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RESUME
MORPHOLOGIE DU CONTE POPULAIRE
La base de toutes les etudes sur le conte populaire consiste
dans une systematique correcte de tous les materiaux qui entrent
dans le domaine de ses etudes. Cette systematique correspond
a une bibliographic raisonnee dans les etudes litteraires. Mais cela
ne se laisse faire qu'a condition, que la systematique soit ргёсёdee par une autre operation tres compliquee et qui semble lui etre
posterieure, savoir: par la morphologie du conte. Sans cette ope
ration la systematique s'ernpetrerait dans des difficultes sans issue
et ses resultats seraint loin d'etre corrects. Cette paradoxale situa
tion methodologique n'est que le resultat du caractere tout specifique du conte populaire, caractere qui le fait distinguer d'autres
oeuvres d'art de la parole, disons des oeuvres litteraires.
La base de la systematique des contes populaires c'est leur
division en divers sujets einregistreJs par la folkloristique actuelle
et dont la liste fut dressee ipar Aarne-Thompson dans son oeuvre
«Types of the Folk-tale» (1928). On sait cependant, que les sujets
se composent d'unites plus petites, nominees motifs qui apparaissent aussi bien dans les sujets, qu'independamment. Thompson
a fait preuve d'avoir bien compris leur grande importance, en
donnant un essai phenomenal de leur classement dans son enorme
travail «Motive-Index of Folk-Literature* (1932—5). La premiere
operation du morphologue, et en consequence celle aussi du systematiseur de contes populaires, est d'etablir une delimitation entre
le sujet et le motif et de faire ressortir les motifs particuliers dans
les bornes du sujet. Cette delimitation jette en meme temps dans
beaucoup de cas une lumiere caracteristique sur le proces de for-
538
mation d'un grand nombre de contes, surtout quand les sujets
donnes <ne sont qu'une somme tolale de quelques motifs successifs,
lies en Ire eux chronologiquement et causalement, p. ex. dans les
«contes ou figment les animaux» (fables).
Les grandes diffieulltes des etudes morphologiques sa presentent eependanl seulement alors, — et ce sont des cas ties frequents,
surtout dans les «conles de fees» —, quand les meme motifs apparaissent dans divers sujets et amenent de ties graves consequences
pour la naissance et la vie de contes, ainsi que, naturellement,
pour leur systematique. J'appele ces motifs «motifs de jonction»,
car car ils constituent des plate-formes entre des groupes entiers
de contes et deviennent une source de leurs affinites innatendues,
de leur liaisons et de leurs transformations. Ce sont des motifs
identiques ou au moins analogues a ceux qu'on rencontre dans
les contes de contenu different. Tel est p. ex. le motif des «animaux reeonnaissants» qui tirent le heros de toute sorte d'embarras, qui, au moment du danger, le secourent, lui sauvent la
vie ou la lui restiluent. Le motif du «gobelet glisse furtivement»
peut servir comme un autre exemple: i l apparait dans la Bible,
dans la vie d'Esope, dans la legendę de Conipostelle et dans la
«byline» russe des 40 pelerins.
L'existence des motifs de jonction fait naitre de nouvelles
fables grace a renetrelacement de divers sujets qui out le meme
motif de jonction; de deux contes qu'on pourrait determiner schematiquement par des formules: D'AbC et MbN peut naitre un
nouveau conte AbN, car deux differentes situations sont liees par
leur membre commun b, qui est preciseinent un motif de jonction.
Grace a ceci, les contes a construction composee, aussi bien que
ceux a construction de cadre, sont un fait tout a fait normal; dans
le premier cas, grace a l'existence du motif de jonction, deux
contes indćpendants A, B, donneront naissance a une nouvelle
creation A—B, — dans le second cas c'est dans le cercie du conte
С qu'un autre conte pourra se developer', de sorte, que nous aurons
une composition nouvelle С—D—C. C'est seulement apres avoir
scrupuleusement discerne toutes ces possibilites a l'aide de l'analyse morphologique, qu'on pourra realiser la classification de la
539
variante donnee ou du groupe de variantes du conte et enregislrer
le phenomene etudie dans le cadre du systeme international universellement accepte et, par consequent, faciliter aux prochaines
etudes d'etre scientifiquement correctes.
Ce precede doit avoir pour resultat la constation de l'identite des variantes donnees et la determination des relations qui exi
stent entre elles. Mais voiei qu'une nouvelle difficulte se pose ici,
et l'une des plus essentielles. La pratique folkloristique prouve
que, grace a l'existence des motifs de jonetion et grace a d'autres
facteurs qui evoquent la vie du conte, i l у a, a cole des variantes
indubitablement identiques, une grande quantite d'autres dune
identite probleniatique laquelle ne se laisse determiner qu'a l'aide
de longues et penibles etudes speciales de caractere genelique
ou historique. Qu'est-ce que la systematique doit en faire? I I me
seonble, qu'a 1'exception d'un certain nombre de cas, ou l'identite
a subi un si considerable effacement, qu'elle pourrait etre decouverte seulement a l'aide d'une etude toute speciale, c'est une que
stion plutót simple,
Le systernatiseur qui connait '.'existence des motifs de jon
ction et celle des difficultees qui leur sont propres, les etudie toujours sur le fond de la composition; i l approfondit et tache de
decouvrir leurs fonctions de construction, — et dans la construc
tion meme i l prete une attention particuliere a la succession stable
des motifs dans le sujet donne,.aux relations causales qui les
unissent, enfin a leur clarte. S'il observe bien les facteurs nommes
ci dessous, i l ne commetara pas de faute et i l s'acquittera d'une
manierę precise de ses fonctions de systematiseur. Son but sera
atteint surtout, si une connaissance approfondie de la morphologie
du conte lui permet de discerner clairement le prologue qui, ordinairement, n'est qu'un supplement mecanique, du corps organique
du conte. Du reste, une description exacte des composantes du
conte qui n'entrent pas dans, le systeme, constituera la vole,
d'apres laquelle la realisation d'une classification correcte se laissera toujours accomplir, pourvu que Pelement pris pour base ait
une clarte suffisante et qu'il soit un motif exactement precise.
J.
Krzyżanowski
540
METHODS OF ETHNOLOGY
s
Introduction
A. Need, object and division of ethnology:
1. Ethnology as a separate science has her own methods,
2. On products of culture and people-spreaders of culture on
the base of critically examined material,
3. Following methods of critical examination of material,
Following methods of examination of products i. e. general
ethnolcgy,
Following methods of products of the people i. e. methods of
etnography.
B. Development of ethnological methods:
1. Conditioning factors:
a) philosophical currents,
b) development of same ethnology
sciences.
and closely
related
2. Principal stages of this development up to the present time.
a) psycholog ism:
idealistic,
materialistic (natural),
sociological,
freudism,
functionalism.
b) historism:
antropogeographical,
English diffusionism,
continental historism.
c) directions physico-historical: ologenic and statistic.
541
Lecture
I . Methods of criticism of material:
A. Collection of material i n the area.
B. Worth of direct material.
C. Access to gathered material.
D. Criticism of indirect material.
II. Methods of examination of products:
A. Characteristic of products by analysis:
1. Settling of components and grade of composition of
products,
2. Settling of reacting relations between components,
3. Settling of reacting relation between components and
varieties and surroundings.
B. Elucidation by way of analysis of results obtained by the
above mentioned analysis:
1. Of d e v e l o p m e n t . Formation of varieties under the
the influence of changes supervening in surroundings,
2. of g e n e s i s of the product i . e. the union of its com
ponents under various influences which allowed the
given product to play its part solely in its primary sur
roundings.
III. Methods of the study of the people:
A. Characteristic of a people by way of analysis:
1. the composition of its culture,
2. varieties of its culture,
3. relation of its culture to surroundings.
B. Elucidation by way of synthesis:
1. of the d e v e l o p m e n t of a people i . e. the formation
of its varieties in time and space under the influence
of changes in the surroundings,
542
2. g e n e s i s of a people i . e. the uniting of given cultural
components in given surrounding in a certain time and
in a given group of human beings which played its part
in its last surroundings.
Closing
A. Theory and methodological practice.
B. Appreciation of results of research.
C. Principal shortcomings in ethonological
prospects of further development.
methodology
and
I I . ETHNOLOGICAL FACTS AND METHODS OF EXAMINING
THEM
Introduction
Facts and methods of their examination
Till the beginning of the present century there lasted a period
of unmethodical scientific study in the domain of ethnology. Later
on, ethnological facts began to be explained with methods applied
to other sciences, and lastly after this first stage — ethnological
facts were treated in a new manner specially created for this
purpose.
The second period of the development of ethonology dates
from a wide manifestation of the historical trend in which a special
method was systematically devised for the elucidation of facts
subjected to ethnological study. There appeared new methodics
prepared by Fr. Graebner, W. Schmidt and Muhlmann. Since the
last war there is a heightened polemical controversy between
opposite methodological trends and its outcome are studies with
a historical treatment given to the former ethnological methods:
Pinard, de la Boullaye, Radin, Lowie, Bornemann. We fail to find
the necessary method for the elucidation of many ethnological
facts in the works of Graebner, Schmidt, Bulch and Muhlmann.
One of those facts is the genesis of the cultural product which till
543
now has been either omitted or superficially treated in all metho
dological studies. These gaps are quite evident when one puts in
regard the system of facts with the system of ethnological methods.
This is the aim of the present study.
I . O u t l i n e of t h e s y s t e m
of E t h n o l o g i c a l
facts
(cf. the preceding Nr. of «The People* p. 112 nn.)
1. Remarks
touching
the division
of facts
The division of facts, the relation of facts to their sur
roundings, the changes in the relation of facts to their surroundings
and the changes in the products themselves correspond with the
categories of facts divided by sociologues. The social statics dis
tinguished by them corresponded with the two first above men
tioned facts, and the social dynamics with the two following ones.
It is quite right to distinguish social processus from cultural
ones as the objects of culture are different from the social ones.
Z n a n i e c k i divides the sociological facts in social acts, social
relations, social individuals and social groups. Our division is
about the same after having eliminated the cultural objects and
introduced the people into the social groups.
2. Division
of ethnological
facts
The criterium of this division is to be found in the manner
of transmitting cultural objects from generation to generation. The
character of social objects depends on it. There are two W'ays of
transmitting culture: the older one is solely oral teaching, hence
tradition, and the later one is based on a higher form of writing.
Thence the division of cultures and people in uncivilised (without
writing) and civilised (with writing). Ethnology deals with the
first and the second are the object of humanistic and social sciences
w'hich are older than ethnology. Ethnological researches reach
also the pre-civilised stages of civilised people and also the objects
of culture transmitted by tradition and cultural unions with social
544
groups. More on the ethnological topic: Poniatowski St. «The aims
and object of Ethnology* 1922, Archives of anthropological studies
v. I I , Nr. 2.
3. Sociological
facts and domain
of
sociology
Separately from ethnological and historical facts touching
concrete cultural and social objects, we give the name of socio
logical facts, in the exact sense, to all the common and recurring
traits of these objects as well as to the processus they undergo. On
this basis are built the theories of culture, of social groups etc.
I I . G e n e r a l m e t h o d s of e s t a b l i s h i n g
ethnological
facts
The above mentioned four separate categories of ethnological
facts are very unevenly accessible to the ethnologue. Most easily
accessible are ethnological objects, in the first place their structure.
It is more difficult to fix the functions of those objects and even
more difficult to penetrate their ideology, because they are often
made comprehensible only when a thorough knowledge of a whole
culture and of a whole corresponding people has been gained. It
is even more arduous to examine the dependance of objects on
their surroundings and the part played by these objects as regards
their surroundings. Here is a w ide outlook on a whole people and
on their whole culture unquestionably necessary. This explains
the great importance of collecting exactly and fully all the possible
ethnological material and of examining it before it serves for the
explanation of facts.
r
Dependently on this whether the material is gathered directly
from the land area, or whether it derives from narratives, we obtain
the following division: We adopt for a basis Graebner's method
of establishing facts taken up by Schmidt and we enlarge and
alter the whole in the following manner:
Division of the methods of settling ethnological facts.
545
I . Criticism of direct material:
A. Collection on the spot:
1. Qualifications of the researcher,
2. Technique of work.
B. Making the collected material accessible:
1. Storing,
2. Publishing.
C. Worth of collected material:
1. genuineness,
2. ethnographical localization,
3. chronological localization,
4. grade of individuality,
5. sufficiency of cognizance:
of structure — function — ideology — dependancy of
surroundings — part played for surroundings.
I I . Criticism of indirect material (descriptions):
1. Criticism of author, his qualifications — relation to the
place of research.
2. Criticism of text.
The adding of a chapter on methods of interpreting facts
does not seem necessary as such an interpretation is the outcome
of the elucidation of facts and should be taken in regard to parti
cular methods applited to singular categories of ethnological facts.
III.
Singular
c a t e g o r i e s of f a c t s a n d
of t h e i r
examination
methods
Dependency on the methodological trend various categories
of ethnological facts have awakened a very unequal interest and
this has influenced the development of the method of their eluci
dation. In the meantime all categories of ethnological facts are
closely correlated. This is why a complete ethnological method
must contain the methods of probing and elucidating all the six
categories of objects: cultural objects, unions of cultural objects,
L u d , Т. X X X V I I
35
546
culture, social unities, social groups, societies (peoples) The me
thods of elucidating the afore-said categories should be preceded
by general knowledge, i. e. by the theory of each of these categories.
The ways of classifying each of the afore-said six categories
can be various; for example the objects can be characterised:
1) on the basis of their proprieties,
2) on the basis of their part in various types of unions,
3) on the basis of their belonging to various types of culture,
4) on the basis of the various relations of different types of
units to them,
5) on the basis of various social groups to them,
6) on the basis of various societies.
The more important classification should suffice for the pre
sent. Other researches must be left to the future seekers.
1. Objects of culture and methods
of their
I . A. O b j e c t s o f
examination.
culture
1) D e f i n i t i o n o f o b j e с t: an object of social origin i . e.
which is indebted for its descendance to an individual, a group,
or a whole society (people) and socially reacting on an individual,
a group, or a whole society.
2) The division
of
objects:
is possibly various but widely applied is based on the principal
groups of humain needs i . е.: material — spiritual — orga
nization and language.
3) Traits
of
objects:
a) s t r u c t u r e :
generally speaking one must discern the e 1 em e n l s and their
relations, s t r u c t u r a l m o d i f i c a t i o n s and here for the
fixing of a terminology we admit c h a n g e s which vary with
their components when the set remains the same, and t y p e s
which are different, first of all because of their set, but which
may also have different components.
547
s i n g u 1 a r 1 y:
1- o material products:
their elements collected material from geographical sur
rounding.
The set is the outcome of an intertwining of those
elements by the technical work which gives a form.
Modifications are the outcome of a number of ele
ments of the material of these elements, of the technical
work, and the intertwining of these elements.
2- o spiritual products:
their elements create spiritual experience.
Their whole is formed by the alinement of these ex
periences in time and space and this makes the style of
the product.
Modification are the outcome of:
the quantity of elements,
the quality of experiences and of the style.
3- o social products:
their elements operate on the material of the relations
between individuals or social groups.
The set is due to the stable or temporary relations
of these elements between themselves, which are the
social norm,
modifications are the outcome of the number of elements
and their relations.
b) f u n c t i o n :
one must g e n e r a l l y distinguish the produce and the aim,
functional modifications,
treating in d e t a i l :
material products:
productiveness (working) a certain part of the material
product works, the rest help, for example: the blade of the
knife and the handle.
35*
548
The aim depends on the quantity of working elements
(for example when the roof of a bus is used for transporting
baggage),
modifications depend on the two preceding,
spiritual products:
their produce depends on the intensity of the experiences
which they have occasioned,
the aim is the greater the more varied are the occasioned
experiences,
the modifications of the productiveness and of the aim
go together,
social products:
the produce and the aim go together in them,
the social norm is not subjected to modifications; lapses from
the norm are not modifications.
c)
ideology:
one must largely discern:
the principle of the product,
the valuation of the product,
the differences in probing or valuation give varieties, res
pectively types of modifications,
treating in detail:
material products:
the probing consists in the knowledge of their structure
and their function,
the valuation in the judgement of their produce and the
ends of their function,
modifications depend on the above said differences,
spiritual products:
the probing depends om the knowledge of the psychology
given surroundings in which the vital experience
takes place,
the valuation depends on the judgment of the degree of
intensity and variety of vital experience occasioned
by the product,
549
modifications depend on differences between the afore
said.
products of organization:
the probing depends on the knowledge of relations
between individuals or social groups,
the valuation depends on the produce and the ends of
given whole of relations,
no modifications occur here.
4) Dependance of products
surroundings.
and of their
modifications
on
their
A. On the cultural surroundings:
1. on other cultural products:
which are necessary to it
store products,
sustaining products,
to which it is necessary'
stored products,
sustained products,
2. on cultural sets:
facilitating sets,
needing sets,
3. on culture:
producing cultures,
assimilating cultures,
B. On the social surroundings:
1. On the social individuals
active in relation to the product
passive in relation to the product
2. On social groups
active in relation to wholes facilitating, needing,
passive in relation to the above-said.
3. On people diffusing productive and assimilating culture.
C. On racial surroundings
The structures of products are mostly conditioned by mor
phological traits,
their functions by physicological traits and their psychic
racial,
ideologies by the psychic trend of their racial ground.
D. On geographical surroundings
either directly through supplied material, either through
other products.
5) Pari played by products
in surroundings
(need of terms: objects
influential, objects influenced, scopes of influence).
A. On cultural surroundings
1. on other cultural products:
part played positively, attraction of one by another part
played negatively, one excludes the other.
2. on cultural arrangements: part played positive
part played negative.
On culture: part played positive — negative.
13. On social surroundings:
1. on social individuals: are life-possibilities heightened or
lowered?
2. on social groups: is their interior cohesion strengthened?
3. on society.
C. On racial surroundings:
1. on individuals:
the influence of the product on their health, development
and productiveness,
2. on the racial basis of social groups and on the whole
society through processes of selection.
D. On geographical surroundings:
changes brought by the product: orographic, hydrographic, floristic, faunistic.
551
6) Changes
in same
products.
a) genesis:
cause: aimed — aimless
course: inner — cultural combination
inter — cultural combination
inter — cultural derivation
b) growth and decline:
structure — function — ideology
c) decay as result of changes in surrounding.
7) Location
of product
and
its
modifications.
In time and space.
Mixing processus: contact and migration.
Location: permanent and unstable.
I . li. Methods of e x a m i n i n g cultural products.
1. Preliminary remarks:
The aim of the examination is to fix and elucidate the static
and dynamic of the product from its genesis to the last stage of
its development.
The last stages of development usually serve as base of
researches. It is on the background of the wdiole development that
one can make the immediate material subjected to examination
comprehensible. What is given indirectly is to be found in the
union between the examined product and its surroundings.
2. The collection and criticism of material as regards statics
and dynamics according to methods of settling ethnological facts.
o. Treatment of material:
a) analysis of topological object,
b) analysis of conditional object,
c) analysis of the influence of the object on its sur
roundings,
e) elucidation of the genesis of the object by the settling
of the conditions of surroundings for the oldest type of
object; verification of this elucidation by other objects
of same hypothetical surroundings as the examined
object.
I I . Cultural s e t s and methods of examination.
1. Definition of sets: group of cultural objects bound by
interdependancy.
2. Division of sets:
a) producive sets,
b) concomitant sets,
c) sustaining sets.
3. Traits of cultural wholes:
a) structure, function and ideology. The structure is
formed by the composing products, the function is the
compelling necessity for another object (use of pro
duct), the ideology is expressed by the understanding
of its whole value.
b) the ideology of cultural sets was rather indifferent to
searchers till the present time, because the masses lack
a distinct ideology of cultural sets, which goes only
with prominent individuals.
4. Dependance of cultural sets on surroundings and their
changes:
a) On the cultural surroundings,
b) On the social surroundings,
c) On the racial surroundings,
d) On the geographical.
5. Part played by the sets and its change in relation to:
a) the cultural surroundings, objects', sets ,
b) social surrounding — individuals-groups, peoples,
c) racial surrounding,
d) geographical surrounding.
6. Changes in the cultural sets themselves:
a) genesis, b) development and decline, c) disappearance.
7. Location of cultural set and its modifications.
Methods of examining cultural sets vide I . B. above.
553
A. Culture and methods of examining Ihem.
1. Definition of culture*:
total of cultural sets necessary to the independent life of
larger human groupments and transmitted inside their
boundaries from generation to generation.
2. Division of cultures:
cultures of people,
cultures of epochs,
cultures of areas: geographical, linguistic, economic, reli
gious, political etc.
3. Distinctive marks of culture:
structure — cultural wholes with various categories of
needs,
function — compelling necessity of all its wholes to satisfy
the totality of the needs of life of an autonomical
groupment,
ideology — the valuation of the whole of cultural sets by
those who benefit by them (a certain predominant in
a given culture can be mentioned).
4. Dependance of culture on surroundings and its changes:
a) on cultural surroundings i . e. other cultures;
b) on the social surroundings:
1. on i n d i v i d u e 1 s: the examination of social indivi
duals ought to be analogical to the examination of
cultural products. One must gain knowledge of
a series of singular social individuals of a certain
people to be able to fix their principle types and
varieties. Classification cannot be based on their psvchic traits but on their social trends, and since an
individual is social thanks to the culture he pos
sesses, then to each distinctive cultural product cor
respond parallel types of social individuals. For
example: to various types of scythes correspond va
rious types of mowers. An individual can be a com
bination of several social types and if one of them
554
is predominant the result is that this type subjects
the others. Thus there are distinct types with the
marked predominance of one:
a) men of action, managers — marked characters,
b) men passively receptive — imitators.
2. Social groups are organizations of individuals and
facilitate the creation, the sustenance and the consumlion of products to higher individuals.
•'i. S o c i e t i e s are organizations of social groups ena
bling the work of these groups.
It is sheer nonsense to say that a social group as
society is a creater, respectively a consumer of-cul
ture. It is an error of totalism. Only individuals
create and consume.
c) on the racial surroundings;
d) on the geographical surroundings.
HI. B. Method of examining cultures.
Remark of the publisher. As regards this part, the author
has left only three questions.
He begins by the function and says:
The free function, tree, because directed by feeling, as
to its aim — changing
as to its produce — dependent on the sense of duty
Ideology — changing, dependent on w i s d о in, moral or
immoral, the 1 a w observed or transgressed.
Structure — changing, dependent on the will, directing the
individual according to conscience.
St.
Poniatowski
THE PRIMIT1VENESS OF BUSHMAN CULTURE
The Bushmen represent a higly archaic racial type; they may
well be one of the most ancient human races. This statement is
supported by observations taken from the four aspects of man in
which his appearance and activity find their clear and natural
555
expressions. They give evidence that Bushmen stature, culture,
way of thinking and speaking are very primitive, probably the
most primitive of all existing human tribes.
The height of the Bushmen averages 4 ft. 7 in. (men) and
4 ft. 5 in women). Their skin is of a light yellowish-brown hue,
and wrinkled, this being apparently due to the irregular condi
tions of feeding in the steppe. On the rare occasions when food
is plentiful (especially in the rainy season) the Bushmen will gorge
himself, so that the skin on his swollen belly becomes smooth,
but when the food supply fails he will be. on the brink of starvation
for month on end, and his skin will become wrinkled again. His
hair is scanty, his hands and feet small and delicate, his legs very
short in comparison with his long trunk, and yet these legs can
stand extraordinary hardships. He can run for miles and miles,
pursuing game without pausing for breath, until the animal
breaks down from sheer exhaustion. His body is very supple: in
his buttocks he generally has a store of fat. This feature is parti
cularly prominent in the women and is known as steatopygv. The
face is pearly square in front, the eyes are small, unsteady and
slanting, the lower part of the ear-lobe is grown together with
the head and almost adjoins the jaw. The lips are narrow, their
colour approaches that of the rest of the face, the nose is flat and
broad, the chin very litle developed.
Outside of South West Africa, Bushmen inhabit parts of
Angola and of the Kalahari desert.
The chief dress of the Bushmen is a kind of triangular leather
apron or a narrow belt with a few leather thongs hanging down
in front like a very small apron. The women wear a leather belt
to which two small aprons are fastened, one in front and the other
at the back. Apart from that they often wear a leather covering
round the shoulders, and this is called karos. The children are.
as a rule, quite naked, and infants arc carried in the above-men
tioned karos on the mother's back. They generally wear nothin"
on their heads, but the women usually adorn themselves with
little chainlets of shells, of ostrich eggs, strung on a thread and
attached to the hair. Round the neck they wear similar chainlets
556
or a kind of necklace made of little pieces of leather, seeds, or
glass-beads. These are supposed to be amulets. The women also
wear round their necks a sort of powder-bag, made of the shell
of a small tortoise, in which they keep the so-called bukhu, a kind
of powder made chiefly of the pulverised herb lareb, while the
men hang a pipe round their necks. On the arms or legs (below
the knees) they sometimes wear rings of leather, grass, or iron.
For hunting the Bushman puts on sandals of gemsbok leather,
which enable him to run long distances without sinking into the
sand, and partly also protect his feet against thorns and sharp>
flints. At times of famine the Bushmen eat both their leather
carosses and their sandals.
The Bushman hardly ever indulges in the luxury of a wash
or a bath. He simply does not feel the need. Water is much too
precious to be wasted like that. But the women will often powder
themselves, smear themselves with fat, or with red or brown paint,
to embellish themselves. In some districts the men will scatter
ashes on their bodies before hunting, presumably in order to
render themselves inconspicuous on the grey background of the
steppe and so escape the observation of the animals they are going
to hunt. But it may also be done for magical purpuses. Bushmen
with scars on their faces, or. with one little finger cut off, are
also met with. The scars, on the face are in some cases an embel
lishment, in others a tribal mark, or a distinction for prowess in
hunting. The cutting off of the little finger is practised for pur
poses of ridding a patient of disease, which is supposed to flow
out together with the blood. Apart from that, these practises may
have a magical significance.
The dwelling of the Bushman is a quadrangular or semi
circular shed, sort of chalet or very primitive hut, The entrance
opening is always to leeward, changing with the direction of the
wind. Near the entrance the Bushman kindles the fire. A l l the
inhabitants gather round it to warm themselves during the nights,
which are often bitterly cold.
A Bushman commune counts about 50—100 persons, who
generally constitute a family group, with a chief. On the whole
557
there are no great differences in the rights of the two sexes, the
work of the men and of the women being of about the same value.
Thus the Bushman social life has features both of patriarchate
and of matriarchate.
At present monogamy is, for economic reasons, the usual
form of marriage among the Bushman tribes. In former times,
however, when game was more plentiful in the steppe, polygamy
was practised to a greater extent. In spite of great mutual affec
tion in the Bushman families, the women sometimes have to kill
their new-bonis, because there is no food for them.
Whatever someone makes or wins for himself is his pro
perty. The Bushman has a very accurate sense of fairness and
right. Manslaughter, adultery, theft, robbing of wells, transgressing
the boundaries of the communal area are severely punished, some
times with death.
Bows and poisoned arrows are the weapons of the Bushman.
Besides the bow, they also use javelins, knives, and a wooden
club called kirri.
The hut of a deceased person is burned down, and the dead
man is buried on that spot, wrapped in his karos.
The earliest religion of the Bushmen seems to have been
the cult of the moon, which heavenly body they worship with
dances lasting all night and with some sort of prayers. Every tribe
has, as a rule, its magician or wizard.
The language of the Bushmen is remarkable for the frequent
occurrence of smacking sounds called clicks.
Their life and ways of thinking may best be illustrated by
short narratives literally translated from the tales as told by
natives belonging to different Bushman tribes, and collected by
several linguists (Th. Hahn, C. Meinhof, D. F. Bleek, R. Stopa).
The following narratives are given in Polish versions in this paper:
How we live in the Steppe (two different versions.
Famine.
Hunting the Jackal.
Making an Apron.
The Lion, the Jackal and the Ostrich.
558
The Moon and the Hare.
The Division of the Earth.
Two of the narratives, vz. Building a Hut and Girl's I n i
tiation are provided with the original Bushman text and the inter
linear Polish translation, showing perhaps most clearly in literal
terms and arrangement of words the primitive structure' of Bush
man thought and language.
Roman
Stopa
DWELLINGS OF THE YAKOOTS
Oorasa, kalyman, yourta, or bałagan, elbelen, are according
to Sieroszewski the names of various types of Yakoot dwellings.
Oorasa is probably a booriat word, bałagan is persian. Yourta is
of touranian origin and means place of dwelling: yourt or sourt.
Kalyman or goolema may be derived from the toungooze. A purely
Yakoot name for dwelling is: jeejay.
All the dwellings of the Yakoots have flooring. It seems none
of them use clefts, caves or dugouts. For construction they use:
wood, bark (especially birch), skins, webs, earth, dung, mess, hay,
tree-roots and branches. In the Kolinas ooloose sometimes snowhuts are being erected, but not for long. Bricks are known but
only used for fire-places. The oorassa is the oldest and most
typical type of Yakoot dwellings and is a round cabin from 6.5—
9.5 m. high with a diameter of 4.5—6.5 m. measured at the base.
The frame-work is formed by four posts with their thinner ends
joined under an angle of 60 degrees. On top of the frame-work
are placed four horizontal planks forming a rectangular frame on
which repose the thin bands of the roof construction. Oorassa
roofing consists of broad stripes of birch-bark first boiled in milk,
then sewn together with horse-hair and adorned with manycoloured desings. In the interior of the Oorassa there is a fire-place
and along the walls are placed the couches. The Oorassa of old
have nearly disappeared. In the North where there is difficulty
of getting birch-bark and the frost is severe, turf is used to cover
the Oorassa. 'ach is the dark and dirty kaliman. The wealthy
559
protect themselves from the falling filth by placing birch-bark
or tanned skins under the turf. Nowadays the Yakoots live in
a Yourta wdiich is also called balangan or bałagan (sec pictures
4, 5, 6, 7).
The frame-work consists of four posts 20 cm. thick and
1 m. 30 cm.—1 m. 70 cm. high. These posts are driven into the
earth deeper than 60 cm. and in a square with 6.5—9.5 m. of
distance between each of them is placed the South-East post for
which the Yakoots have a special reverence as it is the abode of
the Yoorta-Spirit. At the end of the posts, in longitudinal i n
cisions, are fixed the beams which form the roof sloping EasL
and West.
The beam is greased with butter, koomiz or horse blood. On
the frame-work of the roof is first placed wood, thin and round
semi-circular shingles, on which comes: moss, hay, bark and
mould. The logs which form the walls are set somewhat inclined
arid are like a truncated pyramid sloping at an angle of 70 degrees.
The Yoorta generally has 2—3 windows to the East and South,
a 30 cm. big square. In the Summer these apertures are closed
with moss, paper, fish-bladder, or horse-hair net and in the winter
with thick ice-panes. The door aperture is closed with thick planks
covered with oxen-hide.
The exterior of the Yoorta is covered with cow-dung and
mould. All round is an earthen dyke 90 cm. high, 30—50 cm. broad.
" Inside the Yoorta along the walls there are 4—8 permanently
fixed settees, and each of them has a special destination.
In the middle of the Yoorta is the fire-place which has the
form of a square trunk made of thick logs. 60—80 cm. filled with
clay. From there leads a conduit to the chimney and a slanting
smoke-escape. It is made of long and thin wands covered with
clay inside and outside. The Yakoots give great attention to fire
places. When travelling, the Yakoots protect themselves from the
severe climate by making a protecting wall of sticks and branches
560
tightly intertwined. It is the elbelen or haltan, just one single sort
of shield which is placed so as to protect from the wind. 2) The
most ancient form of Yakoot dwelling is the Yourassa which
appertains to horse-breeding culture.
In the Northern regions to which the Yakoots. had been
driven, the Yourassa did not give sufficient protection from the
cold, this is why it began to be covered with turf and took
the name of kaliman. As the new country was very inconvenient
for horse-breeding, because of the lack of vast meadows and steppes
and on the other hand very good for oxen which could contentedly
graze on smaller expanses, the Yakoots abandoned horse-breeding
for oxen. This led to the preparing of provisions of hay and also
to the building of shelters for the oxen, a foresight which enabled
to pass long and severe winters.
7
The kaliman was changed into a Yourta, because the top
part which proved unnecessary, was abolished. At the same time
the aperture through which the heat escaped was stopped, and the
space to be heated became smaller without inconvenience to the
inhabitants of the dwelling. The perpendicular and the inclined
walls, also the perpendicular arrangement of logs make the dif
ference between the Yourta and the dwellings of other Siberian
people. The division of the Yourta into the right-hand-side part
i. e. reserved to males, or East part, and the left part, the West,
or women's part, shows clearly that this type of dwelling was
the outcome of two cultures i . e. the patriarchal pastoral culture
of the breeders of horned cattle and horses, worshipers of the sun"
and fire, with the custom to turn towards the East when offering
a sacrifice, and the patriarchal-agricultural which had adopted the
turning towards the West when offering sacrifices.
Other domains of Yakoot culture also demonstrate the same
mixing of the patriarchal pastoral culture with the patriarchal
agricultural one, for example religion, mythology and agricultural
activities.
Teofil
Chodzidlo
561
THE HELLENIC CUSTOM OF WEARING ONE SHOE ONLY
Ancient authors frequently mention the custom of wearing
only one shoe; this custom is common to heroes and peoples. We may
quote as a principal representative of heroes I as on (Pindar Pyth.
470 sqq.), Perseus (Artemidor. Oneirokrit. IV 63), Lykurgus (Antholog. Palat. X V I 127); besides them peoples such as the Aitoles
(Euripides Meleagr. fgm. 534, Nauck. Arislot. i'gm. 74, Rose. Schol.
in Pind. Pyth. 4, 70), the Plataeans (Thukyd. Hist. I l l 22); accord
ing to Macrobius (Saturn. V 18, 13 sqq.) Vergil (Aen. V I I 689)
transferred this custom to the Anagnini, a poeple of ancient Italy.
The explanations of this custom are restricted usually to
Iason and his personal adventures. As Apollonios of Rhodus tells
(Argon. I 7 sqq.) Iason crossing the river Anauros lost one shoe
in its waters. Ps. Pherekydes changed this interpretation saying
that Iason took off his shoes before wading across the river, and
after crossing it put on only one shoe, because he hurried to the
sacrifice. This interpretation is remarkable; as monumental tra
dition shows, the offering person has often only his right foot
shod. Katharine Esdaile ('0 o»' iQ~.b.z. Two statues of a boy ce
lebrating the Eleusinian mysteries [Journal of Hellenic Studies
XXIX 1909, 1—5J) gathered together after W. Amelung (Skulpturen
des Vatik. Mus. I I No 393) all the monuments which indeed show
the offering Perseus wearing only one shoe; Miss Esdaile sees in
these young ephebs of the Eleusinian mysteries 'boys from the
hearth' (s aa śiTiac): and as to the custom, «parallels prove that
the baring of one foot had a definite religious meaning and was
especially connected with the cult of chthonian. goddesses*. Frie
drich Hauser (Die Statue der 'Sehutzi'lehenden' im Palazzo Baiberini [Jahreshefte des Osterreich. Archaolog. Inslituts in Wien
XVI 1913, 57—77]) recognises Pylhia in the woman wearing only
one shoe on account of her pathetic face W. Amelung explained
this custom in a separate study (Atti della Pontificia Accademia
di archeologia 1905/6 123 sqq.), and concluded that one bare foot
ensures to the man or woman a magic contact with the earth and
Lud, Т. X X X V I I
36
562
therefore secures vital power and victory: this interpretation was
accepted by L. Levy (Die Schuhsymbolik im judischen Ritus, Monatschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums L X I I
1918, 185 sqq.) and Jungbauer (Schuh, Handworterbuch des
dcutscchen Aberglaubens, Berlin 1935, V I I 1308). Sir James Frazer
(The Golden Bough, London 1911, I I I 311) supposes «that the
intention of going with one shoe on and one shoe off is to restrain
and to set at liberty, to bind and unbind... to rid the man himself
of magical restraint* etc. O. Gruppe (Griechische Mythologie u.
Religionsgeschichte, Munchen 1906, I I 912 adn. 7) according to
J. Bachofen (Das Mutterrecht, Basel 1858, 159) thinks it to be a re
ligious ceremony: to offer a votive shoe and consequently to walk
with one shoe. All these interpretations are very insufficient
especially Wilhelm Kroll (Unum exuta pedem'— ein volkskundlicher Seitensprung [Giotta XXV 1936, 152—158]) took care to evi
dence it. Nothing can better illustrate the helplessness of all hy
pothesis than the symbolic commentary of Jean Brunei (Iason
monokrepis [Revue Archeologique 1934, IV 34—43]) who — con
trary to all ancient authorities — affirms that king Pelias handed
his one shoe to Iason in sign of restoring him his kingdom.
Therefore we endeavour to find the proper rationale of this
custom which no doubt bad its practical function in the life of
the people. Iason is characterised by Pindar as a strange warrior:
the ancient commentaries specify it by saying that this sort of
warrior's custom belongs to the Aitoles. As the ancient in primi
tive times always fought barefooted, we have to require a special
function for the use of the shoe on the right foot. This function
we find in the fact that the Aitoles fought — as all ancient peoples
did — manibus pedibusque and therefore protected the right foot
which mainly took part in the battle, in the same manner as e. g.
the boxer protects his hands by putting on gloves.
Zofia
Ganszyniec
563
RICHARD BERWIŃSKI
Richard Berwiński played an important part in the history
of ethnography and ethnology. His principal work: «Studies on po
pular literature from the standpoint of historical criticism* publi
shed in 1854 must be considered as the first polish work on ethno
graphy; a mile-stone between ancient and modern views not only
on literature but on the whole popular culture. He was not suf
ficiently apprized at the time, especially by the rueful romantics
whose illusions as regards the essence of popular culture had been
swept away by his book. It is only in the time of Karłowicz and
thanks to the eulogy of Rostafiński that he met with full re
cognition.
But a proper monography is still.missing, and the object of
the present lecture is to fill this gap.
Richard Berwiński born in 1819 was educated in Great Po
land surroundings. He went to a lower school i n Leszno. For a time
he was completing his education in Poznań, mostly in the Raczyń
ski Library. He passed his bachelor's examination in Wroclaw
and was a student of the University in this town.
In the life et work of Berwiński there are four distinct pe
riods. In the first: (1836—1840) the author was in close relations
with the Editor's office of the: «People's friend* and influenced by
romantic opinions as regards the people. He made several poetical
transcriptions of popular legends and fairytales; mostly litterary
popular productions.
His most important work in this period was: «The Goplo
Goddess*, and the works which appeared in a collection published
under the title of popular culture.
His warm pro-slav sympathies were characteristic at this
time The second period (1841—1846) created a bond between
Berwiński el Poznań with the Editior's office of the: «Lilterary
Weekly*, the Polish Democratic Society, with social and political
workers, for instance with E. Dembowski et H. Kamieński author
of a profound work: «Philosophy of Material Economy* (Poznań
1843—45).
36"
564
In this time Berwiński indulged in political polemics which
we find expressed in his poems especially in the verse: «Mice
Tower». The man of letters had become a belligerent politician.
As an emissary under orders to foment an insurrection against
Russia he was arrested in the year 1945 in Tarnów by the Austrian
authorities. It is there he lived through the bitter and painful disil
lusions which were the outcome of the atrocious Galician mas
sacres. Extradition soon followed. He was given up by Austria
to the Prussian Government, sentenced to a long term of imprison
ment, and started to work scienifically behind the bars of Ihe
В erl i n M oa b i t - p r i s o n.
The third period (1846—1854) was begun by his work on
popular culture. The revolution in Berlin opened his prison.
Besides his scientific work on a favourite theme, Berwiński
took an eager part in the happenings of the lime. The failure of
the revolution, the futile manifestations of the Slav Congress in
Prague made him seriously ill. As Member of Ihe Prussian Parlia
ment in the years 1852—1854 he defended polish rights under
german occupation. I l was then he finished his work on popular
litterature, the master-work of this life. The book was published
in Poznań in 1854. In this work Berwiński settled the methods
of researches on popular litterature and drew a lien lion on the ne
cessity of conscientious copy of lexts of comparative studies. The
results of this work prove thai there are few genuinely aboriginal
motives, same as in Ihe literature of other peoples.
The whole popular creation is a result of the migration of
various themes and motives and an important part is played by the
church, by the tracks of pilgrimages, of trade et also by the
influence of higher social classes. He settled also thai Ihe popular
li llerary creation lacks original traits and does not reach far back
into the past ages. One can well understand how shocked were
the romantic writers of the time, especially Lucian Siemiński,
by the result of Berwhiski's researches.
The fourth and last period of Berwinski's life falls in the
years 1854—1879. He resigned his seat in Parliament, his projec
ted marriage with the Countess Wollowicz was broken off and he
565
emigrated never to return to Poland. He spent a certain time in
Paris on his way to Stamboul and following the advice of Mickie
wicz enlisted in the Sultan's Cossacks under the command of Czaykowski Sady k-Bashaw. It was an illusion of the time that the
war in the Crimea would open new political prospects to the
Poles, but the Parisian Congress soon dispelled this hope.
Residing abroad Berwiński took no active part in the insur
rection of 1863, and this very nearly broke his heart. After the
collapse, of France in 187CK71 and with the growth of russian and
german influences, Turkey disbanded the military formation of
the: «Sultan"s Cossacks*.
Berwiński remained in Constantinople bereft of means of
life without possibility of return to Poland, and often exposed to
starvation.
In the year 1874 a fire broke out in the hotel where he was
staying and his manuscripts were destroyed.
Two works: «Ronie and Constantinople*, and «Materials for
the Ethnographies of Serbia et Bulgaria*, were thust lost.
Exhausted by the harships of his life Berwiński died in
misery in a suburban trench hospital.
On his death-bed he had the consolation of being assisted
by Father Ławrynowicz, the same priest who was present at the
death of Adam Mickiewicz.
Л.
Fischer
STUDY OX THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ETHNOGRAFICAL
RUTH EX IA OF SZLACHTOWA ON THE BASIS OF CERTAIN
ELEMENTS OF MATERIAL CULTURE
I . West of the Poprad there are four villages surrounded on
three sides by wide mountain-ranges and forming on the north
side of the Carpathians a Rutheniau island which lies furthest
west and is named by the author: «Rulhenia of Szlachtowa*. The
inhabitants of Szlachtowa form a separate ethnografical group
which from the point of view of culture approaches the Ruthenian
population inhabiting several Spisz (Zips) villages, hut on the
.
566
other side is quite different from the Ruthenian Lemko's settled
east of the Poprad. Between the Ruthenians of Szlachtowa and
the Polish population of the neighbouring Szczawnica there is
always a very ancient antagonism.
I I . The provenance of the Ruthenian settlement in the nearest
neighbourhood of Szczawnica is till now far from clear. Not earlier
than in the X V I century we find in the historical sources the name
of Szlachtowa and latest, because not sooner than in the X V I I I
century, the names of Biała and Czarna Woda. It is highly probable
that the Ruthenian element penetrated here on the wave of the
Vallachian-Ruithenian inroad of settlers between the XIV and XV
centuries.
The land structure of the Ruthenia of Szlachtowa is based
on the model formed by the mediaeval colonisation under the so
called «German law». A l l the four villages have a regular field
structure primarily based on the three-field system of agriculture.
They are different from the typical regular field structure in thus
far, that in the fields which join the rural dwellings, the plots
of the singular owners touch the dwellings. It is a transient form
between the regular field structure and the so-called forest-fieldstructure.
Besides the cultivated land in the neighbourhood of the village
the inhabitants of Ruthenia of Szlachtowa possess numerous
clearings strewn among the forests which cover the near mountains.
They are used as pastures, meadows and tilled fields, and jointly
with this, there develops on them the system of half pastoral,
half agricultural season-settlement.
I I I . The houses in Ruthenia of Szlachtowa are built of wood
on angle, covered with planks or wooden tills. The poorest ones
show the type of one construction settlement, where the inhabited
part and economical part are found under one roof. There are also
two-construction habitations and a separate farm house habitation
and sometimes a many buildings farm in which the cottage, the
stable, the barn and other constructions form a closed square with
an entrance gale to the yard.
:
567
IV. The Ruthenians of Szlachtowa formarly found means of
living mainly as shepherds (sheep, oxen), at present principally
in agriculture. The inhabitants of the four villages mentioned
endeavour to cover the shortage of means of living, by various
additional occupations like the manufacture of wooden boxes or
the mending of cracked pots with wire. The wire-netters of Biała
Woda now reach Warsaw, Poznań and Bytom and formerly used
to go as far as Lwow, Kiev or Czerniowce.
V. The Ruthenian mountaineers garb in the neighbourhood
of Szlachtowa for males and females alike, is mostly of home made
white linen or flax or of some other white woolen stuff. Only a few
factory materials: ornaments, boots and hats were bought in the
mountain towns. The popular garb of the Ruthenians of Szlach
towa is very primitive as regards cut and ornament.
VI. Lastly the author examines the problems of the chrono
logy and of the provenance of singular cultural elements in Ruthenia of Szlachtowa. To the group of phenomena typologically
oldest he counts the solitary, dispersed settlements, found in
forest-clearings, habitable constructions built on angle covered
with a roof quadruply inclined made of planks or wood-tiles and
composed of only one room and one primitive antechamber. As
regards clothing: a man's shirt with the longitudinal «poncho»
cut, woolen trousers with a typical side-flap, above the right
grouch, a long woolen «hunia» i . e. a man's cloak, a sheep-skin
cap covered with cloth, the linen wraps which women put on their
shoulders, and in farming the blazing of bushes and the one-field
system of agriculture, which is found also in the forest-clearings.
Numerous Spisz influences are stratified over older cultural
layers. They penetrated jointly with the contacts between the
Ruthenians of Szlachtowa and their brethren inhabiting the
country south of the Carpathians and also reached the Slovaks.
One should place here, as belonging to these influences, the form
of the roof (doubly inclined with eaves and surmounted by a small
semicircular rooflet), painted clothes-chests, the form and the
568
manner of adorning men's hats and in the garb of the women
their headgear, the ornaments of the shirt, the skirts called: «kanafaska» made of linen or cotton material, weaved in perpendicular
red stripes, white with blue lines, fur jackets richly ornamented
with Mayings and top-boots. Polish influences are chronologically
the latest. Primarily, as regards material culture there was no
difference between the Ruthenians of Szlachtowa and the Polish
mountaineers of the neighbouring Szczawnica. It is only when
there appeared regional differences in the garb of the Szczawnica
mountaineers that the influence of this garb began to act on the
neighbouring Ruthenian population, especially on the youth of the
nearest village i . e. Szaczawnica.
The author tries to reconstruct the process of differenciation
of the cultural group of Ruthenians of Szlachtowa. Layers of
foreign influence begin to fall upon the more or less uniform
cultural back-ground composed without greater differences of
the whole of the Carpathians. The area of the upper Dunajec is
in the orbit of Spisz influences, which results in the appearance
of certain cultural differences spreading on the territory of the
Polish Spisz, the mountaineers of Pieniny and Szczawnica, the
Ruthenia of Szlachtowa and the east (peak of Podhale). In time
the area delineated here divides under the influence of a further
development into two meridian parts, the west part whose popular
culture continues to develop under the influence of cultural waves
coining from Spisz and Podhale, and the eastern one comprising
only the mountainners of Szczawnica and the Ruthenians of
Szlachtowa, who remain isolated and keep without change a cer
tain whole of ancient culture.
With the cultural differenciation of the Szczawnica moun
taineers which happened between the XIV and XX centuries and
even later, the Ruthenia of Szlachtowa remained the unique area
with certain marked traits of culture which have been changed
or forgotten alsowhere.
R.
Relnfuss
569
GREATPOLAND'S POPULAR CULTURE ACCORDING
TO GERMAN PLANS
In the year 1943 under German occupation there appeared
in Poznań a book under the title: «Die Sagen der Deutschen im
Warthenland». It came from the publishing Library: «Volkspolitisches Institut» and belonged to the series of «Abteilung Deutsche
Volkskunde».
Dr. Edmund Mudrak was the editor, the work was by Pro
fessor Lutz Mackensen, two German scientists, teaching shorthand
in Poznań at Ihe University of the Reich, for thus had been the
Polish University transformed under German occupation.
It is a book which among many others, for example the
works of Dr. Walter Geisler Professor of Geography at the same
University, Dr. Charles-Ernest Koehne historian of art and artistpainter and others bent on proving scientifically the far-reaching
influence of German culture in Polish lands, unmasks the aims
and ways of German cultural planning on territories subjected to
German administration.
Great-Poland, the oldest province of the Polish Stale was
named by the Germans: Varla-Land. They began to exterminate
the Polish population and to fill the new Varta-Land with Ger
man colonists, re-emigrees from the East borders of Poland, from
the Baltic provinces, from Russia, Bukowina and Bessarabia.
These groups of transplanted people were to form the new Ger
man tribe in Great-Poland. A cultural planning was to be made
for this tribe by German ethnographs: Mudrak and Mackensen,
while Geisler was busy with geography, among other subjects
with the theory of landscape, and the arl-historians were prepar
ing the architectural picture of the land. Help was given by the
museums, where items were being collected for Ihis same purpose.
The German ethnographs were interested in legends and folklore
because Ihey considered this part of the spiritual culture of the
people as an important spiritual asset, an element binding together
the disseminated groups of colonists.
570
The collection of legends formed by the people and reintro
duced in the occupied territories was in the opinion of Mudrak
the best element to deal with in starting a renascence of popular
culture. The book under the title: «Sagen der Deutschen im Warthenland» has thus a double aspect. From the point of view of
science it is an addition to ethnographical geography through its
localisation of legends in a closed territory and from a practical
point of view i l is a work of popularization. In the midst of his
labours Mackensen stumbled on unforeseen difficulties as he was
unable to conciliate Ihe two objects in view.
His work is not based exclusively on local researches, but
mostly on bibliography. For practical reasons Mackensen made
in the text he used arbitrary corrections and his selection was
also guided by a program made beforehand. Mackensen advanced
the theory that the purely German spiritual material collected
by him had no foreign infiltrations and at the same time drew
attention in his commentaries on the influence of the surround
ings reacting on the spiritual tenors at the moment of its birth.
As the collection comprises not only the sagas of the
autochtones but also of new-comers from the Baltic sea and the
Black Sea, from the steppe and the agricultural areas each with^
a different grade of civilisation, the variety of culture is no less
apparent.
The object of the edition proved decisive. The authors and
the protector of their book the Gauhauptmann who wrote an
introduction, expressed the hope that the collected material w ouid
vivify tire people and prove an important element in the cultural
planning made for the Varta-Land.
Mackensen divided his book into three parts: I . Man and
Death, I I . Man and Supernatural Powers, I I I . Man and History,
and put stress on the threads of death and demonology and
legends with a historical tincture.
The motive of death dominates the book as the Part I takes
up the half of it with a good hundred tales. In the following
parts this same motive recurrs with alterations. The last part,
treating of German heroes is rather short and only contains a score
r
571
of legends Frederician and Josephinian which have the character
of barrack-anecdotes.
The aura of all these legends is upleasant. Horror and terror
give the dominant note, with a lack of the proper legendary po
pular strain of romance nad poetry. To the foreground come only
the "brutal instincts of man mostly the desire of vengeance. The
phenomena of death or demonology terrorize human psychology
and the details of the tale are so bereft of aeslhetical feeling that
the reading brings discouragement. Mackensen has shorn his texts
of all religious feeling. He mentions this in his introduction and
proves it at the end of his commentairies. He has thus deprived
many legends of the proper trait of magic trend of thought. The
whole thing is sinister and breeds depression.
The book is illustrated with drawings and vignettes. One
can see among others, headless monsters, skeletons, hanged wret
ches, tortured bodies and dead corpses. Truly the gallery of
a morbid imagination.
As the work of the German ethnographs Mudrak nad Mac
kensen was destined to play the part of an element in the cultural
planning for Great-Poland, it is highly characteristic and remains
a document of the cultural activity of true Hitlerians.
Bożena
Stelmachowska
ETHNOGRAPHICAL ICONOGRAPHY
This is the beginning of a work of greater length which will
appear periodically in the «PEOPLE», during several years.
Ethnographical iconography contains polish material which
gives historical documentation to ethnographical facts with the
help of old engravings, drawings, pictures, embroideries and
the like.
To this material are also added photographies used for the
documentation of rarer ethnographical specimens in polish mu
seums and also unusual ethnographical motives in village sur
roundings.
572
Iconography does not present a systematically arranged ma
terial according to set problems.
All this is accidental and provisionally collected at hap
hazard, but will be put in some order by the index placed at the
end of the 20-th sheaf of the iconography- The list of things in
the two first contains the following items:
1) Drawing of a child. X V I century engraving on wood.
2) A seven-headed horned dragon XV c. cngr. on wood.
3) A cannibal tent engr. on wood.
4) Samoyeds X V I e. engr. on wood.
5) A dragon-stone X V I c. engr. on wood.
6) A fox caught by the leg in an archaic beam-trap. In polish
«stempitsa» X V I c. engr. on wood.
7) Radish female Raphanus sativus XVI e. engr. on wood.
8) Lorctto-bell XX c. engr. on wood.
9) Sinner's death XIX c. engr. on wood.
10) Four beasts on map of the world, engr. on wood.
11) The magnet X V I c. engr. on wood.
12) Hunter's net out-spread XVI c. engr. on wood.
13) Lapis agapetosm or achates (gagatek-amber) XVI c. engr. on
wood.
14) Devil expelled out of man XVI c. engr. on wood.
15) Harvest XVI c. engr. on wood.
16) Dragon sun-obtruding X V I c. engr. on wood.
17) Men stinking-lipped X V I c. engr. on wood.
18) Demon scared X V I c. engr. on wood.
19) Amber X V I c. engr. on wood.
20) Frog-stone XVI c. engr. on wood.
21) Inula Helenium magic root XVI c. engr. on wood.
22) Costumes of Gdansk fisher-women XVI c. engr. on wood.
23) Tartar wives XVI c. engr. on wood.
24) Rirds glued and lilted trap X V I c. engr. on wood.
25) Leviathan and Mother of God XVI c. engr. on wood.
26) Descent to hell XVI c. engr. on wood.
27) Sabbath of witches XVI c. engr. on wood.
573
f
28) Flight of witches to Haki-hill X V I I с. engr. on wood.
29) Black Mass X V I I c. engr. on wood.
30) Our Lady's tears (Spirantes spiralis, plant) photography of
year 1939.
81) Four-in-hand XIX c. engr. on wood.
Thacldaeus
Seweryn