New-York tribune., 1890-07-14
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
TIE PRIEST OF NEMI.

Dy Macaulay IN his Batuc OF Lake hcBHI"N'
lie thus describes the coming of the Latin clans:
From the still CLASSY lake that sleeps
Beneath Arica's trees
Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign,
The priest who slew the slayer,
And shall himself be slain.
The Arician Lake occupies the volcanic crater
of Nemi In the Alban Hills, and was the sanc,u-
ary of Diana Nemorensis. sacred tree grew IN
the grove and upon il was golden Dough, al
tached TO which the singular condition that
if a runaway slave could break II of the deed gave
him the right TO challenge the priest 0i the
sanctuary TO single combat, and If he klIled 'ne
priest he became his victims succcsSor-tO 1aIl
in his turn before the next aSpirant. Many TO
whom this strange cult is unknown may nave
seen Turner's picture of The Golden Bough'
an autotvpe reproduction of which figures as
frontispiece to. Mr.. Frazer's handsome and porty
volumes Now as Mr.. Frazer points ont the RUE
of the priesthood of Nemi has no parallcI IN
Classical antiquity, and cannot be explained rom
< To find an explanation We must 20 1ur'her
afeld No one will probably deny that snch
custom savors of a barbarous age ana, surviving
into imperial times, stands out in striking lSoi"-
ton from the polished Italian society OF the ""S'
like a primeval rock rising from a smooth-shaven
lawn IL is the very rudeness and barharl'y
of the custom which allow us a hope Of explaining
IT,: for recent researches into the early history
of man have revealed the essential similarity
with which under many superficial differences tie
human mild has elaborated its first crude PM
losephy of life. Accordingly, II we can $40"
that barbarous custom, like that OF the priest
hood of Nem has existed elsewhere; II we can
detect the motives which led to It's mSutu'!oh
if we can prove that these motives have operated
widely perhaps universally, IN human sO'c'S'
nroducinp in varied circumstances a variety oil
bnf
alike: if we can show, lastly, that these very
motives, with some of their derivatlve lnstfuuohS'
were actually at work in classical antlquitS-'heH
we may fairly infer that at rcmoter age the
same motives gave birth to the priesthood oil Nemt
Such an inference, the author is careful I" add'
"in default of direct evidence as 10 no" ''c
priesthood did actually arise can never amount
10 demonstration But il Will DC more or t'S
probable according to the degree OF completeness
with which it fulfls the conditions lhdlc2'eu
above To offer a fairly probable explanation OF
the priesthood of Nemi, therefore Is the ultimate
n,rposc Of this book but much more than that Is
involved in the theory of the author. fOIoWIh9
Mannhardt. in regard 10 the lnterp~tatlNe Nh"e
of surviving peasant customs and folklore, ana
Influenced strongly by Professor Robertson SnIths
view of ancient sacrifice as developer III his
Semitic Religion" Mr.. Frazer proceeds. with re-
markablc erudition and truly German thorough
ness 10 elaborate his theory that tree-worShlp con-
stitued principal element in all ancient re-
ligions. lie represents altogether the new school
Of mythologists; that school which works back
ward from existing and surviving customs, seek
ing parallels and clews in the supestitons Of mod
ern savages to the practices and beliefs OF the
old world. The practical questions To be an
swered are: Why the priest Of Ncmi had 10 XII
his predecessor and why. a preliminary, he had
TO pluck the golden bough? In seeking the an
swers to these questions Mr. Frazer travels over
the whole vast field of mythology and folklore,
and finds il necessary to advance such reVolutoh-
ary ideas concerning many myths supposed 10 be
satisfactorily explained must raise great deal
of controversy.
His own explanation OF the African cult IS 'hat
it was a survival of tree-worship; that Diana
Neuorenss Was REGARDED as o treeSprlt; that IL
accordance with widely spread superstition, tins
trcc-spirt believed 10 possess sepaT7'Ie' ana
so 10 speak material, soul, which was embodied III
this Golden Bough; that this Golden Bough was
the mistetoe which played SO large a part III
Celtic rites; that the object of plucllng it was
IN securc the transmission Of the divine spirit,
which was supposed to pass into the body of the
possessor In a word, the killing OF the priest
had for object the obtaining new and freshcr re-
incarnation of the trce-spirt. There are obNi-
ously some rather formidable objections 10 this
theory al in order 10 overcome them MI
Frazer has been led 10 work his tree-worship
hypothesis very hard. In the GC>t place there
is no evidence 10 show that Diana ever re-
Cardcd otherwise than as a lunar deity, and the
fact that the Arician Lake Went by the name OF
Dianas LooknGglass" does not fiji in al all with
the tree-spirit view There does not appear 70
be any ground for Mr.. Frazer's attempt thus 10
transform Artemis from heavenly 70 an earthly
deity and the consideration suggested by the very
name Artemis, namely that the Whole lunar myth
is OF Egyptian origin-Artcmis and Tanmuz being
certainly ident<c1l-serves 10 dispose Of the new
explanation almost completely. Nor is the sus
picion that Mr.. Frazer has suffered himself 70 be
misled by preconceptions lessened by the lengths
to which he pushes his infercnces in regard 10
the other sliy-myths. In effect he seeks TO de
molish the whole array Of solar and lunar diver
sites changing them into tIeespirits, corn-sprts,
and so forth. Even the great mother DcmcIcr,
suffers degradation at his hands, for he viii have
her to bc merely cOrn-spirit and not the spirit Of
the earth.
In tie same way Zcus, Osiris. DIANA Adonis and
even Bladder. are tumbled from their pcdcstas and
reduced to tree n corn spirits. Sir George Coke
went too far in his application Of the solar
myth no doubt, and he injured his authority and
influence by his excessive zeal in that direction.
But Mr.. Frazer has gone beyond any Of The
solar-myth monOposts, for, il We are to believe
him, there really are no solar myths. II may be
that the primitive Aryan was as Canon Taylor
contends, a mere savage of the forest and the
plain, WHO began by fetish worship, and very
slowly raised himself above that low stage OF
evolution But il assurcily does not follow that
all the myths which have come down 10 us are
traceable to those low ArXan beginnings. In
fact no serious student Of comparative mythology
can afford for a moment 10 lose sight Of the facts
that high civilizations as well as low ones have
contributed 10 myth-makpg; and that during the
whole of mans existence there has been
slant transference, adaptation and blending of