloths, a variety of victuals such 
 as sausages, cakes, and eggs. The young folk exerted 
 themselves to obtain these prizes. In the greasy poles 
 which are still to be seen at our fairs we have a relic of 
 these old May-poles. Not uncommonly there was a 
 race on foot or on horseback to the May-tree — a Whit- 
 suntide pastime which in course of time has been divested 
 of its goal and survives as a popular custom to this day 
 in many parts of Germany. In the great towns of our 
 land the custom has developed into sport, for our spring 
 races are in their origin nothing but the old German 
 horse-races, in which the victor received a prize (gener- 
 ally a red cloth) from the hand of a maiden, while the 
 last rider was greeted with jeers and gibes by the 
 assembled community." ^ 
 
 The custom of the May-tree is observed by the 
 Wends of Saxony, as well as by the Germans. The 
 young men of the village choose the slimmest and 
 tallest tree of the wood, peel it and set it up on the 
 
 1 E. Mogk, in R. Wuttke's SHchshche Volkskunde"^ (Dresden, 1901), pp. 309 jy. 
 
1 64 THE WHITSUNTIDE KING lect. 
 
 village green. Its leafy top is decked with cloths and 
 ribbons presented by the girls. Here it stands, tower- 
 ing high above the roofs, till Ascension Day, or in many 
 places till Whitsuntide. When it is being taken down, 
 the young folk dance round it, and the youth who 
 catches and breaks off the leafy crown of the falling tree 
 is the hero of the day. Holding the green boughs aloft 
 he is carried shoulder-high, with music and joyous 
 shouts, to the ale-house, where the dance is resumed.^ 
 
 A regular feature in the popular celebration of Whit- 
 suntide in Silesia used to be, and to some extent still is, 
 the contest for the kingship. This contest took various 
 forms, but the mark or goal was generally the May-tree 
 or May-pole. Sometimes the youth who succeeded in 
 climbing the smooth pole and bringing down the prize 
 was proclaimed the Whitsuntide King and his sweet- 
 heart the Whitsuntide Bride. Afterwards, the king, 
 carrying the May-bush, repaired with the rest of the 
 company to the ale-house, where a dance and a feast 
 ended the merry-making. Often the young farmers 
 and labourers raced on horseback to the May-pole, 
 which was adorned with flowers, ribbons, and a crown. 
 He who first reached the pole was the Whitsuntide 
 King, and the rest had to obey his orders for that day. 
 The worst rider became the clown. At the May-tree 
 all dismounted and hoisted the king on their shoulders. 
 He nimbly swarmed up the pole and brought down the 
 May-bush and the crown, which had been fastened to 
 the top. Meantime the clown hurried to the ale-house 
 
 1 M. Rentsch, in R. Wuttke's op, cit. p. 359. 
 
VI IN GERM ANT 165 
 
 and proceeded to bolt thirty rolls of bread and to swig 
 four quart bottles of brandy with the utmost despatch. 
 He was followed by the king, who bore the May-bush 
 and crown at the head of the company. If on their 
 arrival the clown had already disposed of the rolls and 
 the brandy, and greeted the king with a speech and a 
 glass of beer, his score was paid by the king, otherwise 
 he had to settle it himself. After church time the pro- 
 cession wound through the village. At the head of it 
 rode the king, decked with flowers and carrying the 
 May-bush. Next came the clown with his clothes 
 turned inside out, a great flaxen beard on his chin, and 
 the Whitsuntide crown on his head. Two riders 
 disguised as guards followed. The procession drew up 
 before every farmyard : the two guards dismounted, 
 shut the clown into the house, and claimed a contribution 
 from the housewife to buy soap with which to wash the 
 clown's beard. Custom allowed them to carry ofi^ any 
 victuals which were not under lock and key. Last of 
 all they came to the house in which the king's sweet- 
 heart lived. She was greeted as Whitsuntide Queen 
 and received suitable presents. The king had the right 
 of setting up the May-bush or Whitsuntide tree before 
 his master's yard, where it remained as an honourable 
 token till the same day next year. Finally the procession 
 took its way to the tavern, where the king and queen 
 opened the dance.^ 
 
 In this last custom the part played by the clown is 
 
 ^ p. Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch md VMsglauhe in SchUsien, i. (Leipsic, 1903), pp. 
 115-128. 
 
1 66 THE WHITSUNTIDE KING lect. 
 
 not quite clear. You will observe that it is he, and 
 not the king, who wears the crown. I conjecture that 
 in former times a burlesque execution may have formed 
 part of the pageant, and that the clown may have been 
 the victim. Such executions have been not uncommon 
 at these ceremonies. The following example will 
 illustrate them. Sometimes in Silesia the Whitsuntide 
 King and Queen succeeded to office as follows. A man 
 of straw, as large as life and crowned with a red cap, 
 was conveyed in a cart, between two men armed and 
 disguised as guards, to a place where a mock court was 
 waiting to try him. A great crowd followed the cart. 
 After a formal trial the straw man was condemned to 
 death and fastened to a stake on the execution ground. 
 The young men with bandaged eyes tried to stab him 
 with a spear. He who succeeded became king, and his 
 sweetheart queen. The straw man was known as the 
 Goliath.^ Such burlesque executions have, if my theory 
 is right, a close bearing on the King of the Wood 
 at Nemi, who succeeded to office by slaying his 
 predecessor in grim earnest. 
 
 The ancient May Day ceremonies are still observed in 
 some villages of South Warwickshire, as I learned last 
 autumn during a visit to that charming country, where 
 the pretty customs are fittingly framed in scenes of rural 
 beauty that seem still to reflect the England of the olden 
 time. Thus at the adjoining villages of Cherrington and 
 Stourton the Queen of May is represented by a small 
 girl dressed in white and wearing a wreath of flowers 
 
 ' p. Drechsler, op. c'u. i. 129. 
 
VI THE MAT QUEEN 167 
 
 on her head. An older girl wheels the queen in a 
 child's perambulator on two wheels. Four boys bear 
 the May-pole. This is a conical framework formed of 
 a high tripod with a central shaft. The whole structure 
 is encased in a series of five hoops, which rise one 
 above the other, diminishing in size upward with the 
 tapering of the cone. The hoops, as well as the tripod 
 and the central shaft, are all covered with whatever 
 flowers happen to be in bloom, such as marsh - 
 marigolds, primroses, or blue-bells. To the top of the 
 central shaft is fastened a bunch of the flower called 
 crown-imperial, if it is in season. The lowest hoop is 
 crossed by two bars at right angles to each other and 
 the projecting ends of the bars serve as handles by 
 which the four boys carry the flower-decked structure. 
 Each of the bearers has a garland of flowers slung 
 round his shoulder. Thus the children go from house 
 to house singing their songs and receiving money, 
 which goes to provide a treat for them in the after- 
 noon.'' The so-called May-pole in this custom bears 
 so close a resemblance to the leafy framework in which 
 our Jack-in-the-Green and other springtide mummers 
 walk encased that perhaps it too originally concealed a 
 mummer, whether the King or Queen of May. 
 
 You will have noticed that in this ceremony, though 
 the Queen of May figures, her consort the king does 
 not. Both, however, appear at Halford, another 
 village of South Warwickshire. Here the children 
 
 ^ From information given me by Mabel Bailey, in the service of Miss A, Wyse 
 of Halford, South Warwickshire. My informant's father is a native of £tourton, 
 and she herself has spent much of her life there. 
 
1 68 KING AND QUEEN OF MAT lect. 
 
 go from house to house on May Day, walking two and 
 two in procession and headed by a king and queen. 
 Two boys carry a May-pole some six or seven feet 
 high, which is covered with flowers and greenery. 
 Fastened to it near the top are two cross-bars at right 
 angles to each other. These are also decked with 
 flowers, and from the ends of the bars hang hoops 
 similarly adorned. At the houses the children sing 
 May songs and receive money, which is used to 
 provide tea for them at the schoolhouse in the 
 afternoon.^ 
 
 Ceremonies of this sort have played a great part in 
 the popular festivals of Europe, and based a*s they are 
 on a very crude conception of natural law, it is clear 
 that they must have been handed down from a remote 
 antiquity. We shall hardly err in assuming that they 
 date from a time when the forefathers of the civilised 
 nations of Europe were still barbarians, herding their 
 cattle and cultivating patches of corn in the clearings 
 of the vast forests, which then covered the greater part 
 of the Continent from the Mediterranean to the Arctic 
 Ocean. But if these old spells and enchantments for 
 the growth of leaves and blossoms, of grass and flowers 
 and fruit, have lingered down to our own time in the 
 shape of pastoral plays and popular merrymakings, is 
 it not reasonable to suppose that they survived in less 
 attenuated forms some two thousand years ago among 
 the civilised peoples of antiquity ? Or, to put it other- 
 wise, is it not likely that in certain festivals of the 
 
 ' From information given me by Miss A. Wyse, of Halford. 
 
VI THE SJCRED MARRIAGE 169 
 
 ancients we may be able to detect the equivalents of 
 our May Day, Whitsuntide, and Midsummer celebra- 
 tions, with this difference, that in those days the 
 ceremonies had not yet dwindled into mere shows and 
 pageants, but were still religious or magical rites, in 
 which the actors consciously supported the high parts 
 of gods and goddesses ? 
 
 I conjecture that a sacred marriage of this sort may 
 have been annually celebrated at Nemi between the 
 King of the Wood and his divine Queen the goddess 
 Diana for the purpose of promoting the growth of 
 vegetation. Direct evidence that this was so there is 
 none, but analogy pleads in its favour, as I shall now 
 endeavour to show. 
 
 You will observe that on my hypothesis the mortal 
 King of the Wood was married to an immortal god- 
 dess, Diana. To us nowadays such a union appears on 
 the face of it absurd and impossible ; but it was not so 
 with the ancients. They sincerely believed that the 
 marriage of a divine with a human being was not only 
 possible but had often taken place : many persons in 
 antiquity claimed to be direct descendants of gods. 
 The facts are too familiar to you all to require that I 
 should dwell upon them. I will only remark in pass- 
 ing, because it is germane to our subject, that in ancient 
 Greece kings appear especially to have prided them- 
 selves on their divine origin. We have seen that the 
 Spartan kings were believed to be descended from the 
 supreme god Zeus ; and in this respect apparently they 
 did not differ from other kings, for in Homer a 
 
lyo THE WIFE OF BEL lect. 
 
 standing epithet of a king is "Zeus-born." But what 
 I am here concerned to prove is that beliefs of this 
 sort were actually embodied in religious ritual ; in 
 other words, that the marriage of the gods with human 
 beings was often celebrated with great solemnity. , 
 
 To take some instances of these ritual marriages. 
 At Babylon the imposing sanctuary of the great god 
 Bel rose like a pyramid above the city in a series of 
 eight towers or stories, planted one on the top of the 
 other. On the highest tower, reached by an ascent 
 which wound about all the rest, there stood a spacious 
 temple, and in the temple a great couch, magnificently 
 draped and cushioned, with a golden table beside it. 
 In the temple no image was to be seen, and no human 
 being passed the night there, save a single woman, 
 whom, according to the Chaldsean priests, the god 
 chose from among all the women of Babylon. They 
 said that the deity himself entered the temple by night 
 and slept on the couch ; and the woman, as the consort 
 of the god, might not be married to a man.^ As Bel 
 at Babylon was identified with Marduk, the chief god 
 of the city,^ the woman who acted as his consort was 
 doubtless one of the " wives of Marduk " who 
 are mentioned in the recently discovered code of 
 Hammurabi.^ 
 
 ^ Herodotus, i. i8i sq. 
 
 2 M. Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, 1898), pp. 117 sq. j 
 L. W. King, Babylonian Mythology and Religion (London, 1899), pp. 18, 21. 
 
 ^ H. Winckler, Die Gesetxe HamtnurabVs^ (Leipsic, 1903), p. 31, § 182. "The 
 votary of Marduk is the god's wife vowed to perpetual chastity, and is therefore 
 distinct from the votaries of Istar '' (S, A. Cook, The Laivs of Moses and the Code of 
 Hammurabi., London, 1903, p. 148). 
 
VI THE WIFE OF AMMON 171 
 
 At Calah, which was for some time the capital of 
 Assyria before it was displaced by Nineveh, the 
 marriage of the god Nabu appears to have been 
 annually celebrated on the third day of an Assyrian 
 month, lyyar or Airu, which corresponded to our May. 
 The ceremonies are minutely described in a liturgical 
 text, and from the description we gather that the 
 officiating priestess was married to the image of the 
 god. The image also went in procession to a grove, 
 riding in a chariot beside the charioteer.^ 
 
 At Thgbes in Egypt a woman slept in the temple 
 of Ammon as the consort of the god.^ In Egyptian 
 texts she is often mentioned as " the divine consort," 
 and usually she was no less a personage than the Queen 
 of Egypt herself. For, according to the Egyptians, 
 their monarchs were in the most literal sense the sons 
 of the god Ammon, who at the marriage of the royal 
 pair was supposed to assume for the time being the 
 form of the reigning king. The divine union of the 
 Queen of Egypt with the god is carved and painted in 
 great detail on the walls of two of the oldest temples 
 in Egypt, those of Luxor and Deir el Bahari ; and the 
 inscriptions attached to the paintings leave no doubt as 
 to the meaning of the scenes. And the birth of the 
 divine child, the fruit of the miraculous union, is 
 represented in equal detail. We may fairly assume, 
 
 ^ C. Johnston, in Journalofthe American Oriental Society,-x.Vm. First Half (1897), 
 pp. 153-155 ; R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Literature (New York, 1901), 
 p. 249. For the equivalence of lyyar or Airu with May, see Encychpadia Biblica, 
 s.'v. "Months," iii. 3193 sq. 
 
 ^ Herodotus, i. 182. 
 
172 THE KING AS AMMON lect. 
 
 with some eminent authorities, including Professor 
 Maspero, that the ceremonies of the marriage and 
 nativity of the Pharaohs, thus emblazoned on the walls 
 of Egyptian temples, were copied from the life ; in 
 other words, that the carved and painted scenes re- 
 present a real drama, which was acted by men and 
 women disguised as gods and goddesses whenever the 
 King and Queen of Egypt were married, or the queen 
 was about to give birth to an heir. " Here, as else- 
 where in Egypt," says Professor Maspero, " sculptor 
 and painter did nothing but faithfully imitate reality. 
 Theory required that the assimilation of the kings 
 to the gods should be complete, so that every act of 
 the royal life was, as it were, a tracing of the corre- 
 sponding act of the divine life. From the moment that 
 the king was Ammon, he wore the costume and badges 
 of Ammon — the tall hat with the long plumes, the 
 cross of life, the greyhound-headed sceptre, — and thus 
 arrayed he presented himself before the queen to 
 celebrate his marriage. The assistants also assumed 
 the costume and appearance of the divinities whom 
 they incarnated : the men put on masks of jackals, 
 hawks, and crocodiles, while the women donned masks 
 of cows or frogs, according as they played the parts of 
 Anubis, Khnoumou, Sovkou, Hathor, or Hiqit ; and 
 I am disposed to believe that the doubles of the new- 
 born child were represented by as many puppets as 
 were required by the ceremonies. Some of the rites 
 were complicated, and must have tired excessively 
 the mother and child who underwent them ; but they 
 
VI THE KING BEES 173 
 
 are nothing to those that have been observed in similar 
 circumstances in other lands. In general, we are bound 
 to hold that all the pictures traced on the walls of the 
 temples, in which the person of the king is concerned, 
 correspond to a real action in which disguised person- 
 ages played the part of gods." '^ 
 
 To pass now from the East to Greek lands, Apollo 
 was said to spend the winter months at Patara in Lycia ; 
 and so long as he stayed there, his prophetess was shut 
 up with him in the temple every night, probably 
 because she was supposed to be his wife.^ At Ephesus 
 there was a college of sacred men called Essenes or 
 King Bees, who held office for a year, during which 
 they were bound to remain celibate and to observe 
 other rules of ceremonial purity.' Perhaps they were 
 deemed the husbands of Artemis, more familiarly 
 known to us as Diana, of Ephesus, the great goddess 
 of fertility, whose association with the bee is vouched 
 for by the figures of bees which appear commonly 
 both on her statues and on the coins of Ephesus. If 
 this conjecture is right, the King Bees and their bee- 
 
 ^ A. Wiedemann, Herodots z'weites Buck (Leipsic, 1890), pp. 268 sq, ; G. 
 Maspero, in ymrnal des Savants, ann^e 1899, pp. 401-406 ; A. Moret, Du caracthe 
 religieux de la royautl Pharaonique (Paris, 1902), pp. 48-73. Mr. Moret shares 
 Prof. Maspero's view tiiat tlie pictures, or painted reliefs, were copied from 
 masquerades in which the king and other men and women figured as gods 
 and goddesses. As to the Egyptian doctrine of the spiritual double or external soul 
 [Ka), see A. Wiedemann, The Ancient Egyflian Doctrine of the Immortality of the 
 Soul (London, 1895), pp. 10 sqq. As to the "divine consorts" of Ammon at 
 Thebes in later ages, see Strabo, xvii. i. 46 ; Diodorus Siculus, i. 47. 
 
 2 Herodotus, i. 182. As to the summer and winter residences of the god, see 
 Servius, on Virgil, jien. iv. 143 ; Horace, Odes, iii. 62 sqq. 
 
 ^ Pausanias, viii. 13. i, with ray note. The Essenes or King Bees are not to 
 be confounded with the nominal kings ^Basileis) of Ephesus, who probably held 
 office for life. See above, p. 31, 
 
174 MARRIAGE OF DIONTSUS lect. 
 
 goddess Artemis at Ephesus would be closely parallel 
 to the King of the Wood and his woodland-goddess 
 Diana at Nemi, as these latter are interpreted by me. 
 The celibacy of the priests during their year of office 
 would be easily explicable on this hypothesis. As the 
 consorts of the goddess they might have no human 
 wife. 
 
 At Athens the vine-god Dionysus was annually 
 married to the queen, but we do not know whether 
 the part of the god in the ceremony was played by 
 a man or an image. It would be natural to suppose 
 that the king himself personated the divine bride- 
 groom, as his wife the queen personated the divine 
 bride ; but of this we have no evidence. The scene 
 of the marriage was the old official residence of the 
 king on the north-eastern slope of the Acropolis.-' As 
 the building bore the name of the Cattle-stall, Miss 
 Harrison has ingeniously conjectured that Dionysus, 
 who was often conceived by the Greek as a bull, may 
 have been represented as a bull at his marriage.^ In 
 that case the part of the bridegroom might be played 
 by a man wearing a bull's head, just as in Egypt at 
 similar rites the sacred animals were represented by 
 men and women wearing the masks of cows, hawks. 
 
 ^ Demosthenes, Contra Neaer. 73-78, pp. 1369-1371 j Aristotle, Omtitu- 
 tion of Athens, iii. 5 ; Hesychius, n/^. Aioviirov yd/ios and yepaifxii. ; Pollux, viii. 
 108; K. F. Hermann, GottesdUnstliche Alterthiimer,^ % 32. 15, § 58. 11 s^q.; Aug. 
 Mommscn, Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 391 sqq. ; 
 P. Foucart, Le culte de Dionysos en Atttque (Paris, 1904.), pp. 128 sqq. 
 
 2 Miss J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (Cambridge, 
 1903), p. 537. The conjecture was anticipated by Professor U. von Wilamowitz- 
 MoellendorfF, Aristoteles und Athen (Berlin, 1893), ii. 42. 
 
VI TO THE QUEEN OF ATHENS 175 
 
 crocodiles, and so forth. The legend of Pasiphae and 
 the Minotaur suggests that the custom of marrying 
 a queen to a bull-god, that is to a man disguised 
 as a bull, may not have been confined to Athens.^ 
 Whether that was so or not, the ceremony of wedding 
 the Queen of Athens to the vine-god must certainly 
 have been intended to ensure the fertility of the vines 
 and other fruit-trees, of which Dionysus was the god. 
 Thus both in form and in meaning the rite would 
 answer to the nuptials of the King and Queen of May. 
 If at Athens, and probably elsewhere, the vine-god 
 was annually married to a queen in order that the 
 vines might be loaded with clusters of green and purple 
 grapes, there is reason to think that a marriage of a 
 different kind, intended to make the fields wave with 
 yellow corn, was celebrated every year not many 
 miles off, beyond the low bare hills which bound the 
 plain of Athens on the west. In the great mysteries 
 solemnised at Eleusis in the month of September the 
 union of the sky-god Zeus with the corn-goddess 
 Demeter appears to have been represented by the 
 dramatic union of the hierophant with the priestess 
 of Demeter, who acted the parts of god and goddess 
 respectively. After a period of anxious suspense, the 
 hierophant reappeared and in a blaze of light silently 
 exhibited to the assembled worshippers a reaped ear 
 
 ^ Mr. A. B. Cook was the first, I believe, to suggest that the legend of Pasiphae 
 and the Minotaur contains a reminiscence of a marriage ceremony in which the 
 King and Queen of Cnossus figured in the disguise of a bull and a cow respectively. 
 See his article "Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak," Classical Re-view, xvii. (1903), 
 pp. 410, 412. 
 
176 MARRIAGE OF ZEUS lect. 
 
 of corn, the fruit of the divine marriage. Then in 
 a loud voice he proclaimed that the queen had been 
 delivered of a child. The corn-mother, in fact, had 
 given birth to the corn. This revelation of the reaped 
 ear seems to have been the crowning act of the 
 mysteries.-' Thus through the glamour shed around 
 these rites by the poetry and philosophy of later ages 
 there still looms, like a distant landscape through a 
 sunlight haze, a simple rustic festival designed to cover 
 the wide Eleusinian plain with a plentiful harvest by 
 wedding the goddess of the corn to the sky-god, who 
 fertilised the bare earth with genial showers. 
 
 But Zeus was not always the sky-god, nor was 
 he always married to the corn-goddess. If in antiquity 
 a traveller, quitting Eleusis and passing through miles 
 of olive-groves and cornfields, had climbed the pine- 
 clad mountains of Cithaeron and descended through 
 the forest on their northern slope to Platasa, he might 
 have chanced to find the people of that little Boeotian 
 town celebrating a different marriage of the great god 
 to a different goddess. On a certain day they went 
 into a primaeval oak-wood and set meat on the ground 
 at the foot of the giants of the forest. When a raven 
 was observed to swoop on the meat and carry it off to 
 
 ' TertuUian, Ad Natimes, ii. 7 ; Asterius Amasenus, in Migne's Patrologia 
 Graeca, xl. col. 324 ; Psellas, Sluaenam sunt Graecorum opiniones de daemonibus^ p. 39, 
 ed. J. F. Boissonade (compare Arnobius, Ad-vtrsm Natiojies, v. 20-23) i Schol. on 
 Plato, Gorgias, p. 497 c ; Hippolytus, Refutatio omnium haeresium^ v. 8, pp. 162, 
 164, ed. Duncker and Schneidewin. In combining and interpreting this frag- 
 mentary evidence I have followed Mr. P. Foucart [fiecherches sur Porigine et la 
 nature dts mysteres d^EleusiSy Paris, 1895, pp. 48 sq. ; Lei grands mystires d^EIeusis, 
 Paris, 1900, p. 69) and Miss J. E. Harrison {Prolegomena to the Study of Greet 
 Religion, pp. 549 sjq.). 
 
VI MARRIAGE OF ZEUS 177 
 
 an oak, the people followed it and cut down the tree. 
 With the wood of the tree they made an image, 
 dressed it as a bride, and placed it on a bullock-cart 
 with a bridesmaid beside it. Then it seems to have 
 been drawn to the river and back to the town attended 
 by a piping and dancing crowd. After the festival, 
 which was held every few years, the image was put 
 away and kept with others of the same sort till another 
 festival called the Great Daedala came round, which 
 was celebrated by all the people of Boeotia once in 
 every sixty years. On that occasion all the images 
 that had accumulated at the lesser festivals were 
 dragged on wains to the top of Mount Cithaeron and 
 there burned in a huge bonfire, of which the blaze 
 could be seen for miles over the country. The legend 
 told to account for these festivals seems to show that 
 the ceremony represented the marriage of Zeus, the 
 oak god, to the goddess or nymph of the oak, who 
 was personated by the oaken image dressed as a bride.^ 
 Whether the part of Zeus at the marriage was acted 
 by a man or an image is not clear. 
 
 The sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera had, as was 
 natural, its counterpart in heathen times among the 
 northern kinsfolk of the Greeks. In Sweden every 
 year a life-size image of Frey, the god of fertility, both 
 animal and vegetable, was drawn about the country in 
 a waggon attended by a beautiful girl who was called 
 the god's wife. She acted also as his priestess in his 
 great temple at Upsala. Wherever the waggon came 
 
 ' Pausanias, ix. 3 5 Plutarch, quoted by Eusebius, Praefar. E-aang. iii. i jy. 
 
 N 
 
1 78 THE GALLIC CTBELE lect. 
 
 with the image of the god and his blooming young 
 bride, the people crowded to meet them and ofFer 
 sacrifices for a fruitful year.^ 
 
 Similar ceremonies appear to have been observed by 
 the peasantry of Gaul in antiquity ; for Gregory of 
 Tours, writing in the sixth century of our era, says that 
 at Autun the people used to carry about an image of a 
 goddess in a waggon drawn by oxen. The intention of 
 the ceremony was to ensure the safety of the crops and 
 vines, and the rustics danced and sang in front of the 
 image.^ The old historian identifies the goddess with 
 Cybele, the great Mother Goddess of Phrygia, and the 
 comparison, if not the identification, is just ; for the 
 rites of Cybele conformed closely to the type of the 
 sacred marriage here discussed. On the day of the 
 spring equinox (the 22nd of March) a pine-tree was 
 cut and brought into the sanctuary of the goddess, 
 where it was worshipped as a divinity. The effigy of 
 a young man, doubtless representing Attis, the consort 
 of Cybele, was attached to the tree, and the festival 
 ended with the drawing of the image of the goddess in 
 a bullock-cart to a brook, where it was bathed,^ perhaps 
 as a bride after her marriage. And the relation of the 
 
 ^ J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythohgie,'^ I. 176 ; P. Hermann, Nordische Mytholo^e 
 (Leipsic, 1903), pp. 198 sqq., 217, 520, 529 ; E. H. Meyer, Mytkologie der Germanen 
 fStrasburg, 1903), pp. 366 jy. The procession of Frey and his wife in the waggon 
 is probably the same with the procession of Nerthus in a waggon which Tacitus 
 describes [Germmia, 40). Nerthus seems to be no other than Freya, the wife of 
 Frey. See the commentators on Tacitus, I.e., and especially K. MtlllenhofF, 
 Deutsche Alterlumsiunde, iv. 468 sj. 
 
 ' Gregory of Tours, De gloria confessorum, 77 (Migne's Patrohgia Latina, Ixxi. 
 col. 884). Compare Sulpicius Severus, P'ita S. Martini, 12. 
 
 ' See The Golden Bought ii. 131 sq.; H. iiefim%, Attis, seine Mythenund scin Kult 
 Giessen, 1903), pp. 147 sqq. 
 
VI MARRIAGE OF WATER-SPIRITS 179 
 
 Phrygian to the northern worship of a great goddess of 
 fertility was probably one not merely of similarity but 
 of actual kinship, based on common descent ; for the 
 Phrygians were unquestionably an Aryan tribe who had 
 crossed from Europe into Asia. At all events we may 
 make sure that the goddess whom the peasants of Gaul 
 carted about to bless their crops and their vines was of 
 native origin ; and we can hardly hesitate to see in 
 her and in Frey's wife the old French and Swedish 
 equivalents of the May Queen. 
 
 It would be easy to show by a list of examples that 
 the custom of marrying a god or spirit to a woman has 
 been widespread in other parts of the world. Here I 
 shall content myself with observing that the deity who 
 is thus provided with a human bride is often a water- 
 spirit. Thus, to take a few instances, the god of the 
 great Victoria Nyanza Lake in Central Africa was pro- 
 pitiated by the Baganda every time they undertook a 
 long voyage, and they furnished him with girls to serve 
 as his wives. The custom lasted until King Mwanga 
 was converted to Christianity.^ Again in one of the 
 states of Upper Burma there is a certain lake, the spirit 
 of which is regarded as very powerful and is propitiated 
 with offerings every year. A remarkable feature of the 
 worship of this spirit of the lake is the dedication to him 
 of four maidens in marriage. The custom was last 
 observed in 1893: the present chief has omitted it. 
 Soon after being wedded to the water-god, the girls are 
 allowed to return home. If nothing happens, the 
 
 ' Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902), ii. 677. 
 
i8o MARRIAGE OF WOMEN lect. 
 
 spirit of the lake cares little for them ; but if one of 
 them dies, it is a sign that he loves her and has taken 
 her to himself 1 Sometimes, apparently, it has not been 
 left to the discretion of the divine bridegroom to take 
 or leave his human bride : she has been made over to 
 him once for all in death. When the Arabs conquered 
 Egypt they learned that at the rise of the Nile the 
 Egyptians were wont to deck a young girl in gay 
 apparel and throw her into the river as a sacrifice, in 
 order to obtain a plentiful inundation. The Arab 
 general abolished the barbarous custom.^ The princes 
 of Koepang, a state in the East Indian island of 
 Timor, deemed themselves descended from crocodiles, 
 and on the coronation of a new prince a solemn 
 sacrifice was made to the crocodiles in presence of the 
 people. The offerings consisted of a pig with red 
 bristles and a young girl, prettily dressed, perfumed, 
 and decked with flowers. She was taken down to the 
 bank of the river and set on a sacred stone in a cave. 
 Soon one of the reptiles appeared and dragged the girl 
 down into the water. The people thought that he 
 married her.^ On festal occasions in the same state a 
 new-born girl was sometimes dedicated to a crocodile, 
 and then, with certain ceremonies of consecration, was 
 
 ^ J. G. Scott and P. J. Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Slwn States, 
 Part ii. vol. i. (Rangoon, 1901), p. 439. 
 
 ^ E. W. Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (Paisley and London, 
 1895), chap, xxvi. p. 500. The authority for the statement is the Arab historian 
 Makrizi. 
 
 ^ G. A. Wilken, " Het animiame bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel," De 
 Indische Gids, June 1884, p. 994 (referring to Veth, Het eiland Timor, p. 21) ; A. 
 Bastian, Indcnesien, ii. (Berlin, 1885), p. 8. 
 
VI TO WATER-SPIRITS 18 1 
 
 brought up to be married to a priest.-' In this last 
 custom the priest perhaps represents a crocodile, and 
 the practice of marrying a girl to him may well be a 
 humane mitigation of the older custom of exposing her 
 to the monster. It is said that once when the inhabit- 
 ants of another East Indian island were threatened with 
 destruction by a swarm of crocodiles, they ascribed the 
 misfortune to a passion which the prince of the croco- 
 diles had conceived for a certain girl. Accordingly they 
 compelled the damsel's father to dress her in bridal 
 array and deliver her over to the clutches of her croco- 
 dile lover.'' 
 
 A usage of the same sort is said to have prevailed in 
 the Maldive Islands before their conversion to Islam. 
 The famous Arab traveller Ibn Batutah has described 
 the custom and the manner in which it came to an 
 end. He was assured by several trustworthy natives, 
 whose names he gives, that when the people of the 
 islands were idolaters there appeared to them every 
 month an evil spirit among the jinn, who came from 
 across the sea in the likeness of a ship full of burning 
 lamps. The wont of the inhabitants, as soon as they 
 perceived him, was to take a young maiden, and having 
 adorned her, to lead her to a heathen temple that stood 
 on the shore, with a window looking out to sea. There 
 t'hey left the damsel for the night, and when they came 
 back in the morning they found her dead. Every month 
 they drew lots, and he upon whom the lot fell gave up 
 
 ' A. Bastian, op. cit, p. ii. 
 ^ A. Bastian, Itidmesien, i. (Berlin, 1884), p. 134. 
 
1 82 MARRIAGE OF WOMEN lect. 
 
 his daughter to the spirit of the sea. This went on till 
 a Berber, who knew the Coran by heart, landed in the 
 islands and rescued the doomed maiden, like another 
 Andromeda, from the demon, whom he put to flight 
 by reciting passages of the holy book till break of day. 
 After that the joyful people, freed from this tribute 
 to the cruel demon, embraced Islam. When Ibn 
 Batutah himself arrived in the islands, he knew nothing 
 of these things. One night as he was going about 
 his business, he heard of a sudden people saying in a 
 loud voice, " There is no God but God," and " God is 
 great." He saw children carrying copies of the Coran 
 on their heads, and women beating on basins and vessels 
 of copper. He was astonished at what they did, and 
 he said, " What has happened .? " They answered, 
 " Doest thou not behold the sea } " He looked towards 
 the sea and beheld in the darkness as it were a great 
 ship full of burning lamps and cressets. They said to 
 him, " That is the demon. It is his wont to show him- 
 self once a month ; but after we have done that which 
 thou hast seen, he returns to his place and does us no 
 manner of harm." ^ 
 
 It occurred to me that this myth of the demon lover 
 may have been based on some phenomenon of light 
 which is periodically visible at night in the Maldive 
 Islands. Accordingly I consulted our most eminent 
 authority on these islands, Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner of 
 Caius College. His answer confirmed my conjecture. 
 
 ^ Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah, texts Arabe, accompagni d'utte traduction^ par C. Defr6- 
 mery et B. R. Sanguinetti (Paris, 1853-1858), iv. 126-130. 
 
VI TO WATER-SPIRITS 183 
 
 He wrote to me : "A peculiar phosphorescence, like 
 the glow of a lamp hidden by a roughened glass shade, 
 is occasionally visible on lagoon shoals in the Maldives. 
 I imagine it to have been due to some single animal 
 with a greater phosphorescence than any at present 
 known to us. A periodical appearance at some phase 
 of the moon due to reproduction is not improbable, and 
 has parallels. The myth still exists in the Maldives, 
 but in a rather different form." He adds that "a 
 number of these animals might of course appear on 
 some shoal near Male," the principal island of the group. 
 To the eyes of the ignorant and superstitious such a 
 mysterious glow, suddenly lighting up the sea in the 
 dusk of the evening, might well appear a phantom ship, 
 hung with burning lamps, bearing down on the devoted 
 islands, while the roar of the surf on the barrier reef 
 might sound in their ears like the voice of the demon 
 calling for his prey. 
 
 Ibn Batutah's narrative of the demon lover and his 
 mortal bride closely resembles a well-known type of 
 folk-tale, of which versions have been found from Japan 
 and Annam in the East to Senegambia, Scandinavia, 
 and Scotland in the West. The story varies in 
 details from people to people, but as commonly told 
 it runs thus. A certain country is infested by a many- 
 headed serpent, dragon, or other monster, which would 
 destroy the whole people if a human victim, generally 
 a virgin, were not delivered up to him periodically. 
 Many victims have perished, and at last it has fallen to 
 the lot of the king's own daughter to be sacrificed. She 
 
1 84 SACRIFICES TO WATER-SPIRITS lect. 
 
 is exposed to the monster, but the hero of the tale, 
 generally a young man of humble birth, interposes on 
 her behalf, slays the beast, and receives the hand of the 
 princess and a share of the kingdom as his reward. In 
 many of the tales the monster, who is sometimes 
 described as a serpent, inhabits the water of a sea, a 
 lake, or a fountain. In other versions he is a serpent 
 or dragon who takes possession of the springs of 
 water, and only allows the water to flow or the people 
 to make use of it on condition of receiving a human 
 victim.^ 
 
 It would probably be a mistake to dismiss all these 
 tales as pure inventions of the story-teller. Rather we 
 may suppose that they reflect a real custom of sacrificing 
 girls or women to be the wives of water-spirits, who are 
 very often conceived as great serpents or dragons.^ 
 Among civilised peoples these customs survive for the 
 most part only in popular tales, of which the legend of 
 Perseus and Andromeda, with its mediaeval counterpart 
 of St. George and the Dragon, is the most familiar 
 example. But occasionally they appear to have left 
 
 ^ For a list of these tales, with references to the authorities, see my note on 
 Pausanias, ix. 26. 7. To the examples there referred to add J. V. Zingerle, Kinder- 
 und Hausm'drchen aus Tirol^ Nos. 8, 21, 35, pp. 35 sqq.^ 100 sqq.^ 178 Jyy. j G. F. 
 Abbott, Macedonian Folk-lore (Cambridge, 1903), pp. 270 sqq. This type of tale has 
 been elaborately investigated by Mr. E. S. Hartland {The Legend of Perseus^ London, 
 1894-1896) ; but while he illustrates the details of the story with a profusion of 
 learning, he has not, so far as I have observed, dealt with the actual custom of 
 marrying women to supernatural beings, especially to water-spirits. More examples 
 of it will be given in the third edition of The Golden Bough, 
 
 ^ To the evidence collected in my note on Pausanias, ix. 10. 5, add H. Temaux- 
 Compans, Essai sur I'ancien Cundinamarca^ pp. 6 sq. ; R. Salvado, Memoires historiques 
 sur VAustralie (Paris, 1854), p. 262 ; H. Coudreau, Chex nos Indiens (Paris, 1895), 
 pp. 303 sq. ; C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico^ i. 402 sq., ii. 57 ; Spencer and Gillen, 
 Northern Tribes of Central Australia., pp. 226 sqq. 
 
VI SLATING OF THE DRAGON 185 
 
 traces of themselves In ceremonies and pageants. Thus 
 at Furth in Bavaria a drama called the Slaying of the 
 Dragon used to be acted every year about Midsummer, 
 on the Sunday after Corpus Christi Day. Crowds of 
 spectators flocked from the neighbourhood to witness 
 it. The scene of the performance was the public square. 
 On a platform stood or sat a princess wearing a golden 
 crown on her head, and as many silver ornaments on 
 her body as could be borrowed for the purpose. 
 Opposite her was stationed the dragon, a dreadful 
 monster of painted canvas stretched on a wooden 
 skeleton and moved by two men inside. A knight in 
 armour rode forth and asked the princess why she 
 looked so sad. She told him that the dragon was 
 coming to eat her up. He bade her be of good cheer, 
 and attacked the dragon, thrusting his spear into its 
 maw and stabbing a bladder of bullock's blood which 
 was there concealed. The gush of blood which followed 
 was an indispensable part of the show ; the people 
 eagerly mopped it up, along with the blood -soaked 
 earth, in white cloths, which they afterwards laid on the 
 flax-fields, in order that the flax might thrive and grow 
 tall. For the " dragon's blood " was thought to be a 
 sure protection against witchcraft. Having despatched 
 the dragon, the knight announced her deliverance to 
 the princess. She in return tied a wreath round his 
 arm and told him that her noble father and mother 
 would soon come to give them half the kingdom.^ In 
 
 1 F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), i. 107-110, 
 ii. 550. 
 
1 86 THE DRAGON OF ROUEN lect. 
 
 this custom the use of the dragon's blood to make the 
 flax grow proves that the ceremony of the Slaying of 
 the Dragon was not a mere popular spectacle, but a 
 magical rite designed to fertilise the fields. As such it 
 probably descended from a very remote antiquity, and 
 may well have been invested with a character of 
 solemnity, if not of tragedy, long before it degenerated 
 into a farce. 
 
 More famous was the dragon from which, according 
 to legend, St. Remain delivered Rouen, and far more 
 impressive was the ceremony with which, down to the 
 French Revolution, the city commemorated its deliver- 
 ance. The stately and beautiful edifices of the Middle 
 Ages, which still adorn Rouen, formed a fitting back- 
 ground for a pageant which carried the mind back to 
 the days when Henry II. of England and Richard Cceur 
 de Lion, Dukes of Normandy, still had their palace in 
 this ancient capital of their ancestral domains. Legend 
 ran that about the year 520 a.d. a forest or marsh near 
 Rouen was infested by a monstrous beast in the shape 
 of a serpent or dragon, which every day wrought great 
 harm to the city and neighbourhood, devouring man 
 and beast, causing boats and mariners on the river 
 Seine to perish, and inflicting other woes innumerable 
 on the commonwealth. At last the archbishop, St. 
 Romain, resolved to beard the monster in his den. He 
 could get none to accompany him but a prisoner con- 
 demned to death for murder. On their approach the 
 dragon appeared as though he would swallow them up; 
 but the archbishop, relying on the divine help, made the 
 
VI THE DRAGON OF ROUEN 187 
 
 sign of the cross, and at once the monster became so 
 gentle that he sufFered the saint to bind him with his 
 stole and the murderer to lead him like a lamb to the 
 slaughter. Thus they went in procession to a public 
 place in Rouen, where the dragon was peaceably burnt 
 in the presence of the people and its ashes cast into the 
 river. The murderer was pardoned for his services ; 
 and the fame of the deed having gone abroad, St. 
 Romain, or his successor St. Ouen, whose memory is 
 enshrined in a church of dream-like beauty at Rouen, 
 obtained from King Dagobert in perpetuity a privilege 
 for the archbishop, dean, and canons of the cathedral, to 
 wit, that every year on Ascension Day, the anniversary 
 of the miracle, they should pardon and release from 
 prison a malefactor, whomsoever they chose, and what- 
 ever the crime of which he had been guilty. This 
 privilege, unique in France, is known from documentary 
 evidence to have been exercised from nearly the begin- 
 ning of the thirteenth century down to 1790, when the 
 chapter intervened to stay the sword of justice for the 
 last time. Next year the face of things had changed : 
 there was neither archbishop nor chapter in Rouen. A 
 register of the prisoners who were pardoned, together 
 with an account of their crimes, was kept, and still 
 exists. Most of the crimes appear to have been murder 
 or homicide. 
 
 The proceedings on the great day of pardon varied 
 somewhat in different ages. The following account is 
 based in great part on a description written in the reign 
 of Henry III. and published at Rouen in 1587. On 
 
1 88 PRIVILEGE OF ST. ROM JIN lect. 
 
 the Monday of Rogations two canons examined the 
 prisoners and took their confessions, going from prison 
 to prison till Ascension Day. On that day, about seven 
 o'clock in the morning, all the canons assembled in the 
 chapter -house, and invoked the grace of the Holy 
 Spirit by the hymn Veni creator Spiritus and other 
 prayers. Also they made oath to reveal none of the 
 depositions of the criminals, but to hold them sacred 
 under the seal of confession. The depositions having 
 been taken and the commissioners heard, the chapter, 
 after due deliberaiton, named him or her among the 
 prisoners who was to receive the benefit of the privilege. 
 A card bearing the prisoner's name and sealed with the 
 seal of the chapter was then sent to the members of 
 parliament, who were sitting in full assembly, clad in 
 their red robes, in the great hall of the palace to receive 
 the nomination of the prisoner, and to give it legal 
 effect. The criminal was then released and pardoned. 
 Immediately the minster bells began to ring, the doors 
 of the cathedral were flung open, the organ pealed, 
 hymns were sung, candles lit, and every solemnity 
 observed in token of joy and gladness. Then the 
 archbishop and all the clergy of the cathedral went in 
 procession to the great square known as the Old Tower 
 near the river, carrying the shrines and reliquaries of 
 the minster, and accompanied by the joyous music of 
 hautboys and clarions. In the square there stood, and 
 still stands, a platform of stone raised high above the 
 ground and approached by flights of steps. Thither 
 they brought the shrine {Jierte) of St. Romain, and 
 
VI PRIVILEGE OF ST. ROM JIN 189 
 
 thither too was led the pardoned prisoner. He 
 ascended the platform, and after confessing his sins and 
 receiving absolution, he thrice lifted the shrine of St. 
 Romain, while the innumerable multitude assembled in 
 the square cried aloud, each time the shrine was lifted, 
 " Noel ! Noel! Noel! " which was understood to mean 
 " God be with us ! " That done, the procession re- 
 formed and returned to the cathedral. At the head 
 walked a beadle clad in violet, T!^ho bore on a pole the 
 wicker effigy of the winged dragon of Notre Dame, 
 holding a large fish in its mouth. The whispers and 
 cries excited by the appearance of the monster were 
 drowned in the loud fanfares of cornets, clarions, and 
 trumpets. Behind the musicians, who wore the liveries 
 of the IVIaster of the Brotherhood of Notre Dame with 
 his arms emblazoned on an ensign of taffeta, came the 
 carved silver- gilt shrine of Notre Dame. After it 
 followed the clergy of the cathedral to the number of 
 two hundred, clad in robes of violet or crimson silk, 
 bearing banners, crosses, and shrines, and chanting the 
 hymn De resurrecHone Domini. Then came the arch- 
 bishop, giving his blessing to the great multitude who 
 thronged the streets. The prisoner himself walked 
 behind, bareheaded, crowned with flowers, carrying one 
 end of the litter which supported the shrine of St. 
 Romain : the fetters he had worn hung from the litter ; 
 and with him paced, with lighted torches in their hands, 
 the men or women who, for the last seven years, had in 
 like manner received their pardon. Another beadle, in 
 a violet livery, marched behind bearing aloft on a pole 
 
I90 PRIVILEGE OF ST. ROMAIN lect. 
 
 the wicker effigy of the dragon destroyed by St. Remain. 
 The clergy of the thirty-two parishes of Rouen also 
 took part in the procession, which moved from the Old 
 Tower to the cathedral amid the acclamations of the 
 crowd, while from every church tower in the city the 
 bells rang out a joyous peal, the great bell Georges 
 d" Amboise thundering above them all. After mass had 
 been performed in the cathedral, the prisoner was taken 
 to the house of the Master of the Brotherhood of St. 
 Romain, where he was magnificently feasted, lodged, 
 and served, however humble his rank. Next morning 
 he again presented himself to the chapter, where, kneel- 
 ing in the presence of a great assembly, he was severely 
 reproved for his sins, and admonished to give thanks to 
 God, to St. Romain, and to the canons for the pardon 
 he had received in virtue of the privilege.^ 
 
 What was the origin and meaning of this remark- 
 able privilege of thefierte, as the shrine of St. Romain 
 was called ? Its history has been carefully investigated 
 
 ^ F. N. Taillepied, Recueil des Ajttlquhez et Singularitez de la mils de Rouen (Rouen, 
 1587), pp. 93-105 ; A. Floquet, Hhtoire du frimUge de Saint Romain (2 vols. 8vo, 
 Rouen, 1833). For briefer notices of the custom and legend, see A. Bosquet, La 
 Normandie Romanesque et Merveilleuse (Paris and Rouen, 1845), pp. 405-409 ; A. de 
 Nore, Coutumes, My ties et Traditions des Provinces de France (Paris and Lyons, 1846), 
 pp. 245-250. The giltjfertt or portable shrine of St. Romain is preserved in the 
 Chapter Library of the Cathedral at Rouen, where I saw it in May 1902. It is in 
 the form of a chapel, on the roof of which the saint stands erect, trampling on the 
 winged dragon, while the condemned prisoner kneels in front of him. This, how- 
 ever, is not the original shrine, which was so decayed that in 1776 the chapter 
 decided to replace it by another. See Floquet, op. cit. ii. 338-346. The custom of 
 carrying the dragons in procession was stopped in 1753 because of its tendency to 
 impair the solemnity of the ceremony (Floquet, ii. 301). Even more famous than 
 the dragon of Rouen was the dragon of Tarascon, an effigy of which used to be 
 carried in procession on Whitsunday. See A. de Nore, op. cit. pp. 47 sqq. Neither 
 of these monsters is mentioned by Mr. P. Sebillot in his account of French dragons 
 {Le folk-lore de France, i. (Paris, 1904), pp. 468-470). 
 
VI PRIVILEGE OF ST. ROMAIN 191 
 
 by Mons. A. Floquet, Chief Registrar of the Royal 
 Court of Rouen, with the aid of all the documentary 
 evidence, including the archives both at Rouen and 
 Paris. He supposes the ceremony to have been in its 
 origin a scenic representation of the triumph of Christ 
 over sin and death, the deliverance of the condemned 
 prisoner symbolising the deliverance of man from the 
 yoke of corruption, and bringing home to the people 
 in a visible form the great mystery which the festival 
 of the Ascension was instituted to commemorate. 
 Such dramatic expositions of Christian doctrine, he 
 points out, were common in the Middle Ages. 
 
 Plausible as is this solution of the problem, it can 
 scarcely be regarded as satisfactory. Had this been 
 the real origin of the privilege we should expect to 
 find the Ascension of Christ either plainly enacted, or 
 at least distinctly alluded to in the ceremony ; but 
 apart from the singing of the hymn De resurrectione 
 Domini this seems not to have been the case. More- 
 over, the part played by the dragon in the legend and 
 in the spectacle seems too important to allow us to 
 explain it away, with M. Floquet, as a mere symbol of 
 the suppression of paganism by St. Romain. The tale 
 of the conquest of the dragon is older than Christianity 
 and cannot be explained by it. Judging from the 
 analogy of similar tales elsewhere, we may conjecture 
 that in the Rouen version the condemned criminal 
 represents a victim annually sacrificed to a water- 
 spirit or other fabulous being, while the Christian 
 saint has displaced a pagan hero, who was said to 
 
192 PRIVILEGE OF ST. ROMAIN lect. 
 
 have delivered the victim from death and put an end 
 to the sacrifice by slaying the monster. Thus it seems 
 possible that the custom of annually pardoning a con- 
 demned malefactor may have superseded an older 
 practice of treating him as a public scapegoat, who 
 died to save the rest of the people. Such customs 
 have been observed in many lands. It is not incredible 
 that at Rouen a usage of this sort should have survived 
 in a modified shape from pagan times down to the 
 twelfth century, and that the Church should at last 
 have intervened to save the wretch and turn a relic of 
 heathendom to the glory of God and St. Romain. 
 
 One more point and I have done. The sacrifice of 
 women to water-spirits appears to have been commonly 
 intended to provide these mythical beings with wives. 
 Wherever that has been so, the water-spirit is obviously 
 supposed to be male. But men have also been sacri- 
 ficed to water-spirits ; ^ and where that has been the 
 practice, we may conjecture, though it certainly does 
 not come out clearly, that the spirits are conceived as 
 female and the human victims as their husbands. 
 Whether the dragon of Rouen was considered as male 
 or female, we cannot say, since the condemned 
 prisoners, who on my hypothesis represented the 
 victims formerly offered to him or her, might be either 
 men or women. 
 
 So much for the sacred marriage in general. In the 
 
 ' W. F. W. Owen, Narrative of Voyages to explore the shores of Africa, Arabia, 
 and Madagascar (London, 1833), ii. 3541;.; Antiales de la Propagation de la Foi, 
 xxxiii. (1861), p. 152 ; id. Ix. (i888), p. 253 ; E. Aymonier, " Les Tchames et leurs 
 religions," Revus de VHislUre des Religions, xxiv. (1891), p. 213. 
 
VI THE LATIN KINGS 193 
 
 next lecture I shall apply the results of our inquiry to 
 the legendary history of the Latin kings, especially 
 the kings of Rome, to a consideration of whose 
 office the remainder of the lectures will be mainly 
 devoted. 
 
LECTURE VII 
 
 The Sacred Marriage — Numa and Egeria — Kings of Rome and Alba 
 personified Jupiter, the god of the oak and the thunder — 
 Sacred marriage of Jupiter and Juno perhaps enacted by the 
 King and Queen of Rome — Roman kings regarded as sons of 
 the fire god by his wives the Vestal Virgins — Sacred fires and 
 Vestal Virgins in Ireland and Peru. 
 
 In the last lecture I adduced some examples of what 
 may be called the sacred marriage or the marriage 
 of the gods. The custom consists in solemnly marry- 
 ing the gods to each other or to human beings who 
 act as consorts of the deities. Amongst the divine 
 powers whose wedding is thus publicly celebrated, 
 the deities of vegetation and of water hold a con- 
 spicuous place. Such rites appear to aim at ensuring 
 the fertility of the earth, upon which the life of 
 animals and of men ultimately depends. Our survey 
 of them may perhaps be allowed to strengthen my 
 conjecture that a sacred marriage like that of our 
 King and Queen of May was annually solemnised at 
 Nemi, the wedded pair being the mortal King and the 
 immortal Queen of the Wood, Diana. In this con- 
 nection it is to be remembered that the worship of 
 
 the sacred grove at Nemi centred round the powers 
 
 194 
 
LECT. VII NUMA AND EGERIA 195 
 
 of water as well as of vegetation. The sanctuary of 
 the goddess stood on the shore of a secluded lake 
 which was known as Diana's mirror ; and further, one 
 of the mythical personages of the grove was Egeria, 
 the nymph of a sacred spring. Here I would remind 
 you that, as I mentioned in my first lecture, the 
 nymph Egeria was said to be the wife of the old 
 Roman king Numa. Have we not in this legend 
 the reminiscence of a custom of marrying the King 
 of Rome to a goddess, like the custom of marrying 
 the Queen of Athens to a god ? Observe that Numa 
 was the very type of a priestly king ; most of the 
 religious institutions of Rome were referred to him 
 as their founder. Such a king is precisely the sort 
 of personage most likely to contract a sacred union 
 with a goddess, whether the goddess is represented 
 in the rite by an image or by a woman, who would 
 most naturally be the king's own wife, the queen. 
 You will remember that the Queen of Egypt as well 
 as the Queen of Athens played the part of the divine 
 consort in the sacred marriage. Further, it should 
 be borne in mind that according to one tradition the 
 union of Numa with Egeria actually took place in the 
 hallowed wood at Nemi. This tradition may well 
 contain an echo of a similar marriage between the King 
 of the Wood and Diana in the same holy grove. At 
 least the coincidence is curious enough to justify us 
 in scrutinising more closely both Numa and Egeria, in 
 order to see whether we cannot detect an affinity, on 
 the one hand, between Egeria and Diana, and, on 
 
196 EGERIA LECT. 
 
 the other hand, between Numa and the King of the 
 Wood. Let us begin with Egeria. 
 
 We saw in the first lecture that Egeria, like Diana, 
 was regarded as a divinity who aided women in child- 
 birth ; and further, she was, like Diana, associated with 
 water, being the nymph of a spring, while Diana was 
 the goddess of the lake. Moreover, like Diana, she 
 was also a tree-spirit ; for Plutarch tells us definitely 
 that she was a dryad or nymph of an oak ; ^ and this 
 statement is strongly confirmed by the etymology of 
 her name, if Mr. A. B. Cook is right in deriving it 
 from the same root aeg which appears in the Latin 
 aesculus, the Greek alyiXco-ifr, and the German Eiche, 
 all meaning " an oak." ^ So many coincidences between 
 Egeria and Diana can hardly be accidental. We may 
 assume with a fair degree of probability that Egeria 
 and Diana, though they differ in name, are identical in 
 substance. Accordingly, we may restate the Roman 
 legend in other words by saying that the King of 
 Rome was married to the oak-goddess Diana either in 
 the sacred grove at Nemi or, according to others, in a 
 grove outside the walls of Rome. 
 
 But we have still to ask whether in this sacred 
 marriage the Roman king personated a god ? and if so, 
 which god ? That he should have posed as a deity 
 will not seem improbable when we remember how 
 many monarchs have claimed to be divine. The old 
 Greek kings appear to have set up for being not merely 
 
 ^ Plutarch, De fortuna Romanorum, 9. 
 
 2 A. B. Cook, " Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak," Classical Review, xviii. (i904)> 
 p. 366. The name is spelt Aegeria by Valerius Maximus {i. 2. i). 
 
VII THE KING AS JUPITER 197 
 
 descendants of Zeus but actual embodiments on earth 
 of the great god ; for the learned Tzetzes, a mine of 
 antiquarian lore, tells us repeatedly that of old every king 
 bore the title of Zeus ; ^ and the legend of Salmoneus, 
 King of Elis, who posed as Zeus and in that character 
 made mock thunder and lightning,^ probably reflects the 
 regular practice of early Greek kings. But if Greek 
 kings claimed to be Zeus, we should expect to find the 
 Latin kings claiming to be Jupiter, the Italian counter- 
 part of Zeus. That they actually did so is indicated 
 by a variety of evidence, to which I would now invite 
 your attention. 
 
 In the first place, then, they seem to have dressed 
 themselves as Jupiter and to have assumed his attributes. 
 For down to imperial times victorious generals cele- 
 brating a triumph, and magistrates presiding at the 
 games in the Circus, wore the costume of Jupiter, which 
 was borrowed for the occasion from his great temple on 
 the Capitol ; and it has been held with a high degree of 
 probability both by ancients and moderns that in doing 
 so they merely copied the traditionary attire and insignia 
 of the Roman kings.^ They rode a chariot drawn by 
 
 ' J. Tzetzes, Antehomerka, io2 i^. ; id., Chiliadu, ix. 452. Mr. A. B. Cook 
 was the first, so far as I know, to call attention to this important statement of 
 Tzetzes. See his articles in The Classical Revievj, xvii. (1903), p. 409, and Folk-lore, 
 XV. (1904), pp. 303 sq. 
 
 2 ApoUodorus, i. 9. 7 ; Virgil, Am. vi, 585 sqq. ; Servius, on Virgil, l.c, 
 ' Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquit. Rom. iii. 61 sq., iv. 74, v. 35 ; B. G. 
 Niebuhr, History of Rome, ii. 36 ; Th. Mommsen, History of Rome, New Edition 
 (London, 1S94), i. 83 ; A. J. H. Greenidge, Roman Public Life (London, 1901), pp. 
 44 sq. But Mommsen, while he holds that the costume of a Roman god and of a 
 Roman king was the same, denies that the king personated the god. A truer 
 historical insight is displayed by that great scholar K. O. Miiller in his treatment of 
 the subject (Die Etrusker, Stuttgart, 1877, i. 348 sq.). See further Th. Mommsen, 
 
198 2HE HUMAN JUPITER lect. 
 
 four laurel-crowned horses through the city, where 
 every one else went on foot : they wore purple robes 
 embroidered or spangled with gold : in the right hand 
 they bore a branch of laurel, and in the left hand an 
 ivory sceptre topped with an eagle : a wreath of laurel 
 crowned their brows : their face was reddened with 
 vermilion ; and over their heads a slave held a heavy 
 crown of massy gold fashioned in the likeness of oak 
 leaves.^ In this attire the assimilation of the man to 
 the god comes out above all in the eagle-topped sceptre, 
 the oaken crown, and the reddened face. For the 
 eagle was the bird of Jove, the oak was his sacred tree, 
 and the face of his image on the Capitol was in like 
 manner regularly dyed red on festivals ; indeed, so im- 
 portant was it deemed to keep the divine features 
 properly rouged, that one of the first duties of the 
 censors was to contract for having this done.^ The 
 Greeks sometimes painted red the face or the whole 
 
 Romhche: Staatsreckt^ i. 372 5y., ii. 5 sq. ; J. Marquardt, RSmhche Staatsverwaltungj 
 ii. 566 sj,, iii.2 507 sq. ; id., PrirjatUben der Romer,^ 542 sq. ; K. O. Miiller, op. cit. 
 \. 344-350, ii. 198-200; Aust, J.-:/. "Jupiter," in W. H. Roscher's Lexikon dtr 
 griech. und rom. Mythologie, ii. 633, 725-728. Among the passages of ancient 
 authors on the subject are Appian, Pu». 66 j Zonaras, .^nffiz/. vii. 8 and 21 j Juvenal, 
 X. 36-43 ; Servius, on Virgil, Eel. vi. 22, a. 27 ; Ael. Lampridius, Alexander 
 Se-verus, 40. 8 ; Jul. Capitolinus, Gordiani Tres, 4. 4 ; Aulus Gellius, v. 6. 5-7. The 
 fullest descriptions of a Roman triumph are those of Appian and Zonaras. 
 
 ^ TertuUian, De corona miiitis, 13; compare Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxiil. ii; Zonaras, 
 Annal.vii. 21 ; Juvenal, x. 38 sqq. Mommsen says that the triumphal golden 
 crov/n was made in the shape of laurel leaves {Romischer Staatsrecht, i.^ 427) ; but 
 none of the ancient authors cited by him appears to affirm this, vpith the doubtful 
 exception of Aulus Gellius (v. 6. 5-7), who may have confused the wreath of real 
 laurel which the general wore on his head (Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxiii. 127, 130, 137) 
 with the golden crown which was held over him by a slave. The two crowns are 
 clearly distinguished by Zonaras {l.c.), though he does not describe the shape of the 
 golden crown. Mommsen himself mentions "a chaplet of oaken leaves in gold" 
 as part of the insignia of the Roman kings (Roman History, London, 1894, i. 83). 
 
 ^ Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxiii. iii sq.; Servius, on Virgil, Eel. vi. 22, x. 27. 
 
VII THE OAKEN CROWN 199 
 
 body of the wine-god Dionysus.^ These customs may 
 have been a substitute for an older practice of feeding 
 the god by smearing the face, and especially the lips, of 
 his idol with the blood of a sacrificial victim. As the 
 triumphal procession always ended in the temple of 
 Jupiter on the Capitol, it was peculiarly appropriate 
 that the head of the victor should be graced by a crown 
 of oak leaves ; for not only was every oak consecrated 
 to Jupiter,^ but {he Capitoline temple of the god was 
 said to have been built by Romulus beside a holy oak, 
 venerated by shepherds, to which the king attached the 
 spoils won by him from the enemy's general in battle.^ 
 We are expressly told that the oak crown was sacred to 
 Capitoline Jupiter ; * a passage of Ovid proves that it 
 was regarded as the god's special emblem. Writing 
 in exile on the shores' of the Black Sea, the poet sends 
 the book which he has just composed to Rome to be 
 published there : he personifies the volume and imagines 
 it passing along the Sacred Way and up to the door of 
 the emperor's palace on the Palatine hill. Above the 
 portal hung shining arms and a crown of oak leaves. 
 At the sight the poet starts : " Is this, quoth I, the 
 house of Jove? For sure to my prophetic soul the 
 oaken crown was reason good to think it so."* The 
 senate had granted Augustus the right to have the 
 wreath of oak always suspended over his door ; * and in 
 
 ^ Pau3anias, ii. 2. 6 (with my note), vii. 26, 11, viii. 39. 6. 
 
 2 Pliny, Nat. Hist. xii. 3 ; Phaedrus, iii. 17. i sqq. ; Servius, on Virgil, Georg. 
 iii. 332, and Eel. i. 17. 
 
 ^ Livy, i. 10. 4 sqq. " Plutarch, S^uaeit. Rom. 92. 
 
 " Ovid, Tristia, iii. 31 sqq. ' Dio Cassius, liii. 19. 
 
200 THE OAKEN CROWN lect. 
 
 another passage Ovid counts this among the more than 
 mortal honours bestowed on the emperor.-' On the 
 Capitol at Cirta there stood a silver image of Jupiter 
 wearing a silver crown of oak leaves and acorns.^ 
 Similarly at Dodona, the most famous sanctuary of the 
 oak in Greece, the image of Zeus appears to have worn 
 a chaplet of oak leaves ; for the god is constantly thus 
 portrayed on coins of Epirus.' 
 
 Thus we may fairly assume that on certain solemn 
 occasions Roman generals and magistrates personated 
 the supreme god, and that in doing so they revived the 
 practice of the early kings. To us moderns, for whom 
 the breech which divides the human from the divine 
 has deepened into an impassable gulf, such mimicry may 
 appear impious. But it was otherwise with the ancients. 
 To their thinking gods and men were akin, for many 
 families traced their descent from a divinity, and the 
 deification of a man probably seemed as little extra- 
 ordinary to them as the canonisation of a saint appears 
 to a modern Catholic. The Romans in particular were 
 quite familiar with the spectacle of mortals masquerad- 
 ing as spirits ; for at the funerals of great houses all the 
 illustrious dead of the family were personated by men 
 specially chosen for their resemblance to the departed. 
 
 ^ Ovid, Fasti, \, 607 zqq., iv. 953 sq, Tiberius refused a similar honour (Sueto- 
 nius, Tiberius, 26) ; but Domitian seems to have accepted it (Martial, viii. 82. 7). 
 Two statues of Claudius, one in the Vatican, the other in the Lateran museum, 
 represent the emperor as Jupiter wrearing the oak crown (W. Helbig, Fiihrer durck 
 die offentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertiimtr in Rom^ i. Nos. 312, 673). 
 
 2 C.I.L. viii. No. 6981. 
 
 ' J. Overbeck, Griechische Kunstmythohgie, Besonderer Theil, i. 232 sqq, ; L. R. 
 Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, i. 107 sq. 
 
VII THE ALBAN KINGS 201 
 
 These representatives wore masks fashioned and painted 
 in the likeness of the originals : they were dressed in 
 rich robes of office, resplendent with purple and gold, 
 such as the dead nobles had worn in their lifetime : like 
 them they rode in chariots through the city preceded 
 by the rods and axes, and attended by all the pomp and 
 heraldry of high station ; and when at last the funeral 
 procession, after threading its way through the crowded 
 streets, defiled into the Forum, the maskers solemnly 
 took their seats on ivory chairs, placed for them on the 
 platform of the Rostra, in the sight of the people, 
 recalling no doubt to the old, by their silent presence, 
 the memories of an illustrious past, and firing the young 
 with the ambition of a glorious future.^ 
 
 According to a tradition which we have no right to 
 reject, Rome was founded by settlers from Alba Longa, 
 a city which stood on the slope of the Alban hills, 
 overlooking Rome and the Campagna.^ Hence if the 
 Roman kings claimed to be representatives or embodi- 
 ments of Jupiter, the god of the sky, the thunder, and 
 the oak, it is natural to suppose that the kings of Alba, 
 from whom the founder of Rome traced his descent, 
 may have set up the same claim before them. Now the 
 Alban dynasty bore the name of Silvii, that is Wood- 
 men, and it can hardly be without significance that in 
 the vision of the historic glories of Rome revealed 
 to iEneas in the underworld, Virgil, who was an 
 antiquary as well as a poet, represents all the line 
 
 ^ Polybius, vi. 53 sq. 
 
 2 As to the situation see Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquii. Rom. i. 66 ; H. 
 Nissen, ItalUche LandeAuiide, ii. (Berlin, 1902), pp. 582 sj. 
 
202 SILVIUS AND JULUS lect. 
 
 of the Silvii or Woods as crowned with oak.^ A 
 chaplet of oak leaves would thus seem to have been 
 part of the insignia of the old kings of Alba Longa, as 
 of their successors the kings of Rome ; in both cases it 
 marked the monarch as the human representative of the 
 oak god. With regard to Silvius, the first king of the 
 Alban dynasty, we are told that he got his name because 
 he had been born or brought up in the forest, and that 
 when he came to man's estate he contested the kingdom 
 with his kinsman Julus, whose name, as some of the 
 ancients themselves perceived, means the Little Jupiter. 
 The people decided in favour of Silvius, but his rival 
 Julus was consoled for the loss of the crown by being 
 invested with religious authority and the office of chief 
 pontifF, or perhaps rather of Flamen Dialis, the highest 
 dignity after the kingship. From this Julus or Little 
 Jupiter the noble house of the Julii, and hence the first 
 emperors of Rome, believed themselves to be sprung.^ 
 The legend of the dispute between Silvius and Julus 
 
 ' Virgil, Aeti. vi. 772. 
 
 ^ Virgil, Am. vi. 760 sqq., with the commentary of Servius ; Livy, i. 3. 6 sqq. ; 
 Ovid, Metam, xiv. 609 sqq, ; id.. Fasti, iv. 39 sqq. ; Festus, j.i/, " Silvi," p. 340, ed. 
 C. O. MCiller ; Aurelius Victor, Origo getitis Romanae, 15-17; Dionysius Hali- 
 carnasensis, Andqult. Rom. i. 70 ; Diodorus Siculus, vii. 3^7 and 3 i, vol. ii. pp. no- 
 112, ed. L. Dindorf (Teubner text) ; Joannes Lydus, De magistrati^us, i. 21. As to 
 the derivation of the name Julus, see Aurelius Victor, op. cit. 15; Steuding, in 
 W. H. Roscher's Lexikon d. griech. u. rSm. Mythologie, ii. 574. Compare W. H. 
 Lindsay, The Latin Language (Oxford, 1894), p. 250. According to Diodorus, the 
 priesthood bestowed on Julus was the pontificate ; but the name Julus or Little 
 Jupiter suggests that the office was rather that of Flamen Dialis, who was a sort of 
 living embodiment of Jupiter (see below, p. 215), and whose name of Dialis is 
 derived from the same root as Julus. On the Julii and their relation to Vejovis, 
 see R. H. Klausen, Aeneas und die Penaten, ii. 1059 sqq. I have to thank Mr. A. B. 
 Cook for directing my attention to the Alban kings and their interesting legends. 
 See his article, " Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak," Classical Revietv, xviii. (1904), pp. 
 363 sq. 
 
VII THE JULII 203 
 
 may preserve a reminiscence of such a partition of 
 spiritual and temporal powers in Alba Longa as after- 
 wards took place in Rome, when the old regal office 
 was divided between the Consuls and the King of the 
 Sacred Rites. That the Julian house worshipped Vejovis 
 or the Little Jupiter, according to the ancient rites of 
 Alba Longa, is proved by the inscription on an altar 
 which they dedicated to him at Bovillae, a colony of 
 Alba Longa, situated at the foot of the Alban hills.^ 
 The Caesars, the most illustrious family of the Julian 
 house, took their name from their long hair {caesaries)^ 
 which was probably in those early days a symbol of 
 royalty, just as it was among the Franks many ages 
 afterwards. 
 
 But in ceding the high-priesthood to their rivals, 
 it would seem that the reigning dynasty of the Silvii 
 or Woods by no means renounced their own claim 
 to personate the god of the oak and the thunder ; for 
 the Roman annals record that one of them, Romulus, 
 Remulus, or Amulius Silvius by name, pretended to be 
 a god in his own person, the equal or superior of 
 Jupiter. To support his pretensions and overawe his 
 subjects, he constructed machines whereby he mimicked 
 
 ' C.I.L. xiv. No. 2387 ; L. Preller, RSmiscAe Mythohgie,^ i. 263 sj. On 
 Vejovis as the Little Jupiter, see Festus, s.-v. " Vesculi," p. 379, ed. C. O. Miiller ; 
 Ovid, Fasti, iii. 429-448. At Rome the sanctuary of Vejovis was on the saddle 
 betvifeen the two peaks of the Capitoline hill (Aulus Gellius, v. 12. i sq. ; Ovid, 
 Fasti, iii. 429 sq.) ; thus he appropriately dwelt on the same hill as the Great 
 Jupiter, but lower down the slope. On some Roman coins he is represented by a 
 youthful beardless head crowned with oalc. See E. Babelon, Motmaies de la 
 Republique Romaim, i. 552, ii. 266, 529. 
 
 2 Festus, s.'v. " Csesar," p. 57, ed. C. O. MUUer. Other but less probable 
 explanations of the name are suggested by Aelius Spartianus [Helius, ii, 3 sq,). 
 
204 THUNDERING KINGS lect. 
 
 the roll of thunder and the flash of lightning. DIodorus 
 relates that in the season of fruitage, when thunder is 
 loud and frequent, the king commanded his soldiers to 
 drown the roar of heaven's artillery by clashing their 
 swords against their shields. But he paid the penalty 
 of his impiety ; for he perished, he and his house, struck 
 by a thunderbolt in the midst of a dreadful storm. 
 Swollen by the rain, the Alban lake rose in flood and 
 drowned his palace. But still, says an ancient historian, 
 when the water is low and the surface unruffled by a 
 breeze, you may see the ruins of the palace at the 
 bottom of the clear lake.-' Taken along with the 
 similar story of Salmoneus, king of Elis, this legend 
 points to a real custom observed by the early kings of 
 Greece and Italy, who, like their fellows in Africa down 
 to modern times, may have been expected to produce 
 rain and thunder for the good of the crops. The 
 priestly king Numa passed for an adept in the art of 
 drawing down lightning from the sky.^ 
 
 In this connection it deserves to be noted that, 
 according to the legend, Salmoneus, like his Alban 
 counterpart, was killed by a thunderbolt ; and that one 
 of the Roman kings, Tullus Hostilius, is reported to 
 
 ^ Dionysius Halicarn. ^ntiquit, Rom, i. 71 ; Diodorus Siculus, in Eusebius, 
 Chronic, bk. i. coll. 287, 289, ed. A. Schoene ; Diodorus Siculus, vii. 3 a and 4, vol. 
 ii. pp. 112 sq., ed. L. Dindorf (Teubner text) ; Zonaras, Annul, vii. i ; Aurelius 
 Victor, Origo gentis Romanae, 18; Owid, Metam. xiv. 616-618; rV., Fasti, iv. <o ; 
 Livy, i. 3. 9. A tale of a city submerged in the Alban lake is still current in the 
 neighbourhood. See the English translators' note to Niebuhr's History of Rome,^ 
 i. 200. similar stories are told in many lands. See my note on Pausanias, 
 vii. 24. 6. 
 
 ^ Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 140, xxviii. 13 sq. Compare Livy, i. 20. 7 j Ovid, Fasti, 
 iii. 285-348 ; Plutarch, Numa, 15 ; Arnobius, Ad-versus Nationes, v. 1-4. 
 
vri THUNDERING KINGS 205 
 
 have met with the same end in an attempt to draw 
 down Jupiter in the form of lightning from the 
 clouds.^ ^neas himself, the legendary ancestor both 
 of the Alban and the Roman kings, vanished from the 
 world in a violent thunderstorm, and was afterwards 
 worshipped as Jupiter Indiges. A mound of earth, 
 encircled with fine trees, on the bank, of the little river 
 Numicius, was pointed out as his grave.^ Romulus, 
 too, the first king of Rome, disappeared in like manner. 
 It was the seventh of July, and the king was reviewing 
 his army at the Goat's Marsh, outside the walls of the 
 city. Suddenly the sky lowered and a tempest burst, 
 accompanied by peals of thunder. Soon the storm had 
 swept by, leaving the brightness and serenity of the 
 summer day behind. But Romulus was never seen 
 again. Those who had stood by him said they saw him 
 caught up to heaven in a whirlwind ; and not long 
 afterwards a certain Proculus Julius, a patrician of 
 Alban birth and descent, declared on oath that Romulus 
 had appeared to him clad in bright armour, and had 
 announced that the Romans were to worship him as a 
 god under the name of Quirinus, and to build him a 
 temple on the spot. The temple was built, and the 
 place was thenceforth known as the Quirinal hill.' If, 
 
 ' Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 140, xxviii. 14 ; Livy, i. 31, 8 ; Aurelius Victor, De viris 
 illustrious, 4 ; Zonaras, Annal. vii. 6. 
 
 ^ Livy, i. i. 6 ; Ovid, Metam. xiv. 598-608 ; Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii. 56 ; Dionysius 
 Halicarn. Ant. Rom. i. 64 ; Servius, on Virgil, Am. i. 259 ; Aurelius Victor, Origo 
 gentis Romanae, 14. Only the last writer mentions the thunderstorm. 
 
 ' Livy, i. 16 ; Cicero, Delegihus, i. 1. 3 ; id., De re fublica, \. 16. 25, ii. 10. 20 ; 
 Ovid, Fasti, ii. 475-512; Plutarch, Romulus, 27 sq. ; Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. 
 ii. 56 and 63 ; Zonaras, Annal. vii. 4 ; Aurelius Victor, De viris illustribus, 2 ; 
 Florus, Epitoma, i. i. 16-18. 
 
2o6 THUNDERING KINGS lect. 
 
 as Mr. A. B. Cook has conjectured ^ and as seems to 
 be philologically possible, the word Quirinus contains 
 the same root as quercus, " an oak," the name of the 
 deified Romulus would mean no more than " the oak 
 god," that is, Jupiter. Thus the tradition would 
 square perfectly with the other indications which have 
 led us to conclude that the kings both of Alba and 
 Rome claimed to be embodiments of Jupiter, the god 
 of the sky, of thunder, and of the oak. Certainly the 
 stories which associated the deaths of so many of them 
 with thunderstorms point to a close connection with the 
 deity of thunder and lightning. A king who had been 
 wont to fulminate in his lifetime might naturally be 
 supposed at death to be carried up in a thunderstorm 
 to heaven, there to discharge above the clouds the same 
 duties which he had performed on earth. Such a tale 
 would be all the more likely to attach itself to the twin 
 Romulus, if the early Romans shared the widespread 
 superstition that twins have power oven the weather in 
 general and over thunder and lightning in particular. 
 That tempests are caused by the spirits of the dead is a 
 belief of the Araucanians of Chili. Not a storm bursts 
 upon the Andes or the ocean which these Indians do 
 not ascribe to a battle between the souls of their fellow- 
 countrymen and those of the Spaniards. In the roar of 
 the wind they hear the trampling of the ghostly horses, 
 in the peal of the thunder the roll of the drums, and in 
 the flashes of lightning the fire of the artillery.^ 
 
 ' A. B. Cook, "Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak," Classical Review, xviii. (1904), pp. 
 368 sq. 
 
 ^ J. I. Molina, Geographical, Natural, and Civil History of Chili (London, 1809), 
 
VII KINGS AS RAIN-MAKERS 207 
 
 Thus if the kings of Alba and Rome imitated 
 Jupiter as god of the oak by wearing a crown of oak 
 leaves, they seem also to have copied him in his 
 character of a weather god by pretending to make 
 thunder and lightning. And if they did so, it is 
 probable that, like Jupiter in heaven and many kings 
 on earth, they also acted as public rain-makers, wringing 
 showers from the darkling sky by their enchantments 
 whenever the parched earth cried out for the refreshing 
 moisture. At Rome the sluices of heaven were opened 
 by means of a sacred stone, and the ceremony appears 
 to have formed part of the ritual of Jupiter Elicius, the 
 god who elicits from the clouds the flashing lightning 
 and the dripping rain.^ And who so fitted to perform 
 the ceremony as the king, the living representative of 
 the sky god .'' 
 
 The conclusion we have reached as to the kings of 
 Rome and Alba probably holds good of all the kings 
 of ancient Latium : each of them, we may suppose, 
 represented or embodied the local Jupiter. For we 
 
 ii. 92 sq. The savage Conibos of the Ucayali river in eastern Peru imagine that 
 thunder is the voice of the dead (W. Smith and F. Lowe, Journey from Lima to 
 Far a, London, 1836, p. 240) ; and among them when parents who have lost a child 
 within three months hear thunder, they go and dance on the grave, howling turn 
 about (De St. Cricq, " Voyage du Perou au Bresil," Bulletin de la Socie'te de 
 Geographic, vi., Paris, 1853, p. 294.). Apparently they hear the sighs and groans of 
 their lost child in the rumble of thunder. 
 
 ' Festus, i.w. " Aquaelicium " and "Manalem lapidem," pp. 2, 128, ed. C. O. 
 Miiller; Nonius Marcellus, s.v. "Trullum," p. 637, ed. guicherat ; Servius, on 
 Virgil, Aen. iii. 175; Fulgentius, "Expos, serm. antiq." s.v. "Manales lapides," 
 Auctores Mythographi Latini, ed. Staveren (Leyden and Amsterdam, 1742), pp. 769 sq. 
 For the connection of the rite with Jupiter Elicius, see O. Gilbert, Geschichte 
 und Topographic der Stadt Rom im Altcrtum, ii. 154 Jy. ; Aust, in W. H. Roscher's 
 Lexikon d. griech. u. rSm. Mythologie, ii. 657 sq. As to the connection of Jupiter 
 with the rain-making ceremony [aquaelicium), the combined evidence of Petronius 
 [Sat. 44.) and Tertullian {Apologeticus, 40) seems to me conclusive. 
 
2o8 JUPITER AND THE OAK lect, 
 
 can hardly doubt that of old every Latin town or 
 settlement had its own Jupiter, as every town and almost 
 every church in modern Italy has its own Madonna ; 
 and like the Baal of the Semites the local Jupiter was 
 commonly worshipped on high places. Wooded 
 heights, round which the rain -clouds gather, were 
 indeed the natural sanctuaries for a god of the sky, 
 the rain, and the oak. At Rome he occupied one 
 summit of the Capitoline hill, while the other summit 
 was assigned to his wife Juno, whose temple, with the 
 long flight of stairs leading up to it, has for ages been 
 appropriately replaced by the church of St. Mary " in 
 the altar of the sky " {in Aracelt)} That both heights 
 were originally wooded seems certain, for down to 
 imperial times the saddle which joins them was known 
 as the place " between the two groves." ^ Virgil tells 
 us that the hill top, where gilded temples glittered in 
 his day, had been covered of old by shaggy thickets, 
 the haunt of woodland elves and savage men, " born of 
 the tree trunks and the heart of oak." ^ These thickets 
 were probably composed of oaks, for the oak crown was 
 sacred to Capitoline Juno as well as to Jupiter : * it was 
 to a sacred oak on the Capitol, as I have said, that 
 Romulus fastened the spoils ; and there is evidence that 
 in early times oak woods clothed other of the hills on 
 
 ^ Ovid, Faiti, i. 637 sq., vi. 183 sjq. ; Livy, vii. 28. 4 sq. ; Cicero, De dm'maUmt, 
 i. 45. loi ; Solinus, i. 21. Although the temple was not dedicated until 344 B.C., 
 the worship of the goddess of the hill appears to have been very ancient. See 
 H. Jordan, Topographic der Sladt Rom im Ahertum^ i. 2. pp. 109 sq, ; W. H. Roscher, 
 Lexikon d. gnech, u. rdm. Mylkokgiej ii. 592 sq. 
 
 ^ Livy, i. 8. 5 J Ovid, Fasti, iii. 430 ; Dionysius Halicarnas. Ant. Rom. ii. 15. 
 
 ' Virgil, Aen. viii. 314-318, 347-354- 
 
 * Plutarch, Sluaest. Rom. 92. 
 
VII THE FIRE OF OAK 209 
 
 which Rome was afterwards built. I will spare you the 
 details of the evidence, but there is one of them to 
 which I must call your attention. An old grove ot 
 Vesta once skirted the foot of the Palatine hill on 
 the side of the Forum,^ and it must surely have been 
 a grove of oaks. For, in the first place, a fine ancient 
 relief representing the temple of Vesta shows an oak 
 tree growing beside it ; and in the second place, most 
 important of all, charred embers of the sacred vestal 
 fire were discovered by Signor Boni a few years ago at 
 the temple of Vesta, and a microscopic analysis of them 
 has proved that they consist of the pith or heart of 
 trunks or great branches of oak (^quercus, not ilex).^ 
 This very remarkable fact, which I learned from its 
 illustrious discoverer during a winter spent in Rome, is 
 of high importance for the understanding of the early 
 religion, not only of the Romans, but of all the Latin 
 peoples ; for every Latin town would seem to have had 
 its vestal fire, and the discovery of the charred embers 
 in the Forum raises a presumption that every vestal 
 fire in Latium was fed with the wood of the sacred oak, 
 the tree of the supreme god Jupiter. Indeed there is 
 reason to think that all the branches of the Aryan 
 family in Europe fed their sacred fires with oak wood ; 
 
 ^ Cicero, De liivwatione, i. 45. loi. 
 
 ^ G. Boni, in Notixie degli Scavi, May 1900, pp. 161, 172; id., Aedes Vestae^ 
 p. 14 (extract from the Nucma Antologia, 1st August 1900). Commendatore Boni 
 thinks that the charred remains of the wood prove that the fire was extinguished, 
 probably by libations, and that therefore it cannot have been the perpetual holy fire 
 of Vesta, which would have consumed the fiiel completely. But a new fire was 
 annually lit on the first of March (Ovid, Fastt, iii. 143 sq. ; Macrobius, Saturn, i. 12. 
 6), which may imply that the old fire was first ceremonially extinguished, as often 
 happens in such cases. 
 
 P 
 
2IO LATUM JUPITER lect. 
 
 the old Lithuanians, for example, are known to have 
 done this in honour of their chief god Perkunas, the 
 deity of thunder and lightning, who corresponded to 
 Zeus and Jupiter.^ According to some philologers the 
 very name Perkunas means " the oak god," being 
 derived from the root perq, which reappears in the 
 Latin quercus, " an oak." * 
 
 If the kings of Rome aped Capitoline Jupiter, their 
 predecessors the kings of Alba probably laid themselves 
 out to mimic the great Latian Jupiter, who had his 
 seat above the city on the summit of the Alban 
 Mountain. Latinus, the legendary ancestor of the 
 dynasty, was said to have been changed into Latian 
 Jupiter after vanishing from the world in the mysterious 
 fashion characteristic of the old Latin kings.* The 
 sanctuary of the god on the top of the mountain was 
 the religious centre of the Latin League, as Alba was 
 its political capital till Rome wrested the supremacy 
 from its ancient rival. Apparently no temple, in our 
 sense of the word, was ever erected to Jupiter on this 
 his holy mountain : as god of the sky and the thunder 
 he appropriately received the homage of his worshippers 
 in the open air.* His oldest sanctuary on this airy 
 
 ^ S. Grunau, Preussische Chronik, ed. M. Perlbach, i. (Leipsic, 1876), p. 78 
 (ii. tract, cap. v. § 2) j M. Praetorius, Deliciae Prussicae (Berlin. 1871), pp. 19 sq. 
 
 ^ H. Hirt, " Die Urheimat der Indogermanen," Itidogermaniscicn Forschurgai, i. 
 (1892), pp. 479 sqq. J P. Kretschmer, Ein/eitung in die Geschichte der griechiichen 
 Sprache (GSttingen, 1896), pp. 81 sq. 
 
 " Festus, i.f . " Oscillantes," p. 194, ed. C. O. MilUer. 
 
 * The massive wall, of which some remains still enclose the old garden of the 
 Passionist monastery, seems to have been part of the sacred precinct which Tarquin 
 the Proud, the last king of Rome, marked out for the solemn annual assembly 
 of the Latin League. See Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Ram. iv. 49 ; A. Schwegler, 
 Rdmische Gexkichte, i. 341 ; H. Nissen, Italiscke Landeskunde, ii. 580. The 
 
VII THE ALB AN OAKS 211 
 
 spot was a grove ; ^ and bearing in mind not merely 
 the special consecration of the oak to Jupiter, but also 
 the traditional oak crown of the Alban kings and the 
 analogy of the oak of Capitoline Jupiter at Rome, we 
 may suppose that the trees in the grove were oaks.^ 
 We know that in antiquity Mount Algidus, an out- 
 lying group of the Alban hills, was covered with dark 
 forests of oak both of the evergreen and the ordinary 
 sort ; * and among the tribes who belonged to the 
 Latin League in the earliest days, and were entitled to 
 share the flesh of the sacrificial white bull, there was 
 one whose members styled themselves Men of the Oak/ 
 doubtless on account of the woods among which they 
 dwelt. 
 
 But we should err if we pictured to ourselves the 
 country as covered in historical times with an unbroken 
 forest of oaks. Theophrastus has left us a description 
 of the woods of Latium as they were in the fourth 
 century before Christ. He says : " The land of the 
 Latins is all moist. The plains produce laurels, myrtles, 
 
 Passionist monastery, founded in 1777, by Cardinal Yorlc, the last of the Stuarts, has 
 now been converted into a meteorological station and an inn (K. Baedeker, Central 
 Italy and Rome^' p. 400). It is fitting that the atmospheric phenomena should be 
 observed by modern science on the same spot where they were worshipped by ancient 
 piety. 
 
 ^ Livy. i. 31. 3. 
 
 ^ According to tradition, the sow which marked the future site of Alba Longa 
 was found lying under evergreen oaks (Virgil, Aen. viii. 4.3), as Mr. A. B. Cook 
 has pointed out {Classical Review, xviii. 363). The tradition seems to show that 
 the neighbourhood of the city was wooded with oaks. 
 
 3 Horace, Odes, iii. 23. 9 sq., iv. 4. 57 sqq. ; compare id. i. 21. 5 sq. 
 
 * Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii. 69 ; Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. v. 61. As to the 
 white bulla sacrificed at the great Latin festival and partaken of by the members of 
 the League, see Arnobius, Ad-uersus Natimes, ii. 68 ; Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. 
 iv. 49. Compare Cicero, De Plancio, vs.. 23 ; Varro, De lingua Latina, vi. 25. 
 
212 THE WOODS OF LATIUM lect. 
 
 and wonderful beeches ; for they fell trees of such a size 
 that a single stem suffices for the keel of a Tyrrhenian 
 ship. Pines and firs grow on the mountains. What 
 they call the land of Circe is a lofty headland thickly 
 wooded with oak, myrtle, and luxuriant laurels." ^ 
 Thus the prospect from the top of the Alban 
 Mount in the early age of Rome must have been very 
 different in some respects from what it is to-day. The 
 purple Apennines, indeed, in their eternal calm on the 
 one hand, and the shining Mediterranean in its eternal 
 unrest on the other, no doubt looked then much as they 
 look now, whether bathed in sunshine or chequered by 
 the fleeting shadows of clouds. But instead of the 
 desolate brown expanse of the fever-stricken Campagna, 
 spanned by its long lines of ruined aqueducts, like the 
 broken arches of the bridge in the vision of Mirza, the 
 eye must have ranged over woodlands that stretched 
 away, mile after mile, on all sides, till their varied 
 hues of green or autumnal scarlet and gold melted 
 insensibly into the blue of the distant mountains and 
 sea. 
 
 The Alban Mount was thus to the Latins what 
 Olympus was to the Greeks, the lofty abode of the sky 
 god, who hurled his thunderbolts from above the 
 clouds. The white steers which were here sacrificed 
 to him in his sacred grove, as on the Capitol at Rome,^ 
 remind us of the white bulls which the Druids of Gaul 
 sacrificed under the holy oak before they cut the 
 
 ' Thcophrastm, Hist. Plant, v. 8. 3. 
 
 ^ Arnobiu3, Adversus Nationes^ ii. 68 ; Livy, xxii. 10. 7; Ovid, Ex Portte, iv. 4. 
 31 ; Servius, on Virgil, Georg. ii. 146 ; Horace, Carmen Saeculare, 49. 
 
VII JUPITER AND JUNO 213 
 
 mistletoe ; ^ and the parallel would be all the closer if, 
 as we have reason to think, the Latins worshipped 
 Jupiter originally in groves of oak. When we re- 
 member that the ancient Italian and Celtic people spoke 
 languages which were nearly akin,^ we shall not be 
 surprised at discovering traces of community in their 
 religion, especially in what concerns the worship of the 
 god of the oak and the thunder. For that worship 
 belongs to the oldest stratum of the Aryan civilisation 
 in Europe. 
 
 But Jupiter did not reign alone on the top of the 
 Alban Mount. He had his consort with him, the 
 goddess Juno, who was worshipped here under the 
 same title, Moneta, as on the Capitol at Rome.^ As 
 the oak crown was sacred to Jupiter and Juno on the 
 Capitol, so we may suppose it was on the Alban Mount, 
 from which the Capitoline worship was derived. Thus 
 the oak god would have his oak goddess in the sacred oak 
 grove. So at Dodona the oak Zeus was coupled with 
 Dione, whose very name is only a dialectically different 
 form of Juno ; * and so on the top of Mount Cithaeron, 
 as we saw in the last lecture, the god was periodically 
 wedded to an oaken image of Hera. It is probable, 
 
 1 Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 250 sq. 
 
 ^ " Italic and Keltic are 50 closely bound together by important phonetic and 
 morphological affinities that they are sometimes spoken of as one branch " of Aryan 
 speech (J, H. Moulton, Tioo Lectures on the Science of Language, Cambridge, X903, 
 p. 6 note). See also Isaac Taylor, The Origin of the Aryans, pp. 192, 257 ; P. Giles, 
 Manual of Comfarati-ve Philology^ (London, 1901), p. 26. 
 
 ^ Livy, xlii. 7. i, xlv. 16. i. Compare Dio Cassius, xxxix. 20. i. The temple 
 was dedicated in 167 B.C., but the worship was doubtless far older. 
 
 * Strabo, vii. 7. 12; Hyperides, Or. iii. coll. 35-37, pp. 43 sq., ed. Blass j G. 
 Curtius, Griech. Etymologic,^ p. 236 ; W. H. Roscher, Juno und Hera (Leipsic, 
 1875). PP- 17 '?• 
 
214 THE SACRED MARRIAGE lect. 
 
 though it cannot be positively proved, that the sacred 
 marriage of Jupiter and Juno was annually celebrated 
 by all the peoples of the Latin stock in the month 
 which they named after the goddess, the midsummer 
 month of June.^ Now on the first of June the Roman 
 pontiffs performed certain rites in the grove of Helernus 
 beside the Tiber, and on the same day, and perhaps in 
 the same place, a nymph of the grove, by name Carna, 
 received off^erings of lard and bean porridge. She was 
 said to be a coy huntress who gave the slip to her 
 suitors in the depth of the wood, but was caught by 
 Janus. Some took her to be Diana herself.^ If she 
 was indeed a form of that goddess, her union with 
 Janus, that is, Dianus, would be appropriate ; and as 
 she had a chapel on the Cselian hill, which is known to 
 have been once covered with oak woods,^ she may, like 
 Egeria, have been an oak nymph. Further, Janus or 
 Dianus, and Diana, as we shall see later on, were 
 originally mere doubles of Jupiter and Juno, with 
 whom they coincide in name and to some extent in 
 
 ^ W. H. Roscher, op. cit. pp. 64 sqq,^ id., Lexikon d. grieci. u. ram. Myth. ii. 575 
 sq., 59 X sqq. See particularly Ovid, Amores, iii. 13 j Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. "Rom. 
 i. 21. The month of June was variously known in different parts of Latium as 
 Junmi, Junonius, and yunonalis. See Ovid, Fasti, vi. 59-63 ; Macrobius, Sat. i. 12, 
 30 ; Festus, p. 103, ed. C. O. Mailer. The two latter forms seem to render the 
 derivation of Junius from Juno quite certain. 
 
 2 Ovid, fam, vi. 101-168 ; Macrobius, &i. i. 12. 31-33 ; TataWa'a, Ad Natiimcs, 
 ii. 9 ; Varro, quoted by Nonnus, De varia significatione verborum, p. 390, ed. 
 Quicherat. 
 
 ' Tacitus, Annals, iv. 65. The Porta Sluerquetulana or S^uerquetularia, "the 
 Gate of the Oak Grove," seems to have been between the Cxlian and the Esquiline 
 hills (Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 37 ; Festus, pp. 260, 261, ed. C. O. Muller) ; and close 
 by there was a chapel of the Oak Grove dedicated to the worship of the oak nymphs 
 (Festus, lice. ; Varro, De lingua Latina, v. 49). These nymphs are represented on 
 coins (E. Babelon, Monnaies de la Repuhlique Romaine, i. 99 sq.). 
 
VII OF JUPITER AND JUNO 215 
 
 function. Hence it appears to be not impossible that 
 the rite celebrated by the pontiffs on the first of June 
 in the sacred grove of Helernus was the marriage of 
 Jupiter and Juno under the forms of Janus and Diana. 
 It would be some confirmation of this view if we could 
 be sure that, as Ovid seems to imply, the Romans were 
 in the habit of placing branches of white thorn or buck- 
 thorn in their windows on the first of June to keep out 
 the witches ; ^ for in some parts of Europe precisely the 
 same custom is observed, for the same reason, a month 
 earlier, on the marriage day of the King and Queen of 
 May.^ However, the evidence as to the rites observed 
 by the Romans on the first of June is too slight and 
 dubious to allow us to press the parallel with May 
 Day. 
 
 If at any time of the year the Romans celebrated the 
 sacred marriage of Jupiter and Juno, as the Greeks 
 commonly celebrated the corresponding marriage of 
 Zeus and Hera, we may suppose that under the 
 Republic the ceremony was either performed over 
 images of the divine pair or acted by the Flamen Dialis 
 and his wife the Flaminica. For the Flamen Dialis 
 was the priest of Jove ; indeed ancient and modern 
 writers have regarded him, with much probability, as a 
 living image of Jupiter, a human embodiment of the 
 sky god.* In earlier times the Roman king, as repre- 
 
 ' Ovid, Fasti, vi. 129-168. 
 
 2 The evidence will be given in the third edition of The Golden Bough. 
 
 * Plutarch, ^aiest. Rom. ill; L. Preller, RSmhche Mytiohgie," i. 201; F. B. 
 Jevons, Plutarch's Romam S^uestms, p. Uxiii. j C. Julian, in Daremberg et Saglio, 
 Dictionnaire des Antiquites Grecques et Romaines, ii. 11 56 sqq. 
 
2i6 THE KING AND QUEEN lect. 
 
 sentative of Jupiter, would naturally play the part of 
 the heavenly bridegroom at the sacred marriage, while 
 his queen would figure as the heavenly bride, just as in 
 Egypt the king and queen masqueraded in the character 
 of deities, and as at Athens the queen annually wedded 
 the vine god Dionysus. Even if the office of Flamen 
 Dialis existed under the kings, as it appears to have 
 done, the double representation of Jupiter by the king 
 and the flamen need not have seemed extraordinary to 
 the Romans of the time. The same sort of duplication, 
 as we saw, appears to have taken place at Alba, when 
 the Julii were allowed to represent the supreme god in 
 the character of Little Jupiters, while the royal dynasty 
 of the Silvii continued to wield the divine thunder and 
 lightning. And long ages afterwards, history repeating 
 itself, another member of the Julian house, the first 
 Emperor of Rome, was deified in his lifetime under the 
 title of Jupiter, while a flamen was appointed to do for 
 him what the Flamen Dialis did for the heavenly Jove.^ 
 It is said that Numa, the typical priestly king, at first 
 himself discharged the functions of Flamen Dialis, but 
 afterwards appointed a separate priest of Jupiter with 
 that title, in order that the kings, untrammelled by the 
 burdensome religious observances attached to the priest- 
 hood, might be free to lead their armies to battle.^ The 
 tradition may be substantially correct ; for analogy 
 shows that the functions of a priestly king are too 
 
 ' Cicero, Philippics, ii. 43. i lo j Suetonius, Diims Julius, 76 ; Dio Cassius, 
 xliv. 6. The coincidence has been pointed out by Mr. A. B. Cook (Classical Review, 
 xviii. 371). 
 
 ' Livy, i. 20. 1 sj. 
 
vii AS JUPirER AND JUNO 217 
 
 harassing and too incongruous to be permanently 
 united in the same hands, and that sooner or later the 
 holder of the office seeks to rid himself of part of his 
 burden by deputing to others, according to his temper 
 and tastes, either his civil or his religious duties. Hence 
 we may take it as probable that the fighting kings of 
 Rome, tired of parading as Jupiter and of observing all 
 the tedious restrictions which the character of godhead 
 entailed on them, were glad to relegate these pious 
 mummeries to a substitute, in whose hands they left the 
 crosier at home while they went forth to wield the sharp 
 Roman sword abroad. This would explain why the 
 traditions of the later kings, from Tullus Hostilius 
 onwards, exhibit so few traces of sacred or priestly 
 functions adhering to their office. Among the cere- 
 monies which they henceforward performed by deputy 
 may have been the rite of the sacred marriage. 
 
 Whether that was so or not, the legend of Numa 
 and Egeria appears to embody a reminiscence of a time 
 when the priestly king himself played the part of the 
 divine bridegroom ; and as we have seen reason to 
 suppose that the Roman kings personated the oak god, 
 while Egeria is expressly said to have been an oak 
 nymph, the story of their union in the sacred grove 
 raises a presumption that at Rome in the regal period a 
 ceremony was periodically performed exactly analogous 
 to that which was annually celebrated at Athens down 
 to the time of Aristotle. The marriage of the king of 
 Rome to the oak goddess, like the wedding of the vine 
 god to the Queen of Athens, must have been intended 
 
21 8 THE LATIN KINGS lect. 
 
 to quicken the growth of vegetation by homoeopathic 
 magic. Of the two forms of the sacred marriage we 
 can hardly doubt that the Roman was the older, and 
 that long before the northern invaders met with the 
 vine on the shores of the Mediterranean, their fore- 
 fathers had married the oak god to the oak goddess in 
 the vast forests of central and northern Europe. In 
 the England of our day the forests have mostly dis- 
 appeared, yet still on many a village green and in many 
 a country lane a faded image of the sacred marriage 
 lingers in the rustic pageantry of May Day. 
 
 So much for the custom of marrying human beings 
 to deities, especially to deities of vegetation and water. 
 But there is another case of that custom which we must 
 now briefly consider, namely, the practice of marrying 
 women to the god of the fire. This practice is of some 
 importance for the understanding of the early history 
 of the Latins, since there are grounds for thinking that 
 the old Latin kings were commonly supposed to be 
 sons of the fire god by a mortal mother. The evidence 
 which has led me to this conclusion is as follows. 
 
 First, let us take the legend of the birth of King 
 Servius TuUius. It is said that one day the virgin 
 Ocrisia, a slave-woman of Queen Tanaquil, was offering 
 as usual cakes and libations on the royal hearth when 
 a flame shot out towards her from the fire. Taking 
 this for a sign that her handmaiden was to be the 
 mother of a more that mortal son, the wise Queen 
 Tanaquil bade the girl array herself as a bride and lie 
 
VII BORN OF THE FIRE 219 
 
 down beside the hearth. Her orders were obeyed : 
 Ocrisia conceived by the god or spirit of the fire, and 
 in due time brought forth Servius Tullius, the future 
 king of Rome, who was thus born a slave, being the 
 reputed son of a slave mother and a divine father, the 
 fire god. His birth from the fire was attested in his 
 childhood by a flame that played about his head as he 
 slept at noon in the king's palace.^ This story, as 
 others have pointed out before,^ seems clearly to imply 
 that the mother of Servius 'Tullius was a Vestal Virgin 
 charged with the care and worship of the sacred fire in 
 the king's house. Now in Promathion's History of Italy, 
 cited by Plutarch, a similar tale was told of the birth 
 of Romulus himself, the founder of Rome. It is said 
 that in the house of the king of Alba a flame of a 
 mysterious shape hung over the hearth for many days. 
 Learning from an oracle that a virgin should conceive 
 by this phantom and bear a son of great valour and 
 renown, the king ordered one of his daughters to take 
 the fiery apparition for her husband ; but she disdained 
 to do so and sent her handmaid instead. The hand- 
 maid complied, and became the mother of Romulus 
 and Remus. The king, angry at his daughter's dis- 
 obedience, would have put her and her slave-woman 
 to death, but the lives of the girls were saved by the 
 interposition of the goddess Vesta in a dream.* In 
 
 ' Plutarch, Dc fortuna Romamrum, lo ; Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. iv. i sq. ; 
 Ovid, Fasti, vi. 627-636; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 241, xxxvi. 204; Livy, i. 39; 
 Servius, on Virgil, Aen. ii. 683 ; Arnobius, Ad-versus Nationes, vi. 18. 
 
 ^ A. Schwegler, RSmischc Geschichte, i. 7 1 5 ; L. Preller, RSmiscie Mythohgief ii. 
 
 344- 
 
 ^ Plutarch, Romulus, a. 
 
220 THE LATIN KINGS lect. 
 
 this legend, as in the story of the birth of Servius 
 TuUius, it is plain that the mother of the future 
 king of Rome was both a slave and a Vestal Virgin. 
 Orthodox Roman tradition always admitted that she 
 was a Vestal, but naturally enough represented her 
 as the king's daughter rather than his slave.^ How- 
 ever, when we compare this legend with the similar 
 story of the birth of Servius Tullius, we may suspect 
 that Plutarch's authority, Promathion, has preserved the 
 genuine tradition, and a very remarkable one it is ; 
 he has, in fact, betrayed the secret that in the old days 
 one of the king's parents might be, and sometimes was, 
 a slave. At all events, such tales bear witness to an 
 old belief that the early Roman kings were born of 
 virgins and of the fire. Similarly, Caeculus, the 
 founder of Prasneste, passed for a son of Vulcan. It 
 was said that his mother conceived him through a 
 spark, which leapt from the fire and struck her as she 
 sat by the hearth. She exposed the child near a temple 
 of Jupiter, and he was found there beside a fire by 
 some maidens who were going to draw water. In after 
 life he proved his divine birth by working an appro- 
 priate miracle. When an infidel crowd refused to 
 believe that he was the son of a god, he prayed to his 
 father, and immediately the unbelievers were encircled 
 with a flame of fire.^ 
 
 More than this, the whole of the Alban dynasty 
 appear to have traced their descent from a Vestal ; for 
 
 ' Dionysius Halicam. Ant. Rom. i. 76 sq. ; Livy, i. 3 sq. ; Plutarch, Romulus, 
 3 J Zonaras, Annul, vii. i ; Justin, xliii. 2. 1-3. 
 - Servius, on Virgil, Aen. vii. 678. 
 
VII BORN OF THE FIRE 221 
 
 the wife of King Latinus, their legendary ancestor, was 
 named Amata or Beloved,^ and this was the regular 
 title bestowed on a Vestal after her election,^ a title 
 which cannot be fully understood except in the light of 
 the foregoing traditions, which seem to show that the 
 Vestals were supposed to be beloved by the fire god. 
 Moreover, fire is said to have played round the head of 
 Amata's daughter Lavinia,^ just as it played round the 
 head of the fire-born Servius TuUius. As the same 
 prodigy was reported of Julus or Ascanius, the son of 
 ^neas,* we may suspect that a similar legend was told 
 of his miraculous conception at the hearth. In short, 
 the old Latin kings appear to have been regularly 
 regarded as sons of the fire god by Vestal Virgins, who 
 were believed to be the god's wives. That belief 
 would explain why during their term of office the 
 Vestals had to remain strictly celibate : the bride must 
 be true to her divine bridegroom. And the difficulty 
 of reconciling the theory of celibacy with the practice 
 of motherhood is easily overcome by the custom of 
 allowing a man to masquerade as a god at the sacred 
 marriage, just as in Egypt the king disguised himself 
 as a god when he wedded the queen. Thus the 
 doctrine of the divine birth of kings, which was strictly 
 held in ancient Egypt, presents no serious difficulty to 
 
 ' Virgil, Aen. vii. 343. 
 
 ^ Aulus Gellius, i. I2. 14 and 19. Compare L. Preller, RSmische Mytkologie^ ii. 
 161, 344. There was a very ancient worship of Vesta at Lavinium, the city named 
 after Amata's daughter Lavinia, the ancestress of the Alban kings. See Servius, on 
 Virgil, Aen. ii. 296 ; Macrobius, Saturn, iii. 4. 1 1. 
 
 ^ Virgil, Aen. vii. 71-77. 
 
 * Ibid. ii. 680-686. 
 
222 MOTHER VESTA lect. 
 
 people who believe that a god may become incarnate 
 in the form of a man, and that a virgin may conceive 
 and bear him a son. I need hardly say that the theory 
 of the divine motherhood of the Vestals applies only to 
 the early regal and therefore prehistoric period. Under 
 the Republic the demand for kings had ceased and with 
 it therefore the supply. Yet a trace of the old view 
 of the Vestals as virgin mothers lingered down to the 
 latest times in the character of Vesta herself, their 
 patroness and type ; for Vesta always bore the official 
 title of Mother, never that of virgin.^ We may surmise 
 that a similar belief and practice once obtained in Attica. 
 For Erichthonius, king of Athens, is said to have been 
 a son of the fire god Hephaestus by the virgin goddess 
 Athena : the story of his miraculous birth from the 
 earth is clearly a later version devised to save the 
 virginity of his mother.^ 
 
 The relation of the Latin kings to the Vestals and 
 their sacred fire is full of interest, and I might dwell on 
 it much longer ; but time presses and I must hurry 
 on. Before quitting the subject I will take notice of 
 some evidence that among the Celts, as among the 
 early Latins, perpetual sacred fires were maintained by 
 Vestal Virgins. We know from Solinus that in our 
 own country perpetual fires were kept up in the 
 temple of a goddess whom the Romans identified with 
 
 ' Virgil, Georg. i. 498 ; Ovid, Fasti, iv. 828 ; G. Henzen, Acta fratrum 
 Ar'ualium, pp. 124, 147 ; H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, Nos. 5047, 5048. 
 Ennius represented Vesta as the mother of Saturn and Titan. See Lactantius, 
 Divin, Inst. i. 14. 
 
 ^ Apollodorus, iii. 14. 5 ; Schol. on Homer, Iliad, ii. 547 ; J. Tzetzes, Chiliades, 
 V. 669 sq. j Augustine, De ci-vitate dei, xviii. 12, 
 
VII BRIGITS FIRE 223 
 
 Minerva,^ but whose native Celtic name appears to have 
 been Brigit. Like Minerva, Brigit was a goddess of 
 poetry and wisdom, and she had two sisters, also called 
 Brigit, who presided over leechcraft and smithcraft respect- 
 ively. This appears to be only another way of saying 
 that Brigit was the patroness of bards, physicians, and 
 smiths.^ Now, at Kildare in Ireland the nuns of St. 
 Brigit, or St. Bridget as she is also called, tended a 
 perpetual holy fire down to the suppression of the 
 monasteries under Henry VIII. ; and we can hardly 
 doubt that in doing so they merely kept up, under a 
 Christian name, an ancient pagan worship of Brigit in 
 her character of a fire goddess or patroness of smiths. 
 The nuns were nineteen in number. Each of them had 
 the care of the fire for a single night in turn ; and on 
 the twentieth evening the last nun, having heaped 
 wood on the fire, used to say, " Brigit, take charge of 
 your own fire ; for this night belongs to you." She 
 then went away, and next morning they always found 
 the fire still burning and the usual quantity of fuel 
 consumed. Like the vestal fire at Rome in the old 
 days, the fire of St. Brigit burned within a circular 
 enclosure made of stakes and brushwood, and no male 
 might set foot inside the fence. The nuns were 
 allowed to fan the fire or to blow it up with bellows, 
 but they might not blow on it with their breath.'' 
 
 1 Solinus, xxii. lo. The Celtic Minerva, according to Csaar (Z)e Bella Gallico, 
 vi. 17), was a goddess of the mechanical arts. 
 
 ^ J. Rhys, Celtic Heathendom^ pp. y^-yj j P. W. Joyce, Social History of Ancient 
 Ireland^ i. 260 j^. 
 
 ^ Giraldus Cambrensis, The Topography of Ireland, chaps. 34-36, translated by 
 Thomas Wright; P. W. Joyce, Social History of Ireland, i. 334 sq. It is said that 
 
224 SACRED FIRES lect. 
 
 Similarly it is said that the Balkan Slavs will not blow 
 with their mouths on the holy fire of the domestic 
 hearth : ^ a Brahman is forbidden to blow a fire with 
 his mouth ; ^ and among the Parsees the priests have to 
 wear a veil over their lips lest they should defile the 
 sacred fire with their breath.^ At Arkon, in the island 
 of Riigen, 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 breath or give it 
 out, he used to run out of the door lest he should taint 
 the divine presence by inhaling or exhaling the air.* 
 
 In Ireland the custom of maintaining a perpetual fire 
 was not peculiar to Kildare, but seems to have been 
 common ; for the native records show that such fires 
 were kept up in several monasteries, in each of which a 
 small church or oratory was set apart for the purpose. 
 
 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 (firigim of English 
 History^ p. 27). Mr. S. Reinach dismisses these virgins as a fable based on Homer's 
 description of the isle of Circe {Odysiey^ x. 135 sqq.\ and he denies that the Gauls 
 employed virgin priestesses {Cultes, Mythes, et Religions, i. (Paris, 1905), pp. 
 195-203). To me the nuns of St. Brigit seem to be most probably the successors 
 of a Celtic order of Vestals charged, like the Roman Vestals, with the maintenance 
 of a holy fire. That there were female Druids is certain, but it does not appear 
 whether they were virgins. See Lampridius, Alexander Se-verus, 60 j Vopiscus, 
 Aurelianus, 44 ; id., Numerianus, 14 sq. 
 
 ^ Prof. V. Titelbach, " Das heilige Feuer bei den Ealkanslaven," Internationales 
 Archiv fur Ethnographie, xiii. (1900), p. I. 
 
 ^ Laivs of Manu, iv. 53, translated by G. BUhler. 
 
 3 Martin Haug, Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the 
 Parsees^ (London, 1884), p. 243, note i. Strabo describes (xiv. 3. 15) the mouth- 
 veil worn by the Magian priests in Cappadocia. 
 
 * Saxo Grammaticus, Historia Danica, bk. xiv. p. 824, ed. P. E. MUller (p. 393 
 of Elton's translation). 
 
VII IN IRELAND 225 
 
 This was done, for example, at the monasteries of 
 Seirkieran, Kilmainham, and Inishmurray.^ We may 
 conjecture that these holy fires were merely survivals 
 of the perpetual fires which in heathen times had 
 burned in honour of Brigit. The view that Brigit was 
 a fire goddess is confirmed by the observation that in 
 the Christian calendar her festival falls the day before 
 Candlemas, and the customs observed at that season by 
 Celtic peasantry seem to prove that she was a goddess 
 of the crops as well as of fire.^ If that was so, it is 
 another reason for comparing her to Vesta, whose holy 
 virgins, as we know from Ovid, performed ceremonies 
 every year to fertilise both the earth and the cattle.^ 
 Lastly, there are grounds for connecting Brigit, like 
 Vesta, with the oak ; for at Kildare her Christian 
 namesake, St. Brigit or St. Bridget, built her church 
 under an oak tree, which existed till the tenth century 
 and gave its name to the spot ; for Kildare is Cill-dara, 
 "the church of the oak."* A tradition of the oak 
 lingers in the lines : 
 
 That oak of Saint Bride, which nor Devil nor Dane 
 Nor Saxon nor Dutchman could rend from her fane!' 
 
 " The church of the oak " may well have displaced a 
 temple or sanctuary of the oak, where in Druidical 
 
 1 p. W. Joyce, &«'«/ History of Ancient Ireland, i. 335 sj.; Standish H. 
 O'Grady, Sylva Gadelica, translation (London, 1892), pp. 15, 16, 41. 
 
 2 The Golden Bough? i. 223 ; J. G. Campbell, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the 
 Highlands and Islands of Scotland (fiWt%o-vi, 1902), pp. 247 sj.; J. Train, Historical 
 and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man (Douglas, 1845), ii. 116. 
 
 3 Ovid, Fasti, iv. 629-672, 731-782. 
 
 * Douglas Hyde, A Literary History of Ireland (London, 1899), p. 158. 
 5 Quoted by Mr. D. Fitzgerald, in Revue Celtique, iv. (1879-1880), p. 193. 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE OAKS OF ERIN lect. 
 
 times the hallowed fire was fed, like the vestal fire at 
 Rome, with the wood of the sacred tree. 
 
 We may suspect that a conversion of this sort was 
 often eiFected in Ireland by the early Christian mission- 
 aries. The monasteries of Derry and Durrow, founded 
 by St. Columba, were both named after the oak groves 
 in which they were built ; and at Derry the saint 
 spared the beautiful trees and strictly enjoined his 
 successors to do the same. In his old age, when he 
 lived as an exile on the shores of the bleak and storm- 
 swept isle of lona, his heart yearned to the home of 
 his youth among the oak groves of Ireland, and he 
 gave expression to the yearning in passionate verses 
 which have come down to us : 
 
 That spot is the dearest on Erin's ground. 
 For the treasures that peace and purity lend. 
 
 For the hosts of bright angels that circle it round. 
 Protecting its borders from end to end. 
 
 The dearest of any on Erin's ground. 
 
 For its peace and its beauty I gave it my love ; 
 
 Each leaf of the oaks around Derry is founa 
 To be crowded with angels from heaven above. 
 
 My Derry ! my Derry ! my little oak grove. 
 My dwelling, my home, and my own little cell. 
 
 May God the Eternal in Heaven above 
 
 Send death to thy foes, and defend thee well?- 
 
 Far from the oaks of Erin and the saint's last home 
 among the stormy Hebrides, a sacred fire has been 
 tended by holy virgins, with statelier rites and in more 
 solemn fanes, under the equinoctial line. The Incas 
 
 ^ Douglas Hyde, op. cit. pp. 169-171. 
 
VII BRIDES OF THE SUN 227 
 
 of Peru, who deemed themselves the children of the 
 Sun, procured a new fire from their great father at the 
 solstice in June, our Midsummer Day. They kindled it 
 by holding towards the Sun a hollow mirror, which 
 reflected his beams on a tinder of cotton wool. But if 
 the sky happened to be overcast at the time, they made 
 the new fire by the friction of two sticks ; and they 
 looked on it as a bad omen when they were obliged to 
 do this, for they said the Sun must be angry with them, 
 since he refused to kindle the flame with his own hand. 
 The sacred fire, however obtained, was deposited in 
 - Cuzco, the capital of Peru, in the temple of the Sun, 
 and also in a great convent of holy virgins, who 
 guarded it carefully throughout the year, and it was an 
 evil augury if they suffered it to go out. These virgins 
 were regarded as the wives of the Sun, and they were 
 bound to perpetual celibacy. If any of them proved 
 unfaithful to her husband the Sun, she was buried 
 alive, like a Roman Vestal, and her guilty paramour 
 was strangled. The reason for putting her to death in 
 this manner was probably, as at Rome, a reluctance to 
 shed royal blood ; for all these virgins were of the 
 royal family, being daughters of the Incas or his kins- 
 men. Besides tending the holy fire, they had to weave 
 and make all the clothes worn by the Inca and his wife, 
 to bake the bread that was ofi^ered to the Sun at his 
 great festivals, and to brew the wine which the Inca 
 and his family drank on these occasions. All the 
 furniture of the convent, down to the pots, pans, and 
 jars, was of gold and silver, just as in the temple of 
 
228 BRIDES OF THE SUN lect. vii 
 
 the Sun, because the virgins were deemed to be his 
 wives. And they had a golden garden, where the very 
 clods were of fine gold ; where golden maize reared its 
 stalks, leaves, and cobs, all of the same precious metal ; 
 and where golden shepherds, with slings and crooks of 
 gold, tended golden sheep and lambs.^ The analogy of 
 these virgin guardians of the sacred flame furnishes an 
 argument in favour of the theory maintained in this 
 lecture ; for if the Peruvian Vestals were the brides of 
 the sun, may not the Roman Vestals have been the 
 brides of the fire ? 
 
 ' Garcilasso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, Part i. bk. iv. chaps. 
 1-3, bk. vi. chaps. 20-22 (vol. i. pp. 292-299, vol. ii. pp. 155-164, Marlcham's 
 translation) ; P. de Cieza de Leon, Travels, p. 1 34 (Markham*8 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. ch. 15 (vol. ii. pp. 331-333, 
 Hakluyt Society). 
 
LECTURE VIII 
 
 Succession to Latin kingship in female line through marriage with 
 king's daughter — -IndifFerence to paternity of kings — African 
 parallels — Sons of kings go abroad and reign in their wives' 
 country — Succession to kingdom through marriage with late 
 king's widow — Evidence of female kinship among European 
 peoples — Roman kings of plebeian or indigenous race — Aboli- 
 tion of kingship at Rome a patrician revolution — Attempt 
 of Tarquin the Proud to alter succession from female to 
 male line — Roman sovereignty partly hereditary, partly 
 elective — Personal qualities required in candidates for kingship 
 — Possession of princess and of crown determined by athletic 
 contest — King's Flight at Rome. 
 
 In the last lecture I adduced some grounds for think- 
 ing that the early Latin kings personated the great god 
 Jupiter and mimicked him by attempting to make 
 rain, thunder, and lightning ; further, that they went 
 through a form of sacred marriage to ensure the fertility 
 of the earth ; and lastly, that they often passed for sons 
 of the fire god by Vestal Virgins, who were deemed the 
 fire god's wives. 
 
 But we have still to ask. What was the rule of 
 succession to the kingdom among the old Latin tribes .'' 
 We possess two lists of Latin kings, both of them 
 professedly complete. One is the list of the kings of 
 
 Alba, and the other is the list of the kings of Rome. If 
 
 229 
 
230 THE ALBJN KINGS lect. 
 
 we accept as authentic the list of the Alban kings, we 
 can only conclude that the kingdom was hereditary in 
 the male line, the son regularly succeeding his father on 
 the throne.'' But this list, if it is not, as Niebuhr held, 
 a late and clumsy fabrication, has somewhat the appear- 
 ance of an elastic cord which ancient historians stretched 
 in order to link ^Eneas to Romulus.^ Yet it would be 
 rash to set these names aside as a chronological stop- 
 gap deliberately foisted in by later annalists. In early 
 monarchies, before the invention of writing, tradition is 
 remarkably retentive of the names of kings. The 
 Baganda of Central Africa, for example, remember the 
 names of more than thirty of their kings in an un- 
 broken chain of twenty-two generations.^ Even the 
 occurrence of foreign names among the Alban kings 
 is not of itself sufficient to condemn the list as a 
 forgery ; for, as I shall show presently, this feature is 
 explicable by a rule of descent which appears to have 
 prevailed in many early monarchies, including that of 
 Rome. Perhaps the most we can say for the history 
 of the Alban kings is that their names may well be 
 
 ' For the list of the Alban kings see Livy, i. 3. 5-1 1 ; Ovid, Fasti, iv. 39-56 ; 
 id., Metam. xiv. 609 sqq. ; Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. i. 70 sj. ; Eusebius, 
 Chronic, bk. i. vol. i. coll. 273, 275, 285, 287, 289, 291, ed. A. Schoene j Diodorus 
 Siculus, vii. 3*, ed. L. Dindorf ; Sextus Aurelius Victor, Origogentis Rmumae, 17-19 j 
 Zonaras, Annates, vii. 1. 
 
 " See B. G. Niebuhr, History of Rome, i. 205-207 ; A. Schwegler, Rimische 
 Geschichte, i. 339, 342-345. Hovcever, Niebuhr admits that some of the names 
 may have been taken from older legends. 
 
 ' H. M. Stanley, Through the Dark Continent (London, 1878), i. 380 ; C. T. 
 Wilson and R. W. Felkin, Uganda and the Egyptian Sudan (London, 1882), i. 197 ; 
 Fr. Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von AJrika (Berlin, X894), pp. 192 sq, ; 
 J. Roscoe, " Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda," Journal 
 of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902), p. 25, with plates i. and ii. ; Sir Harry 
 Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate, ii. 681 jy. 
 
VIII THE ROMAN KINGS 231 
 
 genuine, and that some general features of the 
 monarchy, together with a few events which happened 
 to strike the popular imagination, may have survived 
 in the memory of the people until they found their 
 way into written history. But no dependence 
 can be placed either on the alleged years of their 
 reigns, or on the hereditary principle which is 
 assumed to have connected each king with his pre- 
 decessor. 
 
 When we come to the list of the Roman kings we 
 are on much firmer, though still slippery ground. 
 According to tradition there were in all eight kings 
 of Rome,^ and with regard to the five last of them, at 
 all events, we can hardly doubt that they did really sit 
 on the throne, and that the traditional history of their 
 reigns is, in its main outlines, correct.^ Now it is very 
 remarkable that though the first king of Rome, 
 Romulus, is said to have been descended from the 
 royal house of Alba, in which the kingship is repre- 
 I sented as hereditary in the male line, not one of the 
 Roman kings was immediately succeeded by his son on 
 the throne. Yet several left sons or grandsons behind 
 them.^ On the other hand, one of them was descended 
 from a former king through his mother, not through 
 
 ''- Romulus and Tatius reigned for a time together j after Romulus the kings 
 were, in order of succession, Numa Pompilius, TuUus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, 
 the elder Tarquin, Servius TuUius, and Tarquin the Proud. 
 
 ' See A. Schwegler, RSmische Geschichte, i. 579 sq. 
 
 3 According to one account, Romulus had a son and daughter (Plutarch, Romulus, 
 14). Some held that Numa had four sons (Plutarch, Numa, 2i). Ancus Marcius 
 left two sons (Livy, i. 35. i, i. 40 ; Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. iii. 72 sq., iv. 34. 3). 
 Tarquin the Elder left two sons or grandsons (Livy, i. 46 ; Dionysius Halicarn. 
 Ant. Rom. iv. 6 sq., iv. 28). 
 
232 THE LATIN KINGSHIP lect. 
 
 his father,' and three of them, namely, Tatius, the 
 elder Tarquin, and Servius TuUius, were succeeded by 
 ^heir sons-in-law,^ who were all either foreigners or of 
 foreign descent.^ This suggests that the right to the 
 kingship was transmitted in the female line, and was 
 actually exercised by foreigners who married the royal 
 princesses. To put it in technical language, the succes- 
 sion to the kingship of Rome, and probably in Latium 
 generally, would seem to have been determined by 
 certain rules which have moulded early society in many 
 parts of the world, namely, exogamy, beena marriage, 
 and female kinship. Exogamy is the rule which 
 obliges a man to marry a woman of a different clan 
 from his own : heena marriage is the rule that he must 
 
 ' Pompilia, the mother of Ancus Marcius, was a daughter of Numa, See Cicero, 
 De re pMica, ii. i8. 33 j Livy, i. 32. i ; Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. ii. 76. 5, 
 iii. 35. 3, iii. 36. z ; Plutarch, Numa, 21. 
 
 ^ Numa married Tatia, the daughter of Tatius (Plutarch, Numa, 3 and 21) j 
 Servius TuUius married the daughter of the elder Tarquin (Livy, i. 39. 4) ; and 
 Tarquin the Proud married TuUia, the daughter of Servius TuUius (Livy, i. 42. 1, 
 i. 46. 5). 
 
 ^ Numa was a Sabine from Cures (Livy, i. 18 j Plutarch, Numa, 3 j Dionysius 
 Halicarn. Ant. Rom. ii. 58). Servius TuUius, according to the common account, 
 was the son of Ocrisia, a slave-woman of Corniculum (Livy, i. 39. 5 ; Dionysius 
 Halicarn, Ant. Rom. iv. i) ; but according to the Etruscan annals he was an 
 Etruscan, by name Mastarna, who came to Rome with his friend Cables Vibenna, 
 and, changing his name, obtained the kingdom. This was stated by the 
 Emperor Claudius in a speech of which fragments are engraved on a bronze 
 tablet found at Lyons. See Tacitus, Annals, ed. Orelli and Baiter,^ p. 342. The 
 Emperor was an authority on Etruscan history, for he composed a Greek work 
 on the subject in twenty books (Suetonius, Claudius, 42). The historical, or at 
 least legendary, character of Mastarna and Cjeles is vouched for by a painting 
 inscribed with their names, which was found in 1857 in an Etruscan tomb at Vulci 
 (G. Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria,' ii. 506 ly.). Lastly, Tarquin the 
 Proud was a son of the elder Tarquin, who was an Etruscan from Tarquinii (Livy, 
 i. 34 i Cicero, De re fuhlica, ii. 19 sq., §§ 34 sq.). The foreign birth of their kings 
 naturally struck the Romans themselves. See the speech put in the mouth of the 
 elder Tarquin by Livy, i. 35. 3, and the speech actually delivered by the Emperor 
 Claudius [loc. cit.). 
 
VIII HEREDITART THROUGH WOMEN 233 
 
 leave the home of his birth and live with his wife's 
 people ; ^ and female kinship is the system of tracing 
 relationship and transmitting the family name through 
 women instead of through men. If these principles 
 regulated descent of the kingship among the ancient 
 Latins, the state of things in this respect would be 
 somewhat as follows. The political and religious 
 centre of each community would be the perpetual fire 
 on the king's hearth, tended by Vestal Virgins of the 
 royal clan. The king would be a man of another 
 clan, perhaps of another town or even of another race, 
 who had married a daughter of his predecessor and 
 received the kingdom with her. The children whom 
 he had by her would inherit their mother's name, not 
 his : the daughters would remain at home : the sons, 
 when they grew up, would go away into the world, 
 marry, and settle in their wives' country, whether as 
 kings or commoners. Of the daughters who stayed at 
 home, some or all would be dedicated as Vestal Virgins 
 for a longer or shorter time to the service of the fire on 
 the hearth, and one of them would in time become the 
 wife of her father's successor. 
 
 This hypothesis has the advantage of explaining in a 
 simple and natural way some obscure features in the 
 traditional history of the Latin kings. Thus the 
 legends which tell how the kings were born of virgin 
 
 ^ " In Ceylon, where the higher and lower polyandry coexist, marriage is of two 
 sorts — Deega or Beena — according as the wife goes to live in the house and village 
 of her husbands, or as the husband or husbands come to live with her in or near the 
 house of her birth" (J. F. M'Lennan, Studies in Ancient History (London, 1886), 
 p. loi). 
 
234 FOREIGN KINGS lect. 
 
 mothers and divine fathers become at least more 
 intelligible. For stripped of their fabulous element 
 such tales mean no more than that a child's father is 
 unknown ; and this uncertainty as to fatherhood is 
 more easily compatible with a system of kinship which 
 ignores paternity than with one which makes it all- 
 important. 
 
 If among the Latins the women of royal blood 
 always stayed at home and received as their consorts 
 men of another stock, and often of another country, 
 who reigned as kings in virtue of their marriage with a 
 native princess, we can understand not only why 
 foreigners wore the crown at Rome, but also why 
 foreign names occur in the list of the Alban kings. 
 In a state of society where nobility is reckoned only 
 through women, in other words, where descent through 
 the mother is everything and descent through the 
 father is nothing, no objection will be felt to uniting 
 girls of the highest rank to men of humble birth, even 
 to aliens or slaves, provided that in themselves the men 
 appear to be suitable mates. What really matters is 
 that the royal stock, on which the prosperity and even 
 the existence of the people is supposed to depend, 
 should be perpetuated in a vigorous and efficient form, 
 and for this purpose it is necessary that the women of 
 the royal family should bear children to men who are 
 physically and mentally fit, according to the standard 
 of early society, to discharge the important duty of 
 fatherhood. Thus the personal qualities of kings at 
 this stage of social evolution are deemed of vital 
 
VIII KINGSHIP IN ASHANTEE 235 
 
 importance. If they, like their wives, are of royal and 
 divine descent, so much the better ; but it is not 
 essential that they should be so. 
 
 The hypothesis which we have been led to frame of 
 the rule of succession to the Latin kingship will be 
 confirmed by analogy if we can show that elsewhere, 
 under a system of female kinship, the paternity of the 
 kings is a matter of indifference ; nay, that men who 
 are born slaves may, like Servius TuUius, marry royal 
 princesses and be raised to the throne. Now this is 
 true of the Tshi-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast in 
 West Africa. Thus in Ashantee, where the kingdom 
 descends in the female line to the king's brothers and 
 afterwards to the sons of his sisters in preference to his 
 own sons, the sisters of the reigning monarch are free 
 to marry whom they please, provided only that their 
 husband be a strong and handsome man, in order that 
 the kings whom he begets may be men of finer presence 
 than their subjects. It matters not how humble 
 may be the rank and position of the king's father. If 
 the king's sisters, however, have no sons, the throne 
 will pass to the king's own son, and failing a son, to 
 the chief vassal or the chief slave. But in the Fantee 
 country the principal slave succeeds to the exclusion of 
 the son. So little regard is paid by these people to the 
 lineage, especially the paternal lineage, of their kings.^ 
 Yet Ashantee has attained a barbaric civilisation as high 
 perhaps as that of any negro state, and probably not 
 
 ^ T. E. Bowdich, Mission Jrom Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, New Edition 
 (London, 1873), pp. 185, 204 sq. ; A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold 
 Coast, pp. 287, 297 sq. ; id.. The Toruha-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, p. 187. 
 
236 KINGSHIP IN UGANDA lect. 
 
 at all inferior to that of the petty Latin kingdoms at 
 the dawn of history. 
 
 A trace of a similar state of things appears to survive 
 in Uganda, another great African monarchy. For 
 there the queen dowager and the queen sister are, or 
 rather were, allowed to have as many husbands as they 
 choose, and to dismiss them at the shortest notice. Yet 
 these women are not allowed under pain of death to 
 bear children.^ Both the licence they enjoy and the 
 prohibition they are subject to may be explained if we 
 suppose that formerly the kingdom descended, as it still 
 does in Ashantee, first to the king's brothers and next to 
 the sons of his sisters. For in that case the next heirs 
 to the throne would be the sons of the king's mother 
 and of his sisters, and these women might accordingly 
 be allowed, as the king's sisters still are allowed in 
 Ashantee, to mate with any handsome man who took 
 their fancy, in order that their offspring might be men 
 of regal port. But when the line of descent was changed 
 from the female to the male line, in other words, 
 when the kings were succeeded by their sons instead of 
 by their brothers or their sisters' sons, then the king's 
 mother and his sisters would be forbidden to bear 
 children lest the descent of the crown to the king's own 
 children should be endangered by the existence of rivals 
 who, according to the old law of the kingdom, had a 
 better right to the throne. We may surmise that the 
 practice of putting the king's brothers to death at the 
 
 ' J. Roscoe, " Further Notes on the Manners and Customs ot the Baganda," 
 yownalofthe Anthropological Institute^ xxxii. (1902), pp. 36, 67. 
 
VIII KINGSHIP IN LOANGO 237 
 
 beginning of his reign, which survived till Uganda 
 passed under English protection,^ was instituted at the 
 same time as the prohibition of child-bearing laid on the 
 king's mother and sisters. The one custom got rid of 
 existing rivals ; the other prevented them from being 
 born. That the kingship in Uganda was formerly 
 transmitted in the female line is strongly indicated by 
 the rule that the kings and the rest of the royal family 
 take their totems from their mothers, whereas all the 
 other people of the country get their totems from their 
 fathers.^ 
 
 In Loango the royal blood is traced in the female 
 line, and here also the princesses are free to choose and 
 divorce their husbands at pleasure. These husbands 
 are nearly always plebeians ; for princes and princesses, 
 who are very numerous and form a ruling caste, may 
 not marry each other. The lot of a prince consort is 
 not a happy one, for he is rather the slave and prisoner 
 than the spouse of his imperious princess. When he 
 goes out he is preceded by guards who drive away 
 all women from the road where he is to pass. If in 
 spite of these precautions he should by ill luck cast his 
 eyes on a woman, the princess may have his head 
 chopped off, and commonly exercises, or used to 
 exercise, the right. This sort of libertinism, sustained 
 by power, often carries women of the blood royal to 
 the greatest excesses, and nothing is so much dreaded 
 
 1 C. T. Wilson and R. W. Felkin, Uganda and the Egyptian Sudan (London, 
 iSSz), i. 200 ; J. Roscoe, op. cit. p. 67. 
 ^ J. Roscoe, op. cit, pp. 27, 62. 
 
238 KINGSHIP IN GREECE lect. 
 
 as their anger. No wonder that commoners in general 
 avoid the honour of a royal alliance. Only poor and 
 embarrassed men seek it as a protection against their 
 creditors and enemies. All the children of such a man 
 by such a wife are princes and princesses, and any one 
 of the princes may in time be chosen king ; for in 
 Loango the crown is not hereditary but elective.^ Thus 
 it would seem that the father of the king of Loango 
 is nearly always a plebeian, and often little better than a 
 slave. 
 
 At Athens, as at Rome, we find traces of the same 
 mode of succession to the crown by marriage with a 
 royal princess ; for two of the most ancient kings of 
 Athens, namely, Cecrops and Amphictyon, are said to 
 have married the daughters of their predecessors.^ This 
 tradition is confirmed by the evidence, which I shall 
 adduce presently, that at Athens male kinship was pre- 
 ceded by female kinship. 
 
 Further, if I am right in supposing that in ancient 
 Latium the royal families kept their daughters at home 
 and sent forth their sons to marry princesses and reign 
 among their wives' people, it will follow that the male 
 descendants would reign in successive generations over 
 different kingdoms. Now this seems to have happened 
 both in ancient Greece and in ancient Sweden ; from 
 which we may legitimately infer that it was a custom 
 
 ' Proyart's " History of Loango," in Pinkerton's Voyages and Tra-neU, xvi. 570, 
 579 sq. ; A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango KUste, i. 197 sqq. The 
 lot of a prince consort in Loango may have been mitigated since Proyart wrote in 
 the eighteenth century, 
 
 * Pausanias, i. 2. 6. 
 
VIII KINGSHIP IN GREECE 239 
 
 practised by more than one branch of the Aryan stock 
 in Europe. I have to thank my friend Mr. H. M. 
 Chadwick for reminding me of the Greek, and for 
 Informing me of the Swedish evidence. Take, for 
 instance, the great house of ^acus, the grandfather of 
 Achilles and Ajax. ^acus himself reigned in vEglna, 
 but his descendants, as Pausanias justly observes, "from 
 the beginning went forth to other lands." ^ His son 
 Telamon migrated to the Island of Salamis, married the 
 king's daughter, and reigned over the country.^ Tela- 
 mon's son Teucer, in his turn, migrated to Cyprus, 
 wedded the king's daughter, and succeeded his father- 
 in-law on the throne.' Again, Peleus, another son of 
 ^acus, quitted his native land and went away to 
 Phthia in Thessaly, where he received the hand of the 
 king's daughter, and with her a third of the kingdom.* 
 Of Achilles, the son of Peleus, we are told that in his 
 youth he was sent to the court of Lycomedes, king of 
 Scyrus, where he became the father of Neoptolemus by 
 one of the princesses.* The tradition seems to show 
 that Achilles followed the custom of his family in 
 seeking his fortune in a foreign land. His son 
 Neoptolemus after him went away to Epirus, where 
 he settled and became the ancestor of the kings of the 
 country.^ 
 
 ^ Pausanias, ii, 29. 4. 
 
 * Diodorus Siculus, iv. 72. 7. According to ApoUodorus (iii. 12. 7), Cychreus, 
 Icing of Salamis, died childless, and bequeathed his kingdom to Telamon. 
 
 3 J. Tzetzes, Sciol. m LyapAna, 450. Compare Pausanias, ii. 29. 4. 
 
 * ApoUodorus, iii. 13. i. According to Diodorus Siculus (iv. 72. 6), the icing 
 of Phthia was childless, and bequeathed his Icingdom to Peleus. 
 
 ^ ApoUodorus, iii. 13. 8 ; Hyginus, Fabulae, 96. 
 ^ Pausanias, i. 1 1. 1 sq. ; Justin, xvii. 3. 
 
240 KINGSHIP IN GREECE lect. 
 
 Again, Tydeus was a son of CEneus, the king of 
 Calydon in iEtolia, but he went to Argos and married the 
 king's daughter.^ His son Diomede migrated to Daunia 
 in Italy, where he helped the king in a war with his 
 enemies, receiving as his reward the king's daughter in 
 marriage and part of his kingdom.^ As another 
 example we may take the family of the Pelopidae, 
 whose tragic fortunes the Greek poets never wearied of 
 celebrating. Their ancestor was Tantalus, king of 
 Sipylus in Asia Minor. But his son Pelops passed into 
 Greece, won Hippodamia, the daughter of the king of 
 Pisa, in the famous chariot race, and succeeded his 
 father-in law on the throne.^ His son Atreus did not 
 remain in Pisa, but migrated to Mycenae, of which he 
 became king ; * and in the next generation Menelaus, 
 son of Atreus, went to Sparta, where he married Helen, 
 the king's daughter, and himself reigned over that 
 country.* Further, it is very notable that, according to 
 the old lyric poets, Agamemnon himself, the elder 
 brother of Menelaus, reigned not at Mycenas but in 
 Lacedaemon, the native land of his wife Clytasmnestra, 
 and that he was buried at Amyclae, the ancient capital 
 of the country.* 
 
 Various reasons are assigned by ancient Greek 
 
 ^ ApoUodorus, i. 8. 5. 
 
 ^ Antoninus Liberalis, Transform. 37 ; Ovid, Metam, xiv. 459 so., 510 sq. Com- 
 pare Virgil, Aen. xi. 243 sqq. 
 
 ' Diodorus Siculus, iv. 73 j Hyginus, Fahulae, 82-S4 ; Servius, on Virgil, Gecrg. 
 iii. 7. 
 
 * Thucydides, i. 9 ; Strabo, viii. 6. 19. 
 
 ' ApoUodorus, iii. lo. 8. 
 
 ' Schol. on Euripides, Orestes, 46 ; Pindar, Pyth. xi. 31 sq. ; Pausanias, iii. 
 19. 6. 
 
viii FOREIGN KINGS 241 
 
 writers for these migrations of the princes. A common 
 one is that the king's son had been banished for murder. 
 This would explain very well why he fled his own land, 
 but it is no reason at all why he should become king of 
 another. We may suspect that such reasons are after- 
 thoughts devised by writers who, accustomed to the 
 rule that a son should succeed to his father's property 
 and kingdom, were hard put to it to account for so 
 many traditions of kings' sons who quitted the land of 
 their birth to reign over a foreign kingdom. 
 
 The evidence for the existence of a similar practice 
 in the old royal families of Sweden is being collected by 
 Mr. Chadwick ; I shall not say more on that head at 
 present. 
 
 Thus it would seem that among some Aryan 
 peoples, at a certain stage of their social evolution, it 
 has been customary to regard women and not men as 
 the channels in which royal blood flows, and to bestow 
 the kingdom in each successive generation on a man 
 of another family, and often of another country, who 
 marries one of the princesses and reigns over his wife's 
 people. A common type of popular tale which relates 
 how an adventurer, coming to a strange land, wins the 
 hand of the king's daughter and the half or the whole 
 of the kingdom, may well be a reminiscence or a real 
 custom. 
 
 Where practices and ideas of this sort prevail, it is 
 obvious that the kingship is merely an appanage of 
 marriage with a woman of the blood royal. The old 
 Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus puts this view of 
 
242 MARRIAGE WITH lect. 
 
 the kingship very clearly in the mouth of Hermutrude, 
 a legendary queen of Scotland, and her statement is all 
 the more significant because, as we shall see presently, 
 it reflects the actual practice of the Pictish kings. 
 " Indeed she was a queen," says Hermutrude, " and 
 but that her sex gainsaid it, might be deemed a king ; 
 nay (and this is yet truer), whomsoever she thought 
 worthy of her bed was at once a king, and she yielded 
 her kingdom with herself. Thus her sceptre and her 
 hand went together." ^ Wherever a custom of this 
 kind has prevailed, a man may clearly acquire the 
 kingdom just as well by marrying the widow as the 
 daughter of his predecessor. This is what -Slgisthus 
 did at Mycenae, and what Hamlet's uncle Feng and 
 Hamlet's successor Wiglet.did in Denmark ; all three 
 slew their predecessors, married their widows, and then 
 sat peacefully on the throne.^ The tame submission of 
 the people to their rule would be intelligible, if they 
 regarded the assassins, in spite of their crimes, as the 
 lawful occupants of the throne by reason of their 
 marriage with the widowed queens. Similarly Gyges 
 murdered Candaules, king of Lydia, married his widow, 
 and reigned over the country.^ Nor was this the only 
 instance of such a succession in the history of Lydia. 
 The wife of King Cadys conspired against his life with 
 her paramour Spermus, and though her husband 
 
 ' Saxo Grammaticus, Historia Danica, bk. iv. p. 158, ed. P. E. Mailer (p. 126 of 
 Elton's translation, quoted in the text). 
 
 2 The story of Hamlet (Amleth) is told in a striking form by Saxo Grammaticus 
 in the third and fourth books of his history. Mr. H. M. Chadwick tells me that 
 Hamlet stands on the border-line between legend and history. Hence the main 
 outlines of his story may be correct. ' Herodotus, i. 7-13. 
 
VIII THE KING'S WIDOfF 243 
 
 recovered from the dose of poison which she adminis- 
 tered to him, he died soon afterwards, and the conspira- 
 tor married the widow and succeeded to the throne,,^ 
 These cases excite a suspicion that in the royal house of 
 Lydia descent was traced in the female line, and the 
 suspicion is strengthened by the legendary character of 
 Omphale, the ancestress of the dynasty. For she is 
 represented as a masculine and dissolute queen of the 
 Semiramis type, who wore male attire and put all her 
 lovers to death ; while on the other hand her consort 
 Hercules was her purchased slave, who was treated by 
 her with indignity and went about dressed as a woman.^ 
 This implies that the queen was a far more powerful 
 and important personage than the king, as would 
 naturally happen wherever it is the queen who confers 
 royalty on her consort at marriage, instead of receiving 
 it from him. Hence we may conjecture that Herodotus 
 was wrong in saying that from Hercules to Candaules 
 the crown of Lydia had descended for twenty-two 
 generations from father to son.* 
 
 When Canute the Dane had been acknowledged 
 king of England, he married Emma, the widow of his 
 predecessor Ethelred, whose throne he had overturned 
 and whose children he had driven into exile. The 
 marriage has not unnaturally puzzled the historians; 
 for Emma was much older than her second husband, 
 
 1 Nicolaus Damascenus, vi. frag. 49, in Fragmenta Hittoricorum Graecorum, ed. C. 
 Mailer, iii. 380. 
 
 2 Athenaeus, xii. 11, pp. 515 f-516 b; ApoUodorus, ii. 6. 3 ; Diodonis Siculus, 
 iv. 3 1 ; Joannes Lydus, De maghtratihus, iii. 64 ; Lucian, Dialogi deorum, xiii. 2 ; 
 Ovid, Heroides, ix. 55 sjj. ; Statius, Theb. n. 646-649. 
 
 ' Herodotus, i. 7. 
 
244 THE KING'S WIDOW lect. 
 
 she was then living in Normandy, and it is very doubt- 
 ful whether Canute had ever seen her before she came 
 to be his bride. All, however, becomes plain if, as the 
 cases of Feng and Wiglet seem to show, it was an old 
 Danish custom that marriage with a king's widow 
 carried the kingdom with it as a matter of right. In 
 that case the young but prudent Canute married the 
 mature widow merely out ot policy, in order to clinch, 
 according to Danish notions, by a legal measure his 
 claim to that crown which he had already won for 
 himself by the sword.'' 
 
 Among the Saxons and their near kinsmen the 
 Varini it appears to have been a regular custom for the 
 new king to marry his stepmother. Thus Hermigisil, 
 king of the Varini, on his deathbed enjoined his son 
 Radger to wed his stepmother in accordance with their 
 ancestral practice, and his injunction was obeyed.^ 
 Edbald, king of Kent, married his stepmother after the 
 death of his father Ethelbert ; ^ and as late as the ninth 
 century Ethelbald, king of the West Saxons, wedded 
 Judith, the widow of his father Ethelwulf.* Such 
 marriages are intelligible if we suppose that old Saxon 
 as well as old Danish law gave the kingdom to him 
 who married the late king's widow. 
 
 ^ See E. A. Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest of England, i.' 410-41Z, 
 733-737. I am indebted to my friend Mr. Cliadwick both for the fact and for its 
 explanation. 
 
 ' Procopiun, De hello Gotkico, iv. 20 (vol. ii. p. 562, ed. Dindorf). This and the 
 following cases of marriage with a stepmother are cited by K. Weinhold, Deutsche 
 Frauen'^ (Vienna, 1882), ii. 359 sq. 
 
 ^ Bede, Hlstoria Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, ii. 5. 102 ; compare i. 27. 63. 
 
 * Prudentius Trecensis, "Annales," anno 858, in Pertz's Monumenta Germaniae 
 Historica, i. 451 ; Ingulfus, Historia, quoted ibid. 
 
VIII FEMALE KINSHIP 245 
 
 To the view that the right to the Latin kingship 
 was derived from women and not from men, it may be 
 objected that the system of female kinship is unknown 
 among the Aryans,^ and that even if faint traces of it 
 may be met with elsewhere, the last place in the world 
 where we should look for it would be Rome, the strong- 
 hold of the patriarchal family. To meet this objection 
 it is necessary to point to some facts which appear to be 
 undoubted survivals among Aryan peoples of a custom 
 of tracing descent through the mother only. 
 
 In Attica tradition ran that in old days paternity 
 was unknown, until Cecrops, the first king of Athens, 
 introduced the system of Individual marriage.^ Little 
 weight could be attached to this tradition if it were 
 not supported to a certain extent by the Attic usage 
 which always allowed a man to marry his half-sister 
 by the same father, but not his half-sister by the same 
 mother.* Such a rule seems clearly to be a relic of a 
 time when kinship was counted only through women. 
 Again, the Epizephyrian Locrians in Italy traced all 
 ancestral distinction in the female, not the male line.^ 
 The Cantabrians of Spain seem also to have had female 
 
 ' This is in subBtance the view of Dr. W. E. Hcarn [The Aryan Household, pp. 
 150-155) and of Prof. B. DelbrOck ("Das Mutterrecht bei den Indogermanen," 
 PreussUelu JahrliUcher, Ixxix. (1895), pp. 14-27). 
 
 " Clearchus of Soli, quoted by Athenaeus, xiii. 2, p. 555 d ; John of Antioch, In 
 Fragmenta Hiitorieorum Graecorum, ed. C. MOUer, iv. 547 ; Charax of Pcrgamus, ib. 
 iii. 638; J. Tzetzei, Schol. on Lycophron, lit'; id., C/iiliades, v. 6 }o-66^ ; Suidas, 
 j.i/. K4Kpo\j/ ; Justin, ii. 6. 7. 
 
 ' Philo JudauB, Di ipccialibus legiius (vol. ii. p. 303, cd. Th. Mangey). See also 
 Plutarch, TliemistocUs, 32 j Cornelius Nepos, Cimon, i ; Schol. on Aristophanes, 
 Clouds, 1371 i L. Beauchet, Histoire du Droit Pri-ui de la Ripuhlique Atliinienne, i. 
 (Paris, 1897), pp. 165 sqq. Compare Minucius Felix, Octavius, 31. 
 
 * PolybiuB, xii, 5. 
 
246 FEMALE KINSHIP lect. 
 
 kinship, for among them it was the daughters who 
 inherited property and who portioned out their brothers 
 in marriage.^ 
 
 Further, the ancient Germans in the time of Tacitus 
 deemed the tie between a man and his sister's children 
 as close as that between a father and his own children ; 
 indeed, some regarded the bond as even closer and 
 more sacred, and therefore in exacting hostages they 
 chose the children of a man's sister rather than his own 
 children, believing that this gave them a firmer hold on 
 the family.^ The superiority thus assigned to the 
 maternal uncle over the father is an infallible mark of 
 female kinship, either present or past, as may be observed 
 in very many African tribes to this day, among whom 
 both property and political power pass, not from father 
 to son, but from the maternal uncle to his nephews.^ 
 Amongst the Germans in the time of Tacitus, it is true, 
 a man's heirs were his own children,* but the mother's 
 brother could never have attained the position he held 
 except under a system of maternal descent. 
 
 It is a moot point whether the Picts of Scotland 
 belonged to the Aryan family or not ; ^ but among 
 
 1 Strabo, iii. 4. 18. 
 
 ^ Tacitus, Germania, 20. Compare L. Dargun, Muturrecht und Rauhehe and ihre 
 Reste im germaniichen Uecht und Lehen (Breslau, 1883), pp. 21 io, 
 
 ^ A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, pp. 297 sq. ; id.. The 
 Eive-speaking Peoples of the Sla-ue Coast, pp. 207 sqq. ; Sir H. H. Johnston, British 
 Central Africa, p. 471 ; A. Giraud-Teulon, Les origines du mariage et de la famille 
 (Geneva and Paris, 1884), pp. 206 s^q. ; A. H. Post, Afrikanische Jurispruden%, i. 
 13 sqq. 
 
 * Tacitus, Germania, 20. 
 
 ^ W. F. Skene held that the Picts were Celts {Celtic Scotland, i. 194-227). On 
 the other hand, H. Zimmer supposes them to have been the pre-Celtic inhabitants 
 of the British Islands. See his paper " Das Mutterrecht der Pikten," Zeitschrift 
 
VIII IN EUROPE 247 
 
 them the kingdom was certainly transmitted through 
 women. Bcde tells us that down to his own time, in 
 the early part of the eighth century, whenever a doubt 
 arose as to the succession, the Picts chose their king 
 from the female rather than the male line.^ The state- 
 ment is amply confirmed by historical evidence. For 
 we possess a list of the Pictish kings and their fathers 
 which was drawn up in the reign of Cens;d, king of 
 the Scots, towards the end of the tenth century ; and 
 for the period from the year 583 to the year 840 the 
 register is authenticated by the Irish Annals of Tiger- 
 nach and Ulster. Now, it is significant that in this list 
 the fathers of the kings are never themselves kings ; in 
 other words, no king was succeeded on the throne by 
 his son. Further, if we may judge by their names, 
 the fathers of the Pictish kings were not Picts, but 
 foreigners, men of Irish, Cymric, or English race. 
 The inference from these facts seems to be that among 
 the Picts the royal family was exogamous, and that the 
 crown descended in the female line ; in other words, 
 that the princesses married men of another clan or even 
 of another race, and that their issue by these strangers 
 sat on the throne, whether they succeeded in a prescribed 
 order according to birth, or were elected from among 
 the sons of princesses, as the words of Bede might be 
 taken to imply .^ 
 
 der Samgny-Stiftung fUr Rechtsgeschkkte, xv. (1894), Romanistische Abtheilung, 
 pp. 209 sqq, 
 
 ^ Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, ii. i. 7. 
 
 ^ W. F. Skene, Celtic Scotland, i. Z32-235 ; J. F. M'Lennan, Studies in Ancient 
 History (London, 1886), pp. 68-70 j H. Ziinmer, loc. cit. 
 
248 FEMALE KINSHIP lect. 
 
 Another European, though not Aryan, people among 
 whom the system of female kinship appears to have 
 prevailed were the Etruscans. For in sepulchral in- 
 scriptions the name of the mother of the deceased is 
 regularly recorded along with or even without the name 
 of the father ; and where the names of both father and 
 mother are mentioned, greater prominence is given to 
 the mother's name by writing it in full, whereas the 
 father's name is, in accordance with Roman usage, 
 merely indicated by an initial.'^ The statement of 
 Theopompus, that among the Etruscans paternity was 
 unknown,^ may be only an exaggerated way of saying 
 that they traced their descent through their mothers 
 and not through their fathers. Yet apparently in 
 Etruria, as elsewhere, this system of relationship was 
 combined with a real indifference to fatherhood, and 
 with the dissolute morals which that indifference 
 implies.^ In these customs the Etruscans resembled the 
 Lydians, and the similarity confirms the common 
 opinion, which modern historians have too lightly set 
 aside, that the Etruscans were of Lydian origin.'' 
 However that may be, in considering the vestiges of 
 
 ' K. O. MUUer, Die Etrusker (Stuttgart, 1877), ii. 376 sq. ; J. J. Bachofen, Die 
 Sage •von Tanaquil, pp. 28Z-Z90, 
 
 2 Theopompus, quoted by Athenasus, xii. 14, p. 517 d e. 
 
 ^ Plautus, Cistellaria^ ii, 3. 20 iq. 
 
 * Herodotus, i. 94 j Strabo, v. 2. 2 5 Tacitus, Annals, iv. 55 ; Timseus, cited by 
 Tertullian, De spectaculis, 5 ; Festus, s.v. "Turannos," p. 355, ed. C. O. MilUer ; 
 Plutarch, Romulus, 2; Velleius Paterculus, i. i. 4j Justin, xx. i. 7; Valerius 
 Maximus, ii. 4. 4 ; Servius, on Virgil, Aen. i. 67. On the other hand, Dionysius of 
 Halicarnassus held that the Etruscans were an indigenous Italian race, differing from 
 all other Icnown peoples in language and customs {Ant. Rom. i. 26-30). On this 
 much-vexed question, see K. O. MUUer, Die Etrusker, i. 65 sqq. ; G. Dennis, Cities 
 and Cemeteries of Etruria^ i, pp. xxxiii. sqq. 
 
VIII IN EUROPE 249 
 
 female kinship among the Latins, we shall do well to 
 bear in mind that the same archaic mode of tracing 
 descent appears to have prevailed among the neighbour- 
 ing Etruscans, who not only exercised a powerful 
 influence on Rome, but gave her two, if not three, of 
 her kings. 
 
 It would be neither unnatural nor surprising if among 
 the ancient Latins female kinship survived in the royal 
 family after it had been exchanged for male kinship 
 in all others. For royalty, like religion, is essentially 
 conservative ; it clings to old forms and old customs 
 which have long vanished from ordinary life. Thus in 
 Uganda, as I have already mentioned, persons of royal 
 blood still inherit their totems from their mothers, 
 while other people inherit them from their fathers. So 
 in Denmark and Scandinavia, as we have seen, the 
 kingdom would appear to have been transmitted through 
 women long after the family name and property had 
 become hereditary in the male line among the common 
 people. 
 
 Sometimes the difference in custom between kings 
 
 and commoners is probably based rather on a distinction 
 
 of race than on varying degrees of social progress ; for 
 
 a dynasty is often a family of alien origin who have 
 
 imposed their rule on their subjects by force of arms, as 
 
 the Normans did on the Saxons, and the Manchus on 
 p- 
 the Chinese. More rarely, perhaps, it may have 
 
 happened that from motives of policy or superstition 
 
 a conquering tribe has left a nominal kingship to the 
 
 members of the old royal house. Such a concession 
 
250 PLEBEIAN KINGS lect. 
 
 would be most likely to be made where the functions 
 of the king were rather religious than civil, and where 
 the prosperity of the country was supposed to depend 
 on the maintenance of the established relations between 
 the people and the gods of the land. In that case the 
 new-comers, not knowing how to appease and conciliate 
 these strange deities, might be glad to let the priestly 
 kings of the conquered race perform the quaint rites 
 and mumble the old spells, which had been found to 
 answer their purpose time out of mind. In a common- 
 wealth like the Roman, formed by the union of diiFerent 
 stocks, the royal family might thus belong either to 
 the conquerors or to the conquered ; in other words, 
 either to the patricians or to the plebeians. But if we 
 leave out of account Romulus and Tatius, who are more 
 or less legendary figures, and the two Tarquins, who 
 came of a noble Etruscan house, all the other Roman 
 kings appear from their names to have been men of 
 plebeian, not patrician, families.^ Hence it seems 
 probable that they belonged to the indigenous race, 
 who may have retained mother -right, at least in the 
 royal succession, after they had submitted to invaders 
 who knew father-right only. 
 
 If this was so, it confirms the view that the old 
 Roman kingship was essentially a religious office ; for 
 the conquerors would be much more ready to leave an 
 office of this sort in the hands of the conquered than a 
 kingship of the type with which we are familiar. " Let 
 these puppets," they might think, " render to the gods 
 
 ' H. Jordan, Die KStiige im alien Italien (Berlin, 18S4), pp. 15-25. 
 
VIII PLEBEIAN KINGS 251 
 
 their dues, while we rule the people in peace and lead 
 them in war." Of such priestly kings Numa was the 
 type. But not all of his successors were willing to 
 model themselves on his saintly figure, and, rejecting 
 the pomps and vanities of earth, to devote themselves 
 to communion with heaven. Some were men of strong 
 will and warlike temper, who could not brook the dull 
 routine of the cloister. They longed to exchange the 
 stillness and gloom of the temple or the sacred grove 
 for the sunshine, the dust, and the tumult of the battle- 
 field. Such men broke bounds, and when they 
 threatened to get completely out of hand and turn the 
 tables on the patricians, it was time for them to go. 
 This, we may conjecture, was the real meaning of the 
 abolition of the kingship at Rome. It put an end to 
 the solemn pretence that the state was still ruled by the 
 ancient owners of the soil : it took the shadow of power 
 from them and gave it to those who had long possessed 
 the substance. The ghost of the monarchy had begun 
 to walk and grow troublesome : the revolution laid it 
 for centuries. 
 
 But though the effect of the revolution was to sub- 
 stitute the real rule of the patricians for the nominal 
 rule of the plebeians, the break with the past was at the 
 outset less complete than it seems. For the first two 
 consuls were both men of the royal blood. One of 
 them, L, Junius Brutus, was sister's son of the expelled 
 King Tarquin the Proud.^ As such he would have 
 been the heir to the throne under a strict system of 
 
 ^ Livy, i. 56. 7 ; Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. iv. 68. i. 
 
252 THE CONSULSHIP lect. 
 
 female kinship. The other consul, L. Tarquinius 
 CoUatinus, was a son of the late king's cousin Egerius.^ 
 These facts suggest that the first intention of the 
 revolutionaries was neither to abolish the kingship nor 
 to wrest it from the royal family, but merely, retaining 
 the hereditary monarchy, to restrict its powers. To 
 achieve this object they limited the tenure of office to a 
 year, and doubled the number of kings, who might 
 thus be expected to check and balance each other. But 
 it is not impossible that both restrictions were merely 
 the revival of old rules which the growing power of 
 the kings had contrived for a time to set aside in 
 practice. The legends of Romulus and Remus, and 
 afterwards of Romulus and Tatius, may be real reminis- 
 cences of a double kingship like that of Sparta ; ^ and 
 in the yearly ceremony of the Regifugium or Flight of 
 the King we seem to detect a trace of an annual, not a 
 lifelong, tenure of office. The same thing may perhaps 
 be true of the parallel change which took place at 
 Athens when the people deprived the Medontids of their 
 regal powers and reduced them from kings to responsible 
 magistrates, who held office at first for life, but after- 
 wards only for periods of ten years.* Here, too, the 
 limitation of the tenure of the kingship may have been 
 merely the reinforcement of an old custom which had 
 fallen into abeyance. At Rome, however, the attempt 
 
 ■* Livy, i. 34. 2 sq., i. 38. i, i. 57. 6 ; Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Sum. iv. 64. 
 
 ^ I owe to Mr. A. B. Cook the interesting suggestion that the institution of the 
 double consulship was a revival of a double kingship. 
 
 * Pausanias, iv. 5. 10 ; G. Gilbert, Bandbuch der griech. StaatsakerthSmer, i.^ 
 122 jy. 
 
viii TARQUIN THE PROUD 253 
 
 to maintain the hereditary principle, if it was made at 
 all, was almost immediately abandoned, and the patricians 
 openly transferred to themselves the double kingship, 
 which thenceforth was purely elective, and was after- 
 wards known as the consulship.^ 
 
 The history of the last king of Rome, Tarquin the 
 Proud, leads us to surmise that the offence which he 
 gave by his ambitious and domineering character was 
 heightened by an attempt to shift the succession of the 
 kingship from the female to the male line. He himself 
 united both claims in his own person ; for he had 
 married the daughter of his predecessor, Servius Tullius, 
 and he was the son or grandson of Tarquin the Elder ,^ 
 who preceded Servius Tullius on the throne. But in 
 asserting his right to the crown, if we can trust Roman 
 history on this point, Tarquin the Proud entirely ignored 
 his claim through women as the son-in-law of his pre- 
 decessor, and insisted only on his claim in the male line 
 as the son or grandson of a former king.* And he 
 evidently intended to bequeath the kingdom to one of 
 his sons ; for he put out of the way two of the men who, 
 if the succession had been through women in the way I 
 have indicated, would have been entitled to sit on the 
 throne before his own sons, and even before himself. 
 
 ^ The two supreme magistrates who replaced the kings were at first called 
 praetors. See Livy, iii. 55. 12 ; B. G. Niebuhr, History of Rome,^ i. 520 sqq. ; Th. 
 Mommsen, RSmiscies Staatsrecht, ii.^ 74 sqq. That the power of the first consuls 
 was, with the limitations indicated in the text, that of the old kings is fully 
 recognised by Livy (ii. i. 7 sq.). 
 
 ^ It was a disputed point whether Tarquin the Proud was the son or grandson of 
 Tarquin the Elder. See Livy, i, 46. 4 ; Dionysius Halicarn. u4nt, Rom. iv, 6 sq. 
 
 5 Livy, i. 48. 2 ; Dionysius Halicarn. Aut. Rom. iv. 31 sq. and 46. 
 
2 54 MONARCHIES lect. 
 
 One of these was his sister's husband, the other was her 
 elder son. Her younger son, the famous Lucius 
 Junius Brutus, only escaped the fate of his father and 
 elder brother by feigning, like Hamlet, imbecility, and 
 thus deluding his wicked uncle into the belief that he 
 had nothing to fear from such a simpleton.^ This 
 design of Tarquin to alter the line of succession from 
 the female to the male side of the house may have been 
 the last drop which filled his cup of high-handed tyranny 
 to overflowing. At least it is a strange coincidence, if 
 it is nothing more, that he was deposed by the man 
 who, under a system of female kinship, was the rightful 
 heir, and who in a sense actually sat on the throne from 
 which he pushed his uncle. For the curule chair of the 
 consul was little less than the king's throne under a 
 limited tenure. 
 
 It has often been asked whether the Roman monarchy 
 was hereditary or elective. The question implies an 
 opposition between the two modes of succession which 
 by no means necessarily exists. As a matter of fact in 
 many African tribes at the present day the succession to 
 the kingdom or chieftainship is determined by a com- 
 bination of the hereditary and the elective principle ; 
 that is, the kings or chiefs are chosen by the people or 
 a body of electors from among the members of the 
 royal family. And as the chiefs have commonly several 
 
 ^ Livy, i. 56 J Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom, iv. 67-69, yy j Valerius Maximus, 
 vii. 3. 2 j Aurelius Victor, De viris illustribus, x. The murder of Brutus's father 
 and brother is recorded by Dionysius ; the other writers mention the assassination 
 of his brother only. The resemblance between Brutus and Hamlet has been pointed 
 out before. See F. Yoric Powell, in Elton's translation of Saxo Grammaticus, pp. 
 405-4.10. 
 
VIII HEREBITART AND ELECTIVE 255 
 
 wives and many children by them, the number of 
 possible candidates may be not inconsiderable. To 
 take a single instance out of many, we are told that 
 " the government of the Banyai is rather peculiar, being 
 a sort of feudal republicanism. The chief is elected, 
 and they choose the son of the deceased chief's sister in 
 preference to his own offspring. When dissatisfied 
 with one candidate, they even go to a distant tribe for 
 a successor, who is usually of the family of the late chief, 
 a brother, or a sister's son, but never his own son or 
 daughter." ^ 
 
 Sometimes the field of choice is extended still further 
 by a rule that the chief may or must be chosen from 
 one of several families in a certain order. Thus among 
 the Bangalas of the Cassange Valley in Angola the 
 chief is elected from three families in rotation.^ And 
 Diagara, a country bordering on Senegambia, is ruled 
 by an absolute monarch who is chosen alternately from 
 two families, one of whom lives in one place and the 
 other in another.^ 
 
 Among the Yorubas in western Africa the principal 
 chief is always taken from one or more families which 
 have the hereditary right of furnishing the community 
 with rulers. In many cases the succession passes with 
 established regularity from one to a second family 
 alternately ; but in one instance, apparently unique, the 
 
 ^ D. Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Ajrica^ pp. 617 sq. 
 Many more examples are given by A. H. Post, AJrikanische Jurisfrudemas (Oldenburg 
 and Leipsic, 1887), i. 134 i^^. 
 
 ^ D. Livingstone, op, cit. p. 434. 
 
 ^ H. Hecquard, Reise an die Kitste und in das Innere -von West-Afrika (Leipsic, 
 1854), p. 104. 
 
256 MONARCHIES lect. 
 
 right of succession to the chiefly primacy seems to be 
 possessed by four princely families, from each of which 
 the head chief is elected in rotation. The principle of 
 primogeniture is not necessarily followed in the election, 
 but the choice of the electors must always fall on one who 
 is related to a former chief in the male line. For paternal 
 descent alone is recognised in Yorubaland, where even 
 the greatest chief may take to wife a woman of the 
 lowest rank. Sometimes the choice of the ruling chief 
 is made by divine authority, intimated to the people 
 through the high priest of the principal god of the 
 district.^ 
 
 Among the Igaras, on the lower Niger, the royal 
 family is divided into four branches, each of which pro- 
 vides a king in turn. The capital and its district, both 
 of which bear the name of Idah, are always occupied by 
 the reigning branch of the royal family, while the three 
 other branches, not being allowed to live there, retreat 
 into the interior. Hence at the death of a king a double 
 change takes place. On the one hand, the late reigning 
 family, with all their dependents, have to leave the 
 homes in which many of them have been born and 
 brought up, and to migrate to towns in the forest, 
 which they know only by name. On the other hand, 
 the new reigning family comes in to the capital, and 
 their people settle in the houses occupied by their fore- 
 fathers four reigns ago. The king is generally elected 
 by the leading men of his branch of the royal family : 
 
 ' Sir William MacGregor, "Lagos, Abeokuta, and the Miks." Journal of the 
 African Society, No. XII., July 1904, pp. 470 sj. 
 
VIII HEREDITART AND ELECTIVE 257 
 
 they choose the richest and most powerful man of their 
 number.^ 
 
 Thus the mere circumstance that all the Roman 
 kings, with the exception of the two Tarquins, appear 
 to have belonged to different families, is not of itself 
 conclusive against the view that heredity was one of the 
 elements which determined the succession. The number 
 of families from whom the king might be elected may 
 have been large. And even if, as is possible, the 
 electors were free to choose a king without any regard 
 to his birth, the hereditary principle would still be main- 
 tained if, as we have seen reason to conjecture, it was 
 essential that the chosen candidate should marry a 
 woman of the royal house, who would generally be 
 either the daughter or the widow of his predecessor. 
 In this way the apparently disparate principles of un- 
 fettered election and strict heredity would be combined : 
 the marriage of the elected king with the hereditary 
 princess would furnish the link between the two. 
 Under such a system, to put it otherwise, the kings are 
 elective and the queens hereditary. This is just the 
 converse of what happens under a system of male kinship, 
 where the kings are hereditary and the queens elective. 
 
 In the later days of Rome it was held that the 
 ancient custom had been for the people to elect the 
 kings and for the senate to ratify the election. ^ But 
 
 ' C. Partridge, "The Burial of theAtta of Igaraland and the 'Coronation ' of his 
 Successor," Blackwood's Magazine, September 1904, pp. 329 sq. ' Mr. Partridge was 
 so good as to give me some details as to the election of the king in a letter dated 
 Z4th October 1904. He is Assistant District Commissioner in Southern Nigeria. 
 
 ^ Livy, i. 17 ; Cicero, De re publico, ii. 17. 31. 
 
 S 
 
258 QUALIFICATIONS FOR KINGSHIP lect. 
 
 we may suspect, with Mommsen, that this was no more 
 than an inference from the mode of electing the consuls. 
 The magistrates who, under the republic, represented 
 the kings most closely were the dictator and the King 
 of the Sacred Rites, and neither of these was elected by 
 the people. Both were nominated, the dictator by the 
 consul, and the King of the Sacred Rites by the chief 
 I pontiff.^ Accordingly it seems probable that under the 
 monarchy the king was nominated either by his pre- 
 decessor or, failing that, by an interim king {interrex') 
 chosen from the senate.^ Now if, as we have been led 
 to think, an essential claim to the throne was constituted 
 by marriage with a princess of the royal house, nothing 
 would be more natural than that the king should choose 
 his successor, who would commonly be his son-in-law. 
 If he had several sons-in-law and had omitted to desig- 
 nate the one who was to reign after him, the election 
 would be made by his substitute, the interim king. 
 
 The personal qualities which recommended a man 
 for a royal alliance and succession to the throne would 
 naturally vary according to the popular ideas of the 
 time and the personal character of the king or his sub- 
 stitute ; but it is reasonable to suppose that among 
 them in early society physical strength and beauty 
 would hold a prominent place. We have seen that in 
 
 ^ As to the nomination of the King of the Sacred Rites see Livy, xl. 42 ; 
 Dionysius Halicarn. Ant, Rom. v. 1. 4. The latter writer says that the augurs co- 
 operated with the pontiff in the nomination. 
 
 2 Th, Mommsen, Komisches Staatsrecht^ ii.' 6-8 ; A. H. J. Greenidge, Roman 
 Public Life, pp. 45 sqq. Mr. Greenidge thinks that the king was regularly nominated 
 by his predecessor and only occasionally by an interim king. Mommsen holds that 
 he was always nominated by the latter. 
 
VIII QUALIFICATIONS FOR KINGSHIP 259 
 
 Ashantee the husbands of the princesses must always be 
 men of fine presence, because they are to be the fathers 
 of future kings. Among the Ethiopians in antiquity, 
 as among the Ashantees and many other African tribes 
 to this day, the crown passed in the female line to the 
 son of the king's sister, but if there was no such heir 
 they chose the handsomest and most valiant man to 
 reign over them.^ 
 
 We are told that the Gordioi elected the fattest 
 man to the kingship,'' nor is this incredible when 
 we remember that in Africa corpulence is still regarded 
 as a great distinction and beauty, and that both the 
 chiefs and their wives are sometimes so fat that they 
 can hardly walk. Thus among the CafFres, chiefs 
 and rich men attain to an enormous bulk, and the 
 queens fatten themselves on beef and porridge, of which 
 they partake freely in the intervals of slumber. To be 
 fat is with them a mark of wealth and therefore of high 
 rank : common folk cannot afford to eat and drink and 
 lounge as much as they would like to do.^ 
 
 The Syrakoi in antiquity are reported to have 
 bestowed the crown on the tallest man or on the man 
 with the longest head, in the literal, not the figurative, 
 sense of the words.* They seem to have been a Sar- 
 matian people to the north of the Caucasus,' and are 
 
 ^ Nicolaus Damascenus, in Stobasus, Florilegium, xliv. 41 {Fragmenta Historkorum 
 Graecorum, ed. C. Milller, iii. 463). Other writers say simply that the tallest, 
 strongest, or handsomest man was chosen king. See Herodotus, iii. 20 ; Aristotle, 
 Politics, iv. 4 ; Athenaeus, xii. 20, p. 566 c. 
 
 ^ Zenobius, Cent. v. 25. 
 
 ^ J, shooter. The Kajirs of Natal (London, 1857), pp. 4 sq. Compare D. Living- 
 stone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, p. 186. 
 
 * Zenobius, Cent. v. 25. * Strabo, xi. 2. i. 
 
26o CONTESTS FOR KINGSHIP lect. 
 
 probably the same with the long-headed people described 
 by Hippocrates, who says that among them the men 
 with the longest heads were esteemed the noblest, and 
 that they applied bandages and other instruments to the 
 heads of their children in infancy for the sake of mould- 
 ing them into the shape which they admired.^ Such 
 reports are probably by no means fabulous, for among 
 the Monbuttu or Mang-bettou of central Africa down 
 to this day " when the children of chiefs are young, 
 string is wound round their heads, which are gradually 
 compressed into a shape that will allow of the longest 
 head-dress. The skull thus treated in childhood takes 
 the appearance of an elongated egg." " Similarly some 
 of the Indian tribes on the north-west coast of America 
 artificially mould the heads of their children into the 
 shape of a wedge or sugar-loaf by compressing them 
 between boards : some of them regard such heads as a 
 personal beauty, others as a mark of high birth.* 
 
 Sometimes apparently the right to the hand of the 
 princess and to the throne has been determined by an 
 athletic contest. The Alitemnian Libyans awarded the 
 kingdom to the fleetest runner.* According to tradi- 
 tion the earliest games at Olympia were held by 
 Endymion, who set his sons to run a race for the 
 
 ^ Hippocrates, De aere locis et a^uis (vol. i. pp. 550 s^., ed. Kiihn). 
 
 ^ Captain Guy Burrows, T/ie hand of the Pigmies (London, 1898}, p. 95. 
 
 ^ Lewis and Clark, Expedition to the Sources of the Missouri^ ch. 23, vol. ii. 327 sq. 
 (London, 1905) j D. W. Harmon, quoted by Rev. J. Morse, Report to the Secretary 
 of War of the United States on Indian Affairs (Newhaven, 1822), Appendix, p. 346 ; 
 H. H. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, ii. 325 sq. ; R. C. Mayne, Four Tears in British 
 Columbia, p. 277 ; G. M, Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Sa-vage Life, pp. 28-30 j H. 
 H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, i. 180. 
 
 ^ Nicolaus Damascenus, ioc, cit. 
 
VIII RACES FOR A BRIDE 261 
 
 kingdom. His tomb was said to be at the point of 
 the race-course from which the runners started.* The 
 famous story of Pelops and Hippodamia is perhaps 
 only another version of the legend that the first races 
 at Olympia were run for no less a prize than the 
 crown. Other traditions were current in antiquity of 
 princesses who were offered in marriage to the fleetest 
 runner and won by the victor in the race. Thus 
 Icarius at Sparta set the wooers of his daughter 
 Penelope to run a race : Ulysses won and wedded her. 
 His father-in-law is said to have tried to induce him to 
 take up his abode in Sparta ; which seems to show that 
 if Ulysses had accepted the invitation he would have 
 inherited the kingdom through his wife.^ So, too, the 
 Libyan king Antasus placed his beautiful daughter 
 Barce at the end of the race-course : her many noble 
 suitors, both Libyans and foreigners, ran to her as the 
 goal, and Alcidamus, who touched her first, gained her 
 in marriage.^ Danaus, also, at Argos is said to have 
 stationed his daughters at the goal, and the runner who 
 reached them first had first choice of a wife.* These 
 traditions may very well reflect a real custom of racing 
 for a bride, for such a custom appears to have pre- 
 vailed among various peoples, though in practice 
 it has commonly degenerated into a mere form or 
 pretence.^ 
 
 ^ Pausanias, v. i, 4, vi. zo. 9. 
 ^ Pausanias, iii. 12. i, iii, 20, 10^^. 
 2 Pindar, Pyth. ix. 181-220, with the Scholia. 
 ^ Pindar, Pyt/u ix. 195 sqq. ; Pausanias, iii, 12. 2. 
 
 ^ J. r. M'Lennan, Studies in Ancient History (London, 1886), pp. 15 sq., 181- 
 184. More evidence will be adduced in the third edition of The Golden Bough, 
 
262 CONTESTS FOR A BRIDE lect. 
 
 But the contests for a bride may be designed to try 
 the skill, strength, and courage of the suitors as well as 
 their horsemanship and speed of foot. In the great 
 Indian epic of the Mahabharata it is related that the 
 hand of the lovely princess Draupadi, daughter of the 
 king of the Panchalas, was only to be won by him who 
 could bend a certain mighty bow, and shoot five arrows 
 through a revolving wheel, so as to hit the target 
 beyond. After many wooers had essayed the task in 
 vain, the disguised Arjun was successful, and carried 
 off the princess to be his wife.^ This was an instance 
 of the ancient Indian practice of the Svayamvara, in 
 accordance with which a maiden of high rank either 
 chose her husband from among her assembled suitors 
 or was offered as the prize to the conqueror in a trial 
 of skill. The custom was occasionally observed among 
 the Rajputs down to a late time." In the Niebelungenlied 
 the fair Brunhild, queen of Iceland, was only to be won 
 in marriage by him who could beat her in three trials 
 of strength, and the unsuccessful wooers forfeited their 
 heads. Many had thus perished, but at last Gunther, 
 king of the Burgundians, vanquished and married her.' 
 It is said that Sithon, king of the Odomanti in 
 Thrace, had a lovely daughter Pallene, and that many 
 
 ^ Mahabharata^ condensed into English by Romesch Dutt (London, 1898), pp. 
 15 iqq. ; J. C. Oman, The Great Indian Epia, pp. 109 s^j. 
 
 ^ J. D. Mayne, A Treatise on Hindu haw and Usage^ (Madras and London, 
 1883), p. 56 ; The Vikraminkadevacharita, edited by G. BUhler (Bombay, 1875), pp. 
 38-40; A. Holtzmann, Das Mahabharata und seine Theile, i. (Kiel, 1895), pp. 21 
 '?■ J J- Jolly) Reeht und Sitte, pp. 50 sy. (in G. BUhler's Grundriss der hdo-Arischen 
 Philologie), 
 
 ' The Lay of the Niebelungs, translated by Alice Horton (London, 1898), Adven- 
 tures VI. and VII. 
 
VIII CONTESTS FOR KINGSHIP 263 
 
 men came courting her from far and near. But her 
 father said that he who would wed his daughter must 
 first fight himself and pay with his life the penalty of 
 defeat. Thus he slew many young men. But when 
 he was grown old and his strength had failed, he set 
 two of the wooers to fight each other for the kingdorn 
 and the hand of the princess. One of them slew the 
 other and married the king's daughter.^ 
 
 Thus it appears that the right to marry a girl, and 
 especially a princess, has often been conferred as a prize 
 in an athletic contest. There would be no reason, 
 therefore, for surprise if the Roman kings, before 
 bestowing their daughters in marriage, should have 
 resorted to this ancient mode of testing the personal 
 qualities of their future sons-in-law and successors. If 
 my theory is correct, the Roman king and queen 
 personated Jupiter and his divine consort, and in the 
 character of these divinities went through the annual 
 ceremony of a sacred marriage for the purpose of 
 causing the crops to grow and men and cattle to be 
 fruitful and multiply. Thus they did what in more 
 northern lands we may suppose the King and Queen 
 of May were believed to do in days of old. Now we 
 have seen in a former lecture ^ that the right to play the 
 part of the King of May and to mate with the Queen 
 of May has sometimes been determined by an athletic 
 contest, particularly by a race. This contest may have 
 
 1 Parthenius, Narrat. Amat. vi. This passage was pointed out to me by Mr. A. 
 B. Cook, who has himself discussed the contest for the kingship. See his article, 
 " The European Sky-god," Folk-lore, xv. (1904), pp. 376 sqq. 
 
 2 Above, pp. 164 iq. 
 
264 THE KING'S FLIGHT lect. viii 
 
 been a relic of an old marriage custom of the sort we 
 have examined, a custom designed to test the fitness of 
 a candidate for matrimony. Such a test might reason- 
 ably be applied with peculiar rigour to the king in 
 order to ensure that no personal defect should in- 
 capacitate him for the performance of those sacred 
 rites and ceremonies on which, even more than on the 
 despatch of his civil and military duties, the safety and 
 prosperity of the community were believed to depend. 
 A relic of that test perhaps survived at Rome in the 
 ceremony known as the Regifugium or Flight of the 
 King, which continued to be annually observed down to 
 imperial times. On the twenty-fourth day of February 
 a sacrifice used to be offered in the Comitium, and 
 when it was over the King of the Sacred Rites fled 
 from the Forum.^ I conjecture that the Flight of the 
 King was originally a race for an annual kingship, 
 which may have been awarded as a prize to the fleetest 
 runner. At the end of the year the king might run 
 again for a second term of office ; and so on, until he 
 was defeated and deposed or perhaps slain. In time a 
 man of masterful character might succeed in seating 
 himself permanently on the throne and reducing the 
 annual race or flight to the empty form which it seems 
 always to have been within historical times. 
 
 1 Ovid, Fasti, ii. 685 sjj. ; Plutarch, Sluaest. Rom. 63 ; J. Marquardt, RUmuche 
 Staats-vermaltung, m? 323 sj. ; W. Warde Fowler, Roman Festi'vaU of the Period of 
 the Republic, pp. 327 sqq. 
 
LECTURE IX 
 
 The King's Flight at Rome in relation to the Saturnalia — Human 
 representatives of Saturn killed at the Saturnalia — Violent 
 deaths of Roman kings — Saturn and Jupiter — Summary of 
 conclusions as to the King of the Wood at Nemi — He repre- 
 sented Jupiter or Janus and mated with Diana — Janus or 
 Dianus and Diana the equivalents of Jupiter and Juno — 
 Reasons for putting the divine king to death — The King of 
 Calicut an Indian parallel to the King of the Wood at Nemi. 
 
 In the last lecture I gave some reasons for thinking 
 that at Rome the old kings belonged to the indigenous 
 and conquered race, and that the right to the throne 
 was transmitted through women, being enjoyed by the 
 man who married a princess of the royal house after 
 proving his fitness for office in an athletic contest of 
 strength or speed. Of that contest I conjectured that 
 the ceremony known as the Regifugium or Flight of the 
 King may have been a survival. If my theory is 
 correct, the yearly Flight of the King is a relic of a 
 time when the kingship was an annual office awarded, 
 along with the hand of a princess, to the victorious 
 athlete or gladiator, who thereafter figured along with 
 his bride as a god and goddess at a sacred marriage 
 designed to ensure the fertility of the earth by homoeo- 
 pathic magic. 
 
 265 
 
266 THE SATURNALIA lect. 
 
 Accepting this theory as a provisional hypothesis, we 
 have still to ask whether or not the Flight of the King 
 was immediately connected in point of time with the 
 ceremony of the Sacred Marriage. As to this, it is to 
 be observed that the date of the King's Flight, namely, 
 the twenty-fourth of February, was within four days 
 of the close of the old Roman year, which ended with 
 February long before it ended with December. Now, 
 in later times, when the year began with January, the 
 festival of the Saturnalia was held in December, from 
 the seventeenth to the twenty-third of the month.^ 
 But the analogy of similar festivals elsewhere makes it 
 probable that the Saturnalia always fell at or near the 
 end of the year ; so that when February was the last 
 month of the calendar, the Saturnalia might be expected 
 to be celebrated in it rather than in December. On 
 this theory the date of the Saturnalia in the old Roman 
 calendar ought to be the seventeenth to the twenty- 
 third of February. But the Flight of the King fell on 
 the twenty-fourth of February, that is on the very day 
 after the Saturnalia, if my hypothesis as to the original 
 date of that festival is correct. This accords perfectly 
 with all that we know of similar festivals. For their 
 outstanding features appear to have been, first, a general 
 license accorded to the whole population, including 
 slaves as well as freemen ; second, the temporary reign 
 of a sacred King or Lord of Misrule ; third, the 
 marriage of the merry monarch to a woman who 
 
 ' On the Saturnalia, see L. Preller, Romhche Mythologies ii. 1 5 j^y. ; Dezobry, 
 Rome au siecle d'Auguste^ iii. 143 sqq. 
 
IX THE SATURNALIA 267 
 
 personated a goddess ; and, fourth, the deposition or 
 violent death of the king.^ If the analogy of these 
 festivals held good for Rome, we should accordingly 
 have to suppose that the King's Flight at the ehd of 
 the Saturnalia was a substitute for his deposition or 
 death ; in other words, that instead of being killed out 
 of hand he was allowed to run for his life, and that if 
 he showed a clean pair of heels to his pursuers and com- 
 petitors he was permitted to live and reign another year. 
 Now this theory in all its details receives most 
 remarkable confirmation from an ancient account of 
 the Saturnalia which was discovered and published a few 
 years ago by Professor F. Cumont of Ghent. From 
 that account we learn that down to the beginning of 
 the fourth century of our era, that is, down nearly to 
 the establishment of Christianity by Constantine, the 
 Roman soldiers stationed on the Danube were wont to 
 celebrate the Saturnalia in a barbarous fashion which 
 must certainly have dated from a very remote antiquity. 
 Thirty days before the festival they chose by lot from 
 among themselves a young and handsome man, who 
 was dressed in royal robes to resemble the god Saturn. 
 In that character he was allowed to indulge all his 
 passions to the fullest extent ; but when his ; brief reign 
 of thirty days was over, and the festival of Saturn was 
 come, he hadi to cut his own throat on the altar of the 
 god he personated.^ 
 
 1 The Golden Bough^ iii. 138 sqq^, 
 
 2 F. Cumont, "Les Actes de S. Dasius," AnaUcta Bollandiar.a, xvi. (1897), pp. 
 5-16. See further Messrs. Parmentier and Cumont, "Le roi des Saturnales,'' 
 Ke-vue de Philologie, xxi. (1897), pp. 143-153. 
 
268 THE SATURNALIA lect. 
 
 In this very notable custom we have not merely the 
 personation of the god Saturn by a man and the violent 
 death of the man-god ; we have also a clear trace of 
 the Sacred Marriage in the licence accorded to the 
 human representative of the deity, a licence which, on 
 my theory, is strictly analogous to the old orgies of 
 May Day and other similar festivals. Observe that 
 Saturn was the god of the seed, and the Saturnalia 
 the festival of sowing.^ How an Italian festival of 
 sowing could fall in midwinter has always been a 
 puzzle. But the difficulty vanishes as soon as we 
 perceive that in the old calendar the date of the 
 celebration must have been not December but 
 February ; for in Italy the month of February 
 is, along with March, the great season of the spring 
 sowing.^ Nothing therefore could be more natural 
 than that the god of the seed should hold his festival 
 at that time of the year. And on the principles of 
 homcEopathic magic nothing could be more natural 
 than that at the season of sowing the marriage of 
 the powers of vegetation should be simulated by the 
 marriage of human beings for the purpose of sympa- 
 thetically quickening the growth of the seed.' In 
 short, no time could be more suitable for the celebra- 
 tion of the Sacred Marriage. At all events, the view 
 that the King's Flight on the twenty - fourth of 
 
 ^ Varro, De lingua Latina^ v. 64 ; Festus, s.v, *' Opima spolia," p. 186, ed. C. O. 
 MUUer ; Augustine, De ci'vitate Dei, vi. chapter 8, vii. chapters 2, 3, 13, 15, 18, 
 19 ; TertuUian, Ad Nationes, ii. 12 ; L. Preller, RSmiscie Mythologie,^ ii. 11. 
 
 '^ Palladius, De re rustica, books iii. and iv. passim, 
 
 ^ See TAe Golden BougA,^ ii. 204 s^q. 
 
IX VIOLENT ENDS OF KINGS 269 
 
 February was a mitigation of an older custom of 
 putting him to death is strongly confirmed by the 
 evidence that in the old calendar the ceremony followed 
 immediately after the Saturnalia, and that the King of 
 the Saturnalia, as he was called, had formerly to cut 
 his own throat in public at the end of his brief reign. 
 
 If I am right in supposing that in very early times 
 the old Latin kings personated a god and were regularly 
 put to death in that character, a new light is thrown on 
 the mysterious or violent ends to which so many of the 
 Roman monarchs are said to have come. Too much 
 stress should not, however, be laid on such legends, 
 for, in a turbulent state of society, kings, like com- 
 moners, are apt to be knocked on the head for much 
 sounder reasons than a claim to divinity. Still it is 
 worth while to note that Romulus is said to have 
 vanished mysteriously or to have been cut to pieces by 
 the patricians whom he had offended ; ^ and further, 
 that the seventh of July, the day on which he perished, 
 was a festival which bore some resemblance to the 
 Saturnalia. For on that day the female slaves were 
 allowed to take certain remarkable liberties. They 
 dressed up as free women in the attire of matrons and 
 maids, and in this guise they went forth from the city, 
 scoffed and jeered at all whom they met, and engaged 
 among themselves in a fight, striking and throwing 
 stones at each other. Moreover, they feasted under a 
 wild fig tree, made use of a rod cut from the tree, 
 
 ' Livy, i. 16 ; Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. ii. 56 ; Plutarch, Romulus, 27 j 
 Florus, i. 1. 16 sq. See above, p. 205. 
 
270 THE NONAE CAPROTINAE lect. 
 
 perhaps to beat each other with, and offered the milky 
 juice of the tree in sacrifice to Juno Caprotina, whose 
 name appears to mean either the goddess of the goat 
 {caper) or the goddess of the wild fig tree ; for the 
 Romans called a wild fig tree a goat-fig {caprificus). 
 Hence the day was called the JNonae CaproHnae, after 
 the animal or the tree. The festival was not peculiar 
 to Rome, but was held by women throughout Latium.^ 
 It can hardly be dissociated from a custom which was 
 observed by ancient husbandmen at this season. They 
 sought to fertilise the fig trees or to ripen the figs by 
 hanging among the boughs of the trees strings of fruit 
 taken from a wild fig tree. The practice appears to be 
 very old. It has been employed in Greece both in 
 ancient and modern times, and Roman writers often 
 refer to it. Palladius recommends the solstice in June 
 as the best time for the operation ; Columella prefers 
 July.^ The wild fig tree is a male, and the cultivated 
 
 ' Varro, De lingua Ladna, vi. 18 ; Plutarch, Romulus, 29 ; id., Camillus, 33 ; 
 Macrobius, Saturn, i. 11. 36-40. 
 
 ^ Aristotle, Histor. Anim. v. 32, p. 557 b, ed. Bekker ; Theophrastus, Hist. 
 Plant, ii. 8 j id., De causis Plantaritm, ii, 9 ; Plutarch, ^uaest. Con-vi-v. vii. 2. 2 ^ 
 Pliny, Nat. Hist. xv. 79-81, xvi. 114, xvii. 256 ; Palladius, iv. lo. 28, vii. 5. 2 ; 
 Columella, xi. 2. 56 j Geoponica, iii. 6, x. 48. As to the practice in modern 
 Greece see P. de Tournefort, Relation d'un •voyage du Levant (Amsterdam, 1718), 
 i. 130. As to the process and its relation to the domestication and spread of the 
 fig tree, see Graf zu Solms - Laubach, " Die Herkunft, Domestication und 
 Verbreitung des gewohnlichen Feigenbaums " {_Ficus Carica, L.), Ahhandlungen der 
 kSniglichen Geselhdiaft der Wissenschajien ssu GSttingen, xxviii. (1882), pp. 1-106. 
 This last writer thinks that the operation was not practised by Italian husbandmen, 
 because it is not mentioned by Cato and Varro. But their silence can hardly out- 
 weigh the express mention and recommendation of it by Palladius and Columella. 
 Theophrastus, it is true, says that the process was not in use in Italy (^Hist. 
 Plantarum, ii. 8. i), but he can scarcely have had exact information on the subject. 
 Caprificatio, as it is called, is still employed by the Neapolitan peasantry, though it 
 seems to be unknown In northern Italy. It is practised in Morocco on Midsummer 
 Day, bunches of figs from the male trees being then hung in straw on the female 
 
IX FERTILISATION OF THE FIG 271 
 
 fig tree is a female, and the fertilisation is eiFected by 
 insects which are engendered in the fruit of the male 
 tree and convey the pollen to the blossom of the 
 female.-' Thus the placing of wild figs, laden with 
 pollen and insects, among the boughs of the cultivated 
 fig is, like the artificial fertilisation of the date-palm, 
 a real marriage of the trees ; and it may well have 
 been regarded as such by the peasants of antiquity 
 long before the true theory of the process was dis- 
 covered. 
 
 Now the fig is an important article of diet in 
 countries bordering on the Mediterranean. When 
 Sandanis the Lydian attempted to dissuade Croesus 
 from marching against the Persians, he represented 
 to him that there was nothing to be gained by con- 
 quering the inhabitants of a barren country who 
 neither drank wine nor ate figs.^ An Arab com- 
 mentator on the Coran observes that " God swears 
 by these two trees, the fig and the olive, because among 
 
 trees (Budgett Meakin, Tie Moors (London, 1902), p. 258). The Latin name 
 *' goat-fig " (cfl/T^/fcwj) applied to the wild fig tree may well be derived from the 
 notion that the tree is a male who mates with the female tree. Similarly, the 
 Messenians called the tree simply " he-goat " (Tp&yo^). See Pausanias, iv. 20. 1-3. 
 
 ^ A. Engler, in V. Hehn's Kulturffianzen und Hausthiere'' (Berlin, 1902), p. 99. 
 Compare Graf zu Solms-Laubach, of, cit. Professor H. Marshall Ward has 
 furnished me with an exact description of the process, which will be printed in the 
 third edition of The Golden Bough. The ancients were well aware of the production 
 of the insects in the wild fig tree and their transference to the cultivated fig tree. 
 Sometimes, instead of fertilising the trees by hand, they contented themselves with 
 planting wild fig trees near cultivated fig trees, so that the fertilisation was effected 
 by the wind, which blew the insects from the male to the female trees. See 
 Aristotle, I.e. ; Theophrastus, De causis Plantarum, ii. 9 ; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xv. 
 79-81 J Palladius, iv. 10. 28. The suggestion that the festival of the seventh of 
 July was connected with this horticultural operation is due to L. Preller [RSmiscAe 
 Mythologies i. 287). 
 
 2 Herodotus, i. 71. 
 
272 DEATH OF ROMULUS lect. 
 
 fruit trees they surpass all the rest. They relate that a 
 basket of figs was offered to the prophet Mohammed, 
 and when he had eaten one he bade his comrades do 
 the same, saying, ' Truly, if I were to say that any 
 fruit had come down from Paradise, I would say it of 
 the fig.' " ^ Hence it would be natural that a process 
 supposed, not without reason, to be essential to the 
 ripening of a favourite fruit should be the occasion of 
 a popular festival. We may surmise that the licence 
 allowed to slave women on this day formed part of an 
 ancient Saturnalia which was supposed to fertilise the 
 figs by homoeopathic magic. 
 
 The association of the death of Romulus with the 
 festival of the wild fig tree can hardly be accidental, 
 especially as he and his twin-brother were said to have 
 been suckled by the she-wolf under a fig tree, which 
 was always shown as one of the sacred objects of the 
 city and received offerings of milk down to late times.^ 
 The clue to the association is probably furnished by the 
 old belief that the king is responsible for the fruits of 
 the earth. We may conjecture that in Hke manner the 
 Roman king was expected to make the fig trees 
 blossom and bear figs, and that in order to do so he 
 went through a form of Sacred Marriage on the July 
 
 ^ Zamachschar, cited by Graf zu Solms-Laubach, op, cit, p. 82. For more 
 evidence as to the fig in antiquity see V. Hehn, Kulturfjianzen und Haustkiere^ 
 pp. 94 sqq. 
 
 ^ Varro, De lingua Latina, v. 54 j Livy, i. 4. 5 ; Ovid, Fasti, ii. 411 sj. ; Pliny, 
 Nat. Hist. XV. 77 j Festus, p. 270, ed. C. O. MuUer ; Tacitus, Annals, xiii. 58 ; 
 Servius, on Virgil, Aen. viii. 90 ; Plutarch, Romulus, 4 ; id., Stuaest. Rem. 57 ; 
 Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. iii. 71. 5. AH the Roman writers speak of the tree 
 as a cultivated fig ijicus), not a wild fig {caprificus), and Dionysius agrees with them. 
 Plutarch alone [Romulus, 4) describes it as a wild fig tree [ipivebi). 
 
IX VIOLENT ENDS OF KINGS 273 
 
 day when the husbandmen resorted to a more efficacious 
 means of producing the same result. The ceremony 
 of the Sacred Marriage need not have been restricted 
 to a single day in the year. It may well have been 
 repeated for many different crops and fruits. If the 
 queen of Athens was annually married to the god of 
 the vine, why should not the king of Rome have 
 wedded the goddess of the fig ? 
 
 We have still to ask, Why should the king's wed- 
 ding-day be also the day of his death } The problem 
 cannot be solved till the wider question has been 
 answered. Why has it been customary to slay the divine 
 king or human god .'' That question I shall endeavour 
 briefly to answer a little later on. Here I wiU only 
 say that elsewhere the marriage of the sacred king or 
 divine man has been often followed at a brief interval 
 by his violent death. 
 
 Another Roman king who perished by violence was 
 Tatius, the Sabine colleague of Romulus. It is said 
 that he was at Lavinium offering a public sacrifice to 
 the ancestral gods, when some men to whom he had 
 given umbrage despatched him with the sacrificial knives 
 and spits which they had snatched from the altar.^ 
 The occasion and the manner of his death suggest 
 that the slaughter may have been a sacrifice rather 
 than an assassination. Tullus Hostilius was commonly 
 said to have been killed by lightning, but many held 
 that he was murdered at the instigation of his successor 
 
 ' Livy, i. 14. I sq. ; Dionysius Halicam. Ant. Rom. ii. 52. 3 ; Plutarch, 
 Romulus, 23. 
 
 T 
 
274 VIOLENT ENDS OF KINGS lect. 
 
 Ancus Marcius.^ Speaking of Numa, Plutarch observes 
 that " his fame was enhanced by the fortunes of the 
 later kings. For of the five who reigned after him the 
 last was deposed and ended his life in exile ; and of the 
 remaining four not one died a natural death, for three 
 of them were assassinated and TuUus Hostilius was 
 consumed by thunderbolts." ^ This implies that King 
 Ancus Marcius, as well as Tarquin the Elder and 
 Servius TuUius, perished by the hand of an assassin. 
 No other ancient historian, so far as I know, records 
 this of Ancus Marcius, though one of them says that 
 the king " was carried off by an untimely death." * 
 Tarquin the Elder was slain by two murderers whom 
 the sons of his predecessor, Ancus Marcius, had hired 
 to do the deed.* Lastly, Servius Tullius came by his 
 end in circumstances which, as Mr. A. B. Cook was 
 the first to point out, recall the combat for the priest- 
 hood of Diana at Nemi. He was attacked by his 
 successor and killed by his orders, though not by his 
 hand. Moreover, he lived among the oak groves of 
 the Esquiline Hill at the head of the Slope of Virbius, 
 and it was here, beside a sanctuary of Diana, that he 
 was slain. ^ 
 
 These legends of the violent ends of the Roman 
 
 ' Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom. iii. 35 ; Zonaras, AnnaUs, vii. 6. As to his 
 reported death by lightning, see above, pp. 204 sq. 
 
 ^ Plutarch, Numa, 22. I have pruned the luxuriant periods in which Plutarch 
 dwells, with edifying unction, on the righteous visitation of God which overtook 
 that early agnostic Servius Tullius, 
 
 ^ Aurelius Victor, De viris illustribm, v. 5. 
 
 * Livy, i. 40 ; Dionysius Halicarn. Ant. Rom, iii. 73. 
 
 ^ Livy, i. 48 J Dionysius Halicarn, Ant. Rom. iv. 38 sq. ; Solinus, i. 25, See 
 Mr, A. B. Cook, in Classical Review, xvi. (1902), p. 380, note 3. 
 
IX ORDEAL OF BATTLE 275 
 
 kings suggest that the contest by which they gained the 
 crown may sometimes have been a mortal combat 
 rather than a race. It would not be surprising if 
 among the early Latins the claim to the kingdom 
 should often have been settled by single combat ; for 
 down to historical times their kinsfolk the Umbrians 
 regularly submitted their private disputes to the ordeal 
 of battle, and he who cut his adversary's throat was 
 thought thereby to have proved the justice of his cause 
 beyond the reach of cavil.^ 
 
 A parallel to what I conceive to have been the rule 
 of the old Latin kingship is furnished by a West 
 African custom of to-day. When the king of the 
 northern province of Congo has been elected, he has 
 to take his stand at a large tree near the entrance to 
 a sacred grove. Here, encouraged by one of his 
 ministers, he must fight all rivals who present them- 
 I selves to dispute his right to the throne.^ In England 
 down to the nineteenth century we had a relic of a 
 similar custom in the champion who at the corona- 
 tion of a king or queen threw down his glove and 
 challenged to mortal combat all who disputed the king's 
 or queen's right to the crown, I believe the practice 
 was discontinued for the first time at the coronation of 
 
 ^ Nicolaus Damascenus, in Stobasus, FlorUegium, x. 70 ; Fragmenta Historicorum 
 Graecorum, ed. C. MiiUer, iii. 457. Compare H. Jordan, Die KiSnige im alten Italkn 
 (Berlin, 1887), pp. 44. zq. In tliis his last work Jordan argues that the Umbrian 
 practice, combined with the rule of the Arician priesthood, throws light, on the 
 existence and nature of the kingship among the ancient Latins, I am happy 
 to agree with so learned and judicious a scholar. 
 
 ^ From an unpublished manuscript of Mr. R. E. Dennet in the possession of the 
 Folk-lore Society. I have to thank Mr. N. W. Thomas for his kindness in copying 
 out and sending me the passage, of which I have given the substance in the text. 
 
276 THE KING'S CHAMPION lect. 
 
 his present Majesty. So tenacious is royalty of forms 
 that may be traced back to a barbarous antiquity. 
 Pepys in his Diary describes as an eyewitness the cere- 
 mony of the challenge at the coronation of Charles the 
 Second. He says, " And many fine ceremonies there 
 was of the heralds leading up people before him, and 
 bowing ; and my Lord of Albemarle's going to the 
 kitchen and eating a bit of the first dish that was to go 
 to the King's table. But, above all, was these three 
 Lords, Northumberland and Suffolk, and the Duke of 
 Ormond, coming before the courses on horseback and 
 staying so all dinner-time, and at last bringing up 
 (Dymock) the King's Champion, all in armour on 
 horseback, with his speare and targett carried before 
 him. And a Herald proclaims ' That if any dare deny 
 Charles Stewart to be lawful King of England, here was 
 a Champion that would fight with him ' ; and with these 
 words, the Champion flings down his gauntlet, and all 
 this he do three times in his going up towards the 
 King's table. To which when he is come, the King 
 drinks to him, and then sends him the cup, which is of 
 gold, and he drinks it off, and then rides back again 
 with the cup in his hand." ■^ 
 
 In the foregoing inquiry we have seen reason to 
 suppose that the Roman kings personated not only 
 Jupiter, the god of the oak, but also Saturn, the god 
 of the seed. The question naturally arises. Did they do 
 so simultaneously or successively .? In other words, Did 
 
 1 Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke, Second Edition 
 (London, 1828), i. 193 sq. (under April 23rd, 1661). 
 
IX SATURN AND JUPITER 277 
 
 the same king represent Jupiter at one time of the year 
 and Saturn at another ? or did the kings of a certain 
 period or a certain dynasty represent Jupiter only, while 
 the kings of another period or another dynasty per- 
 sonated Saturn alone ? The documents at our disposal 
 do not allow us to answer these questions definitely. 
 But tradition certainly points to the conclusion that in 
 Latium and perhaps in Italy generally Saturn was an 
 older god than Jupiter, just as in Greece Cronus appears 
 to have preceded Zeus. Saturn and Cronus were per- 
 haps the gods of an indigenous and agricultural people; 
 while Zeus and Jupiter were the deities of a ruder 
 invading race, who swarmed down into the fertile lands 
 of Greece and Italy from the forests of central Europe, 
 bringing their sylvan divinities with them, and displacing 
 the ancient native god of the seed by their own imported 
 god of the oak and the thunder. If that was so, we 
 may suppose that before the incursion of these northern 
 barbarians the old kings of Greece and Italy personated 
 Cronus and Saturn, but that after the conquest they or 
 their successors adopted the gods of the conquerors 
 and played the parts of Zeus and Jupiter. However, 
 as I have said, the evidence is too scanty to allow 
 of a positive decision in a matter of so much 
 obscurity. 
 
 This must conclude our examination of the sacred 
 character of the early Latin kings in general. 
 
 I propose now to recapitulate the conclusions to 
 which the inquiry has thus far led us, and drawing 
 
278 PRIMITIVE MAGIC lect. 
 
 together the scattered rays of light to turn them on 
 the dark figure of the priest of Nemi. 
 
 We have found that at an early stage of society 
 men, ignorant of the secret processes of nature and 
 of the narrow limits within which it is in our power 
 to control and direct them, have commonly arrogated 
 to themselves functions which in the present state 
 of knowledge we should deem superhuman or divine. 
 The illusion has been fostered and maintained by the 
 same causes which begot it, namely, the marvellous 
 order and uniformity with which Nature conducts her 
 operations, the wheels of her great machine revolving 
 with a smoothness and precision which enable the 
 patient observer to anticipate in general the season, if 
 not the very hour, when they wLll bring round the fiilfil- 
 ment of his hopes or the accomplishment of his fears. 
 The regularly recurring events of this great cycle, or 
 rather series of cycles, soon stamp themselves even 
 on the dull mind of the savage. He foresees them, 
 and foreseeing them mistakes the desired recurrence 
 for an effect of his own will, and the dreaded recurrence 
 for an effect of the will of his enemies. Thus the 
 springs which set the vast machine in motion, though 
 they lie far beyond our ken, shrouded in a mystery 
 which we can never hope to penetrate, appear to 
 ignorant man to lie within his reach : he fancies he can 
 touch them and so work by magic art all manner of 
 good to himself and evil to his foes. In time the 
 fallacy of this belief becomes apparent to him : he 
 discovers that there are things he cannot do, pleasures 
 
IX EVOLUTION OF KINGS 279 
 
 which he is unable of himself to procure, pains which 
 even the most potent magician is powerless to avoid. 
 The unattainable good, the inevitable ill, are now 
 ascribed by him to the action of invisible powers, whose 
 favour is joy and life, whose anger is misery and death. 
 Thus magic tends to be displaced by religion, and the 
 sorcerer by the priest. At this stage of thought the 
 ultimate causes of things are conceived to be personal 
 beings, many in number and often discordant in charac- 
 ter, who partake of the nature and even of the frailty of 
 man, though their might is greater than his, and their 
 life far exceeds the span of his ephemeral existence. 
 Their sharply marked individualities, their clear-cut 
 outlines have not yet begun, under the powerful solvent 
 of philosophy, to melt and coalesce into that single 
 unknown substratum of phenomena, which, according 
 to the qualities with which our imagination invests it, 
 goes by one or other of the high-sounding names 
 which the wit of man has devised to hide his ignorance. 
 Accordingly, so long as men look on their gods as 
 beings akin to themselves and not raised to an un- 
 approachable height above them, they believe it to be 
 possible for those of their number who surpass their 
 fellows to attain to divine rank after death, or even in 
 life. Incarnate human deities of this latter sort may be 
 said to halt midway between the age of magic and the 
 age of religion. If they bear the names and display the 
 pomp of deities, the powers which they are supposed to 
 wield are commonly those of their predecessor the 
 magician. Like him, they are expected to guard their 
 
28o THE KING OF THE WOOD lect. 
 
 people against hostile enchantments, to heal them in 
 sickness, to bless them with offspring, and to provide 
 them with an abundant supply of food by regulating 
 the weather and performing the other ceremonies which 
 are deemed necessary to ensure the fertility of the earth 
 and the multiplication of animals. Men who are credited 
 with powers so lofty and far-reaching naturally hold the 
 highest place in the land, and while the rift between the 
 spiritual and the temporal spheres has not yet deepened 
 too far, they are supreme in civil as well as religious 
 matters : in a word, they are kings as well as gods. 
 Thus the divinity which hedges a king has its roots 
 deep down in human history, and long ages pass before 
 these are sapped by a profounder view of nature and 
 of man. 
 
 In the classical period of Greek and Latin antiquity 
 the reign of kings was for the most part a thing of the 
 past ; yet the stories of their lineage, titles, and preten- 
 sions suffice to prove that they too claimed to rule by 
 divine right and to exercise superhuman powers. Hence 
 we may without undue temerity assume that the King 
 of the Wood at Nemi, though shorn in later times of 
 his glory and fallen on evil days, represented a long 
 line of sacred kings who had once received not only the 
 homage but the adoration of their subjects in return 
 for the manifold blessings which they were supposed to 
 dispense. What little we know of the functions of 
 Diana in the Arician grove seems to prove that she was 
 here conceived as a goddess of fertility, and particularly 
 as a divinity of childbirth. It is reasonable therefore to 
 
IX IN RELATION TO THE OAK 281 
 
 suppose that in the discharge of these important duties 
 she was assisted by her priest, the two figuring as King 
 and Queen of the Wood in a solemn marriage which 
 was intended to make the earth gay with the blossoms 
 of spring and the fruits of autumn, and to gladden the 
 hearts of men and women with healthful offspring. 
 
 If the priest of Nemi posed not merely as a king, 
 but as a god of the grove, we have still to ask, What 
 deity in particular did he personate ? The answer of 
 antiquity is that he represented Virbius, the consort or 
 lover of Diana. But this does not help us much, for of 
 Virbius we know little more than the name. A clue to 
 the mystery is perhaps supplied by the vestal fire which 
 burned in the grove. For the perpetual holy fires of 
 the Aryans appear to have been commonly kindled and 
 fed with oak wood,^ and we have seen that in Rome 
 itself, not many miles from Nemi, the fuel of the vestal 
 fire consisted of oaken sticks or logs, which in early 
 days the holy virgins probably gathered or cut in the 
 coppices of oak that once covered the Seven Hills. But 
 the ritual of the various Latin towns appears to have 
 been marked by great uniformity ; hence it is reasonable 
 to conclude that wherever in Latium a vestal fire was 
 maintained, it was fed,. as at Rome, with wood of the 
 sacred oak. If this was so at Nemi, it becomes probable 
 that the hallowed grove there consisted of an oak wood, 
 and that therefore the tree which the King of the Wood 
 
 ^ See The Golden Bought iii. 347-349, where, however, the statement as to the 
 universal use of oak wood in kindling the need-iire is too absolute, exceptions having 
 since come to my knowledge. These will be noticed in the third edition of The 
 Golden Bough, 
 
282 HUMAN JUPITERS lect. 
 
 had to guard at the peril of his life was itself an oak. 
 Now the oak was the sacred tree of Jupiter, the supreme 
 god of the Latins. Hence it follows that the King of 
 the Wood, whose life was bound up in a fashion with 
 an oak, personated no less a deity than Jupiter himself 
 At least the evidence, slight as it is, seems to point to 
 this conclusion. The old Alban dynasty of the Silvii or 
 Woods, with their crown of oak leaves, appears to have 
 aped the style and emulated the powers of Latian 
 Jupiter, who dwelt on the top of the Alban Mount. It 
 is not impossible that, as Mr. A. B. Cook has suggested, 
 the King of the Wood, who guarded the sacred oak a 
 little lower down the mountain, was the lawful successor 
 and representative of this ancient line of the Silvii or 
 Woods.'^ At all events, if I am right in supposing that 
 he passed for a human Jupiter, it would appear that 
 Virbius, with whom legend identified him, was nothing 
 but a local form of Jupiter, considered perhaps in his 
 original aspect as a god of the greenwood. 
 
 The conclusion that the priestly kings of Nemi were 
 regarded as a series of human Jupiters, who represented 
 the great god on earth, and came, one after the other, to 
 a violent end in that capacity, is singularly confirmed 
 by a passage of Plautus. In the Casina of that 
 dramatist an old man promises to protect a slave against 
 the anger of the rest of his family. " I'll be your 
 Jupiter," says he, " and so long as I am propitious, you 
 need not care a straw for these lesser gods." " That's 
 
 ^ A. B. Cook, "Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak," Classical Review, xviii. (1904), pp. 
 363 s^. 
 
IX HUMAN JUPITERS 283 
 
 all nonsense," retorts the slave, " as if you did not know 
 how human Jupiters die a sudden death. When you 
 are a dead Jupiter and your kingdom has passed to 
 others, who will there be to protect me ? " ^ Here the 
 slave alludes, as a matter of common notoriety, to 
 certain human Jupiters who died sudden deaths and 
 whose kingdom passed to others. Now, who were 
 these mortal Jupiters .'' If they were the priests of 
 Nemi personating the great god, the allusion would be 
 understood by every one, and would be particularly apt 
 in the mouth of a slave, himself a member of the class 
 from which these human Jupiters were drawn. If the 
 allusion was not to them, it remains, as far as I know, 
 inexplicable. I need hardly point out how exactly a 
 dynasty of mortal Jupiters would fit on to an older 
 dynasty of mortal Saturns, if at Nemi, as elsewhere 
 perhaps in Latium, the earliest kings personated the god 
 of the seed and were put to death in that character at 
 the Saturnalia or festival of sowing long before their 
 successors lived and died as gods of the oak. 
 
 The hypothesis that in later times at all events the 
 King of the Wood played the part of the oak god 
 Jupiter is confirmed by an examination of his divine 
 partner Diana. For two distinct lines of argument 
 converge to show that if Diana was a queen of the 
 woods in general, she was at Nemi a goddess of the oak 
 in particular. In the first place, she bore the title of 
 Vesta, and as such presided over a perpetual fire, which 
 
 1 Plautus, Casina, ii. 5. 23-29. I have to thank my friend Mr. A. B. Cook for 
 calling my attention to this important passage. 
 
2 84 DIANA AND THE OAK lect. 
 
 we have seen reason to believe was fed with oak wood.^ 
 In the second place, the nymph Egeria at Nemi appears 
 to have been merely a form of Diana, and Egeria is 
 definitely said to have been a Dryad, a nymph of the 
 oak.^ Elsewhere in Italy the goddess Diana had her 
 home on oak-clad mountains. Thus Mount Algidus, 
 a spur of the Alban hills, was covered in antiquity with 
 dark forests of oak, both of the evergreen and the 
 deciduous sort. In winter the snow lay long on these 
 cold hills, and their gloomy oak woods were believed to 
 be a favourite haunt of Diana, as they have been of 
 brigands in modern times.^ Again, Mount Tifata, the 
 long abrupt ridge of the Apennines which looks down 
 on the Campanian plain behind Capua, was wooded of 
 old with evergreen oaks, among which Diana had a 
 temple.* On the whole, then, we conclude that at 
 Nemi the King of the Wood personated the oak god 
 Jupiter and mated with the oak goddess Diana in the 
 sacred grove. An echo of their mystic union has come 
 down to us in the legend of the loves of Numa and 
 Egeria, who, according to some, had their try sting-place 
 in these holy woods.^ 
 
 To this theory it may naturally be objected that 
 
 ^ See above, pp. 209, 281. 
 
 ^ See above, p. 196. 
 
 3 Horace, Odes, i. 21. 5 j^., iii. 23. 9 jy., iv. 4. 5 sq.. Carmen Saeculare, 69 ; 
 Livy, iii. 25. 6-8 j E. H. Bunbury, in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geo- 
 graphy, s.nj. "Algidus.'' 
 
 * Festus, !.v. "Tifata," p. 366, ed. C. O. Miiller ; Velleius Paterculus, ii. 25. 
 4 ; E. H, Bunbury, op. cit, s.v. " Tifata." For more evidence of the association of 
 Diana with the oak, see Mr. A. B. Cook, " Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak," Classical 
 Re'viezu, xviii. (1904), pp. 369 sq. 
 
 ' See above, pp. 22, 195, 217. 
 
IX JUPITER AND JANUS 285 
 
 the divine consort of Jupiter was not Diana but Juno, 
 and that if Diana had a mate at all he might be expected 
 to bear the name not of Jupiter but of Dianus or Janus, 
 the latter of these forms being merely a corruption of 
 the former. All this is true, but the objection may be 
 parried by observing that the two pairs of deities, Jupiter 
 and Juno on the one side, and Dianus and Diana, or 
 Janus and Jana, on the other side, are merely duphcates 
 of each other, their names and their functions being in 
 substance and origin identical. With regard to their 
 names, all four of them come from the same Aryan 
 root DI, meaning bright, which occurs in the names of 
 the corresponding Greek deities, Zeus and his old 
 female consort Dione.^ In regard to their functions, 
 Juno and Diana were both goddesses of fecundity and 
 childbirth, and both were sooner or later identified with 
 the moon." As to the true nature and functions of 
 Janus, the ancients themselves were puzzled ; ' and 
 where they hesitated, it is not for us confidently to 
 
 ^ The original root appears plainly in Diovis and Diespiter, the older forms of 
 Jupiter (Varro, De lingua Latina, v. 66 ; Aulus Gellius, v. 12). The form Dianus 
 is attested by an inscription found at Aquileia (C./.i. v.No. 783), and the form Jana 
 by Varro (De re rustica, i. 37. 3) and Macrobius [Saturn, i. 9. S). As to the ety- 
 mology of these names, see Ch. Ploix, " Les dieux qui proviennent de la racine 
 DIV" Memoires de la Societe de Linguistique de Paris, i. (1868), pp. 213-222 ; 
 G. Curtius, Grumsilge aer grieci. Etymologief pp. 236 j^., 6i6 sq. ; A. VaniCek, 
 Griechisch- Lateiniscies Etymalogisches Wdrterbmh, i. 353 sqq.; J. S. Speijer, "Le 
 dieu romain Janus," Re-vue de I'Hittoire da Religions, xxvi. (1892), pp. 37-41 ; H. 
 Usener, GMernamen (Bonn, i8g6), pp. 16, 35 sq., 326 ; P. Kretschmer, Einleitung 
 in die Gesckichte der griechischen Sprache (GBttingen, 1896), pp. 78 sqq., 91, i6i sq. 
 Messrs. Speijer and Kretschmer reject the derivation of Janus from the root DI. 
 
 " As to Juno in these aspects, see L. Preller, RiSmische Mythlogie,^ i. 271 sqq. ; 
 G. Wissowa, Religion mid Kultus der RSmer, pp. 117 sqq. ; W. H. Roscher, Lexikon 
 d.griech. u. rSm. Mythohgie, ii. 578 sqq. As to Diana, see above, pp. 13 sqq., 16 sqq. 
 
 3 Ovid, Fasti, i. 89 sqq. ; Macrobius, Sat. i. 9 ; Servius, on Virgil, Aen. vii, 610 ; 
 Joannes Lydus, De mensibus, iv. 1 sq. 
 
286 JUPITER AND JANUS lect. 
 
 decide. But the view mentioned by Varro ^ that Janus 
 was the god of the sky is supported not only by the 
 etymological identity of his name with that of the sky 
 god Jupiter, but also by the relation in which he 
 appears to have stood to Jupiter's two mates, Juno and 
 Juturna. For the epithet Junonian bestowed on Janus ^ 
 points to a marriage union between the two deities ; and 
 according to one account Janus was the husband of the 
 water nymph Juturna,^ who according to others was 
 beloved by Jupiter.* Moreover, Janus, like Jove, was 
 regularly invoked, and commonly spoken of, under the 
 title of Father.^ Indeed, he was identified with Jupiter, 
 not merely by the logic of a Christian doctor, the great 
 Augustine himself,® but by a pagan worshipper who 
 dedicated an offering to Jupiter Dianus.'^ A trace of 
 his relation to the oak may be found in the oak woods 
 of the Janiculum, the hill on the right bank of the 
 Tiber, where Janus is said to have reigned as a king in 
 the remotest ages of Italian history.® 
 
 Thus, if I am right, the same ancient pair of deities 
 
 ^ Varro, quoted by Augustine, De cimtate Dei, vii. 28 ; Joannes Lydus, De 
 mensibm, iv. 2. Compare Macrobius, Sat. I. 9. 11, 
 
 2 Macrobius, Sat. i. 9. 15, i. 15. 19 ; Servius, on Virgil, Aen. vii. 610 ; Joannes 
 Lydus, De mensibus, iv. I. 
 
 3 Arnobius, Adversus Nationes, iii. 29. 
 
 * Virgil, Aen. xii. 138 sqq. j Ovid, Fasti, ii. 585 sqq. 
 
 ^ Cato, De agri cultura, 134 ; Virgil, Aen. viii. 357 ; Horace, Epist. i. 16. 59, 
 compare Sat. ii. 6. 20 ; Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxvi. 28 ; Juvenal, vi. 394 ; Martial, i. 
 28. 6 sq. ; Aulus Gellius, v. 12. 5 j Arnobius, Ad-uersus Nationes, iii. 29 j H. Dessau, 
 Inscriptimes Latinae Sekctae, Nos. 3320, 3322, 3323, 3324, 3325, 5047 ; G. Henzen, 
 Acta Fratrum Arvalium, p. 144 ; Athenasus, xv. 46, p. 692 d e. 
 
 * Augustine, De cimtate Dei, vii. 9 sq. "• C.I.L. v. No. 783. 
 
 8 Macrobius, Sat. i. 7. 19 ; Servius, on Virgil, Aen. viii. 319 and 357 ; Arnobius, 
 Ad-uersus Nationes, iii. 29 ; Athenseus, xv. 46, p. 692 d. As to the oak woods of 
 the Janiculum, see Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 37 ; O. Richter, Topographic der Stadt 
 JRom^ (Munich, 1901), p. 211. 
 
IX DUPLICATION OF DEITIES 287 
 
 was variously known among the Greek and Italian 
 peoples as Zeus and Dione, Jupiter and Juno, or Dianus 
 (Janus) and Diana (Jana), the names of the deities 
 being identical in substance, though varying in form 
 with the dialect of the particular tribe which worshipped 
 them. At first, when the peoples dwelt near each 
 other, the difference between the deities would be hardly 
 more than one of name ; in other words, it would be 
 almost purely dialectical. But the gradual dispersion 
 of the tribes, and their consequent isolation from each 
 other, would favour the growth of divergent modes of 
 conceiving and worshipping the gods whom they had 
 carried with them from their old home, so that in time 
 discrepancies of myth and ritual would tend to spring 
 up and thereby to convert a nominal into a real dis- 
 tinction between the divinities. Accordingly when, 
 with the slow progress of culture, the long period of 
 barbarism and separation was passing away, and the 
 rising political power of a single strong community had 
 begun to draw or hammer its weaker neighbours into a 
 nation, the confluent peoples would throw their gods, 
 like their dialects, into a common stock ; and thus it 
 might come about that the same ancient deities, which 
 their forefathers had worshipped together before the 
 dispersion, would now be so disguised by the accumu- 
 lated effect of dialectical and religious divergencies that 
 their original identity might fail to be recognised, and 
 they would take their places side by side as independent 
 divinities in the national pantheon.^ 
 
 1 Mr. A. B. Cook, who accepts my theory of the original identity of Jupiter and 
 
288 JJNUS AND JANUA lect. 
 
 This duplication of deities, the result of the final 
 fusion of kindred tribes who had long lived apart, would 
 account for the appearance of Janus beside Jove, and of 
 Diana or Jana beside Juno in the Roman religion. At 
 least this appears to be a more probable theory than the 
 opinion, which has found favour with some modern 
 scholars, that Janus was originally nothing but the god 
 of doors.^ That a deity of his dignity and importance, 
 whom the Romans revered as a god of gods and the 
 father of his people, should have started in life as a 
 humble, though doubtless respectable, doorkeeper, 
 appears to me, I confess, very unlikely. So lofty an 
 end hardly consorts with so lowly a beginning. It is 
 more probable that the doOr {^janud) got its name from 
 Janus than that he got his from it. This view is 
 strengthened by a consideration of the word janua 
 itself. The regular word for door is the same in all 
 the languages of the Aryan family from India to 
 Ireland. It is dur in Sanscrit, thura in Greek, thUr in 
 German, door in English, dorus in old Irish, and foris in 
 Latin.^ Yet besides this ordinary name for door, which 
 the Latins shared with all their Aryan brethren, they had 
 also the term janua, which has nothing corresponding 
 
 Janus, Juno and Diana, has suggested that Janus and Diana were the deities of the 
 aborigines of Rome, Jupiter and Juno the deities of their conquerors. See his article, 
 "Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oalc," Classical Review^ xviii. (1904), pp. 367 jy. 
 
 ^ This is the opinion of Dr. W. H. Roscher {Lexikon d. griech. und rdm. Mythologies 
 ii. 47), Mr. W. Warde Fowler {Roman Festi-vah of the Period of the Republic, pp. z82 
 sqq,\ and Prof. G. Wissowa [Religion und Kuttus der RSmer, p. 96). It is rejected for the 
 reasons given in the text by Ph. Buttmann (Mythologus, ii. pp. 72, 79) and S. Linde 
 [De Jano summo Romanorum deo, pp. 50 Jfy.). 
 
 ^ G. Curtius, Grund%uge der griechischen Etymologic,'' p. 258 ; O. Schrader, Real- 
 lexikon der Indogermanischen Altertumskunde (Strasburg, 1901), p. 866. 
 
IX JANUS AND JANUA 289 
 
 to it in any Indo-European speech. The word has the 
 appearance of being an adjectival form derived from 
 the noun Janus. I conjecture that it may have been 
 customary to set up an image or symbol of Janus at 
 the principal door of the house in order to place the 
 entrance under the protection of the great god. A 
 door thus guarded might be known as a janud forts, 
 that is, ^.januan door, and the phrase might in time be 
 abridged mto janua, the noMxi for is or door being under- 
 stood but not expressed. From this to the use oi janua 
 to designate a door in general, whether guarded by an 
 image of Janus or not, would be an easy and natural 
 transition.^ If there is any truth in this conjecture, it 
 may explain very simply the origin of the double head 
 of Janus, which has so long taxed the ingenuity of 
 mythologists. When it had become customary to 
 guard the entrance of houses and towns by an image of 
 Janus, it might well be deemed necessary to make the 
 sentinel god look both ways, before and behind, at the 
 same time, in order that nothing should escape his 
 vigilant eye. For if the divine watchman always faced 
 in one direction only, it is easy to imagine what mischief 
 might have been wrought with impunity behind his back. 
 To apply these conclusions to the priest of Nemi, we 
 may suppose that as the mate of Diana he represented 
 originally Dianus or Janus rather than Jupiter, but that 
 
 ^ This explanation of the derivation of janua from Janus was suggested, but not 
 accepted by Ph. Buttmann {Mythokgus, ii. 79 sqq.). It occurred to me independently. 
 Mr. A. B. Cook also iams janua from Janus, but he would explain the derivation 
 by supposing that the lintel and two side-posts of a door represented a triple Janus. 
 See his article "Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak," Classical Remem, xviii. (1904), p. 369. 
 
 U 
 
290 DIANUS AND DIANA lect. 
 
 the difFerence between these deities was of old merely 
 superficial, going little deeper than the names, and 
 leaving practically unaffected the essential functions of 
 the god as a power of the sky, the thunder, and the 
 oak. If my analysis of this great divinity is correct, 
 the original element in his composite and apparently 
 incongruous nature was the oak. Time does not permit 
 me to set forth the reasons for this conclusion : you will 
 find them stated in the new edition of my book. In 
 any case it was natural that the human representative of 
 the oak god at Nemi should dwell, as we have seen 
 reason to believe he did, in an oak grove. His title of 
 King of the Wood clearly indicates the sylvan character 
 of the deity whom he served ; and since he could only 
 be assailed by him who had plucked the bough of a 
 certain holy tree, his own life might be said to be bound 
 up with that of the tree. Thus he not only served but 
 embodied the great Aryan god of the oak ; and as an 
 oak god he would mate with the oak goddess, whether 
 she went by the name of Egeria or Diana. Their 
 union, however consummated, would be deemed essential 
 to the fertility of the earth and the fecundity of man 
 and beast. Further, as the oak god had grown into a 
 god of the sky, the thunder, and the rain, so his human 
 representative would be required, like many other divine 
 kings, to cause the clouds to gather, the thunder to 
 peal, and the rain to descend in due season, that the 
 fields might bear fruit and the pastures be covered with 
 luxuriant herbage. It was appropriate therefore that 
 the worship of a god who dealt so much in water should 
 
IX NEMI AND ROME 291 
 
 be established on the shore of a lake, and that his divine 
 consort Egeria should be in one of her aspects the 
 nymph of a spring. 
 
 The reputed possessor of powers so exalted must 
 have been a very important personage ; and the evidence 
 I adduced in the first lecture suffices to prove that the 
 sanctuary at Nemi was one of the greatest and most 
 popular in Italy. It was fitting that the ancient Aryan 
 worship of the god of the oak and the dripping sky 
 should here linger so long in its early, almost Druidical, 
 form among the green woods and beside the still waters 
 of the Alban hills, until a great political and intellectual 
 revolution shifted the seat of Latin religion from the 
 forest to the city, from Nemi to Rome. 
 
 I have nearly done with the priest of Nemi. Yet 
 it may occur to you that I have left at least one 
 important question unanswered. If the priest embodied 
 a god, why expose his precious life to the risk of a 
 mortal combat which so often proved fatal to him .'' 
 why extinguish the divine light instead of husbanding 
 it to its close ? To ask this is to raise the question 
 why it has been customary in many parts of the world 
 to put divine kings and other human gods to a violent 
 death. I cannot discuss that question fully in the few 
 minutes that remain, but I will give my answer to it 
 very briefly. People feared that if they allowed the 
 man-god to die of sickness or old age, his divine spirit 
 might share the weakness of its bodily tabernacle, or 
 perhaps perish altogether, thereby entailing the most 
 
292 DIVINE KINGS SLAIN lect. 
 
 serious dangers on the whole body of his worshippers 
 who looked to him as their stay and support. Whereas, 
 by putting him to death while he was yet in full vigour 
 of body and mind, they hoped to catch his sacred 
 spirit uncorrupted by decay and to transfer it in that 
 state to his successor. Hence it has been customary 
 in some countries, first, to require that kings should be 
 of unblemished body and unimpaired mind, and second, 
 to kill them as soon as they begin to break up through 
 age and infirmity. A more stringent application of 
 these principles led in other places to a practice of 
 allowing the divine king or human god to live and 
 reign only for a fixed period, after which he was 
 inexorably put to death. The time of grace granted 
 to limited monarchs of this sort has varied from 
 several years to one year or even less. The late Miss 
 Mary Kingsley called my attention to a province of 
 the Congo region in West Africa where the king's life 
 and reign are limited to a single day. She was person- 
 ally acquainted with the chief who, a few years ago, 
 possessed but declined to exercise the fatal right of 
 succession.^ On the analogy of such customs I con- 
 jecture that the King of the Wood at Nemi formerly 
 reigned for a fixed period only, probably for a year, 
 and that he had to slay himself or be slain at a great 
 festival when his term of office was up. This con- 
 jecture is confirmed by the recently discovered account 
 of the Saturnalia of the Roman soldiers of which I 
 have already spoken; for that account makes it 
 
 1 R. E. Dennett, Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort (London, 1898), p. xxxii. 
 
IX THE KING OF CALICUT 293 
 
 probable that the King of the Saturnalia, as he was 
 called, personated Saturn, and that in early times he 
 was obliged, after a brief and licentious reign, to cut 
 his own throat on the altar at the god's great festival. 
 If that was so, a practice of the same sort may well 
 have existed at Nemi. Whether the king perished in 
 the character of Saturn or of Jupiter was a matter of 
 detail rather than of principle : perhaps, as I have con- 
 jectured, a dynasty of mortal Jupiters may have been 
 preceded by a dynasty of mortal Saturns. 
 I Further, I conjecture that the old rule of putting the 
 
 King of the Wood to death at the end of a fixed period 
 may afterwards have been mitigated into a custom of 
 letting him live and reign so long as he could defend 
 himself against all comers in single combat ; for if he 
 could do so, it might be taken as a sufficient proof that 
 he was still fit to discharge his important duties, and that 
 the dreaded decay of his divine powers had not yet set 
 in. This conjecture may be supported by the analogy 
 of the kingdom of Calicut, on the Malabar coast of 
 Southern India, where such a change of practice is 
 actually recorded to have taken place. In former days 
 the king of Calicut had to cut his throat in public at 
 the end of a reign of twelve years.'' But towards the 
 close of the seventeenth century the stern old rule had 
 been modified as follows. At the end of the twelve 
 years a great festival was celebrated with mirth and 
 jollity, and any man who pleased was free to attack the 
 
 ^ Barbosa, A Desert f Urn of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the beginning 
 of the Sixteenth Century (Hakluyt Society, 1866), pp. 172 sy. 
 
294 THE GREAT SACRIFICE lect. 
 
 king, and, if he killed him, to reign in his stead. The 
 permission, however, was little more than an empty 
 form, since the king took good care on these occa- 
 sions to surround himself with his guards. Still there 
 were always found men brave and reckless enough 
 to throw away their lives in a vain attempt to fight 
 their way through the soldiery and win for themselves 
 a crown at the point of the sword. The custom was 
 observed down to 1743. Exact records of the festivals 
 and of the number of men who perished at them are 
 still preserved in the archives of the royal family. 
 They were examined by Mr. W. Logan, with the 
 personal assistance of the reigning king, about twenty 
 years ago. As these festivals furnish the closest modern 
 parallel to the practice of Nemi, I propose to conclude 
 my lectures with a description of them.^ 
 
 The festival at which the king of Calicut staked his 
 crown and his life on the issue of battle was known as 
 the Maha Makham or Great Sacrifice. It fell every 
 twelfth year, when the planet Jupiter was in retrograde 
 motion in the sign of the Crab, and it lasted twenty- 
 eight days, culminating at the time of the eighth lunar 
 asterism in the month of Makaram. As the date of 
 the festival was determined by the position of Jupiter 
 in the sky, and the interval between two festivals was 
 
 ^ See W. Logan, Malabar (Madras, 1887), i. 162-169. The writer describes in 
 particular the festival of 1683, when fifty-five men perished in the manner 
 described. A brief account of the following festival, that of 1695, was published 
 by Alexander Hamilton, an English traveller who passed along the coast at that 
 time and heard the sound of the guns for two or three days in the distance. See 
 Alex. Hamilton, " A New Account of the East Indies," in Pinlcerton's Voyages and 
 Travels, viii. 374. 
 
IX THE KING'S STAR 295 
 
 twelve years, which is roughly Jupiter's period of 
 revolution round the sun,^ we may conjecture that the 
 splendid planet, which with the still brighter star of 
 Venus has lately been illuminating the western firmament 
 every evening, was supposed to be in a special sense 
 the king's star and to determine his destiny, the period 
 of its revolution in heaven corresponding to the period 
 of his reign on earth. However that may be, the 
 ceremony was observed with great pomp at the 
 Tirunavayi temple, on the north bank of the Ponnani 
 river. The spot is close to the present railway line. 
 As the train rushes by, you can just catch a glimpse 
 of the temple, almost hidden behind a clump of trees 
 on the river bank. From the western gateway of the 
 temple a perfectly straight road, hardly raised above 
 the surrounding rice-fields and shaded by a fine 
 avenue, runs for half a mile to a high ridge with a 
 precipitous bank, on which the outlines of three or 
 four terraces can still be traced. On the topmost of 
 these terraces the king took his stand on the eventful 
 day. The view which it commands is a fine one. 
 Across the level expanse of the rice-fields, with the 
 broad placid river winding through them, the eye 
 ranges eastward to high flat-topped tablelands, their 
 lower slopes embowered in woods, while afar off looms 
 the great chain of the Western Ghauts, and in the 
 furthest distance the Neilgherries or Blue Mountains, 
 hardly distinguishable from the azure of the sky above. 
 
 1 The sidereal revolution of Jupiter is completed in ii years 314.92 days 
 [Encyclofadia Britatmka,^ s.-v. "Astronomy," ii. 808). 
 
296 THE ATTACK ON THE KING lect. 
 
 But it was not to the distant prospect that the king's 
 eyes naturally turned at the fateful hour. His atten- 
 tion was arrested by a spectacle nearer at hand. For 
 all the plain below was alive with troops, their banners 
 waving gaily in the sun, the white tents of their many 
 camps standing sharply out against the green and gold 
 of the rice-fields. Forty thousand fighting men or more 
 were gathered there to defend the king. But if the 
 plain swarmed with soldiers, the road that cuts across 
 it from the temple to the king's stand was clear of 
 them. Not a soul was stirring on it. Each side of 
 the road was barred by palisades, and from the palisades 
 on either hand a long hedge of spears, held by strong 
 arms, projected into the empty road, their blades 
 meeting in the middle and forming a glittering arch of 
 steel. All was now ready. The king waved his sword. 
 At the same moment a great chain of massy gold, 
 enriched with bosses, was placed on an elephant at his 
 side. That was the signal. On the instant a stir 
 might be seen half a mile away at the gate of the 
 temple. A group of swordsmen, decked with flowers 
 and smeared with ashes, has stepped out from the 
 crowd. They have just partaken of their last meal on 
 earth, and they now receive the last blessings and fare- 
 wells of their friends. A moment more and they are 
 coming down the lane of spears, hewing and stabbing 
 right and left at the spearmen, winding and turning 
 and writhing among the blades as if they had no bones 
 in their bodies. It is all in vain. One after the other 
 they fall, some nearer the king, some further oft. 
 
IX THE SHADOW OF A CROWN 297 
 
 content to die, not for the shadow of a crown, but for 
 the mere sake of approving their dauntless valour and 
 swordsmanship to the world. On the ten last days of 
 the festival the same magnificent display of gallantry, 
 the same useless sacrifice of life, was repeated again and 
 again. Yet perhaps no sacrifice is wholly useless which 
 proves that there are men who prefer honour to life. 
 That is an Indian parallel to the priest of Nemi. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbas EfFendi, head of the Babites, 139 
 Abolition of kingship at Rome, 251 
 
 Achilles, 239 
 
 Adonis, 25, 26, 27 
 
 ^acus, 239 
 
 ^gisthus, 242 
 
 ^neas, his end, 205 
 
 Africa, chiefs and kings in, 112 ^yy. ; 
 
 female descent of kings in, 235 jy^. j 
 
 kingship in, 254 j^y. 
 Agamemnon, 240 j sceptre of, 124 note 
 Agrigentum, 137 
 Ainos of Japan, 44, 93 sq. 
 Alba, kings of, 201 jyy., 229 sqq, 
 Alban hills, 9 jy., 210 sqq. 
 Alcidamus, 261 
 Algidus, Mount, 211 j its oak woods, 
 
 284 
 Alitemnian Libyans, race for kingdom 
 
 among the, 260 
 Amata, wife of Latinus, 221 
 American Indians, their magical images, 
 
 41 sq. 
 Ammon, Egyptian god, 171 sq. 
 Amulius Silvius, 203 sq, 
 Anaitis, 21 sq. 
 Ancus Marcius, King, 274 
 Angamis of Manipur, 94 
 Angola, 255 
 
 Animal-headed gods, 172 
 Animals, magic of, 69 sqq. 
 Anne, Queen, touches for scrofula, 126 
 Antaeus, king of Libya, 261 
 Anthropology, its position and methods, 
 
 2. sqq, 
 Antigonus deified by the Athenians, 137 
 Anula, tribe of North Australia, 95 
 Apollo at Patara, 173 
 Araucanians of Chili, 206 
 Archons at Athens, 73 
 Aricia, 10, I2, 13 ; Arician grove, 280 
 Aristotle, on priestly kings, 29 
 
 Arjun, Indian prince, 262 
 
 Armenian Church, 21 jy. j charms, 97 
 
 Artemis, 14 sq, ; of Ephesus, 14, 173 sq. 
 
 Aryan sacred fires of oak wood, 209 ; 
 god of the sky, the thunder, and the 
 oak, 290 sq. ; female descent among 
 Aryan peoples, 238 sq,^ 241, 245 sqq. 
 
 Ascanius, 221 
 
 Ascension Day, 164, 187, 188, 191 
 
 Ashantee, female descent of kings in. 
 
 Association of ideas, mistaken, 39, 150 
 
 Assumption of the Virgin, 18 sqq. 
 
 Assyrian sculptures, 155 
 
 Athena, mother of Erichthonius, 222 
 
 Athens, stone at, 73 j marriage 01 
 Dionysus at, 174 sq, ; succession to 
 kingship at, 238 ; kingship at, 252 
 
 Athletic contest, succession to kingship 
 determined by, 260 sqq. 
 
 Atreus, 240 
 
 Attica, female kinship in, 245 
 
 Attis, 22, 25, 26, 27 
 
 August, 13th and 15th of, 17, \% sqq. 
 
 Augustine, on Janus, 286 
 
 Augustus, 84; his oaken crown, 199 sq. 
 
 Australia, headmen in, 107 sqq. \ totem- 
 ism in, 107 sq. 
 
 Australian magic, 50, '^y sq,, 80, 93, 95 
 
 Autun, ancient ceremony at, 178 
 
 Babites, Persian sect, 139 
 Babylon, sanctuary of Bel at, 170 
 Babylonian kings deified, 147 
 Baganda of Central Africa, 179; their 
 
 kings, 230 
 Bagba, a fetish, 106 
 Ball-players, superstitions of, 65, 70 
 Bangalas of Angola, chieftainship among 
 
 the, 255 
 Banyai, government of the, 255 
 Barce, daughter of Antaeus, 261 
 Bary, tribe on the Nile, 115 
 
 299 
 
300 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Basil, the Holy, in India, 156 s^q. 
 
 Battus, 31 
 
 Batutah, Ibn, Arab traveller, 181 sq. 
 
 Bede, on Pictish kings, 247 
 
 Beena marriage, 232 sq. 
 
 Bel, his sanctuary and wife, 170 
 
 Belep, tribe of New Caledonia, 68 
 
 Benzoni, G., on the name Viracocha, 
 42 sq, 
 
 Bibili, 105 
 
 Bima, in Celebes, 123 
 
 Birds used in cure for jaundice, 48 sq. 
 
 Black colour in magic, 97 sq. 
 
 Blackfoot Indians, 68 
 
 Boars, wild, hunted in Italy, 14 
 
 BcEotian festival, 176 sq. 
 
 Bohemian superstition, 80 sq. 
 
 Bongo of Upper Nile, the, 114 sy. 
 
 Boni, G., 209 
 
 Borneo, 43 sq. 
 
 BovillEe, 203 
 
 Brahman may not breathe on fire, 224 
 
 Brahmans, 72 ; morning offerings of, 
 102 ; worshipped in India, 139 sq, 
 
 Brazilian Indians, 56 ; their medicine- 
 men, 130 
 
 Brigit, Celtic goddess, 222 sq. 
 
 Brothers of king put to death, 236 sqq. 
 
 Bructeri, German tribe, 139 
 
 Brunhild, queen of Iceland, 262 
 
 Brutus, L. Junius, first consul, 251 sq.^ 
 
 254 
 Brutus, the assassin, at Nemi, 12 
 Buckthorn used to keep out witches, 
 
 215 
 Bull, Dionysus in form of, 174 
 Bulls, white sacrificial, 211, 212 
 Burglars, charms employed by and 
 
 against, 67 sq.^ 80 
 Burma, Shans of, 62 j marriage of 
 
 maidens to water-spirit in, 179 sq. 
 Burs in magic, 65 
 
 Buttmann, Ph., 288 note i, 289 note i 
 Buzzard, superstition as to, 70 
 
 Cadya, king of Lydia, 242 
 
 Cjeculus, a son of Vulcan, 220 
 
 Caelian hill, 214 
 
 Caesar, Julius, 11, 13, 84; Lucius, 12 
 
 Cssars, the, 203 
 
 CafFres, chiefs and rain-makers among, 
 
 118 sqq. ^ corpulence a mark of 
 
 nobility among the, 259 
 Calah, old capital of Assyria, 171 
 Calicut, king of, his tenure of the 
 
 throne, 293 sqq. 
 Caligula at Nemi, 13 
 Camphor, superstitions as to, 55 jy., 59 
 
 Candaules, king of Lydia, 242 
 Candlemas, 225 
 Cantabrians, 245 sq. 
 Canute, his marriage, 243 sq. 
 Capillary attraction, 50 sq. 
 Capitol, temple of Jupiter on, 197 sqq. 5 
 temple of Juno on, 208 ; sacred oak 
 
 on, 199, 208 
 Caprificatio, 270 note 2 
 Caprtficus, 270 
 
 Caprotina, epithet of Juno, 270 
 Carna, a nymph, 214 
 Cas'ma of Plautus, 282 
 Castor and Pollux, 32 sqq. 
 Cat's cradle, 54 sq,, 104 
 Cattle in relation to Diana, 14 sq. 
 Catullus, on Diana, 13 
 Cecrops, 238, 245 
 Celebes, Toradjas of, 51 sq.^ 60, 95 sq. \ 
 
 regalia in, 121 sqq. 
 Celtic and Italian languages akin, 213 
 Celts, perpetual sacred fires among the, 
 
 222 sq. 
 Censed, king of the Scots, 247 
 Chad wick, H. M., 239, 241, 242 note 2, 
 
 244 note 
 Chaka, the Zulu despot, 119 
 Champion at coronation ceremony, 275 
 
 sq. 
 Charles II. touches for scrofula, 126 ; 
 
 his coronation, 276 
 Cherokees, their superstitions, 65 sq,^ 66, 
 
 70 sq., 72, 105 
 Cherrington and Stourton, in Warwick- 
 shire, 166 sq. 
 Chiefs developed out of magicians, 106 
 
 sqq, J as rain-makers, 112, 116 sqq. 
 Chieftainship in New Guinea, no sq,\ 
 
 in Melanesia, 111 sq.^ In Africa, 112 
 
 Chili, Araucanians of, 206 
 
 China, human gods in, 142 sqq. ; 
 
 emperor of China worshipped, 146 sq. 
 Chinchvad, near Poona, human gods at, 
 
 140 sq. 
 Chinese Government, its regulations as 
 
 to human gods, 143 
 Chinese modes of procuring or stopping 
 
 rain, 98 sq. 
 Chios, kings of, 29 sq. 
 Chippeways, 41, 45 
 Chlssumpe, the, 134 sq. 
 Cholones, Indian tribe, 56 
 Cicero at Nemi, 12. 
 Circe, the land of, 212 
 Cirta, image of Jupiter at, 200 
 Cithaeron, Mount, 176, 177 
 Civilisation spread by conquering races, 
 
INDEX 
 
 30J 
 
 86 sq, ; first civilisations arise under 
 despotic governments, 87 
 Claudius, Emperor, perpetual lamp for, 
 17 ; as Jupiter, 200 note 1 j liis Etrus- 
 can history, 232 note 3 
 Clown at Whitsuntide, 164 sq. 
 Clytaemnestra, Z40 
 Codrington, Dr. R. H., 11 1 
 Codrus, 31 
 Collatinus, L. Tarquinius, iirst consul, 
 
 252 
 Cologne, 139 
 
 Colours in magic, 47 sqq., 97 sj. 
 Columella, 270 
 Compulsion applied to gods and spirits, 
 
 98 sqq. 
 Congo, kingship in, 275, 292 
 Conquering races, their influence on 
 
 civilisation, 86 sq. 
 Conquest in relation to progress, 86 sq. 
 Consuls at Rome, institution of, 251 sqq. 
 Contagion or contact, law of, 37 sqq. 
 Contagious magic, 37 sqq., yy sqq, ; con- 
 tagious taboo, 59 
 Contest, athletic, for kingship, 260 sqq. ; 
 
 for a wife, 261 sqq. 
 Conybeare, F. C, 21 
 Cooic, A. B., 18, 21 note 2, 26 note 3, 
 176 note I, 196, 197 note I, 202 note 
 2, 206, 211 note z, 216 note i, 252 
 note 2, 263 note 1, 274, 282, 283 note 
 I, 284 note 4, 287 note i, 289 note I 
 Cora Indians, 41 
 Corn-mother at Eleusis, 175 sq. 
 Corpulence a mark of nobility in Africa, 
 
 Corpus Christi Day, Sunday after, 185 
 Cos, king of, 29 
 
 Crocodiles, girls married to, 180 sq. 
 Cronus, older god than Zeus in Greece, 
 
 277 
 Crooke, W., 141 note i 
 Crown, king's, treated as divine, 124 note 
 
 I ; crown of oak leaves, 198, 199 
 
 sq.j 202, 207 
 Cumont, Prof. F., 267 
 Cup and ball, 104 
 Cures, magical, 47 sqq. 
 Curses, public, 30 
 Curtiss, Prof., S. I., 139 
 Cuttle-fish, 72 
 
 Cuzco, temple of the sun at, 227 
 Cybele, 22, 26, 27, 178 
 Cyrene, kings of, 31 
 
 Dasdala, Btcotian festival, 177 
 Dalai Lama, 142 
 Danaus, 261 
 
 Date Month, 155 
 
 Dead, prayers to the, 32, 74 sq.., 97, 120 j 
 magic of the, 67 sq. ; rain-charms by 
 means of the, 94 sq., 97 sq. ; spirits 
 of the, cause tempests, 206 
 Deaths, mysterious or violent, of Latin 
 and Roman kings, 204 sqq., 269, 273 
 sqq. 
 Deductive method, 4 
 Deer, 70, 71, 81 
 
 Deification of deceased mandarins, 145 
 Deir el Bahari, 171 
 Deities, duplication of, 285 sqq. 
 Demeter married to Zeus, 175 sq. 
 Demetrius Poliorcetes deified by the 
 
 Athenians, 137 sq. 
 Derry, oaks of, 226 
 Despotism, its influence on civilisation, 
 
 87 ; Its decay, 152 
 Destiny, modes of circumventing, 75 sqq. 
 Devil's shoestring, 65 
 Diagara, kingship in, 255 
 Diana of Nemi, 9 sqq., 152 sqq. ; god- 
 dess of hunters, it, sq. ; of cattle, 14 
 sq. ; of childbirth, 17, 280, 285 ; of 
 fire, 17 sq.; her festival, 17, 18 sqq,; 
 of Ephesus, 14, 173 ; goddess of vines 
 and fruit-trees, 1% sqq.; in relation to 
 Virbius, 24 sqq.; mated with her priest 
 at Nemi, 26 sq., 153 sq., 160, 169, 194 
 sq., 284, 290 ; as Queen of the Wood, 
 26 note 3, 280 sq., 283 ; a double of 
 Juno, 214 sq., 285 sqq. ; goddess of the 
 oak, 283 sq. ; goddess of fertility and 
 childbirth, 280, 285 
 Dianus or Janus, an equivalent of Jupiter, 
 
 z%^ sqq. See a/so Janus 
 Differentiation of function, its part in 
 
 social progress, 150 sq. 
 Dinka or Denka nation, 115 
 Diomede, 240 
 
 Dione, 213 ; old consort of Zeus, 285 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, on the 
 
 Etruscans, 248 note 4 
 Dionysus, 199 j married to queen of 
 
 Athens, 174 sq. 
 Divine kings put to death, 291 sqq. 
 Divinity of kings, 32, 34, 128, 132 sqq., 
 
 280 
 Division of labour essential to social 
 
 progress, 150 
 Dodona, 200, 213 ; Zeus of, 200 
 Doors in relation to Janus, 288 sq, 
 D'Orville, Father, 142 
 Dos Santos, Portuguese historian, quoted, 
 
 133 sq. 
 Double kingship, 252 
 Dragon of rain, 98 sq, ; of water, 183 
 
302 
 
 INDEX 
 
 jy. J slaying of the, 185 j^. ; of Rouen, 
 186 sqq. ; of Tarascon, 190 note i 
 
 DraupadI, in the Maiiabharata^ 262 
 
 Dropsy, prevention of, 47 
 
 Druids, their sacrifice at cutting the 
 mistletoe, 212 j female, 224 note 
 
 Drums, making of, in New Guinea, 62 
 
 H\ . . . „ 
 
 Duplication of deities, 285 sqq. 
 
 Dynasties of alien origin, 249 
 
 Eagle-hunters, magic of, 68 
 
 Economic progress furthered by conquest 
 and empire, 86 j dependent on division 
 of labour, 150 sq. 
 
 Edbald, king of Kent, 244 
 
 Effigies, magical, 41 sqq. 
 
 Egeria, 22 sq. ; her relation to Numa, 
 22, 195, 217, 284; an oak nymph, 
 identical with Diana, 196, 284, 290 
 
 Egyptian animal-headed gods, 172 
 
 Egyptian kings deified, 148 sq. ; identi- 
 fied with Ammon, 171 sq. 
 
 Elective and hereditary monarchies, 254 
 iqq.^ . , 
 
 Electric lights on spears and mastheads, 
 
 33 H- 
 Eleusis, mysteries of, 175 %q. 
 Emma, wife of Canute, 243 sq, 
 Empedocles, his claim to divinity, 137 
 Emperors of China and Japan deified, 
 
 146 sq. 
 Empire, benefits of, 86 sq. 
 Endymion, loved by the Moon, 22 j sets 
 
 his sons to race for kingdom, 260 sq. 
 English superstition, 78 
 Ephesus, Artemis of, 16, 173 sq. ; kings 
 
 of, 31 J King Bees at, 173 
 Epizephyrian Locrians, 245 
 Erichthonius, 25, 222 
 Esquiline hill, oak groves of, 274 
 Esquimaux, 69 ; blood-revenge among, 
 
 16 ; their magic 54 sq.^ 58 i^,, 104 
 Essenes at Ephesus, 173 
 Etatin in Nigeria, 117 
 Ethelbald, king of the West Saxons, 244 
 Ethelbert, king of Kent, 244 
 Ethelred, king of England, 243 
 Ethelwulf, king of the West Saxons, 
 
 244, 
 Ethiopians, descent of crown in female 
 
 line among the, 259 
 Etruscans, female kinship among the, 
 
 248 ; their Lydian origin, 248 
 Evergreens tend to oust deciduous trees 
 
 in Italy, 15 
 Evolution, social and political, conditions 
 
 of, 82 sqq.^ 149 iqq. 
 
 Execution, mock, 166 
 Exogamy at Rome, 232 
 
 Fairy banner, 125 
 
 Fallacies of magic, 39 
 
 Fan tribe of West Africa, 117 
 
 Fantee country, succession in, 235 
 
 February 24th, date of King's Flight at 
 
 Rome, 264, 266 
 Female descent of Roman kingship, 231 
 
 sqq.\ of African kingships, 235 sqq.^ 
 
 255*259 
 Female kinship, 232 sq. ; in Europe, 
 
 245 sqq. 
 Feng, uncle of Hamlet, 242, 244 
 Fertilisation, artificial, of the date palm, 
 
 155 ; of the fig, 270 sq. 
 Fierte or shrine of St. Romain, 188, 190 
 Fig, artificial fertilisation of, 270 sq. ; 
 
 as article of diet, 271 sq. ; fig tree of 
 
 Romulus, 272 
 Fire god, women married to, 218 sqq., 
 
 229 
 Fire, sacred, of Parsees, 224 ; not to be 
 
 breathed on, 224 ; Peruvian ceremony 
 
 of new, 227 
 Fires, sacred, of oak wood, 209, 281 ; 
 
 perpetual sacred, among the Celts, 
 
 222 sqq.^ vestal, 17 sq., 209, 218 sqq. 
 Fishers and hunters, magic of, 51 sq., 
 
 54 m- . 
 
 Flamen Dialis, 202, 215 sq. 
 Flaminica, 215 
 
 Flight of the King, 252, 264 sqq. 
 Floquet, A., on the privilege of St. 
 
 Romain, 190 sq. 
 Folk-tale of human sacrifices offered to 
 
 water-spirits, 183 sq. 
 Footprints, magic of, 80 sq. 
 Foreign birth of Roman kings, 232, 234 
 Foreign kings, 232, 234, 238 sqq., 247 
 Forum, Roman remains of vestal fire in, 
 
 209 
 Fox, superstition as to, 69, 71 
 French peasants, superstitions of, 51 
 Frey, Swedish god of fertility, 177 sq. 
 Frog, superstition as to, 70 
 Funerals, Roman, 200 sq. 
 Furth, Slaying of the Dragon at, 185 sq. 
 Futuna in South Pacific, 132 
 
 Galela, superstition in, 80 
 
 Gallas, 69 
 
 Garcilasso de la Vega, 43 
 
 Gardiner, J. Stanley, quoted, 182 sq. 
 
 Gaul, idolatrous ceremonies in, 178 
 
 German superstitious cures, 49 sq., 78, 
 
INDEX 
 
 303 
 
 Germans, the ancient, their worship of 
 women 138 sq. ; trace of female kin- 
 ship among the, 246 
 
 Gerontocracy, 107 
 
 Glory, Hand of, 67 sq^ 
 
 Godhead, savage idea of, 130 sqq. 
 
 Gods, conceived as invisible magicians, 
 130 sq. ^ human gods, 35, 132 sqq., 
 279 sq. -^ the Saviour Gods, 137; 
 Egyptian animal-headed, 172 ; evolu- 
 tion of, 279 
 
 Goliath, mock execution of the, 166 
 
 Gordioi, their kings, 259 
 
 Government, oligarchic, of savages, 84 ; 
 despotic and theocratic governments, 
 their influence on civilisation, 87 ; 
 government of old men, 107 
 
 Greasing the weapon that inflicted the 
 wound, 78 
 
 Greek, ancient, remedies, 47, 48 sq., 69 ; 
 housebreakers, 67; kings, 124; kings 
 as embodiments of Zeus, 196 sq. 
 
 Greenidge, A. H. J., 258 mte 2 
 
 Gregory of Tours, 178 
 
 Grove, sacred, 10, 14, 16, 22, 26, 27, 
 29, 275, 284 
 
 Grueber, Father, 142 
 
 Guarayo Indians, 102 
 
 Gunputty, elephant -headed Hindoo god, 
 140 sq. 
 
 Gunther, king of the Burgundians, 262 
 
 Gyges, king of Lydia, 242 
 
 Haddon, A, C, 150 note i 
 
 Hadramaut, 94 
 
 Hadrian, 13 
 
 Hair, charms to promote the growth of, 
 
 50 sq., 69 ; long, symbol of royalty, 
 
 203 
 Half-sister, marriage with, in Attica, 245 
 Halford in Warwickshire, 167 
 Halmahera, 97 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 294 note i 
 Hamlet, 242, 254 
 Hammurabi, code of, 170 
 Hand of Glory, 67 sq. 
 Hardy, Thomas, 64 sq, 
 Harrau, Sabseans of, 155 
 Harris, J. Rendel, 18 mte 7, 20, 25 
 Harrison, Miss J. E., 174 
 Hartland, E. S., 38, 184 note i 
 Headmen in Australia, 107 sqq. 
 Heads artificially lengthened, 260 
 Heads of Janus, two, 289 
 Hearth, the Common, 29 
 Hearts of wax, 45 
 Heaven, God of, 144, 146 
 Heavenly Master, the, 143 sqq. 
 
 Heine, H., Pilgrimage to Kemlaar, 45 sq. 
 Helen, wife of Menelaus, 240 
 Helernus, grove of, 214 sq, 
 Heliopolis, 149 
 
 Hephaestus, father of Erichthonius, 222 
 Hera and Zeus, sacred marriage of, 177 
 Hercules and Omphale, 243 
 Hereditary and elective monarchies, 254 
 
 m- 
 
 Hermigisil, king of the Varini, 244 
 
 Hermutrude, queen of Scotland, 242 
 
 Herodotus, on Spartan kings, 32 ; on 
 Lydian kings, 243 
 
 Hestia, 29 
 
 Highland witches, 63 
 
 Hindoo magic, 45, 47 sq., 50, 75 
 
 Hippocrates, on long-headed tribe, 260 
 
 Hippodamia, 240, 261 
 
 Hippolytus, 24 sq. 
 
 Hippolytus, Saint, 25 
 
 Him, Y., 38 
 
 Homeric kings, 124, 169 sq. 
 
 Homceopathic or imitative magic, 37 sqq. ; 
 homoeopathic taboo, 59 
 
 Horse as public talisman, 123 iq. \ races 
 in Germany, 163, 164; horses sacri- 
 ficed to the sun, 103 sq. ; Hippolytus 
 killed by horses, 24, 25 ; white horses 
 of Castor and Pollux, 33 sq. 
 
 Horus, the golden, 148 
 
 Housebuilding, woods unsuitable for, 66 
 
 Huichol Indians of Mexico, 69 sq. 
 
 Human gods, 128, 132 sqq., 279 sq.'^ 
 Jupiters, 282 sq. ; sacrifices, 179 sqq., 
 192 
 
 Hunters and fishers, magic of, 51 sq., 
 
 54 m^ 
 
 Huzuls of Carpathians, 55, 64 
 Hyampolis in Phocis, Artemis at, 15 
 Hypothesis, the use of, 7 sq,, 91 
 
 Ibn Batutah, Arab traveller, 181 sq, 
 
 Icarius, 261 
 
 Igaras, royal family of the, 256 sq. 
 
 Images, magical, 41 sqq. 
 
 Imitative or mimetic magic, 38 
 
 Impressions made by body, superstitions 
 
 as to, 79 sqq. 
 Incarnation of g6d in human form, 128, 
 
 132 sqq., 279 sq. 
 
 Incas of Peru, 226 sq. 
 
 India, human gods in, 139 sq. ; marriage 
 of plants in, 156 sqq. \ &vayamvara in, 
 262 
 
 Indian tribes, their custom of lengthen- 
 ing the head, 260 
 
 Inductive method, 4 sqq. 
 
 Industrial progress furthered by conquest 
 
304 
 
 INDEX 
 
 and empire, 86 ; dependent on divi- 
 sion of labour, 150 sq. 
 
 Institutions, history of, 2 jyy. ; their 
 origin in savagery, 2 sq., 6, 36 sq. 
 
 Intellectual progress inseparable from 
 economic or industrial progress, 86 
 
 Interrex, 258 
 
 Invulnerability, 66 sq. 
 
 Zona, 2z6 
 
 Ireland, perpetual fires in, 223 sqq. j 
 sacred oaks in, 225 sq. 
 
 Iron, magic of, 72 
 
 Italian and Celtic languages akin, 2x3 
 
 Italy, contrast between ancient and 
 modern, 15 sq. 
 
 lyyar or Airu, an Assyrian month, 171 
 
 Jana or Diana, 2S5 
 
 Janiculum, oak woods of, 286 
 
 "Janua and Janus, 288 sq. 
 
 Janus or Dianus, equivalent to Jupiter, 
 214 sq.^ 285 sqq. 'j invoked as father, 
 286 i mate of Juno and Juturna, 286 ; 
 reigned on the Janiculum, 286 ; his 
 relation to doors, 288 sq.y his two 
 heads, 289 ; represented by the priest 
 of Nemi, 289 sq. 
 
 Japan, Ainos of, 44 ; magic in, 80 ; 
 emperor of, 147 
 
 Jaundice, magical cures for, 47 sqq. 
 
 Johnson, Dr., touched for scrofula, 126 
 
 Johnston, Sir Harry, 112 
 
 Jordan, H., 275 note 
 
 Judah, kings of, sacrifice to the sun, 103 
 
 Judith, widow of Ethelwulf, 244 
 
 Julii, the, 202 sq. 
 
 Julus, the Little Jupiter, 202, 221 
 
 July 7th, Roman festival of, 269 sqq. 
 
 Juno, Capitoline, 208 ; Caprotina, 270 ; 
 Moneta, 213; Jupiter and Juno, their 
 sacred marriage, 214 jy. ; a duplicate 
 of Diana, 285, 287 
 
 Jupiter, Capitoline, 11, 197 sqq., 208; 
 embodied in Latin kings, 197 sqq., 
 207, 210 j Indiges, 205; Klicius, 
 207; Latian, 210 j and Juno, their 
 sacred marriage, zi^sq.^ a duplicate 
 of Janus, 285, 287 ; human and mortal 
 Jupiters, 282 sq. 
 
 Jupiter, the king's star, 294 sq. 
 
 Juturna, a water nymph, 286 
 
 Karo-bataks of Sumatra, 96 
 Keats, quoted, 75 
 Kenyahs of Borneo, 44 
 Kevlaar, Virgin Mary of, 45 
 Kildare, nuns of St. Brigit at, 223 ; 
 oak of St. Bride at, 225 
 
 King, license allowed to sisters of, 235 
 sq. ; brothers of, put to death, 236 sq. 5 
 marriage with widow of, 242 sqq. ; 
 Flight of the, 252, 264 sqq. 
 
 King of May, 159, 162 sqq.j Whitsun- 
 tide King, 164 sq. 
 
 King of the Sacred Rites, 258, 264 
 
 King of the Saturnalia, 293 
 
 King of the Wood, 9, 16, 26 sq., 152 
 sqq., 160, 166, 169, 174, 194 sqq., 
 280 sqq.^ an embodiment of Jupiter 
 or Janus, 281 sqq. 
 
 King's daughter salcrificed, 183 sq. 
 
 King's evil, 126 
 
 King's touch for scrofula, 126 
 
 Kings, African, 112, 116 sq., 119 sq. , 
 Malay, 120 sq. ; Greek, 124, 238 sqq. ; 
 Scythian, 124 mo^^j Babylonian, 147; 
 Egyptian, 148 sq., 171 sqq.; Roman, 
 197 sqq.; Alban, 20I sqq., 229 sqq.; 
 Lydian, 242 sq. ; Pictish, 242, 246 sq. ; 
 Saxon, 244. 
 
 Kings, as magicians, 1,36; as rain-makers, 
 116 sq., 119 sq., 207 
 
 Kings, priestly, 29 sqq., 127 sq., 216 sq. ; 
 divinity of, 32, 34, 128, 132 sqq., 280 ; 
 developed out of public magicians, 
 82 sqq., 88, 106 sqq., 127, 129 sqq, ; 
 descended from Zeus, 169 sq. ; em- 
 bodiments of Zeus, 196 sq., of Jupiter, 
 197 sqq.; personal qualities of, 258 
 sqq.; divine, put to death, 291 sqq. 
 
 Kingship, evolution of, 28 sqq., 82 sqq., 
 8g sqq., 106 sqq., 127 sq., 129 sqq., 
 149 sqq. ; succession to, 229 sqq. ; 
 double, 252 ; limited tenure of, 252, 
 254, 267, 291 sqq.; elective and 
 hereditary, 254 sqq.; athletic contests 
 for, 260 sqq. 
 
 Kingsley, Miss Mary H., 292 
 
 Koepang, East Indian state, 180 
 
 Krishna, 157 
 
 Kurs of East Prussia, 64 
 
 Lac, superstition as to, 56 
 
 Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu, 156 
 
 Laos, province of Siam, 56, 94 
 
 Latian Jupiter, 210 
 
 Latin kings embodiments of Jupiter, 
 
 197 sqq., 207, 210 ; thought to be 
 
 sons of the fire god, 218 sqq., 229 
 Latinus, his mysterious end, 210 
 Latium, the woods of, 211 sq.; festival 
 
 of the Nonae Caprotinae in, 270 
 Lavinia, 221 
 Laws of magic, 37 sqq.; of Manu, 139 
 
 sq. 
 Lendu, tribe of Central Africa, 116 
 
INDEX 
 
 305 
 
 Leo X., 14 
 
 Lerons of Borneo, 43 sq 
 
 Leucadia, 73 
 
 Lhassa, 142 
 
 Libyans, race for the kingdom among 
 
 the Alitemnian, 260 
 License allowed to king's sisters, 235 sq. j 
 
 to princesses in Loango, 237 sq. ; of 
 
 May Day, 162 
 Lippe, tributary of the Rhine, 139 
 Lithuanians, their sacred fires of oak, 210 
 Loango, royal blood traced in female 
 
 line in, 237 sq. 
 Lo Bengula, king of the Matabeles, 119, 
 
 Locrians, the Epizephyrian, 245 
 Logan, W., 294 
 Long Man, 65 
 
 Long-headed tribe described by Hippo- 
 crates, 260 ; long-headed kings, 259 
 Love, cures for, 45 sq., 73 
 Lucius, £,, 20 
 Luxor, temple at, 171 
 Lydia, descent of kingship in, 242 sq, 
 
 Macedonian superstition, 64 
 
 MacGregor, Sir William, quoted, no 
 
 Macleods of Dunve^jan, 125 
 
 Madagascar, cheating the fates in, 75 sqq. 
 
 Magic, older than religion, 35 ; its prin- 
 ciples, 37 sqq. ; homceopathic or imita- 
 tive magic, 38 sqq.'^ contagious magic, 
 38 sqq., yy sqq. ; sympathetic magic, 
 38 ; theoretical and practical, 38 sq., 52 
 sqq. ; blent with religion, 45 sq., 94, 97 ; 
 positive and negative, 52 sqq. ; to heal 
 or prevent sickness, 47 sqq. j of hunters 
 and fishers, 51 sq., 54 sqq. -^ of the 
 dead, 67 sq., 97 sq. j of animals, 69 
 sqq. ; of inanimate things, 72 sqq. ; 
 of footprints, 80 sq. ; private and 
 public, 81 sq.^ benefits conferred by, 
 83 sqq., 87 sq.^ in relation to science, 
 90 sqq. J displaced by religion, 127, 
 279 ; fallacy of, 278 
 
 Magicians develop into kings, 81 sqq., 
 88, 106 sqq., 127, 129 sqq., 149 sqq. ; 
 oldest professional class, 150 
 
 Maka Makham, the Great Sacrifice, at 
 Calicut, 294 
 
 Mahabharata, the, 262 
 
 Maize, charms to promote growth of, 
 
 73 
 Makala god, 135 sq. 
 Makrisi, Arab historian, 94, x8o note 2 
 Malagese charms, 72, 75 sqq. 
 Malay kings or rajahs, 120 sq. ; regalia, 
 
 121 sqq. 
 
 Maldive Islands, sacrifice of women in, 
 1 80 sqq. 
 
 Mandarins deified after death, 145 
 
 Manipur, 94 
 
 Mantras or sacred texts, 140 
 
 Manu, Laws of, 139 sq. 
 
 Maoris, 154 
 
 Mara tribe of N. Australia, 93 
 
 Maraves of S, Africa, 134 
 
 Marduk, god of Babylon, 170 
 
 Marriage of trees and plants, 155 sqq., 
 270 sq. j sacred marriage of deities, 169 
 sqq., 194 sqq., 265 sqq. ; of Jupiter and 
 Juno, 214 sq.\ of women to water 
 spirits, 179 sqq. ; of women to fire 
 god, 218 sqq. 5 with stepmother, 244 ; 
 with half-sister, in Attica, 245 
 
 Masai, medicine-men of the, 112 sqq. 
 
 Mashona god, 136 
 
 Maspero, Prof. G., quoted, 172 
 
 Massagetse sacrifice horses to the sun, 
 104 
 
 Mastarna, 232 note 3 
 
 Matabeles, kings of, 31 sq., 119 sq. 
 
 May, King and ^ueen of, 159, 162 sqq. j 
 bringing in the, 162 sq. 
 
 May Day ceremonies in Germany, 162 
 sqq, ; in Warwickshire, 166 sq. -y 
 ancient equivalents of, 168 sq^. 
 
 May-poles and May-trees, 162 sqq, 
 
 Mbatyan, Masai chief, 114 
 
 Medicine-men in Africa, H2 sqq. See 
 also Magicians 
 
 Medontids at Athens, 252 
 
 Melanesia, chieftainship in, in sq. 
 
 Memory, charm to improve, 65 sq. 
 
 Menelaus, 240 
 
 Merker, Capt. M., 112 sqq. 
 
 Mexican Indians, 67. See also Cora, 
 Huichol, Tarahumares. 
 
 Mexican sacrifices to the sun, 102 sq. 
 
 Midsummer Day, Peruvian ceremony of 
 new fire on, 227 
 
 Mikado, the, incarnation of sun goddess, 
 
 Minerva identified with Celtic Brigit, 
 
 223 sq. 
 Minotaur, 175 
 Misrule, Lord of, 266 
 Mistletoe, Druidical sacrifice at cutting 
 
 the, 212 sq. 
 Mogk, E., quoted, 162 sq. 
 Mohammed, on the fig, 272 
 Mole-cricket, superstition as to the, 71 
 Mommsen, Th., 197 note 3, 198 note i, 
 
 258 
 Monarchies, elective and hereditary, 254 
 
 sqq. 
 
3o6 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Monarchy, rise of, essential to civilisa- 
 tion, 84 sqq. See also Kingship. 
 Moneta, title of Juno, 213 
 Mongolia, human gods in, 142 sq. 
 Moon, attempt to accelerate the, 105 
 Mooraba Gosseyn, a Brahman, 140 
 Moret, A., quoted, 148 jy., 173 note 1 
 Mother Goddess, 178 
 Mother Vesta, 222 
 Moulton, J. H., 213 note 2 
 Miiller, K. O., 197 note 3 
 Murray Islanders, 105 sq, 
 Mycenae, 240, 242 
 Mytilene, kings of, 29 
 
 Nabu, marriage of the god, 171 
 Negative magic or taboo, 52 sqq. 
 Nemi, its position and sanctuary, 9 sqq., 
 
 152 sqq.f 280 jyy, ; priest of, 9, i6, 26, 
 
 27, 278 sqq. 
 Neoptolemus, 239 
 New Caledonia, natives of, 46 jy., 68, 
 
 73 m-> 10^ ^?-. 
 New Guinea, magic in, 52, 62 sq.^ 105 j 
 
 chieftainship in, 1 10 sq. 
 New Hebrides, chieftainship in, 1 1 1 sq. 
 Niebeiungenlied, 262 
 Niebuhr, B. G., 230 
 Nightingale, superstition as to, 69 
 Nile, girl thrown into, 180 
 Nonae Caprotinae^ 270 
 Numa, adept in drawing down lightning, 
 
 204; as Flamen Dialis, 216; his fame, 
 
 274 ; and Egeria, 22, 195, 217, 284 
 Numicius, river, 105 
 Nyanza region, rain-making in, 116 sq. 
 
 Oak, sacred to Jupiter, 198 j on the 
 Capitol, 199 J at Dodona, 200J crown 
 of oak leaves, 198, 199 sq.^ 202, 207 j 
 sacred fire of oak wood, 209 jy., 281 ; 
 woods at Rome, 208 sq., 214, 2745 
 Men of the, 211 j of St. Bride, 225 ; 
 sacred oaks in Ireland, 225 sq. ; 
 Aryan god of, 290 
 
 Ocrisia, mother of Servius TuUius, zi% sq* 
 
 Odomanti, a Thracian tribe, 262 
 
 Ojebways, 8 1 
 
 Old men, savages governed by, 84, 107 
 
 Oligarchic government of savages, 84 
 
 Olympia, races for the kingdom at, 260 
 sq. 
 
 Omphale, queen of Lydia, 243 
 
 Orchha, rajah of, 158 
 
 Ordeal of battle among the Umbrlans, 
 
 Orestes, 73 
 Ovid, quoted, 199 
 
 Palatine hill, 209 
 
 Palladius, 270 
 
 Pallene, daughter of Sithon, 262 
 
 Palm, artificial fertilisation of the date, 
 
 Paloppo in Celebes, 123 
 
 Papuans of Tumleo, 78 sq. See also 
 
 New Guinea. 
 Parilia, 19 
 
 Parsees, their sacred fire, 224 
 Partridge, C, 257 note i 
 Pasiphae, 175 
 Patara in Lycia, 173 
 Pausanias, on descendants of ^^acus, 
 
 239 
 Peking, 142, 145 
 Peleus, 239 
 Pelopidae, 240 
 Pelops, 240, 261 
 Penelope, 261 
 Pepys, quoted, 126, 276 
 Perkunas, 210 
 
 Persians sacrifice horses to the sun, 103 
 Personal qualities of kings, 258 sqq. 
 Peru, sun worship in, 227 sq. 
 Peruvian Indians, 42, 56, 67, 73, 102 
 Phrygians, an Aryan tribe, 179 
 Pictish kings, 242, 247 
 Picts, the, 246 sq. 
 Plants, their sexes, 154 sq.-y married, 
 
 154 sqq. 
 Platsea, festival of Daedala at, 176 sq. 
 Plautus, on human Jupiters, 282 sq. 
 Plebeian origin of Roman kings, 250 
 Pliny, the younger, his affectation, 14 
 Pliny, on certain electric lights, 33 j on 
 
 spinning, 55 ; on sexes of plants, 154 
 Plutarch, on cure for jaundice, 48 sqq. ; 
 
 on Egeria, 196 ; on deaths of Roman 
 
 kings, 274 
 Poisoned arrows, 56 sq. 
 Political evolution, conditions of, 82 sqq.^ 
 
 149 sqq. 
 Pollux and Castor, 32 sqq. 
 Pope, the Taoist, 143 sqq. 
 Porta Capena, 22 
 
 Positive and negative magic, 52 sqq, 
 Praeneste, 220 
 
 Preller, L., on caprificatio^ 271 note i 
 Priest of Nemi, 9, 16, 26, 27, 278 sqq. ; 
 
 an embodiment of Jupiter or Janus, 
 
 281 sqq. 
 Princes reign over their wives* countries, 
 
 238 sqq. 
 Principles of magic, 37 sqq. 
 Privilege of St. Romain at Rouen, 187 
 
 sqq. 
 Proculus, Julius, 205 
 
INDEX 
 
 307 
 
 Progress, economic and industrial, ac- 
 celerated by conquest, 86 jy. ; social 
 progress dependent on division of 
 labour, 150 
 Promathion's History of Italy ^ zig 
 Public magicians, their importance in 
 history, 82 sqq., go sqq.y I2g sqq., 
 149 sqq. 
 
 Queen of May, 159, 162 sqq, ; Whitsun- 
 tide Queen, 165 sq, ; queen of Egypt, 
 171 sq.-y of Athens, 174 sq. 
 
 Queen of the Wood, Diana as, 26 note 3, 
 280 sq., 283 
 
 Quirinal hill, 205 
 
 Quirinus, 205 sq. 
 
 Ra, Egyptian sun god, 148 sq. 
 
 Races for the kingdom, 260 sq,, 264 sqq. j 
 for a wife, 261 
 
 Radger, king of the Varini, 244 
 
 Rain-dragon, 98 sq. 
 
 Rain-makers, in Africa, 112 sqq.^ de- 
 velop into chiefs, 112, 116, 118 sq., 
 120 
 
 Rain-making, 92 sqq. 
 
 Rajputs, 262 
 
 Raven, superstition as to, 6g 
 
 Ravens give omens, 176 sq. 
 
 Red, faces of gods dyed, igS sq. 
 
 Regalia, 121 sqq. 
 
 Regifugium, 252, 264 sqq. 
 
 Regillus, battle of Lake, 34 
 
 Reinach, S., 224 note 
 
 Religion preceded by magic, 35 ; gradu- 
 ally displaces magic, 127, 279 
 
 Remulus Silvius, 203 sq. 
 
 Renouf, Sir Peter le P., quoted, 148 
 
 Rex Nemorensis, g, 153. See also King 
 of the Wood 
 
 Rhodian sacrifices to the sun, 103 
 
 Roman funerals, 200 sq. 
 
 Roman kings, 197 sqq. ; their mysterious 
 or violent ends, 204 sqq., 210, 269, 
 273 sqq. ; married to oak goddess, 
 217 ; of plebeian origin, 250 
 
 Roman kingship, transmitted in female 
 line, 231 sqq. ; a religious office, 250 ; 
 abolition of, 251 sqq. 
 
 Rome, oak woods at, in early times, 
 208 sq., 214, 274 
 
 Romulus, birth of, 219 sq. ; his 
 mysterious end, 205, 269 ; and 
 Remus, 252 
 
 Romulus Silvius, 203 sq. 
 
 Rouen, St. Romain and the dragon at, 
 186 sqq. 
 
 Rousseau, his theories, 7 
 
 Rtigen, island of, 224 
 Rukmini, wife of Krishna, 157 
 
 Sabseans of Harran, 155 
 
 Sacred Rites, King of the, 258, 264 
 
 Sacred words, 136 jy. ; women, 138; 
 texts, 140 ; marriage, i6g sqq., 194 
 sqq., 265 sqq. 
 
 Sacrifices, human, 102 sq. 
 
 Saints threatened and ill-treated, loo sq. 
 
 Sakalava of Madagascar, 136 
 
 Balagrama, a fossil ammonite, 157 
 
 Salmoneus, king of Elis, 197, 204 
 
 Sandanis the Lydian, 271 
 
 Sarawak, 59 
 
 Sargon I., king of Babylon, 147 
 
 Saturn, personated by Roman and Latin 
 kings, 268 sq., 276 sq„ 283 j god of 
 the seed, 268 ; older god than Jupiter 
 in Italy, 283 ; his human representa- 
 tives put to death, 267, 283 
 
 Saturnalia, the, 266 sqq. ; King of the, 
 
 Savages, importance of the study of, 6 j 
 oligarchic government of, 84 ; hide- 
 bound by custom, 85 ; absence of real 
 freedom among, 87 ; their idea of 
 godhead, 130 sqq. 
 
 Saviour Gods, the, 137 
 
 Saxo Grammaticus, Danish historian, 
 241 sq, 
 
 Saxon kings marry their stepmothers, 
 244 
 
 Saxony, May and Whitsuntide cere- 
 monies in, 162 sqq. 
 
 Schweinfurth, G., 114 sq. 
 
 Science in relation to magic, 90 sqq. 
 
 Scrofula cured by king's touch, 126 
 
 Scythian kings, their regalia, 124 note i 
 
 Sena, island off Gaul, 224 note 
 
 Serpents, 70 
 
 Servius, on Virbius, 24 sq., 26 
 
 Servius TuUius, King, his birth, 218 sq., 
 232 note 3 ; his death, 274 
 
 Sex of plants, 154 sq, 
 
 Shans of Burma, 62 
 
 Siamese modes of making or stopping 
 rain, 99 
 
 Sicily, rain-making in, 100 sq. 
 
 Sick, votive offerings of the, 23, 45 
 
 Silesia, Whitsuntide in, 164 sq. 
 
 Silvii, Alban dynasty of the, 201 sqq., 
 216 
 
 Silvius, first king of Alba Longa, 202 
 
 Similarity, law of, 37 sqq. 
 
 Sister's children, preference for, mark of 
 female kinship, 246, 255, 259 
 
 Sisters of king, license allowed to, 235 sq. 
 
3o8 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sita, wife of Rama, 156 sq. 
 
 Sithon, king of the Odomanti, 262 sq. 
 
 Sky, Aryan god of the, 290 
 
 Slaves, runaway, the priests of Diana, 
 16 J Roman kings born of slave- 
 women, 218 sqq. ; slaves succeed to 
 the throne in Africa, 235 ; female, 
 allowed certain liberties at a festival, 
 269 sq. 
 
 Slavs, Balkan, their holy fire, 224 
 
 Smiths sacred, 117 
 
 Social progress, its conditions, 84 sqq.^ 
 150 sqq. 
 
 Sofala, king of, 1^3 sq. 
 
 Solms-Laubach, Graf zu, 270 note 2 
 
 Sorcery, positive magic, 53 sq. 
 
 Sowing, season of the spring sowing in 
 Italy, 268 
 
 Sparta, kings of, 31, 32 sqq.^ 169 
 
 Spartan sacrifices to the sun, 103 sq. 
 
 Spermus, king of Lydia, 242 
 
 Spinning, superstition as to, 55 
 
 Squirrel, superstition as to, 70 
 
 St. Angelo, 10 1 
 
 St. Anthony's fire, 49 sq. 
 
 St. Brigit or Bridget, 223 sqq. 
 
 St. Columba, 226 
 
 St. Francis of Paola, 100, loi note i 
 
 St. George, 19 
 
 St. Hippolytus, 25 
 
 St. Joseph, loi 
 
 St. Mary in Araceli, 208 
 
 St. Michael, loi 
 
 St. Ouen at Rouen, 187 
 
 St. Romain at Rouen, 186 sqq. 
 
 Stammering, cure for, 71 sq. 
 
 Star, the evening, 75 ; the king's, 295 
 
 Stars in magic, the fading of the, 50 
 note z 
 
 Stepmother, marriage with, 244 
 
 Stones, magic of, 72 sqq. 
 
 Strabo, on priest of Nemi, 16 
 
 Succession to kingship, 229 sqq. See 
 also Female Descent. 
 
 Suk and Turkana peoples, 114 
 
 Sumatra, 96 
 
 Sun, magic applied to, loi sqq. j human 
 victims sacrificed to, 102 sq. ; horses 
 sacrificed to, 103 sq. ; goddess of, 147 ; 
 god of, 148 sq. ; worship in Peru, 
 227 sq. J wives of the, 227 sq. 
 
 Sundanese, the, 65 
 
 Superstition, influence 01, 36 sq. 
 
 S-vavamt'ara^ the bride's choice, in India, 
 262 
 
 Sweden, worship of Frey in, 177 
 
 Sympathetic magic, 38, 52 sqq. 
 
 Syrakoi, their kings, 259 
 
 Taboo, negative magic, 52 sqq. ; homceo- 
 pathic and contagious taboo, 59 
 
 Tanaquil, Queen, 218 
 
 Taoism, religious head of, 143 sqq. 
 
 Tarahumares of Mexico, 68, 70, 93 
 
 Tarascon, dragon of, 190 note 1 
 
 Taro, charms for, 73 sq. 
 
 Tarquin the Proud, his attempt to 
 change the line of succession to king- 
 ship, 253 sq. 
 
 Tarquins, the, 250, 253, 257 
 
 Tatius, King, his death, 273 
 
 Telamon, 239 
 
 Telepathy, savage belief in, 57 sqq., 60 
 sqq. 
 
 Telugus of India, 95 
 
 Tenure of kingship limited, 252, 254, 
 267, 291 sqq. 
 
 Teos, public curses in, 30 
 
 Teucer, 239 
 
 Thebes in Egypt, 171 
 
 Theophrastus, quoted, 211 sq. ; on 
 capr'ificatio, 270 note 2 
 
 Theopompus, on the Etruscans, 248 
 
 Things, inanimate, magic of, 72 sqq, 
 
 Thomas, N. W., 275 note 2 
 
 Thompson Indians of British Columbia, 
 81 
 
 Thunder made by kings, 197, 203 sq. j 
 by spirits of the dead, 206 
 
 Tibet, human gods in, 142 sq. 
 
 Tifata, Mount, wooded with oaks, 284 
 
 Timor, island of, 180 
 
 Tirunavayi temple at Calicut, 295 
 
 Toaripi or Motumotu tribe in New 
 Guinea, 1 10 
 
 Togo, in West Africa, 106 
 
 Toradjas of Celebes, 51 sq., 60 sqq., 72, 
 
 95 f?-> 97 
 Tortoise, superstition as to, 69 
 Totemism in Central Australia, 107 sq. 
 Touch, royal, 125 sqq. 
 Trajan, 13 
 
 Trees and plants married, 154 sqq. 
 Triumph, costume of Roman generals 
 
 celebrating a, 197 sq. 
 Tshi-speaking peoples of Gold Coast, 
 
 their kings, 235 sq. 
 Tulasi or Holy Basil, 156 sqq. 
 Tulhis Hostilius, King, 204 sq., 217, 
 
 273 ^?. 
 Tumleo, Papuans of, 78 sq. 
 Turkana and Suk peoples, 1 14 
 Turkey, superstitions as to the bird, 70 
 Twins, superstition as to, 206 
 Tydeus, son of CEneus, 240 
 Tylor, Prof. E. B., 155 
 Tyndarids, 32 
 
INDEX 
 
 309 
 
 Uganda, kingship in, 236 sq, j traces of 
 female descent in, 249. See also 
 Baganda. 
 
 Ulysses, 261 
 
 Umbrians, ordeal of battle among the, 
 
 Upsala, temple at, 177 
 
 Varini, the, 244. 
 
 Varro, on Janus, 286 
 
 Vegetation, personification of the powers 
 
 of, 158 sq.^ 160 sqq. 
 Vejovis, 203 
 
 Veleda, a deified woman, 138 sq. 
 Ventriiocjuism, 115 
 Vespasian, 13 
 Vesta, title of Diana, 17, 283 ; oak 
 
 grove of, 209 ; sacred fire of, 209 ; 
 
 her title of Mother, 222 
 Vestal Virgins, 18, 22 sq. ; mothers of 
 
 Roman kings, 219 jyy. } mothers of 
 
 Latin kings, 219 sqq.; daughters of 
 
 kings, 233 
 Victoria Nyanza, Lake, 179 
 Vines in relation to Diana and Virgin 
 
 Mary, 19 sqq. 
 Viracochas, name for Spaniards, 42 sq. 
 VirbiuB, 24 sqq., 153, 281, 282; Slope 
 
 of, 274 
 Virgil, on Alban kings, 201 sq. ; as to 
 
 Capitoline hill, 208 
 Virgin, Assumption of the, 18 sqq. ; of 
 
 Kevlaar, 45 
 Virgin birth of Latin kings, 219 sqq., 
 
 233 ^9', 
 Virgins wives of the Sun in Peru, 227 sq. 
 Vishnu, 156 sq. 
 Vitellius at Nemi, 13 
 Vocabulary, sacred or princely, 136 sq. 
 Vulcan, 220 
 
 Wagogo of East Africa, 97 sq., 112 
 Walos of Senegal, 126 sq. 
 Wanyoro of Central Africa, the, n6 
 War, customs observed while men are 
 
 at, 60 sqq. 
 Warwickshire, May Day ceremonies in, 
 
 166 sq. 
 Water-gods, 23 sq. 
 Water-spirits, marriage of women to, 
 
 179 sqq. ; men sacrificed to, 192 
 Weapon and wound, magical sympathy 
 
 between, 77 sq. 
 Weather, magical control of, 92 sqq. 
 
 Wells married, 157 sq. 
 
 Wends of Saxony, their May customs, 
 
 163 sq. 
 White thorn used to keep out witches, 
 
 Whitsuntide, ceremonies at, i6i^ ^??' j 
 Whitsuntide king, 164 sqq. ; Whit- 
 suntide queen, 165 sq. 
 
 Widow pf king, marriage with, 242 sqq. 
 
 Wife, races for, 261 ; athletic contests 
 for, 262 sq, 
 
 Wiglet, successor of Hamlet, 242, 244 
 
 Wilamowitz-MoellendorfF, Prof. U. von, 
 174 note 2 
 
 Wind, charms to raise or calm the, 105 
 sq, 
 
 Wiradjuri tribe in Australia, 108 
 
 Witches, Highland, 63 ; Icept out by 
 white thorn or buckthorn, 215 
 
 Wolf, superstition as to, 71 
 
 Women worshipped by the ancient 
 Germans, 138 sq. j married to gods, 
 170 sqq, ; to water-spirits, 179 sqq. j 
 to fire-god, 218 sqq. -^ regarded as 
 channel in which royal blood flows, 
 241 sq. 
 
 Wood, King of the, 9, 16, 26 sq,, 152 
 sqq.^ 160, 166, 169, 174, 194 sqq., 
 280 sqq, ; an embodiment of Jupiter 
 or Janus, 281 sqq. 
 
 Woods unsuitable for housebuilding, 66 ; 
 of Latium, 211 sq. 
 
 Wounds, superstitions as to, 77 sqq. 
 
 Wyingurri tribe, 80 
 
 Xenophon dedicates temple to Artemis, 
 
 Yams, charms for, 74 
 
 Yellow colour as cure for jaundice, 47 
 
 m- ... . „ 
 
 Yerkla-mming tribe in Australia, 108 
 
 Yorubas, chieftainship among the, 255 ; 
 
 their reverence for royal crown, 124 
 
 note I 
 Yuin tribe in Australia, 109 
 
 Zeus, Heavenly, 3 1 j Lacedsemon, 31; 
 cured of love, 73 j kings descended 
 from, 169 ; married to Demeter, 175 
 sq.-^ sacred marriage of, 175 sqq.^ 
 Zeus embodied in Greek kings, 196 
 sq. ; Zeus of Dodona, 200, 213 
 
 Zimbas or Muzimbas, of E. Africa, 134 
 
 Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh. 
 
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