iv. 241

Mercurial temperament of merchants and sailors, vi. 218

Merenra, king of Egypt, worshipped in his lifetime, i. 418

Meriahs, human victims sacrificed for good crops among the Khonds, iv. 139, vii. 245, 246, 249, 250

Merkel, R., on the grove of Helernus, ii. 190 _n._ 2

Merker, Captain M., on the power of medicine-men among the Masai, i. 343 _sq._

Merlin, the wizard, his magic sleep, i. 306

Merodach or Marduk, Babylonian deity, ix. 356. See Marduk

Meroe, Ethiopian kings of, put to death, iv. 15

Merolla, G., da Sorrento, on food taboos in Congo, iii. 137; on the custom of putting the Chitomé to death, iv. 14 _sq._; on seclusion of girls at puberty on the Congo, x. 31 _n._ 3

Merovingian kings may have touched for scrofula, i. 370

Merrakech, in Morocco, custom of throwing water on each other at Midsummer at, x. 216; New Year fires at, x. 217

Merseburg, binder of last sheaf called the Oatsman near, vii. 221

Merton College, Oxford, King of the Bean at, ix. 332 _sq._

Mesha, king of Moab, his god Kemosh, v. 15; sacrifices his first-born, v. 110

Mesopotamia, artificial fertilization of the date-palm in, ix. 272 _sq._; Atrae in, x. 82

Mespelaer, in Belgium, St. Peter’s fires at, x. 195

Messaria, in Cythnos, children passed through holed rock near, xi. 189

Messenia, Andania in, ii. 122

Messiah, pretended new, in America, i. 409; pretended Jewish, at Smyrna, iv. 46; “the Anointed One,” v. 21

Metageitnion, an Attic month, vii. 77, viii. 17 _n._ 2, ix. 354

Metal instruments, the clash of, a protection against witches, ix. 158

Metapontum, head of Demeter on a coin of, vii. 68 _n._ 1

Meteor as signal for festival, v. 259

Meteorite, powdered, in a charm, viii. 166 _sq._

Meteors, superstitions as to, iv. 58 _sqq._ _See also_ Falling Stars

Metharme, daughter of Pygmalion, v. 41

_Methide_ plant growing over grave of Osiris, vi. 111

Metis, swallowed by her husband Zeus, iv. 192

Meton, his cycle of nineteen years, vii. 81 _n._ 3

“Metropolis of the Corn,” Athens called the, by Delphic oracle, vii. 58

Metsik, a forest-spirit, the patron of cattle, ii. 55; his effigy carried out of the village by the Esthonians on Shrove Tuesday, iv. 233, 252 _sq._

Metz, F., on the fire-walk among the Badagas, xi. 9

Metz, cats burnt alive in Midsummer fire at, xi. 39

Mexican calendar, its mode of intercalation, vi. 28 _n._ 3

—— custom of veiling the images of the gods during the king’s sickness, iii. 95 _n._ 8; of making images of gods out of dough and eating them sacramentally, viii. 86 _sqq._

—— human sacrifices in connexion with the maize crop, vii. 236 _sqq._, 251; assimilation of the victims to the gods in, vii. 261, ix. 275 _sqq._

—— Indians, confession of sins among the, iii. 216 _n._ 2

—— kings, oath taken by them at their accession, i. 356, 416

—— sacraments, viii. 86 _sqq._

—— temples, their form, ix. 279

Mexicans, their custom of eating a man as an embodiment of a god, viii. 92 _sq._

——, the ancient, their human sacrifices to the sun, i. 314 _sq._; human sacrifices of, vi. 107, vii. 236 _sqq._; their customs at maize-harvest, vii. 174 _sqq._

Mexico, the Huichol Indians of, i. 123, 154 _sq._, 302, iii. 197, vii. 177, viii. 93; Indians of, their charm to cause sleep, i. 148; the Tarahumare Indians of, i. 150, 155, 249, 284, ii. 156 _sq._, vii. 227 _sq._, viii. 252, ix. 10, 236; the Tepehuanes of, iii. 325, 424, ix. 10; rule as to the felling of timber in, vi. 136; the Zapotecs of, vii. 174, xi. 212; the Tzentales of, viii. 241; heaps of stones and sticks to which passers-by add, in, ix. 10; the Cora Indians of, ix. 238, 381; effigies of Judas burnt at Easter in, x. 127 _sq._

——, ancient, custom as to children’s cast teeth in, i. 179; treatment of the navel-string in, i. 196 _sq._; custom of passing new-born children through the smoke of fire in, ii. 232 _n._ 3; virgin-priestesses of fire in, ii. 245; continence at brewing _pulque_ in, iii. 201 _sq._; tears of human victims a sign of rain in, vii. 248 _n._ 2; magic ointment in, viii. 165; use of skins of human victims in, ix. 265 _sq._, 297, 298 _sq._; killing the god in, ix. 275 _sqq._; story of the creation of the sun in, ix. 410; ceremony of new fire in, x. 132; representation of the sun as a wheel in, x. 334 _n._ 1

Meyer, Professor Eduard, on prophecy in Canaan, v. 75 _n._ 5; on the Hittite language, v. 125 _n._; on costume of Hittite priest or king, v. 133 _n._, 141 _n._ 1; on the rock-hewn sculptures of Boghaz-Keui, v. 133 _n._; on Anubis at Abydos, vi. 18 _n._ 3; on the hawk as an Egyptian emblem, vi. 22 _n._ 1; on the date of the introduction of the Egyptian calendar, vi. 36 _n._ 2; on the nature of Osiris, vi. 126 _n._ 2, vii. 260 _n._ 2; on the relation of Byblus to Egypt, vi. 127 _n._ 1; on the Lycian language, vi. 213 _n._ 1; on the age of the Egyptian calendar, ix. 340 _n._ 4

Meyer, Professor Kuno, on an Irish legend, iv. 159 _n._ 1

Mezentius, king of Caere, his battle with Latinus, iv. 283

_Mhaighdean-Bhuana_ (or _Maighdean-Buana_), the Corn-maiden in the Highlands of Scotland, vii. 156, 164 _sq._

Míamis, Indian tribe of North America, their myth of the Corn-spirit, vii. 206 _sq._

Miao-Kia, aborigines of China, their sacred trees and groves, ii. 31

Micah, the prophet, on man’s duty, i. 223, iv. 174; on sacrifice, iv. 171

Mice asked to give new teeth, i. 178, 179; and shorn hair, superstition as to, iii. 270; not to be called by their proper names, iii. 397, 399, 415; thought to understand human speech, iii. 399; eaten by the Jews as a religious rite, viii. 24; their ravages on the crops, viii. 33, 282; the genius of, viii. 243; superstitious precautions taken by farmers against, viii. 276 _sqq._, 281; superstition as to white, viii. 279, 283; white, under the altar of Apollo, viii. 283. _See also_ Mouse

—— and rats, teeth of, in magic, i. 178 _sqq._

—— and twins, supposed connexion between, i. 118

Michael, in the Isle of Man, x. 307

Michael Angelo, the Pietà of, v. 257

Michaelmas, 29th September, festival of the dead among the Letts at, vi. 74; cakes baked at, x. 149. _See also_ St. Michael

Michemis, a Tibetan tribe, a funeral ceremony among the, x. 5

Micksy, rivulet, holy oak on the, ii. 371 _sq._

_Microseris Forsteri_, roots of, dug and eaten by Australian aborigines,