“A Nootka wizard will make an image of a swimming fish and put it into the water in the direction from which the fish generally appear.”

— James Frazer , book The Golden Bough

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 3, Sympathetic Magic.
Context: The natives of British Columbia live largely upon the fish which abound in their seas and rivers. If the fish do not come in due season, and the Indians are hungry, A Nootka wizard will make an image of a swimming fish and put it into the water in the direction from which the fish generally appear. This ceremony, accompanied by a prayer to the fish to come, will cause them to arrive at once.

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James Frazer 50

Scottish social anthropologist 1854–1941

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