Item 36-36a - Two letters from C. W. Hobley to Sir James Frazer

2 items

Chale, High View Road, Sidcup - Two letters accompanied by an envelope with a note in Frazer's hand, 'fertilization of women by the fig-tree (for Ovid, Fasti II)'. The first is dated 5 Aug. 1927: Hobley has referred to his 'Bantu Beliefs' and found a paragraph on magical remedies for sterility taken from the A-Kamba; gives the page reference for the Kikuyu custom; had forgotten he had written in 1910 and when he gathered notes he used another source for his information; will bring him 'Slaves and Ivory' by Darley. In the letter of 11 Sept. he apologises for the delay, as he had to go away for his health, answers two questions from his book about an ewe which has not borne a kid, and the Mukea, Mukeuyia, or muttakwa tree; mentions the information in 1910 was obtained from a chief visiting his house in Nairobi, where a great fig tree grew, and remembers the elders showing how the woman was tied to the tree, and the white sap.