Part 24 (2/2)

in _Records of South-Eastern Africa_, collected by G. McCall Theal, vol.

iii. (1899) pp. 130 _sq._ The name Benametapa (more correctly _monomotapa_) appears to have been the regular t.i.tle of the paramount chief, which the Portuguese took to be the name of the country. The people over whom he ruled seem to have been the Bantu tribe of the Makalanga in the neighbourhood of Sofala. See G. McCall Theal, _Records of South-Eastern Africa_, vii. (1901) pp. 481-484. It is to their custom of annually extinguis.h.i.+ng and relighting the fire that Montaigne refers in his essay (i. 22, vol. i. p. 140 of Charpentier's edition), though he mentions no names.

[338] Sir H.H. Johnson, _British Central Africa_ (London, 1897), pp.

426, 439.

[339] W.H.R. Rivers, _The Todas_ (London, 1906), pp. 290-292.

[340] Lieut. R. Stewart, ”Notes on Northern Cachar,” _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_ xxiv. (1855) p. 612.

[341] A. Bastian, _Die Volker des ostlichen Asien_, ii. (Leipsic, 1866) pp. 49 _sq._; Shway Yoe, _The Burman_ (London, 1882), ii. 325 _sq._

[342] G. Schlegel, _Uranographie Chinoise_ (The Hague and Leyden, 1875), pp. 139-143; C. Puini, ”Il fuoco nella tradizione degli antichi Cinesi,”

_Giornale della Societa Asiatica Italiana_, i. (1887) pp. 20-23; J.J.M.

de Groot, _Les Fetes annuellement celebrees a emoui (Amoy)_ (Paris, 1886), i. 208 _sqq._ The notion that fire can be worn out with age meets us also in Brahman ritual. See the _Satapatha Brahmana_, translated by Julius Eggeling, Part i. (Oxford, 1882) p. 230 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xii.).

[343] W.G. Aston, _s.h.i.+nto, The Way of the G.o.ds_ (London, 1905), pp. 258 _sq._, compare p. 193. The wands in question are sticks whittled near the top into a ma.s.s of adherent shavings; they go by the name of _kedzurikake_ (”part-shaved”), and resemble the sacred _inao_ of the Aino. See W.G. Aston, _op. cit._ p. 191; and as to the _inao_, see _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii. 185, with note 2.

[344] Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 82; Homer, _Iliad_, i. 590, _sqq._

[345] Philostiatus, _Heroica_, xx. 24.

[346] Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 143 _sq._; Macrobius, _Saturn_, i. 12. 6.

[347] Festus, ed. C.O. Muller (Leipsic, 1839), p. 106, _s.v._ ”Ignis.”

Plutarch describes a method of rekindling the sacred fire by means of the sun's rays reflected from a hollow mirror (_Numa_, 9); but he seems to be referring to a Greek rather than to the Roman custom. The rule of celibacy imposed on the Vestals, whose duty it was to relight the sacred fire as well as to preserve it when it was once made, is perhaps explained by a superst.i.tion current among French peasants that if a girl can blow up a smouldering candle into a flame she is a virgin, but that if she fails to do so, she is not. See Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Conde-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 27; B. Souche, _Croyances, Presages et Traditions diverses_ (Niort, 1880), p. 12. At least it seems more likely that the rule sprang from a superst.i.tion of this sort than from a simple calculation of expediency, as I formerly suggested (_Journal of Philology_, xiv. (1885) p. 158). Compare _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings>_ ii. 234 _sqq._

[348] Geoffrey Keating, D.D., _The History of Ireland, translated from the original Gaelic, and copiously annotated_, by John O'Mahony (New York, 1857), p. 300, with the translator's note. Compare (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London, 1888), pp. 514 _sq._

[349] W.R.S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, Second Edition (London, 1872), pp. 254 _sq._

[350] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche_ (Leipsic, 1848), p. 373; A. Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebrauche und Marchen aus Westfalen_ (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 134 _sqq.; id., Markische Sagen und Marchen_ (Berlin, 1843), pp. 312 _sq._; J.D.H. Temme, _Die Volkssagen der Altmark_ (Berlin, 1839), pp. 75 _sq._; K. Lynker, _Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen_*[2] (Ca.s.sel and Gottingen, 1860), p. 240; H. Prohle, _Harzbilder_ (Leipsic, 1855), p.

63; R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), pp.

240-242; W. Kolbe, _Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebrauche_ (Marburg, 1888), pp. 44-47; F.A. Reimann, _Deutsche Volksfeste_ (Weimar, 1839), p.

37; ”Sitten und Gebrauche in Duderstadt,” _Zeitschrift fur deutsche Mythologie und Sitten-kunde_, ii. (1855) p. 107; K. Seifart, _Sagen, Marchen, Schw.a.n.ke und Gebrauche aus Stadt und Stift Hildesheim_*[2]

(Hildesheim, 1889), pp. 177, 180; O. Hartung, ”Zur Volkskunde aus Anhalt,” _Zeitschrift des Vereins fur Volkskunde_, vii. (1897) p. 76.

[351] L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), ii. p. 43 _sq._, --313; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstamme_ (Berlin, 1875), pp. 505 _sq._

[352] L. Strackerjan, _op. cit._ ii. p. 43, --313.

[353] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] (Berlin, 1875-1878), i. 512; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstamme_, pp.

506 _sq._

[354] H. Prohle, _Harzbilder_ (Leipsic, 1855), p. 63; _id._, in _Zeitschrift fur deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, i. (1853) p. 79; A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche_ (Leipsic, 1848), p. 373; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 507.

[355] A. Kuhn, _Markische Sagen und Marchen_ (Berlin, 1843), pp. 312 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _l.c._

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