Kathasaritsagara (the Ocean of Story)

by Somadeva | 1924 | 1,023,469 words | ISBN-13: 9789350501351

This is the English translation of the Kathasaritsagara written by Somadeva around 1070. The principle story line revolves around prince Naravāhanadatta and his quest to become the emperor of the Vidhyādharas (‘celestial beings’). The work is one of the adoptations of the now lost Bṛhatkathā, a great Indian epic tale said to have been composed by ...

Appendix 3.1 - Sneezing Salutations

On page 30 we saw that when the prince went to sleep without telling his tale, the merchant’s son overheard in the air what seemed to be voices of women engaged in conversation.

Disappointed at not hearing the tale, they each pronounced a curse on him in turn; that of the fourth was:

“If he escape this also, when he enters that night into his private apartments he shall sneeze a hundred times; and if someone there does not a hundred times say to him, ‘God bless you!’ he shall fall into the grasp of death....”

It is this familiar benediction after sneezing which I am going to discuss in this appendix.

The most usual form the benediction takes either is as in our text, or else is a wish for long life. As we shall see later, among some peoples no benediction is given at all, the sneeze being simply regarded as either a good or bad omen according to special circumstances.

It is, I think, not at all surprising to find curious customs connected with sneezing in all parts of the world. We have already seen (Vol. II, p. 144n1) that the twitching or itching of various parts of the body is regarded as ominous; how much more, therefore, would such a violent and sudden thing as a sneeze be looked upon as caused by some unknown power, or as an omen to be most carefully regarded?

Halliday[1] has put this clearly:

“It is per se a startling phenomenon to find the body, which in normal action is the slave and instrument of its owner’s will and intention, behaving in a way independent of his desire or volition. Simply because it is involuntary, the twitching of the eyelid or the tingling of the ear must be miraculous. And primitive man finds a significance in everything which attracts his notice, particularly in cases where there is no obvious cause.”

I do not think we need look further for the explanation of sneezing customs, but the varying practices found in different countries and the strange myths invented to explain these practices afford an interesting anthropological study.

To begin with ancient India: the Buddha is described in the Gagga-Jataka (No. 155) as reprimanding his disciples for crying “Long life!” after a sneeze.

The Brethren then ask: “Sir, when did people begin to answer ‘Long life!’ by ‘The same to you’?”

Said the Master: “That was long, long ago”; and he told them a tale of the olden time[2]:

“Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was King of Benares, the Bodhisatta came into the world as a brahmin’s son of the kingdom of Kāsi; and his father was a lawyer by calling. When the lad was sixteen years old or so, his father gave a fine jewel into his charge, and they both travelled through town after town, village after village, until they came to Benares. There the man had a meal cooked in the gatekeeper’s house; and as he could find nowhere to put up he asked where there was lodging to be had for wayfarers who came too late. The people told him that there was a building outside the city, but that it was haunted; but, however, he might lodge there if he liked. Says the lad to his father: ‘Have no fear of any Goblin, father! I will subdue him and bring him to your feet.’

“So he persuaded his father, and they went to the place together. The father lay down upon a bench and his son sat beside him, chafing his feet.

“Now the Goblin that haunted the place had received it for twelve years’ service of Vessavana,[3] on these terms: that if any man who entered it should sneeze, and when long life was wished him should answer: ‘Long life to you!’ or ‘The same to you!’—all except these the Goblin had a right to eat. The Goblin lived upon the central rafter of the hut.

“He determined to make the father of the Bodhisatta sneeze. Accordingly by his magic power he raised a cloud of fine dust, which entered the man’s nostrils, and as he lay on the bench he sneezed. The son did not cry ‘Long life!’ and down came the Goblin from his perch, ready to devour his victim.

But the Bodhisatta saw him descend, and then these thoughts passed through his mind:

‘Doubtless it is he who made my father sneeze. This must be a Goblin that eats all who do not say “Long life to you.”’

And addressing his father he repeated the first verse as follows:—

‘Gagga, live an hundred years—aye, and twenty more, I pray!
May no goblin eat you up; live an hundred years, I say!’

“The Goblin thought:

‘This one I cannot eat, because he said “Long life to you.” But I shall eat his father’;

and he came close to the father. But the man divined the truth of the matter.

‘This must be a Goblin,’ thought he,

‘who eats all who do not reply, “Long life to you too!”’

and so addressing his son he repeated the second verse:

‘You too live an hundred years—aye, and twenty more, I pray;
Poison be the goblin’s food; live an hundred years, I say!’

“The Goblin, hearing these words, turned away, thinking:

‘Neither of these is for me to eat.’

But the Bodhisatta put a question to him:

‘Come, Goblin, how is it you eat the people who enter this building?’

“‘I earned the right for twelve years’ service of Vessa-vana.’

“‘What! Are you allowed to eat everybody?’

“‘All except those who say “The same to you” when another wishes them long life.’

“‘Goblin,’ said the lad,

‘you have done some wickedness in former lives, which has caused you to be born now fierce and cruel, and a bane to others. If you do the same kind of thing now you will pass from darkness to darkness. Therefore from this time forth abstain from such things as taking life.’

With these words he humbled the Goblin, scared him with fear of hell, established him in the Five Precepts, and made him as obedient as an errand-boy.

“Next day, when the people came and saw the Goblin and learned how that the Bodhisatta had subdued him, they went and told the king:

‘My lord, some man has subdued the Goblin, and made him as obedient as an errand-boy.’

So the king sent for him and raised him to be Commander-in-Chief, while he heaped honours upon the father. Having made the Goblin a tax-gatherer, and established him in the Bodhisatta’s precepts, after giving alms and doing good he departed to swell the hosts of heaven.”

The Hindus of the North-West Provinces will still say “May you live a hundred years!” on hearing anyone sneeze.

(See North Indian Notes and Queries, vol. iv, p. 388.) For other references to sneezing in the Jātakas see vol. i, p. 279, and vol. v, p. 228.

In more modern days we still find the belief that sneezing is due to demoniacal influence, although opinions differ as to whether it is caused by a Bhūta[4]  entering or leaving the nose. The latter view is generally taken by Mohammedans because it is one of the traditions of the Prophet that the nose should be washed out with water, as the devil resides in it during the night.[5] Sneezing once is a good sign; twice a bad sign. More than twice is not regarded. When a child sneezes those near it usually say “dīrghāyus” (“long life”), or “śatāyus” (“a hundred years”). Adults who sneeze pronounce the name of some god, the common expression being “Śrīmad-raṅgam.” When a Badaga baby is born it is a good omen if the father sneezes before the umbilical cord has been cut, and an evil one if he sneezes after its severance.

In the Telugu country it is believed that a child who sneezes on a winnowing-fan or on the door-frame will meet misfortune unless balls of boiled rice are thrown over it; and a man who sneezes during his meals, especially at night, will also be unlucky unless water is sprinkled over his face and he is made to pronounce his own name and that of his birthplace and his patron deity.[6]

The name of a deity is often uttered by the sneezer. Dubois[7] says that after sneezing a Hindu never fails to exclaim: “Rama! Rama!” Among the Chitāri caste (painters of the Central Provinces) when a man sneezes he will say “Chhatrapati,” which is said to be a name of Devī, but is used only on this occasion. When about to start on an expedition or to begin some new enterprise a sneeze is almost always considered an evil omen.[8]

The same idea is prevalent in many parts of the world. Thus in describing the Province of Lar (Gujarāt and the northern Konkan) Marco Polo says[9]:

“Moreover, if in going out he hears anyone sneeze, if it seems to him a good omen he will go on, but if the reverse he will sit down on the spot where he is, as long as he thinks that he ought to tarry before going on again.”

In Persia[10] to sneeze once when starting on any expedition is an evil omen, apparently whether the traveller himself or anyone else perpetrates the sneeze. Persians in such a case will stare hard at the sun[11] in order to induce a second or third sneeze. If they are unsuccessful in doing this they betake themselves to repeating a certain invocation to Allah, but most Persians will give up the expedition, believing firmly that it can end only in disaster. On the other hand, they believe that if they desire anything ardently and someone sneezes at that moment, then their wish is sure to be granted. The demoniacal influence connected with sneezing is clearly shown by the Persian belief that accidents are often due to someone sneezing at the critical moment; thus Sir Percy Sykes’ Persian secretary always attributed a bad accident he had while riding to the fact that someone had sneezed just as he was mounting his horse.

In ancient Persia we read in the Sad Dar[12] that on sneezing it is requisite to recite one Yathā-ahū-vairyō and one Ashem-vohū (formulæ in praise of righteousness), because there is a fiend in our bodies endeavouring to make misfortune and sickness. There is also a fire there too, called a disposition and the sneezing instinct. It is connected with the fiend.

“Then, as the fire becomes successful over that fiend, and puts her to flight, a sneeze comes because that fiend comes out. Afterwards, because it is necessary, they recite these inward prayers and perform the benediction of the fire, so that it may remain for a long period while thou art keeping this fiend defeated. When another person hears the sneeze it is likewise requisite for him to utter the said prayers and to accomplish the benediction of that spirit.”

According to Father Tachard[13] the Siamese,

“se persuad-ent que le premier juge des enfers, qu’ils appellent Prayamp-paban, a un livre oü la vie de chaque homme en particulier est écrite, qu’il le relit continuellement et que, lorsqu’il est arrivé à la page qui contient l’histoire de telle personne, elle ne manque jamais d’éternuer. C’est pour cela, disent-ils, que nous éternuons sur la terre; et de là est venue la coutume qu’ils ont de souhaiter une heureuse et longue vie à tous ceux qui éternuent.”

In Islam we find that Mohammed did not object to the custom of blessing the sneezer, as did many of the Christian teachers.

Lane[14] tells us that on sneezing a man says: “Praise be to God!”

Each person present (servants generally excepted) then says to him: “God have mercy upon you”—to which the former generally replies: “God guide us and guide you.”

Moslems believe that when Allah placed the Soul (life?) in Adam, the dry clay became flesh and bone, and the First Man, waking to life,[15] sneezed and ejaculated “Al-ḥamdu li’llāh!”—whereto Gabriel replied: “Allah have mercy upon thee, O Adam!”

The reason given for Mohammed’s liking sneezing is that he realised that the act was accompanied by lightness of body and openness of pores, and said of it:

“If a man sneeze or eructate and say ‘Al-ḥamdu li’llāh’ he averts seventy diseases, of which the least is leprosy” (Juzām).[16]

Among the Hebrews the benedictions used are: “Your health!”

“May you live!” “For life!” “For a happy life!” and “God bless you!” The origin given for this custom is found in the Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer (chap. Iii.), a fanciful history of creation and the patriarchs selected from the Pentateuch, composed in the eighth or ninth century.

Briefly the account is as follows: —At the creation of the world God made seven wonderful things, one of which was a law that a man should sneeze only once and then die, the sneeze signifying the rendering of the soul to God. Naturally everyone went in fear of the fatal sneeze. Matters remained unchanged till the time of Jacob. He immediately saw the great disadvantages of such a law and, humbling himself before God, begged for a brief space to live after his sneeze so as to put his affairs in order. His wish was granted. Time passed and the day of his death drew nigh. He sneezed and did not die. The world was amazed at this phenomenon, which seemed to be changing the law of nature. Accordingly the princes of the earth ordained that in future when anyone sneezed he should immediately be wished “Long life,” in the hope that the favour would be further extended.[17]

The Jews also believed in a pseudo-Greek myth told about Prometheus. Roughly the story is as follows[18]: —

When Prometheus had put the finishing touches to his clay figure he wished to give it life. To achieve this he had need of aid from heaven. He made a journey to the sky, conducted by Minerva. Having traversed various planets, where he collected certain influences which he deemed necessary for his object, he arrived at the sun. Then, and long before, this planet was regarded as the soul of the world, as the author of life and as the father of nature. He approached this sphere under the mantle of his patroness with a bottle of crystal. He quickly filled this with a portion of the sun’s rays, and having hermetically sealed it he descended to his work. Without losing a moment he held his bottle to the nose of the statue, opened it and the rays of the sun, having lost none of their potency, entered by the respiratory organs into the spongy tissues with such speed that it produced the same effect as it does to-day when we look at the sun. It made the statue sneeze, after which it animated the whole figure. Prometheus, charmed with his success, began to pray; he prayed for the work of his hands and for its preservation; his pupil heard this and remembered it all. First impressions have a deep and lasting effect. During the rest of his life he repeated these same wishes on similar occasions, and this custom has descended from father to son to this day.

The variants of this tale are many and need not be detailed here.

With the Greeks sneezing was usually looked upon as a good omen and of heavenly origin.[19]

Thus in Theocritus (vii, 96; Bohn trans., p. 42) we read:

“On Simichidas indeed the Loves have sneezed.”

Again, in Idyll xviii, 16, it is said of Menelaus, the lucky bridegroom:

“Blest husband, some lucky person sneezed on thee, as thou wentest to Sparta, that thou mightest accomplish thine object.”

Homer[20] makes Penelope say:

“My son has sneezed a blessing on all my words.”

The usual saluation was ζῆθι, Ζεῦ σῶσον! While Xenophon was addressing the assembly of the Ten Thousand someone sneezed, and the men immediately paid homage to Zeus, whereupon Xenophon continued:

“Since, O soldiers, while we were discussing means of escape, an omen from Zeus the Preserver has manifested itself...”[21]

According to Abbott[22] the formula of salutation in Macedonia to-day varies according to the occasion, the act of sneezing being interpreted in three different ways:

First, sneezing is regarded as a confirmation of what the person speaking has just said. In that case he interrupts himself in order to address the sneezer as follows:

“Health be to thee, for [thou hast proved that] I am speaking the truth!” (Γειά σου κὴ ἀλήθεια λέγω).

Secondly, it is taken as a sign that absent enemies are speaking ill of the sneezer, and the bystanders express the pious wish that those individuals, whoever they be, “may Split” (νὰ σκάσουν).

Thirdly, it is considered as an indication of health, especially if the sneezer is just recovering from an illness. The formula appropriate in this instance is, “Health to thee, and joy to thee!” (Γειά σου καὶ χαρά σου), to which some, facetiously inclined, add by way of a crowning happiness — “and may thy mother-in-law burst!” (καὶ νὰ σκάσ’ ἡπεθερά σου).

He shows the salutation after sneezing to be common amongst the Turks, as well as among savage tribes in many parts of the world.

The Roman salutation was “Salve!”[23] and sneezing was considered auspicious.

Thus in Catullus[24] we read:

“When he said this, Love, who had looked upon him before from the left, now sneezed approvingly from the right.”

Likewise in Propertius[25]:

“In thy new-born days, my life, did golden love sneeze, loud and clear, a favouring omen?”

In early Christian times the sign of the cross was made at a sneeze, thus ensuring protection against any evil influences which might be at work. Later, however, the pagan origin of such beliefs was condemned, and St Augustine declared that any attention paid to sneezing was not only sacrilegious, but ridiculous.

The custom of saying “God bless you!” after sneezing received fresh impetus during the plague at Rome in 589-590. As is the case with many other diseases, the plague started with sneezing, whereupon anyone who heard it would flee, calling out “God bless you!” or “God help you!” The same applies to the plagues at Florence (1340-1349); France and England (1361-1362); and the Plague of London in 1664-1666.

The formulæ used in different parts of Europe are all very similar—e.g. “Helflu Got!” “Christ in helfe!” “Got helfe dir!” “Deus te adjuvet!” “Gesundheit!” “God bless you!” “Bless you!” “Felicità!” etc.[26]

As is only to be expected, in many parts of Europe the peasants have invented tales to account for the custom. It will suffice here to give a translation of one current in Picardy.[27]

Near the road of Englebelmer (Somme) there lived long ago a man who passed every night in sneezing continually. At any hour at which one might pass in this neighbourhood one heard nothing but “Atchi! Atchi!” repeated without ceasing, until passers-by would merely comment: “It is the sneezer.”

Several times the young men of the neighbouring villages assembled to take him by surprise, but when they arrived on the spot, instead of hearing the usual “Atchi!” they heard nothing at all, and the noise did not start again until they were well on their way home. The man or the goblin took pleasure in making the young peasants run along the long road, and remained inaccessible. Finally everyone grew accustomed to the sneezer, and since he had never harmed anyone they lost their fear of passing along the road and contented themselves with making the sign of the cross on hearing the noise.

One summer moonlight night a peasant was returning from the neighbouring market. Soon he heard the “Atchi!” of the sneezer, but it did not alarm him. Doubtless the goblin had nothing else to do, since it pleased him to follow the peasant about a quarter of a league, with his incessant “Atchi!”

At last the peasant cried out, annoyed:

“Will you never finish sneezing thus? May God bless you, you and your cold!”

He had hardly said these words when a phantom, garbed in a big white robe, appeared before his eyes; it was the sneezer.

“Thank you, friend; you have delivered me from great suffering. As a result of my sins God condemned me to wander round this village, sneezing without rest from evening to morning, until a charitable living man should deliver me by saying ‘God bless you.’ Many years have passed since that time, and for at least five hundred years I have come here, sneezing when I see a traveller. No one has said to me, ‘God bless you.’ Happily, this evening I had the good idea of following you, and you have delivered me for all time. Once again, thank you and good-bye.”

The ghost disappeared at once, and the man reached Englebelmer, while the sneezer, freed from his misery, doubtless took the road to heaven. From that day onwards the “Atchi!” of the goblin was heard no more.

Before closing this appendix I would add a few sneezing customs from primitive races in different parts of the world.

In Africa salutations of some kind or other are found from Tunis to Zululand, and from Gambia to Somaliland. In his works on the Hausas of North Africa, Tremearne[28] says that after sneezing a man will say “Thanks be to God!” for he considers that by that act one expels some bori which has entered without his knowing it. In the bori dance, however, the expression is avoided, as it is necessary for the bori to enter the dancer’s body.

Among the Bakongo[29] it is, as opposed to the Hausa tribes, considered unlucky for the spirit to depart as it does when one sneezes, so they say “Sazuka!” (“Come quickly!”) When a baby sneezes the mother calls out: “Come back quickly!”

A newly born Bantu baby is held in the smoke of a slow fire of aromatic woods till it sneezes and coughs, so that the mother may know it is not bewitched.[30]

In West Africa a sneeze of a child is of evil omen; thus in old Calabar[31] the mother says: “Nsa, nsa, fu!”— [“May danger or guilt be] far from you!”

The Zulus approve of sneezing. It shows that the idhlozhi (manes) are with the sneezer, and accordingly thanks are returned. If a child sneezes people say “Grow!” as it is a sign of health. Christian Zulus say: “Preserve, look upon me!” or “Creator of Heaven and Earth!”[32]

Among the Indonesians[33] (i.e. the non-Malays of the Eastern Archipelago) sneezing denotes that the “soul-substance,” or the vital force animating nature during life on this earth, is leaving or returning to the body. If a child sneezes the mother utters a prayer lest a spirit take away the “soul-substance” which has now been removed from the child. If a sick man sneezes it is good luck, because it shows the return of the “soul-substance.” For the ordinary adult sneezing is a sign either that friends are thinking of them, or that enemies want to harm their “soul-substance.” In order, however, to be on the safe side, it is usual to utter imprecations.

Among the Melanesians and Polynesians when a man sneezed they thought that someone had spoken his name. If he wished to sneeze and could not do so, he thought that someone meant to call him, but was unable to do so.

If a man was sick and sneezed they said at once:

“Oh, he will live. The spirit [niono] has returned to him.”

The New Britain people say “Lalaun!” (“May you live!”).

The Samoans say “Soifua!” (“May you live!”) and the answer given by the person who sneezes is “ola,” the common word for life.

The Fijians say “Bula!” (“May you live!”) and the answer given is “Mole!” (“Thanks”).[34]

In British New Guinea we find, once again, that sneezing is a sign that the soul is returning to the body, and if a man does not sneeze for many weeks together his friends look on it as a grave symptom. His soul, they imagine, must be a very long way off.[35]

The Hervey Islanders have the same beliefs, and in Rarotonga when a person sneezes the bystanders exclaim, as though addressing his spirit: “Ha, you have come back!”[36]

Macculloch[37] remarks that, in connection with the idea that the soul is entering or leaving the body at sneezing, it is noticeable that some savages believe that it may find an exit by the nose, just as it does by the mouth. Hence the nostrils of a dead or dying man are sometimes held or closed (along with the mouth) to keep his soul in, either to benefit the man or to prevent its issuing forth and carrying off the souls of others.[38] In Celebes fish-hooks are attached to a sick man’s nose to catch the issuing soul.[39] Eskimo mourners, or those who prepare the body for burial, plug the nostrils, lest the soul should find an exit and follow the dead.[40] Instances of a savage sleeping with nose and mouth covered to prevent the soul leaving are known. Again, as the breath from the mouth may contaminate sacred objects, so also may the breath from the nose. Hence both are covered in certain rites.

Apart from references already given, the following are worthy of attention:—

Charles Brisard, L’Eternuement, Lyon [1896]; Cabanès, “Dieu vous bénisse!—Origine d’un dicton,” Mœurs intimes du passé, 1st series, Paris [1898]; J. Knott, “Origin of the Custom of Salutation after Sneezing,” St Louis Medical Review, 1906, vol. liv, pp. 382-384; R. G. Haliburton, New Materials for the History of Man, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1863. (The article on sneezing contained in the latter reference originally appeared in the Nova Scotia Inst. Nat. Sci., 4th May 1863.)

R. E. Enthoven gives interesting details of sneezing superstitions in the Bombay Presidency in his Folklore of Bombay, pp. 332-335, 1924.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

W. R. Halliday, Greek Divination, London, 1913, p. 175.

[2]:

W. H. D. Rouse, The Jātaka, Cambridge, 1895, vol. ii, pp. 11-13.

[3]:

A monster with white skin, three legs and eight teeth, guardian of jewels and the precious metals, and a kind of Indian Pluto.

[4]:

See Vol. I, Appendix I, p. 206.

[5]:

W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, vol. i, p. 240.

[6]:

Thurston, Ethnographic Notes in Southern Lidia, 1906, p. 248; ditto, Omens and Superstitions of Southern India, 1912, pp. 25, 26.

[7]:

Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, 3rd edit., by Beauchamp, Oxford, 1906, p. 329 (vol. i, p. 465 of the 1825 Paris edition).

[8]:

vol. iii, pp. 401, 564, and vol. iv, p. 362.

[9]:

Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, 1903, vol. ii, pp. 364, 365.

[10]:

Ella C. Sykes, “Persian Folk-Lore,” Folk-Lore, vol. xii, 1901, pp. 266, 267.

[11]:

Cf the Prometheus myth given on p. 309.

[12]:

E. W. West, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiv, pp. 265, 266.

[13]:

Voyage de Siam des Pères Jésuites envoyés par le Roy aux Indes et à la Chine, Amsterdam, 1688, p. 287, quoted by Saintyves (p. 29, see below).

[14]:

Manners and Customs of the Modem Egyptians, 5th edit., I 860, p. 205.

[15]:

Cf. Eliṣa raising the dead child to life (2 Kings iv, 35), “and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.”

[16]:

R. F. Burton, Nights, vol. ix, p. 220n1.

[17]:

See R. Means-Lawrence, The Magic of the Horseshoe, London, 1898, p. 227, and P. Saintyves, L’Éternuement et le Bāillement dans la Magie, l’Ethnographie et le Folklore Medical, Paris, 1921, p. 32.

[18]:

Henri Morin, “Sur les souhaits en faveur de ceux qui étemuent,” Mem. de l’Acad, des Ins., 1746, vol. iv, pp. 326, 327, reproduced in Leber, Collection des meilleures Dissertations, Paris, 1838, vol. viii, pp. 372-374 (quoted by Saintyves, op. cit., p. 33).

[19]:

Arist., Probl., xxxviii, 7.

[20]:

Odyssey, xvii, 541.

[21]:

Xenophon, Anab., Ill, ii, 9.

[22]:

G. F. Abbott, Macedonian Folk-Lore, Cambridge, 1903, pp. 113-116.

[23]:

Pliny, Nat. Hist., xxviii, 2; Apuleius, Golden Ass, ii, 211.

[24]:

Carmina, xlv.

[25]:

Eleg., ii, 3, 23.

[26]:

See J. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, trans. J. S. Stallybrass, London, 1882-1888, vol. iii, p. 1116; vol. iv, p. 1637.

[27]:

E. H. Carnoy, Littérature orale de Picardie, Paris, 1883, pp. 42-44.

[28]:

A. J. N. Tremearne, The Ban of the Bori [1914], pp. 79, 288; Hausa Superstitions and Customs, 1913, pp. 141, 532.

[29]:

John H. Weeks, Among the Primitive Bakongo, 1914, p. 277; Folk-Lore, vol. xx, 1909, p- 59.

[30]:

M. L. Hewat, quoted in Folk-Lore, vol. xvii, 1906, p. 250.

[31]:

R. F. Burton, Wit and Wisdom from West Africa, 1865, p. 373.

[32]:

H. Callaway, The Religious System of the Amazulu, p. 222 et seq. Natal, 1870.

[33]:

J. G. Frazer, “Indonesians,” Hastings’ Ency. Rel. Eth., vol. vii, p. 236.

[34]:

George Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians, 1910, p 240.

[35]:

J. G. Frazer, The Belief in Immortality, vol. i, 1913, p. 194, quoting C. G. Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Guinea, pp. 189-191.

[36]:

W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, p. 177.

[37]:

See his article “Nose,” Hastings’ Ency. Rel. Eth., vol. ix, pp. 398, 399, to which I am indebted for several useful references.

[38]:

E. Modigliani, Un viaggio a Nias, Milan, 1890, p. 283; M. Radriguet, Les derniers Sauvages, Paris, 1882, p. 245 (Marquesans); Annales de la Prop, de la Foi, xxxii [i860], 439 (New Caledonians); A. d’Orbigny, L’Homme Américain, Strassburg, 1840, ii, 241, 257 (Itonamas, Cayuvavas).

[39]:

Frazer, Golden Bough, vol. iii, p. 30.

[40]:

Bulletin of American Museum of Nat. Hist., xv [l 901 J, part i, 144; Rpts. Bur. Ethn., Washington (6) [1888], p. 613 et seq.; Rpts. Bur. Ethn Washington (9) [1892], p. 425.

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