The Golden Bough

                      A Study in Magic and Religion

                                    By

               James George Frazer, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.

                   Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

     Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Liverpool

                            Vol. VII. of XII.

               Part V: Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild.

                               Vol. 1 of 2.

                           New York and London

                            MacMillan and Co.

                                   1912





CONTENTS


Preface.
Chapter I. Dionysus.
Chapter II. Demeter And Persephone.
Chapter III. Magical Significance of Games in Primitive Agriculture.
Chapter IV. Woman’s Part in Primitive Agriculture.
Chapter V. The Corn-Mother and the Corn-Maiden in Northern Europe.
Chapter VI. The Corn-Mother in Many Lands.
   § 1. The Corn-mother in America.
   § 2. The Mother-cotton in the Punjaub.
   § 3. The Barley Bride among the Berbers.
   § 4. The Rice-mother in the East Indies.
   § 5. The Spirit of the Corn embodied in Human Beings.
   § 6. The Double Personification of the Corn as Mother and Daughter.
Chapter VII. Lityerses.
   § 1. Songs of the Corn Reapers.
   § 2. Killing the Corn-spirit.
   § 3. Human Sacrifices for the Crops.
   § 4. The Corn-spirit slain in his Human Representatives.
Chapter VIII. The Corn-Spirit as an Animal.
   § 1. Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit.
   § 2. The Corn-spirit as a Wolf or a Dog.
   § 3. The Corn-spirit as a Cock.
   § 4. The Corn-spirit as a Hare.
   § 5. The Corn-spirit as a Cat.
   § 6. The Corn-spirit as a Goat.
   § 7. The Corn-spirit as a Bull, Cow, or Ox.
   § 8. The Corn-spirit as a Horse or Mare.
   § 9. The Corn-spirit as a Bird.
   § 10. The Corn-spirit as a Fox.
   § 11. The Corn-spirit as a Pig (Boar or Sow).
   § 12. On the Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit.
Note. The Pleiades in Primitive Calendars.
Footnotes






                               [Cover Art]

[Transcriber’s Note: The above cover image was produced by the submitter
at Distributed Proofreaders, and is being placed into the public domain.]





PREFACE.


In the last part of this work we examined the figure of the Dying and
Reviving God as it appears in the Oriental religions of classical
antiquity. With the present instalment of _The Golden Bough_ we pursue the
same theme in other religions and among other races. Passing from the East
to Europe we begin with the religion of ancient Greece, which embodies the
now familiar conception in two typical examples, the vine-god Dionysus and
the corn-goddess Persephone, with her mother and duplicate Demeter. Both
of these Greek divinities are personifications of cultivated plants, and a
consideration of them naturally leads us on to investigate similar
personifications elsewhere. Now of all the plants which men have
artificially reared for the sake of food the cereals are on the whole the
most important; therefore it is natural that the religion of primitive
agricultural communities should be deeply coloured by the principal
occupation of their lives, the care of the corn. Hence the frequency with
which the figures of the Corn-mother and Corn-maiden, answering to the
Demeter and Persephone of ancient Greece, meet us in other parts of the
world, and not least of all on the harvest-fields of modern Europe. But
edible roots as well as cereals have been cultivated by many races,
especially in the tropical regions, as a subsidiary or even as a principal
means of subsistence; and accordingly they too enter largely into the
religious ideas of the peoples who live by them. Yet in the case of the
roots, such as yams, taro, and potatoes, the conception of the Dying and
Reviving God appears to figure less prominently than in the case of the
cereals, perhaps for the simple reason that while the growth and decay of
the one sort of fruit go on above ground for all to see, the similar
processes of the other are hidden under ground and therefore strike the
popular imagination less forcibly.

Having surveyed the variations of our main theme among the agricultural
races of mankind, we prosecute the enquiry among savages who remain more
or less completely in the hunting, fishing, and pastoral stages of
society. The same motive which leads the primitive husbandman to adore the
corn or the roots, induces the primitive hunter, fowler, fisher, or
herdsman to adore the beasts, birds, or fishes which furnish him with the
means of subsistence. To him the conception of the death of these
worshipful beings is naturally presented with singular force and
distinctness; since it is no figurative or allegorical death, no poetical
embroidery thrown over the skeleton, but the real death, the naked
skeleton, that constantly thrusts itself importunately on his attention.
And strange as it may seem to us civilised men, the notion of the
immortality and even of the resurrection of the lower animals appears to
be almost as familiar to the savage and to be accepted by him with nearly
as unwavering a faith as the obvious fact of their death and destruction.
For the most part he assumes as a matter of course that the souls of dead
animals survive their decease; hence much of the thought of the savage
hunter is devoted to the problem of how he can best appease the naturally
incensed ghosts of his victims so as to prevent them from doing him a
mischief. This refusal of the savage to recognise in death a final
cessation of the vital process, this unquestioning faith in the unbroken
continuity of all life, is a fact that has not yet received the attention
which it seems to merit from enquirers into the constitution of the human
mind as well as into the history of religion. In the following pages I
have collected examples of this curious faith; I must leave it to others
to appraise them.

Thus on the whole we are concerned in these volumes with the reverence or
worship paid by men to the natural resources from which they draw their
nutriment, both vegetable and animal. That they should invest these
resources with an atmosphere of wonder and awe, often indeed with a halo
of divinity, is no matter for surprise. The circle of human knowledge,
illuminated by the pale cold light of reason, is so infinitesimally small,
the dark regions of human ignorance which lie beyond that luminous ring
are so immeasurably vast, that imagination is fain to step up to the
border line and send the warm, richly coloured beams of her fairy lantern
streaming out into the darkness; and so, peering into the gloom, she is
apt to mistake the shadowy reflections of her own figure for real beings
moving in the abyss. In short, few men are sensible of the sharp line that
divides the known from the unknown; to most men it is a hazy borderland
where perception and conception melt indissolubly into one. Hence to the
savage the ghosts of dead animals and men, with which his imagination
peoples the void, are hardly less real than the solid shapes which the
living animals and men present to his senses; and his thoughts and
activities are nearly as much absorbed by the one as by the other. Of him
it may be said with perhaps even greater truth than of his civilised
brother, “What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!”

But having said so much in this book of the misty glory which the human
imagination sheds round the hard material realities of the food supply, I
am unwilling to leave my readers under the impression, natural but
erroneous, that man has created most of his gods out of his belly. That is
not so, at least that is not my reading of the history of religion. Among
the visible, tangible, perceptible elements by which he is surrounded—and
it is only of these that I presume to speak—there are others than the
merely nutritious which have exerted a powerful influence in touching his
imagination and stimulating his energies, and so have contributed to build
up the complex fabric of religion. To the preservation of the species the
reproductive faculties are no less essential than the nutritive; and with
them we enter on a very different sphere of thought and feeling, to wit,
the relation of the sexes to each other, with all the depths of tenderness
and all the intricate problems which that mysterious relation involves.
The study of the various forms, some gross and palpable, some subtle and
elusive, in which the sexual instinct has moulded the religious
consciousness of our race, is one of the most interesting, as it is one of
the most difficult and delicate tasks, which await the future historian of
religion.

But the influence which the sexes exert on each other, intimate and
profound as it has been and must always be, is far indeed from exhausting
the forces of attraction by which mankind are bound together in society.
The need of mutual protection, the economic advantages of co-operation,
the contagion of example, the communication of knowledge, the great ideas
that radiate from great minds, like shafts of light from high
towers,—these and many other things combine to draw men into communities,
to drill them into regiments, and to set them marching on the road of
progress with a concentrated force to which the loose skirmishers of mere
anarchy and individualism can never hope to oppose a permanent resistance.
Hence when we consider how intimately humanity depends on society for many
of the boons which it prizes most highly, we shall probably admit that of
all the forces open to our observation which have shaped human destiny the
influence of man on man is by far the greatest. If that is so, it seems to
follow that among the beings, real or imaginary, which the religious
imagination has clothed with the attributes of divinity, human spirits are
likely to play a more important part than the spirits of plants, animals,
or inanimate objects. I believe that a careful examination of the
evidence, which has still to be undertaken, will confirm this conclusion;
and that if we could strictly interrogate the phantoms which the human
mind has conjured up out of the depths of its bottomless ignorance and
enshrined as deities in the dim light of temples, we should find that the
majority of them have been nothing but the ghosts of dead men. However, to
say this is necessarily to anticipate the result of future research; and
if in saying it I have ventured to make a prediction, which like all
predictions is liable to be falsified by the event, I have done so only
from a fear lest, without some such warning, the numerous facts recorded
in these volumes might lend themselves to an exaggerated estimate of their
own importance and hence to a misinterpretation and distortion of history.

J. G. Frazer.

CAMBRIDGE, _4th May 1912_.





CHAPTER I. DIONYSUS.


(M1) In the preceding part of this work we saw that in antiquity the
civilised nations of western Asia and Egypt pictured to themselves the
changes of the seasons, and particularly the annual growth and decay of
vegetation, as episodes in the life of gods, whose mournful death and
happy resurrection they celebrated with dramatic rites of alternate
lamentation and rejoicing. But if the celebration was in form dramatic, it
was in substance magical; that is to say, it was intended, on the
principles of sympathetic magic, to ensure the vernal regeneration of
plants and the multiplication of animals, which had seemed to be menaced
by the inroads of winter. In the ancient world, however, such ideas and
such rites were by no means confined to the Oriental peoples of Babylon
and Syria, of Phrygia and Egypt; they were not a product peculiar to the
religious mysticism of the dreamy East, but were shared by the races of
livelier fancy and more mercurial temperament who inhabited the shores and
islands of the Aegean. We need not, with some enquirers in ancient and
modern times, suppose that these Western peoples borrowed from the older
civilisation of the Orient the conception of the Dying and Reviving God,
together with the solemn ritual, in which that conception was dramatically
set forth before the eyes of the worshippers. More probably the
resemblance which may be traced in this respect between the religions of
the East and the West is no more than what we commonly, though
incorrectly, call a fortuitous coincidence, the effect of similar causes
acting alike on the similar constitution of the human mind in different
countries and under different skies. The Greek had no need to journey into
far countries to learn the vicissitudes of the seasons, to mark the
fleeting beauty of the damask rose, the transient glory of the golden
corn, the passing splendour of the purple grapes. Year by year in his own
beautiful land he beheld, with natural regret, the bright pomp of summer
fading into the gloom and stagnation of winter, and year by year he hailed
with natural delight the outburst of fresh life in spring. Accustomed to
personify the forces of nature, to tinge her cold abstractions with the
warm hues of imagination, to clothe her naked realities with the gorgeous
drapery of a mythic fancy, he fashioned for himself a train of gods and
goddesses, of spirits and elves, out of the shifting panorama of the
seasons, and followed the annual fluctuations of their fortunes with
alternate emotions of cheerfulness and dejection, of gladness and sorrow,
which found their natural expression in alternate rites of rejoicing and
lamentation, of revelry and mourning. A consideration of some of the Greek
divinities who thus died and rose again from the dead may furnish us with
a series of companion pictures to set side by side with the sad figures of
Adonis, Attis, and Osiris. We begin with Dionysus.

(M2) The god Dionysus or Bacchus is best known to us as a personification
of the vine and of the exhilaration produced by the juice of the grape.(1)
His ecstatic worship, characterised by wild dances, thrilling music, and
tipsy excess, appears to have originated among the rude tribes of Thrace,
who were notoriously addicted to drunkenness.(2) Its mystic doctrines and
extravagant rites were essentially foreign to the clear intelligence and
sober temperament of the Greek race. Yet appealing as it did to that love
of mystery and that proneness to revert to savagery which seem to be
innate in most men, the religion spread like wildfire through Greece until
the god whom Homer hardly deigned to notice had become the most popular
figure of the pantheon. The resemblance which his story and his ceremonies
present to those of Osiris have led some enquirers both in ancient and
modern times to hold that Dionysus was merely a disguised Osiris, imported
directly from Egypt into Greece.(3) But the great preponderance of
evidence points to his Thracian origin, and the similarity of the two
worships is sufficiently explained by the similarity of the ideas and
customs on which they were founded.

(M3) While the vine with its clusters was the most characteristic
manifestation of Dionysus, he was also a god of trees in general. Thus we
are told that almost all the Greeks sacrificed to “Dionysus of the
tree.”(4) In Boeotia one of his titles was “Dionysus in the tree.”(5) His
image was often merely an upright post, without arms, but draped in a
mantle, with a bearded mask to represent the head, and with leafy boughs
projecting from the head or body to shew the nature of the deity.(6) On a
vase his rude effigy is depicted appearing out of a low tree or bush.(7)
At Magnesia on the Maeander an image of Dionysus is said to have been
found in a plane-tree, which had been broken by the wind.(8) He was the
patron of cultivated trees;(9) prayers were offered to him that he would
make the trees grow;(10) and he was especially honoured by husbandmen,
chiefly fruit-growers, who set up an image of him, in the shape of a
natural tree-stump, in their orchards.(11) He was said to have discovered
all tree-fruits, amongst which apples and figs are particularly
mentioned;(12) and he was referred to as “well-fruited,” “he of the green
fruit,” and “making the fruit to grow.”(13) One of his titles was
“teeming” or “bursting” (as of sap or blossoms);(14) and there was a
Flowery Dionysus in Attica and at Patrae in Achaia.(15) The Athenians
sacrificed to him for the prosperity of the fruits of the land.(16)
Amongst the trees particularly sacred to him, in addition to the vine, was
the pine-tree.(17) The Delphic oracle commanded the Corinthians to worship
a particular pine-tree “equally with the god,” so they made two images of
Dionysus out of it, with red faces and gilt bodies.(18) In art a wand,
tipped with a pine-cone, is commonly carried by the god or his
worshippers.(19) Again, the ivy and the fig-tree were especially
associated with him. In the Attic township of Acharnae there was a
Dionysus Ivy;(20) at Lacedaemon there was a Fig Dionysus; and in Naxos,
where figs were called _meilicha_, there was a Dionysus Meilichios, the
face of whose image was made of fig-wood.(21)

(M4) Further, there are indications, few but significant, that Dionysus
was conceived as a deity of agriculture and the corn. He is spoken of as
himself doing the work of a husbandman:(22) he is reported to have been
the first to yoke oxen to the plough, which before had been dragged by
hand alone; and some people found in this tradition the clue to the bovine
shape in which, as we shall see, the god was often supposed to present
himself to his worshippers. Thus guiding the ploughshare and scattering
the seed as he went, Dionysus is said to have eased the labour of the
husbandman.(23) Further, we are told that in the land of the Bisaltae, a
Thracian tribe, there was a great and fair sanctuary of Dionysus, where at
his festival a bright light shone forth at night as a token of an abundant
harvest vouchsafed by the deity; but if the crops were to fail that year,
the mystic light was not seen, darkness brooded over the sanctuary as at
other times.(24) Moreover, among the emblems of Dionysus was the
winnowing-fan, that is the large open shovel-shaped basket, which down to
modern times has been used by farmers to separate the grain from the chaff
by tossing the corn in the air. This simple agricultural instrument
figured in the mystic rites of Dionysus; indeed the god is traditionally
said to have been placed at birth in a winnowing-fan as in a cradle: in
art he is represented as an infant so cradled; and from these traditions
and representations he derived the epithet of _Liknites_, that is, “He of
the Winnowing-fan.”(25)

(M5) At first sight this symbolism might be explained very simply and
naturally by supposing that the divine infant cradled in the winnowing-fan
was identified with the corn which it is the function of the instrument to
winnow and sift. Yet against this identification it may be urged with
reason that the use of a winnowing-fan as a cradle was not peculiar to
Dionysus; it was a regular practice with the ancient Greeks to place their
infants in winnowing-fans as an omen of wealth and fertility for the
future life of the children.(26) Customs of the same sort have been
observed, apparently for similar reasons, by other peoples in other lands.
For example, in Java it is or used to be customary to place every child at
birth in a bamboo basket like the sieve or winnowing-basket which Javanese
farmers use for separating the rice from the chaff.(27) It is the midwife
who places the child in the basket, and as she does so she suddenly knocks
with the palms of both hands on the basket in order that the child may not
be timid and fearful. Then she addresses the child thus: “Cry not, for
Njaï-among and Kaki-among” (two spirits) “are watching over you.” Next she
addresses these two spirits, saying, “Bring not your grandchild to the
road, lest he be trampled by a horse; bring him not to the bank of the
river, lest he fall into the river.” The object of the ceremony is said to
be that these two spirits should always and everywhere guard the
child.(28) On the first anniversary of a child’s birthday the Chinese of
Foo-Chow set the little one in a large bamboo sieve, such as farmers
employ in winnowing grain, and in the sieve they place along with the
child a variety of articles, such as fruits, gold or silver ornaments, a
set of money-scales, books, a pencil, pen, ink, paper, and so on, and they
draw omens of the child’s future career from the object which it first
handles and plays with. Thus, if the infant first grasps the money-scale,
he will be wealthy; if he seizes on a book, he will be learned, and so
forth.(29) In the Bilaspore district of India it is customary for
well-to-do people to place a newborn infant in a winnowing-fan filled with
rice and afterwards to give the grain to the nurse in attendance.(30) In
Upper Egypt a newly-born babe is immediately laid upon a corn-sieve and
corn is scattered around it; moreover, on the seventh day after birth the
infant is carried on a sieve through the whole house, while the midwife
scatters wheat, barley, pease and salt. The intention of these ceremonies
is said to be to avert evil spirits from the child,(31) and a like motive
is assigned by other peoples for the practice of placing newborn infants
in a winnowing-basket or corn-sieve. For example, in the Punjaub, when
several children of a family have died in succession, a new baby will
sometimes be put at birth into an old winnowing-basket (_chhaj_) along
with the sweepings of the house, and so dragged out into the yard; such a
child may, like Dionysus, in after life be known by the name of
Winnowing-basket (_Chhajju_) or Dragged (_Ghasitâ_).(32) The object of
treating the child in this way seems to be to save its life by deceiving
the spirits, who are supposed to have carried off its elder brothers and
sisters; these malevolent beings are on the look-out for the new baby, but
they will never think of raking for it in the dust-bin, that being the
last place where they would expect to find the hope of the family. The
same may perhaps be the intention of a ceremony observed by the Gaolis of
the Deccan. As soon as a child is born, it is bathed and then placed on a
sieve for a few minutes. On the fifth day the sieve, with a lime and _pan_
leaves on it, is removed outside the house and then, after the worship of
Chetti has been performed, the sieve is thrown away on the road.(33)
Again, the same notion of rescuing the child from dangerous spirits comes
out very clearly in a similar custom observed by the natives of Laos, a
province of Siam. These people “believe that an infant is the child, not
of its parents, but of the spirits, and in this belief they go through the
following formalities. As soon as an infant is born it is bathed and
dressed, laid upon a rice-sieve, and placed—by the grandmother if present,
if not, by the next near female relative—at the head of the stairs or of
the ladder leading to the house. The person performing this duty calls out
in a loud tone to the spirits to come and take the child away to-day, or
for ever after to let it alone; at the same moment she stamps violently on
the floor to frighten the child, or give it a jerk, and make it cry. If it
does not cry this is regarded as an evil omen. If, on the other hand, it
follows the ordinary laws of nature and begins to exercise its vocal
organs, it is supposed to have a happy and prosperous life before it.
Sometimes the spirits do come and take the infant away, _i.e._ it dies
before it is twenty-four hours old, but, to prevent such a calamity,
strings are tied round its wrists on the first night after its birth, and
if it sickens or is feeble the spirit-doctors are called in to prescribe
certain offerings to be made to keep away the very spirits who, only a few
hours previously, were ceremoniously called upon to come and carry the
child off. On the day after its birth the child is regarded as being the
property no longer of the spirits, who could have taken it if they had
wanted it, but of the parents, who forthwith sell it to some relation for
a nominal sum—an eighth or a quarter of a rupee perhaps. This again is a
further guarantee against molestation by the spirits, who apparently are
regarded as honest folk that would not stoop to take what has been bought
and paid for.”(34)

(M6) A like intention of averting evil in some shape from a child is
assigned in other cases of the same custom. Thus in Travancore, “if an
infant is observed to distort its limbs as if in pain, it is supposed to
be under the pressure of some one who has stooped over it, to relieve
which the mother places it with a nut-cracker on a winnowing fan and
shakes it three or four times.”(35) Again, among the Tanala people of
Madagascar almost all children born in the unlucky month of Faosa are
buried alive in the forest. But if the parents resolve to let the child
live, they must call in the aid of a diviner, who performs a ceremony for
averting the threatened ill-luck. The child is placed in a winnowing-fan
along with certain herbs. Further, the diviner takes herbs of the same
sort, a worn-out spade, and an axe, fastens them to the father’s spear,
and sets the spear up in the ground. Then the child is bathed in water
which has been medicated with some of the same herbs. Finally the diviner
says: “The worn-out spade to the grandchild; may it (the child) not
despoil its father, may it not despoil its mother, may it not despoil the
children; let it be good.” This ceremony, we are told, “puts an end to the
child’s evil days, and the father gets the spear to put away all evil. The
child then joins its father and mother; its evil days are averted, and the
water and the other things are buried, for they account them evil.”(36)
Similarly the ancient Greeks used to bury, or throw into the sea, or
deposit at cross-roads, the things that had been used in ceremonies of
purification, no doubt because the things were supposed to be tainted by
the evil which had been transferred to them in the rites.(37) Another
example of the use of a winnowing-fan in what may be called a purificatory
ceremony is furnished by the practice of the Chinese of Foo-Chow. A lad
who is suffering from small-pox is made to squat in a large winnowing
sieve. On his head is placed a piece of red cloth, and on the cloth are
laid some parched beans, which are then allowed to roll off. As the name
for beans, pronounced in the local dialect, is identical with the common
name for small-pox, and as moreover the scars left by the pustules are
thought to resemble beans, it appears to be imagined that just as the
beans roll off the boy’s head, so will the pustules vanish from his body
without leaving a trace behind.(38) Thus the cure depends on the principle
of homoeopathic magic. Perhaps on the same principle a winnowing-fan is
employed in the ceremony from a notion that it will help to waft or fan
away the disease like chaff from the grain. We may compare a purificatory
ceremony observed by the Karens of Burma at the naming of a new-born
child. Amongst these people “children are supposed to come into the world
defiled, and unless that defilement is removed, they will be unfortunate,
and unsuccessful in their undertakings. An Elder takes a thin splint of
bamboo, and, tying a noose at one end, he fans it down the child’s arm,
saying:


    ‘_Fan away ill luck, fan away ill success:_
    _Fan away inability, fan away unskilfulness:_
    _Fan away slow growth, fan away difficulty of growth:_
    _Fan away stuntedness, fan away puniness:_
    _Fan away drowsiness, fan away stupidity:_
    _Fan away debasedness, fan away wretchedness:_
            _Fan away the whole completely._’


“The Elder now changes his motion and fans up the child’s arm, saying:


    ‘_Fan on power, fan on influence:_
    _Fan on the paddy bin, fan on the paddy barn:_
    _Fan on followers, fan on dependants:_
    _Fan on good things, fan on appropriate things._’ ”(39)


(M7) Thus in some of the foregoing instances the employment of the
winnowing-fan may have been suggested by the proper use of the implement
as a means of separating the corn from the chaff, the same operation being
extended by analogy to rid men of evils of various sorts which would
otherwise adhere to them like husks to the grain. It was in this way that
the ancients explained the use of the winnowing-fan in the mysteries.(40)
But one motive, and perhaps the original one, for setting a newborn child
in a winnowing-fan and surrounding it with corn was probably the wish to
communicate to the infant, on the principle of sympathetic magic, the
fertility and especially the power of growth possessed by the grain. This
was in substance the explanation which W. Mannhardt gave of the
custom.(41) He rightly insisted on the analogy which many peoples, and in
particular the ancient Greeks, have traced between the sowing of seed and
the begetting of children,(42) and he confirmed his view of the function
of the winnowing-fan in these ceremonies by aptly comparing a German
custom of sowing barley or flax seed over weakly and stunted children in
the belief that this will make them grow with the growth of the barley or
the flax.(43) An Esthonian mode of accomplishing the same object is to set
the child in the middle of a plot of ground where a sower is sowing hemp
and to leave the little one there till the sowing is finished; after that
they imagine that the child will shoot up in stature like the hemp which
has just been sown.(44)

(M8) With the foregoing evidence before us of a widespread custom of
placing newborn children in winnowing-fans we clearly cannot argue that
Dionysus must necessarily have been a god of the corn because Greek
tradition and Greek art represent him as an infant cradled in a
winnowing-fan. The argument would prove too much, for it would apply
equally to all the infants that have been so cradled in all parts of the
world. We cannot even press the argument drawn from the surname “He of the
Winnowing-fan” which was borne by Dionysus, since we have seen that
similar names are borne for similar reasons in India by persons who have
no claim whatever to be regarded as deities of the corn. Yet when all
necessary deductions have been made on this score, the association of
Dionysus with the winnowing-fan appears to be too intimate to be explained
away as a mere reminiscence of a practice to which every Greek baby,
whether human or divine, had to submit. That practice would hardly account
either for the use of the winnowing-fan in the mysteries or for the
appearance of the implement, filled with fruitage of various kinds, on the
monuments which set forth the ritual of Dionysus.(45) This last emblem
points plainly to a conception of the god as a personification of the
fruits of the earth in general; and as if to emphasise the idea of
fecundity conveyed by such a symbol there sometimes appears among the
fruits in the winnowing-fan an effigy of the male organ of generation. The
prominent place which that effigy occupied in the worship of Dionysus(46)
hints broadly, if it does not strictly prove, that to the Greek mind the
god stood for the powers of fertility in general, animal as well as
vegetable. In the thought of the ancients no sharp line of distinction
divided the fertility of animals from the fertility of plants; rather the
two ideas met and blended in a nebulous haze. We need not wonder,
therefore, that the same coarse but expressive emblem figured
conspicuously in the ritual of Father Liber, the Italian counterpart of
Dionysus, who in return for the homage paid to the symbol of his creative
energy was believed to foster the growth of the crops and to guard the
fields against the powers of evil.(47)

(M9) Like the other gods of vegetation whom we considered in the last
volume, Dionysus was believed to have died a violent death, but to have
been brought to life again; and his sufferings, death, and resurrection
were enacted in his sacred rites. His tragic story is thus told by the
poet Nonnus. Zeus in the form of a serpent visited Persephone, and she
bore him Zagreus, that is, Dionysus, a horned infant. Scarcely was he
born, when the babe mounted the throne of his father Zeus and mimicked the
great god by brandishing the lightning in his tiny hand. But he did not
occupy the throne long; for the treacherous Titans, their faces whitened
with chalk, attacked him with knives while he was looking at himself in a
mirror. For a time he evaded their assaults by turning himself into
various shapes, assuming the likeness successively of Zeus and Cronus, of
a young man, of a lion, a horse, and a serpent. Finally, in the form of a
bull, he was cut to pieces by the murderous knives of his enemies.(48) His
Cretan myth, as related by Firmicus Maternus, ran thus. He was said to
have been the bastard son of Jupiter, a Cretan king. Going abroad, Jupiter
transferred the throne and sceptre to the youthful Dionysus, but, knowing
that his wife Juno cherished a jealous dislike of the child, he entrusted
Dionysus to the care of guards upon whose fidelity he believed he could
rely. Juno, however, bribed the guards, and amusing the child with rattles
and a cunningly-wrought looking-glass lured him into an ambush, where her
satellites, the Titans, rushed upon him, cut him limb from limb, boiled
his body with various herbs, and ate it. But his sister Minerva, who had
shared in the deed, kept his heart and gave it to Jupiter on his return,
revealing to him the whole history of the crime. In his rage, Jupiter put
the Titans to death by torture, and, to soothe his grief for the loss of
his son, made an image in which he enclosed the child’s heart, and then
built a temple in his honour.(49) In this version a Euhemeristic turn has
been given to the myth by representing Jupiter and Juno (Zeus and Hera) as
a king and queen of Crete. The guards referred to are the mythical Curetes
who danced a war-dance round the infant Dionysus, as they are said to have
done round the infant Zeus.(50) Very noteworthy is the legend, recorded
both by Nonnus and Firmicus, that in his infancy Dionysus occupied for a
short time the throne of his father Zeus. So Proclus tells us that
“Dionysus was the last king of the gods appointed by Zeus. For his father
set him on the kingly throne, and placed in his hand the sceptre, and made
him king of all the gods of the world.”(51) Such traditions point to a
custom of temporarily investing the king’s son with the royal dignity as a
preliminary to sacrificing him instead of his father. Pomegranates were
supposed to have sprung from the blood of Dionysus, as anemones from the
blood of Adonis and violets from the blood of Attis: hence women refrained
from eating seeds of pomegranates at the festival of the Thesmophoria.(52)
According to some, the severed limbs of Dionysus were pieced together, at
the command of Zeus, by Apollo, who buried them on Parnassus.(53) The
grave of Dionysus was shewn in the Delphic temple beside a golden statue
of Apollo.(54) However, according to another account, the grave of
Dionysus was at Thebes, where he is said to have been torn in pieces.(55)
Thus far the resurrection of the slain god is not mentioned, but in other
versions of the myth it is variously related. According to one version,
which represented Dionysus as a son of Zeus and Demeter, his mother pieced
together his mangled limbs and made him young again.(56) In others it is
simply said that shortly after his burial he rose from the dead and
ascended up to heaven;(57) or that Zeus raised him up as he lay mortally
wounded;(58) or that Zeus swallowed the heart of Dionysus and then begat
him afresh by Semele,(59) who in the common legend figures as mother of
Dionysus. Or, again, the heart was pounded up and given in a portion to
Semele, who thereby conceived him.(60)

Turning from the myth to the ritual, we find that the Cretans celebrated a
biennial(61) festival at which the passion of Dionysus was represented in
every detail. All that he had done or suffered in his last moments was
enacted before the eyes of his worshippers, who tore a live bull to pieces
with their teeth and roamed the woods with frantic shouts. In front of
them was carried a casket supposed to contain the sacred heart of
Dionysus, and to the wild music of flutes and cymbals they mimicked the
rattles by which the infant god had been lured to his doom.(62) Where the
resurrection formed part of the myth, it also was acted at the rites,(63)
and it even appears that a general doctrine of resurrection, or at least
of immortality, was inculcated on the worshippers; for Plutarch, writing
to console his wife on the death of their infant daughter, comforts her
with the thought of the immortality of the soul as taught by tradition and
revealed in the mysteries of Dionysus.(64) A different form of the myth of
the death and resurrection of Dionysus is that he descended into Hades to
bring up his mother Semele from the dead.(65) The local Argive tradition
was that he went down through the Alcyonian lake; and his return from the
lower world, in other words his resurrection, was annually celebrated on
the spot by the Argives, who summoned him from the water by trumpet
blasts, while they threw a lamb into the lake as an offering to the warder
of the dead.(66) Whether this was a spring festival does not appear, but
the Lydians certainly celebrated the advent of Dionysus in spring; the god
was supposed to bring the season with him.(67) Deities of vegetation, who
are supposed to pass a certain portion of each year under ground,
naturally come to be regarded as gods of the lower world or of the dead.
Both Dionysus and Osiris were so conceived.(68)

(M10) A feature in the mythical character of Dionysus, which at first
sight appears inconsistent with his nature as a deity of vegetation, is
that he was often conceived and represented in animal shape, especially in
the form, or at least with the horns, of a bull. Thus he is spoken of as
“cow-born,” “bull,” “bull-shaped,” “bull-faced,” “bull-browed,”
“bull-horned,” “horn-bearing,” “two-horned,” “horned.”(69) He was believed
to appear, at least occasionally, as a bull.(70) His images were often, as
at Cyzicus, made in bull shape,(71) or with bull horns;(72) and he was
painted with horns.(73) Types of the horned Dionysus are found amongst the
surviving monuments of antiquity.(74) On one statuette he appears clad in
a bull’s hide, the head, horns, and hoofs hanging down behind.(75) Again,
he is represented as a child with clusters of grapes round his brow, and a
calf’s head, with sprouting horns, attached to the back of his head.(76)
On a red-figured vase the god is portrayed as a calf-headed child seated
on a woman’s lap.(77) The people of Cynaetha in north-western Arcadia held
a festival of Dionysus in winter, when men, who had greased their bodies
with oil for the occasion, used to pick out a bull from the herd and carry
it to the sanctuary of the god. Dionysus was supposed to inspire their
choice of the particular bull,(78) which probably represented the deity
himself; for at his festivals he was believed to appear in bull form. The
women of Elis hailed him as a bull, and prayed him to come with his bull’s
foot. They sang, “Come hither, Dionysus, to thy holy temple by the sea;
come with the Graces to thy temple, rushing with thy bull’s foot, O goodly
bull, O goodly bull!”(79) The Bacchanals of Thrace wore horns in imitation
of their god.(80) According to the myth, it was in the shape of a bull
that he was torn to pieces by the Titans;(81) and the Cretans, when they
acted the sufferings and death of Dionysus, tore a live bull to pieces
with their teeth.(82) Indeed, the rending and devouring of live bulls and
calves appear to have been a regular feature of the Dionysiac rites.(83)
When we consider the practice of portraying the god as a bull or with some
of the features of the animal, the belief that he appeared in bull form to
his worshippers at the sacred rites, and the legend that in bull form he
had been torn in pieces, we cannot doubt that in rending and devouring a
live bull at his festival the worshippers of Dionysus believed themselves
to be killing the god, eating his flesh, and drinking his blood.

(M11) Another animal whose form Dionysus assumed was the goat. One of his
names was “Kid.”(84) At Athens and at Hermion he was worshipped under the
title of “the one of the Black Goatskin,” and a legend ran that on a
certain occasion he had appeared clad in the skin from which he took the
title.(85) In the wine-growing district of Phlius, where in autumn the
plain is still thickly mantled with the red and golden foliage of the
fading vines, there stood of old a bronze image of a goat, which the
husbandmen plastered with gold-leaf as a means of protecting their vines
against blight.(86) The image probably represented the vine-god himself.
To save him from the wrath of Hera, his father Zeus changed the youthful
Dionysus into a kid;(87) and when the gods fled to Egypt to escape the
fury of Typhon, Dionysus was turned into a goat.(88) Hence when his
worshippers rent in pieces a live goat and devoured it raw,(89) they must
have believed that they were eating the body and blood of the god.

(M12) The custom of tearing in pieces the bodies of animals and of men and
then devouring them raw has been practised as a religious rite by savages
in modern times. We need not therefore dismiss as a fable the testimony of
antiquity to the observance of similar rites among the frenzied
worshippers of Bacchus. An English missionary to the Coast Indians of
British Columbia has thus described a scene like the cannibal orgies of
the Bacchanals. After mentioning that an old chief had ordered a female
slave to be dragged to the beach, murdered, and thrown into the water, he
proceeds as follows: “I did not see the murder, but, immediately after, I
saw crowds of people running out of those houses near to where the corpse
was thrown, and forming themselves into groups at a good distance away.
This I learnt was from fear of what was to follow. Presently two bands of
furious wretches appeared, each headed by a man in a state of nudity. They
gave vent to the most unearthly sounds, and the two naked men made
themselves look as unearthly as possible, proceeding in a creeping kind of
stoop, and stepping like two proud horses, at the same time shooting
forward each arm alternately, which they held out at full length for a
little time in the most defiant manner. Besides this, the continual
jerking their heads back, causing their long black hair to twist about,
added much to their savage appearance. For some time they pretended to be
seeking the body, and the instant they came where it lay they commenced
screaming and rushing round it like so many angry wolves. Finally they
seized it, dragged it out of the water, and laid it on the beach, where I
was told the naked men would commence tearing it to pieces with their
teeth. The two bands of men immediately surrounded them, and so hid their
horrid work. In a few minutes the crowd broke into two, when each of the
naked cannibals appeared with half of the body in his hands. Separating a
few yards, they commenced, amid horrid yells, their still more horrid
feast. The sight was too terrible to behold. I left the gallery with a
depressed heart. I may mention that the two bands of savages just alluded
to belong to that class which the whites term ‘medicine-men.’ ” The same
writer informs us that at the winter ceremonials of these Indians “the
cannibal, on such occasions, is generally supplied with two, three, or
four human bodies, which he tears to pieces before his audience. Several
persons, either from bravado or as a charm, present their arms for him to
bite. I have seen several whom he has bitten, and I hear two have died
from the effects.” And when corpses were not forthcoming, these cannibals
apparently seized and devoured living people. Mr. Duncan has seen hundreds
of the Tsimshian Indians sitting in their canoes which they had just
pushed off from the shore in order to escape being torn to pieces by a
party of prowling cannibals. Others of these Indians contented themselves
with tearing dogs to pieces, while their attendants kept up a growling
noise, or a whoop, “which was seconded by a screeching noise made from an
instrument which they believe to be the abode of a spirit.”(90)

(M13) Mr. Duncan’s account of these savage rites has been fully borne out
by later observation. Among the Kwakiutl Indians the Cannibals
(_Hamatsas_) are the highest in rank of the Secret Societies. They devour
corpses, bite pieces out of living people, and formerly ate slaves who had
been killed for the purpose. But when their fury has subsided, they are
obliged to pay compensation to the persons whom they have bitten and to
the owners of slaves whom they have killed. The indemnity consists
sometimes of blankets, sometimes of canoes. In the latter case the tariff
is fixed: one bite, one canoe. For some time after eating human flesh the
cannibal has to observe a great many rules, which regulate his eating and
drinking, his going out and his coming in, his clothing and his
intercourse with his wife.(91) Similar customs prevail among other tribes
of the same coast, such as the Bella Coola, the Tsimshian, the Niska, and
the Nootka. In the Nootka tribe members of the Panther Society tear dogs
to pieces and devour them. They wear masks armed with canine teeth.(92) So
among the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands there is one
religion of cannibalism and another of dog-eating. The cannibals in a
state of frenzy, real or pretended, bite flesh out of the extended arms of
their fellow villagers. When they issue forth with cries of _Hop-pop_ to
observe this solemn rite, all who are of a different religious persuasion
make haste to get out of their way; but men of the cannibal creed and of
stout hearts will resolutely hold out their arms to be bitten. The sect of
dog-eaters cut or tear dogs to pieces and devour some of the flesh; but
they have to pay for the dogs which they consume in their religious
enthusiasm.(93) In the performance of these savage rites the frenzied
actors are believed to be inspired by a Cannibal Spirit and a Dog-eating
Spirit respectively.(94) Again, in Morocco there is an order of saints
known as Isowa or Aïsawa, followers of Mohammed ben Isa or Aïsa of
Mequinez, whose tomb is at Fez. Every year on their founder’s birthday
they assemble at his shrine or elsewhere and holding each other’s hands
dance a frantic dance round a fire. “While the mad dance is still
proceeding, a sudden rush is made from the sanctuary, and the dancers,
like men delirious, speed away to a place where live goats are tethered in
readiness. At sight of these animals the fury of the savage and excited
crowd reaches its height. In a few minutes the wretched animals are cut,
or rather torn to pieces, and an orgy takes place over the raw and
quivering flesh. When they seem satiated, the Emkaddim, who is generally
on horseback, and carries a long stick, forms a sort of procession,
preceded by wild music, if such discordant sounds will bear the name.
Words can do no justice to the frightful scene which now ensues. The naked
savages—for on these occasions a scanty piece of cotton is all their
clothing—with their long black hair, ordinarily worn in plaits, tossed
about by the rapid to-and-fro movements of the head, with faces and hands
reeking with blood, and uttering loud cries resembling the bleating of
goats, again enter the town. The place is now at their mercy, and the
people avoid them as much as possible by shutting themselves up in their
houses. A Christian or a Jew would run great risk of losing his life if
either were found in the street. Goats are pushed out from the doors, and
these the fanatics tear immediately to pieces with their hands, and then
dispute over the morsels of bleeding flesh, as though they were ravenous
wolves instead of men. Snakes also are thrown to them as tests of their
divine frenzy, and these share the fate of the goats. Sometimes a luckless
dog, straying as dogs will stray in a tumult, is seized on. Then the
laymen, should any be at hand, will try to prevent the desecration of
pious mouths. But the fanatics sometimes prevail, and the unclean animal,
abhorred by the mussulman, is torn in pieces and devoured, or pretended to
be devoured, with indiscriminating rage.”(95)

(M14) The custom of killing a god in animal form, which we shall examine
more in detail further on, belongs to a very early stage of human culture,
and is apt in later times to be misunderstood. The advance of thought
tends to strip the old animal and plant gods of their bestial and
vegetable husk, and to leave their human attributes (which are always the
kernel of the conception) as the final and sole residuum. In other words,
animal and plant gods tend to become purely anthropomorphic. When they
have become wholly or nearly so, the animals and plants which were at
first the deities themselves, still retain a vague and ill-understood
connexion with the anthropomorphic gods who have been developed out of
them. The origin of the relationship between the deity and the animal or
plant having been forgotten, various stories are invented to explain it.
These explanations may follow one of two lines according as they are based
on the habitual or on the exceptional treatment of the sacred animal or
plant. The sacred animal was habitually spared, and only exceptionally
slain; and accordingly the myth might be devised to explain either why it
was spared or why it was killed. Devised for the former purpose, the myth
would tell of some service rendered to the deity by the animal; devised
for the latter purpose, the myth would tell of some injury inflicted by
the animal on the god. The reason given for sacrificing goats to Dionysus
exemplifies a myth of the latter sort. They were sacrificed to him, it was
said, because they injured the vine.(96) Now the goat, as we have seen,
was originally an embodiment of the god himself. But when the god had
divested himself of his animal character and had become essentially
anthropomorphic, the killing of the goat in his worship came to be
regarded no longer as a slaying of the deity himself, but as a sacrifice
offered to him; and since some reason had to be assigned why the goat in
particular should be sacrificed, it was alleged that this was a punishment
inflicted on the goat for injuring the vine, the object of the god’s
especial care. Thus we have the strange spectacle of a god sacrificed to
himself on the ground that he is his own enemy. And as the deity is
supposed to partake of the victim offered to him, it follows that, when
the victim is the god’s old self, the god eats of his own flesh. Hence the
goat-god Dionysus is represented as eating raw goat’s blood;(97) and the
bull-god Dionysus is called “eater of bulls.”(98) On the analogy of these
instances we may conjecture that wherever a deity is described as the
eater of a particular animal, the animal in question was originally
nothing but the deity himself.(99) Later on we shall find that some
savages propitiate dead bears and whales by offering them portions of
their own bodies.(100)

(M15) All this, however, does not explain why a deity of vegetation should
appear in animal form. But the consideration of that point had better be
deferred till we have discussed the character and attributes of Demeter.
Meantime it remains to mention that in some places, instead of an animal,
a human being was torn in pieces at the rites of Dionysus. This was the
practice in Chios and Tenedos;(101) and at Potniae in Boeotia the
tradition ran that it had been formerly the custom to sacrifice to the
goat-smiting Dionysus a child, for whom a goat was afterwards
substituted.(102) At Orchomenus, as we have seen, the human victim was
taken from the women of an old royal family.(103) As the slain bull or
goat represented the slain god, so, we may suppose, the human victim also
represented him.

(M16) The legends of the deaths of Pentheus and Lycurgus, two kings who
are said to have been torn to pieces, the one by Bacchanals, the other by
horses, for their opposition to the rites of Dionysus, may be, as I have
already suggested,(104) distorted reminiscences of a custom of sacrificing
divine kings in the character of Dionysus and of dispersing the fragments
of their broken bodies over the fields for the purpose of fertilising
them. In regard to Lycurgus, king of the Thracian tribe of the Edonians,
it is expressly said that his subjects at the bidding of an oracle caused
him to be rent in pieces by horses for the purpose of restoring the
fertility of the ground after a period of barrenness and dearth.(105)
There is no improbability in the tradition. We have seen that in Africa
and other parts of the world kings or chiefs have often been put to death
by their people for similar reasons.(106) Further, it is significant that
King Lycurgus is said to have slain his own son Dryas with an axe in a fit
of madness, mistaking him for a vine-branch.(107) Have we not in this
tradition a reminiscence of a custom of sacrificing the king’s son in
place of the father? Similarly Athamas, a King of Thessaly or Boeotia, is
said to have been doomed by an oracle to be sacrificed at the altar in
order to remove the curse of barrenness which afflicted his country;
however, he contrived to evade the sentence and in a fit of madness killed
his own son Learchus, mistaking him for a wild beast. That this legend was
not a mere myth is made probable by a custom observed at Alus down to
historical times: the eldest male scion of the royal house was regularly
sacrificed in due form to Laphystian Zeus if he ever set foot within the
town-hall.(108) The close resemblance between the legends of King Athamas
and King Lycurgus furnishes a ground for believing both legends to be
based on a real custom of sacrificing either the king himself or one of
his sons for the good of the country; and the story that the king’s son
Dryas perished because his frenzied father mistook him for a vine-branch
fits in well with the theory that the victim in these sacrifices
represented the vine-god Dionysus. It is probably no mere coincidence that
Dionysus himself is said to have been torn in pieces at Thebes,(109) the
very place where according to legend the same fate befell king Pentheus at
the hands of the frenzied votaries of the vine-god.(110)

(M17) The theory that in prehistoric times Greek and Thracian kings or
their sons may have been dismembered in the character of the vine-god or
the corn-god for the purpose of fertilising the earth or quickening the
vines has received of late years some confirmation from the discovery that
down to the present time in Thrace, the original home of Dionysus, a drama
is still annually performed which reproduces with remarkable fidelity some
of the most striking traits in the Dionysiac myth and ritual.(111) In a
former part of this work I have already called attention to this
interesting survival of paganism among a Christian peasantry;(112) but it
seems desirable and appropriate in this place to draw out somewhat more
fully the parallelism between the modern drama and the ancient worship.

(M18) The drama, which may reasonably be regarded as a direct descendant
of the Dionysiac rites, is annually performed at the Carnival in all the
Christian villages which cluster round Viza, the ancient Bizya, a town of
Thrace situated about midway between Adrianople and Constantinople. In
antiquity the city was the capital of the Thracian tribe of the Asti; the
kings had their palace there,(113) probably in the acropolis, of which
some fine walls are still standing. Inscriptions preserved in the modern
town record the names of some of these old kings.(114) The date of the
celebration is Cheese Monday, as it is locally called, which is the Monday
of the last week of Carnival. At Viza itself the mummery has been shorn of
some of its ancient features, but these have been kept up at the villages
and have been particularly observed and recorded at the village of St.
George (Haghios Gheorgios). It is to the drama as acted at that village
that the following description specially applies. The principal parts in
the drama are taken by two men disguised in goatskins. Each of them wears
a headdress made of a complete goatskin, which is stuffed so as to rise a
foot or more like a shako over his head, while the skin falls over the
face, forming a mask with holes cut for the eyes and mouth. Their
shoulders are thickly padded with hay to protect them from the blows which
used to be rained very liberally on their backs. Fawnskins on their
shoulders and goatskins on their legs are or used to be part of their
equipment, and another indispensable part of it is a number of sheep-bells
tied round their waists. One of the two skin-clad actors carries a bow and
the other a wooden effigy of the male organ of generation. Both these
actors must be married men. According to Mr. Vizyenos, they are chosen for
periods of four years. Two unmarried boys dressed as girls and sometimes
called brides also take part in the play; and a man disguised as an old
woman in rags carries a mock baby in a basket; the brat is supposed to be
a seven-months’ child born out of wedlock and begotten by an unknown
father. The basket in which the hopeful infant is paraded bears the
ancient name of the winnowing-fan (_likni_, contracted from _liknon_) and
the babe itself receives the very title “He of the Winnowing-fan”
(_Liknites_) which in antiquity was applied to Dionysus. Two other actors,
clad in rags with blackened faces and armed with stout saplings, play the
parts of a gypsy-man and his wife; others personate policemen armed with
swords and whips; and the troupe is completed by a man who discourses
music on a bagpipe.

(M19) Such are the masqueraders. The morning of the day on which they
perform their little drama is spent by them going from door to door
collecting bread, eggs, or money. At every door the two skin-clad maskers
knock, the boys disguised as girls dance, and the gypsy man and wife enact
an obscene pantomime on the straw-heap before the house. When every house
in the village has been thus visited, the troop takes up position on the
open space before the village church, where the whole population has
already mustered to witness the performance. After a dance hand in hand,
in which all the actors take part, the two skin-clad maskers withdraw and
leave the field to the gypsies, who now pretend to forge a ploughshare,
the man making believe to hammer the share and his wife to work the
bellows. At this point the old woman’s baby is supposed to grow up at a
great pace, to develop a huge appetite for meat and drink, and to clamour
for a wife. One of the skin-clad men now pursues one of the two pretended
brides, and a mock marriage is celebrated between the couple. After these
nuptials have been performed with a parody of a real wedding, the mock
bridegroom is shot by his comrade with the bow and falls down on his face
like dead. His slayer thereupon feigns to skin him with a knife; but the
dead man’s wife laments over her deceased husband with loud cries,
throwing herself across his prostrate body. In this lamentation the slayer
himself and all the other actors join in: a Christian funeral service is
burlesqued; and the pretended corpse is lifted up as if to be carried to
the grave. At this point, however, the dead man disconcerts the
preparations for his burial by suddenly coming to life again and getting
up. So ends the drama of death and resurrection.

(M20) The next act opens with a repetition of the pretence of forging a
ploughshare, but this time the gypsy man hammers on a real share. When the
implement is supposed to have been fashioned, a real plough is brought
forward, the mockery appears to cease, the two boys dressed as girls are
yoked to the plough and drag it twice round the village square contrary to
the way of the sun. One of the two skin-clad men walks at the tail of the
plough, the other guides it in front, and a third man follows in the rear
scattering seed from a basket. After the two rounds have been completed,
the gypsy and his wife are yoked to the plough, and drag it a third time
round the square, the two skin-clad men still playing the part of
ploughmen. At Viza the plough is drawn by the skin-clad men themselves.
While the plough is going its rounds, followed by the sower sowing the
seed, the people pray aloud, saying, “May wheat be ten piastres the
bushel! Rye five piastres the bushel! Amen, O God, that the poor may eat!
Yea, O God, that poor folk be filled!” This ends the performance. The
evening is spent in feasting on the proceeds of the house-to-house
visitation which took place in the morning.(115)

(M21) A kindred festival is observed on the same day of the Carnival at
Kosti, a place in the extreme north of Thrace, near the Black Sea. There a
man dressed in sheepskins or goatskins, with a mask on his face, bells
round his neck, and a broom in his hand, goes round the village collecting
food and presents. He is addressed as a king and escorted with music. With
him go boys dressed as girls, and another boy, not so disguised, who
carries wine in a wooden bottle and gives of it to every householder to
drink in a cup, receiving a gift in return. The king then mounts a
two-wheeled cart and is drawn to the church. He carries seed in his hand,
and at the church two bands of men, one of married men and the other of
unmarried men, try each in turn to induce the king to throw the seed on
them. Finally he casts it on the ground in front of the church. The
ceremony ends with stripping the king of his clothes and flinging him into
the river, after which he resumes his usual dress.(116)

(M22) In these ceremonies, still annually held at and near an old capital
of Thracian kings, the points of similarity to the ritual of the ancient
Thracian deity Dionysus are sufficiently obvious.(117) The goatskins in
which the principal actors are disguised remind us of the identification
of Dionysus with a goat: the infant, cradled in a winnowing-fan and taking
its name from the implement, answers exactly to the traditions and the
monuments which represent the infant Dionysus as similarly cradled and
similarly named: the pretence that the baby is a seven-months’ child born
out of wedlock and begotten by an unknown father tallies precisely with
the legend that Dionysus was born prematurely in the seventh month as the
offspring of an intrigue between a mortal woman and a mysterious divine
father:(118) the same coarse symbol of reproductive energy which
characterised the ancient ritual of Dionysus figures conspicuously in the
modern drama: the annual mock marriage of the goatskin-clad mummer with
the pretended bride may be compared with the annual pretence of marrying
Dionysus to the Queen of Athens: and the simulated slaughter and
resurrection of the same goatskin-clad actor may be compared with the
traditional slaughter and resurrection of the god himself. Further, the
ceremony of ploughing, in which after his resurrection the goatskin-clad
mummer takes a prominent part, fits in well not only with the legend that
Dionysus was the first to yoke oxen to the plough, but also with the
symbolism of the winnowing-fan in his worship; while the prayers for
plentiful crops which accompany the ploughing accord with the omens of an
abundant harvest which were drawn of old from the mystic light seen to
illumine by night one of his ancient sanctuaries in Thrace. Lastly, in the
ceremony as observed at Kosti the giving of wine by the king’s attendant
is an act worthy of the wine-god: the throwing of seed by the king can
only be interpreted, like the ploughing, as a charm to promote the
fertility of the ground; and the royal title borne by the principal masker
harmonises well with the theory that the part of the god of the corn and
the wine was of old sustained by the Thracian kings who reigned at Bisya.

(M23) If we ask, To what ancient festival of Dionysus does the modern
celebration of the Carnival in Thrace most nearly correspond? the answer
can be hardly doubtful. The Thracian drama of the mock marriage of the
goatskin-clad mummer, his mimic death and resurrection, and his subsequent
ploughing, corresponds both in date and in character most nearly to the
Athenian festival of the Anthesteria, which was celebrated at Athens
during three days in early spring, towards the end of February or the
beginning of March. Thus the date of the Anthesteria could not fall far
from, and it might sometimes actually coincide with, the last week of the
Carnival, the date of the Thracian celebration. While the details of the
festival of the Anthesteria are obscure, its general character is well
known. It was a festival both of wine-drinking and of the dead, whose
souls were supposed to revisit the city and to go about the streets, just
as in modern Europe and in many other parts of the world the ghosts of the
departed are still believed to return to their old homes on one day of the
year and to be entertained by their relatives at a solemn Feast of All
Souls.(119) But the Dionysiac nature of the festival was revealed not
merely by the opening of the wine-vats and the wassailing which went on
throughout the city among freemen and slaves alike; on the second day of
the festival the marriage of Dionysus with the Queen of Athens was
celebrated with great solemnity at the Bucolium or Ox-stall.(120) It has
been suggested with much probability(121) that at this sacred marriage in
the Ox-stall the god was represented wholly or partly in bovine shape,
whether by an image or by an actor dressed in the hide and wearing the
horns of a bull; for, as we have seen, Dionysus was often supposed to
assume the form of a bull and to present himself in that guise to his
worshippers. If this conjecture should prove to be correct—though a
demonstration of it can hardly be expected—the sacred marriage of the
Queen to the Bull-god at Athens would be parallel to the sacred marriage
of the Queen to the Bull-god at Cnossus, according to the interpretation
which I have suggested of the myth of Pasiphae and the Minotaur;(122) only
whereas the bull-god at Cnossus, if I am right, stood for the Sun, the
bull-god at Athens stood for the powers of vegetation, especially the corn
and the vines. It would not be surprising that among a cattle-breeding
people in early days the bull, regarded as a type of strength and
reproductive energy, should be employed to symbolise and represent more
than one of the great powers of nature. If Dionysus did indeed figure as a
bull at his marriage, it is not improbable that on that occasion his
representative, whether a real bull or a man dressed in a bull’s hide,
took part in a ceremony of ploughing; for we have seen that the invention
of yoking oxen to the plough was ascribed to Dionysus, and we know that
the Athenians performed a sacred ceremony of ploughing, which went by the
name of the Ox-yoked Ploughing and took place in a field or other open
piece of ground at the foot of the Acropolis.(123) It is a reasonable
conjecture that the field of the Ox-yoked Ploughing may have adjoined the
building called the Ox-stall in which the marriage of Dionysus with the
Queen was solemnised;(124) for that building is known to have been near
the Prytaneum or Town-Hall on the northern slope of the Acropolis.(125)

(M24) Thus on the whole the ancient festival of the Anthesteria, so far as
its features are preserved by tradition or can be restored by the use of
reasonable conjecture, presents several important analogies to the modern
Thracian Carnival in respect of wine-drinking, a mock marriage of
disguised actors, and a ceremony of ploughing. The resemblance between the
ancient and the modern ritual would be still closer if some eminent modern
scholars, who wrote before the discovery of the Thracian Carnival, and
whose judgment was therefore not biassed by its analogy to the Athenian
festival, are right in holding that another important feature of the
Anthesteria was the dramatic death and resurrection of Dionysus.(126) They
point out that at the marriage of Dionysus fourteen Sacred Women
officiated at fourteen altars;(127) that the number of the Titans, who
tore Dionysus in pieces, was fourteen, namely seven male and seven
female;(128) and that Osiris, a god who in some respects corresponded
closely to Dionysus, is said to have been rent by Typhon into fourteen
fragments.(129) Hence they conjecture that at Athens the body of Dionysus
was dramatically broken into fourteen fragments, one for each of the
fourteen altars, and that it was afterwards dramatically pieced together
and restored to life by the fourteen Sacred Women, just as the broken body
of Osiris was pieced together by a company of gods and goddesses and
restored to life by his sister Isis.(130) The conjecture is ingenious and
plausible, but with our existing sources of information it must remain a
conjecture and nothing more. Could it be established, it would forge
another strong link in the chain of evidence which binds the modern
Thracian Carnival to the ancient Athenian Anthesteria; for in that case
the drama of the divine death and resurrection would have to be added to
the other features which these two festivals of spring possess in common,
and we should have to confess that Greece had what we may call its Good
Friday and its Easter Sunday long before the events took place in Judaea
which diffused these two annual commemorations of the Dying and Reviving
God over a great part of the civilised world. From so simple a beginning
may flow consequences so far-reaching and impressive; for in the light of
the rude Thracian ceremony we may surmise that the high tragedy of the
death and resurrection of Dionysus originated in a rustic mummers’ play
acted by ploughmen for the purpose of fertilising the brown earth which
they turned up with the gleaming share in sunshiny days of spring, as they
followed the slow-paced oxen down the long furrows in the fallow field.
Later on we shall see that a play of the same sort is still acted, or was
acted down to recent years, by English yokels on Plough Monday.

(M25) But before we pass from the tragic myth and ritual of Dionysus to
the sweeter story and milder worship of Demeter and Persephone, the true
Greek deities of the corn, it is fair to admit that the legends of human
sacrifice, which have left so dark a stain on the memory of the old
Thracian god, may have been nothing more than mere misinterpretations of a
sacrificial ritual in which an animal victim was treated as a human being.
For example, at Tenedos the new-born calf sacrificed to Dionysus was shod
in buskins, and the mother cow was tended like a woman in child-bed.(131)
At Rome a she-goat was sacrificed to Vedijovis as if it were a human
victim.(132) Yet on the other hand it is equally possible, and perhaps
more probable, that these curious rites were themselves mitigations of an
older and ruder custom of sacrificing human beings, and that the later
pretence of treating the sacrificial victims as if they were human beings
was merely part of a pious and merciful fraud, which palmed off on the
deity less precious victims than living men and women. This interpretation
is supported by the undoubted cases in which animals have been substituted
for human victims.(133) On the whole we may conclude that neither the
polished manners of a later age, nor the glamour which Greek poetry and
art threw over the figure of Dionysus, sufficed to conceal or erase the
deep lines of savagery and cruelty imprinted on the features of this
barbarous deity.





CHAPTER II. DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE.


(M26) Dionysus was not the only Greek deity whose tragic story and ritual
appear to reflect the decay and revival of vegetation. In another form and
with a different application the old tale reappears in the myth of Demeter
and Persephone. Substantially their myth is identical with the Syrian one
of Aphrodite (Astarte) and Adonis, the Phrygian one of Cybele and Attis,
and the Egyptian one of Isis and Osiris. In the Greek fable, as in its
Asiatic and Egyptian counterparts, a goddess mourns the loss of a loved
one, who personifies the vegetation, more especially the corn, which dies
in winter to revive in spring; only whereas the Oriental imagination
figured the loved and lost one as a dead lover or a dead husband lamented
by his leman or his wife, Greek fancy embodied the same idea in the
tenderer and purer form of a dead daughter bewailed by her sorrowing
mother.

(M27) The oldest literary document which narrates the myth of Demeter and
Persephone is the beautiful Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_, which critics
assign to the seventh century before our era.(134) The object of the poem
is to explain the origin of the Eleusinian mysteries, and the complete
silence of the poet as to Athens and the Athenians, who in after ages took
a conspicuous part in the festival, renders it probable that the hymn was
composed in the far off time when Eleusis was still a petty independent
state, and before the stately procession of the Mysteries had begun to
defile, in bright September days, over the low chain of barren rocky hills
which divides the flat Eleusinian cornland from the more spacious
olive-clad expanse of the Athenian plain. Be that as it may, the hymn
reveals to us the conception which the writer entertained of the character
and functions of the two goddesses: their natural shapes stand out sharply
enough under the thin veil of poetical imagery. The youthful Persephone,
so runs the tale, was gathering roses and lilies, crocuses and violets,
hyacinths and narcissuses in a lush meadow, when the earth gaped and
Pluto, lord of the Dead, issuing from the abyss carried her off on his
golden car to be his bride and queen in the gloomy subterranean world. Her
sorrowing mother Demeter, with her yellow tresses veiled in a dark
mourning mantle, sought her over land and sea, and learning from the Sun
her daughter’s fate she withdrew in high dudgeon from the gods and took up
her abode at Eleusis, where she presented herself to the king’s daughters
in the guise of an old woman, sitting sadly under the shadow of an olive
tree beside the Maiden’s Well, to which the damsels had come to draw water
in bronze pitchers for their father’s house. In her wrath at her
bereavement the goddess suffered not the seed to grow in the earth but
kept it hidden under ground, and she vowed that never would she set foot
on Olympus and never would she let the corn sprout till her lost daughter
should be restored to her. Vainly the oxen dragged the ploughs to and fro
in the fields; vainly the sower dropped the barley seed in the brown
furrows; nothing came up from the parched and crumbling soil. Even the
Rarian plain near Eleusis, which was wont to wave with yellow harvests,
lay bare and fallow.(135) Mankind would have perished of hunger and the
gods would have been robbed of the sacrifices which were their due, if
Zeus in alarm had not commanded Pluto to disgorge his prey, to restore his
bride Persephone to her mother Demeter. The grim lord of the Dead smiled
and obeyed, but before he sent back his queen to the upper air on a golden
car, he gave her the seed of a pomegranate to eat, which ensured that she
would return to him. But Zeus stipulated that henceforth Persephone should
spend two thirds of every year with her mother and the gods in the upper
world and one third of the year with her husband in the nether world, from
which she was to return year by year when the earth was gay with spring
flowers. Gladly the daughter then returned to the sunshine, gladly her
mother received her and fell upon her neck; and in her joy at recovering
the lost one Demeter made the corn to sprout from the clods of the
ploughed fields and all the broad earth to be heavy with leaves and
blossoms. And straightway she went and shewed this happy sight to the
princes of Eleusis, to Triptolemus, Eumolpus, Diocles, and to the king
Celeus himself, and moreover she revealed to them her sacred rites and
mysteries. Blessed, says the poet, is the mortal man who has seen these
things, but he who has had no share of them in life will never be happy in
death when he has descended into the darkness of the grave. So the two
goddesses departed to dwell in bliss with the gods on Olympus; and the
bard ends the hymn with a pious prayer to Demeter and Persephone that they
would be pleased to grant him a livelihood in return for his song.(136)

(M28) It has been generally recognised, and indeed it seems scarcely open
to doubt, that the main theme which the poet set before himself in
composing this hymn was to describe the traditional foundation of the
Eleusinian mysteries by the goddess Demeter. The whole poem leads up to
the transformation scene in which the bare leafless expanse of the
Eleusinian plain is suddenly turned, at the will of the goddess, into a
vast sheet of ruddy corn; the beneficent deity takes the princes of
Eleusis, shews them what she has done, teaches them her mystic rites, and
vanishes with her daughter to heaven. The revelation of the mysteries is
the triumphal close of the piece. This conclusion is confirmed by a more
minute examination of the poem, which proves that the poet has given, not
merely a general account of the foundation of the mysteries, but also in
more or less veiled language mythical explanations of the origin of
particular rites which we have good reason to believe formed essential
features of the festival. Amongst the rites as to which the poet thus
drops significant hints are the preliminary fast of the candidates for
initiation, the torchlight procession, the all-night vigil, the sitting of
the candidates, veiled and in silence, on stools covered with sheepskins,
the use of scurrilous language, the breaking of ribald jests, and the
solemn communion with the divinity by participation in a draught of
barley-water from a holy chalice.(137)

(M29) But there is yet another and a deeper secret of the mysteries which
the author of the poem appears to have divulged under cover of his
narrative. He tells us how, as soon as she had transformed the barren
brown expanse of the Eleusinian plain into a field of golden grain, she
gladdened the eyes of Triptolemus and the other Eleusinian princes by
shewing them the growing or standing corn. When we compare this part of
the story with the statement of a Christian writer of the second century,
Hippolytus, that the very heart of the mysteries consisted in shewing to
the initiated a reaped ear of corn,(138) we can hardly doubt that the poet
of the hymn was well acquainted with this solemn rite, and that he
deliberately intended to explain its origin in precisely the same way as
he explained other rites of the mysteries, namely by representing Demeter
as having set the example of performing the ceremony in her own person.
Thus myth and ritual mutually explain and confirm each other. The poet of
the seventh century before our era gives us the myth—he could not without
sacrilege have revealed the ritual: the Christian father reveals the
ritual, and his revelation accords perfectly with the veiled hint of the
old poet. On the whole, then, we may, with many modern scholars,
confidently accept the statement of the learned Christian father Clement
of Alexandria, that the myth of Demeter and Persephone was acted as a
sacred drama in the mysteries of Eleusis.(139)

(M30) But if the myth was acted as a part, perhaps as the principal part,
of the most famous and solemn religious rites of ancient Greece, we have
still to enquire, What was, after all, stripped of later accretions, the
original kernel of the myth which appears to later ages surrounded and
transfigured by an aureole of awe and mystery, lit up by some of the most
brilliant rays of Grecian literature and art? If we follow the indications
given by our oldest literary authority on the subject, the author of the
Homeric hymn to Demeter, the riddle is not hard to read; the figures of
the two goddesses, the mother and the daughter, resolve themselves into
personifications of the corn.(140) At least this appears to be fairly
certain for the daughter Persephone. The goddess who spends three or,
according to another version of the myth, six months of every year with
the dead under ground and the remainder of the year with the living above
ground;(141) in whose absence the barley seed is hidden in the earth and
the fields lie bare and fallow; on whose return in spring to the upper
world the corn shoots up from the clods and the earth is heavy with leaves
and blossoms—this goddess can surely be nothing else than a mythical
embodiment of the vegetation, and particularly of the corn, which is
buried under the soil for some months of every winter and comes to life
again, as from the grave, in the sprouting cornstalks and the opening
flowers and foliage of every spring. No other reasonable and probable
explanation of Persephone seems possible.(142) And if the daughter goddess
was a personification of the young corn of the present year, may not the
mother goddess be a personification of the old corn of last year, which
has given birth to the new crops? The only alternative to this view of
Demeter would seem to be to suppose that she is a personification of the
earth, from whose broad bosom the corn and all other plants spring up, and
of which accordingly they may appropriately enough be regarded as the
daughters. This view of the original nature of Demeter has indeed been
taken by some writers, both ancient and modern,(143) and it is one which
can be reasonably maintained. But it appears to have been rejected by the
author of the Homeric hymn to Demeter, for he not only distinguishes
Demeter from the personified Earth but places the two in the sharpest
opposition to each other. He tells us that it was Earth who, in accordance
with the will of Zeus and to please Pluto, lured Persephone to her doom by
causing the narcissuses to grow which tempted the young goddess to stray
far beyond the reach of help in the lush meadow.(144) Thus Demeter of the
hymn, far from being identical with the Earth-goddess, must have regarded
that divinity as her worst enemy, since it was to her insidious wiles that
she owed the loss of her daughter. But if the Demeter of the hymn cannot
have been a personification of the earth, the only alternative apparently
is to conclude that she was a personification of the corn.

(M31) With this conclusion all the indications of the hymn-writer seem to
harmonise. He certainly represents Demeter as the goddess by whose power
and at whose pleasure the corn either grows or remains hidden in the
ground; and to what deity can such powers be so fittingly ascribed as to
the goddess of the corn? He calls Demeter yellow and tells how her yellow
tresses flowed down on her shoulders;(145) could any colour be more
appropriate with which to paint the divinity of the yellow grain? The same
identification of Demeter with the ripe, the yellow corn is made even more
clearly by a still older poet, Homer himself, or at all events the author
of the fifth book of the _Iliad_. There we read: “And even as the wind
carries the chaff about the sacred threshing-floors, when men are
winnowing, what time yellow Demeter sifts the corn from the chaff on the
hurrying blast, so that the heaps of chaff grow white below, so were the
Achaeans whitened above by the cloud of dust which the hoofs of the horses
spurned to the brazen heaven.”(146) Here the yellow Demeter who sifts the
grain from the chaff at the threshing-floor can hardly be any other than
the goddess of the yellow corn; she cannot be the Earth-goddess, for what
has the Earth-goddess to do with the grain and the chaff blown about a
threshing-floor? With this interpretation it agrees that elsewhere Homer
speaks of men eating “Demeter’s corn”;(147) and still more definitely
Hesiod speaks of “the annual store of food, which the earth bears,
Demeter’s corn,”(148) thus distinguishing the goddess of the corn from the
earth which bears it. Still more clearly does a later Greek poet personify
the corn as Demeter when, in allusion to the time of the corn-reaping, he
says that then “the sturdy swains cleave Demeter limb from limb.”(149) And
just as the ripe or yellow corn was personified as the Yellow Demeter, so
the unripe or green corn was personified as the Green Demeter. In that
character the goddess had sanctuaries at Athens and other places;
sacrifices were appropriately offered to Green Demeter in spring when the
earth was growing green with the fresh vegetation, and the victims
included sows big with young,(150) which no doubt were intended not merely
to symbolise but magically to promote the abundance of the crops.

(M32) In Greek the various kinds of corn were called by the general name
of “Demeter’s fruits,”(151) just as in Latin they were called the “fruits
or gifts of Ceres,”(152) an expression which survives in the English word
cereals. Tradition ran that before Demeter’s time men neither cultivated
corn nor tilled the ground, but roamed the mountains and woods in search
of the wild fruits which the earth produced spontaneously from her womb
for their subsistence. The tradition clearly implies not only that Demeter
was the goddess of the corn, but that she was different from and younger
than the goddess of the Earth, since it is expressly affirmed that before
Demeter’s time the earth existed and supplied mankind with nourishment in
the shape of wild herbs, grasses, flowers and fruits.(153)

(M33) In ancient art Demeter and Persephone are characterised as goddesses
of the corn by the crowns of corn which they wear on their heads and by
the stalks of corn which they hold in their hands.(154) Theocritus
describes a smiling image of Demeter standing by a heap of yellow grain on
a threshing-floor and grasping sheaves of barley and poppies in both her
hands.(155) Indeed corn and poppies singly or together were a frequent
symbol of the goddess, as we learn not only from the testimony of ancient
writers(156) but from many existing monuments of classical art.(157) The
naturalness of the symbol can be doubted by no one who has seen—and who
has not seen?—a field of yellow corn bespangled thick with scarlet
poppies; and we need not resort to the shifts of an ancient mythologist,
who explained the symbolism of the poppy in Demeter’s hand by comparing
the globular shape of the poppy to the roundness of our globe, the
unevenness of its edges to hills and valleys, and the hollow interior of
the scarlet flower to the caves and dens of the earth.(158) If only
students would study the little black and white books of men less and the
great rainbow-tinted book of nature more; if they would more frequently
exchange the heavy air and the dim light of libraries for the freshness
and the sunshine of the open sky; if they would oftener unbend their minds
by rural walks between fields of waving corn, beside rivers rippling by
under grey willows, or down green lanes, where the hedges are white with
the hawthorn bloom or red with wild roses, they might sometimes learn more
about primitive religion than can be gathered from many dusty volumes, in
which wire-drawn theories are set forth with all the tedious parade of
learning.

(M34) Nowhere, perhaps, in the monuments of Greek art is the character of
Persephone as a personification of the young corn sprouting in spring
portrayed more gracefully and more truly than on a coin of Lampsacus of
the fourth century before our era. On it we see the goddess in the very
act of rising from the earth. “Her face is upraised; in her hand are three
ears of corn, and others together with grapes are springing behind her
shoulder. Complete is here the identification of the goddess and her
attribute: she is embowered amid the ears of growing corn, and like it
half buried in the ground. She does not make the corn and vine grow, but
she _is_ the corn and vine growing, and returning again to the face of the
earth after lying hidden in its depths. Certainly the artist who designed
this beautiful figure thoroughly understood Hellenic religion.”(159)

(M35) As the goddess who first bestowed corn on mankind and taught them to
sow and cultivate it,(160) Demeter was naturally invoked and propitiated
by farmers before they undertook the various operations of the
agricultural year. In autumn, when he heard the sonorous trumpeting of the
cranes, as they winged their way southward in vast flocks high overhead,
the Greek husbandman knew that the rains were near and that the time of
ploughing was at hand; but before he put his hand to the plough he prayed
to Underground Zeus and to Holy Demeter for a heavy crop of Demeter’s
sacred corn. Then he guided the ox-drawn plough down the field, turning up
the brown earth with the share, while a swain followed close behind with a
hoe, who covered up the seed as fast as it fell to protect it from the
voracious birds that fluttered and twittered at the plough-tail.(161) But
while the ordinary Greek farmer took the signal for ploughing from the
clangour of the cranes, Hesiod and other writers who aimed at greater
exactness laid it down as a rule that the ploughing should begin with the
autumnal setting of the Pleiades in the morning, which in Hesiod’s time
fell on the twenty-sixth of October.(162) The month in which the Pleiades
set in the morning was generally recognised by the Greeks as the month of
sowing; it corresponded apparently in part to our October, in part to our
November. The Athenians called it Pyanepsion; the Boeotians named it
significantly Damatrius, that is, Demeter’s month, and they celebrated a
feast of mourning because, says Plutarch, who as a Boeotian speaks with
authority on such a matter, Demeter was then in mourning for the descent
of Persephone.(163) Is it possible to express more clearly the true
original nature of Persephone as the corn-seed which has just been buried
in the earth? The obvious, the almost inevitable conclusion did not escape
Plutarch. He tells us that the mournful rites which were held at the time
of the autumn sowing nominally commemorated the actions of deities, but
that the real sadness was for the fruits of the earth, some of which at
that season dropped of themselves and vanished from the trees, while
others in the shape of seed were committed with anxious thoughts to the
ground by men, who scraped the earth and then huddled it up over the seed,
just as if they were burying and mourning for the dead.(164) Surely this
interpretation of the custom and of the myth of Persephone is not only
beautiful but true.

(M36) And just as the Greek husbandman prayed to the Corn Goddess when he
committed the seed, with anxious forebodings, to the furrows, so after he
had reaped the harvest and brought back the yellow sheaves with rejoicing
to the threshing-floor, he paid the bountiful goddess her dues in the form
of a thank-offering of golden grain. Theocritus has painted for us in
glowing colours a picture of a rustic harvest-home, as it fell on a bright
autumn day some two thousand years ago in the little Greek island of
Cos.(165) The poet tells us how he went with two friends from the city to
attend a festival given by farmers, who were offering first-fruits to
Demeter from the store of barley with which she had filled their barns.
The day was warm, indeed so hot that the very lizards, which love to bask
and run about in the sun, were slumbering in the crevices of the
stone-walls, and not a lark soared carolling into the blue vault of
heaven. Yet despite the great heat there were everywhere signs of autumn.
“All things,” says the poet, “smelt of summer, but smelt of autumn too.”
Indeed the day was really autumnal; for a goat-herd who met the friends on
their way to the rural merry-making, asked them whether they were bound
for the treading of the grapes in the wine-presses. And when they had
reached their destination and reclined at ease in the dappled shade of
over-arching poplars and elms, with the babble of a neighbouring fountain,
the buzz of the cicadas, the hum of bees, and the cooing of doves in their
ears, the ripe apples and pears rolled in the grass at their feet and the
branches of the wild-plum trees were bowed down to the earth with the
weight of their purple fruit. So couched on soft beds of fragrant lentisk
they passed the sultry hours singing ditties alternately, while a rustic
image of Demeter, to whom the honours of the day were paid, stood smiling
beside a heap of yellow grain on the threshing-floor, with corn-stalks and
poppies in her hands.

(M37) In this description the time of year when the harvest-home was
celebrated is clearly marked. Apart from the mention of the ripe apples,
pears, and plums, the reference to the treading of the grapes is decisive.
The Greeks gather and press the grapes in the first half of October,(166)
and accordingly it is to this date that the harvest-festival described by
Theocritus must be assigned. At the present day in Greece the
maize-harvest immediately precedes the vintage, the grain being reaped and
garnered at the end of September. Travelling in rural districts of Argolis
and Arcadia at that time of the year you pass from time to time piles of
the orange-coloured cobs laid up ready to be shelled, or again heaps of
the yellow grain beside the pods. But maize was unknown to the ancient
Greeks, who, like their modern descendants, reaped their wheat and barley
crops much earlier in the summer, usually from the end of April till
June.(167) However, we may conclude that the day immortalised by
Theocritus was one of those autumn days of great heat and effulgent beauty
which in Greece may occur at any time up to the very verge of winter. I
remember such a day at Panopeus on the borders of Phocis and Boeotia. It
was the first of November, yet the sun shone in cloudless splendour and
the heat was so great, that when I had examined the magnificent remains of
ancient Greek fortification-walls which crown the summit of the hill, it
was delicious to repose on a grassy slope in the shade of some fine
holly-oaks and to inhale the sweet scent of the wild thyme, which perfumed
all the air. But it was summer’s farewell. Next morning the weather had
completely changed. A grey November sky lowered sadly overhead, and grey
mists hung like winding-sheets on the lower slopes of the barren mountains
which shut in the fatal plain of Chaeronea.

(M38) Thus we may infer that in the rural districts of ancient Greece
farmers offered their first-fruits of the barley harvest to Demeter in
autumn about the time when the grapes were being trodden in the
wine-presses and the ripe apples and pears littered the ground in the
orchards. At first sight the lateness of the festival in the year is
surprising; for in the lowlands of Greece at the present day barley is
reaped at the end of April and wheat in May,(168) and in antiquity the
time of harvest would seem not to have been very different, for Hesiod
bids the husbandman put the sickle to the corn at the morning rising of
the Pleiades,(169) which in his time took place on the eleventh of
May.(170) But if the harvest was reaped in spring or early summer, why
defer the offerings of corn to the Corn Goddess until the middle of
autumn? The reason for the delay is not, so far as I am aware, explained
by any ancient author, and accordingly it must remain for us a matter of
conjecture. I surmise that the reason may have been a calculation on the
part of the practical farmer that the best time to propitiate the Corn
Goddess was not after harvest, when he had got all that was to be got out
of her, but immediately before ploughing and sowing, when he had
everything to hope from her good-will and everything to fear from her
displeasure. When he had reaped his corn, and the sheaves had been safely
garnered in his barns, he might, so to say, snap his fingers at the Corn
Goddess. What could she do for him on the bare stubble-field which lay
scorched and baking under the fierce rays of the sun all the long rainless
summer through? But matters wore a very different aspect when, with the
shortening and cooling of the days, he began to scan the sky for
clouds(171) and to listen for the cries of the cranes as they flew
southward, heralding by their trumpet-like notes the approach of the
autumnal rains. Then he knew that the time had come to break up the ground
that it might receive the seed and be fertilised by the refreshing water
of heaven; then he bethought him of the Corn Goddess once more and brought
forth from the grange a share of the harvested corn with which to woo her
favour and induce her to quicken the grain which he was about to commit to
the earth. On this theory the Greek offering of first-fruits was prompted
not so much by gratitude for past favours as by a shrewd eye to favours to
come, and perhaps this interpretation of the custom does no serious
injustice to the cool phlegmatic temper of the bucolic mind, which is more
apt to be moved by considerations of profit than by sentiment. At all
events the reasons suggested for delaying the harvest-festival accord
perfectly with the natural conditions and seasons of farming in Greece.
For in that country the summer is practically rainless, and during the
long months of heat and drought the cultivation of the two ancient
cereals, barley and wheat, is at a standstill. The first rains of autumn
fall about the middle of October,(172) and that was the Greek farmer’s
great time for ploughing and sowing.(173) Hence we should expect him to
make his offering of first-fruits to the Corn Goddess shortly before he
ploughed and sowed, and this expectation is entirely confirmed by the date
which we have inferred for the offering from the evidence of Theocritus.
Thus the sacrifice of barley to Demeter in the autumn would seem to have
been not so much a thank-offering as a bribe judiciously administered to
her at the very moment of all the year when her services were most
urgently wanted.

(M39) When with the progress of civilisation a number of petty
agricultural communities have merged into a single state dependent for its
subsistence mainly on the cultivation of the ground, it commonly happens
that, though every farmer continues to perform for himself the simple old
rites designed to ensure the blessing of the gods on his crops, the
government undertakes to celebrate similar, though more stately and
elaborate, rites on behalf of the whole people, lest the neglect of public
worship should draw down on the country the wrath of the offended deities.
Hence it comes about that, for all their pomp and splendour, the national
festivals of such states are often merely magnified and embellished copies
of homely rites and uncouth observances carried out by rustics in the open
fields, in barns, and on threshing-floors. In ancient Egypt the religion
of Isis and Osiris furnishes examples of solemnities which have been thus
raised from the humble rank of rural festivities to the dignity of
national celebrations;(174) and in ancient Greece a like development may
be traced in the religion of Demeter. If the Greek ploughman prayed to
Demeter and Underground Zeus for a good crop before he put his hand to the
plough in autumn, the authorities of the Athenian state celebrated about
the same time and for the same purpose a public festival in honour of
Demeter at Eleusis. It was called the Proerosia, which signifies “Before
the Ploughing”; and as the festival was dedicated to her, Demeter herself
bore the name of Proerosia. Tradition ran that once on a time the whole
world was desolated by a famine, and that to remedy the evil the Pythian
oracle bade the Athenians offer the sacrifice of the Proerosia on behalf
of all men. They did so, and the famine ceased accordingly. Hence to
testify their gratitude for the deliverance people sent the first-fruits
of their harvest from all quarters to Athens.(175)

(M40) But the exact date at which the Proerosia or Festival before
Ploughing took place is somewhat uncertain, and enquirers are divided in
opinion as to whether it fell before or after the Great Mysteries, which
began on the fifteenth or sixteenth of Boedromion, a month corresponding
roughly to our September. Another name for the festival was Proarcturia,
that is, “Before Arcturus,”(176) which points to a date either before the
middle of September, when Arcturus is a morning star, or before the end of
October, when Arcturus is an evening star.(177) In favour of the earlier
date it may be said, first, that the morning phase of Arcturus was well
known and much observed, because it marked the middle of autumn, whereas
little use was made of the evening phase of Arcturus for the purpose of
dating;(178) and, second, that in an official Athenian inscription the
Festival before Ploughing (_Proerosia_) is mentioned immediately before
the Great Mysteries.(179) On the other hand, in favour of the later date,
it may be said that as the autumnal rains in Greece set in about the
middle of October, the latter part of that month would be a more suitable
time for a ceremony at the opening of ploughing than the middle of
September, when the soil is still parched with the summer drought; and,
second, that this date is confirmed by a Greek inscription of the fourth
or third century B.C., found at Eleusis, in which the Festival before
Ploughing is apparently mentioned in the month of Pyanepsion immediately
before the festival of the Pyanepsia, which was held on the seventh day of
that month.(180) It is difficult to decide between these conflicting
arguments, but on the whole I incline, not without hesitation, to agree
with some eminent modern authorities in placing the Festival before
Ploughing in Pyanepsion (October) after the Mysteries, rather than in
Boedromion (September) before the Mysteries.(181) However, we must bear in
mind that as the Attic months, like the Greek months generally, were
lunar,(182) their position in the solar year necessarily varied from year
to year, and though these variations were periodically corrected by
intercalation, nevertheless the beginning of each Attic month sometimes
diverged by several weeks from the beginning of the corresponding month to
which we equate it.(183) From this it follows that the Great Mysteries,
which were always dated by the calendar month, must have annually shifted
their place somewhat in the solar year; whereas the Festival before
Ploughing, if it was indeed dated either by the morning or by the evening
phase of Arcturus, must have occupied a fixed place in the solar year.
Hence it appears to be not impossible that the Great Mysteries,
oscillating to and fro with the inconstant moon, may sometimes have fallen
before and sometimes after the Festival before Ploughing, which apparently
always remained true to the constant star. At least this possibility,
which seems to have been overlooked by previous enquirers, deserves to be
taken into account. It is a corollary from the shifting dates of the lunar
months that the official Greek calendar, in spite of its appearance of
exactness, really furnished the ancient farmer with little trustworthy
guidance as to the proper seasons for conducting the various operations of
agriculture; and he was well advised in trusting to various natural
timekeepers, such as the rising and setting of the constellations, the
arrival and departure of the migratory birds, the flowering of certain
plants,(184) the ripening of fruits, and the setting in of the rains,
rather than to the fallacious indications of the public calendar. It is by
natural timekeepers, and not by calendar months, that Hesiod determines
the seasons of the farmer’s year in the poem which is the oldest existing
treatise on husbandry.(185)

(M41) Just as the ploughman’s prayer to Demeter, before he drove the share
through the clods of the field, was taken up and reverberated, so to say,
with a great volume of sound in the public prayers which the Athenian
state annually offered to the goddess before the ploughing on behalf of
the whole world, so the simple first-fruits of barley, presented to the
rustic Demeter under the dappled shade of rustling poplars and elms on the
threshing-floor in Cos, were repeated year by year on a grander scale in
the first-fruits of the barley and wheat harvest, which were presented to
the Corn Mother and the Corn Maiden at Eleusis, not merely by every
husbandman in Attica, but by all the allies and subjects of Athens far and
near, and even by many free Greek communities beyond the sea. The reason
why year by year these offerings of grain poured from far countries into
the public granaries at Eleusis, was the widespread belief that the gift
of corn had been first bestowed by Demeter on the Athenians and afterwards
disseminated by them among all mankind through the agency of Triptolemus,
who travelled over the world in his dragon-drawn car teaching all peoples
to plough the earth and to sow the seed.(186) In the fifth century before
our era the legend was celebrated by Sophocles in a play called
_Triptolemus_, in which he represented Demeter instructing the hero to
carry the seed of the fruits which she had bestowed on men to all the
coasts of Southern Italy,(187) from which we may infer that the cities of
Magna Graecia were among the number of those that sent the thank-offering
of barley and wheat every year to Athens. Again, in the fourth century
before our era Xenophon represents Callias, the braggart Eleusinian
Torchbearer, addressing the Lacedaemonians in a set speech, in which he
declared that “Our ancestor Triptolemus is said to have bestowed the seed
of Demeter’s corn on the Peloponese before any other land. How then,” he
asked with pathetic earnestness, “can it be right that you should come to
ravage the corn of the men from whom you received the seed?”(188) Again,
writing in the fourth century before our era Isocrates relates with a
swell of patriotic pride how, in her search for her lost daughter
Persephone, the goddess Demeter came to Attica and gave to the ancestors
of the Athenians the two greatest of all gifts, the gift of the corn and
the gift of the mysteries, of which the one reclaimed men from the life of
beasts and the other held out hopes to them of a blissful eternity beyond
the grave. The antiquity of the tradition, the orator proceeds to say, was
no reason for rejecting it, but quite the contrary it furnished a strong
argument in its favour, for what many affirmed and all had heard might be
accepted as trustworthy. “And moreover,” he adds, “we are not driven to
rest our case merely on the venerable age of the tradition; we can appeal
to stronger evidence in its support. For most of the cities send us every
year the first-fruits of the corn as a memorial of that ancient benefit,
and when any of them have failed to do so the Pythian priestess has
commanded them to send the due portions of the fruits and to act towards
our city according to ancestral custom. Can anything be supported by
stronger evidence than by the oracle of god, the assent of many Greeks,
and the harmony of ancient legend with the deeds of to-day?”(189)

(M42) This testimony of Isocrates to the antiquity both of the legend and
of the custom might perhaps have been set aside, or at least disparaged,
as the empty bombast of a wordy rhetorician, if it had not happened by
good chance to be amply confirmed by an official decree of the Athenian
people passed in the century before Isocrates wrote. The decree was found
inscribed on a stone at Eleusis and is dated by scholars in the latter
half of the fifth century before our era, sometime between 446 and 420
B.C.(190) It deals with the first-fruits of barley and wheat which were
offered to the Two Goddesses, that is, to Demeter and Persephone, not only
by the Athenians and their allies but by the Greeks in general. It
prescribes the exact amount of barley and wheat which was to be offered by
the Athenians and their allies, and it directs the highest officials at
Eleusis, namely the Hierophant and the Torchbearer, to exhort the other
Greeks at the mysteries to offer likewise of the first-fruits of the corn.
The authority alleged in the decree for requiring or inviting offerings of
first-fruits alike from Athenians and from foreigners is ancestral custom
and the bidding of the Delphic oracle. The Senate is further enjoined to
send commissioners, so far as it could be done, to all Greek cities
whatsoever, exhorting, though not commanding, them to send the
first-fruits in compliance with ancestral custom and the bidding of the
Delphic oracle, and the state officials are directed to receive the
offerings from such states in the same manner as the offerings of the
Athenians and their allies. Instructions are also given for the building
of three subterranean granaries at Eleusis, where the contributions of
grain from Attica were to be stored. The best of the corn was to be
offered in sacrifice as the Eumolpids might direct: oxen were to be bought
and sacrificed, with gilt horns, not only to the two Goddesses but also to
the God (Pluto), Triptolemus, Eubulus, and Athena; and the remainder of
the grain was to be sold and with the produce votive offerings were to be
dedicated with inscriptions setting forth that they had been dedicated
from the offerings of first-fruits, and recording the names of all the
Greeks who sent the offerings to Eleusis. The decree ends with a prayer
that all who comply with these injunctions or exhortations and render
their dues to the city of Athens and to the Two Goddesses, may enjoy
prosperity together with good and abundant crops. Writing in the second
century of our era, under the Roman empire, the rhetorician Aristides
records the custom which the Greeks observed of sending year by year the
first-fruits of the harvest to Athens in gratitude for the corn, but he
speaks of the practice as a thing of the past.(191)

(M43) We may suspect that the tribute of corn ceased to flow from far
countries to Athens, when, with her falling fortunes and decaying empire,
her proud galleys had ceased to carry the terror of the Athenian arms into
distant seas. But if the homage was no longer paid in the substantial
shape of cargoes of grain, it continued down to the latest days of
paganism to be paid in the cheaper form of gratitude for that inestimable
benefit, which the Athenians claimed to have received from the Corn
Goddess and to have liberally communicated to the rest of mankind. Even
the Sicilians, who, inhabiting a fertile corn-growing island, worshipped
Demeter and Persephone above all the gods and claimed to have been the
first to receive the gift of the corn from the Corn Goddess,(192)
nevertheless freely acknowledged that the Athenians had spread, though
they had not originated, the useful discovery among the nations. Thus the
patriotic Sicilian historian Diodorus, while giving the precedence to his
fellow-countrymen, strives to be just to the Athenian pretensions in the
following passage.(193) “Mythologists,” says he, “relate that Demeter,
unable to find her daughter, lit torches at the craters of Etna(194) and
roamed over many parts of the world. Those people who received her best
she rewarded by giving them in return the fruit of the wheat; and because
the Athenians welcomed her most kindly of all, she bestowed the fruit of
the wheat on them next after the Sicilians. Wherefore that people honoured
the goddess more than any other folk by magnificent sacrifices and the
mysteries at Eleusis, which for their extreme antiquity and sanctity have
become famous among all men. From the Athenians many others received the
boon of the corn and shared the seed with their neighbours, till they
filled the whole inhabited earth with it. But as the people of Sicily, on
account of the intimate relation in which they stood to Demeter and the
Maiden, were the first to participate in the newly discovered corn, they
appointed sacrifices and popular festivities in honour of each of the two
goddesses, naming the celebrations after them and signifying the nature of
the boons they had received by the dates of the festivals. For they
celebrated the bringing home of the Maiden at the time when the corn was
ripe, performing the sacrifice and holding the festivity with all the
solemnity and zeal that might be reasonably expected of men who desired to
testify their gratitude for so signal a gift bestowed on them before all
the rest of mankind. But the sacrifice to Demeter they assigned to the
time when the sowing of the corn begins; and for ten days they hold a
popular festivity which bears the name of the goddess, and is remarkable
as well for the magnificence of its pomp as for the costumes then worn in
imitation of the olden time. During these days it is customary for people
to rail at each other in foul language, because when Demeter was mourning
for the rape of the Maiden she laughed at a ribald jest.”(195) Thus
despite his natural prepossession in favour of his native land, Diodorus
bears testimony both to the special blessing bestowed on the Athenians by
the Corn Goddess, and to the generosity with which they had imparted the
blessing to others, until it gradually spread to the ends of the earth.
Again, Cicero, addressing a Roman audience, enumerates among the benefits
which Athens was believed to have conferred on the world, the gift of the
corn and its origin in Attic soil; and the cursory manner in which he
alludes to it seems to prove that the tradition was familiar to his
hearers.(196) Four centuries later the rhetorician Himerius speaks of
Demeter’s gift of the corn and the mysteries to the Athenians as the
source of the first and greatest service rendered by their city to
mankind;(197) so ancient, widespread, and persistent was the legend which
ascribed the origin of the corn to the goddess Demeter and associated it
with the institution of the Eleusinian mysteries. No wonder that the
Delphic oracle called Athens “the Metropolis of the Corn.”(198)

(M44) From the passage of Diodorus which I have quoted we learn that the
Sicilians celebrated the festival of Demeter at the beginning of sowing,
and the festival of Persephone at harvest. This proves that they
associated, if they did not identify, the Mother Goddess with the
seed-corn and the Daughter Goddess with the ripe ears. Could any
association or identification be more easy and obvious to people who
personified the processes of nature under the form of anthropomorphic
deities? As the seed brings forth the ripe ear, so the Corn Mother Demeter
gave birth to the Corn Daughter Persephone. It is true that difficulties
arise when we attempt to analyse this seemingly simple conception. How,
for example, are we to divide exactly the two persons of the divinity? At
what precise moment does the seed cease to be the Corn Mother and begins
to burgeon out into the Corn Daughter? And how far can we identify the
material substance of the barley and wheat with the divine bodies of the
Two Goddesses? Questions of this sort probably gave little concern to the
sturdy swains who ploughed, sowed, and reaped the fat fields of Sicily. We
cannot imagine that their night’s rest was disturbed by uneasy meditations
on these knotty problems. It would hardly be strange if the muzzy mind of
the Sicilian bumpkin, who looked with blind devotion to the Two Goddesses
for his daily bread, totally failed to distinguish Demeter from the seed
and Persephone from the ripe sheaves, and if he accepted implicitly the
doctrine of the real presence of the divinities in the corn without
discriminating too curiously between the material and the spiritual
properties of the barley or the wheat. And if he had been closely
questioned by a rigid logician as to the exact distinction to be drawn
between the two persons of the godhead who together represented for him
the annual vicissitudes of the cereals, Hodge might have scratched his
head and confessed that it puzzled him to say where precisely the one
goddess ended and the other began, or why the seed buried in the ground
should figure at one time as the dead daughter Persephone descending into
the nether world, and at another as the living Mother Demeter about to
give birth to next year’s crop. Theological subtleties like these have
posed longer heads than are commonly to be found on bucolic shoulders.

(M45) The time of year at which the first-fruits were offered to Demeter
and Persephone at Eleusis is not explicitly mentioned by ancient
authorities, and accordingly no inference can be drawn from the date of
the offering as to its religious significance. It is true that at the
Eleusinian mysteries the Hierophant and Torchbearer publicly exhorted the
Greeks in general, as distinguished from the Athenians and their allies,
to offer the first-fruits in accordance with ancestral custom and the
bidding of the Delphic oracle.(199) But there is nothing to shew that the
offerings were made immediately after the exhortation. Nor does any
ancient authority support the view of a modern scholar that the offering
of the first-fruits, or a portion of them, took place at the Festival
before Ploughing (_Proerosia_),(200) though that festival would no doubt
be an eminently appropriate occasion for propitiating with such offerings
the goddess on whose bounty the next year’s crop was believed to depend.

(M46) On the other hand, we are positively told that the first-fruits were
carried to Eleusis to be used at the Festival of the Threshing-floor
(_Haloa_).(201) But the statement, cursorily reported by writers of no
very high authority, cannot be implicitly relied upon; and even if it
could, we should hardly be justified in inferring from it that all the
first-fruits of the corn were offered to Demeter and Persephone at this
festival. Be that as it may, the Festival of the Threshing-floor was
intimately connected with the worship both of Demeter and of Dionysus, and
accordingly it deserves our attention. It is said to have been sacred to
both these deities;(202) and while the name seems to connect it rather
with the Corn Goddess than with the Wine God, we are yet informed that it
was held by the Athenians on the occasion of the pruning of the vines and
the tasting of the stored-up wine.(203) The festival is frequently
mentioned in Eleusinian inscriptions, from some of which we gather that it
included sacrifices to the two goddesses and a so-called Ancestral
Contest, as to the nature of which we have no information.(204) We may
suppose that the festival or some part of it was celebrated on the Sacred
Threshing-floor of Triptolemus at Eleusis;(205) for as Triptolemus was the
hero who is said to have diffused the knowledge of the corn all over the
world, nothing could be more natural than that the Festival of the
Threshing-floor should be held on the sacred threshing-floor which bore
his name. As for Demeter, we have already seen how intimate was her
association with the threshing-floor and the operation of threshing;
according to Homer, she is the yellow goddess who parts the yellow grain
from the white chaff at the threshing, and in Cos her image with the
corn-stalks and the poppies in her hands stood on the
threshing-floor.(206) The festival lasted one day, and no victims might be
sacrificed at it;(207) but special use was made, as we have seen, of the
first-fruits of the corn. With regard to the dating of the festival we are
informed that it fell in the month Poseideon, which corresponds roughly to
our December, and as the date rests on the high authority of the ancient
Athenian antiquary Philochorus,(208) and is, moreover, indirectly
confirmed by inscriptional evidence,(209) we are bound to accept it. But
it is certainly surprising to find a Festival of the Threshing-floor held
so late in the year, long after the threshing, which in Greece usually
takes place not later than midsummer, though on high ground in Crete it is
sometimes prolonged till near the end of August.(210) We seem bound to
conclude that the Festival of the Threshing-floor was quite distinct from
the actual threshing of the corn.(211) It is said to have included certain
mystic rites performed by women alone, who feasted and quaffed wine, while
they broke filthy jests on each other and exhibited cakes baked in the
form of the male and female organs of generation.(212) If the latter
particulars are correctly reported we may suppose that these indecencies,
like certain obscenities which seem to have formed part of the Great
Mysteries at Eleusis,(213) were no mere wanton outbursts of licentious
passion, but were deliberately practised as rites calculated to promote
the fertility of the ground by means of homoeopathic or imitative magic. A
like association of what we might call indecency with rites intended to
promote the growth of the crops meets us in the Thesmophoria, a festival
of Demeter celebrated by women alone, at which the character of the
goddess as a source of fertility comes out clearly in the custom of mixing
the remains of the sacrificial pigs with the seed-corn in order to obtain
a plentiful crop. We shall return to this festival later on.(214)

(M47) Other festivals held at Eleusis in honour of Demeter and Persephone
were known as the Green Festival and the Festival of the Cornstalks.(215)
Of the manner of their celebration we know nothing except that they
comprised sacrifices, which were offered to Demeter and Persephone. But
their names suffice to connect the two festivals with the green and the
standing corn. We have seen that Demeter herself bore the title of Green,
and that sacrifices were offered to her under that title which plainly
aimed at promoting fertility.(216) Among the many epithets applied to
Demeter which mark her relation to the corn may further be mentioned
“Wheat-lover,”(217) “She of the Corn,”(218) “Sheaf-bearer,”(219) “She of
the Threshing-floor,”(220) “She of the Winnowing-fan,”(221) “Nurse of the
Corn-ears,”(222) “Crowned with Ears of Corn,”(223) “She of the Seed,”(224)
“She of the Green Fruits,”(225) “Heavy with Summer Fruits,”(226)
“Fruit-bearer,”(227) “She of the Great Loaf,” and “She of the Great Barley
Loaf.”(228) Of these epithets it may be remarked that though all of them
are quite appropriate to a Corn Goddess, some of them would scarcely be
applicable to an Earth Goddess and therefore they add weight to the other
arguments which turn the scale in favour of the corn as the fundamental
attribute of Demeter.

(M48) How deeply implanted in the mind of the ancient Greeks was this
faith in Demeter as goddess of the corn may be judged by the circumstance
that the faith actually persisted among their Christian descendants at her
old sanctuary of Eleusis down to the beginning of the nineteenth century.
For when the English traveller Dodwell revisited Eleusis, the inhabitants
lamented to him the loss of a colossal image of Demeter, which was carried
off by Clarke in 1802 and presented to the University of Cambridge, where
it still remains. “In my first journey to Greece,” says Dodwell, “this
protecting deity was in its full glory, situated in the centre of a
threshing-floor, amongst the ruins of her temple. The villagers were
impressed with a persuasion that their rich harvests were the effect of
her bounty, and since her removal, their abundance, as they assured me,
has disappeared.”(229) Thus we see the Corn Goddess Demeter standing on
the threshing-floor of Eleusis and dispensing corn to her worshippers in
the nineteenth century of the Christian era, precisely as her image stood
and dispensed corn to her worshippers on the threshing-floor of Cos in the
days of Theocritus. And just as the people of Eleusis last century
attributed the diminution of their harvests to the loss of the image of
Demeter, so in antiquity the Sicilians, a corn-growing people devoted to
the worship of the two Corn Goddesses, lamented that the crops of many
towns had perished because the unscrupulous Roman governor Verres had
impiously carried off the image of Demeter from her famous temple at
Henna.(230) Could we ask for a clearer proof that Demeter was indeed the
goddess of the corn than this belief, held by the Greeks down to modern
times, that the corn-crops depended on her presence and bounty and
perished when her image was removed?

(M49) In a former part of this work I followed an eminent French scholar
in concluding, from various indications, that part of the religious drama
performed in the mysteries of Eleusis may have been a marriage between the
sky-god Zeus and the corn-goddess Demeter, represented by the hierophant
and the priestess of the goddess respectively.(231) The conclusion is
arrived at by combining a number of passages, all more or less vague and
indefinite, of late Christian writers; hence it must remain to some extent
uncertain and cannot at the best lay claim to more than a fair degree of
probability. It may be, as Professor W. Ridgeway holds, that this dramatic
marriage of the god and goddess was an innovation foisted into the
Eleusinian Mysteries in that great welter of religions which followed the
meeting of the East and the West in the later ages of antiquity.(232) If a
marriage of Zeus and Demeter did indeed form an important feature of the
Mysteries in the fifth century before our era, it is certainly remarkable,
as Professor Ridgeway has justly pointed out, that no mention of Zeus
occurs in the public decree of that century which regulates the offerings
of first-fruits and the sacrifices to be made to the gods and goddesses of
Eleusis.(233) At the same time we must bear in mind that, if the evidence
for the ritual marriage of Zeus and Demeter is late and doubtful, the
evidence for the myth is ancient and indubitable. The story was known to
Homer, for in the list of beauties to whom he makes Zeus, in a burst of
candour, confess that he had lost his too susceptible heart, there occurs
the name of “the fair-haired Queen Demeter”;(234) and in another passage
the poet represents the jealous god smiting with a thunderbolt the
favoured lover with whom the goddess had forgotten her dignity among the
furrows of a fallow field.(235) Moreover, according to one tradition,
Dionysus himself was the offspring of the intrigue between Zeus and
Demeter.(236) Thus there is no intrinsic improbability in the view that
one or other of these unedifying incidents in the backstairs chronicle of
Olympus should have formed part of the sacred peep-show in the Eleusinian
Mysteries. But it seems just possible that the marriage to which the
Christian writers allude with malicious joy may after all have been of a
more regular and orthodox pattern. We are positively told that the rape of
Persephone was acted at the Mysteries;(237) may that scene not have been
followed by another representing the solemnisation of her nuptials with
her ravisher and husband Pluto? It is to be remembered that Pluto was
sometimes known as a god of fertility under the title of Subterranean
Zeus. It was to him under that title as well as to Demeter, that the Greek
ploughman prayed at the beginning of the ploughing;(238) and the people of
Myconus used to sacrifice to Subterranean Zeus and Subterranean Earth for
the prosperity of the crops on the twelfth day of the month Lenaeon.(239)
Thus it may be that the Zeus whose marriage was dramatically represented
at the Mysteries was not the sky-god Zeus, but his brother Zeus of the
Underworld, and that the writers who refer to the ceremony have confused
the two brothers. This view, if it could be established, would dispose of
the difficulty raised by the absence of the name of Zeus in the decree
which prescribes the offerings to be made to the gods of Eleusis; for
although in that decree Pluto is not mentioned under the name of
Subterranean Zeus, he is clearly referred to, as the editors of the
inscription have seen, under the vague title of “the God,” while his
consort Persephone is similarly referred to under the title of “the
Goddess,” and it is ordained that perfect victims shall be sacrificed to
both of them. However, if we thus dispose of one difficulty, it must be
confessed that in doing so we raise another. For if the bridegroom in the
Sacred Marriage at Eleusis was not the sky-god Zeus, but the earth-god
Pluto, we seem driven to suppose that, contrary to the opinion of the
reverend Christian scandal-mongers, the bride was his lawful wife
Persephone and not his sister and mother-in-law Demeter. In short, on the
hypothesis which I have suggested we are compelled to conclude that the
ancient busybodies who lifted the veil from the mystic marriage were
mistaken as to the person both of the divine bridegroom and of the divine
bride. In regard to the bridegroom I have conjectured that they may have
confused the two brothers, Zeus of the Upper World and Zeus of the Lower
World. In regard to the bride, can any reason be suggested for confounding
the persons of the mother and daughter? On the view here taken of the
nature of Demeter and Persephone nothing could be easier than to confuse
them with each other, for both of them were mythical embodiments of the
corn, the mother Demeter standing for the old corn of last year and the
daughter Persephone standing for the new corn of this year. In point of
fact Greek artists, both of the archaic and of later periods, frequently
represent the Mother and Daughter side by side in forms which resemble
each other so closely that eminent modern experts have sometimes differed
from each other on the question, which is Demeter and which is Persephone;
indeed in some cases it might be quite impossible to distinguish the two
if it were not for the inscriptions attached to the figures.(240) The
ancient sculptors, vase-painters, and engravers must have had some good
reason for portraying the two goddesses in types which are almost
indistinguishable from each other; and what better reason could they have
had than the knowledge that the two persons of the godhead were one in
substance, that they stood merely for two different aspects of the same
simple natural phenomenon, the growth of the corn? Thus it is easy to
understand why Demeter and Persephone may have been confused in ritual as
well as in art, why in particular the part of the divine bride in a Sacred
Marriage may sometimes have been assigned to the Mother and sometimes to
the Daughter. But all this, I fully admit, is a mere speculation, and I
only put it forward as such. We possess far too little information as to a
Sacred Marriage in the Eleusinian Mysteries to be justified in speaking
with confidence on so obscure a subject.

(M50) One thing, however, which we may say with a fair degree of
probability is that, if such a marriage did take place at Eleusis, no date
in the agricultural year could well have been more appropriate for it than
the date at which the Mysteries actually fell, namely about the middle of
September. The long Greek summer is practically rainless and in the
fervent heat and unbroken drought all nature languishes. The river-beds
are dry, the fields parched. The farmer awaits impatiently the setting-in
of the autumnal rains, which begin in October and mark the great season
for ploughing and sowing. What time could be fitter for celebrating the
union of the Corn Goddess with her husband the Earth God or perhaps rather
with her paramour the Sky God, who will soon descend in fertilising
showers to quicken the seed in the furrows? Such embraces of the divine
powers or their human representatives might well be deemed, on the
principles of homoeopathic or imitative magic, indispensable to the growth
of the crops. At least similar ideas have been entertained and similar
customs have been practised by many peoples;(241) and in the legend of
Demeter’s love-adventure among the furrows of the thrice-ploughed
fallow(242) we seem to catch a glimpse of rude rites of the same sort
performed in the fields at sowing-time by Greek ploughmen for the sake of
ensuring the growth of the seed which they were about to commit to the
bosom of the naked earth. In this connexion a statement of ancient writers
as to the rites of Eleusis receives fresh significance. We are told that
at these rites the worshippers looked up to the sky and cried “Rain!” and
then looked down at the earth and cried “Conceive!”(243) Nothing could be
more appropriate at a marriage of the Sky God and the Earth or Corn
Goddess than such invocations to the heaven to pour down rain and to the
earth or the corn to conceive seed under the fertilising shower; in Greece
no time could well be more suitable for the utterance of such prayers than
just at the date when the Great Mysteries of Eleusis were celebrated, at
the end of the long drought of summer and before the first rains of
autumn.

(M51) Different both from the Great Mysteries and the offerings of
first-fruits at Eleusis were the games which were celebrated there on a
great scale once in every four years and on a less scale once in every two
years.(244) That the games were distinct from the Mysteries is proved by
their periods, which were quadriennial and biennial respectively, whereas
the Mysteries were celebrated annually. Moreover, in Greek epigraphy, our
most authentic evidence in such matters, the games and the Mysteries are
clearly distinguished from each other by being mentioned separately in the
same inscription.(245) But like the Mysteries the games seem to have been
very ancient; for the Parian Chronicler, who wrote in the year 264 B.C.,
assigns the foundation of the Eleusinian games to the reign of Pandion,
the son of Cecrops. However, he represents them as of later origin than
the Eleusinian Mysteries, which according to him were instituted by
Eumolpus in the reign of Erechtheus, after Demeter had planted corn in
Attica and Triptolemus had sown seed in the Rarian plain at Eleusis.(246)
This testimony to the superior antiquity of the Mysteries is in harmony
with our most ancient authority on the rites of Eleusis, the author of the
_Hymn to Demeter_, who describes the origin of the Eleusinian Mysteries,
but makes no reference or allusion to the Eleusinian Games. However, the
great age of the games is again vouched for at a much later date by the
rhetorician Aristides, who even declares that they were the oldest of all
Greek games.(247) With regard to the nature and meaning of the games our
information is extremely scanty, but an old scholiast on Pindar tells us
that they were celebrated in honour of Demeter and Persephone as a
thank-offering at the conclusion of the corn-harvest.(248) His testimony
is confirmed by that of the rhetorician Aristides, who mentions the
institution of the Eleusinian games in immediate connexion with the
offerings of the first-fruits of the corn, which many Greek states sent to
Athens;(249) and from an inscription dated about the close of the third
century before our era we learn that at the Great Eleusinian Games
sacrifices were offered to Demeter and Persephone.(250) Further, we gather
from an official Athenian inscription of 329 B.C. that both the Great and
the Lesser Games included athletic and musical contests, a horse-race, and
a competition which bore the name of the Ancestral or Hereditary Contest,
and which accordingly may well have formed the original kernel of the
games.(251) Unfortunately nothing is known about this Ancestral Contest.
We might be tempted to identify it with the Ancestral Contest included in
the Eleusinian Festival of the Threshing-floor,(252) which was probably
held on the Sacred Threshing-floor of Triptolemus at Eleusis.(253) If the
identification could be proved, we should have another confirmation of the
tradition which connects the games with Demeter and the corn; for
according to the prevalent tradition it was to Triptolemus that Demeter
first revealed the secret of the corn, and it was he whom she sent out as
an itinerant missionary to impart the beneficent discovery of the cereals
to all mankind and to teach them to sow the seed.(254) On monuments of
art, especially in vase-paintings, he is constantly represented along with
Demeter in this capacity, holding corn-stalks in his hand and sitting in
his car, which is sometimes winged and sometimes drawn by dragons, and
from which he is said to have sowed the seed down on the whole world as he
sped through the air.(255) At Eleusis victims bought with the first-fruits
of the wheat and barley were sacrificed to him as well as to Demeter and
Persephone.(256) In short, if we may judge from the combined testimony of
Greek literature and art, Triptolemus was the corn-hero first and
foremost. Even beyond the limits of the Greek world, all men, we are told,
founded sanctuaries and erected altars in his honour because he had
bestowed on them the gift of the corn.(257) His very name has been
plausibly explained both in ancient and modern times as “Thrice-ploughed”
with reference to the Greek custom of ploughing the land thrice a
year,(258) and the derivation is said to be on philological principles
free from objection.(259) In fact it would seem as if Triptolemus, like
Demeter and Persephone themselves, were a purely mythical being, an
embodiment of the conception of the first sower. At all events in the
local Eleusinian legend, according to an eminent scholar, who has paid
special attention to Attic genealogy, “Triptolemus does not, like his
comrade Eumolpus or other founders of Eleusinian priestly families,
continue his kind, but without leaving offspring who might perpetuate his
priestly office, he is removed from the scene of his beneficent activity.
As he appeared, so he vanishes again from the legend, after he has
fulfilled his divine mission.”(260)

(M52) However, there is no sufficient ground for identifying the Ancestral
Contest of the Eleusinian games with the Ancestral Contest of the
Threshing-festival at Eleusis, and accordingly the connexion of the games
with the corn-harvest and with the corn-hero Triptolemus must so far
remain uncertain. But a clear trace of such a connexion may be seen in the
custom of rewarding the victors in the Eleusinian games with measures of
barley; in the official Athenian inscription of 329 B.C., which contains
the accounts of the superintendents of Eleusis and the Treasurers of the
Two Goddesses, the amounts of corn handed over by these officers to the
priests and priestesses for the purposes of the games is exactly
specified.(261) This of itself is sufficient to prove that the Eleusinian
games were closely connected with the worship of Demeter and Persephone.
The grain thus distributed in prizes was probably reaped on the Rarian
plain near Eleusis, where according to the legend Triptolemus sowed the
first corn.(262) Certainly we know that the barley grown on that plain was
used in sacrifices and for the baking of the sacrificial cakes,(263) from
which we may reasonably infer that the prizes of barley, to which no doubt
a certain sanctity attached in the popular mind, were brought from the
same holy fields. So sacred was the Rarian plain that no dead body was
allowed to defile it. When such a pollution accidentally took place, it
was expiated by the sacrifice of a pig,(264) the usual victim employed in
Greek purificatory rites.

(M53) Thus, so far as the scanty evidence at our disposal permits us to
judge, the Eleusinian games, like the Eleusinian Mysteries, would seem to
have been primarily concerned with Demeter and Persephone as goddesses of
the corn. At least that is expressly affirmed by the old scholiast on
Pindar and it is borne out by the practice of rewarding the victors with
measures of barley. Perhaps the Ancestral Contest, which may well have
formed the original nucleus of the games, was a contest between the
reapers on the sacred Rarian plain to see who should finish his allotted
task before his fellows. For success in such a contest no prize could be
more appropriate than a measure of the sacred barley which the victorious
reaper had just cut on the barley-field. In the sequel we shall see that
similar contests between reapers have been common on the harvest fields of
modern Europe, and it will appear that such competitions are not purely
athletic; their aim is not simply to demonstrate the superior strength,
activity, and skill of the victors; it is to secure for the particular
farm the possession of the blooming young Corn-maiden of the present year,
conceived as the embodiment of the vigorous grain, and to pass on to
laggard neighbours the aged Corn-mother of the past year, conceived as an
embodiment of the effete and outworn energies of the corn.(265) May it not
have been so at Eleusis? may not the reapers have vied with each other for
possession of the young corn-spirit Persephone and for avoidance of the
old corn-spirit Demeter? may not the prize of barley, which rewarded the
victor in the Ancestral Contest, have been supposed to house in the ripe
ears no less a personage than the Corn-maiden Persephone herself? And if
there is any truth in these conjectures (for conjectures they are and
nothing more), we may hazard a guess as to the other Ancestral Contest
which took place at the Eleusinian Festival of the Threshing-floor.
Perhaps it in like manner was originally a competition between threshers
on the sacred threshing-floor of Triptolemus to determine who should
finish threshing his allotted quantity of corn before the rest. Such
competitions have also been common, as we shall see presently, on the
threshing-floors of modern Europe, and their motive again has not been
simple emulation between sturdy swains for the reward of strength and
dexterity; it has been a dread of being burdened with the aged and outworn
spirit of the corn conceived as present in the bundle of corn-stalks which
receives the last stroke at threshing.(266) We know that effigies of
Demeter with corn and poppies in her hands stood on Greek
threshing-floors.(267) Perhaps at the conclusion of the threshing these
effigies, as representatives of the old Corn-spirit, were passed on to
neighbours who had not yet finished threshing the corn. At least the
supposition is in harmony with modern customs observed on the
threshing-floor.

(M54) It is possible that the Eleusinian games were no more than a popular
merrymaking celebrated at the close of the harvest. This view of their
character might be supported by modern analogies; for in some parts of
Germany it has been customary for the harvesters, when their work is done,
to engage in athletic competitions of various kinds, which have at first
sight no very obvious connexion with the business of harvesting. For
example, at Besbau near Luckau great cakes were baked at the
harvest-festival, and the labourers, both men and women, ran races for
them. He or she who reached them first received not only a cake, but a
handkerchief or the like as a prize. Again, at Bergkirchen, when the
harvest was over, a garland was hung up and the harvesters rode at it on
horseback and tried to bring it down with a stab or a blow as they
galloped past. He who succeeded in bringing it down was proclaimed King.
Again, in the villages near Fürstenwald at harvest the young men used to
fetch a fir-tree from the wood, peel the trunk, and set it up like a mast
in the middle of the village. A handkerchief and other prizes were
fastened to the top of the pole and the men clambered up for them.(268)
Among the peasantry of Silesia, we are told, the harvest-home broadened
out into a popular festival, in which athletic sports figured prominently.
Thus, for example, at Järischau, in the Strehlitz district, a scythe, a
rake, a flail, and a hay-fork or pitchfork were fastened to the top of a
smooth pole and awarded as prizes, in order of merit, to the men who
displayed most agility in climbing the pole. Younger men amused themselves
with running in sacks, high jumps, and so forth. At Prauss, near Nimptsch,
the girls ran a race in a field for aprons as prizes. In the central parts
of Silesia a favourite amusement at harvest was a race between girls for a
garland of leaves or flowers.(269) Yet it seems probable that all such
sports at harvest were in origin not mere pastimes, but that they were
serious attempts to secure in one way or another the help and blessing of
the corn-spirit. Thus in some parts of Prussia, at the close of the
rye-harvest, a few sheaves used to be left standing in the field after all
the rest of the rye had been carted home. These sheaves were then made up
into the shape of a man and dressed out in masculine costume, and all the
young women were obliged to run a race, of which the corn-man was the
goal. She who won the race led off the dancing in the evening.(270) Here
the aim of the foot-race among the young women is clearly to secure the
corn-spirit embodied in the last sheaf left standing on the field; for, as
we shall see later on, the last sheaf is commonly supposed to harbour the
corn-spirit and is treated accordingly like a man or a woman.(271)

(M55) If the Ancestral Contest at the Eleusinian games was, as I have
conjectured, a contest between the reapers on the sacred barley-field, we
should have to suppose that the games were celebrated at barley-harvest,
which in the lowlands of Greece falls in May or even at the end of April.
This theory is in harmony with the evidence of the scholiast on Pindar,
who tells us that the Eleusinian games were celebrated after the
corn-harvest.(272) No other ancient authority, so far as I am aware,
mentions at what time of the year these games were held. Modern
authorities, arguing from certain slight and to some extent conjectural
data, have variously assigned them to Metageitnion (August) and to
Boedromion (September), and those who assign them to Boedromion
(September) are divided in opinion as to whether they preceded or followed
the Mysteries.(273) However, the evidence is far too slender and uncertain
to allow of any conclusions being based on it.

(M56) But there is a serious difficulty in the way of connecting the
Eleusinian games with the goddesses of the corn. How is the quadriennial
or the biennial period of the games to be reconciled with the annual
growth of the crops? Year by year the barley and the wheat are sown and
reaped; how then could the games, held only every fourth or every second
year, have been regarded as thank-offerings for the annual harvest? On
this view of their nature, which is the one taken by the old scholiast on
Pindar, though the harvest was received at the hands of the Corn Goddess
punctually every year, men thanked her for her bounty only every second
year or even only every fourth year. What were her feelings likely to be
in the blank years when she got no thanks and no games? She might
naturally resent such negligence and ingratitude and punish them by
forbidding the seed to sprout, just as she did at Eleusis when she mourned
the loss of her daughter. In short, men could hardly expect to reap crops
in years in which they offered nothing to the Corn Goddess. That would
indeed appear to be the view generally taken by the ancient Greeks; for we
have seen that year by year they presented the first-fruits of the barley
and the wheat to Demeter, not merely in the solemn state ritual of
Eleusis, but also in rustic festivals held by farmers on their
threshing-floors. The pious Greek husbandman would no doubt have been
shocked and horrified at a proposal to pay the Corn Goddess her dues only
every second or fourth year. “No offerings, no crops,” he would say to
himself, and would anticipate nothing but dearth and famine in any year
when he failed to satisfy the just and lawful demands of the divinity on
whose good pleasure he believed the growth of the corn to be directly
dependent. Accordingly we may regard it as highly probable that from the
very beginning of settled and regular agriculture in Greece men annually
propitiated the deities of the corn with a ritual of some sort, and
rendered them their dues in the shape of offerings of the ripe barley and
wheat. Now we know that the Mysteries of Eleusis were celebrated every
year, and accordingly, if I am right in interpreting them as essentially a
dramatic representation of the annual vicissitudes of the corn performed
for the purpose of quickening the seed, it becomes probable that in some
form or another they were annually held at Eleusis long before the
practice arose of celebrating games there every fourth or every second
year. In short, the Eleusinian mysteries were in all probability far older
than the Eleusinian games. How old they were we cannot even guess. But
when we consider that the cultivation of barley and wheat, the two cereals
specially associated with Demeter, appears to have been practised in
prehistoric Europe from the Stone Age onwards,(274) we shall be disposed
to admit that the annual performance of religious or magical rites at
Eleusis for the purpose of ensuring good crops, whether by propitiating
the Corn Goddess with offerings of first-fruits or by dramatically
representing the sowing and the growth of the corn in mythical form,
probably dates from an extremely remote antiquity.

(M57) But in order to clear our ideas on this subject it is desirable to
ascertain, if possible, the reason for holding the Eleusinian games at
intervals of two or four years. The reason for holding a harvest festival
and thanksgiving every year is obvious enough; but why hold games only
every second or every fourth year? The reason for such limitations is by
no means obvious on the face of them, especially if the growth of the
crops is deemed dependent on the celebration. In order to find an answer
to this question it may be well at the outset to confine our attention to
the Great Eleusinian Games, which were celebrated only every fourth year.
That these were the principal games appears not only from their name, but
from the testimony of Aristotle, or at least of the author of _The
Constitution of Athens_, who notices only the quadriennial or, as in
accordance with Greek idiom he calls it, the penteteric celebration of the
games.(275) Now the custom of holding games at intervals of four years was
very common in Greece; to take only a few conspicuous examples the Olympic
games at Olympia, the Pythian games at Delphi, the Panathenaic games at
Athens, and the Eleutherian games at Plataea(276) were all celebrated at
quadriennial or, as the Greeks called them, penteteric periods; and at a
later time when Augustus instituted, or rather renewed on a more splendid
scale, the games at Actium to commemorate his great victory, he followed a
well-established Greek precedent by ordaining that they should be
quadriennial.(277) Still later the emperor Hadrian instituted quadriennial
games at Mantinea in honour of his dead favourite Antinous.(278) But in
regard to the two greatest of all the Greek games, the Olympian and the
Pythian, I have shewn reasons for thinking that they were originally
celebrated at intervals of eight instead of four years; certainly this is
attested for the Pythian games,(279) and the mode of calculating the
Olympiads by alternate periods of fifty and forty-nine lunar months,(280)
which added together make up eight solar years, seems to prove that the
Olympic cycle of four years was really based on a cycle of eight years,
from which it is natural to infer that in the beginning the Olympic, like
the Pythian, games may have been octennial instead of quadriennial.(281)
Now we know from the testimony of the ancients themselves that the Greeks
instituted the eight-years’ cycle for the purpose of harmonising solar and
lunar time.(282) They regulated their calendar primarily by observation of
the moon rather than of the sun; their months were lunar, and their
ordinary year consisted of twelve lunar months. But the solar year of
three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days exceeds the lunar year of
twelve lunar months or three hundred and fifty-four days by eleven and a
quarter days, so that in eight solar years the excess amounts to ninety
days or roughly three lunar months. Accordingly the Greeks equated eight
solar years to eight lunar years of twelve months each by intercalating
three lunar months of thirty days each in the octennial cycle; they
intercalated one lunar month in the third year of the cycle, a second
lunar month in the fifth year, and a third lunar month in the eighth
year.(283) In this way they, so to say, made the sun and moon keep time
together by reckoning ninety-nine lunar months as equivalent to eight
solar years; so that if, for example, the full moon coincided with the
summer solstice in one year, it coincided with it again after the
revolution of the eight years’ cycle, but not before. The equation was
indeed not quite exact, and in order to render it so the Greeks afterwards
found themselves obliged, first, to intercalate three days every sixteen
years, and, next, to omit one intercalary month in every period of one
hundred and sixty years.(284) But these corrections were doubtless
refinements of a later age; they may have been due to the astronomer
Eudoxus of Cnidus, or to Cleostratus of Tenedos, who were variously, but
incorrectly, supposed to have instituted the octennial cycle.(285) There
are strong grounds for holding that in its simplest form the octennial
cycle of ninety-nine lunar months dates from an extremely remote antiquity
in Greece; that it was in fact, as a well-informed Greek writer tell
us,(286) the first systematic attempt to bring solar and the lunar time
into harmony. Indeed, if the Olympiads were calculated, as they appear to
have been, on the eight years’ cycle, this of itself suffices to place the
origin of the cycle not later than 776 B.C., the year with which the
reckoning by Olympiads begins. And when we bear in mind the very remote
period from which, judged by the wonderful remains of Mycenae, Tiryns,
Cnossus and other cities, civilisation in Greek lands appears to date, it
seems reasonable to suppose that the octennial cycle, based as it was on
very simple observations, for which nothing but good eyes and almost no
astronomical knowledge was necessary,(287) may have been handed down among
the inhabitants of these countries from ages that preceded by many
centuries, possibly by thousands of years, the great period of Greek
literature and art. The supposition is confirmed by the traces which the
octennial cycle has left of itself in certain ancient Greek customs and
superstitions, particularly by the evidence which points to the conclusion
that at two of the oldest seats of monarchy in Greece, namely Cnossus and
Sparta, the king’s tenure of office was formerly limited to eight
years.(288)

(M58) We are informed, and may readily believe, that the motive which led
the Greeks to adopt the eight years’ cycle was religious rather than
practical or scientific: their aim was not so much to ensure the punctual
despatch of business or to solve an abstract problem in astronomy, as to
ascertain the exact days on which they ought to sacrifice to the gods. For
the Greeks regularly employed lunar months in their reckonings,(289) and
accordingly if they had dated their religious festivals simply by the
number of the month and the day of the month, the excess of eleven and a
quarter days of the solar over the lunar year would have had the effect of
causing the festivals gradually to revolve throughout the whole circle of
the seasons, so that in time ceremonies which properly belonged to winter
would come to be held in summer, and on the contrary ceremonies which were
only appropriate to summer would come to be held in winter. To avoid this
anomaly, and to ensure that festivals dated by lunar months should fall at
fixed or nearly fixed points in the solar year, the Greeks adopted the
octennial cycle by the simple expedient of intercalating three lunar
months in every period of eight years. In doing so they acted, as one of
their writers justly pointed out, on a principle precisely the reverse of
that followed by the ancient Egyptians, who deliberately regulated their
religious festivals by a purely lunar calendar for the purpose of allowing
them gradually to revolve throughout the whole circle of the seasons.(290)

(M59) Thus at an early stage of culture the regulation of the calendar is
largely an affair of religion: it is a means of maintaining the
established relations between gods and men on a satisfactory footing; and
in public opinion the great evil of a disordered calendar is not so much
that it disturbs and disarranges the ordinary course of business and the
various transactions of civil life, as that it endangers the welfare or
even the existence both of individuals and of the community by
interrupting their normal intercourse with those divine powers on whose
favour men believe themselves to be absolutely dependent. Hence in states
which take this view of the deep religious import of the calendar its
superintendence is naturally entrusted to priests rather than to
astronomers, because the science of astronomy is regarded merely as
ancillary to the deeper mysteries of theology. For example, at Rome the
method of determining the months and regulating the festivals was a secret
which the pontiffs for ages jealously guarded from the profane vulgar; and
in consequence of their ignorance and incapacity the calendar fell into
confusion and the festivals were celebrated out of their natural seasons,
until the greatest of all the Roman pontiffs, Julius Caesar, remedied the
confusion and placed the calendar of the civilised world on the firm
foundation on which, with little change, it stands to this day.(291)

(M60) On the whole, then, it appears probable that the octennial cycle,
based on considerations of religion and on elementary observations of the
two great luminaries, dated from a very remote period among the ancient
Greeks; if they did not bring it with them when they migrated southwards
from the oakwoods and beechwoods of Central Europe, they may well have
taken it over from their civilised predecessors of different blood and
different language whom they found leading a settled agricultural life on
the lands about the Aegean Sea. Now we have seen reasons to hold that the
two most famous of the great Greek games, the Pythian and the Olympian,
were both based on the ancient cycle of eight years, and that the
quadriennial period at which they were regularly celebrated in historical
times was arrived at by a subdivision of the older octennial cycle. It is
hardly rash, therefore, to conjecture that the quadriennial period in
general, regarded as the normal period for the celebration of great games
and festivals, was originally founded on elementary religious and
astronomical considerations of the same kind, that is, on a somewhat crude
attempt to harmonise the discrepancies of solar and lunar time and thereby
to ensure the continued favour of the gods. It is, indeed, certain or
probable that some of these quadriennial festivals were celebrated in
honour of the dead;(292) but there seems to be nothing in the beliefs or
customs of the ancient Greeks concerning the dead which would suggest a
quadriennial period as an appropriate one for propitiating the ghosts of
the departed. At first sight it is different with the octennial period;
for according to Pindar, the souls of the dead who had been purged of
their guilt by an abode of eight years in the nether world were born again
on earth in the ninth year as glorious kings, athletes, and sages.(293)
Now if this belief in the reincarnation of the dead after eight years were
primitive, it might certainly furnish an excellent reason for honouring
the ghosts of great men at their graves every eight years in order to
facilitate their rebirth into the world. Yet the period of eight years
thus rigidly applied to the life of disembodied spirits appears too
arbitrary and conventional to be really primitive, and we may suspect that
in this application it was nothing but an inference drawn from the old
octennial cycle, which had been instituted for the purpose of reconciling
solar and lunar time. If that was so, it will follow that the quadriennial
period of funeral games was, like the similar period of other religious
festivals, obtained through the bisection of the octennial cycle, and
hence that it was ultimately derived from astronomical considerations
rather than from any beliefs touching a quadriennial revolution in the
state of the dead. Yet in historical times it may well have happened that
these considerations were forgotten, and that games and festivals were
instituted at quadriennial intervals, for example at Plataea(294) in
honour of the slain, at Actium to commemorate the great victory, and at
Mantinea in honour of Antinous,(295) without any conscious reference to
the sun and moon, and merely because that period had from time immemorial
been regarded as the proper and normal one for the celebration of certain
solemn religious rites.

(M61) If we enquire why the Greeks so often bisected the old octennial
period into two quadriennial periods for purposes of religion, the answer
can only be conjectural, for no positive information appears to be given
us on the subject by ancient writers. Perhaps they thought that eight
years was too long a time to elapse between the solemn services, and that
it was desirable to propitiate the deities at shorter intervals. But it is
possible that political as well as religious motives may have operated to
produce the change. We have seen reason to think that at two of the oldest
seats of monarchy in Greece, namely Cnossus and Sparta, kings formerly
held office for periods of eight years only, after which their sovereignty
either terminated or had to be formally renewed. Now with the gradual
growth of that democratic sentiment, which ultimately dominated Greek
political life, men would become more and more jealous of the kingly power
and would seek to restrict it within narrower limits, and one of the most
obvious means of doing so was to shorten the king’s tenure of office. We
know that this was done at Athens, where the dynasty of the Medontids was
reduced from the rank of monarchs for life to that of magistrates holding
office for ten years only.(296) It is possible that elsewhere the king’s
reign was cut down from eight years to four years; and if I am right in my
explanation of the origin of the Olympic games this political revolution
actually took place at Olympia, where the victors in the chariot-race
would seem at first to have personated the Sun-god and perhaps held office
in the capacity of divine kings during the intervals between successive
celebrations of the games.(297) If at Olympia and elsewhere the games were
of old primarily contests in which the king had personally to take part
for the purpose of attesting his bodily vigour and therefore his capacity
for office, the repetition of the test at intervals of four instead of
eight years might be regarded as furnishing a better guarantee of the
maintenance of the king’s efficiency and thereby of the general welfare,
which in primitive society is often supposed to be sympathetically bound
up with the health and strength of the king.

(M62) But while many of the great Greek games were celebrated at intervals
of four years, others, such as the Nemean and the Isthmian, were
celebrated at intervals of two years only; and just as the quadriennial
period seems to have been arrived at through a bisection of the octennial
period, so we may surmise that the biennial period was produced by a
bisection of the quadriennial period. This was the view which the
admirable modern chronologer L. Ideler took of the origin of the
quadriennial and biennial festivals respectively,(298) and it appears far
more probable than the contrary opinion of the ancient chronologer
Censorinus, that the quadriennial period was reached by doubling the
biennial, and the octennial period by doubling the quadriennial.(299) The
theory of Censorinus was that the Greeks started with a biennial cycle of
twelve and thirteen lunar months alternately in successive years for the
purpose of harmonising solar and lunar time.(300) But as the cycle so
produced exceeds the true solar time by seven and a half days,(301) the
discrepancy which it leaves between the two great celestial clocks, the
sun and moon, was too glaring to escape the observation even of simple
farmers, who would soon have been painfully sensible that the times were
out of joint, if they had attempted to regulate the various operations of
the agricultural year by reference to so very inaccurate an almanac. It is
unlikely, therefore, that the Greeks ever made much use of a biennial
cycle of this sort.

(M63) Now to apply these conclusions to the Eleusinian games, which
furnished the starting-point for the preceding discussion. Whatever the
origin and meaning of these games may have been, we may surmise that the
quadriennial and biennial periods at which they were held were originally
derived from astronomical considerations, and that they had nothing to do
directly either with the agricultural cycle, which is annual, nor with the
worship of the dead, which can scarcely be said to have any cycle at all,
unless indeed it be an annual one. In other words, neither the needs of
husbandry nor the superstitions relating to ghosts furnish any natural
explanation of the quadriennial and biennial periods of the Eleusinian
games, and to discover such an explanation we are obliged to fall back on
astronomy or, to be more exact, on that blend of astronomy with religion
which appears to be mainly responsible for such Greek festivals as exceed
a year in their period. To admit this is not to decide the question
whether the Eleusinian games were agricultural or funereal in character;
but it is implicitly to acknowledge that the games were of later origin
than the annual ceremonies, including the Great Mysteries, which were
designed to propitiate the deities of the corn for the very simple and
practical purpose of ensuring good crops within the year. For it cannot
but be that men observed and laid their account with the annual changes of
the seasons, especially as manifested by the growth and maturity of the
crops, long before they attempted to reconcile the discrepancies of solar
and lunar time by a series of observations extending over several years.

(M64) On the whole, then, if, ignoring theories, we adhere to the evidence
of the ancients themselves in regard to the rites of Eleusis, including
under that general term the Great Mysteries, the games, the Festival
before Ploughing (_proerosia_), the Festival of the Threshing-floor, the
Green Festival, the Festival of the Cornstalks, and the offerings of
first-fruits, we shall probably incline to agree with the most learned of
ancient antiquaries, the Roman Varro, who, to quote Augustine’s report of
his opinion, “interpreted the whole of the Eleusinian mysteries as
relating to the corn which Ceres (Demeter) had discovered, and to
Proserpine (Persephone), whom Pluto had carried off from her. And
Proserpine herself, he said, signifies the fecundity of the seeds, the
failure of which at a certain time had caused the earth to mourn for
barrenness, and therefore had given rise to the opinion that the daughter
of Ceres, that is, fecundity itself, had been ravished by Pluto and
detained in the nether world; and when the dearth had been publicly
mourned and fecundity had returned once more, there was gladness at the
return of Proserpine and solemn rites were instituted accordingly. After
that he says,” continues Augustine, reporting Varro, “that many things
were taught in her mysteries which had no reference but to the discovery
of the corn.”(302)

(M65) Thus far I have for the most part assumed an identity of nature
between Demeter and Persephone, the divine mother and daughter
personifying the corn in its double aspect of the seed-corn of last year
and the ripe ears of this, and I pointed out that this view of the
substantial unity of mother and daughter is borne out by their portraits
in Greek art, which are often so alike as to be indistinguishable. Such a
close resemblance between the artistic types of Demeter and Persephone
militates decidedly against the view that the two goddesses are mythical
embodiments of two things so different and so easily distinguishable from
each other as the earth and the vegetation which springs from it. Had
Greek artists accepted that view of Demeter and Persephone, they could
surely have devised types of them which would have brought out the deep
distinction between the goddesses. That they were capable of doing so is
proved by the simple fact that they regularly represented the Earth
Goddess by a type which differed widely both from that of Demeter and from
that of Persephone.(303) Not only so, but they sometimes set the two types
of the Earth Goddess and the Corn Goddess (Demeter) side by side as if on
purpose to demonstrate their difference. Thus at Patrae there was a
sanctuary of Demeter, in which she and Persephone were portrayed standing,
while Earth was represented by a seated image;(304) and on a vase-painting
the Earth Goddess is seen appropriately emerging from the ground with a
horn of plenty and an infant in her uplifted arms, while Demeter and
Persephone, scarcely distinguishable from each other, stand at full height
behind her, looking down at her half-buried figure, and Triptolemus in his
wheeled car sits directly above her.(305) In this instructive picture,
accordingly, we see grouped together the principal personages in the myth
of the corn: the Earth Goddess, the two Goddesses of the old and the new
corn, and the hero who is said to have been sent forth by the Corn Goddess
to sow the seed broadcast over the earth. Such representations seem to
prove that the artists clearly distinguished Demeter from the Earth
Goddess.(306) And if Demeter did not personify the earth, can there be any
reasonable doubt that, like her daughter, she personified the corn which
was so commonly called by her name from the time of Homer downwards? The
essential identity of mother and daughter is suggested, not only by the
close resemblance of their artistic types, but also by the official title
of “the Two Goddesses” which was regularly applied to them in the great
sanctuary at Eleusis without any specification of their individual
attributes and titles,(307) as if their separate individualities had
almost merged in a single divine substance.(308)

(M66) Surveying the evidence as a whole, we may say that from the myth of
Demeter and Persephone, from their ritual, from their representations in
art, from the titles which they bore, from the offerings of first-fruits
which were presented to them, and from the names applied to the cereals,
we are fairly entitled to conclude that in the mind of the ordinary Greek
the two goddesses were essentially personifications of the corn, and that
in this germ the whole efflorescence of their religion finds implicitly
its explanation. But to maintain this is not to deny that in the long
course of religious evolution high moral and spiritual conceptions were
grafted on this simple original stock and blossomed out into fairer
flowers than the bloom of the barley and the wheat. Above all, the thought
of the seed buried in the earth in order to spring up to new and higher
life readily suggested a comparison with human destiny, and strengthened
the hope that for man too the grave may be but the beginning of a better
and happier existence in some brighter world unknown. This simple and
natural reflection seems perfectly sufficient to explain the association
of the Corn Goddess at Eleusis with the mystery of death and the hope of a
blissful immortality. For that the ancients regarded initiation in the
Eleusinian mysteries as a key to unlock the gates of Paradise appears to
be proved by the allusions which well-informed writers among them drop to
the happiness in store for the initiated hereafter.(309) No doubt it is
easy for us to discern the flimsiness of the logical foundation on which
such high hopes were built.(310) But drowning men clutch at straws, and we
need not wonder that the Greeks, like ourselves, with death before them
and a great love of life in their hearts, should not have stopped to weigh
with too nice a hand the arguments that told for and against the prospect
of human immortality. The reasoning that satisfied Saint Paul(311) and has
brought comfort to untold thousands of sorrowing Christians, standing by
the deathbed or the open grave of their loved ones, was good enough to
pass muster with ancient pagans, when they too bowed their heads under the
burden of grief, and, with the taper of life burning low in the socket,
looked forward into the darkness of the unknown. Therefore we do no
indignity to the myth of Demeter and Persephone—one of the few myths in
which the sunshine and clarity of the Greek genius are crossed by the
shadow and mystery of death—when we trace its origin to some of the most
familiar, yet eternally affecting aspects of nature, to the melancholy
gloom and decay of autumn and to the freshness, the brightness, and the
verdure of spring.





CHAPTER III. MAGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE.


(M67) In the preceding chapter we saw that among the rites of Eleusis were
comprised certain athletic sports, such as foot-races, horse-races,
leaping, wrestling, and boxing, the victors in which were rewarded with
measures of barley distributed among them by the priests.(312) These
sports the ancients themselves associated with the worship of Demeter and
Persephone, the goddesses of the corn, and strange as such an association
may seem to us, it is not without its analogy among the harvest customs of
modern European peasantry.(313) But to discover clear cases of games
practised for the express purpose of promoting the growth of the crops, we
must turn to more primitive agricultural communities than the Athenians of
classical antiquity or the peoples of modern Europe. Such communities may
be found at the present day among the savage tribes of Borneo and New
Guinea, who subsist mainly by tilling the ground. Among them we take the
Kayans or Bahaus of central Borneo as typical. They are essentially an
agricultural people, and devote themselves mainly to the cultivation of
rice, which furnishes their staple food; all other products of the ground
are of subordinate importance. Hence agriculture, we are told, dominates
the whole life of these tribes: their year is the year of the cultivation
of the rice, and they divide it into various periods which are determined
by the conditions necessary for the tilling of the fields and the
manipulation of the rice. “In tribes whose thoughts are so much engrossed
by agriculture it is no wonder that they associate with it their ideas of
the powers which rule them for good or evil. The spirit-world stands in
close connexion with the agriculture of the Bahaus; without the consent of
the spirits no work in the fields may be undertaken. Moreover, all the
great popular festivals coincide with the different periods of the
cultivation of the rice. As the people are in an unusual state of
affluence after harvest, all family festivals which require a large outlay
are for practical reasons deferred till the New Year festival at the end
of harvest. The two mighty spirits Amei Awi and his wife Buring Une, who,
according to the belief of the Kayans, live in a world under ground,
dominate the whole of the tillage and determine the issue of the harvest
in great measure by the behaviour of the owner of the land, not so much by
his moral conduct, as by the offerings he has made to the spirits and the
attention he has paid to their warnings. An important part in agriculture
falls to the chief: at the festivals he has, in the name of the whole
tribe, to see to it that the prescribed conjurations are carried out by
the priestesses. All religious ceremonies required for the cultivation of
the ground take place in a small rice-field specially set apart for that
purpose, called _luma lali_: here the chief’s family ushers in every fresh
operation in the cultivation of the rice, such as sowing, hoeing, and
reaping: the solemn actions there performed have a symbolical
significance.”(314)

(M68) Not only the chief’s family among the Kayans has such a consecrated
field; every family possesses one of its own. These little fields are
never cultivated for the sake of their produce: they serve only as the
scene of religious ceremonies and of those symbolical operations of
agriculture which are afterwards performed in earnest on the real
rice-fields.(315) For example, at the festival before sowing a priestess
sows some rice on the consecrated field of the chief’s family and then
calls on a number of young men and girls to complete the work; the young
men then dig holes in the ground with digging-sticks, and the girls come
behind them and plant the rice-seed in the holes. Afterwards the
priestesses lay offerings of food, wrapt in banana-leaves, here and there
on the holy field, while they croon prayers to the spirits in soft tones,
which are half drowned in the clashing music of the gongs. On another day
women gather all kinds of edible leaves in their gardens and fields, boil
them in water, and then sprinkle the water on the consecrated rice-field.
But on that and other days of the festival the people attend also to their
own wants, banqueting on a favourite species of rice and other dainties.
The ceremonies connected with sowing last several weeks, and during this
time certain taboos have to be observed by the people. Thus on the first
day of the festival the whole population, except the very old and the very
young, must refrain from bathing; after that there follows a period of
rest for eight nights, during which the people may neither work nor hold
intercourse with their neighbours. On the tenth day the prohibition to
bathe is again enforced; and during the eight following days the great
rice-field of the village, where the real crops are raised, is sowed.(316)
The reason for excluding strangers from the village at these times is a
religious one. It is a fear lest the presence of strangers might frighten
the spirits or put them in a bad humour, and so defeat the object of the
ceremony; for, while the religious ceremonies which accompany the
cultivation of the rice differ somewhat from each other in different
tribes, the ideas at the bottom of them, we are told, are everywhere the
same: the aim always is to appease and propitiate the souls of the rice
and the other spirits by sacrifices of all sorts.(317)

(M69) However, during this obligatory period of seclusion and rest the
Kayans employ themselves in various pursuits, which, though at first sight
they might seem to serve no other purpose than that of recreation, have
really in the minds of the people a much deeper significance. For example,
at this time the men often play at spinning tops. The tops are smooth,
flat pieces of wood weighing several pounds. Each man tries to spin his
own top so that it knocks down those of his neighbours and continues
itself to revolve triumphantly. New tops are commonly carved for the
festival. The older men sometimes use heavy tops of iron-wood. Again,
every evening the young men assemble in the open space before the chief’s
house and engage in contests of strength and agility, while the women
watch them from the long gallery or verandah of the house. Another popular
pastime during the festival of sowing is a masquerade. It takes place on
the evening of the tenth day, the day on which, for the second time, the
people are forbidden to bathe. The scene of the performance is again the
open space in front of the chief’s house. As the day draws towards
evening, the villagers begin to assemble in the gallery or verandah of the
house in order to secure good places for viewing the masquerade. All the
maskers at these ceremonies represent evil spirits. The men wear ugly
wooden masks on their faces, and their bodies are swathed in masses of
slit banana leaves so as to imitate the hideous faces and hairy bodies of
the demons. The young women wear on their heads cylindrical baskets, which
conceal their real features, while they exhibit to the spectators
grotesque human faces formed by stitches on pieces of white cotton, which
are fastened to the baskets. On the occasion when Dr. Nieuwenhuis
witnessed the ceremony, the first to appear on the scene were some men
wearing wooden masks and helmets and so thickly wrapt in banana leaves
that they looked like moving masses of green foliage. They danced
silently, keeping time to the beat of the gongs. They were followed by
other figures, some of whom executed war-dances; but the weight of their
leafy envelope was such that they soon grew tired, and though they leaped
high, they uttered none of the wild war-whoops which usually accompany
these martial exercises. When darkness fell, the dances ceased and were
replaced by a little drama representing a boar brought to bay by a pack of
hounds. The part of the boar was played by an actor wearing a wooden
boar’s head mask, who ran about on all fours and grunted in a life-like
manner, while the hounds, acted by young men, snarled, yelped, and made
dashes at him. The play was watched with lively interest and peals of
laughter by the spectators. Later in the evening eight disguised girls
danced, one behind the other, with slow steps and waving arms, to the
glimmering light of torches and the strains of a sort of jew’s harp.(318)

(M70) The rites which accompany the sowing of the fields are no sooner
over than those which usher in the hoeing begin. Like the sowing
ceremonies, they are inaugurated by a priestess, who hoes the sacred field
round about a sacrificial stage and then calls upon other people to
complete the work. After that the holy field is again sprinkled with a
decoction of herbs.(319)

(M71) But the crowning point of the Kayan year is the New Year festival.
The harvest has then been fully housed: abundance reigns in every family,
and for eight days the people, dressed out in all their finery, give
themselves up to mirth and jollity. The festival was witnessed by the
Dutch explorer Dr. Nieuwenhuis. To lure the good spirits from the spirit
land baskets filled with precious objects were set out before the windows,
and the priestesses made long speeches, in which they invited these
beneficent beings to come to the chief’s house and to stay there during
the whole of the ceremonies. Two days afterwards one of the priestesses
harangued the spirits for three-quarters of an hour, telling them who the
Kayans were, from whom the chief’s family was descended, what the tribe
was doing, and what were its wishes, not forgetting to implore the
vengeance of the spirits on the Batang-Lupars, the hereditary foes of the
Kayans. The harangue was couched in rhyming verse and delivered in
sing-song tones. Five days later eight priestesses ascended a sacrificial
stage, on which food was daily set forth for the spirits. There they
joined hands and crooned another long address to the spirits, marking the
time with their hands. Then a basket containing offerings of food was
handed up to them, and one of the priestesses opened it and invited the
spirits to enter the basket. When they were supposed to have done so, the
lid was shut down on them, and the basket with the spirits in it was
conveyed into the chief’s house. As the priestesses in the performance of
the sacred ceremonies might not touch the ground, planks were cut from a
fruit-tree and laid on the ground for them to step on. But the great
feature of the New Year festival is the sacrifice of pigs, of which the
spiritual essence is appropriately offered to the spirits, while their
material substance is consumed by the worshippers. In carrying out this
highly satisfactory arrangement, while the live pigs lay tethered in a row
on the ground, the priestesses danced solemnly round a sacrificial stage,
each of them arrayed in a war-mantle of panther-skin and wearing a war-cap
on her head, and on either side two priests armed with swords executed war
dances for the purpose of scaring away evil spirits. By their
gesticulations the priestesses indicated to the powers above that the pigs
were intended for their benefit. One of them, a fat but dignified lady,
dancing composedly, seemed by her courteous gestures to invite the souls
of the pigs to ascend up to heaven; but others, not content with this too
ideal offering, rushed at the pigs, seized the smallest of them by the
hind legs, and exerting all their strength danced with the squealing
porker to and from the sacrificial stage. In the evening, before darkness
fell, the animals were slaughtered and their livers examined for omens: if
the under side of the liver was pale, the omen was good; but if it was
dark, the omen was evil. On the last day of the festival one of the chief
priestesses, in martial array, danced round the sacrificial stage, making
passes with her old sword as if she would heave the whole structure
heavenward; while others stabbed with spears at the foul fiends that might
be hovering in the air, intent on disturbing the sacred ministers at their
holy work.(320)

(M72) “Thus,” says Dr. Nieuwenhuis, reviewing the agricultural rites which
he witnessed among the Kayans on the Mendalam river, “every fresh
operation on the rice-field was ushered in by religious and culinary
ceremonies, during which the community had always to observe taboos for
several nights and to play certain definite games. As we saw, spinning-top
games and masquerades were played during the sowing festival: at the first
bringing in of the rice the people pelted each other with clay pellets
discharged from small pea-shooters, but in former times sham fights took
place with wooden swords; while during the New Year festival the men
contend with each other in wrestling, high leaps, long leaps, and running.
The women also fight each other with great glee, using bamboo vessels full
of water for their principal weapons.”(321)

(M73) What is the meaning of the sports and pastimes which custom
prescribes to the Kayans on these occasions? Are they mere diversions
meant to while away the tedium of the holidays? or have they a serious,
perhaps a religious or magical significance? To this question it will be
well to let Dr. Nieuwenhuis give his answer. “The Kayans on the Mendalam
river,” he says, “enjoy tolerably regular harvests, and their agricultural
festivals accordingly take place every year; whereas the Kayans on the
Mahakam river, on account of the frequent failure of the harvests, can
celebrate a New Year’s festival only once in every two or three years. Yet
although these festivities are celebrated more regularly on the Mendalam
river, they are followed on the Mahakam river with livelier interest, and
the meaning of all ceremonies and games can also be traced much better
there. On the Mendalam river I came to the false conclusion that the
popular games which take place at the festivals are undertaken quite
arbitrarily at the seasons of sowing and harvest; but on the Mahakam
river, on the contrary, I observed that even the masquerade at the sowing
festival is invested with as deep a significance as any of the ceremonies
performed by the priestesses.”(322)

“The influence of religious worship, which dominates the whole life of the
Dyak tribes, manifests itself also in their games. This holds good chiefly
of pastimes in which all adults take part together, mostly on definite
occasions; it is less applicable to more individual pastimes which are not
restricted to any special season. Pastimes of the former sort are very
rarely indulged in at ordinary times, and properly speaking they attain
their full significance only on the occasion of the agricultural festivals
which bear a strictly religious stamp. Even then the recreations are not
left to choice, but definite games belong to definite festivals; thus at
the sowing festivals other amusements are in vogue than at the little
harvest festival or the great harvest festival at the beginning of the
reaping, and at the New Year festival.... Is this connexion between
festivals and games merely an accidental one, or is it based on a real
affinity? The latter seems to me the more probable view, for in the case
of one of the most important games played by men I was able to prove
directly a religious significance; and although I failed to do so in the
case of the others, I conjecture, nevertheless, that a religious idea lies
at the bottom of all other games which are connected with definite
festivals.”(323)

(M74) If the reader should entertain any doubt on the subject, and should
suspect that in arriving at this conclusion the Dutch traveller gave the
reins to his fancy rather than followed the real opinion of the people,
these doubts and suspicions will probably be dispelled by comparing the
similar games which another primitive agricultural people avowedly play
for the purpose of ensuring good crops. The people in question are the Kai
of German New Guinea, who inhabit the rugged, densely wooded mountains
inland from Finsch Harbour. They subsist mainly on the produce of the taro
and yams which they cultivate in their fields, though the more inland
people also make much use of sweet potatoes. All their crops are root
crops. No patch of ground is cultivated for more than a year at a time. As
soon as it has yielded a crop, it is deserted for another and is quickly
overgrown with rank weeds, bamboos, and bushes. In six or eight years,
when the undergrowth has died out under the shadow of the taller trees
which have shot up, the land may again be cleared and brought under
cultivation. Thus the area of cultivation shifts from year to year; and
the villages are not much more permanent; for in the damp tropical climate
the wooden houses soon rot and fall into ruins, and when this happens the
site of the village is changed.(324) To procure good crops of the taro and
yams, on which they depend for their subsistence, the Kai resort to many
superstitious practices. For example, in order to make the yams strike
deep roots, they touch the shoots with the bone of a wild animal that has
been killed in the recesses of a cave, imagining that just as the creature
penetrated deep into the earth, so the shoots that have been touched with
its bone will descend deep into the ground. And in order that the taro may
bear large and heavy fruit, they place the shoots, before planting them,
on a large and heavy block of stone, believing that the stone will
communicate its valuable properties of size and weight to the future
fruit. Moreover, great use is made of spells and incantations to promote
the growth of the crops, and all persons who utter such magical formulas
for this purpose have to abstain from eating certain foods until the
plants have sprouted and give promise of a good crop. For example, they
may not eat young bamboo shoots, which are a favourite article of diet
with the people. The reason is that the young shoots are covered with fine
prickles, which cause itching and irritation of the skin; from which the
Kai infer that if an enchanter of field fruits were to eat bamboo shoots,
the contagion of their prickles would be conveyed through him to the
fruits and would manifest itself in a pungent disagreeable flavour. For a
similar reason no charmer of the crops who knows his business would dream
of eating crabs, because he is well aware that if he were to do so the
leaves and stalks of the plants would be dashed in pieces by a pelting
rain, just like the long thin brittle legs of a dead crab. Again, were
such an enchanter to eat any of the edible kinds of locusts, it seems
obvious to the Kai that locusts would devour the crops over which the
imprudent wizard had recited his spells. Above all, people who are
concerned in planting fields must on no account eat pork; because pigs,
whether wild or tame, are the most deadly enemies of the crops, which they
grub up and destroy; from which it follows, as surely as the night does
the day, that if you eat pork while you are at work on the farm, your
fields will be devastated by inroads of pigs.(325)

(M75) However, these precautions are not the only measures which the Kai
people adopt for the benefit of the yams and the taro. “In the opinion of
the natives various games are important for a proper growth of the
field-fruits; hence these games may only be played in the time after the
work on the fields has been done. Thus to swing on a long Spanish reed
fastened to a branch of a tree is thought to have a good effect on the
newly planted yams. Therefore swinging is practised by old and young, by
men and women. No one who has an interest in the growth of his crop in the
field leaves the swing idle. As they swing to and fro they sing
swing-songs. These songs often contain only the names of the kinds of yams
that have been planted, together with the joyous harvest-cry repeated with
variations, ‘I have found a fine fruit!’ In leaping from the swing, they
cry ‘_Kakulili_!’ By calling out the name of the yams they think to draw
their shoots upwards out of the ground. A small bow with a string, on
which a wooden flag adorned with a feather is made to slide down (the Kai
call the instrument _tawatawa_), may only be used when the yams are
beginning to wind up about their props. The tender shoots are then touched
with the bow, while a song is sung which is afterwards often repeated in
the village. It runs thus: ‘_Mama gelo, gelowaineja, gelowaineja; kikí
tambai, kíki tambai._’ The meaning of the words is unknown. The intention
is to cause a strong upward growth of the plants. In order that the
foliage of the yams may sprout luxuriantly and grow green and spread, the
Kai people play cat’s cradle. Each of the intricate figures has a definite
meaning and a name to match: for example ‘the flock of pigeons’ (_Hulua_),
‘the Star,’ ‘the Flying Fox,’ ‘the Sago-palm Fan,’ ‘the Araucaria,’ ‘the
Lizard and the Dog,’ ‘the Pig,’ ‘the Sentinel-box in the Fields,’ ‘the
Rat’s Nest,’ ‘the Wasp’s Nest in the Bamboo-thicket,’ ‘the Kangaroo,’ ‘the
Spider’s Web,’ ‘the Little Children,’ ‘the Canoe,’ ‘Rain and Sunshine,’
‘the Pig’s Pitfall,’ ‘the Fish-spawn,’ ‘the Two Cousins, Kewâ and Imbiâwâ,
carrying their dead Mother to the Grave,’ etc. By spinning large native
acorns or a sort of wild fig they think that they foster the growth of the
newly-planted taro; the plants will ‘turn about and broaden.’ The game
must therefore only be played at the time when the taro is planted. The
same holds good of spearing at the stalks of taro leaves with the ribs of
sago leaves used as miniature spears. This is done when the taro leaves
have unfolded themselves, but when the plants have not yet set any tubers.
A single leaf is cut from a number of stems, and these leaves are brought
into the village. The game is played by two partners, who sit down
opposite to each other at a distance of three or four paces. A number of
taro stalks lie beside each. He who has speared all his adversary’s stalks
first is victor; then they change stalks and the game begins again. By
piercing the leaves they think that they incite the plants to set tubers.
Almost more remarkable than the limitation of these games to the time when
work on the fields is going forward is the custom of the Kai people which
only permits the tales of the olden time or popular legends to be told at
the time when the newly planted fruits are budding and sprouting.”(326) At
the end of every such tale the Kai story-teller mentions the names of the
various kinds of yams and adds, “Shoots (for the new planting) and fruits
(to eat) in abundance!” “From their concluding words we see that the Kai
legends are only told for a quite definite purpose, namely, to promote the
welfare of the yams planted in the field. By reviving the memory of the
ancient beings, to whom the origin of the field-fruits is referred, they
imagine that they influence the growth of the fruits for good. When the
planting is over, and especially when the young plants begin to sprout,
the telling of legends comes to an end. In the villages it is always only
a few old men who as good story-tellers can hold the attention of their
hearers.”(327)

(M76) Thus with these New Guinea people the playing of certain games and
the recital of certain legends are alike magical in their intention; they
are charms practised to ensure good crops. Both sets of charms appear to
be based on the principles of sympathetic magic. In playing the games the
players perform acts which are supposed to mimic or at all events to
stimulate the corresponding processes in the plants: by swinging high in
the air they make the plants grow high; by playing cat’s cradle they cause
the leaves of the yams to spread and the stalks to intertwine, even as the
players spread their hands and twine the string about their fingers; by
spinning fruits they make the taro plants to turn and broaden; and by
spearing the taro leaves they induce the plants to set tubers.(328) In
telling the legends the story-tellers mention the names of the powerful
beings who first created the fruits of the earth, and the mere mention of
their names avails, on the principle of the magical equivalence of names
and persons or things, to reproduce the effect.(329) The recitation of
tales as a charm to promote the growth of the crops is not peculiar to the
Kai. It is practised also by the Bakaua, another tribe of German New
Guinea, who inhabit the coast of Huon Gulf, not far from the Kai. These
people tell stories in the evening at the time when the yams and taro are
ripe, and the stories always end with a prayer to the ancestral spirits,
invoked under various more or less figurative designations, such as “a
man” or “a cricket,” that they would be pleased to cause countless shoots
to sprout, the great tubers to swell, the sugar-cane to thrive, and the
bananas to hang in long clusters. “From this we see,” says the missionary
who reports the custom, “that the object of telling the stories is to
prove to the ancestors, whose spirits are believed to be present at the
recitation of the tales which they either invented or inherited, that
people always remember them; for which reason they ought to be favourable
to their descendants, and above all to bestow their blessings on the
shoots which are ready to be planted or on the plants already in the
ground.” As the story-teller utters the prayer, he looks towards the house
in which the young shoots ready for planting or the ripe fruits are
deposited.(330)

(M77) Similarly, the Yabim, a neighbouring tribe of German New Guinea, at
the entrance to Huon Gulf, tell tales for the purpose of obtaining a
plentiful harvest of yams, taro, sugar-cane, and bananas.(331) They
subsist chiefly by the fruits of the earth which they cultivate, and among
which taro, yams, and sugar-cane supply them with their staple food.(332)
In their agricultural labours they believe themselves to be largely
dependent on the spirits of their dead, the _balum_, as they call them.
Before they plant the first taro in a newly cleared field they invoke the
souls of the dead to make the plants grow and prosper; and to propitiate
these powerful spirits they bring valuable objects, such as boar’s tusks
and dog’s teeth, into the field, in order that the ghosts may deck
themselves with the souls of these ornaments, while at the same time they
minister to the grosser appetites of the disembodied spirits by offering
them a savoury mess of taro porridge. Later in the season they whirl
bull-roarers in the fields and call out the names of the dead, believing
that this makes the crops to thrive.(333)

(M78) But besides the prayers which they address to the spirits of the
dead for the sake of procuring an abundant harvest, the Yabim utter spells
for the same purpose, and these spells sometimes take the form, not of a
command, but of a narrative. Here, for instance, is one of their spells:
“Once upon a time a man laboured in his field and complained that he had
no taro shoots. Then came two doves flying from Poum. They had devoured
much taro, and they perched on a tree in the field, and during the night
they vomited all the taro up. Thus the man got so many taro shoots that he
was even able to sell some of them to other people.” Or, again, if the
taro will not bud, the Yabim will have recourse to the following spell: “A
muraena lay at ebb-tide on the shore. It seemed to be at its last gasp.
Then the tide flowed on, and the muraena came to life again and plunged
into the deep water.” This spell is pronounced over twigs of a certain
tree (_kalelong_), while the enchanter smites the ground with them. After
that the taro is sure to bud.(334) Apparently the mere recitation of such
simple tales is thought to produce the same effect as a direct appeal,
whether in the shape of a prayer or a command, addressed to the spirits.
Such incantations may be called narrative spells to distinguish them from
the more familiar imperative spells, in which the enchanter expresses his
wishes in the form of direct commands. Much use seems to be made of such
narrative spells among the natives of this part of German New Guinea. For
example, among the Bukaua, who attribute practically boundless powers to
sorcerers in every department of life and nature, the spells by which
these wizards attempt to work their will assume one of two forms: either
they are requests made to the ancestors, or they are short narratives,
addressed to nobody in particular, which the sorcerer mutters while he is
performing his magical rites.(335) It is true, that here the distinction
is drawn between narratives and requests rather than between narratives
and commands; but the difference of a request from a command, though great
in theory, may be very slight in practice; so that prayer and spell, in
the ordinary sense of the words, may melt into each other almost
imperceptibly. Even the priest or the enchanter who utters the one may be
hardly conscious of the hairbreadth that divides it from the other. In
regard to narrative spells, it seems probable that they have been used
much more extensively among mankind than the evidence at our disposal
permits us positively to affirm; in particular we may conjecture that many
ancient narratives, which we have been accustomed to treat as mere myths,
used to be regularly recited in magical rites as spells for the purpose of
actually producing events like those which they describe.

(M79) The use of the bull-roarer to quicken the fruits of the earth is not
peculiar to the Yabim. On the other side of New Guinea the instrument is
employed for the same purpose by the natives of Kiwai, an island at the
mouth of the Fly River. They think that by whirling bull-roarers they
produce good crops of yams, sweet potatoes, and bananas; and in accordance
with this belief they call the implement “the mother of yams.”(336)
Similarly in Mabuiag, an island in Torres Straits, the bull-roarer is
looked upon as an instrument that can be used to promote the growth of
garden produce, such as yams and sweet potatoes; certain spirits were
supposed to march round the gardens at night swinging bull-roarers for
this purpose.(337) Indeed a fertilising or prolific virtue appears to be
attributed to the instrument by savages who are totally ignorant of
agriculture. Thus among the Dieri of central Australia, when a young man
had undergone the painful initiatory ceremony of having a number of gashes
cut in his back, he used to be given a bull-roarer, whereupon it was
believed that he became inspired by the spirits of the men of old, and
that by whirling it, when he went in search of game before his wounds were
healed, he had power to cause a good harvest of lizards, snakes, and other
reptiles. On the other hand, the Dieri thought that if a woman were to see
a bull-roarer that had been used at the initiatory ceremonies and to learn
its secret, the tribe would ever afterwards be destitute of snakes,
lizards, and other such food.(338) It may very well be that a similar
power to fertilise or multiply edible plants and animals has been ascribed
to the bull-roarer by many other peoples who employ the implement in their
mysteries.

(M80) Further, it is to be observed that just as the Kai of New Guinea
swing to and fro on reeds suspended from the branches of trees in order to
promote the growth of the crops, in like manner Lettish peasants in Russia
devote their leisure to swinging in spring and early summer for the
express purpose of making the flax grow as high as they swing in the
air.(339) And we may suspect that wherever swinging is practised as a
ceremony at certain times of the year, particularly in spring and at
harvest, the pastime is not so much a mere popular recreation as a magical
rite designed to promote the growth of the crops.(340)

With these examples before us we need not hesitate to believe that Dr.
Nieuwenhuis is right when he attributes a deep religious or magical
significance to the games which the Kayans or Bahaus of central Borneo
play at their various agricultural festivals.

(M81) It remains to point out how far the religious or magical practices
of these primitive agricultural peoples of Borneo and New Guinea appear to
illustrate by analogy the original nature of the rites of Eleusis. So far
as we can recompose, from the broken fragments of tradition, a picture of
the religious and political condition of the Eleusinian people in the
olden time, it appears to tally fairly well with the picture which Dr.
Nieuwenhuis has drawn for us of the Kayans or Bahaus at the present day in
the forests of central Borneo. Here as there we see a petty agricultural
community ruled by hereditary chiefs who, while they unite religious to
civil authority, being bound to preside over the numerous ceremonies
performed for the good of the crops,(341) nevertheless lead simple
patriarchal lives and are so little raised in outward dignity above their
fellows that their daughters do not deem it beneath them to fetch water
for the household from the village well.(342) Here as there we see a
people whose whole religion is dominated and coloured by the main
occupation of their lives; who believe that the growth of the crops, on
which they depend for their subsistence, is at the mercy of two powerful
spirits, a divine husband and his wife, dwelling in a subterranean world;
and who accordingly offer sacrifices and perform ceremonies in order to
ensure the favour of these mighty beings and so to obtain abundant
harvests. If we knew more about the Rarian plain at Eleusis,(343) we might
discover that it was the scene of many religious ceremonies like those
which are performed on the little consecrated rice-fields (the _luma
lali_) of the Kayans, where the various operations of the agricultural
year are performed in miniature by members of the chief’s family before
the corresponding operations may be performed on a larger scale by common
folk on their fields. Certainly we know that the Rarian plain witnessed
one such ceremony in the year. It was a solemn ceremony of ploughing, one
of the three Sacred Ploughings which took place annually in various parts
of Attica.(344) Probably the rite formed part of the _Proerosia_ or
Festival before Ploughing, which was intended to ensure a plentiful
crop.(345) Further, it appears that the priests who guided the sacred
slow-paced oxen as they dragged the plough down the furrows of the Rarian
Plain, were drawn from the old priestly family of Bouzygai or “Ox-yokers,”
whose eponymous ancestor is said to have been the first man to yoke oxen
and to plough the fields. As they performed this time-honoured ceremony,
the priests uttered many quaint curses against all churls who should
refuse to lend fire or water to neighbours, or to shew the way to
wanderers, or who should leave a corpse unburied.(346) If we had a
complete list of the execrations fulminated by the holy ploughmen on these
occasions, we might find that some of them were levelled at the impious
wretches who failed to keep all the rules of the Sabbath, as we may call
those periods of enforced rest and seclusion which the Kayans of Borneo
and other primitive agricultural peoples observe for the good of the
crops.(347)

(M82) Further, when we see that many primitive peoples practise what we
call games but what they regard in all seriousness as solemn rites for the
good of the crops, we may be the more inclined to accept the view of the
ancients, who associated the Eleusinian games directly with the worship of
Demeter and Persephone, the Corn Goddesses.(348) One of the contests at
the Eleusinian games was in leaping,(349) and we know that even in modern
Europe to this day leaping or dancing high is practised as a charm to make
the crops grow tall.(350) Again, the bull-roarer was swung so as to
produce a humming sound at the Greek mysteries;(351) and when we find the
same simple instrument whirled by savages in New Guinea for the sake of
ensuring good crops, we may reasonably conjecture that it was whirled with
a like intention by the rude forefathers of the Greeks among the
cornfields of Eleusis. If that were so—though the conjecture is hardly
susceptible of demonstration—it would go some way to confirm the theory
that the Eleusinian mysteries were in their origin nothing more than
simple rustic ceremonies designed to make the farmer’s fields to wave with
yellow corn. And in the practice of the Kayans, whose worship of the rice
offers many analogies to the Eleusinian worship of the corn, may we not
detect a hint of the origin of that rule of secrecy which always
characterised the Eleusinian mysteries? May it not have been that, just as
the Kayans exclude strangers from their villages while they are engaged in
the celebration of religious rites, lest the presence of these intruders
should frighten or annoy the shy and touchy spirits who are invoked at
these times, so the old Eleusinians may have debarred foreigners from
participation in their most solemn ceremonies, lest the coy goddesses of
the corn should take fright or offence at the sight of strange faces and
so refuse to bestow on men their annual blessing? The admission of
foreigners to the privilege of initiation in the mysteries was probably a
late innovation introduced at a time when the fame of their sanctity had
spread far and wide, and when the old magical meaning of the ritual had
long been obscured, if not forgotten.

(M83) Lastly, it may be suggested that in the masked dances and dramatic
performances, which form a conspicuous and popular feature of the Sowing
Festival among the Kayans,(352) we have the savage counterpart of that
drama of divine death and resurrection which appears to have figured so
prominently in the mysteries of Eleusis.(353) If my interpretation of that
solemn drama is correct, it represented in mythical guise the various
stages in the growth of the corn for the purpose of magically fostering
the natural processes which it simulated. In like manner among the Kaua
and Kobeua Indians of North-western Brazil, who subsist chiefly by the
cultivation of manioc, dances or rather pantomimes are performed by masked
men, who represent spirits or demons of fertility, and by imitating the
act of procreation are believed to stimulate the growth of plants as well
as to quicken the wombs of women and to promote the multiplication of
animals. Coarse and grotesque as these dramatic performances may seem to
us, they convey no suggestion of indecency to the minds either of the
actors or of the spectators, who regard them in all seriousness as rites
destined to confer the blessing of fruitfulness on the inhabitants of the
village, on their plantations, and on the whole realm of nature.(354)
However, we possess so little exact information as to the rites of Eleusis
that all attempts to elucidate them by the ritual of savages must
necessarily be conjectural. Yet the candid reader may be willing to grant
that conjectures supported by analogies like the foregoing do not exceed
the limits of a reasonable hypothesis.





CHAPTER IV. WOMAN’S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE.


(M84) If Demeter was indeed a personification of the corn, it is natural
to ask, why did the Greeks personify the corn as a goddess rather than a
god? why did they ascribe the origin of agriculture to a female rather
than to a male power? They conceived the spirit of the vine as masculine;
why did they conceive the spirit of the barley and wheat as feminine? To
this it has been answered that the personification of the corn as
feminine, or at all events the ascription of the discovery of agriculture
to a goddess, was suggested by the prominent part which women take in
primitive agriculture.(355) The theory illustrates a recent tendency of
mythologists to explain many myths as reflections of primitive society
rather than as personifications of nature. For that reason, apart from its
intrinsic interest, the theory deserves to be briefly considered.

(M85) Before the invention of the plough, which can hardly be worked
without resort to the labour of men, it was and still is customary in many
parts of the world to break up the soil for cultivation with hoes, and
among not a few savage peoples to this day the task of hoeing the ground
and sowing the seed devolves mainly or entirely upon the women, while the
men take little or no part in cultivation beyond clearing the land by
felling the forest trees and burning the fallen timber and brushwood which
encumber the soil. Thus, for example, among the Zulus, “when a piece of
land has been selected for cultivation, the task of clearing it belongs to
the men. If the ground be much encumbered, this becomes a laborious
undertaking, for their axe is very small, and when a large tree has to be
encountered, they can only lop the branches; fire is employed when it is
needful to remove the trunk. The reader will therefore not be surprised
that the people usually avoid bush-land, though they seem to be aware of
its superior fertility. As a general rule the men take no further share in
the labour of cultivation; and, as the site chosen is seldom much
encumbered and frequently bears nothing but grass, their part of the work
is very slight. The women are the real labourers; for (except in some
particular cases) the entire business of digging, planting, and weeding
devolves on them; and, if we regard the assagai and shield as symbolical
of the man, the hoe may be looked upon as emblematic of the woman.... With
this rude and heavy instrument the woman digs, plants, and weeds her
garden. Digging and sowing are generally one operation, which is thus
performed; the seed is first scattered on the ground, when the soil is dug
or picked up with the hoe, to the depth of three or four inches, the
larger roots and tufts of grass being gathered out, but all the rest left
in or on the ground.”(356) A special term of contempt is applied to any
Zulu man, who, deprived of the services of his wife and family, is
compelled by hard necessity to handle the hoe himself.(357) Similarly
among the Baronga of Delagoa Bay, “when the rains begin to fall, sometimes
as early as September but generally later, they hasten to sow. With her
hoe in her hands, the mistress of the field walks with little steps; every
time she lifts a clod of earth well broken up, and in the hole thus made
she plants three or four grains of maize and covers them up. If she has
not finished clearing all the patch of the bush which she contemplated,
she proceeds to turn up again the fields she tilled last year. The crop
will be less abundant than in virgin soil, but they plant three or four
years successively in the same field before it is exhausted. As for
enriching the soil with manure, they never think of it.”(358) Among the
Barotsé, who cultivate millet, maize, and peas to a small extent and in a
rudimentary fashion, women alone are occupied with the field-work, and
their only implement is a spade or hoe.(359) Of the Matabelé we are told
that “most of the hard work is performed by the women; the whole of the
cultivation is done by them. They plough with short spades of native
manufacture; they sow the fields, and they clear them of weeds.”(360)
Among the Awemba, to the west of Lake Tanganyika, the bulk of the work in
the plantations falls on the women; in particular the men refuse to hoe
the ground. They have a saying, “Is not each male child born for the axe
and each female child for the hoe?”(361)

(M86) The natives of the Tanganyika plateau “cultivate the banana, and
have a curious custom connected with it. No man is permitted to sow; but
when the hole is prepared a little girl is carried to the spot on a man’s
shoulders. She first throws into the hole a sherd of broken pottery, and
then scatters the seed over it.”(362) The reason of the latter practice
has been explained by more recent observers of these natives. “Young
children, it may here be noted, are often employed to administer drugs,
remedies, even the Poison Ordeal, and to sow the first seeds. Such acts,
the natives say, must be performed by chaste and innocent hands, lest a
contaminated touch should destroy the potency of the medicine or of the
seedlings planted. It used to be a very common sight upon the islands of
Lake Bangweolo to watch how a Bisa woman would solve the problem of her
own moral unfitness by carrying her baby-girl to the banana-plot, and
inserting seedlings in the tiny hands for dropping into the holes already
prepared.”(363) Similarly among the people of the Lower Congo “women must
remain chaste while planting pumpkin and calabash seeds, they are not
allowed to touch any pig-meat, and they must wash their hands before
touching the seeds. If a woman does not observe all these rules, she must
not plant the seeds, or the crop will be bad; she may make the holes, and
her baby girl, or another who has obeyed the restrictions, can drop in the
seeds and cover them over.”(364) We can now perhaps understand why Attic
matrons had to observe strict chastity when they celebrated the festival
of the Thesmophoria.(365) In Attica that festival was held in honour of
Demeter in the month of Pyanepsion, corresponding to October,(366) the
season of the autumn sowing; and the rites included certain ceremonies
which bore directly on the quickening of the seed.(367) We may conjecture
that the rule of chastity imposed on matrons at this festival was a relic
of a time when they too, like many savage women down to the present time,
discharged the important duty of sowing the seed and were bound for that
reason to observe strict continence, lest any impurity on their part
should defile the seed and prevent it from bearing fruit.

(M87) Of the Caffres of South Africa in general we read that “agriculture
is mainly the work of the women, for in olden days the men were occupied
in hunting and fighting. The women do but scratch the land with hoes,
sometimes using long-handled instruments, as in Zululand, and sometimes
short-handled ones, as above the Zambesi. When the ground is thus
prepared, the women scatter the seed, throwing it over the soil quite at
random. They know the time to sow by the position of the constellations,
chiefly by that of the Pleiades. They date their new year from the time
they can see this constellation just before sunrise.”(368) In Basutoland,
where the women also till the fields, though the lands of chiefs are dug
and sowed by men, an attempt is made to determine the time of sowing by
observation of the moon, but the people generally find themselves out in
their reckoning, and after much dispute are forced to fall back upon the
state of the weather and of vegetation as better evidence of the season of
sowing. Intelligent chiefs rectify the calendar at the summer solstice,
which they call the summer-house of the sun.(369)

(M88) Among the Nandi of British East Africa “the rough work of clearing
the bush for plantations is performed by the men, after which nearly all
work in connexion with them is done by the women. The men, however, assist
in sowing the seed, and in harvesting some of the crops. As a rule trees
are not felled, but the bark is stripped off for about four feet from the
ground and the trees are then left to die. The planting is mostly, if not
entirely, done during the first half of the _Kiptamo_ moon (February),
which is the first month of the year, and when the _Iwat-kut_ moon rises
(March) all seed should be in the ground. The chief medicine man is
consulted before the planting operations begin, but the Nandi know by the
arrival in the fields of the guinea-fowl, whose song is supposed to be,
_O-kol, o-kol; mi-i tokoch_ (Plant, plant; there is luck in it), that the
planting season is at hand. When the first seed is sown, salt is mixed
with it, and the sower sings mournfully: _Ak o-siek-u o-chok-chi_ (And
grow quickly), as he sows. After fresh ground has been cleared, eleusine
grain is planted. This crop is generally repeated the second year, after
which millet is sown, and finally sweet potatoes or some other product.
Most fields are allowed to lie fallow every fourth or fifth year. The
Nandi manure their plantations with turf ashes.... The eleusine crops are
harvested by both men and women. All other crops are reaped by the women
only, who are at times assisted by the children. The corn is pounded and
winnowed by the women and girls.”(370) Among the Suk and En-jemusi of
British East Africa it is the women who cultivate the fields and milk the
cows.(371) Among the Wadowe of German East Africa the men clear the forest
and break up the hard ground, but the women sow and reap the crops.(372)
So among the Wanyamwezi, who are an essentially agricultural people, to
the south of Lake Victoria Nyanza, the men cut down the bush and hoe the
hard ground, but leave the rest of the labour of weeding, sowing, and
reaping to the women.(373) The Baganda of Central Africa subsist chiefly
on bananas, and among them “the garden and its cultivation have always
been the woman’s department. Princesses and peasant women alike looked
upon cultivation as their special work; the garden with its produce was
essentially the wife’s domain, and she would under no circumstances allow
her husband to do any digging or sowing in it. No woman would remain with
a man who did not give her a garden and a hoe to dig it with; if these
were denied her, she would seek an early opportunity to escape from her
husband and return to her relations to complain of her treatment, and to
obtain justice or a divorce. When a man married he sought a plot of land
for his wife in order that she might settle to work and provide food for
the household.... In initial clearing of the land it was customary for the
husband to take part; he cut down the tall grass and shrubs, and so left
the ground ready for his wife to begin her digging. The grass and the
trees she heaped up and burned, reserving only so much as she needed for
firewood. A hoe was the only implement used in cultivation; the blade was
heart-shaped with a prong at the base, by which it was fastened to the
handle. The hoe-handle was never more than two feet long, so that a woman
had to stoop when using it.”(374) In Kiziba, a district immediately to the
south of Uganda, the tilling of the soil is exclusively the work of the
women. They turn up the soil with hoes, make holes in the ground with
digging-sticks or their fingers, and drop a few seeds into each hole.(375)
Among the Niam-Niam of Central Africa “the men most studiously devote
themselves to their hunting, and leave the culture of the soil to be
carried on exclusively by the women”;(376) and among the Monbuttoo of the
same region in like manner, “whilst the women attend to the tillage of the
soil and the gathering of the harvest, the men, unless they are absent
either for war or hunting, spend the entire day in idleness.”(377) As to
the Bangala of the Upper Congo we read that “large farms were made around
the towns. The men did the clearing of the bush, felling the trees, and
cutting down the undergrowth; the women worked with them, heaping up the
grass and brushwood ready for burning, and helping generally. As a rule
the women did the hoeing, planting, and weeding, but the men did not so
despise this work as never to do it.” In this tribe “the food belonged to
the woman who cultivated the farm, and while she supplied her husband with
the vegetable food, he had to supply the fish and meat and share them with
his wife or wives.”(378) Amongst the Tofoke, a tribe of the Congo State on
the equator, all the field labour, except the clearing away of the forest,
is performed by the women. They dig the soil with a hoe and plant maize
and manioc. A field is used only once.(379) So with the Ba-Mbala, a Bantu
tribe between the rivers Inzia and Kwilu, the men clear the ground for
cultivation, but all the rest of the work of tillage falls to the women,
whose only tool is an iron hoe. Fresh ground is cleared for cultivation
every year.(380) The Mpongwe of the Gaboon, in West Africa, cultivate
manioc (cassava), maize, yams, plantains, sweet potatoes, and ground nuts.
When new clearings have to be made in the forest, the men cut down and
burn the trees, and the women put in the crop. The only tool they use is a
dibble, with which they turn up a sod, put in a seed, and cover it
over.(381) Among the Ashira of the same region the cultivation of the soil
is in the hands of the women.(382)

(M89) A similar division of labour between men and women prevails among
many primitive agricultural tribes of Indians in South America. “In the
interior of the villages,” says an eminent authority on aboriginal South
America, “the man often absents himself to hunt or to go into the heart of
the forest in search of the honey of the wild bees, and he always goes
alone. He fells the trees in the places where he wishes to make a field
for cultivation, he fashions his weapons, he digs out his canoe, while the
woman rears the children, makes the garments, busies herself with the
interior, cultivates the field, gathers the fruits, collects the roots,
and prepares the food. Such is, generally at least, the respective
condition of the two sexes among almost all the Americans. The Peruvians
alone had already, in their semi-civilised state, partially modified these
customs; for among them the man shared the toils of the other sex or took
on himself the most laborious tasks.”(383) Thus, to take examples, among
the Caribs of the West Indies the men used to fell the trees and leave the
fallen trunks to cumber the ground, burning off only the smaller boughs.
Then the women came and planted manioc, potatoes, yams, and bananas
wherever they found room among the tree-trunks. In digging the ground to
receive the seed or the shoots they did not use hoes but simply pointed
sticks. The men, we are told, would rather have died of hunger than
undertake such agricultural labours.(384) Again, the staple vegetable food
of the Indians of British Guiana is cassava bread, made from the roots of
the manioc or cassava plant, which the Indians cultivate in clearings of
the forest. The men fell the trees, cut down the undergrowth, and in dry
weather set fire to the fallen lumber, thus creating open patches in the
forest which are covered with white ashes. When the rains set in, the
women repair to these clearings, heavily laden with baskets full of
cassava sticks to be used as cuttings. These they insert at irregular
intervals in the soil, and so the field is formed. While the cassava is
growing, the women do just as much weeding as is necessary to prevent the
cultivated plants from being choked by the rank growth of the tropical
vegetation, and in doing so they plant bananas, pumpkin seeds, yams, sweet
potatoes, sugar-cane, red and yellow peppers, and so forth, wherever there
is room for them. At last in the ninth or tenth month, when the seeds
appearing on the straggling branches of the cassava plants announce that
the roots are ripe, the women cut down the plants and dig up the roots,
not all at once, but as they are required. These roots they afterwards
peel, scrape, and bake into cassava bread.(385)

(M90) In like manner the cassava or manioc plant is cultivated generally
among all the Indian tribes of tropical South America, wherever the plant
will grow; and the cultivation of it is altogether in the hands of the
women, who insert the sticks in the ground after the fashion already
described.(386) For example, among the tribes of the Uaupes River, in the
upper valley of the Amazon, who are an agricultural people with settled
abodes, “the men cut down the trees and brushwood, which, after they have
lain some months to dry, are burnt; and the mandiocca is then planted by
the women, together with little patches of cane, sweet potatoes, and
various fruits. The women also dig up the mandiocca, and prepare from it
the bread which is their main subsistence.... The bread is made fresh
every day, as when it gets cold and dry it is far less palatable. The
women thus have plenty to do, for every other day at least they have to go
to the field, often a mile or two distant, to fetch the root, and every
day to grate, prepare, and bake the bread; as it forms by far the greater
part of their food, and they often pass days without eating anything else,
especially when the men are engaged in clearing the forest.”(387) Among
the Tupinambas, a tribe of Brazilian Indians, the wives “had something
more than their due share of labour, but they were not treated with
brutality, and their condition was on the whole happy. They set and dug
the mandioc; they sowed and gathered the maize. An odd superstition
prevailed, that if a sort of earth-almond, which the Portugueze call
_amendoens_, was planted by the men, it would not grow.”(388) Similar
accounts appear to apply to the Brazilian Indians in general: the men
occupy themselves with hunting, war, and the manufacture of their weapons,
while the women plant and reap the crops, and search for fruits in the
forest;(389) above all they cultivate the manioc, scraping the soil clear
of weeds with pointed sticks and inserting the shoots in the earth.(390)
Similarly among the Indians of Peru, who cultivate maize in clearings of
the forest, the cultivation of the fields is left to the women, while the
men hunt with bows and arrows and blowguns in the woods, often remaining
away from home for weeks or even months together.(391)

(M91) A similar distribution of labour between the sexes prevails among
some savage tribes in other parts of the world. Thus among the Lhoosai of
south-eastern India the men employ themselves chiefly in hunting or in
making forays on their weaker neighbours, but they clear the ground and
help to carry home the harvest. However, the main burden of the bodily
labour by which life is supported falls on the women; they fetch water,
hew wood, cultivate the ground, and help to reap the crops.(392) Among the
Miris of Assam almost the whole of the field work is done by the women.
They cultivate a patch of ground for two successive years, then suffer it
to lie fallow for four or five. But they are deterred by superstitious
fear from breaking new ground so long as the fallow suffices for their
needs; they dread to offend the spirits of the woods by needlessly felling
the trees. They raise crops of rice, maize, millet, yams, and sweet
potatoes. But they seldom possess any implement adapted solely for
tillage; they have never taken to the plough nor even to a hoe. They use
their long straight swords to clear, cut, and dig with.(393) Among the
Korwas, a savage hill tribe of Bengal, the men hunt with bows and arrows,
while the women till the fields, dig for wild roots, or cull wild
vegetables. Their principal crop is pulse (_Cajanus Indicus_).(394) Among
the Papuans of Ayambori, near Doreh in Dutch New Guinea, it is the men who
lay out the fields by felling and burning the trees and brushwood in the
forest, and it is they who enclose the fields with fences, but it is the
women who sow and reap them and carry home the produce in sacks on their
backs. They cultivate rice, millet, and bananas.(395) So among the natives
of Kaimani Bay in Dutch New Guinea the men occupy themselves only with
fishing and hunting, while all the field work falls on the women.(396) In
the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain, when the natives have decided to
convert a piece of grass-land into a plantation, the men cut down the long
grass, burn it, dig up the soil with sharp-pointed sticks, and enclose the
land with a fence of saplings. Then the women plant the banana shoots,
weed the ground, and in the intervals between the bananas insert slips of
yams, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, or ginger. When the produce is ripe,
they carry it to the village. Thus the bulk of the labour of cultivation
devolves on the women.(397)

(M92) Among some peoples of the Indian Archipelago, after the land has
been cleared for cultivation by the men, the work of planting and sowing
is divided between men and women, the men digging holes in the ground with
pointed sticks, and the women following them, putting the seeds or shoots
into the holes, and then huddling the earth over them; for savages seldom
sow broadcast, they laboriously dig holes and insert the seed in them.
This division of agricultural labour between the sexes is adopted by
various tribes of Celebes, Ceram, Borneo, Nias, and New Guinea.(398)
Sometimes the custom of entrusting the sowing of the seed to women appears
to be influenced by superstitious as well as economic considerations. Thus
among the Indians of the Orinoco, who with an infinitude of pains cleared
the jungle for cultivation by cutting down the forest trees with their
stone axes, burning the fallen lumber, and breaking up the ground with
wooden instruments hardened in the fire, the task of sowing the maize and
planting the roots was performed by the women alone; and when the Spanish
missionaries expostulated with the men for not helping their wives in this
toilsome duty, they received for answer that as women knew how to conceive
seed and bear children, so the seeds and roots planted by them bore fruit
far more abundantly than if they had been planted by male hands.(399)

(M93) Even among savages who have not yet learned to cultivate any plants
the task of collecting the edible seeds and digging up the edible roots of
wild plants appears to devolve mainly on women, while the men contribute
their share to the common food supply by hunting and fishing, for which
their superior strength, agility, and courage especially qualify them. For
example, among the Indians of California, who were entirely ignorant of
agriculture, the general division of labour between the sexes in the
search for food was that the men killed the game and caught the salmon,
while the women dug the roots and brought in most of the vegetable food,
though the men helped them to gather acorns, nuts, and berries.(400) Among
the Indians of San Juan Capistrano in California, while the men passed
their time in fowling, fishing, dancing, and lounging, “the women were
obliged to gather seeds in the fields, prepare them for cooking, and to
perform all the meanest offices, as well as the most laborious. It was
painful in the extreme, to behold them, with their infants hanging upon
their shoulders, groping about in search of herbs or seeds, and exposed as
they frequently were to the inclemency of the weather.”(401) Yet these
rude savages possessed a calendar containing directions as to the seasons
for collecting the different seeds and produce of the earth. The calendar
consisted of lunar months corrected by observation of the solstices, “for
at the conclusion of the moon in December, that is, at the conjunction,
they calculated the return of the sun from the tropic of Capricorn; and
another year commenced, the Indian saying ‘the sun has arrived at his
home.’ ... They observed with greater attention and celebrated with more
pomp, the sun’s arrival at the tropic of Capricorn than they did his
reaching the tropic of Cancer, for the reason, that, as they were situated
ten degrees from the latter, they were pleased at the sun’s approach
towards them; for it returned to ripen their fruits and seeds, to give
warmth to the atmosphere, and enliven again the fields with beauty and
increase.” However, the knowledge of the calendar was limited to the
_puplem_ or general council of the tribe, who sent criers to make
proclamation when the time had come to go forth and gather the seeds and
other produce of the earth. In their calculations they were assisted by a
_pul_ or astrologer, who observed the aspect of the moon.(402) When we
consider that these rude Californian savages, destitute alike of
agriculture and of the other arts of civilised life, yet succeeded in
forming for themselves a calendar based on observation both of the moon
and of the sun, we need not hesitate to ascribe to the immeasurably more
advanced Greeks at the dawn of history the knowledge of a somewhat more
elaborate calendar founded on a cycle of eight solar years.(403)

(M94) Among the equally rude aborigines of Australia, to whom agriculture
in every form was totally unknown, the division of labour between the
sexes in regard to the collection of food appears to have been similar.
While the men hunted game, the labour of gathering and preparing the
vegetable food fell chiefly to the women. Thus with regard to the
Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia we are told that while the men
busied themselves, according to the season, either with fishing or with
hunting emus, opossums, kangaroos, and so forth, the women and children
searched for roots and plants.(404) Again, among the natives of Western
Australia “it is generally considered the province of women to dig roots,
and for this purpose they carry a long, pointed stick, which is held in
the right hand, and driven firmly into the ground, where it is shaken, so
as to loosen the earth, which is scooped up and thrown out with the
fingers of the left hand, and in this manner they dig with great rapidity.
But the labour, in proportion to the amount obtained, is great. To get a
yam about half an inch in circumference and a foot in length, they have to
dig a hole above a foot square and two feet in depth; a considerable
portion of the time of the women and children is, therefore, passed in
this employment. If the men are absent upon any expedition, the females
are left in charge of one who is old or sick; and in traversing the bush
you often stumble on a large party of them, scattered about in the forest,
digging roots and collecting the different species of fungus.”(405) In
fertile districts, where the yams which the aborigines use as food grow
abundantly, the ground may sometimes be seen riddled with holes made by
the women in their search for these edible roots. Thus to quote Sir George
Grey: “We now crossed the dry bed of a stream, and from that emerged upon
a tract of light fertile soil, quite overrun with _warran_ [yam] plants,
the root of which is a favourite article of food with the natives. This
was the first time we had yet seen this plant on our journey, and now for
three and a half consecutive miles we traversed a fertile piece of land,
literally perforated with the holes the natives had made to dig this root;
indeed we could with difficulty walk across it on that account, whilst
this tract extended east and west as far as we could see.”(406) Again, in
the valley of the Lower Murray River a kind of yam (_Microseris Forsteri_)
grew plentifully and was easily found in the spring and early summer, when
the roots were dug up out of the earth by the women and children. The root
is small and of a sweetish taste and grows throughout the greater part of
Australia outside the tropics; on the alpine pastures of the high
Australian mountains it attains to a much larger size and furnishes a not
unpalatable food.(407) But the women gather edible herbs and seeds as well
as roots; and at evening they may be seen trooping in to the camp, each
with a great bundle of sow-thistles, dandelions, or trefoil on her
head,(408) or carrying wooden vessels filled with seeds, which they
afterwards grind up between stones and knead into a paste with water or
bake into cakes.(409) Among the aborigines of central Victoria, while the
men hunted, the women dug up edible roots and gathered succulent
vegetables, such as the young tops of the _munya_, the sow-thistle, and
several kinds of fig-marigold. The implement which they used to dig up
roots with was a pole seven or eight feet long, hardened in the fire and
pointed at the end, which also served them as a weapon both of defence and
of offence.(410) Among the tribes of Central Australia the principal
vegetable food is the seed of a species of Claytonia, called by white men
_munyeru_, which the women gather in large quantities and winnow by
pouring the little black seeds from one vessel to another so as to let the
wind blow the loose husks away.(411)

(M95) In these customs observed by savages who are totally ignorant of
agriculture we may perhaps detect some of the steps by which mankind have
advanced from the enjoyment of the wild fruits of the earth to the
systematic cultivation of plants. For an effect of digging up the earth in
the search for roots has probably been in many cases to enrich and
fertilise the soil and so to increase the crop of roots or herbs; and such
an increase would naturally attract the natives in larger numbers and
enable them to subsist for longer periods on the spot without being
compelled by the speedy exhaustion of the crop to shift their quarters and
wander away in search of fresh supplies. Moreover, the winnowing of the
seeds on ground which had thus been turned up by the digging-sticks of the
women would naturally contribute to the same result. For though savages at
the level of the Californian Indians and the aborigines of Australia have
no idea of using seeds for any purpose but that of immediate consumption,
and it has never occurred to them to incur a temporary loss for the sake
of a future gain by sowing them in the ground, yet it is almost certain
that in the process of winnowing the seeds as a preparation for eating
them many of the grains must have escaped and, being wafted by the wind,
have fallen on the upturned soil and borne fruit. Thus by the operations
of turning up the ground and winnowing the seed, though neither operation
aimed at anything beyond satisfying the immediate pangs of hunger, savage
man or rather savage woman was unconsciously preparing for the whole
community a future and more abundant store of food, which would enable
them to multiply and to abandon the old migratory and wasteful manner of
life for a more settled and economic mode of existence. So curiously
sometimes does man, aiming his shafts at a near but petty mark, hit a
greater and more distant target.

(M96) On the whole, then, it appears highly probable that as a consequence
of a certain natural division of labour between the sexes women have
contributed more than men towards the greatest advance in economic
history, namely, the transition from a nomadic to a settled life, from a
natural to an artificial basis of subsistence.

(M97) Among the Aryan peoples of Europe the old practice of hoeing the
ground as a preparation for sowing appears to have been generally replaced
at a very remote period by the far more effective process of
ploughing;(412) and as the labour of ploughing practically necessitates
the employment of masculine strength, it is hardly to be expected that in
Europe many traces should remain of the important part formerly played by
women in primitive agriculture. However, we are told that among the
Iberians of Spain and the Athamanes of Epirus the women tilled the
ground,(413) and that among the ancient Germans the care of the fields was
left to the women and old men.(414) But these indications of an age when
the cultivation of the ground was committed mainly to feminine hands are
few and slight; and if the Greek conception of Demeter as a goddess of
corn and agriculture really dates from such an age and was directly
suggested by such a division of labour between the sexes, it seems clear
that its origin must be sought at a period far back in the history of the
Aryan race, perhaps long before the segregation of the Greeks from the
common stock and their formation into a separate people. It may be so, but
to me I confess that this derivation of the conception appears somewhat
far-fetched and improbable; and I prefer to suppose that the idea of the
corn as feminine was suggested to the Greek mind, not by the position of
women in remote prehistoric ages, but by a direct observation of nature,
the teeming head of corn appearing to the primitive fancy to resemble the
teeming womb of a woman, and the ripe ear on the stalk being likened to a
child borne in the arms or on the back of its mother. At least we know
that similar sights suggest similar ideas to some of the agricultural
negroes of West Africa. Thus the Hos of Togoland, who plant maize in
February and reap it in July, say that the maize is an image of a mother;
when the cobs are forming, the mother is binding the infant on her back,
but in July she sinks her head and dies and the child is taken away from
her, to be afterwards multiplied at the next sowing.(415) When the rude
aborigines of Western Australia observe that a seed-bearing plant has
flowered, they call it the Mother of So-and-so, naming the particular kind
of plant, and they will not allow it to be dug up.(416) Apparently they
think that respect and regard are due to the plant as to a mother and her
child. Such simple and natural comparisons, which may occur to men in any
age and country, suffice to explain the Greek personification of the corn
as mother and daughter, and we need not cast about for more recondite
theories. Be that as it may, the conception of the corn as a woman and a
mother was certainly not peculiar to the ancient Greeks, but has been
shared by them with many other races, as will appear abundantly from the
instances which I shall cite in the following chapter.





CHAPTER V. THE CORN-MOTHER AND THE CORN-MAIDEN IN NORTHERN EUROPE.


(M98) It has been argued by W. Mannhardt that the first part of Demeter’s
name is derived from an alleged Cretan word _deai_, “barley,” and that
accordingly Demeter means neither more nor less than “Barley-mother” or
“Corn-mother”;(417) for the root of the word seems to have been applied to
different kinds of grain by different branches of the Aryans.(418) As
Crete appears to have been one of the most ancient seats of the worship of
Demeter,(419) it would not be surprising if her name were of Cretan
origin. But the etymology is open to serious objections,(420) and it is
safer therefore to lay no stress on it. Be that as it may, we have found
independent reasons for identifying Demeter as the Corn-mother, and of the
two species of corn associated with her in Greek religion, namely barley
and wheat, the barley has perhaps the better claim to be her original
element; for not only would it seem to have been the staple food of the
Greeks in the Homeric age, but there are grounds for believing that it is
one of the oldest, if not the very oldest, cereal cultivated by the Aryan
race. Certainly the use of barley in the religious ritual of the ancient
Hindoos as well as of the ancient Greeks furnishes a strong argument in
favour of the great antiquity of its cultivation, which is known to have
been practised by the lake-dwellers of the Stone Age in Europe.(421)

Analogies to the Corn-mother or Barley-mother of ancient Greece have been
collected in great abundance by W. Mannhardt from the folk-lore of modern
Europe. The following may serve as specimens.

(M99) In Germany the corn is very commonly personified under the name of
the Corn-mother. Thus in spring, when the corn waves in the wind, the
peasants say, “There comes the Corn-mother,” or “The Corn-mother is
running over the field,” or “The Corn-mother is going through the
corn.”(422) When children wish to go into the fields to pull the blue
corn-flowers or the red poppies, they are told not to do so, because the
Corn-mother is sitting in the corn and will catch them.(423) Or again she
is called, according to the crop, the Rye-mother or the Pea-mother, and
children are warned against straying in the rye or among the peas by
threats of the Rye-mother or the Pea-mother. In Norway also the Pea-mother
is said to sit among the peas.(424) Similar expressions are current among
the Slavs. The Poles and Czechs warn children against the Corn-mother who
sits in the corn. Or they call her the old Corn-woman, and say that she
sits in the corn and strangles the children who tread it down.(425) The
Lithuanians say, “The Old Rye-woman sits in the corn.”(426) Again the
Corn-mother is believed to make the crop grow. Thus in the neighbourhood
of Magdeburg it is sometimes said, “It will be a good year for flax; the
Flax-mother has been seen.” At Dinkelsbühl, in Bavaria, down to the latter
part of the nineteenth century, people believed that when the crops on a
particular farm compared unfavourably with those of the neighbourhood, the
reason was that the Corn-mother had punished the farmer for his sins.(427)
In a village of Styria it is said that the Corn-mother, in the shape of a
female puppet made out of the last sheaf of corn and dressed in white, may
be seen at midnight in the corn-fields, which she fertilises by passing
through them; but if she is angry with a farmer, she withers up all his
corn.(428)

(M100) Further, the Corn-mother plays an important part in harvest
customs. She is believed to be present in the handful of corn which is
left standing last on the field; and with the cutting of this last handful
she is caught, or driven away, or killed. In the first of these cases, the
last sheaf is carried joyfully home and honoured as a divine being. It is
placed in the barn, and at threshing the corn-spirit appears again.(429)
In the Hanoverian district of Hadeln the reapers stand round the last
sheaf and beat it with sticks in order to drive the Corn-mother out of it.
They call to each other, “There she is! hit her! Take care she doesn’t
catch you!” The beating goes on till the grain is completely threshed out;
then the Corn-mother is believed to be driven away.(430) In the
neighbourhood of Danzig the person who cuts the last ears of corn makes
them into a doll, which is called the Corn-mother or the Old Woman and is
brought home on the last waggon.(431) In some parts of Holstein the last
sheaf is dressed in woman’s clothes and called the Corn-mother. It is
carried home on the last waggon, and then thoroughly drenched with water.
The drenching with water is doubtless a rain-charm.(432) In the district
of Bruck in Styria the last sheaf, called the Corn-mother, is made up into
the shape of a woman by the oldest married woman in the village, of an age
from fifty to fifty-five years. The finest ears are plucked out of it and
made into a wreath, which, twined with flowers, is carried on her head by
the prettiest girl of the village to the farmer or squire, while the
Corn-mother is laid down in the barn to keep off the mice.(433) In other
villages of the same district the Corn-mother, at the close of harvest, is
carried by two lads at the top of a pole. They march behind the girl who
wears the wreath to the squire’s house, and while he receives the wreath
and hangs it up in the hall, the Corn-mother is placed on the top of a
pile of wood, where she is the centre of the harvest supper and dance.
Afterwards she is hung up in the barn and remains there till the threshing
is over. The man who gives the last stroke at threshing is called the son
of the Corn-mother; he is tied up in the Corn-mother, beaten, and carried
through the village. The wreath is dedicated in church on the following
Sunday; and on Easter Eve the grain is rubbed out of it by a
seven-years-old girl and scattered amongst the young corn. At Christmas
the straw of the wreath is placed in the manger to make the cattle
thrive.(434) Here the fertilising power of the Corn-mother is plainly
brought out by scattering the seed taken from her body (for the wreath is
made out of the Corn-mother) among the new corn; and her influence over
animal life is indicated by placing the straw in the manger. At
Westerhüsen, in Saxony, the last corn cut is made in the shape of a woman
decked with ribbons and cloth. It is fastened to a pole and brought home
on the last waggon. One of the people in the waggon keeps waving the pole,
so that the figure moves as if alive. It is placed on the threshing-floor,
and stays there till the threshing is done.(435) Amongst the Slavs also
the last sheaf is known as the Rye-mother, the Wheat-mother, the
Oats-mother, the Barley-mother, and so on, according to the crop. In the
district of Tarnow, Galicia, the wreath made out of the last stalks is
called the Wheat-mother, Rye-mother, or Pea-mother. It is placed on a
girl’s head and kept till spring, when some of the grain is mixed with the
seed-corn.(436) Here again the fertilising power of the Corn-mother is
indicated. In France, also, in the neighbourhood of Auxerre, the last
sheaf goes by the name of the Mother of the Wheat, Mother of the Barley,
Mother of the Rye, or Mother of the Oats. They leave it standing in the
field till the last waggon is about to wend homewards. Then they make a
puppet out of it, dress it with clothes belonging to the farmer, and adorn
it with a crown and a blue or white scarf. A branch of a tree is stuck in
the breast of the puppet, which is now called the Ceres. At the dance in
the evening the Ceres is set in the middle of the floor, and the reaper
who reaped fastest dances round it with the prettiest girl for his
partner. After the dance a pyre is made. All the girls, each wearing a
wreath, strip the puppet, pull it to pieces, and place it on the pyre,
along with the flowers with which it was adorned. Then the girl who was
the first to finish reaping sets fire to the pile, and all pray that Ceres
may give a fruitful year. Here, as Mannhardt observes, the old custom has
remained intact, though the name Ceres is a bit of schoolmaster’s
learning.(437) In Upper Brittany the last sheaf is always made into human
shape; but if the farmer is a married man, it is made double and consists
of a little corn-puppet placed inside of a large one. This is called the
Mother-sheaf. It is delivered to the farmer’s wife, who unties it and
gives drink-money in return.(438)

(M101) Sometimes the last sheaf is called, not the Corn-mother, but the
Harvest-mother or the Great Mother. In the province of Osnabrück, Hanover,
it is called the Harvest-mother; it is made up in female form, and then
the reapers dance about with it. In some parts of Westphalia the last
sheaf at the rye-harvest is made especially heavy by fastening stones in
it. They bring it home on the last waggon and call it the Great Mother,
though they do not fashion it into any special shape. In the district of
Erfurt a very heavy sheaf, not necessarily the last, is called the Great
Mother, and is carried on the last waggon to the barn, where all hands
lift it down amid a fire of jokes.(439)

(M102) Sometimes again the last sheaf is called the Grandmother, and is
adorned with flowers, ribbons, and a woman’s apron. In East Prussia, at
the rye or wheat harvest, the reapers call out to the woman who binds the
last sheaf, “You are getting the Old Grandmother.” In the neighbourhood of
Magdeburg the men and women servants strive who shall get the last sheaf,
called the Grandmother. Whoever gets it will be married in the next year,
but his or her spouse will be old; if a girl gets it, she will marry a
widower; if a man gets it, he will marry an old crone. In Silesia the
Grandmother—a huge bundle made up of three or four sheaves by the person
who tied the last sheaf—was formerly fashioned into a rude likeness of the
human form.(440) In the neighbourhood of Belfast the last sheaf sometimes
goes by the name of the Granny. It is not cut in the usual way, but all
the reapers throw their sickles at it and try to bring it down. It is
plaited and kept till the (next?) autumn. Whoever gets it will marry in
the course of the year.(441)

(M103) Oftener the last sheaf is called the Old Woman or the Old Man. In
Germany it is frequently shaped and dressed as a woman, and the person who
cuts it or binds it is said to “get the Old Woman.”(442) At Altisheim, in
Swabia, when all the corn of a farm has been cut except a single strip,
all the reapers stand in a row before the strip; each cuts his share
rapidly, and he who gives the last cut “has the Old Woman.”(443) When the
sheaves are being set up in heaps, the person who gets hold of the Old
Woman, which is the largest and thickest of all the sheaves, is jeered at
by the rest, who call out to him, “He has the Old Woman and must keep
her.”(444) The woman who binds the last sheaf is sometimes herself called
the Old Woman, and it is said that she will be married in the next
year.(445) In Neusaass, West Prussia, both the last sheaf—which is dressed
up in jacket, hat, and ribbons—and the woman who binds it are called the
Old Woman. Together they are brought home on the last waggon and are
drenched with water.(446) In various parts of North Germany the last sheaf
at harvest is made up into a human effigy and called “the Old Man”; and
the woman who bound it is said “to have the Old Man.”(447) At Hornkampe,
near Tiegenhof (West Prussia), when a man or woman lags behind the rest in
binding the corn, the other reapers dress up the last sheaf in the form of
a man or woman, and this figure goes by the laggard’s name, as “the old
Michael,” “the idle Trine.” It is brought home on the last waggon, and, as
it nears the house, the bystanders call out to the laggard, “You have got
the Old Woman and must keep her.”(448) In Brandenburg the young folks on
the harvest-field race towards a sheaf and jump over it. The last to jump
over it has to carry a straw puppet, adorned with ribbons, to the farmer
and deliver it to him while he recites some verses. Of the person who thus
carries the puppet it is said that “he has the Old Man.” Probably the
puppet is or used to be made out of the last corn cut.(449) In many
districts of Saxony the last sheaf used to be adorned with ribbons and set
upright so as to look like a man. It was then known as “the Old Man,” and
the young women brought it back in procession to the farm, singing as they
went, “Now we are bringing the Old Man.”(450)

(M104) In West Prussia, when the last rye is being raked together, the
women and girls hurry with the work, for none of them likes to be the last
and to get “the Old Man,” that is, a puppet made out of the last sheaf,
which must be carried before the other reapers by the person who was the
last to finish.(451) In Silesia the last sheaf is called the Old Woman or
the Old Man and is the theme of many jests; it is made unusually large and
is sometimes weighted with a stone. At Girlachsdorf, near Reichenbach,
when this heavy sheaf is lifted into the waggon, they say, “That is the
Old Man whom we sought for so long.”(452) Among the Germans of West
Bohemia the man who cuts the last corn is said to “have the Old Man.” In
former times it used to be customary to put a wreath on his head and to
play all kinds of pranks with him, and at the harvest supper he was given
the largest portion.(453) At Wolletz in Westphalia the last sheaf at
harvest is called the Old Man, and being made up into the likeness of a
man and decorated with flowers it is presented to the farmer, who in
return prepares a feast for the reapers. About Unna, in Westphalia, the
last sheaf at harvest is made unusually large, and stones are inserted to
increase its weight. It is called _de greaute meaur_ (the Grey Mother?),
and when it is brought home on the waggon water is thrown on the
harvesters who accompany it.(454) Among the Wends the man or woman who
binds the last sheaf at wheat harvest is said to “have the Old Man.” A
puppet is made out of the wheaten straw and ears in the likeness of a man
and decked with flowers. The person who bound the last sheaf must carry
the Old Man home, while the rest laugh and jeer at him. The puppet is hung
up in the farmhouse and remains till a new Old Man is made at the next
harvest.(455) At the close of the harvest the Arabs of Moab bury the last
sheaf in a grave in the cornfield, saying as they do so, “We are burying
the Old Man,” or “The Old Man is dead.”(456)

(M105) In some of these customs, as Mannhardt has remarked, the person who
is called by the same name as the last sheaf and sits beside it on the
last waggon is obviously identified with it; he or she represents the
corn-spirit which has been caught in the last sheaf; in other words, the
corn-spirit is represented in duplicate, by a human being and by a
sheaf.(457) The identification of the person with the sheaf is made still
clearer by the custom of wrapping up in the last sheaf the person who cuts
or binds it. Thus at Hermsdorf in Silesia it used to be the regular
practice to tie up in the last sheaf the woman who had bound it.(458) At
Weiden, in Bavaria, it is the cutter, not the binder, of the last sheaf
who is tied up in it.(459) Here the person wrapt up in the corn represents
the corn-spirit, exactly as a person wrapt in branches or leaves
represents the tree-spirit.(460)

(M106) The last sheaf, designated as the Old Woman, is often distinguished
from the other sheaves by its size and weight. Thus in some villages of
West Prussia the Old Woman is made twice as long and thick as a common
sheaf, and a stone is fastened in the middle of it. Sometimes it is made
so heavy that a man can barely lift it.(461) At Alt-Pillau, in Samland,
eight or nine sheaves are often tied together to make the Old Woman, and
the man who sets it up grumbles at its weight.(462) At Itzgrund, in
Saxe-Coburg, the last sheaf, called the Old Woman, is made large with the
express intention of thereby securing a good crop next year.(463) Thus the
custom of making the last sheaf unusually large or heavy is a charm,
working by sympathetic magic, to ensure a large and heavy crop at the
following harvest. In Denmark also the last sheaf is made larger than the
others, and is called the Old Rye-woman or the Old Barley-woman. No one
likes to bind it, because whoever does so will be sure, they think, to
marry an old man or an old woman. Sometimes the last wheat-sheaf, called
the Old Wheat-woman, is made up in human shape, with head, arms, and legs,
and being dressed in clothes is carried home on the last waggon, while the
harvesters sit beside it drinking and huzzaing.(464) Of the person who
binds the last sheaf it is said, “She or he is the Old Rye-woman.”(465)

(M107) In Scotland, when the last corn was cut after Hallowmas, the female
figure made out of it was sometimes called the Carlin or Carline, that is,
the Old Woman. But if cut before Hallowmas, it was called the Maiden; if
cut after sunset, it was called the Witch, being supposed to bring bad
luck.(466) Among the Highlanders of Scotland the last corn cut at harvest
is known either as the Old Wife (_Cailleach_) or as the Maiden; on the
whole the former name seems to prevail in the western and the latter in
the central and eastern districts. Of the Maiden we shall speak presently;
here we are dealing with the Old Wife. The following general account of
the custom is given by a careful and well-informed enquirer, the Rev. J.
G. Campbell, minister of the remote Hebridean island of Tiree: “The
Harvest Old Wife (_a Chailleach_).—In harvest, there was a struggle to
escape from being the last done with the shearing,(467) and when tillage
in common existed, instances were known of a ridge being left unshorn (no
person would claim it) because of it being behind the rest. The fear
entertained was that of having the ‘famine of the farm’ (_gort a bhaile_),
in the shape of an imaginary old woman (_cailleach_), to feed till next
harvest. Much emulation and amusement arose from the fear of this old
woman.... The first done made a doll of some blades of corn, which was
called the ‘old wife,’ and sent it to his nearest neighbour. He in turn,
when ready, passed it to another still less expeditious, and the person it
last remained with had ‘the old woman’ to keep for that year.”(468)

(M108) To illustrate the custom by examples, in Bernera, on the west of
Lewis, the harvest rejoicing goes by the name of the Old Wife
(_Cailleach_) from the last sheaf cut, whether in a township, farm, or
croft. Where there are a number of crofts beside each other, there is
always great rivalry as to who shall first finish reaping, and so have the
Old Wife before his neighbours. Some people even go out on a clear night
to reap their fields after their neighbours have retired to rest, in order
that they may have the Old Wife first. More neighbourly habits, however,
usually prevail, and as each finishes his own fields he goes to the help
of another, till the whole crop is cut. The reaping is still done with the
sickle. When the corn has been cut on all the crofts, the last sheaf is
dressed up to look as like an old woman as possible. She wears a white
cap, a dress, an apron, and a little shawl over the shoulders fastened
with a sprig of heather. The apron is tucked up to form a pocket, which is
stuffed with bread and cheese. A sickle, stuck in the string of the apron
at the back, completes her equipment. This costume and outfit mean that
the Old Wife is ready to bear a hand in the work of harvesting. At the
feast which follows, the Old Wife is placed at the head of the table, and
as the whisky goes round each of the company drinks to her, saying,
“Here’s to the one that has helped us with the harvest.” When the table
has been cleared away and dancing begins, one of the lads leads out the
Old Wife and dances with her; and if the night is fine the party will
sometimes go out and march in a body to a considerable distance, singing
harvest-songs, while one of them carries the Old Wife on his back. When
the Harvest-Home is over, the Old Wife is shorn of her gear and used for
ordinary purposes.(469) In the island of Islay the last corn cut also goes
by the name of the Old Wife (_Cailleach_), and when she has done her duty
at harvest she is hung up on the wall and stays there till the time comes
to plough the fields for the next year’s crop. Then she is taken down, and
on the first day when the men go to plough she is divided among them by
the mistress of the house. They take her in their pockets and give her to
the horses to eat when they reach the field. This is supposed to secure
good luck for the next harvest, and is understood to be the proper end of
the Old Wife.(470) In Kintyre also the name of the Old Wife is given to
the last corn cut.(471) On the shores of the beautiful Loch Awe, a long
sheet of water, winding among soft green hills, above which the giant Ben
Cruachan towers bold and rugged on the north, the harvest custom is
somewhat different. The name of the Old Wife (_Cailleach_) is here
bestowed, not on the last corn cut, but on the reaper who is the last to
finish. He bears it as a term of reproach, and is not privileged to reap
the last ears left standing. On the contrary, these are cut by the reaper
who was the first to finish his _spagh_ or strip (literally “claw”), and
out of them is fashioned the Maiden, which is afterwards hung up,
according to one statement, “for the purpose of preventing the death of
horses in spring.”(472) In the north-east of Scotland “the one who took
the last of the grain from the field to the stackyard was called the
‘winter.’ Each one did what could be done to avoid being the last on the
field, and when there were several on the field there was a race to get
off. The unfortunate ‘winter’ was the subject of a good deal of teasing,
and was dressed up in all the old clothes that could be gathered about the
farm, and placed on the ‘bink’ to eat his supper.”(473) So in Caithness
the person who cuts the last sheaf is called Winter and retains the name
till the next harvest.(474)

(M109) Usages of the same sort are reported from Wales. Thus in North
Pembrokeshire a tuft of the last corn cut, from six to twelve inches long,
is plaited and goes by the name of the Hag (_wrach_); and quaint old
customs used to be practised with it within the memory of many persons
still alive. Great was the excitement among the reapers when the last
patch of standing corn was reached. All in turn threw their sickles at it,
and the one who succeeded in cutting it received a jug of home-brewed ale.
The Hag (_wrach_) was then hurriedly made and taken to a neighbouring
farm, where the reapers were still busy at their work. This was generally
done by the ploughman; but he had to be very careful not to be observed by
his neighbours, for if they saw him coming and had the least suspicion of
his errand they would soon make him retrace his steps. Creeping stealthily
up behind a fence he waited till the foreman of his neighbour’s reapers
was just opposite him and within easy reach. Then he suddenly threw the
Hag over the fence and, if possible, upon the foreman’s sickle, crying out


    “_Boreu y codais i,_
    _Hwyr y dilynais i,_
    _Ar ei gwar hi._”


(M110) On that he took to his heels and made off as fast as he could run,
and he was a lucky man if he escaped without being caught or cut by the
flying sickles which the infuriated reapers hurled after him. In other
cases the Hag was brought home to the farmhouse by one of the reapers. He
did his best to bring it home dry and without being observed; but he was
apt to be roughly handled by the people of the house, if they suspected
his errand. Sometimes they stripped him of most of his clothes, sometimes
they would drench him with water which had been carefully stored in
buckets and pans for the purpose. If, however, he succeeded in bringing
the Hag in dry and unobserved, the master of the house had to pay him a
small fine; or sometimes a jug of beer “from the cask next to the wall,”
which seems to have commonly held the best beer, would be demanded by the
bearer. The Hag was then carefully hung on a nail in the hall or elsewhere
and kept there all the year. The custom of bringing in the Hag (_wrach_)
into the house and hanging it up still exists in some farms of North
Pembrokeshire, but the ancient ceremonies which have just been described
are now discontinued.(475)

Similar customs at harvest were observed in South Pembrokeshire within
living memory. In that part of the country there used to be a competition
between neighbouring farms to see which would finish reaping first. The
foreman of the reapers planned so as to finish the reaping in a corner of
the field out of sight of the people on the next farm. There, with the
last handful of corn cut, he would make two Old Women or Hags (_wrachs_).
One of them he would send by a lad or other messenger to be laid secretly
in the field where the neighbours were still at work cutting their corn.
The messenger would disguise himself to look like a stranger, and jumping
the fence and creeping through the corn he would lay the Hag (_wrach_) in
a place where the reapers in reaping would be sure to find it. Having done
so he fled for dear life, for were the reapers to catch him they would
shut him up in a dark room and not let him out till he had cleaned all the
muddy boots, shoes, and clogs in the house. The second Hag (_wrach_) was
sent or taken by the foreman of the reapers to his master’s farmhouse.
Generally he tried to pop into the house unseen and lay the Hag on the
kitchen table; but if the people of the farm caught him before he laid it
down, they used to drench him with water. If a foreman succeeded in
getting both the Hags (_wrachs_) laid safe in their proper quarters, one
at home, the other on a neighbour’s farm, without interruption, it was
deemed a great honour.(476) In County Antrim, down to some years ago, when
the sickle was finally expelled by the reaping machine, the few stalks of
corn left standing last on the field were plaited together; then the
reapers, blindfolded, threw their sickles at the plaited corn, and whoever
happened to cut it through took it home with him and put it over his door.
This bunch of corn was called the Carley(477)—probably the same word as
Carlin.

(M111) Similar customs are observed by Slavonic peoples. Thus in Poland
the last sheaf is commonly called the Baba, that is, the Old Woman. “In
the last sheaf,” it is said, “sits the Baba.” The sheaf itself is also
called the Baba, and is sometimes composed of twelve smaller sheaves
lashed together.(478) In some parts of Bohemia the Baba, made out of the
last sheaf, has the figure of a woman with a great straw hat. It is
carried home on the last harvest-waggon and delivered, along with a
garland, to the farmer by two girls. In binding the sheaves the women
strive not to be last, for she who binds the last sheaf will have a child
next year.(479) The last sheaf is tied up with others into a large bundle,
and a green branch is stuck on the top of it.(480) Sometimes the
harvesters call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “She has the
Baba,” or “She is the Baba.” She has then to make a puppet, sometimes in
female, sometimes in male form, out of the corn; the puppet is
occasionally dressed with clothes, often with flowers and ribbons only.
The cutter of the last stalks, as well as the binder of the last sheaf,
was also called Baba; and a doll, called the Harvest-woman, was made out
of the last sheaf and adorned with ribbons. The oldest reaper had to
dance, first with this doll, and then with the farmer’s wife.(481) In the
district of Cracow, when a man binds the last sheaf, they say, “The
Grandfather is sitting in it”; when a woman binds it, they say, “The Baba
is sitting in it,” and the woman herself is wrapt up in the sheaf, so that
only her head projects out of it. Thus encased in the sheaf, she is
carried on the last harvest-waggon to the house, where she is drenched
with water by the whole family. She remains in the sheaf till the dance is
over, and for a year she retains the name of Baba.(482)

(M112) In Lithuania the name for the last sheaf is Boba (Old Woman),
answering to the Polish name Baba. The Boba is said to sit in the corn
which is left standing last.(483) The person who binds the last sheaf or
digs the last potato is the subject of much banter, and receives and long
retains the name of the Old Rye-woman or the Old Potato-woman.(484) The
last sheaf—the Boba—is made into the form of a woman, carried solemnly
through the village on the last harvest-waggon, and drenched with water at
the farmer’s house; then every one dances with it.(485)

(M113) In Russia also the last sheaf is often shaped and dressed as a
woman, and carried with dance and song to the farmhouse. Out of the last
sheaf the Bulgarians make a doll which they call the Corn-queen or
Corn-mother; it is dressed in a woman’s shirt, carried round the village,
and then thrown into the river in order to secure plenty of rain and dew
for the next year’s crop. Or it is burned and the ashes strewn on the
fields, doubtless to fertilise them.(486) The name Queen, as applied to
the last sheaf, has its analogies in central and northern Europe. Thus, in
the Salzburg district of Austria, at the end of the harvest a great
procession takes place, in which a Queen of the Corn-ears (_Ährenkönigin_)
is drawn along in a little carriage by young fellows.(487) The custom of
the Harvest Queen appears to have been common in England. Brand quotes
from Hutchinson’s _History of Northumberland_ the following: “I have seen,
in some places, an image apparelled in great finery, crowned with flowers,
a sheaf of corn placed under her arm, and a scycle in her hand, carried
out of the village in the morning of the conclusive reaping day, with
music and much clamour of the reapers, into the field, where it stands
fixed on a pole all day, and when the reaping is done, is brought home in
like manner. This they call the Harvest Queen, and it represents the Roman
Ceres.”(488) Again, the traveller Dr. E. D. Clarke tells us that “even in
the town of Cambridge, and centre of our University, such curious remains
of antient customs may be noticed, in different seasons of the year, which
pass without observation. The custom of blowing horns upon the first of
May (Old Style) is derived from a festival in honour of Diana. At the
_Hawkie_, as it is called, or Harvest Home, I have seen a clown dressed in
woman’s clothes, having his face painted, his head decorated with ears of
corn, and bearing about him other symbols of Ceres, carried in a waggon,
with great pomp and loud shouts, through the streets, the horses being
covered with white sheets: and when I inquired the meaning of the
ceremony, was answered by the people that they were drawing the Morgay
(ΜΗΤΗΡ ΓΗ) or Harvest Queen.”(489) Milton must have been familiar with the
custom of the Harvest Queen, for in _Paradise Lost_(490) he says:—


                      “_Adam the while_
    _Waiting desirous her return, had wove_
    _Of choicest flow’rs a garland to adorn_
    _Her tresses, and her rural labours crown,_
    _As reapers oft are wont their harvest-queen._”


(M114) Often customs of this sort are practised, not on the harvest-field
but on the threshing-floor. The spirit of the corn, fleeing before the
reapers as they cut down the ripe grain, quits the reaped corn and takes
refuge in the barn, where it appears in the last sheaf threshed, either to
perish under the blows of the flail or to flee thence to the still
unthreshed corn of a neighbouring farm.(491) Thus the last corn to be
threshed is called the Mother-Corn or the Old Woman. Sometimes the person
who gives the last stroke with the flail is called the Old Woman, and is
wrapt in the straw of the last sheaf, or has a bundle of straw fastened on
his back. Whether wrapt in the straw or carrying it on his back, he is
carted through the village amid general laughter. In some districts of
Bavaria, Thüringen, and elsewhere, the man who threshes the last sheaf is
said to have the Old Woman or the Old Corn-woman; he is tied up in straw,
carried or carted about the village, and set down at last on the dunghill,
or taken to the threshing-floor of a neighbouring farmer who has not
finished his threshing.(492) In Poland the man who gives the last stroke
at threshing is called Baba (Old Woman); he is wrapt in corn and wheeled
through the village.(493) Sometimes in Lithuania the last sheaf is not
threshed, but is fashioned into female shape and carried to the barn of a
neighbour who has not finished his threshing.(494)

(M115) At Chorinchen, near Neustadt, the man who gives the last stroke at
threshing is said to “get the Old Man.”(495) In various parts of Austrian
Silesia he is called the corn-fool, the oats-fool, and so forth according
to the crop, and retains the name till the next kind of grain has been
reaped. Sometimes he is called the _Klöppel_ or mallet. He is much
ridiculed and in the Bennisch district he is dressed out in the
threshing-implements and obliged to carry them about the farmyard to the
amusement of his fellows. In Dobischwald the man who gives the last stroke
at threshing has to carry a log or puppet of wood wrapt in straw to a
neighbour who has not yet finished his threshing. There he throws his
burden into the barn, crying, “There you have the Mallet (_Klöppel_),” and
makes off as fast as he can. If they catch him, they tie the puppet on his
back, and he is known as the Mallet (_Klöppel_) for the whole of the year;
he may be the Corn-mallet or the Wheat-mallet or so forth according to the
particular crop.(496)

(M116) About Berneck, in Upper Franken, the man who gives the last stroke
at threshing runs away. If the others catch him, he gets “the Old Woman,”
that is, the largest dumpling, which elsewhere is baked in human shape.
The custom of setting a dumpling baked in the form of an old woman before
the man who has given the last stroke at threshing is also observed in
various parts of Middle Franken. Sometimes the excised genitals of a calf
are served up to him at table.(497) At Langenbielau in Silesia the last
sheaf, which is called “the Old Man,” is threshed separately and the corn
ground into meal and baked into a loaf. This loaf is believed to possess
healing virtue and to bring a blessing; hence none but members of the
family may partake of it. At Wittichenau, in the district of Hoyerswerda
(Silesia), when the threshing is ended, some of the straw of “the Old Man”
is carried to a neighbour who has not yet finished his threshing, and the
bearer is rewarded with a gratuity.(498) Among the Germans of the
Falkenauer district in West Bohemia the man who gives the last stroke at
threshing gets “the Old Man,” a hideous scarecrow, tied on his back. If
threshing is still proceeding at another farm, he may go thither and rid
himself of his burden, but must take care not to be caught. In this way a
farmer who is behind-hand with his threshing may receive several such
scarecrows, and so become the target for many gibes. Among the Germans of
the Planer district in West Bohemia, the man who gives the last stroke at
threshing is himself called “the Old Man.” Similarly at flax-dressing in
Silberberg (West Bohemia), the woman who is the last to finish her task is
said to get the Old Man, and a cake baked in human form is served up to
her at supper.(499) The Wends of Saxony say of the man who gives the last
stroke at threshing that “he has struck the Old Man” (_wón je stareho
bil_), and he is obliged to carry a straw puppet to a neighbour, who has
not yet finished his threshing, where he throws the puppet unobserved over
the fence.(500) In some parts of Sweden, when a stranger woman appears on
the threshing-floor, a flail is put round her body, stalks of corn are
wound round her neck, a crown of ears is placed on her head, and the
threshers call out, “Behold the Corn-woman.” Here the stranger woman, thus
suddenly appearing, is taken to be the corn-spirit who has just been
expelled by the flails from the corn-stalks.(501) In other cases the
farmer’s wife represents the corn-spirit. Thus in the Commune of Saligné,
Canton de Poiret (Vendée), the farmer’s wife, along with the last sheaf,
is tied up in a sheet, placed on a litter, and carried to the threshing
machine, under which she is shoved. Then the woman is drawn out and the
sheaf is threshed by itself, but the woman is tossed in the sheet, as if
she were being winnowed.(502) It would be impossible to express more
clearly the identification of the woman with the corn than by this graphic
imitation of threshing and winnowing her. Mitigated forms of the custom
are observed in various places. Thus among the Germans of Schüttarschen in
West Bohemia it was customary at the close of the threshing to “throttle”
the farmer’s wife by squeezing her neck between the arms of a flail till
she consented to bake a special kind of cake called a _drischala_ (from
_dreschen_, “to thresh”).(503) A similar custom of “throttling” the
farmer’s wife at the threshing is practised in some parts of Bavaria, only
there the pressure is applied by means of a straw rope instead of a
flail.(504)

(M117) In these customs the spirit of the ripe corn is regarded as old, or
at least as of mature age. Hence the names of Mother, Grandmother, Old
Woman, and so forth. But in other cases the corn-spirit is conceived as
young. Thus at Saldern, near Wolfenbuttel, when the rye has been reaped,
three sheaves are tied together with a rope so as to make a puppet with
the corn ears for a head. This puppet is called the Maiden or the
Corn-maiden (_Kornjungfer_).(505) Sometimes the corn-spirit is conceived
as a child who is separated from its mother by the stroke of the sickle.
This last view appears in the Polish custom of calling out to the man who
cuts the last handful of corn, “You have cut the navel-string.”(506) In
some districts of West Prussia the figure made out of the last sheaf is
called the Bastard, and a boy is wrapt up in it. The woman who binds the
last sheaf and represents the Corn-mother is told that she is about to be
brought to bed; she cries like a woman in travail, and an old woman in the
character of grandmother acts as midwife. At last a cry is raised that the
child is born; whereupon the boy who is tied up in the sheaf whimpers and
squalls like an infant. The grandmother wraps a sack, in imitation of
swaddling bands, round the pretended baby, who is carried joyfully to the
barn, lest he should catch cold in the open air.(507) In other parts of
North Germany the last sheaf, or the puppet made out of it, is called the
Child, the Harvest-Child, and so on, and they call out to the woman who
binds the last sheaf, “you are getting the child.”(508)

(M118) In the north of England, particularly in the counties of
Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire, the last corn cut on the field at
harvest is or used to be variously known as the _mell_ or the _kirn_, of
which _kern_ and _churn_ are merely local or dialectical variations. The
corn so cut is either plaited or made up into a doll-like figure, which
goes by the name of the mell-doll or the kirn-doll, or the kirn-baby, and
is brought home with rejoicings at the end of the harvest.(509) In the
North Riding of Yorkshire the last sheaf gathered in is called the
Mell-sheaf, and the expression “We’ve gotten wer mell” is as much as to
say “The Harvest is finished.” Formerly a Mell-doll was made out of a
sheaf of corn decked with flowers and wrapped in such of the reapers’
garments as could be spared. It was carried with music and dancing to the
scene of the harvest-supper, which was called the mell-supper.(510) In the
north of Yorkshire the mell-sheaf “was frequently made of such dimensions
as to be a heavy load for a man, and, within a few years comparatively,
was proposed as the prize to be won in a race of old women. In other cases
it was carefully preserved and set up in some conspicuous place in the
farmhouse.”(511) Where the last sheaf of corn cut was called the _kirn_ or
_kern_ instead of the _mell_, the customs concerned with it seem to have
been essentially similar. Thus we are told that in the north it was common
for the reapers, on the last day of the reaping, “to have a contention for
superiority in quickness of dispatch, groups of three or four taking each
a ridge, and striving which should soonest get to its termination. In
Scotland, this was called a _kemping_, which simply means a striving. In
the north of England, it was a _mell_.... As the reapers went on during
the last day, they took care to leave a good handful of the grain uncut,
but laid down flat, and covered over; and, when the field was done, the
‘bonniest lass’ was allowed to cut this final handful, which was presently
dressed up with various sewings, tyings, and trimmings, like a doll, and
hailed as a _Corn Baby_. It was brought home in triumph, with music of
fiddles and bagpipes, was set up conspicuously that night at supper, and
was usually preserved in the farmer’s parlour for the remainder of the
year. The bonny lass who cut this handful of grain was deemed the _Har’st
Queen_”.(512) To cut the last portion of standing corn in the harvest
field was known as “to get the kirn” or “to win the kirn”; and as soon as
this was done the reapers let the neighbours know that the harvest was
finished by giving three cheers, which was called “to cry or shout the
kirn.”(513) Where the last handful of standing corn was called the
_churn_, the stalks were roughly plaited together, and the reapers threw
their sickles at it till some one cut it through, which was called
“cutting the churn.” The severed churn (that is, the plaited corn) was
then placed over the kitchen door or over the hob in the chimney for good
luck, and as a charm against witchcraft.(514) In Kent the Ivy Girl is, or
used to be, “a figure composed of some of the best corn the field
produces, and made as well as they can into a human shape; this is
afterwards curiously dressed by the women, and adorned with paper
trimmings, cut to resemble a cap, ruffles, handkerchief, etc., of the
finest lace. It is brought home with the last load of corn from the field
upon the waggon, and they suppose entitles them to a supper at the expense
of the employer.”(515)

(M119) In some parts of Scotland, as well as in the north of England, the
last handful of corn cut on the harvest-field was called the _kirn_, and
the person who carried it off was said “to win the kirn.” It was then
dressed up like a child’s doll and went by the name of the kirn-baby, the
kirn-doll, or the Maiden.(516) In Berwickshire down to about the middle of
the nineteenth century there was an eager competition among the reapers to
cut the last bunch of standing corn. They gathered round it at a little
distance and threw their sickles in turn at it, and the man who succeeded
in cutting it through gave it to the girl he preferred. She made the corn
so cut into a kirn-dolly and dressed it, and the doll was then taken to
the farmhouse and hung up there till the next harvest, when its place was
taken by the new kirn-dolly.(517) At Spottiswoode (Westruther Parish) in
Berwickshire the reaping of the last corn at harvest was called “cutting
the Queen” almost as often as “cutting the kirn.” The mode of cutting it
was not by throwing sickles. One of the reapers consented to be
blindfolded, and having been given a sickle in his hand and turned twice
or thrice about by his fellows, he was bidden to go and cut the kirn. His
groping about and making wild strokes in the air with his sickle excited
much hilarity. When he had tired himself out in vain and given up the task
as hopeless, another reaper was blindfolded and pursued the quest, and so
on, one after the other, till at last the kirn was cut. The successful
reaper was tossed up in the air with three cheers by his brother
harvesters. To decorate the room in which the kirn-supper was held at
Spottiswoode as well as the granary, where the dancing took place, two
women made kirn-dollies or Queens every year; and many of these rustic
effigies of the corn-spirit might be seen hanging up together.(518) At
Lanfine in Ayrshire, down to near the end of the nineteenth century, the
last bunch of standing corn at harvest was, occasionally at least, plaited
together, and the reapers tried to cut it by throwing their sickles at it;
when they failed in the attempt, a woman has been known to run in and
sever the stalks at a blow. In Dumfriesshire also, within living memory,
it used to be customary to cut the last standing corn by throwing the
sickles at it.(519)

(M120) In the north of Ireland the harvest customs were similar, but
there, as in some parts of England, the last patch of standing corn bore
the name of the _churn_, a dialectical variation of _kirn_. “The custom of
‘Winning the Churn’ was prevalent all through the counties of Down and
Antrim fifty years ago. It was carried out at the end of the harvest, or
reaping the grain, on each farm or holding, were it small or large. Oats
are the main crop of the district, but the custom was the same for other
kinds of grain. When the reapers had nearly finished the last field a
handful of the best-grown stalks was selected, carefully plaited as it
stood, and fastened at the top just under the ears to keep the plait in
place. Then when all the corn was cut from about this, which was known as
_The Churn_, and the sheaves about it had been removed to some distance,
the reapers stood in a group about ten yards off it, and each whirled his
sickle at the _Churn_ till one lucky one succeeded in cutting it down,
when he was cheered on his achievement. This person had then the right of
presenting it to the master or mistress of the farm, who gave the reaper a
shilling.” A supper and a dance of the reapers in the farmhouse often
concluded the day. The _Churn_, trimmed and adorned with ribbons, was hung
up on a wall in the farmhouse and carefully preserved. It was no uncommon
sight to see six or even twelve or more such _Churns_ decorating the walls
of a farmhouse in County Down or Antrim.(520)

(M121) In some parts of the Highlands of Scotland the last handful of corn
that is cut by the reapers on any particular farm is called the Maiden, or
in Gaelic _Maidhdeanbuain_, literally “the shorn Maiden.” Superstitions
attach to the winning of the Maiden. If it is got by a young person, they
think it an omen that he or she will be married before another harvest.
For that or other reasons there is a strife between the reapers as to who
shall get the Maiden, and they resort to various stratagems for the
purpose of securing it. One of them, for example, will often leave a
handful of corn uncut and cover it up with earth to hide it from the other
reapers, till all the rest of the corn on the field is cut down. Several
may try to play the same trick, and the one who is coolest and holds out
longest obtains the coveted distinction. When it has been cut, the Maiden
is dressed with ribbons into a sort of doll and affixed to a wall of the
farmhouse. In the north of Scotland the Maiden is carefully preserved till
Yule morning, when it is divided among the cattle "to make them thrive all
the year round."(521) In the island of Mull and some parts of the mainland
of Argyleshire the last handful of corn cut is called the Maiden
(_Maighdean-Bhuana_). Near Ardrishaig, in Argyleshire, the Maiden is made
up in a fanciful three-cornered shape, decorated with ribbons, and hung
from a nail on the wall.(522)

(M122) The following account of the Maiden was obtained in the summer of
1897 from the manager of a farm near Kilmartin in Argyleshire: “The
_Mhaighdean-Bhuana_, or _Reaping Maiden_, was the last sheaf of oats to be
cut on a croft or farm. Before the reaping-machine and binder took the
place of the sickle and the scythe, the young reapers of both sexes, when
they neared the end of the last rig or field, used to manœuvre to gain
possession of the _Mhaighdean-Bhuana_. The individual who was fortunate
enough to obtain it was _ex officio_ entitled to be the King or the Queen
of the Harvest-Home festival. The sheaf so designated was carefully
preserved and kept intact until the day they began leading home the corn.
A tuft of it was then given to each of the horses, as they started from
the corn-field with their first load. The rest of it was neatly made up,
and hung in some conspicuous corner of the farmhouse, where it remained
till it was replaced by a younger sister next season. On the first day of
ploughing a tuft of it was given (as on the first day of leading home the
corn) as a _Sainnseal_ or handsel for luck to the horses. The
_Mhaighdean-Bhuana_ so preserved and used was a symbol that the harvest
had been duly secured, and that the spring work had been properly
inaugurated. It was also believed to be a protection against fairies and
witchcraft.”(523)

(M123) In the parish of Longforgan, situated at the south-eastern corner
of Perthshire, it used to be customary to give what was called the Maiden
Feast at the end of the harvest. The last handful of corn reaped on the
field was called the Maiden, and things were generally so arranged that it
fell into the hands of a pretty girl. It was then decked out with ribbons
and brought home in triumph to the music of bagpipes and fiddles. In the
evening the reapers danced and made merry. Afterwards the Maiden was
dressed out, generally in the form of a cross, and hung up, with the date
attached to it, in a conspicuous part of the house.(524) In the
neighbourhood of Balquhidder, Perthshire, the last handful of corn is cut
by the youngest girl on the field, and is made into the rude form of a
female doll, clad in a paper dress, and decked with ribbons. It is called
the Maiden, and is kept in the farmhouse, generally above the chimney, for
a good while, sometimes till the Maiden of the next year is brought in.
The writer of this book witnessed the ceremony of cutting the Maiden at
Balquhidder in September 1888.(525) A lady friend(526) informed me that as
a young girl she cut the Maiden several times at the request of the
reapers in the neighbourhood of Perth. The name of the Maiden was given to
the last handful of standing corn; a reaper held the top of the bunch
while she cut it. Afterwards the bunch was plaited, decked with ribbons,
and hung up in a conspicuous place on the wall of the kitchen till the
next Maiden was brought in. The harvest-supper in this neighbourhood was
also called the Maiden; the reapers danced at it.

(M124) In the Highland district of Lochaber dancing and merry-making on
the last night of harvest used to be universal and are still generally
observed. Here, we are told, the festivity without the Maiden would be
like a wedding without the bride. The Maiden is carried home with
tumultuous rejoicing, and after being suitably decorated is hung up in the
barn, where the dancing usually takes place. When supper is over, one of
the company, generally the oldest man present, drinks a glass of whisky,
after turning to the suspended sheaf and saying, “Here’s to the Maiden.”
The company follow his example, each in turn drinking to the Maiden. Then
the dancing begins.(527) On some farms on the Gareloch, in Dumbartonshire,
about the year 1830, the last handful of standing corn was called the
Maiden. It was divided in two, plaited, and then cut with the sickle by a
girl, who, it was thought, would be lucky and would soon be married. When
it was cut the reapers gathered together and threw their sickles in the
air. The Maiden was dressed with ribbons and hung in the kitchen near the
roof, where it was kept for several years with the date attached.
Sometimes five or six Maidens might be seen hanging at once on hooks. The
harvest-supper was called the Kirn.(528) In other farms on the Gareloch
the last handful of corn was called the Maidenhead or the Head; it was
neatly plaited, sometimes decked with ribbons, and hung in the kitchen for
a year, when the grain was given to the poultry.(529)

(M125) In the north-east of Aberdeenshire the customs connected with the
last corn cut at harvest have been carefully collected and recorded by the
late Rev. Walter Gregor of Pitsligo. His account runs as follows: “The
last sheaf cut is the object of much care: the manner of cutting it,
binding it, and carrying it to the house varies a little in the different
districts. The following customs have been reported to me by people who
have seen them or who have practised them, and some of the customs have
now disappeared. The information comes from the parishes of Pitsligo,
Aberdour, and Tyrie, situated in the north-east corner of the county of
Aberdeen, but the customs are not limited to these parishes.

“Some particulars relating to the sheaf may be noted as always the same;
thus (_a_) it is cut and gathered by the youngest person present in the
field, the person who is supposed to be the purest; (_b_) the sheaf is not
allowed to touch the ground; (_c_) it is made up and carried in triumph to
the house; (_d_) it occupies a conspicuous place in the festivals which
follow the end of the reaping; (_e_) it is kept till Christmas morning,
and is then given to one or more of the horses or to the cattle of the
farm.

(M126) “Before the introduction of the scythe, the corn was cut by the
sickle or _heuck_, a kind of curved sickle. The last sheaf was shorn or
cut by the youngest girl present. As the corn might not touch the ground,
the master or ‘gueedman’ sat down, placed the band on his knees, and
received thereupon each handful as it was cut. The sheaf was bound,
dressed as a woman, and when it had been brought to the house, it was
placed in some part of the kitchen, where everybody could see it during
the meal which followed the end of the reaping. This sheaf was called the
_clyack_ sheaf.(530)

“The manner of receiving and binding the last sheaf is not always the
same. Here is another: three persons hold the band in their hands, one of
them at each end, while the third holds the knot in the middle. Each
handful of corn is placed so that the cut end is turned to the breast of
those who support the ears on the opposite side. When all is cut, the
youngest boy ties the knot. Two other bands are fastened to the sheaf, one
near the cut end, the other near the ears. The sheaf is carried to the
house by those who have helped to cut or bind it (Aberdour).

“Since the introduction of the scythe, it is the youngest boy who cuts the
last sheaf; my informant (a woman) told me that when he was not strong
enough to wield the scythe, his hand was guided by another. The youngest
girl gathers it. When it is bound with three bands, it is cut straight,
and it is not allowed to touch the ground. The youngest girls carry it to
the house. My informant (a woman) told me that she had seen it decked and
placed at the head of the bed. Formerly, and still sometimes, there was
always a bed in the kitchen (Tyrie).

“The corn is not allowed to fall on the ground: the young girls who gather
it take it by the ear and convey it handful by handful, till the whole
sheaf is cut. A woman who ‘has lost a feather of her wing,’ as an old
woman put it to me, may not touch it. Sometimes also they merely put the
two hands round the sheaf (New Deer).

(M127) “Generally a feast and dance follow when all the wheat is cut. This
feast and dance bear the name of _clyack_ or ‘meal and ale.’ However, some
people do not give ‘meal and ale’ till all the cut corn has been got in:
then the feast is called ‘the Winter’ and they say that a farmer ‘has the
Winter’ when all his sheaves have been carried home.

“At this feast two things are indispensable: a cheese called the
_clyack-kebback_ and ‘meal and ale.’

“The cheese _clyack-kebback_ must be cut by the master of the house. The
first slice is larger than the rest; it is known by the name of ‘the
_kanave’s faang_,’—the young man’s big slice—and is generally the share of
the herd boy (Tyrie).

“The dish called ‘meal and ale’ is made as follows. You take a suitable
vessel, whether an earthenware pot or a milk-bowl, if the crockery is
scanty; but if on the contrary the family is well off, they use other
special utensils. In each dish ale is poured and treacle is added to
sweeten it. Then oatmeal is mixed with the sweetened ale till the whole is
of a sufficient consistency. The cook adds whisky to the mixture in such
proportion as she thinks fit. In each plate is put a ring. To allow the
meal time to be completely absorbed, the dish is prepared on the morning
of the feast. At the moment of the feast the dish or dishes containing the
strong and savoury mixture are set on the middle of the table. But it is
not served up till the end. Six or seven persons generally have a plate to
themselves. Each of them plunges his spoon into the plate as fast as
possible in the hope of getting the ring; for he who is lucky enough to
get it will be married within the year. Meantime some of the stuff is
swallowed, but often in the struggle some of it is spilt on the table or
the floor.

(M128) “In some districts there used to be and still is dancing in the
evening of the feast. ‘The sheaf’ figured in the dances. It was dressed as
a girl and carried on the back of the mistress of the house to the barn or
granary which served as a ballroom. The mistress danced a reel with ‘the
sheaf’ on her back.

(M129) “The woman who gave me this account had been a witness of what she
described when she was a girl. The sheaf was afterwards carefully stored
till the first day of Christmas, when it was given to eat to a mare in
foal, if there was one on the farm, or, if there was not, to the oldest
cow in calf. Elsewhere the sheaf was divided between all the cows and
their calves or between all the horses and the cattle of the farm.
(Related by an eye-witness.)”(531)

(M130) In these Aberdeenshire customs the sanctity attributed to the last
corn cut at harvest is clearly manifested, not merely by the ceremony with
which it is treated on the field, in the house, and in the barn, but also
by the great care taken to prevent it from touching the ground or being
handled by any unchaste person. The reason why the youngest person on the
field, whether a girl or a boy, is chosen to cut the last standing corn
and sometimes to carry it to the house is no doubt a calculation that the
younger the person the more likely is he or she to be sexually pure. We
have seen that for this reason some negroes entrust the sowing of the seed
to very young girls,(532) and later on we shall meet with more evidence in
Africa of the notion that the corn may be handled only by the pure.(533)
And in the gruel of oat-meal and ale, which the harvesters sup with spoons
as an indispensable part of the harvest supper, have we not the Scotch
equivalent of the gruel of barley-meal and water, flavoured with
pennyroyal, which the initiates at Eleusis drank as a solemn form of
communion with the Barley Goddess Demeter?(534) May not that mystic
sacrament have originated in a simple harvest supper held by Eleusinian
farmers at the end of the reaping?

According to a briefer account of the Aberdeenshire custom, “the last
sheaf cut, or ‘maiden,’ is carried home in merry procession by the
harvesters. It is then presented to the mistress of the house, who dresses
it up to be preserved till the first mare foals. The maiden is then taken
down and presented to the mare as its first food. The neglect of this
would have untoward effects upon the foal, and disastrous consequences
upon farm operations generally for the season.”(535) In Fifeshire the last
handful of corn, known as the Maiden, is cut by a young girl and made into
the rude figure of a doll, tied with ribbons, by which it is hung on the
wall of the farm-kitchen till the next spring.(536) The custom of cutting
the Maiden at harvest was also observed in Inverness-shire and
Sutherlandshire.(537)

(M131) A somewhat maturer but still youthful age is assigned to the
corn-spirit by the appellations of Bride, Oats-bride, and Wheat-bride,
which in Germany are sometimes bestowed both on the last sheaf and on the
woman who binds it.(538) At wheat-harvest near Müglitz, in Moravia, a
small portion of the wheat is left standing after all the rest has been
reaped. This remnant is then cut, amid the rejoicing of the reapers, by a
young girl who wears a wreath of wheaten ears on her head and goes by the
name of the Wheat-bride. It is supposed that she will be a real bride that
same year.(539) In the upland valley of Alpach, in North Tyrol, the person
who brings the last sheaf into the granary is said to have the Wheat-bride
or the Rye-bride according to the crop, and is received with great
demonstrations of respect and rejoicing. The people of the farm go out to
meet him, bells are rung, and refreshments offered to him on a tray.(540)
In Austrian Silesia a girl is chosen to be the Wheat-bride, and much
honour is paid to her at the harvest-festival.(541) Near Roslin and
Stonehaven, in Scotland, the last handful of corn cut “got the name of
‘the bride,’ and she was placed over the _bress_ or chimney-piece; she had
a ribbon tied below her numerous _ears_, and another round her
waist.”(542)

(M132) Sometimes the idea implied by the name of Bride is worked out more
fully by representing the productive powers of vegetation as bride and
bridegroom. Thus in the Vorharz an Oats-man and an Oats-woman, swathed in
straw, dance at the harvest feast.(543) In South Saxony an Oats-bridegroom
and an Oats-bride figure together at the harvest celebration. The
Oats-bridegroom is a man completely wrapt in oats-straw; the Oats-bride is
a man dressed in woman’s clothes, but not wrapt in straw. They are drawn
in a waggon to the ale-house, where the dance takes place. At the
beginning of the dance the dancers pluck the bunches of oats one by one
from the Oats-bridegroom, while he struggles to keep them, till at last he
is completely stript of them and stands bare, exposed to the laughter and
jests of the company.(544) In Austrian Silesia the ceremony of “the
Wheat-bride” is celebrated by the young people at the end of the harvest.
The woman who bound the last sheaf plays the part of the Wheat-bride,
wearing the harvest-crown of wheat ears and flowers on her head. Thus
adorned, standing beside her Bridegroom in a waggon and attended by
bridesmaids, she is drawn by a pair of oxen, in full imitation of a
marriage procession, to the tavern, where the dancing is kept up till
morning. Somewhat later in the season the wedding of the Oats-bride is
celebrated with the like rustic pomp. About Neisse, in Silesia, an
Oats-king and an Oats-queen, dressed up quaintly as a bridal pair, are
seated on a harrow and drawn by oxen into the village.(545)

(M133) In these last instances the corn-spirit is personified in double
form as male and female. But sometimes the spirit appears in a double
female form as both old and young, corresponding exactly to the Greek
Demeter and Persephone, if my interpretation of these goddesses is right.
We have seen that in Scotland, especially among the Gaelic-speaking
population, the last corn cut is sometimes called the Old Wife and
sometimes the Maiden. Now there are parts of Scotland in which both an Old
Wife (_Cailleach_) and a Maiden are cut at harvest. As the accounts of
this custom are not quite clear and consistent, it may be well to give
them first in the words of the original authorities. Thus the late Sheriff
Alexander Nicolson tells us that there is a Gaelic proverb, “A balk
(_léum-iochd_) in autumn is better than a sheaf the more”; and he explains
it by saying that a _léum-iochd_ or balk “is a strip of a corn-field left
fallow. The fear of being left with the last sheaf of the harvest, called
the _cailleach_, or _gobhar bhacach_, always led to an exciting
competition among the reapers in the last field. The reaper who came on a
_léum-iochd_ would of course be glad to have so much the less to
cut.”(546) In further explanation of the proverb the writer adds:

“The customs as to the _Cailleach_ and _Maighdean-bhuana_ seem to have
varied somewhat. Two reapers were usually set to each rig, and according
to one account, the man who was first done got the _Maighdean-bhuana_ or
‘Reaping-Maiden,’ while the man who was last got the _Cailleach_ or ‘old
woman.’ The latter term is used in Argyleshire; the term _Gobhar-bhacach_,
the lame goat, is used in Skye.

“According to what appears to be the better version, the competition to
avoid the _Cailleach_ was not between reapers but between neighbouring
crofters, and the man who got his harvest done first sent a handful of
corn called the _Cailleach_ to his neighbour, who passed it on, till it
landed with him who was latest. That man’s penalty was to provide for the
dearth of the township, _gort a’ bhaile_, in the ensuing season.

“The _Maighdean-bhuana_, again, was the last cut handful of oats, on a
croft or farm, and was an object of lively competition among the reapers.
It was tastefully tied up with ribbons, generally dressed like a doll, and
then hung up on a nail till spring. On the first day of ploughing it was
solemnly taken down, and given as a _Sainnseal_ (or handsel) to the horses
for luck. It was meant as a symbol that the harvest had been secured, and
to ward off the fairies, representatives of the ethereal and
unsubstantial, till the time came to provide for a new crop.”(547) Again,
the Rev. Mr. Campbell of Kilchrenan, on Loch Awe, furnished Dr. R. C.
Maclagan with the following account of the Highland customs at harvest.
The recollections of Mrs. MacCorquodale, then resident at Kilchrenan,
refer to the customs practised about the middle of the nineteenth century
in the wild and gloomy valley of Glencoe, infamous in history for the
treacherous massacre perpetrated there by the Government troops in 1692.
“Mrs. MacCorquodale says that the rivalry was for the Maiden, and for the
privilege she gave of sending the Cailleach to the next neighbour. The
Maiden was represented by the last stalks reaped; the Cailleach by a
handful taken at random from the field, perhaps the last rig of the reaper
last to finish. The Cailleach was not dressed but carried after binding to
the neighbour’s field. The Maiden was cut in the following manner. All the
reapers gathered round her and kept a short distance from her. They then
threw their hooks [sickles] at her. The person successful in cutting her
down in this manner was the man whose possession she became. Mrs.
MacCorquodale understood that the man of a township who got the Cailleach
finally was supposed to be doomed to poverty for his want of energy.
(Gaelic: _treubhantas_—valour.)

“A sample of the toast to the Cailleach at the harvest entertainment was
as follows: ‘The Cailleach is with ... and is now with (me) since I was
the last. I drink to her health. Since she assisted me in harvest, it is
likely that it is with me she will abide during the winter.’ In explaining
the above toast Mr. Campbell says that it signifies that the Cailleach is
always with agriculturists. ‘She has been with others before and is now
with me (the proposer of the toast). Though I did my best to avoid her I
welcome her as my assistant, and am prepared to entertain her during the
winter.’ Another form of the toast was as follows: ‘To your health, good
wife, who for harvest has come to help us, and if I live I’ll try to
support you when winter comes.’

“John MacCorquodale, Kilchrenan, says that at Crianlarich in Strath
Fillan, they make a Cailleach of sticks and a turnip, old clothes and a
pipe. In this case the effigy passed in succession to seven farms, which
he mentioned, and finally settled with an innkeeper. The list suggested
that the upper farms stood a bad chance, and perhaps that a prosperous
innkeeper could more easily bear up against the reproach and loss (?) of
supporting the Cailleach.

“Duncan MacIntyre, Kilchrenan, says that in one case where the last field
to be reaped was the most fertile land on the farm, the corn first cut in
it, which was taken near the edge, was reserved to make a Cailleach,
should the owner be so happy as to be able to pass her on to his
neighbour. The last blades cut were generally in the middle or best part
of the field. These in any event became the Maiden.” Lastly, Dr. Maclagan
observes that “having directed the attention of Miss Kerr, Port Charlotte,
Islay, to the practice of having two different bunches on the mainland of
Argyle, she informs me that in Islay and Kintyre the last handful is the
Cailleach, and they have no Maiden. The same is the custom in Bernara and
other parts of the Western Isles, while in Mull the last handful is the
Maiden, and they have no Cailleach. In North Uist the habit still prevails
of putting the Cailleach over-night among the standing corn of lazy
crofters.”(548)

(M134) The general rule to which these various accounts point seems to be
that, where both a Maiden and an Old Wife (_Cailleach_) are fashioned out
of the reaped corn at harvest, the Maiden is always made out of the last
stalks left standing, and is kept by the farmer on whose land it was cut;
while the Old Wife is made out of other stalks, sometimes out of the first
stalks cut, and is regularly passed on to a laggard farmer who happens to
be still reaping after his brisker neighbour has cut all his corn. Thus
while each farmer keeps his own Maiden, as the embodiment of the young and
fruitful spirit of the corn, he passes on the Old Wife as soon as he can
to a neighbour, and so the old lady may make the round of all the farms in
the district before she finds a place in which to lay her venerable head.
The farmer with whom she finally takes up her abode is of course the one
who has been the last of all the countryside to finish reaping his crops,
and thus the distinction of entertaining her is rather an invidious one.
Similarly we saw that in Pembrokeshire, where the last corn cut is called,
not the Maiden, but the Hag, she is passed on hastily to a neighbour who
is still at work in his fields and who receives his aged visitor with
anything but a transport of joy. If the Old Wife represents the
corn-spirit of the past year, as she probably does wherever she is
contrasted with and opposed to a Maiden, it is natural enough that her
faded charms should have less attractions for the husbandman than the
buxom form of her daughter, who may be expected to become in her turn the
mother of the golden grain when the revolving year has brought round
another autumn. The same desire to get rid of the effete Mother of the
Corn by palming her off on other people comes out clearly in some of the
customs observed at the close of threshing, particularly in the practice
of passing on a hideous straw puppet to a neighbour farmer who is still
threshing his corn.(549)

(M135) The harvest customs just described are strikingly analogous to the
spring customs which we reviewed in the first part of this work. (1) As in
the spring customs the tree-spirit is represented both by a tree and by a
person,(550) so in the harvest customs the corn-spirit is represented both
by the last sheaf and by the person who cuts or binds or threshes it. The
equivalence of the person to the sheaf is shewn by giving him or her the
same name as the sheaf; by wrapping him or her in it; and by the rule
observed in some places, that when the sheaf is called the Mother, it must
be made up into human shape by the oldest married woman, but that when it
is called the Maiden, it must be cut by the youngest girl.(551) Here the
age of the personal representative of the corn-spirit corresponds with
that of the supposed age of the corn-spirit, just as the human victims
offered by the Mexicans to promote the growth of the maize varied with the
age of the maize.(552) For in the Mexican, as in the European, custom the
human beings were probably representatives of the corn-spirit rather than
victims offered to it. (2) Again, the same fertilising influence which the
tree-spirit is supposed to exert over vegetation, cattle, and even
women(553) is ascribed to the corn-spirit. Thus, its supposed influence on
vegetation is shewn by the practice of taking some of the grain of the
last sheaf (in which the corn-spirit is regularly supposed to be present),
and scattering it among the young corn in spring or mixing it with the
seed-corn.(554) Its influence on animals is shewn by giving the last sheaf
to a mare in foal, to a cow in calf, and to horses at the first
ploughing.(555) Lastly, its influence on women is indicated by the custom
of delivering the Mother-sheaf, made into the likeness of a pregnant
woman, to the farmer’s wife;(556) by the belief that the woman who binds
the last sheaf will have a child next year;(557) perhaps, too, by the idea
that the person who gets it will soon be married.(558)

(M136) Plainly, therefore, these spring and harvest customs are based on
the same ancient modes of thought, and form parts of the same primitive
heathendom, which was doubtless practised by our forefathers long before
the dawn of history. Amongst the marks of a primitive ritual we may note
the following:—

(M137) 1. No special class of persons is set apart for the performance of
the rites; in other words, there are no priests. The rites may be
performed by any one, as occasion demands.

2. No special places are set apart for the performance of the rites; in
other words, there are no temples. The rites may be performed anywhere, as
occasion demands.

3. Spirits, not gods, are recognised. (_a_) As distinguished from gods,
spirits are restricted in their operations to definite departments of
nature. Their names are general, not proper. Their attributes are generic,
rather than individual; in other words, there is an indefinite number of
spirits of each class, and the individuals of a class are all much alike;
they have no definitely marked individuality; no accepted traditions are
current as to their origin, life, adventures, and character. (_b_) On the
other hand gods, as distinguished from spirits, are not restricted to
definite departments of nature. It is true that there is generally some
one department over which they preside as their special province; but they
are not rigorously confined to it; they can exert their power for good or
evil in many other spheres of nature and life. Again, they bear individual
or proper names, such as Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus; and their
individual characters and histories are fixed by current myths and the
representations of art.

4. The rites are magical rather than propitiatory. In other words, the
desired objects are attained, not by propitiating the favour of divine
beings through sacrifice, prayer, and praise, but by ceremonies which, as
I have already explained,(559) are believed to influence the course of
nature directly through a physical sympathy or resemblance between the
rite and the effect which it is the intention of the rite to produce.

(M138) Judged by these tests, the spring and harvest customs of our
European peasantry deserve to rank as primitive. For no special class of
persons and no special places are set exclusively apart for their
performance; they may be performed by any one, master or man, mistress or
maid, boy or girl; they are practised, not in temples or churches, but in
the woods and meadows, beside brooks, in barns, on harvest fields and
cottage floors. The supernatural beings whose existence is taken for
granted in them are spirits rather than deities: their functions are
limited to certain well-defined departments of nature: their names are
general, like the Barley-mother, the Old Woman, the Maiden, not proper
names like Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus. Their generic attributes are
known, but their individual histories and characters are not the subject
of myths. For they exist in classes rather than as individuals, and the
members of each class are indistinguishable. For example, every farm has
its Corn-mother, or its Old Woman, or its Maiden; but every Corn-mother is
much like every other Corn-mother, and so with the Old Women and Maidens.
Lastly, in these harvest, as in the spring customs, the ritual is magical
rather than propitiatory. This is shewn by throwing the Corn-mother into
the river in order to secure rain and dew for the crops;(560) by making
the Old Woman heavy in order to get a heavy crop next year;(561) by
strewing grain from the last sheaf amongst the young crops in spring;(562)
and by giving the last sheaf to the cattle to make them thrive.(563)





CHAPTER VI. THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS.




§ 1. The Corn-mother in America.


(M139) European peoples, ancient and modern, have not been singular in
personifying the corn as a mother goddess. The same simple idea has
suggested itself to other agricultural races in distant parts of the
world, and has been applied by them to other indigenous cereals than
barley and wheat. If Europe has its Wheat-mother and its Barley-mother,
America has its Maize-mother and the East Indies their Rice-mother. These
personifications I will now illustrate, beginning with the American
personification of the maize.

(M140) We have seen that among European peoples it is a common custom to
keep the plaited corn-stalks of the last sheaf, or the puppet which is
formed out of them, in the farm-house from harvest to harvest.(564) The
intention no doubt is, or rather originally was, by preserving the
representative of the corn-spirit to maintain the spirit itself in life
and activity throughout the year, in order that the corn may grow and the
crops be good. This interpretation of the custom is at all events rendered
highly probable by a similar custom observed by the ancient Peruvians, and
thus described by the old Spanish historian Acosta:—“They take a certain
portion of the most fruitful of the maize that grows in their farms, the
which they put in a certain granary which they do call _Pirua_, with
certain ceremonies, watching three nights; they put this maize in the
richest garments they have, and being thus wrapped and dressed, they
worship this _Pirua_, and hold it in great veneration, saying it is the
mother of the maize of their inheritances, and that by this means the
maize augments and is preserved. In this month [the sixth month, answering
to May] they make a particular sacrifice, and the witches demand of this
_Pirua_ if it hath strength sufficient to continue until the next year;
and if it answers no, then they carry this maize to the farm to burn,
whence they brought it, according to every man’s power; then they make
another _Pirua_, with the same ceremonies, saying that they renew it, to
the end the seed of maize may not perish, and if it answers that it hath
force sufficient to last longer, they leave it until the next year. This
foolish vanity continueth to this day, and it is very common amongst the
Indians to have these _Piruas_.”(565)

(M141) In this description of the custom there seems to be some error.
Probably it was the dressed-up bunch of maize, not the granary (_Pirua_),
which was worshipped by the Peruvians and regarded as the Mother of the
Maize. This is confirmed by what we know of the Peruvian custom from
another source. The Peruvians, we are told, believed all useful plants to
be animated by a divine being who causes their growth. According to the
particular plant, these divine beings were called the Maize-mother
(_Zara-mama_), the Quinoa-mother (_Quinoa-mama_), the Coca-mother
(_Coca-mama_), and the Potato-mother (_Axo-mama_). Figures of these divine
mothers were made respectively of ears of maize and leaves of the quinoa
and coca plants; they were dressed in women’s clothes and worshipped. Thus
the Maize-mother was represented by a puppet made of stalks of maize
dressed in full female attire; and the Indians believed that “as mother,
it had the power of producing and giving birth to much maize.”(566)
Probably, therefore, Acosta misunderstood his informant, and the Mother of
the Maize which he describes was not the granary (_Pirua_), but the bunch
of maize dressed in rich vestments. The Peruvian Mother of the Maize, like
the harvest-Maiden at Balquhidder, was kept for a year in order that by
her means the corn might grow and multiply. But lest her strength might
not suffice to last till the next harvest, she was asked in the course of
the year how she felt, and if she answered that she felt weak, she was
burned and a fresh Mother of the Maize made, “to the end the seed of maize
may not perish.” Here, it may be observed, we have a strong confirmation
of the explanation already given of the custom of killing the god, both
periodically and occasionally. The Mother of the Maize was allowed, as a
rule, to live through a year, that being the period during which her
strength might reasonably be supposed to last unimpaired; but on any
symptom of her strength failing she was put to death, and a fresh and
vigorous Mother of the Maize took her place, lest the maize which depended
on her for its existence should languish and decay.

(M142) Hardly less clearly does the same train of thought come out in the
harvest customs formerly observed by the Zapotecs of Mexico. At harvest
the priests, attended by the nobles and people, went in procession to the
maize fields, where they picked out the largest and finest sheaf. This
they took with great ceremony to the town or village, and placed it in the
temple upon an altar adorned with wild flowers. After sacrificing to the
harvest god, the priests carefully wrapped up the sheaf in fine linen and
kept it till seed-time. Then the priests and nobles met again at the
temple, one of them bringing the skin of a wild beast, elaborately
ornamented, in which the linen cloth containing the sheaf was enveloped.
The sheaf was then carried once more in procession to the field from which
it had been taken. Here a small cavity or subterranean chamber had been
prepared, in which the precious sheaf was deposited, wrapt in its various
envelopes. After sacrifice had been offered to the gods of the fields for
an abundant crop the chamber was closed and covered over with earth.
Immediately thereafter the sowing began. Finally, when the time of harvest
drew near, the buried sheaf was solemnly disinterred by the priests, who
distributed the grain to all who asked for it. The packets of grain so
distributed were carefully preserved as talismans till the harvest.(567)
In these ceremonies, which continued to be annually celebrated long after
the Spanish conquest, the intention of keeping the finest sheaf buried in
the maize field from seed-time to harvest was undoubtedly to quicken the
growth of the maize.

(M143) A fuller and to some extent different account of the ancient
Mexican worship of the maize has been given us by the Franciscan monk
Bernardino de Sahagun, who arrived in Mexico in 1529, only eight years
after its conquest by the Spaniards, and devoted the remaining sixty-one
years of his long life to labouring among the Indians for their moral and
spiritual good. Uniting the curiosity of a scientific enquirer to the zeal
of a missionary, and adorning both qualities with the humanity and
benevolence of a good man, he obtained from the oldest and most learned of
the Indians accounts of their ancient customs and beliefs, and embodied
them in a work which, for combined interest of matter and fulness of
detail, has perhaps never been equalled in the records of aboriginal
peoples brought into contact with European civilisation. This great
document, after lying neglected in the dust of Spanish archives for
centuries, was discovered and published almost simultaneously in Mexico
and England in the first half of the nineteenth century. It exists in the
double form of an Aztec text and a Spanish translation, both due to
Sahagun himself. Only the Spanish version has hitherto been published in
full, but the original Aztec text, to judge by the few extracts of it
which have been edited and translated, appears to furnish much more ample
details on many points, and in the interest of learning it is greatly to
be desired that a complete edition and translation of it should be given
to the world.

(M144) Fortunately, among the sections of this great work which have been
edited and translated from the Aztec original into German by Professor
Eduard Seler of Berlin is a long one describing the religious festivals of
the ancient Mexican calendar.(568) From it we learn some valuable
particulars as to the worship of the Maize-goddess and the ceremonies
observed by the Mexicans for the purpose of ensuring a good crop of maize.
The festival was the fourth of the Aztec year, and went by the name of the
Great Vigil. It fell on a date which corresponds to the seventh of April.
The name of the Maize-goddess was Chicome couatl, and the Mexicans
conceived and represented her in the form of a woman, red in face and arms
and legs, wearing a paper crown dyed vermilion, and clad in garments of
the hue of ripe cherries. No doubt the red colour of the goddess and her
garments referred to the deep orange hue of the ripe maize; it was like
the yellow hair of the Greek corn-goddess Demeter. She was supposed to
make all kinds of maize, beans, and vegetables to grow. On the day of the
festival the Mexicans sent out to the maize-fields and fetched from every
field a plant of maize, which they brought to their houses and greeted as
their maize-gods, setting them up in their dwellings, clothing them in
garments, and placing food before them. And after sunset they carried the
maize-plants to the temple of the Maize-goddess, where they snatched them
from one another and fought and struck each other with them. Further, at
this festival they brought to the temple of the Maize-goddess the
maize-cobs which were to be used in the sowing. The cobs were carried by
three maidens in bundles of seven wrapt in red paper. One of the girls was
small with short hair, another was older with long hair hanging down, and
the third was full-grown with her hair wound round her head. Red feathers
were gummed to the arms and legs of the three maidens and their faces were
painted, probably to resemble the red Maize-goddess, whom they may be
supposed to have personated at various stages of the growth of the corn.
The maize-cobs which they brought to the temple of the Maize-goddess were
called by the name of the Maize-god Cinteotl, and they were afterwards
deposited in the granary and kept there as “the heart of the granary” till
the sowing time came round, when they were used as seed.(569)

(M145) The eastern Indians of North America, who subsisted to a large
extent by the cultivation of maize, generally conceived the spirit of the
maize as a woman, and supposed that the plant itself had sprung originally
from the blood drops or the dead body of the Corn Woman. In the sacred
formulas of the Cherokee the corn is sometimes invoked as “the Old Woman,”
and one of their myths relates how a hunter saw a fair woman issue from a
single green stalk of corn.(570) The Iroquois believe the Spirit of the
Corn, the Spirit of Beans, and the Spirit of Squashes to be three sisters
clad in the leaves of their respective plants, very fond of each other,
and delighting to dwell together. This divine trinity is known by the name
of _De-o-ha’-ko_, which means “Our Life” or “Our Supporters.” The three
persons of the trinity have no individual names, and are never mentioned
separately except by means of description. The Indians have a legend that
of old the corn was easily cultivated, yielded abundantly, and had a grain
exceedingly rich in oil, till the Evil One, envious of this good gift of
the Great Spirit to man, went forth into the fields and blighted them. And
still, when the wind rustles in the corn, the pious Indian fancies he
hears the Spirit of the Corn bemoaning her blighted fruitfulness.(571) The
Huichol Indians of Mexico imagine maize to be a little girl, who may
sometimes be heard weeping in the fields; so afraid is she of the wild
beasts that eat the corn.(572)




§ 2. The Mother-cotton in the Punjaub.


(M146) In the Punjaub, to the east of the Jumna, when the cotton boles
begin to burst, it is usual to select the largest plant in the field,
sprinkle it with butter-milk and rice-water, and then bind to it pieces of
cotton taken from the other plants of the field. This selected plant is
called Sirdar or _Bhogaldaí_, that is “mother-cotton,” from _bhogla_, a
name sometimes given to a large cotton-pod, and _daí_ (for _daiya_), “a
mother,” and after it has been saluted, prayers are offered that the other
plants may resemble it in the richness of their produce.(573)




§ 3. The Barley Bride among the Berbers.


(M147) The conception of the corn-spirit as a bride seems to come out
clearly in a ceremony still practised by the Berbers near Tangier, in
Morocco. When the women assemble in the fields to weed the green barley or
reap the crops, they take with them a straw figure dressed like a woman,
and set it up among the corn. Suddenly a group of horsemen from a
neighbouring village gallops up and carries off the straw puppet amid the
screams and cries of the women. However, the ravished effigy is rescued by
another band of mounted men, and after a struggle it remains, more or less
dishevelled, in the hands of the women. That this pretended abduction is a
mimic marriage appears from a Berber custom in accordance with which, at a
real wedding, the bridegroom carries off his seemingly unwilling bride on
horseback, while she screams and pretends to summon her friends to her
rescue. No fixed date is appointed for the simulated abduction of the
straw woman from the barley-field, the time depends upon the state of the
crops, but the day and hour are made public before the event. Each village
used to practise this mimic contest for possession of the straw woman, who
probably represents the Barley Bride, but nowadays the custom is growing
obsolete.(574)

(M148) An earlier account of what seems to be the same practice runs as
follows: “There is a curious custom which seems to be a relic of their
pagan masters, who made this and the adjoining regions of North Africa the
main granary of their Latin empire. When the young corn has sprung up,
which it does about the middle of February, the women of the villages make
up the figure of a female, the size of a very large doll, which they dress
in the gaudiest fashion they can contrive, covering it with ornaments to
which all in the village contribute something; and they give it a tall,
peaked head-dress. This image they carry in procession round their fields,
screaming and singing a peculiar ditty. The doll is borne by the foremost
woman, who must yield it to any one who is quick enough to take the lead
of her, which is the cause of much racing and squabbling. The men also
have a similar custom, which they perform on horseback. They call the
image Mata. These ceremonies are said by the people to bring good luck.
Their efficacy ought to be great, for you frequently see crowds of men
engaged in their performances running and galloping recklessly over the
young crops of wheat and barley. Such customs are directly opposed to the
faith of Islam, and I never met with a Moor who could in any way enlighten
me as to their origin. The Berber tribes, the most ancient race now
remaining in these regions, to which they give the name, are the only ones
which retain this antique usage, and it is viewed by the Arabs and
dwellers in the town as a remnant of idolatry.”(575) We may conjecture
that this gaudily dressed effigy of a female, which the Berber women carry
about their fields when the corn is sprouting, represents the Corn-mother,
and that the procession is designed to promote the growth of the crops by
imparting to them the quickening influence of the goddess. We can
therefore understand why there should be a competition among the women for
the possession of the effigy; each woman probably hopes to secure for
herself and her crops a larger measure of fertility by appropriating the
image of the Corn-mother. The competition on horseback among the men is no
doubt to be explained similarly; they, too, race with each other in their
eagerness to possess themselves of an effigy, perhaps of a male power of
the corn, by whose help they expect to procure a heavy crop. Such contests
for possession of the corn-spirit embodied in the corn-stalks are common,
as we have seen, among the reapers on the harvest fields of Europe.
Perhaps they help to explain some of the contests in the Eleusinian games,
among which horse-races as well as foot-races were included.(576)




§ 4. The Rice-mother in the East Indies.


(M149) If the reader still feels any doubts as to the meaning of the
harvest customs which have been practised within living memory by European
peasants, these doubts may perhaps be dispelled by comparing the customs
observed at the rice-harvest by the Malays and Dyaks of the East Indies.
For these Eastern peoples have not, like our peasantry, advanced beyond
the intellectual stage at which the customs originated; their theory and
their practice are still in unison; for them the quaint rites which in
Europe have long dwindled into mere fossils, the pastime of clowns and the
puzzle of the learned, are still living realities of which they can render
an intelligible and truthful account. Hence a study of their beliefs and
usages concerning the rice may throw some light on the true meaning of the
ritual of the corn in ancient Greece and modern Europe.

(M150) Now the whole of the ritual which the Malays and Dyaks observe in
connexion with the rice is founded on the simple conception of the rice as
animated by a soul like that which these people attribute to mankind. They
explain the phenomena of reproduction, growth, decay and death in the rice
on the same principles on which they explain the corresponding phenomena
in human beings. They imagine that in the fibres of the plant, as in the
body of a man, there is a certain vital element, which is so far
independent of the plant that it may for a time be completely separated
from it without fatal effects, though if its absence be prolonged beyond
certain limits the plant will wither and die. This vital yet separable
element is what, for the want of a better word, we must call the soul of a
plant, just as a similar vital and separable element is commonly supposed
to constitute the soul of man; and on this theory or myth of the
plant-soul is built the whole worship of the cereals, just as on the
theory or myth of the human soul is built the whole worship of the dead,—a
towering superstructure reared on a slender and precarious foundation.

(M151) The strict parallelism between the Indonesian ideas about the soul
of man and the soul of rice is well brought out by Mr. R. J. Wilkinson in
the following passage: “The spirit of life,—which, according to the
ancient Indonesian belief, existed in all things, even in what we should
now consider inanimate objects—is known as the _sĕmangat_. It was not a
‘soul’ in the modern English sense, since it was not the exclusive
possession of mankind, its separation from the body did not necessarily
mean death, and its nature may possibly not have been considered immortal.
At the present day, if a Malay feels faint, he will describe his condition
by saying that his ‘spirit of life’ is weak or is ‘flying’ from his body;
he sometimes appeals to it to return: ‘Hither, hither, bird of my soul.’
Or again, if a Malay lover wishes to influence the mind of a girl, he may
seek to obtain control of her _sĕmangat_, for he believes that this spirit
of active and vigorous life must quit the body when the body sleeps and so
be liable to capture by the use of magic arts. It is, however, in the
ceremonies connected with the so-called ‘spirit of the rice-crops’ that
the peculiar characteristics of the _sĕmangat_ come out most clearly. The
Malay considers it essential that the spirit of life should not depart
from the rice intended for next year’s sowing as otherwise the dead seed
would fail to produce any crop whatever. He, therefore, approaches the
standing rice-crops at harvest-time in a deprecatory manner; he addresses
them in endearing terms; he offers propitiatory sacrifices; he fears that
he may scare away the timorous ‘bird of life’ by the sight of a weapon or
the least sign of violence. He must reap the seed-rice, but he does it
with a knife of peculiar shape, such that the cruel blade is hidden away
beneath the reaper’s fingers and does not alarm the ‘soul of the rice.’
When once the seed-rice has been harvested, more expeditious reaping-tools
may be employed, since it is clearly unnecessary to retain the spirit of
life in grain that is only intended for the cooking-pot. Similar rites
attend all the processes of rice-cultivation—the sowing and the
planting-out as well as the harvest,—for at each of these stages there is
a risk that the vitality of the crop may be ruined if the bird of life is
scared away. In the language used by the high-priests of these very
ancient ceremonies we constantly find references to Sri (the Hindu Goddess
of the Crops), to the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and to Adam who,
according to Moslem tradition, was the first planter of cereals;—many of
these references only represent the attempts of the conservative Malays to
make their old religions harmonize with later beliefs. Beneath successive
layers of religious veneer, we see the animism of the old Indonesians, the
theory of a bird-spirit of life, and the characteristic view that the best
protection against evil lies in gentleness and courtesy to all animate and
inanimate things.”(577)

(M152) “It is a familiar fact,” says another eminent authority on the East
Indies, “that the Indonesian imagines rice to be animated, to be provided
with ‘soul-stuff.’ Since rice is everywhere cultivated in the Indian
Archipelago, and with some exceptions is the staple food, we need not
wonder that the Indonesian conceives the rice to be not merely animated in
the ordinary sense but to be possessed of a soul-stuff which in strength
and dignity ranks with that of man. Thus the Bataks apply the same word
_tondi_ to the soul-stuff of rice and the soul-stuff of human beings.
Whereas the Dyaks of Poelopetak give the name of _gana_ to the soul-stuff
of things, animals, and plants, they give the name of _hambaruan_ to the
soul-stuff of rice as well as of man. So also the inhabitants of Halmahera
call the soul-stuff of things and plants _giki_ and _duhutu_, but in men
and food they recognise a _gurumi_. Of the Javanese, Malays, Macassars,
Buginese, and the inhabitants of the island of Buru we know that they
ascribe a _sumangè_, _sumangat_, or _sĕmangat_ to rice as well as to men.
So it is with the Toradjas of Central Celebes; while they manifestly
conceive all things and plants as animated, they attribute a _tanoana_ or
soul-stuff only to men, animals, and rice. It need hardly be said that
this custom originates in the very high value that is set on rice.”(578)

(M153) Believing the rice to be animated by a soul like that of a man, the
Indonesians naturally treat it with the deference and the consideration
which they shew to their fellows. Thus they behave towards the rice in
bloom as they behave towards a pregnant woman; they abstain from firing
guns or making loud noises in the field, lest they should so frighten the
soul of the rice that it would miscarry and bear no grain; and for the
same reason they will not talk of corpses or demons in the rice-fields.
Moreover, they feed the blooming rice with foods of various kinds which
are believed to be wholesome for women with child; but when the rice-ears
are just beginning to form, they are looked upon as infants, and women go
through the fields feeding them with rice-pap as if they were human
babes.(579) In such natural and obvious comparisons of the breeding plant
to a breeding woman, and of the young grain to a young child, is to be
sought the origin of the kindred Greek conception of the Corn-mother and
the Corn-daughter, Demeter and Persephone, and we need not go further
afield to search for it in a primitive division of labour between the
sexes.(580) But if the timorous feminine soul of the rice can be
frightened into a miscarriage even by loud noises, it is easy to imagine
what her feelings must be at harvest, when people are under the sad
necessity of cutting down the rice with the knife. At so critical a season
every precaution must be used to render the necessary surgical operation
of reaping as inconspicuous and as painless as possible. For that reason,
as we have seen,(581) the reaping of the seed-rice is done with knives of
a peculiar pattern, such that the blades are hidden in the reapers’ hands
and do not frighten the rice-spirit till the very last moment, when her
head is swept off almost before she is aware; and from a like delicate
motive the reapers at work in the fields employ a special form of speech,
which the rice-spirit cannot be expected to understand, so that she has no
warning or inkling of what is going forward till the heads of rice are
safely deposited in the basket.(582)

(M154) Among the Indonesian peoples who thus personify the rice we may
take the Kayans or Bahaus of Central Borneo as typical. As we have already
seen, they are essentially an agricultural people devoted to the
cultivation of rice, which furnishes their staple food; their religion is
deeply coloured by this main occupation of their lives, and it presents
many analogies to the Eleusinian worship of the corn-goddesses Demeter and
Persephone.(583) And just as the Greeks regarded corn as a gift of the
goddess Demeter, so the Kayans believe that rice, maize, sweet potatoes,
tobacco, and all the other products of the earth which they cultivate,
were originally created for their benefit by the spirits.(584)

(M155) In order to secure and detain the volatile soul of the rice the
Kayans resort to a number of devices. Among the instruments employed for
this purpose are a miniature ladder, a spatula, and a basket containing
hooks, thorns, and cords. With the spatula the priestess strokes the soul
of the rice down the little ladder into the basket, where it is naturally
held fast by the hooks, the thorn, and the cord; and having thus captured
and imprisoned the soul she conveys it into the rice-granary. Sometimes a
bamboo box and a net are used for the same purpose. And in order to ensure
a good harvest for the following year it is necessary not only to detain
the soul of all the grains of rice which are safely stored in the granary,
but also to attract and recover the soul of all the rice that has been
lost through falling to the earth or being eaten by deer, apes, and pigs.
For this purpose instruments of various sorts have been invented by the
priests. One, for example, is a bamboo vessel provided with four hooks
made from the wood of a fruit-tree, by means of which the absent rice-soul
may be hooked and drawn back into the vessel, which is then hung up in the
house. Sometimes two hands carved out of the wood of a fruit-tree are used
for the same purpose. And every time that a Kayan housewife fetches rice
from the granary for the use of her household, she must propitiate the
souls of the rice in the granary, lest they should be angry at being
robbed of their substance. To keep them in good humour a bundle of
shavings of a fruit-tree and a little basket are always hung in the
granary. An egg and a small vessel containing the juice of sugar-cane are
attached as offerings to the bundle of shavings, and the basket contains a
sacred mat, which is used at fetching the rice. When the housewife comes
to fetch rice from the granary, she pours juice of the sugar-cane on the
egg, takes the sacred mat from the basket, spreads it on the ground, lays
a stalk of rice on it, and explains to the souls of the rice the object of
her coming. Then she kneels before the mat, mutters some prayers or
spells, eats a single grain from the rice-stalk, and having restored the
various objects to their proper place, departs from the granary with the
requisite amount of rice, satisfied that she has discharged her religious
duty to the spirits of the rice. At harvest the spirits of the rice are
propitiated with offerings of food and water, which are carried by
children to the rice-fields. At evening the first rice-stalks which have
been cut are solemnly brought home in a consecrated basket to the beating
of a gong, and all cats and dogs are driven from the house before the
basket with its precious contents is brought in.(585)

(M156) Among the Kayans of the Mahakam river in Central Borneo the sowing
of the rice is immediately preceded by a performance of masked men, which
is intended to attract the soul or rather souls of the rice and so to make
sure that the harvest will be a good one. The performers represent
spirits; for, believing that spirits are mightier than men, the Kayans
imagine that they can acquire and exert superhuman power by imitating the
form and actions of spirits.(586) To support their assumed character they
wear grotesque masks with goggle eyes, great teeth, huge ears, and beards
of white goat’s hair, while their bodies are so thickly wrapt up in
shredded banana-leaves that to the spectator they present the appearance
of unwieldy masses of green foliage. The leader of the band carries a long
wooden hook or rather crook, the shaft of which is partly whittled into
loose fluttering shavings. These disguises they don at a little distance
from the village, then dropping down the river in boats they land and
march in procession to an open space among the houses, where the people,
dressed out in all their finery, are waiting to witness the performance.
Here the maskers range themselves in a circle and dance for some time
under the burning rays of the midday sun, waving their arms, shaking and
turning their heads, and executing a variety of steps to the sound of a
gong, which is beaten according to a rigidly prescribed rhythm. After the
dance they form a line, one behind the other, to fetch the vagrant soul of
the rice from far countries. At the head of the procession marches the
leader holding high his crook and behind him follow all the other masked
men in their leafy costume, each holding his fellow by the hand. As he
strides along, the leader makes a motion with his crook as if he were
hooking something and drawing it to himself, and the gesture is imitated
by all his followers. What he is thus catching are the souls of the rice,
which sometimes wander far away, and by drawing them home to the village
he is believed to ensure that the seed of the rice which is about to be
sown will produce a plentiful harvest. As the spirits are thought not to
possess the power of speech, the actors who personate them may not utter a
word, else they would run the risk of falling down dead. The great field
of the chief is sown by representatives of all the families, both free and
slaves, on the day after the masquerade. On the same day the free families
sacrifice on their fields and begin their sowing on one or other of the
following days. Every family sets up in its field a sacrificial stage or
altar, with which the sowers must remain in connexion during the time of
sowing. Therefore no stranger may pass between them and the stage; indeed
the Kayans are not allowed to have anything to do with strangers in the
fields; above all they may not speak with them. If such a thing should
accidentally happen, the sowing must cease for that day. At the sowing
festival, but at no other time, Kayan men of the Mahakam river, like their
brethren of the Mendalam river, amuse themselves with spinning tops. For
nine days before the masquerade takes place the people are bound to
observe certain taboos: no stranger may enter the village: no villager may
pass the night out of his own house: they may not hunt, nor pluck fruits,
nor fish with the casting-net or the drag-net.(587) In this tribe the
proper day for sowing is officially determined by a priest from an
observation of the sun setting behind the hills in a line with two stones
which the priest has set up, one behind the other. However, the official
day often does not coincide with the actual day of sowing.(588)

(M157) The masquerade thus performed by the Kayans of the Mahakam river
before sowing the rice is an instructive example of a religious or rather
magical drama acted for the express purpose of ensuring a good crop. As
such it may be compared to the drama of Demeter and Persephone, the
Corn-mother and the Corn-maiden, which was annually played at the
Eleusinian mysteries shortly before the autumnal sowing of the corn. If my
interpretation of these mysteries is correct, the intention of the Greek
and of the Kayan drama was one and the same.

(M158) At harvest the Dyaks of Northern Borneo have a special feast, the
object of which is “to secure the soul of the rice, which if not so
detained, the produce of their farms would speedily rot and decay. At
sowing time, a little of the principle of life of the rice, which at every
harvest is secured by their priests, is planted with their other seeds,
and is thus propagated and communicated.” The mode of securing the soul of
the rice varies in different tribes. In the Quop district the ceremony is
performed by the chief priest alone, first in the long broad verandah of
the common house and afterwards in each separate family apartment. As a
preparation for the ceremony a bamboo altar, decorated with green boughs
and red and white streamers, is erected in the verandah, and presents a
very gay appearance. Here the people, old and young, assemble, the
priestesses dressed in gorgeous array and the elder men wearing
bright-coloured jackets and trousers of purple, yellow, or scarlet hue,
while the young men and lads beat gongs and drums. When the priest, with a
bundle of charms in either hand, is observed to be gazing earnestly in the
air at something invisible to common eyes, the band strikes up with
redoubled energy, and the elderly men in the gay breeches begin to shriek
and revolve round the altar in the dance. Suddenly the priest starts up
and makes a rush at the invisible object; men run to him with white
cloths, and as he shakes his charms over the cloths a few grains of rice
fall into them. These grains are the soul of the rice; they are carefully
folded up in the cloths and laid at the foot of the altar. The same
performance is afterwards repeated in every family apartment. In some
tribes the soul of the rice is secured at midnight. Outside the village a
lofty altar is erected in an open space surrounded by the stately forms of
the tropical palms. Huge bonfires cast a ruddy glow over the scene and
light up the dusky but picturesque forms of the Dyaks as they move in slow
and solemn dance round the altar, some bearing lighted tapers in their
hands, others brass salvers with offerings of rice, others covered
baskets, of which the contents are hidden from all but the initiated. The
corner-posts of the altar are lofty bamboos, whose leafy tops are yet
green and rustle in the wind; and from one of them a long narrow streamer
of white cloth hangs down. Suddenly elders and priests rush at this
streamer, seize the end of it, and amid the crashing music of drums and
gongs and the yells of the spectators begin dancing and swaying themselves
backwards and forwards, and to and fro. A priest or elder mounts the altar
amid the shouts of the bystanders and shakes the tall bamboos violently;
and in the midst of all this excitement and hubbub small stones, bunches
of hair, and grains of rice fall at the feet of the dancers, and are
carefully picked up by watchful attendants. These grains are the soul of
the rice. The ceremony ends with several of the oldest priestesses
falling, or pretending to fall, senseless to the ground, where, till they
come to themselves, their heads are supported and their faces fanned by
their younger colleagues. At the end of the harvest, when the year’s crop
has been garnered, another feast is held. A pig and fowls are killed, and
for four days gongs are beaten and dancing kept up. For eight days the
village is tabooed and no stranger may enter it. At this festival the
ceremony of catching the soul of the rice is repeated to prevent the crop
from rotting; and the soul so obtained is mixed with the seed-rice of the
next year.(589)

(M159) The same need of securing the soul of the rice, if the crop is to
thrive, is keenly felt by the Karens of Burma. When a rice-field does not
flourish, they suppose that the soul (_kelah_) of the rice is in some way
detained from the rice. If the soul cannot be called back, the crop will
fail. The following formula is used in recalling the _kelah_ (soul) of the
rice: “O come, rice-_kelah_, come! Come to the field. Come to the rice.
With seed of each gender, come. Come from the river Kho, come from the
river Kaw; from the place where they meet, come. Come from the West, come
from the East. From the throat of the bird, from the maw of the ape, from
the throat of the elephant. Come from the sources of rivers and their
mouths. Come from the country of the Shan and Burman. From the distant
kingdoms come. From all granaries come. O rice-_kelah_, come to the
rice.”(590)

(M160) Among the Taungthu of Upper Burma it is customary, when all the
rice-fields have been reaped, to make a trail of unhusked rice (paddy) and
husks all the way from the fields to the farm-house in order to guide the
spirit or butterfly, as they call it, of the rice home to the granary.
Care is taken that there should be no break in the trail, and the
butterfly of the rice is invited with loud cries to come to the house.
Were the spirit of the rice not secured in this manner, next year’s
harvest would be bad.(591) Similarly among the Cherokee Indians of North
America “care was always taken to keep a clean trail from the field to the
house, so that the corn might be encouraged to stay at home and not go
wandering elsewhere,” and “seven ears from the last year’s crop were
always put carefully aside, in order to _attract the corn_, until the new
crop was ripened.”(592) In Hsa Möng Hkam, a native state of Upper Burma,
when two men work rice-fields in partnership, they take particular care as
to the division of the grain between them. Each partner has a basket made,
of which both top and bottom are carefully closed with wood to prevent the
butterfly spirit of the rice from escaping; for if it were to flutter
away, the next year’s crop would be but poor.(593) Among the Talaings of
Lower Burma “the last sheaf is larger than the rest; it is brought home
separately, usually if not invariably on the morning after the remainder
of the harvest has been carted to the threshing-floor. The cultivators
drive out in their bullock-cart, taking with them a woman’s comb, a
looking-glass, and a woman’s skirt. The sheaf is dressed in the skirt, and
apparently the form is gone through of presenting it with the glass and
comb. It is then brought home in triumph, the people decking the cart with
their silk kerchiefs, and cheering and singing the whole way. On their
arrival home they celebrate the occasion with a feast. Strictly speaking
the sheaf should be kept apart from the rest of the harvest; owing,
however, to the high price of paddy it often finds its way to the
threshing-floor. Even when this is not the case it is rarely tended so
carefully as it is said to have been in former days, and if not threshed
with the remaining crop is apt to be eaten by the cattle. So far as I
could ascertain it had never been the custom to keep it throughout the
year; but on the first ploughing of the ensuing season there was some
ceremony in connection with it. The name of the sheaf was _Bonmagyi_; at
first I was inclined to fancy that this was a contraction of _thelinbon ma
gyi_, ‘the old woman of the threshing-floor.’ There are, however, various
reasons for discarding this derivation, and I am unable to suggest any
other.”(594) In this custom the personification of the last sheaf of rice
as a woman comes out clearly in the practice of dressing it up in female
attire.

(M161) The Corn-mother of our European peasants has her match in the
Rice-mother of the Minangkabauers of Sumatra. The Minangkabauers
definitely attribute a soul to rice, and will sometimes assert that rice
pounded in the usual way tastes better than rice ground in a mill, because
in the mill the body of the rice was so bruised and battered that the soul
has fled from it. Like the Javanese they think that the rice is under the
special guardianship of a female spirit called Saning Sari, who is
conceived as so closely knit up with the plant that the rice often goes by
her name, as with the Romans the corn might be called Ceres. In particular
Saning Sari is represented by certain stalks or grains called _indoea
padi_, that is, literally, “Mother of Rice,” a name that is often given to
the guardian spirit herself. This so-called Mother of Rice is the occasion
of a number of ceremonies observed at the planting and harvesting of the
rice as well as during its preservation in the barn. When the seed of the
rice is about to be sown in the nursery or bedding-out ground, where under
the wet system of cultivation it is regularly allowed to sprout before
being transplanted to the fields, the best grains are picked out to form
the Rice-mother. These are then sown in the middle of the bed, and the
common seed is planted round about them. The state of the Rice-mother is
supposed to exert the greatest influence on the growth of the rice; if she
droops or pines away, the harvest will be bad in consequence. The woman
who sows the Rice-mother in the nursery lets her hair hang loose and
afterwards bathes, as a means of ensuring an abundant harvest. When the
time comes to transplant the rice from the nursery to the field, the
Rice-mother receives a special place either in the middle or in a corner
of the field, and a prayer or charm is uttered as follows: “Saning Sari,
may a measure of rice come from a stalk of rice and a basketful from a
root; may you be frightened neither by lightning nor by passers-by!
Sunshine make you glad; with the storm may you be at peace; and may rain
serve to wash your face!” While the rice is growing, the particular plant
which was thus treated as the Rice-mother is lost sight of; but before
harvest another Rice-mother is found. When the crop is ripe for cutting,
the oldest woman of the family or a sorcerer goes out to look for her. The
first stalks seen to bend under a passing breeze are the Rice-mother, and
they are tied together but not cut until the first-fruits of the field
have been carried home to serve as a festal meal for the family and their
friends, nay even for the domestic animals; since it is Saning Sari’s
pleasure that the beasts also should partake of her good gifts. After the
meal has been eaten, the Rice-mother is fetched home by persons in gay
attire, who carry her very carefully under an umbrella in a neatly worked
bag to the barn, where a place in the middle is assigned to her. Every one
believes that she takes care of the rice in the barn and even multiplies
it not uncommonly.(595)

(M162) When the Tomori of Central Celebes are about to plant the rice,
they bury in the field some betel as an offering to the spirits who cause
the rice to grow. Over the spot where the offering is buried a small floor
of wood is laid, and the family sits on it and consumes betel together as
a sort of silent prayer or charm to ensure the growth of the crop. The
rice that is planted round this spot is the last to be reaped at harvest.
At the commencement of the reaping the stalks of this patch of rice are
tied together into a sheaf, which is called “the Mother of the Rice”
(_ineno pae_), and offerings in the shape of rice, fowl’s liver, eggs, and
other things are laid down before it. When all the rest of the rice in the
field has been reaped, “the Mother of the Rice” is cut down and carried
with due honour to the rice-barn, where it is laid on the floor, and all
the other sheaves are piled upon it. The Tomori, we are told, regard the
Mother of the Rice as a special offering made to the rice-spirit Omonga,
who dwells in the moon. If that spirit is not treated with proper respect,
for example if the people who fetch rice from the barn are not decently
clad, he is angry and punishes the offenders by eating up twice as much
rice in the barn as they have taken out of it; some people have heard him
smacking his lips in the barn, as he devoured the rice. On the other hand
the Toradjas of Central Celebes, who also practise the custom of the
Rice-mother at harvest, regard her as the actual mother of the whole
harvest, and therefore keep her carefully, lest in her absence the
garnered store of rice should all melt away and disappear.(596) Among the
Tomori, as among other Indonesian peoples, reapers at work in the field
make use of special words which differ from the terms in ordinary use; the
reason for adopting this peculiar form of speech at reaping appears to be,
as I have already pointed out, a fear of alarming the timid soul of the
rice by revealing the fate in store for it.(597) To the same motive is
perhaps to be ascribed the practice observed by the Tomori of asking each
other riddles at harvest.(598) Similarly among the Alfoors or Toradjas of
Poso, in Central Celebes, while the people are watching the crops in the
fields they amuse themselves with asking each other riddles and telling
stories, and when any one guesses a riddle aright, the whole company cries
out, “Let our rice come up, let fat ears come up both in the lowlands and
on the heights.” But all the time between harvest and the laying out of
new fields the asking of riddles and the telling of stories is strictly
forbidden.(599) Thus among these people it seems that the asking of
riddles is for some reason regarded as a charm which may make or mar the
crops.

(M163) Among some of the Toradjas of Celebes the ceremony of cutting and
bringing home the Mother of the Rice is observed as follows. When the crop
is ripe in the fields, the Mother of the Rice (_ânrong pâre_) must be
fetched before the rest of the harvest is reaped. The ceremony is
performed on a lucky day by a woman, who knows the rites. For three days
previously she observes certain precautions to prevent the soul
(_soemangâna âse_) of the rice from escaping out of the field, as it might
be apt to do, if it got wind that the reapers with their cruel knives were
so soon to crop the ripe ears. With this view she ties up a handful of
standing stalks of the rice into a bunch in each corner of the field,
while she recites an invocation to the spirits of the rice, bidding them
gather in the field from the four quarters of the heaven. As a further
precaution she stops the sluices, lest with the outrush of the water from
the rice-field the sly soul of the rice should make good its escape. And
she ties knots in the leaves of the rice-plants, all to hinder the soul of
the rice from running away. This she does in the afternoon of three
successive days. On the morning of the fourth day she comes again to the
field, sits down in a corner of it, and kisses the rice three times, again
inviting the souls of the rice to come thither and assuring them of her
affection and care. Then she cuts the bunch of rice-stalks which she had
tied together on one of the previous days. The stalks in the bunch must be
nine in number, and their leaves must be cut with them, not thrown away.
As she cuts, she may not look about her, nor cry out, nor speak to any
one, nor be spoken to; but she says to the rice, “The prophet reaps you. I
take you, but you diminish not; I hold you in my hand and you increase.
You are the links of my soul, the support of my body, my blessing, my
salvation. There is no God but God.” Then she passes to another corner of
the field to cut the bunch of standing rice in it with the same ceremony;
but before coming to it she stops half way to pluck another bunch of five
stalks in like manner. Thus from the four sides of the field she collects
in all fifty-six stalks of rice, which together make up the Mother of the
Rice (_ânrong pâre_). Then in a corner of the field she makes a little
stage and lays the Mother of the Rice on it, with the ears turned towards
the standing rice and the cut stalks towards the dyke which encloses the
field. After that she binds the fifty-six stalks of the Rice-mother into a
sheaf with the bark of a particular kind of tree. As she does so, she
says, “The prophet binds you into a sheaf; the angel increases you; the
_awâlli_ cares for you. We loved and cared for each other.” Then, after
anointing the sheaf and fumigating it with incense, she lays it on the
little stage. On this stage she had previously placed several kinds of
rice, betel, one or more eggs, sweetmeats, and young coco-nuts, all as
offerings to the Mother of the Rice, who, if she did not receive these
attentions, would be offended and visit people with sickness or even
vanish away altogether. Sometimes on large farms a fowl is killed and its
blood deposited in the half of a coco-nut on the stage. The standing rice
round about the stage is the last of the whole field to be reaped. When it
has been cut, it is bound up with the Mother of the Rice into a single
sheaf and carried home. Any body may carry the sheaf, but in doing so he
or she must take care not to let it fall, or the Rice-mother would be
angry and might disappear.(600)

(M164) Among the Battas or Bataks of Sumatra the rice appears to be
personified as a young unmarried woman rather than as a mother. On the
first day of reaping the crop only a few ears of rice are plucked and made
up into a little sheaf. After that the reaping may begin, and while it is
going forward offerings of rice and betel are presented in the middle of
the field to the spirit of the rice, who is personified under the name of
Miss Dajang. The offering is accompanied by a common meal shared by the
reapers. When all the rice has been reaped, threshed and garnered, the
little sheaf which was first cut is brought in and laid on the top of the
heap in the granary, together with an egg or a stone, which is supposed to
watch over the rice.(601) Though we are not told, we may assume that the
personified spirit of the rice is supposed to be present in the first
sheaf cut and in that form to keep guard over the rice in the granary.
Another writer, who has independently described the customs of the
Karo-Bataks at the rice-harvest, tells us that the largest sheaf, which is
usually the one first made up, is regarded as the seat of the rice-soul
and is treated exactly like a person; at the trampling of the paddy to
separate the grain from the husks the sheaf in question is specially
entrusted to a girl who has a lucky name, and whose parents are both
alive.(602)

(M165) In Mandeling, a district of Sumatra, contrary to what seems to be
the usual practice, the spirit of the rice is personified as a male
instead of as a female and is called the Rajah or King of the Rice. He is
supposed to be immanent in certain rice-plants, which are recognised by
their peculiar formation, such as a concealment of the ears in the sheath,
an unusual arrangement of the leaves, or a stunted growth. When one or
more such plants have been discovered in the field, they are sprinkled
with lime-juice, and the spirits are invoked by name and informed that
they are expected at home and that all is ready for their reception. Then
the King of the Rice is plucked with the hand and seven neighbouring
rice-stalks cut with a knife. He and his seven companions are then
carefully brought home; the bearer may not speak a word, and the children
in the house may make no noise till the King of the Rice has been safely
lodged in the granary and tethered, for greater security, with a grass
rope to one of the posts. As soon as that is done, the doors are shut to
prevent the spirits of the rice from escaping. The person who fetches the
King of the Rice from the field should prepare himself for the important
duty by eating a hearty meal, for it would be an omen of a bad harvest if
he presented himself before the King of the Rice with an empty stomach.
For the same reason the sower of rice should sow the seed on a full
stomach, in order that the ears which spring from the seed may be full
also.(603)

(M166) Again, just as in Scotland the old and the young spirit of the corn
are represented as an Old Wife (_Cailleach_) and a Maiden respectively, so
in the Malay Peninsula we find both the Rice-mother and her child
represented by different sheaves or bundles of ears on the harvest-field.
The following directions for obtaining both are translated from a native
Malay work on the cultivation of rice: “When the rice is ripe all over,
one must first take the ‘soul’ out of all the plots of one’s field. You
choose the spot where the rice is best and where it is ‘female’ (that is
to say, where the bunch of stalks is big) and where there are seven joints
in the stalk. You begin with a bunch of this kind and clip seven stems to
be the ‘soul of the rice’; and then you clip yet another handful to be the
‘mother-seed’ for the following year. The ‘soul’ is wrapped in a white
cloth tied with a cord of _tĕrap_ bark, and made into the shape of a
little child in swaddling clothes, and put into the small basket. The
‘mother-seed’ is put into another basket, and both are fumigated with
benzoin, and then the two baskets are piled the one on the other and taken
home, and put into the _kĕpuk_ (the receptacle in which rice is
stored).”(604) The ceremony of cutting and bringing home the Soul of the
Rice was witnessed by Mr. W. W. Skeat at Chodoi in Selangor on the
twenty-eighth of January 1897. The particular bunch or sheaf which was to
serve as the Mother of the Rice-soul had previously been sought and
identified by means of the markings or shape of the ears. From this sheaf
an aged sorceress, with much solemnity, cut a little bundle of seven ears,
anointed them with oil, tied them round with parti-coloured thread,
fumigated them with incense, and having wrapt them in a white cloth
deposited them in a little oval-shaped basket. These seven ears were the
infant Soul of the Rice and the little basket was its cradle. It was
carried home to the farmer’s house by another woman, who held up an
umbrella to screen the tender infant from the hot rays of the sun. Arrived
at the house the Rice-child was welcomed by the women of the family, and
laid, cradle and all, on a new sleeping-mat with pillows at the head.
After that the farmer’s wife was instructed to observe certain rules of
taboo for three days, the rules being in many respects identical with
those which have to be observed for three days after the birth of a real
child. For example, perfect quiet must be observed, as in a house where a
baby has just been born; a light was placed near the head of the
Rice-child’s bed and might not go out at night, while the fire on the
hearth had to be kept up both day and night till the three days were over;
hair might not be cut; and money, rice, salt, oil, and so forth were
forbidden to go out of the house, though of course these valuable articles
were quite free to come in. Something of the same tender care which is
thus bestowed on the newly-born Rice-child is naturally extended also to
its parent, the sheaf from whose body it was taken. This sheaf, which
remains standing in the field after the Rice-soul has been carried home
and put to bed, is treated as a newly-made mother; that is to say, young
shoots of trees are pounded together and scattered broadcast every evening
for three successive days, and when the three days are up you take the
pulp of a coco-nut and what are called “goat-flowers,” mix them up, eat
them with a little sugar, and spit some of the mixture out among the rice.
So after a real birth the young shoots of the jack-fruit, the rose-apple,
certain kinds of banana, and the thin pulp of young coco-nuts are mixed
with dried fish, salt, acid, prawn-condiment, and the like dainties to
form a sort of salad, which is administered to mother and child for three
successive days. The last sheaf is reaped by the farmer’s wife, who
carries it back to the house, where it is threshed and mixed with the
Rice-soul. The farmer then takes the Rice-soul and its basket and deposits
it, together with the product of the last sheaf, in the big circular
rice-bin used by the Malays. Some grains from the Rice-soul are mixed with
the seed which is to be sown in the following year.(605) In this
Rice-mother and Rice-child of the Malay Peninsula we may see the
counterpart and in a sense the prototype of the Demeter and Persephone of
ancient Greece.

(M167) Once more, the European custom of representing the corn-spirit in
the double form of bride and bridegroom(606) has its parallel in a
ceremony observed at the rice-harvest in Java. Before the reapers begin to
cut the rice, the priest or sorcerer picks out a number of ears of rice,
which are tied together, smeared with ointment, and adorned with flowers.
Thus decked out, the ears are called the _padi-pĕngantèn_, that is, the
Rice-bride and the Rice-bridegroom; their wedding feast is celebrated, and
the cutting of the rice begins immediately afterwards. Later on, when the
rice is being got in, a bridal chamber is partitioned off in the barn, and
furnished with a new mat, a lamp, and all kinds of toilet articles.
Sheaves of rice, to represent the wedding guests, are placed beside the
Rice-bride and the Rice-bridegroom. Not till this has been done may the
whole harvest be housed in the barn. And for the first forty days after
the rice has been housed, no one may enter the barn, for fear of
disturbing the newly-wedded pair.(607)

(M168) Another account of the Javanese custom runs as follows. When the
rice at harvest is to be brought home, two handfuls of common unhusked
rice (paddy) are tied together into a sheaf, and two handfuls of a special
kind of rice (_kleefrijst_) are tied up into another sheaf; then the two
sheaves are fastened together in a bundle which goes by the name of “the
bridal pair” (_pĕn-gantenan_). The special rice is the bridegroom, the
common rice is the bride. At the barn “the bridal pair” is received on a
winnowing-fan by a wizard, who removes them from the fan and lays them on
the floor with a couch of _kloewih_ leaves under them “in order that the
rice may increase,” and beside them he places a _kĕmiri_ nut, tamarind
pips, and a top and string as playthings with which the young couple may
divert themselves. The bride is called Emboq Sri and the bridegroom
Sadana, and the wizard addresses them by name, saying: “Emboq Sri and
Sadana, I have now brought you home and I have prepared a place for you.
May you sleep agreeably in this agreeable place! Emboq Sri and Sadana, you
have been received by So-and-So (the owner), let So-and-So lead a life
free from care. May Emboq Sri’s luck continue in this very agreeable
place!”(608)

(M169) The same idea of the rice-spirit as a husband and wife meets us
also in the harvest customs of Bali and Lombok, two islands which lie
immediately to the east of Java. “The inhabitants of Lombok,” we are told,
“think of the rice-plant as animated by a soul. They regard it as one with
a divinity and treat it with the distinction and honour that are shewn to
a very important person. But as it is impossible to treat all the
rice-stalks in a field ceremoniously, the native, feeling the need of a
visible and tangible representative of the rice-deity and taking a part
for the whole, picks out some stalks and conceives them as the visible
abode of the rice-soul, to which he can pay his homage and from which he
hopes to derive advantage. These few stalks, the foremost among their many
peers, form what is called the _ninin pantun_ by the people of Bali and
the _inan paré_ by the Sassaks” of Lombok.(609) The name _ina paré_ is
sometimes translated Rice-mother, but the more correct translation is said
to be “the principal rice.” The stalks of which this “principal rice”
consists are the first nine shoots which the husbandman himself takes with
his own hands from the nursery or bedding-out ground and plants at the
upper end of the rice-field beside the inlet of the irrigation water. They
are planted with great care in a definite order, one of them in the middle
and the other eight in a circle about it. When the whole field has been
planted, an offering, which usually consists of rice in many forms, is
made to “the principal rice” (_inan paré_). When the rice-stalks begin to
swell the rice is said to be pregnant, and the “principal rice” is treated
with the delicate attentions which are paid to a woman with child. Thus
rice-pap and eggs are laid down beside it, and sour fruits are often
presented to it, because pregnant women are believed to long for sour
fruit. Moreover the fertilisation of the rice by the irrigation water is
compared to the union of the goddess Batari Sri with her husband Ida
Batara (Vishnu), who is identified with the flowing water. Some people
sprinkle the pregnant rice with water in which cooling drugs have been
infused or with water which has stood on a holy grave, in order that the
ears may fill out well. When the time of harvest has come, the owner of
the field himself makes a beginning by cutting “the principal rice” (_inan
paré_ or _ninin pantun_) with his own hands and binding it into two
sheaves, each composed of one hundred and eight stalks with their leaves
attached to them. One of the sheaves represents a man and the other a
woman, and they are called “husband and wife” (_istri kakung_). The male
sheaf is wound about with thread so that none of the leaves are visible,
whereas the female sheaf has its leaves bent over and tied so as to
resemble the roll of a woman’s hair. Sometimes, for further distinction, a
necklace of rice-straw is tied round the female sheaf. The two sheaves are
then fastened together and tied to a branch of a tree, which is stuck in
the ground at the inlet of the irrigation water. There they remain while
all the rest of the rice is being reaped. Sometimes, instead of being tied
to a bough, they are laid on a little bamboo altar. The reapers at their
work take great care to let no grains of rice fall on the ground,
otherwise the Rice-goddess would grieve and weep at being parted from her
sisters, who are carried to the barn. If any portion of the field remains
unreaped at nightfall, the reapers make loops in the leaves of some of the
standing stalks to prevent the evil spirits from proceeding with the
harvest during the hours of darkness, or, according to another account,
lest the Rice-goddess should go astray. When the rice is brought home from
the field, the two sheaves representing the husband and wife are carried
by a woman on her head, and are the last of all to be deposited in the
barn. There they are laid to rest on a small erection or on a cushion of
rice-straw along with three lumps of _nasi_, which are regarded as the
attendants or watchers of the bridal pair. The whole arrangement, we are
informed, has for its object to induce the rice to increase and multiply
in the granary, so that the owner may get more out of it than he put in.
Hence when the people of Bali bring the two sheaves, the husband and wife,
into the barn, they say “Increase ye and multiply without ceasing.” When a
woman fetches rice from the granary for the use of her household, she has
to observe a number of rules, all of which are clearly dictated by respect
for the spirit of the rice. She should not enter the barn in the dark or
at noon perhaps because the spirit may then be supposed to be sleeping.
She must enter with her right foot first. She must be decently clad with
her breasts covered. She must not chew betel, and she would do well to
rinse her mouth before repairing to the barn, just as she would do if she
waited on a person of distinction or on a divinity. No sick or menstruous
woman may enter the barn, and there must be no talking in it, just as
there must be no talking when shelled rice is being scooped up. When all
the rice in the barn has been used up, the two sheaves representing the
husband and wife remain in the empty building till they have gradually
disappeared or been devoured by mice. The pinch of hunger sometimes drives
individuals to eat up the rice of these two sheaves, but the wretches who
do so are viewed with disgust by their fellows and branded as pigs and
dogs. Nobody would ever sell these holy sheaves with the rest of their
profane brethren.(610)

(M170) The same notion of the propagation of the rice by a male and female
power finds expression amongst the Szis of Upper Burma. When the paddy,
that is, the rice with the husks still on it, has been dried and piled in
a heap for threshing, all the friends of the household are invited to the
threshing-floor, and food and drink are brought out. The heap of paddy is
divided and one half spread out for threshing, while the other half is
left piled up. On the pile food and spirits are set, and one of the
elders, addressing “the father and mother of the paddy-plant,” prays for
plenteous harvests in future, and begs that the seed may bear many fold.
Then the whole party eat, drink, and make merry. This ceremony at the
threshing-floor is the only occasion when these people invoke “the father
and mother of the paddy.”(611)




§ 5. The Spirit of the Corn embodied in Human Beings.


(M171) Thus the theory which recognises in the European Corn-mother,
Corn-maiden, and so forth, the embodiment in vegetable form of the
animating spirit of the crops is amply confirmed by the evidence of
peoples in other parts of the world, who, because they have lagged behind
the European races in mental development, retain for that very reason a
keener sense of the original motives for observing those rustic rites
which among ourselves have sunk to the level of meaningless survivals. The
reader may, however, remember that according to Mannhardt, whose theory I
am expounding, the spirit of the corn manifests itself not merely in
vegetable but also in human form; the person who cuts the last sheaf or
gives the last stroke at threshing passes for a temporary embodiment of
the corn-spirit, just as much as the bunch of corn which he reaps or
threshes. Now in the parallels which have been hitherto adduced from the
customs of peoples outside Europe the spirit of the crops appears only in
vegetable form. It remains, therefore, to prove that other races besides
our European peasantry have conceived the spirit of the crops as
incorporate in or represented by living men and women. Such a proof, I may
remind the reader, is germane to the theme of this book; for the more
instances we discover of human beings representing in themselves the life
or animating spirit of plants, the less difficulty will be felt at
classing amongst them the King of the Wood at Nemi.

(M172) The Mandans and Minnitarees of North America used to hold a
festival in spring which they called the corn-medicine festival of the
women. They thought that a certain Old Woman who Never Dies made the crops
to grow, and that, living somewhere in the south, she sent the migratory
waterfowl in spring as her tokens and representatives. Each sort of bird
represented a special kind of crop cultivated by the Indians: the wild
goose stood for the maize, the wild swan for the gourds, and the wild duck
for the beans. So when the feathered messengers of the Old Woman began to
arrive in spring the Indians celebrated the corn-medicine festival of the
women. Scaffolds were set up, on which the people hung dried meat and
other things by way of offerings to the Old Woman; and on a certain day
the old women of the tribe, as representatives of the Old Woman who Never
Dies, assembled at the scaffolds each bearing in her hand an ear of maize
fastened to a stick. They first planted these sticks in the ground, then
danced round the scaffolds, and finally took up the sticks again in their
arms. Meanwhile old men beat drums and shook rattles as a musical
accompaniment to the performance of the old women. Further, young women
came and put dried flesh into the mouths of the old women, for which they
received in return a grain of the consecrated maize to eat. Three or four
grains of the holy corn were also placed in the dishes of the young women,
to be afterwards carefully mixed with the seed-corn, which they were
supposed to fertilise. The dried flesh hung on the scaffold belonged to
the old women, because they represented the Old Woman who Never Dies. A
similar corn-medicine festival was held in autumn for the purpose of
attracting the herds of buffaloes and securing a supply of meat. At that
time every woman carried in her arms an uprooted plant of maize. They gave
the name of the Old Woman who Never Dies both to the maize and to those
birds which they regarded as symbols of the fruits of the earth, and they
prayed to them in autumn saying, “Mother, have pity on us! send us not the
bitter cold too soon, lest we have not meat enough! let not all the game
depart, that we may have something for the winter!” In autumn, when the
birds were flying south, the Indians thought that they were going home to
the Old Woman and taking to her the offerings that had been hung up on the
scaffolds, especially the dried meat, which she ate.(612) Here then we
have the spirit or divinity of the corn conceived as an Old Woman and
represented in bodily form by old women, who in their capacity of
representatives receive some at least of the offerings which are intended
for her.

(M173) The Miamis, another tribe of North American Indians, tell a tale in
which the spirit of the corn figures as a broken-down old man. They say
that corn, that is, maize, first grew in heaven, and that the Good Spirit
commanded it to go down and dwell with men on earth. At first it was
reluctant to do so, but the Good Spirit prevailed on it to go by promising
that men would treat it well in return for the benefit they derived from
it. “So corn came down from heaven to benefit the Indian, and this is the
reason why they esteem it, and are bound to take good care of it, and to
nurture it, and not raise more than they actually require, for their own
consumption.” But once a whole town of the Miamis was severely punished
for failing in respect for the corn. They had raised a great crop and
stored much of it under ground, and much of it they packed for immediate
use in bags. But the corn was so plentiful that much of it still remained
on the stalks, and the young men grew reckless and played with the shelled
cobs, throwing them at each other, and at last they even broke the cobs
from the growing stalks and pelted each other with them too. But a
judgment soon followed on such wicked conduct. For when the hunters went
out to hunt, though the deer seemed to abound, they could kill nothing. So
the corn was gone and they could get no meat, and the people were hungry.
Well, one of the hunters, roaming by himself in the woods to find
something to eat for his aged father, came upon a small lodge in the
wilderness where a decrepit old man was lying with his back to the fire.
Now the old man was no other than the Spirit of the Corn. He said to the
young hunter, “My grandson, the Indians have afflicted me much, and
reduced me to the sad state in which you see me. In the side of the lodge
you will find a small kettle. Take it and eat, and when you have satisfied
your hunger, I will speak to you.” But the kettle was full of such fine
sweet corn as the hunter had never in his life seen before. When he had
eaten his fill, the old man resumed the thread of his discourse, saying,
“Your people have wantonly abused and reduced me to the state you now see
me in: my back-bone is broken in many places; it was the foolish young men
of your town who did me this evil, for I am Mondamin, or corn, that came
down from heaven. In their play they threw corn-cobs and corn-ears at one
another, treating me with contempt. I am the corn-spirit whom they have
injured. That is why you experience bad luck and famine. I am the cause;
you feel my just resentment, therefore your people are punished. Other
Indians do not treat me so. They respect me, and so it is well with them.
Had you no elders to check the youths at their wanton sport? You are an
eye-witness of my sufferings. They are the effect of what you did to my
body.” With that he groaned and covered himself up. So the young hunter
returned and reported what he had seen and heard; and since then the
Indians have been very careful not to play with corn in the ear.(613)

(M174) In some parts of India the harvest-goddess Gauri is represented at
once by an unmarried girl and by a bundle of wild balsam plants, which is
made up into the figure of a woman and dressed as such with mask,
garments, and ornaments. Both the human and the vegetable representative
of the goddess are worshipped, and the intention of the whole ceremony
appears to be to ensure a good crop of rice.(614)




§ 6. The Double Personification of the Corn as Mother and Daughter.


(M175) Compared with the Corn-mother of Germany and the Harvest-maiden of
Scotland, the Demeter and Persephone of Greece are late products of
religious growth. Yet as members of the Aryan family the Greeks must at
one time or another have observed harvest customs like those which are
still practised by Celts, Teutons, and Slavs, and which, far beyond the
limits of the Aryan world, have been practised by the Indians of Peru, the
Dyaks of Borneo, and many other natives of the East Indies—a sufficient
proof that the ideas on which these customs rest are not confined to any
one race, but naturally suggest themselves to all untutored peoples
engaged in agriculture. It is probable, therefore, that Demeter and
Persephone, those stately and beautiful figures of Greek mythology, grew
out of the same simple beliefs and practices which still prevail among our
modern peasantry, and that they were represented by rude dolls made out of
the yellow sheaves on many a harvest-field long before their breathing
images were wrought in bronze and marble by the master hands of Phidias
and Praxiteles. A reminiscence of that olden time—a scent, so to say, of
the harvest-field—lingered to the last in the title of the Maiden (_Kore_)
by which Persephone was commonly known. Thus if the prototype of Demeter
is the Corn-mother of Germany, the prototype of Persephone is the
Harvest-maiden, which, autumn after autumn, is still made from the last
sheaf on the Braes of Balquhidder. Indeed, if we knew more about the
peasant-farmers of ancient Greece, we should probably find that even in
classical times they continued annually to fashion their Corn-mothers
(Demeters) and Maidens (Persephones) out of the ripe corn on the
harvest-fields.(615) But unfortunately the Demeter and Persephone whom we
know were the denizens of towns, the majestic inhabitants of lordly
temples; it was for such divinities alone that the refined writers of
antiquity had eyes; the uncouth rites performed by rustics amongst the
corn were beneath their notice. Even if they noticed them, they probably
never dreamed of any connexion between the puppet of corn-stalks on the
sunny stubble-field and the marble divinity in the shady coolness of the
temple. Still the writings even of these town-bred and cultured persons
afford us an occasional glimpse of a Demeter as rude as the rudest that a
remote German village can shew. Thus the story that Iasion begat a child
Plutus (“wealth,” “abundance”) by Demeter on a thrice-ploughed field,(616)
may be compared with the West Prussian custom of the mock birth of a child
on the harvest-field.(617) In this Prussian custom the pretended mother
represents the Corn-mother (_Žytniamatka_); the pretended child represents
the Corn-baby, and the whole ceremony is a charm to ensure a crop next
year.(618) The custom and the legend alike point to an older practice of
performing, among the sprouting crops in spring or the stubble in autumn,
one of those real or mimic acts of procreation by which, as we have seen,
primitive man often seeks to infuse his own vigorous life into the languid
or decaying energies of nature.(619) Another glimpse of the savage under
the civilised Demeter will be afforded farther on, when we come to deal
with another aspect of these agricultural divinities.

(M176) The reader may have observed that in modern folk-customs the
corn-spirit is generally represented either by a Corn-mother (Old Woman,
etc.) or by a Maiden (Harvest-child, etc.), not both by a Corn-mother and
by a Maiden. Why then did the Greeks represent the corn both as a mother
and a daughter?

(M177) In the Breton custom the mother-sheaf—a large figure made out of
the last sheaf with a small corn-doll inside of it—clearly represents both
the Corn-mother and the Corn-daughter, the latter still unborn.(620)
Again, in the Prussian custom just referred to, the woman who plays the
part of Corn-mother represents the ripe grain; the child appears to
represent next year’s corn, which may be regarded, naturally enough, as
the child of this year’s corn, since it is from the seed of this year’s
harvest that next year’s crop will spring. Further, we have seen that
among the Malays of the Peninsula and sometimes among the Highlanders of
Scotland the spirit of the grain is represented in double female form,
both as old and young, by means of ears taken alike from the ripe crop: in
Scotland the old spirit of the corn appears as the Carline or _Cailleach_,
the young spirit as the Maiden; while among the Malays of the Peninsula
the two spirits of the rice are definitely related to each other as mother
and child.(621) Judged by these analogies Demeter would be the ripe crop
of this year; Persephone would be the seed-corn taken from it and sown in
autumn, to reappear in spring.(622) The descent of Persephone into the
lower world would thus be a mythical expression for the sowing of the
seed; her reappearance in spring would signify the sprouting of the young
corn. In this way the Persephone of one year becomes the Demeter of the
next, and this may very well have been the original form of the myth. But
when with the advance of religious thought the corn came to be
personified, no longer as a being that went through the whole cycle of
birth, growth, reproduction, and death within a year, but as an immortal
goddess, consistency required that one of the two personifications, the
mother or the daughter, should be sacrificed. However, the double
conception of the corn as mother and daughter may have been too old and
too deeply rooted in the popular mind to be eradicated by logic, and so
room had to be found in the reformed myth both for mother and daughter.
This was done by assigning to Persephone the character of the corn sown in
autumn and sprouting in spring, while Demeter was left to play the
somewhat vague part of the heavy mother of the corn, who laments its
annual disappearance underground, and rejoices over its reappearance in
spring. Thus instead of a regular succession of divine beings, each living
a year and then giving birth to her successor, the reformed myth exhibits
the conception of two divine and immortal beings, one of whom annually
disappears into and reappears from the ground, while the other has little
to do but to weep and rejoice at the appropriate seasons.(623)

(M178) This theory of the double personification of the corn in Greek myth
assumes that both personifications (Demeter and Persephone) are original.
But if we suppose that the Greek myth started with a single
personification, the after-growth of a second personification may perhaps
be explained as follows. On looking over the harvest customs which have
been passed under review, it may be noticed that they involve two distinct
conceptions of the corn-spirit. For whereas in some of the customs the
corn-spirit is treated as immanent in the corn, in others it is regarded
as external to it. Thus when a particular sheaf is called by the name of
the corn-spirit, and is dressed in clothes and handled with
reverence,(624) the spirit is clearly regarded as immanent in the corn.
But when the spirit is said to make the crops grow by passing through
them, or to blight the grain of those against whom she has a grudge,(625)
she is apparently conceived as distinct from, though exercising power
over, the corn. Conceived in the latter way the corn-spirit is in a fair
way to become a deity of the corn, if she has not become so already. Of
these two conceptions, that of the corn-spirit as immanent in the corn is
doubtless the older, since the view of nature as animated by indwelling
spirits appears to have generally preceded the view of it as controlled by
external deities; to put it shortly, animism precedes deism. In the
harvest customs of our European peasantry the corn-spirit seems to be
conceived now as immanent in the corn and now as external to it. In Greek
mythology, on the other hand, Demeter is viewed rather as the deity of the
corn than as the spirit immanent in it.(626) The process of thought which
leads to the change from the one mode of conception to the other is
anthropomorphism, or the gradual investment of the immanent spirits with
more and more of the attributes of humanity. As men emerge from savagery
the tendency to humanise their divinities gains strength; and the more
human these become the wider is the breach which severs them from the
natural objects of which they were at first merely the animating spirits
or souls. But in the progress upwards from savagery men of the same
generation do not march abreast; and though the new anthropomorphic gods
may satisfy the religious wants of the more developed intelligences, the
backward members of the community will cling by preference to the old
animistic notions. Now when the spirit of any natural object such as the
corn has been invested with human qualities, detached from the object, and
converted into a deity controlling it, the object itself is, by the
withdrawal of its spirit, left inanimate; it becomes, so to say, a
spiritual vacuum. But the popular fancy, intolerant of such a vacuum, in
other words, unable to conceive anything as inanimate, immediately creates
a fresh mythical being, with which it peoples the vacant object. Thus the
same natural object comes to be represented in mythology by two distinct
beings: first by the old spirit now separated from it and raised to the
rank of a deity; second, by the new spirit, freshly created by the popular
fancy to supply the place vacated by the old spirit on its elevation to a
higher sphere. For example, in Japanese religion the solar character of
Ama-terasu, the great goddess of the Sun, has become obscured, and
accordingly the people have personified the sun afresh under the name of
_Nichi-rin sama_, “sun-wheeling personage,” and _O tentō sama_,
“august-heaven-path-personage”; to the lower class of Japanese at the
present day, especially to women and children, _O tentō sama_ is the
actual sun, sexless, mythless, and unencumbered by any formal worship, yet
looked up to as a moral being who rewards the good, punishes the wicked,
and enforces oaths made in his name.(627) In such cases the problem for
mythology is, having got two distinct personifications of the same object,
what to do with them? How are their relations to each other to be
adjusted, and room found for both in the mythological system? When the old
spirit or new deity is conceived as creating or producing the object in
question, the problem is easily solved. Since the object is believed to be
produced by the old spirit, and animated by the new one, the latter, as
the soul of the object, must also owe its existence to the former; thus
the old spirit will stand to the new one as producer to produced, that is,
in mythology, as parent to child, and if both spirits are conceived as
female, their relation will be that of mother and daughter. In this way,
starting from a single personification of the corn as female, mythic fancy
might in time reach a double personification of it as mother and daughter.
It would be very rash to affirm that this was the way in which the myth of
Demeter and Persephone actually took shape; but it seems a legitimate
conjecture that the reduplication of deities, of which Demeter and
Persephone furnish an example, may sometimes have arisen in the way
indicated. For example, among the pairs of deities dealt with in a former
part of this work, it has been shewn that there are grounds for regarding
both Isis and her companion god Osiris as personifications of the
corn.(628) On the hypothesis just suggested, Isis would be the old
corn-spirit, and Osiris would be the newer one, whose relationship to the
old spirit was variously explained as that of brother, husband, and
son;(629) for of course mythology would always be free to account for the
coexistence of the two divinities in more ways than one. It must not,
however, be forgotten that this proposed explanation of such pairs of
deities as Demeter and Persephone or Isis and Osiris is purely
conjectural, and is only given for what it is worth.





CHAPTER VII. LITYERSES.




§ 1. Songs of the Corn Reapers.


(M179) In the preceding pages an attempt has been made to shew that in the
Corn-mother and Harvest-maiden of Northern Europe we have the prototypes
of Demeter and Persephone. But an essential feature is still wanting to
complete the resemblance. A leading incident in the Greek myth is the
death and resurrection of Persephone; it is this incident which, coupled
with the nature of the goddess as a deity of vegetation, links the myth
with the cults of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, and Dionysus; and it is in virtue
of this incident that the myth finds a place in our discussion of the
Dying God. It remains, therefore, to see whether the conception of the
annual death and resurrection of a god, which figures so prominently in
these great Greek and Oriental worships, has not also its origin or its
analogy in the rustic rites observed by reapers and vine-dressers amongst
the corn-shocks and the vines.

(M180) Our general ignorance of the popular superstitions and customs of
the ancients has already been confessed. But the obscurity which thus
hangs over the first beginnings of ancient religion is fortunately
dissipated to some extent in the present case. The worships of Osiris,
Adonis, and Attis had their respective seats, as we have seen, in Egypt,
Syria, and Phrygia; and in each of these countries certain harvest and
vintage customs are known to have been observed, the resemblance of which
to each other and to the national rites struck the ancients themselves,
and, compared with the harvest customs of modern peasants and barbarians,
seems to throw some light on the origin of the rites in question.

(M181) It has been already mentioned, on the authority of Diodorus, that
in ancient Egypt the reapers were wont to lament over the first sheaf cut,
invoking Isis as the goddess to whom they owed the discovery of corn.(630)
To the plaintive song or cry sung or uttered by Egyptian reapers the
Greeks gave the name of Maneros, and explained the name by a story that
Maneros, the only son of the first Egyptian king, invented agriculture,
and, dying an untimely death, was thus lamented by the people.(631) It
appears, however, that the name Maneros is due to a misunderstanding of
the formula _mââ-ne-hra_, “Come to the house,” which has been discovered
in various Egyptian writings, for example in the dirge of Isis in the Book
of the Dead.(632) Hence we may suppose that the cry _mââ-ne-hra_ was
chanted by the reapers over the cut corn as a dirge for the death of the
corn-spirit (Isis or Osiris) and a prayer for its return. As the cry was
raised over the first ears reaped, it would seem that the corn-spirit was
believed by the Egyptians to be present in the first corn cut and to die
under the sickle. We have seen that in the Malay Peninsula and Java the
first ears of rice are taken to represent either the Soul of the Rice or
the Rice-bride and the Rice-bridegroom.(633) In parts of Russia the first
sheaf is treated much in the same way that the last sheaf is treated
elsewhere. It is reaped by the mistress herself, taken home and set in the
place of honour near the holy pictures; afterwards it is threshed
separately, and some of its grain is mixed with the next year’s
seed-corn.(634) In Aberdeenshire, while the last corn cut was generally
used to make the _clyack_ sheaf,(635) it was sometimes, though rarely, the
first corn cut that was dressed up as a woman and carried home with
ceremony.(636)

(M182) In Phoenicia and Western Asia a plaintive song, like that chanted
by the Egyptian corn-reapers, was sung at the vintage and probably (to
judge by analogy) also at harvest. This Phoenician song was called by the
Greeks Linus or Ailinus and explained, like Maneros, as a lament for the
death of a youth named Linus.(637) According to one story Linus was
brought up by a shepherd, but torn to pieces by his dogs.(638) But, like
Maneros, the name Linus or Ailinus appears to have originated in a verbal
misunderstanding, and to be nothing more than the cry _ai lanu_, that is
“Woe to us,” which the Phoenicians probably uttered in mourning for
Adonis;(639) at least Sappho seems to have regarded Adonis and Linus as
equivalent.(640)

(M183) In Bithynia a like mournful ditty, called Bormus or Borimus, was
chanted by Mariandynian reapers. Bormus was said to have been a handsome
youth, the son of King Upias or of a wealthy and distinguished man. One
summer day, watching the reapers at work in his fields, he went to fetch
them a drink of water and was never heard of more. So the reapers sought
for him, calling him in plaintive strains, which they continued to chant
at harvest ever afterwards.(641)




§ 2. Killing the Corn-spirit.


(M184) In Phrygia the corresponding song, sung by harvesters both at
reaping and at threshing, was called Lityerses. According to one story,
Lityerses was a bastard son of Midas, King of Phrygia, and dwelt at
Celaenae. He used to reap the corn, and had an enormous appetite. When a
stranger happened to enter the corn-field or to pass by it, Lityerses gave
him plenty to eat and drink, then took him to the corn-fields on the banks
of the Maeander and compelled him to reap along with him. Lastly, it was
his custom to wrap the stranger in a sheaf, cut off his head with a
sickle, and carry away his body, swathed in the corn stalks. But at last
Hercules undertook to reap with him, cut off his head with the sickle, and
threw his body into the river.(642) As Hercules is reported to have slain
Lityerses in the same way that Lityerses slew others (as Theseus treated
Sinis and Sciron), we may infer that Lityerses used to throw the bodies of
his victims into the river. According to another version of the story,
Lityerses, a son of Midas, was wont to challenge people to a reaping match
with him, and if he vanquished them he used to thrash them; but one day he
met with a stronger reaper, who slew him.(643)

(M185) There are some grounds for supposing that in these stories of
Lityerses we have the description of a Phrygian harvest custom in
accordance with which certain persons, especially strangers passing the
harvest field, were regularly regarded as embodiments of the corn-spirit,
and as such were seized by the reapers, wrapt in sheaves, and beheaded,
their bodies, bound up in the corn-stalks, being afterwards thrown into
water as a rain-charm. The grounds for this supposition are, first, the
resemblance of the Lityerses story to the harvest customs of European
peasantry, and, second, the frequency of human sacrifices offered by
savage races to promote the fertility of the fields. We will examine these
grounds successively, beginning with the former.

In comparing the story with the harvest customs of Europe,(644) three
points deserve special attention, namely: I. the reaping match and the
binding of persons in the sheaves; II. the killing of the corn-spirit or
his representatives; III. the treatment of visitors to the harvest field
or of strangers passing it.

(M186) I. In regard to the first head, we have seen that in modern Europe
the person who cuts or binds or threshes the last sheaf is often exposed
to rough treatment at the hands of his fellow-labourers. For example, he
is bound up in the last sheaf, and, thus encased, is carried or carted
about, beaten, drenched with water, thrown on a dunghill, and so forth.
Or, if he is spared this horseplay, he is at least the subject of ridicule
or is thought to be destined to suffer some misfortune in the course of
the year. Hence the harvesters are naturally reluctant to give the last
cut at reaping or the last stroke at threshing or to bind the last sheaf,
and towards the close of the work this reluctance produces an emulation
among the labourers, each striving to finish his task as fast as possible,
in order that he may escape the invidious distinction of being last.(645)
For example, in the neighbourhood of Danzig, when the winter corn is cut
and mostly bound up in sheaves, the portion which still remains to be
bound is divided amongst the women binders, each of whom receives a swath
of equal length to bind. A crowd of reapers, children, and idlers gather
round to witness the contest, and at the word, “Seize the Old Man,” the
women fall to work, all binding their allotted swaths as hard as they can.
The spectators watch them narrowly, and the woman who cannot keep pace
with the rest and consequently binds the last sheaf has to carry the Old
Man (that is, the last sheaf made up in the form of a man) to the
farmhouse and deliver it to the farmer with the words, “Here I bring you
the Old Man.” At the supper which follows, the Old Man is placed at the
table and receives an abundant portion of food, which, as he cannot eat
it, falls to the share of the woman who carried him. Afterwards the Old
Man is placed in the yard and all the people dance round him. Or the woman
who bound the last sheaf dances for a good while with the Old Man, while
the rest form a ring round them; afterwards they all, one after the other,
dance a single round with him. Further, the woman who bound the last sheaf
goes herself by the name of the Old Man till the next harvest, and is
often mocked with the cry, “Here comes the Old Man.”(646) In the
Mittelmark district of Prussia, when the rye has been reaped, and the last
sheaves are about to be tied up, the binders stand in two rows facing each
other, every woman with her sheaf and her straw rope before her. At a
given signal they all tie up their sheaves, and the one who is the last to
finish is ridiculed by the rest. Not only so, but her sheaf is made up
into human shape and called the Old Man, and she must carry it home to the
farmyard, where the harvesters dance in a circle round her and it. Then
they take the Old Man to the farmer and deliver it to him with the words,
“We bring the Old Man to the Master. He may keep him till he gets a new
one.” After that the Old Man is set up against a tree, where he remains
for a long time, the butt of many jests.(647) At Aschbach in Bavaria, when
the reaping is nearly finished, the reapers say, “Now, we will drive out
the Old Man.” Each of them sets himself to reap a patch of corn as fast as
he can; he who cuts the last handful or the last stalk is greeted by the
rest with an exulting cry, “You have the Old Man.” Sometimes a black mask
is fastened on the reaper’s face and he is dressed in woman’s clothes; or
if the reaper is a woman, she is dressed in man’s clothes. A dance
follows. At the supper the Old Man gets twice as large a portion of food
as the others. The proceedings are similar at threshing; the person who
gives the last stroke is said to have the Old Man. At the supper given to
the threshers he has to eat out of the cream-ladle and to drink a great
deal. Moreover, he is quizzed and teased in all sorts of ways till he
frees himself from further annoyance by treating the others to brandy or
beer.(648)

(M187) These examples illustrate the contests in reaping, threshing, and
binding which take place amongst the harvesters, from their unwillingness
to suffer the ridicule and discomfort incurred by the one who happens to
finish his work last. It will be remembered that the person who is last at
reaping, binding, or threshing, is regarded as the representative of the
corn-spirit,(649) and this idea is more fully expressed by binding him or
her in corn-stalks. The latter custom has been already illustrated, but a
few more instances may be added. At Kloxin, near Stettin, the harvesters
call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “You have the Old Man, and
must keep him.” The Old Man is a great bundle of corn decked with flowers
and ribbons, and fashioned into a rude semblance of the human form. It is
fastened on a rake or strapped on a horse, and brought with music to the
village. In delivering the Old Man to the farmer, the woman says:—


    “_Here, dear Sir, is the Old Man._
    _He can stay no longer on the field,_
    _He can hide himself no longer,_
    _He must come into the village._
    _Ladies and gentlemen, pray be so kind_
    _As to give the Old Man a present._”


As late as the first half of the nineteenth century the custom was to tie
up the woman herself in pease-straw, and bring her with music to the
farmhouse, where the harvesters danced with her till the pease-straw fell
off.(650) In other villages round Stettin, when the last harvest-waggon is
being loaded, there is a regular race amongst the women, each striving not
to be last. For she who places the last sheaf on the waggon is called the
Old Man, and is completely swathed in corn-stalks; she is also decked with
flowers, and flowers and a helmet of straw are placed on her head. In
solemn procession she carries the harvest-crown to the squire, over whose
head she holds it while she utters a string of good wishes. At the dance
which follows, the Old Man has the right to choose his, or rather her,
partner; it is an honour to dance with him.(651) At Blankenfelde, in the
district of Potsdam, the woman who binds the last sheaf at the rye-harvest
is saluted with the cry, “You have the Old Man.” A woman is then tied up
in the last sheaf in such a way that only her head is left free; her hair
also is covered with a cap made of rye-stalks, adorned with ribbons and
flowers. She is called the Harvest-man, and must keep dancing in front of
the last harvest-waggon till it reaches the squire’s house, where she
receives a present and is released from her envelope of corn.(652) At
Gommern, near Magdeburg, the reaper who cuts the last ears of corn is
often wrapt up in corn-stalks so completely that it is hard to see whether
there is a man in the bundle or not. Thus wrapt up he is taken by another
stalwart reaper on his back, and carried round the field amidst the joyous
cries of the harvesters.(653) At Neuhausen, near Merseburg, the person who
binds the last sheaf is wrapt in ears of oats and saluted as the Oats-man,
whereupon the others dance round him.(654) At Brie, Isle de France, the
farmer himself is tied up in the _first_ sheaf.(655) At the harvest-home
at Udvarhely, Transylvania, a person is encased in corn-stalks, and wears
on his head a crown made out of the last ears cut. On reaching the village
he is soused with water over and over.(656) At Dingelstedt, in the
district of Erfurt, down to the first half of the nineteenth century it
was the custom to tie up a man in the last sheaf. He was called the Old
Man, and was brought home on the last waggon, amid huzzas and music. On
reaching the farmyard he was rolled round the barn and drenched with
water.(657) At Nördlingen in Bavaria the man who gives the last stroke at
threshing is wrapt in straw and rolled on the threshing-floor.(658) In
some parts of Oberpfalz, Bavaria, he is said to “get the Old Man,” is
wrapt in straw, and carried to a neighbour who has not yet finished his
threshing.(659) In Silesia the woman who binds the last sheaf has to
submit to a good deal of horse-play. She is pushed, knocked down, and tied
up in the sheaf, after which she is called the corn-puppet
(_Kornpopel_).(660) In Thüringen a sausage is stuck in the last sheaf at
threshing, and thrown, with the sheaf, on the threshing-floor. It is
called the _Barrenwurst_ or _Bazenwurst_, and is eaten by all the
threshers. After they have eaten it a man is encased in pease-straw, and
thus attired is led through the village.(661)

(M188) “In all these cases the idea is that the spirit of the corn—the Old
Man of vegetation—is driven out of the corn last cut or last threshed, and
lives in the barn during the winter. At sowing-time he goes out again to
the fields to resume his activity as animating force among the sprouting
corn.”(662)

(M189) Ideas of the same sort appear to attach to the last corn in India.
At Hoshangábád, in Central India, when the reaping is nearly done, a patch
of corn, about a rood in extent, is left standing in the cultivator’s last
field, and the reapers rest a little. Then they rush at this remnant, tear
it up, and cast it into the air, shouting victory to one or other of the
local gods, according to their religious persuasion. A sheaf is made out
of this corn, tied to a bamboo, set up in the last harvest cart, and
carried home in triumph. Here it is fastened up in the threshing-floor or
attached to a tree or to the cattle-shed, where its services are held to
be essential for the purpose of averting the evil-eye.(663) A like custom
prevails in the eastern districts of the North-Western Provinces of India.
Sometimes a little patch is left untilled as a refuge for the
field-spirit; sometimes it is sown, and when the corn of this patch has
been reaped with a rush and a shout, it is presented to the priest, who
offers it to the local gods or bestows it on a beggar.(664)

(M190) II. Passing to the second point of comparison between the Lityerses
story and European harvest customs, we have now to see that in the latter
the corn-spirit is often believed to be killed at reaping or threshing. In
the Romsdal and other parts of Norway, when the haymaking is over, the
people say that “the Old Hay-man has been killed.” In some parts of
Bavaria the man who gives the last stroke at threshing is said to have
killed the Corn-man, the Oats-man, or the Wheat-man, according to the
crop.(665) In the Canton of Tillot, in Lothringen, at threshing the last
corn the men keep time with their flails, calling out as they thresh, “We
are killing the Old Woman! We are killing the Old Woman!” If there is an
old woman in the house she is warned to save herself, or she will be
struck dead.(666) Near Ragnit, in Lithuania, the last handful of corn is
left standing by itself, with the words, “The Old Woman (_Boba_) is
sitting in there.” Then a young reaper whets his scythe, and, with a
strong sweep, cuts down the handful. It is now said of him that “he has
cut off the Boba’s head”; and he receives a gratuity from the farmer and a
jugful of water over his head from the farmer’s wife.(667) According to
another account, every Lithuanian reaper makes haste to finish his task;
for the Old Rye-woman lives in the last stalks, and whoever cuts the last
stalks kills the Old Rye-woman, and by killing her he brings trouble on
himself.(668) In Wilkischken, in the district of Tilsit, the man who cuts
the last corn goes by the name of “the killer of the Rye-woman.”(669) In
Lithuania, again, the corn-spirit is believed to be killed at threshing as
well as at reaping. When only a single pile of corn remains to be
threshed, all the threshers suddenly step back a few paces, as if at the
word of command. Then they fall to work, plying their flails with the
utmost rapidity and vehemence, till they come to the last bundle. Upon
this they fling themselves with almost frantic fury, straining every
nerve, and raining blows on it till the word “Halt!” rings out sharply
from the leader. The man whose flail is the last to fall after the command
to stop has been given is immediately surrounded by all the rest, crying
out that “he has struck the Old Rye-woman dead.” He has to expiate the
deed by treating them to brandy; and, like the man who cuts the last corn,
he is known as “the killer of the Old Rye-woman.”(670) Sometimes in
Lithuania the slain corn-spirit was represented by a puppet. Thus a female
figure was made out of corn-stalks, dressed in clothes, and placed on the
threshing-floor, under the heap of corn which was to be threshed last.
Whoever thereafter gave the last stroke at threshing “struck the Old Woman
dead.”(671) We have already met with examples of burning the figure which
represents the corn-spirit.(672) In the East Riding of Yorkshire a custom
called “burning the Old Witch” is observed on the last day of harvest. A
small sheaf of corn is burnt on the field in a fire of stubble; peas are
parched at the fire and eaten with a liberal allowance of ale; and the
lads and lasses romp about the flames and amuse themselves by blackening
each other’s faces.(673) Sometimes, again, the corn-spirit is represented
by a man, who lies down under the last corn; it is threshed upon his body,
and the people say that “the Old Man is being beaten to death.”(674) We
saw that sometimes the farmer’s wife is thrust, together with the last
sheaf, under the threshing-machine, as if to thresh her, and that
afterwards a pretence is made of winnowing her.(675) At Volders, in the
Tyrol, husks of corn are stuck behind the neck of the man who gives the
last stroke at threshing, and he is throttled with a straw garland. If he
is tall, it is believed that the corn will be tall next year. Then he is
tied on a bundle and flung into the river.(676) In Carinthia, the thresher
who gave the last stroke, and the person who untied the last sheaf on the
threshing-floor, are bound hand and foot with straw bands, and crowns of
straw are placed on their heads. Then they are tied, face to face, on a
sledge, dragged through the village, and flung into a brook.(677) The
custom of throwing the representative of the corn-spirit into a stream,
like that of drenching him with water, is, as usual, a rain-charm.(678)

(M191) III. Thus far the representatives of the corn-spirit have generally
been the man or woman who cuts, binds, or threshes the last corn. We now
come to the cases in which the corn-spirit is represented either by a
stranger passing the harvest-field (as in the Lityerses tale), or by a
visitor entering it for the first time. All over Germany it is customary
for the reapers or threshers to lay hold of passing strangers and bind
them with a rope made of corn-stalks, till they pay a forfeit; and when
the farmer himself or one of his guests enters the field or the
threshing-floor for the first time, he is treated in the same way.
Sometimes the rope is only tied round his arm or his feet or his
neck.(679) But sometimes he is regularly swathed in corn. Thus at Solör in
Norway, whoever enters the field, be he the master or a stranger, is tied
up in a sheaf and must pay a ransom. In the neighbourhood of Soest, when
the farmer visits the flax-pullers for the first time, he is completely
enveloped in flax. Passers-by are also surrounded by the women, tied up in
flax, and compelled to stand brandy.(680) At Nördlingen strangers are
caught with straw ropes and tied up in a sheaf till they pay a
forfeit.(681) Among the Germans of Haselberg, in West Bohemia, as soon as
a farmer had given the last corn to be threshed on the threshing-floor, he
was swathed in it and had to redeem himself by a present of cakes.(682) In
Anhalt, when the proprietor or one of his family, the steward, or even a
stranger enters the harvest-field for the first time after the reaping has
begun, the wife of the chief reaper ties a rope twisted of corn-ears, or a
nosegay made of corn-ears and flowers, to his arm, and he is obliged to
ransom himself by the payment of a fine.(683) In the canton of Putanges,
in Normandy, a pretence of tying up the owner of the land in the last
sheaf of wheat is still practised, or at least was still practised some
quarter of a century ago. The task falls to the women alone. They throw
themselves on the proprietor, seize him by the arms, the legs, and the
body, throw him to the ground, and stretch him on the last sheaf. Then a
show is made of binding him, and the conditions to be observed at the
harvest-supper are dictated to him. When he has accepted them, he is
released and allowed to get up.(684) At Brie, Isle de France, when any one
who does not belong to the farm passes by the harvest-field, the reapers
give chase. If they catch him, they bind him in a sheaf and bite him, one
after the other, in the forehead, crying, “You shall carry the key of the
field.”(685) “To have the key” is an expression used by harvesters
elsewhere in the sense of to cut or bind or thresh the last sheaf;(686)
hence, it is equivalent to the phrases “You have the Old Man,” “You are
the Old Man,” which are addressed to the cutter, binder, or thresher of
the last sheaf. Therefore, when a stranger, as at Brie, is tied up in a
sheaf and told that he will “carry the key of the field,” it is as much as
to say that he is the Old Man, that is, an embodiment of the corn-spirit.
In hop-picking, if a well-dressed stranger passes the hop-yard, he is
seized by the women, tumbled into the bin, covered with leaves, and not
released till he has paid a fine.(687) In some parts of Scotland,
particularly in the counties of Fife and Kinross, down to recent times the
reapers used to seize and dump, as it was called, any stranger who
happened to visit or pass by the harvest field. The custom was to lay hold
of the stranger by his ankles and armpits, lift him up, and bring the
lower part of his person into violent contact with the ground. Women as
well as men were liable to be thus treated. The practice of interposing a
sheaf between the sufferer and the ground is said to be a modern
refinement.(688) Comparing this custom with the one practised at Putanges
in Normandy, which has just been described, we may conjecture that in
Scotland the “dumping” of strangers on the harvest-field was originally a
preliminary to wrapping them up in sheaves of corn.

(M192) Ceremonies of a somewhat similar kind are performed by the
Tarahumare Indians of Mexico not only at harvest but also at hoeing and
ploughing. “When the work of hoeing and weeding is finished, the workers
seize the master of the field, and, tying his arms crosswise behind him,
load all the implements, that is to say, the hoes, upon his back,
fastening them with ropes. Then they form two single columns, the landlord
in the middle between them, and all facing the house. Thus they start
homeward. Simultaneously the two men at the heads of the columns begin to
run rapidly forward some thirty yards, cross each other, then turn back,
run along the two columns, cross each other again at the rear and take
their places each at the end of his row. As they pass each other ahead and
in the rear of the columns they beat their mouths with the hollow of their
hands and yell. As soon as they reach their places at the foot, the next
pair in front of the columns starts off, running in the same way, and thus
pair after pair performs the tour, the procession all the time advancing
toward the house. A short distance in front of it they come to a halt, and
are met by two young men who carry red handkerchiefs tied to sticks like
flags. The father of the family, still tied up and loaded with the hoes,
steps forward alone and kneels down in front of his house-door. The
flag-bearers wave their banners over him, and the women of the household
come out and kneel on their left knees, first toward the east, and after a
little while toward each of the other cardinal points, west, south, and
north. In conclusion the flags are waved in front of the house. The father
then rises and the people untie him, whereupon he first salutes the women
with the usual greeting, ‘_Kwīra!_’ or ‘_Kwirevá!_’ Now they all go into
the house, and the man makes a short speech thanking them all for the
assistance they have given him, for how could he have gotten through his
work without them? They have provided him with a year’s life (that is,
with the wherewithal to sustain it), and now he is going to give them
tesvino. He gives a drinking-gourd full to each one in the assembly, and
appoints one man among them to distribute more to all. The same ceremony
is performed after the ploughing and after the harvesting. On the first
occasion the tied man may be made to carry the yoke of the oxen, on the
second he does not carry anything.”(689) The meaning of these Mexican
ceremonies is not clear. Perhaps the custom of tying up the farmer at
hoeing, ploughing, and reaping is a form of expiation or apology offered
to the spirits of the earth, who are naturally disturbed by agricultural
operations.(690) When the Yabim of Simbang in German New Guinea see that
the taro plants in their fields are putting forth leaves, they offer
sacrifice of sago-broth and pork to the spirits of the former owners of
the land, in order that they may be kindly disposed and not do harm but
let the fruits ripen.(691) Similarly when the Alfoors or Toradjas of
Central Celebes are planting a new field, they offer rice, eggs, and so
forth to the souls of the former owners of the land, hoping that,
mollified by these offerings, the souls will make the crops to grow and
thrive.(692) However, this explanation of the Mexican ceremonies at
hoeing, ploughing, and reaping is purely conjectural. In these ceremonies
there is no evidence that, as in the parallel European customs, the farmer
is identified with the corn-spirit, since he is not wrapt up in the
sheaves.

(M193) Be that as it may, the evidence adduced above suffices to prove
that, like the ancient Lityerses, modern European reapers have been wont
to lay hold of a passing stranger and tie him up in a sheaf. It is not to
be expected that they should complete the parallel by cutting off his
head; but if they do not take such a strong step, their language and
gestures are at least indicative of a desire to do so. For instance, in
Mecklenburg on the first day of reaping, if the master or mistress or a
stranger enters the field, or merely passes by it, all the mowers face
towards him and sharpen their scythes, clashing their whet-stones against
them in unison, as if they were making ready to mow. Then the woman who
leads the mowers steps up to him and ties a band round his left arm. He
must ransom himself by payment of a forfeit.(693) Near Ratzeburg, when the
master or other person of mark enters the field or passes by it, all the
harvesters stop work and march towards him in a body, the men with their
scythes in front. On meeting him they form up in line, men and women. The
men stick the poles of their scythes in the ground, as they do in whetting
them; then they take off their caps and hang them on the scythes, while
their leader stands forward and makes a speech. When he has done, they all
whet their scythes in measured time very loudly, after which they put on
their caps. Two of the women binders then come forward; one of them ties
the master or stranger (as the case may be) with corn-ears or with a
silken band; the other delivers a rhyming address. The following are
specimens of the speeches made by the reaper on these occasions. In some
parts of Pomerania every passer-by is stopped, his way being barred with a
corn-rope. The reapers form a circle round him and sharpen their scythes,
while their leader says:—


    “_The men are ready,_
    _The scythes are bent,_
    _The corn is great and small,_
    _The gentleman must be mowed._”


Then the process of whetting the scythes is repeated.(694) At Ramin, in
the district of Stettin, the stranger, standing encircled by the reapers,
is thus addressed:—


    “_We’ll stroke the gentleman_
    _With our naked sword,_
    _Wherewith we shear meadows and fields._
    _We shear princes and lords._
    _Labourers are often athirst;_
    _If the gentleman will stand beer and brandy_
    _The joke will soon be over._
    _But, if our prayer he does not like,_
    _The sword has a right to strike._”(695)


That in these customs the whetting of the scythes is really meant as a
preliminary to mowing appears from the following variation of the
preceding customs. In the district of Lüneburg, when any one enters the
harvest-field, he is asked whether he will engage a good fellow. If he
says yes, the harvesters mow some swaths, yelling and screaming, and then
ask him for drink-money.(696)

(M194) On the threshing-floor strangers are also regarded as embodiments
of the corn-spirit, and are treated accordingly. At Wiedingharde in
Schleswig when a stranger comes to the threshing-floor he is asked, “Shall
I teach you the flail-dance?” If he says yes, they put the arms of the
threshing-flail round his neck as if he were a sheaf of corn, and press
them together so tight that he is nearly choked.(697) In some parishes of
Wermland (Sweden), when a stranger enters the threshing-floor where the
threshers are at work, they say that “they will teach him the
threshing-song.” Then they put a flail round his neck and a straw rope
about his body. Also, as we have seen, if a stranger woman enters the
threshing-floor, the threshers put a flail round her body and a wreath of
corn-stalks round her neck, and call out, “See the Corn-woman! See! that
is how the Corn-maiden looks!”(698)

(M195) In these customs, observed both on the harvest-field and on the
threshing-floor, a passing stranger is regarded as a personification of
the corn, in other words, as the corn-spirit; and a show is made of
treating him like the corn by mowing, binding, and threshing him. If the
reader still doubts whether European peasants can really regard a passing
stranger in this light, the following custom should set his doubts at
rest. During the madder-harvest in the Dutch province of Zealand a
stranger passing by a field, where the people are digging the
madder-roots, will sometimes call out to them _Koortspillers_ (a term of
reproach). Upon this, two of the fleetest runners make after him, and, if
they catch him, they bring him back to the madder-field and bury him in
the earth up to his middle at least, jeering at him the while; then they
ease nature before his face.(699)

(M196) This last act is to be explained as follows. The spirit of the corn
and of other cultivated plants is sometimes conceived, not as immanent in
the plant, but as its owner; hence the cutting of the corn at harvest, the
digging of the roots, and the gathering of fruit from the fruit-trees are
each and all of them acts of spoliation, which strip him of his property
and reduce him to poverty. Hence he is often known as “the Poor Man” or
“the Poor Woman.” Thus in the neighbourhood of Eisenach a small sheaf is
sometimes left standing on the field for “the Poor Old Woman.”(700) At
Marksuhl, near Eisenach, the puppet formed out of the last sheaf is itself
called “the Poor Woman.” At Alt Lest in Silesia the man who binds the last
sheaf is called the Beggar-man.(701) In a village near Roeskilde, in
Zealand (Denmark), old-fashioned peasants sometimes make up the last sheaf
into a rude puppet, which is called the Rye-beggar.(702) In Southern
Schonen the sheaf which is bound last is called the Beggar; it is made
bigger than the rest and is sometimes dressed in clothes. In the district
of Olmütz the last sheaf is called the Beggar; it is given to an old
woman, who must carry it home, limping on one foot.(703) Sometimes a
little of the crop is left on the field for the spirit, under other names
than “the Poor Old Woman.” Thus at Szagmanten, a village of the Tilsit
district, the last sheaf was left standing on the field “for the Old
Rye-woman.”(704) In Neftenbach (Canton of Zurich) the first three ears of
corn reaped are thrown away on the field “to satisfy the Corn-mother and
to make the next year’s crop abundant.”(705) At Kupferberg, in Bavaria,
some corn is left standing on the field when the rest has been cut. Of
this corn left standing they say that “it belongs to the Old Woman,” to
whom it is dedicated in the following words:—


    “_We give it to the Old Woman;_
    _She shall keep it._
    _Next year may she be to us_
    _As kind as this time she has been._”(706)


These words clearly shew that the Old Woman for whom the corn is left on
the field is not a real personage, poor and hungry, but the mythical Old
Woman who makes the corn to grow. At Schüttarschen, in West Bohemia, after
the crop has been reaped, a few stalks are left standing and a garland is
attached to them. “That belongs to the Wood-woman,” they say, and offer a
prayer. In this way the Wood-woman, we are told, has enough to live on
through the winter and the corn will thrive the better next year. The same
thing is done for all the different kinds of corn-crop.(707) So in
Thüringen, when the after-grass (_Grummet_) is being got in, a little heap
is left lying on the field; it belongs to “the Little Wood-woman” in
return for the blessing she has bestowed.(708) In the Frankenwald of
Bavaria three handfuls of flax were left on the field “for the
Wood-woman.”(709) At Lindau in Anhalt the reapers used to leave some
stalks standing in the last corner of the last field for “the Corn-woman
to eat.”(710) In some parts of Silesia it was till lately the custom to
leave a few corn-stalks standing in the field, “in order that the next
harvest should not fail.”(711) In Russia it is customary to leave patches
of unreaped corn in the fields and to place bread and salt on the ground
near them. “These ears are eventually knotted together, and the ceremony
is called ‘the plaiting of the beard of Volos,’ and it is supposed that
after it has been performed no wizard or other evilly-disposed person will
be able to hurt the produce of the fields. The unreaped patch is looked
upon as tabooed; and it is believed that if any one meddles with it he
will shrivel up, and become twisted like the interwoven ears. Similar
customs are kept up in various parts of Russia. Near Kursk and Voroneje,
for instance, a patch of rye is usually left in honour of the Prophet
Elijah, and in another district one of oats is consecrated to St.
Nicholas. As it is well known that both the Saint and the Prophet have
succeeded to the place once held in the estimation of the Russian people
by Perun, it seems probable that Volos really was, in ancient times, one
of the names of the thunder-god.”(712) In the north-east of Scotland a few
stalks were sometimes left unreaped on the field for the benefit of “the
aul’ man.”(713) Here “the aul’ man” is probably the equivalent of the
harvest Old Man of Germany.(714) Among the Mohammedans of Zanzibar it is
customary at sowing a field to reserve a certain portion of it for the
guardian spirits, who at harvest are invited, to the tuck of drum, to come
and take their share; tiny huts are also built in which food is deposited
for their use.(715) In the island of Nias, to prevent the depredations of
wandering spirits among the rice at harvest, a miniature field is
dedicated to them and in it are sown all the plants that grow in the real
fields.(716) The Hos, a Ewe tribe of negroes in Togoland, observe a
similar custom for a similar reason. At the entrance to their yam-fields
the traveller may see on both sides of the path small mounds on which
yams, stock-yams, beans, and maize are planted and appear to flourish with
more than usual luxuriance. These little gardens, tended with peculiar
care, are dedicated to the “guardian gods” of the owner of the land; there
he cultivates for their benefit the same plants which he cultivates for
his own use in the fields; and the notion is that the “guardian gods” will
content themselves with eating the fruits which grow in their little
private preserves and will not poach on the crops which are destined for
human use.(717)

(M197) These customs suggest that the little sacred rice-fields on which
the Kayans of Borneo perform the various operations of husbandry in
mimicry before they address themselves to the real labours of the
field,(718) may be dedicated to the spirits of the rice to compensate them
for the loss they sustain by allowing men to cultivate all the rest of the
land for their own benefit. Perhaps the Rarian plain at Eleusis(719) was a
spiritual preserve of the same kind set apart for the exclusive use of the
corn-goddesses Demeter and Persephone. It may even be that the law which
forbade the Hebrews to reap the corners and gather the gleanings of the
harvest-fields and to strip the vines of their last grapes(720) was
originally intended for the benefit, not of the human poor, but of the
poor spirits of the corn and the vine, who had just been despoiled by the
reapers and the vintagers, and who, if some provision were not made for
their subsistence, would naturally die of hunger before another year came
round. In providing for their wants the prudent husbandman was really
consulting his own interests; for how could he expect to reap wheat and
barley and to gather grapes next year if he suffered the spirits of the
corn and of the vine to perish of famine in the meantime? This train of
thought may possibly explain the wide-spread custom of offering the
first-fruits of the crops to gods or spirits:(721) such offerings may have
been originally not so much an expression of gratitude for benefits
received as a means of enabling the benefactors to continue their
benefactions in time to come. Primitive man has generally a shrewd eye to
the main chance: he is more prone to provide for the future than to
sentimentalise over the past.

(M198) Thus when the spirit of vegetation is conceived as a being who is
robbed of his store and impoverished by the harvesters, it is natural that
his representative—the passing stranger—should upbraid them; and it is
equally natural that they should seek to disable him from pursuing them
and recapturing the stolen property. Now, it is an old superstition that
by easing nature on the spot where a robbery is committed, the robbers
secure themselves, for a certain time, against interruption.(722) Hence
when madder-diggers resort to this proceeding in presence of the stranger
whom they have caught and buried in the field, we may infer that they
consider themselves robbers and him as the person robbed. Regarded as
such, he must be the natural owner of the madder-roots, that is, their
spirit or demon; and this conception is carried out by burying him, like
the madder-roots, in the ground.(723) The Greeks, it may be observed, were
quite familiar with the idea that a passing stranger may be a god. Homer
says that the gods in the likeness of foreigners roam up and down
cities.(724) Once in Poso, a district of Celebes, when a new missionary
entered a house where a number of people were gathered round a sick man,
one of them addressed the newcomer in these words: “Well, sir, as we had
never seen you before, and you came suddenly in, while we sat here by
ourselves, we thought it was a spirit.”(725)

(M199) Thus in these harvest-customs of modern Europe the person who cuts,
binds, or threshes the last corn is treated as an embodiment of the
corn-spirit by being wrapt up in sheaves, killed in mimicry by
agricultural implements, and thrown into the water.(726) These
coincidences with the Lityerses story seem to prove that the latter is a
genuine description of an old Phrygian harvest-custom. But since in the
modern parallels the killing of the personal representative of the
corn-spirit is necessarily omitted or at most enacted only in mimicry, it
is desirable to shew that in rude society human beings have been commonly
killed as an agricultural ceremony to promote the fertility of the fields.
The following examples will make this plain.




§ 3. Human Sacrifices for the Crops.


(M200) The Indians of Guayaquil, in Ecuador, used to sacrifice human blood
and the hearts of men when they sowed their fields.(727) The people of
Cañar (now Cuenca in Ecuador) used to sacrifice a hundred children
annually at harvest. The kings of Quito, the Incas of Peru, and for a long
time the Spaniards were unable to suppress the bloody rite.(728) At a
Mexican harvest-festival, when the first-fruits of the season were offered
to the sun, a criminal was placed between two immense stones, balanced
opposite each other, and was crushed by them as they fell together. His
remains were buried, and a feast and dance followed. This sacrifice was
known as “the meeting of the stones.”(729) “Tlaloc was worshipped in
Mexico as the god of the thunder and the storm which precedes the
fertilising rain; elsewhere his wife Xochiquetzal, who at Tlaxcallan was
called Matlalcuéyé or the Lady of the Blue Petticoats, shared these
honours, and it was to her that many countries in Central America
particularly paid their devotions. Every year, at the time when the cobs
of the still green and milky maize are about to coagulate and ripen, they
used to sacrifice to the goddess four young girls, chosen among the
noblest families of the country; they were decked out in festal attire,
crowned with flowers, and conveyed in rich palanquins to the brink of the
hallowed waters, where the sacrifice was to be offered. The priests, clad
in long floating robes, their heads encircled with feather crowns, marched
in front of the litters carrying censers with burning incense. The town of
Elopango, celebrated for its temple, was near the lake of the same name,
the etymology of which refers to the sheaves of tender maize (_elotl_,
‘sheaf of tender maize’). It was dedicated to the goddess Xochiquetzal, to
whom the young victims were offered by being hurled from the top of a rock
into the abyss. At the moment of consummating this inhuman rite, the
priests addressed themselves in turn to the four virgins in order to
banish the fear of death from their minds. They drew for them a bright
picture of the delights they were about to enjoy in the company of the
gods, and advised them not to forget the earth which they had left behind,
but to entreat the divinity, to whom they despatched them, to bless the
forthcoming harvest.”(730) We have seen that the ancient Mexicans also
sacrificed human beings at all the various stages in the growth of the
maize, the age of the victims corresponding to the age of the corn; for
they sacrificed new-born babes at sowing, older children when the grain
had sprouted, and so on till it was fully ripe, when they sacrificed old
men.(731) No doubt the correspondence between the ages of the victims and
the state of the corn was supposed to enhance the efficacy of the
sacrifice.

(M201) The Pawnees annually sacrificed a human victim in spring when they
sowed their fields. The sacrifice was believed to have been enjoined on
them by the Morning Star, or by a certain bird which the Morning Star had
sent to them as its messenger. The bird was stuffed and preserved as a
powerful talisman. They thought that an omission of this sacrifice would
be followed by the total failure of the crops of maize, beans, and
pumpkins. The victim was a captive of either sex. He was clad in the
gayest and most costly attire, was fattened on the choicest food, and
carefully kept in ignorance of his doom. When he was fat enough, they
bound him to a cross in the presence of the multitude, danced a solemn
dance, then cleft his head with a tomahawk and shot him with arrows.
According to one trader, the squaws then cut pieces of flesh from the
victim’s body, with which they greased their hoes; but this was denied by
another trader who had been present at the ceremony. Immediately after the
sacrifice the people proceeded to plant their fields. A particular account
has been preserved of the sacrifice of a Sioux girl by the Pawnees in
April 1837 or 1838. The girl was fourteen or fifteen years old and had
been kept for six months and well treated. Two days before the sacrifice
she was led from wigwam to wigwam, accompanied by the whole council of
chiefs and warriors. At each lodge she received a small billet of wood and
a little paint, which she handed to the warrior next to her. In this way
she called at every wigwam, receiving at each the same present of wood and
paint. On the twenty-second of April she was taken out to be sacrificed,
attended by the warriors, each of whom carried two pieces of wood which he
had received from her hands. Her body having been painted half red and
half black, she was attached to a sort of gibbet and roasted for some time
over a slow fire, then shot to death with arrows. The chief sacrificer
next tore out her heart and devoured it. While her flesh was still warm it
was cut in small pieces from the bones, put in little baskets, and taken
to a neighbouring corn-field. There the head chief took a piece of the
flesh from a basket and squeezed a drop of blood upon the newly-deposited
grains of corn. His example was followed by the rest, till all the seed
had been sprinkled with the blood; it was then covered up with earth.
According to one account the body of the victim was reduced to a kind of
paste, which was rubbed or sprinkled not only on the maize but also on the
potatoes, the beans, and other seeds to fertilise them. By this sacrifice
they hoped to obtain plentiful crops.(732)

(M202) A West African queen used to sacrifice a man and woman in the month
of March. They were killed with spades and hoes, and their bodies buried
in the middle of a field which had just been tilled.(733) At Lagos in
Guinea it was the custom annually to impale a young girl alive soon after
the spring equinox in order to secure good crops. Along with her were
sacrificed sheep and goats, which, with yams, heads of maize, and
plantains, were hung on stakes on each side of her. The victims were bred
up for the purpose in the king’s seraglio, and their minds had been so
powerfully wrought upon by the fetish men that they went cheerfully to
their fate.(734) A similar sacrifice used to be annually offered at Benin,
in Guinea.(735) The Marimos, a Bechuana tribe, sacrifice a human being for
the crops. The victim chosen is generally a short, stout man. He is seized
by violence or intoxicated and taken to the fields, where he is killed
amongst the wheat to serve as “seed” (so they phrase it). After his blood
has coagulated in the sun, it is burned along with the frontal bone, the
flesh attached to it, and the brain; the ashes are then scattered over the
ground to fertilise it. The rest of the body is eaten.(736) The Wamegi of
the Usagara hills in German East Africa used to offer human sacrifices of
a peculiar kind once a year about the time of harvest, which was also the
time of sowing; for the Wamegi have two crops annually, one in September
and one in February. The festival was usually held in September or
October. The victim was a girl who had attained the age of puberty. She
was taken to a hill where the festival was to be celebrated, and there she
was crushed to death between two branches.(737) The sacrifice was not
performed in the fields, and my informant could not ascertain its object,
but we may conjecture that it was to ensure good crops in the following
year.

(M203) The Bagobos of Mindanao, one of the Philippine Islands, offer a
human sacrifice before they sow their rice. The victim is a slave, who is
hewn to pieces in the forest.(738) The natives of Bontoc, a province in
the interior of Luzon, one of the Philippine Islands, are passionate
head-hunters. Their principal seasons for head-hunting are the times of
planting and reaping the rice. In order that the crop may turn out well,
every farm must get at least one human head at planting and one at sowing.
The head-hunters go out in twos or threes, lie in wait for the victim,
whether man or woman, cut off his or her head, hands, and feet, and bring
them back in haste to the village, where they are received with great
rejoicings. The skulls are at first exposed on the branches of two or
three dead trees which stand in an open space of every village surrounded
by large stones which serve as seats. The people then dance round them and
feast and get drunk. When the flesh has decayed from the head, the man who
cut it off takes it home and preserves it as a relic, while his companions
do the same with the hands and the feet.(739) Similar customs are observed
by the Apoyaos, another tribe in the interior of Luzon.(740)

(M204) The Wild Wa, an agricultural tribe on the north-eastern frontier of
Upper Burma, still hunt for human heads as a means of promoting the
welfare of the crops. The Wa regards his skulls as a protection against
the powers of evil. “Without a skull his crops would fail; without a skull
his kine might die; without a skull the father and mother spirits would be
shamed and might be enraged; if there were no protecting skull the other
spirits who are all malignant, might gain entrance and kill the
inhabitants, or drink all the liquor.” The Wa country is a series of
mountain ranges shelving rapidly down to narrow valleys from two to five
thousand feet deep. The villages are all perched high on the slopes, some
just under the crest of the ridge, some lower down on a small projecting
spur of flat ground. Industrious cultivation has cleared away the jungle,
and the villages stand out conspicuously in the landscape as
yellowish-brown blotches on the hillsides. Each village is fortified by an
earthen rampart so thickly overgrown with cactuses and other shrubs as to
be impenetrable. The only entrance is through a narrow, low and winding
tunnel, the floor of which, for additional security, is thickly studded
with pegs to wound the feet of enemies who might attempt to force a way
in. The Wa depend for their subsistence mainly on their crops of
buckwheat, beans, and maize; rice they cultivate only to distil a strong
spirituous liquor from it. They had need be industrious, for no field can
be reached without a climb up or down the steep mountain-side. Sometimes
the rice-fields lie three thousand feet or more below the village, and
they require constant attention. But the chief crop raised by the Wa is
the poppy, from which they make opium. In February and March the hill-tops
for miles are white with the blossom, and you may travel for days through
nothing but fields of poppies. Then, too, is the proper season for
head-hunting. It opens in March and lasts through April. Parties of
head-hunters at that time go forth to prowl for human prey. As a rule they
will not behead people of a neighbouring village nor even of any village
on the same range of hills. To find victims they go to the next range or
at any rate to a distance, and the farther the better, for the heads of
strangers are preferred. The reason is that the ghosts of strangers, being
unfamiliar with the country, are much less likely to stray away from their
skulls; hence they make more vigilant sentinels than the ghosts of people
better acquainted with the neighbourhood, who are apt to go off duty
without waiting for the tedious formality of relieving guard. When
head-hunters return to a village with human heads, the rejoicing is
uproarious. Then the great drum is beaten frantically, and its deep hollow
boom resounding far and wide through the hills announces to the
neighbourhood the glad tidings of murder successfully perpetrated. Then
the barrels, or rather the bamboos, of rice-spirit are tapped, and while
the genial stream flows and the women and children dance and sing for
glee, the men drink themselves blind and mad drunk. The ghastly head,
which forms the centre of all this rejoicing, is first taken to the
spirit-house, a small shed which usually stands on the highest point of
the village site. There, wrapt in grass or leaves, it is hung up in a
basket to ripen and bleach. When all the flesh and sinews have mouldered
away and nothing remains but the blanched and grinning skull, it is put to
rest in the village Golgotha. This is an avenue of huge old trees, whose
interlacing boughs form a verdant archway overhead and, with the dense
undergrowth, cast a deep shadow on the ground below. Every village has
such an avenue stretching along the hillside sometimes for a long
distance, or even till it meets the avenue of the neighbouring village. In
the solemn gloom of this verdurous canopy is the Place of Skulls. On one
side of the avenue stands a row of wooden posts, usually mere trunks of
trees with the bark peeled off, but sometimes rudely carved and painted
with designs in red and black. A little below the top of each post is cut
a niche, and in front of the niche is a ledge. On this ledge the skull is
deposited, sometimes so that it is in full view of passers-by in the
avenue, sometimes so that it only grins at them through a slit. Most
villages count their skulls by tens or twenties, but some of them have
hundreds of these trophies, especially when the avenue forms an unbroken
continuity of shade between the villages. The old skulls ensure peace to
the village, but at least one new one should be taken every year, that the
rice may grow green far down in the depths of the valley, that the maize
may tinge with its golden hue the steep mountain-sides, and that the
hilltops may be white for miles and miles with the bloom of the
poppy.(741)

(M205) The Shans of Indo-China still believe in the efficacy of human
sacrifice to procure a good harvest, though they act on the belief less
than some other tribes of this region. Their practice now is to poison
somebody at the state festival, which is generally held at some time
between March and May.(742) Among the Lhota Naga, one of the many savage
tribes who inhabit the deep rugged labyrinthine glens which wind into the
mountains from the rich valley of Brahmapootra,(743) it used to be a
common custom to chop off the heads, hands, and feet of people they met
with, and then to stick up the severed extremities in their fields to
ensure a good crop of grain. They bore no ill-will whatever to the persons
upon whom they operated in this unceremonious fashion. Once they flayed a
boy alive, carved him in pieces, and distributed the flesh among all the
villagers, who put it into their corn-bins to avert bad luck and ensure
plentiful crops of grain. The Angami, another tribe of the same region,
used also to relieve casual passers-by of their heads, hands, and feet,
with the same excellent intention.(744) The hill tribe Kudulu, near
Vizagapatam in the Madras Presidency, offered human sacrifices to the god
Jankari for the purpose of obtaining good crops. The ceremony was
generally performed on the Sunday before or after the Pongal feast. For
the most part the victim was purchased, and until the time for the
sacrifice came he was free to wander about the village, to eat and drink
what he liked, and even to lie with any woman he met. On the appointed day
he was carried before the idol drunk; and when one of the villagers had
cut a hole in his stomach and smeared the blood on the idol, the crowds
from the neighbouring villages rushed upon him and hacked him to pieces.
All who were fortunate enough to secure morsels of his flesh carried them
away and presented them to their village idols.(745) The Gonds of India, a
Dravidian race, kidnapped Brahman boys, and kept them as victims to be
sacrificed on various occasions. At sowing and reaping, after a triumphal
procession, one of the lads was slain by being punctured with a poisoned
arrow. His blood was then sprinkled over the ploughed field or the ripe
crop, and his flesh was devoured.(746) The Oraons or Uraons of Chota
Nagpur worship a goddess called Anna Kuari, who can give good crops and
make a man rich, but to induce her to do so it is necessary to offer human
sacrifices. In spite of the vigilance of the British Government these
sacrifices are said to be still secretly perpetrated. The victims are poor
waifs and strays whose disappearance attracts no notice. April and May are
the months when the catchpoles are out on the prowl. At that time
strangers will not go about the country alone, and parents will not let
their children enter the jungle or herd the cattle. When a catchpole has
found a victim, he cuts his throat and carries away the upper part of the
ring finger and the nose. The goddess takes up her abode in the house of
any man who has offered her a sacrifice, and from that time his fields
yield a double harvest. The form she assumes in the house is that of a
small child. When the householder brings in his unhusked rice, he takes
the goddess and rolls her over the heap to double its size. But she soon
grows restless and can only be pacified with the blood of fresh human
victims.(747)

(M206) But the best known case of human sacrifices, systematically offered
to ensure good crops, is supplied by the Khonds or Kandhs, another
Dravidian race in Bengal. Our knowledge of them is derived from the
accounts written by British officers who, about the middle of the
nineteenth century, were engaged in putting them down.(748) The sacrifices
were offered to the Earth Goddess, Tari Pennu or Bera Pennu, and were
believed to ensure good crops and immunity from all disease and accidents.
In particular, they were considered necessary in the cultivation of
turmeric, the Khonds arguing that the turmeric could not have a deep red
colour without the shedding of blood.(749) The victim or Meriah, as he was
called, was acceptable to the goddess only if he had been purchased, or
had been born a victim—that is, the son of a victim father, or had been
devoted as a child by his father or guardian. Khonds in distress often
sold their children for victims, “considering the beatification of their
souls certain, and their death, for the benefit of mankind, the most
honourable possible.” A man of the Panua tribe was once seen to load a
Khond with curses, and finally to spit in his face, because the Khond had
sold for a victim his own child, whom the Panua had wished to marry. A
party of Khonds, who saw this, immediately pressed forward to comfort the
seller of his child, saying, “Your child has died that all the world may
live, and the Earth Goddess herself will wipe that spittle from your
face.”(750) The victims were often kept for years before they were
sacrificed. Being regarded as consecrated beings, they were treated with
extreme affection, mingled with deference, and were welcomed wherever they
went. A Meriah youth, on attaining maturity, was generally given a wife,
who was herself usually a Meriah or victim; and with her he received a
portion of land and farm-stock. Their offspring were also victims. Human
sacrifices were offered to the Earth Goddess by tribes, branches of
tribes, or villages, both at periodical festivals and on extraordinary
occasions. The periodical sacrifices were generally so arranged by tribes
and divisions of tribes that each head of a family was enabled, at least
once a year, to procure a shred of flesh for his fields, generally about
the time when his chief crop was laid down.(751)

(M207) The mode of performing these tribal sacrifices was as follows. Ten
or twelve days before the sacrifice, the victim was devoted by cutting off
his hair, which, until then, had been kept unshorn. Crowds of men and
women assembled to witness the sacrifice; none might be excluded, since
the sacrifice was declared to be for all mankind. It was preceded by
several days of wild revelry and gross debauchery.(752) On the day before
the sacrifice the victim, dressed in a new garment, was led forth from the
village in solemn procession, with music and dancing, to the Meriah grove,
a clump of high forest trees standing a little way from the village and
untouched by the axe. There they tied him to a post, which was sometimes
placed between two plants of the sankissar shrub. He was then anointed
with oil, ghee, and turmeric, and adorned with flowers; and “a species of
reverence, which it is not easy to distinguish from adoration,” was paid
to him throughout the day. A great struggle now arose to obtain the
smallest relic from his person; a particle of the turmeric paste with
which he was smeared, or a drop of his spittle, was esteemed of sovereign
virtue, especially by the women.(753) The crowd danced round the post to
music, and, addressing the earth, said, “O God, we offer this sacrifice to
you; give us good crops, seasons, and health”; then speaking to the victim
they said, “We bought you with a price, and did not seize you; now we
sacrifice you according to custom, and no sin rests with us.”(754)

(M208) On the last morning the orgies, which had been scarcely interrupted
during the night, were resumed, and continued till noon, when they ceased,
and the assembly proceeded to consummate the sacrifice. The victim was
again anointed with oil, and each person touched the anointed part, and
wiped the oil on his own head. In some places they took the victim in
procession round the village, from door to door, where some plucked hair
from his head, and others begged for a drop of his spittle, with which
they anointed their heads.(755) As the victim might not be bound nor make
any show of resistance, the bones of his arms and, if necessary, his legs
were broken; but often this precaution was rendered unnecessary by
stupefying him with opium.(756) The mode of putting him to death varied in
different places. One of the commonest modes seems to have been
strangulation, or squeezing to death. The branch of a green tree was cleft
several feet down the middle; the victim’s neck (in other places, his
chest) was inserted in the cleft, which the priest, aided by his
assistants, strove with all his force to close.(757) Then he wounded the
victim slightly with his axe, whereupon the crowd rushed at the wretch and
hewed the flesh from the bones, leaving the head and bowels untouched.
Sometimes he was cut up alive.(758) In Chinna Kimedy he was dragged along
the fields, surrounded by the crowd, who, avoiding his head and
intestines, hacked the flesh from his body with their knives till he
died.(759) Another very common mode of sacrifice in the same district was
to fasten the victim to the proboscis of a wooden elephant, which revolved
on a stout post, and, as it whirled round, the crowd cut the flesh from
the victim while life remained. In some villages Major Campbell found as
many as fourteen of these wooden elephants, which had been used at
sacrifices.(760) In one district the victim was put to death slowly by
fire. A low stage was formed, sloping on either side like a roof; upon it
they laid the victim, his limbs wound round with cords to confine his
struggles. Fires were then lighted and hot brands applied, to make him
roll up and down the slopes of the stage as long as possible; for the more
tears he shed the more abundant would be the supply of rain. Next day the
body was cut to pieces.(761)

(M209) The flesh cut from the victim was instantly taken home by the
persons who had been deputed by each village to bring it. To secure its
rapid arrival, it was sometimes forwarded by relays of men, and conveyed
with postal fleetness fifty or sixty miles.(762) In each village all who
stayed at home fasted rigidly until the flesh arrived. The bearer
deposited it in the place of public assembly, where it was received by the
priest and the heads of families. The priest divided it into two portions,
one of which he offered to the Earth Goddess by burying it in a hole in
the ground with his back turned, and without looking. Then each man added
a little earth to bury it, and the priest poured water on the spot from a
hill gourd. The other portion of flesh he divided into as many shares as
there were heads of houses present. Each head of a house rolled his shred
of flesh in leaves, and buried it in his favourite field, placing it in
the earth behind his back without looking.(763) In some places each man
carried his portion of flesh to the stream which watered his fields, and
there hung it on a pole.(764) For three days thereafter no house was
swept; and, in one district, strict silence was observed, no fire might be
given out, no wood cut, and no strangers received. The remains of the
human victim (namely, the head, bowels, and bones) were watched by strong
parties the night after the sacrifice; and next morning they were burned,
along with a whole sheep, on a funeral pile. The ashes were scattered over
the fields, laid as paste over the houses and granaries, or mixed with the
new corn to preserve it from insects.(765) Sometimes, however, the head
and bones were buried, not burnt.(766) After the suppression of the human
sacrifices, inferior victims were substituted in some places; for
instance, in the capital of Chinna Kimedy a goat took the place of a human
victim.(767) Others sacrifice a buffalo. They tie it to a wooden post in a
sacred grove, dance wildly round it with brandished knives, then, falling
on the living animal, hack it to shreds and tatters in a few minutes,
fighting and struggling with each other for every particle of flesh. As
soon as a man has secured a piece he makes off with it at full speed to
bury it in his fields, according to ancient custom, before the sun has
set, and as some of them have far to go they must run very fast. All the
women throw clods of earth at the rapidly retreating figures of the men,
some of them taking very good aim. Soon the sacred grove, so lately a
scene of tumult, is silent and deserted except for a few people who remain
to guard all that is left of the buffalo, to wit, the head, the bones, and
the stomach, which are burned with ceremony at the foot of the stake.(768)

(M210) In these Khond sacrifices the Meriahs are represented by our
authorities as victims offered to propitiate the Earth Goddess. But from
the treatment of the victims both before and after death it appears that
the custom cannot be explained as merely a propitiatory sacrifice. A part
of the flesh certainly was offered to the Earth Goddess, but the rest was
buried by each householder in his fields, and the ashes of the other parts
of the body were scattered over the fields, laid as paste on the
granaries, or mixed with the new corn. These latter customs imply that to
the body of the Meriah there was ascribed a direct or intrinsic power of
making the crops to grow, quite independent of the indirect efficacy which
it might have as an offering to secure the good-will of the deity. In
other words, the flesh and ashes of the victim were believed to be endowed
with a magical or physical power of fertilising the land. The same
intrinsic power was ascribed to the blood and tears of the Meriah, his
blood causing the redness of the turmeric and his tears producing rain;
for it can hardly be doubted that, originally at least, the tears were
supposed to bring down the rain, not merely to prognosticate it. Similarly
the custom of pouring water on the buried flesh of the Meriah was no doubt
a rain-charm. Again, magical power as an attribute of the Meriah appears
in the sovereign virtue believed to reside in anything that came from his
person, as his hair or spittle. The ascription of such power to the Meriah
indicates that he was much more than a mere man sacrificed to propitiate a
deity. Once more, the extreme reverence paid him points to the same
conclusion. Major Campbell speaks of the Meriah as “being regarded as
something more than mortal,”(769) and Major Macpherson says, “A species of
reverence, which it is not easy to distinguish from adoration, is paid to
him.”(770) In short, the Meriah seems to have been regarded as divine. As
such, he may originally have represented the Earth Goddess or, perhaps, a
deity of vegetation; though in later times he came to be regarded rather
as a victim offered to a deity than as himself an incarnate god. This
later view of the Meriah as a victim rather than a divinity may perhaps
have received undue emphasis from the European writers who have described
the Khond religion. Habituated to the later idea of sacrifice as an
offering made to a god for the purpose of conciliating his favour,
European observers are apt to interpret all religious slaughter in this
sense, and to suppose that wherever such slaughter takes place, there must
necessarily be a deity to whom the carnage is believed by the slayers to
be acceptable. Thus their preconceived ideas may unconsciously colour and
warp their descriptions of savage rites.

(M211) The same custom of killing the representative of a god, of which
strong traces appear in the Khond sacrifices, may perhaps be detected in
some of the other human sacrifices described above. Thus the ashes of the
slaughtered Marimo were scattered over the fields; the blood of the
Brahman lad was put on the crop and field; the flesh of the slain Naga was
stowed in the corn-bin; and the blood of the Sioux girl was allowed to
trickle on the seed.(771) Again, the identification of the victim with the
corn, in other words, the view that he is an embodiment or spirit of the
corn, is brought out in the pains which seem to be taken to secure a
physical correspondence between him and the natural object which he
embodies or represents. Thus the Mexicans killed young victims for the
young corn and old ones for the ripe corn; the Marimos sacrifice, as
“seed,” a short, fat man, the shortness of his stature corresponding to
that of the young corn, his fatness to the condition which it is desired
that the crops may attain; and the Pawnees fattened their victims probably
with the same view. Again, the identification of the victim with the corn
comes out in the African custom of killing him with spades and hoes, and
the Mexican custom of grinding him, like corn, between two stones.

One more point in these savage customs deserves to be noted. The Pawnee
chief devoured the heart of the Sioux girl, and the Marimos and Gonds ate
the victim’s flesh. If, as we suppose, the victim was regarded as divine,
it follows that in eating his flesh his worshippers believed themselves to
be partaking of the body of their god.




§ 4. The Corn-spirit slain in his Human Representatives.


(M212) The barbarous rites just described offer analogies to the harvest
customs of Europe. Thus the fertilising virtue ascribed to the corn-spirit
is shewn equally in the savage custom of mixing the victim’s blood or
ashes with the seed-corn and the European custom of mixing the grain from
the last sheaf with the young corn in spring.(772) Again, the
identification of the person with the corn appears alike in the savage
custom of adapting the age and stature of the victim to the age and
stature, whether actual or expected, of the crop; in the Scotch and
Styrian rules that when the corn-spirit is conceived as the Maiden the
last corn shall be cut by a young maiden, but when it is conceived as the
Corn-mother it shall be cut by an old woman;(773) in the Lothringian
warning given to old women to save themselves when the Old Woman is being
killed, that is, when the last corn is being threshed;(774) and in the
Tyrolese expectation that if the man who gives the last stroke at
threshing is tall, the next year’s corn will be tall also.(775) Further,
the same identification is implied in the savage custom of killing the
representative of the corn-spirit with hoes or spades or by grinding him
between stones, and in the European custom of pretending to kill him with
the scythe or the flail. Once more the Khond custom of pouring water on
the buried flesh of the victim is parallel to the European customs of
pouring water on the personal representative of the corn-spirit or
plunging him into a stream.(776) Both the Khond and the European customs
are rain-charms.

(M213) To return now to the Lityerses story. It has been shewn that in
rude society human beings have been commonly killed to promote the growth
of the crops. There is therefore no improbability in the supposition that
they may once have been killed for a like purpose in Phrygia and Europe;
and when Phrygian legend and European folk-custom, closely agreeing with
each other, point to the conclusion that men were so slain, we are bound,
provisionally at least, to accept the conclusion. Further, both the
Lityerses story and European harvest-customs agree in indicating that the
victim was put to death as a representative of the corn-spirit, and this
indication is in harmony with the view which some savages appear to take
of the victim slain to make the crops flourish. On the whole, then, we may
fairly suppose that both in Phrygia and in Europe the representative of
the corn-spirit was annually killed upon the harvest-field. Grounds have
been already shewn for believing that similarly in Europe the
representative of the tree-spirit was annually slain. The proofs of these
two remarkable and closely analogous customs are entirely independent of
each other. Their coincidence seems to furnish fresh presumption in favour
of both.

(M214) To the question, How was the representative of the corn-spirit
chosen? one answer has been already given. Both the Lityerses story and
European folk-custom shew that passing strangers were regarded as
manifestations of the corn-spirit escaping from the cut or threshed corn,
and as such were seized and slain. But this is not the only answer which
the evidence suggests. According to the Phrygian legend the victims of
Lityerses were not simply passing strangers, but persons whom he had
vanquished in a reaping contest and afterwards wrapt up in corn-sheaves
and beheaded.(777) This suggests that the representative of the
corn-spirit may have been selected by means of a competition on the
harvest-field, in which the vanquished competitor was compelled to accept
the fatal honour. The supposition is countenanced by European
harvest-customs. We have seen that in Europe there is sometimes a contest
amongst the reapers to avoid being last, and that the person who is
vanquished in this competition, that is, who cuts the last corn, is often
roughly handled. It is true we have not found that a pretence is made of
killing him; but on the other hand we have found that a pretence is made
of killing the man who gives the last stroke at threshing, that is, who is
vanquished in the threshing contest.(778) Now, since it is in the
character of representative of the corn-spirit that the thresher of the
last corn is slain in mimicry, and since the same representative character
attaches (as we have seen) to the cutter and binder as well as to the
thresher of the last corn, and since the same repugnance is evinced by
harvesters to be last in any one of these labours, we may conjecture that
a pretence has been commonly made of killing the reaper and binder as well
as the thresher of the last corn, and that in ancient times this killing
was actually carried out. This conjecture is corroborated by the common
superstition that whoever cuts the last corn must die soon.(779) Sometimes
it is thought that the person who binds the last sheaf on the field will
die in the course of next year.(780) The reason for fixing on the reaper,
binder, or thresher of the last corn as the representative of the
corn-spirit may be this. The corn-spirit is supposed to lurk as long as he
can in the corn, retreating before the reapers, the binders, and the
threshers at their work. But when he is forcibly expelled from his refuge
in the last corn cut or the last sheaf bound or the last grain threshed,
he necessarily assumes some other form than that of the corn-stalks which
had hitherto been his garment or body. And what form can the expelled
corn-spirit assume more naturally than that of the person who stands
nearest to the corn from which he (the corn-spirit) has just been
expelled? But the person in question is necessarily the reaper, binder, or
thresher of the last corn. He or she, therefore, is seized and treated as
the corn-spirit himself.

(M215) Thus the person who was killed on the harvest-field as the
representative of the corn-spirit may have been either a passing stranger
or the harvester who was last at reaping, binding, or threshing. But there
is a third possibility, to which ancient legend and modern folk-custom
alike point. Lityerses not only put strangers to death; he was himself
slain, and apparently in the same way as he had slain others, namely, by
being wrapt in a corn-sheaf, beheaded, and cast into the river; and it is
implied that this happened to Lityerses on his own land.(781) Similarly in
modern harvest-customs the pretence of killing appears to be carried out
quite as often on the person of the master (farmer or squire) as on that
of strangers.(782) Now when we remember that Lityerses was said to have
been a son of the King of Phrygia, and that in one account he is himself
called a king, and when we combine with this the tradition that he was put
to death, apparently as a representative of the corn-spirit, we are led to
conjecture that we have here another trace of the custom of annually
slaying one of those divine or priestly kings who are known to have held
ghostly sway in many parts of Western Asia and particularly in Phrygia.
The custom appears, as we have seen,(783) to have been so far modified in
places that the king’s son was slain in the king’s stead. Of the custom
thus modified the story of Lityerses would be, in one version at least, a
reminiscence.

(M216) Turning now to the relation of the Phrygian Lityerses to the
Phrygian Attis, it may be remembered that at Pessinus—the seat of a
priestly kingship—the high-priest appears to have been annually slain in
the character of Attis, a god of vegetation, and that Attis was described
by an ancient authority as “a reaped ear of corn.”(784) Thus Attis, as an
embodiment of the corn-spirit, annually slain in the person of his
representative, might be thought to be ultimately identical with
Lityerses, the latter being simply the rustic prototype out of which the
state religion of Attis was developed. It may have been so; but, on the
other hand, the analogy of European folk-custom warns us that amongst the
same people two distinct deities of vegetation may have their separate
personal representatives, both of whom are slain in the character of gods
at different times of the year. For in Europe, as we have seen, it appears
that one man was commonly slain in the character of the tree-spirit in
spring, and another in the character of the corn-spirit in autumn. It may
have been so in Phrygia also. Attis was especially a tree-god, and his
connexion with corn may have been only such an extension of the power of a
tree-spirit as is indicated in customs like the Harvest-May.(785) Again,
the representative of Attis appears to have been slain in spring; whereas
Lityerses must have been slain in summer or autumn, according to the time
of the harvest in Phrygia.(786) On the whole, then, while we are not
justified in regarding Lityerses as the prototype of Attis, the two may be
regarded as parallel products of the same religious idea, and may have
stood to each other as in Europe the Old Man of harvest stands to the Wild
Man, the Leaf Man, and so forth, of spring. Both were spirits or deities
of vegetation, and the personal representatives of both were annually
slain. But whereas the Attis worship became elevated into the dignity of a
State religion and spread to Italy, the rites of Lityerses seem never to
have passed the limits of their native Phrygia, and always retained their
character of rustic ceremonies performed by peasants on the harvest-field.
At most a few villages may have clubbed together, as amongst the Khonds,
to procure a human victim to be slain as representative of the corn-spirit
for their common benefit. Such victims may have been drawn from the
families of priestly kings or kinglets, which would account for the
legendary character of Lityerses as the son of a Phrygian king or as
himself a king. When villages did not so club together, each village or
farm may have procured its own representative of the corn-spirit by
dooming to death either a passing stranger or the harvester who cut,
bound, or threshed the last sheaf. Perhaps in the olden time the practice
of head-hunting as a means of promoting the growth of the corn may have
been as common among the rude inhabitants of Europe and Western Asia as it
still is, or was till lately, among the primitive agricultural tribes of
Assam, Burma, the Philippine Islands, and the Indian Archipelago.(787) It
is hardly necessary to add that in Phrygia, as in Europe, the old
barbarous custom of killing a man on the harvest-field or the
threshing-floor had doubtless passed into a mere pretence long before the
classical era, and was probably regarded by the reapers and threshers
themselves as no more than a rough jest which the license of a
harvest-home permitted them to play off on a passing stranger, a comrade,
or even on their master himself.(788)

(M217) I have dwelt on the Lityerses song at length because it affords so
many points of comparison with European and savage folk-custom. The other
harvest songs of Western Asia and Egypt, to which attention has been
called above,(789) may now be dismissed much more briefly. The similarity
of the Bithynian Bormus(790) to the Phrygian Lityerses helps to bear out
the interpretation which has been given of the latter. Bormus, whose death
or rather disappearance was annually mourned by the reapers in a plaintive
song, was, like Lityerses, a king’s son or at least the son of a wealthy
and distinguished man. The reapers whom he watched were at work on his own
fields, and he disappeared in going to fetch water for them; according to
one version of the story he was carried off by the nymphs, doubtless the
nymphs of the spring or pool or river whither he went to draw water.(791)
Viewed in the light of the Lityerses story and of European folk-custom,
this disappearance of Bormus may be a reminiscence of the custom of
binding the farmer himself in a corn-sheaf and throwing him into the
water. The mournful strain which the reapers sang was probably a
lamentation over the death of the corn-spirit, slain either in the cut
corn or in the person of a human representative; and the call which they
addressed to him may have been a prayer that he might return in fresh
vigour next year.

(M218) The Phoenician Linus song was sung at the vintage, at least in the
west of Asia Minor, as we learn from Homer; and this, combined with the
legend of Syleus, suggests that in ancient times passing strangers were
handled by vintagers and vine-diggers in much the same way as they are
said to have been handled by the reaper Lityerses. The Lydian Syleus, so
ran the legend, compelled passers-by to dig for him in his vineyard, till
Hercules came and killed him and dug up his vines by the roots.(792) This
seems to be the outline of a legend like that of Lityerses; but neither
ancient writers nor modern folk-custom enable us to fill in the
details.(793) But, further, the Linus song was probably sung also by
Phoenician reapers, for Herodotus compares it to the Maneros song, which,
as we have seen, was a lament raised by Egyptian reapers over the cut
corn. Further, Linus was identified with Adonis, and Adonis has some
claims to be regarded as especially a corn-deity.(794) Thus the Linus
lament, as sung at harvest, would be identical with the Adonis lament;
each would be the lamentation raised by reapers over the dead spirit of
the corn. But whereas Adonis, like Attis, grew into a stately figure of
mythology, adored and mourned in splendid cities far beyond the limits of
his Phoenician home, Linus appears to have remained a simple ditty sung by
reapers and vintagers among the corn-sheaves and the vines. The analogy of
Lityerses and of folk-custom, both European and savage, suggests that in
Phoenicia the slain corn-spirit—the dead Adonis—may formerly have been
represented by a human victim; and this suggestion is possibly supported
by the Harran legend that Tammuz (Adonis) was slain by his cruel lord, who
ground his bones in a mill and scattered them to the wind. For in Mexico,
as we have seen, the human victim at harvest was crushed between two
stones; and both in Africa and India the ashes or other remains of the
victim were scattered over the fields.(795) But the Harran legend may be
only a mythical way of expressing the grinding of corn in the mill and the
scattering of the seed. It seems worth suggesting that the mock king who
was annually killed at the Babylonian festival of the Sacaea on the
sixteenth day of the month Lous may have represented Tammuz himself. For
the historian Berosus, who records the festival and its date, probably
used the Macedonian calendar, since he dedicated his history to Antiochus
Soter; and in his day the Macedonian month Lous appears to have
corresponded to the Babylonian month Tammuz.(796) If this conjecture is
right, the view that the mock king at the Sacaea was slain in the
character of a god would be established. But to this point we shall return
later on.

(M219) There is a good deal more evidence that in Egypt the slain
corn-spirit—the dead Osiris—was represented by a human victim, whom the
reapers slew on the harvest-field, mourning his death in a dirge, to which
the Greeks, through a verbal misunderstanding, gave the name of
Maneros.(797) For the legend of Busiris seems to preserve a reminiscence
of human sacrifices once offered by the Egyptians in connexion with the
worship of Osiris. Busiris was said to have been an Egyptian king who
sacrificed all strangers on the altar of Zeus. The origin of the custom
was traced to a dearth which afflicted the land of Egypt for nine years. A
Cyprian seer informed Busiris that the dearth would cease if a man were
annually sacrificed to Zeus. So Busiris instituted the sacrifice. But when
Hercules came to Egypt, and was being dragged to the altar to be
sacrificed, he burst his bonds and slew Busiris and his son.(798) Here
then is a legend that in Egypt a human victim was annually sacrificed to
prevent the failure of the crops, and a belief is implied that an omission
of the sacrifice would have entailed a recurrence of that infertility
which it was the object of the sacrifice to prevent. So the Pawnees, as we
have seen, believed that an omission of the human sacrifice at planting
would have been followed by a total failure of their crops. The name
Busiris was in reality the name of a city, _pe-Asar_, “the house of
Osiris,”(799) the city being so called because it contained the grave of
Osiris. Indeed some high modern authorities believe that Busiris was the
original home of Osiris, from which his worship spread to other parts of
Egypt.(800) The human sacrifices were said to have been offered at his
grave, and the victims were red-haired men, whose ashes were scattered
abroad by means of winnowing-fans.(801) This tradition of human sacrifices
offered at the tomb of Osiris is confirmed by the evidence of the
monuments; for “we find in the temple of Dendereh a human figure with a
hare’s head and pierced with knives, tied to a stake before Osiris
Khenti-Amentiu, and Horus is shown in a Ptolemaic sculpture at Karnak
killing a bound hare-headed figure before the bier of Osiris, who is
represented in the form of Harpocrates. That these figures are really
human beings with the head of an animal fastened on is proved by another
sculpture at Dendereh, where a kneeling man has the hawk’s head and wings
over his head and shoulders, and in another place a priest has the
jackal’s head on his shoulders, his own head appearing through the
disguise. Besides, Diodorus tells us that the Egyptian kings in former
times had worn on their heads the fore-part of a lion, or of a bull, or of
a dragon, showing that this method of disguise or transformation was a
well-known custom.”(802)

(M220) In the light of the foregoing discussion the Egyptian tradition of
Busiris admits of a consistent and fairly probable explanation. Osiris,
the corn-spirit, was annually represented at harvest by a stranger, whose
red hair made him a suitable representative of the ripe corn. This man, in
his representative character, was slain on the harvest-field, and mourned
by the reapers, who prayed at the same time that the corn-spirit might
revive and return (_mââ-ne-rha_, Maneros) with renewed vigour in the
following year. Finally, the victim, or some part of him, was burned, and
the ashes scattered by winnowing-fans over the fields to fertilise them.
Here the choice of the victim on the ground of his resemblance to the corn
which he was to represent agrees with the Mexican and African customs
already described.(803) Similarly the woman who died in the character of
the Corn-mother at the Mexican midsummer sacrifice had her face painted
red and yellow in token of the colours of the corn, and she wore a
pasteboard mitre surmounted by waving plumes in imitation of the tassel of
the maize.(804) On the other hand, at the festival of the Goddess of the
White Maize the Mexicans sacrificed lepers.(805) The Romans sacrificed
red-haired puppies in spring to avert the supposed blighting influence of
the Dog-star, believing that the crops would thus grow ripe and
ruddy.(806) The heathen of Harran offered to the sun, moon, and planets
human victims who were chosen on the ground of their supposed resemblance
to the heavenly bodies to which they were sacrificed; for example, the
priests, clothed in red and smeared with blood, offered a red-haired,
red-cheeked man to “the red planet Mars” in a temple which was painted red
and draped with red hangings.(807) These and the like cases of
assimilating the victim to the god, or to the natural phenomenon which he
represents, are based ultimately on the principle of homoeopathic or
imitative magic, the notion being that the object aimed at will be most
readily attained by means of a sacrifice which resembles the effect that
it is designed to bring about.

(M221) Again, the scattering of the Egyptian victim’s ashes over the
fields resembles the Marimo and Khond custom,(808) and the use of
winnowing-fans for the purpose is another hint of his identification with
the corn. So in Vendée a pretence is made of threshing and winnowing the
farmer’s wife, regarded as an embodiment of the corn-spirit; in Mexico the
victim was ground between stones; and in Africa he was slain with spades
and hoes.(809) The story that the fragments of Osiris’s body were
scattered up and down the land, and buried by Isis on the spots where they
lay,(810) may very well be a reminiscence of a custom, like that observed
by the Khonds, of dividing the human victim in pieces and burying the
pieces, often at intervals of many miles from each other, in the
fields.(811) However, it is possible that the story of the dismemberment
of Osiris, like the similar story told of Tammuz, may have been simply a
mythical expression for the scattering of the seed. Once more, the legend
that the body of Osiris enclosed in a coffer was thrown by Typhon into the
Nile, perhaps points to a custom of casting the body of the victim, or at
least a portion of it, into the Nile as a rain-charm, or rather to make
the river rise. For a similar purpose Phrygian reapers seem to have flung
the headless bodies of their victims, wrapt in corn-sheaves, into a river,
and the Khonds poured water on the buried flesh of the human victim.
Probably when Osiris ceased to be represented by a human victim, an image
of him was annually thrown into the Nile, just as the effigy of his Syrian
counterpart, Adonis, used to be cast into the sea at Alexandria. Or water
may have been simply poured over it, as on the monument already
mentioned(812) a priest is seen pouring water over the body of Osiris,
from which corn-stalks are sprouting. The accompanying legend, “This is
Osiris of the mysteries, who springs from the returning waters,” bears out
the view that at the mysteries of Osiris a charm to make rain fall or the
river rise was regularly wrought by pouring water on his effigy or
flinging it into the Nile.

(M222) It may be objected that the red-haired victims were slain as
representatives, not of Osiris, but of his enemy Typhon; for the victims
were called Typhonian, and red was the colour of Typhon, black the colour
of Osiris.(813) The answer to this objection must be reserved for the
present. Meantime it may be pointed out that if Osiris is often
represented on the monuments as black, he is still more commonly depicted
as green,(814) appropriately enough for a corn-god, who may be conceived
as black while the seed is under ground, but as green after it has
sprouted. So the Greeks recognised both a Green and a Black Demeter,(815)
and sacrificed to the Green Demeter in spring with mirth and
gladness.(816)

(M223) Thus, if I am right, the key to the mysteries of Osiris is
furnished by the melancholy cry of the Egyptian reapers, which down to
Roman times could be heard year after year sounding across the fields,
announcing the death of the corn-spirit, the rustic prototype of Osiris.
Similar cries, as we have seen, were also heard on all the harvest-fields
of Western Asia. By the ancients they are spoken of as songs; but to judge
from the analysis of the names Linus and Maneros, they probably consisted
only of a few words uttered in a prolonged musical note which could be
heard for a great distance. Such sonorous and long-drawn cries, raised by
a number of strong voices in concert, must have had a striking effect, and
could hardly fail to arrest the attention of any wayfarer who happened to
be within hearing. The sounds, repeated again and again, could probably be
distinguished with tolerable ease even at a distance; but to a Greek
traveller in Asia or Egypt the foreign words would commonly convey no
meaning, and he might take them, not unnaturally, for the name of some one
(Maneros, Linus, Lityerses, Bormus) upon whom the reapers were calling.
And if his journey led him through more countries than one, as Bithynia
and Phrygia, or Phoenicia and Egypt, while the corn was being reaped, he
would have an opportunity of comparing the various harvest cries of the
different peoples. Thus we can readily understand why these harvest cries
were so often noted and compared with each other by the Greeks. Whereas,
if they had been regular songs, they could not have been heard at such
distances, and therefore could not have attracted the attention of so many
travellers; and, moreover, even if the wayfarer were within hearing of
them, he could not so easily have picked out the words.

(M224) Down to recent times Devonshire reapers uttered cries of the same
sort, and performed on the field a ceremony exactly analogous to that in
which, if I am not mistaken, the rites of Osiris originated. The cry and
the ceremony are thus described by an observer who wrote in the first half
of the nineteenth century. “After the wheat is all cut, on most farms in
the north of Devon, the harvest people have a custom of ‘crying the neck.’
I believe that this practice is seldom omitted on any large farm in that
part of the country. It is done in this way. An old man, or some one else
well acquainted with the ceremonies used on the occasion (when the
labourers are reaping the last field of wheat), goes round to the shocks
and sheaves, and picks out a little bundle of all the best ears he can
find; this bundle he ties up very neat and trim, and plats and arranges
the straws very tastefully. This is called ‘the neck’ of wheat, or
wheaten-ears. After the field is cut out, and the pitcher once more
circulated, the reapers, binders, and the women stand round in a circle.
The person with ‘the neck’ stands in the centre, grasping it with both his
hands. He first stoops and holds it near the ground, and all the men
forming the ring take off their hats, stooping and holding them with both
hands towards the ground. They then all begin at once in a very prolonged
and harmonious tone to cry ‘The neck!’ at the same time slowly raising
themselves upright, and elevating their arms and hats above their heads;
the person with ‘the neck’ also raising it on high. This is done three
times. They then change their cry to ‘Wee yen!’—‘Way yen!’—which they
sound in the same prolonged and slow manner as before, with singular
harmony and effect, three times. This last cry is accompanied by the same
movements of the body and arms as in crying ‘the neck.’... After having
thus repeated ‘the neck’ three times, and ‘wee yen,’ or ‘way yen’ as
often, they all burst out into a kind of loud and joyous laugh, flinging
up their hats and caps into the air, capering about and perhaps kissing
the girls. One of them then gets ’the neck’ and runs as hard as he can
down to the farmhouse, where the dairymaid, or one of the young female
domestics, stands at the door prepared with a pail of water. If he who
holds ‘the neck’ can manage to get into the house, in any way unseen, or
openly, by any other way than the door at which the girl stands with the
pail of water, then he may lawfully kiss her; but, if otherwise, he is
regularly soused with the contents of the bucket. On a fine still autumn
evening the ‘crying of the neck’ has a wonderful effect at a distance, far
finer than that of the Turkish muezzin, which Lord Byron eulogises so
much, and which he says is preferable to all the bells in Christendom. I
have once or twice heard upwards of twenty men cry it, and sometimes
joined by an equal number of female voices. About three years back, on
some high grounds, where our people were harvesting, I heard six or seven
‘necks’ cried in one night, although I know that some of them were four
miles off. They are heard through the quiet evening air at a considerable
distance sometimes.”(817) Again, Mrs. Bray tells how, travelling in
Devonshire, “she saw a party of reapers standing in a circle on a rising
ground, holding their sickles aloft. One in the middle held up some ears
of corn tied together with flowers, and the party shouted three times
(what she writes as) ‘Arnack, arnack, arnack, we _haven_, we _haven_, we
_haven_.’ They went home, accompanied by women and children carrying
boughs of flowers, shouting and singing. The manservant who attended Mrs.
Bray said ‘it was only the people making their games, as they always did,
_to the spirit of harvest_.’ ”(818) Here, as Miss Burne remarks,
“ ‘arnack, we haven!’ is obviously in the Devon dialect, ‘a neck (or
nack)! we have un!’ ” “The neck” is generally hung up in the farmhouse,
where it sometimes remains for two or three years.(819) A similar custom
is still observed in some parts of Cornwall, as I was told by my lamented
friend J. H. Middleton. “The last sheaf is decked with ribbons. Two
strong-voiced men are chosen and placed (one with the sheaf) on opposite
sides of a valley. One shouts, ‘I’ve gotten it.’ The other shouts, ‘What
hast gotten?’ The first answers, ‘I’se gotten the neck.’ ”(820)

(M225) Another account of this old custom, written at Truro in 1839, runs
thus: “Now, when all the corn was cut at Heligan, the farming men and
maidens come in front of the house, and bring with them a small sheaf of
corn, the last that has been cut, and this is adorned with ribbons and
flowers, and one part is tied quite tight, so as to look like a neck. Then
they cry out ‘Our (my) side, my side,’ as loud as they can; then the
dairymaid gives the neck to the head farming-man. He takes it, and says,
very loudly three times, ‘I have him, I have him, I have him.’ Then
another farming-man shouts very loudly, ‘What have ye? what have ye? what
have ye?’ Then the first says, ‘A neck, a neck, a neck.’ And when he has
said this, all the people make a very great shouting. This they do three
times, and after one famous shout go away and eat supper, and dance, and
sing songs.”(821) According to another account, “all went out to the field
when the last corn was cut, the ‘neck’ was tied with ribbons and plaited,
and they danced round it, and carried it to the great kitchen, where
by-and-by the supper was. The words were as given in the previous account,
and ‘Hip, hip, hack, heck, I have ’ee, I have ’ee, I have ’ee.’ It was
hung up in the hall.” Another account relates that one of the men rushed
from the field with the last sheaf, while the rest pursued him with
vessels of water, which they tried to throw over the sheaf before it could
be brought into the barn.(822)

(M226) Similar customs appear to have been formerly observed in
Pembrokeshire, as appears from the following account, in which, however,
nothing is said of the sonorous cries raised by the reapers when their
work was done: “At harvest-time, in South Pembrokeshire, the last ears of
corn left standing in the field were tied together, and the harvesters
then tried to cut this neck by throwing their hatchets at it. What
happened afterwards appears to have varied somewhat. I have been told by
one old man that the one who got possession of the neck would carry it
over into some neighbouring field, leave it there, and take to his heels
as fast as he could; for, if caught, he had a rough time of it. The men
who caught him would shut him up in a barn without food, or belabour him
soundly, or perhaps shoe him, as it was called, beating the soles of his
feet with rods—a very severe and much-dreaded punishment. On my
grandfather’s farm the man used to make for the house as fast as possible,
and try to carry in the neck. The maids were on the look-out for him, and
did their best to drench him with water. If they succeeded, they got the
present of half-a-crown, which my grandfather always gave, and which was
considered a very liberal present indeed. If the man was successful in
dodging the maids, and getting the neck into the house without receiving
the wetting, the half-crown became his. The neck was then hung up, and
kept until the following year, at any rate, like the bunches of flowers or
boughs gathered at the St. Jean, in the south of France. Sometimes the
necks of many successive years were to be found hanging up together. In
these two ways of disposing of the neck one sees the embodiment, no doubt,
of the two ways of looking at the corn-spirit, as good (to be kept) or as
bad (to be passed on to the neighbour).”(823)

(M227) In the foregoing customs a particular bunch of ears, generally the
last left standing,(824) is conceived as the neck of the corn-spirit, who
is consequently beheaded when the bunch is cut down. Similarly in
Shropshire the name “neck,” or “the gander’s neck,” used to be commonly
given to the last handful of ears left standing in the middle of the field
when all the rest of the corn was cut. It was plaited together, and the
reapers, standing ten or twenty paces off, threw their sickles at it.
Whoever cut it through was said to have cut off the gander’s neck. The
“neck” was taken to the farmer’s wife, who was supposed to keep it in the
house for good luck till the next harvest came round.(825) Near Trèves,
the man who reaps the last standing corn “cuts the goat’s neck off.”(826)
At Faslane, on the Gareloch (Dumbartonshire), the last handful of standing
corn was sometimes called the “head.”(827) At Aurich, in East Friesland,
the man who reaps the last corn “cuts the hare’s tail off.”(828) In mowing
down the last corner of a field French reapers sometimes call out, “We
have the cat by the tail.”(829) In Bresse (Bourgogne) the last sheaf
represented the fox. Beside it a score of ears were left standing to form
the tail, and each reaper, going back some paces, threw his sickle at it.
He who succeeded in severing it “cut off the fox’s tail,” and a cry of
“_You cou cou!_” was raised in his honour.(830) These examples leave no
room to doubt the meaning of the Devonshire and Cornish expression “the
neck,” as applied to the last sheaf. The corn-spirit is conceived in human
or animal form, and the last standing corn is part of its body—its neck,
its head, or its tail. Sometimes, as we have seen, the last corn is
regarded as the navel-string.(831) Lastly, the Devonshire custom of
drenching with water the person who brings in “the neck” is a rain-charm,
such as we have had many examples of. Its parallel in the mysteries of
Osiris was the custom of pouring water on the image of Osiris or on the
person who represented him.

(M228) In Germany cries of _Waul!_ or _Wol!_ or _Wôld!_ are sometimes
raised by the reapers at cutting the last corn. Thus in some places the
last patch of standing rye was called the _Waul_-rye; a stick decked with
flowers was inserted in it, and the ears were fastened to the stick. Then
all the reapers took off their hats and cried thrice, “_Waul!_ _Waul!_
_Waul!_” Sometimes they accompanied the cry by clashing with their
whetstones on their scythes.(832)





CHAPTER VIII. THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL.




§ 1. Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit.


(M229) In some of the examples which I have cited to establish the meaning
of the term “neck” as applied to the last sheaf, the corn-spirit appears
in animal form as a gander, a goat, a hare, a cat, and a fox. This
introduces us to a new aspect of the corn-spirit, which we must now
examine. By doing so we shall not only have fresh examples of killing the
god, but may hope also to clear up some points which remain obscure in the
myths and worship of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Dionysus, Demeter, and
Virbius.

(M230) Amongst the many animals whose forms the corn-spirit is supposed to
take are the wolf, dog, hare, fox, cock, goose, quail, cat, goat, cow (ox,
bull), pig, and horse. In one or other of these shapes the corn-spirit is
often believed to be present in the corn, and to be caught or killed in
the last sheaf. As the corn is being cut the animal flees before the
reapers, and if a reaper is taken ill on the field, he is supposed to have
stumbled unwittingly on the corn-spirit, who has thus punished the profane
intruder. It is said “the Rye-wolf has got hold of him,” “the Harvest-goat
has given him a push.” The person who cuts the last corn or binds the last
sheaf gets the name of the animal, as the Rye-wolf, the Rye-sow, the
Oats-goat, and so forth, and retains the name sometimes for a year. Also
the animal is frequently represented by a puppet made out of the last
sheaf or of wood, flowers, and so on, which is carried home amid
rejoicings on the last harvest-waggon. Even where the last sheaf is not
made up in animal shape, it is often called the Rye-wolf, the Hare, Goat,
and so forth. Generally each kind of crop is supposed to have its special
animal, which is caught in the last sheaf, and called the Rye-wolf, the
Barley-wolf, the Oats-wolf, the Pea-wolf, or the Potato-wolf, according to
the crop; but sometimes the figure of the animal is only made up once for
all at getting in the last crop of the whole harvest. Sometimes the
creature is believed to be killed by the last stroke of the sickle or
scythe. But oftener it is thought to live so long as there is corn still
unthreshed, and to be caught in the last sheaf threshed. Hence the man who
gives the last stroke with the flail is told that he has got the Corn-sow,
the Threshing-dog, or the like. When the threshing is finished, a puppet
is made in the form of the animal, and this is carried by the thresher of
the last sheaf to a neighbouring farm, where the threshing is still going
on. This again shews that the corn-spirit is believed to live wherever the
corn is still being threshed. Sometimes the thresher of the last sheaf
himself represents the animal; and if the people of the next farm, who are
still threshing, catch him, they treat him like the animal he represents,
by shutting him up in the pig-sty, calling him with the cries commonly
addressed to pigs, and so forth.(833) These general statements will now be
illustrated by examples.




§ 2. The Corn-spirit as a Wolf or a Dog.


(M231) We begin with the corn-spirit conceived as a wolf or a dog. This
conception is common in France, Germany, and Slavonic countries. Thus,
when the wind sets the corn in wave-like motion the peasants often say,
“The Wolf is going over, or through, the corn,” “the Rye-wolf is rushing
over the field,” “the Wolf is in the corn,” “the mad Dog is in the corn,”
“the big Dog is there.”(834) When children wish to go into the corn-fields
to pluck ears or gather the blue corn-flowers, they are warned not to do
so, for “the big Dog sits in the corn,” or “the Wolf sits in the corn, and
will tear you in pieces,” “the Wolf will eat you.” The wolf against whom
the children are warned is not a common wolf, for he is often spoken of as
the Corn-wolf, Rye-wolf, or the like; thus they say, “The Rye-wolf will
come and eat you up, children,” “the Rye-wolf will carry you off,” and so
forth.(835) Still he has all the outward appearance of a wolf. For in the
neighbourhood of Feilenhof (East Prussia), when a wolf was seen running
through a field, the peasants used to watch whether he carried his tail in
the air or dragged it on the ground. If he dragged it on the ground, they
went after him, and thanked him for bringing them a blessing, and even set
tit-bits before him. But if he carried his tail high, they cursed him and
tried to kill him. Here the wolf is the corn-spirit whose fertilising
power is in his tail.(836)

(M232) Both dog and wolf appear as embodiments of the corn-spirit in
harvest-customs. Thus in some parts of Silesia the person who cuts or
binds the last sheaf is called the Wheat-dog or the Peas-pug.(837) But it
is in the harvest-customs of the north-east of France that the idea of the
Corn-dog comes out most clearly. Thus when a harvester, through sickness,
weariness, or laziness, cannot or will not keep up with the reaper in
front of him, they say, “The White Dog passed near him,” “he has the White
Bitch,” or “the White Bitch has bitten him.”(838) In the Vosges the
Harvest-May is called the “Dog of the harvest,”(839) and the person who
cuts the last handful of hay or wheat is said to “kill the Dog.”(840)
About Lons-le-Saulnier, in the Jura, the last sheaf is called the Bitch.
In the neighbourhood of Verdun the regular expression for finishing the
reaping is, “They are going to kill the Dog”; and at Epinal they say,
according to the crop, “We will kill the Wheat-dog, or the Rye-dog, or the
Potato-dog.”(841) In Lorraine it is said of the man who cuts the last
corn, “He is killing the Dog of the harvest.”(842) At Dux, in the Tyrol,
the man who gives the last stroke at threshing is said to “strike down the
Dog”;(843) and at Ahnebergen, near Stade, he is called, according to the
crop, Corn-pug, Rye-pug, Wheat-pug.(844)

(M233) So with the wolf. In Silesia, when the reapers gather round the
last patch of standing corn to reap it they are said to be about “to catch
the Wolf.”(845) In various parts of Mecklenburg, where the belief in the
Corn-wolf is particularly prevalent, every one fears to cut the last corn,
because they say that the Wolf is sitting in it; hence every reaper exerts
himself to the utmost in order not to be the last, and every woman
similarly fears to bind the last sheaf because “the Wolf is in it.” So
both among the reapers and the binders there is a competition not to be
the last to finish.(846) And in Germany generally it appears to be a
common saying that “the Wolf sits in the last sheaf.”(847) In some places
they call out to the reaper, “Beware of the Wolf”; or they say, “He is
chasing the Wolf out of the corn.”(848) In Mecklenburg the last bunch of
standing corn is itself commonly called the Wolf, and the man who reaps it
“has the Wolf,” the animal being described as the Rye-wolf, the
Wheat-wolf, the Barley-wolf, and so on according to the particular crop.
The reaper of the last corn is himself called Wolf or the Rye-wolf, if the
crop is rye, and in many parts of Mecklenburg he has to support the
character by pretending to bite the other harvesters or by howling like a
wolf.(849) The last sheaf of corn is also called the Wolf or the Rye-wolf
or the Oats-wolf according to the crop, and of the woman who binds it they
say, “The Wolf is biting her,” “She has the Wolf,” “She must fetch the
Wolf” (out of the corn). Moreover, she herself is called Wolf; they cry
out to her, “Thou art the Wolf,” and she has to bear the name for a whole
year; sometimes, according to the crop, she is called the Rye-wolf or the
Potato-wolf.(850) In the island of Rügen not only is the woman who binds
the last sheaf called Wolf, but when she comes home she bites the lady of
the house and the stewardess, for which she receives a large piece of
meat. Yet nobody likes to be the Wolf. The same woman may be Rye-wolf,
Wheat-wolf, and Oats-wolf, if she happens to bind the last sheaf of rye,
wheat, and oats.(851) At Buir, in the district of Cologne, it was formerly
the custom to give to the last sheaf the shape of a wolf. It was kept in
the barn till all the corn was threshed. Then it was brought to the farmer
and he had to sprinkle it with beer or brandy.(852) At Brunshaupten in
Mecklenburg the young woman who bound the last sheaf of wheat used to take
a handful of stalks out of it and make “the Wheat-wolf” with them; it was
the figure of a wolf about two feet long and half a foot high, the legs of
the animal being represented by stiff stalks and its tail and mane by
wheat-ears. This Wheat-wolf she carried back at the head of the harvesters
to the village, where it was set up on a high place in the parlour of the
farm and remained there for a long time.(853) In many places the sheaf
called the Wolf is made up in human form and dressed in clothes. This
indicates a confusion of ideas between the corn-spirit conceived in human
and in animal form. Generally the Wolf is brought home on the last waggon
with joyful cries. Hence the last waggon-load itself receives the name of
the Wolf.(854)

(M234) Again, the Wolf is supposed to hide himself amongst the cut corn in
the granary, until he is driven out of the last bundle by the strokes of
the flail. Hence at Wanzleben, near Magdeburg, after the threshing the
peasants go in procession, leading by a chain a man who is enveloped in
the threshed-out straw and is called the Wolf.(855) He represents the
corn-spirit who has been caught escaping from the threshed corn. In the
district of Treves it is believed that the Corn-wolf is killed at
threshing. The men thresh the last sheaf till it is reduced to chopped
straw. In this way they think that the Corn-wolf, who was lurking in the
last sheaf, has been certainly killed.(856)

(M235) In France also the Corn-wolf appears at harvest. Thus they call out
to the reaper of the last corn, “You will catch the Wolf.” Near Chambéry
they form a ring round the last standing corn, and cry, “The Wolf is in
there.” In Finisterre, when the reaping draws near an end, the harvesters
cry, “There is the Wolf; we will catch him.” Each takes a swath to reap,
and he who finishes first calls out, “I’ve caught the Wolf.”(857) In
Guyenne, when the last corn has been reaped, they lead a wether all round
the field. It is called “the Wolf of the field.” Its horns are decked with
a wreath of flowers and corn-ears, and its neck and body are also
encircled with garlands and ribbons. All the reapers march, singing,
behind it. Then it is killed on the field. In this part of France the last
sheaf is called the _coujoulage_, which, in the patois, means a wether.
Hence the killing of the wether represents the death of the corn-spirit,
considered as present in the last sheaf; but two different conceptions of
the corn-spirit—as a wolf and as a wether—are mixed up together.(858)

(M236) Sometimes it appears to be thought that the Wolf, caught in the
last corn, lives during the winter in the farmhouse, ready to renew his
activity as corn-spirit in the spring. Hence at midwinter, when the
lengthening days begin to herald the approach of spring, the Wolf makes
his appearance once more. In Poland a man, with a wolf’s skin thrown over
his head, is led about at Christmas; or a stuffed wolf is carried about by
persons who collect money.(859) There are facts which point to an old
custom of leading about a man enveloped in leaves and called the Wolf,
while his conductors collected money.(860)




§ 3. The Corn-spirit as a Cock.


(M237) Another form which the corn-spirit often assumes is that of a cock.
In Austria children are warned against straying in the corn-fields,
because the Corn-cock sits there, and will peck their eyes out.(861) In
North Germany they say that “the Cock sits in the last sheaf”; and at
cutting the last corn the reapers cry, “Now we will chase out the Cock.”
When it is cut they say, “We have caught the Cock.”(862) At Braller, in
Transylvania, when the reapers come to the last patch of corn, they cry,
“Here we shall catch the Cock.”(863) At Fürstenwalde, when the last sheaf
is about to be bound, the master releases a cock, which he has brought in
a basket, and lets it run over the field. All the harvesters chase it till
they catch it. Elsewhere the harvesters all try to seize the last corn
cut; he who succeeds in grasping it must crow, and is called Cock.(864)
Among the Wends it is or used to be customary for the farmer to hide a
live cock under the last sheaf as it lay on the field; and when the corn
was being gathered up, the harvester who lighted upon this sheaf had a
right to keep the cock, provided he could catch it. This formed the close
of the harvest-festival and was known as “the Cock-catching,” and the beer
which was served out to the reapers at this time went by the name of
“Cock-beer.”(865) The last sheaf is called Cock, Cock-sheaf, Harvest-cock,
Harvest-hen, Autumn-hen. A distinction is made between a Wheat-cock,
Bean-cock, and so on, according to the crop.(866) At Wünschensuhl, in
Thüringen, the last sheaf is made into the shape of a cock, and called the
Harvest-cock.(867) A figure of a cock, made of wood, pasteboard, ears of
corn, or flowers, is borne in front of the harvest-waggon, especially in
Westphalia, where the cock carries in his beak fruits of the earth of all
kinds. Sometimes the image of the cock is fastened to the top of a
May-tree on the last harvest-waggon. Elsewhere a live cock, or a figure of
one, is attached to a harvest-crown and carried on a pole. In Galicia and
elsewhere this live cock is fastened to the garland of corn-ears or
flowers, which the leader of the women-reapers carries on her head as she
marches in front of the harvest procession.(868) In Silesia a live cock is
presented to the master on a plate. The harvest-supper is called
Harvest-cock, Stubble-cock, etc., and a chief dish at it, at least in some
places, is a cock.(869) If a waggoner upsets a harvest-waggon, it is said
that “he has spilt the Harvest cock,” and he loses the cock, that is, the
harvest-supper.(870) The harvest-waggon, with the figure of the cock on
it, is driven round the farmhouse before it is taken to the barn. Then the
cock is nailed over or at the side of the house-door, or on the gable, and
remains there till next harvest.(871) In East Friesland the person who
gives the last stroke at threshing is called the Clucking-hen, and grain
is strewed before him as if he were a hen.(872)

(M238) Again, the corn-spirit is killed in the form of a cock. In parts of
Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Picardy the reapers place a live cock in the
corn which is to be cut last, and chase it over the field, or bury it up
to the neck in the ground; afterwards they strike off its head with a
sickle or scythe.(873) In many parts of Westphalia, when the harvesters
bring the wooden cock to the farmer, he gives them a live cock, which they
kill with whips or sticks, or behead with an old sword, or throw into the
barn to the girls, or give to the mistress to cook. If the harvest-cock
has not been spilt—that is, if no waggon has been upset—the harvesters
have the right to kill the farmyard cock by throwing stones at it or
beheading it. Where this custom has fallen into disuse, it is still common
for the farmer’s wife to make cockie-leekie for the harvesters, and to
shew them the head of the cock which has been killed for the soup.(874) In
the neighbourhood of Klausenburg, Transylvania, a cock is buried on the
harvest-field in the earth, so that only its head appears. A young man
then takes a scythe and cuts off the cock’s head at a single sweep. If he
fails to do this, he is called the Red Cock for a whole year, and people
fear that next year’s crop will be bad.(875) Near Udvarhely, in
Transylvania, a live cock is bound up in the last sheaf and killed with a
spit. It is then skinned. The flesh is thrown away, but the skin and
feathers are kept till next year; and in spring the grain from the last
sheaf is mixed with the feathers of the cock and scattered on the field
which is to be tilled.(876) Nothing could set in a clearer light the
identification of the cock with the spirit of the corn. By being tied up
in the last sheaf and killed, the cock is identified with the corn, and
its death with the cutting of the corn. By keeping its feathers till
spring, then mixing them with the seed-corn taken from the very sheaf in
which the bird had been bound, and scattering the feathers together with
the seed over the field, the identity of the bird with the corn is again
emphasised, and its quickening and fertilising power, as an embodiment of
the corn-spirit, is intimated in the plainest manner. Thus the
corn-spirit, in the form of a cock, is killed at harvest, but rises to
fresh life and activity in spring. Again, the equivalence of the cock to
the corn is expressed, hardly less plainly, in the custom of burying the
bird in the ground, and cutting off its head (like the ears of corn) with
the scythe.




§ 4. The Corn-spirit as a Hare.


(M239) Another common embodiment of the corn-spirit is the hare.(877) In
Galloway the reaping of the last standing corn is called “cutting the
Hare.” The mode of cutting it is as follows. When the rest of the corn has
been reaped, a handful is left standing to form the Hare. It is divided
into three parts and plaited, and the ears are tied in a knot. The reapers
then retire a few yards and each throws his or her sickle in turn at the
Hare to cut it down. It must be cut below the knot, and the reapers
continue to throw their sickles at it, one after the other, until one of
them succeeds in severing the stalks below the knot. The Hare is then
carried home and given to a maidservant in the kitchen, who places it over
the kitchen-door on the inside. Sometimes the Hare used to be thus kept
till the next harvest. In the parish of Minnigaff, when the Hare was cut,
the unmarried reapers ran home with all speed, and the one who arrived
first was the first to be married.(878) In Southern Ayrshire the last corn
cut is also called the Hare, and the mode of cutting it seems to be the
same as in Galloway; at least in the neighbourhood of Kilmarnock the last
corn left standing in the middle of the field is plaited, and the reapers
used to try to cut it by throwing their sickles at it. When cut, it was
carried home and hung up over the door.(879) In the Vosges Mountains the
person who cuts the last handful of hay or wheat is sometimes said to have
caught the Hare; he is congratulated by his comrades and has the honour of
carrying the nosegay or the small fir-tree decorated with ribbons which
marks the conclusion of the harvest.(880) In Germany also one of the names
for the last sheaf is the Hare.(881) Thus in some parts of Anhalt, when
the corn has been reaped and only a few stalks are left standing, they
say, “The Hare will soon come,” or the reapers cry to each other, “Look
how the Hare comes jumping out.”(882) In East Prussia they say that the
Hare sits in the last patch of standing corn, and must be chased out by
the last reaper. The reapers hurry with their work, each being anxious not
to have “to chase out the Hare”; for the man who does so, that is, who
cuts the last corn, is much laughed at.(883) At Birk, in Transylvania,
when the reapers come to the last patch, they cry out, “We have the
Hare.”(884) At Aurich, as we have seen,(885) an expression for cutting the
last corn is “to cut off the Hare’s tail.” “He is killing the Hare” is
commonly said of the man who cuts the last corn in Germany, Sweden,
Holland, France, and Italy.(886) In Norway the man who is thus said to
“kill the Hare” must give “hare’s blood” in the form of brandy, to his
fellows to drink.(887) In Lesbos, when the reapers are at work in two
neighbouring fields, each party tries to finish first in order to drive
the Hare into their neighbour’s field; the reapers who succeed in doing so
believe that next year the crop will be better. A small sheaf of corn is
made up and kept beside the holy picture till next harvest.(888)




§ 5. The Corn-spirit as a Cat.


(M240) Again, the corn-spirit sometimes takes the form of a cat. Near Kiel
children are warned not to go into the corn-fields because “the Cat sits
there.” In the Eisenach Oberland they are told “the Corn-cat will come and
fetch you,” “the Corn-cat goes in the corn.” In some parts of Silesia at
mowing the last corn they say, “The Cat is caught”; and at threshing, the
man who gives the last stroke is called the Cat. In the neighbourhood of
Lyons the last sheaf and the harvest-supper are both called the Cat. About
Vesoul when they cut the last corn they say, “We have the Cat by the
tail.” At Briançon, in Dauphiné, at the beginning of reaping a cat is
decked out with ribbons, flowers, and ears of corn. It is called the Cat
of the ball-skin (_le chat de peau de balle_). If a reaper is wounded at
his work, they make the cat lick the wound. At the close of the reaping
the cat is again decked out with ribbons and ears of corn; then they dance
and make merry. When the dance is over the girls solemnly strip the cat of
its finery. At Grüneberg, in Silesia, the reaper who cuts the last corn
goes by the name of the Tom-cat. He is enveloped in rye-stalks and green
withes, and is furnished with a long plaited tail. Sometimes as a
companion he has a man similarly dressed, who is called the (female) Cat.
Their duty is to run after people whom they see and to beat them with a
long stick. Near Amiens the expression for finishing the harvest is, “They
are going to kill the Cat”; and when the last corn is cut they kill a cat
in the farmyard. At threshing, in some parts of France, a live cat is
placed under the last bundle of corn to be threshed, and is struck dead
with the flails. Then on Sunday it is roasted and eaten as a holiday
dish.(889) In the Vosges Mountains the close of haymaking or harvest is
called “catching the cat,” “killing the dog,” or more rarely “catching the
hare.” The cat, the dog, or the hare is said to be fat or lean according
as the crop is good or bad. The man who cuts the last handful of hay or of
wheat is said to catch the cat or the hare or to kill the dog. He is
congratulated by his comrades and has the honour of carrying the nosegay
or rather the small fir-tree decked with ribbons which marks the end of
the haymaking or of the harvest.(890) In Franche-Comté also the close of
harvest is called “catching or killing the cat.”(891)




§ 6. The Corn-spirit as a Goat.


(M241) Further, the corn-spirit often appears in the form of a goat. In
some parts of Prussia, when the corn bends before the wind, they say, “The
Goats are chasing each other,” “the wind is driving the Goats through the
corn,” “the Goats are browsing there,” and they expect a very good
harvest. Again they say, “The Oats-goat is sitting in the oats-field,”
“the Corn-goat is sitting in the rye-field.”(892) Children are warned not
to go into the corn-fields to pluck the blue corn-flowers, or amongst the
beans to pluck pods, because the Rye-goat, the Corn-goat, the Oats-goat,
or the Bean-goat is sitting or lying there, and will carry them away or
kill them.(893) When a harvester is taken sick or lags behind his fellows
at their work, they call out, “The Harvest-goat has pushed him,” “he has
been pushed by the Corn-goat.”(894) In the neighbourhood of Braunsberg
(East Prussia) at binding the oats every harvester makes haste “lest the
Corn-goat push him.” At Oefoten, in Norway, each reaper has his allotted
patch to reap. When a reaper in the middle has not finished reaping his
piece after his neighbours have finished theirs, they say of him, “He
remains on the island.” And if the laggard is a man, they imitate the cry
with which they call a he-goat; if a woman, the cry with which they call a
she-goat.(895) Near Straubing, in Lower Bavaria, it is said of the man who
cuts the last corn that “he has the Corn-goat, or the Wheat-goat, or the
Oats-goat,” according to the crop. Moreover, two horns are set up on the
last heap of corn, and it is called “the horned Goat.” At Kreutzburg, East
Prussia, they call out to the woman who is binding the last sheaf, “The
Goat is sitting in the sheaf.”(896) At Gablingen, in Swabia, when the last
field of oats upon a farm is being reaped, the reapers carve a goat out of
wood. Ears of oats are inserted in its nostrils and mouth, and it is
adorned with garlands of flowers. It is set up on the field and called the
Oats-goat. When the reaping approaches an end, each reaper hastens to
finish his piece first; he who is the last to finish gets the
Oats-goat.(897) Again, the last sheaf is itself called the Goat. Thus, in
the valley of the Wiesent, Bavaria, the last sheaf bound on the field is
called the Goat, and they have a proverb, “The field must bear a
goat.”(898) At Spachbrücken, in Hesse, the last handful of corn which is
cut is called the Goat, and the man who cuts it is much ridiculed.(899) At
Dürrenbüchig and about Mosbach in Baden the last sheaf is also called the
Goat.(900) Sometimes the last sheaf is made up in the form of a goat, and
they say, “The Goat is sitting in it.”(901) Again, the person who cuts or
binds the last sheaf is called the Goat. Thus, in parts of Mecklenburg
they call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “You are the
Harvest-goat.” Near Uelzen, in Hanover, the harvest festival begins with
“the bringing of the Harvest-goat”; that is, the woman who bound the last
sheaf is wrapt in straw, crowned with a harvest-wreath, and brought in a
wheelbarrow to the village, where a round dance takes place. About
Luneburg, also, the woman who binds the last corn is decked with a crown
of corn-ears and is called the Corn-goat.(902) At Münzesheim in Baden the
reaper who cuts the last handful of corn or oats is called the Corn-goat
or the Oats-goat.(903) In the Canton St. Gall, Switzerland, the person who
cuts the last handful of corn on the field, or drives the last
harvest-waggon to the barn, is called the Corn-goat or the Rye-goat, or
simply the Goat.(904) In the Canton Thurgau he is called Corn-goat; like a
goat he has a bell hung round his neck, is led in triumph, and drenched
with liquor. In parts of Styria, also, the man who cuts the last corn is
called Corn-goat, Oats-goat, or the like. As a rule, the man who thus gets
the name of Corn-goat has to bear it a whole year till the next
harvest.(905)

(M242) According to one view, the corn-spirit, who has been caught in the
form of a goat or otherwise, lives in the farmhouse or barn over winter.
Thus, each farm has its own embodiment of the corn-spirit. But, according
to another view, the corn-spirit is the genius or deity, not of the corn
of one farm only, but of all the corn. Hence when the corn on one farm is
all cut, he flees to another where there is still corn left standing. This
idea is brought out in a harvest-custom which was formerly observed in
Skye. The farmer who first finished reaping sent a man or woman with a
sheaf to a neighbouring farmer who had not finished; the latter in his
turn, when he had finished, sent on the sheaf to his neighbour who was
still reaping; and so the sheaf made the round of the farms till all the
corn was cut. The sheaf was called the _goabbir bhacagh_, that is, the
Cripple Goat.(906) The custom appears not to be extinct at the present
day, for it was reported from Skye only a few years ago. We are told that
when the crofters and small farmers are cutting down their corn, each
tries his best to finish before his neighbour. The first to finish goes to
his neighbour’s field and makes up at one end of it a bundle of sheaves in
a fanciful shape which goes by the name of the _gobhar bhacach_ or Lame
Goat. As each man in succession finishes reaping his field, he proceeds to
set up a lame goat of this sort in his neighbour’s field where there is
still corn standing. No one likes to have the Lame Goat put in his field,
“not from any ill-luck it brings, but because it is humiliating to have it
standing there visible to all neighbours and passers-by, and of course he
cannot retaliate.”(907) The corn-spirit was probably thus represented as
lame because he had been crippled by the cutting of the corn. We have seen
that sometimes the old woman who brings home the last sheaf must limp on
one foot.(908) In the Böhmer Wald mountains, between Bohemia and Bavaria,
when two peasants are driving home their corn together, they race against
each other to see who shall get home first. The village boys mark the
loser in the race, and at night they come and erect on the roof of his
house the Oats-goat, which is a colossal figure of a goat made of
straw.(909)

(M243) But sometimes the corn-spirit, in the form of a goat, is believed
to be slain on the harvest-field by the sickle or scythe. Thus, in the
neighbourhood of Bernkastel, on the Moselle, the reapers determine by lot
the order in which they shall follow each other. The first is called the
fore-reaper, the last the tail-bearer. If a reaper overtakes the man in
front he reaps past him, bending round so as to leave the slower reaper in
a patch by himself. This patch is called the Goat; and the man for whom
“the Goat is cut” in this way, is laughed and jeered at by his fellows for
the rest of the day. When the tail-bearer cuts the last ears of corn, it
is said, “He is cutting the Goat’s neck off.”(910) In the neighbourhood of
Grenoble, before the end of the reaping, a live goat is adorned with
flowers and ribbons and allowed to run about the field. The reapers chase
it and try to catch it. When it is caught, the farmer’s wife holds it fast
while the farmer cuts off its head. The goat’s flesh serves to furnish the
harvest-supper. A piece of the flesh is pickled and kept till the next
harvest, when another goat is killed. Then all the harvesters eat of the
flesh. On the same day the skin of the goat is made into a cloak, which
the farmer, who works with his men, must always wear at harvest-time if
rain or bad weather sets in. But if a reaper gets pains in his back, the
farmer gives him the goat-skin to wear.(911) The reason for this seems to
be that the pains in the back, being inflicted by the corn-spirit, can
also be healed by it. Similarly, we saw that elsewhere, when a reaper is
wounded at reaping, a cat, as the representative of the corn-spirit, is
made to lick the wound.(912) Esthonian reapers in the island of Mon think
that the man who cuts the first ears of corn at harvest will get pains in
his back,(913) probably because the corn-spirit is believed to resent
especially the first wound; and, in order to escape pains in the back,
Saxon reapers in Transylvania gird their loins with the first handful of
ears which they cut.(914) Here, again, the corn-spirit is applied to for
healing or protection, but in his original vegetable form, not in the form
of a goat or a cat.

(M244) Further, the corn-spirit under the form of a goat is sometimes
conceived as lurking among the cut corn in the barn, till he is driven
from it by the threshing-flail. Thus in Baden the last sheaf to be
threshed is called the Corn-goat, the Spelt-goat, or the Oats-goat
according to the kind of grain.(915) Again, near Marktl, in Upper Bavaria,
the sheaves are called Straw-goats or simply Goats. They are laid in a
great heap on the open field and threshed by two rows of men standing
opposite each other, who, as they ply their flails, sing a song in which
they say that they see the Straw-goat amongst the corn-stalks. The last
Goat, that is, the last sheaf, is adorned with a wreath of violets and
other flowers and with cakes strung together. It is placed right in the
middle of the heap. Some of the threshers rush at it and tear the best of
it out; others lay on with their flails so recklessly that heads are
sometimes broken. In threshing this last sheaf, each man casts up to the
man opposite him the misdeeds of which he has been guilty throughout the
year.(916) At Oberinntal, in the Tyrol, the last thresher is called
Goat.(917) So at Haselberg, in West Bohemia, the man who gives the last
stroke at threshing oats is called the Oats-goat.(918) At Tettnang, in
Würtemburg, the thresher who gives the last stroke to the last bundle of
corn before it is turned goes by the name of the He-goat, and it is said,
“He has driven the He-goat away.” The person who, after the bundle has
been turned, gives the last stroke of all, is called the She-goat.(919) In
this custom it is implied that the corn is inhabited by a pair of
corn-spirits, male and female.

(M245) Further, the corn-spirit, captured in the form of a goat at
threshing, is passed on to a neighbour whose threshing is not yet
finished. In Franche Comté, as soon as the threshing is over, the young
people set up a straw figure of a goat on the farmyard of a neighbour who
is still threshing. He must give them wine or money in return. At
Ellwangen, in Würtemburg, the effigy of a goat is made out of the last
bundle of corn at threshing; four sticks form its legs, and two its horns.
The man who gives the last stroke with the flail must carry the Goat to
the barn of a neighbour who is still threshing and throw it down on the
floor; if he is caught in the act, they tie the goat on his back.(920) A
similar custom is observed at Indersdorf, in Upper Bavaria; the man who
throws the straw Goat into the neighbour’s barn imitates the bleating of a
goat; if they catch him, they blacken his face and tie the Goat on his
back.(921) At Zabern, in Elsace, when a farmer is a week or more behind
his neighbours with his threshing, they set a real stuffed goat or fox
before his door.(922)

(M246) Sometimes the spirit of the corn in goat form is believed to be
killed at threshing. In the district of Traunstein, Upper Bavaria, they
think that the Oats-goat is in the last sheaf of oats. He is represented
by an old rake set up on end, with an old pot for a head. The children are
then told to kill the Oats-goat.(923) Elsewhere, however, the corn-spirit
in the form of a goat is apparently thought to live in the field
throughout the winter. Hence at Wannefeld near Gardelegen, and also
between Calbe and Salzwedel, in the Altmark, the last stalks used to be
left uncut on the harvest-field with the words, “That shall the He-goat
keep!” Evidently the last corn was here left as a provision for the
corn-spirit, lest, robbed of all his substance, he should die of hunger. A
stranger passing a harvest-field is sometimes taken for the Corn-goat
escaping in human shape from the cut or threshed grain. Thus, when a
stranger passes a harvest-field, all the labourers stop and shout as with
one voice, “He-goat! He-goat!” At rape-seed threshing in Schleswig, which
is generally done on the field, the same cry is raised if the stranger
does not take off his hat.(924)

(M247) At sowing their winter corn the old Prussians used to kill a goat,
consume its flesh with many superstitious ceremonies, and hang the skin on
a high pole near an oak and a large stone. There it remained till harvest,
when a great bunch of corn and herbs was fastened to the pole above the
goat-skin. Then, after a prayer had been offered by a peasant who acted as
priest (_Weidulut_), the young folks joined hands and danced round the oak
and the pole. Afterwards they scrambled for the bunch of corn, and the
priest distributed the herbs with a sparing hand. Then he placed the
goat-skin on the large stone, sat down on it, and preached to the people
about the history of their forefathers and their old heathen customs and
beliefs.(925) The goat-skin thus suspended on the field from sowing time
to harvest perhaps represents the corn-spirit superintending the growth of
the corn. The Tomori of Central Celebes imagine that the spirits which
cause rice to grow have the form of great goats with long hair and long
lips.(926)




§ 7. The Corn-spirit as a Bull, Cow, or Ox.


(M248) Another form which the corn-spirit often assumes is that of a bull,
cow, or ox. When the wind sweeps over the corn they say at Conitz, in West
Prussia, “The Steer is running in the corn”;(927) when the corn is thick
and strong in one spot, they say in some parts of East Prussia, “The Bull
is lying in the corn.” When a harvester has overstrained and lamed
himself, they say in the Graudenz district of West Prussia, “The Bull
pushed him”; in Lothringen they say, “He has the Bull.” The meaning of
both expressions is that he has unwittingly lighted upon the divine
corn-spirit, who has punished the profane intruder with lameness.(928) So
near Chambéry when a reaper wounds himself with his sickle, it is said
that he has “the wound of the Ox.”(929) In the district of Bunzlau
(Silesia) the last sheaf is sometimes made into the shape of a horned ox,
stuffed with tow and wrapt in corn-ears. This figure is called the Old
Man. In some parts of Bohemia the last sheaf is made up in human form and
called the Buffalo-bull.(930) These cases shew a confusion of the human
with the animal shape of the corn-spirit. The confusion is like that of
killing a wether under the name of a wolf.(931) In the Canton of Thurgau,
Switzerland, the last sheaf, if it is a large one, is called the Cow.(932)
All over Swabia the last bundle of corn on the field is called the Cow;
the man who cuts the last ears “has the Cow,” and is himself called Cow or
Barley-cow or Oats-cow, according to the crop; at the harvest-supper he
gets a nosegay of flowers and corn-ears and a more liberal allowance of
drink than the rest. But he is teased and laughed at; so no one likes to
be the Cow.(933) The Cow was sometimes represented by the figure of a
woman made out of ears of corn and corn-flowers. It was carried to the
farmhouse by the man who had cut the last handful of corn. The children
ran after him and the neighbours turned out to laugh at him, till the
farmer took the Cow from him.(934) Here again the confusion between the
human and the animal form of the corn-spirit is apparent. In various parts
of Switzerland the reaper who cuts the last ears of corn is called
Wheat-cow, Corn-cow, Oats-cow, or Corn-steer, and is the butt of many a
joke.(935) In some parts of East Prussia, when a few ears of corn have
been left standing by inadvertence on the last swath, the foremost reaper
seizes them and cries, “Bull! Bull!”(936) On the other hand, in the
district of Rosenheim, Upper Bavaria, when a farmer is later of getting in
his harvest than his neighbours, they set up on his land a Straw-bull, as
it is called. This is a gigantic figure of a bull made of stubble on a
framework of wood and adorned with flowers and leaves. Attached to it is a
label on which are scrawled doggerel verses in ridicule of the man on
whose land the Straw-bull is set up.(937)

(M249) Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a bull or ox is killed on the
harvest-field at the close of the reaping. At Pouilly, near Dijon, when
the last ears of corn are about to be cut, an ox adorned with ribbons,
flowers, and ears of corn is led all round the field, followed by the
whole troop of reapers dancing. Then a man disguised as the Devil cuts the
last ears of corn and immediately slaughters the ox. Part of the flesh of
the animal is eaten at the harvest-supper; part is pickled and kept till
the first day of sowing in spring. At Pont à Mousson and elsewhere on the
evening of the last day of reaping, a calf adorned with flowers and ears
of corn is led thrice round the farmyard, being allured by a bait or
driven by men with sticks, or conducted by the farmer’s wife with a rope.
The calf chosen for this ceremony is the calf which was born first on the
farm in the spring of the year. It is followed by all the reapers with
their tools. Then it is allowed to run free; the reapers chase it, and
whoever catches it is called King of the Calf. Lastly, it is solemnly
killed; at Lunéville the man who acts as butcher is the Jewish merchant of
the village.(938)

(M250) Sometimes again the corn-spirit hides himself amongst the cut corn
in the barn to reappear in bull or cow form at threshing. Thus at
Wurmlingen, in Thüringen, the man who gives the last stroke at threshing
is called the Cow, or rather the Barley-cow, Oats-cow, Peas-cow, or the
like, according to the crop. He is entirely enveloped in straw; his head
is surmounted by sticks in imitation of horns, and two lads lead him by
ropes to the well to drink. On the way thither he must low like a cow, and
for a long time afterwards he goes by the name of the Cow.(939) At
Obermedlingen, in Swabia, when the threshing draws near an end, each man
is careful to avoid giving the last stroke. He who does give it “gets the
Cow,” which is a straw figure dressed in an old ragged petticoat, hood,
and stockings. It is tied on his back with a straw-rope; his face is
blackened, and being bound with straw-ropes to a wheelbarrow he is wheeled
round the village.(940) Here, again, we meet with that confusion between
the human and animal shape of the corn-spirit which we have noted in other
customs. In Canton Schaffhausen the man who threshes the last corn is
called the Cow; in Canton Thurgau, the Corn-bull; in Canton Zurich, the
Thresher-cow. In the last-mentioned district he is wrapt in straw and
bound to one of the trees in the orchard.(941) At Arad, in Hungary, the
man who gives the last stroke at threshing is enveloped in straw and a
cow’s hide with the horns attached to it.(942) At Pessnitz, in the
district of Dresden, the man who gives the last stroke with the flail is
called Bull. He must make a straw-man and set it up before a neighbour’s
window.(943) Here, apparently, as in so many cases, the corn-spirit is
passed on to a neighbour who has not finished threshing. So at
Herbrechtingen, in Thüringen, the effigy of a ragged old woman is flung
into the barn of the farmer who is last with his threshing. The man who
throws it in cries, “There is the Cow for you.” If the threshers catch him
they detain him over night and punish him by keeping him from the
harvest-supper.(944) In these latter customs the confusion between the
human and the animal shape of the corn-spirit meets us again.

(M251) Further, the corn-spirit in bull form is sometimes believed to be
killed at threshing. At Auxerre, in threshing the last bundle of corn,
they call out twelve times, “We are killing the Bull.” In the
neighbourhood of Bordeaux, where a butcher kills an ox on the field
immediately after the close of the reaping, it is said of the man who
gives the last stroke at threshing that “he has killed the Bull.”(945) At
Chambéry the last sheaf is called the sheaf of the Young Ox, and a race
takes place to it in which all the reapers join. When the last stroke is
given at threshing they say that “the Ox is killed”; and immediately
thereupon a real ox is slaughtered by the reaper who cut the last corn.
The flesh of the ox is eaten by the threshers at supper.(946)

(M252) We have seen that sometimes the young corn-spirit, whose task it is
to quicken the corn of the coming year, is believed to be born as a
Corn-baby on the harvest-field.(947) Similarly in Berry the young
corn-spirit is sometimes supposed to be born on the field in calf form;
for when a binder has not rope enough to bind all the corn in sheaves, he
puts aside the wheat that remains over and imitates the lowing of a cow.
The meaning is that “the sheaf has given birth to a calf.”(948) In
Puy-de-Dôme when a binder cannot keep up with the reaper whom he or she
follows, they say “He (or she) is giving birth to the Calf.”(949) In some
parts of Prussia, in similar circumstances, they call out to the woman,
“The Bull is coming,” and imitate the bellowing of a bull.(950) In these
cases the woman is conceived as the Corn-cow or old corn-spirit, while the
supposed calf is the Corn-calf or young corn-spirit. In some parts of
Austria a mythical calf (_Muhkälbchen_) is believed to be seen amongst the
sprouting corn in spring and to push the children; when the corn waves in
the wind they say, “The Calf is going about.” Clearly, as Mannhardt
observes, this calf of the spring-time is the same animal which is
afterwards believed to be killed at reaping.(951)




§ 8. The Corn-spirit as a Horse or Mare.


(M253) Sometimes the corn-spirit appears in the shape of a horse or mare.
Between Kalw and Stuttgart, when the corn bends before the wind, they say,
“There runs the Horse.”(952) At Bohlingen, near Radolfzell in Baden, the
last sheaf of oats is called the Oats-stallion.(953) In Hertfordshire, at
the end of the reaping, there is or used to be observed a ceremony called
“crying the Mare.” The last blades of corn left standing on the field are
tied together and called the Mare. The reapers stand at a distance and
throw their sickles at it; he who cuts it through “has the prize, with
acclamations and good cheer.” After it is cut the reapers cry thrice with
a loud voice, “I have her!” Others answer thrice, “What have you?”—“A
Mare! a Mare! a Mare!”—“Whose is she?” is next asked thrice. “A. B.’s,”
naming the owner thrice. “Whither will you send her?”—“To C. D.,” naming
some neighbour who has not reaped all his corn.(954) In this custom the
corn-spirit in the form of a mare is passed on from a farm where the corn
is all cut to another farm where it is still standing, and where therefore
the corn-spirit may be supposed naturally to take refuge. In Shropshire
the custom is similar. “Crying, calling, or shouting the mare is a
ceremony performed by the men of that farm which is the first in any
parish or district to finish the harvest. The object of it is to make
known their own prowess, and to taunt the laggards by a pretended offer of
the ‘owd mar’’ [old mare] to help out their ‘chem’ [team]. All the men
assemble (the wooden harvest-bottle being of course one of the company) in
the stackyard, or, better, on the highest ground on the farm, and there
shout the following dialogue, preceding it by a grand ‘Hip, hip, hip,
hurrah!’

“ ‘I ’ave ’er, I ’ave ’er, I ’ave ’er!’

“ ‘Whad ’ast thee, whad ’ast thee, whad ’ast thee?’

“ ‘A mar’! a mar’! a mar’!’

“ ‘Whose is ’er, whose is ’er, whose is ’er?’

“ ‘Maister A.’s, Maister A.’s, Maister A.’s!’ (naming the farmer whose
harvest is finished).

“ ‘W’eer sha’t the’ send ’er? w’eer sha’t the’ send ’er? w’eer sha’t the’
send ’er?’

“ ‘To Maister B.’s, to Maister B.’s, to Maister B.’s’ (naming one whose
harvest is _not_ finished).

“ ‘’Uth a hip, hip, hip, hurrah!’ (in chorus).”

The farmer who finishes his harvest last, and who therefore cannot send
the Mare to any one else, is said “to keep her all winter.” The mocking
offer of the Mare was sometimes responded to by a mocking acceptance of
her help. Thus an old man told an enquirer, “While we wun at supper, a mon
cumm’d wi’ a autar [halter] to fatch her away.” But at one place (Longnor,
near Leebotwood), down to about 1850, the Mare used really to be sent.
“The head man of the farmer who had finished harvest first was mounted on
the best horse of the team—the leader—both horse and man being adorned
with ribbons, streamers, etc. Thus arrayed, a boy on foot led the pair in
triumph to the neighbouring farmhouses. Sometimes the man who took the
‘mare’ received, as well as plenty of harvest-ale, some rather rough,
though good-humoured, treatment, coming back minus his decorations, and so
on.”(955)

(M254) In the neighbourhood of Lille the idea of the corn-spirit in horse
form is clearly preserved. When a harvester grows weary at his work, it is
said, “He has the fatigue of the Horse.” The first sheaf, called the
“Cross of the Horse,” is placed on a cross of boxwood in the barn, and the
youngest horse on the farm must tread on it. The reapers dance round the
last blades of corn, crying, “See the remains of the Horse.” The sheaf
made out of these last blades is given to the youngest horse of the parish
(_commune_) to eat. This youngest horse of the parish clearly represents,
as Mannhardt says, the corn-spirit of the following year, the Corn-foal,
which absorbs the spirit of the old Corn-horse by eating the last corn
cut; for, as usual, the old corn-spirit takes his final refuge in the last
sheaf. The thresher of the last sheaf is said to “beat the Horse.”(956)
Again, a trace of the horse-shaped corn-spirit is reported from Berry. The
harvesters there are accustomed to take a noonday nap in the field. This
is called “seeing the Horse.” The leader or “King” of the harvesters gives
the signal for going to sleep. If he delays giving the signal, one of the
harvesters will begin to neigh like a horse, the rest imitate him, and
then they all go “to see the Horse.”(957)




§ 9. The Corn-spirit as a Bird.


(M255) Sometimes the corn-spirit assumes the form of a bird. Thus among
the Saxons of the Bistritz district in Transylvania there is a saying that
the quail is sitting in the last standing stalks on the harvest-field, and
all the reapers rush at these stalks in order, as they say, to catch the
quail.(958) Exactly the same expression is used by reapers in Austrian
Silesia when they are about to cut the last standing corn, whatever the
kind of grain may be.(959) In the Bocage of Normandy, when the reapers
have come to the last ears of the last rig, they surround them for the
purpose of catching the quail, which is supposed to have taken refuge
there. They run about the corn crying, “Mind the Quail!” and make believe
to grab at the bird amid shouts and laughter.(960) Connected with this
identification of the corn-spirit with a quail is probably the belief that
the cry of the bird in spring is prophetic of the price of corn in the
autumn; in Germany they say that corn will sell at as many gulden a bushel
as the quail uttered its cry over the fields in spring. Similar
prognostications are drawn from the note of the bird in central and
western France, in Switzerland and in Tuscany.(961) Perhaps one reason for
identifying the quail with the corn-spirit is that the bird lays its eggs
on the ground, without making much of a nest.(962) Similarly the Toradjas
of Central Celebes think that the soul of the rice is embodied in a pretty
little blue bird which builds its nest in the rice-field at the time when
the rice is beginning to germinate, and which disappears again after the
harvest. Thus both the place and the time of the appearance of the bird
suggest to the natives the notion that the blue bird is the rice
incarnate. And like the note of the quail in Europe the note of this
little bird in Celebes is believed to prognosticate the state of the
harvest, foretelling whether the rice will be abundant or scarce. Nobody
may drive the bird away; to do so would not merely injure the rice, it
would hurt the eyes of the sacrilegious person and might even strike him
blind. In Minahassa, a district in the north of Celebes, a similar though
less definite belief attaches to a sort of small quail which loves to
haunt the rice-fields before the rice is reaped; and when the Galelareeze
of Halmahera hear a certain kind of bird, which they call _togè_, croaking
among the rice in ear, they say that the bird is putting the grain into
the rice, so they will not kill it.(963)




§ 10. The Corn-spirit as a Fox.


(M256) Another animal whose shape the corn-spirit is sometimes thought to
assume is the fox. The conception is recorded at various places in Germany
and France. Thus at Nördlingen in Bavaria, when the corn waves to and fro
in the wind, they say, “The fox goes through the corn,” and at Usingen in
Nassau they say, “The foxes are marching through the corn.” At Ravensberg,
in Westphalia, and at Steinau, in Kurhessen, children are warned against
straying in the corn, “because the Fox is there.” At Campe, near Stade,
when they are about to cut the last corn, they call out to the reaper,
“The Fox is sitting there, hold him fast!” In the Department of the
Moselle they say, “Watch whether the Fox comes out.” In Bourbonnais the
expression is, “You will catch the Fox.” When a reaper wounds himself or
is sick at reaping, they say in the Lower Loire that “He has the Fox.” In
Côte-d’or they say, “He has killed the Fox.” At Louhans, in
Sâone-et-Loire, when the reapers are cutting the last corn they leave a
handful standing and throw their sickles at it. He who hits it is called
the Fox, and two girls deck his bonnet with flowers. In the evening there
is a dance, at which the Fox dances with all the girls. The supper which
follows is also called the Fox; they say, “We have eaten the Fox,” meaning
that they have partaken of the harvest-supper. In the Canton of Zurich the
last sheaf is called the Fox. At Bourgogne, in Ain, they cry out, “The Fox
is sitting in the last sheaf,” and having made the figure of an animal out
of white cloth and some ears of the last corn, they dub it the Fox and
throw it into the house of a neighbour who has not yet got in all his
harvest.(964) In Poitou, when the corn is being reaped in a district, all
the reapers strive to finish as quickly as possible in order that they may
send “the Fox” to the fields of a farmer who has not yet garnered his
sheaves. The man who cuts the last handful of standing corn is said to
“have the Fox.” This last handful is carried to the farmer’s house and
occupies a place on the table during the harvest-supper; and the custom is
to drench it with water. After that it is set up on the chimney-piece and
remains there the whole year.(965) At threshing, also, in Sâone-et-Loire,
the last sheaf is called the Fox; in Lot they say, “We are going to beat
the Fox”; and at Zabern in Alsace they set a stuffed fox before the door
of the threshing-floor of a neighbour who has not finished his
threshing.(966) With this conception of the fox as an embodiment of the
corn-spirit may possibly be connected an old custom, observed in Holstein
and Westphalia, of carrying a dead or living fox from house to house in
spring; the intention of the custom was perhaps to diffuse the refreshing
and invigorating influence of the reawakened spirit of vegetation.(967) In
Japan the rice-god Inari is represented as an elderly man with a long
beard riding on a white fox, and the fox is always associated with this
deity. In front of his shrines may usually be seen a pair of foxes carved
in wood or stone.(968)




§ 11. The Corn-spirit as a Pig (Boar or Sow).


(M257) The last animal embodiment of the corn-spirit which we shall notice
is the pig (boar or sow). In Thüringen, when the wind sets the young corn
in motion, they sometimes say, “The Boar is rushing through the
corn.”(969) Amongst the Esthonians of the island of Oesel the last sheaf
is called the Rye-boar, and the man who gets it is saluted with a cry of
“You have the Rye-boar on your back!” In reply he strikes up a song, in
which he prays for plenty.(970) At Kohlerwinkel, near Augsburg, at the
close of the harvest, the last bunch of standing corn is cut down, stalk
by stalk, by all the reapers in turn. He who cuts the last stalk “gets the
Sow,” and is laughed at.(971) In other Swabian villages also the man who
cuts the last corn “has the Sow,” or “has the Rye-sow.”(972) In the
Traunstein district, Upper Bavaria, the man who cuts the last handful of
rye or wheat “has the Sow,” and is called Sow-driver.(973) At Bohlingen,
near Radolfzell in Baden, the last sheaf is called the Rye-sow or the
Wheat-sow, according to the crop; and at Röhrenbach in Baden the person
who brings the last armful for the last sheaf is called the Corn-sow or
the Oats-sow. And in the south-east of Baden the thresher who gives the
last stroke at threshing, or is the last to hang up his flail on the wall,
is called the Sow or the Rye-sow.(974) At Friedingen, in Swabia, the
thresher who gives the last stroke is called Sow—Barley-sow, Corn-sow, or
the like, according to the crop. At Onstmettingen the man who gives the
last stroke at threshing “has the Sow”; he is often bound up in a sheaf
and dragged by a rope along the ground.(975) And, generally, in Swabia the
man who gives the last stroke with the flail is called Sow. He may,
however, rid himself of this invidious distinction by passing on to a
neighbour the straw-rope, which is the badge of his position as Sow. So he
goes to a house and throws the straw-rope into it, crying, “There, I bring
you the Sow.” All the inmates give chase; and if they catch him they beat
him, shut him up for several hours in the pig-sty, and oblige him to take
the “Sow” away again.(976) In various parts of Upper Bavaria the man who
gives the last stroke at threshing must “carry the Pig”—that is, either a
straw effigy of a pig or merely a bundle of straw-ropes. This he carries
to a neighbouring farm where the threshing is not finished, and throws it
into the barn. If the threshers catch him they handle him roughly, beating
him, blackening or dirtying his face, throwing him into filth, binding the
Sow on his back, and so on; if the bearer of the Sow is a woman they cut
off her hair. At the harvest supper or dinner the man who “carried the
Pig” gets one or more dumplings made in the form of pigs; sometimes he
gets a large dumpling and a number of small ones, all in pig form, the
large one being called the sow and the small ones the sucking-pigs.
Sometimes he has the right to be the first to put his hand into the dish
and take out as many small dumplings (“sucking-pigs”) as he can, while the
other threshers strike at his hand with spoons or sticks. When the
dumplings are served up by the maid-servant, all the people at table cry
“Süz, süz, süz!” that being the cry used in calling pigs. Sometimes after
dinner the man who “carried the Pig” has his face blackened, and is set on
a cart and drawn round the village by his fellows, followed by a crowd
crying “Süz, süz, süz!” as if they were calling swine. Sometimes, after
being wheeled round the village, he is flung on the dunghill.(977)

(M258) Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a pig plays his part at
sowing-time as well as at harvest At Neuautz, in Courland, when barley is
sown for the first time in the year, the farmer’s wife boils the chine of
a pig along with the tail, and brings it to the sower on the field. He
eats of it, but cuts off the tail and sticks it in the field; it is
believed that the ears of corn will then grow as long as the tail.(978)
Here the pig is the corn-spirit, whose fertilising power is sometimes
supposed to lie especially in his tail.(979) As a pig he is put in the
ground at sowing-time, and as a pig he reappears amongst the ripe corn at
harvest. For amongst the neighbouring Esthonians, as we have seen,(980)
the last sheaf is called the Rye-boar. Somewhat similar customs are
observed in Germany. In the Salza district, near Meiningen, a certain bone
in the pig is called “the Jew on the winnowing-fan.” The flesh of this
bone is boiled on Shrove Tuesday, but the bone is put amongst the ashes
which the neighbours exchange as presents on St. Peter’s Day (the
twenty-second of February), and then mix with the seed-corn.(981) In the
whole of Hesse, Meiningen, and other districts, people eat pea-soup with
dried pig-ribs on Ash Wednesday or Candlemas. The ribs are then collected
and hung in the room till sowing-time, when they are inserted in the sown
field or in the seed-bag amongst the flax seed. This is thought to be an
infallible specific against earth-fleas and moles, and to cause the flax
to grow well and tall.(982) In many parts of White Russia people eat a
roast lamb or sucking-pig at Easter, and then throw the bones backwards
upon the fields, to preserve the corn from hail.(983)

(M259) But the idea of the corn-spirit as embodied in pig form is nowhere
more clearly expressed than in the Scandinavian custom of the Yule Boar.
In Sweden and Denmark at Yule (Christmas) it is the custom to bake a loaf
in the form of a boar-pig. This is called the Yule Boar. The corn of the
last sheaf is often used to make it. All through Yule the Yule Boar stands
on the table. Often it is kept till the sowing-time in spring, when part
of it is mixed with the seed-corn and part given to the ploughmen and
plough-horses or plough-oxen to eat, in the expectation of a good
harvest.(984) In this custom the corn-spirit, immanent in the last sheaf,
appears at midwinter in the form of a boar made from the corn of the last
sheaf; and his quickening influence on the corn is shewn by mixing part of
the Yule Boar with the seed-corn, and giving part of it to the ploughman
and his cattle to eat. Similarly we saw that the Corn-wolf makes his
appearance at midwinter, the time when the year begins to verge towards
spring.(985) We may conjecture that the Yule straw, which Swedish peasants
turn to various superstitious uses, comes, in part at least, from the
sheaf out of which the Yule Boar is made. The Yule straw is long
rye-straw, a portion of which is always set apart for this season. It is
strewn over the floor at Christmas, and the peasants attribute many
virtues to it. For example, they think that some of it scattered on the
ground will make a barren field productive. Again, the peasant at
Christmas seats himself on a log; and his eldest son or daughter, or the
mother herself, if the children are not old enough, places a wisp of the
Yule straw on his knee. From this he draws out single straws, and throws
them, one by one, up to the ceiling; and as many as lodge in the rafters,
so many will be the sheaves of rye he will have to thresh at harvest.(986)
Again, it is only the Yule straw which may be used in binding the
fruit-trees as a charm to fertilise them.(987) These uses of the Yule
straw shew that it is believed to possess fertilising virtues analogous to
those ascribed to the Yule Boar; we may therefore fairly conjecture that
the Yule straw is made from the same sheaf as the Yule Boar. Formerly a
real boar was sacrificed at Christmas,(988) and apparently also a man in
the character of the Yule Boar. This, at least, may perhaps be inferred
from a Christmas custom still observed in Sweden. A man is wrapt up in a
skin, and carries a wisp of straw in his mouth, so that the projecting
straws look like the bristles of a boar. A knife is brought, and an old
woman, with her face blackened, pretends to sacrifice him.(989)

(M260) On Christmas Eve in some parts of the Esthonian island of Oesel
they bake a long cake with the two ends turned up. It is called the
Christmas Boar, and stands on the table till the morning of New Year’s
Day, when it is distributed among the cattle. In other parts of the island
the Christmas Boar is not a cake but a little pig born in March, which the
housewife fattens secretly, often without the knowledge of the other
members of the family. On Christmas Eve the little pig is secretly killed,
then roasted in the oven, and set on the table standing on all fours,
where it remains in this posture for several days. In other parts of the
island, again, though the Christmas cake has neither the name nor the
shape of a boar, it is kept till the New Year, when half of it is divided
among all the members and all the quadrupeds of the family. The other half
of the cake is kept till sowing-time comes round, when it is similarly
distributed in the morning among human beings and beasts.(990) In other
parts of Esthonia, again, the Christmas Boar, as it is called, is baked of
the first rye cut at harvest; it has a conical shape and a cross is
impressed on it with a pig’s bone or a key, or three dints are made in it
with a buckle or a piece of charcoal. It stands with a light beside it on
the table all through the festal season. On New Year’s Day and Epiphany,
before sunrise, a little of the cake is crumbled with salt and given to
the cattle. The rest is kept till the day when the cattle are driven out
to pasture for the first time in spring. It is then put in the herdsman’s
bag, and at evening is divided among the cattle to guard them from magic
and harm. In some places the Christmas Boar is partaken of by
farm-servants and cattle at the time of the barley sowing, for the purpose
of thereby producing a heavier crop.(991)




§ 12. On the Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit.


(M261) So much for the animal embodiments of the corn-spirit as they are
presented to us in the folk-customs of Northern Europe. These customs
bring out clearly the sacramental character of the harvest-supper. The
corn-spirit is conceived as embodied in an animal; this divine animal is
slain, and its flesh and blood are partaken of by the harvesters. Thus,
the cock, the goose, the hare, the cat, the goat, and the ox are eaten
sacramentally by the harvesters, and the pig is eaten sacramentally by
ploughmen in spring.(992) Again, as a substitute for the real flesh of the
divine being, bread or dumplings are made in his image and eaten
sacramentally; thus, pig-shaped dumplings are eaten by the harvesters, and
loaves made in boar-shape (the Yule Boar) are eaten in spring by the
ploughman and his cattle.

(M262) The reader has probably remarked the complete parallelism between
the conceptions of the corn-spirit in human and in animal form. The
parallel may be here briefly resumed. When the corn waves in the wind it
is said either that the Corn-mother or that the Corn-wolf, etc., is
passing through the corn. Children are warned against straying in
corn-fields either because the Corn-mother or because the Corn-wolf, etc.,
is there. In the last corn cut or the last sheaf threshed either the
Corn-mother or the Corn-wolf, etc., is supposed to be present. The last
sheaf is itself called either the Corn-mother or the Corn-wolf, etc., and
is made up in the shape either of a woman or of a wolf, etc. The person
who cuts, binds, or threshes the last sheaf is called either the Old Woman
or the Wolf, etc., according to the name bestowed on the sheaf itself. As
in some places a sheaf made in human form and called the Maiden, the
Mother of the Maize, etc., is kept from one harvest to the next in order
to secure a continuance of the corn-spirit’s blessing; so in some places
the Harvest-cock and in others the flesh of the goat is kept for a similar
purpose from one harvest to the next. As in some places the grain taken
from the Corn-mother is mixed with the seed-corn in spring to make the
crop abundant; so in some places the feathers of the cock, and in Sweden
the Yule Boar, are kept till spring and mixed with the seed-corn for a
like purpose. As part of the Corn-mother or Maiden is given to the cattle
at Christmas or to the horses at the first ploughing, so part of the Yule
Boar is given to the ploughing horses or oxen in spring. Lastly, the death
of the corn-spirit is represented by killing or pretending to kill either
his human or his animal representative; and the worshippers partake
sacramentally either of the actual body and blood of the representative of
the divinity, or of bread made in his likeness.

(M263) Other animal forms assumed by the corn-spirit are the stag, roe,
sheep, bear, ass, mouse, stork, swan, and kite.(993) If it is asked why
the corn-spirit should be thought to appear in the form of an animal and
of so many different animals, we may reply that to primitive man the
simple appearance of an animal or bird among the corn is probably enough
to suggest a mysterious link between the creature and the corn; and when
we remember that in the old days, before fields were fenced in, all kinds
of animals must have been free to roam over them, we need not wonder that
the corn-spirit should have been identified even with large animals like
the horse and cow, which nowadays could not, except by a rare accident, be
found straying in an English corn-field. This explanation applies with
peculiar force to the very common case in which the animal embodiment of
the corn-spirit is believed to lurk in the last standing corn. For at
harvest a number of wild animals, such as hares, rabbits, and partridges,
are commonly driven by the progress of the reaping into the last patch of
standing corn, and make their escape from it as it is being cut down. So
regularly does this happen that reapers and others often stand round the
last patch of corn armed with sticks or guns, with which they kill the
animals as they dart out of their last refuge among the stalks. Now,
primitive man, to whom magical changes of shape seem perfectly credible,
finds it most natural that the spirit of the corn, driven from his home in
the ripe grain, should make his escape in the form of the animal which is
seen to rush out of the last patch of corn as it falls under the scythe of
the reaper. Thus the identification of the corn-spirit with an animal is
analogous to the identification of him with a passing stranger. As the
sudden appearance of a stranger near the harvest-field or threshing-floor
is, to the primitive mind, enough to identify him as the spirit of the
corn escaping from the cut or threshed corn, so the sudden appearance of
an animal issuing from the cut corn is enough to identify it with the
corn-spirit escaping from his ruined home. The two identifications are so
analogous that they can hardly be dissociated in any attempt to explain
them. Those who look to some other principle than the one here suggested
for the explanation of the latter identification are bound to shew that
their theory covers the former identification also.





NOTE. THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS.


(M264) The constellation of the Pleiades plays an important part in the
calendar of primitive peoples, both in the northern and in the southern
hemisphere; indeed for reasons which at first sight are not obvious
savages appear to have paid more attention to this constellation than to
any other group of stars in the sky, and in particular they have commonly
timed the various operations of the agricultural year by observation of
its heliacal rising or setting. Some evidence on the subject was adduced
by the late Dr. Richard Andree,(994) but much more exists, and it may be
worth while to put certain of the facts together.

(M265) In the first place it deserves to be noticed that great attention
has been paid to the Pleiades by savages in the southern hemisphere who do
not till the ground, and who therefore lack that incentive to observe the
stars which is possessed by peoples in the agricultural stage of society;
for we can scarcely doubt that in early ages the practical need of
ascertaining the proper seasons for sowing and planting has done more than
mere speculative curiosity to foster a knowledge of astronomy by
compelling savages to scrutinise the great celestial clock for indications
of the time of year. Now amongst the rudest of savages known to us are the
Australian aborigines, none of whom in their native state ever practised
agriculture. Yet we are told that “they do, according to their manner,
worship the hosts of heaven, and believe particular constellations rule
natural causes. For such they have names, and sing and dance to gain the
favour of the Pleiades (_Mormodellick_), the constellation worshipped by
one body as the giver of rain; but if it should be deferred, instead of
blessings curses are apt to be bestowed upon it.”(995) According to a
writer, whose evidence on other matters of Australian beliefs is open to
grave doubt, some of the aborigines of New South Wales denied that the sun
is the source of heat, because he shines also in winter when the weather
is cold; the real cause of warm weather they held to be the Pleiades,
because as the summer heat increases, that constellation rises higher and
higher in the sky, reaching its greatest elevation in the height of
summer, and gradually sinking again in autumn as the days grow cooler,
till in winter it is either barely visible or lost to view
altogether.(996) Another writer, who was well acquainted with the natives
of Victoria in the early days of the colony and whose testimony can be
relied upon, tells us that an old chief of the Spring Creek tribe “taught
the young people the names of the favourite planets and constellations, as
indications of the seasons. For example, when Canopus is a very little
above the horizon in the east at daybreak, the season for emu eggs has
come; when the Pleiades are visible in the east an hour before sunrise,
the time for visiting friends and neighbouring tribes is at hand.”(997)

(M266) Again, the Abipones of Paraguay, who neither sowed nor reaped,(998)
nevertheless regarded the Pleiades as an image of their ancestor. As that
constellation is invisible in the sky of South America for several months
every year, the Abipones believed that their ancestor was then sick, and
they were dreadfully afraid that he would die. But when the constellation
reappeared in the month of May, they saluted the return of their ancestor
with joyous shouts and the glad music of flutes and horns, and they
congratulated him on his recovery from sickness. Next day they all went
out to collect wild honey, from which they brewed a favourite beverage.
Then at sunset they feasted and kept up the revelry all night by the light
of torches, while a sorceress, who presided at the festivity, shook her
rattle and danced. But the proceedings were perfectly decorous; the sexes
did not mix with each other.(999) The Mocobis of Paraguay also looked upon
the Pleiades as their father and creator.(1000) The Guaycurus of the Gran
Chaco used to rejoice greatly at the reappearance of the Pleiades. On this
occasion they held a festival at which men and women, boys and girls all
beat each other soundly, believing that this brought them health,
abundance, and victory over their enemies.(1001) Amongst the Lengua
Indians of Paraguay at the present day the rising of the Pleiades is
connected with the beginning of spring, and feasts are held at this time,
generally of a markedly immoral character.(1002) The Guaranis of Paraguay
knew the time of sowing by observation of the Pleiades;(1003) they are
said to have revered the constellation and to have dated the beginning of
their year from the rising of the constellation in May.(1004) The
Tapuiyas, formerly a numerous and warlike tribe of Brazil, hailed the
rising of the Pleiades with great respect, and worshipped the
constellation with songs and dances.(1005) The Indians of north-western
Brazil, an agricultural people who subsist mainly by the cultivation of
manioc, determine the time for their various field labours by the position
of certain constellations, especially the Pleiades; when that
constellation has sunk beneath the horizon, the regular, heavy rains set
in.(1006) The Omagua Indians of Brazil ascribe to the Pleiades a special
influence on human destiny.(1007) A Brazilian name for the Pleiades is
_Cyiuce_, that is, “Mother of those who are thirsty.” The constellation,
we are told, “is known to the Indians of the whole of Brasil and appears
to be even worshipped by some tribes in Matto Grosso. In the valley of the
Amazon a number of popular sayings are current about it. Thus they say
that in the first days of its appearance in the firmament, while it is
still low, the birds and especially the fowls sleep on the lower branches
or perches, and that just as it rises so do they; that it brings much cold
and rain; that when the constellation vanishes, the serpents lose their
venom; that the reeds used in making arrows must be cut before the
appearance of the Pleiades, else they will be worm-eaten. According to the
legend the Pleiades disappear in May and reappear in June. Their
reappearance coincides with the renewal of vegetation and of animal life.
Hence the legend relates that everything which appears before the
constellation is renewed, that is, the appearance of the Pleiades, marks
the beginning of spring.”(1008) The Indians of the Orinoco called the
Pleiades _Ucasu_ or _Cacasau_, according to their dialect, and they dated
the beginning of their year from the time when these stars are visible in
the east after sunset.(1009)

(M267) By the Indians of Peru “the Pleiades were called _Collca_ (the
maize-heap): in this constellation the Peruvians both of the sierra and
the coast beheld the prototype of their cherished stores of corn. It made
their maize to grow, and was worshipped accordingly.”(1010) When the
Pleiades appeared above the horizon on or about Corpus Christi Day, these
Indians celebrated their chief festival of the year and adored the
constellation “in order that the maize might not dry up.”(1011) Adjoining
the great temple of the Sun at Cuzco there was a cloister with halls
opening off it. One of these halls was dedicated to the Moon, and another
to the planet Venus, the Pleiades, and all the other stars. The Incas
venerated the Pleiades because of their curious position and the symmetry
of their shape.(1012) The tribes of Vera Cruz, on the coast of Mexico,
dated the beginning of their year from the heliacal setting of the
Pleiades, which in the latitude of Vera Cruz (19° N.) in the year 1519
fell on the first of May of the Gregorian calendar.(1013) The Aztecs
appear to have attached great importance to the Pleiades, for they timed
the most solemn and impressive of all their religious ceremonies so as to
coincide with the moment when that constellation was in the middle of the
sky at midnight. The ceremony consisted in kindling a sacred new fire on
the breast of a human victim on the last night of a great period of
fifty-two years. They expected that at the close of one of these periods
the stars would cease to revolve and the world itself would come to an
end. Hence, when the critical moment approached, the priests watched from
the top of a mountain the movement of the stars, and especially of the
Pleiades, with the utmost anxiety. When that constellation was seen to
cross the meridian, great was the joy; for they knew that the world was
respited for another fifty-two years. Immediately the bravest and
handsomest of the captives was thrown down on his back; a board of dry
wood was placed on his breast, and one of the priests made fire by
twirling a stick between his hands on the board. As soon as the flame
burst forth, the breast of the victim was cut open, his heart was torn
out, and together with the rest of his body was thrown into the fire.
Runners carried the new fire at full speed to all parts of the kingdom to
rekindle the cold hearths; for every fire throughout the country had been
extinguished as a preparation for this solemn rite.(1014)

(M268) The Blackfeet Indians of North America “know and observe the
Pleiades, and regulate their most important feast by those stars. About
the first and the last days of the occultation of the Pleiades there is a
sacred feast among the Blackfeet. The mode of observance is national, the
whole of the tribe turning out for the celebration of its rites, which
include two sacred vigils, the solemn blessing and planting of the seed.
It is the opening of the agricultural season.... In all highly religious
feasts the calumet, or pipe, is always presented towards the Pleiades,
with invocation for life-giving goods. The women swear by the Pleiades as
the men do by the sun or the morning star.” At the general meeting of the
nation there is a dance of warriors, which is supposed to represent the
dance of the seven young men who are identified with the Pleiades. For the
Indians say that the seven stars of the constellation were seven brothers,
who guarded by night the field of sacred seed and danced round it to keep
themselves awake during the long hours of darkness.(1015) According to
another legend told by the Blackfeet, the Pleiades are six children, who
were so ashamed because they had no little yellow hides of buffalo calves
that they wandered away on the plains and were at last taken up into the
sky. “They are not seen during the moon, when the buffalo calves are
yellow (spring, the time of their shame), but, every year, when the calves
turn brown (autumn), the lost children can be seen in the sky every
night.”(1016) This version of the myth, it will be observed, recognises
only six stars in the constellation, and many savages apparently see no
more, which speaks ill for the keenness of their vision; since among
ourselves persons endowed with unusually good sight are able, I
understand, to discern seven. Among the Pueblo Indians of Tusayan, an
ancient province of Arizona, the culmination of the Pleiades is often used
to determine the proper time for beginning a sacred nocturnal rite,
especially an invocation addressed to the six deities who are believed to
rule the six quarters of the world. The writer who records this fact adds:
“I cannot explain its significance, and why of all stellar objects this
minute cluster of stars of a low magnitude is more important than other
stellar groups is not clear to me.”(1017) If the Pueblo Indians see only
six stars in the cluster, as to which I cannot speak, it might seem to
them a reason for assigning one of the stars to each of the six quarters,
namely, north, south, east, west, above, and below.

(M269) The Society Islanders in the South Pacific divided the year into
two seasons, which they determined by observation of the Pleiades. “The
first they called _Matarii i nia_, Pleiades above. It commenced when, in
the evening, these stars appeared on or near the horizon; and the half
year, during which, immediately after sunset, they were seen above the
horizon, was called _Matarii i nia_. The other season commenced when, at
sunset, the stars were invisible, and continued until at that hour they
appeared again above the horizon. This season was called _Matarii i raro_,
Pleiades below.”(1018) In the Hervey Islands of the South Pacific it is
said that the constellation was originally a single star, which was
shattered into six fragments by the god Tane. “This cluster of little
stars is appropriately named Mata-riki or _little-eyes_, on account of
their brightness. It is also designated Tau-ono, or _the-six_, on account
of the apparent number of the fragments; the presence of the seventh star
not having been detected by the unassisted native eye.”(1019) Among these
islanders the arrival of the new year was indicated by the appearance of
the constellation on the eastern horizon just after sunset, that is, about
the middle of December. “Hence the idolatrous worship paid to this
beautiful cluster of stars in many of the South Sea Islands. The Pleiades
were worshipped at Danger Island, and at the Penrhyns, down to the
introduction of Christianity in 1857. In many islands extravagant joy is
still manifested at the rising of this constellation out of the
ocean.”(1020) For example, in Manahiki or Humphrey’s Island, South
Pacific, “when the constellation Pleiades was seen there was unusual joy
all over the month, and expressed by singing, dancing, and blowing-shell
trumpets.”(1021) So the Maoris of New Zealand, another Polynesian people
of the South Pacific, divided the year into moons and determined the first
moon by the rising of the Pleiades, which they called _Matariki_.(1022)
Indeed throughout Polynesia the rising of the Pleiades (variously known as
Matariki, Mataliki, Matalii, Makalii, etc.) seems to have marked the
beginning of the year.(1023)

(M270) Among some of the Melanesians also the Pleiades occupy an important
position in the calendar. “The Banks’ islanders and Northern New Hebrides
people content themselves with distinguishing the Pleiades, by which the
approach of yam harvest is marked.”(1024) “Amongst the constellations, the
Pleiades and Orion’s belt seem to be those which are most familiar to the
natives of Bougainville Straits. The former, which they speak of as
possessing six stars, they name _Vuhu_; the latter _Matatala_. They have
also names for a few other stars. As in the case of many other savage
races, the Pleiades is a constellation of great significance with the
inhabitants of these straits. The Treasury Islanders hold a great feast
towards the end of October, to celebrate, as far as I could learn, the
approaching appearance of the constellation above the eastern horizon soon
after sunset. Probably, as in many of the Pacific Islands, this event
marks the beginning of their year. I learned from Mr. Stephens that, in
Ugi, where of all the constellations the Pleiades alone receives a name,
the natives are guided by it in selecting the times for planting and
taking up the yams.”(1025)

(M271) The natives of the Torres Straits islands observe the appearance of
the Pleiades (_Usiam_) on the horizon at sunset; and when they see it,
they say that the new yam time has come.(1026) The Kai and the Bukaua, two
agricultural tribes of German New Guinea, also determine the season of
their labour in the fields by observation of the Pleiades: the Kai say
that the time for such labours is when the Pleiades are visible above the
horizon at night.(1027) In some districts of northern Celebes the
rice-fields are similarly prepared for cultivation when the Pleiades are
seen at a certain height above the horizon.(1028) As to the Dyaks of
Sarawak we read that “the Pleiades themselves tell them when to farm; and
according to their position in the heavens, morning and evening, do they
cut down the forest, burn, plant, and reap. The Malays are obliged to
follow their example, or their lunar year would soon render their farming
operations unprofitable.”(1029) When the season for clearing fresh land in
the forest approaches, a wise man is appointed to go out before dawn and
watch for the Pleiades. As soon as the constellation is seen to rise while
it is yet dark, they know that the time has come to begin. But not until
the Pleiades are at the zenith before dawn do the Dyaks think it desirable
to burn the fallen timber and to sow the rice.(1030) However, the Kenyahs
and Kayans, two other tribes of Sarawak, determine the agricultural
seasons by observation of the sun rather than of the stars; and for this
purpose they have devised certain simple but ingenious mechanisms. The
Kenyahs measure the length of the shadow cast by an upright pole at noon;
and the Kayans let in a beam of light through a hole in the roof and
measure the distance from the point immediately below the hole to the
place where the light reaches the floor.(1031) But the Kayans of the
Mahakam river, in Dutch Borneo, determine the time for sowing by observing
when the sun sets in a line with two upright stones.(1032) In Bali, an
island to the east of Java, the appearance of the Pleiades at sunset in
March marks the end of the year.(1033) The Pleiades and Orion are the only
constellations which the people of Bali observe for the purpose of
correcting their lunar calendar by intercalation. For example, they bring
the lunar year into harmony with the solar by prolonging the month Asada
until the Pleiades are visible at sunset.(1034) The natives of Nias, an
island to the south of Sumatra, pay little heed to the stars, but they
have names for the Morning Star and for the Pleiades; and when the
Pleiades appear in the sky, the people assemble to till their fields, for
they think that to do so before the rising of the constellation would be
useless.(1035) In some districts of Sumatra “much confusion in regard to
the period of sowing is said to have arisen from a very extraordinary
cause. Anciently, say the natives, it was regulated by the stars, and
particularly by the appearance (heliacal rising) of the _bintang baniak_
or Pleiades; but after the introduction of the Mahometan religion, they
were induced to follow the returns of the _puāsa_ or great annual fast,
and forgot their old rules. The consequence of this was obvious; for the
lunar year of the _hejrah_ being eleven days short of the sidereal or
solar year, the order of the seasons was soon inverted; and it is only
astonishing that its inaptness to the purposes of agriculture should not
have been immediately discovered.”(1036) The Battas or Bataks of central
Sumatra date the various operations of the agricultural year by the
positions of Orion and the Pleiades. When the Pleiades rise before the sun
at the beginning of July, the Achinese of northern Sumatra know that the
time has come to sow the rice.(1037)

(M272) Scattered and fragmentary as these notices are, they suffice to
shew that the Pleiades have received much attention from savages in the
tropical regions of the world from Brasil in the east to Sumatra in the
west. Far to the north of the tropics the rude Kamchatkans are said to
know only three constellations, the Great Bear, the Pleiades, and three
stars in Orion.(1038) When we pass to Africa we again find the Pleiades
employed by tribes in various parts of the continent to mark the seasons
of the agricultural year. We have seen that the Caffres of South Africa
date their new year from the rising of the Pleiades just before sunrise
and fix the time for sowing by observation of that constellation.(1039)
“They calculate only twelve lunar months for the year, for which they have
descriptive names, and this results in frequent confusion and difference
of opinion as to which month it really is. The confusion is always
rectified by the first appearance of Pleiades just before sunrise, and a
fresh start is made and things go on smoothly till once more the moons get
out of place, and reference has again to be made to the stars.”(1040)
According to another authority on the Bantu tribes of South Africa, “the
rising of the Pleiades shortly after sunset was regarded as indicating the
planting season. To this constellation, as well as to several of the
prominent stars and planets, they gave expressive names. They formed no
theories concerning the nature of the heavenly bodies and their motions,
and were not given to thinking of such things.”(1041) The Amazulu call the
Pleiades _Isilimela_, which means “The digging-for (stars),” because when
the Pleiades appear the people begin to dig. They say that “_Isilimela_
(the Pleiades) dies, and is not seen. It is not seen in winter; and at
last, when the winter is coming to an end, it begins to appear—one of its
stars first, and then three, until going on increasing it becomes a
cluster of stars, and is perfectly clear when the sun is about to rise.
And we say _Isilimela_ is renewed, and the year is renewed, and so we
begin to dig.”(1042) The Bechuanas “are directed by the position of
certain stars in the heavens, that the time has arrived, in the revolving
year, when particular roots can be dug up for use, or when they may
commence their labours of the field. This is their _likhakologo_ (turnings
or revolvings), or what we should call the spring time of the year. The
Pleiades they call _seleméla_, which may be translated ‘cultivator,’ or
the precursor of agriculture, from _leméla_, the relative verb to
cultivate _for_; and _se_, a pronominal prefix, distinguishing them as the
actors. Thus, when this constellation assumes a certain position in the
heavens, it is the signal to commence cultivating their fields and
gardens.”(1043) Among some of these South African tribes the period of
seclusion observed by lads after circumcision comes to an end with the
appearance of the Pleiades, and accordingly the youths are said to long as
ardently for the rising of the constellation as Mohammedans for the rising
of the moon which will put an end to the fast of Ramadan.(1044) The
Hottentots date the seasons of the year by the rising and setting of the
Pleiades.(1045) An early Moravian missionary settled among the Hottentots,
reports that “at the return of the Pleiades these natives celebrate an
anniversary; as soon as these stars appear above the eastern horizon
mothers will lift their little ones on their arms, and running up to
elevated spots, will show to them those friendly stars, and teach them to
stretch their little hands towards them. The people of a kraal will
assemble to dance and to sing according to the old custom of their
ancestors. The chorus always sings: ‘O Tiqua, our Father above our heads,
give rain to us, that the fruits (bulbs, etc.), _uientjes_, may ripen, and
that we may have plenty of food, send us a good year.’ ”(1046) With some
tribes of British Central Africa the rising of the Pleiades early in the
evening is the signal for the hoeing to begin.(1047) To the Masai of East
Africa the appearance of the Pleiades in the wrest is the sign of the
beginning of the rainy season, which takes its name from the
constellation.(1048) In Masailand the Pleiades are above the horizon from
September till about the seventeenth of May; and the people, as they
express it themselves, “know whether it will rain or not according to the
appearance or non-appearance of the six stars, called The Pleiades, which
follow after one another like cattle. When the month which the Masai call
‘Of the Pleiades’(1049) arrives, and the Pleiades are no longer visible,
they know that the rains are over. For the Pleiades set in that month and
are not seen again until the season of showers has come to an end:(1050)
it is then that they reappear.”(1051) The only other groups of stars for
which the Masai appear to have names are Orion’s sword and Orion’s
belt.(1052) The Nandi of British East Africa have a special name
(_Koremerik_) for the Pleiades, “and it is by the appearance or
non-appearance of these stars that the Nandi know whether they may expect
a good or a bad harvest.”(1053) The Kikuyu of the same region say that
“the Pleiades is the mark in the heavens to show the people when to plant
their crops; they plant when this constellation is in a certain position
early in the night.”(1054) In Sierra Leone “the proper time for preparing
the plantations is shewn by the particular situation in which the
Pleiades, called by the Bulloms _a-warrang_, the only stars which they
observe or distinguish by peculiar names, are to be seen at sunset.”(1055)
We have seen that ancient Greek farmers reaped their corn when the
Pleiades rose at sunrise in May, and that they ploughed their fields when
the constellation set at sunrise in November.(1056) The interval between
the two dates is about six months. Both the Greeks and the Romans dated
the beginning of summer from the heliacal rising of the Pleiades and the
beginning of winter from their heliacal setting.(1057) Pliny regarded the
autumnal setting of the Pleiades as the proper season for sowing the corn,
particularly the wheat and the barley, and he tells us that in Greece and
Asia all the crops were sown at the setting of that constellation.(1058)

(M273) So widespread over the world has been and is the association of the
Pleiades with agriculture, especially with the sowing or planting of the
crops. The reason for the association seems to be the coincidence of the
rising or setting of the constellation with the commencement of the rainy
season; since men must very soon have learned that the best, if not the
only, season to sow and plant is the time of year when the newly-planted
seeds or roots will be quickened by abundant showers. The same association
of the Pleiades with rain seems sufficient to explain their importance
even for savages who do not till the ground; for ignorant though such
races are, they yet can hardly fail to observe that wild fruits grow more
plentifully, and therefore that they themselves have more to eat after a
heavy fall of rain than after a long drought. In point of fact we saw that
some of the Australian aborigines, who are wholly ignorant of agriculture,
look on the Pleiades as the givers of rain, and curse the constellation if
its appearance is not followed by the expected showers.(1059) On the other
side of the world, and at the opposite end of the scale of culture, the
civilised Greeks similarly supposed that the autumnal setting of the
Pleiades was the cause of the rains which followed it; and the
astronomical writer Geminus thought it worth while to argue against the
supposition, pointing out that the vicissitudes of the weather and of the
seasons, though they may coincide with the risings and settings of the
constellations, are not produced by them, the stars being too distant from
the earth to exercise any appreciable influence on our atmosphere. Hence,
he says, though the constellations serve as the signals, they must not be
regarded as the causes, of atmospheric changes; and he aptly illustrates
the distinction by a reference to beacon-fires, which are the signals, but
not the causes, of war.(1060)






FOOTNOTES


   M1 Death and resurrection of Oriental gods of vegetation. The Dying and
      Reviving god of vegetation in ancient Greece.
   M2 Dionysus, the god of the vine, originally a Thracian deity.

    1 On Dionysus in general, see L. Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_,4
      i. 659 _sqq._; Fr. Lenormant, _s.v._ “Bacchus,” in Daremberg and
      Saglio’s _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_, i. 591
      _sqq._; Voigt and Thraemer, _s.v._ “Dionysus,” in W. H. Roscher’s
      _Lexikon der griech. u. röm. Mythologie_, i. 1029 _sqq._; E. Rohde,
      _Psyche_3 (Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903), ii. 1 _sqq._; Miss J. E.
      Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_, Second
      Edition (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 363 _sqq._; Kern, _s.v._ “Dionysus,”
      in Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen
      Altertumswissenschaft_, v. 1010 _sqq._; M. P. Nilsson, _Griechische
      Feste von religiöser Bedeutung_ (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 258 _sqq._; L.
      R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, v. (Oxford, 1909) pp.
      85 _sqq._ The epithet _Bromios_ bestowed on Dionysus, and his
      identification with the Thracian and Phrygian deity Sabazius, have
      been adduced as evidence that Dionysus was a god of beer or of other
      cereal intoxicants before he became a god of wine. See W. Headlam,
      in _Classical Review_, xv. (1901) p. 23; Miss J. E. Harrison,
      _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_, pp. 414-426.

    2 Plato, _Laws_, i. p. 637 E; Theopompus, cited by Athenaeus, x. 60,
      p. 442 E F; Suidas, _s.v._ κατασκεδάζειν; compare Xenophon,
      _Anabasis_, vii. 3. 32. For the evidence of the Thracian origin of
      Dionysus, see the writers cited in the preceding note, especially
      Dr. L. R. Farnell, _op. cit._ v. 85 _sqq._ Compare W. Ridgeway, _The
      Origin of Tragedy_ (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 10 _sqq._

    3 Herodotus, ii. 49; Diodorus Siculus, i. 97. 4; P. Foucart, _Le Culte
      de Dionyse en Attique_ (Paris, 1904), pp. 9 _sqq._, 159 _sqq._
      (_Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres_,
      xxxvii.).

   M3 Dionysus a god of trees, especially of fruit-trees.

    4 Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ v. 3: Διονύσῳ δὲ δενδρίτῃ πάντες, ὡς
      ἔπος εἰπεῖν, Ἕλληνες θύουσιν.

    5 Hesychius, _s.v._ Ἔνδενδρος.

    6 See the pictures of his images, drawn from ancient vases, in C.
      Bötticher’s _Baumkultus der Hellenen_ (Berlin, 1856), plates 42, 43,
      43 A, 43 B, 44; Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités
      Grecques et Romaines_, i. 361, 626 _sq._

    7 Daremberg et Saglio, _op. cit._ i. 626.

    8 P. Wendland und O. Kern, _Beiträge zur Geschichte der griechischen
      Philosophie und Religion_ (Berlin, 1895), pp. 79 _sqq._; Ch. Michel,
      _Recueil d’ Inscriptions Grecques_ (Brussels, 1900), No. 856.

    9 Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 30.

   10 Pindar, quoted by Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35.

   11 Maximus Tyrius, _Dissertat._ viii. 1.

   12 Athenaeus, iii. chs. 14 and 23, pp. 78 C, 82 D.

_   13 Orphica_, Hymn l. 4. liii. 8.

   14 Aelian, _Var. Hist._ iii. 41; Hesychius, _s.v._ Φλέω[ς]. Compare
      Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ v. 8. 3.

   15 Pausanias, i. 31. 4; _id._ vii. 21. 6.

   16 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 636, vol. ii.
      p. 435, τῶν καρπῶν τῶν ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ. However, the words may equally
      well refer to the cereal crops.

   17 Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ v. 3.

   18 Pausanias, ii. 2. 6 _sq._ Pausanias does not mention the kind of
      tree; but from Euripides, _Bacchae_, 1064 _sqq._, and Philostratus,
      _Imag._ i. 17 (18), we may infer that it was a pine, though
      Theocritus (xxvi. 11) speaks of it as a mastich-tree.

   19 Müller-Wieseler, _Denkmäler der alten Kunst_, ii. pll. xxxii.
      _sqq._; A. Baumeister, _Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums_, i.
      figures 489, 491, 492, 495. Compare F. Lenormant, in Daremberg et
      Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_, i. 623;
      Ch. F. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_ (Königsberg, 1829), p. 700.

   20 Pausanias, i. 31. 6.

   21 Athenaeus, iii. 14, p. 78 C.

   M4 Dionysus as a god of agriculture and the corn. The winnowing-fan as
      an emblem of Dionysus.

   22 Himerius, _Orat._ i. 10, Δίονυσος γεωργεῖ.

   23 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 64. 1-3, iv. 4. 1 _sq._ On the agricultural
      aspect of Dionysus, see L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek
      States_, v. (Oxford, 1909) pp. 123 _sq._

   24 [Aristotle,] _Mirab. Auscult._ 122 (p. 842 A, ed. Im. Bekker, Berlin
      edition).

   25 Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ i. 166; Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35.
      The literary and monumental evidence as to the winnowing-fan in the
      myth and ritual of Dionysus has been collected and admirably
      interpreted by Miss J. E. Harrison in her article “Mystica Vannus
      Iacchi,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xxiii. (1903) pp. 292-324.
      Compare her _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_2
      (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 517 _sqq._ I must refer the reader to these
      works for full details on the subject. In the passage of Servius
      referred to the reading is somewhat uncertain; in his critical
      edition G. Thilo reads λικμητὴν and λικμὸς instead of the usual
      λικνιτὴν and λικνόν. But the variation does not affect the meaning.

   M5 Use of the winnowing-fan to cradle infants. The winnowing-fan
      sometimes intended to avert evil spirits from children.

   26 Ἐν γὰρ λείκνοις τὸ παλαιὸν κατεκοίμιζον τὰ Βρέφη πλοῦτον καὶ καρπούς
      οἰωνιζόμενοι, Scholiast on Callimachus, i. 48 (_Callimachea_, edidit
      O. Schneider, Leipsic, 1870-1873, vol. i. p. 109).

   27 T. S. Raffles, _History of Java_ (London, 1817), i. 323; C. F.
      Winter, “Instellingen, Gewoontenen Gebruiken der Javanen te
      Soerakarta,” _Tijdschrift voor Neêrlands Indie_, Vijfde Jaargang,
      Eerste Deel (1843), p. 695; P. J. Veth, _Java_ (Haarlem, 1875-1884),
      i. 639.

   28 C. Poensen, “Iets over de kleeding der Javanen,” _Mededeelingen van
      wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, xx. (1876) pp. 279
      _sq._

   29 Rev. J. Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_, edited and revised
      by the Rev. Paxton Hood (London, 1868), pp. 90 _sq._

   30 Rev. E. M. Gordon, “Some Notes concerning the People of Mungēli
      Tahsīl, Bilaspur District,” _Journal of the Asiatic Society of
      Bengal_, lxxi., Part iii. (Calcutta, 1903) p. 74; _id._, _Indian
      Folk Tales_ (London, 1908), p. 41.

   31 C. B. Klunzinger, _Bilder aus Oberägypten_ (Stuttgart, 1877), pp.
      181, 182; _id._, _Upper Egypt, its People and Products_ (London,
      1878), pp. 185, 186.

   32 R. C. Temple, “Opprobrious Names,” _Indian Antiquary_, x. (1881) pp.
      331 _sq._ Compare H. A. Rose, “Hindu Birth Observances in the
      Punjab,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, xxxvii.
      (1907) p. 234. See also _Panjab Notes and Queries_, vol. iii. August
      1886, § 768, pp. 184 _sq._: “The winnowing fan in which a newly-born
      child is laid, is used on the fifth day for the worship of Satwáí.
      This makes it impure, and it is henceforward used only for the
      house-sweepings.”

   33 Lieut.-Colonel Gunthorpe, “On the Ghosí or Gaddí Gaolís of the
      Deccan,” _Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay_, i. 45.

   34 C. Bock, _Temples and Elephants_ (London, 1884), pp. 258 _sq._

   M6 Use of the winnowing-fan to avert evil from children in India,
      Madagascar, and China. Karen ceremony of fanning away evils from
      children.

   35 S. Mateer, _Native Life in Travancore_ (London, 1883), p. 213.

   36 J. Richardson, “Tanala Customs, Superstitions, and Beliefs,”
      _Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine, Reprint of the First
      Four Numbers_ (Antananarivo, 1885), pp. 226 _sq._

   37 Pausanias, ii. 31. 8; K. F. Hermann, _Lehrbuch der
      gottesdienstlichen Alterthümer der Griechen_2 (Heidelberg, 1858),
      pp. 132 _sq._, § 23, 25.

   38 Rev. J. Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_, edited and revised
      by the Rev. Paxton Hood (London, 1868), pp. 114 _sq._ The beans used
      in the ceremony had previously been placed before an image of the
      goddess of small-pox.

   39 Rev. F. Mason, D.D., “Physical Character of the Karens,” _Journal of
      the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, New Series, No. cxxxi. (Calcutta,
      1866), pp. 9 _sq._

   M7 Among the reasons for the use of the winnowing-fan in birth-rites
      may have been the wish to avert evils and to promote fertility and
      growth.

   40 Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ i. 166: “_Et vannus Iacchi.... Mystica
      autem Bacchi ideo ait, quod Liberi patris sacra ad purgationem
      animae pertinebant: et sic homines ejus mysteriis purgabantur, sicut
      vannis frumenta purgantur._”

   41 W. Mannhardt, “Kind und Korn,” _Mythologische Forschungen_
      (Strasburg, 1884), pp. 351-374.

   42 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 351 _sqq._

   43 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 372, citing A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche
      Volks-aberglaube_2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 339, § 543; L. Strackerjan,
      _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg,
      1867), i. 81.

   44 Boecler-Kreutzwald, _Der Ehsten abergläubische Gebräuche_ (St.
      Petersburg, 1854), p. 61. This custom is also cited by Mannhardt
      (_l.c._).

   M8 Use of the winnowing-fan in the rites of Dionysus.

   45 Miss J. E. Harrison, “Mystica Vannus Iacchi,” _Journal of Hellenic
      Studies_, xxiii. (1903) pp. 296 _sqq._; _id._, _Prolegomena to the
      Study of Greek Religion_,2 pp. 518 _sqq._; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults
      of the Greek States_, v. (Oxford, 1909) p. 243.

   46 Herodotus, ii. 48, 49; Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 34,
      pp. 29-30, ed. Potter; Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum
      Graecarum_,2 No. 19, vol. i. p. 32; M. P. Nilsson, _Studia de
      Dionysiis Atticis_ (Lund, 1900), pp. 90 _sqq._; L. R. Farnell, _The
      Cults of the Greek States_, v. 125, 195, 205.

   47 Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vii. 21.

   M9 Myth of the death and resurrection of Dionysus. Legend that the
      infant Dionysus occupied for a short time the throne of his father
      Zeus. Death and resurrection of Dionysus represented in his rites.

   48 Nonnus, _Dionys._ vi. 155-205.

   49 Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 6.

   50 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 17. Compare Ch. A. Lobeck,
      _Aglaophamus_, pp. 1111 _sqq._

   51 Proclus on Plato, _Cratylus_, p. 59, quoted by E. Abel, _Orphica_,
      p. 228. Compare Chr. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, pp. 552 _sq._

   52 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 19. Compare _id._ ii. 22;
      Scholiast on Lucian, _Dial. Meretr._ vii. p. 280, ed. H. Rabe.

   53 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 18; Proclus on Plato’s
      _Timaeus_, iii. p. 200 D, quoted by Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, p. 562,
      and by Abel, _Orphica_, p. 234. Others said that the mangled body
      was pieced together, not by Apollo but by Rhea (Cornutus,
      _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 30).

   54 Ch. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, pp. 572 _sqq._ See _The Dying God_, p.
      3. For a conjectural restoration of the temple, based on ancient
      authorities and an examination of the scanty remains, see an article
      by J. H. Middleton, in _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, ix. (1888) pp.
      282 _sqq._ The ruins of the temple have now been completely
      excavated by the French.

   55 S. Clemens Romanus, _Recognitiones_, x. 24 (Migne’s _Patrologia
      Graeca_, i. col. 1434).

   56 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 62.

   57 Macrobius, _Comment. in Somn. Scip._ i. 12. 12; _Scriptores rerum
      mythicarum Latini tres Romae nuper reperti_ (commonly referred to as
      _Mythographi Vaticani_), ed. G. H. Bode (Cellis, 1834), iii. 12. 5,
      p. 246; Origen, _Contra Celsum_, iv. 17 (vol. i. p. 286, ed. P.
      Koetschau).

   58 Himerius, _Orat._ ix. 4.

   59 Proclus, _Hymn to Minerva_, quoted by Ch. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_,
      p. 561; _Orphica_, ed. E. Abel, p. 235.

   60 Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 167.

   61 The festivals of Dionysus were biennial in many places. See G. F.
      Schömann, _Griechische Alterthümer_,4 ii. 524 _sqq._ (The terms for
      the festival were τριετηρίς, τριετηρικός, both terms of the series
      being included in the numeration, in accordance with the ancient
      mode of reckoning.) Perhaps the festivals were formerly annual and
      the period was afterwards lengthened, as has happened with other
      festivals. See W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 172, 175, 491, 533
      _sq._, 598. Some of the festivals of Dionysus, however, were annual.
      Dr. Farnell has conjectured that the biennial period in many Greek
      festivals is to be explained by “the original shifting of
      land-cultivation which is frequent in early society owing to the
      backwardness of the agricultural processes; and which would
      certainly be consecrated by a special ritual attached to the god of
      the soil.” See L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, v.
      180 _sq._

   62 Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 6.

_   63 Mythographi Vaticani_, ed. G. H. Bode, iii. 12. 5, p. 246.

   64 Plutarch, _Consol. ad uxor._ 10. Compare _id._, _Isis et Osiris_,
      35; _id._, _De E Delphico_, 9; _id._, _De esu carnium_, i. 7.

   65 Pausanias, ii. 31. 2 and 37. 5; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 5.
      3.

   66 Pausanias, ii. 37. 5 _sq._; Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35; _id._,
      _Quaest. Conviv._ iv. 6. 2.

   67 Himerius, _Orat._ iii. 6, xiv. 7.

   68 For Dionysus in this capacity see F. Lenormant in Daremberg et
      Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_, i. 632.
      For Osiris, see _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 344
      _sq._

  M10 Dionysus represented in the form of a bull.

   69 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35; _id._, _Quaest. Graec._ 36;
      Athenaeus, xi. 51, p. 476 A; Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii.
      16; _Orphica_, Hymn xxx. _vv._ 3, 4, xlv. 1, lii. 2, liii. 8;
      Euripides, _Bacchae_, 99; Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 357;
      Nicander, _Alexipharmaca_, 31; Lucian, _Bacchus_, 2. The title
      Εἰραφιώτης applied to Dionysus (_Homeric Hymns_, xxxiv. 2; Porphyry,
      _De abstinentia_, iii. 17; Dionysius, _Perieg._ 576; _Etymologicum
      Magnum_, p. 371. 57) is etymologically equivalent to the Sanscrit
      _varsabha_, “a bull,” as I was informed by my lamented friend the
      late R. A. Neil of Pembroke College, Cambridge.

   70 Euripides, _Bacchae_, 920 _sqq._, 1017; Nonnus, _Dionys._ vi. 197
      _sqq._

   71 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35; Athenaeus, xi. 51, p. 476 A.

   72 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 64. 2, iv. 4. 2; Cornutus, _Theologiae
      Graecae Compendium_, 30.

   73 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 64. 2; J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on Lycophron_,
      209, 1236; Philostratus, _Imagines_, i. 14 (15).

   74 Müller-Wieseler, _Denkmäler der alten Kunst_, ii. pl. xxxiii.;
      Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et
      Romaines_, i. 619 _sq._, 631; W. H. Roscher, _Lexikon d. griech. u.
      röm. Mythologie_, i. 1149 _sqq._; F. Imhoof-Blumer, “Coin-types of
      some Kilikian Cities,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xviii. (1898)
      p. 165.

   75 F. G. Welcker, _Alte Denkmäler_ (Göttingen, 1849-1864), v. taf. 2.

_   76 Archaeologische Zeitung_, ix. (1851) pl. xxxiii., with Gerhard’s
      remarks, pp. 371-373.

_   77 Gazette Archéologique_, v. (1879) pl. 3.

   78 Pausanias, viii. 19. 2.

   79 Plutarch, _Quaestiones Graecae_, 36; _id._, _Isis et Osiris_, 35.

   80 J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on Lycophron_, 1236.

   81 Nonnus, _Dionys._ vi. 205.

   82 Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 6.

   83 Euripides, _Bacchae_, 735 _sqq._; Scholiast on Aristophanes,
      _Frogs_, 357.

  M11 Dionysus as a goat. Live goats rent and devoured by his worshippers.

   84 Hesychius, _s.v._ Ἔριφος ὁ Διόνυσος, on which there is a marginal
      gloss ὁ μικρὸς αἴξ, ὁ ἐν τῷ ἔαρι φαινόμενος, ἤγουν ὁ πρώϊμος;
      Stephanus Byzantius, _s.v._ Ἀκρώρεια.

   85 Pausanias, ii. 35. 1; Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Acharn._ 146;
      _Etymologicum Magnum_, _s.v._ Ἀπατούρια, p. 118. 54 _sqq._; Suidas,
      _s.vv._ Ἀπατούρια and μελαναίγιδα Διόνυσον; Nonnus, _Dionys._ xxvii.
      302. Compare Conon, _Narrat._ 39, where for Μελανθίδῃ we should
      perhaps read Μελαναίγιδι.

   86 Pausanias, ii. 13. 6. On their return from Troy the Greeks are said
      to have found goats and an image of Dionysus in a cave of Euboea
      (Pausanias, i. 23. 1).

   87 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 4. 3.

   88 Ovid, _Metam._ v. 329; Antoninus Liberalis, _Transform._ 28;
      _Mythographi Vaticani_, ed. G. H. Bode, i. 86, p. 29.

   89 Arnobius, _Adversus nationes_, v. 19. Compare Suidas, _s.v._
      αἰγίζειν. As fawns appear to have been also torn in pieces at the
      rites of Dionysus (Photius, _Lexicon_, _s.v._ νεβρίζειν;
      Harpocration, _s.v._ νεβρίζων), it is probable that the fawn was
      another of the god’s embodiments. But of this there seems no direct
      evidence. Fawn-skins were worn both by the god and his worshippers
      (Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 30). Similarly the
      female Bacchanals wore goat-skins (Hesychius, _s.v._ τραγηφόροι).

  M12 Custom of rending and devouring animals and men as a religious rite.
      Ceremonial cannibalism among the Indians of British Columbia.

   90 Mr. Duncan, quoted by Commander R. C. Mayne, _Four Years in British
      Columbia and Vancouver Island_ (London, 1862), pp. 284-288. The
      instrument which made the screeching sound was no doubt a
      bull-roarer, a flat piece of stick whirled at the end of a string so
      as to produce a droning or screaming note according to the speed of
      revolution. Such instruments are used by the Koskimo Indians of the
      same region at their cannibal and other rites. See Fr. Boas, “The
      Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl
      Indians,” _Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1895_ (Washington,
      1897), pp. 610, 611.

  M13 Religious societies of Cannibals and Dog-eaters among the Indians of
      British Columbia. Live goats rent in pieces and devoured by fanatics
      in Morocco.

   91 Fr. Boas, _op. cit._ pp. 437-443, 527 _sq._, 536, 537 _sq._, 579,
      664; _id._, in “Fifth Report on the North-western Tribes of Canada,”
      _Report of the British Association for 1889_, pp. 54-56 (separate
      reprint); _id._, in “Sixth Report on the North-western Tribes of
      Canada,” _Report of the British Association for 1890_, pp. 62, 65
      _sq._ (separate reprint). As to the rules observed after the eating
      of human flesh, see _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 188-190.

   92 Fr. Boas, “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the
      Kwakiutl Indians,” _Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1895_
      (Washington, 1897), pp. 649 _sq._, 658 _sq._; _id._, in “Sixth
      Report on the North-western Tribes of Canada,” _Report of the
      British Association for 1890_, p. 51; (separate reprint); _id._,
      “Seventh Report on the North-western Tribes of Canada,” _Report of
      the British Association for 1891_, pp. 10 _sq._ (separate reprint);
      _id._, “Tenth Report on the North-western Tribes of Canada,” _Report
      of the British Association for 1895_, p. 58 (separate reprint).

   93 G. M. Dawson, _Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands, 1878_
      (Montreal, 1880), pp. 125 B, 128 B.

   94 J. R. Swanton, _Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida_ (Leyden
      and New York, 1905), pp. 156, 160 _sq._, 170 _sq._, 181 (_The Jesup
      North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural
      History_). For details as to the practice of these savage rites
      among the Indian coast tribes of British Columbia, see my _Totemism
      and Exogamy_ (London, 1910), iii. pp. 501, 511 _sq._, 515 _sq._,
      519, 521, 526, 535 _sq._, 537, 539 _sq._, 542 _sq._, 544, 545.

   95 A. Leared, _Morocco and the Moors_ (London, 1876), pp. 267-269.
      Compare Budgett Meakin, _The Moors_ (London, 1902), pp. 331 _sq._
      The same order of fanatics also exists and holds similar orgies in
      Algeria, especially at the town of Tlemcen. See E. Doutté, _Les
      Aïssâoua à Tlemcen_ (Châlons-sur-Marne, 1900), p. 13.

  M14 Later misinterpretations of the custom of killing a god in animal
      form.

   96 Varro, _Rerum rusticarum_, i. 2. 19; Virgil, _Georg._ ii. 376-381,
      with the comments of Servius on the passage and on _Aen._ iii. 118;
      Ovid, _Fasti_, i. 353 _sqq._; _id._, _Metamorph._ xv. 114 _sq._;
      Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 30.

   97 Euripides, _Bacchae_, 138 _sq._: ἀγρεύων αἷμα τραγοκτόνον, ὠμοφάγον
      χάριν.

   98 Schol. on Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 357.

   99 Hera αἰγοφάγος at Sparta, Pausanias, iii. 15. 9; Hesychius, _s.v._
      αἰγοφάγος (compare the representation of Hera clad in a goat’s skin,
      with the animal’s head and horns over her head, Müller-Wieseler,
      _Denkmäler der alten Kunst_, i. No. 229 B; and the similar
      representation of the Lanuvinian Juno, W. H. Roscher, _Lexikon d.
      griech. u. röm. Mythologie_, ii. 605 _sqq._); Zeus αἰγοφάγος,
      _Etymologicum Magnum_, _s.v._ αἰγοφάγος, p. 27. 52 (compare
      Scholiast on Oppianus, _Halieut._ iii. 10; L. Stephani, in
      _Compte-Rendu de la Commission Impériale Archéologique pour l’année
      1869_ (St. Petersburg, 1870), pp. 16-18); Apollo ὀψοφάγος at Elis,
      Athenaeus, viii. 36, p. 346 B; Artemis καπροφάγος in Samos,
      Hesychius, _s.v._ καπροφάγος; compare _id._, _s.v._ κριοφάγος.
      Divine titles derived from killing animals are probably to be
      similarly explained, as Dionysus αἰγόβολος (Pausanias, ix. 8. 2);
      Rhea or Hecate κυνοσφαγής (J. Tzetzes, _Scholia on Lycophron_, 77);
      Apollo λυκοκτόνος (Sophocles, _Electra_, 6); Apollo σαυροκτόνος
      (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxxiv. 70).

  100 See below, vol. ii. pp. 184, 194, 196, 197 _sq._, 233.

  M15 Human sacrifices in the worship of Dionysus.

  101 Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii. 55.

  102 Pausanias, ix. 8. 2.

  103 See _The Dying God_, pp. 163 _sq._

  M16 The legendary deaths of Pentheus and Lycurgus may be reminiscences
      of a custom of sacrificing divine kings in the character of
      Dionysus.

_  104 Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 332 _sq._

  105 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 5. 1.

_  106 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 344, 345, 346, 352,
      354, 366 _sq._

  107 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 5. 1.

  108 Herodotus, vii. 197; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, i. 9. 1 _sq._;
      Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Clouds_, 257; J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on
      Lycophron_, 21; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 1-5. See _The Dying God_, pp.
      161-163.

  109 Clemens Romanus, _Recognitiones_, x. 24 (Migne’s _Patrologia
      Graeca_, i. col. 1434).

  110 Euripides, _Bacchae_, 43 _sqq._, 1043 _sqq._; Theocritus, _Idyl._
      xxvi.; Pausanias, ii. 2. 7. Strictly speaking, the murder of
      Pentheus is said to have been perpetrated not at Thebes, of which he
      was king, but on Mount Cithaeron.

  M17 Survival of Dionysiac rites among the modern Thracian peasantry.

  111 See Mr. R. M. Dawkins, “The Modern Carnival in Thrace and the Cult
      of Dionysus,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xxvi. (1906) pp.
      191-206. Mr. Dawkins describes the ceremonies partly from his own
      observation, partly from an account of them published by Mr. G. M.
      Vizyenos in a Greek periodical Θρακικὴ Ἐπετηρίς, of which only one
      number was published at Athens in 1897. From his personal
      observations Mr. Dawkins was able to confirm the accuracy of Mr.
      Vizyenos’s account.

_  112 Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 333 _sq._

  M18 Drama annually performed at the Carnival in the villages round Viza,
      an old Thracian capital. The actors in the drama.

  113 Strabo, vii. frag. 48; Stephanus Byzantius, _s.v._ Βιζύη.

  114 R. M. Dawkins, _op. cit._ p. 192.

  M19 The ceremonies include the forging of a ploughshare, a mock
      marriage, and a pretence of death and resurrection.
  M20 The ceremonies also include a simulation of ploughing and sowing by
      skin-clad men, accompanied by prayers for good crops.

  115 R. M. Dawkins, “The Modern Carnival in Thrace and the Cult of
      Dionysus,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xxvi. (1906) pp. 193-201.

  M21 Kindred ceremony performed by a masked and skin-clad man who is
      called a king.

  116 R. M. Dawkins, _op. cit._ pp. 201 _sq._

  M22 Analogy of these modern Thracian ceremonies to the ancient rites of
      Dionysus.

  117 They have been clearly indicated by Mr. R. M. Dawkins, _op. cit._
      pp. 203 _sqq._ Compare W. Ridgeway, _The Origin of Tragedy_
      (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 15 _sqq._, who fully recognises the connexion
      of the modern Thracian ceremonies with the ancient rites of
      Dionysus.

  118 Lucian, _Dialogi Deorum_, ix. 2; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 4.
      4. According to the latter writer Dionysus was born in the sixth
      month.

  M23 The modern Thracian celebration seems to correspond most closely to
      the ancient Athenian festival of the Anthesteria.

  119 As to such festivals of All Souls see _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,
      Second Edition, pp. 301-318.

  120 The passages of ancient authors which refer to the Anthesteria are
      collected by Professor Martin P. Nilsson, _Studia de Dionysiis
      Atticis_ (Lund, 1900), pp. 148 _sqq._ As to the festival, which has
      been much discussed of late years, see August Mommsen, _Heortologie_
      (Leipsic, 1864), pp. 345 _sqq._; _id._, _Feste der Stadt Athen im
      Altertum_ (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 384 _sqq._; G. F. Schoemann,
      _Griechische Alterthümer_4 (Berlin, 1902), ii. 516 _sqq._; E. Rohde,
      _Psyche_3 (Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903), i. 236 _sqq._; Martin P.
      Nilsson, _op. cit._ pp. 115 _sqq._; P. Foucart, _Le Culte de
      Dionysos en Attique_ (Paris, 1904), pp. 107 _sqq._; Miss J. E.
      Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_2 (Cambridge,
      1908), pp. 32 _sqq._; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek
      States_, v. (Oxford, 1909) pp. 214 _sqq._ As to the marriage of
      Dionysus to the Queen of Athens, see _The Magic Art and the
      Evolution of Kings_, i. 136 _sq._

  121 By Professor U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, _Aristoteles und Athen_
      (Berlin, 1893), ii. 42; and afterwards by Miss J. E. Harrison,
      _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_,2 p. 536.

_  122 The Dying God_, p. 71.

  123 Plutarch, _Conjugalia Praecepta_, 42.

  124 Miss J. E. Harrison, _Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens_
      (London, 1890), pp. 166 _sq._

  125 Aristotle, _Constitution of Athens_, 3. As to the situation of the
      Prytaneum see my note on Pausanias, i. 18. 3 (vol. ii. p. 172).

  M24 Theory that the rites of the Anthesteria comprised a drama of the
      violent death and resurrection of Dionysus.

  126 August Mommsen, _Heortologie_, pp. 371 _sqq._; _id._, _Feste der
      Stadt Athen im Altertum_, pp. 398 _sqq._; P. Foucart, _Le Culte de
      Dionysos en Attique_, pp. 138 _sqq._

  127 Demosthenes, _Contra Neaer_. 73, pp. 1369 _sq._; Julius Pollux,
      viii. 108; _Etymologicum Magnum_, p. 227, _s.v._ γεραῖραι;
      Hesychius, _s.v._ γεραραί.

  128 Chr. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, p. 505.

  129 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 18, 42.

  130 The resurrection of Osiris is not described by Plutarch in his
      treatise _Isis et Osiris_, which is still our principal source for
      the myth of the god; but it is fortunately recorded in native
      Egyptian writings. See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, p.
      274. P. Foucart supposes that the resurrection of Dionysus was
      enacted at the Anthesteria; August Mommsen prefers to suppose that
      it was enacted in the following month at the Lesser Mysteries.

  M25 Legends of human sacrifice in the worship of Dionysus may be mere
      misinterpretations of ritual.

  131 Aelian, _De Natura Animalium_, xii. 34. Compare W. Robertson Smith,
      _Religion of the Semites_2 (London, 1894), pp. 300 _sqq._

  132 Aulus Gellius, v. 12. 12.

  133 See _The Dying God_, p. 166 note 1, and below, p. 249.

  M26 Demeter and Persephone as Greek personifications of the decay and
      revival of vegetation.
  M27 The Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_. The rape of Persephone. The wrath of
      Demeter. The return of Persephone.

  134 R. Foerster, _Der Raub und die Rückkehr der Persephone_ (Stuttgart,
      1874), pp. 37-39; _The Homeric Hymns_, edited by T. W. Allen and E.
      E. Sikes (London, 1904), pp. 10 _sq._ A later date—the age of the
      Pisistratids—is assigned to the hymn by A. Baumeister (_Hymni
      Homerici_, Leipsic, 1860, p. 280).

_  135 Hymn to Demeter_, 1 _sqq._, 302 _sqq._, 330 _sqq._, 349 _sqq._, 414
      _sqq._, 450 _sqq._

_  136 Hymn to Demeter_, 310 _sqq._ With the myth as set forth in the
      Homeric hymn may be compared the accounts of Apollodorus
      (_Bibliotheca_, i. 5) and Ovid (_Fasti_, iv. 425-618;
      _Metamorphoses_, v. 385 _sqq._).

  M28 The aim of the Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_ is to explain the
      traditional foundation of the Eleusinian mysteries by Demeter.

_  137 Hymn to Demeter_, 47-50, 191-211, 292-295, with the notes of
      Messrs. Allen and Sikes in their edition of the Homeric Hymns
      (London, 1904). As to representations of the candidates for
      initiation seated on stools draped with sheepskins, see L. R.
      Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, iii. (Oxford, 1907) pp.
      237 _sqq._, with plate xv _a_. On a well-known marble vase there
      figured the stool is covered with a lion’s skin and one of the
      candidate’s feet rests on a ram’s skull or horns; but in two other
      examples of the same scene the ram’s fleece is placed on the seat
      (Farnell, _op. cit._ p. 240 note a), just as it is said to have been
      placed on Demeter’s stool in the Homeric hymn. As to the form of
      communion in the Eleusinian mysteries, see Clement of Alexandria,
      _Protrept._ 21, p. 18 ed. Potter; Arnobius, _Adversus nationes_, v.
      26; L. R. Farnell, _op. cit._ iii. 185 _sq._, 195 _sq._ For
      discussions of the ancient evidence bearing on the Eleusinian
      mysteries it may suffice to refer to Chr. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_
      (Königsberg, 1829), pp. 3 _sqq._; G. F. Schoemann, _Griechische
      Alterthümer_,4 ii. 387 _sqq._; Aug. Mommsen, _Heortologie_ (Leipsic,
      1864), pp. 222 _sqq._; _id._, _Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum_
      (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 204 _sqq._; P. Foucart, _Recherches sur
      l’Origine et la Nature des Mystères d’Eleusis_ (Paris, 1895)
      (_Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions_, xxxv.); _id._, _Les
      grands Mystères d’Eleusis_ (Paris, 1900) (_Mémoires de l’Académie
      des Inscriptions_, xxxvii.); F. Lenormant and E. Pottier, _s.v._
      “Eleusinia,” in Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités
      Grecques et Romaines_, ii. 544 _sqq._; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of
      the Greek States_, iii. 126 _sqq._

  M29 Revelation of a reaped ear of corn the crowning act of the
      mysteries.

  138 Hippolytus, _Refutatio Omnium Haeresium_, v. 8, p. 162, ed. L.
      Duncker et F. G. Schneidewin (Göttingen, 1859). The word which the
      poet uses to express the revelation (δεῖξε, _Hymn to Demeter_, verse
      474) is a technical one in the mysteries; the full phrase was
      δεικνύναι τὰ ἱερά. See Plutarch, _Alcibiades_, 22; Xenophon,
      _Hellenica_, vi. 3. 6; Isocrates, _Panegyricus_, 6; Lysias, _Contra
      Andocidem_, 51; Chr. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, p. 51.

  139 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 12, p. 12 ed. Potter: Δηὼ δὲ
      καὶ Κόρη δρᾶμα ἤδη ἐγενέσθην μυστικόν; καὶ τὴν πλάνην καὶ τὴν
      ἀρπαγὴν καὶ τὸ πένθος αὐταῖν Ἐλευσὶς δᾳδουχεῖ. Compare F. Lenormant,
      _s.v._ “Eleusinia,” in Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des
      Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_ iii. 578: “_Que le drame mystique
      des aventures de Déméter et de Coré constituât le spectacle
      essentiel de l’initiation, c’est ce dont il nous semble impossible
      de douter_.” A similar view is expressed by G. F. Schoemann
      (_Griechische Alterthümer_,4 ii. 402); Preller-Robert (_Griechische
      Mythologie_, i. 793); P. Foucart (_Recherches sur l’Origine et la
      Nature des Mystères d’Eleusis_, Paris, 1895, pp. 43 _sqq._; _id._,
      _Les Grands Mystères d’Eleusis_, Paris, 1900, p. 137); E. Rohde
      (_Psyche_,3 i. 289); and L. R. Farnell (_The Cults of the Greek
      States_, iii. 134, 173 _sqq._).

  M30 Demeter and Persephone personifications of the corn. Persephone the
      seed sown in autumn and sprouting in spring. Demeter the old corn of
      last year. The view that Demeter was the Earth goddess is implicitly
      rejected by the author of the Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_.

  140 On Demeter and Proserpine as goddesses of the corn, see L. Preller,
      _Demeter und Persephone_ (Hamburg, 1837), pp. 315 _sqq._; and
      especially W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_ (Strasburg,
      1884), pp. 202 _sqq._

  141 According to the author of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (verses 398
      _sqq._, 445 _sqq._) and Apollodorus (_Bibliotheca_, i. 5. 3) the
      time which Persephone had to spend under ground was one third of the
      year; according to Ovid (_Fasti_, iv. 613 _sq._; _Metamorphoses_, v.
      564 _sqq._) and Hyginus (_Fabulae_, 146) it was one half.

  142 This view of the myth of Persephone is, for example, accepted and
      clearly stated by L. Preller (_Demeter und Persephone_, pp. 128
      _sq._).

  143 See, for example, Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum
      religionum_, 17. 3: “_Frugum substantiam volunt Proserpinam dicere,
      quia fruges hominibus cum seri coeperint prosunt. Terram ipsam
      Cererem nominant, nomen hoc a gerendis fructibus mutuati_”; L.
      Preller, _Demeter und Persephone_, p. 128, “_Der Erdboden wird
      Demeter, die Vegetation Persephone_.” François Lenormant, again,
      held that Demeter was originally a personification of the earth
      regarded as divine, but he admitted that from the time of the
      Homeric poems downwards she was sharply distinguished from Ge, the
      earth-goddess proper. See Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des
      Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_, _s.v._ “Ceres,” ii. 1022 _sq._
      Some light might be thrown on the question whether Demeter was an
      Earth Goddess or a Corn Goddess, if we could be sure of the
      etymology of her name, which has been variously explained as “Earth
      Mother” (Δῆ μήτηρ equivalent to Γῆ μήτηρ) and as “Barley Mother”
      (from an alleged Cretan word δηαί “barley”: see _Etymologicum
      Magnum_, _s.v._ Δηώ, pp. 263 _sq._). The former etymology has been
      the most popular; the latter is maintained by W. Mannhardt. See L.
      Preller, _Demeter und Persephone_, pp. 317, 366 _sqq._; F. G.
      Welcker, _Griechische Götterlehre_, i. 385 _sqq._; Preller-Robert,
      _Griechische Mythologie_, i. 747 note 6; Kern, in Pauly-Wissowa’s
      _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, iv. 2713;
      W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 281 _sqq._ But my
      learned friend the Rev. Professor J. H. Moulton informs me that both
      etymologies are open to serious philological objections, and that no
      satisfactory derivation of the first syllable of Demeter’s name has
      yet been proposed. Accordingly I prefer to base no argument on an
      analysis of the name, and to rest my interpretation of the goddess
      entirely on her myth, ritual, and representations in art. Etymology
      is at the best a very slippery ground on which to rear mythological
      theories.

_  144 Hymn to Demeter_, 8 _sqq._

  M31 The Yellow Demeter, the goddess who sifts the ripe grain from the
      chaff at the threshing-floor. The Green Demeter the goddess of the
      green corn.

_  145 Hymn to Demeter_, 279, 302.

  146 Homer, _Iliad_, v. 499-504.

_  147 Iliad_, xiii. 322, xxi. 76.

  148 Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 31 _sq._

  149 Quoted by Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 66.

  150 Pausanias, i. 22. 3 with my note; Dittenberger, _Sylloge
      Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 615; J. de Prott et L. Ziehen, _Leges
      Graecorum Sacrae_, Fasciculus I. (Leipsic, 1896) p. 49; Cornutus,
      _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 28; Scholiast on Sophocles,
      _Oedipus Colon._ 1600; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek
      States_, iii. 312 _sq._

  M32 The cereals called “Demeter’s fruits.”

  151 Herodotus, i. 193, iv. 198; Xenophon, _Hellenica_, vi. 3. 6; Aelian,
      _Historia Animalium_, xvii. 16; Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae
      Compendium_, 28; _Geoponica_, i. 12. 36; _Paroemiographi Graeci_,
      ed. Leutsch et Schneidewin, Appendix iv. 20 (vol. i. p. 439).

_  152 Cerealia_ in Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxiii. 1; _Cerealia munera_ and
      _Cerealia dona_ in Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, xi. 121 _sq._

  153 Libanius, ed. J. J. Reiske, vol. iv. p. 367, _Corinth. Oratio_: Οὐκ
      αὖθις ἡμῶν ακαρποσ ἡ γῆ δοκεῖ γεγονέναι? οὐ πάλιν ὁ πρὸ Δήμητρος
      εἶναι βίος? καί τοι καὶ πρὸ Δήμητρος αἱ γεωργίαι μὲν οὐκ ἦσαν; οὐδὲ
      ἄροτοι, αὐτόφυτοι δὲ βοτάναι καὶ πόαι; καὶ πολλὰ εἶχεν εἰς σωτηρίαν
      ἀνθρώπων αὐτοσχέδια ἄνθη ἡ γῆ ὠδίνουσα καὶ κύουσα πρὸ τῶν ἡμέρων τὰ
      ἄγρια. Ἐπλανῶντο μὲν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐπ᾽ ἀλλήλους; ἄλση καὶ ὄρη περιῄσαν,
      ζητοῦντες αὐτόματον τροφήν. In this passage, which no doubt
      represents the common Greek view on the subject, the earth is
      plainly personified (ὠδίνουσα καὶ κύουσα), which points the
      antithesis between her and the goddess of the corn. Diodorus Siculus
      also says (v. 68) that corn grew wild with the other plants before
      Demeter taught men to cultivate it and to sow the seed.

  M33 Corn and poppies as symbols of Demeter.

  154 Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 616; Eusebius, _Praeparatio Evangelii_, iii. 11.
      5; Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 28; _Anthologia
      Palatina_, vi. 104. 8; W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p.
      235; J. Overbeck, _Griechische Kunstmythologie_, iii. (Leipsic,
      1873-1878) pp. 420, 421, 453, 479, 480, 502, 505, 507, 514, 522,
      523, 524, 525 _sq._; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_,
      iii. 217 _sqq._, 220 _sq._, 222, 226, 232, 233, 237, 260, 265, 268,
      269 _sq._, 271.

  155 Theocritus, _Idyl._ vii. 155 _sqq._ That the sheaves which the
      goddess grasped were of barley is proved by verses 31-34 of the
      poem.

  156 Eusebius, _Praeparatio Evangelii_, iii. 11. 5; Cornutus, _Theologiae
      Graecae Compendium_, 28, p. 56, ed. C. Lang; Virgil, _Georg._ i.
      212, with the comment of Servius.

  157 See the references to the works of Overbeck and Farnell above. For
      example, a fine statue at Copenhagen, in the style of the age of
      Phidias, represents Demeter holding poppies and ears of corn in her
      left hand. See Farnell, _op. cit._ iii. 268, with plate xxviii.

  158 Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 28, p. 56 ed. C. Lang.

  M34 Persephone portrayed as the young corn sprouting from the ground.

  159 Percy Gardner, _Types of Greek Coins_ (Cambridge, 1883), p. 174,
      with plate x. No. 25.

  M35 Demeter invoked and propitiated by Greek farmers before the autumnal
      sowing. Boeotian festival of mourning for the descent of Persephone
      at the autumnal sowing.

  160 Diodorus Siculus, v. 68. 1.

  161 Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 448-474; Epictetus, _Dissertationes_, iii.
      21. 12. For the autumnal migration and clangour of the cranes as the
      signal for sowing, see Aristophanes, _Birds_, 711; compare Theognis,
      1197 _sqq._ But the Greeks also ploughed in spring (Hesiod, _op.
      cit._ 462; Xenophon, _Oeconom._ 16); indeed they ploughed thrice in
      the year (Theophrastus, _Historia Plantarum_, vii. 13. 6). At the
      approach of autumn the cranes of northern Europe collect about
      rivers and lakes, and after much trumpeting set out in enormous
      bands on their southward journey to the tropical regions of Africa
      and India. In early spring they return northward, and their flocks
      may be descried passing at a marvellous height overhead or halting
      to rest in the meadows beside some broad river. The bird emits its
      trumpet-like note both on the ground and on the wing. See Alfred
      Newton, _Dictionary of Birds_ (London, 1893-1896), pp. 110 _sq._

  162 Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 383 _sq._, 615-617; Aratus, _Phaenomena_,
      254-267; L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
      Chronologie_ (Berlin, 1825-1826), i. 241 _sq._ According to Pliny
      (_Nat. Hist._ xviii. 49) wheat, barley, and all other cereals were
      sown in Greece and Asia from the time of the autumn setting of the
      Pleiades. This date for ploughing and sowing is confirmed by
      Hippocrates and other medical writers. See W. Smith’s _Dictionary of
      Greek and Roman Antiquities_,3 i. 234. Latin writers prescribe the
      same date for the sowing of wheat. See Virgil, _Georg._ i. 219-226;
      Columella, _De re rustica_, ii. 8; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xviii.
      223-226. In Columella’s time the Pleiades, he tells us (_l.c._), set
      in the morning of October 24th of the Julian calendar, which would
      correspond to the October 16th of our reckoning.

  163 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 69.

  164 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 70. Similarly Cornutus says that “Hades
      is fabled to have carried off Demeter’s daughter because the seed
      vanishes for a time under the earth,” and he mentions that a
      festival of Demeter was celebrated at the time of sowing
      (_Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 28, pp. 54, 55 ed. C. Lang). In a
      fragment of a Greek calendar which is preserved in the Louvre “the
      ascent (ἀναβάσις) of the goddess” is dated the seventh day of the
      month Dius, and “the descent or setting (δύσις) of the goddess” is
      dated the fourth day of the month Hephaestius, a month which seems
      to be otherwise unknown. See W. Froehner, _Musée Nationale du
      Louvre, Les Inscriptions Grecques_ (Paris, 1880), pp. 50 _sq._ Greek
      inscriptions found at Mantinea refer to a worship of Demeter and
      Persephone, who are known to have had a sanctuary there (Pausanias,
      viii. 9. 2). The people of Mantinea celebrated “mysteries of the
      goddess” and a festival called the _koragia_, which seems to have
      represented the return of Persephone from the lower world. See W.
      Immerwahr, _Die Kulte und Mythen Arkadiens_ (Leipsic, 1891), pp. 100
      _sq._; S. Reinach, _Traité d’Epigraphie Grecque_ (Paris, 1885), pp.
      141 _sqq._; Hesychius, _s.v._ κοράγειν.

  M36 Thank-offerings of ripe grain presented by Greek farmers to Demeter
      after the harvest. Theocritus’s description of a harvest-home in
      Cos.

  165 Theocritus, _Idyl._ vii.

  M37 The harvest-home described by Theocritus fell in autumn.

  166 In ancient Greece the vintage seems to have fallen somewhat earlier;
      for Hesiod bids the husbandman gather the ripe clusters at the time
      when Arcturus is a morning star, which in the poet’s age was on the
      18th of September. See Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 609 _sqq._; L.
      Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_,
      i. 247.

  167 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, p. 190 note 2.

  M38 The Greeks seem to have deferred the offering of first-fruits till
      the autumn in order to propitiate the Corn Goddess at the moment of
      ploughing and sowing, when her help was urgently needed.

  168 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, p. 190 note 2.

  169 Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 383 _sq._

  170 L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
      Chronologie_, i. 242.

  171 Compare Xenophon, _Oeconomicus_, 17, ἐπειδὰν γὰρ ὁ μετοπωρινὸς
      χρόνος ἔλθῃ, πάντες που οἱ ἄνθρωποι πρὸς τὸν θέον ἀποβλέπουσιν,
      ὅποτε βρέξας τὴν γῆν ἀφήσει αὐτοὺς σπείρειν.

  172 August Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum_, p. 193.

  173 See above, pp. 44 _sqq._

  M39 The festival of the _Proerosia_ (“Before the Ploughing”) held at
      Eleusis in honour of Demeter.

  174 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 283 _sqq._

  175 Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Knights_, 720; Suidas, _s.vv_. εἰρεσιώνη
      and προηροσίαι; _Etymologicum Magnum_, Hesychius, and Photius,
      _Lexicon_, _s.v._ προηρόσια; Plutarch, _Septem Sapientum Convivium_,
      15; Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 521, line
      29, and No. 628; Aug. Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum_
      (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 192 _sqq._ The inscriptions prove that the
      Proerosia was held at Eleusis and that it was distinct from the
      Great Mysteries, being mentioned separately from them. Some of the
      ancients accounted for the origin of the festival by a universal
      plague instead of a universal famine. But this version of the story
      no doubt arose from the common confusion between the similar Greek
      words for plague and famine (λοιμός and λιμός). That in the original
      version famine and not plague must have been alleged as the reason
      for instituting the Proerosia, appears plainly from the reference of
      the name to ploughing, from the dedication of the festival to
      Demeter, and from the offerings of first-fruits; for these
      circumstances, though quite appropriate to ceremonies designed to
      stay or avert dearth and famine, would be quite inappropriate in the
      case of a plague.

  M40 The _Proerosia_ seems to have been held before the ploughing in
      October but after the Great Mysteries in September. However, the
      date of the Great Mysteries, being determined by the lunar calendar,
      must have fluctuated in the solar year; whereas the date of the
      _Proerosia_, being determined by observation of Arcturus, must have
      been fixed.

  176 Hesychius, _s.v._ προηρόσια.

  177 August Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum_, p. 194.

  178 August Mommsen, _l.c._

  179 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 521, lines 29
      _sqq._

  180 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 628.

  181 The view that the Festival before Ploughing (_Proerosia_) fell in
      Pyanepsion is accepted by W. Mannhardt and W. Dittenberger. See W.
      Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_ (Berlin, 1877), pp. 238
      _sq._; _id._, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 258; Dittenberger,
      _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 note 2 on Inscr. No. 628 (vol.
      ii. pp. 423 _sq._). The view that the Festival before Ploughing fell
      in Boedromion is maintained by August Mommsen. See his _Heortologie_
      (Leipsic, 1864), pp. 218 _sqq._; _id._, _Feste der Stadt Athen im
      Altertum_ (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 192 _sqq._

  182 See below, p. 82.

  183 L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_
      (Berlin, 1825-1826), i. 292 _sq._; compare August Mommsen,
      _Chronologie_ (Leipsic, 1883), pp. 58 _sq._

  184 For example, Theophrastus notes that squills flowered thrice a year,
      and that each flowering marked the time for one of the three
      ploughings. See Theophrastus, _Historia Plantarum_, vii. 13. 6.

  185 Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 383 _sqq._ The poet indeed refers (_vv._
      765 _sqq._) to days of the month as proper times for engaging in
      certain tasks; but such references are always simply to days of the
      lunar month and apply equally to every month; they are never to days
      as dates in the solar year.

  M41 Offerings of the first-fruits of the barley and wheat to Demeter and
      Persephone at Eleusis. Isocrates on the offerings of first-fruits at
      Eleusis.

  186 See below, p. 72.

  187 Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Antiquit. Rom._ i. 12. 2.

  188 Xenophon, _Historia Graeca_, vi. 3. 6.

  189 Isocrates, _Panegyric_, 6 _sq._

  M42 Athenian decree concerning the offerings of first-fruits at Eleusis.

  190 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 20 (vol. i.
      pp. 33 _sqq._); E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, _An Introduction to
      Greek Epigraphy_, Part ii. (Cambridge, 1905) No. 9, pp. 22 _sqq._

  191 Aristides, _Panathen._ and _Eleusin._, vol. i. pp. 167 _sq._, 417
      ed. G. Dindorf (Leipsic, 1829).

  M43 Even after foreign states ceased to send first-fruits of the corn to
      Eleusis, they continued to acknowledge the benefit which the
      Athenians had conferred on mankind by diffusing among them Demeter’s
      gift of the corn. Testimony of the Sicilian historian Diodorus.
      Testimony of Cicero and Himerius.

  192 Diodorus Siculus, v. 2 and 4; Cicero, _In C. Verrem_, act. ii. bk.
      iv. chapters 48 _sq._ Both writers mention that the whole of Sicily
      was deemed sacred to Demeter and Persephone, and that corn was said
      to have grown in the island before it appeared anywhere else. In
      support of the latter claim Diodorus Siculus (v. 2. 4) asserts that
      wheat grew wild in many parts of Sicily.

  193 Diodorus Siculus, v. 4.

  194 This legend, which is mentioned also by Cicero (_In C. Verrem_, act.
      ii. bk. iv. ch. 48), was no doubt told to explain the use of torches
      in the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone. The author of the
      Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_ tells us (verses 47 _sq._) that Demeter
      searched for her lost daughter for nine days with burning torches in
      her hands, but he does not say that the torches were kindled at the
      flames of Etna. In art Demeter and Persephone and their attendants
      were often represented with torches in their hands. See L. R.
      Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, iii. (Oxford, 1907) plates
      xiii., xv. _a_, xvi., xvii., xviii., xix., xx., xxi. _a_, xxv.,
      xxvii. _b_. Perhaps the legend of the torchlight search for
      Persephone and the use of the torches in the mysteries may have
      originated in a custom of carrying fire about the fields as a charm
      to secure sunshine for the corn. See _The Golden Bough_,2 iii. 313.

  195 The words which I have translated “the bringing home of the Maiden”
      (τῆς Κόρης τὴν καταγωγήν) are explained with great probability by
      Professor M. P. Nilsson as referring to the bringing of the ripe
      corn to the barn or the threshing-floor (_Griechische Feste_,
      Leipsic, 1906, pp. 356 _sq._). This interpretation accords perfectly
      with a well-attested sense of καταγωγή and its cognate verb
      κατάγειν, and is preferable to the other possible interpretation
      “the bringing down,” which would refer to the descent of Persephone
      into the nether world; for such a descent is hardly appropriate to a
      harvest festival.

  196 Cicero, _Pro L. Flacco_, 26.

  197 Himerius, _Orat._ ii. 5.

  198 Μητρόπολις τῶν καρπῶν, Aristides, _Panathen._ vol. i. p. 168 ed. G.
      Dindorf (Leipzig, 1829).

  M44 The Sicilians seem to have associated Demeter with the seed-corn and
      Persephone with the ripe ears. Difficulty of distinguishing between
      Demeter and Persephone as personifications of different aspects of
      the corn.
  M45 The time of the year when the first-fruits of the corn were offered
      to Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis is not known.

  199 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 20, lines 25
      _sqq._; E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, _Introduction to Greek
      Epigraphy_, ii. (Cambridge, 1905) No. 9, lines 25 _sqq._, κελευέτω
      δὲ καί ὁ ἱεροφάντης καὶ ὁ δᾳδοῦχος μυστηρίοις ἀπάρχεσθαι τοὺς
      Ἔλληνας τοῦ καρποῦ κατὰ τὰ πάτρια καὶ τὴν μαντείαν τὴν ἐγ Δελφῶν. By
      coupling μυστηρίοις with ἀπάρχεσθαι instead of with κελεύετω, Miss
      J. E. Harrison understands the offering instead of the exhortation
      to have been made at the mysteries (_Prolegomena to the Study of
      Greek Religion_, Second Edition, p. 155, “Let the Hierophant and the
      Torchbearer command that at the mysteries the Hellenes should offer
      first-fruits of their crops,” etc.). This interpretation is no doubt
      grammatically permissible, but the context seems to plead strongly,
      if not to be absolutely decisive, in favour of the other. It is to
      be observed that the exhortation was addressed not to the Athenians
      and their allies (who were compelled to make the offering) but only
      to the other Greeks, who might make it or not as they pleased; and
      the amount of such voluntary contributions was probably small
      compared to that of the compulsory contributions, as to the date of
      which nothing is said. That the proclamation to the Greeks in
      general was an exhortation (κελευέτω), not a command, is clearly
      shewn by the words of the decree a few lines lower down, where
      commissioners are directed to go to all Greek states exhorting but
      not commanding them to offer the first-fruits (ἐκείνοις δὲ μὴ
      ἐπιτάττοντας, κελεύοντας δὲ ἀπάρχεσθαι ἐὰν βούλωνται κατὰ τὰ πάτρια
      καὶ τὴν μαντείαν ἐγ Δελφῶν). The Athenians could not command free
      and independent states to make such offerings, still less could they
      prescribe the exact date when the offerings were to be made. All
      that they could and did do was, taking advantage of the great
      assembly of Greeks from all quarters at the mysteries, to invite or
      exhort, by the mouth of the great priestly functionaries, the
      foreigners to contribute.

  200 August Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum_ (Leipsic, 1898),
      pp. 192 _sqq._

  M46 The Festival of the Threshing-floor (_Haloa_) at Eleusis.

  201 Eustathius on Homer, _Iliad_, ix. 534, p. 772; Im. Bekker, _Anecdota
      Graeca_, i. 384 _sq._, _s.v._ Ἁλῶα. Compare O. Rubensohn, _Die
      Mysterienheiligtümer in Eleusis und Samothrake_ (Berlin, 1892), p.
      116.

  202 Eustathius on Homer, _Iliad_, ix. 534, p. 772; Im. Bekker, _Anecdota
      Graeca_, i. 384 _sq._, _s.v._ Ἁλῶα.

_  203 Scholia in Lucianum_, ed. H. Rabe (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 279 _sq._
      (scholium on _Dialog. Meretr._ vii. 4).

  204 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 Nos. 192, 246,
      587, 640; Ἐφημερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική, 1884, coll. 135 _sq._ The passages
      of inscriptions and of ancient authors which refer to the festival
      are collected by Dr. L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_,
      iii. (Oxford, 1907) pp. 315 _sq._ For a discussion of the evidence
      see August Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum_ (Leipsic,
      1898), pp. 359 _sqq._; Miss J. E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to the
      Study of Greek Religion_, Second Edition (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 145
      _sqq._

  205 The threshing-floor of Triptolemus at Eleusis (Pausanias, i. 38. 6)
      is no doubt identical with the Sacred Threshing-floor mentioned in
      the great Eleusinian inscription of 329 B.C. (Dittenberger, _Sylloge
      Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 587, line 234). We read of a
      hierophant who, contrary to ancestral custom, sacrificed a victim on
      the hearth in the Hall at Eleusis during the Festival of the
      Threshing-floor, “it being unlawful to sacrifice victims on that
      day” (Demosthenes, _Contra Neaeram_, 116, pp. 1384 _sq._), but from
      such an unlawful act no inference can be drawn as to the place where
      the festival was held. That the festival probably had special
      reference to the threshing-floor of Triptolemus has already been
      pointed out by O. Rubensohn (_Die Mysterienheiligtümer in Eleusis
      und Samothrake_, Berlin, 1892, p. 118).

  206 See above, pp. 41 _sq._, 43. Maximus Tyrius observes (_Dissertat._
      xxx. 5) that husbandmen were the first to celebrate sacred rites in
      honour of Demeter at the threshing-floor.

  207 See above, p. 61, note 4.

  208 Harpocration, _s.v._ Ἁλῶα (vol. i. p. 24, ed. G. Dindorf).

  209 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 587, lines
      124, 144, with the editor’s notes; August Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt
      Athen im Altertum_, p. 360.

  210 So I am informed by my friend Professor J. L. Myres, who speaks from
      personal observation.

  211 This is recognised by Professor M. P. Nilsson. See his _Studia de
      Dionysiis Atticis_ (Lund, 1900), pp. 95 _sqq._, and his _Griechische
      Feste_, p. 329. To explain the lateness of the festival, Miss J. E.
      Harrison suggests that “the shift of date is due to Dionysos. The
      rival festivals of Dionysos were in mid-winter. He possessed himself
      of the festivals of Demeter, took over her threshing-floor and
      compelled the anomaly of a winter threshing festival” (_Prolegomena
      to the Study of Greek Religion_, Second Edition, p. 147).

  212 Scholiast on Lucian, _Dial. Meretr._ vii. 4 (_Scholia in Lucianum_,
      ed. H. Rabe, Leipsic, 1906, pp. 279-281).

  213 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 15 and 20, pp. 13 and 17 ed.
      Potter; Arnobius, _Adversus Nationes_, v. 25-27, 35, 39.

  214 See below, p. 116; vol. ii. pp. 17 _sqq._

  M47 The Green Festival and the Festival of the Cornstalks at Eleusis.
      Epithets of Demeter referring to the corn.

  215 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 640; Ch.
      Michel, _Recueil d’Inscriptions Grecques_ (Brussels, 1900), No. 135,
      p. 145. To be exact, while the inscription definitely mentions the
      sacrifices to Demeter and Persephone at the Green Festival, it does
      not record the deities to whom the sacrifice at the Festival of the
      Cornstalks (τὴν τῶν Καλαμαίων θυσίαν) was offered. But mentioned as
      it is in immediate connexion with the sacrifices to Demeter and
      Persephone at the Green Festival, we may fairly suppose that the
      sacrifice at the Festival of the Cornstalks was also offered to
      these goddesses.

  216 See above, p. 42.

_  217 Anthologia Palatina_, vi. 36. 1 _sq._

  218 Polemo, cited by Athenaeus, iii. 9, p. 416 B.

  219 Nonnus, _Dionys._ xvii. 153. The Athenians sacrificed to her under
      this title (Eustathius, on Homer, _Iliad_, xviii. 553, p. 1162).

  220 Theocritus, _Idyl._ vii. 155; _Orphica_, xl. 5.

_  221 Anthologia Palatina_, vi. 98. 1.

_  222 Orphica_, xl. 3.

_  223 Anthologia Palatina_, vi. 104. 8.

_  224 Orphica_, xl. 5.

_  225 Ibid._

_  226 Orphica_, xl. 18.

  227 This title she shared with Persephone at Tegea (Pausanias, viii. 53.
      7), and under it she received annual sacrifices at Ephesus
      (Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 655). It was
      applied to her also at Epidaurus (Ἐφημ. Ἀρχ., 1883, col. 153) and at
      Athens (Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 382), and appears to have been a
      common title of the goddess. See L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the
      Greek States_, iii. 318 note 30.

  228 Polemo, cited by Athenaeus, iii. 73, p. 109 A B, x. 9. p. 416 C.

  M48 Belief in ancient and modern times that the corn-crops depend on
      possession of an image of Demeter.

  229 E. Dodwell, _A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece_
      (London, 1819), i. 583. E. D. Clarke found the image “on the side of
      the road, immediately before entering the village, and in the midst
      of a heap of dung, buried as high as the neck, a little beyond the
      farther extremity of the pavement of the temple. Yet even this
      degrading situation had not been assigned to it wholly independent
      of its antient history. The inhabitants of the small village which
      is now situated among the ruins of Eleusis still regarded this
      statue with a very high degree of superstitious veneration. They
      attributed to its presence the fertility of their land; and it was
      for this reason that they heaped around it the manure intended for
      their fields. They believed that the loss of it would be followed by
      no less a calamity than the failure of their annual harvests; and
      they pointed to the ears of bearded wheat, upon the sculptured
      ornaments upon the head of the figure, as a never-failing indication
      of the produce of the soil.” When the statue was about to be
      removed, a general murmur ran among the people, the women joining in
      the clamour. “They had been always,” they said, “famous for their
      corn; and the fertility of the land would cease when the statue was
      removed.” See E. D. Clarke, _Travels in various Countries of Europe,
      Asia, and Africa_, iii. (London, 1814) pp. 772-774, 787 _sq._
      Compare J. C. Lawson, _Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek
      Religion_ (Cambridge, 1910), p. 80, who tells us that “the statue
      was regularly crowned with flowers in the avowed hope of obtaining
      good harvests.”

  230 Cicero, _In C. Verrem_, act. ii. lib. iv. 51.

  M49 Sacred marriage of Zeus and Demeter at Eleusis. Homer on the love of
      Zeus for Demeter. Zeus the Sky God may have been confused with
      Subterranean Zeus, that is, Pluto. Demeter may have been confused
      with Persephone; in art the types of the two goddesses are often
      very similar.

_  231 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 138 _sq._

  232 This view was expressed by my friend Professor Ridgeway in a paper
      which I had the advantage of hearing him read at Cambridge in the
      early part of 1911. Compare _The Athenaeum_, No. 4360, May 20th,
      1911, p. 576.

  233 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 20; E. S.
      Roberts and E. A. Gardner, _Introduction to Greek Epigraphy_, ii.
      (Cambridge, 1905) No. 9, pp. 22 _sq._ See above, pp. 55 _sq._

  234 Homer, _Iliad_, xiv. 326.

  235 Homer, _Odyssey_, v. 125 _sqq._

  236 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 62. 6.

  237 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ 12, p. 12, ed. Potter.

  238 Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 465 _sqq._

  239 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 615, lines 25
      _sq._; Ch. Michel, _Recueil d’Inscriptions Grecques_, No. 714; J. de
      Prott et L. Ziehen, _Leges Graecorum Sacrae_, No. 4.

  240 See L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, iii. (Oxford,
      1907), p. 259, “It was long before the mother could be distinguished
      from the daughter by any organic difference of form or by any
      expressive trait of countenance. On the more ancient vases and
      terracottas they appear rather as twin-sisters, almost as if the
      inarticulate artist were aware of their original identity of
      substance. And even among the monuments of the transitional period
      it is difficult to find any representation of the goddesses in
      characters at once clear and impressive. We miss this even in the
      beautiful vase of Hieron in the British Museum, where the divine
      pair are seen with Triptolemos: the style is delicate and stately,
      and there is a certain impression of inner tranquil life in the
      group, but without the aid of the inscriptions the mother would not
      be known from the daughter”; _id._, vol. iii. 274, “But it would be
      wrong to give the impression that the numismatic artists of this
      period were always careful to distinguish—in such a manner as the
      above works indicate—between mother and daughter. The old idea of
      their unity of substance still seemed to linger as an art-tradition:
      the very type we have just been examining appears on a
      fourth-century coin of Hermione, and must have been used here to
      designate Demeter Chthonia who was there the only form that the
      corn-goddess assumed. And even at Metapontum, where coin-engraving
      was long a great art, a youthful head crowned with corn, which in
      its own right and on account of its resemblance to the masterpiece
      of Euainetos could claim the name of Kore [Persephone], is actually
      inscribed ‘Damater.’ ” Compare J. Overbeck, _Griechische
      Kunstmythologie_, iii. (Leipsic, 1873-1878), p. 453. In regard, for
      example, to the famous Eleusinian bas-relief, one of the most
      beautiful monuments of ancient religious art, which seems to
      represent Demeter giving the corn-stalks to Triptolemus, while
      Persephone crowns his head, there has been much divergence of
      opinion among the learned as to which of the goddesses is Demeter
      and which Persephone. See J. Overbeck, _op. cit._ iii. 427 _sqq._;
      L. R. Farnell, _op. cit._ iii. 263 _sq._ On the close resemblance of
      the artistic types of Demeter and Persephone see further E. Gerhard,
      _Gesammelte akademische Abhandlungen_ (Berlin, 1866-1868), ii. 357
      _sqq._; F. Lenormant, in Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des
      Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_, i. 2, _s.v._ “Ceres,” p. 1049.

  M50 The date of the Eleusinian Mysteries in September would have been a
      very appropriate time for a Sacred Marriage of the Sky God with the
      Corn Goddess or the Earth Goddess.

_  241 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 97 _sqq._

  242 Homer, _Odyssey_, v. 125 _sqq._

  243 Proclus, on Plato, _Timaeus_, p. 293 c, quoted by L. F. Farnell,
      _The Cults of the Greek States_, iii. 357, where Lobeck’s emendation
      of ὔε, κύε for υἶε, τοκυῖε (_Aglaophamus_, p. 782) may be accepted
      as certain, confirmed as it is by Hippolytus, _Refutatio Omnium
      Haeresium_, v. 7, p. 146, ed. Duncker and Schneidewin (Göttingen,
      1859), τὸ μέγα καὶ ἄρρητον Ἐλευσινίων μυστήριον ὔε κύε.

  M51 The Eleusinian games distinct from the Eleusinian Mysteries. The
      Eleusinian games of later origin than the Eleusinian Mysteries. The
      Eleusinian games sacred to Demeter and Persephone. Triptolemus, the
      mythical hero of the corn.

  244 As to the Eleusinian games see August Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt
      Athen im Altertum_, pp. 179-204; P. Foucart, _Les Grands Mystères
      d’Éleusis_ (Paris, 1900), pp. 143-147; P. Stengel, in
      Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen
      Altertumswissenschaft_, v. coll. 2330 _sqq._ The quadriennial
      celebration of the Eleusinian Games is mentioned by Aristotle
      (_Constitution of Athens_, 54), and in the great Eleusinian
      inscription of 329 B.C., which is also our only authority for the
      biennial celebration of the games. See Dittenberger, _Sylloge
      Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 587, lines 258 _sqq._ The regular and
      official name of the games was simply Eleusinia (τὰ Ἐλευσίνια), a
      name which late writers applied incorrectly to the Mysteries. See
      August Mommsen, _op. cit._ pp. 179 _sqq._; Dittenberger, _op. cit._
      No. 587, note 171.

  245 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 246, lines 25
      _sqq._; _id._ No. 587, lines 244 _sq._, 258 _sqq._

_  246 Marmor Parium_, in _Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C.
      Müller, i. 544 _sq._

  247 Aristides, _Panathen._ and _Eleusin._ vol. i. pp. 168, 417, ed. G.
      Dindorf.

  248 Schol. on Pindar, _Olymp._ ix. 150, p. 228, ed. Aug. Boeckh.

  249 Aristides, _ll.cc._

  250 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 246, lines 25
      _sqq._ The editor rightly points out that the Great Eleusinian Games
      are identical with the games celebrated every fourth year, which are
      mentioned in the decree of 329 B.C. (Dittenberger, _Sylloge
      Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 587, lines 260 _sq._).

  251 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 587, lines 259
      _sqq._ From other Attic inscriptions we learn that the Eleusinian
      games comprised a long foot-race, a race in armour, and a
      pancratium. See Dittenberger, _op. cit._ No. 587 note 171 (vol. ii.
      p. 313). The Great Eleusinian Games also included the pentathlum
      (Dittenberger, _op. cit._ No. 678, line 2). The pancratium included
      wrestling and boxing; the pentathlum included a foot-race, leaping,
      throwing the quoit, throwing the spear, and wrestling. See W. Smith,
      _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_, Third Edition, _s.vv._
      “Pancratium” and “Pentathlon.”

  252 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 246, lines 46
      _sqq._; Ch. Michel, _Recueil d’Inscriptions Grecques_, No. 609. See
      above, p. 61. The identification lies all the nearer to hand because
      the inscription records a decree in honour of a man who had
      sacrificed to Demeter and Persephone at the Great Eleusinian Games,
      and a provision is contained in the decree that the honour should be
      proclaimed “at the Ancestral Contest of the Festival of the
      Threshing-floor.” The same Ancestral Contest at the Festival of the
      Threshing-floor is mentioned in another Eleusinian inscription,
      which records honours decreed to a man who had sacrificed to Demeter
      and Persephone at the Festival of the Threshing-floor. See Ἐφημερὶς
      Ἀρχαιολογική, 1884, coll. 135 _sq._

  253 See above, p. 61.

  254 Diodorus Siculus, v. 68; Arrian, _Indic._ 7; Lucian, _Somnium_, 15;
      _id._, _Philopseudes_, 3; Plato, _Laws_, vi. 22, p. 782;
      Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, i. 5. 2; Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae
      Compendium_, 28, p. 53, ed. C. Lang; Pausanias, i. 14. 2, vii. 18.
      2, viii. 4. 1; Aristides, _Eleusin._ vol. i. pp. 416 _sq._, ed. G.
      Dindorf; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 147, 259, 277; Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 549
      _sqq._; _id._, _Metamorph._ v. 645 _sqq._; Servius, on Virgil,
      _Georg._ i. 19. See also above, p. 54. As to Triptolemus, see L.
      Preller, _Demeter und Persephone_ (Hamburg, 1837), pp. 282 _sqq._;
      _id._, _Griechische Mythologie_,4 i. 769 _sqq._

  255 C. Strube, _Studien über den Bilderkreis von Eleusis_ (Leipsic,
      1870), pp. 4 _sqq._; J. Overbeck, _Griechische Kunstmythologie_,
      iii. (Leipsic, 1873-1880), pp. 530 _sqq._; A. Baumeister, _Denkmäler
      des classischen Altertums_, iii. 1855 _sqq._ That Triptolemus sowed
      the earth with corn from his car is mentioned by Apollodorus,
      _Bibliotheca_, i. 5. 2; Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_,
      28, pp. 53 _sq._, ed. C. Lang; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 147; and Servius,
      on Virgil, _Georg._ i. 19.

  256 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 20, lines 37
      _sqq._; E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, _Introduction to Greek
      Epigraphy_, ii. (Cambridge, 1905), No. 9, p. 24.

  257 Arrian, _Epicteti Dissertationes_, i. 4. 30.

  258 Scholiast on Homer, _Iliad_, xviii. 483; L. Preller, _Demeter und
      Persephone_, p. 286; F. A. Paley on Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 460.
      The custom of ploughing the land thrice is alluded to by Homer
      (_Iliad_, xviii. 542, _Odyssey_, v. 127) and Hesiod (_Theogony_,
      971), and is expressly mentioned by Theophrastus (_Historia
      Plantarum_, vii. 13. 6).

  259 So I am informed by my learned friend the Rev. Professor J. H.
      Moulton.

  260 J. Toepffer, _Attische Genealogie_ (Berlin, 1889), pp. 138 _sq._
      However, the Eleusinian Torchbearer Callias apparently claimed to be
      descended from Triptolemus, for in a speech addressed to the
      Lacedaemonians he is said by Xenophon (_Hellenica_, vi. 3. 6) to
      have spoken of Triptolemus as “our ancestor” (ὁ ἡμέτερος πρόγονος).
      See above, p. 54. But it is possible that Callias was here speaking,
      not as a direct descendant of Triptolemus, but merely as an
      Athenian, who naturally ranked Triptolemus among the most
      illustrious of the ancestral heroes of his people. Even if he
      intended to claim actual descent from the hero, this would prove
      nothing as to the historical character of Triptolemus, for many
      Greek families boasted of being descended from gods.

  M52 Prizes of barley given to victors in the Eleusinian games.

  261 The prize of barley is mentioned by the Scholiast on Pindar,
      _Olymp._ ix. 150. The Scholiast on Aristides (vol. iii. pp. 55, 56,
      ed. G. Dindorf) mentions ears of corn as the prize without
      specifying the kind of corn. In the official Athenian inscription of
      329 B.C., though the amount of corn distributed in prizes both at
      the quadriennial and at the biennial games is stated, we are not
      told whether the corn was barley or wheat. See Dittenberger,
      _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 587, lines 259 _sqq._
      According to Aristides (_Eleusin._ vol. i. p. 417, ed. G. Dindorf,
      compare p. 168) the prize consisted of the corn which had first
      appeared at Eleusis.

_  262 Marmor Parium_, in _Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C.
      Müller, i. 544. That the Rarian plain was the first to be sown and
      the first to bear crops is affirmed by Pausanias (i. 38. 6).

  263 Pausanias, i. 38. 6.

  264 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 587, lines 119
      _sq._ In the same inscription, a few lines lower down, mention is
      made of two pigs which were used in purifying the sanctuary at
      Eleusis. On the pig in Greek purificatory rites, see my notes on
      Pausanias, ii. 31. 8 and v. 16. 8.

  M53 The Eleusinian games primarily concerned with Demeter and
      Persephone. The Ancestral Contest in the games may have been
      originally a contest between the reapers to finish reaping.

  265 See below, pp. 140 _sqq._, 155 _sqq._, 164 _sqq._, compare 218
      _sqq._

  266 See below, pp. 147 _sqq._, 221 _sq._, 223 _sq._

  267 See above, p. 43.

  M54 Games at harvest festivals in modern Europe.

  268 A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_
      (Leipsic, 1848), pp. 398, 399, 400.

  269 P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_ (Leipsic,
      1903-1906), ii. 70 _sq._

  270 A. Kuhn, _Märkische Sagen und Märchen_ (Berlin, 1843), pp. 341 _sq._

  271 See below, pp. 133 _sqq._

  M55 Date of the Eleusinian games uncertain.

  272 Scholiast on Pindar, _Olymp._ ix. 150, p. 228, ed. Aug. Boeckh.

  273 The games are assigned to Metageitnion by P. Stengel (Pauly-Wissowa,
      _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, v. 2.
      coll. 2331 _sq._) and to Boedromion by August Mommsen and W.
      Dittenberger. The last-mentioned scholar supposes that the games
      immediately followed the Mysteries, and August Mommsen formerly
      thought so too, but he afterwards changed his view and preferred to
      suppose that the games preceded the Mysteries. See Aug. Mommsen,
      _Heortologie_ (Leipsic, 1864), p. 263; _id._, _Feste der Stadt Athen
      im Altertum_ (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 182 _sqq._; Dittenberger, _Sylloge
      Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 587, note 171 (vol. ii. pp. 313
      _sq._). The dating of the games in Metageitnion or in the early part
      of Boedromion depends on little more than a series of conjectures,
      particularly the conjectural restoration of an inscription and the
      conjectural dating of a certain sacrifice to Democracy.

  M56 Why should games intended to promote the annual growth of the crops
      be held only every second or fourth year? The Eleusinian Mysteries
      probably much older than the Eleusinian games.

  274 A. de Candolle, _Origin of Cultivated Plants_ (London, 1884), pp.
      354 _sq._, 367 _sqq._; R. Munro, _The Lake-dwellings of Europe_
      (London, Paris, and Melbourne, 1890), pp. 497 _sqq._; O. Schrader,
      _Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_ (Strasburg, 1901),
      pp. 8 _sqq._; _id._, _Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte_ (Jena,
      1906-1907), ii. 185 _sqq._; H. Hirt, _Die Indogermanen_ (Strasburg,
      1905-1907), i. 254 _sqq._, 273 _sq._, 276 _sqq._, ii. 640 _sqq._; M.
      Much, _Die Heimat der Indogermanen_ (Jena and Berlin, 1904), pp. 221
      _sqq._; T. E. Peet, _The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy and Sicily_
      (Oxford, 1909), p. 362.

  M57 Quadriennial period of many of the great games of Greece. Old
      octennial period of the Pythian and probably of the Olympian games.
      The octennial cycle was instituted by the Greeks at a very early era
      for the purpose of harmonising solar and lunar time.

  275 Aristotle, _Constitution of Athens_, 54, where the quadriennial
      (penteteric) festival of the Eleusinian Games is mentioned along
      with the quadriennial festivals of the Panathenaica, the Delia, the
      Brauronia, and the Heraclea. The biennial (trieteric) festival of
      the Eleusinian Games is mentioned only in the inscription of 329
      B.C. (Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 587,
      lines 259 _sq._). As to the identity of the Great Eleusinian Games
      with the quadriennial games see Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum
      Graecarum_, No. 246 note 9, No. 587 note 171.

  276 As to the Plataean games see Plutarch, _Aristides_, 21; Pausanias,
      ix. 2. 6.

  277 Strabo, vii. 7. 6, p. 325; Suetonius, _Augustus_, 18; Dio Cassius,
      li. 1; Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et
      Romaines_, _s.v._ “Actia.”

  278 Pausanias, viii. 9. 8.

  279 Scholiast on Pindar, _Pyth._, Argument, p. 298, ed. Aug. Boeckh;
      Censorinus, _De die natali_, xviii. 6. According to the scholiast on
      Pindar (_l.c._) the change from the octennial to the quadriennial
      period was occasioned by the nymphs of Parnassus bringing ripe
      fruits in their hands to Apollo, after he had slain the dragon at
      Delphi.

  280 Scholiast on Pindar, _Olymp._ iii. 35 (20), p. 98, ed. Aug. Boeckh.
      Compare Boeckh’s commentary on Pindar (vol. iii. p. 138 of his
      edition); L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
      Chronologie_, i. 366 _sq._, ii. 605 _sqq._

  281 See _The Dying God_, chapter ii. § 4, “Octennial Tenure of the
      Kingship,” especially pp. 68 _sq._, 80, 89 _sq._

  282 Geminus, _Elementa Astronomiae_, viii. 25 _sqq._, pp. 110 _sqq._,
      ed. C. Manitius (Leipsic, 1898); Censorinus, _De die natali_, xviii.
      2-6.

  283 Geminus, _l.c._

  284 Geminus, _Elementa Astronomiae_, viii. 36-41.

  285 Censorinus, _De die natali_, xviii. 5. As Eudoxus flourished in the
      fourth century B.C., some sixty or seventy years after Meton, who
      introduced the nineteen years’ cycle to remedy the defects of the
      octennial cycle, the claim of Eudoxus to have instituted the latter
      cycle may at once be put out of court. The claim of Cleostratus, who
      seems to have lived in the sixth or fifth century B.C., cannot be
      dismissed so summarily; but for the reasons given in the text he can
      hardly have done more than suggest corrections or improvements of
      the ancient octennial cycle.

  286 Geminus, _Elementa Astronomiae_, viii. 27. With far less probability
      Censorinus (_De die natali_, xviii. 2-4) supposes that the octennial
      cycle was produced by the successive duplication of biennial and
      quadriennial cycles. See below, pp. 86 _sq._

  287 L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
      Chronologie_, ii. 605.

_  288 The Dying God_, pp. 58 _sqq._ Speaking of the octennial cycle
      Censorinus observes that “_Ob hoc in Graecia multae religiones hoc
      intervallo temporis summa caerimonia coluntur_” (_De die natali_,
      xviii. 6). Compare L. Ideler, _op. cit._ ii. 605 _sq._; G. F. Unger,
      “Zeitrechnung der Griechen und Römer,” in Iwan Müller’s _Handbuch
      der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, i.2 732 _sq._ The great age
      and the wide diffusion of the octennial cycle in Greece are rightly
      maintained by A. Schmidt (_Handbuch der griechischen Chronologie_,
      Jena, 1888, pp. 61 _sqq._), who suggests that the cycle may have
      owed something to the astronomy of the Egyptians, with whom the
      inhabitants of Greece are known to have had relations from a very
      early time.

  M58 The motive for instituting the eight years’ cycle was religious, not
      practical or scientific.

  289 Aratus, _Phaenomena_, 733 _sqq._; L. Ideler, _Handbuch der
      mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_, i. 255 _sq._

  290 Geminus, _Elementa Astronomiae_, viii. 15-45.

  M59 In early times the regulation of the calendar is largely an affair
      of religion.

  291 Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i. 15. 9 _sqq._; Livy, ix. 46. 5; Valerius
      Maximus, ii. 5. 2; Cicero, _Pro Muraena_, xi. 25; _id._, _De
      legibus_, ii. 12. 29; Suetonius, _Divus Iulius_, 40; Plutarch,
      _Caesar_, 59.

  M60 The quadriennial period of games and festivals in Greece was
      probably arrived at by bisecting an older octennial period.

  292 See _The Dying God_, pp. 92 _sqq._

  293 Plato, _Meno_, p. 81 A-C; Pindar, ed. Aug. Boeckh, vol. iii. pp. 623
      _sq._, Frag. 98. See further _The Dying God_, pp. 69 _sq._

  294 Plutarch, _Aristides_, 21; Pausanias, ix. 2. 6.

  295 See above, p. 80.

  M61 The reasons for bisecting the old octennial period into two
      quadriennial periods may have been partly religious, partly
      political.

  296 Pausanias, iv. 5. 10; compare Aristotle, _Constitution of Athens_,
      iii. 1; G. Gilbert, _Handbuch der griechischen Staatsalterthumer_,
      i.2 (Leipsic, 1893) pp. 122 _sq._

  297 See _The Dying God_, pp. 89-92.

  M62 The biennial period of some Greek games may have been obtained by
      bisecting the quadriennial period.

  298 L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
      Chronologie_, ii. 606 _sq._

  299 Censorinus, _De die natali_, xviii. 2-4.

  300 Censorinus, _De die natali_, xviii. 2.

  301 L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
      Chronologie_, i. 270.

  M63 Application of the foregoing conclusion to the Eleusinian games.
  M64 Varro on the rites of Eleusis.

  302 Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vii. 20. “_In Cereris autem sacris
      praedicantur illa Eleusinia, quae apud Athenienses nobilissima
      fuerunt. De quibus iste [Varro] nihil interpretatur, nisi quod
      attinet ad frumentum, quod Ceres invenit, et ad Proserpinam, quam
      rapiente Orco perdidit. Et hanc ipsam dicit significare
      foecunditatem seminum.... Dicit deinde multa in mysteriis ejus
      tradi, quae nisi ad frugum inventionem non pertineant._”

  M65 The close resemblance between the artistic types of Demeter and
      Persephone militates against the theory that the two goddesses
      personified two things so different as the earth and the corn.

  303 A. Baumeister, _Denkmäler des classischen Altertums_, i. 577 _sq._;
      Drexler, _s.v._ "Gaia," in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und
      röm. Mythologie_, i. 1574 _sqq._; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the
      Greek States_, iii. (Oxford, 1907) p. 27.

  304 Pausanias, vii. 21. 11. At Athens there was a sanctuary of Earth the
      Nursing-Mother and of Green Demeter (Pausanias, i. 22. 3), but we do
      not know how the goddesses were represented.

  305 L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, iii. 256 with plate
      xxi. b.

  306 The distinction between Demeter (Ceres) and the Earth Goddess is
      clearly marked by Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 673 _sq._:

      “_Officium commune Ceres et Terra tuentur;_
      _ Haec praebet causam frugibus, illa locum._”

  307 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 Nos. 20, 408, 411,
      587, 646, 647, 652, 720, 789. Compare the expression διώνυμοι θέαι
      applied to them by Euripides, _Phoenissae_, 683, with the
      Scholiast’s note.

  308 The substantial identity of Demeter and Persephone has been
      recognised by some modern scholars, though their interpretations of
      the myth do not altogether agree with the one adopted in the text.
      See F. G. Welcker, _Griechische Götterlehre_ (Göttingen, 1857-1862),
      ii. 532; L. Preller, in Pauly’s _Realencyclopädie der classischen
      Altertumswissenschaft_, vi. 106 _sq._; F. Lenormant, in Daremberg et
      Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_, i. 2.
      pp. 1047 _sqq._

  M66 As goddesses of the corn Demeter and Persephone came to be
      associated with the ideas of death and resurrection.

_  309 Homeric Hymn to Demeter_, 480 _sqq._; Pindar, quoted by Clement of
      Alexandria, _Strom._ iii. 3. 17, p. 518, ed. Potter; Sophocles,
      quoted by Plutarch, _De audiendis poetis_, 4; Isocrates,
      _Panegyricus_, 6; Cicero, _De legibus_, ii. 14. 36; Aristides,
      _Eleusin._ vol. i. p. 421, ed. G. Dindorf.

  310 A learned German professor has thought it worth while to break the
      poor butterfly argument on the wheel of his inflexible logic. The
      cruel act, while it proves the hardness of the professor’s head,
      says little for his knowledge of human nature, which does not always
      act in strict accordance with the impulse of the syllogistic
      machinery. See Erwin Rohde, _Psyche_3 (Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903),
      i. 290 _sqq._

  311 1 Corinthians xv. 35 _sqq._

  M67 Games played as magical ceremonies to promote the growth of the
      crops. The Kayans of central Borneo, a primitive agricultural
      people. The sacred rice-fields (_luma lali_) on which all religious
      ceremonies requisite for agriculture are performed.

  312 See above, p. 71, with the footnote 5.

  313 See above, pp. 74 _sqq._

  314 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_ (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 156
      _sq._

  M68 Ceremonies observed at the sowing festival. Taboos observed at the
      sowing festival.

  315 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._ i. 164.

  316 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, i. 164-167.

  317 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._ i. 163. The motive assigned for the
      exclusion of strangers at the sowing festival applies equally to all
      religious rites. “In all religious observances,” says Dr.
      Nieuwenhuis, “the Kayans fear the presence of strangers, because
      these latter might frighten and annoy the spirits which are
      invoked.” On the periods of seclusion and quiet observed in
      connexion with agriculture by the Kayans of Sarawak, see W. H.
      Furness, _Home-life of Borneo Head-hunters_ (Philadelphia, 1902),
      pp. 160 _sqq._

  M69 Games played at the sowing festival. Masquerade at the sowing
      festival.

  318 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._ i. 167-169.

  M70 Rites at hoeing.

  319 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._ i. 169.

  M71 The Kayan New Year festival. Offerings and addresses to the spirits.
      Sacrifice of pigs.

  320 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, i. 171-182.

  M72 Dr. Nieuwenhuis on the games played by the Kayans in connexion with
      agriculture.

  321 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._ i. 169 _sq._

  M73 Serious religious or magical significance of the games.

  322 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._ i. 163 _sq._

  323 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, ii. 130 _sq._ The game as to
      the religious significance of which Dr. Nieuwenhuis has no doubt is
      the masquerade performed by the Kayans of the Mahakam river, where
      disguised men personate spirits and pretend to draw home the souls
      of the rice from the far countries to which they may have wandered.
      See below, pp. 186 _sq._

  M74 The Kai, an agricultural people of German New Guinea. Superstitious
      practices observed by the Kai for the good of the crops.

  324 Ch. Keysser, “Aus dem Leben der Kaileute,” in R. Neuhauss, _Deutsch
      Neu-Guinea_, iii. (Berlin, 1911) pp. 3, 9 _sq._, 12 _sq._

  325 Ch. Keysser, _op. cit._ pp. 123-125.

  M75 Games played by the Kai people to promote the growth of the yams and
      taro. Tales and legends told by the Kai to cause the fruits of the
      earth to thrive.

  326 Ch. Keysser, _op. cit._ iii. 125 _sq._

  327 Ch. Keysser, _op. cit._ iii. 161.

  M76 Thus among these New Guinea people games are played and stories told
      as charms to ensure good crops.

  328 On the principles of homoeopathic or imitative magic, see _The Magic
      Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 52 _sqq._ The Esquimaux play
      cat’s cradle as a charm to catch the sun in the meshes of the string
      and so prevent him from sinking below the horizon in winter. See
      _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 316 _sq._ Cat’s
      cradle is played as a game by savages in many parts of the world,
      including the Torres Straits Islands, the Andaman Islands, Africa,
      and America. See A. C. Haddon, _The Study of Man_ (London and New
      York, 1898), pp. 224-232; Miss Kathleen Haddon, _Cat’s Cradles from
      Many Lands_ (London, 1911). For example, the Indians of
      North-western Brazil play many games of cat’s cradle, each of which
      has its special name, such as the Bow, the Moon, the Pleiades, the
      Armadillo, the Spider, the Caterpillar, and the Guts of the Tapir.
      See Th. Koch-Grünberg, _Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern_ (Berlin,
      1909-1910), i. 120, 123, 252, 253, ii. 127, 131. Finding the game
      played as a magical rite to stay the sun or promote the growth of
      the crops among peoples so distant from each other as the Esquimaux
      and the natives of New Guinea, we may reasonably surmise that it has
      been put to similar uses by many other peoples, though civilised
      observers have commonly seen in it nothing more than a pastime.
      Probably many games have thus originated in magical rites. When
      their old serious meaning was forgotten, they continued to be
      practised simply for the amusement they afforded the players.
      Another such game seems to be the “Tug of War.” See _The Golden
      Bough_,2 iii. 95.

  329 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 318 _sqq._

  330 Stefan Lehner, "Bukaua," in R. Neuhauss, _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_, iii.
      (Berlin, 1911) pp. 478 _sq._

  M77 The Yabim of German New Guinea also tell tales on purpose to obtain
      abundant crops.

  331 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, p. 386.

  332 H. Zahn, “Die Jabim,” in R. Neuhauss, _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_, iii.
      (Berlin, 1911) p. 290.

  333 H. Zahn, _op. cit._ pp. 332 _sq._

  M78 Specimens of Yabim tales told as charms to procure a good harvest.
      Such tales may be called narrative spells.

  334 H. Zahn, _op. cit._ p. 333.

  335 Stefan Lehner, “Bukaua,” in R. Neuhauss, _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_, iii.
      (Berlin, 1911) p. 448.

  M79 Use of the bull-roarer to quicken the fruits of the earth.

  336 A. C. Haddon, in _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological
      Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 218, 219.
      Compare _id._, _Head-hunters, Black, White, and Brown_ (London,
      1901) p. 104.

  337 A. C. Haddon, in _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological
      Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 346 _sq._

  338 A. W. Howitt, “The Dieri and other kindred Tribes of Central
      Australia,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xx. (1891)
      p. 83; _id._, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_ (London,
      1904), p. 660. The first, I believe, to point out the fertilising
      power ascribed to the bull-roarer by some savages was Dr. A. C.
      Haddon. See his essay, “The Bull-roarer,” in _The Study of Man_
      (London and New York, 1898), pp. 277-327. In this work Dr. Haddon
      recognises the general principle of the possible derivation of many
      games from magical rites. As to the bull-roarer compare my paper “On
      some Ceremonies of the Central Australian Tribes,” in the _Report of
      the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science for the
      year 1900_ (Melbourne, 1901), pp. 313-322.

  M80 Swinging as an agricultural charm.

  339 J. G. Kohl, _Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen_ (Dresden and
      Leipsic, 1841), ii. 25.

  340 For the evidence see _The Dying God_, pp. 277-285.

  M81 Analogy of the Kayans of Borneo to the Greeks of Eleusis in the
      early time. The Sacred Ploughing at Eleusis.

  341 On the Kayan chiefs and their religious duties, see A. W.
      Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, i. 58-60.

  342 See above, p. 36.

  343 See above, p. 74.

  344 Plutarch, _Praecepta Conjugalia_, 42. Another of these Sacred
      Ploughings was performed at Scirum, and the third at the foot of the
      Acropolis at Athens; for in this passage of Plutarch we must, with
      the latest editor, read ὑπὸ πόλιν for the ὑπὸ πέλιν of the
      manuscripts.

  345 See above, pp. 50 _sqq._

_  346 Etymologicum Magnum_, _s.v._ Βουζυγία, p. 206, lines 47 _sqq._; Im.
      Bekker, _Anecdota Graeca_ (Berlin, 1814-1821), i. 221; Pliny, _Nat.
      Hist._ vii. 199; Hesychius, _s.v._ Βουζύγης; καθίστατο δὲ παρ᾽
      αὐτοῖς καὶ ὁ τοὺς ἱεροὺς ἀρότους ἐπιτελῶν Βουζύγης; _Paroemiographi
      Graeci_, ed. E. L. Leutsch und F. G. Schneidewin (Göttingen,
      1839-1851), i. 388, Βουζύγης; ἐπὶ τῶν πολλὰ ἀρωμένων. Ὁ γὰρ Βουζύγης
      Ἀθήνησιν ὁ τὸν ἱερὸν ἄροτον ἐπιτελῶν ... ἄλλα τε πολλὰ ἀρᾶται καὶ
      τοῖς μὴ κοινωνοῦσι κατὰ τὸν Βίον ὕδατος ἢ πυρὸς ἢ μὴ ὑποφαίνουσιν
      ὁδὸν πλανωμένοις; Scholiast on Sophocles, _Antigone_, 255, λόγος δὲ
      ὅτι Βουζύγης Ἀθήνησι κατηράσατο τοῖς περιορῶσιν ἄταφον σῶμα. The
      Sacred Ploughing at the foot of the Acropolis was specially called
      _bouzygios_ (Plutarch, _Praecepta Conjugalia_, 42). Compare J.
      Toepffer, _Attische Genealogie_ (Berlin, 1889) pp. 136 _sqq._

  347 Such Sabbaths are very commonly and very strictly observed in
      connexion with the crops by the agricultural hill tribes of Assam.
      The native name for such a Sabbath is _genna_. See T. C. Hodson,
      “The _Genna_ amongst the Tribes of Assam,” _Journal of the
      Anthropological Institute_, xxxvi. (1906) pp. 94 _sq._: “Communal
      tabus are observed by the whole village.... Those which are of
      regular occurrence are for the most part connected with the crops.
      Even where irrigated terraces are made, the rice plant is much
      affected by deficiencies of rain and excess of sun. Before the crop
      is sown, the village is tabu or _genna_. The gates are closed and
      the friend without has to stay outside, while the stranger that is
      within the gates remains till all is ended. The festival is marked
      among some tribes by an outburst of licentiousness, for, so long as
      the crops remain ungarnered, the slightest incontinence might ruin
      all. An omen of the prosperity of the crops is taken by a mock
      contest, the girls pulling against the men. In some villages the
      _gennas_ last for ten days, but the tenth day is the crowning day of
      all. The men cook, and eat apart from the women during this time,
      and the food tabus are strictly enforced. From the conclusion of the
      initial crop _genna_ to the commencement of the _genna_ which ushers
      in the harvest-time, all trade, all fishing, all hunting, all
      cutting grass and felling trees is forbidden. Those tribes which
      specialise in cloth-weaving, salt-making or pottery-making are
      forbidden the exercise of these minor but valuable industries. Drums
      and bugles are silent all the while.... Between the initial crop
      _genna_ and the harvest-home, some tribes interpose a _genna_ day
      which depends on the appearance of the first blade of rice. All
      celebrate the commencement of the gathering of the crops by a
      _genna_, which lasts at least two days. It is mainly a repetition of
      the initial _genna_ and, just as the first seed was sown by the
      _gennabura_, the religious head of the village, so he is obliged to
      cut the first ear of rice before any one else may begin.” On such
      occasions among the Kabuis, in spite of the licence accorded to the
      people generally, the strictest chastity is required of the
      religious head of the village who initiates the sowing and the
      reaping, and his diet is extremely limited; for example, he may not
      eat dogs or tomatoes. See T. C. Hodson, “The Native Tribes of
      Manipur,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxi. (1901)
      pp. 306 _sq._; and for more details, _id._, _The Naga Tribes of
      Manipur_ (London, 1911), pp. 168 _sqq._ The resemblance of some of
      these customs to those of the Kayans of Borneo is obvious. We may
      conjecture that the “tug of war” which takes place between the sexes
      on several of these Sabbaths was originally a magical ceremony to
      ensure good crops rather than merely a mode of divination to
      forecast the coming harvest. Magic regularly dwindles into
      divination before it degenerates into a simple game. At one of these
      taboo periods the men set up an effigy of a man and throw pointed
      bamboos at it. He who hits the figure in the head will kill an
      enemy; he who hits it in the belly will have plenty of food. See T.
      C. Hodson, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxvi.
      (1906) p. 95; _id._, _The Naga Tribes of Manipur_, p. 171. Here also
      we probably have an old magical ceremony passing through a phase of
      divination before it reaches the last stage of decay. On Sabbaths
      observed in connexion with agriculture in Borneo and Assam, see
      further Hutton Webster, _Rest Days, a Sociological Study_, pp. 11
      _sqq._ (_University Studies_, Lincoln, Nebraska, vol. xi. Nos. 1-2,
      January-April, 1911).

  M82 The connexion of the Eleusinian games with agriculture, attested by
      the ancients, is confirmed by modern savage analogies.

  348 See above, p. 71.

  349 See above, p. 71 note 5.

  350 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 137-139.

  351 See the old Greek scholiast on Clement of Alexandria, quoted by Chr.
      Aug. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_ (Königsberg, 1829), p. 700; Andrew Lang,
      _Custom and Myth_ (London, 1884), p. 39. It is true that the
      bull-roarer seems to have been associated with the rites of Dionysus
      rather than of Demeter; perhaps the sound of it was thought to
      mimick the bellowing of the god in his character of a bull. But the
      worship of Dionysus was from an early time associated with that of
      Demeter in the Eleusinian mysteries; and the god himself, as we have
      seen, had agricultural affinities. See above, p. 5. An annual
      festival of swinging (which, as we have seen, is still practised
      both in New Guinea and Russia for the good of the crops) was held by
      the Athenians in antiquity and was believed to have originated in
      the worship of Dionysus. See _The Dying God_, pp. 281 _sq._

  M83 The sacred drama of the Eleusinian mysteries compared to the masked
      dances of agricultural savages.

  352 See above, pp. 95 _sq._, and below, pp. 186 _sq._

  353 See above, p. 39.

  354 Th. Koch-Grünberg, _Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern_ (Berlin,
      1909-1910), i. 137-140, ii. 193-196. As to the cultivation of manioc
      among these Indians see _id._ ii. 202 _sqq._

  M84 Theory that the personification of corn as feminine was suggested by
      the part played by women in primitive agriculture.

  355 F. B. Jevons, _Introduction to the History of Religion_ (London,
      1896), p. 240; H. Hirt, _Die Indogermanen_ (Strasburg, 1905-1907),
      i. 251 _sqq._

  M85 Among many savage tribes the labour of hoeing the ground and sowing
      the seed devolves on women. Agricultural work done by women among
      the Zulus and other tribes of South Africa.

  356 Rev. J. Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country_ (London,
      1857), pp. 17 _sq._ Speaking of the Zulus another writer observes:
      “In gardening, the men clear the land, if need be, and sometimes
      fence it in; the women plant, weed, and harvest” (Rev. L. Grout,
      _Zulu-land_, Philadelphia, N.D., p. 110).

  357 A. Delegorgue, _Voyage dans l’Afrique Australe_ (Paris, 1847), ii.
      225.

  358 H. A. Junod, _Les Ba-Ronga_ (Neuchatel, 1908), pp. 195 _sq._

  359 L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), p. 85.

  360 L. Decle, _op. cit._ p. 160.

  361 C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern
      Rhodesia_ (London, 1911), p. 302.

  M86 Chastity required in the sowers of seed.

  362 L. Decle, _op. cit._ p. 295.

  363 C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern Nigeria_
      (London, 1911), p. 179.

  364 Rev. J. H. Weeks, “Notes on some Customs of the Lower Congo People,”
      _Folk-lore_, xx. (1909) p. 311.

  365 In order to guard against any breach of the rule they strewed _Agnus
      castus_ and other plants, which were esteemed anaphrodisiacs, under
      their beds. See Dioscorides, _De Materia Medica_, i. 134 (135), vol.
      i. p. 130, ed. C. Sprengel (Leipsic, 1829-1830); Pliny, _Nat. Hist._
      xxiv. 59; Aelian, _De Natura Animalium_, ix. 26; Hesychius, _s.v._
      κνέωρον; Scholiast on Theocritus, iv. 25; Scholiast on Nicander,
      _Ther._ 70 _sq._

  366 Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Thesmophor._ 80; Plutarch,
      _Demosthenes_, 30; Aug. Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum_
      (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 310 _sq._ That Pyanepsion was the month of
      sowing is mentioned by Plutarch (_Isis et Osiris_, 69). See above,
      pp. 45 _sq._

  367 See below, vol. ii. p. 17 _sq._

  M87 Woman’s part in agriculture among the Caffres of South Africa in
      general.

  368 Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kaffir_ (London, 1904), p. 323. Compare
      B. Ankermann, “L’Ethnographie actuelle de l’Afrique méridionale,”
      _Anthropos_, i. (1906) pp. 575 _sq._ As to the use of the Pleiades
      to determine the time of sowing, see note at the end of the volume,
      “The Pleiades in Primitive Calendars.”

  369 Rev. E. Casalis, _The Basutos_ (London, 1861), pp. 143 (with plate),
      pp. 162-165.

  M88 Agricultural work done by women among the Nandi, Baganda, the Congo,
      and other tribes of Central and Western Africa.

  370 A. C. Hollis, _The Nandi_ (Oxford, 1909), p. 19. However, among the
      Bantu Kavirondo, an essentially agricultural people of British East
      Africa, both men and women work in the fields with large iron hoes.
      See Sir Harry Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_ (London, 1904),
      ii. 738.

  371 M. W. H. Beech, _The Suk_ (Oxford, 1911), p. 33.

  372 F. Stuhlmann, _Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika_ (Berlin, 1894),
      p. 36.

  373 F. Stuhlmann, _op. cit._ p. 75.

  374 Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 426, 427; compare
      pp. 5, 38, 91 _sq._, 93, 94, 95, 268.

  375 H. Rehse, _Kiziba, Land und Leute_ (Stuttgart, 1910), p. 53.

  376 G. Schweinfurth, _The Heart of Africa_3 (London, 1878), i. 281.

  377 G. Schweinfurth, _op. cit._ ii. 40.

  378 Rev. J. H. Weeks, “Anthropological Notes on the Bangala of the Upper
      Congo River,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_,
      xxxix. (1909) pp. 117, 128.

  379 E. Torday, “Der Tofoke,” _Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen
      Gesellschaft in Wien_, xli. (1911) p. 198.

  380 E. Torday and T. A. Joyce, “Notes on the Ethnography of the
      Ba-Mbala,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxv. (1905)
      p. 405.

  381 P. B. du Chaillu, _Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa_
      (London, 1861), p. 22.

  382 P. B. du Chaillu, _op. cit._ p. 417.

  M89 Agricultural work done by women among the Indian tribes of South
      America.

  383 A. D’Orbigny, _L’Homme Américain (de l’Amérique Méridionale)_
      (Paris, 1839), i. 198 _sq._

  384 Le Sieur de la Borde, “Relation de l’Origine, Mœurs, Coustumes,
      Religion, Guerres et Voyages des Caraibes Sauvages des Isles
      Antilles de l’Amerique,” pp. 21-23, in _Recueil de divers Voyages
      faits en Afrique et en l’Amerique_ (Paris, 1684).

  385 E. F. im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_ (London, 1883), pp.
      250 _sqq._, 260 _sqq._

  M90 Cultivation of manioc by women among the Indian tribes of tropical
      South America.

  386 C. F. Phil. v. Martius, _Zur Ethnographie Amerika’s, zumal
      Brasiliens_ (Leipsic, 1867), pp. 486-489. On the economic importance
      of the manioc or cassava plant in the life of the South American
      Indians, see further E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called
      America_, i. (Oxford, 1892) pp. 310 _sqq._, 312 _sq._

  387 A. R. Wallace, _Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro_
      (London, 1889), pp. 336, 337 (_The Minerva Library_). Mr. Wallace’s
      account of the agriculture of these tribes is entirely confirmed by
      the observations of a recent explorer in north-western Brazil. See
      Th. Koch-Grünberg, _Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern_ (Berlin,
      1909-1910), ii. 202-209; _id._, “Frauenarbeit bei den Indianern
      Nordwest-Brasiliens,” _Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen
      Gesellschaft in Wien_, xxxviii. (1908) pp. 172-174. This writer
      tells us (_Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern_, ii. 203) that these
      Indians determine the time for planting by observing certain
      constellations, especially the Pleiades. The rainy season begins
      when the Pleiades have disappeared below the horizon. See Note at
      end of the volume.

  388 R. Southey, _History of Brazil_, vol. i. Second Edition (London,
      1822), p. 253.

  389 J. B. von Spix und C. F. Ph. von Martius, _Reise in Brasilien_
      (Munich, 1823-1831), i. 381.

  390 K. von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_
      (Berlin, 1894), p. 214.

  391 J. J. von Tschudi, _Peru_ (St. Gallen, 1846), ii. 214.

  M91 Agricultural work done by women among savage tribes in India, New
      Guinea, and New Britain.

  392 Captain T. H. Lewin, _Wild Races of South-Eastern India_ (London,
      1870), p. 255.

  393 E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_ (Calcutta, 1872), p.
      33.

  394 E. T. Dalton, _op. cit._ pp. 226, 227.

_  395 Nieuw Guinea, ethnographisch en natuurkundig onderzocht en
      beschreven_ (Amsterdam, 1862), p. 159.

_  396 Op. cit._ p. 119; H. von Rosenberg, _Der Malayische Archipel_
      (Leipsic, 1878), p. 433.

  397 P. A. Kleintitschen, _Die Küstenbewohner der Gazellehalbinsel_
      (Hiltrup bei Münster, preface dated Christmas, 1906), pp. 60 _sq._;
      G. Brown, D.D., _Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London, 1910), pp.
      324 _sq._

  M92 Division of agricultural work between men and women in the Indian
      Archipelago.

  398 A. C. Kruijt, “Een en ander aangaande het geestelijk en
      maatschappelijk leven van den Poso-Alfoer,” _Mededeelingen van wege
      het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, xxxix. (1895) pp. 132, 134;
      J. Boot, “Korte schets der noordkust van Ceram,” _Tijdschrift van
      het Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_, Tweede Serie, x.
      (1893) p. 672; E. H. Gomes, _Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of
      Borneo_ (London, 1911), p. 46; E. Modigliani, _Un Viaggio a Nías_
      (Milan, 1890), pp. 590 _sq._; K. Vetter, _Komm herüber und hilf
      uns!_ Heft 2 (Barmen, 1898), pp. 6 _sq._; Ch. Keysser, “Aus dem
      Leben der Kaileute,” in R. Neuhauss, _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_, iii.
      (Berlin, 1911) pp. 14, 85.

  399 J. Gumilla, _Histoire Naturelle, Civile et Géographique de
      l’Orénoque_ (Avignon, 1758), ii. 166 _sqq._, 183 _sqq._ Compare _The
      Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 139 _sqq._

  M93 Among savages who have not learned to till the ground the task of
      collecting the vegetable food in the form of wild seeds and roots
      generally devolves on women. Examples furnished by the Californian
      Indians.

  400 S. Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Washington, 1877), p. 23.

  401 Father Geronimo Boscana, “Chinigchinich,” in [A. Robinson’s] _Life
      in California_ (New York, 1846), p. 287. Elsewhere the same
      well-informed writer observes of these Indians that “they neither
      cultivated the ground, nor planted any kind of grain; but lived upon
      the wild seeds of the field, the fruits of the forest, and upon the
      abundance of game” (_op. cit._ p. 285).

  402 Father Geronimo Boscana, _op. cit._ pp. 302-305. As to the _puplem_,
      see _id._ p. 264. The writer says that criers informed the people
      “when to cultivate their fields” (p. 302). But taken along with his
      express statement that they “neither cultivated the ground, nor
      planted any kind of grain” (p. 285, see above, p. 125 note 2), this
      expression “to cultivate their fields” must be understood loosely to
      denote merely the gathering of the wild seeds and fruits.

  403 See above, pp. 81 _sq._

  M94 Among the aborigines of Australia the women provided the vegetable
      food, while the men hunted.

  404 H. E. A. Meyer, “Manners and Customs of the Encounter Bay Tribe,” in
      _Native Tribes of South Australia_ (Adelaide, 1879), pp. 191 _sq._

  405 (Sir) George Grey, _Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in
      North-West and Western Australia_ (London, 1841), ii. 292 _sq._ The
      women also collect the nuts from the palms in the month of March
      (_id._ ii. 296).

  406 (Sir) George Grey, _op. cit._ ii. 12. The yam referred to is a
      species of _Diascorea_, like the sweet potato.

  407 R. Brough Smyth, _The Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne, 1878), i.
      209.

  408 P. Beveridge, “Of the Aborigines inhabiting the Great Lacustrine and
      Riverine Depression of the Lower Murray, Lower Murrumbidgee, Lower
      Lachlan, and Lower Darling,” _Journal and Proceedings of the Royal
      Society of New South Wales for 1883_, vol. xvii. (Sydney, 1884) p.
      36.

  409 R. Brough Smyth, _The Aborigines of Victoria_, i. 214.

  410 W. Stanbridge, “Some Particulars of the General Characteristics,
      Astronomy, and Mythology of the Tribes in the Central Part of
      Victoria, South Australia,” _Transactions of the Ethnological
      Society of London_, N.S., i. (1861) p. 291.

  411 Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central
      Australia_ (London, 1899), p. 22.

  M95 The digging of the earth for wild fruits may have led to the origin
      of agriculture.
  M96 The discovery of agriculture due mainly to women.
  M97 Women as agricultural labourers among the Aryans of Europe. The
      Greek conception of the Corn Goddess probably originated in a simple
      personification of the corn.

  412 O. Schrader, _Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_
      (Strasburg, 1901), pp. 6 _sqq._, 630 _sqq._; _id._,
      _Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte_3 (Jena, 1905-1907), ii. 201
      _sqq._; H. Hirt, _Die Indogermanen_, i. 251 _sqq._, 263, 274. The
      use of oxen to draw the plough is very ancient in Europe. On the
      rocks at Bohuslän in Sweden there is carved a rude representation of
      a plough drawn by oxen and guided by a ploughman: it is believed to
      date from the Bronze Age. See H. Hirt, _op. cit._ i. 286.

  413 Strabo, iii. 4. 17, p. 165; Heraclides Ponticus, “De rebus
      publicis,” 33, in _Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller,
      ii. 219.

  414 Tacitus, _Germania_, 15.

  415 J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (Berlin, 1906), p. 313.

  416 (Sir) G. Grey, _Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in
      North-west and Western Australia_ (London, 1841), ii. 292.

  M98 Suggested derivation of the name Demeter.

  417 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_ (Strasburg, 1884), pp. 292
      _sqq._ See above, p. 40, note 3.

  418 O. Schrader, _Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_
      (Strasburg, 1901), pp. 11, 289; _id._, _Sprachvergleichung und
      Urgeschichte_2 (Jena, 1890), pp. 409, 422; _id._,
      _Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte_3 (Jena, 1905-1907), ii. 188
      _sq._ Compare V. Hehn, _Kulturpflanzen und Hausthiere in ihrem
      Uebergang aus Asien_7 (Berlin, 1902), pp. 58 _sq._

  419 Hesiod, _Theog._ 969 _sqq._; F. Lenormant, in Daremberg et Saglio,
      _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_, i. 2, p. 1029;
      Kern, in Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen
      Altertumswissenschaft_, iv. 2, coll. 2720 _sq._

  420 My friend Professor J. H. Moulton tells me that there is great doubt
      as to the existence of a word δηαί, “barley” (_Etymologicum Magnum_,
      p. 264, lines 12 _sq._), and that the common form of Demeter’s name,
      _Dâmâter_ (except in Ionic and Attic) is inconsistent with η in the
      supposed Cretan form. “Finally if δηαί = ζειαί, you are bound to
      regard her as a Cretan goddess, or as arising in some other area
      where the dialect changed Indogermanic _y_ into δ and not ζ: since
      Ionic and Attic have ζ, the two crucial letters of the name tell
      different tales” (Professor J. H. Moulton, in a letter to me, dated
      19 December 1903).

  421 A. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks_2
      (Gütersloh, 1886), pp. 68 _sq._; O. Schrader, _Reallexikon der
      indogermanischen Altertumskunde_, pp. 11, 12, 289; _id._,
      _Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte_,3 ii. 189, 191, 197 _sq._; H.
      Hirt, _Die Indogermanen_ (Strasburg, 1905-1907), i. 276 _sqq._ In
      the oldest Vedic ritual barley and not rice is the cereal chiefly
      employed. See H. Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_ (Berlin, 1894),
      p. 353. For evidence that barley was cultivated in Europe by the
      lake-dwellers of the Stone Age, see A. de Candolle, _Origin of
      Cultivated Plants_ (London, 1884), pp. 368, 369; R. Munro, _The
      Lake-dwellings of Europe_ (London, Paris, and Melbourne, 1890), pp.
      497 _sq._ According to Pliny (_Nat. Hist._ xviii. 72) barley was the
      oldest of all foods.

  M99 The Corn-mother among the Germans and the Slavs.

  422 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_ (Strasburg, 1884), p. 296.
      Compare O. Hartung, “Zur Volkskunde aus Anhalt,” _Zeitschrift des
      Vereins für Volkskunde_, vii. (1897) p. 150.

  423 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_ (Strasburg, 1884), p. 297.

_  424 Ibid._ pp. 297 _sq._

_  425 Ibid._ p. 299. Compare R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_
      (Brunswick, 1896), p. 281.

  426 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 300.

  427 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 310.

_  428 Ibid._ pp. 310 _sq._ Compare O. Hartung, _l.c._

 M100 The Corn-mother in the last sheaf. Fertilising power of the
      Corn-mother. The Corn-mother in the last sheaf among the Slavs and
      in France.

  429 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 316.

_  430 Ibid._ p. 316.

_  431 Ibid._ pp. 316 _sq._

_  432 Ibid._ p. 317. As to such rain-charms see _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,
      Second Edition, pp. 195-197.

  433 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 317.

_  434 Ibid._ pp. 317 _sq._

_  435 Ibid._ p. 318.

_  436 Ibid._

  437 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 318 _sq._

  438 P. Sébillot, _Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris,
      1886), p. 306.

 M101 The Harvest-mother or the Great Mother in the last sheaf.

  439 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 319.

 M102 The Grandmother in the last sheaf.

  440 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 320.

_  441 Ibid._ p. 321.

 M103 The Old Woman or the Old Man in the last sheaf.

_  442 Ibid._ pp. 321, 323, 325 _sq._

_  443 Ibid._ p. 323; F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_
      (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. p. 219, § 403.

  444 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 325.

_  445 Ibid._ p. 323.

_  446 Ibid._

  447 A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_
      (Leipsic, 1848), pp. 396 _sq._, 399; K. Bartsch, _Sagen, Märchen und
      Gebräuche aus Meklenburg_ (Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 309, § 1494.

  448 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 323 _sq._

  449 H. Prahn, “Glaube und Brauch in der Mark Brandenburg,” _Zeitschrift
      des Vereins für Volkskunde_, i. (1891) pp. 186 _sq._

  450 K. Haupt, _Sagenbuch der Lausitz_ (Leipsic, 1862-1863), i. p. 233,
      No. 277 note.

 M104 The Old Man or the Old Woman in the last sheaf.

  451 R. Krause, _Sitten, Gebräuche und Aberglauben in Westpreussen_
      (Berlin, preface dated March 1904), p. 51.

  452 P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_ (Leipsic,
      1903-1906), ii. 65 _sqq._

  453 A. John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen_
      (Prague, 1905), p. 189.

  454 A. Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen_ (Leipsic,
      1859), ii. 184, §§ 512 b, 514.

  455 W. von Schulenburg, _Wendisches Volksthum_ (Berlin, 1882), p. 147.

  456 A. Jaussen, _Coutumes des Arabes au pays de Moab_ (Paris, 1908), pp.
      252 _sq._

 M105 Identification of the harvester with the corn-spirit.

  457 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 324.

_  458 Ibid._ p. 320.

  459 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 325.

  460 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 74 _sqq._

 M106 The last sheaf made unusually large and heavy.

  461 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 324.

_  462 Ibid._ pp. 324 _sq._

_  463 Ibid._ p. 325. The author of _Die gestriegelte Rockenphilosophie_
      (Chemnitz, 1759) mentions (p. 891) the German superstition that the
      last sheaf should be made large in order that all the sheaves next
      year may be of the same size; but he says nothing as to the shape or
      name of the sheaf. Compare A. John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube
      im deutschen Westböhmen_ (Prague, 1905), p. 188.

  464 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 327.

_  465 Ibid._ p. 328.

 M107 The Carlin and the Maiden in Scotland. The Old Wife (_Cailleach_) at
      harvest in the Highlands of Scotland.

  466 J. Jamieson, _Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, New Edition
      (Paisley, 1879-1882), iii. 206, _s.v._ “Maiden”; W. Mannhardt,
      _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 326.

  467 That is, with the reaping.

  468 Rev. J. G. Campbell, _Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of
      Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1900), pp. 243 _sq._

 M108 The Old Wife (_Cailleach_) in the last sheaf at harvest in the
      islands of Lewis and Islay. The Old Wife at harvest in Argyleshire.
      The reaper of the last sheaf called the Winter.

  469 R. C. Maclagan, “Notes on folk-lore objects collected in
      Argyleshire,” _Folk-lore_, vi. (1895) pp. 149 _sq._

  470 R. C. Maclagan, _op. cit._ p. 151.

  471 R. C. Maclagan, _op. cit._ p. 149.

_  472 Ibid._ pp. 151 _sq._

  473 Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of
      Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 182.

  474 Rev. J. Macdonald, _Religion and Myth_ (London, 1893), p. 141.

 M109 The Hag (_wrach_) at harvest in North Pembrokeshire.
 M110 The Hag (_wrach_) at harvest in South Pembrokeshire. The Carley at
      harvest in Antrim.

  475 D. Jenkyn Evans, in an article entitled “The Harvest Customs of
      Pembrokeshire,” _Pembroke County Guardian_, 7th December 1895. In a
      letter to me, dated 23 February 1901, Mr. E. S. Hartland was so good
      as to correct the Welsh words in the text. He tells me that they
      mean literally, “I rose early, I pursued late on her neck,” and he
      adds: “The idea seems to be that the man has pursued the Hag or
      Corn-spirit to a later refuge, namely, his neighbour’s field not yet
      completely reaped, and now he leaves her for the other reapers to
      catch. The proper form of the Welsh word for Hag is _Gwrach_. That
      is the radical from _gwr_, man; _gwraig_, woman. _Wrach_ is the
      ‘middle mutation.’ ”

  476 M. S. Clark, “An old South Pembrokeshire Harvest Custom,”
      _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp. 194-196.

  477 Communicated by my friend Professor W. Ridgeway.

 M111 The Old Woman (the Baba) at harvest among Slavonic peoples.

  478 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 328.

  479 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 238.

_  480 Ibid._ pp. 328 _sq._

_  481 Ibid._ p. 329.

_  482 Ibid._ p. 330.

 M112 The Old Woman (the Baba) at harvest in Lithuania.

_  483 Ibid._

  484 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 331.

_  485 Ibid._

 M113 The Corn-queen and the Harvest-queen.

_  486 Ibid._ p. 332.

  487 Th. Vernaleken, _Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_
      (Vienna, 1859), p. 310.

  488 Hutchinson, _History of Northumberland_, ii. _ad finem_, 17, quoted
      by J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_, ii. 20, Bohn’s
      edition.

  489 E. D. Clarke, _Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia, and
      Africa_, Part ii., Section First, Second Edition (London, 1813), p.
      229. Perhaps _Morgay_ (which Clarke absurdly explains as μητὴρ γῆ)
      is a mistake for _Hawkie_ or _Hockey_. The waggon in which the last
      corn was brought from the harvest field was called the _hockey_ cart
      or _hock_ cart. In a poem called “The Hock-cart or Harvest Home”
      Herrick has described the joyous return of the laden cart drawn by
      horses swathed in white sheets and attended by a merry crowd, some
      of whom kissed or stroked the sheaves, while others pranked them
      with oak leaves. See further J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 22
      _sq._, Bohn’s edition. The name _Hockey_ or _Hawkie_ is no doubt the
      same with the German _hokelmei_, _hörkelmei_, or _harkelmei_, which
      in Westphalia is applied to a green bush or tree set up in the field
      at the end of harvest and brought home in the last waggon-load; the
      man who carries it into the farmhouse is sometimes drenched with
      water. See A. Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen_
      (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 178-180, §§ 494-497. The word is thought to be
      derived from the Low German _hokk_ (plural _hokken_), “a heap of
      sheaves.” See Joseph Wright, _English Dialect Dictionary_, iii.
      (London, 1902) p. 190, _s.v._ “Hockey,” from which it appears that
      in England the word has been in use in Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire,
      and Suffolk.

  490 Book ix. lines 838-842.

 M114 The corn-spirit as the Old Woman or Old Man at threshing.

  491 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 333 _sq._

_  492 Ibid._ p. 334.

  493 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 334.

_  494 Ibid._ p. 336.

 M115 The man who gives the last stroke at threshing is called the
      Corn-fool, the Oats-fool, etc.

  495 A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_
      (Leipsic, 1848), p. 397.

  496 A. Peter, _Volksthümliches aus Österreichisch-Schlesien_ (Troppau,
      1865-1867), ii. 270.

 M116 The man who gives the last stroke at threshing is said to get the
      Old Woman or the Old Man. The Corn-woman at threshing.

_  497 Bavaria Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, iii.
      (Munich, 1865) pp. 344, 969.

  498 P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_ (Leipsic,
      1903-1906), ii. 67.

  499 A. John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in deutschen Westböhmen_
      (Prague, 1905), pp. 193, 194, 197.

  500 R. Wuttke, _Sächsische Volkskunde_ (Dresden, 1901), p. 360.

  501 W. Mannhardt. _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 336.

_  502 Ibid._ p. 336; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 612.

  503 A. John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen_
      (Prague, 1905), p. 194.

  504 E. H. Meyer, _Badisches Volksleben_ (Strasburg, 1900), p. 437.

 M117 The corn-spirit as a child at harvest.

  505 A. Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen_ (Leipsic,
      1859), ii. 184 _sq._, § 515.

  506 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_ (Berlin, 1868), p. 28.

  507 W. Mannhardt, _l.c._

  508 W. Mannhardt, _l.c._

 M118 The last corn cut called the _mell_, the _kirn_, or the _churn_ in
      various parts of England. The _churn_ cut by throwing sickles at it.

  509 Joseph Wright, _English Dialect Dictionary_, vol. i. (London, 1898)
      p. 605 _s.v._ “Churn”; _id._, vol. iii. (London, 1902) p. 453 _s.v._
      “Kirn”; _id._ vol. iv. (London, 1903) pp. 82 _sq._ Sir James Murray,
      editor of the _New English Dictionary_, kindly informs me that the
      popular etymology which identifies _kern_ or _kirn_ in this sense
      with _corn_ is entirely mistaken; and that “baby” or “babbie” in the
      same phrase means only “doll,” not “infant.” He writes,
      “_Kirn-babbie_ does not mean ‘corn-baby,’ but merely _kirn-doll_,
      _harvest-home doll_. _Bab_, _babbie_ was even in my youth the
      regular name for ‘doll’ in the district, as it was formerly in
      England; the only woman who sold dolls in Hawick early in the
      [nineteenth] century, and whose toy-shop all bairns knew, was known
      as ‘Betty o’ the Babs,’ Betty of the dolls.”

  510 W. Henderson, _Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England_
      (London, 1879), pp. 88 _sq._; M. C. F. Morris, _Yorkshire
      Folk-talk_, pp. 212-214. Compare F. Grose, _Provincial Glossary_
      (London, 1811), _s.v._ “Mell-supper”; J. Brand, _Popular
      Antiquities_, ii. 27 _sqq._, Bohn’s edition; _The Denham Tracts_,
      edited by Dr. James Hardy (London, 1892-1895), ii. 2 _sq._ The sheaf
      out of which the Mell-doll was made was no doubt the Mell-sheaf,
      though this is not expressly said. Dr. Joseph Wright, editor of _The
      English Dialect Dictionary_, kindly informs me that the word _mell_
      is well known in these senses in all the northern counties of
      England down to Cheshire. He tells me that the proposals to connect
      _mell_ with “meal” or with “maiden” (through a form like the German
      _Mädel_) are inadmissible.

  511 Joseph Wright, _The English Dialect Dictionary_, vol. iv. (London,
      1903) _s.v._ “Mell,” p. 83.

  512 R. Chambers, _The Book of Days_ (Edinburgh, 1886), ii. 377 _sq._ The
      expression “Corn Baby” used by the writer is probably his
      interpretation of the correct expression _kirn_ or _kern_ baby. See
      above, p. 151, note 3. It is not clear whether the account refers to
      England or Scotland. Compare F. Grose, _Provincial Glossary_ (London
      1811), _s.v._ “Kern-baby,” “an image dressed up with corn, carried
      before the reapers to their mell-supper, or harvest-home”; J. Brand,
      _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 20; W. Henderson, _Folk-lore of the
      Northern Counties of England_, p. 87.

  513 Joseph Wright, _The English Dialect Dictionary_, iii. (London, 1902)
      _s.v._ “Kirn,” p. 453.

  514 Joseph Wright, _The English Dialect Dictionary_, i. (London, 1898)
      p. 605.

  515 J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 21 _sq._

 M119 The last corn cut called the _kirn_ in some parts of Scotland. The
      _kirn_ cut by reapers blindfold.

  516 J. Jamieson, _Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, New
      Edition (Paisley, 1879-1882), iii. 42 _sq._, _s.v._ “Kirn.”

  517 Mrs. A. B. Gomme, “A Berwickshire Kirn-dolly,” _Folk-lore_, xii.
      (1901) p. 215.

  518 Mrs. A. B. Gomme, “Harvest Customs,” _Folk-lore_, xiii. (1902) p.
      178.

  519 J. G. Frazer, “Notes on Harvest Customs,” _Folk-lore_, vii. (1889)
      p. 48.

 M120 The _churn_ in Ireland cut by throwing the sickles at it.

  520 (Rev.) H. W. Lett, “Winning the Churn (Ulster),” _Folk-lore_, xvi.
      (1905) p. 185. My friend Miss Welsh, formerly Principal of Girton
      College, Cambridge, told me (30th May 1901) that she remembers the
      custom of the _churn_ being observed in the north of Ireland; the
      reapers cut the last handful of standing corn (called the _churn_)
      by throwing their sickles at it, and the corn so cut was taken home
      and kept for some time.

 M121 The last corn cut called the Maiden in the Highlands of Scotland.

  521 J. Jamieson, _Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, New Edition
      (Paisley, 1879-1882), iii. 206, _s.v._ “Maiden.” An old Scottish
      name for the Maiden (_autumnalis nymphula_) was _Rapegyrne_. See
      Fordun, _Scotichren_. ii. 418, quoted by J. Jamieson, _op. cit._
      iii. 624, _s.v._ “Rapegyrne.”

  522 R. C. Maclagan, in _Folk-lore_, vi. (1895) pp. 149, 151.

 M122 The cutting of the Maiden at harvest in Argyleshire.

  523 Rev. M. MacPhail (Free Church Manse, Kilmartin, Lochgilphead),
      “Folk-lore from the Hebrides,” _Folk-lore_, xi. (1900) p. 441. That
      the Maiden, hung up in the house, is thought to keep out witches
      till the next harvest is mentioned also by the Rev. J. G. Campbell,
      _Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow,
      1900), p. 20. So with the _churn_ (above, p. 153).

 M123 The cutting of the Maiden at harvest in Perthshire.

  524 Sir John Sinclair, _Statistical Account of Scotland_, xix.
      (Edinburgh, 1797), pp. 550 _sq._ Compare Miss E. J. Guthrie, _Old
      Scottish Customs_ (London and Glasgow, 1885), pp. 130 _sq._

_  525 Folk-lore Journal_, vi. (1888) pp. 268 _sq._

  526 The late Mrs. Macalister, wife of Professor Alexander Macalister,
      Cambridge. Her recollections referred especially to the
      neighbourhood of Glen Farg, some ten or twelve miles to the south of
      Perth.

 M124 The Maiden at harvest in Lochaber. The cutting of the Maiden at
      harvest on the Gareloch in Dumbartonshire.

  527 Rev. James Macdonald, _Religion and Myth_ (London, 1893), pp. 141
      _sq._

  528 From information supplied by Archie Leitch, late gardener to my
      father at Rowmore, Garelochhead. The Kirn was the name of the
      harvest festivity in the south of Scotland also. See Lockhart’s
      _Life of Scott_, ii. 184 (first edition); _Early Letters of Thomas
      Carlyle_, ed. Norton, ii. 325 _sq._

  529 Communicated by the late Mr. Macfarlane of Faslane, Gareloch.

 M125 The cutting of the _clyack_ sheaf at harvest in Aberdeenshire.
 M126 The _clyack_ sheaf cut by the youngest girl and not allowed to touch
      the ground.

  530 A slightly different mode of making up the _clyack_ sheaf is
      described by the Rev. Walter Gregor elsewhere (_Notes on the
      Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland_, London, 1881, pp. 181
      sq.): “The _clyack_ sheaf was cut by the maidens on the harvest
      field. On no account was it allowed to touch the ground. One of the
      maidens seated herself on the ground, and over her knees was the
      band of the sheaf laid. Each of the maidens cut a handful, or more
      if necessary, and laid it on the band. The sheaf was then bound,
      still lying over the maiden’s knees, and dressed up in woman’s
      clothing.”

 M127 The _clyack_ feast or “meal and ale.”
 M128 The _clyack_ sheaf in the dance.
 M129 The _clyack_ sheaf given to a mare in foal or to a cow in calf.

  531 W. Gregor, “Quelques coutumes du Nord-est du Comté d’Aberdeen,”
      _Revue des Traditions populaires_, iii. (October, 1888) pp. 484-487
      (wrong pagination; should be 532-535). This account, translated into
      French by M. Loys Brueyre from the author’s English and translated
      by me back from French into English, is fuller than the account
      given by the same writer in his _Notes on the Folk-lore of the
      North-east of Scotland_ (London, 1881), pp. 181-183. I have
      translated “_une jument ayant son poulain_” by “a mare in foal,” and
      “_la plus ancienne vache ayant son veau_” by “the oldest cow in
      calf,” because in the author’s _Notes on the Folk-lore of the
      North-east of Scotland_ (p. 182) we read that the last sheaf was
      “carefully preserved till Christmas or New Year morning. On that
      morning it was given to a mare in foal,” etc. Otherwise the French
      words might naturally be understood of a mare with its foal and a
      cow with its calf.

 M130 Sanctity attributed to the _clyack_ sheaf. The sacrament of
      barley-meal and water at Eleusis.

  532 See above, pp. 115 _sq._

  533 See below, vol. ii. p. 110.

  534 The drinking of the draught (called the κυκεών) as a solemn rite in
      the Eleusinian mysteries is mentioned by Clement of Alexandria
      (_Protrept._ 21, p. 18, ed. Potter) and Arnobius (_Adversus
      Nationes_, v. 26). The composition of the draught is revealed by the
      author of the Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_ (verses 206-211), where he
      represents Demeter herself partaking of the sacred cup. That the
      compound was a kind of thick gruel, half-solid, half-liquid, is
      mentioned by Eustathius (on Homer, _Iliad_, xi. 638, p. 870).
      Compare Miss J. E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek
      Religion_, Second Edition (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 155 _sqq._

  535 Rev. J. Macdonald, _Religion and Myth_ (London, 1893), pp. 140
      _sq._, from MS. notes of Miss J. Ligertwood.

_  536 Folk-lore Journal_, vii. (1889) p. 51; _The Quarterly Review_,
      clxxii. (1891) p. 195.

  537 As to Inverness-shire my old friend Mr. Hugh E. Cameron, formerly of
      Glen Moriston, Inverness-shire, wrote to me many years ago: “As a
      boy, I remember the last bit of corn cut was taken home, and neatly
      tied up with a ribbon, and then stuck up on the wall above the
      kitchen fire-place, and there it often remained till the ‘maiden’ of
      the following year took its place. There was no ceremony about it,
      beyond often a struggle as to who would get, or cut, the last sheaf
      to select the ‘maiden’ from” (_The Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 1889,
      pp. 50 _sq._). As to Sutherlandshire my mother was told by a
      servant, Isabella Ross, that in that county “they hang up the
      ‘maiden’ generally over the mantel-piece (chimney-piece) till the
      next harvest. They have always a kirn, whipped cream, with often a
      ring in it, and sometimes meal sprinkled over it. The girls must all
      be dressed in lilac prints, they all dance, and at twelve o’clock
      they eat potatoes and herrings” (_op. cit._ pp. 53 _sq._).

 M131 The corn-spirit as a bride.

  538 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_ (Berlin, 1868), p. 30.

  539 W. Müller, _Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren_ (Vienna
      and Olmütz, 1893), p. 327.

  540 J. E. Waldfreund, “Volksgebräuche und Aberglaube in Tirol und dem
      Salzburger Gebirg,” _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und
      Sittenkunde_, iii. (1855) p. 340.

  541 Th. Vernaleken, _Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_
      (Vienna, 1859), p. 310.

  542 Mr. R. Matheson, in _The Folk-lore Journal_, vii. (1889) pp. 49, 50.

 M132 The corn-spirit as Bride and Bridegroom.

  543 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_ (Berlin, 1868), p. 30.

  544 E. Sommer, _Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Sachsen und Thüringen_
      (Halle, 1846), pp. 160 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _l.c._

  545 W. Mannhardt, _l.c._; E. Peter, _Volksthümliches aus
      Österreichisch-Schlesien_ (Troppau, 1865-1867), ii. 269.

 M133 The corn-spirit in the double form of the Old Wife and the Maiden
      simultaneously at harvest in the Highlands of Scotland.

  546 Alexander Nicolson, _A Collection of Gaelic Proverbs and Familiar
      Phrases, based on Macintosh’s Collection_ (Edinburgh and London,
      1881), p. 248.

  547 A. Nicolson, _op. cit._ pp. 415 _sq._

  548 R. C. Maclagan, “Corn-maiden in Argyleshire,” _Folk-lore_, vii.
      (1896) pp. 78 _sq._

 M134 In these customs the Old Wife represents the old corn of last year,
      and the Maiden the new corn of this year.

  549 See above, p. 149, where, however, the corn-spirit is conceived as
      an Old Man.

 M135 Analogy of the harvest customs to the spring customs of Europe.

  550 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 73 _sqq._

  551 Above, pp. 134, 137, 138 _sq._, 142, 145, 147, 148, 149.

  552 See below, pp. 237 _sq._

_  553 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 47 _sqq._

  554 Above, pp. 134, 135.

  555 Above, pp. 141, 155, 156, 158, 160 _sq._, 162, 165.

  556 See above, p. 135.

  557 Above, p. 145. Compare A. Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus
      Westfalen_ (Leipsic, 1859), ii. p. 185, § 516.

  558 Above, pp. 136, 139, 155, 157 _sq._, 162; compare p. 160.

 M136 The spring and harvest customs of Europe are parts of a primitive
      heathen ritual.
 M137 Marks of a primitive ritual.

_  559 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 220 _sqq._

 M138 Reasons for regarding the spring and harvest customs of modern
      Europe as a primitive ritual.

  560 Above, p. 146. The common custom of wetting the last sheaf and its
      bearer is no doubt also a rain-charm; indeed the intention to
      procure rain or make the corn grow is sometimes avowed. See above,
      pp. 134, 137, 143, 144, 145; _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second
      Edition, pp. 195-197.

  561 Above, pp. 135 _sq._, 138, 139, 152.

  562 Above, p. 134.

  563 Above, pp. 134, 155, 158, 161.

 M139 The Corn-mother in many lands.
 M140 The Maize-mother among the Peruvian Indians.

  564 Above, pp. 136, 138, 140, 143, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158: W.
      Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, pp. 7, 26.

  565 J. de Acosta, _Natural and Moral History of the Indies_, bk. v. ch.
      28, vol. ii. p. 374 (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880). In quoting the
      passage I have modernised the spelling. The original Spanish text of
      Acosta’s work was reprinted in a convenient form at Madrid in 1894.
      See vol. ii. p. 117 of that edition.

 M141 The Maize-mother, the Quinoa-mother, the Coca-mother, and the
      Potato-mother among the Peruvian Indians.

  566 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 342 _sq._ Mannhardt’s
      authority is a Spanish tract (_Carta pastorale de exortacion e
      instruccion contra las idolatrias de los Indios del arçobispado de
      Lima_) by Pedro de Villagomez, Archbishop of Lima, published at Lima
      in 1649, and communicated to Mannhardt by J. J. v. Tschudi. The
      _Carta Pastorale_ itself seems to be partly based on an earlier
      work, the _Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Piru. Dirigido al Rey
      N.S. en Su real conseio de Indias, por el Padre Pablo Joseph de
      Arriaga de la Compañia de Jesus_ (Lima, 1621). A copy of this work
      is possessed by the British Museum, where I consulted it. The writer
      explains (p. 16) that the Maize-mothers (_Zaramamas_) are of three
      sorts, namely (1) those which are made of maize stalks, dressed up
      like women, (2) those which are carved of stone in the likeness of
      cobs of maize, and (3) those which consist simply of fruitful stalks
      of maize or of two maize-cobs naturally joined together. These last,
      the writer tells us, were the principal _Zaramamas_, and were
      revered by the natives as Mothers of the Maize. Similarly, when two
      potatoes were found growing together the Indians called them
      Potato-mothers (_Axomamas_) and kept them in order to get a good
      crop of potatoes. As Arriaga’s work is rare, it may be well to give
      his account of the Maize-mothers, Coca-mothers, and Potato-mothers
      in his own words. He says (p. 16): “_Zaramamas, son de tres maneras,
      y son las que se quentan entre las cosas halladas en los pueblos. La
      primera es una como muñeca hecha de cañas de maiz, vestida como
      muger con su anaco, y llicilla, y sus topos de plata, y entienden,
      que como madre tiene virtud de engendrar, y parir mucho maiz. A este
      modo tienen tambien Cocamamas para augmento de la coca. Otras son de
      piedra labradas como choclos, o mazorcas de maiz, con sus granos
      relevados, y de estas suelen tener muchas en lugar de Conopas_
      [household gods]. _Otras son algunas cañas fertiles de maiz, que con
      la fertilidad de la tierra dieron muchas maçorcas, y grandes, o
      quando salen dos maçorcas juntas, y estas son las principales,
      Zaramamas, y assi las reverencian como a madres del maiz, a estas
      llaman tambien Huantayzara, o Ayrihuayzara. A este tercer genero no
      le dan la adoracion que a Huaca, ni Conopa, sino que le tienen
      supersticiosamente como una cosa sagrada, y colgando estas cañas con
      muchos choclos de unos ramos de sauce bailen con ellas el bayle, que
      llaman Ayrihua, y acabado el bayle, las queman, y sacrifican a
      Libiac para que les de buena cosecha. Con la misma supersticion
      guardan las mazorcas del maiz, que salen muy pintadas, que llaman
      Micsazara, o Mantayzara, o Caullazara, y otros que llaman Piruazara,
      que son otras maçorcas en que van subiendo los granos no derechos
      sino haziendo caracol. Estas Micsazara, o Piruazara, ponen
      supersticiosamente en los montones de maiz, y en las Piruas (que son
      donde guardan el maiz) paraque se las guarde, y el dia de las
      exhibiciones se junta tanto de estas maçorcas, que tienen bien que
      comer las mulas. La misma supersticion tienen con las que llaman
      Axomamas, que son quando salen algunas papas juntas, y las guardan
      para tener buena cosecha de papas._” The _exhibiciones_ here
      referred to are the occasions when the Indians brought forth their
      idols and other relics of superstition and delivered them to the
      ecclesiastical visitors. At Tarija in Bolivia, down to the present
      time, a cross is set up at harvest in the maize-fields, and on it
      all maize-spadices growing as twins are hung. They are called
      Pachamamas (Earth-mothers) and are thought to bring good harvests.
      See Baron E. Nordenskiöld, “Travels on the Boundaries of Bolivia and
      Argentina,” _The Geographical Journal_, xxi. (1903) pp. 517, 518.
      Compare E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_
      (Oxford, 1892), i. 414 _sq._

 M142 Customs of the ancient Mexicans at the maize-harvest.

  567 Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique
      et de l’Amérique Centrale_ (Paris 1857-1859), iii. 40 _sqq._ Compare
      _id._, iii. 505 _sq._; E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called
      America_, i. 419 _sq._

 M143 Sahagun’s account of the ancient Mexican religion.
 M144 Sahagun’s description of the Mexican Maize-goddess and her festival.

  568 E. Seler, “Altmexikanische Studien, ii.,” _Veröffentlichungen aus
      dem königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde_, vi. (Berlin, 1899) 2/4
      Heft, pp. 67 _sqq._ Another chapter of Sahagun’s work, describing
      the costumes of the Mexican gods, has been edited and translated
      into German by Professor E. Seler in the same series of publications
      (“Altmexikanische Studien,” _Veröffentlichungen aus dem königlichen
      Museum für Völkerkunde_, i. 4 (Berlin, 1890) pp. 117 _sqq._).
      Sahagun’s work as a whole is known to me only in the excellent
      French translation of Messrs. D. Jourdanet and R. Simeon (_Histoire
      Générale des choses de la Nouvelle-Espagne par le R. P. Fray
      Bernardino de Sahagun_, Paris, 1880). As to the life and character
      of Sahagun see M. R. Simeon’s introduction to the translation, pp.
      vii. _sqq._

  569 B. de Sahagun, Aztec text of book ii., translated by Professor E.
      Seler, “Altmexikanische Studien, ii.,” _Veröffentlichungen aus dem
      königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde_, vi. 2/4 Heft (Berlin, 1899),
      pp. 188-194. The account of the ceremonies given in the Spanish
      version of Sahagun’s work is a good deal more summary. See B. de
      Sahagun, _Histoire Générale des choses de la Nouvelle Espagne_
      (Paris, 1880), pp. 94-96.

 M145 The Corn-mother among the North American Indians.

  570 J. Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” _Nineteenth Annual Report of the
      Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part I. (Washington, 1900) pp. 423,
      432. See further _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 296
      _sq._

  571 L. H. Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_ (Rochester, 1851), pp. 161
      _sq._, 199. According to the Iroquois the corn plant sprang from the
      bosom of the mother of the Great Spirit after her burial (L. H.
      Morgan, _op. cit._ p. 199 note 1).

  572 C. Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_ (London, 1903), ii. 280.

 M146 The Mother-cotton in the Punjaub.

  573 H. M. Elliot, _Supplemental Glossary of Terms used in the
      North-Western Provinces_, edited by J. Beames (London, 1869), i.
      254.

 M147 The Barley Bride among the Berbers.

  574 W. B. Harris, “The Berbers of Morocco,” _Journal of the
      Anthropological Institute_, xxvii. (1898) p. 68.

 M148 Another account of the Barley Bride among the Berbers. Competitions
      for the possession of the image that represents the Corn-mother.

  575 Sir John Drummond Hay, _Western Barbary, its Wild Tribes and Savage
      Animals_ (1844), p. 9, quoted in _Folk-lore_, vii. (1896) pp. 306
      _sq._

  576 See above, pp. 70 _sqq._

 M149 Comparison of the European ritual of the corn with the Indonesian
      ritual of the rice.
 M150 The Indonesian ritual of the rice is based on the belief that the
      rice is animated by a soul.
 M151 Parallelism between the human soul and the rice-soul.

  577 R. J. Wilkinson (of the Civil Service of the Federated Malay
      States), _Malay Beliefs_ (London and Leyden, 1906), pp. 49-51. On
      the conception of the soul as a bird, see _Taboo and the Perils of
      the Soul_, pp. 33 _sqq._ The Toradjas of Central Celebes think that
      the soul of the rice is embodied in a pretty little blue bird, which
      builds its nest in the rice-field when the ears are forming and
      vanishes after harvest. Hence no one may drive away, much less kill,
      these birds; to do so would not only injure the crop, the
      sacrilegious wretch himself would suffer from sickness, which might
      end in blindness. See A. C. Kruyt, “De Rijstmoeder in den Indischen
      Archipel,” p. 374 (see the full reference in the next note).

 M152 The soul-stuff of rice.

  578 A. C. Kruyt, “De Rijstmoeder in den Indischen Archipel,” _Verslagen
      en Mededeelingen der koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen_,
      Afdeeling Letterkunde, Vierde Reeks, v. part 4 (Amsterdam, 1903),
      pp. 361 _sq._ This essay (pp. 361-411) contains a valuable
      collection of facts relating to what the writer calls the
      Rice-mother in the East Indies. But it is to be observed that while
      all the Indonesian peoples seem to treat a certain portion of the
      rice at harvest with superstitious respect and ceremony, only a part
      of them actually call it “the Rice-mother.” Mr. Kruyt prefers to
      speak of “soul-stuff” rather than of “a soul,” because, according to
      him, in living beings the animating principle is conceived, not as a
      tiny being confined to a single part of the body, but as a sort of
      fluid or ether diffused through every part of the body. See his
      work, _Het Animisme in den Indischen Archipel_ (The Hague, 1906),
      pp. 1 _sqq._ In the latter work (pp. 145-150) the writer gives a
      more summary account of the Indonesian theory of the rice-soul.

 M153 Rice treated by the Indonesians as if it were a woman.

  579 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 28 _sq._; A. C.
      Kruyt, “De Rijstmoeder,” _op. cit._ pp. 363 _sq._, 370 _sqq._

  580 See above, pp. 113 _sqq._

  581 See above, p. 181.

  582 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 411 _sq._; A. C. Kruyt,
      “De Rijstmoeder,” _op. cit._ p. 372.

 M154 The Kayans of Borneo, their treatment of the soul of the rice.

  583 See above, pp. 92 _sqq._

  584 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_ (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 157
      _sq._

 M155 Instruments used by the Kayans for the purpose of catching and
      detaining the soul of the rice. Ceremonies performed by Kayan
      housewives at fetching rice from the barn.

  585 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._ i. 118-121. Compare _id._, _In
      Centraal Borneo_ (Leyden, 1900), i. 154 _sqq._

 M156 Masquerade performed by the Kayans before sowing for the purpose of
      attracting the soul of the rice.

  586 A similar belief probably explains the masked dances and pantomimes
      of many savage tribes. If that is so, it shews how deeply the
      principle of imitative magic has influenced savage religion.

  587 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_, i. 322-330. Compare _id._,
      _In Centraal Borneo_, i. 185 _sq._ As to the masquerades performed
      and the taboos observed at the sowing season by the Kayans of the
      Mendalam river, see above, pp. 94 _sqq._

  588 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _op. cit._ i. 317.

 M157 Comparison of the Kayan masquerade with the Eleusinian drama.
 M158 Securing the soul of the rice among the Dyaks of Northern Borneo.

  589 Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_2 (London,
      1863), i. 187, 192 _sqq._; W. Chalmers, quoted in H. Ling Roth’s
      _Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_ (London, 1896), i.
      412-414.

 M159 Recalling the soul of the rice among the Karens of Burma.

  590 Rev. E. B. Cross, “On the Karens,” _Journal of the American Oriental
      Society_, iv. (1854) p. 309.

 M160 Securing the soul of the rice in various parts of Burma.

  591 (Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardiman, _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and
      of the Shan States_ (Rangoon, 1900-1901), Part i. vol. i. p. 559.

  592 J. Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” _Nineteenth Annual Report of the
      Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1900) p. 423.
      Compare _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 296 _sq._

  593 (Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardiman, _op. cit._ Part ii. vol. i. p.
      172.

  594 From a letter written to me by Mr. J. S. Furnivall and dated Pegu
      Club, Rangoon, 6/6 (_sic_). Mr. Furnivall adds that in Upper Burma
      the custom of the _Bonmagyi_ sheaf is unknown.

 M161 The Rice-mother among the Minangkabauers of Sumatra.

  595 J. L. van der Toorn, “Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer der
      Padangsche Bovenlanden,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en
      Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië_, xxxix. (1890) pp. 63-65. In the
      charm recited at sowing the Rice-mother in the bed, I have
      translated the Dutch word _stoel_ as “root,” but I am not sure of
      its precise meaning in this connexion. It is doubtless identical
      with the English agricultural term “to stool,” which is said of a
      number of stalks sprouting from a single seed, as I learn from my
      friend Professor W. Somerville of Oxford.

 M162 The Rice-mother among the Tomori of Celebes. Special words used at
      reaping among the Tomori. Riddles and stories in connexion with the
      rice.

  596 A. C. Kruijt, “Eenige ethnografische aanteekeningen omtrent de
      Toboengkoe en de Tomori,” _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche
      Zendelinggenootschap_, xliv. (1900) pp. 227, 230 _sq._

  597 See _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 411 _sq._

  598 A. C. Kruijt, _op. cit._ p. 228.

  599 A. C. Kruijt, “Een en ander aangaande het geestelijk en
      maatschapelijk leven van den Poso-Alfoer,” _Mededeelingen van wege
      het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, xxxix. (1895) pp. 142 _sq._

 M163 The Rice-mother among the Toradjas of Celebes.

  600 G. Maan, “Eenige mededeelingen omtrent de zeden en gewoonten der
      Toerateya ten opzichte van den rijstbouw,” _Tijdschrift voor
      Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xlvi. (1903) pp. 330-337. The
      writer dates his article from Tanneteya (in Celebes?), but otherwise
      gives no indication of the geographical position of the people he
      describes. A similar omission is common with Dutch writers on the
      geography and ethnology of the East Indies, who too often appear to
      assume that the uncouth names of these barbarous tribes and obscure
      hamlets are as familiar to European readers as Amsterdam or the
      Hague. The Toerateyas whose customs Mr. Maan describes in this
      article are the inland inhabitants of Celebes. Their name Toerateyas
      or Toradjas signifies simply “inlanders” and is applied to them by
      their neighbours who live nearer the sea; it is not a name used by
      the people themselves. The Toradjas include many tribes and the
      particular tribe whose usages in regard to the Rice-mother are
      described in the text is probably not one of those whose customs and
      beliefs have been described by Mr. A. C. Kruijt in many valuable
      papers. See above, p. 183 note 1, and _The Magic Art and the
      Evolution of Kings_, i. 109 note 1.

 M164 The rice personified as a young woman among the Bataks of Sumatra.

  601 M. Joustra, “Het leven, de zeden en gewoonten der Bataks,”
      _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_,
      xlvi. (1902) pp. 425 _sq._

  602 J. H. Neumann, “Iets over den landbouw bij de Karo-Bataks,”
      _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_,
      xlvi. (1902) pp. 380 _sq._ As to the employment in ritual of young
      people whose parents are both alive, see _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,
      Second Edition, pp. 413 _sqq._

 M165 The King of the Rice in Mandeling.

  603 A. L. van Hasselt, “Nota, betreffende de rijstcultuur in de
      Residentie Tapanoeli,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en
      Volkenkunde_, xxxvi. (1893) pp. 526-529; Th. A. L. Heyting,
      “Beschrijving der Onderafdeeling Groot- mandeling en Batangnatal,”
      _Tijdschrift van het Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_,
      Tweede Serie, xiv. (1897) pp. 290 _sq._ As to the rule of sowing
      seed on a full stomach, which is a simple case of homoeopathic or
      imitative magic, see further _The Magic Art and the Evolution of
      Kings_, i. 136.

 M166 The Rice-mother and the Rice-child at harvest in the Malay
      Peninsula.

  604 W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_ (London, 1900), pp. 225 _sq._

  605 W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_, pp. 235-249.

 M167 The Rice-bride and the Rice-bridegroom at harvest in Java.

  606 See above, pp. 163 _sq._

  607 P. J. Veth, _Java_ (Haarlem, 1875-1884), i. 524-526. The ceremony
      has also been described by Miss Augusta de Wit (_Facts and Fancies
      about Java_, Singapore, 1898, pp. 229-241), who lays stress on the
      extreme importance of the rice-harvest for the Javanese. The whole
      island of Java, she tells us, “is one vast rice-field. Rice on the
      swampy plains, rice on the rising ground, rice on the slopes, rice
      on the very summits of the hills. From the sod under one’s feet to
      the verge of the horizon, everything has one and the same colour,
      the bluish-green of the young, or the gold of the ripened rice. The
      natives are all, without exception, tillers of the soil, who reckon
      their lives by seasons of planting and reaping, whose happiness or
      misery is synonymous with the abundance or the dearth of the
      precious grain. And the great national feast is the harvest home,
      with its crowning ceremony of the Wedding of the Rice” (_op. cit._
      pp. 229 _sq._). I have to thank my friend Dr. A. C. Haddon for
      directing my attention to Miss de Wit’s book.

 M168 Another account of the Javanese custom.

  608 A. C. Kruijt, “Gebruiken bij den rijstoogst in enkele streken op
      Oost-Java,” _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche
      Zendelinggenootschap_, xlvii. (1903) pp. 132-134. Compare _id._, “De
      rijst-moeder in den Indischen Archipel,” _Verslagen en Mededeelingen
      der koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen_, Afdeeling Letterkunde,
      Vierde Reeks, v. part 4 (Amsterdam, 1903), pp. 398 _sqq._

 M169 The rice-spirit as husband and wife in Bali and Lombok.

  609 J. C. van Eerde, “Gebruiken bij den rijstbouw en rijstoogst op
      Lombok,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_,
      xlv. (1902) pp. 563-565 note.

  610 J. C. van Eerde, “Gebruiken bij den rijstbouw en rijstoogst op
      Lombok,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_,
      xlv. (1902) pp. 563-573.

 M170 The Father and Mother of the Rice among the Szis of Burma.

  611 (Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardiman, _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and
      the Shan States_, Part i. vol. i. (Rangoon, 1900) p. 426.

 M171 The spirit of the corn sometimes thought to be embodied in men or
      women.
 M172 The Old Woman who Never Dies, the goddess of the crops among the
      Mandans and Minnitarees.

  612 Maximilian, Prinz zu Wied, _Reise in das innere Nord-America_
      (Coblenz, 1839-1841), ii. 182 _sq._

 M173 Miami myth of the Corn-spirit in the form of a broken-down old man.

  613 H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_, v.
      (Philadelphia, 1856) pp. 193-195.

 M174 The harvest-goddess Gauri represented by a girl and a bundle of
      plants.

  614 B. A. Gupte, “Harvest Festivals in honour of Gauri and Ganesh,”
      _Indian Antiquary_, xxxv. (1906) p. 61. For details see _The Magic
      Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 77 _sq._

 M175 Analogy of Demeter and Persephone to the Corn-mother, the
      Harvest-maiden, and similar figures in the harvest customs of modern
      European peasantry. The rustic analogues of Demeter and Persephone.

  615 It is possible that the image of Demeter with corn and poppies in
      her hands, which Theocritus (vii. 155 _sqq._) describes as standing
      on a rustic threshing-floor (see above, p. 47), may have been a
      Corn-mother or a Corn-maiden of the kind described in the text. The
      suggestion was made to me by my learned and esteemed friend Dr. W.
      H. D. Rouse.

  616 Homer, _Odyssey_, v. 125 _sqq._; Hesiod, _Theog._ 969 _sqq._

  617 See above, pp. 150 _sq._

  618 It is possible that a ceremony performed in a Cyprian worship of
      Ariadne may have been of this nature: at a certain annual sacrifice
      a young man lay down and mimicked a woman in child-bed. See
      Plutarch, _Theseus_, 20: ἐν δὴ τῇ θυσίᾳ τοῦ Γορπιαίου μηνὸς
      ἰσταμένου δευτέρᾳ κατακλινόμενόν τινα τῶν νεανίσκων φθέγγεσθαι καὶ
      ποιεῖν ἅπερ ὠδινοῦσαι γυναῖκες. We have already seen grounds for
      regarding Ariadne as a goddess or spirit of vegetation. See _The
      Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 138. Amongst the
      Minnitarees in North America, the Prince of Neuwied saw a tall
      strong woman pretend to bring up a stalk of maize out of her
      stomach; the object of the ceremony was to secure a good crop of
      maize in the following year. See Maximilian, Prinz zu Wied, _Reise
      in das innere Nord-America_ (Coblenz, 1839-1841), ii. 269.

  619 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 97 _sqq._

 M176 Why did the Greeks personify the corn as a mother and a daughter?
 M177 Demeter was perhaps the ripe crop and Persephone the seed-corn.

  620 See above, p. 135.

  621 See above, pp. 140 _sqq._, 155 _sqq._, 164 _sqq._, 197 _sqq._

  622 However, the Sicilians seem on the contrary to have regarded Demeter
      as the seed-corn and Persephone as the ripe crop. See above, pp. 57,
      58 _sq._

  623 According to Augustine (_De civitate Dei_, iv. 8) the Romans
      imagined a whole series of distinct deities, mostly goddesses, who
      took charge of the corn at all its various stages from the time when
      it was committed to the ground to the time when it was lodged in the
      granary. Such a multiplication of mythical beings to account for the
      process of growth is probably late rather than early.

 M178 Or the Greeks may have started with the personification of the corn
      as a single goddess, and the conception of a second goddess may have
      been a later development. Duplication of deities as a consequence of
      the anthropomorphic tendency. Example of such duplication in Japan,
      where there are two distinct deities of the sun. Perhaps the Greek
      personification of the corn as a mother and a daughter (Demeter and
      Persephone) is a case of such a mythical duplication.

  624 In some places it was customary to kneel down before the last sheaf,
      in others to kiss it. See W. Mannhardt, _Korndämonen_, p. 26; _id._,
      _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 339. The custom of kneeling and
      bowing before the last corn is said to have been observed, at least
      occasionally, in England. See _Folk-lore Journal_, vii. (1888) p.
      270; and Herrick’s evidence, above, p. 147, note 1. The Malay
      sorceress who cut the seven ears of rice to form the Rice-child
      kissed the ears after she had cut them (W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_,
      p. 241).

  625 Above, pp. 132 _sq._

  626 Even in one of the oldest documents, the Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_,
      Demeter is represented as the goddess who controls the growth of the
      corn rather than as the spirit who is immanent in it. See above, pp.
      36 _sq._

  627 W. G. Aston, _Shinto_ (London, 1905), p. 127.

  628 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 323 _sqq._, 330
      _sqq._, 346 _sqq._

  629 A. Pauly, _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen
      Alterthumswissenschaft_, v. (Stuttgart, 1849) p. 1011.

 M179 Death and resurrection a leading incident in the myth of Persephone,
      as in the myths of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, and Dionysus.
 M180 Popular harvest and vintage customs in ancient Egypt, Syria, and
      Phrygia.
 M181 Maneros, a plaintive song of Egyptian reapers.

  630 Diodorus Siculus, i. 14, ἔτι γὰρ καὶ νῦν κατὰ τὸν θερισμὸν τοὺς
      πρώτους ἀμηθέντας στάχυς θέντας τοὺς ἀνθρώπους κόπτεσθαι πλησίον τοῦ
      δράγματοσ καὶ τὴν Ἶσιν ἀνακαλεῖσθαι κτλ. For θέντας we should
      perhaps read σύνθεντας, which is supported by the following
      δράγματος.

  631 Herodotus, ii. 79; Julius Pollux, iv. 54; Pausanias, ix. 29. 7;
      Athenaeus, xiv. 11, p. 620 A.

  632 H. Brugsch, _Die Adonisklage und das Linoslied_ (Berlin, 1852), p.
      24. According to another interpretation, however, Maneros is the
      Egyptian _manurosh_, “Let us be merry.” See Lauth, “Über den
      ägyptischen Maneros,” _Sitzungsberichte der königl. bayer._
      _Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München_, 1869, ii. 163-194.

  633 Above, pp. 197 _sqq._

  634 W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_ (London, 1872), pp.
      249 _sq._

  635 See above, pp. 158 _sq._

  636 W. Gregor, “Quelques coutumes du Nord-est du comté d’Aberdeen,”
      _Revue des Traditions populaires_, iii. (1888) p. 487 (should be
      535).

 M182 Linus or Ailinus, a plaintive song sung at the vintage in Phoenicia.

  637 Homer, _Iliad_, xviii. 570; Herodotus, ii. 79; Pausanias, ix. 29.
      6-9; Conon, _Narrat_. 19. For the form Ailinus see Suidas, _s.v._;
      Euripides, _Orestes_, 1395; Sophocles, _Ajax_, 627. Compare Moschus,
      _Idyl._ iii. 1; Callimachus, _Hymn to Apollo_, 20. See Greve, _s.v._
      “Linos,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Ausführliches Lexikon der griech, und
      röm. Mythologie_, ii. 2053 _sqq._

  638 Conon, _Narrat._ 19.

  639 F. C. Movers, _Die Phönizier_, i. (Bonn, 1841), p. 246; W.
      Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_ (Berlin, 1877), p. 281. In
      Hebrew the expression would be _oï lanu_ (אוי לנו), which occurs in
      1 Samuel, iv. 7 and 8; Jeremiah, iv. 13, vi. 4. However, the
      connexion of the Linus song with the lament for Adonis is regarded
      by Baudissin as very doubtful. See W. W. Graf Baudissin, _Adonis und
      Esmun_ (Leipsic, 1911), p. 360, note 3.

  640 Pausanias, ix. 29. 8.

 M183 Bormus, a plaintive song sung by Mariandynian reapers in Bithynia.

  641 Julius Pollux, iv. 54; Athenaeus, xiv. 11, pp. 619 F-620 A;
      Hesychius, _svv._ Βῶρμον and Μαριανουνὸς θρῆνος.

 M184 Lityerses, a song sung at reaping and threshing in Phrygia. Legend
      of Lityerses.

  642 The story was told by Sositheus in his play of _Daphnis_. His verses
      have been preserved in the tract of an anonymous writer. See
      _Scriptores rerum mirabilium Graeci_, ed. A. Westermann (Brunswick,
      1839), pp. 220 _sq._; also Athenaeus, x. 8, p. 415 B; Scholiast on
      Theocritus, x. 41; Photius, _Lexicon_, Suidas, and Hesychius, _s.v._
      “Lityerses”; Apostolius, _Centur._ x. 74; Servius, on Virgil,
      _Bucol._ viii. 68. Photius mentions the sickle with which Lityerses
      beheaded his victims. Servius calls Lityerses a king and says that
      Hercules cut off his head with the sickle that had been given him to
      reap with. Lityerses is the subject of a special study by W.
      Mannhardt (_Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 1 _sqq._), whom I
      follow. Compare O. Crusius, _s.v._ “Lityerses,” in W. H. Roscher’s
      _Ausführliches Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 2065
      _sqq._

  643 Julius Pollux, iv. 54.

 M185 The story of Lityerses seems to reflect an old Phrygian harvest
      custom of killing strangers as embodiments of the corn-spirit.

  644 In this comparison I closely follow W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische
      Forschungen_, pp. 18 _sqq._

 M186 Contests among reapers, binders, and threshers in order not to be
      the last at their work.

  645 Compare above, pp. 134, 136, 137 _sq._, 140, 142, 143, 144, 145, 147
      _sq._, 149, 164 _sq._ On the other hand, the last sheaf is sometimes
      an object of desire and emulation. See above, pp. 136, 141, 153, 154
      _sq._, 156, 162 note 3, 165. It is so at Balquhidder also
      (_Folk-lore Journal_, vi. 269); and it was formerly so on the
      Gareloch, Dumbartonshire, where there was a competition for the
      honour of cutting it, and handfuls of standing corn used to be
      hidden under sheaves in order that the last to be uncovered should
      form the Maiden.—(From the information of Archie Leitch. See pp. 157
      _sq._)

  646 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 19 _sq._

  647 A. Kuhn, _Märkische Sagen und Märchen_ (Berlin, 1843), p. 342.

  648 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 20; F. Panzer,
      _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. p. 217,
      § 397; A. Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_
      (Vienna, 1878), p. 222, § 69.

 M187 Custom of wrapping up in corn-stalks the last reaper, binder, or
      thresher.

  649 Above, pp. 167 _sq._

  650 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 22.

  651 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 22.

_  652 Ibid._ pp. 22 _sq._

_  653 Ibid._ p. 23.

_  654 Ibid._ pp. 23 _sq._

_  655 Ibid._ p. 24.

_  656 Ibid._ p. 24.

_  657 Ibid._ p. 24.

_  658 Ibid._ pp. 24 _sq._

_  659 Ibid._ p. 25.

  660 P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_ (Leipsic,
      1903-1906), ii. 65.

  661 A. Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_ (Vienna,
      1878), p. 223, § 70.

 M188 The corn-spirit, driven out of the last corn, lives in the barn
      during the winter.

  662 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 25 _sq._

 M189 Similar ideas as to the last corn in India.

  663 C. A. Elliot, _Hoshangábád Settlement Report_, p. 178, quoted in
      _Panjab Notes and Queries_, iii. §§ 8, 168 (October and December,
      1885); W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_
      (Westminster, 1896), ii. 306.

  664 W. Crooke, _op. cit._ ii. 306 _sq._

 M190 The corn-spirit supposed to be killed at reaping or threshing.
      Corn-spirit represented by a man, who is threshed.

  665 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 31.

_  666 Ibid._ p. 334.

_  667 Ibid._ p. 330.

_  668 Ibid._

_  669 Ibid._ p. 331.

  670 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 335.

_  671 Ibid._ p. 335.

  672 Above, pp. 135, 146.

  673 J. Nicholson, _Folk-lore of East Yorkshire_ (London, Hull, and
      Driffield, 1890), p. 28, supplemented by a letter of the author’s
      addressed to Mr. E. S. Hartland and dated 33 Leicester Street, Hull,
      11th September, 1890. I have to thank Mr. E. S. Hartland for calling
      my attention to the custom and allowing me to see Mr. Nicholson’s
      letter.

  674 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 26.

  675 Above, pp. 149 _sq._

  676 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 50.

_  677 Ibid._ pp. 50 _sq._

  678 See above, pp. 146, 170 note 1; _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second
      Edition, pp. 195 sqq.

 M191 Corn-spirit represented by a stranger or a visitor to the
      harvest-field, who is treated accordingly.

  679 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschunge_ pp. 32 _sqq._ Compare K.
      Bartsch, _Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg_ (Vienna,
      1879-1880), ii. 296 _sq._; P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und
      Volksglaube in Schlesien_ (Leipsic, 1903-1906), ii. 62 _sq._; A.
      John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen_
      (Prague, 1905), p. 193; A. Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche
      aus Thüringen_ (Vienna, 1878), p. 221, § 61; R. Krause, _Sitten,
      Gebräuche und Aberglauben in Westpreussen_ (Berlin, preface dated
      March, 1904), p. 51; _Revue des Traditions populaires_, iii. (1888)
      p. 598.

  680 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 35 _sq._

_  681 Ibid._ p. 36.

  682 A. John, _Sitte, Brauch, und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen_,
      (Prague, 1905), p. 194.

  683 O. Hartung, “Zur Volkskunde aus Anhalt,” _Zeitschrift des Vereins
      für Volkskunde_, vii. (1897) p. 153.

  684 J. Lecœur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Condé-sur-Noireau,
      1883-1887), ii. 240 _sq._

  685 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 36.

  686 For the evidence, see _ibid._ p. 36, note 2. The “key” in the
      European custom is probably intended to serve the same purpose as
      the “knot” in the Cingalese custom, as to which see _Taboo and the
      Perils of the Soul_, pp. 308 _sq._

  687 From a letter written to me by Colonel Henry Wilson, of Farnborough
      Lodge, Farnborough, Kent. The letter is dated 21st March, 1901.

  688 “Notes on Harvest Customs,” _The Folk-lore Journal_, vii. (1889) pp.
      52 _sq._

 M192 Ceremonies of the Tarahumare Indians at hoeing, ploughing, and
      harvest.

  689 C. Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_ (London, 1903), i. 214 _sq._

  690 Compare _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 75 _sq._

  691 K. Vetter, _Komm herüber und hilf uns!_ Heft 2 (Barmen, 1898), p. 7.

  692 A. C. Kruijt, “Een en ander aangaande het geestelijk en
      maatschappelijk leven van den Poso-Alfoer,” _Mededeelingen van wege
      het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, xxxix. (1895) p. 137. As to
      influence which the spirits of the dead are thought to exercise on
      the growth of the crops, see above, pp. 103 _sq._, and below, vol.
      ii. pp. 109 _sqq._

 M193 Pretence made by the reapers of killing some one with their scythes.

  693 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 39.

  694 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 39 _sq._

_  695 Ibid._ p. 40. For the speeches made by the woman who binds the
      stranger or the master, see _ibid._ p. 41; C. Lemke,
      _Volksthümliches in Ostpreussen_ (Mohrungen, 1884-1887), i. 23 _sq._

  696 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 41 _sq._

 M194 Pretence made by threshers of choking a person with their flails.

  697 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 42. See also above, p. 150.

  698 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 42. See above, p. 149. In Thüringen a
      being called the Rush-cutter (_Binsenschneider_) used to be much
      dreaded. On the morning of St. John’s Day he was wont to walk
      through the fields with sickles tied to his ankles cutting avenues
      in the corn as he walked. To detect him, seven bundles of brushwood
      were silently threshed with the flail on the threshing-floor, and
      the stranger who appeared at the door of the barn during the
      threshing was the Rush-cutter. See A. Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und
      Gebräuche aus Thüringen_ (Vienna, 1878), p. 221. With the
      _Binsenschneider_ compare the _Bilschneider_ and _Biberschneider_
      (F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, Munich, 1848-1855,
      ii. pp. 210 _sq._, §§ 372-378).

 M195 Custom observed at the madder-harvest in Zealand.

  699 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 47 _sq._

 M196 The spirit of the corn conceived as poor and robbed by the reapers.
      Some of the corn left on the harvest-field for the corn-spirit.
      Little fields or gardens cultivated for spirits or gods.

  700 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 48.

  701 W. Mannhardt, _l.c._

_  702 Ibid._ pp. 48 _sq._

  703 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 49.

_  704 Ibid._ p. 337.

_  705 Ibid._

  706 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 337 _sq._

  707 A. John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen_
      (Prague, 1905), p. 189.

  708 A. Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_ (Vienna,
      1878), p. 224, § 74.

_  709 Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_ (Munich,
      1860-1867), iii. 343 _sq._

_  710 Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde_, vii. (1897) p. 154.

  711 P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch, und Volksglaube in Schlesien_
      (Leipsic, 1903-1906), ii. 64, § 419.

  712 W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, Second Edition
      (London, 1872), pp. 251 _sq._ As to Perun, the old Slavonic
      thunder-god, see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii.
      365.

  713 Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-east of
      Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 182.

  714 See above, pp. 136 _sqq._

  715 A. Germain, “Note zur Zanzibar et la Côte Orientale d’Afrique,”
      _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), Vème Série, xvi.
      (1868) p. 555.

  716 E. Modigliani, _Un Viaggio a Nías_ (Milan, 1890), p. 593.

  717 J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (Berlin, 1906), p. 303. In the Central
      Provinces of India “sometimes the oldest man in the house cuts the
      first five bundles of the crop and they are afterwards left in the
      fields for the birds to eat. And at the end of harvest the last one
      or two sheaves are left standing in the field and any one who likes
      can cut and carry them away. In some localities the last sheaves are
      left standing in the field and are known as _barhona_, or the giver
      of increase. Then all the labourers rush together at this last patch
      of corn and tear it up by the roots; everybody seizes as much as he
      can [and] keeps it, the master having no share in this patch. After
      the _barhona_ has been torn up all the labourers fall on their faces
      to the ground and worship the field” (A. E. Nelson, _Central
      Provinces Gazetteers, Bilaspur District_, vol. A, 1910, p. 75). This
      quotation was kindly sent to me by Mr. W. Crooke; I have not seen
      the original. It seems to shew that in the Central Provinces the
      last corn is left standing on the field as a portion for the
      corn-spirit, and that he is believed to be immanent in it; hence the
      name of “the giver of increase” bestowed on it, and the eagerness
      with which other people, though not the owner of the land, seek to
      appropriate it.

 M197 Hence perhaps we may explain the dedication of sacred fields and the
      offering of first-fruits to gods and spirits.

  718 See above, pp. 93 _sq._

  719 See above, pp. 36, 74.

  720 Leviticus, xix. 9 _sq._, xxiii. 22; Deuteronomy, xxiv. 19-21.

  721 See above, pp. 46 _sq._, 53 _sqq._, and below, vol. ii. pp. 109
      _sqq._

 M198 Passing strangers treated as the spirit of the madder-roots.

  722 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 49 _sq._; A. Wuttke,
      _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 254, § 400; M.
      Töppen, _Aberglaube aus Masuren_2 (Danzig, 1867), p. 57. The same
      belief is held and acted upon in Japan (L. Hearn, _Glimpses of
      Unfamiliar Japan_, London, 1904, ii. 603).

  723 The explanation of the custom is W. Mannhardt’s (_Mythologische
      Forschungen_, p. 49).

_  724 Odyssey_, xvii. 485 _sqq._ Compare Plato, _Sophist_, p. 216 A.

  725 A. C. Kruijt, “Mijne eerste ervaringen te Poso,” _Mededeelingen van
      wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, xxxvi. (1892) p. 402.

 M199 Killing of the personal representative of the corn-spirit.

  726 For throwing him into the water, see p. 225.

 M200 Human sacrifices for the crops in South and Central America.

  727 Cieza de Leon, _Travels_, translated by C. R. Markham, p. 203
      (Hakluyt Society, London, 1864).

  728 Juan de Velasco, _Histoire du Royaume de Quito_, i. (Paris, 1840)
      pp. 121 _sq._ (Ternaux-Compans, _Voyages, Relations et Mémoires
      Originaux pour servir à l’Histoire de la Découverte de l’Amérique_,
      vol. xviii.).

  729 Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique
      et de l’Amérique Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859), i. 274; H. H.
      Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London, 1875-1876),
      ii. 340.

  730 Brasseur de Bourbourg, “Aperçus d’un voyage dans les États de
      San-Salvador et de Guatemala,” _Bulletin de la Société de
      Géographie_ (Paris), IVème Série, xiii. (1857) pp. 278 _sq._

  731 Herrera, quoted by A. Bastian, _Die Culturländer des alten Amerika_
      (Berlin, 1878), ii. 379 _sq._ See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second
      Edition, pp. 338 _sq._

 M201 Human sacrifices for the crops among the Pawnees.

  732 E. James, _Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky
      Mountains_ (London, 1823), ii. 80 _sq._; H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian
      Tribes of the United States_ (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 77
      _sqq._; J. De Smet, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xi.
      (1838) pp. 493 _sq._; _id._, in _Annales de la Propagation de la
      Foi_, xv. (1843) pp. 277-279; _id._, _Voyages aux Montagnes
      Rocheuses_, Nouvelle Edition (Paris and Brussels, 1873), pp. 121
      _sqq._ The accounts by Schoolcraft and De Smet of the sacrifice of
      the Sioux girl are independent and supplement each other. According
      to De Smet, who wrote from the descriptions of four eye-witnesses,
      the procession from hut to hut for the purpose of collecting wood
      took place on the morning of the sacrifice. Another description of
      the sacrifice is given by Mr. G. B. Grinnell from the recollection
      of an eye-witness (_Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-tales_, New York,
      1889, pp. 362-369). According to this last account the victim was
      shot with arrows and afterwards burnt. Before the body was consumed
      in the fire a man pulled out the arrows, cut open the breast of the
      victim, and having smeared his face with the blood ran away as fast
      as he could.

 M202 Human sacrifices for the crops in Africa.

  733 J. B. Labat, _Relation historique de l’Ethiopie occidentale_ (Paris,
      1732), i. 380.

  734 John Adams, _Sketches taken during Ten Voyages in Africa between the
      years 1786 and 1800_ (London, N.D.), p. 25.

  735 P. Bouche, _La Côte des Esclaves_ (Paris, 1885), p. 132.

  736 T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, _Voyage d’exploration au Nord-est de la
      Colonie du Cap de Bonne-Espérance_ (Paris, 1842), pp. 117 _sq._ The
      custom has probably long been obsolete.

  737 From information given me by my friend the Rev. John Roscoe, who
      resided for some time among the Wamegi and suppressed the sacrifice
      in 1886.

 M203 Human sacrifices for the crops in the Philippines.

  738 F. Blumentritt, “Das Stromgebiet des Rio Grande de Mindanao,”
      _Petermanns Mitteilungen_, xxxvii. (1891) p. 110.

  739 A. Schadenberg, “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der im Innern Nordluzons
      lebenden Stämme,” _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für
      Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte_, 1888, p. (39) (bound
      with _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xx. 1888).

  740 Schadenberg, in _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für
      Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte_, 1889, p. (681) (bound
      with _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xxi. 1889).

 M204 Human sacrifices for the crops among the Wild Wa of Burma.

  741 (Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardiman, _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and
      the Shan States_ (Rangoon, 1900-1901), Part i. vol. i. pp. 493-509.

 M205 Human sacrifices for the crops among the Shans of Indo-China and the
      Nagas and other tribes of India.

  742 Col. R. G. Woodthorpe, “Some Account of the Shans and Hill Tribes of
      the States on the Mekong,” _Journal of the Anthropological
      Institute_, xxvi. (1897) p. 24.

  743 For a general description of the country and the tribes see L. A.
      Waddell, “The Tribes of the Brahmaputra Valley,” _Journal of the
      Asiatic Society of Bengal_, lxix. Part iii. (Calcutta, 1901), pp.
      1-127.

  744 Miss G. M. Godden, “Naga and other Frontier Tribes of North-Eastern
      India,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxvii. (1898)
      pp. 9 _sq._, 38 _sq._

_  745 North Indian Notes and Queries_, i. p. 4, § 15 (April 1891).

_  746 Panjab Notes and Queries_, ii. pp. 127 _sq._, § 721 (May 1885).

  747 Rev. P. Dehon, S.J., “Religion and Customs of the Uraons,” _Memoirs
      of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol. i. No. 9 (Calcutta, 1906),
      pp. 141 _sq._

 M206 Human sacrifices for the crops among the Khonds.

  748 Major S. C. Macpherson, _Memorials of Service in India_ (London,
      1865), pp. 113-131; Major-General John Campbell, _Wild Tribes of
      Khondistan_ (London, 1864), pp. 52-58, etc. Compare Mgr. Neyret,
      Bishop of Vizagapatam, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_,
      xxiii. (1851) pp. 402-404; E. Thurston, _Ethnographic Notes on
      Southern India_ (Madras, 1906), pp. 510-519; _id._, _Castes and
      Tribes of Southern India_ (Madras, 1909), iii. 371-385.

  749 J. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 56.

  750 S. C. Macpherson, _op. cit._ pp. 115 _sq._

  751 S. C. Macpherson, _op. cit._ pp. 117 _sq._; J. Campbell, _op. cit._
      p. 112.

 M207 Ceremonies preliminary to the sacrifice.

  752 S. C. Macpherson, _op. cit._ pp. 117 _sq._

  753 S. C. Macpherson, _op. cit._ p. 118.

  754 J. Campbell, _op. cit._ pp. 54 _sq._

 M208 Consummation of the sacrifice.

  755 J. Campbell, _op. cit._ pp. 55, 112.

  756 S. C. Macpherson, _op. cit._ p. 119; J. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 113.

  757 S. C. Macpherson, _op. cit._ p. 127. Instead of the branch of a
      green tree, Campbell mentions two strong planks or bamboos (p. 57)
      or a slit bamboo (p. 182).

  758 J. Campbell, _op. cit._ pp. 56, 58, 120.

  759 E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_ (Calcutta, 1872), p.
      288, quoting Colonel Campbell’s _Report_.

  760 J. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 126. The elephant represented the Earth
      Goddess herself, who was here conceived in elephant-form (Campbell,
      _op. cit._ pp. 51, 126). In the hill tracts of Goomsur she was
      represented in peacock-form, and the post to which the victim was
      bound bore the effigy of a peacock (Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 54).

  761 S. C. Macpherson, _op. cit._ p. 130. In Mexico also the tears of the
      human victims were sometimes regarded as an omen of rain (B. de
      Sahagun, _Histoire générale des Choses de la Nouvelle Espagne_,
      traduite par D. Jourdanet et R. Simeon, Paris, 1880, bk. ii. ch. 20,
      p. 86).

 M209 Flesh of the victim used to fertilise the fields.

  762 E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 288, referring
      to Colonel Campbell’s _Report_.

  763 S. C. Macpherson, _op. cit._ p. 129. Compare J. Campbell, _op. cit._
      pp. 55, 58, 113, 121, 187.

  764 J. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 182.

  765 S. C. Macpherson, _op. cit._ p. 128; E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive
      Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 288.

  766 J. Campbell, _op. cit._ pp. 55, 182.

  767 J. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 187.

  768 E. Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_ (Madras, 1909),
      iii. 381-385.

 M210 In these Khond sacrifices the human victims appear to have been
      regarded as divine.

  769 J. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 112.

  770 S. C. Macpherson, _op. cit._ p. 118.

 M211 Traces of an identification of the human victim with the god in
      other sacrifices.

  771 Above, pp. 239, 240, 244.

 M212 Analogy of these barbarous rites to the harvest customs of Europe.

  772 Above, p. 134.

  773 Above, pp. 134, 157 _sqq._

  774 Above, p. 223.

  775 Above, p. 224.

  776 Above, p. 170, with the references in note 1; _Adonis, Attis,
      Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 195-197.

 M213 Human representative of the corn-spirit slain on the harvest-field.
 M214 The victim who represented the corn-spirit may have been a passing
      stranger or the reaper, binder, or thresher of the last corn.

  777 See above, p. 217.

  778 Above, p. 224.

  779 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 5.

  780 H. Pfannenschmid, _Germanische Erntefeste_ (Hanover, 1878), p. 98.

 M215 Perhaps the victim annually sacrificed in the character of the
      corn-spirit may have been the king himself.

  781 Above, p. 217. It is not expressly said that he was wrapt in a
      sheaf.

  782 Above, pp. 225 _sq._, 229 _sq._

  783 See _The Dying God_, pp. 160 _sqq._

 M216 Relation of Lityerses to Attis: both may have been originally
      corn-spirits, or the one a corn-spirit and the other a tree-spirit.
      Human representatives both of Lityerses and Attis annually slain.

  784 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 231 _sqq._, 239
      _sq._

  785 See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 47 _sqq._

  786 I do not know when the corn is reaped in Phrygia; but the high
      upland character of the country makes it likely that harvest is
      later there than on the coasts of the Mediterranean.

  787 See above, pp. 240 _sqq._; and _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second
      Edition, pp. 247-249. As to head-hunting in British Borneo see H. L.
      Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_ (London,
      1896), ii. 140 _sqq._; in Central Celebes, see A. C. Kruijt, “Het
      koppensnellen der Toradja’s van Midden-Celebes, en zijne
      Beteekenis,” _Verslagen en Mededeelingen der koninklijke Akademie
      van Wetenschappen_, Afdeelung Letterkunde, Vierde Reeks, iii. part 2
      (Amsterdam, 1899), pp. 147-229; among the Igorot of Bontoc in Luzon,
      see A. E. Jenks, _The Bontoc Igorot_ (Manilla, 1905), pp. 172
      _sqq._; among the Naga tribes of Assam, see Miss G. M. Godden, “Naga
      and other Frontier Tribes of North-East India”, _Journal of the
      Anthropological Institute_, xxvii. (1898) pp. 12-17. It must not,
      however, be thought that among these tribes the custom of procuring
      human heads is practised merely as a means to ensure the growth of
      the crops; it is apparently supposed to exert a salutary influence
      on the whole life of the people by providing them with guardian
      spirits in the shape of the ghosts of the men to whom in their
      lifetime the heads belonged. The Scythians of Central Europe in
      antiquity set great store on the heads of the enemies whom they had
      slain in war. See Herodotus, iv. 64 _sq._

  788 There are traces in Greece itself of an old custom of sacrificing
      human victims to promote the fertility of the earth. See Pausanias,
      vii. 19. 3 _sq._ compared with vii. 20. 1; _id._, viii. 53. 3; L. R.
      Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, ii. (Oxford, 1896) p. 455;
      and _The Dying God_, pp. 161 _sq._

 M217 Similarity of the Bithynian Bormus to the Phrygian Attis.

  789 Above, pp. 215 _sq._

  790 Above, p. 216.

  791 Hesychius, _s.v._ Βῶρμον.

 M218 The Phoenician Linus song at the vintage. Linus identified with
      Adonis, who may have been annually represented by a human victim.

  792 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, ii. 6. 3.

  793 The scurrilities exchanged both in ancient and modern times between
      vine-dressers, vintagers, and passers-by seem to belong to a
      different category. See W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_,
      pp. 53 _sq._

  794 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 188 _sqq._

  795 Above, pp. 236 _sq._, 240, 243, 244, 248 _sq._

  796 The probable correspondence of the months, which supplies so welcome
      a confirmation of the conjecture in the text, was pointed out to me
      by my friend W. Robertson Smith, who furnished me with the following
      note: “In the Syro-Macedonian calendar Lous represents Ab, not
      Tammuz. Was it different in Babylon? I think it was, and one month
      different, at least in the early times of the Greek monarchy in
      Asia. For we know from a Babylonian observation in the Almagest
      (_Ideler_, i. 396) that in 229 B.C. Xanthicus began on February 26.
      It was therefore the month before the equinoctial moon, not Nisan
      but Adar, and consequently Lous answered to the lunar month Tammuz.”

 M219 The corn-spirit in Egypt (Osiris) annually represented by a human
      victim.

  797 Above, p. 215.

  798 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, ii. 5. 11; Scholiast on Apollonius
      Rhodius, _Argon._ iv. 1396; Plutarch, _Parall._ 38. Herodotus (ii.
      45) discredits the idea that the Egyptians ever offered human
      sacrifices. But his authority is not to be weighed against that of
      Manetho (Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 73), who affirms that they did.
      See further Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, _Osiris and the Egyptian
      Resurrection_ (London and New York, 1911), i. 210 _sqq._, who says
      (pp. 210, 212): “There is abundant proof for the statement that the
      Egyptians offered up sacrifices of human beings, and that, in common
      with many African tribes at the present day, their customs in
      dealing with vanquished enemies were bloodthirsty and savage.... The
      passages from Egyptian works quoted earlier in this chapter prove
      that human sacrifices were offered up at Heliopolis as well as at
      Tetu, or Busiris, and the rumour of such sacrifices has found
      expression in the works of Greek writers.”

  799 E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, i. (Stuttgart, 1884), § 57, p.
      68.

  800 E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_,2 i. 2 (Stuttgart and Berlin,
      1909), p. 97; G. Maspero, _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient
      Classique, Les Origines_ (Paris, 1895), pp. 129 _sqq._ Both these
      eminent historians have abandoned their former theory that Osiris
      was the Sun-god. Professor E. Meyer now speaks of Osiris as “the
      great vegetation god” and, on the same page, as “an earth-god” (_op.
      cit._ i. 2. p. 70). I am happy to find the view of the nature of
      Osiris, which I advocated many years ago, supported by the authority
      of so distinguished an Oriental scholar. Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge
      holds that Busiris was the oldest shrine of Osiris in the north of
      Egypt, but that it was less ancient than his shrine at Abydos in the
      south. See E. A. Wallis Budge, _Osiris and the Egyptian
      Resurrection_ (London and New York, 1911), ii. 1.

  801 Diodorus Siculus, i. 88; Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 73, compare 30,
      33.

  802 Margaret A. Murray, _The Osireion at Abydos_ (London, 1904), p. 30,
      referring to Mariette, _Dendereh_, iv. plates xxxi., lvi., and
      lxxxi. The passage of Diodorus Siculus referred to is i. 62. 4. As
      to masks of animals worn by Egyptian men and women in religious
      rites see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 133; _The
      Dying God_, p. 72.

 M220 Assimilation of human victims to the corn which they represent.

  803 Above, pp. 237 _sq._, 240, 251.

  804 E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_, i. (Oxford,
      1892) p. 422.

  805 Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique
      et de l’Amérique Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859), iii. 535.

  806 Festus, _s.v._ _Catularia_, p. 45 ed. C. O. Müller. Compare _id._,
      _s.v._ _Rutilae canes_, p. 285; Columella, _De re rustica_, x. 342
      _sq._; Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 905 _sqq._; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xviii. 14.

  807 D. Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_ (St. Petersburg,
      1856), ii. 388 _sq._ Compare _ibid._, pp. 384 _sq._, 386 _sq._, 391,
      393, 395, 397. For other instances of the assimilation of the victim
      to the god, see H. Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_ (Berlin,
      1894), pp. 77 _sq._, 357-359.

 M221 Remains of victims scattered over the fields to fertilise them.

  808 Above, pp. 240, 249.

  809 Above, pp. 149 _sq._, 237 _sq._, 239.

  810 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 18.

  811 See above, p. 248; and compare _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second
      Edition, pp. 331 _sqq._

  812 See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, p. 323.

 M222 The black and green Osiris like the black and green Demeter.

  813 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 22, 30, 31, 33, 73.

  814 Sir J. G. Wilkinson, _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_
      (ed. 1878), iii. 81.

  815 Pausanias, i. 22. 3, viii. 5. 8, viii. 42. i.

  816 Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 28. See above, p. 42.

 M223 The key to the mysteries of Osiris furnished by the lamentations of
      the reapers for the annual death of the corn-spirit.
 M224 Crying “the neck” at harvest in Devonshire.

  817 W. Hone, _Every-day Book_ (London, N.D.), ii. coll. 1170 _sq._

  818 Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_
      (London, 1883), pp. 372 _sq._, referring to Mrs. Bray’s _Traditions
      of Devon_, i. 330.

  819 W. Hone, _op. cit._ ii. 1172.

  820 The Rev. Sydney Cooper, of 80 Gloucester Street, Cirencester, wrote
      to me (4th February 1893) that his wife remembers the “neck” being
      kept on the mantelpiece of the parlour in a Cornish farmhouse; it
      generally stayed there throughout the year.

 M225 Other accounts of cutting and crying “the neck” in Devonshire.

  821 “Old Harvest Customs in Devon and Cornwall,” _Folk-lore_, i. (1890)
      p. 280.

_  822 Ibid._

 M226 Cutting “the neck” in Pembrokeshire.

  823 Frances Hoggan, M.D., “The Neck Feast,” _Folk-lore_, iv. (1893) p.
      123. In Pembrokeshire the last sheaf of corn seems to have been
      commonly known as “the Hag” (_wrach_) rather than as “the Neck.” See
      above, pp. 142-144.

 M227 Cutting “the neck” in Shropshire. Why the last corn cut is called
      “the neck.”

  824 J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 20 (Bohn’s edition); Miss C. S.
      Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 371.

  825 Burne and Jackson, _l.c._

  826 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 185.

  827 See above, p. 158.

  828 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 185.

_  829 Ibid._

_  830 Revue des Traditions populaires_, ii. (1887) p. 500.

  831 Above, p. 150.

 M228 Cries of the reapers in Germany.

  832 E. Meier, in _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_,
      i. (1853) pp. 170-173; U. Jahn, _Die deutschen Opfergebräuche bei
      Ackerbau und Viehzucht_ (Breslau, 1884), pp. 166-169; H.
      Pfannenschmid, _Germanische Erntefeste_ (Hanover, 1878), pp. 104
      _sq._; A. Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen_
      (Leipsic, 1859), ii. pp. 177 _sq._, §§ 491, 492; A. Kuhn und W.
      Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_ (Leipsic,
      1848), p. 395), § 97; K. Lynker, _Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in
      hessischen Gauen_ (Cassel and Göttingen, 1860), p. 256, § 340.

 M229 The corn-spirit as an animal.
 M230 The corn-spirit in the form of an animal is supposed to be present
      in the last corn cut or threshed, and to be caught or killed by the
      reaper or thresher.

  833 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_ (Berlin, 1868), pp. 1-6.

 M231 The corn-spirit as a wolf or a dog, supposed to run through the
      corn.

  834 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf und Roggenhund_2 (Danzig, 1866), pp. 6
      _sqq._; _id._, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_ (Berlin, 1877), pp. 318
      _sq._; _id._, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 103; A. Witzchel,
      _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_ (Vienna, 1878), p. 213;
      O. Hartung, “Zur Volkskunde aus Anhalt,” _Zeitschrift des Vereins
      für Volkskunde_, vii. (1897) p. 150; W. Müller, _Beiträge zur
      Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren_ (Vienna and Olmütz, 1893), p.
      327; P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_
      (Leipsic, 1903-1906), ii, 60.

  835 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf und Roggenhund_,2 pp. 10 _sqq._; _id._,
      _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 319.

  836 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf und Roggenhund_,2 pp. 14 _sq._

 M232 The corn-spirit as a dog at reaping and threshing.

  837 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 104; P. Drechsler,
      _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_, ii. 64.

  838 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 104.

_  839 Ibid._ pp. 104 _sq._ On the Harvest-May, see _The Magic Art and the
      Evolution of Kings_, ii. 47 _sq._

  840 L. F. Sauvé, _Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), p. 191.

  841 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 105.

_  842 Ibid._ p. 30.

_  843 Ibid._ pp. 30, 105.

_  844 Ibid._ pp. 105 _sq._

 M233 The corn-spirit as a wolf at reaping.

  845 P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_ (Leipsic,
      1903-1906), ii. 64.

  846 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf und Roggenhund_,2 pp. 33, 39; K. Bartsch,
      _Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg_ (Vienna, 1879-1880),
      ii. p. 309, § 1496, p. 310, §§ 1497, 1498.

  847 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 320.

  848 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf und Roggenhund_,2 p. 33.

  849 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf und Roggenhund_,2 pp. 33 _sq._; K.
      Bartsch, _op. cit._ ii. p. 309, § 1496, p. 310, §§ 1497, 1500, 1501.

  850 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf und Roggenhund_,2 pp. 33, 34.

  851 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf und Roggenhund_,2 p. 38; _id._, _Antike
      Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 320.

  852 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf und Roggenhund_,2 pp. 34 _sq._

  853 K. Bartsch, _op. cit._ ii. p. 311, § 1505.

  854 W. Mannhardt, _Roggenwolf und Roggenhund_,2 pp. 35-37; K. Bartsch,
      _op. cit._ ii. p. 309, § 1496, p. 310, §§ 1499, 1501, p. 311, §§
      1506, 1507.

 M234 The corn-spirit as a wolf killed at threshing.

  855 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 321.

_  856 Ibid._ pp. 321 _sq._

 M235 The corn-wolf at harvest in France. The corn-wolf killed on the
      harvest-field.

_  857 Ibid._ p. 320.

_  858 Ibid._ pp. 320 _sq._

 M236 The corn-wolf at midwinter.

_  859 Ibid._ p. 322.

_  860 Ibid._ p. 323.

 M237 The corn-spirit as a cock at harvest.

  861 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 13.

  862 W. Mannhardt, _l.c._; J. H. Schmitz, _Sitten und Sagen, Lieder,
      Sprüchwörter und Rathsel des Eifler Volkes_ (Treves, 1856-1858), i.
      95; A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und
      Gebräuche_ (Leipsic, 1848), p. 398.

  863 G. A. Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen
      Siebenbürgens_ (Hermannstadt, 1880), p. 21.

  864 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 13. Compare A. Kuhn and W.
      Schwartz, _l.c._

  865 K. Haupt, _Sagenbuch der Lausitz_ (Leipsic, 1862-1863), i. p. 232,
      No. 277 note.

  866 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 13.

  867 A. Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_ (Vienna,
      1878), p. 220.

  868 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, pp. 13 _sq._; J. H. Schmitz,
      _Sitten und Sagen, Lieder, Sprüchwörter und Räthsel des Eifler
      Volkes_ (Treves, 1856-1858), i. 95; A. Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebräuche und
      Märchen aus Westfalen_ (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 180 _sq._; H.
      Pfannenschmid, _Germanische Erntefeste_ (Hanover, 1878), p. 110.

  869 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 14; H. Pfannenschmid, _op. cit._
      pp. 111, 419 _sq._

  870 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 15. So in Shropshire, where the
      corn-spirit is conceived in the form of a gander (see above, p.
      268), the expression for overthrowing a load at harvest is “to lose
      the goose,” and the penalty used to be the loss of the goose at the
      harvest-supper (C. S. Burne and G. F. Jackson, _Shropshire
      Folk-lore_, London, 1883, p. 375); and in some parts of England the
      harvest-supper was called the Harvest Gosling, or the Inning Goose
      (J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 23, 26, Bohn’s edition).

  871 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 14.

_  872 Ibid._ p. 15.

 M238 The corn-spirit killed in the form of a live cock.

  873 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 30.

  874 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 15.

_  875 Ibid._ pp. 15 _sq._

  876 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 15; _id._, _Mythologische
      Forschungen_, p. 30.

 M239 The corn-spirit as a hare at harvest. The corn-spirit as a hare
      killed in the last corn cut.

  877 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 1.

  878 W. Gregor, “Preliminary Report on Folklore in Galloway, Scotland,”
      _Report of the British Association for 1896_, p. 623.

_  879 Folk-lore Journal_, vii. (1889) pp. 47 _sq._

  880 L. F. Sauvé, _Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), p. 191.

  881 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_, p. 3.

  882 O. Hartung, “Zur Volkskunde aus Anhalt,” _Zeitschrift des Vereins
      für Volkskunde_, vii. (1897) p. 154.

  883 C. Lemke, _Volksthümliches in Ostpreussen_ (Mohrungen, 1884-1887),
      i. 24.

  884 G. A. Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen
      Siebenbürgens_ (Hermannstadt, 1880), p. 21.

  885 Above, p. 268.

  886 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 29.

  887 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 29 _sq._; _id._, _Die
      Korndämonen_, p. 5.

  888 Georgeakis et Pineau, _Folk-lore de Lesbos_ (Paris, 1894), p. 310.

 M240 The corn-spirit as a cat sitting in the corn. The corn-spirit as a
      cat killed at reaping and threshing.

  889 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, pp. 172-174; _id._,
      _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 30; P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und
      Volksglaube in Schlesien_ (Leipsic, 1903-1906), ii. 64, 65.

  890 L. F. Sauvé, _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), p. 191.

  891 Ch. Beauquier, _Les Mois en Franche-Comté_ (Paris, 1900), p. 102.

 M241 The corn-spirit as a goat running through the corn or sitting in it.
      The corn-goat at reaping and binding the corn.

  892 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, pp. 155 _sq._

_  893 Ibid._ pp. 157 _sq._

_  894 Ibid._ p. 159.

_  895 Ibid._ pp. 161 _sq._

_  896 Ibid._ p. 162.

  897 F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855),
      ii. pp. 232 _sq._, § 426; W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und
      Feldkulte_, p. 162.

  898 F. Panzer, _op. cit._ ii. pp. 228 _sq._, § 422; W. Mannhardt,
      _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 163; _Bavaria, Landes- und
      Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, iii. (Munich, 1865) p. 344.

  899 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 163.

  900 E. H. Meyer, _Badisches Volksleben_ (Strasburg, 1900), p. 428.

  901 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 164.

_  902 Ibid._ p. 164.

  903 E. H. Meyer, _Badisches Volksleben_ (Strasburg, 1900), p. 428.

  904 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, pp. 164 _sq._

_  905 Ibid._ p. 165.

 M242 The corn-spirit as the Cripple Goat in Skye.

  906 J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 24, Bohn’s edition, quoting
      _The Gentleman’s Magazine_ for February, 1795, p. 124; W. Mannhardt,
      _op. cit._ p. 165.

  907 R. C. Maclagan, “Notes on folk-lore objects collected in
      Argyleshire,” _Folk-lore_, vi. (1895) p. 151, from information given
      by Mrs. C. Nicholson.

  908 Above, p. 232.

  909 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 165.

 M243 The corn-spirit killed as a goat on the harvest-field.

  910 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 166; _id._, _Mythologische Forschungen_,
      p. 185.

  911 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 166.

  912 Above, p. 281.

  913 J. B. Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” _Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen
      Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. Heft 2 (Dorpat, 1872), p. 107.

  914 G. A. Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen
      Siebenbürgens_ (Hermannstadt, 1880), p. 19. Compare W. Mannhardt,
      _Baumkultus_, pp. 482 _sqq._

 M244 The corn-spirit in the form of a goat supposed to lurk among the
      corn in the barn, till he is expelled by the flail at threshing.

  915 E. L. Meyer, _Badisches Volksleben_ (Strasburg, 1900), p. 436.

  916 F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. pp. 225 _sqq._, §
      421; W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, pp. 167 _sq._

  917 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 168.

  918 A. John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen_
      (Prague, 1905), p. 194.

  919 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_
      (Stuttgart, 1852), p. 445, § 162; W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und
      Feldkulte_, p. 168.

 M245 The corn-spirit in the form of a goat passed on to a neighbour who
      has not finished his threshing.

  920 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 169.

  921 F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. pp. 224 _sq._, §
      420; W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 169.

  922 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 169.

 M246 The corn-spirit in goat form killed at threshing.

_  923 Ibid._ p. 170.

_  924 Ibid._ p. 170. As to the custom of leaving a little corn on the
      field for the subsistence of the corn-spirit, see above, pp. 231
      _sqq._

 M247 Old Prussian custom of killing a goat at sowing.

  925 M. Praetorius, _Deliciae Prussicae_ (Berlin, 1871), pp. 23 _sq._; W.
      Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 394 _sq._

  926 A. C. Kruijt, “Eenige ethnografische aanteekeningen omtrent de
      Toboengkoe en de Tomori,” _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche
      Zendelinggenootschap_, xliv. (1900) p. 241.

 M248 The corn-spirit in the form of a bull running through the corn or
      lying in it. The corn-spirit as a bull, ox, or cow at harvest.

  927 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 58.

_  928 Ibid._

_  929 Ibid._ p. 62.

  930 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 59.

  931 Above, p. 275.

  932 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 59.

  933 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_
      (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 440 _sq._, §§ 151, 152, 153; F. Panzer,
      _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. p. 234, § 428; W. Mannhardt,
      _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 59.

  934 F. Panzer, _op. cit._ ii. p. 233, § 427; W. Mannhardt,
      _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 59.

  935 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 59 _sq._

_  936 Ibid._ p. 58.

  937 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 58 _sq._

 M249 The corn-spirit in the form of a bull or ox killed at the close of
      the reaping.

_  938 Ibid._ p. 60.

 M250 The corn-spirit as a bull or cow at threshing.

  939 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, pp.
      444 _sq._, § 162; W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 61.

  940 F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. p. 233, § 427.

  941 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 61 _sq._

_  942 Ibid._ p. 62.

_  943 Ibid._ p. 62.

  944 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, pp.
      445 _sq._, § 163.

 M251 The corn-spirit in the form of a bull supposed to be killed at
      threshing.

  945 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 60.

  946 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 62.

 M252 The corn-spirit as a calf at harvest or in spring.

  947 Above, pp. 150 _sq._

  948 Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la France_
      (Paris, 1875), ii. 135.

  949 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 62: “_Il fait le
      veau._”

_  950 Ibid._

_  951 Ibid._ p. 63.

 M253 The corn-spirit as a horse or mare running through the corn. “Crying
      the Mare” in Hertfordshire and Shropshire.

_  952 Ibid._ p. 167.

  953 E. H. Meyer, _Badisches Volksleben_ (Strasburg, 1900), p. 428.

  954 J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 24, Bohn’s edition.

  955 C. F. Burne and G. F. Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_ (London,
      1883), pp. 373 _sq._

 M254 The corn-spirit as a horse in France.

  956 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 167. We may compare
      the Scotch custom of giving the last sheaf to a horse or mare to
      eat. See above, pp. 141, 156, 158, 160 _sq._, 162.

  957 Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la France_
      (Paris, 1875), ii. 133; W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_,
      pp. 167 _sq._ We have seen (above, p. 267) that in South
      Pembrokeshire the man who cut the “Neck” used to be “shod,” that is,
      to have the soles of his feet severely beaten with sods. Perhaps he
      was thus treated as representing the corn-spirit in the form of a
      horse.

 M255 The corn-spirit as a quail. The rice-spirit as a blue bird. The
      rice-spirit as a quail.

  958 G. A. Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen
      Siebenbürgens_ (Hermannstadt, 1880), p. 21.

  959 A. Peter, _Völksthumliches aus Österreichisch-Schlesien_ (Troppau,
      1865-1867), ii. 268.

  960 J. Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Condé-sur-Noireau,
      1883-1887), ii. 240.

  961 A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volks aberglaube_2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 189,
      § 277; Chr. Schneller, _Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol_
      (Innsbruck, 1867), p. 238; Rev. Ch. Swainson, _The Folk Lore and
      Provincial Names of British Birds_ (London, 1886), p. 173.

  962 Alfred Newton, _Dictionary of Birds_, New Edition (London,
      1893-1896), p. 755.

  963 A. C. Kruijt, “Eenige ethnografische aanteekeningen omtrent de
      Toboengkoe en de Tomori,” _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche
      Zendelinggenootschap_, xliv. (1900) pp. 228, 229; _id._, “De
      rijstmoeder in den Indischen Archipel,” _Verslagen en Mededeelingen
      van der koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen_, Afdeeling
      Letterkunde, Vierde Reeks, v., part 3 (Amsterdam, 1903), pp. 374
      _sq._

 M256 The corn-spirit as a fox running through the corn or sitting in it.
      The corn-spirit as a fox at reaping the last corn. The corn-spirit
      as a fox at threshing. The Japanese rice-god associated with the
      fox.

  964 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 109 note 2.

  965 L. Pineau, _Folk-lore du Poitou_ (Paris, 1892), pp. 500 _sq._

  966 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 109 _sq._, note 2.

  967 J. F. L. Woeste, _Völksüberlieferungen in der Grafschaft Mark_
      (Iserlohn, 1848), p. 27; W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_,
      p. 110 note.

  968 Lafcadio Hearn, _Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan_ (London, 1894), ii.
      312 _sqq._; W. G. Aston, _Shinto_ (London, 1905), pp. 162 _sq._ At
      the festival of the Roman corn-goddess Ceres, celebrated on the
      nineteenth of April, foxes were allowed to run about with burning
      torches tied to their tails, and the custom was explained as a
      punishment inflicted on foxes because a fox had once in this way
      burned down the crops (Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 679 _sqq._). Samson is
      said to have burned the crops of the Philistines in a similar
      fashion (Judges xv. 4 _sq._). Whether the custom and the tradition
      are connected with the idea of the fox as an embodiment of the
      corn-spirit is doubtful. Compare W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische
      Forschungen_, pp. 108 _sq._; W. Warde Fowler, _Roman Festivals of
      the Period of the Republic_ (London, 1899), pp. 77-79.

 M257 The corn-spirit as a boar rushing through the corn. The corn-spirit
      as a boar or sow at reaping. The corn-spirit as a sow at threshing.

  969 A. Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_ (Vienna,
      1878), p. 213, § 4. So at Klepzig, in Anhalt (_Zeitschrift des
      Vereins für Volkskunde_, vii. (1897) p. 150).

  970 J. B. Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” _Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen
      Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. Heft 2 (Dorpat, 1872), p. 107; W.
      Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 187.

  971 A. Birlinger, _Aus Schwaben_ (Wiesbaden, 1874), ii. 328.

  972 F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855),
      ii. pp. 223, 224, §§ 417, 419.

  973 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 112.

  974 E. L. Meyer, _Badisches Volksleben_ (Strasburg, 1900), pp. 428, 436.

  975 E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebaüche aus Schwaben_
      (Stuttgart, 1852), p. 445, § 162.

  976 A. Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im Breisgau,
      1861-1862), ii. p. 425, § 379.

  977 F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. pp. 221-224, §§
      409, 410, 411, 412, 413, 414, 415, 418.

 M258 The corn-spirit as a pig at sowing.

  978 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 186 _sq._

  979 Above, p. 272; compare 268.

  980 Above, p. 298.

  981 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 187.

  982 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 187 _sq._; A. Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten
      und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_, pp. 189, 218; W. Kolbe, _Hessische
      Volks-Sitten und Gebräuche_ (Marburg, 1888), p. 35.

  983 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 188; W. R. S. Ralston,
      _Songs of the Russian People_ (London, 1872), p. 220.

 M259 The corn-spirit embodied in the Yule Boar of Scandinavia. The Yule
      straw in Sweden.

  984 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, pp. 197 _sq._; F.
      Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_, ii. 491; J. Jamieson,
      _Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, New Edition
      (Paisley, 1879-1882), vol. iii. pp. 206 _sq._, _s.v._ “Maiden”; Arv.
      Aug. Afzelius, _Volkssagen und Volkslieder aus Schwedens älterer und
      neuerer Zeit_, übersetzt von F. H. Ungewitter (Leipsic, 1842), i. 9.

  985 Above, p. 275.

  986 L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), pp. 169 _sq._,
      182. On Christmas night children sleep on a bed of the Yule straw
      (_ibid._ p. 177).

  987 U. Jahn, _Die deutschen Opfergebräuche_ (Breslau, 1884), p. 215.
      Compare _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 17, 27 _sq._

  988 A. A. Afzelius, _op. cit._ i. 31.

  989 A. A. Afzelius, _op. cit._ i. 9; L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_,
      pp. 181, 185.

 M260 The Christmas Boar among the Esthonians.

  990 J. B. Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” _Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen
      Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. Heft 2 (Dorpat, 1872), pp. 55 _sq._

  991 F. J. Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und äussern Leben der Ehsten_ (St.
      Petersburg, 1876), pp. 344, 485.

 M261 Sacramental character of the harvest-supper.

  992 Above, pp. 277 _sq._, 280, 281, 285, 290, 300, 301. In regard to the
      hare, the substitution of brandy for hare’s blood is probably
      modern.

 M262 Parallelism between the conceptions of the corn-spirit in human and
      animal forms.
 M263 The reason why the corn-spirit is thought to take the forms of so
      many animals may be that wild creatures are commonly penned by the
      advance of the reapers into the last patch of standing corn, which
      is usually regarded as the last refuge of the corn-spirit.

  993 W. Mannhardt, _Die Korndämonen_ (Berlin, 1868), p. 1.

 M264 Importance of the Pleiades in primitive calendars.

  994 R. Andree, “Die Pleiaden im Mythus und in ihrer Beziehung zum
      Jahresbeginn und Landbau,” _Globus_, lxiv. (1893) pp. 362-366.

 M265 Attention paid to the Pleiades by the Australian aborigines.

  995 Mr. McKellar, quoted by the Rev. W. Ridley, “Report on Australian
      Languages and Traditions,” _Journal of the Anthropological
      Institute_, ii. (1873) p. 279; _id._, _Kamilaroi_ (Sydney, 1875), p.
      138. Mr. McKellar’s evidence was given before a Select Committee of
      the Legislative Council of Victoria in 1858; from which we may
      perhaps infer that his statement refers especially to the tribes of
      Victoria or at all events of south-eastern Australia. It seems to be
      a common belief among the aborigines of central and south-eastern
      Australia that the Pleiades are women who once lived on earth but
      afterwards went up into the sky. See W. E. Stanbridge, in
      _Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London_, N.S. i. (1861)
      p. 302; P. Beveridge, “Of the Aborigines inhabiting the great
      Lacustrine and Riverine Depression of the Lower Murray,” etc.,
      _Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales_,
      xvii. (Sydney, 1884) p. 61; Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen,
      _Native Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1899), p. 566; _id._,
      _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1904), p. 628; A. W.
      Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_ (London, 1904), pp.
      429 _sq._ Some tribes of Victoria believed that the Pleiades were
      originally a queen and six of her attendants, but that the Crow
      (Waa) fell in love with the queen and ran away with her, and that
      since then the Pleiades have been only six in number. See James
      Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_ (Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide,
      1881), p. 100.

  996 J. Manning, “Notes on the Aborigines of New Holland,” _Journal and
      Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales_, xvi. (Sydney,
      1883) p. 168.

  997 James Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_, p. 75.

 M266 Attention paid to the Pleiades by the Indians of Paraguay and
      Brazil.

  998 M. Dobrizhoffer, _Historia de Abiponibus_ (Vienna, 1784), ii. 118.

  999 M. Dobrizhoffer, _op. cit._ ii. 77 _sq._, 101-105.

 1000 Pedro de Angelis, _Coleccion de Obras y Documentes relativos a la
      Historia antigua y moderna de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata_
      (Buenos Ayres, 1836-1837), iv. 15.

 1001 P. Lozano, _Descripcion chorographico del terreno, rios, arboles, y
      animales del Gran Chaco_ (Cordova, 1733). p. 67.

 1002 W. Barbrooke Grubb, _An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London,
      1911), p. 139.

 1003 Pedro de Angelis, _op. cit._ iv. 14.

 1004 Th. Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, iii. (Leipsic, 1862) p.
      418, referring to Marcgrav de Liebstadt, _Hist. rerum naturalium
      Brasil_. (Amsterdam, 1648), viii. 5 and 12.

 1005 M. Dobrizhoffer, _Historia de Abiponibus_, ii. 104.

 1006 Th. Koch-Grünberg, _Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern_ (Berlin,
      1909-1910), ii. 203.

 1007 C. F. Phil. v. Martius, _Zur Ethnographie Amerika’s, zumal
      Brasiliens_ (Leipsic, 1867), p. 441.

 1008 Carl Teschauer, S.J., “Mythen und alte Volkssagen aus Brasilien,”
      _Anthropos_, i. (1906) p. 736.

 1009 J. Gumilla, _Histoire Naturelle et Civile et Géographique de
      l’Orenoque_ (Avignon, 1758), iii. 254 _sq._

 M267 Attention paid to the Pleiades by the Indians of Peru and Mexico.

 1010 E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_, i. (Oxford,
      1892) p. 492.

 1011 P. J. de Arriaga, _Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Piru_ (Lima,
      1621), pp. 11, 29 _sq._ According to Arriaga, the Peruvian name for
      the Pleiades is _Oncoy_.

 1012 Garcilasso de la Vega, _First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the
      Yncas_, translated by (Sir) Clements R. Markham (London, 1869-1871,
      Hakluyt Society), i. 275. Compare J. de Acosta, _Natural and Moral
      History of the Indies_ (London, 1880, Hakluyt Society), ii. 304.

 1013 E. Seler, _Alt-Mexikanische Studien_, ii. (Berlin, 1899) pp. 166
      _sq._, referring to Petrus Martyr, _De nuper sub D. Carolo repertis
      insulis_ (Basileae, 1521), p. 15.

 1014 B. de Sahagun, _Histoire Générale des choses de la Nouvelle Espagne_
      (Paris, 1880), pp. 288 _sq._, 489 _sqq._; A. de Herrera, _General
      History of the Vast Continent and Islands of America_, translated by
      Capt. J. Stevens (London, 1725-1726), iii. 222; F. S. Clavigero,
      _History of Mexico_, translated by C. Cullen (London, 1807), i. 315
      _sq._; J. G. Müller, _Geschichte der amerikanischen Urreligionen_
      (Bâle, 1867), pp. 519 _sq._; H. H. Bancroft, _The Native Races of
      the Pacific States of North America_ (London, 1875-1876), iii.
      393-395.

 M268 Attention paid to the Pleiades by the North American Indians.

 1015 Jean l’Heureux, “Ethnological Notes on the Astronomical Customs and
      Religious Ideas of the Chokitapia or Blackfeet Indians,” _Journal of
      the Anthropological Institute_, xv. (1886) pp. 301-303.

 1016 Walter McClintock, _The Old North Trail_ (London, 1910), p. 490.

 1017 J. Walter Fewkes, “The Tusayan New Fire Ceremony,” _Proceedings of
      the Boston Society of Natural History_, xxvi. (1895) p. 453.

 M269 Attention paid to the Pleiades by the Polynesians.

 1018 Rev. W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, Second Edition (London,
      1832-1836), i. 87.

 1019 Rev. W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_ (London,
      1876), p. 43.

 1020 Rev. W. W. Gill, _op. cit._ p. 317, compare p. 44.

 1021 G. Turner, _Samoa_ (London, 1884), p. 279.

 1022 E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_,
      Second Edition (London, 1856), p. 219.

_ 1023 The United States Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology_,
      by Horatio Hale (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 170; E. Tregear,
      _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_ (Wellington, N.Z., 1891),
      p. 226.

 M270 Attention paid to the Pleiades by the Melanesians.

 1024 Rev. R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), p. 348. In
      the island of Florida the Pleiades are called _togo ni samu_, “the
      company of maidens” (_op. cit._ p. 349).

 1025 H. B. Guppy, _The Solomon Islands and their Natives_ (London, 1887),
      p. 56.

 M271 Attention paid to the Pleiades by the natives of New Guinea and the
      Indian Archipelago.

 1026 A. C. Haddon, “Legends from Torres Straits,” _Folk-lore_, i. (1890)
      p. 195. We may conjecture that the “new yam time” means the time for
      planting yams.

 1027 R. Neuhauss, _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_ (Berlin, 1911), pp. 159, 431 _sq._

 1028 A. F. van Spreeuwenberg, “Een blik op de Minahassa,” _Tijdschrift
      voor Neerlands Indië_, Vierde Deel (Batavia, 1845), p. 316; J. G. F.
      Riedel, “De landschappen Holontalo, Limoeto, Bone, Boalemo, en
      Kattinggola, of Andagile,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en
      Volkenkunde_, xix. (1869) p. 140; _id._, in _Zeitschrift für
      Ethnologie_, iii. (1871) p. 404.

 1029 Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, Second
      Edition (London, 1863), i. 214. Compare H. Low, _Sarawak_ (London,
      1848), p. 251.

 1030 Dr. Charles Hose, “Various Modes of computing the Time for Planting
      among the Races of Borneo,” _Journal of the Straits Branch of the
      Royal Asiatic Society_, No. 42 (Singapore, 1905), pp. 1 _sq._
      Compare Charles Brooke, _Ten Years in Sarawak_ (London, 1866), i.
      59; Rev. J. Perham, “Sea Dyak Religion,” _Journal of the Straits
      Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, No. 10 (Singapore, 1883), p.
      229.

 1031 Dr. Charles Hose, _op. cit._ p. 4. Compare _id._, “The Natives of
      Borneo,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxiii. (1894)
      pp. 168 _sq._, where the writer tells us that the Kayans and many
      other races in Borneo sow the rice when the Pleiades appear just
      above the horizon at daybreak, though the Kayans more usually
      determine the time for sowing by observation of the sun. As to the
      Kayan mode of determining the time for sowing by the length of
      shadow cast by an upright pole, see also W. Kükenthal,
      _Forschungsreise in den Molukken und in Borneo_ (Frankfort, 1896),
      pp. 292 _sq._ Some Dyaks employ a species of sun-dial for dating the
      twelve months of the year. See H. E. D. Engelhaard, “Aanteekeningen
      betreffende de Kindjin Dajaks in het Landschap Baloengan,”
      _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xxxix.
      (1897) pp. 484-486.

 1032 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_ (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 160.

 1033 F. K. Ginzel, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
      Chronologie_, i. (Leipsic, 1906) p. 424.

 1034 R. Friederich, “Voorloopig Verslag van het eiland Bali,”
      _Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en
      Wetenschappen_, xxiii. (1849) p. 49.

 1035 J. T. Nieuwenhuisen en H. C. B. von Rosenberg, “Verslag omtrent het
      eiland Nias en deszelfs Bewoners,” _Verhandelingen van het
      Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen_, xxx.
      (Batavia, 1863) p. 119.

 1036 W. Marsden, _History of Sumatra_, Third Edition (London, 1811), p.
      71.

 1037 F. K. Ginzel, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
      Chronologie_, i. (Leipsic, 1906) p. 428.

 M272 Attention paid to the Pleiades by the natives of Africa, Greeks, and
      Romans.

 1038 S. Krascheninnikow, _Beschreibung des Landes Kamtschatka_ (Lemgo,
      1766), p. 217. The three stars are probably the Belt.

 1039 See above, vol. i. p. 116.

 1040 Rev. J. Macdonald, _Light in Africa_, Second Edition (London, 1890),
      pp. 194 _sq._ Compare J. Sechefo, “The Twelve Lunar Months among the
      Basuto,” _Anthropos_, iv. (1909) p. 931.

 1041 G. McCall Theal, _Records of South-Eastern Africa_, vii. (1901) p.
      418. Compare G. Thompson, _Travels and Adventures in Southern
      Africa_ (London, 1827), ii. 359.

 1042 Rev. H. Callaway, _The Religious System of the Amazulu_, Part iii.
      (London, etc., 1870), p. 397.

 1043 R. Moffat, _Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa_
      (London, 1842), pp. 337 _sq._

 1044 Stephen Kay, _Travels and Researches in Caffraria_ (London, 1833),
      p. 273.

 1045 Gustav Fritsch, _Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika’s_ (Breslau, 1872). p.
      340.

 1046 Theophilus Hahn, _Tsuni-Goam, the Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi_
      (London, 1881), p. 43, quoting the Moravian missionary George
      Schmidt, who was sent out to the Cape of Good Hope in 1737.

 1047 H. S. Stannus, “Notes on some Tribes of British Central Africa,”
      _Journal of the R. Anthropological Institute_, xl. (1910) p. 289.

 1048 M. Merker, _Die Masai_ (Berlin, 1894), pp. 155, 198.

 1049 May.

 1050 June-August.

 1051 A. C. Hollis, _The Masai_ (Oxford, 1905), p. 275, compare p. 333.
      The “season of showers” seems to be a name for the dry season (June,
      July, August), when rain falls only occasionally; it is thus
      distinguished from the rainy season of winter, which begins after
      the reappearance of the Pleiades in September.

 1052 A. C. Hollis, _The Masai_, pp. 275 _sq._

 1053 A. C. Hollis, _The Nandi_ (Oxford, 1909), p. 100.

 1054 C. W. Hobley, “Further Researches into Kikuyu and Kamba Religious
      Beliefs and Customs,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological
      Institute_, xli. (1911) p. 442.

 1055 Thomas Winterbottom, _An Account of the Native Africans in the
      Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone_ (London, 1803), p. 48.

 1056 Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 383 _sq._, 615 _sqq._ See above, pp. 45,
      48.

 1057 Aratus, _Phaenomena_, 264-267; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ ii. 123, 125,
      xviii. 280, “_Vergiliae privatim attinent ad fructus, ut quarum
      exortu aestas incipiat, occasu hiems, semenstri spatio intra se
      messes vindemiasque et omnium maturitatem conplexae._” Compare L.
      Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_
      (Berlin, 1825-1826), i. 241 _sq._ Pliny dated the rising of the
      Pleiades on the 10th of May and their setting on the 11th of
      November (_Nat. Hist._ ii. 123, 125).

 1058 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xviii. 49 and 223.

 M273 The widespread association of the Pleiades with agriculture seems to
      be based on the coincidence of their rising or setting with the
      commencement of the rainy season.

 1059 See above, p. 307.

 1060 Geminus, _Elementa Astronomiae_, xvii. 10 _sqq._ If “the sweet
      influences of the Pleiades” in the Authorised Version of the English
      Bible were an exact translation of the corresponding Hebrew words in
      Job xxxviii. 31, we should naturally explain the “sweet influences”
      by the belief that the autumnal setting of the constellation is the
      cause of rain. But the rendering of the words is doubtful; it is not
      even certain that the constellation referred to is the Pleiades. See
      the commentaries of A. B. Davidson and Professor A. S. Peak on the
      passage. The Revised English Version translates the words in
      question “the cluster of the Pleiades.” Compare H. Grimme, _Das
      israelitische Pfingstfest und der Plejadenkult_ (Paderborn, 1907),
      pp. 61 _sqq._