Part 13 (1/2)

[202] Im Thurn, _Indians of Guiana_, 335; Landtman, _Origin of Priesthood_, 117.

[203] _Primitive Manners and Customs_, cap. i. ”Some Savage Myths and Beliefs,” and cap. viii., ”Fairy Lore of Savages.”

[204] _Introd. to Hist. of Religion_, 263. Of course I do not accept Mr. J. A. Stewart's ”general remarks on the ???????a or story-telling myth” in his _Myths of Plato_, 4-17. All Mr. Stewart's research is literary in object and result, though he uses the materials of anthropology.

[205] H. H. Wilson, _Rig Veda Sanhita_, i. p. xvii.

[206] H. H. Wilson, _Vishnu Purana_, i. p. iv; _Rig Veda Sanhita_, i.

p. xlv.

[207] _Religion of the Semites_, 19.

[208] Mr. Hartland pa.s.ses rapidly in his opening chapter from the myth as primitive science to the myth as fairy tale, from the savage to the Celt (_Science of Fairy Tales_, pp. 1-5), and I do not think it is possible to make this leap without using the bridge which is to be constructed out of the differing positions occupied by the myth and the fairy tale.

[209] It will be interesting, I think, to preserve here one or two instances of the actual practice of telling traditional tales in our own country. Mr. Hartland has referred to the subject in his _Science of Fairy Tales_, but the following instances are additional to those he has noted, and they refer directly back to the living custom. They are all from Scotland, and refer to the early part of last century. ”In former times, when families, owing to distance and other circ.u.mstances, held little intercourse with each other through the day, numbers were in the habit of a.s.sembling together in the evening in one house, and spending the time in relating the tales of wonder which had been handed down to them by tradition” (Kiltearn in Ross and Cromarty; Sinclair, _Statistical Account of Scotland_, xiv. 323). ”In the last generation every farm and hamlet possessed its oral recorder of tale and song. The pastoral habits of the people led them to seek recreation in listening to, and in rehearsing the tales of other times; and the senachie and the bard were held in high esteem” (Inverness-s.h.i.+re, _ibid._, xiv.

168). ”In the winter months, many of them are in the habit of visiting and spending the evenings in each other's houses in the different hamlets, repeating the songs of their native bard or listening to the legendary tales of some venerable senachie” (Durness in Sutherlands.h.i.+re, _ibid._, xv. 95).

[210] W. H. R. Rivers, _The Todas_, 3-4.

[211] Pausanias, viii. cap. xv. -- 1.

[212] _Journ. Roy. Asiatic Soc._, ii. p. 218.

[213] _Hist. of Rome_, i. pp. 177-179. _Cf._ Gunnar Landtman, _Origin of Priesthood_, p. 77.

[214] Perhaps Mr. Lang's study of ”Cinderella and the Diffusion of Tales” in _Folklore_, iv. 413 _et seq._, contains the best summary of the position.

[215] Crawley, _Tree of Life_, 5, 144.

[216] Train, _Hist. of Isle of Man_, ii. 115.

[217] The ceremony is fully described in _Relics for the Curious_, i.

31; _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1784 (see _Gent. Mag. Library_, xxiii.

209), quoting from a tract first published in 1634; and see _Proc. Soc.

Antiq. Scot._, x. 669.

[218] See _Folklore_, iii. 253-264; Rhys, _Celtic Folklore_, i.

337-341.

[219] Couch, _Hist. of Polperro_, 168.

[220] I have investigated the bee cult at some length, and it will form part of my study on _Tribal Custom_ which I am now preparing for publication.

[221] Carleton, _Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry_.

[222] Mr. Eden Phillpotts mentions in one of his Cornish stories exactly this conception. Rags were offered. ”Just a rag tored off a petticoat or some such thing. They hanged 'em up around about on the thorn bushes, to shaw as they'd 'a' done more for the good saint if they'd had the power.”--_Lying Prophets_, 60.