May 7, 1941

Sir James Frazier died on May 7, 1941, in a era which had already begun to question the scholarship which informed that author's "The Golden Bough," and other pioneering titles in anthropology. Frazier promoted the idea that cats were associated with the ancient corn spirit gods in medieval Europe, and later. I have not idea how accurate that is, but I do like Frazier's relaying the story of an American farmer who tried to keep rats out of his granary by leaving the rats a note which described how much better the grain was at a neighbor's barn.