deification of living Mikados was titular rather than real,” and he adds: “I am not aware that any specific so-called miraculous powers were authoritatively claimed for them” (op. cit. p. 41). No doubt it is very difficult for the Western mind to put itself at the point of view of the Oriental and to seize the precise point (if it can be said to exist) where the divine fades into the human or the human brightens into the divine. In translating, as we must do, the vague thought of a crude theology into the comparatively exact language of civilised Europe we must allow for a considerable want of correspondence between the two: we must leave between them, as it were, a margin of cloudland to which in the last resort the deity may retreat from the too searching light of philosophy and science.
5
M. Revon, op. cit. i. 190 n.2
6
Kaempfer, “History of Japan,” in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, vii. 716 sq. However, Mr. W. G. Aston tells us that Kaempfer's statements regarding the sacred character of the Mikado's person cannot be depended on (Shinto, the Way of the Gods, p. 41, note †). M. Revon quotes Kaempfer's account with the observation that, “les naïvetés recèlent plus d'une idée juste” (Le Shintoïsme, vol. i. p. 191, note 2). To me it seems that Kaempfer's description is very strongly confirmed by its close correspondence in detail with the similar customs and superstitions which have prevailed in regard to sacred personages in many other parts of the world and with which it is most unlikely that Kaempfer was acquainted. This correspondence will be brought out in the following pages.
7
In Pinkerton's reprint this word appears as “mobility.” I have made the correction from a comparison with the original (Kaempfer, History of Japan, translated from the original Dutch manuscript by J. G. Scheuchzer, London, 1728, vol. i. p. 150).
8
Caron, “Account of Japan,” in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, vii. 613. Compare B. Varenius, Descriptio regni Japoniae et Siam (Cambridge, 1673), p. 11: “Nunquam attingebant (quemadmodum et hodie id observat) pedes ipsius terram: radiis Solis caput nunquam illustrabatur: in apertum aërem non procedebat,” etc. The first edition of this book was published by Elzevir at Amsterdam in 1649. The Geographia Generalis of the same writer had the honour of appearing in an edition revised and corrected by Isaac Newton (Cambridge, at the University Press, 1672).
9
A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste (Jena, 1874-75), i. 287 sq., compare pp. 353 sq.
10
H. Klose, Togo unter deutscher Flagge (Berlin, 1899), pp. 189, 268.
11
J. B. Labat, Relation historique de l'Éthiopie occidentale (Paris, 1732), i. 254 sqq.
12
Ch. Wunenberger, “La Mission et le royaume de Humbé, sur les bords du Cunène,” Missions Catholiques, xx. (1888) p. 262.
13
See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 415 sq.
14
Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-centrale, iii. 29 sq.; H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 142 sq.
15
A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste, i. 355.
16
O. Dapper, Description de l'Afrique (Amsterdam, 1686), p. 336.
17
O. Baumann, Eine afrikanische Tropen-Insel, Fernando Póo und die Bube (Wien und Olmütz, 1888), pp. 103 sq.
18
G. Zündel, “Land und Volk der Eweer auf der Sclavenküste in Westafrika,” Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, xii. (1877) p. 402.
19
Béraud, “Note sur le Dahomé,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), Vme Série, xii. (1866) p. 377.
20
A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste, i. 263.
21
Bosman's “Guinea,” in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, xvi. 500.
22
A. Dalzell, History of Dahomey (London, 1793), p. 15; Th. Winterbottom, An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone (London, 1803), pp. 229 sq.
23
J. B. L. Durand, Voyage au Sénégal (Paris, 1802), p. 55.
24
W. S. Taberer (Chief Native Commissioner for Mashonaland), “Mashonaland Natives,” Journal of the African Society, No. 15 (April 1905). p. 320.
25
A. van Gennep, Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar (Paris, 1904), p. 113.
26
Father Porte, “Les Reminiscences d'un missionnaire du Basutoland,” Missions Catholiques, xxviii. (1896) p. 235.
27
Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 32.
28
P. J. de Arriaga, Extirpacion de la idolatria del Piru (Lima, 1621), pp. 11, 132.
29
W. Marsden, History of Sumatra (London, 1811), p. 301.
30
A. van Gennep, Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar, p. 113, quoting De Thuy, Étude historique, géographique et ethnographique sur la province de Tuléar, Notes, Rec., Expl., 1899, p. 104.
31
T. C. Hodson, “The genna amongst the Tribes of Assam,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxvi. (1906) p. 98. The word for taboo among these tribes is genna.
32
The Duibhlinn is the part of the Liffey on which Dublin now stands.
33
The site, marked by the remains of some earthen forts, is now known as Rathcroghan, near Belanagare in the county of Roscommon.
34
The Book of Rights, edited with translation and notes by John O'Donovan (Dublin, 1847), pp. 3-8. This work, comprising a list both of the prohibitions (urgharta or geasa) and the prerogatives (buadha) of the Irish kings, is preserved in a number of manuscripts, of which the two oldest date from 1390 and about 1418 respectively. The list is repeated twice, first in prose and then in verse. I have to thank my friend Professor Sir J. Rhys for kindly calling my attention to this interesting record of a long-vanished past in Ireland. As to these taboos, see P. W. Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland, i. 310 sqq.
35
See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. i. pp. 418 sqq.
36
Diodorus Siculus, i. 70.
37
G. Maspero, Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient classique, ii. 759, note 3; A. Moret, Du caractère religieux de la royauté Pharaonique (Paris, 1902), pp. 314-318.
38
(Sir) J. G. Scott, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, part ii. vol. i. (Rangoon, 1901) p. 308.
39
See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, vol. ii. pp. 191 sq.
40
Among the Gallas the king, who also acts as priest by performing sacrifices, is the only man who is not allowed to fight with weapons; he may not even
СКАЧАТЬ
