i. 308, the Lugnassad was probably the harvest feast, the Samhain the

old beginning of winter feast, and the Beltain the high summer feast. The meaning of ‘Beltain’ (cf. _N. E. D._ s.v. Beltane) seems quite uncertain. A connexion is possible but certainly unproved with the Abelio of the Pyrenean inscriptions, the Belenus-Apollo of those of the eastern Alps, and, more rarely, Provence (Röscher, _Lexicon_, s.v. Belenus; Holder, _Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz_, s.vv. Belenus, Abelio; Ausonius, _Professores_, iv. 7), or the Bel of Bohemia mentioned by Allso (ch. xii). The Semitic Baal, although a cult of Belus, found its way into the Roman world (cf. Appendix N, No. xxxii, and Wissowa, 302), is naturally even a less plausible relation. But it is dear to the folk-etymologist; cf. e.g. S. M. Mayhew, _Baalism_ in _Trans. of St. Paul’s Ecclesiological Society_, i. 83.

[376] Tille, _Y. and C._ 7, 148, suggests an Egyptian or Babylonian origin, but the equation of the Gothic _Jiuleis_ and the Cypriote ἰλαῖος, ἰουλαῖος, ἰουλίηος, ἰούλιος as names for winter periods makes a Mediterranean connexion seem possible.

[377] Cf. ch. xi.

[378] Grimm, ii. 615, notes that Easter fires are normal in the north, Midsummer fires in the south of Germany. The Beltane fires both of Scotland and Ireland are usually on May 1, but some of the Irish examples collected by J. Jamieson, _Etym. Dict. of the Scottish Language_, s. v., are at midsummer.

[379] Tille, _Y. and C._ 71; Rhys, _C. H._ 419. The primitive year was thermometric, not astronomic, its critical moments, not the solstices, a knowledge of which means science, but the sensible increase and diminution of heat in spring and autumn. The solstices came through Rome. The _Sermo Eligii_ (Grimm, iv. 1737) has ‘nullus in festivitate S. Ioannis vel quibuslibet sanctorum solemnitatibus solstitia ... exerceat,’ but Eligius was a seventh-century bishop, and this _Sermo_ may have been interpolated in the eighth century (O. Reich, _Über Audoen’s Lebensbeschreibung des heiligen Eligius_ (1872), cited in _Rev. celtique_, ix. 433). It is not clear that the un-Romanized Teuton or Kelt made a god of the sun, as distinct from the heaven-god, who of course has solar attributes and emblems. In the same _Sermo_ Eligius says ‘nullus dominos solem aut lunam vocet, neque per eos iuret.’ But the notion of ‘domini’ may be post-Roman, and the oath is by the permanent, rather than the divine; cf. A. de Jubainville, _Intr. à l’Étude de la Litt. celt._ 181. It is noticeable that German names for the sun are originally feminine and for the moon masculine.

[380] Mogk, iii. 393; Golther, 584; Jahn, 84; Caspari, 35; Saupe, 7; Hauck, ii. 357; Michels, 93. The ploughing feast is probably the _spurcalia_ of the _Indiculus_ and of Eadhelm, _de laudibus virginitatis_, c. 25, and the _dies spurci_ of the _Hom. de Sacrilegiis_. This term appears in the later German name for February, _Sporkele_. It seems to be founded on Roman analogy from _spurcus_, ‘unclean.’ Pearson, ii. 159, would, however, trace it to an Aryan root _spherag_, ‘swell,’ ‘burst,’ ‘shoot.’ Bede, _de temp. rat._ c. 15, calls February _Sol-monath_, which he explains as ‘mensis placentarum.’ September, the month of the harvest-festival, is _Haleg-monath_, or ‘mensis sacrorum.’

[381] Pfannenschmidt, 244; Brand, ii. 1; Ditchfield, 130; Burne-Jackson, 439; Burton, _Rushbearing_, 147; Schaff, vi. 544; Duchesne, 385. The dedication of churches was solemnly carried out from the fourth century, and the anniversary observed. Gregory the Great ordered ‘solemnitates ecclesiarum dedicationum per singulos annos sunt celebrandae.’ The A.-S. _Canons_ of Edgar (960), c. 28 (Wilkins, i. 227), require them to be kept with sobriety. Originally the anniversary, as well as the actual dedication day, was observed with an all night watch, whence the name _vigilia_, wakes. Belethus, _de rat. offic._ (_P. L._ ccii. 141), c. 137, says that the custom was abolished owing to the immorality to which it led. But the ‘eve’ of these and other feasts continued to share in the sanctity of the ‘day,’ a practice in harmony with the European sense of the precedence of night over day (cf. Schräder-Jevons, 311; Bertrand, 267, 354, 413). An Act of Convocation in 1536 (Wilkins, iii. 823) required all wakes to be held on the first Sunday in October, but it does not appear to have been very effectual.

[382] S. O. Addy, in _F. L._ xii. 394, has a full account of ‘Garland day’ at Castleton, Derbyshire, on May 29; cf. _F. L._ xii. 76 (Wishford, Wilts); Burne-Jackson, 365.

[383] The classification of agricultural feasts in U. Jahn, _Die deutschen Opfergebräuche_, seems throughout to be based less on the facts of primitive communal agriculture, than on those of the more elaborate methods of the later farms with their variety of crops.

[384] Frazer, i. 193; ii. 96; Brand, i. 125; Dyer, 223; Ditchfield, 95; Philpot, 144; Grimm, ii. 762; &c., &c. A single example of the custom is minutely studied by S. O. Addy, _Garland Day at Castleton_, in _F. L._ xii. 394.

[385] A. B. Gomme, ii. 507; Hartland, _Perseus_, ii. 187; Grimm, iv. 1738, 1747; Gaidoz, _Un vieux rite médical_ (1893).

[386] Tacitus, _Germania_, 40.

[387] Vigfusson and Ungar, _Flateyjarbok_, i. 337; Grimm, i. 107; Gummere, _G. O._ 433; Mogk, iii. 321; Golther, 228.

[388] Sozomenes, _Hist. Eccles._ vi. 37. Cf. also _Indiculus_ (ed. Saupe, 32) ‘de simulacro, quod per campos portant,’ the fifth-century _Vita S. Martini_, c. 12, by Sulpicius Severus (_Opera_, ed. Halm, in _Corp. Script. Eccl. Hist._ i. 122) ‘quia esset haec Gallorum rusticis consuetudo, simulacra daemonum, candido tecta velamine, misera per agros suos circumferre dementia,’ and Alsso’s account of the fifteenth-century _calendisationes_ in Bohemia (ch. xii).

[389] Cf. ch. x.

[390] Cf. _Representations_ (Chester, London, York). There were similar watches at Nottingham (Deering, _Hist. of Nott._ 123), Worcester (Smith, _English Gilds_, 408), Lydd and Bristol (Green, _Town Life in the Fifteenth Century_, i. 148), and on St. Thomas’s day (July 7) at Canterbury (_Arch. Cant._ xii. 34; _Hist. MSS._ ix. 1. 148).

[391] Harris, 7; Hartland, _Fairy Tales_, 71.

[392] Dyer, 205.

[393] Cf. ch. viii.

[394] Dyer, 275; Ditchfield, III; cf. the phrase ‘in and out the windows’ of the singing game _Round and Round the Village_ (A. B. Gomme, s. v.).

[395] M. Deloche, _Le Tour de la Lunade_, in _Rev. celtique_, ix. 425; Bérenger-Féraud, i. 423; iii. 167.

[396] Bower, 13.

[397] Duchesne, 276; Usener, i. 293; Tille, _Y. and C._ 51; W. W. Fowler, 124; Boissier, _La Religion romaine_, i. 323. The Rogations or _litaniae minores_ represent in Italy the Ambarvalia on May 29. But they are of Gallican origin, were begun by Mamertus, bishop of Vienne (†470), adapted by the _Council of Orleans_ (511), c. 27 (Mansi, viii. 355), and required by the English _Council of Clovesho_ (747), c. 16 (Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 368), to be held ‘non admixtis vanitatibus, uti mos est plurimis, vel negligentibus, vel imperitis, id est in ludis et equorum cursibus, et epulis maioribus.’ Jahn, 147, quotes the German abbess Marcsuith (940), who describes them as ‘pro gentilicio Ambarvali,’ and adds, ‘confido autem de Patroni huius misericordia, quod sic ab eo gyrade terrae semina uberius provenient, et variae aeris inclementiae cessent.’ Mediaeval Rogation litanies are in _Sarum Processional_, 103, and York Processional (_York Manual_, 182). The more strictly Roman _litania major_ on St. Mark’s day (March 25) takes the place of the _Robigalia_, but is not of great importance in English folk-custom.

[398] _Injunctions_, ch. xix, of 1559 (Gee-Hardy, _Docts. illustrative of English Church History_, 426). Thanks are to be given to God ‘for the increase and abundance of his fruits upon the face of the earth.’ The _Book of Homilies_ contains an exhortation to be used on the occasion. The episcopal injunctions and interrogatories in _Ritual Commission_, 404, 409, 416, &c., endeavour to preserve the Rogations, and to eliminate ‘superstition’ from them; for the development of the notion of ‘beating of bounds,’ cf. the eighteenth-century notices in Dyer, _Old English Social Life_, 196.

[399] The image is represented by the doll of the May-garland, which has sometimes, according to Ditchfield, 102, become the Virgin Mary, with a child doll in its arms, and at other times (e.g. Castleton, _F. L._ xii. 469) has disappeared, leaving the name of ‘queen’ to a particular bunch of flowers; also by the ‘giant’ of the midsummer watch. The Salisbury giant, St. Christopher, with his hobby-horse, Hob-nob, is described in _Rev. d. T. P._ iv. 601.

[400] Grimm, i. 257; Golther, 463; Mogk, iii. 374; Hahn, _Demeter und Baubo_, 38; Usener, _Die Sintfluthsagen_, 115. There are parallels in south European custom, both classical and modern, and Usener even derives the term ‘carnival,’ not from _carnem levare_, but from the _currus navalis_ used by Roman women. A modern survival at Fréjus is described in _F. L._ xii. 307.

[401] Ditchfield, 103; _Transactions of Devonshire Association_, xv. 104; cf. the Noah’s ship procession at Hull (_Representations_, s. v.).

[402] Brand, ii. 223; Grimm, ii. 584; Elton, 284; Gomme, _Ethnology_, 73; Hartland, _Perseus_, ii. 175; Haddon, 362; Vaux, 269; Wood-Martin, ii. 46; Bérenger-Féraud, iii. 291; R. C. Hope, _Holy Wells_; M.-L. Quiller-Couch, _Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall_ (1894); J. Rhys, _C. F._ i. 332, 354, and in _F. L._ iii. 74, iv. 55; A. W. Moore, in _F. L._ v. 212; H. C. March, in _F. L._ x. 479 (Dorset).

[403] A. B. Gomme, s. v.; Haddon, 362.

[404] Schaff, iii. 247; Duchesne, 281, 385; Rock, iii. 2. 101, 180; Maskell, i. cccxi; Feasey, 235; Wordsworth, 24; Pfannenschmidt, _Das Weihwasser im heidnischen und christlichen Cultus_ (1869). The _Benedictio Fontium_ took place on Easter Saturday, in preparation for the baptism which in the earliest times was a characteristic Easter rite. The formulae are in _York Missal_, i. 121; _Sarum Missal_, 350; Maskell, i. 13.

[405] Frazer, iii. 237; Gomme, in _Brit. Ass. Rep._ (1896), 626; Simpson, 195; Grenier, 380; Gaidoz, 16; Bertrand, 98; Gummere, _G. O._ 400; Grimm, ii. 601; Jahn, 25; Brand, i. 127, 166; Dyer, 269, 311, 332; Ditchfield, 141; Cortet, 211.

[406] To this custom may possibly be traced the black-a-vised figures who are persistent in the folk _ludi_, and also the curious tradition which makes May-day especially the chimney-sweeps’ holiday.

[407] The reasons given are various, ‘to keep off hail’ (whence the term _Hagelfeuer_ mentioned by Pfannenschmidt, 67), ‘vermin,’ ‘caterpillars,’ ‘blight,’ ‘to make the fields fertile.’ In Bavaria torches are carried round the fields ‘to drive away the wicked sower’ (of tares?). In Northumberland raids are made on the ashes of neighbouring villages (Dyer, 332).

[408] Cf. p. 113.

[409] I know of no English Easter folk-fires, but St. Patrick is said to have lit one on the hill of Slane, opposite Tara, on Easter Eve, 433 (Feasey, 180).

[410] Schaff, v. 403; Duchesne, 240; Rock, iii. 2. 71, 94, 98, 107, 244; Feasey, 184; Wordsworth, 204; Frazer, iii. 245; Jahn, 129; Grimm, ii. 616; Simpson, 198. The formulae of the _benedictio ignis_ and _benedictio cereorum_ at Candlemas, and the _benedictio ignis_, _benedictio incensi_, and _benedictio cerei_ on Easter Eve, are in _Sarum Missal_, 334, 697; _York Missal_, i. 109; ii. 17. One York MS. has ‘Paschae ignis de berillo vel de silice exceptus ... accenditur.’ The correspondence between Pope Zacharias and St. Boniface shows that the lighting of the _ignis_ by a crystal instead of from a lamp kept secretly burning distinguished Gallican from Roman ceremonial in the eighth century (Jaffé, 2291). All the lights in the church are previously put out, and this itself has become a ceremony in the _Tenebrae_. Ecclesiastical symbolism explained the extinction and rekindling of lights as typifying the Resurrection. Sometimes the _ignis_ provides a light for the folk-fire outside.

[411] Belethus (†1162), _de Div. Offic._ c. 137 (_P. L._ ccii. 141), gives three customs of St. John’s Eve. Bones are burnt, because (1) there are dragons in air, earth, and water, and when these ‘in aere ad libidinem concitantur, quod fere fit, saepe ipsum sperma vel in puteos vel in aquas fluviales eiiciunt, ex quo lethalis sequitur annus,’ but the smoke of the bonfires drives them away; and (2) because St. John’s bones were burnt in Sebasta. Torches are carried, because St. John was a shining light. A wheel is rolled, because of the solstice, which is made appropriate to St. John by _St. John_ iii. 30. The account of Belethus is amplified by Durandus, _Rationale Div. Offic._ (ed. corr. Antwerp, 1614) vii. 14, and taken in turn from Durandus by a fifteenth-century monk of Winchelscombe in a sermon preserved in _Harl. MS._ 2345, f. 49 (b).

[412] Gaidoz, 24, 109; Bertrand, 122; Dyer, 323; Stubbes, i. 339, from Naogeorgos; Usener, ii. 81; and the mediaeval calendar in Brand, i. 179.

[413] Gomme, in _Brit. Ass. Rep._ (1896), 636 (Moray, Mull); _F. L._ ix. 280 (Caithness, with illustration of wood used); Kemble, i. 360 (Perthshire in 1826, Devonshire).

[414] Grimm, ii. 603; Kemble, i. 359; Elton, 293; Frazer, iii. 301; Gaidoz, 22; Jahn, 26; Simpson, 196; Bertrand, 107; Golther, 570. The English term is _need-fire_, Scotch _neidfyre_, German _Nothfeuer_. It is variously derived from _nôt_ ‘need,’ _niuwan_ ‘rub,’ or _hniotan_ ‘press.’ If the last is right, the English form should perhaps be _knead-fire_ (Grimm, ii. 607, 609; Golther, 570). Another German term is _Wildfeuer_. The Gaelic _tin-egin_ is from _tin_ ‘fire,’ and _egin_ ‘violence’ (Grimm, ii. 609). For ecclesiastical prohibitions cf. _Indiculus_ (Saupe, 20) ‘de igne fricato de ligno, i. e. _nodfyr_’; _Capit. Karlmanni_ (742), c. 5 (Grimm, ii. 604) ‘illos sacrilegos ignes quos _niedfyr_ vocant.’

[415] Gaidoz, 1; Bertrand, 109, 140; Simpson, 109, 240; Rhys, _C. H._ 54. The commonest form of the symbol is the swastika, but others appear to be found in the ‘hammer’ of Thor, and on the altars and statues of a Gaulish deity equated in the _interpretatio Romana_ with Jupiter. There is a wheel decoration on the _barelle_ or cars of the Gubbio _ceri_ (Bower, 4).

[416] Brand, i. 97; Dyer, 159; Ditchfield, 78. Eggs are used ceremonially at the Scotch Beltane fires (Frazer, iii. 261; Simpson, 285). Strings of birds’ eggs are hung on the Lynn May garland (_F. L._ x. 443). In Dauphiné an omelette is made when the sun rises on St. John’s day (Cortet, 217). In Germany children are sent to look for the Easter eggs in the nest of a hare, a very divine animal. Among the miscellaneous Benedictions in the _Sarum Manual_, with the _Ben. Seminis_ and the _Ben. Pomorum in die S^{ti} Iacobi_ are a _Ben. Carnis Casei Butyri Ovorum sive Pastillarum in Pascha_ and a _Ben. Agni Paschalis, Ovorum et Herbarum in die Paschae_. These Benedictions are little more than graces. The _Durham Accounts_, i. 71-174, contain entries of fifteenth-and sixteenth-century payments ‘fratribus et sororibus de Wytton pro eorum Egsilver erga festum pasche.’

[417] _Tw. N._ i. 3. 42 ‘He’s a coward and a coystrill, that will not drink to my niece till his brains turn o’ the toe like a parish-top.’ Steevens says ‘a large top was formerly kept in every village, to be whipt in frosty weather, that the peasants might be kept warm by exercise and out of mischief while they could not work.’ This is evidently a ‘fake’ of the ‘Puck of commentators.’ Hone, _E. D. B._ i. 199, says ‘According to a story (whether true or false), in one of the churches of Paris, a choir boy used to whip a top marked with _Alleluia_, written in gold letters, from one end of the choir to the other.’ The ‘burial of Alleluia’ is shown later on to be a mediaeval perversion of an agricultural rite. On the whole question of tops, see Haddon, 255; A. B. Gomme, s. v.

[418] Leber, ix. 391; Barthélemy, iv. 447; Du Tilliot, 30; Grenier, 385; Bérenger-Féraud, iii. 427; Belethus, c. 120 ‘Sunt nonnullae ecclesiae in quibus usitatum est, ut vel etiam episcopi et archiepiscopi in coenobiis cum suis ludant subditis, ita ut etiam se ad lusum pilae demittant. atque haec quidem libertas ideo dicta est decembrica ... quamquam vero magnae ecclesiae, ut est Remensis, hanc ludendi consuetudinem observent, videtur tamen laudabilius esse non ludere’; Durandus, vi. 86 ‘In quibusdam locis hac die, in aliis in Natali, praelati cum suis clericis ludunt, vel in claustris, vel in domibus episcopalibus; ita ut etiam descendant ad ludum pilae, vel etiam ad choreas et cantus, &c.’ Often the ball play was outside the church, but the canons of Evreux on their return from the _procession noire_ of May 1, played ‘ad quillas super voltas ecclesiae’; and the Easter _pilota_ of Auxerre which lasted to 1538, took place in the nave before vespers. Full accounts of this ceremony have been preserved. The dean and canons danced and tossed the ball, singing the _Victimae paschali_. For examples of Easter hand-ball or marbles in English folk-custom, cf. Brand, i. 103; Vaux, 240; _F. L._ xii. 75; Mrs. Gomme, s. v. _Handball_.

[419] Brand, i. 93; Burne-Jackson, 335. A Norfolk version (_F. L._ vii. 90) has ‘dances as if in agony.’ On the Mendips (_F. L._ v. 339) what is expected is ‘a lamb in the sun.’ The moon, and perhaps the sun also, is sometimes ‘wobbly,’ ‘jumping’ or ‘skipping,’ owing to the presence of strata of air differing in humidity or temperature, and so changing the index of refraction (Nicholson, _Golspie_, 186). At Pontesford Hill in Shropshire (Burne-Jackson, 330) the pilgrimage was on Palm Sunday, actually to pluck a sprig from a haunted yew, traditionally ‘to look for the golden arrow,’ which must be solar. In the Isle of Man hills, on which are sacred wells, are visited on the Lugnassad, to gather ling-berries. Others say that it is because of Jephthah’s daughter, who went up and down on the mountains and bewailed her virginity. And the old folk now stop at home and read _Judges_ xi (Rhys, _C. F._ i. 312). On the place of hill-tops in agricultural religion cf. p. 106, and for the use of elevated spots for sun-worship at Rome, ch. xi.

[420] Simpson, _passim_; cf. _F. L._ vi. 168; xi. 220. _Deasil_ is from Gaelic _deas_, ‘right,’ ‘south.’ Mediaeval ecclesiastical processions went ‘contra solis cursum et morem ecclesiasticum’ only in seasons of woe or sadness (Rock, iii. 2. 182).

[421] Dr. Murray kindly informs me that the etymology of _withershins_ (A.-S. _wiþersynes_) is uncertain. It is from _wiþer_, ‘against,’ and either some lost noun, or one derived from _séon_, ‘to see,’ or _sinþ_, ‘course.’ The original sense is simply ‘backwards,’ and the equivalence with _deasil_ not earlier than the seventeenth century. A folk-etymology from _shine_ may account for the aspirate.

[422] Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, 196; Jevons, 130; Frazer, ii. 352; Grant Allen, 318; Hartland, ii. 236; Turnbull, _The Blood Covenant_. Perhaps, as a third type of sacrifice, should be distinguished the ‘alimentary’ sacrifice of food and other things made to the dead. This rests on the belief in the continuance of the mortal life with its needs and desires after death.

[423] Grimm, i. 47; Golther, 565; Gummere, _G. O._ 40, 457. Gregory III wrote (†731) to Boniface (_P. L._ lxxxix. 577) ‘inter cetera agrestem caballum aliquantos comedere adiunxisti plerosque et domesticum. hoc nequaquam fieri deinceps sinas,’ cf. _Councils of Cealcythe and Pincanhale_ (787), c. 19 (Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 458) ‘equos etiam plerique in vobis comedunt, quod nullus Christianorum in Orientalibus facit.’ The decking of horses is a familiar feature of May-day in London and elsewhere.

[424] C. J. Billson, _The Easter Hare_, in _F. L._ iii. 441.

[425] N. W. Thomas in _F. L._ xi. 227.

[426] Grimm, i. 55; Golther, 559, 575; Gummere, _G. O._ 456. The universal Teutonic term for sacrificing is _blôtan_.

[427] Frazer, _Pausanias_, iii. 20; Jevons, 130, 191. Does the modern huntsman know why he ‘bloods’ a novice?

[428] Grimm, i. 47, 57, 77; Jahn, 24; Gummere, _G. O._ 459. Hence the theriomorphic ‘image.’

[429] Robertson Smith, 414, 448; Jevons, 102, 285; Frazer, ii. 448; Lang, _M. R. R._^1 ii. 73, 80, 106, 214, 226; Grant Allen, 335; Du Méril, _Com._ i. 75. Hence the theriomorphic _larva_ or mask (Frazer, _Pausanias_, iv. 239).

[430] Grimm, i. 46, 57; Golther, 576; Frazer, ii. 318, 353; Jevons, 144; Grant Allen, 325. Savages believe that by eating an animal they will acquire its bodily and mental qualities.

[431] Jahn, 14, and for classical parallels Frazer, ii. 315; _Pausanias_, iii. 288; Jevons, _Plutarch_, lxix. 143. Grant Allen, 292, was told as a boy in Normandy that at certain lustrations ‘a portion of the Host (stolen or concealed, I imagine) was sometimes buried in each field.’

[432] Frazer, ii. 318; Grant Allen, 337; Jevons, 206.

[433] _F. L._ vi. 1.

[434] Frazer, ii. 319; Jevons, 214; cf. the πάνσπερμα at the Athenian Pyanepsia.

[435] In the Beltane rite (_F. L._ vi. 2) a bit of the bannock is reserved for the ‘cuack’ or cuckoo, here doubtless the inheritor of the gods.

[436] Grimm, iii. 1240.

[437] Elton, 428.

[438] Grimm, i. 59; Gummere, _G. O._ 455.

[439] V. Hehn, _Culturpflanzen_, 438.

[440] Grimm, i. 44, 48, 53; Golther, 561; Gummere, _G. O._ 459; Schräder, 422; Mogk, iii. 388; Meyer, 199, and for Keltic evidence Elton, 270. Many of these examples belong rather to the war than to the agricultural cult. The latest in the west are _Capit. de partib. Saxon._ 9 ‘Si quis hominem diabolo sacrificaverit et in hostiam, more paganorum, daemonibus obtulerit’; _Lex Frisionum_, additio sup. tit. 42 ‘qui fanum effregerit ... immolatur diis, quorum templa violavit’; _Epist. Greg. III_, 1 (_P. L._ lxxxix, 578) ‘hoc quoque inter alia crimina agi in partibus illis dixisti, quod quidam ex fidelibus ad immolandum paganis sua venundent mancipia.’

[441] Frazer, ii. 1; Jevons, 279.

[442] Frazer, ii. 5, 59.

[443] Strabo, iv. 5. 4; Bastian, _Oestl. Asien_, v. 272. The Mexican evidence given by Frazer, iii. 134, does not necessarily represent a primitive notion of the nature of the rite.

[444] Jevons, 291; _Plutarch_, lxx. For traces of the blood-guiltiness incurred by sacrifice, cf. the βουφόνια at Athens and the _regifugium_ at Rome (Frazer, ii. 294; Robertson Smith, i. 286).

[445] Frazer, ii. 15, 55, 232; Jevons, 280; Grant Allen, 242, 296, 329.

[446] In three successive years of famine the Swedes sacrificed first oxen, then men, finally their king Dômaldi himself (_Ynglingasaga_, c. 18).

[447] Frazer, ii. 24; Jevons, 280; Grant Allen, 296.

[448] The British rule in India forbids human sacrifice, and the Khonds, a Dravidian race of Bengal, have substituted animal for human victims within the memory of man (Frazer, ii. 245).

[449] Hartland, iii. 1; Frazer, _Pausanias_, iv. 197; v. 44, 143; Bérenger-Féraud, i. 207. Mr. Frazer enumerates forty-one versions of the legend.

[450] Hartland, iii. 81; Grimm, ii. 494; Gummere, _G. O._ 396. The slaves of Nerthus were drowned in the same lake in which the goddess was dipped.

[451] _F. L._ vi. i.

[452] Frazer, iii. 319; Gaidoz, 27; Cortet, 213; Simpson, 221; Bertrand, 68; _F. L._ xii. 315. The work of Posidonius does not exist, but was possibly used by Caesar, _B. G._ vi. 15; Strabo, iv. 4. 5; Diodorus, v. 32. Wicker ‘giants’ are still burnt in some French festival-fires. But elsewhere, as in the midsummer shows, such ‘giants’ seem to be images of the agricultural divinities, and it is not clear by what process they came to be burnt and so destroyed. Perhaps they were originally only smoked, just as they were dipped.

[453] Gomme, _Ethnology_, 137; _F. L._ ii. 300; x. 101; xii. 217; Vaux, 287; Rhys, _C. F._ i. 306.

[454] _F. L._ ii. 302; Rhys, _C. F._ i. 307. In 1656, bulls were sacrificed near Dingwall (_F. L._ x. 353). A few additional examples, beyond those here given, are mentioned by N. W. Thomas, in _F. L._ xi. 247.

[455] 1 _N. Q._ vii. 353; Gomme, _Ethnology_, 32; _Village Community_, 113; Grant Allen, 290. The custom was extinct when it was first described in 1853, and some doubt has recently been thrown upon the ‘altar,’ the ‘struggle’ and other details; cf. _Trans. of Devonshire Assn._ xxviii. 99; _F. L._ viii. 287.

[456] 1 _N. Q._ vii. 353; Gomme, _Ethnology_, 30; Vaux, 285.

[457] Blount, _Jocular Tenures_ (ed. Beckwith), 281; Dyer, 297.

[458] Dunkin, _Hist. of Bicester_ (1816), 268; P. Manning, in _F. L._ viii. 313.

[459] P. Manning, in _F. L._ viii. 310; Dyer, 282.

[460] N. W. Thomas, in _F. L._ xi. 227; Dyer, 285, 438, 470; Ditchfield, 85, 131.

[461] Certain lands were held of the chapter for which a fat buck was paid on the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25), and a fat doe on the Commemoration of St. Paul (June 30). They were offered, according to one writer, alive, at the high altar; the flesh was baked, the head and horns carried in festal procession. The custom dated from at least 1274 (Dyer, 49; W. Sparrow Simpson, _St. Paul’s Cath. and Old City Life_, 234).

[462] _F. L._ iv. 9; x. 355. White bulls are said to have been led to the shrine by women desirous of children. F. C. Conybeare, in _R. de l’Hist. des Religions_, xliv. 108, describes some survivals of sacrificial rites in the Armenian church which existed primitively in other Greek churches also.

[463] _F. L._ vii. 346. Bull-baiting often took place on festivals, and in several cases, as at Tutbury, the bull was driven into or over a river. Bear-baiting is possibly a later variant of the sport.

[464] Burton, 165; _Suffolk F. L._ 71; Ditchfield, 227; Dyer, 387; Pfannenschmidt, 279; cf. the Abbots Bromley Horn-dance (ch. viii).

[465] _F. L._ iv. 5. The custom of sacrifice at the foundation of a new building has also left traces: cf. Grant Allen, 248; _F. L._ xi. 322, 437; Speth, _Builders’ Rites and Ceremonies_.

[466] Douce, 598, gives a cut of a hobby-horse, i. e. a man riding a pasteboard or wicker horse with his legs concealed beneath a foot-cloth. According to Du Méril, _Com._ i. 79, 421, the device is known throughout Europe. In France it is the _chevalet_, _cheval-mallet_, _cheval-fol_, &c.; in Germany the _Schimmel_.

[467] Dyer, 182, 266, 271; Ditchfield, 97; Burton, 40; _F. L._ viii. 309, 313, 317; cf. ch. ix on the ‘fool’ or ‘squire’ in the sword and morris dances, and ch. xvi on his court and literary congener. The folk-fool wears a cow’s tail or fox’s brush, or carries a stick with a tail at one end and a bladder and peas at the other. He often wears a mask or has his face blacked. In Lancashire he is sometimes merged with the ‘woman’ grotesque of the folk-festivals, and called ‘owd Bet.’

[468] W. Gregor, _F. L. of N. E. Scotland_, 181, says that bread and cheese were actually laid in the field, and in the plough when it was ‘strykit.’

[469] Dyer, 20, 207, 447; Ditchfield, 46; _F. L._ vi. 93. Pirminius v. Reichenau, _Dicta_ (†753), c. 22, forbids ‘effundere super truncum frugem et vinum.’

[470] _F. L. Congress_, 449, gives a list of about fifty ‘feasten’ cakes. Some are quite local; others, from the Shrove Tuesday pancake to the Good Friday hot cross bun, widespread.

[471] Grimm, i. 57; Frazer, ii. 344; Grant Allen, 339; Jevons, 215; Dyer, 165; Ditchfield, 81.

[472] _F. L._ vi. 57; viii. 354; ix. 362; x. 111.

[473] _F. L._ vi. 1.

[474] Ditchfield, 116, 227; _Suffolk F. L._ 108; Dyer, _Old English Social Life_, 197. The boys are now said to be whipped in order that they may remember the boundaries; but the custom, which sometimes includes burying them, closely resembles the symbolical sacrifices of the harvest field (p. 158). Grant Allen, 270, suggests that the tears shed are a rain-charm. I hope he is joking.

[475] Brand, ii. 13; _Suffolk F. L._ 69, 71; _Leicester F. L._ 121. A ‘harvest-lord’ is probably meant by the ‘Rex Autumnalis’ mentioned in the _Accounts_ of St. Michael’s, Bath (ed. Somerset Arch. Soc. 88), in 1487, 1490, and 1492. A _corona_ was hired by him from the parish. Often the reaper who cuts the last sheaf (i.e. slays the divinity) becomes harvest-lord.

[476] Gomme, _Village Community_, 107; Dyer, 339; Northall, 202; _Gloucester F. L._ 33.

[477] Frazer, i. 216; E. Pabst, _Die Volksfeste des Maigrafen_ (1865).

[478] Frazer, i. 219; Cortet, 160; Brand, i. 126; Dyer, 266; Ditchfield, 98.

[479] Tacitus, _Germ._ c. 43 ‘apud Nahanarvalos antiquae religionis lucus ostenditur. praesidet sacerdos muliebri ornatu.’

[480] _Conc. of Trullo_ (692), c. 62 (Mansi, xi. 671) ‘Nullus vir deinceps muliebri veste induatur, vel mulier veste viro conveniente’; _Conc. of Braga_ (of doubtful date), c. 80 (Mansi, ix. 844) ‘Si quis ballationes ante ecclesias sanctorum fecerit, seu quis faciem suam transformaverit in habitu muliebri et mulier in habitu viri emendatione pollicita tres annos poeniteat.’ The exchange of head-gear between men and women remains a familiar feature of the modern bank-holiday. Some Greek parallels are collected by Frazer, _Pausanias_, iii. 197. E. Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_ (1902), viii. 371, suggests another explanation, which would connect the custom with the amorous side of the primitive festivals.

[481] Frazer, ii. 93, 109.

[482] Ibid. i. 220; Brand, i. 157; Dyer, 217; Ditchfield, 97; Kelly, 62: cf. ch. viii.

[483] Pearson, ii. 24, 407. Cf. the evidence for a primitive human pairing-season in Westermarck, 25.

[484] Purity of life is sometimes required of those who are to kindle the new fire (Frazer, iii. 260, 302).

[485] H. Spencer, _Principles of Psychology_, ii. 629; K. Groos, _Play of Man_, 361; Hirn, 25.

[486] Gummere, _G. O._ 331.

[487] Frazer, i. 217; iii. 258.

[488] Chaucer says of the Miller (_C. T._ prol. 548):

‘At wrastlynge he wolde have alwey the ram’;

and of Sir Thopas (_C. T._ 13670):

‘Of wrastlynge was ther noon his peer, Ther any ram shal stonde.’

Strutt, 82, figures a wrestling from _Royal MS._ 2, B. viii, with a cock set on a pole as the prize.

[489] Cf. Appendix I., and Frazer, ii. 316; Jevons, _Plutarch_,