Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xi. (1867) p. 357. In the Aru archipelago, while a corpse is uncoffined, the watchers propound riddles to each other, or rather they think of things which the others have to guess. See J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, pp. 267 sq. In Brittany after a burial, when the rest have gone to partake of the funeral banquet, old men remain behind in the graveyard, and having seated themselves on mallows, ask each other riddles. See A. de Nore, Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 199. Among the Akamba of British East Africa boys and girls at circumcision have to interpret certain pictographs cut on sticks: these pictographs are called “riddles.” See C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 71 sq. In Vedic times the priests proposed enigmas to each other at the great sacrifice of a horse. See The Satapatha Brahmana, translated by J. Eggeling, Part v. (Oxford, 1900), pp. 314-316 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xliv.); H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda (Berlin, 1894), p. 475. Compare O. Schrader, Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde (Strasburg, 1901), pp. 647 sq. Among Turkish tribes of Central Asia girls publicly propound riddles to their wooers, who are punished if they cannot read them. See H. Vambery, Das Türkenvolk (Leipsic, 1885), pp. 232 sq. Among the Alfoors of Central Celebes riddles may only be asked during the season when the fields are being tilled and the crops are growing. People meeting together at this time occupy themselves with asking riddles and telling stories. As soon as some one has found the answer to a riddle, they all cry out, “Make our rice to grow, make fat ears to grow both in the valleys and on the heights.” But during the months which elapse between harvest and the preparation of new land for tillage the propounding of enigmas is strictly forbidden. The writer who reports the custom conjectures that the cry “Make our rice to grow” is addressed to the souls of the ancestors. See A. C. Kruijt, “Een en ander aangaande het geestelijk en maatschappelijk leven van den Poso-Alfoer,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xxxix. (1895) pp. 142 sq. Amongst the Toboongkoo of Central Celebes riddles are propounded at harvest and by watchers over a corpse. See A. C. Kruijt, “Eenige ethnografische aanteekeningen omtrent de Toboengkoe en de Tomori,” Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xliv. (1900) pp. 223, 228.
337
A. d'Orbigny, Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale, ii. (Paris and Strasburg, 1839-1843) p. 190.
338
Pedro Lozano, Description Chorographica del Terreno, Rios, Arboles, y Animales de las dilatadissimas Provincias del Gran Chaco, Gualamba, etc. (Cordova, 1733) p. 100.
339
H. H. Bancroft, Natives Races of the Pacific States (London, 1875-1876), i. 589 note 259, quoting Arlegui, Chrón. de Zacatecas, pp. 152-3, 182.
340
Bertram S. Carey and H. N. Tuck, The Chin Hills, i. (Rangoon, 1896) p. 198.
341
Rev. W. Ridley, in J. D. Lang's Queensland (London, 1861), p. 441. Compare Rev. W. Ridley, Kamilaroi (Sydney, 1875), p. 149.
342
Report of the International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska (Washington, 1885), pp. 42 sq. It is said that in Thule, where the sun disappeared below the horizon for forty days every winter, the greatest festival of the year was held when the luminary reappeared. “It seems to me,” says Procopius, who records the fact, “that though the same thing happens every year, these islanders are very much afraid lest the sun should fail them altogether.” See Procopius, De bello Gothico, ii. 15.
343
Fr. Boas, “The Eskimo,” Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada for 1887, vol. v. (Montreal, 1888) sect. ii. 36 sq.; id., “The Central Eskimo,” Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1888), pp. 603 sq. Elsewhere, however, the writer mentions a different explanation of the custom of harpooning Sedna. He says: “Sedna feels kindly towards the people if they have succeeded in cutting her. If there is no blood on the knife, it is an ill omen. As to the reason why Sedna must be cut, the people say that it is an old custom, and that it makes her feel better, that it is the same as giving a thirsty person drink.” See Fr. Boas, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, xv. (New York, 1901) p. 139. However, this explanation may well be an afterthought devised to throw light on an old custom of which the original meaning had been forgotten.
344
W. Jochelson, The Koryak (Leyden and New York, 1908), p. 88 (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. vi., Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History).
Relations des Jésuites, 1656, pp. 26-28 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858); J. F. Lafitau, Mœurs des Sauvages Ameriquains (Paris, 1724), i. 367-369; Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, vi. 82 sqq.; Timothy Dwight, Travels in New England and New York (London, 1823), iv. 201 sq.; L. H. Morgan, League of the Iroquois (Rochester, 1851), pp. 207 sqq.; Mrs. E. A. Smith, “Myths of the Iroquois,” Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1883), pp. 112 sqq.; Horatio Hale, “Iroquois Sacrifice of the White Dog,” American Antiquarian, vii. (1885) pp. 7 sqq.; W. M. Beauchamp, “Iroquois White Dog Feast,” ibid. pp. 235 sqq. “They had one day in the year which might be called the Festival of Fools; for in fact they pretended to be mad, rushing from hut to hut, so that if they ill-treated any one or carried off anything, they would say next day, ‘I was mad; I had not my senses about me.’ And the others would accept this explanation and exact no vengeance” (L. Hennepin, Description de la Louisiane, Paris, 1683, pp. 71 sq.).
347
J. H. Payne, quoted in “Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians, by W. Bartram, 1789, with prefatory and supplementary notes by E. G. Squier,” Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. iii. Part i. (1853) p. 78.
348
C. Gay, “Fragment d'un voyage dans le Chili et au Cusco patrie des anciens Incas,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), ii. Série, xix. (1843) pp. 29 sq.
349
Garcilasso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, translated by (Sir) Clements R. Markham (Hakluyt Society, London, 1869-1871), Part i. bk. vii. ch. 6, vol. ii. pp. 228 sqq.; Molina, “Fables and Rites of the Yncas,” in Rites and Laws of the Yncas (Hakluyt Society, 1873), pp. 20 sqq.; J. de Acosta, History of the Indies, bk. v. ch. 28, vol. ii. pp. 375 sq. (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880). The accounts of Garcilasso and Molina are somewhat discrepant, but this may be explained by the statement of the latter that “in one year they added, and in another they reduced the number of ceremonies, according to circumstances.” Molina places the festival in August, Garcilasso and Acosta in September. According to Garcilasso there were only four runners in Cuzco; according to Molina there were four hundred. Acosta's account is very brief. In the description given in the text features have been borrowed from all three accounts, where these seemed consistent with each other.
350
W. Bosman, “Description of the Coast of Guinea,” in J. Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, xvi. (London, 1814) p. 402; Pierre Bouche, La Côte des Esclaves (Paris, 1885), p. 395.
