Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/261

 Animal Superstitions and Totemism. 249

The totem-clan, however, tended to develop ; it ex- panded into a larger group. This explains the position of certain animals like the great hare of the Algonquin tribes. In other cases the totem-tribe tended to pass into a local group. This resulted in the sacred animal of the clan becoming the sacred animal of the local group ; its worship was confined to a certain area. This type may be dis- tinguished as " tribal sacrifice."

We find, as I shall endeavour to show, examples of both types in Europe at the present day. These survivals I arrange in three groups, which may be termed the " Hunt," the " Hahnenschlag," and the "simple" classes.

Most of these sacrifices present one or more of the fol- lowing features : —

(i) There is no priest or other person specially selected for the task of slaying the victim ; the slayer of the animal is, however, frequently the recipient of special honours and a title which he bears for a year.^ (2) The ceremony is performed once a year, usually on a specified day ; the animal is occasionally selected some time before the actual sacrifice. (3) The use of iron is frequently tabooed, and the animal may not be shorn. (4) The head of the animal is frequently struck off and is specially sacred." (5) The sacrifice is preceded or followed by a procession, in which the sacred animal is paraded round the village or town.

' Handelmann, p. 25 ; Mannhardt, Kornddiiiotien, 16 ; Peter, ii., 278 ; Nore, p. 20 ; Globus, vii., 304 ; De Gubernatis, 475 n. ; Rolland, vi., 104, 175; Sebillot, Coutumes pop. de la H. B., 251 ; Meyrac, Traditions des Ardennes, pp. 66, 6711., r/; p. 61; Reinsberg-Dtiringsfeld, Cal. beige, 131, 341, &c. We find a king in the egg-games and at cock-fights; Sebillot, Meyrac, loc. cit. For an interesting and important parallel to the customs in this section v. Globus, xvii., 24.

' There is an obvious connection between this custom and that of fixing carved or real heads round the fields, on the houses, &c. Perhaps the explana- tion is that the head was regarded as the residence of the soul. In West Prussia a method of preventing a dead member of a family from inflicting disease on the living is to open the coffin and cut off" the head. Globus, xix., 96. It is further a well-known prehistoric burial custom.