The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 04 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 04 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
(M171) With these mock sacrifices of human lives we may compare mimic
sacrifices of other kinds. In southern India, as in many parts of the
world, it used to be customary to sacrifice joints of the fingers on
certain occasions. Thus among the Morasas, when a grandchild was born in
the family, the wife of the eldest son of the grandfather must have the
last two joints of the third and fourth fingers of her right hand
amputated at a temple of Bhairava. The amputation was performed by the
village carpenter with a chisel. Nowadays, the custom having been
forbidden by the English Government, the sacrifice is performed in
mimicry. Some people stick gold or silver pieces with flour paste to the
ends of their fingers and then cut or pull them off. Others tie flowers
round the fingers that used to be amputated, and go through a pantomime of
cutting the fingers by putting a chisel on the joint and then taking it
away. Others again twist gold wires in the shape of rings round their
fingers. These the carpenter removes and appropriates.(599) In Niué or
Savage Island, in the South Pacific, the following custom continued till
lately to be observed. When a boy was a few weeks old the men assembled,
and a feast was made. On the village square an awning was rigged up, and
the child was laid on the ground under it. An old man then approached it,
and performed the operation of circumcision on the infant in dumb show
with his forefinger. No child was regarded as a full-born member of the
tribe till he had been subjected to this rite. The natives say that real
circumcision was never performed in their island; but as it was commonly
practised in Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa, we may assume that its imitation in
Niué was a substitute, introduced at some time or other, for the actual
operation.(600) Similarly when an adult Hindoo joins the sect of the Daira
or Mahadev Mohammedans in Mysore, a mock rite of circumcision is performed
on him instead of the real operation. A betel leaf is wrapped round the
male member of the neophyte and the loose end of the leaf is snipped off
instead of the prepuce.(601)
§ 3. Burying the Carnival.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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