Six hundred and sixty-six, the number of the Beast, 44 Skoptsi, a Russian sect, 196 _n._3 Skull of dead king used as a drinking-vessel, 200 Skulls of dead kings removed and kept, 202 _sq._ Sky-spirit, sacrifice of children to, 181 Slaughter of the Dragon, drama of the, at Delphi and Thebes, 78 _sqq._, 89; myth of the, 105 _sqq._ Slavs, custom of regicide among the, 52; festival of the New Year among the old, 221; "Sawing the Old Woman" among the, 242 Slaying of the king in legend, 120 _sqq._ Smith, W. Robertson, 8 _n._1 Snake, rajahs of Manipur descended from a, 133 Sofala, kings of, put to death, 37 _sq._; dead kings of, consulted as oracles, 201 Solar and lunar time, early attempts to harmonise, 68 _sq._ Son of the king sacrificed for his father, 160 _sqq._ Sons of gods, 5 “Soranian Wolves,” 186 _n._4 Soul, succession to the, 196 _sqq._ Souls of the dead supposed to resemble their bodies, as these were at the moment of death, 10 _sq._; associated with falling stars, 64 _sqq._; transmitted to successors, 198 South American Indians, their insensibility to pain, 138 Spain, seven-legged effigies of Lent in, 244 Spartan kings liable to be deposed every eighth year, 58 _sq._ Spears, sacred, 19 Spectral Huntsman, 178 Spencer and Gillen, quoted, 180 _n._1, 187 _n._6 Spirit, the Great, of the American Indians, 3 Spitting to avert demons, 63 Spring equinox, custom of swinging at, 284; drama of Summer and Winter at the, 257 Spring, magical ceremonies for the revival of nature in, 266 _sqq._ “Spring, the Sacred,” among the ancient Italian peoples, 186 _sq._ Springs, oracular, 78 _sq._ Stadium, the Olympic, 287 Standing on one foot, custom of, 149, 150, 155, 156 Stars, the souls of Egyptian gods in, 5; shooting, superstitions as to, 58 _sqq._; their supposed influence on human destiny, 65 _sq._, 67 _sq._ Stepmother, marriage with a, 193 Stevens, Captain John, his _History of Persia_ quoted, 158 _sq._ Stigand, Captain C. H., 182 Stool at installation of Shilluk kings, 24 Students of Fez, their mock sultan, 152 _sq._ Styx, oath by the, 70 _n._1 Substitutes, voluntary, for capital punishment in China, 145 _sq._, 273 _sqq._ Succession in Polynesia, customs of, 190 _sq._ —— to the kingdom through marriage with a sister or with the king’s widow, 193 _sq._; conferred by personal relics of dead kings, 202 _sq._ —— to the soul, 196 _sqq._ Sufi II., Shah of Persia, 158 Suicide of Buddhist monks, 42 _sq._; epidemic of, in Russia, 44 _sq._; by hanging, 282 ——, religious, 42 _sqq._, 54 _sqq._; in India, 54 _sq._ ——, hand of, cut off, 220 _n._ Sulka, the, of New Britain, 65 “Sultan of the Scribes,” 152 _sq._ Summer, bringing in, 233, 237, 238, 246 _sqq._ —— and Winter, dramatic battle of, 254 _sq._ —— solstice in connexion with the Olympic festival, 90; swinging at the, 280 —— trees, 246, 251 _sq._