The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 08 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 08 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
would make him strong.(471) It is a Zulu fancy that by eating the centre
of the forehead and the eyebrow of an enemy they acquire the power of
looking steadfastly at a foe.(472) In Tud or Warrior Island, Torres
Straits, men would drink the sweat of renowned warriors, and eat the
scrapings from their finger-nails which had become coated and sodden with
human blood. This was done “to make strong and like stone; no
afraid.”(473) In Nagir, another island of Torres Straits, in order to
infuse courage into boys a warrior used to take the eye and tongue of a
man whom he had killed, and after mincing them and mixing them with his
urine he administered the compound to the boy, who received it with shut
eyes and open mouth seated between the warrior’s legs.(474) Before every
warlike expedition the people of Minahassa in Celebes used to take the
locks of hair of a slain foe and dabble them in boiling water to extract
the courage; this infusion of bravery was then drunk by the warriors.(475)
In New Zealand “the chief was an _atua_ [god], but there were powerful and
powerless gods; each naturally sought to make himself one of the former;
the plan therefore adopted was to incorporate the spirits of others with
their own; thus, when a warrior slew a chief, he immediately gouged out
his eyes and swallowed them, the _atua tonga_, or divinity, being supposed
to reside in that organ; thus he not only killed the body, but also
possessed himself of the soul of his enemy, and consequently the more
chiefs he slew the greater did his divinity become.”(476)
(M120) Even without absorbing any part of a man’s bodily substance it is
sometimes thought possible to acquire his moral virtues through simple
contact with his bones. Thus among the Toradjas of Central Celebes, when a
youth is being circumcised he is made to sit on the skull of a slain foe
in order to make him brave in war;(477) and when Scanderbeg, Prince of
Epirus, was dead, the Turks, who had often felt the force of his arm in
battle, are said to have imagined that by wearing a piece of his bones
near their heart they should be animated with a strength and valour like
his.(478) A peculiar form of communion with the dead is practised by the
Gallas of Eastern Africa. They think that food from the house of a dead
man, especially food that he liked, or that he cooked for himself,
contains a portion of his life or soul. If at the funeral feast a man eats
some of that food, he fancies that he has thereby absorbed some of the
life or soul of the departed, a portion of his spirit, intelligence, or
courage.(479)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account