240 a fishing-net is set, for fear of averting their success. They are also prohibited at those times from partaking of the head of any animal, and even from walking in or crossing the track where the head of a deer, moose, beaver, and many other animals have lately been carried, either on a sledge or on the back. To be guilty of a violation of this custom is considered as of the greatest importance; because they firmly believe that it would be a means of preventing the hunter from having an equal success in his future excursions."1 So the Lapps forbid women at menstruation to walk on that part of the shore where the fishers are in the habit of setting out their fish." Amongst the civilised nations of Europe the superstitions which have prevailed on this subject are not less extravagant. In the oldest existing cyclopaediathe Natural History of Pliny-the list of dangers apprehended from menstruation is longer than any furnished by savages. According to Pliny, the touch of a menstruous woman turned wine to vinegar, blighted crops, killed seedlings, blasted gardens, brought down the fruit from trees, dimmed mirrors, blunted razors, rusted iron and brass (especially at the waning of the moon), killed bees, or at least drove them from their hives, caused mares to miscarry, and so forth. Similarly, in various parts of Europe, it is still believed that if a woman in her courses enters a brewery the beer will turn sour; if she touches beer, wine, vinegar, or milk, it 1 S. Hearne, Journey to the Northern Ocean, p. 314 sq.; Alex. Mackenzie, Voyages through the Continent of North America, cxxiii.; Petitot, Monographie des Dène-Dindjić, p. 75 sq. C. Leemius, De Lapponibus Fin will go bad; if she makes marchiae eorumque lingua vita et religione pristina (Copenhagen, 1767), p. 494. 3 Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. § 64 sq., xxviii. § 77 sqq. Cp. Geoponica, xii. c. 20, 5, and c. 25, 2; Columella, xi. 3, 50. jam, it will not keep; if she mounts a mare, it will miscarry; if she touches buds, they will wither; if she-climbs a cherry-tree, it will die.' Thus the object of secluding women at menstruation is to neutralise the dangerous influences which are supposed to emanate from them at such times. That the danger is believed to be especially great at the first menstruation appears from the unusual precautions taken to isolate girls at this crisis. Two of these precautions have been illustrated above, namely, the rules that the girl may not touch the ground nor see the sun. The general effect of these rules is to keep the girl suspended, so to say, between heaven and earth. Whether enveloped in her hammock and slung up to the roof, as in South America, or elevated above the ground in a dark and narrow cage, as in New Ireland, she may be considered to be out of the way of doing mischief, since, being shut off both from the earth and from the sun, she can poison neither of these great sources of life by her deadly contagion. In short, she is rendered harmless by being, in electrical language, insulated. But the precautions thus taken to isolate or insulate the girl are dictated by a regard for her own safety as well as for the safety of others. For it is thought that the girl herself would suffer if she were to neglect the prescribed 1 A. Schleicher, Volkstümliches aus Sonnenberg, p. 134; B. Souché, Croy. ances, Présages et Traditions diverses, p. 11; V. Fossel, Volksmedicin und medicinischer Aberglaube in Steier. mark (Graz, 1886), p. 124. The Greeks and Romans thought that a field was completely protected against insects if a menstruous woman walked round it with bare feet and streaming hair. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvii. 266, xxviii. 78; Columella, x. 358 sq., xi. 3, 64; Palladius, De re rustica, i. VOL. II 35, 3: Geoponica, xii. 8, 5 sq.; Aelian, Nat. Anim. vi. 36. A similar remedy is employed for the same purpose by North American Indians and European peasants. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, v. 70; Wiedemann, Aus dem inneren und äussern Leben der Ehsten, p. 484. Cp. Haltrich, Zur Volkskunde der Siebenbürger Sachsen, p. 280; Heinrich, Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen Siebenbürgens, p. 14; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,♦ iii. 468. 242 regimen. Thus Zulu girls, as we have seen, believe that they would shrivel to skeletons if the sun were to shine on them at puberty, and in some Brazilian tribes the girls think that a transgression of the rules would entail sores on the neck and throat. In short, the girl is viewed as charged with a powerful force which, if not kept within bounds, may prove the destruction both of the girl herself and of all with whom she comes in contact. To repress this force within the limits necessary for the safety of all concerned is the object of the taboos in question. The same explanation applies to the observance of the same rules by divine kings and priests. The uncleanness, as it is called, of girls at puberty and the sanctity of holy men do not, to the primitive mind, differ from each other. They are only different manifestations of the same supernatural energy which, like energy in general, is in itself neither good nor bad, but becomes beneficent or maleficent according to its application.1 Accordingly, if, like girls at puberty, divine personages may neither touch the ground nor see the sun, the reason is, on the one hand, a fear lest their divinity might, at contact with earth or heaven, discharge itself with fatal violence on either; and, on the other hand, an apprehension, that the divine being, thus drained of his ethereal virtue, might thereby be incapacitated for the future performance of those supernatural functions, upon the proper discharge of which the safety of the people and even of the world is believed to hang. Thus the rules in question fall under the head of the taboos which we examined in the second chapter; they are intended to preserve the life 1 For an example of the beneficent application of the menstrual energy, see note on p. 241. of the divine person and with it the life of his subjects and worshippers. Nowhere, it is thought, can his precious yet dangerous life be at once so safe and so harmless as when it is neither in heaven nor in earth, but, as far as possible, suspended between the two.1 1 The rules just discussed do not hold exclusively of the persons mentioned in the text, but are applicable in certain circumstances to other tabooed persons and things. Whatever, in fact, is permeated by the mysterious virtue of taboo may need to be isolated from earth and heaven. Mourners are taboo all the world over; accordingly in mourning the Ainos wear peculiar caps in order that the sun may not shine upon their heads. Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asien, v. 366. During a solemn fast of three days the Indians of Costa Rica cat no salt, speak as little as possible, light no fires, and stay strictly indoors, or if they go out during the day they carefully cover themselves from the light of the sun, believing that exposure to the sun's rays would turn them black. W. M. Gabb, Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica, p. 510. On Yule night it has been customary in parts of Sweden from time immemorial to go on pilgrimage, whereby people learn many secret things and know what is to happen in the coming year. As a preparation for this pilgrimage, "some secrete themselves for three days previously in a dark cellar, so as to be shut out altogether from the light of heaven. Others retire at an early hour of the preceding morning to some out-of-the way place, such as a hayloft, where they bury themselves in the hay, that they may neither hear nor see any living creature; and here they remain, in silence and fasting, until after sundown; whilst there are those who think it sufficient if they rigidly abstain from food on the day before commencing their wander. ings. During this period of probation a man ought not to see fire." L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden, p. 194. Dur. ing the sixteen days that a Pima Indian is undergoing purification for killing an Apache he may not see a blazing fire. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, i. 553. Again warriors on the war-path are strictly taboo; hence Indians may not sit on the bare ground the whole time they are out on a warlike expedition. J. Adair, History of the American Indians, p. 382; Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, p. 123. The holy ark of the North American Indians is deemed "so sacred and dangerous to be touched" that no one, except the war chief and his attendant, will touch it "under the penalty of incurring great evil. Nor would the most inveterate enemy touch it in the woods for the very same reason." In carrying it against the enemy they never place it on the ground, but rest it on stones or logs. Adair, History of the American Indians, p. 162 sq. The sacred clam shell of the Elk clan among the Omahas is kept in a sacred bag, which is never allowed to touch the ground. E. James, Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, i. 47; J. Owen Dorsey, "Omaha Sociology," Third Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1884), p. 226. Newly born infants are strongly taboo; accordingly in Loango they are not allowed to touch the earth. Pechuel-Loesche, “Indis cretes aus Loango," Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, x. (1878) p. 29 sq. In Laos the hunting of elephants gives rise to many taboos; one of them is that the chief hunter may not touch the earth with his foot. Accordingly when he alights from his elephant, the others spread a carpet of leaves for him to step upon. E. Aymonier, Notes sur le Laos, p. 26. In some parts of Aberdeenshire, the last bit of standing corn (which, as we have seen, is very sacred) is not allowed to touch the ground; but as it is cut, it is placed on the lap §2.-Balder A god whose life might in a sense be said to be neither in heaven nor earth but between the two, was the Norse Balder, the good and beautiful god. The story of his death is as follows: Once on a time. Balder dreamed heavy dreams which seemed to forebode his death. Thereupon the gods held a council and resolved to make him secure against every danger. So the goddess Frigg took an oath from fire and water, iron and all metals, stones and earth, from trees, sicknesses and poisons, and from all four-footed beasts, birds, and creeping things, that they would not hurt Balder. When this was done Halder was deemed invulnerable; so the gods amused themselves by setting him in their midst, while some shot at him, others hewed at him, and others threw stones at him. But whatever they did, nothing could hurt him; and at this they were all glad. Only Loki, the mischief-maker, was displeased, and he went in the guise of an old woman to Frigg, who told him that the weapons of the gods could not wound Balder, since she had made them all swear not to hurt him. Then Loki asked, "Have all things sworn to spare Balder?" She answered, "East of Walhalla grows a plant called mistletoe; it seemed to me too of the "gueedman." W. Gregor, "Quelques coutumes du Nord-Est du Comté d'Aberdeen," Revue des Tradi tions populaires, iii. (1888) 485 B. Sacred food may not, in certain cir cumstances, touch the ground. F. Grabowsky, "Der Distrikt Dusson Timor in Südost Borneo und seine Bewohner," Ausland (1884), No. 24, p. 474; Ch. F. Hall, Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition, edited by Prof. J. E. Nourse (Washington, 1879), p. 110; Gerard, The Land beyond the Forest, ii. 7. In Scotland, when water was carried from sacred wells to sick people, the water-vessel might not touch the ground. C. F. Gordon Cumming, In the Hebrides, p. 211. On the rela tion of spirits to the ground, compare Denzil Ibbetson in Panjab Notes and Queries, i. No. 5. - young to swear." So Loki went and pulled the mistletoe and took it to the assembly of the gods. There he found the blind god Hödur standing at the outside of the circle. Loki asked him, "Why do you not shoot at Balder?" Hödur answered, "Because I do not see where he stands; besides I have no weapon." Then said Loki, "Do like the rest and show Balder honour, as they all do. I will show you where he stands, and do you shoot at him with this twig." Hödur took the mistletoe and threw it at Balder, as Loki directed him. The mistletoe struck Balder and pierced him through and through, and he fell down dead. And that was the greatest misfortune that ever befel gods and men. For a while the gods stood speechless, then they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly. They took Balder's body and brought it to the sea-shore. There stood Balder's ship; it was called Ringhorn, and was the hugest of all ships. The gods wished to launch the ship and to burn Balder's body on it, but the ship would not stir. So they sent for a giantess called Hyrrockin. She came riding on a wolf and gave the ship such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the earth shook. Then Balder's body was taken and placed on the funeral pile upon his ship. When his wife Nanna saw that, her heart burst for sorrow and she died. So she was laid on the funeral pile with her husband, and fire was put to it. Balder's horse, too, with all its trappings, was burned on the pile.' The circumstantiality of this story suggests that it belongs to the extensive class of myths which are in |