The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
priest conjures the lost soul into a cup, where it is seen by the
uninitiated as a lock of hair, but by the initiated as a miniature human
being. This is supposed to be thrust by the priest into a hole in the top
of the patient’s head.(447) In Nias the sick man’s soul is restored to him
in the shape of a firefly, visible only to the sorcerer, who catches it in
a cloth and places it on the forehead of the patient.(448)
Again, souls may be extracted from their bodies or detained on their
wanderings not only by ghosts and demons but also by men, especially by
sorcerers. In Fiji if a criminal refused to confess, the chief sent for a
scarf with which “to catch away the soul of the rogue.” At the sight, or
even at the mention of the scarf the culprit generally made a clean
breast. For if he did not, the scarf would be waved over his head till his
soul was caught in it, when it would be carefully folded up and nailed to
the end of a chief’s canoe; and for want of his soul the criminal would
pine and die.(449) The sorcerers of Danger Island used to set snares for
souls. The snares were made of stout cinet, about fifteen to thirty feet
long, with loops on either side of different sizes, to suit the different
sizes of souls; for fat souls there were large loops, for thin souls there
were small ones. When a man was sick against whom the sorcerers had a
grudge, they set up these soul-snares near his house and watched for the
flight of his soul. If in the shape of a bird or an insect it was caught
in the snare the man would infallibly die.(450) Among the Sereres of
Senegambia, when a man wishes to revenge himself on his enemy he goes to
the _Fitaure_ (chief and priest in one), and prevails on him by presents
to conjure the soul of his enemy into a large jar of red earthenware,
which is then deposited under a consecrated tree. The man whose soul is
shut up in the jar soon dies.(451) Some of the Congo negroes think that
enchanters can get possession of human souls, and enclosing them in tusks
of ivory, sell them to the white man, who makes them work for him in his
country under the sea. It is believed that very many of the coast
labourers are men thus obtained; so when these people go to trade they
often look anxiously about for their dead relations. The man whose soul is
thus sold into slavery will die “in due course, if not at the time.”(452)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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