Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/54

44 discussion, is the reason why the widow wears a peculiar costume. Yet the widow of the Arunta, according to her own statement, paints herself white in order to attract the notice of her late husband. Whatever later reasons may be assigned, the true significance of mourning apparel seems to be to provide an outward and visible sign of the taboo condition and all that it implies, namely, the door barred from without and bolted from within, that protects society from the mourner and the mourner from society.

Leaving the subject of mourning, we may now examine the grounds of another funeral observance, namely, the use of fire and water. Fire that consumes and water that washes away are natural purifiers, and as such it is not surprising that they should appear all the world over in ritual cleansing. Such uses are admirably illustrated in many of Sir James Frazer's examples. Unfortunately he maintains these to be no more than degenerate survivals. For instance, when he tells us that the Jews threw out all the water from a house after a death, we should say that it was because the water was mystically defiled. The leading Talmudists, however, give this notion a neat animistic turn, saying that the water was impure because the Angel of Death had laved his sword in it. Sir James Frazer, meanwhile, thinks that the original reason for throwing out the water must have been that otherwise the ghost might fall in and be drowned. One is tempted to wonder why the ghost should not fall in and be drowned, if he was really so unpopular. And incidentally, what has become of the barrier by water?

Again, and this seems conclusive, what are we to think of such an instance as that provided by the Awemba of