Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 10:39:22 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Ancient Crash, Epic Wave
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/14/healthscience/web.1114meteor.php?page=1

 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

The Evil Eye

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 [7]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: The Evil Eye  (Read 2994 times)
0 Members and 71 Guests are viewing this topic.
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #90 on: May 01, 2009, 12:56:36 am »

suggest that the burning of the effigy of a hated person means, at the bottom, a good deal more than a mere demonstration, and at least in times past was thought to injure by actual bodily suffering the person represented.

The student of man tells us that the reason for the reluctance to disclose one's name, was of the same nature as that which makes savages, and nations far above the savage state, feel anxious that an enemy should not get possession of anything identified with one's person as a whole, especially if such enemy is suspected of possessing any skill in handling the terrors of magic. In other words, the anthropologist would say that the name was regarded as part of the person, and having said this, he is usually satisfied that he has definitely disposed of the matter. . . . The whole Aryan family believed at one time, not only that his name was a part of a man, but that it was the part of him which is termed the soul, the breath of life, or whatever you may choose to define it as being. 118

May we not add to this, that what relates to persons may by the same reasoning be applied to things? Hence, of course, comes the belief of the modern Neapolitan, that in the absence of the amulet or charm the mere utterance of its name is equally effective as a protection, and that force is added thereto by the repetition of the name. 119

Professor Rhys says that the Irish "probably treated the name as a substance, but without placing it on one's person, or regarding it as being of one's person, so much as of something put on the person at the will of the name-giving Druid, some time before the person to be named had grown to man's estate." Something of the same kind is found among Australian aborigines. They "have this peculiarity in common with the savages of other countries, that



p. 78

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #91 on: May 01, 2009, 12:56:54 am »

they never utter the names of the dead, lest their spirits should hear the voices of the living and thus discover their whereabouts." 120 Did not the Witch of Endor "call up" Samuel, that is by uttering his name?

The connection of a man's shadow with his body, as evidenced in the proceedings of Australian savages, is also a very widespread belief at the present time throughout the East amongst the races from which the Australians originally sprang. An injury to a man's shadow, such as stabbing, treading on or striking it, is thought to injure his person in the same degree; and if it is detached from him entirely, as it is believed it may be, he will die.

In the Island of Wetar in the Eastern Archipelago, near Celebes, the magicians profess to make a man ill by stabbing his shadow with a spear, or hacking it with a sword. Sankara, to prove his supernatural powers to the Grand Lama, soared into the air, but as he mounted up, the Grand Lama, perceiving his shadow swaying and wavering on the ground, struck his knife into it, upon which down fell Sankara and broke his neck. 121 The ancient Greeks, too, believed in the intimate association of a man or beast with his shadow. It was thought in Arabia that if a hyena trod on a person's shadow it deprived him of the power of speech; also that if a dog were standing on a roof, and if his shadow falling upon the ground were trodden upon by a hyena, the dog would fall down as if dragged by a rope. Again it was thought, on the other hand, that a dog treading upon the shadow of a hyena rendered the latter dumb. 122




p. 79

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #92 on: May 01, 2009, 12:57:09 am »

Whoever entered the sanctuary of Zeus on Mount Lycæus was believed to lose his shadow and to die within the year. Here in the west country there is an old belief that many have sold their souls to the devil, and that those who do so, lose their shadow--from this it would seem to be thought, that the shadow contains the soul, i.e. the "Ka" of ancient Egypt.

In olden times it was believed in many widely separated countries 123 that a human victim was a necessity for the stability of any important building; indeed the idea was by no means confined to paganism, for we are told that St. Columba 124 found it necessary to bury St. Oran alive beneath the foundation of his monastery, in order to propitiate the spirits of the soil, who demolished at night what had been built during the day.

Here in England, throughout the Middle Ages, the common saying, "There's a skeleton in every house," or, "Every man has a skeleton in his closet," was hardly a figure of speech. The stories of finding the skeletons of faithless monks and nuns walled up alive, 124a seem to have sprung from a much earlier notion; and it is now well established that these are by no means myths, but very facts. At Holsworthy, in North Devon, the parish church was restored in




p. 80

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #93 on: May 01, 2009, 12:57:28 am »

 1845. On taking down the south-west angle wall a skeleton was found imbedded in the stone and mortar. There was every appearance of the body having been buried alive, and hurriedly. A mass of mortar was over the mouth, and the stones were heaped and huddled about the corpse; the rest of the wall had been built properly.

Many similar accounts are given of finds of a like nature in various parts of Germany, and the superstition that walls would not stand without a human victim, existed among Celts, Slavs, Teutons and Northmen. Even so late as 1813 when a Government official went to repair a broken dam on the Elbe, an old peasant sneered at his efforts, and said: "You will never get the dyke to hold unless you first sink an innocent child under its foundations." Several stories are told of parents who sold their children for this purpose, and of others where the victim, often a woman, was kidnapped and built into the foundations.

At the building of the castle of Henneberg a mason had sold his child to be built into the wall. The child had been given a cake, and the father stood on a ladder superintending the work. When the last stone had been put in, the child screamed in the wall, and the man, overwhelmed with self-reproach, fell from the ladder and broke his neck.

At the castle of Liebenstein, a mother sold her child for this purpose. As the wall rose about the little one it cried out: "Mother, I still see you!" then later, "Mother, I can hardly see you!" and lastly, "Mother, I see you no more!" 124b Several other castles have similarly ghastly stories connected


p. 81

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #94 on: May 01, 2009, 12:57:46 am »

with them. The latest authentic instance of the actual immuring of a human victim alive, occurred at Algiers, when Geronimo of Oran was walled up in the gate Bab-el-Oved in 1569.

Most so-called Devil's Bridges have some story associated with them, keeping alive the old idea of sacrifice, though sometimes substituting an animal for a human victim. The most usual account is that the devil had promised his aid on condition of having the first life that passed over the bridge, and then follow the dodges by which he was cheated, showing that his wits were not estimated much higher than those of the Giant in Jack the Giant-Killer.

In all ages it has been customary in sacrifice to substitute a victim of less value for one of more importance. The same idea, as that involved in the substitution of the sham for the real in the offerings made to the dead, is found running through sacrifice. This latter is defined as "primarily a meal offered to the deity," 125 and the offering up of a human victim has been in all ages considered the highest and most important.

The Romans substituted puppets for the human sacrifices to the goddess Mania. They threw rush dolls into the Tiber at the yearly atoning sacrifice on the Sublician Bridge. How curiously this corresponds with a find here in Devon! A few years ago the north wall of Chumleigh Church was pulled down, and there, in it, was found a carved crucifix, of a date much earlier than the Perpendicular wall of the fifteenth century, when this figure was built into it as a substitute. Not far off, at Holsworthy, at about the same time, as we have just


p. 82

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #95 on: May 01, 2009, 12:58:16 am »

noted, the church wall was built upon a veritably living victim. Was Chumleigh more advanced in civilisation in the fifteenth century, or less devout in its belief in the efficacy of real sacrifice? or were the Holsworthy people less chary of human life, and, equally believing in the value of the rite, determined to fulfil it to the ideal, so as to ensure a good result?

Substitution in sacrifice, however, was of much earlier date than either Chumleigh or Roman offerings. The Egyptians who put off their dead with counterfeits, offered an animal to their gods instead of a man, but they symbolised their intended act by marking the creature to be slain with a seal bearing the image of a man bound and kneeling, with a sword at his throat. 125a

When once the notion of substitution has got in, whether in offerings to gods or men, the decadence becomes rapid, and in these latter days takes the form of buttons and base counters in our offertory bags.

In modern Greece at the present day it is still customary to consecrate the foundation of a new building with the sacrifice of some bird or animal; but sometimes, perhaps on a great occasion, upon which in old times a human victim would have been offered, the builder who cannot do this, typifies it by building on a man's shadow. He entices a man on to the site, secretly measures his body or his shadow, and buries the measure under the foundation stone. It is believed, too, in this case that the man whose shadow is thus buried will die within the year. 126

The Roumanians have a similar custom, and they,



p. 83

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #96 on: May 01, 2009, 12:58:42 am »

too, believe that he of the buried shadow will die within the year; it is therefore common to cry out to persons passing a newly begun building: "Beware lest they take thy shadow!" Not long since all this was thought necessary for securing stability to the walls, and there were actually people whose trade it was to supply architects with shadows.

Our own very commonly uttered sentiment, "May your shadow never grow less!" is at least a coincidence.

From the shadow the step is but very short to the reflection, consequently we find many savage people who regard their likeness in a mirror as their soul. The Andaman and Fiji Islanders, with others, hold this belief, and of course its corollary, that injury to the reflection is equivalent to injury to the shadow, and so to the person reflected.

Far away from these islanders, it was believed that the reflection may be stabbed as much as the shadow. One method among the Aztecs of keeping away sorcerers was to leave a bowl of water with a knife in it behind the door. A sorcerer entering would be so alarmed at seeing his likeness transfixed by a knife, that he would instantly turn and flee.

Surely here we have in this very ancient and widespread belief, the basis of that very common one amongst our own enlightened selves, of the terrible calamity which awaits the person who destroys his own image by breaking a looking-glass. Some hold that "he will shortly lose his best friend," which may of course mean that he will die himself, others that it portends speedy mortality in the family, usually the master. 127


p. 84

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #97 on: May 01, 2009, 12:59:02 am »

In Germany, England, 128 Scotland, and other places even as far off as India and Madagascar, it is still believed that, if after death a person see his image reflected in a mirror in the same room as the dead, he will shortly die himself; hence in many places it is customary to cover up looking-glasses in a death-chamber. Bombay Sunis not only cover the looking-glasses in the room of a dying person, but do so habitually in their bedrooms before retiring to rest. 129

The Zulus and Basutos of South Africa have almost precisely similar notions. We have no need however to go so far afield for instances of a belief of a similar kind.

The following story is given by a correspondent of the Spectator, of February 17, 1894, as told to him "last month" by an old woman, in a Somerset village about ten miles from Bristol.

"Old John, that do live out to Knowle Hill, have a-told I, his vaether George had a sister, an' when her wer' young, a man what lived next door come a-courten of she. But she wouldn't have none on him. But she were took bad, an' had a ravennen appetite, an' did use to eat a whole loaf at once. Zoo her brother thought she wer' overlooked; an' he went down to Somerton, where a man did bide who wer' a real witch, and zo zoon as George got to un, he did zay: 'I do knaw what thee bist a-cwome var; thy zister be overlooked by the neighbour as do live next door. I'll tell 'ee what to do, an' 'twont cost thee no mwore than a penny.' Zoo her told un to goo whoam an' goo to the blacksmith an' get a new nail, an' not to let thick nail out of her hand till her'd a-zeed un make a track, then her were to take an' nail down the track. Zoo George did as her wer' twold, an' when her zeed the man make a track, her took the nail in one hand an' the hammer in t'other, an' a-nailed down the track. And the man did goo limping vrom



p. 85

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #98 on: May 01, 2009, 12:59:20 am »

that time, and George's sister she got well. Zome time arter that, the man wer' took very bad, an' George's wife did work vor a leädy, an' she twold her missus he wer' ill. Zoo her missus gied her a rhabbut to teäke to the man, but when she got to his house some men outzide the door twold her he wer' dead. Then she did offer to goo an' help lay un out, and wash un, because she wanted to look wether or no there wer' anything wi' his voot. Zo she went and helped lay un out, an' zhure enough there wer' a place right under his voot, as if so be a nail had been hammered into un. An' this, John her son twold I as it were certain true." 129a

The strange notion, that the soul goes out of the body with the shadow or the reflection, is carried still further by many savage people, and obstinately remains with some civilised ones, who think it unlucky to be photographed or to have their portraits painted. They have a fancy that it will shorten their days, just as many have about insuring their lives. This idea is the secret of the savage's unwillingness to be photographed, or to have his likeness sketched, which may be said to be almost universal.

A recent traveller 130 gives a graphic account of his experience among the Ainus after having apparently in another place (Volcano Bay) been permitted to paint the people unmolested, except by inquisitiveness. He says that a young lad came over to see what he was doing, and that being told the author was painting a group of his people, "the news seemed to give him a shock. . . . He rejoined the others, excitedly muttered some words, and apparently told them that I had painted the whole group, fish and all. Had any one among them been struck by lightning, they certainly could not have



p. 86

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #99 on: May 01, 2009, 12:59:40 am »

looked more dismayed. . . . The fish was thrown aside, but not the knives, armed with which they all rushed at my back." He describes how his paint-box and apparatus were smashed, the painting destroyed, and he himself knocked down and "a big knife was kept well over my head."

The dread of being pictured is found all over the world. The writer has often heard Somerset people object to having their likenesses taken on the ground that it is unlucky, and that so and so was "a-tookt," but soon afterwards she was "took bad and died." Of course these persons would indignantly repudiate any suggestion of superstition; indeed they would do the same about any other belief, such as the death-watch, or an owl's hooting, nevertheless they confess to the feeling and are strongly influenced by it. Quite recently the wife of a gardener near the writer's home objected to have her photograph taken upon the ground that she had "a-yeard 'twas terrible onlucky"; and that "volks never didn live long arter they be a-tookt off," i.e. photographed.

Whence then do these notions come, if they are not the heritage of untold ages?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #100 on: May 01, 2009, 01:00:11 am »

Footnotes
44:63 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 101.

45:64 R. Stuart Poole in Smith's Dict. of Bible, s.v. "Magic."

46:65 1 Samuel xxviii. 7 et seq.

46:66 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 101.

46:67 Spectator, July 14, 1894, p. 45.

47:68 "Mediæval Records," Spectator, January 6, 1894, p. 14.

47:69 These remarks are suggested by a "scientific gentleman," who was a witness with the writer of the twisting of the rod above mentioned, and who had the taste to assert that the young lady was in league with the Dowser.

47:70 Since this was written we have been favoured with Mr. Huxley's ex cathedra deliverance in the Times of July 9, 1894, on Mr. Lang's book, **** Lane and Common Sense, which may be shortly summed up: "I do not understand these things, therefore they are not."

No doubt superior people would nowadays accept the consequence, which John Wesley put so plainly when he said "to give up belief in witchcraft was to give up the Bible" (Farrar. Smith's Dict. of Bible, s.v. "Divination," 101. i. p. 445). We, however, venture to believe that there is a middle course, that of determining what we mean by witchcraft. As vulgarly understood and practised we are of course uncompromising unbelievers.

48:71 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 104.

48:72 Frazer, Golden Bough, vol. i. p. 9.

49:73 Frazer, Golden Bough, vol. i. p. 9.

49:74 In the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford, is the original clay figure actually made to represent a man, whose death it was intended thereby to compass. This happened no longer ago than 1889 in Glen Urquhart, where the image was placed before the house of an inhabitant. That this is not an uncommon act is proved by their having in Gaelic a distinct name for the clay figure--Corp Creidh, the clay body, well understood to mean the object and purpose above described. The great antiquity of this mode of working evil is shown by the discovery at Thebes of a small clay figure of a man tied to a papyrus scroll, evidently to compass the destruction of the person represented and denounced in the scrip. This figure and papyrus are now in the Ashmolean Museum. We refer again to this subject in Chapter XI.

49:75 Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt, vol. iii. p. 492.

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #101 on: May 01, 2009, 01:00:30 am »

50:76 Maspero, Archæol. Egyp. p. 245. Of the ancient Greeks, we are told that in some "places they placed their infants in a thing bearing some resemblance to whatever sort of life they designed them for. Nothing was more common than to put them in vans, or conveniences to winnow corn, which were designed as omens of their future riches and affluence" (Potter, Archæol. Græc. vol. ii. p. 321). We are further told these "things" were not real but imitations.

50:76a Fig. 1 is from Wilkinson, Anc. Egyp. Figs. 2 and 3 from author's collection.

51:77 "C'étaient des simulacres de pains, d'offrandes destinés à nourrir le mort éternellement. Beaucoup de vases qu'on déposait dans le tombe sont peints en imitation d'albâtre, de granit, de basalte, de bronze ou même d'or, et sont le contrfaçon à bon marché des vases en matières précieuses, que les riches donnaient aux momies."--Maspero, Archæol Egyp. p. 245. Upon this subject see also Maspero, Histoire Ancienne des peuples de l'Orient, p. 53 sq.; Ib. Trans. Bibl. Archæol. Soc. vol. vii. p. 6 sq.; Mariette, Sur les Tombes de l'Ancien Empire, p. 17 sq.; Brugsh, Die Ægyptische Gräberwelt, p. 16. sq.

52:78 Maspero, Études Égyptiennes, vol. i. p. 192. See also Mariette, Sur les Tombes, p. 8. Closely allied to this is the breaking of votive offerings to SS. Cosmo and Damian, referred to later.

53:79 Fig. 4 was found October 1882 in a recess of a chimney in an old house occupied by Mrs. Cottrell in the village of Ashbrittle. It was wrapped in a flannel bag, black and rotten, which crumbled to pieces. Some of the old people declared it to have been a custom when a pig died from the "overlooking" of a witch to have its heart stuck full of pins and white thorns, and to put it up the chimney, in the belief that as the heart dried and withered so would that of the malignant person who bad "ill wisht" the pig. As long as that lasted no witch could have power over the pigs belonging to that house. Fig. 5 was found nailed up inside the "clavel" in the chimney of an old house at Staplegrove in 1890. One side of this heart is stuck thickly with pins, the other side, here shown, has only the letters M. D. which are considered to be the initials of the supposed witch.

54:80 Herbert Ward, Five Years with the Congo Cannibals, 1890.

Only ten years ago an old woman died here in the Workhouse, who was always a noted witch. She was the terror of her native village (in the Wellington Union), as it was fully believed she could "work harm" to her neighbours. Her daughter also, and others of her family, enjoyed the like reputation. Virago-like she knew and practised on the fears of the other inmates of "the House." On one occasion she muttered a threat to the matron, that she would "put a pin in for her." The other women heard it, and cautioned the matron not to cross her, as she had vowed to put in a pin for her, and she would do it. When the woman died there was found fastened to her stays a heart-shaped pad stuck with pins; and also fastened to her stays were four little bags in which were dried toads' feet. All these things rested on her chest over her heart, when the stays were worn.

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #102 on: May 01, 2009, 01:00:55 am »

A farm boy left his employment in a neighbouring parish against his p. 55 master's wish, "to better himself," and took service near. Soon after, he was seized with a "terrible" pain in his foot, so that he could neither stand nor drive home the cows. An acquaintance coming by took him home in his cart, and advised him to consult "Conjurer ------." The latter told him at once, "Somebody's workin' harm 'pon thee." In the end the boy was advised to go back to his old place, and to keep a sharp watch if Mr. or Mrs. ------ took anything down out of the "chimbly." "’Nif they do, and tear'n abroad, they can't never hurt thee no more." After many questions he was taken back into the house again, and in a short time he saw Mrs. ------ take an image down from the chimney. "’was a mommet thing, and he knowd 'twas a-made vor he." He saw that the feet of the little figure were stuck full of pins and thorns! As soon as he found out that the thing was destroyed, he went off again to farmer ------'s, because his feet got well directly, and he knew they could not work harm a second time.

Fifteen years ago, at a town in Devonshire, lived for many years an unmarried woman, the mother of several children. The woman left, and a neighbour searching about the house found, in the chimney as usual, onions stuck thickly with pins, and also a figure made unmistakably to represent das mannliche Glied, into which also were stuck a large number of pins. The people who crowded to see these things had no doubt whatever as to their being intended for a certain man who kept a little shop near, and had been known as a visitor of this woman, who thus vented her spite upon him.

The names of the parties to all these stories are known to me, and the "Conjurer" up to his death a few years ago occupied a cottage belonging to my father.

The pins in an onion are believed to cause internal pains, and those in the feet or other members are to injure the parts represented, while pins in the heart are intended to work fatally; thus a distinct gradation of enmity can be gratified.

55:81 Letter from Mr. J. L. W. Page (Author of Explorations of Dartmoor, Exmoor, etc.), October 20, 1890.

56:82 W. F. Rose, Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries, vol. iv. part xxvi. p. 77 (1894).

56:83 Those whose profession is to counter-charm and to discover witchcraft are white witches or "wise men," or more commonly "conjurers." They are usually, but not always, men.

56:84 H. S. in the Spectator, Feb. 17, 1894, p. 232.

p. 57

In all the foregoing instances, it will be noted that the hearts or onions were to be scorched either by being actually thrown on the fire or by being placed in the chimney, where they would be exposed to much heat. The inside of the clavel beam would be a particularly hot place. A specimen of the same kind of heart as Fig. 5, at Oxford (Pitt Rivers Museum), has also a large nail through it, to fasten it to the wooden clavel.

57:85 Mrs. Gaskell in Nineteenth Century, Feb. 1894, p. 264.

This, however, is somewhat wide of our subject, and belongs rather to the widely-extended belief in holy wells and sacred springs. (For full information on this subject, see Mackinlay, Folk Lore of Scottish Lochs and Springs, 1894.)

58:86 In the same case are to be seen one or two other hearts of the same character as Figs. 4 and 5, though less perfect as specimens.

58:87 Petronius, Sat. 131. Story, Castle of S. Angelo, p. 211. Jahn, etc., p. 42, says: "Bunte Fäden spielten bei allen Zauberwesen eine grosse Rolle," and gives numerous references to classics and scholiasts.

59:88 Persius, Sat. ii. 31. There is also a very common practice both in England and elsewhere of tying a bunch of many-coloured ribbons to horses' heads. "During the panic caused in Tunis by the cholera some extraordinary remedies were eagerly run after by the populace." Among others one woman "sold bits of coloured ribbon to be pinned on the clothes of those who were anxious to escape the epidemic" (Hygiene, Nov. 17, 1893, p. 938).

59:89 On this subject see Sacred Wells in Wales, by Professor Rhys, read before the Cwmrodorian Society, January 11, 1893.

60:90 Compare this with the many examples of sending away various diseases by hanging articles on trees, giver, by Dr. Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. 137.

61:91 The True Preserver and Restorer of Health, by G. Hartman, Chymist, 1695, servant of Sir Kenelm Digby.

62:92 See "Crying the Neck," Transactions Devon Association, 1891.

63:93 At the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, are many specimens of this Harvest figure from several parts of the world. Particularly several "Kirn babies" from Scotland, made from the last of the corn cut, and thus supposed to contain the corn spirit. Though not precisely alike in form, they are exactly analogous in motive to the "Neck" of Devon and West Somerset. Upon "Kirn babies," Brand fell into the error that Kirn meant corn, from similarity of sound. The word really means churn, and is precisely analogous to kirk and church. At harvest time in Scotland there has always been a great churning of butter for the festival, and hence the Kirn has developed into the name for the festival itself. Baby is but the old English name for a doll or "image," as Brand recognised. Therefore the Kirn baby has nothing to do with the word corn, but means a "Harvest-festival doll." Theories built up upon its meaning corn-maiden, are without any foundation except that of connection with the end of harvest. No doubt these figures are made from the last of the corn, and do represent the spirit of vegetation, but their signification is by no means implied in their Scotch name. Mr. Frazer (Golden Bough, vol. i. p. 344) has therefore been misled by Brand. See N. E. Dict. s.v. "Corn-Baby."

63:94 See Brand, vol. i. p. 226 et seq.

63:95 Elton, Origins of English History, 2nd ed. p. 282.

64:96 Martin, Description of Western Islands, quoted by Elton, Orig. p. 282.

64:97 In ancient Greece, "on the fifth day after the birth, the midwives, having first purified themselves by washing their hands, ran round the fire hearth with the infant in their arms, thereby, as it were, entering it into the family" (Potter, Archæol. Græc. vol. ii. p. 322).

64:98 Rhys, Welsh Philology, p. 10.

64:99 Kemble, Saxons in England, vol. i. p. 360, has a long note on this act in Perthshire during the present century, and also in Devonshire.

64:100 We refer to these fires later on, but they were undoubtedly relics of sun-worship.

"In Munster and Connaught a bone (probably the representative of the former sacrifice) must be burnt in them (Baal fires). In many places sterile beasts and human beings are passed through the fire. As a boy I with others jumped through the fire 'for luck,' none of us knowing the original reason. "--Kinahan, Folk-Lore Record, vol. iv. 1881, quoted Notes and Queries, 8th ser. v. 433.

65:101 Elton, Origins of English History, p. 276.

65:102 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. 387.

66:103 Selden says: "’Tis in the main allowed that the heathens did in general look towards the east when they prayed, even from the earliest ages of the world."

Report Spam   Logged
The Creeper
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3204



« Reply #103 on: May 01, 2009, 01:01:32 am »

66:104 Potter, vol. i. pp. 223, 224. Upon the subject of "Bowing towards the Altar" much is said in Brand, vol. ii. pp. 317-324 (Bohn, 1882).

67:105 Lumboltz, Among Cannibals, 1889, p. 276.

67:106 Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol. ii. p. 412, 2nd ed. 1881,

67:107 The facts given here are those observed, and those related on the spot traditionally. It is however clear that although this temple may have been truly orientated by Rameses for the day of his great battle, yet that date could not then have corresponded with the present season of February 24, owing to the precession of the equinox. Upon this subject see Norman Lockyer in The Dawn of Astronomy, reviewed in the Times, February 2, 1894.

68:108 As we proceed we shall see other striking examples of this eclecticism of modern Christianity, and a lesson of tolerance may well be learnt from the spectacle.

69:109 Potter, vol. i. pp. 224, 261.

69:110 Ibid. vol. i. pp. 262, 263.

70:111 Mead, Proceed. Som. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc. vol. xxxviii. p. 362, 1892. Also F. T. Elworthy in Spectator, February 5, 1887. The tree itself about which this notice in the Spectator was written is now in the Somerset Archæological Society's Museum at Taunton.

70:112 First Report of Committee on Ethnographical Survey of the United Kingdom (Sec. H, British Association), 1893, p. 15.

70:113 Potter, vol. i. p. 265.

72:114 D. Porter, Journal of a Cruise in the Pacific, vol. ii. p. 188. Dawson, Australian Aborigines, tells other stories of this nature.

Frazer, Golden Bough, vol. i. p. 198, gives many references to authors who have recounted instances of this common belief.

73:115 Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 54.

73:116 Here we have another link in that remarkable chain of beliefs so ably demonstrated by Dr. Tylor, at the British Association meeting, 1894, in his lecture on the "Distribution of Mythical Beliefs as evidence in the History of Culture," which seems also to prove the common parentage of widely-separated races. The ultimate relationship of the Nagas of Assam, with the Australian aborigines, through migration by way of Formosa, Sumatra, and the Indian Archipelago, is traced by Mr. Peal in "Fading Histories," Journ. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, lxiii. part iii. No. 1, 1894.

73:117 Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, 1889, p. 280.

77:118 Prof. Rhys, "Welsh Fairies," art. in Nineteenth Century, Oct. 1891, p. 566. Cf. also remark on Herbert River natives, p. 73.

77:119 Jorio, Mimica degli Antichi, p. 92.

78:120 Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, p. 279.

78:121 Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asien, v. 455.

78:122 Torreblanca, De Magia, ii. 49.

79:123 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 94 et seq. gives a number of very remarkable instances of foundation sacrifices from all parts of the world as for instance, quite in modern times even in our own possessions in the Punjaub--the only son of a widow was thus sacrificed. But perhaps the strangest account of all is that of several willing victims, making the story of Quintus Curtius seem quite commonplace.

79:124 Baring-Gould, art. "On Foundations," in Murray's Magazine, March 1887, pp. 365, 367. Tylor tells the same story, op. cit. i. 94.

79:124a These stories are sifted and disproved in The Immuring of Nuns, by the Rev. H. Thurston, S.J., Catholic Truth Society, 1st ser. p. 125; but he by no means controverts facts relating to long antecedent beliefs.

80:124b For authorities see Note 124, p. 79.

81:125 Robertson Smith, art. "Sacrifice," in Ency. Brit.

82:125a Robertson Smith, art. "Sacrifice," in Ency. Brit.

82:126 Schmidt, Das Volksleben der Neugriechen, p. 196 et seq. Frazer, Golden Bough, vol. i. p. 145, also quotes as above, and gives many other authorities, See also Baring-Gould, Murray's Magazine, March 1887, p. 373.

83:127 Dyer, English Folk Lore, p. 277.

84:128 Dyer, English Folk Lore, p. 109. Folk-Lore Journal, vol. iii. p. 281.

84:129 Punjaub Notes and Queries, vol. ii. p. 906, quoted by Frazer.

85:129a The recorder of this story doubtless gives the facts correctly; but his rendering of the dialect is quite literary.

85:130 A. H. S. Landor, Alone with the Hairy Ainu, p. 13



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://sacred-texts.com/evil/tee/tee04.htm
Report Spam   Logged
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 [7]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy