The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 03 of 12) — John Shaqi
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 03 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 03 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
medicine-man has been known to recall the stray soul of a child, and to
fasten it firmly in its body by tying a string round the child’s right
wrist, and smearing its little arm with the blood of a fowl.(150) The
Ilocanes of Luzon think that a man may lose his soul in the woods or
gardens, and that he who has thus lost his soul loses also his senses.
Hence before they quit the woods or the fields they call to their soul,
“Let us go! let us go!” lest it should loiter behind or go astray. And
when a man becomes crazed or mad, they take him to the place where he is
supposed to have lost his soul and invite the truant spirit to return to
his body.(151) The Mongols sometimes explain sickness by supposing that
the patient’s soul is absent, and either does not care to return to its
body or cannot find the way back. To secure the return of the soul it is
therefore necessary on the one hand to make its body as attractive as
possible, and on the other hand to shew the soul the way home. To make the
body attractive all the sick man’s best clothes and most valued
possessions are placed beside him; he is washed, incensed, and made as
comfortable as may be; and all his friends march thrice round the hut
calling out the sick man’s name and coaxing his soul to return. To help
the wanderer to find its way back a coloured cord is stretched from the
patient’s head to the door of the hut. The priest in his robes reads a
list of the horrors of hell and the dangers incurred by souls which
wilfully absent themselves from their bodies. Then turning to the
assembled friends and the patient he asks, “Is it come?” All answer “Yes,”
and bowing to the returning soul throw seed over the sick man. The cord
which guided the soul back is then rolled up and placed round the
patient’s neck, who must wear it for seven days without taking it off. No
one may frighten or hurt him, lest his soul, not yet familiar with its
body, should again take flight.(152)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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