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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    and blowing-shell trumpets.1 So the Maoris of New Zealand, another Polynesian people of the South Pacific, divided the year into moons and determined the first moon by the rising of the Pleiades, which they called Matariki? Indeed throughout Poly- nesia the rising of the Pleiades (variously known as Matariki, Mata- liki, Matalii, Makalii, etc.) seems to have marked the beginning of the year.3 Among some of the Melanesians also the Pleiades occupy an Attention important position in the calendar. The Banks' islanders and PgJJ^ Northern New Hebrides people content themselves with distinguish- the Me]a. ing the Pleiades, by which the approach of yam harvest is marked. 4 nesians. Amongst the constellations, the Pleiades and Orion's belt seem to be those which are most familiar to the natives of Bougainville Straits. The former, which they speak of as possessing six stars, they name Vuhu; the latter Matatala. They have also names for a few other stars. As in the case of many other savage races, the Pleiades is a constellation of great significance with the inhabitants of these straits. The Treasury Islanders hold a great feast towards the end of October, to celebrate, as far as I could learn, the approaching appearance of the constellation above the eastern horizon soon after sunset. Probably, as in many of the Pacific Islands, this event marks the beginning of their year. I learned from Mr. Stephens that, in Ugi, where of all the constellations the Pleiades alone receives a name, the natives are guided by it in selecting the times for planting and taking up the yams. 5 The natives of the Torres Straits islands observe the appearance Attention of the Pleiades (Usiam) on the horizon at sunset; and when they FjJJj^J: see it, they say that the new yam time has come.6 The Kai and the cnatives the Bukaua, two agricultural tribes of German New Guinea, also of New determine the season of their labour in the fields by observation of ^j^jf the Pleiades : the Kai say that the time for such labours is when Archi. the Pleiades are visible above the horizon at night.7 In some pelago. districts of northern Celebes the rice-fields are similarly prepared for cultivation when the Pleiades are seen at a certain height above the 1 G. Turner, Samoa (London, 1884), In the island of Florida the Pleiades p. 279. are called togo ni samtt, the company 2 E. Shortland, Traditions and of maidens (op. cit. p. 349)- Superstitions of the New Zealanders, 5 jj. B. Guppy, The Solomon Islands Second Edition (London, 1856), p. and their Natives (London, 1887), p. 219. ^ 56. * The United States Exploring Ex- « Legends from pedzHon Ethnography andPMology - f g > by Horatio Hale (Phdadelph.a 1846), ' conjecture that the p. 170 ; E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian ?■> . 3 ,, 1 .. r Comparative Dictionary (Wellington, ' new t,me mCanS ^ f°' N.ZT, 1891), p. 226. planting yams. 4 Rev. R. H. Codrington, The 7 R. Neuhauss, Deutsch Neu-Gumea Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), p. 348. (Berlin, 1911), pp. 159, 431 SQ-
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