The Golden Bough - The Original Classic Edition. Frazer Sir

hunters, fishermen, and others, and I wished to show that they fall under the head of Sympathetic Magic, being only particular ap-

       plications of that general theory. Thus, among the Esquimaux boys are forbidden to play cat's cradle, because if they did so their

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       fingers might in later life become entangled in the harpoonline. Here the taboo is obviously an application of the law of similarity, which is the basis of homoeopathic magic: as the child's fingers are entangled by the string in playing cat's cradle, so they will be entangled by the harpoonline when he is a man and hunts whales. Again, among the Huzuls of the Carpathian Mountains the wife of a hunter may not spin while her husband is eating, or the game will turn and wind like the spindle, and the hunter will be unable

       to hit it. Here again the taboo is clearly derived from the law of similarity. So, too, in most parts of ancient Italy women were forbidden by law to spin on the highroads as they walked, or even to carry their spindles openly, because any such action was believed to injure the crops. Probably the notion was that the twirling of the spindle would twirl the cornstalks and prevent them from growing straight. So, too, among the Ainos of Saghalien a pregnant woman may not spin nor twist ropes for two months before her delivery,

       because they think that if she did so the child's guts might be entangled like the thread. For a like reason in Bilaspore, a district of

       India, when the chief men of a village meet in council, no one present should twirl a spindle; for they think that if such a thing were

       to happen, the discussion, like the spindle, would move in a circle and never be wound up. In some of the East Indian islands any

       one who comes to the house of a hunter must walk straight in; he may not loiter at the door, for were he to do so, the game would

       in like manner stop in front of the hunter's snares and then turn back, instead of being caught in the trap. For a similar reason it

       is a rule with the Toradjas of Central Celebes that no one may stand or loiter on the ladder of a house where there is a pregnant

       woman, for such delay would retard the birth of the child; and in various parts of Sumatra the woman herself in these circumstances

       is forbidden to stand at the door or on the top rung of the houseladder under pain of suffering hard labour for her imprudence in neglecting so elementary a precaution. Malays engaged in the search for camphor eat their food dry and take care not to pound their

       salt fine. The reason is that the camphor occurs in the form of small grains deposited in the cracks of the trunk of the camphor

       tree. Accordingly it seems plain to the Malay that if, while seeking for camphor, he were to eat his salt finely ground, the camphor

       would be found also in fine grains; whereas by eating his salt coarse he ensures that the grains of the camphor will also be large.

       Camphor hunters in Borneo use the leathery sheath of the leaf-stalk of the Penang palm as a plate for food, and during the whole of

       the expedition they will never wash the plate, for fear that the camphor might dissolve and disappear from the crevices of the tree.

       Apparently they think that to wash their plates would be to wash out the camphor crystals from the trees in which they are imbed-

       ded. The chief product of some parts of Laos, a province of Siam, is lac. This is a resinous gum exuded by a red insect on the young

       branches of trees, to which the little creatures have to be attached by hand. All who engage in the business of gathering the gum

       abstain from washing themselves and especially from cleansing their heads, lest by removing the parasites from their hair they should

       detach the other insects from the boughs. Again, a Blackfoot Indian who has set a trap for eagles, and is watching it, would not eat

       rosebuds on any account; for he argues that if he did so, and an eagle alighted near the trap, the rosebuds in his own stomach would

       make the bird itch, with the result that instead of swallowing the bait the eagle would merely sit and scratch himself. Following this

       train of thought the eagle hunter also refrains from using an awl when he is looking after his snares; for surely if he were to scratch

       with an awl, the eagles would scratch him. The same disastrous consequence would follow if his wives and children at home used an

       awl while he is out after eagles, and accordingly they are forbidden to handle the tool in his absence for fear of putting him in bodily

       danger.

       Among the taboos observed by savages none perhaps are more numerous or important than the prohibitions to eat certain foods,

       and of such prohibitions many are demonstrably derived from the law of similarity and are accordingly examples of negative magic.

       Just as the savage eats many animals or plants in order to acquire certain desirable qualities with which he believes them to be en-

       dowed, so he avoids eating many other animals and plants lest he should acquire certain undesirable qualities with which he believes

       them to be infected. In eating the former he practises positive magic; in abstaining from the latter he practises negative magic. Many

       examples of such positive magic will meet us later on; here I will give a few instances of such negative magic or taboo. For example,

       in Madagascar soldiers are forbidden to eat a number of foods lest on the principle of homoeopathic magic they should be tainted

       by certain dangerous or undesirable properties which are supposed to inhere in these particular viands. Thus they may not taste

       hedgehog, "as it is feared that this animal, from its propensity of coiling up into a ball when alarmed, will impart a timid shrinking

       disposition to those who partake of it." Again, no soldier should eat an ox's knee, lest like an ox he should become weak in the knees

       and unable to march. Further, the warrior should be careful to avoid partaking of a cock that has died fighting or anything that has

       been speared to death; and no male animal may on any account be killed in his house while he is away at the wars. For it seems obvi-

       ous that if he were to eat a cock that had died fighting, he would himself be slain on the field of battle; if he were to partake of an

       animal that had been speared, he would be speared himself; if a male animal were killed in his house during his absence, he would

       himself be killed in like manner and perhaps at the same instant. Further, the Malagasy soldier must eschew kidneys, because in the

       Malagasy language the word for kidney is the same as that for "shot"; so shot he would certainly be if he ate a kidney.

       The reader may have observed that in some of the foregoing examples of taboos the magical influence is supposed to operate at considerable distances; thus among the Blackfeet Indians the wives and children of an eagle hunter are forbidden to use an awl dur-ing his absence, lest the eagles should scratch the distant husband and father; and again no male animal may be killed in the house of a Malagasy soldier while he is away at the wars, lest the killing of the animal should entail the killing of the man. This belief in the sympathetic influence exerted on each other by persons or things at a distance is of the essence of magic. Whatever doubts science may entertain as to the possibility of action at a distance, magic has none; faith in telepathy is one of its first principles. A modern advocate of the influence of mind upon mind at a distance would have no difficulty in convincing a savage; the savage believed in it

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       long ago, and what is more, he acted on his belief with a logical consistency such as his civilised brother in the faith has not yet, so far as I am aware, exhibited in his conduct. For the savage is convinced not only that magical ceremonies affect persons and things

       afar off, but that the simplest acts of daily life may do so too. Hence on important occasions the