Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/256

 244 Animal Superstitions and Totemism.

practised at Llanidloes.^ White butterflies are, as in the West of Scotland,''^ fed on sugar and water. Any doubt which might be felt as to the character of this practice is removed when we find that the coloured butterflies are killed as a part of the same custom. I cannot now discuss the interpretation of the latter part of the custom. I shall have occasion, however, to cite some facts subsequently which, perhaps, throw some light upon it.

In this case there is nothing to show the object of the ceremony. In Sicily, however, the toad is kept in cap- tivity,^ like the mouse and the kingfisher^ in Bohemia, for the purpose of ensuring good luck. It is the custom in many parts of Germany to keep a crossbill in captivity ; ^ it is believed to attract diseases. A kind of hawk is encouraged to nest on the houses in South Germany ; ^ it is believed to protect the house. The peewit seems to have been kept for a similar purpose in the Middle Ages.'^

Other birds are kept for purposes of divination, among them the pigeon,^ and in former days the wren and raven.^ The use of the hare by Boadicea is another example of the custom.

Domestic animals are also used for similar objects. I will here only quote one instance. The Lapps at the North Cape are said to consult with a black cat,^° whom they regard as an ancestor, as to what it is advisable to do in cases of difficulty.

I. 4. — Burying the Dead Animal. A practice which seems to bear clear marks of a totem- istic origin is the burying of dead animals for other than

' Moiti. Coll., X., 260. ^ Napier, p. 115.

^ De Gubernatis, p. 629. ■• Grohmann, 405, 443.


 * Juhling, 247, 249 ; Z. fih- d. Myth., \., 209 ; Heyl, 163, &c.

^ Mone's Anz, vii., 430.

' Mone, viii., 614; cf. Physiologtts, Graff's Diatisca, iii., 38.


 * C.iohmann, 554. " F. I.. /., ii., 65.

'" Mone, Synib. ti. Myth., i., 39.