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MAY, 1891.]
BOOK NOTICE.
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Druids gathered it in June for their religious story the giant has no heart. In India, where purposes, and the fact that it is still gathered on the notion is very common, this life-index has Midsummer Eve in common with a large number been kept in a bird, an insect, a plant, a necklace, of other magical and healing plants all over in mother's milk, in a sword, in a bull, in a lamp, Europe, points to the antiquity of the con- and so on. It is always exceedingly difficult of nection of the mistletoe with the midsummer access : e. g. when it is in a green parrot, that bird fires.
18 in a cage under six pitchers of water in the centre We are thus brought back to the Balder myth,
of a circle of palm-trees in a thick forest in a far whose two chief features - the pulling of the
country guarded by 1,000 ogres. The same idea mistletoe and the burning of the god-belonged
is traceable in Siam, Cambodia, Kasmir, Gilgit, to the great midsummer festival of the Celts.
and ancient Greece. Hair is a common place of In Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, the home of
residence of the soul : e.g. the story of Nisus, kiny Balder, the connection of Balder with the
of Megara, of Poseidon and Pterelaus, and of the midsummer fires is seen in the name for the 1 -
Biblical Samson. Among the Russians, Saxons, Balder's Balo-fires: and assuming that the myth Scandinavians, Celts, the same idea and the same describes a common and important ritual, we must
tales are common. In Ancient Egypt, in a story arrive at the conclusion that " Balder must have
recorded in 1300 B. C., in the story of Saifu'l. been the Norse representative of the being who
mulak, in stories amongst the Kabyls, the was burnt in effigy or in the person of a living
Magyars, the Tatars, the Mughals, and the Malays, man at the fire festivals in question."
and in a tale from Nias near Sumatra, we have The oak is the tree most likely represented
samples of identical notions among peoples who by the victim at these festival fires. It was
are not of Aryan origin. the principal object of worship among Celts and Folk-customs from various parts of the world Slavs, and the most sacred tree of the Greeks and prove that these folk-tales are mere reflec. Latins, and generally of the nations of the Aryan tions of a real article of primitive belief. Thus stock. It was used by the Germans in kindling in the Celebes the priests collect the souls of the need-fire, in common with the Slave and Celts, the whole family in a bag, to keep them out of and for feeding the old sacred fires kept burning harm's way when entering a new house. There, at their sanctuaries.
too, the soul of a lying-in woman is given to If then we concede that the tree represented
the doctor to keep in a piece of iron until all danger by the human victim at the great festival was the
is past. In Amboina outting off the hair is more oak, we see from the Balder myth why the pulling
terrible than torture, because it destroys the of the mistletoe was mixed up with the ceremonies.
strength. Trees containing the lives of newly The inistletoe was the only thing that could kill
born children are planted or exist in Western Balder beoause the mistletoe was the external
Africa, in the Cameroons, and the Celebes, among soul of the oak, a notion probably arising from
the Papuans, the Maoris, and the Dyake. Families the observation that while the oak is deciduous the
in Russia, Germany, England and France plant mistletoe growing on it remains ever-green. So
trees on the birth of children. Something of the that nooording to savage ideas before the god
same custom obtains among the Royal family could be killed, i. e. the oak could be burnt, it
at Osborne. The custom of passing children
through trees seems to be connected with the was necessary to pluck away his soul, which was the mistletoe.
saine idea. The Karens believe that the life of a
new-born infant is bound up in the knife that This leads to an extreinely interesting enquiry
severs the naval string. The soul is transferred -- What is the external soul PNow, primitive
to an animal among Maltye, the Banka Islanders, man always concuives the soul as a concrete
the Zulus, the Zapotecs, and the Central Ameriobjost upon which life depends. The soul need
can Indians generally, where some animal is the non aces3sriy rəsido in the body, and it may,
second self of every human being. in fact, be safer els where hidden in a place of safo'y, for its long as the soul is uninjured The close connection between such an animal the life of the body remains intact. Many folk- and the human being whose life is bound up talus gathered from all parts of the world prove this, in it, has led to its sanctity, as among the Austra. and turn on this point. The villain usually, but lians. There owls represent women, and bats also frequently the hero or the heroine of a tale, men, and are looked upon as brothers and sisters has a soul or life-index which is kept somewhere to the human race: e. g. all owls are sisters to the under tremendous safe-guards, and until that soul women, and all women are owls; 80 all men is got at the owner is invulnerable. In the Norse are bats and all bats men's brothers. This is
| SR No. | 032512 |
| Book Title | Indian Antiquary Vol 20 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple |
| Publisher | Swati Publications |
| Publication Year | 1984 |
| Total Pages | 486 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 21 MB |