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PRINCETON, N. J.
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THE GOLDEN BOUGH
THE
GOLDEN BOUGH
A STUDY
IN COMPARATIVE RELIGION
/ BY
J. G. FRAZER, M.A.
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND LONDON
yf// rights reser-ved
TO
MY FRIEND
WILLIAM ROBERTSON SMITH
IN
GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION
For some time I have been preparing a general work on primitive superstition and religion. Among the problems which had attracted my attention was the hitherto unexplained rule of the Arician priesthood; and last spring it happened that in the course of my reading I came across some facts which, combined with others I had noted before, suggested an explanation of the rule in question. As the explanation, if correct, promised to throw light on some obscure features of primitive religion, I resolved to develop it fully, and, detaching it from my general work, to issue it as a separate study. This book is the result.
Now that the theory, which necessarily presented itself to me at first in outline, has been worked out in detail, I cannot but feel that in some places I may have pushed it too far. If this should prove to have been the case, I will readily acknowledge and retract my error as soon as it is brought home to me. Meantime my essay may serve its purpose as a first attempt to solve a difficult probl…