The Golden Bough - The Original Classic Edition. Frazer Sir

must be kept very tidy, all boxes being placed near the walls; for if any one were to stumble

       over them, the absent husbands would fall and be at the mercy of the foe. At every meal a little rice must be left in the pot and put

       aside; so will the men far away always have something to eat and need never go hungry. On no account may the women sit at the

       loom till their legs grow cramped, otherwise their husbands will likewise be stiff in their joints and unable to rise up quickly or to run

       away from the foe. So in order to keep their husbands' joints supple the women often vary their labours at the loom by walking up

       and down the verandah. Further, they may not cover up their faces, or the men would not to be able to find their way through the tall

       grass or jungle. Again, the women may not sew with a needle, or the men will tread on the sharp spikes set by the enemy in the path.

       Should a wife prove unfaithful while her husband is away, he will lose his life in the enemy's country. Some years ago all these rules

       and more were observed by the women of Banting, while their husbands were fighting for the English against rebels. But alas! these

       tender precautions availed them little; for many a man, whose faithful wife was keeping watch and ward for him at home, found a

       soldier's grave.

       In the island of Timor, while war is being waged, the highpriest never quits the temple; his food is brought to him or cooked inside; day and night he must keep the fire burning, for if he were to let it die out, disaster would be fall the warriors and would continue so long as the hearth was cold. Moreover, he must drink only hot water during the time the army is absent; for every draught of cold water would damp the spirits of the people, so that they could not vanquish the enemy. In the Kei Islands, when the warriors have departed, the women return indoors and bring out certain baskets containing fruits and stones. These fruits and stones they anoint and place on a board, murmuring as they do so, "O lord sun, moon, let the bullets rebound from our husbands, brothers, betrothed, and other relations, just as raindrops rebound from these objects which are smeared with oil." As soon as the first shot is heard,

       the baskets are put aside, and the women, seizing their fans, rush out of the houses. Then, waving their fans in the direction of the enemy, they run through the village, while they sing, "O golden fans! let our bullets hit, and those of the enemy miss." In this custom

       the ceremony of anointing stones, in order that the bullets may recoil from the men like raindrops from the stones, is a piece of

       pure homoeopathic or imitative magic; but the prayer to the sun, that he will be pleased to give effect to the charm, is a religious and

       perhaps later addition. The waving of the fans seems to be a charm to direct the bullets towards or away from their mark, according

       as they are discharged from the guns of friends or foes.

       An old historian of Madagascar informs us that "while the men are at the wars, and until their return, the women and girls cease not day and night to dance, and neither lie down nor take food in their own houses. And although they are very voluptuously inclined, they would not for anything in the world have an intrigue with another man while their husband is at the war, believing firmly that

       if that happened, their husband would be either killed or wounded. They believe that by dancing they impart strength, courage,

       and good fortune to their husbands; accordingly during such times they give themselves no rest, and this custom they observe very

       religiously."

       Among the Tshi-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast the wives of men who are away with the army paint themselves white, and adorn their persons with beads and charms. On the day when a battle is expected to take place, they run about armed with guns, or sticks carved to look like guns, and taking green paw-paws (fruits shaped somewhat like a melon), they hack them with knives, as

       if they were chopping off the heads of the foe. The pantomime is no doubt merely an imitative charm, to enable the men to do to the enemy as the women do to the paw-paws. In the West African town of Framin, while the Ashantee war was raging some years ago, Mr. Fitzgerald Marriott saw a dance performed by women whose husbands had gone as carriers to the war. They were painted white and wore nothing but a short petticoat. At their head was a shrivelled old sorceress in a very short white petticoat, her black hair arranged in a sort of long projecting horn, and her black face, breasts, arms, and legs profusely adorned with white circles and crescents. All carried long white brushes made of buffalo or horse tails, and as they danced they sang, "Our husbands have gone to Ashanteeland; may they sweep their enemies off the face of the earth!"

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       Among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, when the men were on the war-path, the women performed dances at frequent intervals. These dances were believed to ensure the success of the expedition. The dancers flourished their knives, threw long

       sharp-pointed sticks forward, or drew sticks with hooked ends repeatedly backward and forward. Throwing the sticks forward was symbolic of piercing or warding off the enemy, and drawing them back was symbolic of drawing their own men from danger. The hook at the end of the stick was particularly well adapted to serve the purpose of a life-saving apparatus. The women always pointed their weapons towards the enemy's country. They painted their faces red and sang as they danced, and they prayed to the weapons to preserve their husbands and help them to kill many foes. Some had eagle-down stuck on the points of their sticks. When the dance was over, these weapons were hidden. If a woman whose husband was at the war thought she saw hair or a piece of a scalp on the weapon when she took it out, she knew that her husband had killed an enemy. But if she saw a stain of blood on it, she knew he was wounded or dead. When the men of the Yuki tribe in California were away fighting, the women at home did not sleep; they danced continually in a circle, chanting and waving leafy wands. For they said that if they danced all the time, their husbands would not grow tired. Among the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands, when the men had gone to war, the women at home would get up very early in the morning and pretend to make war by falling upon their children and feigning to take them for slaves. This was supposed to help their husbands to go and do likewise. If a wife were unfaithful to her husband while he was away on the war-path, he would probably be killed. For ten nights all the women at home lay with their heads towards the point of the compass to which the war-canoes had paddled away. Then they changed about, for the warriors were supposed to be coming home across the sea. At Mas-set the Haida women danced and sang war-songs all the time their husbands were away at the wars, and they had to keep everything about them in a certain order. It was thought that a wife might kill her husband by not observing these customs. When a band of Carib Indians of the Orinoco had gone on the war-path, their friends left in the village used to calculate as nearly as they could the exact moment when the absent warriors would be advancing to attack the enemy. Then they took two lads, laid them down on a bench, and inflicted a most severe scourging on their bare backs. This the youths submitted to without a murmur, supported in their sufferings by the firm conviction, in which they had been bred from childhood, that on the constancy and fortitude with which they

       bore the cruel ordeal depended the valour and success of their comrades in the battle.

       Among the many beneficent uses to which a mistaken ingenuity has applied the principle of homoeopathic or imitative magic, is

       that of causing trees and plants to bear fruit in due season. In Thuringen the man who sows flax carries the seed in a long bag which

       reaches from his shoulders to his knees, and he walks with long strides, so that the bag sways to and fro on his back. It is believed

       that this will cause the flax to wave in the wind. In the interior of Sumatra rice is sown by women who, in sowing, let their hair hang

       loose down their back, in order that the rice may grow luxuriantly and have long stalks. Similarly, in ancient Mexico a festival was

       held in honour of the goddess of maize, or "the long-haired mother," as she was called. It began at the time "when the plant had

       attained its full growth,