batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg-l775-l852
---
record_id: batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg-l775-l852
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
passage_locator:
label: PREFACE. / J. G. FRAZER. / CHAPTER I. THE KING OF THE WOOD. / MACAULAY.;
lines 775-852
start: '775'
end: '852'
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: Frazer collects examples of rites and beliefs in which people seek to rekindle,
make, catch, detain, or hasten the sun, often by using fire, stones, trees, towers,
nets, reeds, sacrifices, washing, mock suns, or gestures directed toward the heavenly
body. The passage also contrasts some sunshine-making rites with rain-making rites.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The passage says some Ojebways shot fire-tipped arrows into the air during
an eclipse because they thought the sun was being extinguished.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The passage says some Orinoco Indian tribes buried lighted brands during a
lunar eclipse to preserve earthly fire if the moon were extinguished.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: A New Caledonian wizard makes sunshine by assembling plants, coral, hair from
a living child, and bones or teeth from an ancestor, then kindling fire on a mountain
altar at sunrise while invoking ancestors and addressing the sun.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: obs:4
text: The Sun clan of the Bechuanas stop work when sunrise is clouded, distribute
the previous day’s food to matrons or old women and nursing children, wash in
a river, exchange hearth stones with riverbed stones, receive fire from the chief’s
hut, and dance.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:5
text: Frazer states that in these cases the lighting of flame on earth seems intended
to rekindle the solar fire.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:6
text: Melanesians make sunshine with a mock sun formed from a round stone with red
braid and owl feathers, or a stone with white rods radiating from it.
category: object
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:7
text: The passage contrasts sunshine and rain rites by saying a white or red pig
is sacrificed for sunshine as a black pig is sacrificed for rain, and that some
New Caledonians drench a skeleton for rain but burn it for sunshine.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:8
text: Two ruined towers in a Peruvian Andes pass have iron hooks for stretching
a net between them, with the stated purpose of catching the sun.
category: object
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:9
text: Travellers in Fiji tied reed tops together on a hill in order to detain the
sun from setting.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:10
text: The passage reports a Lithuanian account in which the sun was shut in a tower
by a powerful king and released when signs of the zodiac broke the tower open
with a large iron hammer.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: obs:11
text: An Australian man wishing to keep the sun up places a sod in the fork of a
tree facing the setting sun.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: obs:12
text: An Indian of Yucatan travelling westward places a stone in a tree or blows
eyelashes toward the sun to delay sunset.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: obs:13
text: South African travellers place a stone in a tree branch or grass and stone
on a path, believing this will make friends keep a meal waiting until they arrive.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- id: obs:14
text: Frazer suggests that marking the sun’s position by placing stones in trees
may have been confused with arresting the sun at the marked point.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: obs:15
text: Australians are said to make the sun go down faster by throwing sand into
the air and blowing toward the sun.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:16
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Ojebways
description: A group described as shooting fire-tipped arrows during a solar eclipse.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Indian tribes of the Orinoco
description: Groups described as burying lighted brands during a lunar eclipse.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: New Caledonian wizard
description: A ritual specialist who performs a sunshine-making rite with plants,
coral, child hair, ancestor remains, a mountain altar, fire, smoke, and invocation.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Living child
description: A child from whom two locks of hair are cut for the New Caledonian
wizard’s charm bundle.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Ancestor or ancestors
description: Ancestor remains are included in the charm bundle, and ancestors are
invoked during the rite.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Sun clan of the Bechuanas
description: A group who respond ritually when the sun rises behind clouds and are
described as kinsmen of the sun.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Bechuana chief
description: The chief kindles a fire in his hut from which subjects obtain light.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Melanesians
description: A group described as making sunshine by means of a mock sun.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Peruvians
description: People associated by Frazer with an Andean net intended to catch the
sun.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
- id: fig:10
name_or_label: Fiji travellers
description: Travellers who tie reeds together to detain the sun from going down.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: fig:11
name_or_label: Lithuanian tribe and priests
description: A tribe described as worshipping the sun and venerating an iron hammer;
priests explain the hammer’s role in releasing the sun.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: fig:12
name_or_label: Powerful king
description: A figure in the Lithuanian account who shut the sun in a strong tower.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: fig:13
name_or_label: Signs of the zodiac
description: Figures in the Lithuanian account who break open the tower with a hammer
and release the sun.
role_refs:
- role:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: fig:14
name_or_label: Australian travellers or natives
description: People described as placing sods or stones in trees to affect or mark
the sun, and as throwing sand and blowing toward the sun to hasten sunset.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:15
- ev:16
- id: fig:15
name_or_label: Indian of Yucatan
description: A traveller who places a stone in a tree or blows eyelashes toward
the sun to delay sunset.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: fig:16
name_or_label: South African natives
description: Travellers who put stone or grass arrangements in place with the belief
that friends will delay a meal.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
roles:
- id: role:1
label: ritual actor seeking to affect the sun or daylight
assigned_to:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:6
- fig:8
- fig:9
- fig:10
- fig:14
- fig:15
- fig:16
basis: These figures perform actions described as rekindling, making, catching,
detaining, marking, or hastening the sun or its light.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:12
- ev:13
- ev:14
- ev:15
- ev:16
- id: role:2
label: ritual specialist
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: The New Caledonian actor is explicitly called a wizard who performs a detailed
rite.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: role:3
label: source of ritual hair
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: Two locks of hair from a living child are included in the wizard’s bundle
of charms.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: role:4
label: ancestral power invoked or materially represented
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: Ancestor teeth or a jawbone are placed in the charm bundle, and ancestors
are invoked during the rite.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: role:5
label: claimed kinsmen of the sun
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: Frazer says the Sun clan of the Bechuanas deem themselves veritable kinsmen
of the sun.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: role:6
label: fire-giving chief
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: The chief kindles a fire in his hut and subjects come to get light from it.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: role:7
label: sun worshippers and hammer venerators
assigned_to:
- fig:11
basis: Jerome of Prague found a Lithuanian tribe who worshipped the sun and venerated
a large iron hammer.
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: role:8
label: captor of the sun
assigned_to:
- fig:12
basis: The powerful king is said to have shut the sun in a strong tower.
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: role:9
label: releasers of the sun
assigned_to:
- fig:13
basis: The signs of the zodiac break open the tower with the hammer and release
the sun.
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: sun
literal_form: The sun, treated as a body whose light may be rekindled, whose heat
may burn up clouds, and whose motion may be caught, detained, marked, or hastened.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:6
- fig:8
- fig:9
- fig:10
- fig:11
- fig:12
- fig:13
- fig:14
- fig:15
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:11
- ev:12
- ev:13
- ev:15
- ev:16
- id: sym:2
label: moon
literal_form: The moon during an eclipse, connected by Orinoco tribes with the possible
extinguishing of all fire on earth.
associated_figures:
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:3
label: fire
literal_form: Fire-tipped arrows, lighted brands, altar fire, hearth fire, and the
chief’s hut fire.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:6
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs:
- fire
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: sym:4
label: mountain
literal_form: A high mountain whose top catches the first rays of the morning sun.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs:
- mountain
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: sym:5
label: stone altar and stones
literal_form: A flat stone altar, round stones used as mock suns, hearth stones
exchanged with river stones, and stones placed in trees or paths.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:6
- fig:8
- fig:14
- fig:15
- fig:16
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:12
- ev:13
- ev:14
- ev:15
- id: sym:6
label: water
literal_form: River washing and riverbed stones used by the Bechuanas; drenching
of a skeleton to make rain.
associated_figures:
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:8
- id: sym:7
label: tree
literal_form: A high tree from which a mock sun is hung; tree forks or branches
used to hold sods or stones in sunset-related customs.
associated_figures:
- fig:8
- fig:14
- fig:15
- fig:16
taxonomy_refs:
- tree
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:12
- ev:13
- ev:14
- ev:15
- id: sym:8
label: mock sun
literal_form: A round stone wound with red braid and owl feathers as rays, or a
stone with white rods radiating from it.
associated_figures:
- fig:8
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: sym:9
label: net
literal_form: A net stretched between two Andean towers to catch the sun.
associated_figures:
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: sym:10
label: reeds
literal_form: A handful of reeds tied together on a Fijian hill to detain the sun.
associated_figures:
- fig:10
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: sym:11
label: iron hammer
literal_form: A large iron hammer venerated because it was said to have broken open
the tower that confined the sun.
associated_figures:
- fig:11
- fig:13
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: sym:12
label: tower
literal_form: A strong tower in which the sun is said to have been shut; also ruined
Andean towers used for a sun-catching net.
associated_figures:
- fig:9
- fig:12
- fig:13
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:11
- id: sym:13
label: sacrifice and skeleton treatment
literal_form: White or red pig sacrificed for sunshine; black pig sacrificed for
rain; skeleton drenched for rain or burned for sunshine.
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Eclipse fire rites
summary: During eclipses, one group shoots fire-tipped arrows upward to rekindle
the sun, while another buries burning brands to preserve fire if the moon is extinguished.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: scene:2
label: New Caledonian sunshine rite
summary: A wizard gathers charm materials from plants, coral, a child, and an ancestor,
places them on a mountain altar, kindles fire at sunrise, produces smoke, rubs
the stone with coral, invokes ancestors, and addresses the sun.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:3
- sym:4
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: scene:3
label: Bechuana cloudy-sun response
summary: The Sun clan responds to a clouded sunrise by stopping work, giving food
to designated women and nursing children, washing in the river, exchanging hearth
stones with river stones, receiving fire from the chief, and dancing.
figure_refs:
- fig:6
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:3
- sym:5
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: scene:4
label: Imitative mock sun
summary: Melanesians make sunshine using a constructed sun image made from a round
stone and radiating materials, sometimes hung in a tree.
figure_refs:
- fig:8
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:7
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: scene:5
label: Contrasting sunshine and rain rites
summary: Frazer contrasts rites for sunshine and rain through color-coded pig sacrifice
and opposite treatments of a skeleton, drenching for rain and burning for sunshine.
figure_refs: []
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:6
- sym:13
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: scene:6
label: Catching or entangling the sun
summary: An Andean net between towers is said to catch the sun, and Fijian travellers
tie reeds to detain sunset; Frazer relates these as possible entangling actions.
figure_refs:
- fig:9
- fig:10
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:9
- sym:10
- sym:12
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
- id: scene:7
label: Lithuanian release of the sun
summary: A Lithuanian tradition explains the veneration of a hammer by telling that
a king confined the sun in a tower until the zodiac signs broke the tower open
with the hammer.
figure_refs:
- fig:11
- fig:12
- fig:13
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:11
- sym:12
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: scene:8
label: Tree, stone, and gesture rites to delay or hasten the sun
summary: Australian, Yucatan, and South African examples use sods, stones, grass,
eyelashes, sand, and blowing gestures in attempts to delay the sun, mark its progress,
delay a meal, or hasten sunset.
figure_refs:
- fig:14
- fig:15
- fig:16
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:5
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:13
- ev:14
- ev:15
- ev:16
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: Ritual rekindling of a threatened celestial light
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The eclipse examples and Frazer’s summary describe earthly flames as used
or understood to rekindle the sun or preserve fire from celestial extinction.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:6
confidence: high
cautions: The passage reports Frazer’s comparative interpretation; individual communities’
full ritual contexts are not given.
- id: motif:2
label: Making sunshine by sympathetic fire, heat, or solar imitation
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The New Caledonian altar fire and invocation, Bechuana fire rite, and Melanesian
mock sun all aim at making sunshine or strengthening solar heat.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
confidence: high
cautions: The passage frames these as examples of sympathetic action, but details
are mediated through Frazer’s sources.
- id: motif:3
label: Catching, entangling, or detaining the sun
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The Andean net, Fijian reed tying, Australian sod in a tree, and Yucatan
stone or eyelash acts are all presented as attempts to catch or delay the sun.
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:12
- ev:13
confidence: high
cautions: For Fiji, Frazer states the entangling intention as a possibility rather
than a certainty.
- id: motif:4
label: Sun confined and released from a tower
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The Lithuanian account tells of the sun being shut in a tower by a king and
released when zodiac signs break it open with a hammer.
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
confidence: high
cautions: This motif occurs as a reported explanation for hammer veneration in one
cited account.
- id: motif:5
label: Sacrificial contrast between sunshine and rain rites
taxonomy_refs:
- sacrifice
- seasonal_cycle
basis: The passage states that white or red pigs are sacrificed for sunshine as
black pigs are sacrificed for rain, and contrasts burning and drenching a skeleton
for different weather outcomes.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage gives brief comparative examples without extended ritual context;
the seasonal-cycle taxonomy reference is broad.
- id: motif:6
label: Mistaking a marker of solar progress for a means of arresting the sun
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Frazer suggests that placing stones in trees to mark the sun’s height may
have led to the idea that marking the sun’s progress could arrest it.
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
confidence: medium
cautions: This is explicitly a proposed explanation, not a reported native explanation.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: 'Frazer presents multiple geographically distinct practices as having the
same function: to influence the sun’s light, heat, or apparent motion through
earthly actions.'
claim_level: same_function
target: Sun-affecting rites across Ojebway, Orinoco, New Caledonian, Bechuana, Melanesian,
Peruvian, Fijian, Australian, Yucatan, and South African examples
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:12
- ev:13
- ev:14
- ev:16
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: The passage supports functional comparison, not historical contact
or common inheritance.
- id: claim:2
claim: Frazer compares the Peruvian sun-catching net and the Fijian tied reeds as
possible variants of entangling or detaining the sun.
claim_level: same_motif
target: Sun caught or detained by net, reeds, or noose-like entanglement
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: Frazer marks the Fijian intention as 'perhaps'; the passage does not
prove identical meaning in both settings.
- id: claim:3
claim: The passage itself contrasts sunshine-making and rain-making as inverse ritual
functions in examples involving pig color and skeleton treatment.
claim_level: same_function
target: Opposed sunshine and rain rites
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: Only brief examples are provided; the specific ritual systems are not
described in detail.
- id: claim:4
claim: Frazer links tree-and-stone practices for delaying the sun with a practical
custom of marking the sun’s height in trees, proposing a confusion between indication
and control.
claim_level: same_function
target: Tree or stone markers as signs of solar position and as attempted restraints
on the sun
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:13
- ev:14
- ev:15
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: This is Frazer’s partial explanation and is explicitly tentative.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 775-779
quote_or_summary: Ojebways are said to think the sun is being extinguished during
an eclipse and to shoot fire-tipped arrows into the air to rekindle its light.
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 779-784
quote_or_summary: Some Orinoco Indian tribes bury lighted brands during a lunar
eclipse, saying all earthly fire would be extinguished with the moon except fire
hidden from her sight.
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 784-792
quote_or_summary: A New Caledonian wizard prepares a sunshine-making charm with
plants, coral, two locks of a living child's hair, and ancestor teeth or jawbone,
then takes it to a high mountain catching the first morning sun.
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: quote
locator: lines 792-798
quote_or_summary: "“Sun! I do this that you may be burning hot, and eat up all the
clouds in the sky.”"
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: lines 798-809
quote_or_summary: When the sun rises behind clouds, the Bechuana Sun clan stops
work, gives prior food to matrons or old women and nursing children, washes in
the river, exchanges hearth stones for riverbed stones, receives fire from the
chief's hut, and dances.
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 809-813
quote_or_summary: Frazer states that lighting flame on earth seems meant to rekindle
the solar fire and notes that the Bechuana Sun clan deem themselves kinsmen of
the sun.
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 813-817
quote_or_summary: 'Melanesians make sunshine by a mock sun: a round stone wound
with red braid and owl feathers as rays, hung on a high tree, or a stone laid
with white rods radiating from it.'
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 817-821
quote_or_summary: 'Frazer says sunshine-making can be the converse of rain-making:
white or red pig for sunshine versus black pig for rain; some New Caledonians
drench a skeleton for rain but burn it for sunshine.'
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 823-826
quote_or_summary: In a Peruvian Andes pass, two ruined towers with iron hooks are
described as supports for a net intended to catch the sun.
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 827-832
quote_or_summary: In Fiji, travellers tie reed tops together to detain the sun;
Frazer suggests the aim may be to entangle the sun, like the Peruvian net, and
notes widespread stories of men catching the sun in a noose.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:11
type: summary
locator: lines 832-839
quote_or_summary: Jerome of Prague reports a Lithuanian tribe worshipping the sun
and venerating an iron hammer, explained by priests as the hammer with which the
zodiac signs broke open a tower where a king had confined the sun.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:12
type: summary
locator: lines 839-841
quote_or_summary: An Australian man wishing to keep the sun from going down places
a sod in a tree fork facing the setting sun.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:13
type: summary
locator: lines 841-843
quote_or_summary: An Indian of Yucatan travelling westward places a stone in a tree
or blows eyelashes toward the sun for the same purpose of delaying sunset.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:14
type: summary
locator: lines 843-846
quote_or_summary: South African travellers put a stone in a tree branch or grass
and a stone on the path, believing friends will keep a meal waiting until they
arrive.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:15
type: summary
locator: lines 846-851
quote_or_summary: Frazer explains that Australians place stones in trees to indicate
the sun's height when they passed; he suggests this marking custom may have been
confused with arresting the sun at the marked point.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:16
type: summary
locator: lines 851-852
quote_or_summary: To make the sun go down faster, Australians throw sand into the
air and blow with their mouths toward the sun.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The passage is already a comparative scholarly aggregation, so extraction
of literal examples is strong. Motif labels and taxonomy links are conservative
and require human review because Frazer’s interpretive framing may not match source-culture
categories.
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: |-
Only the supplied passage and metadata were used. No historical-contact or common-inheritance claim is made.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg__l775-l852
passage_sha256=6aa703a96f3354e94e942b43805179527b9497b5fbd4f0d68babbe52dd286a38