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.