! /i, ilfti;;,,^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ " THE GIFT OF T. F. CRANE. Professor of the Romance Languages and Literatures. — Date Due Gc; 2^ 943 U 1950 DLC2 4^se T AUG f] 252(L jm-^iB/fk^^ """"''"" GR65 .Caf"'" '"''^^ '"^°IMIlinI?,..,!S,,.IS!,S±i:«;,,.Sy..Mar|an 3 1924 029 olin 890 948 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029890948 AN INTRODUCTION TO FOLK-LORE AU rights reserved AN introduction!;^ TO FOLK-LORE MARIAN ROALFE COX LONDON DAVID NUTT, 270-71 STRAND 1895 W.-x.-^ -5^^^ Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. At the Ballantyne Press TO MY FRIEND EDWARD CLODD, WHO SUGGESTED ITS THEME, THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED. PREFACE This little book pretends, without arrogance, to answer a question, not infrequently heard, namely : What ts Folk - lore ? In rapidly traversing the wide field which the subject covers, mere glances can be given at the several points of deep inte- rest, some, perchance, being wholly overlooked. As guides, therefore, to the student who desires to scour the ground with greater thoroughness, or to investigate at closer range, a list of books is given at the end. It has proved undesirable to increase the bulk of the volume by cumbering its pages with foot-notes ; but none the less would I gratefully acknowledge indebtedness to all autho- rities from whom information has been drawn. In the following pages I have attempted a general survey of Folk-lore from one point of view only—the anthropological. The theories set forth are, for the most part, those of Dr. Tylor and Mr. Herbert Spencer—not, in sooth, as affording the key to the understanding of all mysteries and all PREFACE knowledge, —for, with regard to much, one must still "wonder on;" — but as being, at this day, the most easy to sustain. All philosophy, said Epictetus, lies in two words, " sustain " and " ab- stain." So the method that I have adopted is at any rate consistent with his teaching. For, while following leaders who explain the universal bar- baric belief in spirits as the result of a misunder- standing of normal phenomena, such as dreams, faintings, death, I have chosen to leave aside the whole question of the actual existence of ghosts, and the possibility of the savage's personal ac- quaintance with them. But, perhaps, as Mr. Lang " " " says in Myth, Ritual, and Religion (i. 103) : It would scarcely be fair not to add that the kind of facts investigated- by the Pscyhical Society—such facts as the appearance of men at the moment of death in places remote from the scene of their decease, with such real or delusive experiences as the noises and visions in haunted houses—are familiar to savages." Into this let the curious inquire. Of Mr. Lang, as the admitted chief, must all students of Folk-lore learn ; I would, however, specially acknowledge the large use I have made of his writings on the subject. The illustrative examples for these pages have viii PREFACE been selected from riches which embarrass, one illustration often suggesting " a hundred its like to treat as you please." Temptation to be pro- digal overmuch must needs beset the writer on Folk-lore, drawing from such inexhaustible capital. " For the structure that we raise, Time is with materials filled, Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build." M. R. C. 107 Earl's Court Road, W. August 1895. — CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY PAGE Antiquity of the human race—Primitive savagery of man—General ^ resemblance in the mental character of all savages—Definition of Folk-lore—Its value as a science—The power of tradition —Traces of savage belief seen in some habitual expressions ;- and irrational practices of the civilised—Examples-Super- stitious observances—Butter bewitched—Cows bespelled Counter-charms—Luck and ill-luck—Sir Thomas Browne on right and left omens—Salt-spilling—Various safeguards Charms—Virtue of things stolen—Napoleon's talisman Sympathetic cures—Disease transference—Principles of leech- craft : folk-medicine—Stone-axes and arrow-heads as amulets —Amber—Written charms—The lucky horseshoe : potency of iron against spells—Why the peacock's feather is unlucky —Rice-throwing and kindred practices—The " toom '' cradle —May marriages—Relics of sun and moon worship—The moon in weather-lore—Lucky and unlucky days—Lucky numbers—Telling the bees—Various modes of divination Catoptromancy, augury, dreams, palmistry, &c. —The divin- ing-rod—Use of plants in divination—Some festival and ceremonial customs—Local customs—Duty of the folk-lorist —Nursery tales and children's games as contributions to the ' history of man's life . ..... 1-3S CHAPTER I THE SEPARABLE SOUL The beginnings of Folk-lore—How the belief in a second self, or t soul, may have originated—The soul's means of ingress and egress —Poets' imagery and popular legends in illustration of xi ——A CONTENTS PAGE this—The soul as a bee, a snake, a mouse,' &c. —The home- less soul of Hermotimus—Death a prolonged absence of the second self: provisions against its return—Hell-shoon— Chinese funeral—The souls of inanimate objects can be of service to men's souls ; wherefore all kinds of objects are buried with corpse—Sacrifice of vrives, friends, slaves Messages to the dead—Food offerings to the dead : survivals V of the practice—Soul-cakes—Receptacles for food on tombs Preservation of the corpse—Cairns, pyramids—Some methods ^ of preventing a ghost's return when dreaded—Ghosts intan- i^ gible—Ghosts as tiny bodies—Fear of supernatural powers of ghost leading to propitiation and worship of ancestral ghosts —A body deserted by its other self may be entered by the other self of someone else, living or dead —Sneezing, yawning, , convulsions as cases of " possession," originating the practice of exorcism—Means of ingress and egress provided for ghost —Pre-historic trepanning—Phenomena of shadows and re- flections confirming belief in a second self—Soul identified-- with the shade, with the breath—Echoes explained—Doctrine of Pythagoras—Soul as a bird, butterfly, flower—Souls per- vading all nature—Souls of the dead animating treeS'—Speak- ing, sentient trees—Sympathy between man and natural objects—Metamorphosis of human beings into trees—Tree and plant worship—Offerings on trees—Libations to fruit trees—The Separable Soul in folk-tales . 36-84 CHAPTER II ANIMAL ANCESTORS The savage mind naturally credulous ; treats all nature alike as personal and animated—Observation of changes of form in the order of nature engenders belief in the transformation of men into animals—Especially sorcerers have this power Witch stories in illustration—Or a man's double may enter the body of an animal ; or animals may be possessed by the doubles of dead persons—Certain animals thus regarded as transformed ancestors— Resulting confused theories of descent from and kinship with animals—Men named after animals Regard for animal namesake—Toteiriism—Its universal traces —A digression anent the family tie—Influence of totemic beliefs —— CONTENTS PAGE on savage conduct—Relics of totemism amongst civilised races t- —The Easter hare—Plants identified with ancestors—Vege- table totems—-Animal and plant worship—Results of the per- sonification of animals and plants—Guiding beasts and birds —The hawk and the Mikado—Burying alive under founda- tions—The bell of Peking—Animal omens—Helpful animals in folk-tales—Animals as dramatis fersonce—Myths of descent ^ from and marriage with animals—Animal children—Animal worship in Egypt—Animal gods—Shape-shifting gods—Greek and savage myths compared—The swallowing trick—Why the savage legends were retained—Attempted symbolical ex- planation of myths—The right method of interpretation ^ The Swan-coat—Melusina—Cupid and Psyche—The Were- "^ wolf ; to be distinguished from the lycanthrope—A recent case of relapse into barbarism ..... 85-129 CHAPTER III ANIMISM—GHOSTS AND GODS Universal animistic belief of the savage—Fairies, brownies, &e. developed out of primitive ghosts—Fear of ghosts leading to propitiation—The motive of every sacrifice—Rudimentary conception of deity—Origin of incense-bvirning—Polytheism the outcome of belief in ghosts, friendly and malicious—Devil the same as God—Demons originally divine beings—Good and bad spiritual beings developing into elves, dwarfs, &c. Nature-gods : Sun, Moon, Fire, Sky, and Heaven personified —Savage and Greek Wind-gods—Mother Earth—Traces in English custom of Earth-worship—Water-gods—Rivers de- manding human victims—Offerings at wells, &c. —Haunted mountains—Sacrifices to Family Spirits—Anses and elves Vampires the ghosts of primitive cannibals—Apotheosised men— Culture - heroes — Mortal gods — Monotheism — Rival powers—Persian system of Dualism—Satan's various guises —Stories illustrating the gullibility of the mediaeval devil— !< Bottled Spirits—Fetichism an outcome of animism— Relics and effigies—Idolatry—Human "sacrifices : Substitutes—Eat- ing divine victim—Symbolical sacrifices—Serpent as fetich : worshipped; demonised 130-178 xiii — "' CONTENTS CHAPTER IV THE OTHER-WORLD PAGE Abode of spirits associated with place of burial—Mountain-burial and sacred mountain-tops —Soul must climb steep hiU Glass-mountains—" Terrible crystal " and other solid firma- ments—Cave-burial—Sheol, a cave, the original hell ; the underworld for good and bad alike—Subterranean fairy- halls in Hades— The dead rejoin their ancestors —Heroes ; must traverse seas, rivers—Burial in boats—Soul's passage across water—Popular