Page:Frazer (1890) The Golden Bough (IA goldenboughstudy01fraz).djvu/221

II notion that if birds find a person’s cut hair, and build their nests with it, the person will suffer from headache; sometimes it is thought that he will have an eruption on the head. Again it is thought that cut or combed out hair may disturb the weather by producing rain and hail, thunder and lightning. We have seen that in New Zealand a spell was uttered at hair-cutting to avert thunder and lightning. In the Tirol, witches are supposed to use cut or combed out hair to make hail-stones or thunder-storms with. Thlinket Indians have been known to attribute stormy weather to the fact that a girl had combed her hair outside of the house. The Romans seem to have held similar views, for it was a maxim with them that no one on ship-board should cut his hair or nails except in a storm, that is, when the mischief was already done. In West Africa, when the Mani of Chitombe or Jumba died, the people used to run in crowds to the corpse and tear out his hair, teeth, and nails, which they kept as a rain-charm, believing that otherwise no rain would fall. The Makoko of Anzikos begged the missionaries to give him half their beards as a rain