Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/165

Rh bear’s track that they meet with, supposing that even if the animal be two or three days’ journey off, they will now soon sight it, the charm possessing the power of shortening the journey from two or three days to a few hours. The Zulus resort to a similar device to recover strayed cattle. Earth taken from the footprints of the missing beasts is placed in the chief’s vessel, a magic circle is made, and the chief’s vessel is placed within it. Then the chief says, “I have now conquered them. These cattle are now here; I am now sitting upon them. I do not know in what way they will escape.”

We can now understand why Pythagoras said that when you rise from bed you should efface the impression left by your body on the bedclothes. For obviously the same magical process might be applied by an enemy to the impress of the body which we have just seen to be applied to the impress of the foot. The aborigines of Australia cause magical substances to enter the body of an enemy by burying them either in his footprints or in the mark made on the ground by his reclining body, or they beat the place where the man sat—the place must be still warm—with a pointed stick, which is then believed to enter the victim’s body and kill him. To secure the good behaviour of an ally with whom they have just had a conference, the Basutos will cut and preserve the grass upon which the ally sat during the interview. The grass is apparently regarded as a sort of hostage for his good behaviour, since through it they believe they could punish him if he proved false. Moors who write on the sand are superstitiously careful to