batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg-l7255-l7309
---
record_id: batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg-l7255-l7309
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 7255-7309'
start: '7255'
end: '7309'
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 recounts a Nias tale in which a captured chief cannot be killed
by water, fire, or steel until his wife reveals that his life is bound to a hard
hair on his head; when it is plucked, his spirit leaves. He then argues that tales
of the external soul correspond to customs in which souls or strength are believed
to reside outside the body or in hair, citing examples from Celebes, Amboina,
Ceram, and Zacynthus.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: A chief from Nias is captured by enemies who try unsuccessfully to kill him.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: Water does not drown the chief, fire does not burn him, and steel does not
pierce him.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:3
text: The chief’s wife reveals that a hair on his head is as hard as copper wire
and that his life is bound up with it.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: When the hair is plucked out, the chief’s spirit flees.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:5
text: Frazer states that many popular tales include the idea that the soul may be
deposited outside the body or in the hair.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:6
text: Frazer states that in some tales a hero removes his soul from his body before
battle so that his body may be invulnerable and immortal in combat.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:7
text: Among the Minahassa of Celebes, when a family moves into a new house, a priest
collects the family’s souls in a bag and later restores them.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:8
text: The entry into a new house is described as a time believed to involve supernatural
danger.
category: setting
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:9
text: In Southern Celebes, a messenger fetching a birth attendant carries a piece
of iron that the doctor keeps until childbirth is over.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:10
text: The piece of iron is said to represent the woman’s soul, which is believed
to be safer outside her body during childbirth.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:11
text: If the piece of iron is lost, the woman’s soul is believed to be lost with
it.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:12
text: In Amboina, natives are described as believing that their strength is in their
hair and would leave them if the hair were shorn.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:13
text: Dutch authorities in Amboina are described as cutting prisoners’ hair when
torture failed to obtain confession.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:14
text: In Ceram, young people are believed to be weakened and enervated if their
hair is cut.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:15
text: In Zacynthus, people are described as believing that the strength of the ancient
Greeks resided in three breast hairs, vanished when they were cut, and returned
if they regrew.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Nias chief
description: A chief captured by enemies and initially unaffected by drowning, burning,
or piercing.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Enemies of the chief
description: Captors who attempt to put the chief to death.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Chief’s wife
description: The person who reveals the secret of the chief’s life-bound hair.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Minahassa priest
description: A priest who collects a family’s souls in a bag and later restores
them when the family enters a new house.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Minahassa family
description: A family whose souls are collected and restored during a move into
a new house.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Woman in Southern Celebes childbirth custom
description: A woman in childbirth whose soul is represented by a piece of iron
kept outside her body.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Messenger in Southern Celebes childbirth custom
description: A messenger who carries a piece of iron to the doctor or midwife.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Doctor or midwife in Southern Celebes childbirth custom
description: A birth attendant who keeps the piece of iron until confinement is
over and then returns it.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Amboina prisoners
description: Criminal suspects or prisoners whose hair may be cut to force confession.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: fig:10
name_or_label: Dutch authorities in Amboina
description: Authorities described as cutting prisoners’ hair when torture failed
to produce confession.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: fig:11
name_or_label: Young people in Ceram
description: Young people believed to be weakened if their hair is cut.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: fig:12
name_or_label: Ancient Greeks as imagined in Zacynthus belief
description: A group whose strength is said to reside in three hairs on their breasts.
role_refs:
- role:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
roles:
- id: role:1
label: Invulnerable captive
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The chief is captured, but water, fire, and steel fail to kill or injure
him.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:2
label: Bearer of externalized life in hair
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: His life is said to be bound up with a hard hair on his head.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:3
label: Would-be executioners
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: They capture the chief and try to put him to death.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:4
label: Revealer of hidden life-secret
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: The wife reveals the secret of the chief’s hair and life.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:5
label: Ritual custodian of souls or soul-object
assigned_to:
- fig:4
- fig:8
basis: The priest collects souls in a bag; the doctor or midwife keeps the iron
representing the woman’s soul.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: role:6
label: Person or group under soul-danger or strength-loss danger
assigned_to:
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:9
- fig:11
basis: The family, childbirth patient, prisoners, and young people are described
in contexts where soul, strength, or vitality is thought vulnerable.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:9
- id: role:7
label: Carrier of soul-representing object
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: The messenger carries a piece of iron to the doctor or midwife.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: role:8
label: Coercive hair-cutters
assigned_to:
- fig:10
basis: The Dutch authorities make a practice of cutting prisoners’ hair to obtain
confession.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: role:9
label: Exemplary bearers of strength-hairs
assigned_to:
- fig:12
basis: The belief in Zacynthus assigns the strength of ancient Greeks to three breast
hairs.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: Water
literal_form: Water that cannot drown the Nias chief.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: sym:2
label: Fire
literal_form: Fire that cannot burn the Nias chief.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs:
- fire
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: sym:3
label: Steel
literal_form: Steel that cannot pierce the Nias chief.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: sym:4
label: Hard head-hair
literal_form: A hair on the chief’s head, as hard as copper wire, with which his
life is bound up.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:5
label: Bag of collected souls
literal_form: A bag in which a priest collects the souls of a family entering a
new house.
associated_figures:
- fig:4
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: sym:6
label: Piece of iron as soul-object
literal_form: A piece of iron carried to and kept by the doctor or midwife, representing
a woman’s soul during childbirth.
associated_figures:
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:8
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:7
label: Hair as seat of strength
literal_form: Hair believed to contain or preserve bodily strength.
associated_figures:
- fig:9
- fig:11
- fig:12
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:9
- ev:10
- id: sym:8
label: Shears
literal_form: A pair of shears shown to a murder suspect as an instrument for cutting
his hair.
associated_figures:
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:9
label: Three breast hairs
literal_form: Three hairs on the breast in which the strength of the ancient Greeks
is said to reside.
associated_figures:
- fig:12
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Nias chief’s hidden life in hair
summary: A captured chief cannot be killed by water, fire, or steel. His wife reveals
that his life is bound up with a hard hair, and when the hair is plucked out his
spirit flees.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: scene:2
label: Statement of external soul in tales and custom
summary: Frazer generalizes that the soul may be deposited outside the body or in
hair, and introduces the claim that this belief appears in folk-custom as well
as tales.
figure_refs: []
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: scene:3
label: Minahassa family souls collected during house-moving
summary: When a family enters a new house, a priest collects the family’s souls
in a bag and later restores them because the moment is considered supernaturally
dangerous.
figure_refs:
- fig:4
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: scene:4
label: Southern Celebes childbirth soul-object
summary: During childbirth, a messenger brings a piece of iron to a birth attendant,
who keeps it until confinement is over; the iron represents the woman’s soul and
must not be lost.
figure_refs:
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:8
symbol_refs:
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: scene:5
label: Hair-cutting and loss of strength in Amboina
summary: Amboina beliefs place strength in hair, and Dutch authorities are described
as exploiting this by cutting prisoners’ hair to induce confession.
figure_refs:
- fig:9
- fig:10
symbol_refs:
- sym:7
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: scene:6
label: Hair strength beliefs in Ceram and Zacynthus
summary: In Ceram, young people are believed to weaken if their hair is cut; in
Zacynthus, the ancient Greeks’ strength is said to reside in three breast hairs
that can be cut and regrow.
figure_refs:
- fig:11
- fig:12
symbol_refs:
- sym:7
- sym:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: External life or soul hidden in hair
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The Nias chief’s life is bound to a hard hair, and removal of the hair causes
his spirit to flee.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
confidence: high
cautions: The passage presents this as a story reported by Frazer; no independent
source context is included here beyond Frazer’s citation marker.
- id: motif:2
label: Invulnerability through externalized soul
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The chief cannot be killed by water, fire, or steel until the life-bearing
hair is removed; Frazer also states that heroes in tales remove the soul before
battle to make the body invulnerable and immortal in combat.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
confidence: high
cautions: The general statement about heroes is summarized by Frazer rather than
attached to a specific tale in this passage.
- id: motif:3
label: Ritual safekeeping of the soul outside the body during danger
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Frazer describes family souls collected in a bag during a dangerous house
entry and a woman’s soul represented by iron during childbirth, both as protective
removals of the soul.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
confidence: high
cautions: These examples are presented as ethnographic customs through Frazer’s
comparative framing.
- id: motif:4
label: Strength residing in hair
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The passage reports beliefs from Amboina, Ceram, and Zacynthus in which cutting
hair removes, weakens, or diminishes strength.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:9
- ev:10
confidence: high
cautions: The Zacynthus example concerns a belief about ancient Greeks rather than
a described ritual event.
- id: motif:5
label: Coercive cutting of hair to overcome resistance
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: In Amboina court examples, prisoners resist torture until threatened with
or subjected to hair-cutting, after which confession follows.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
confidence: medium
cautions: This is a legal-coercive application of a belief about hair strength,
not necessarily a traditional ritual motif.
- id: motif:6
label: Loss and restoration of strength through cutting and regrowth of hairs
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The Zacynthus belief says strength vanishes when three breast hairs are cut
and returns when they grow again.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage gives this as a local belief about ancient Greeks, not as
a narrated mythic episode.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage explicitly links the Nias tale of life bound to a hair with a
broader external-soul pattern in which the soul may be kept outside the body or
in hair.
claim_level: same_motif
target: External soul in popular tales of many races
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: The comparison follows Frazer’s framing; the passage does not provide
the full primary tales for the wider set.
- id: claim:2
claim: The passage compares tale motifs of heroes removing their souls before battle
with customs in which souls are removed or represented outside the body during
dangerous moments.
claim_level: same_function
target: Protective externalization of the soul in folk-tale and folk-custom
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: The functional similarity is stated by Frazer, but the passage gives
only selected examples and no detailed local explanations beyond his summary.
- id: claim:3
claim: The passage treats beliefs in Amboina, Ceram, and Zacynthus as comparable
cases of strength residing in hair and being lost or weakened by cutting.
claim_level: same_motif
target: Hair as container of strength across Amboina, Ceram, and Zacynthus examples
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:9
- ev:10
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: 'The examples vary: Amboina concerns adults and prisoners, Ceram young
people, and Zacynthus an attributed belief about ancient Greeks.'
- id: claim:4
claim: The Nias story’s invulnerability to water, fire, and steel until removal
of the life-hair is functionally comparable within the passage to Frazer’s general
description of heroes becoming invulnerable by placing the soul outside the body
before combat.
claim_level: same_function
target: Invulnerability produced by externalized soul
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The Nias story does not explicitly say the chief removed the soul before
battle; the comparison is functional within Frazer’s broader discussion.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 7255-7261
quote_or_summary: 'A Nias chief is captured by enemies who fail to kill him: water
does not drown him, fire does not burn him, and steel does not pierce him.'
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 7261-7265
quote_or_summary: The chief’s wife reveals that his life is bound up with a hair
on his head as hard as copper wire; when the hair is plucked out, his spirit flees.
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 7267-7275
quote_or_summary: Frazer states that the idea of the soul being deposited outside
the body, or in the hair, appears in popular tales of many races and is also reflected
in customs.
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 7276-7281
quote_or_summary: Frazer says that in tales a hero sometimes removes his soul from
his body before battle so that the body may be invulnerable and immortal in combat;
he compares this to removal of the soul during danger.
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 7281-7287
quote_or_summary: Among the Minahassa of Celebes, when a family moves into a new
house, a priest collects the family’s souls in a bag and later restores them because
entering a new house is believed to involve supernatural danger.
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 7287-7298
quote_or_summary: In Southern Celebes, a messenger fetching a doctor or midwife
for childbirth carries a piece of iron; the doctor keeps it until confinement
is over. The iron represents the woman’s soul and must be guarded because, if
lost, her soul is believed to be lost with it.
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 7300-7304
quote_or_summary: Frazer states that in folk-tales a person’s soul or strength may
be bound up with hair, and says that natives of Amboina used to think their strength
was in their hair and would leave them if it were shorn.
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 7304-7309
quote_or_summary: Amboina court examples describe prisoners confessing when threatened
with hair-cutting; Dutch authorities later made hair-cutting a practice when torture
failed to obtain confession.
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 7309-7310
quote_or_summary: In Ceram, it is believed that young people will be weakened and
enervated if their hair is cut.
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: lines 7310-7314
quote_or_summary: In Zacynthus, people think the strength of the ancient Greeks
resided in three hairs on their breasts, vanished when the hairs were cut, and
returned if the hairs grew again.
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: high
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The passage is explicitly comparative and supplies clear examples of external
soul and hair-strength motifs. Some line locators extend slightly beyond the requested
end because the supplied passage text continues the sentence about Ceram and Zacynthus
after the stated range.
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 taxonomy motif-family reference was assigned because the available motif list does not include an exact external-soul or hair-strength category. Available symbol taxonomy refs were applied only to water and fire.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg__l7255-l7309
passage_sha256=748eb0bd55e57229e272c41a6ef6176cd2986aa6290adb1b96451163319b66c7