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Tames G. Frazer337

Our dichotomy should not be interpretedas a device for classifying every conceivableaspect of primitive religion. For instance, itdoes not apply smoothly to all the manifesta-tions of the famed rites of passage. It is truethat three of van Gennep's stages-birth,marriage, and death-are critical. becausethey are concerned primarily with individ-

uals and cannot be precisely determined inadvance; whereas the fourth-puberty or tri-bal initiation-is often calendrically ob-served. Yet, all of the rites of passagedrastically change a person's social relation-ships, and therefore, all of them may beclassed, as they usually are, as critical.For many anthropologists in the United

States, especially, the old distinction be-tween magic and religion has lost much of itspristine vitality and freshness. Unless we areprepared to lump all supernatural phenom-ena into a single category, we need a freshbasis for classification and analysis. That iswhat the proposed difference between cal-

endrical and critical rites is meant to pro-vide. The likelihood is strong that everysocial unit's system of supernatural practicescontains both calendrical and critical ele-ments. In partnership, these may be seen tofunction as vital parts of every primitivesociety's nonempirical method for trying togain desired ends.

progress in the opposite direction that itto rise in the same spot or, in aof speaking, to hesitate or to stand

for three or four days. When this "hesita-takes place on June 21, there is little tofor vegetation is usually plentiful. crops

and the weather is balmy. But itanother matter when the sun pauses

southern terminal and appears reluc-to move northward, in the direction ofand summer. Such a threatened stop-

indeed, be a calamity. Itmightin perpetual winter, no fodder for

,Z;,;;,'l1UU~'U and no crops for man. That is why, .. ,: 111 . .. \ .' . .. " efforts are sometimes made to getsun to turn from its southern to its north-path; and that is also why winter solstice

so commonly take the form ofrites, or else include a number ofexpressive of man's desire for in-light and heat.

Never should it be thought that calendricalies, because they may disregard the

of the moment, are only of secondaryFar from it! Analysis of their

reveals that they are designed primar-strengthen the bonds of cohesion thattogether all of a society's members orto aid the individuals who form a socialto adjust to one another and to their

, ,"" ' ,"Uleu environment.

rr"", ' , \U i IH~r - ' IA . L~~~.-..,,{'111/\

Z #Y,;i:: .~~)@41Gf)IA . e James C. Frazer

\ J t i t l y~: SYMPATHET IC MAGIC

Although Sir James G. Frazer was not an outstanding theorist, he wasadept at compiling and classifying fact. had some feeling for problem.and stimulated a whole generation of ethnologists to take an interest inthe theoretical questions involved in the subject of magic. His classicwork. The Golden Bough. is one of the best known of all ethnologicalpublications. Many a layman who has never heard of or read otheranthropological books has at least perused this one. usually in itsabridged. one-volume form.The portion of this vast work that is reprinted here presents Frazer's

well-known distinction between "imitative" and "contagious" magic.This classification, while it assuredly does not encompass the wholerange of magical phenomena, does cover the greatest portion. Frazershows that the common factor in these two kinds of magic is thesympathetic principle: things act on each other at a distance through a"secret sympathy." As long as Frazer restricted himself to classificatoryinterests of this sort. he remained unchallenged. But when he turned toeither historical or analytic problems, he enjoyed less immunity. Forexample, his argument that magic is older than religion because it is

Reprinted in abridged form from lames George Frazer. The Golden Bough:A Study in Mogic and I\eligion (12 vola: 3d ed.•rev. and enl.; London: Macmillan &: Co.•Ltd., 1911-19151. I. 52-219, by

permission of Trinity College. Cambridge and Macmillan &: Co., Ltd.



I NTER PRETATIONS OF MAG IC , W I TCHCRAFT , AND D IV INATION

338

psychologically simpler than the concept of spirit agents and U"".QU.,,,::;

is more uniform than r~Iigious cults does not-standAs Marett and Goldenweiser have demonstrated, 1<'"".. ,.,"''';

ma~c from religio? ha~somemerit,but it goesoverlooks the vast areas in which the alleged0'lerlap and because it tendstoobscure COJIl.nlODlstlp€irniatu.ralfor each. Frazer's view that magic is comparable ueuause

both involvemental ~perationsthat are. . breaks lc ... ,e

Malinowski. has i?si~ted, the magical practitioner IH~:lI.tl:~u

distinction between things that lie in the empirical realm andlie in the supernatural.The following ~rticlecorttainsa great many illustrative ex(lm]plejH.f ••··.~

the nature ofmagic.Tlte functic)llsof magic are not _..•..._..•J C6I['lsfd~.~~j;ererl" but Illa?y ofth~m may be recognized in Frazer'sdiverse .IIla~cal praqUces. It is· cautioned that the. author's l.aUl;>UIK

dictum that magic has been "... the mother of freedom and truth,"be true only in a most allegorical sense.

1.THE PRINCIPLES OF MAGICIf we analyze the principles of thought onwhich magic is based, they will probably befound to resolve themselves into two: first,

that like produces like, or;that an effectresembles its cause: and, second, that thingswhich have once been in contact with eachother continue to act on each other at adistance after the physical contact has beensevered. The fonnerprinciple may be calledthe "Law of Similarity," the latter the "Lawof Contact or"Contagion." From the first ofthese principles, namely the Law of Similar-ity. the magician infers that he can produceany effect he desiresrnerely by imitating it:from the second he infers that whatever hedoesto a matertalobiect will affect equallythe person with whom theo?j~ct ~a~?nceincontact, whether it formed part of his'bOdyornot. Charmspased. on the.Law of.~imil~ritymay be called "Homeopathic or. Imita.tiveMagic." Chal'JllS.based· on the Law?!. 0.011-tact or Conta~on Illay be called "Cont~giousMagic." To denote the firstof tJi~s~bral1qh~sof magic the •.erm. HOIIle()pathif is J>l3rhapspreferable,Jo~ the alternative t~rIll Itriitati'leor Mimetic suggests, if it does' not imply,·aconscious agent who .~nates, ther~by .limit-ing the scope of magic too ?arrowly. For th~same principles which the 1Il~~cian appliesin the practice of his art are ilIlPlicidy be-lieved by l l i l n .toregulate the operations ofinanimate nature; in oth~r.words, .he tacitly

assumes.that the Laws.0fS~ilarityand Con-tact are oluni'ler~l al>pli~ati0l1aJld. l 1 1 ' e . notlimited to hmnfmactions. Insh0rt,m~gicis aspurious system O f l1atutal.law >8$\\,ell as afallacious guide of conduct;. it isa falSe sci~

ence as well>8$ an abortive art. Regarded. asa system of natural law, thCltis, as. a state-m.ent of the rules which detenninethe se-

quence of events throughout the world. it

may be called.ed as a set of precepts whichobserve in order to compassmaybe' called "Practical

same time it is to be borneprimitive magician knowspractical side: he never amdy~~~sprocesses on which his pr:acttqe,,)never reflects on the ctU~iu·ctll.a

volved in his actions. With ....~.,.,,,,,.vast majority of men, logicexplicit; he reasons, just asfood, in complete ignorance ofal and physiological processesseritial to the one operation andIn short,to him magic isa science; the very ideain hIs und~v~loped mind. It

sophie st1.ldentto trace thewhich underlies the t.Jlct.~ll,;.lctll

drawoul the ""~.-~"-'-'-~".

now iof sym,pwith ho



Tames G . Frazer339

of the homeopathic or imitative prin-Thus generally stated the two thingsbe a little difficult to grasp. but they willbecome intelligible when they are

by particular examples. Bothof thought are in fact extremely simpleelementary. It could hardly be other-since they are familiar in the concrete.

certainly not in the abstract. to theintelligence not only of the savage. but

ignorant and dullwitted people every-Both branches of magic. the homeo-and the contagious. may conveniently

comprehended under the general name"Sympathetic Magic." since both assumethings act on each other at a distancea secret sympathy. the impulse being

from one to the other by meanshat we may conceive as a kind of invisi-ether. not unlike that which is postulatedmodern science for a precisely similar

namely. to explain how things canlIY>UI.iCU1Y affect each other through a space

appears to be empty.Itmay be convenient to tabulate as followsbranches of magic according to the lawsthought which underlie them:

Sympathetic Magic(Law of Sympathy)

II

Homeopathic Magic(Law of Similarity)

IContagious Magic(Law o f Contact)

I will now illustrate these two greatbranches of sympathetic magic by examples.beginning with homeopathic magic.

2. HOMEOPATHIC ORIMITATIVE MAGIC

Perhaps the most familiar application of theprinciple that like produces like is the at-tempt which has been made by many peo-ples in many ages to injure or destroy anenemy by injuring or destroying an image ofhim. in the belief that just as the imagesuffers. so does the man. and that when itperishes he must die. A few instances out ofmany may be given to prove at once the widediffusion of the practice over the world andits remarkable persistence through the ages.For thousands of years ago it was known tothe sorcerers of ancient India. Babylon. and

Egypt.as well as of Greece and Rome. and atthis day it is still resorted to by cunning andmalignant savages in Australia. Africa. andScotland. Thus the North American Indians.we are told. believe that by drawing thefigure of a person in sand, ashes, or clay. orby considering any object as his body. andthen pricking it with a sharp stick or doing it

any other injury, they inflict a correspondinginjury on the person represented. So when aCora Indian of Mexico wishes to kill a man.he makes a figure of him out of burnt clay,strips of cloth. and so forth. and then. mutter-ing incantations. runs thorns through thehead or stomach of the figure to make hisvictim suffer correspondingly.

If homeopathic or imitative magic. work-ing by means of images. has commonly beenpracticed for the spiteful purpose of puttingobnoxious people out of the world. it hasalso. though far more rarely. been employedwith the benevolent intention of helping oth-ers into it. In other words. it has been used tofacilitate childbirth and to procure offspringfor barren women. Thus among the Eskimosof Bering Strait a barren woman desirous ofhaving a son will consult a shaman. whocommonly makes. or causes her husband tomake, a small doll-like image over which heperforms certain secret rites. and the womanis directed to sleep with it under her pillow.

In Anno. a district of West Africa, womenmay often be seen carrying wooden dollsstrapped, like babies. on their backs as a curefor sterility. In the seventh month of a wom-an's pregnancy common people in Java ob-serve a ceremony which is plainly designedto facilitate the real birth by mimicking it.Husband and wife repair to a well or to thebank of a neighboring river. The upper partof the woman's body is bare. but youngbanana leaves are fastened under her arms.a small opening. or rather fold. being left inthe leaves in front. Through this opening orfold in the leaves on his wife's body thehusband lets fall from above a weaver's

shuttle. An old woman receives the shuttle asit falls, takes it up in her arms and dandles itas if it were a baby, saying. "Oh, what a dearlittle child! Oh, what a beautiful little child!"Then the husband lets an egg slip throughthe fold. and when it lies on the ground as anemblem of the afterbirth, he takes his swordand cuts through the banana leaf at the placeof the fold. obviously as if he were severingthe navel-string.The same principle of make-believe, so

dear to children. has led other peoples toemploy a simulation of birth as a form ofadoption, and even as a mode of restoring asupposed dead person to life. Ifyou pretend

to give birth to a boy, or even to a greatbearded man who has not a drop of yourblood in his veins, then, in the eyes of primi-tive law and philosophy. that boy or man isreally your son to all intents and purposes.Thus Diodorus tells us that when Zeus per-suaded his jealous wife Hera to adopt Her-cules, the goddess got into bed. and clasping



I NTER PRETATIONS OF MAG IC . W I TCHCRAFT . AND D IVINAT ION

340

the burly hero to her bosom, pushed himthrough her robes and let him fall to theground in imitation of a real birth; and thehistorian adds that in his own day the samemode of adopting children was practiced bythe barbarians. At the present time it is saidto be still in use in Bulgaria and among theBosnian Turks. A woman wfll take a boy

whom she intends to adopt and push or pullhim through her clothes; ever afterWards heis regarded as her very son, and inherits thewhole property of his adoptive parents. Inancient Greece any man who had been l >UP-

posed erroneously to be dead, arid for whomin his 'absence funeral ri~eshad been per-formed, was treated as dead to society till hehad gone through the form of being bornagain. He was passed through a woman's lap,then washed, dressed in swaddling clothes,and put out to nurse. Not until this ceremonyhad been punctually performed might hemix freely with living folk.Another beneficent use of homeopathic

magic is to heal or prevent sickness. In an-cient Greece, when a man died of dropsy, hischildren were made to sit with their feet inwater until the body was burned. This wassupposed to prevent the disease from attack-ing them. In Germany yellow turnips, goldcoins. gold rings, saffron, and other yellowthings are still esteemed remedies for jaun-dice. just as a stick of red sealing wax carriedon the person cures the red eruption popu-larly .known as st . Antho,?y's fire, or thebloodstone with its red spots allays bleeding.Another cure prescribed in Germany for St.Anthony's fire is to rub the patient withashes from a house that has been burneddown; for it is easy to see that as the fire diedout in that house, so St.Anthony's fire willdie out in that man.One of the great merits of homeopathic

magic is that it enables the cure to be per-formed on the person of the doctor instead ofon that of his victim,who is thus relieved ofall trouble and inconvenience, while he seeshis medical man writhe in anguish beforehim. For example, the peasants of Perche, inFrance, labor under the impression that aprolonged fitof vomiting is brought about bythe patient's stomach becoming unhooked. asthey call it, and so falling down, Accordingly,

a practitioner is called into restore the organto its proper place. Mter hearing the l>Yf f iP-

toms he at'once throws himself into the mosthorrible contortions. .for. the purpose of un-hooking his own stomach. Having succeededin the effort. he n ex t hooks it u p again inanother series of contortions and grimaces,while thepatien(experiences a correspond-ing reUef. Fee five cents. In like manner a

Dyak medicine man. who hasin a case of illness, will lieto be dead. He is accordtnzrvcorpse, is bound up in mats,house. and deposited on theabout an hour the other u.";;'u.~.Ut<

the pretended dead man andlife; and as he recovers, the

supposed to recover too.Further, homeopathic andpathetic magic plays a greatsures taken by the rudeto secure an abundantprinciple that like producesare done by him and his friendsimitation of the result whichattain; and, on the other hand.are scrupulously avoidedsome more or less fancifulothers which would really beNowhere is the theory of

ic more systematically 1 ' , , , . , . , , , . , " ,for the maintenance of the

in the barren region, ofHere the tribes are divided intototem clans, each of which isthe duty of propagating and multi!:)l,totem for the good of themeans of magical ceremonies andtions, The great majority of theedible animals and plants, andresult supposed to be ""',V"'P"">Ll'v'ceremonies or intichiuma, as thethem, is that of supplying the tribeand other necessaries. Often theof an imitation of the effect whichdesire to produce; in other words,

ic is of the homeopathic OrThus among, the Arunta the men ofchettygrub totem perform a seriesrate ceremonies forwhich the other members of thefood. One of the ceremonies is arepresenting' the: fully de1V'elI0DE!dthe act of emerging from theThe Indians of British Columbia

ly upon the fiShwhich abound inand rivers. If the fiSh do notseason, and the Indians are hungry,wizard will make an image of afish and put it into the water in thfrom which the fiSh usually

ceremony, accompanied by afish to come, w in cause themonce. The iSlanders of Torresmodels. of dugong and turtles togong and turtles to theirToradjas of Central Celebesthings of the same~rt attract eachmeans of their indwelling spiritsether. Hence they hangul' the j



Tames C. Frazer341

deer and wild pigs in their houses, in orderthat the spirits which animate these bonesmay draw the living creatures of the samekind into the path of the hunter. In the islandof Nias, when a wild pig has fallen into thepit prepared for it, the animal is taken outand its back is rubbed with nine fallenleaves, in the belief that this will make nine

more wild pigs fall into the pit, just as thenine leaves fell from the tree.The western tribes of British New Guinea

employ a charm to aid the hunter in spearingdugong or turtle. A small beetle, whichhaunts coconut trees, is placed in the hole ofthe spear haft into which the spearhead fits.This is supposed to make the spearhead stickfast in the dugong or turtle, just as the beetlesticks fast to a man's skin when it bites him.When a Cambodian hunter has set his netsand taken nothing, he strips himself naked,goes some way off, then strolls up to the netas if he did not see it, lets himself be caughtin it, and cries, "Hello! what's this? I'm afraid

I'm caught." After that the net is sure to catchgame. A Malay who has baited a trap forcrocodiles. and is awaiting results, is carefulin eating his curry always to begin by swal-lowing three lumps of rice successively; forthis helps the bait to slide more easily downthe crocodile's throat. He is equally scrupu-lous not to take any bones out of his curry;for, if he did. it seems clear that the sharp-pointed stick on which the bait is skeweredwould similarly work itself loose. and thecrocodile would get off with the bait. Hencein these circumstances it is prudent for thehunter, before he begins his meal. to getsomebody else to take the bones out of his

curry, otherwise he may at any moment haveto choose between swallowing a bone andlosing the crocodile.This last rule is an instance of the things

which the hunter abstains from doing lest. onthe principle that like produces like. theyshould spoil his luck. For it is to be observedthat the system of sympathetic magic is notmerely composed of positive precepts; itcomprises a very large number of negativeprecepts. that is, prohibitions. It tells you notmerely what to do, but also what to leaveundone. The positive precepts are charms:the negative precepts are taboos. In fact thewhole doctrine of taboos, or at all events alarge part of it, would seem to be only aspecial application of sympathetic magic.with its two great laws of similarity andcontact. Though these laws are certainly notformulated in so many words nor even con-ceived in the abstract by the savage, they arenevertheless implicitly believed by him toregulate the course of nature quite lndepen-

dently of human will. He thinks that if heacts in a certain way, certain consequenceswill inevitably follow in virtue of one or theother of these laws; and if the consequencesof a particular act appear to him likely toprove disagreeable or dangerous. he is natu-rally careful not to act in that way lest heshould incur them. In other words. he ab-

stains from doing that which, in accordancewith his mistaken notions of cause and ef-fect. he falsely believes would injure him; inshort. he subjects himself to a taboo. Thustaboo is so far a negative application ofpractical magic. Positive magic or sorcerysays. "Do this in order that so and so mayhappen." Negative magic or taboo says, "Donot do this, lest so and so should happen."The aim of positive magic or sorcery is toproduce a desired event; the aim of negativemagic or taboo is to avoid an undesirableone. But both consequences. the desirable.and the undesirable, are supposed to bebrought about in accordance with the laws of

similarity and contact. And just as the de-sired consequence is not really affected bythe observance of a magical ceremony. so thedreaded consequence does not really resultfrom the violation of a taboo. If the supposedevil necessarily followed a breach of taboo.the taboo would not be a taboo but a preceptofmorality or common sense. It is not a tabooto say, "Do not put your hand in the Fire"; itis a rule of common sense. because the for-bidden action entails a real. not an imagi-nary, evil. In short. those negative preceptswhich we call taboo are just as vain andfutile as those positive precepts which wecall sorcery. The two things are merely oppo-

site sides or poles of one great disastrousfallacy. a mistaken conception of the associ-ation of ideas. Of that fallacy, sorcery is thepositive and taboo the negative pole. If wegive the general name of magic to the wholeerroneous system, both theoretical and prac-tical. then taboo may be defined as the nega-tive side of practical magic. To put this intabular form:

Magic

Theoretical(Magic as a

pseudo-science)

Practical(Magic as a

pseudo-art)I

IPositiveMagic orSorcery

INegativeMagic orTaboo

I have made these remarks on taboo andits relations to magic because I am about to



INTERPRETATIONS OF MAGIC, WITCHCRAFT, AND DIVINATION

342

give some instances of taboos observed byhunters. fishermen. and others. and I wishedto .show that they fall under the head ofSympathetic Magic. being only particular ap-plications of that general theory. Among theEskimos of Baffin Land boys are forbiddento play eat's cradle. because if they did .•otheir fingers might in later life become en-tangled il1the harpoon-line; Here the taboois obviously an application of the law ofsimilarity. which is the basis of·homeopathicmagic;as the child's fingers are entangled bythe string in playing eat's cradle. sOthey willbe entangled by the harpoon-line when he isa man and hunts whales.' Again•.among theHuzuls ofthe Carpathian Mountains. thewife of a hunter may not spin while herhusband is eating, or the game will turn andwind like the spindle. and the hunter will beunable to·hit it. Here again the taboo isclearly derived from the law of similarity. So.too, in most parts of ancient Italy womenwere forbidden by law to spin on the high-

roads as they walked. or even to carry theirspindles openly. because any such actionwas believed to injure the crops, Probablythe notion was that the twirling of the spin-dle would twirl the cornstalks and preventthem from growing straight. So. too" amongthe Ainos of Saghalien a pregnant womanmay not spin nor twist ropes for two monthsbefore her delivery. because they think thatif she did so the child's guts might be entan-gled like the thread. For a like reason inBilaspore, a district of IndhWwhen the chiefmen of a village meet in council no onepresent should twirl a spindle; for they thinkthat if such a thing Were to happen, the

discussion. like the spindle, would move in acircle and never be wound up. In the EastIndian Islands of Saparoee, Haroekoe, andNoessalaut, anyone who comes to the houseof's.hunter must walk straight in; he may notloiter at the door. for were he to do so. thegame would in like manner stop in front ofthe hunter's snares and then turn back. in-stead of being caught in the trap. For asimilar reason it isa rule with the Toradjas ofCentral Celebes that no one may stand orloiter on the ladder of a house where there isa pregnant woman. for such delay wouldretard the birth of the child; and in .variousparts of Sumatra the woman herself in.thesecircumstances is forbidden to stand at thedoor or on the top Ettl1gof the house-ladderunder pain of suffering hard labor for herimprudence in neglecting so elementary aprecaution.Among the taboos observed by savages

none perhaps are more numerous or impor-

tant than thefoods, and ofdemonstrably fromlarity and are accordingly. "'ht11UVlt':;

tive magic. Just as theanimals or plants in orderdesirable ••qualities with WlnCltlIlel),them to be. endowed. so hemany other animals and plantsacquire certain undesirablewhich he believes them toeating the former he oracnees.oesrtnin abstaining· from the latternegative magic.The reader may have

some of the foregoing CA11JJV1t:'"

magical influence is supnosed.considerableBlackfeet Indiansan eagle hunter areduring his absence. lest thescratch the distant husbandagain no male animal may

house of aMalagasy soldierat the wars, lest Ithe killingshould entail the ofbelief in thesympathic UU'l.!"'l1~'?c.

each other by per~ons or --'-.'0" _,

is of the essence of magic. na.l:.~w~r(science may entertain as,toaction at·a distance. magictelepathy is one of itsmodern advocate of the lDtJluelll~upon mind at a distancedifficulty in convincing a lUnJ'RU••,

believed in it long ago.acted on his belief with asuch as his civilized·brother

not yet, so far as I am aware.conduct. For the savage isonly that magical ceremoniesand things afar off. but that ...~'__:~'""of daily life- may do so too.tant occasions the behavior U~.gl,cH'

relations at a distance is oftenmore or lesS elaborate codeneglect of which by. the onewould. it is supposed. entaileven death on the absent ones.when a party of men are

their .a.U">~'JA"'"

lconne

we needelse, w



Tames G . Frazer343

she cut her hair the elephant would burst thetoils,if she oiled herself it would slip throughthem. When a Dyak village has turned out tohunt wild pigs in the jungle, the people whostay at home may not touch oil or water withtheir hands during the absence of theirfriends; for if they did so, the hunters wouldall be "butter-fingered" and the prey would

slip through their hands. While a Gilyakhunter is pursuing the game in the forest. hischildren at home are forbidden to makedrawings on wood or on sand; for they fearthat if the children did so, the paths in theforest would become as perplexed as thelines in the drawings. so that the huntermight lose his way and never return. A Rus-sian political prisoner once taught some Gil-yak children to read and write; but theirparents forbade them to write when any oftheir fathers was away from home; for itseemed to them that writing was a peculiarlycomplicated form of drawing. and they stoodaghast at the idea of the danger to which

such a drawing would expose the hunters outin the wild woods.Many of the indigenous tribes of Sarawak

are firmly persuaded that were the wives tocommit adultery while their husbands aresearching for camphor in the jungle. thecamphor obtained by the men would evapo-rate. Husbands can discover. by certainknots in the tree. when their wives are un-faithful; and it is said that in former daysmany women were killed by jealous hus-bands on no better evidence than that ofthese knots. Further. the wives dare nottouch a comb while their husbands are awaycollecting the camphor; for if they did so, the

interstices between the fibers of the tree.instead of being filled with the precious cry-stals. would be empty like the spaces be-tween the teeth of a comb. In the Kei Islands,to the southwest of New Guinea, as soon as avessel that is about to sail for a distant porthas been launched, the part of the beach onwhich it lay is covered as speedily as possi-ble with palm branches. and becomes sa-cred.'No one may thenceforth cross that spottill the ship comes home. To cross it soonerwould cause the vessel to perish. Moreover,all the time that the voyage lasts three or fouryoung girls, specially chosen for the duty. aresupposed to remain in sympathetic connec-

tion with the mariners and to contribute bytheir behavior to the safety of and success ofthe voyage.Where beliefs like these prevail as to the

sympathetic connection between friends at adistance. we need not wonder that aboveeverything else. war, with its stern yet stir-

ring appeal to some of the deepest and ten-derest of human emotions. should quicken inthe anxious relations left behind a desire toturn the sympathetic bond to the utmost ac-count for the benefit of the dear ones whomay at any moment be fighting and dying faraway. Hence. to secure an end so naturaland laudable. friends at home are apt to

resort to devices which will strike us aspathetic or ludicrous. according as we con-sider their object or the means adopted toeffect it. Thus in some districts of Borneo.when a Dyak is out headhunting. his wife or.if he is unmarried, his sister must wear asword day and night in order that he mayalways be thinking of his weapons; and shemay not sleep during the day nor go to bedbefore two in the morning. lest her husbandor brother should thereby be surprised in hissleep by an enemy. Among the Sea Dyaks ofBanting in Sarawak the women strictly ob-serve an elaborate code of rules while themen are away fighting. Some of the rules are

negative and some are positive. but all alikeare based on the principles of magical home-opathy and telepathy. Amongst them are thefollowing. The women must wake very earlyin the morning and open the windows assoon as it is light; otherwise their absenthusbands will oversleep themselves. Thewomen may not oil their hair. or the menwill slip. The women may neither sleep nordoze by day. or the men will be drowsy onthe march. The women must cook and scat-ter popcorn on the veranda every morning;so will the men be agile in their movements.The rooms must be kept very tidy, all boxesbeing placed near the walls; for if anyone

were to stumble over them. the absent hus-bands would fall and be at the mercy of thefoe. At every meal a little rice must be left inthe pot and put aside; so will the men faraway always have something to eat and neednever go hungry. On no account may thewomen sit at the loom till their legs growcramped. otherwise their husbands wiIllike-wise be stiff in their joints and unable to riseup quickly or to run away from the foe. So inorder to keep their husbands' joints supplethe women often vary their labors at theloom by walking up and down the veranda.Further. they may not cover up their faces, orthe men would not be able to find their way

through the tall grass or jungle. Again. thewomen may not sew with a needle. or themen will tread on the sharp spikes set by theenemy in the path. Should a wife proveunfaithful while her husband is away. hewill lose his life in the enemy's country.Among the Thompson Indians of British



INTERPRETATIONS OF MAGIC. WITCHCRAFT. AND DIVINATION

344

Columbia, when the men were on the war-

path, the women performed dances at fre-

quent intervals. These dances. were believedto ensure the success of the expedition. The

danc.ersflourished •their. knives, threw long,sharp-pointed ~ticks forward, or drev v stickswith hooked ends repeatedly backward andforward. Throwing the sticks forWard was

symbolic of piercing or warding off the en-

emy, and drawing them back \'ias symbolicof drawing their. own men from danger. The

hook at. the end of the stick wasparti8ularlywell adapted to serve thepurpo~eof"llife-

saving apparatus. The \'iomen always point-ed their weapons towards the enemy'scoun-try. They painted their faces rerland sang asthey danced,ang they prayed to the weapons

to preserve the~r husqands. and help them tokill many foes. Some had eagledown stuckon the points of their sticks. When the dance

was over, these weapons Were hidden. If a

woman whose husband WaS at the warthought she saw hair or a piece of scalp on

the weapon when she took it out, she knewthat her husband had killed an enemy. But ifshe saw a stain of blood on it, she knew hewas wounded or dead. When the men of the

Yuki tribe of Indians in California wereaway fighting, the women at home did notsleep; they danced continually in. a circle,

chanting and waving leafy wands. For they

said that if they danced all the time, theirhusbands w()uldnot grow tired. When a

band of Carib Indians of the Orinoco hadgone on the warpath, their friends left in the

village used to. calculate as nearly. as theycould the exact moment when the absent

warnors would .be advancing to attack·.·.the

enemy. Then they took two lads, laid .themdown ona bench, and inflicted a most severe

scouring on their bare backs '.This the youthssubmitted to without a murmur, supported in

their .sufferings by. the firm conviction, inwhich they had been bred from childhood,that on the constancy . and . fortitude with

which they bore the cruel ordeal depended

the valor and success of their comrades inthe battle.Among the many beneficent uses to which

a mistaken ingenuity has applied the, princi-ple of homeopathic or imitative magic, is that

of causing trees and plants. to bear fruit in

due season. In Thiiringen the man who sowsflax eames the seed in a long bag which

reachesfrom.shouldersto his knees,. and hewalks wi.thlongstrides, so that the bag swaysto and fro on his back. It is believed that thiswill cause the· flax to wave in the· Wind.· I J 1

the interior of Sumat ra rice is sown by wom-en who, in sowing. let their hair hang loose

down their back, in order

grow luxuriantly and havelarly, in ancient Mexico a

in honor of the goddesslong- haired mother," as

began at the time "when

hiiried its full growth.

forth from the top ofthat the grain was fullyfestival the women worebound, shaking and

which were the hi€iffl~aturfJisniaI, in order that

might grow inUke Pl'<)tUstOl:limight be correspoI1ldirlgl~that the people might .

The notion that a pel'Sort'plant homeopathically

comes out clearly in aMalay woman. Being askedthe upper part of her bodythe rice, she explained that

the dee-husks thinner, as

pounding thick-huskedthought that the less clothil:lS!',

less husk there would bemagic virtue of a pregnantmunicate fertility is knownAustrian peasants, who L l " " _ _ ' . ·" '.

the first fruit of a tree to ato eat, the trees willnext year. On the other

believe that a barren wifeband's. garden with her

prevents the trees fromchildless'weman is Xt:J.lt:Lau.,

Thus on the theorya person can influence

good or for evil according tobad character of his acts orple, a fruitful Woman makesbarren womari" makes

this belief in the noxlousture of certain personal

has given rise to a numberrules of avoidance: people

ing certain things lest theypathically infect the fruits of

their own undesirable statesuch customs of ab:;tellti()nIOrance are examples of """7AtivA

boo.

In the foregoing cases ato influence vegetation h,,·rn<>,nn,

infects trees or plants withdents, good or bad, reseruunng:

from his own. But on the prtnclrppathic magic the influenceplant can infect the man just

man can infect the plant



Tames G. Frazer345

believe in physics, action and reaction areequal and opposite. The Cherokee Indiansare adept in practical botany of the homeo-pathic sort. Thus wiry roots of the catgutplant or devil's shoestring (Tephrosia) are sotough that they can almost stop a plowsharein the furrow. Hence Cherokee women washtheir hands with a decoction of the roots tomake the hair strong, and Cherokee ball-players wash themselves with it to toughentheir muscles. It isa Galelareese belief that ifyou eat a fruit which has fallen to theground, you will yourself contract a disposi-tion to stumble and fall; and that if youpartake of something which has been forgot-ten (such as a sweet potato left in the pot or abanana in the fire), you will become forget-ful. The Galelareese are also of the opinionthat if a woman were to consume two ba-nanas growing from a single head she wouldgive birth to twins. The Guarani Indians ofSouth America thought that a woman would

become a mother of twins if she ate a doublegrain of millet. Near Charlotte Waters, inCentral Australia, there is a tree whichsprang up to mark the spot where a blindman died. It is called the Blind Tree by thenatives, who think that if itwere cut down allthe people of the neighborhood would be-come blind. A man who wishes to deprivehis enemy of sight need only go to the tree byhimself and rub it, muttering his wish andexhorting the magic virtue to go forth and doits baleful work. In this last example theinfectious quality, though it emanates direct-ly from a tree, is derived originally from aman-namely, the blind man-who was

buried at the place where the tree grew.Similarly, the Central Australians believethat a certain group of stones at Undiara arethe petrified boils of an old man who longago plucked them from his body and leftthem there; hence any man who wishes toinfect his enemy with boils will go to thesestones and throw miniature spears at them,taking care that the points of the spears strikethe stones. Then the spears are picked up,and thrown one by one in the direction ofthe person whom it is intended to injure. Thespears carry with them the magic virtue fromthe stones, and the result is an eruption ofpainful boils on the body of the victim.

Sometimes a whole group of people can beamicted in this way by a skillful magician.These examples introduce us to a fruitful

branch of homeopathic magic, namely to thatdepartment of it which works by means ofthe dead; for just as the dead can neither seelor hear nor speak, so you may on homeo-Jathic principles render people blind, deaf,

and dumb by the use of dead men's bones oranything else that is tainted by the infectionof death. Thus among the Galelareese, whena young man goes a-wooing at night, he takesa little earth from a grave and strews it onthe roof of his sweetheart's house just abovethe place where her parents sleep. This, hefancies, will prevent them from wakingwhile he converses with his beloved, sincethe earth from the grave will make themsleep as sound as the dead. Burglars in allages and many lands have been patrons ofthis species of magic, which is very useful tothem in the exercise of their profession. Thusa South Slavonian housebreaker sometimesbegins operations by throwing a dead man'sbone over the house, saying, with pungentsarcasm, "As this bone may waken, so maythese people waken"; after that not a soul inthe house can keep his or her eyes open.Similarly, in Java the burglar takes earthfrom a grave and sprinkles it round thehouse which he intends to rob; this throwsthe inmates into a deep sleep. In Europesimilar properties were ascribed to the Handof Glory, which was the dried and pickledhand of a man who had been hanged. If acandle made of the fat of a malefactor whohad also died on the gallows was lighted andplaced in the Hand of Glory as in a candle-stick, it rendered motionless all persons towhom it was presented; they could not stir afinger any more than if they were dead. Anancient Greek robber or burglar thought hecould silence and put to flight the fiercestwatchdogs by carrying with him a brandplucked from a funeral pyre. Again, Servian

and Bulgarian women who chafe at the re-straints of domestic life will take the coppercoins from the eyes of a corpse, wash them inwine or water, and give the liquid to theirhusband to drink. After swallowing it, thehusbands will be as blind to his wife's pecca-dilloes as the dead man was on whose eyesthe coins were laid.Again, animals are often conceived to pos-

sess qualities or properties which might beuseful to man, and homeopathic or imitativemagic seeks to communicate these propertiesto human beings in various ways. Thus someBechuanas wear a ferret as a charm, be-cause, being very tenacious of life, it wi1l

make them difficult to kill. Others wear acertain insect, mutilated, but living, for asimilar purpose. Yet other Bechuana war-riors wear the hair of a hornless ox amongtheir own hair, and the skin of a frog on theirmantle, because a frog is slippery, and theox, having no horns. is hard to catch; so theman who is provided with these charms



I NTER PRETATIONS OF MAG IC , W ITCHCRAFT , AND D IV INATION

34 6

believes that he will be as hard to hold as the

ox and the frog. One of the ancient books ofIndia prescribes that when a sacrifice is of-fered for victory, the earth out of which thealtar is to be made should be taken from aplace where a boar has been wallowing,since the strength of the boar will be in thatearth. When you are playing· the one-stringed lute, and your fingers are stiff,. the

thing to do it to catch some.long-legged fieldspiders and roast them, and then rub yourfingers with the ashes; .that will make yourfingers as lithe and nimble. as the spiders'legs-at least so think the Galelareese.Among the western tribes of British NewGuinea, .a man who has killed a snake willburn it and smear his legs with the asheswhen he goes into the forest; for no snakewill bite him for some days afterwards. If aSouth Slavonian has a mind to pilfer andsteal at market, he has nothing to do but toburn a blind cat. and then throw a pinch ofits ashes over the person with whom he is

haggling; after that he can take what he likesfrom the booth, and the owner will not be abit the wiser, having become as blind as thedeceased cat with whose ashes he has beensprinkled. The thief may even ask boldly"Did Ipay for it?" and the deluded hucksterwill reply, "Why certainly."On the principle of homeopathic magic,

inanimate things, as well as plants and ani-mals, may diffuse blessing orbane aroundthem. according to their own intrinsic natureand the skill of the wizard te-tap or dam. asthe case may be, the stream of weal Or woe.In Samarkand women<giveababy sugarcandy to suck and put glue in the palm of its

hand, in order that when the child grows uphis words may be sweet and precious thingsmay stick to his hands as if they were glued.

The Greeks thought that a garment madefrom a fleece of a sheep that had been tornby a wolf would hurt the wearer, setting upan itch or irritation in his skin. They werealso of the opinion that if a stone which hadbeen bitten by a dog were dropped in wine,it would make all who drank of that wine tofall out among themselves. Among the Arabsof Moab a childless woman often borrowsthe robe of a woman who ha s had manychildren. hoping with the robe to acquire thefruitfulness of its owner. The Caffres of So-

fala, in East Africa, had a great dread ofbeing struck·.with anything hollow, such as areed or a straw. and gteatlypreferred beingthrashed with a good thick cudgel or an ironbar, even though ithurt very much. For theythought that if a man were beaten with any-thing hollow,· his inside would waste away

till he died.

In Madagascar athe levity of fortune is tofoot of the heavy nouse-nost. Tilecustom of ~ ...~rt~'~

based partly on a ....'.,."' .... ~.stability of the stone collfirm~tffitoath. Thus the oldGrammaticus tells uswhen they' were to choose a

to stand on stones planted into proclaim their votes; inow from the steadfastness

the deed would. be .u"....".

general.magical efficacy ,uo.. ""'"

reside in all stones bymon properties of weightcia 1 magical. virtues are ttll,HVUU:U"

ticular stones, or kinds

dance with their tndividual VJ'' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 'I ..i.J l l~t, ;

ties of shape and color. Tl}.elMihl~s;·Qemployed certain stonesmaize, others for the tncreaseand others again. for the

The stones used. to makefashioned in the likenessand the stones destined tothe shape of sheep. Thestore on the magical .u,,'~_

stones; indeed it has beengreat show of reason. thatused as amulets long beforeas mere ornaments. Thus thethe name of tree-agate to a.exhibits treelike markings.that if two of these gemshorns or neck of oxen atwould be sure to-be ...l••nt'lf"l

recognized a.milkstone

abundant supply ofthey drank it dissolved in nonev-mestones are used for the

Greek women in- Cretepresent day; in Albania

wear the stones in. order to enl;nrellindant flow of. milk. Again.lieved in a stone which curedand hence was named the sn~lJcest()nlits efficacy you had only to "u••~••,....powder and sprinkle thewound. The wine-colered aIIle(.nY!R;·its name. which means "notcause it was supposed to keepitsober; and two brothers .who

in unity were advised magnEltllwith them, which,· by tirll,wilr'1o···tli"

together, would clearly preventfalling out.Dwellers by the sea cannot

pressed by the sight of its cestSel,_

flow. and are apt, on the yUl.....y~ ......

rude philosophy of syInpslmy



Tames G. Frazer34 7

blance which here engages our attention. totrace a subtle relation. a secret harmony.between its tides and the life of man. ofanimals. and of plants. In the flowing tidethey see not merely a symbol but a cause ofexuberance. of prosperity, and of life. whilein the ebbing tide they discern a real agent aswell as a melancholy emblem of failure. of

weakness. and of death. The Breton peasantfancies that clover sown when the tide iscoming in will grow well. but that if the plantbe sown at low water or when the tide isgoing out. it will never reach maturity. andthat the cows which feed on it will burst. Hiswife believes that the best butter is madewhen the tide has just turned and is begin-ning to flow. that milk which foams in thechurn will goon foaming till the hour ofhighwater is past. and that water drawn from thewell or milk extracted from the cow whilethe tide is rising will boil up in the pot orsaucepan and overflow into the fire. Accord-ing tosome of the ancients. the skins of seals.even after they had been parted from theirbodies. remained in secret sympathy withthe sea. and were observed to ruffle whenthe tide was on the ebb. Another ancientbelief. attributed to Aristotle. was that nocreature can die except at ebb tide. In Portu-gal.all along the coast ofWales. and on someparts of the coast of Brittany, a belief is saidto prevail that people are born when the tidecomes in, and die when it goes out. Dickensattests the existence of the same superstitionin England. "People can't die along thecoast." said Mr. Peggotty. "except when thetide's pretty nigh out. They can't be born.

unless it's pretty nigh in-not properly borntill flood."Another application of the maxim that like

produces like is seen in the Chinese beliefthat the fortunes of a town are deeply affect-ed by its shape. and that they must varyaccording to the character of the thing whichthat shape most nearly resembles. Thus it isrelated that long ago the town of Tsuen-cheu-fu, the outlines of which are like thoseofa carp. frequently fell a prey to the depre-dations of the neighboring city of Yung-chun,which is shaped like a fishing net. until theinhabitants of the former town conceived theplan of erecting two tall pagodas in their

midst. These pagodas. which still towerabove the city of Tsuen-cheu-fu, have eversince exercised the happiest influence overits destiny by intercepting the imaginary netbefore it could descend and entangle in itsmeshes the imaginary carp.Sometimes homeopathic or imitative mag-

ic is called in to annul an evil omen byaccomplishing it in mimicry. The effect is to

circumvent destiny by substituting a mockcalamity for a real one. In Madagascar thismode of cheating the fates is reduced to aregular system. Here every man's fortune isdetermined by the day or hour of his birth.and if that happens to be an unlucky one hisfate is sealed. unless the mischief can beextracted. as the phrase goes. by means of a

substitute. The ways of extracting the mis-chief are various. For example. if a man isborn on the first day of the second month(February). his house will be burnt downwhen he comes of age. To take time by theforelock and avoid this catastrophe, thefriends of the infant will set up a shed in afield or in a cattle fold and burn it. If theceremony is to be really effective, the childand his mother should be placed in the shedand only plucked. like brands, from theburning hut before it is too late. Once more.if fortune has frowned on the man at hisbirth and penury has marked him for herown. he can easily erase the mark in ques-tion by purchasing a couple of cheap pearls.price three halfpence. and burying them. Forwho but the rich of this world can thus affordto fling pearls away?

3. CONTAGIOUS MAGIC

Thus far we have been considering chieflythat branch of sympathetic magic which maybe called homeopathic or imitative. Its lead-ing principle, as we have seen. is that likeproduces like. or. in other words. that aneffect resembles its cause. The other branchof sympathetic magic. which I have calledContagious Magic. proceeds upon the notion

that things which have once been conjoinedmust remain ever afterwards. even whenquite dissevered from each other. in such asympathetic relation that whatever is done tothe one must similarly affect the other. Thusthe logical basis of Contagious Magic. likethat of Homeopathic Magic. is a mistakenassociation of ideas; its physical basis. if wemay speak of such a thing. like the physicalbasis of Homeopathic Magic. is a materialmedium ofsome sort which. like the ether ofmodern physics. is assumed to unite distantobjects and to convey impressions from oneto the other. The most familiar example ofContagious Magic is the magical sympathy

which is supposed to exist between a manand any severed portion of his person, as hishair or nails; so that whoever gets possessionof human hair or nails may work his will. atany distance, upon the person from whomthey were cut. This superstition is world-wide; instances of it in regard to hair andnails may be noticed later on in this work. Iwill now illustrate the principles of Conta-



I NTER PRETATIONS OF MAG IC, W I TCHCRAFT , AND D IV INAT ION

348

gious Magic by examples, beginning with its

application to various parts of the humanbody.The Basutos are careful to conceal their

extracted teeth, lest these should fall into thehands of certain mythical beings called baloi,

who haunt graves, and who could harm theowner ()f the tooth by working magic on it. In

Sussex some fifty years ago a maidservantremonstrated strongly agalnst :the throwing

away of children's cast teeth, affirming that

should they be found and gnawed by anyanimal, the child's new tooth would be, forall the world, like the teeth of the animal that

had bitten. the old one. In proof of this shenamed old Master Simmons, who had a verylarge pig's tooth in his upper jaw, a personal

defect that he always averred was caused byhis mother, who threw away one of his cast

teeth by accident into the hog's trough. A

siIniIar belief had led·to practices intended,on the principles of homeopathic magic, to

replace old teeth by new and better ones.

Thus in many parts of the world it is custom-ary to put extracted teeth in some placewhere they will be found by a mouse or a rat,in the hope that, through the sympathy which

continues to subsist between them and theirformer owner his other teeth may acquirethe same firmness and excellence as the

teeth of these rodents.Other parts which are commonly believed

to remain in a sympathetic union with thebody, after the physical connection has been

severed, are the navel-string and the after-birth, including the placenta. So intimate,

indeed, is the union conceived to be, that the

fortunes of the Indivtdual for good or evil

throughout life are often supposed to bebound up with one or other of these portions

of his person, so that if his navel-string orafterbirth is preserved and properly treated.

he will be prosperous; whereas if it be in-jured or lost, he will suffer accordingly.·Cer-

tain tribes of.Western Australia believe thata man swims well or ill, according as hismother at his birth threw the navel-string

intowater or not. In Ponape, one of theCaroline Islands, the navel-string is placed

in a shell and then disposed of in such a way

as shall best adapt the child for tbe careerwhich the parents have chosen for him. Thus

if they Wish to make him a good climber,they Will hang the navel-string on a tree.Among the Cherokees the navel-strtng of a

girl .•s buried under a corn mortar, in orderthat the girl may grow up to be a good baker:but the nave17string of a boy is hung up on a

tree in the woods, in order that he may be a

hunter.

Even in Europe many IJVJU"~.

that a person's destiny isup with that of his avet-strms

Thus in Rhenish Bavariakept for a while wrapt up

linen. and then cut oraccording as the child is aorder that he or she may

skillful workman or a

Berlln the midwife GUI:UUIUI1

dried navel-string to theinjunction to preserve it

as it is kept the child willbe free fr()m sickness. In Dt::,CtUl;t:

the people are careful tostring neither into water noring that if that were done the

drowned or burned.A curious application of

contagious magic is thebelieved to exist between a

and the agent of the wound,is subsequently done by or to

correspondingly affect thegood or evil. Thus Pliny

have wounded a man andyou have only to spit on thethe wound; and the pain of

be instantly alleviated. Inman's friends get possessionwhich wounded him. they keep

place or in cool leaves. formation will be trifling and willMeantime the enemy who shot

hard at work to aggravate the

means in his power. For thishis friends drink hot and h"......~~·chew irritating leaves, for

inflame and irritate the wound.keep the bow near the fire towound which it has inflictedsame reason they put the arrowneae

been recovered, into the fire.are careful to keep the bowstring

twang it occasionally. for this Willwounded man to suffer fromnerves and spasms of tetanus.

when a Kwakiutl Indian of Britishhad bitten a piece out of anused to drink hot water nff,PMJVllrn!l:.

purpose of thereby inflaming the

his foe's body. If a horse wounds

treading on a nail, a Suffolkinvariably preserve the nail,grease it every day, to prevent thefestering. A few years ago ageon was sent for to attend a

had 'ripped its side open on thefarm gatepost .. On arriving at the

found that nothing had been done

horse

thmigop

co

1:)111111<111

beehis

andisto anoithe eto k

arp.H~;Ao

\ptt",eE!n a

him

thewiththe

Nthe

wothat i

n .......,lln he

Oncewh

missionariestook great

cast it into

this ideathan the

bso thaWill be

he may

one ofgrudgew()uld tr

had toucIf he suc

over

tree, r

leaves intoand burnedwas con

it was rlast form

magical sYmpa

not so much be

a s between th

iSStied from hithe same sortitself is enough

upon his Victimyou cannot catyou can do is t

he may have sh

it soundly , the



Tames G . Frazer349

wounded horse. but that a man was busytrying to pry the hinge out of the gatepost inorder that it might be greased and put away.which. in the opinion of the Cambridge wise-

acres. would conduce to the recovery of theanimal. Similarly. Essex rustics opine that. if

a man has been stabbed with a knife. it isessential to his recovery that the knife should

be greased and laid across the bed on whichthe sufferer is lying. So in Bavaria you aredirected to anoint a linen rag with grease andtie it on the edge of the axe that cut you.

taking care to keep the sharp edge upwards.As the grease on the axe dries. your wound

heals.The sympathetic connection supposed to

exist between a man and the weapon whichwounded him is probably founded on thenotion that the blood on the weapon contin-ues to feel with the blood in his body. For alike reason the Papuans of Tumleo, an island

off German New Guinea. are careful tothrow into the sea the bloody bandages with

which their wounds have been dressed. forthey fear that if these rags fell into the handsof an enemy he might in]u re them magically

thereby. Once when a man with a wound inhis mouth. which bled constantly. came tothe missionaries to be treated. his faithfulwife took great pains to collect all the blood

and cast it into the sea. Strained and unnatu-ral as this idea may seem to us. it is perhaps

less so than the belief that magic sympathy ismaintained between a person and hisclothes. so that whatever is done to theclothes will be felt by the man himself eventhough he may be far away at the time. In

Tanna, one of the New Hebrides. a man whohad a grudge at another and desired his

death would try to get possession of a clothwhich had touched the sweat of his enemy's

body. If he succeeded. he rubbed the clothcarefully over with the leaves and twigs at acertain tree. rolled and bound cloth. twigsand leaves into a long sausage-shaped bun-dle. and burned it slowly in the fire. As the

bundle was consumed. the victim fell ill. andwhen it was reduced to ashes. he died. Inthis last form of enchantment. however. themagical sympathy may be supposed to existnot so much between the man and the clothas between the man and the sweat which

issued from his body. But in other cases ofthe same sort it seems that the garment byitself is enough to give the sorcerer a hold

Upon his victim. In Prussia they say that if

you cannot catch a thief. the next best thingyou can do is to get hold of a garment whichhe may have shed in his flight; for if you beatit soundly, the thief will fall sick. This belief

is firmly rooted in the popular mind. Someeighty or ninety years ago. in the neighbor-

hood of Berend. a man was detected trying tosteal honey. and fled. leaving his coat behindhim. When he heard that the enraged ownerof the honey was mauling his lost coat. hewas so alarmed that he took to his bed anddied.

Again magic may be wrought on a mansympathetically. not only through his clothesand severed parts of himself, but alsothrough the impressions left by his body in

sand or earth. In particular. it is a world-wide superstition that by injuring footprintsyou can injure the feet that made them. Thusthe natives of southeastern Australia thinkthat they can lame a man by placing sharp

pieces of quartz. glass. bone. or charcoal inhis footprints. In North Africa the magic of

footprints is sometimes used for more ami-able purposes. A woman who wishes to at-tach her husband or lover to herself will takeearth from the print of his right foot. tie it up

with some of his hairs in a packet. and wearthe packet next to her skin.Similar practices prevail in various parts

of Europe. Thus in Mecklenburg it is thoughtthat if you drive a nail into a man's footprint

he will fall lame; sometimes it is requiredthat the nail should be taken from a coffin. A

like mode of injuring an enemy is resorted toin some parts of France. It is said that there

was an old woman who used to frequentStow in Suffolk. and she was a witch. If.

while she walked. anyone went after her andstuck a nail or a knife into her footprint inthe dust. the dame could not stir a step until

it was withdrawn. An old Danish mode ofconcluding a treaty was based on the same

idea of the sympathetic connection betweena man and his footprints; the covenanting

parties sprinkled each other's footprints withtheir own blood. thus giving a pledge of

fidelity. In ancient Greece superstitions ofthe same sort seem to have been current. forit was thought that if a horse stepped on the

track of a wolf he was seized with numbness;and a maxim ascribed to Pythagoras forbadepeople to pierce a man's footprints with a

nail or a knife.The same superstition is turned to accor

by hunters in many parts of the world for

purpose of running down the game. T'German huntsman will stick a nsffrom a coffin into the fresh spor

quarry, believing that this will }

animal from escaping. The abori-toria put hot embers in theanimals they were pursuing. 'ers throw into the air a hand



I NT ERPRE TAT ION S O F MAG I C. W I TCHCRAFT. AND D IV INAT ION

35 0

fr()m the footprints of the game. believingthat this will bring the animal down. Thomp-son Indians used to lay charms on the tracksof wounded deer; after that they deemed itsuperfluous to pursue the animal any furtherthat-day, for being thus charmed it could nottravel far and would soon die.But though the footprint is the most obvi-

ous it is-not-the only impression made by thebody through which magic may be wroughton a man. The aborigines of southeasternAustralia believe that a man may be injuredby burying sharp fragments of quartz. glass.and so forth in the mark made by his reclin-ing body; the magical virtue of these sharpthings enters his body and causes those acutepains which the ignorant European putsdown as rheumatism. We can now under"stand why it was a maxim with the Pythagor-eans that in rising from bed you shouldsmooth away the impression left by yourbody on the bedclothes. The rule was simplyan old precaution against magic.. forming

part of a whole code of superstitious maximswhich antiquity fathered on Pythagoras,though doubtless they were familiat; to thebarbarous forefathers of the Greeks long be-fore the time of that philosopher.

4. THE MAGICIAN'S PROGRESS

We have now concluded our examination ofthe general principles of sympathetic magic.The examples by which I have illustratedthem have been drawn for the most partfrom what may be called private magic. thatis, from magical rites and ••ncantations prac-ticed for the benefit or the injury of individ-uals. But in savage society there is commonly

to be found in addition what we may callpublic magic, that is, sorcery practiced forthe benefit of the whole community. Wher-ever ceremenles of this sort are observed forthe common good, it is obvious that the magi-cian ceases to be merely a private practition-er and becomes to some< extent ~. publicfunctionary. The development of such a classof functionaries is of great importance for thepolitical as well as the religious evolution ofsociety. For when the welfare of the tribe issupposed to depend on the performance' ofthese magical rites, the magician rises into apOsition of much influencs"and repute, andmay readily' acquire the rank and authorityof·a chief or king. The profession accordinglydraws into its ranks some of the ablest andmost ambitious men of the tribe, because itholds out to them a proSpect· of honor.wealth, and power such as hardly any othercareer could offer. The acuter minds per-ceive' how easy' it is to dupe their weaker

brother and to play on histheir own advantage; Not thatalways a knave and tmnosten:sincerely convinced thatthose wonderful powersof his fellows ascribes. tosagacious he is. thethrough the fallacies

wits. Thus the ablest mem"'~~'ft"'."'ksion must tend to be Illore ordeceivers; and it is juSt thesevirtue of their superior abilitycome to the top and winpositions of the highestcommanding authority.beset the path of the nroresetoare many. and as a rulecoolest head and sharpest witsteer his way through themmust always be rememberedgle profession and claim putmagician as such is·false;can be maintained without

scious or unconscious. Accordincerer who sincerelyextravagant pretensions is in farand is much more likely to becareer than the deliberatehonest wizard alwayscharms and incantationssupposed effect; and whenreally. as they always do. butand disastrously. as they oftenaback: he is not, like his kn~lviliiht!rtready with a plausible excuse tothe failure. and: before he canmay be knocked on the headpointed and angry employers.

The general result is that atsocial evolu t ton- the SUPreme nC""''':I1P .

fall into the hands of menintelligence and the most UnISCI'111nltIiacters Ifwe could balance theby their knavery' against the

confer' by their superior sa!!:acilty,.itiwell be found that the goodweighed the evil. For. moreprobably been wrought in theest fools in high places than byrascals. Once your

tained the height of his ambitlion,longer any selfish end to furthe:r> t

and often does. turn his talent,ence, his resources, to the <ZA,,1Ifl"'''

public. Many men who have beenpulous in the acquisition of powermost beneficent in the use of it,power they aimed at and wonwealth, political authority, or tAt,", .... 'n,

field of politics the wily intriguer.

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T ames C . F r az er3 5 1

less victor, may end by being a wise andmagnanimous ruler, blessed in his lifetime,lamented at his death, admired and applaud-ed by posterity. Such men, to take two of themost conspicuous instances, were Julius Cae-sar and Augustus. But once a fool always afool, and the greater the power in his hand

the more disastrous is likely to be the use hemakes of it. The heaviest calamity in Englishhistory, the breach with America, might nev-er have occurred if George the Third had notbeen an honest dul1ard.Thus, so far as the public profession of

magic affected the constitution of savage so-ciety, it tended to place the control of affairsin the hands of the ablest man: it shifted thebalance of power from the many to the one:itsubstituted a monarchy for a democracy, orrather for an oligarchy of old men; for ingeneral the savage community is ruled not bythe whole body of adult males, but by acouncil of elders. The change, by whatever

causes produced, and whatever the charac-ter of the early rulers, was on the whole verybeneficial. For the rise of monarchy appearsto be an essential condition of the emergenceof mankind from savagery. No human beingis so hidebound by custom and tradition asyour democratic savage; in no state of societyconsequently is progress so slow and diffi-cult. The old notion that the savage is thefreest of mankind is the reverse of the truth.He is a slave. not indeed to a visible master,but to the past, to the spirits of his deadforefathers, who haunt his steps from birth todeath, and rule him with a rod of iron. Whatthey did is the pattern of right, the unwritten

law to which he yields a blind, unquestion-ing obedience. The least possible scope isthus afforded to superior talent to change oldcustoms for the better. The ablest man isdragged down by the weakest and dullest,who necessarily sets the standard, since hecannot rise, while the other can fall. Thesurface of such a society presents a uniformdead level, so far as it is humanly possible toreduce the natural inequalities, the immea-surable real differences of inborn capacityand temper, to a false superficial appearanceof equality. From this low and stagnant con-dition of affairs. which demagogues anddreamers in later times have lauded as the

ideal state. the Golden Age, of humanity,everything that helps to raise society byopening a career to talent and proportioningthe degrees of authority to men's naturalabilities, deserves to be welcomed by all whohave the real good of their fellows at heart.Once these elevating influences have begunto operate-and they cannot be forever sup-

pressed-the progress of civilization be-comes comparatively rapid. The rise of oneman to supreme power enables him to carrythrough changes in a single lifetime whichpreviously many generations might not havesufficed to effect; and if, as will often hap-pen, he is a man of intellect and energy

above the common, he will readily availhimself of the opportunity. Even the whimsand caprices of a tyrant may be of service inbreaking the chain of custom which lies soheavy on the savage. And as soon as the tribeceases to be swayed by the timid and dividedcounsels of the elders. and yields to thedirection of a single strong and resolutemind, it becomes formidable to its neighborsand enters on a career of aggrandizement,which at an early stage of history is oftenhighly favorable to social. industrial, andintellectual progress. For extending its sway,partly by force of arms, partly by the volun-tary submission of weaker tribes. the com-

munity soon acquires wealth and slaves,both of which, by relieving some classesfrom the perpetual struggle for a bare subsis-tence, afford them an opportunity of devot-ing themselves to that disinterested pursuit ofknowledge which is the noblest and mostpowerful instrument to ameliorate the lot ofman.Intellectual progress, which reveals itself

in the growth of art and science and thespread of more liberal views, cannot be dis-sociated from industrial or economic prog-ress, and that in its turn receives an immenseimpulse from conquest and empire. It is nomere accident that the most vehement out-

bursts of activity of the human mind havefollowed close on the heels of victory, andthat the great conquering races of the worldhave commonly done most to advance andspread civilization. thus healing in peace thewounds they inflicted in war. The Babylo-nians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs areour witnesses in the past: we may yet live tosee a similar outburst in Japan. Nor, to re-mount the stream of history to its sources, is itan accident that all the first great stridestowards civilization have been made underdespotic and theocratic governments, like-those of Egypt,Babylon. and Peru, where thesupreme ruler claimed and received the ser-

vile allegiance of his subjects in the doublecharacter of a king and a god. It is hardly toomuch to say that at this early epoch despo-tism is the best friend of humanity and,paradoxical as itmay sound, of liberty. Forafter all there is more liberty in the bestsense-liberty to think our own thoughts andto fashion our own destinies-under the



INTERPRETATIONS OF MAGIC. WITCHCRAFT. AND DIVINATION

352

most absolute despotism, the most grindingtyranny, than under the apparent freedom of

savage life, where the individual's lot is castfrom the cradle to the grave in the iron mold

of hereditary custom.So far, therefore, as the public profession

of magic has been one of the roads by which

the ablest men have passed to supreme pow-

er, ithas contributed to emancipate mankindfrom the thralldom of tradition and to ele-

vate them into a larger,

broader outlook on the

small service rendered to

when we remember furtherdirection magic has pavedence, we are forced to admitart has done much evil, it has

source of much good; that if it

error, it has yet been the motherand truth.

s. J. TambiahTHE FORM AND

MEANING OF M AGICAL ACTS:

A POINT OF VIEW

By drawing on the concrete. ethnographic data provided in Evans-

Pritchard's famous book, Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the

Azande (1937), S. J . Tambiah presents an insightful explication of thelogic embedded in magical behavior. His concern is not so much withthe specific content of magical spells or rituals as it is with the mode ofthought which underlies them. The essay addresses three major points.

First, Tambiah emphasizes the similar use of analogy in both scientific

and magical thinking but then. goes on to make a radical distinctionbetween different ways of using analogy. The scientifto use of analogy

depends on the causal relationship between objects and their qualitiessuch that predictions can be made from known sets of causal relation-ships to similar, but unknown sets. In. this manner, empirically verifi-

able hypotheses and comparisons can be generated. Analogy employedin magic, however, depends on a persuasive or evocative transferenceof the value or meaning implied in one set of. relationships to a second

set of relattonships, although a relation of similarity or causality doesnot necessarily obtain between these tw o sets. Magic, Tambiah main-

tains. is neither simply a science that has failed (as Frazer asserts in hisessay in this. chapter) nor an incipient "rational" science (as Hortonsuggests in Chapter Five). Rather, the empirical mode of science and thepersuasive, "performative" mode of ritual magic represent two types of

thought; the criteria of one cannot-and should not-be applied to theother. Nor is one mode of thought necessarily superlor to the other. asTambiah points out in the second part of his essay. There. he analyzes

the "performative" nature of ritual acts and speech, and certain aspects

of ordinary language. He borrows Austin's concept of the "performativeutterance" to show. that thinking and action are intimately connectednot only in ritual or magical behavior but in everydaY,behavior as well.Making a promise or issuing a command resembles a magical spell in

that both rely on the fact that neither Olerely describe~an action. Their

very utterance. is itself an action. which. effects a change in the world. It

is on these criteria of persuasion, tra,nsference, and expansion ofmeaning. that magical acts must be evaluated and analyzed. for it is

upon. thelD:. that the conceived efficacy -.of such acts rests. For furtherdiscUSsion olthe issues raised here, see '''l'he Magical Power of Words"(1966) byS. J . Tambiah, and "It's All Uphill: The Creative Metaphors ofIl(lllgotMagical Spells" {1975} by MichelleZ. Rosaldo,

R epr tn te d In e brid ge d f or m fro m R . H or to n a nd R. FInnegan ( eds . ] , Moo es o f Thought (London :

F ab er an d F ab er L td .• 1 9 73~ 199-Z29. by perm!ss1on o f th e a uth or a nd th e p ub lis he r.

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