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.

    334/348 page 310
    Plefade 1 ethlLarr0Wn ^ ^ CUt before the aPPea™ of the 'eia; ! I136 they Wl11 be worm-eaten. According to the legend the Pleiades disappear in May and reappear in June Their reappearance coincides with the renewal of vegetation and of animal ife. Hence the legend relates that everything which appears before the constellation is renewed, that is, the appearance of the Pleiades marks the beginning of spring. i The Indians of the Orinoco called the Pleiades Ucasu or Cacasau, according to their dialect and they dated the beginning of their year from the time when these stars are visible in the east after sunset 2 pSothe (t]Jy thG I^ians of Peru the Pleiades were called Collca Pleiades by ^lie maize - heap): in this constellation the Peruvians both of the Indians the sierra and the coast beheld the prototype of their cherished SET* f°rneS,0f ,C°- * raade ^ maize t0 Sr0W' and was worshipped accordingly. 3 When the Pleiades appeared above the horizon on or about Corpus Chnsti Day, these Indians celebrated their chief festival of the year and adored the constellation in order that the maize might not dry up. * Adjoining the great temple of the Sun at Cuzco there was a cloister with halls opening off it. One of these halls was dedicated to the Moon, and another to the planet Venus, the Pleiades, and all the other stars. The Incas venerated the Pleiades because of their curious position and the symmetry of their shape 6 The tribes of Vera Cruz, on the coast of Mexico, dated the beginning of their year from the heliacal setting of the Pleiades, which in the latitude of Vera Cruz (19° N.) in the year 1519 fell on the first of May of the Gregorian calendar.6 The Aztecs appear to have attached great importance to the Pleiades, for they timed the most solemn and impressive of all their religious ceremonies so as to coincide with the moment when that constellation was in the middle of the sky at midnight. The ceremony consisted in kindling a sacred new fire on the breast of a human victim on the last night of a great period of fifty-two years. They expected that at the close of one of these periods the stars would cease to revolve and the world itself would come to an end. Hence, when the critical moment approached, 1 Carl Teschauer, S.J., << Myth en 6 Garcilasso de la Vega, First Part und alte Volkssagen aus Brasilien, of the Royal Commentaries of the Y7icas, Anlhropos, 1. (1906) p. 736. translated by (Sir) Clements R. Mark- J. Gumilla, Histoire Naturelle et ham (London, 1S69-1871, Hakluyt Civile et Ge-ographique de I'Orenoque Society), i. 275. Compare J. de (Avignon, 1758), iii. 254 sq. Acosta, Natural and Moral History of s E. J. Payne, History of the New the Indies (London, 1880, Hakluyt World called America, i. (Oxford, Society), ii. 304. 1892) p. 492. 4 P. J. de Arriaga, Exlirpacion de « E. Seler, Alt-MexikanischeStudien, la liolatna del Pirn (Lima, 1621), ii. (Berlin, 1S99) pp. 166 sq., referring pp. 11, 29 jy. According to Arriaga, to Petrus Martyr, De nuper sub D. the Peruvian name for the Pleiades is Carolo repertis insulis (Basileae, 1521), Oncoy. P- IS-
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3