vii. 127

Mid-Lent, the fourth Sunday in Lent, iv. 222 _n._ 1; also called Dead Sunday, iv. 221; custom of “Carrying out Death” at, iv. 234, 236 _sq._; ceremony of “Sawing the Old Woman” at, iv. 240 _sqq._

Midas and his ass’s ears, iii. 258 _n._ 1

—— and Gordias, names of Phrygian kings, v. 286

——, King of Gordium, iii. 316

——, King of Phrygia, father of Lityerses, vii. 217; the tomb of, v. 286

Middle Ages, belief as to consummation of marriage being prevented by knots and locks in the, iii. 299; the Yule log in the, x. 252; the need-fire in the, x. 270

Middleton, J. H., on the temple of Apollo at Delphi, vii. 14 _n._ 3; on “crying the neck” in Cornwall, vii. 266

Midianites, the slaughter of the, iii. 177

Midsummer, precautions against witches at, ii. 127; new fire made at, ii. 242; reason for celebrating the death of the spirit of vegetation at, iv. 263 _sq._; gardens of Adonis at, v. 244 _sqq._; old heathen festival of, in Europe and the East, v. 249 _sq._; divination at, v. 252 _sq._; wells crowned with flowers at, xi. 28; processions of giants at, xi. 33 _sqq._; sacred to Balder, xi. 87

—— bonfire called “fire of heaven,” x. 334

—— bonfires in Sweden, ii. 65; intended to drive away dragons, x. 161. _See_ Midsummer fires

—— Bride and Bridegroom in Sweden and Norway, ii. 92, v. 251

“—— Brooms” in Sweden, xi. 54

—— Day (St. John’s Day), cattle crowned on, ii. 127; ancient Roman festival of, ii. 272, x. 178; ceremonies concerned with vegetation on, ix. 359; charm for fig-trees on, x. 18; water claims human victims on, x. 26 _sqq._; regarded as unlucky, xi. 29. _See also_ St. John’s Day

—— Day or Eve, custom of bathing on, v. 246 _sqq._, xi. 29 _sq._; pagan origin of the custom, v. 249

—— Eve (St. John’s Eve), May-poles and bonfires in Sweden on, ii. 65; trees burned on, ii. 66, 141, v. 250; activity of witches and warlocks on, ii. 127, ix. 158, 160, x. 176 _sq._, xi. 19, 73 _sqq._; bonfires in Cornwall on, ii. 141; figures of Kupalo carried over bonfires in Russia on, iv. 262, v. 250 _sq._; Snake Stones thought to be formed on, x. 15; trolls and evil spirits abroad on, x. 172; the season for gathering wonderful herbs and flowers, xi. 45 _sqq._; the magic flowers of, xi. 45 _sqq._; divination on, xi. 46 _n._ 3, 50, 52 _sqq._, 61, 64, 67 _sqq._; dreams of love on, xi. 52, 54; fern-seed blooms on, xi. 65, 287; the divining-rod cut on, xi. 67 _sqq._; treasures bloom in the earth on, xi. 288 _n._ 5; theoak thought to bloom on, xi. 292, 293. _See also_ St. John’s Eve

—— festival, in Europe, ii. 272 _sq._, x. 161 _sqq._; named after St. John, v. 244; the bonfires, processions with torches, and rolling wheels of the, x. 161; Kirchmeyer’s account of the, x. 162 _sq._; of fire and water among the Mohammedan peoples of North Africa, x. 213 _sqq._; common to peoples on both sides of the Mediterranean, x. 219, xi. 31; the most important of the year among the primitive Aryans of Europe, xi. 40; its relation to Druidism, xi. 45

—— fires, x. 160 _sqq._; and couples in relation to vegetation, v. 250 _sq._; leaping over the fires to make flax or hemp grow tall, v. 251; in Germany, x. 163 _sqq._; in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, x. 171 _sq._; in Austria, x. 173 _sqq._; cows driven through, to guard them against witchcraft, x. 175, 176, 185, 188; regarded as a protection against witchcraft, x. 176, 180; in Russia and Lithuania, x. 176 _sqq._; among the Magyars, x. 178 _sq._; among the Esthonians, x. 179 _sq._; in Finland and among the Cheremiss, x. 180 _sq._; in France, x. 181 _sqq._; in Belgium, x. 194 _sqq._; in England, x. 196 _sqq._; in Wales, x. 156, 200 _sq._; in Ireland, x. 201 _sqq._; in Scotland, x. 206 _sq._; in Spain and the Azores, x. 208 _sq._; in Italy, x. 209 _sq._; in Malta, x. 210 _sq._; in Greece, the Greek islands, and Macedonia, x. 211 _sq._; in America, x. 212 _sq._; among the Mohammedans of North Africa, x. 213 _sqq._; animals burnt in the, xi. 38 _sqq._ _See also_ Cattle _and_ Leaping

Midsummer flowers and plants used as talismans against witchcraft, xi. 72

—— Men, orpine, xi. 61

—— morning, church bells rung on, to drive away witches, ii. 127

—— mummers clad in green fir branches, xi. 25 _sq._

—— solstice, rain-making ceremony performed at the, viii. 179. _See also_ Solstice

—— tree burned in Bohemia, ii. 66

Midwinter fires, x. 246 _sqq._

Migrations of princes in ancient Greece a trace of female descent of the kingship, ii. 278 _sq._

Mijatovich, Chedo, on the _Zadrooga_ or Servian house-community, x. 259 _n._ 1

Mikado, the, an incarnation of the sun goddess, i. 417, iii. 2; rules of life of, iii. 3 _sqq._; not allowed to set foot on ground, iii. 3, x. 2 _sq._; the sun not allowed to shine on him, iii. 3, x. 18 _sq._; supposed effect of using his dishes or clothes, iii. 131; custom as to cutting his hair and nails, iii. 265; his absolution and remission of sins, ix. 213 _n._ 1

Mikados, their relations to the Tycoons, iii. 19; human sacrifices formerly offered at the graves of the, iv. 218

Miklucho-Maclay, Baron, on the ignorance of the art of making fire on the Maclay coast of New Guinea, ii. 253 _sq._; on protective ceremony in New Guinea, iii. 109

Milan, alleged incarnation of the Holy Ghost at, i. 409; festival of the Three Kings of Twelfth Day at, ix. 331

Milcom, the god of Ammon, v. 19

Mildew worshipped by the Romans, viii. 282

Mildew Apollo, viii. 282

Milk, offered at graves, i. 287, v. 87; stolen by witches from cows on Walpurgis Night or May Day (Beltane), ii. 52 _sqq._, ix. 267, x. 154; stolen by witches from cows on Midsummer Eve, ii. 127, x. 176 _sq._, 185, xi. 74; poured on grave of ancestor, ii. 223; offered to the fig-tree of Romulus, ii. 318; stolen by witches on Eve of St. George, ii. 334 _sqq._; not given away on St. George’s Eve, ii. 339; customs observed when the king of Unyoro drinks, iii. 119; not drunk by those who have handled a corpse, iii. 141; not to be drunk by wounded men, iii. 174 _sq._; consecrated by lying-in woman, iii. 225 _n._; wine called, iii. 249 _n._ 2; serpents fed with, v. 84 _sqq._, 87; omens from boiling, viii. 56, xi. 8; taboos referring to, viii. 83 _sq._; temporary abstinence from, viii. 161; offered to snakes, viii. 288; heifers beaten to make them yield, ix. 266 _sq._; girls at puberty forbidden to drink, x. 22, 30, 38; poured on fire-place, x. 30; not to be drunk by menstruous women, x. 80, 84; stolen by witches from cows, x. 343; libations of, poured on fire, xi. 8, 9; libations of, poured into a stream, xi. 9; poured on sick cattle, xi. 13

Milk and butter stolen from cow’s by witches at Midsummer, ii. 127, x. 185; thought to be improved by the Midsummer fires, x. 180; witchcraft fatal to, xi. 86

—— and cattle, importance of, for the early Italians, ii. 324

—— of cows, charm to increase the, i. 198 _sq._; chiefs held responsible for the, i. 354; thought to be promoted by green boughs on May Day, ii. 52

—— and meat (flesh), dietary rules as to, iii. 292, viii. 83 _sq._

—— of pig thought to cause leprosy, viii. 24, 25

——, women’s, promoted by milk-stones, i. 165

Milk pails wreathed with garlands on May Day, ii. 52; wreathed with rowan on May Day, ii. 53; wreathed with flowers on St. George’s Day, ii. 338, 339

—— -stones, magical, produce milk, i. 165

—— -tie as a bond of kinship, xi. 138 _n._ 1

—— -tree not to be cut while the corn is in the ground, ii. 49

—— -vessels not to be touched by menstruous women, x. 80

Milking cows as a rain-charm, i. 284; through a hole in a branch or a “witch’s nest,” xi. 185

Milkmaids on May Day, dance of, ii. 52

Milkmen of the Todas sacred or divine, i. 402 _sq._; taboos observed by, iii. 15 _sqq._

Milky juice of wild fig-tree in religious rite, ii. 313, ix. 258

Mill, women mourning for Tammuz eat nothing ground in a, v. 230; Tammuz ground in a, vii. 258

Mill-stones crowned at Vesta’s festival in June, ii. 127 _n._ 3

Millaeus on judicial torture, xi. 158

Miller, Hugh, on absence of soul in sleep, iii. 40 _sq._

Miller’s wife a witch, story of the, x. 319 _sq._

Millet, homoeopathic magic of, i. 145; cultivated in Africa, vii. 115, 117; cultivated in Assam, vii. 123; cultivated in New Guinea, vii. 123; the deity of, worshipped by the Ainos, viii. 52; first-fruits of, offered to the dead, viii. 111, 112

_Millingtonia_, the sacred tree of the Todas, viii. 314

Milne, Mrs. Leslie, on Shan custom as to cutting bamboos, vi. 136

Miltiades, funeral games celebrated in his honour in the Thracian Chersonese, iv. 93 _sq._

Milton on chastity, ii. 118 _n._ 1; on the laments for Tammuz, v. 226 _n._; on the Harvest Queen, vii. 147

Mimicry the principle of religious or magical dramas, ix. 374

Miming, a satyr of the woods, in the Balder legend, x. 103

Minahassa, a district of Celebes, rain-making in, i. 277; inspired priests among the Alfoors of, i. 382 _sq._; ceremony at house-warming among the Alfoors of, iii. 63 _sq._, xi. 153; reluctance to be photographed in, iii. 99; Alfoors of, forbidden to pronounce the names of parents-in-law, iii. 340 _sq._; special language at rice-harvest in, iii. 412; mock human sacrifices in, iv. 214 _sq._; quail associated with rice in, vii. 296; customs as to sowing and plucking the new rice in, viii. 54; dummies to deceive demons in, viii. 100; festival of “eating the new rice” in, viii. 123; hair of slain foe used to impart courage in, viii. 153; expulsion of demons in, ix. 111 _sq._

Minangkabau, the Sultan of, revered by the Battas, i. 399

Minangkabauers of Sumatra, their use of magical images, i. 58; their homoeopathic magic at building a rice barn, i. 140; their treatment of the navel-string, i. 193; their treatment of women in childbirth, iii. 32; their conception of the soul as a bird or a fly, iii. 36; their belief as to absence of soul in sleep, iii. 41; their customs as to the Mother of Rice, vii. 191 _sq._; their respect for crocodiles, viii. 211 _sq._; their respect for tigers, viii. 215 _sq._; their belief as to menstruous women, x. 79; use of bull-roarers among the, xi. 229 _n._

Mindanao, one of the Philippines, the Bogabos of, iii. 323, vii. 240

Minden, dances round an oak in the principality of, ii. 371

Miners, special language employed by, iii. 407, 409

_Mingoli_, spirits of the dead, among the Boloki, ix. 77

Mingrelia, holy image ducked as a rain-charm in, i. 308

Miniature fields dedicated to spirits in Nias, vii. 233 _sq._

Minnetarees, Indian tribe of North America, their personification of maize as an Old Woman, vii. 204 _sq._; ceremony for securing good crop of maize among the, vii. 209 _n._ 2; their belief in the resurrection of bisons, viii. 256

Minnigaff, parish in Galloway, “cutting the Hare” at harvest in, vii. 279

Minoan age of Greece, v. 34

Minorca, seven-legged images of Lent in, iv. 244 _n._ 1

Minos, king of Cnossus, his reign of eight years, iv. 70 _sqq._; tribute of youths and maidens sent to, iv. 74 _sqq._

——, king of Crete, besieges Megara, xi. 103

—— and Britomartis, iv. 73

Minotaur, the, legend of, iv. 71, 74; perhaps an image of the sun, iv. 75, 77

—— and the labyrinth, iv. 71, 74, 77

—— and Pasiphae, iv. 71, vii. 31

Mint, flowers of, gathered on St. John’s Day, xi. 51

Minucius Felix on the Ephesian Artemis, i. 38 _n._ 1; on the rites of Osiris, vi. 85 _n._ 3; on the Salii, ix. 231 _n._ 3

Minyas, king of Orchomenus, his treasury, iv. 164

Miotse, the, of China, drive away the devil by means of a kite, ix. 4

Mirabeau, hunting the wren at, viii. 321

Miracles, god-man expected to work, i. 376; not conceived by early man as breaches of natural law, i. 376 _sq._

Miraculous births of gods and heroes, v. 107

Mirasans, the, of the Punjaub, their worship of snakes, viii. 316 _sq._

Miris of Assam, fear to offend woodland spirits, ii. 39; new fire made after a death among the, ii. 267 _n._ 4; woman’s share in agriculture among the, vii. 123; eat tiger’s flesh to make them brave, viii. 145

Mirror or burning-glass, fire made by means of, ii. 243, 245 _n._

Mirrors, superstitions as to, iii. 92 _sq._, 94 _sqq._; covered after a death, iii. 94 _sq._

Mirzapur, the Chero of, i. 209; taboos and ceremonies connected with the rearing of silk-worms in, iii. 193 _sq._; the Majhwârs of, iii. 234, ix. 36, 60; the Pankas of, iii. 402; remedy for locusts in, viii. 276; transference of disease in, ix. 6; sacrifices at cairns in, ix. 27; the Korwas and Pataris of, their use of scapegoats, ix. 192; the Bhuiyars of, x. 84

Miscarriage in childbed, dread of, iii. 149, 152 _sqq._; supposed danger of concealing a, iii. 211, 213

Misfortune swept out of house with brooms, ix. 5; burnt in Midsummer fires, x. 215; got rid of by leaping over Midsummer fires, x. 215

Misrule, the Lord of, ix. 251, 312; at Bodmin in Cornwall, ii. 319 _n._ 1; in England, ix. 331 _sqq._

Missel-thrush and mistletoe, xi. 316

Missiles hurled at dangerous ghosts or spirits, ix. 17 _sqq._

Mississippi, lighted torch carried before chiefs among the Indians of the, ii. 263 _sq._

Missouri, the, cottonwood trees in the valley of, ii. 12

“Mist-healing,” Swiss expression for kindling a need-fire, x. 279

Mistletoe, worshipped by the Druids, ii. 358, 362, xi. 76 _sq._, 301; wreath of, on pole to which a wren is fastened, viii. 321; the divining-rod made of, xi. 69, 291; cut on the sixth day of the moon, xi. 77; makes barren animals and women to bring forth, xi. 77, 78, 79; cut with a golden sickle, xi. 77, 80; thought to have fallen from the sky, xi. 77, 80; called the “all-healer,” xi. 77, 79, 82; an antidote to all poison, xi. 77, 83; gathered on the first day of the moon, xi. 78; not to touch the earth, xi. 78, 80, 280; a cure for epilepsy, xi. 78, 83, 84; extinguishes fire, xi. 78, 84 _sq._, 293; venerated by the Ainos of Japan, xi. 79; growing on willow specially efficacious, xi. 79; confers invulnerability, xi. 79 _sq._; its position as a parasite on a tree the source of superstitions about it, xi. 80, 81, 84; not to be cut but shot or knocked down with stones, xi. 81 _sq._; in the folk-lore of modern European peasants, xi. 81 _sqq._; medical virtues ascribed to, xi. 82 _sqq._; cut when the sun is in Sagittarius, xi. 82, 86; growing on oak a panacea for green wounds, xi. 83; mystic qualities ascribed to mistletoe at Midsummer (St. John’s Day or Eve), xi. 83, 86; these virtues a pure superstition, xi. 84; cut at the full moon of March, xi. 84, 86; called “thunder-besom” in Aargau, xi. 85, 301; a master-key to open all locks, xi. 85; a protection against witchcraft, xi. 85 _sq._; given to first cow that calves after New Year, xi. 86; gathered especially at Midsummer, xi. 86 _sq._; grows on oaks in Sweden, xi. 87; ancient Italian belief that mistletoe could be destroyed neither by fire nor water, xi. 94; life of oak in, xi. 280, 292; a protection against witchcraft and Trolls, xi. 282, 283, 294; a protection against fairy changelings, xi. 283; hung over doors of stables and byres in Brittany, xi. 287; thought to disclose treasures in the earth, xi. 287, 291 _sq._; gathered at the solstices, Midsummer and Christmas, xi. 291 _sqq._; traditional privilege of, xi. 291 _n._ 2; growing on a hazel, xi. 291 _n._ 3; growing on a thorn, xi. 291 _n._ 3; perhaps conceived as a germ or seed of fire, xi. 292; sanctity of mistletoe perhaps explained by the belief that the plant has fallen on the tree in a flash of lightning, xi. 301; two species of, _Viscum album_ and _Loranthus europaeus_, xi. 315 _sqq._; found most commonly on apple-trees, xi. 315, xi. 316 _n._ 5; growing on oaks in England, xi. 316; seeds of, deposited by missel-thrush, xi. 316; ancient names of, xi. 317 _sq._; Virgil on, xi. 318 _sqq._; Dutch names for, xi. 319 _n._ 1

Mistletoe and Balder, x. 101 _sq._, xi. 76 _sqq._, 302; his life or death in the mistletoe, xi. 279, 283

—— and the Golden Bough, xi. 315 _sqq._

Mistress, sanctuary of the, at Lycosura, in Arcadia, taboos observed, at the, iii. 227 _n._, 314, viii. 46; cow-headed or sheep-headed statuettes of women found at the, viii. 21 _n._ 4

—— of the Earth, worshipped in Timor, ix. 85

“—— of Turquoise,” goddess at Sinai, v. 35

Mitani, ancient people of Northern Mesopotamia, v. 135 _n._

Mitchell, Sir Arthur, on a barbarous cure for murrain in Scotland, x. 326

Mithr, Armenian fire-god, x. 131 _n._ 3

Mithra, Persian deity, popularity of his worship in the Rotnan Empire, v. 301 _sq._; identified with the Unconquered Sun, v. 304; his nativity on December 25th, v. 304

Mithraic mysteries, initiation into the, xi. 277

—— religion a rival to Christianity, v. 302; festival of Christmas borrowed from the, v. 302 _sqq._

—— sacrifice of bull, viii. 10

Mithridates, his siege of Cyzicus, viii. 95 _n._ 2

Mitigations of human sacrifices, vii. 33, ix. 396 _sq._, 408

Mittelmark, district of Prussia, the last sheaf called the Old Man in,