340
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. OCT. 21,
is plenty of material by which to reconstruct the
steps they took, to be found chiefly in the writing
of the worthy Edmond Bolton, who, if not the one
animating spirit of the enterprise, wielded the
principal active pen on its behalf.
The "Academ Roial" was to have been incor- porated under the Great Seal, and to have been
granted
seal ; a
a mortmain of 200Z. a year, and a common
description of the design for this ac-
cording to Bolton's entertaining proposal will
be found here. The Academicians the " essen-
tials " were to number eighty-four, exclusive of
"titularies" (Knights of the Garter, the Lord
Chancellor, and the Chancellors of the two Univer-
sities) and Auxiliaries. The first provisional list of
the " essentials " is given under three headings, with
brief biographical notices of the less well-known
personages. As Miss Portal observes, a revision
of the list by the leaders of the movement would
probably have eliminated some of Bolton's rather
undistinguished Roman Catholic friends, and sub-
tituted for theirs names of greater weight now
conspicuous by their absence.
The Origin of the Cult of Artemis. By J. Bendel Harris. (Manchester, the University Press ; London, Longmans & Co., Is. net.)
' THIS is a reprint, from the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, of a lecture delivered at the Library last March. The writer had previously investigated the cult of Apollo, and by a most ingenious series of conclusions from rather slender but significant data had made out for Apollo a quasi-medical origin, of which the apple-tree is to be considered the central piece. He begins this new essay with some enlargements on this pointing out the wide range of names of places which can be referred to the word " apple," and which, on his theory, might indicate a correspond- ing prevalence of the cult of Apollo. He has an idea that " apple," accented on the second syllable (abdl), is the root of Balder ; that the story of Balder's death by an arrow of mistletoe is con- nected with the mistletoe of the apple ; and that Balder and Apollo are in truth identical. They both represent originally the magic-medicine of the witch doctor. Later on, discussing the use of animals in medicine, Dr. Rendel Harris has an interesting conjecture concerning the meaning of Apollo Smintheus.
What are the corresponding elements in the cult of Artemis ? Artemis is to be considered the women's witch doctor, and what the apple is to Apollo is to her Artemisia, the mugwort or wormwood. Copious references to old herbals, traced back to Dioscorides and Pliny, show that Artemisia was considered a sort of All-heal but predominantly for the troubles of women ; and that the epithets apph'ed to Artemis have the magico-medical ring about them. Like Apollo's, then, the cult of Artemis is to be considered as originating in a herb-garden, to which animals believed to contain healing principles are attached. A pleasant conjecture, backed up by quotations from modern recipes of a traditional sort, makes Artemis use swallows. This is, however, left as no more than a conjecture. Perhaps the most Interesting paragraphs are those on Artemis as Xei3oOxoj holder of the key and on the connexion between this epithet and that mysteri- ous plant, the spring-wurzel, before which all 3ocks and gates flew open.
We cannot indicate even in outline the wealth
)f subsidiary detail with which Dr. Rendel Harris
has enlivened his essay. Having read it, one will
always see much that one did not see before in the
conception of Artemis.
As to his main conclusion, however, we feel more than doubtful. In order to make it credible it is necessary, in the first place, to make certain that Artemisia has in reality the con- spicuous effects that the herbalists attribute to it. We think that the cleverness of the students who reconstruct the beliefs of prehistoric peoples runs rather to waste through taking these people to be more stupid from a religious point of view than they were. It is one thing to worship sun, and thunder, and fire or even wine as gods. The effects of these are seen, and they are great ; and they are also beyond man's power of control. There is no unreasonableness in the ignorance which takes them for deities. But to sav that the origin not the gift or the attribute, but the origin of a great goddess is a plant no more conspicuous, even as to its predominant qualities, than many others, is surely to exaggerate the foolishness of ancient man, and to ride the theory of the " magical " origin of religions itself not very convincing psychologically to death in absurdity. Given the goddess, and you may make play with mugwort as being even a" manifestation of her proper self, that is, represented as such by- witch doctors. But an account of this the other way about is an altogether different thing. What we decline to believe is that the mugwort came first, and out of it the cult of Artemis and the general conception of Artemis. For one thing, it is to be supposed that the myth -makers had some knowledge about the breeding of wild animals ; and while they believed that the mother dropped her young safely through the protection of Artemis, they might observe that the use of mugwort had nothing to do with that, since it took place as well in regions where mugwort did not grow as where it did.
We found this essay fascinating reading, and, as to several minor things, most suggestive, even instructive ; but it occurred to us, once or twice, to wonder whether it was not intended, as to its main contention, as something of a jeu d'esprit.
The Athenaum now appearing monthly, arrange-
ments have been made whereby advertisements of
posts vacant and wanted, which it is desired to
publish weekly, may appear in the intervening
weeks m 'N. & Q. 1
to Cormpontoirts.
EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' "Adver- tisements and Business Letters to "The Pub- lishers at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane. E.C.
C. C. B. ("Back to old Blighty "). See 12 S. i. 194, 292.
MR. M. L. R. BRESLAR, Miss S. CORNER, and MR. R. PIERPOINT. Forwarded. CORRIGENDUM. Ante, p. 315, col. 1, 1. 23, for
