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
familiar friend the navel-string in the basket, from which the mother
easily induces it to return by shaking the basket and pressing it to the
child’s body.(162) The Toboongkoos of Central Celebes believe that
sickness in general is caused by the departure of the soul. To recover the
wanderer a priest will set out food in the courtyard of the sufferer’s
house and then invoke the soul, promising it many fine things if it will
only come back. When he thinks it has complied with his request, he
catches it in a cloth which he keeps ready for the purpose. This cloth he
afterwards claps on the sick man’s head, thereby restoring to him his lost
soul.(163)
(M33) In an Indian story a king conveys his soul into the dead body of a
Brahman, and a hunchback conveys his soul into the deserted body of the
king. The hunchback is now king and the king is a Brahman. However, the
hunchback is induced to shew his skill by transferring his soul to the
dead body of a parrot, and the king seizes the opportunity to regain
possession of his own body.(164) A tale of the same type, with variations
of detail, reappears among the Malays. A king has incautiously transferred
his soul to an ape, upon which the vizier adroitly inserts his own soul
into the king’s body and so takes possession of the queen and the kingdom,
while the true king languishes at court in the outward semblance of an
ape. But one day the false king, who played for high stakes, was watching
a combat of rams, and it happened that the animal on which he had laid his
money fell down dead. All efforts to restore animation proved unavailing
till the false king, with the instinct of a true sportsman, transferred
his own soul to the body of the deceased ram, and thus renewed the fray.
The real king in the body of the ape saw his chance, and with great
presence of mind darted back into his own body, which the vizier had
rashly vacated. So he came to his own again, and the usurper in the ram’s
body met with the fate he richly deserved.(165) In another Indian story a
Brahman reanimates the dead body of a king by conveying his own soul into
it. Meantime the Brahman’s body has been burnt, and his soul is obliged to
remain in the body of the king.(166) In a Chinese story we read of a monk
in a Buddhist monastery who used from time to time to send his soul away
out of himself. Whenever he was thus absent from the body, he took the
precaution of locking the door of his cell. On one of these occasions an
envoy from the north arrived and put up at the monastery, but there was no
cell for him to pass the night in. Then he looked into the cell of the
brother whose soul was not at home, and seeing his body lying there
motionless, he battered the door in and said, “I will lodge here. The man
is dead. Take the body and burn it.” His servants obeyed his orders, the
monks being powerless to interfere. That very night the soul came back,
only to find its body reduced to ashes. Every night it could be heard
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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