Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/255

 Animal Superstitions and Totemism. 243

Fish : parts of Ireland and Scotland.^

Songbirds : Germany.''^

Goose : Great Crosby.^

Wildfowl and poultry : S. England and Wales.*

In these two sub-sections, then, I have shown that more than 50 birds and animals enjoy a local sanctity.'' This reveals the existence of local cults of extent hitherto unsus- pected^ which embrace a large proportion of the commoner animals of Europe.

The animals in this section I distinguish as "taboo- animals."

Passing over the two remaining classes of taboos, I will now call your attention to —

I. 3. — Animals Kept in Captivity for Magical or OTHER Superstitious Purposes, or Fed or other- wise Petted.

Mr. Lang has argued that these cases have no evidential value. The schoolboy, he says, has guinea-pigs and mice, but they are not totems.^ But no one has ever suggested that the mice are kept in captivity for any other reason than that they afford their owner pleasure. The schoolboy does not keep pets because his father kept them before him. In folklore, on the other hand, the case is just reversed. Customs are kept up for no other reason than that they are customs. Mr. Lang's criticism neglects this important difference, and does not, therefore, bear upon the question at issue.

The most important example in this section is a custom

' Elton, Origins of English History, p. 170.

- Wuttke, p. 130.

' A. R., iii., 232.


 * A. R., iii., 233.

' To these may be added the cases in which there is a superstitious aversion to using the feathers of certain birds in feather-beds. These birds are : the hen, goose, pigeon, partridge, and sometimes wild birds generally.

^ Folk- Lore, i., 12.

R 2