That, if my
conjecture is right, was why the priest of Aricia, the King of the
Wood at Nemi, had regularly to perish by the sword of his successor.
But we have still to ask, What was the Golden Bough? and why had
each candidate for the Arician priesthood to pluck it before he
could slay the priest? These questions I will now try to answer.
It will be well to begin by noticing two of those rules or taboos by
which, as we have seen, the life of divine kings or priests is
regulated. The first of the rules to which I would call the reader's
attention is that the divine personage may not touch the ground with
his foot. This rule was observed by the supreme pontiff of the
Zapotecs in Mexico; he profaned his sanctity if he so much as
touched the ground with his foot. Montezuma, emperor of Mexico,
never set foot on the ground; he was always carried on the shoulders
of noblemen, and if he lighted anywhere they laid rich tapestry for
him to walk upon. For the Mikado of Japan to touch the ground with
his foot was a shameful degradation; indeed, in the sixteenth
century, it was enough to deprive him of his office.
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