The Project Gutenberg EBook of Custom and Myth, by Andrew Lang

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Title: Custom and Myth
New Edition

Author: Andrew Lang

Release Date: July 26, 2010 [EBook #33260]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note

Transliterated Greek has been marked with tildes, e.g. ~Kronos~.

A few words contained the letter a with a macron (straight line) above
it. They instead have a circumflex in this version of the e-book
(Krana and abib).

CUSTOM AND MYTH

BY

ANDREW LANG, M.A.
HON. FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE
OXFORD

_NEW EDITION_

LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1893

_All rights reserved_

TO
E. B. TYLOR
AUTHOR OF 'PRIMITIVE CULTURE'
THESE STUDIES OF THE OLDEST STORIES
Are Dedicated

PREFACE.

Since the first publication of _Custom and Myth_, many other works
have appeared, dealing on the same principles with matters of belief,
fable and ritual. Were the book to be re-written, numerous fresh
pieces of evidence might be adduced in support of its conclusions. In
Mr. Frazer's _Golden Bough_ (Macmillan) the student will find a
carefully conceived argument, and a large collection of testimonies,
bearing on the wide diffusion, among savages and civilised peoples, of
ancient rites and ancient ideas. The works of Mannhardt have
practically been introduced to the English reader by Mr. Frazer, with
much new matter of his own. The main topics are the worship of human
gods and the superstitions connected with vegetation. To push a theory
too far is the common temptation of mythologists, and perhaps Mr.
Frazer's cornstalk does rather threaten to overshadow the whole earth
and exclude the light of sun and sky. But the reader, whatever his
opinions, will find great pleasure and profit in Mr. Frazer's
remarkable studies, and in those of Mannhardt, which were unknown to
myself wh