batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg-l4411-l4468
---
record_id: batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg-l4411-l4468
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 4411-4468'
start: '4411'
end: '4468'
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 rites in which a community’s disease or noxious influences
are transferred to an animal or human scapegoat and expelled beyond village limits,
with examples from India, the Eastern Ghats, Southern Konkan, the Aymara, and
aboriginal tribes of China.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The passage states that the vehicle carrying away collected demons or ills
of a community is often an animal or scapegoat.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: In the Central Provinces of India during cholera, priests take straw from
house roofs, burn it with offerings at an eastern shrine, and drive vermilion-daubed
chickens away in the direction of the smoke; goats and pigs may be tried if chickens
fail.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: Among the Bhárs, Malláns, and Kurmís, a female black goat or buffalo is loaded
with grain, cloves, and red lead in yellow cloth and led beyond the village boundary
without being allowed to return.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: At Sagar during influenza, a noisy procession was proposed or performed, with
communal participation, driving a buffalo or goat out several miles and treating
the animal’s return as the disease’s return.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: At Pithuria, a pair of scapegoats were harnessed to a small carriage and driven
to a distant wood; the disease was said to cease, and their return would have
meant the disease’s return.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:6
text: In Jeypur during small-pox, people made puja to a goat, marched it to the
Ghats, and released it on the plains.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:7
text: In Southern Konkan during cholera, villagers carried cooked rice with red
powder, a wooden doll representing pestilence, and a cock to the village boundary,
where the cock was beheaded and the body thrown away; neighboring villages repeated
the transfer.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:8
text: Aymara Indians loaded a llama with plague victims’ clothes and drove it into
the mountains, hoping it would take the plague away.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:9
text: Some aboriginal tribes of China select a strong man as a scapegoat; after
paint and antics intended to attract pestilential influences, he is driven out
by people beating gongs and tom-toms.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:10
text: A Hindu cure for murrain hires a Chamár man, turns his face away from the
village, brands him with a red-hot sickle, and sends him into the jungle with
the instruction that he must not look back.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: animal or scapegoat vehicle
description: An animal or scapegoat described as carrying away a community’s collected
demons or ills.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Central Provinces priests
description: Priests who parade the streets, collect straw from roofs, burn offerings,
and initiate the driving away of animals during cholera.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: vermilion-daubed chickens, goats, and pigs
description: Animals driven away from the village during cholera, believed to carry
the disease with them.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: female black goat or buffalo
description: A female animal, as black as possible, loaded with grain, cloves, and
red lead in yellow cloth and sent beyond the village boundary.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Sagar procession participants
description: Men, women, and children who make noise with voices, pots, pans, and
firearms while following the expelled animal.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Sagar buffalo or goat
description: Animal purchased by subscription and driven from the settlement during
influenza; its return would mean the return of disease.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Pithuria pair of scapegoats
description: Two goats harnessed to a small carriage and driven to a distant wood
during influenza.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Jeypur goat
description: Goat to which puja is made, then marched to the Ghats and released
on the plains during small-pox.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Southern Konkan cock
description: Cock carried to the village boundary, beheaded there, and thrown away
during a cholera rite.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: fig:10
name_or_label: Aymara llama
description: Llama loaded with clothes of plague-stricken people and driven into
the mountains.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: fig:11
name_or_label: Chinese human scapegoat
description: A strong man painted and made to attract pestilential influences before
being driven out of the town or village.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: fig:12
name_or_label: assisting priest
description: Priest who assists the human scapegoat in the Chinese pestilence rite.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: fig:13
name_or_label: Chamár man
description: Hired man branded with a red-hot sickle and sent into the jungle to
take the murrain with him.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
roles:
- id: role:1
label: scapegoat or disease-bearer
assigned_to:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:8
- fig:9
- fig:10
- fig:11
- fig:13
basis: These animals or men are explicitly said or functionally described as carrying
disease, pestilence, murrain, or communal ills away from the settlement.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
- id: role:2
label: ritual officiant or assistant
assigned_to:
- fig:2
- fig:12
basis: Priests perform or assist rites that transfer and expel disease-bearing influences.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:9
- id: role:3
label: participating community
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: The Sagar rite emphasizes men, women, children, and all families participating
in the noisy procession and subscription.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: scapegoat animal or human carrier
literal_form: Animal, goat, buffalo, chicken, pig, cock, llama, or man used as the
carrier of disease or noxious influences.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:8
- fig:9
- fig:10
- fig:11
- fig:13
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
- id: sym:2
label: village boundary
literal_form: Boundary, outskirts, plains, distant wood, mountains, or jungle beyond
the inhabited settlement.
associated_figures:
- fig:4
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:8
- fig:10
- fig:13
taxonomy_refs:
- mountain
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:8
- ev:10
- id: sym:3
label: fire and smoke
literal_form: Straw burned with offerings; smoke directs the expelled chickens;
red-hot sickle brands the human bearer.
associated_figures:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:13
taxonomy_refs:
- fire
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:10
- id: sym:4
label: red marking substances
literal_form: Vermilion, red lead, red powder, and a red-hot sickle appear in several
rites.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:9
- fig:13
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:7
- ev:10
- id: sym:5
label: food or offering materials
literal_form: Rice, ghi, turmeric, grain, cloves, and cooked rice are used in the
rites.
associated_figures:
- fig:2
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:7
- id: sym:6
label: wooden doll of pestilence
literal_form: Wooden doll representing the pestilence in the Southern Konkan cholera
procession.
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: sym:7
label: plague-stricken clothes
literal_form: Clothes of plague-stricken people loaded onto a llama.
associated_figures:
- fig:10
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:8
label: ritual noise
literal_form: Psalmody, brass pots and pans, firearms, gongs, and tom-toms used
during expulsion processions.
associated_figures:
- fig:5
- fig:11
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:9
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: General statement of scapegoat vehicle
summary: The passage frames the examples as cases where a vehicle, often an animal
or scapegoat, carries away communal demons or ills.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Central Provinces cholera expulsion
summary: During cholera, priests burn straw and offerings at an eastern shrine and
drive marked animals away so that they carry the disease off.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:3
- sym:4
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: scene:3
label: Black female animal sent beyond boundary
summary: A black female goat or buffalo is loaded with ritual materials and conducted
beyond the village boundary, where it is not allowed to return.
figure_refs:
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:4
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: scene:4
label: Sagar noisy influenza procession
summary: A community procession with loud sounds drives a buffalo or goat away;
if the animal returns, the disease is expected to return too.
figure_refs:
- fig:5
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: scene:5
label: Pithuria scapegoats taken to wood
summary: A pair of scapegoats in a small carriage is driven to a distant wood and
released; their non-return is linked with the cessation of disease.
figure_refs:
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: scene:6
label: Jeypur small-pox goat
summary: People worship a goat, march it to the Ghats, and release it on the plains
during small-pox.
figure_refs:
- fig:8
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: scene:7
label: Southern Konkan boundary transfer
summary: Villagers carry rice, a pestilence doll, and a cock to the boundary; the
cock is killed, and cholera is described as being passed from village to village.
figure_refs:
- fig:9
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:4
- sym:5
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: scene:8
label: Aymara plague llama
summary: A llama loaded with clothes of plague victims is driven into the mountains
to take the plague away.
figure_refs:
- fig:10
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: scene:9
label: Human scapegoats in Chinese and Hindu examples
summary: A painted strong man is driven out to remove pestilential influences, and
a Chamár man is branded and sent into the jungle to take murrain away.
figure_refs:
- fig:11
- fig:12
- fig:13
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
- sym:4
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: communal illness transferred to a scapegoat and expelled
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Across the passage, disease or noxious influence is attached to an animal
or human bearer that is driven away from the settlement.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
confidence: high
cautions: The available taxonomy list has no direct scapegoat or expulsion-of-disease
motif family; no taxonomy reference is assigned.
- id: motif:2
label: boundary expulsion as disease removal
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Multiple rites conduct the bearer to or beyond a boundary, wood, plains,
mountains, or jungle, and return of the bearer is associated with return of the
disease.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:10
confidence: high
cautions: This is a passage-level pattern rather than a named taxonomy item in the
supplied list.
- id: motif:3
label: ritual killing or marking of disease bearer
taxonomy_refs:
- sacrifice
basis: The Southern Konkan cock is beheaded at the boundary, and some rites mark
the bearer with vermilion, red lead, paint, or a red-hot sickle.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:7
- ev:9
- ev:10
confidence: medium
cautions: Only the cock is explicitly killed; other examples involve marking, driving
away, or branding rather than sacrifice in a strict sense.
- id: motif:4
label: non-return condition for removed disease
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Several examples explicitly state that if the expelled animal returns, the
disease returns with it, while non-return is linked with disease cessation.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
confidence: high
cautions: This condition is explicit only in some of the examples, not all.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: 'The passage itself compares rites from several communities as instances
of the same functional pattern: a bearer receives communal disease or noxious
influence and is expelled from the settlement.'
claim_level: same_function
target: scapegoat rites for removing communal illness
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: high
limitations: The claim follows Frazer’s comparative framing; the passage does not
establish historical contact or common inheritance among the communities.
- id: claim:2
claim: The animal and human examples are presented as variations of a scapegoat
pattern rather than as separate unrelated rites.
claim_level: same_motif
target: animal and human scapegoat variations
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The passage gives brief reports and does not analyze local meanings
beyond the disease-removal function.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 4411-4413
quote_or_summary: A general statement says that the vehicle carrying away collected
demons or ills of a whole community is often an animal or scapegoat.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: lines 4413-4421
quote_or_summary: In the Central Provinces of India during cholera, priests burn
straw from house roofs with offerings at an eastern shrine and drive vermilion-marked
chickens toward the smoke; goats and pigs may be used if needed.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: lines 4421-4427
quote_or_summary: Among the Bhárs, Malláns, and Kurmís, a female black goat or buffalo
with grain, cloves, and red lead tied to its back in yellow cloth is turned out
beyond the village boundary and not allowed to return.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: lines 4427-4445
quote_or_summary: At Sagar during influenza, a noisy procession of men, women, and
children drives out a buffalo or goat purchased by subscription; if it returns,
the disease is expected to return and the ceremony must be repeated.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: lines 4445-4451
quote_or_summary: At Pithuria, two scapegoats harnessed to a small carriage are
driven to a distant wood and released; the disease ceases, and their return would
mean its return.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: lines 4451-4454
quote_or_summary: In Jeypur during small-pox, people make puja to a goat, march
it to the Ghats, and release it on the plains.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: lines 4454-4462
quote_or_summary: In Southern Konkan during cholera, villagers carry cooked rice
with red powder, a wooden pestilence doll, and a cock to the village boundary,
behead the cock, throw the body away, and pass the scourge onward to neighboring
villages.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: lines 4462-4465
quote_or_summary: Aymara Indians suffering from plague load a llama with clothes
of plague-stricken people and drive it into the mountains so it will take the
plague away.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: lines 4465-4467
quote_or_summary: Some aboriginal tribes of China choose a strong man as a scapegoat,
paint his face, have him attract pestilential influences through antics, and drive
him from the village with gong and tom-tom noise, assisted by a priest.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:10
type: summary
locator: line 4468
quote_or_summary: A Hindu murrain cure hires a Chamár man, faces him away from the
village, brands him with a red-hot sickle, and sends him into the jungle without
looking back, taking the murrain with him.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The passage is explicit about scapegoat-style expulsion rites and includes
Frazer’s own comparative framing. Motif taxonomy alignment is limited because
the supplied list lacks a direct scapegoat or disease-expulsion category.
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. Comparison claims are limited to the passage’s own comparative presentation and do not infer historical contact.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg__l4411-l4468
passage_sha256=ba33df56a5e7fed458e605eab5781af2a4a8c9d605c4676c1415f8131cef6bc1