The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 06 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 06 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
scattered the bones of the dead.(233)
(M88) With savage and barbarous tribes in like manner it is not unusual to
violate the sanctity of the tomb either for the purpose of wreaking
vengeance on the dead or more commonly perhaps for the sake of gaining
possession of the bones and converting them to magical uses. Hence the
Mpongwe kings of the Gaboon region in West Africa are buried secretly lest
their heads should fall into the hands of men of another tribe, who would
make a powerful fetish out of the brains.(234) Again, in Togoland, West
Africa, the kings of the Ho tribe are buried with great secrecy in the
forest, and a false grave is made ostentatiously in the king’s house. None
but his personal retainers and a single daughter know where the king’s
real grave is. The intention of this secret burial is to prevent enemies
from digging up the corpse and cutting off the head.(235) “The heads of
important chiefs in the Calabar districts are usually cut off from the
body on burial and kept secretly for fear the head, and thereby the
spirit, of the dead chief, should be stolen from the town. If it were
stolen it would be not only a great advantage to its new possessor, but a
great danger to the chief’s old town, because he would know all the
peculiar ju-ju relating to it. For each town has a peculiar one, kept
exceedingly secret, in addition to the general ju-jus, and this secret one
would then be in the hands of the new owners of the spirit.”(236) The
graves of Basuto chiefs are kept secret lest certain more or less
imaginary witches and wizards called _Baloi_, who haunt tombs, should get
possession of the bones and work evil magic with them.(237) In the Thonga
tribe of South Africa, when a chief dies, he is buried secretly by night
in a sacred wood, and few people know the place of the grave. With some
clans of the tribe it is customary to level the mound over the grave so
that no sign whatever remains to show where the body has been buried. This
is said to be done lest enemies should exhume the corpse and cut off the
ears, the diaphragm, and other parts in order to make powerful war-charms
out of them.(238) By many tribes in Fiji “the burial-place of their chief
is kept a profound secret, lest those whom he injured during his lifetime
should revenge themselves by digging up and insulting or even eating his
body. In some places the dead chief is buried in his own house, and armed
warriors of his mother’s kin keep watch night and day over his grave.
After a time his bones are taken up and carried by night to some far-away
inaccessible cave in the mountains, whose position is known only to a few
trustworthy men. Ladders are constructed to enable them to reach the cave,
and are taken down when the bones have been deposited there. Many
frightful stories are told in connection with this custom, and it is
certain that not even decomposition itself avails to baulk the last
revenge of cannibals if they can find the grave. The very bones of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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