Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941) caught the popular imagination with his vast and enterprising comparative study of the beliefs and institutions of mankind, which in its third edition numbered 12 volumes. Reissued here is Frazer's own single-volume abridgement of 1922.

Originally published: London : Macmillan, 1922. Includes index.

The king of the wood -- Priestly kings -- Sympathetic magic -- Magic and religion -- The magical control of the weather -- Magicians as kings -- Incarnate human gods -- Departmental kings of nature -- The worship of trees -- Relics of tree-worship in modern Europe -- The influence of the sexes on vegetation -- The sacred marriage -- The kings of Rome and Alba -- The succession to the kingdom in ancient Latium -- The worship of the oak -- Dianus and Diana -- The burden of royalty -- The perils of the soul -- Tabooed acts -- Tabooed persons -- Tabooed things -- Tabooed words -- Our debt to the savage -- The killing of the divine king -- Temporary kings -- Sacrifice of the king's son -- Succession to the soul -- The killing of the tree-spirit -- The myth of Adonis -- Adonis in Syria -- Adonis in Cyprus -- The ritual of Adonis -- The gardens of Adonis -- The myth and ritual of Attis -- Attis as a god of vegetation -- Human representatives of Attis -- Oriental religions in the West -- The myth of Osiris -- The ritual of Osiris -- The natur eof Osiris -- Isis -- Osiris and the sun -- Dionysus -- demeter and Persephone -- The corn-mother and the corn-maiden in Northern Europe -- The corn-mother in many lands -- Lityerses -- The corn-spirit as an animal -- Ancient deities of vegetation as animals -- Eating the god -- Homoeopathic magic of a flesh diet -- Killing the divine animal -- The propitiation of wild animals by hunters -- Types of animal sacrament -- The transference of evil -- The public expulsion of evils -- Public scapegoats -- Human scapegoats in classical antiquity -- Killing the god in Mexico -- Between heaven and earth -- The myth of Balder -- The fire-festivals of Europe -- The interpretation of the fire-festivals -- The burning of human beings in the fires -- Balder and the mistletoe -- The external soul in folk-tales -- The external soul in folk-custom -- The golden bough -- Farewell to Nemi.