Oak, the worship of the, 159–161, 659, 710; effigy of Death buried under an, 309; the principal sacred tree of the Aryans, 665; human representatives of the oak perhaps originally burnt at the fire-festivals, 665, 666; life of, in mistletoe, 701; supposed to bloom on Midsummer Eve, 706; struck by lightning oftener than any other tree, 708
Oak branch, in rain-charm, 77; crown, sacred to Jupiter and Juno, 148, 151; god, 151, 161; leaves, 148, 661; mistletoe, an “all-healer,” 660–662; nymphs, at Rome, 147; -spirit, 701, 703; -trees, sacrifices to, 161, and ague transferred to, 546
—— wood, perpetual fire of, 161, 704; used for the Yule log, 637, 638, 666; used to kindle the Beltane fires, the need-fire, and the Midsummer fires, 618, 620, 639, 665
Oaths, on stones, 33; taken by Mexican kings, 87, 104
Omens, magic to annul evil, 37; from observation of the sky, 279; from boiling milk, 482; from the smoke and flames of bonfires, 612, 615, 616, 621, 624, 645; from cakes rolled down hill, 620; of marriage, 626, 646
Osiris, 52, 325, 443; the myth of, 362–368; the ritual of, 368–377; the nature of, 377–382; and the sun, 384; the cults of Adonis, Attis, Dionysus, and, 424; key to mysteries of, 444; and the pig, 472, 475; in relation to sacred bulls, 476
Osiris, Adonis, Attis, their mythical similarity, 325
Owl, eyes of, eaten to make eater see in the dark, 496; life of a person bound up with that of an, 684; sex totem of women, 688
Ox, in magic, 22, 31, 72; corn-spirit as, 457, 466–468; slaughtered at threshing, 459; sacrificed at the Bouphonia,466; effigy of, broken as a spring ceremony in China, 468
