Volume 1

Spirits of the corn and of the wild / by J.G. Frazer.

  • James George Frazer
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Spirits of the corn and of the wild / by J.G. Frazer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    NOTE THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS The constellation of the Pleiades plays an important part in the import- calendar of primitive peoples, both in the northern and in the ance of the southern hemisphere ; indeed for reasons which at first sight are P1?ia.dpsin not obvious savages appear to have paid more attention to this caiMdarl constellation than to any other group of stars in the sky, and in particular they have commonly timed the various operations of the agricultural year by observation of its heliacal rising or setting. Some evidence on the subject was adduced by the late Dr. Richard Andree,1 but much more exists, and it may be worth while to put certain of the facts together. In the first place it deserves to be noticed that great attention Attention has been paid to the Pleiades by savages in the southern hemisphere Pail?to the who do not till the ground, and who therefore lack that incentive to J16^* observe the stars which is possessed by peoples in the agricultural Australian stage of society j for we can scarcely doubt that in early ages the aborigines, practical need of ascertaining the proper seasons for sowing and planting has done more than mere speculative curiosity to foster a knowledge of astronomy by compelling savages to scrutinise the great celestial clock for indications of the time of year. Now amongst the rudest of savages known to us are the Australian aborigines, none of whom in their native state ever practised agriculture. Yet we are told that they do, according to their manner, worship the hosts of heaven, and believe particular con- stellations rule natural causes. For such they have names, and sing and dance to gain the favour of the Pleiades (Mormodellick), the constellation worshipped by one body as the giver of rain; but if it should be deferred, instead of blessings curses are apt to be bestowed upon it.2 According to a writer, whose evidence on 1 R. Andree, Die Pleiaden im W. Ridley, Report on Australian Mythus und m ihrer Bcziehung zum Languages and Traditions,/*™^ of Jahresbegmn und Landbau, Globus, the Anthropological Institute, n. (1873) ?\{!8V,] PP;362-366. p. 279; id., Kamilaroi (Sydney, 1875), Mr. McKellar, quoted by the Rev. p. 138. Mr. McKellar's evidence was
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