batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg-l2971-l3035
---
record_id: batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg-l2971-l3035
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
passage_locator:
label: 'The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 2 of 2) / CONTENTS;
lines 2971-3035'
start: '2971'
end: '3035'
translation: 'The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 2 of 2)'
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: Frazer surveys reports that some Indigenous North American hunters remove
or avoid eating a particular sinew from deer or other animals. He gives a Loucheux
and Hare-skin sacred story in which Fireless and Homeless, aided by a kind giant,
cuts the leg sinew of a hostile whale-giant so that it can be slain. Frazer then
argues that the story explains an existing custom and suggests that the custom
may originally have been connected with beliefs in animal resurrection and reproduction.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The passage reports a custom in which hunters detach or avoid eating the sinew
of the legs or lower thighs of animals such as deer.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: obs:2
text: Some accounts describe the sinew as thrown away or treated as a dangerous
pollution if eaten.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: The Loucheux and Hare-skin Indians are said to explain the custom with a sacred
story.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: In the sacred story, a man named Fireless and Homeless enters a porcupine
burrow, loses his way in darkness, and is released by a kind giant who cleaves
open the earth.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: The kind giant hunts for Fireless and Homeless and carries him in the sheath
of his flint knife.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:6
text: The kind giant says that a hostile being identified as one who uses the sky
as his head is angry with him and that red clouds would show his blood if he were
slain.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:7
text: The kind giant gives Fireless and Homeless an axe made from the tooth of a
gigantic beaver.
category: object
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:8
text: A whale under the ice is described as naked and cold, then takes human shape
and attacks the kind giant as the wicked giant.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:9
text: Fireless and Homeless cuts the sinew of the wicked giant’s leg; the wicked
giant falls down and is slain.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:10
text: Afterwards the sky turns red, which Fireless and Homeless understands as a
sign that the kind giant has died.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:11
text: Frazer states that the myth does not truly explain the origin of the custom
but was invented to explain it.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: obs:12
text: Frazer suggests that the custom may have originated from a belief that the
sinew was necessary for animal reproduction or resurrection.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Indigenous North American hunters and fishers
description: Groups described as observing rules about detaching or not eating a
particular sinew of hunted animals.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Loucheux and Hare-skin Indians
description: The groups specifically said to be forbidden by custom to eat the sinew
of animal legs and to tell the sacred story explaining the custom.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Fireless and Homeless
description: A man in the sacred story who loses his way in a porcupine burrow,
is aided by the kind giant, cuts the wicked giant’s leg sinew, and later weeps
when the sky reddens.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:9
- ev:10
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Kind giant, “He who sees before and behind”
description: A giant who releases Fireless and Homeless from the earth, hunts for
him, gives him an axe, fights the wicked giant, and later dies.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:9
- ev:10
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Wicked giant / whale
description: A hostile being first heard under the ice as a whale, then appearing
in human shape and attacking the kind giant; slain after its leg sinew is cut.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:9
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: He who uses the sky as his head
description: A hostile being named by the kind giant as angry with him and sworn
to destroy him; the passage connects the reddening sky with the giant’s death.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:10
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Slain animals
description: Animals such as deer, elans, beavers, and bears discussed in relation
to hunting, sinews, and possible resurrection beliefs.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:5
- ev:12
- ev:13
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Frazer as commentator
description: The passage’s authorial voice interprets the custom as related to beliefs
in animal resurrection rather than as caused by the myth.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- ev:12
- ev:13
roles:
- id: role:1
label: custom observer
assigned_to:
- fig:1
- fig:2
basis: These groups are described as detaching, throwing away, or abstaining from
a leg sinew of animals.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: role:2
label: story transmitters
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: The Loucheux and Hare-skin Indians are said to tell the sacred story to explain
the custom.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: role:3
label: human protagonist and sinew-cutter
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: Fireless and Homeless is the human who is rescued and later cuts the sinew
of the wicked giant’s leg.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:9
- id: role:4
label: helper and doomed giant
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: The kind giant rescues and supports the man, but warns of his own destruction
and is later inferred to have died.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:10
- id: role:5
label: hostile supernatural opponent
assigned_to:
- fig:5
- fig:6
basis: The passage names an angry sky-associated enemy and describes the whale-shaped
wicked giant attacking the kind giant.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:8
- ev:9
- id: role:6
label: hunted animals connected with regeneration concern
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: The passage connects hunted animal bodies, removed sinews, and Frazer’s proposed
resurrection or reproduction rationale.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:12
- ev:13
- id: role:7
label: comparative interpreter
assigned_to:
- fig:8
basis: Frazer dismisses the sacred story as an explanatory myth and proposes a different
origin for the custom.
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- ev:12
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: leg sinew
literal_form: The sinew removed from the lower thigh or leg of hunted animals, and
cut from the wicked giant’s leg in the sacred story.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:5
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:9
- ev:12
- id: sym:2
label: porcupine burrow and darkness
literal_form: A burrow entered by Fireless and Homeless, where he loses his way
in darkness.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: sym:3
label: cleft earth
literal_form: The earth opened by the kind giant to release Fireless and Homeless.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: sym:4
label: flint knife sheath
literal_form: The sheath of the kind giant’s flint knife, in which Fireless and
Homeless is carried.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: sym:5
label: beaver-tooth axe
literal_form: An axe made of the tooth of a gigantic beaver and given to Fireless
and Homeless.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: sym:6
label: ice and whale
literal_form: A whale under the ice that makes noise because it is naked and cold,
then takes human shape.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:7
label: red sky as blood sign
literal_form: Clouds or sky reddened as a sign associated with the blood or death
of the kind giant.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:10
- id: sym:8
label: animal skeleton and genital parts
literal_form: The buried skeleton of the male bear, including genital parts, in
a Lapp resurrection practice cited by Frazer.
associated_figures:
- fig:7
- fig:8
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Reports of sinew removal custom
summary: The passage gathers reports that various Indigenous North American groups
detach, throw away, or avoid eating a particular sinew from deer or other animals.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: scene:2
label: Descent into porcupine burrow and rescue
summary: Fireless and Homeless enters a porcupine burrow, becomes lost in darkness,
and is released when the kind giant cleaves open the earth.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: scene:3
label: Life with the kind giant
summary: The kind giant shelters the man, hunts animals for him, carries him in
a knife sheath, warns of a sky-associated enemy, and gives him a beaver-tooth
axe.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:6
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
- sym:5
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- id: scene:4
label: Combat with the whale-giant
summary: A whale under the ice takes human shape, attacks the kind giant, and is
defeated when Fireless and Homeless cuts its leg sinew.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:9
- id: scene:5
label: Red sky and mourning
summary: The sky turns red; Fireless and Homeless understands this as showing the
death of the kind giant and weeps.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: scene:6
label: Frazer’s interpretive conclusion
summary: Frazer treats the sacred story as an aetiological myth and suggests the
custom may have originated in a belief that the sinew was needed for animal reproduction
or resurrection.
figure_refs:
- fig:7
- fig:8
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- ev:12
- ev:13
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: taboo on eating a vital animal part
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Multiple reports describe a rule of removing, discarding, or avoiding a leg
sinew from hunted animals, with danger or misfortune attached to eating it.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
confidence: high
cautions: The passage reports differing accounts about whether the sinew was eaten
as a rarity or avoided; the taboo form is strongest in Adair and Petitot’s accounts.
- id: motif:2
label: animal resurrection dependent on bodily completeness
taxonomy_refs:
- resurrection
basis: Frazer suggests the sinew may have been thought necessary for reproduction
or for slain animals to come to life again, and cites another practice of burying
a bear skeleton with genital parts for resurrection.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:13
confidence: medium
cautions: This is Frazer’s proposed reconstruction, not a belief directly quoted
from the Loucheux and Hare-skin story in this passage.
- id: motif:3
label: myth explaining a ritual or dietary custom
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The passage states that the sacred story explains why the Indians do not
eat the leg sinew and then argues that such myths are invented to explain pre-existing
customs.
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:11
confidence: high
cautions: The claim is a scholarly interpretation within the passage.
- id: motif:4
label: descent into darkness and rescue through opened earth
taxonomy_refs:
- hero_descent
basis: Fireless and Homeless goes down into a porcupine burrow, loses his way in
darkness, and is released when the kind giant opens the earth.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage does not frame this as a formal initiatory or underworld descent;
the taxonomy link is based on the literal descent-and-rescue pattern only.
- id: motif:5
label: helper giant versus shapeshifting hostile giant
taxonomy_refs:
- shapeshifter
basis: The kind giant aids the human protagonist, while the hostile being appears
as a whale under the ice, takes human shape, and fights the kind giant.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:8
- ev:9
confidence: medium
cautions: The shapeshifting element is explicit, but no broader taxonomy or tradition
is supplied beyond the passage.
- id: motif:6
label: red sky as sign of supernatural death
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The kind giant says red clouds would mark his blood if he were slain; later
the red sky tells Fireless and Homeless the kind giant is dead.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:10
confidence: high
cautions: The passage presents this as an internal sign within the sacred story.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: One quoted informant says the Choctaw had an obscure story somewhat resembling
Jacob wrestling with an angel.
claim_level: visual_similarity
target: Jacob wrestling with an angel
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: low
limitations: The passage gives no details of the Choctaw story beyond the informant’s
brief comparison and does not establish shared origin or function.
- id: claim:2
claim: The passage notes a reported similarity between some Indigenous abstention
from the sinew and the practice attributed to ancient Jews.
claim_level: same_function
target: ancient Jewish abstention from eating the sinew
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: low
limitations: The comparison appears in a report with mixed authority, and the passage
does not provide independent detail about the Jewish practice or any historical
connection.
- id: claim:3
claim: Frazer compares the North American sinew custom with a Lapp bear-burial practice
under a shared concern with animal resurrection.
claim_level: same_function
target: Lapp burial of the male bear skeleton with genital parts for resurrection
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:13
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: This is Frazer’s functional comparison and proposed rationale; the
passage does not prove that the practices share a historical source.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: 2971-2984
quote_or_summary: A half-breed Choctaw report says Indians had a story somewhat
resembling Jacob wrestling with an angel and that full-blooded Indians separated
the sinew; accounts differ on whether it was eaten as a rarity or avoided like
ancient Jews.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: 2984-2998
quote_or_summary: James Adair reports that Indians cut a piece from the lower thigh
of deer they kill; another informant says northern Indians throw it away and treat
eating it as dangerous pollution causing sickness, misfortunes, and spoiled guns.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: 2998-3004
quote_or_summary: Petitot confirms the custom among the Loucheux and Hare-skin Indians,
who are forbidden by custom to eat animal leg sinew and explain it with a sacred
story.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: 3004-3008
quote_or_summary: Fireless and Homeless enters a porcupine burrow, loses his way
in darkness, and is released by the kind giant called He who sees before and behind,
who cleaves open the earth.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: 3008-3010
quote_or_summary: The man lives with the kind giant, who hunts elans and beavers
for him and carries him in the sheath of his flint knife.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: 3010-3014
quote_or_summary: The kind giant warns that the being who uses the sky as his head
is angry with him and says red clouds would mark his blood if he is slain.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: 3014-3015
quote_or_summary: The kind giant gives the man an axe made from the tooth of a gigantic
beaver before going to meet his enemy.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: 3015-3020
quote_or_summary: A whale beneath the ice makes noise because it is naked and cold;
warned by the man, the kind giant approaches, and the whale takes human shape
and attacks as the wicked giant.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: 3020-3023
quote_or_summary: During the long struggle the kind giant tells the man to cut the
sinew of the leg; the man cuts it, and the wicked giant falls and is slain. This
is given as the reason the Indians do not eat the leg sinew.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:10
type: summary
locator: 3023-3025
quote_or_summary: Later the sky suddenly grows red, so Fireless and Homeless knows
the kind giant is dead and weeps.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:11
type: summary
locator: 3025-3029
quote_or_summary: Frazer states that the myth does not really explain the custom
and argues that peoples invent myths to explain customs they already observe.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:12
type: summary
locator: 3029-3033
quote_or_summary: Frazer suggests the original reason for the custom may have been
a belief that the sinew was necessary to reproduction and that animals deprived
of it could not come to life again in this world or the spirit land.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
- id: ev:13
type: summary
locator: 3033-3035
quote_or_summary: Frazer cites a common belief in animal resurrection and notes
that Lapps bury the male bear skeleton with genital parts in hope of resurrection.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary used.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The passage is explicit about the sinew custom, the Loucheux and Hare-skin
sacred story, and Frazer’s interpretation. Motif taxonomy links are cautious because
several are Frazer’s scholarly reconstruction rather than directly stated native
explanation.
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: |-
Historical terminology in the source has been paraphrased where possible in extracted fields. No external sources were used.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg__l2971-l3035
passage_sha256=9b97ad64c0ef92f22685dad50b4fe972aebcb7a8199922ded2a69f3dfce3aba8