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
(M43) Demons are especially feared by persons who have just entered a new
house. Hence at a house-warming among the Alfoors of Minahassa in Celebes
the priest performs a ceremony for the purpose of restoring their souls to
the inmates. He hangs up a bag at the place of sacrifice and then goes
through a list of the gods. There are so many of them that this takes him
the whole night through without stopping. In the morning he offers the
gods an egg and some rice. By this time the souls of the household are
supposed to be gathered in the bag. So the priest takes the bag, and
holding it on the head of the master of the house, says, “Here you have
your soul; go (soul) to-morrow away again.” He then does the same, saying
the same words, to the housewife and all the other members of the
family.(205) Amongst the same Alfoors one way of recovering a sick man’s
soul is to let down a bowl by a belt out of a window and fish for the soul
till it is caught in the bowl and hauled up.(206) And among the same
people, when a priest is bringing back a sick man’s soul which he has
caught in a cloth, he is preceded by a girl holding the large leaf of a
certain palm over his head as an umbrella to keep him and the soul from
getting wet, in case it should rain; and he is followed by a man
brandishing a sword to deter other souls from any attempt at rescuing the
captured spirit.(207)
(M44) In Nias, when a man dreams that a pig is fastened under a
neighbour’s house, it is a sign that some one in that house will die. They
think that the sun-god is drawing away the shadows or souls of that
household from this world of shadows to his own bright world of radiant
light, and a ceremony must needs be performed to win back these passing
souls to earth. Accordingly, while it is still night, the priest begins to
drum and pray, and he continues his orisons till about nine o’clock next
morning. Then he takes his stand at an opening in the roof through which
he can behold the sun, and spreading out a cloth waits till the beams of
the morning sun fall full upon it. In the sunbeams he thinks the wandering
souls have come back again; so he wraps the cloth up tightly, and quitting
the opening in the roof, hastens with his precious charge to the expectant
household. Before each member of it he stops, and dipping his fingers into
the cloth takes out his or her soul and restores it to the owner by
touching the person on the forehead.(208) The Thompson Indians of British
Columbia think that the setting sun draws the souls of men away towards
it; hence they will never sleep with their heads to the sunset.(209) The
Samoans tell how two young wizards, passing a house where a chief lay very
sick, saw a company of gods from the mountain sitting in the doorway. They
were handing from one to another the soul of the dying chief. It was wrapt
in a leaf, and had been passed from the gods inside the house to those
sitting in the doorway. One of the gods handed the soul to one of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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