batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg-l3423-l3497
---
record_id: batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg-l3423-l3497
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
passage_locator:
label: CHAPTER I. THE KING OF THE WOOD. / MACAULAY. / CHAPTER II. THE PERILS OF
THE SOUL. / HEINE.; lines 3423-3497
start: '3423'
end: '3497'
translation: 'The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2)'
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: The passage collects reports of beliefs and rites in which a lost or stolen
soul appears in visible or material form, is captured, sorted, restored to a sick
or endangered person, or is trapped by spirits, sorcerers, chiefs, priests, containers,
snares, trees, cloths, jars, ivory tusks, or other objects.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: In a Melanesian report, a woman catches a fluttering thing thought to be a
newly departed soul and opens her hands over the corpse's mouth, but the corpse
does not revive.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The Salish or Flathead Indians are described as believing that a soul may
be separated from the body temporarily, but must be found and restored or the
person will die.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: In the Salish rite, the medicine-man receives souls through a roof-hole in
a dark lodge as bits of bone or similar objects, sorts them by firelight, and
returns each living person's soul through the head to the heart.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: In Amboina and the Babar Islands, a branch or leaf associated with a tree
is used to recover or restore a patient's lost soul.
category: object
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: In some islands of the same seas, illness and speechlessness after returning
from the forest are attributed to evil spirits in great trees keeping the person's
soul; food offerings are left under a tree and the soul is brought home in wax.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:6
text: 'Among Dyaks of Sarawak and in Nias, the soul is restored through small visible
forms: a lock of hair or miniature human being in a cup, or a firefly caught in
a cloth.'
category: object
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:7
text: In Fiji, a scarf is described as an instrument for catching a criminal's soul,
which may then be folded and nailed to a chief's canoe, causing the criminal to
pine and die.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:8
text: On Danger Island, sorcerers set soul-snares with loops of different sizes
near a sick man's house to catch his soul if it leaves in the form of a bird or
insect.
category: object
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:9
text: Among the Sereres of Senegambia, a chief-priest may be paid to conjure an
enemy's soul into a red earthenware jar placed under a consecrated tree, after
which the enemy dies.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:10
text: Some Congo people are reported as believing that enchanters can enclose human
souls in ivory tusks and sell them to white men, who make them work under the
sea.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Melanesian woman
description: A woman who catches a fluttering thing identified as a soul and tries
to return it to a corpse.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Melanesian corpse
description: A corpse over whose mouth the captured fluttering soul is released
without revival.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Salish or Flathead medicine-man
description: A ritual specialist who learns names in a dream, brushes in souls,
sorts them, and restores them to their owners.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Salish soulless men
description: Men whose souls are lost and who dance and sing through the village
before the restoration rite.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Amboina sorcerer
description: A ritual specialist who uses a tree branch to catch and return a sick
man's soul detained by demons.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Babar patient
description: A patient whose soul is restored by a leaf pressed on the forehead
and breast.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Evil spirits in great trees
description: Spirits said to dwell in great trees and catch or keep a person's soul.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Dyak priest
description: A priest who conjures a lost soul into a cup and thrusts it into a
hole in the patient's head.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Nias sorcerer
description: A sorcerer who catches a soul in the form of a firefly and places it
on the patient's forehead.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:10
name_or_label: Fiji chief
description: A chief who sends for a scarf to catch a criminal's soul.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: fig:11
name_or_label: Fiji criminal
description: A criminal threatened with soul-capture by a scarf if he refuses to
confess.
role_refs:
- role:2
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: fig:12
name_or_label: Danger Island sorcerers
description: Sorcerers who set snares for souls near a sick man's house.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: fig:13
name_or_label: Sereres Fitaure
description: A chief and priest who can be induced by gifts to conjure an enemy's
soul into a jar.
role_refs:
- role:3
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: fig:14
name_or_label: Congo enchanters
description: Enchanters believed to enclose human souls in ivory tusks and sell
them.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
roles:
- id: role:1
label: soul-restorer
assigned_to:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:5
- fig:8
- fig:9
basis: These figures perform actions intended to catch, carry, sort, or return a
lost soul to a body or patient.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:6
- id: role:2
label: soul-lost or soul-threatened person
assigned_to:
- fig:2
- fig:4
- fig:6
- fig:11
basis: These figures are dead, sick, soulless, or threatened with loss of soul.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:7
- id: role:3
label: ritual mediator
assigned_to:
- fig:3
- fig:13
basis: These figures are described as a medicine-man or chief-priest who mediates
actions involving souls.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:9
- id: role:4
label: soul-detainer or soul-captor
assigned_to:
- fig:7
- fig:12
- fig:13
- fig:14
basis: These figures are described as keeping, snaring, conjuring, enclosing, or
selling human souls.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
- id: role:5
label: authority commanding soul-capture
assigned_to:
- fig:10
basis: The chief sends for a scarf to catch away a criminal's soul.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: role:6
label: coerced confessor
assigned_to:
- fig:11
basis: The threat or mention of the soul-catching scarf generally causes the culprit
to confess.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: fluttering visible soul
literal_form: A fluttering thing like a moth.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: sym:2
label: small hard soul-objects
literal_form: Bits or splinters of bone, wood, shell, or similar objects.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: sym:3
label: fire used for sorting souls
literal_form: A fire kindled in the dark lodge by whose light the medicine-man sorts
souls.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs:
- fire
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: sym:4
label: tree branch and leaf as soul-bearers
literal_form: A plucked branch or leaf used to catch, carry, or restore a soul.
associated_figures:
- fig:5
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs:
- tree
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: sym:5
label: great or consecrated tree
literal_form: A great tree where spirits dwell or receive offerings, and a consecrated
tree under which a soul-jar is deposited.
associated_figures:
- fig:7
- fig:13
taxonomy_refs:
- tree
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:9
- id: sym:6
label: wax soul-container
literal_form: A piece of wax in which a soul is brought home.
associated_figures:
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: sym:7
label: cup soul-container
literal_form: A cup containing the lost soul, seen as hair by the uninitiated and
as a miniature human being by the initiated.
associated_figures:
- fig:8
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:8
label: firefly soul
literal_form: A firefly visible only to the sorcerer.
associated_figures:
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs:
- fire
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:9
label: soul-catching scarf
literal_form: A scarf waved over the head to catch a criminal's soul.
associated_figures:
- fig:10
- fig:11
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: sym:10
label: soul-snare
literal_form: Stout cinet snares with loops of different sizes for different sizes
of souls.
associated_figures:
- fig:12
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:11
label: red earthenware soul-jar
literal_form: A large jar of red earthenware used to contain an enemy's soul.
associated_figures:
- fig:13
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: sym:12
label: ivory tusk soul-container
literal_form: Tusks of ivory in which human souls are enclosed.
associated_figures:
- fig:14
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Failed return of a departed soul in Melanesia
summary: A woman captures a fluttering object identified as a soul and opens her
hands over the corpse's mouth, but revival does not occur.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Salish communal soul restoration
summary: Named soulless men gather after night dancing; in a dark lodge the medicine-man
brings in souls through a roof-hole, rejects souls of the dead, and returns each
living person's soul through the head to the heart.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: scene:3
label: Tree-mediated recovery of souls in island reports
summary: Branches, leaves, trees, offerings, and wax are used in rites where souls
are believed to be detained by demons or spirits and restored to patients.
figure_refs:
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
- sym:5
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: scene:4
label: Small visible forms of the soul in Sarawak and Nias
summary: A priest or sorcerer restores a soul from a cup or cloth, where the soul
appears as hair, a miniature human being, or a firefly.
figure_refs:
- fig:8
- fig:9
symbol_refs:
- sym:7
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: scene:5
label: Coercive or hostile capture of souls
summary: Chiefs, sorcerers, priests, and enchanters use or are believed to use scarves,
snares, jars, consecrated trees, or ivory tusks to capture, confine, sell, or
destroy souls.
figure_refs:
- fig:10
- fig:11
- fig:12
- fig:13
- fig:14
symbol_refs:
- sym:9
- sym:10
- sym:11
- sym:12
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: Lost soul recovered in visible or material form
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Multiple reports describe a missing soul as catchable or restorable in a
concrete form such as a fluttering thing, bone, wood, shell, branch, leaf, wax,
hair, miniature human being, or firefly.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
confidence: high
cautions: The passage is a comparative scholarly collection, not a single indigenous
narrative or ritual text.
- id: motif:2
label: Ritual specialist returns soul to body through head, forehead, mouth, or
heart
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The passage describes attempts or rites in which a captured soul is placed
over the mouth, on the head, into the head, on the forehead, or made to descend
into the heart.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:6
confidence: high
cautions: Specific bodily routes differ among the examples.
- id: motif:3
label: Soul trapped or detained by hostile beings or human specialists
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Ghosts, demons, evil spirits, chiefs, sorcerers, priests, and enchanters
are described as detaining, capturing, conjuring, enclosing, or selling souls.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
confidence: high
cautions: The passage groups different cultures and practices under a broad comparative
theme.
- id: motif:4
label: Soul contained in objects or vessels
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Souls are described as being held in a cup, cloth, scarf, snare, jar, ivory
tusk, wax, branch, leaf, or similar object.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
confidence: high
cautions: 'The objects vary in function: some restore souls, others capture or imprison
them.'
- id: motif:5
label: Tree as site or medium of soul detention and restoration
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The passage describes branches and leaves used to recover souls, spirits
dwelling in great trees, offerings under a tree, and a jar containing a soul deposited
under a consecrated tree.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:9
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage supports tree association but does not present a full world-tree
or axis-mundi pattern.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage itself presents cases from Melanesia, the Salish or Flathead
Indians, Amboina, the Babar Islands, Sarawak, Nias, Fiji, Danger Island, Senegambia,
and the Congo as comparable examples of beliefs in separable, recoverable, or
capturable souls.
claim_level: same_motif
target: comparative motif of separable soul captured or restored in material form
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The comparison is Frazer's comparative arrangement; the passage does
not establish historical contact or common inheritance among the traditions.
- id: claim:2
claim: Several examples share the function of making an otherwise invisible soul
ritually manageable by locating it in a visible object or container.
claim_level: same_function
target: object-contained soul pattern
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: The forms and ritual purposes vary, including healing, coercion, revenge,
and enslavement.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 3423-3429
quote_or_summary: A Melanesian woman catches a fluttering thing like a moth, declares
that she has caught the soul, and opens her hands above the corpse's mouth, but
the corpse does not revive.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: lines 3429-3443
quote_or_summary: The Salish or Flathead Indians are said to believe a person's
soul can be absent temporarily; a medicine-man learns the names of those who have
lost souls, and the soulless men dance and sing through the village before entering
a dark lodge.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: lines 3443-3457
quote_or_summary: Through a hole in the roof, the medicine-man brushes in souls
shaped like bits of bone and the like, sorts out souls of the dead by firelight,
and places each living person's soul on the head until it descends into the heart.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: lines 3457-3467
quote_or_summary: In Amboina a sorcerer uses a branch to recover a soul detained
by demons; in the Babar Islands offerings are set at a great tree, a leaf is plucked,
and the soul in the leaf is pressed onto the patient.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: lines 3467-3474
quote_or_summary: In other islands, illness after returning speechless from the
forest is attributed to evil spirits in great trees keeping the soul; food offerings
are left under a tree and the soul is brought home in wax.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: lines 3474-3482
quote_or_summary: Among Dyaks of Sarawak a priest conjures a soul into a cup, where
it appears as hair or a miniature human being, and thrusts it into the patient's
head; in Nias the soul appears as a firefly caught in a cloth and placed on the
forehead.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: lines 3483-3490
quote_or_summary: In Fiji a chief may send for a scarf to catch a criminal's soul;
the threat prompts confession, and if carried out the soul is folded in the scarf
and nailed to a chief's canoe, causing death.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: lines 3490-3497
quote_or_summary: Danger Island sorcerers set soul-snares of stout cinet near a
sick man's house, with different loop sizes for different souls; if the soul as
bird or insect is caught, the man dies.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: lines 3497-3503
quote_or_summary: Among the Sereres, a person seeking revenge gives presents to
the Fitaure, who conjures an enemy's soul into a red earthenware jar deposited
under a consecrated tree, after which the enemy dies.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:10
type: summary
locator: lines 3503-3510
quote_or_summary: Some Congo people are described as believing that enchanters enclose
human souls in ivory tusks and sell them to white men, who make them work under
the sea; the person whose soul is sold dies in due course.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: medium
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The passage is a comparative secondary text and includes many compressed
ethnographic reports; extraction is limited to the provided passage and preserves
Frazer's reported attributions without verification.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
No historical-contact or common-inheritance claims are made; comparison claims are limited to the passage's own comparative grouping and shared ritual functions.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg__l3423-l3497
passage_sha256=44fd9a55ed69cc0f8855cd7e669d362bab74fb140e2305a324b1ce9d9be4dd85