Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/257

 Animal Superstitions and Totcniism. 245

sanitary reasons. We have seen that the crossbill is believed to attract disease ; in some parts it is believed to die in consequence ; it must then be buried.^

I shall deal in a few minutes with the animals annually sacrificed ; in certain cases they are, instead of being eaten, buried with considerable ceremony. In the Isle of Man the wren was formerly interred in the churchyard.^ The cat is buried in Bohemia,^ the sardine in Spain,* the stockfish in Portugal,^ and the rabbit at Biddenham.^ Elsewhere the animal must be buried when it is found dead ; this is done with the sacred fishes of Nant Peris.'^

Although from lack of precise information I have not been able to include the mole among the animals which may not be killed, there are grounds for believing that it was formerly respected in some parts. The present form of the belief is that a mole may be killed but must be immediately buried, sometimes not by the person who has killed it.8

I. 9. — Magical Powers derived from the Animal.

To this important section I can allude only in passing. Powers of healing are ascribed to those who have eaten eagle's flesh,^ or in whose hand a mole or worm ^° has died. In other cases the powers are believed to be ac- quired by touchi»ig the living animal,^^ or by smearing some animal product on the hands.^^

A highly important point in connection with these ceremonies is that they must be undergone at a certain age in some cases, and in others must be repeated annually.

' MS. note. '^ Frazer, Golden Bough, ii., 142.

^ Grohmann, 367. ■• Loning, Das Spanische Volk, p. 71. 5 Morgenblatt, 1838, No. 35, p. 138.

^ F. L. R., i., 243. ' Byegones, Nov. 25th, 1896.


 * Grohmann, 388; MS. note. ^ Byegones, April loth, 1895.

'" Jiihling, pp. 121, 123, 139. " (iiegor, 144; /"., x., 252. '- Jiihling, p. 38.