[Sidenote: The succession to the Latin kingshipmay sometimes have been

decided by single combat.] These legends of the violent ends of the

Roman kings suggest that the contest by which they gained the throne may

sometimes have been a mortal combat rather than a race. If that were so,

the analogy which we have traced between Rome and Nemi would be still

closer. At both places the sacred kings, the living representatives of

the godhead, would thus be liable to suffer deposition and death at the

hand of any resolute man who could prove his divine right to the holy

office by the strong arm and the sharp sword. It would not be surprising

if among the early Latins the claim to the kingdom should often have

been settled by single combat; for down to historical times the Umbrians

regularly submitted their private disputes to the ordeal of battle, and

he who cut his adversary’s throat was thought thereby to have proved the

justice of his cause beyond the reach of cavil.[1040] “Any one who

remembers how in the forests of Westphalia the _Femgericht_ set the

modern civil law at defiance down into the eighteenth century, and how

in the mountains of Corsica and Sardinia blood-revenge has persisted and

persists to our own days, will not wonder that hardly a century after

the union of Italy the Roman legislation had not yet succeeded in

putting down the last relics of this ancient Italian or rather

Indo-European mode of doing justice in the nests of the

Apennines.”[1041]

[Sidenote: Combats for the kingdom in Africa.] A parallel to what I

conceive to have been the rule of the old Latin kingship is furnished by

a West African custom of to-day. When the Maluango or king of Loango,

who is deemed the representative of God on earth, has been elected, he

has to take his stand at _Nkumbi_, a large tree near the entrance to his

sacred ground. Here, encouraged by one of his ministers, he must fight

all rivals who present themselves to dispute his right to the

throne.[1042] This is one of the many instances in which the rites and

legends of ancient Italy are illustrated by the practice of modern

Africa. Similarly among the Banyoro of Central Africa, whose king had to

take his life with his own hand whenever his health and strength began

to fail, the succession to the throne was determined by a mortal combat

among the claimants, who fought till only one of them was left

alive.[1043] Even in England a relic of a similar custom survived till

lately in the coronation ceremony, at which a champion used to throw

down his glove and challenge to mortal combat all who disputed the

king’s right to the crown. The ceremony was witnessed by Pepys at the

coronation of Charles the Second.[1044]

[Sidenote: In Greece and Italy kings probably personated Cronus and

Saturn, the god of the seed, before they personated Zeus and Jupiter,

the god of the oak.] In the foregoing enquiry we have found reason to

suppose that the Roman kings personated not only Jupiter the god of the

oak, but Saturn the god of the seed and perhaps also the god of the

fig-tree. The question naturally arises, Did they do so simultaneously

or successively? In other words, did the same king regularly represent

the oak-god at one season of the year, the seed-god at another, and the

fig-god at a third? or were there separate dynasties of oak-kings,

seed-kings, and fig-kings, who belonged perhaps to different stocks and

reigned at different times? The evidence does not allow us to answer

these questions definitely. But tradition certainly points to the

conclusion that in Latium and perhaps in Italy generally the seed-god

Saturn was an older deity than the oak-god Jupiter, just as in Greece

Cronus appears to have preceded Zeus. Perhaps Saturn and Cronus were the

gods of an old indigenous and agricultural people; while Jupiter and

Zeus were the divinities of a ruder invading race, which swarmed down

into Italy and Greece from the forests of central Europe, bringing their

wild woodland deities to dwell in more fertile lands, under softer

skies, side by side with the gods of the corn and the vine, the olive

and the fig. If that was so, we may suppose that before the irruption of

these northern barbarians the old kings of Greece and Italy personated

the gods of the fat field and fruitful orchard, and that it was not till

after the conquest that their successors learned to pose as the god of

the verdant oak and the thundering sky. However, on questions so obscure

we must be content to suspend our judgment. It is unlikely that the

student’s search-light will ever pierce the mists that hang over these

remote ages. All that we can do is to follow the lines of evidence

backward as far as they can be traced, till, after growing fainter and

fainter, they are lost altogether in the darkness.

Footnote 866:

J. Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii. 2nd Ed., 237, 321; C.

Julian, in Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques

et romaines_, ii. 1173. As to Vesta and the Vestals, see above, vol.

i. pp. 13 _sq._

Footnote 867:

C. Julian, _l.c._

Footnote 868:

See above, p. 186 note 1.

Footnote 869:

Above, pp. 261-263.

Footnote 870:

Diodorus Siculus, xvii. 114.

Footnote 871:

Thus in some African tribes the household fire is put out after a

death, and afterwards relit by the friction of sticks (Sir H. H.

Johnston, _British Central Africa_, p. 439; L. Concradt, “Die Ngumbu

in Südkamerun,” _Globus_, lxxxi, (1902) p. 352). In Laos the fire on

the hearth is extinguished after a death and the ashes are scattered;

afterwards a new fire is obtained from a neighbour (Tournier, _Notice

sur le Laos français_, p. 68). A custom of the same sort is observed

in Burma, but there the new fire must be bought (C. J. F. S. Forbes,

_British Burma_, p. 94). Among the Miris of Assam the new fire is made

by the widow or widower (W. H. Furness, in _Journal of the Anthrop.

Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 462). In Armenia it is made by flint and

steel (M. Abeghian, _Der armenische Volksglaube_, p. 71). In Argos

fire was extinguished after a death, and fresh fire obtained from a

neighbour (Plutarch, _Quaest. Graec._ 24). In the Highlands of

Scotland all fires were put out in a house where there was a corpse

(Pennant’s “Tour in Scotland,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_,

iii. 49). Amongst the Bogos of East Africa no fire may be lit in a

house after a death until the body has been carried out (W. Munzinger,

_Sitten und Recht der Bogos_, p. 67). In the Pelew Islands, when a

death has taken place, fire is transferred from the house to a shed

erected beside it (J. S. Kubary, “Die Todtenbestattung auf den

Pelau-Inseln,” _Original-Mittheilungen aus der Ethnologischen

Abtheilung der Königlichen Museen zu Berlin_, i. 7). In the Marquesas

Islands fires were extinguished after a death (Vincendon-Dumoulin et

Desgraz, _Iles Marquises_, p. 251). Among the Indians of Peru and the

Moors of Algiers no fire might be lighted for several days in a house

where a death had occurred (Cieza de Leon, _Travels_, Markham’s

translation, p. 366; Dapper, _Description de l’Afrique_, p. 176). The

same custom is reported of the Mohammedans of India (Mandelsloe, in J.

Harris’s _Voyages and Travels_, i. (London, 1744) p. 770). In the East

Indian island of Wetter no fire may burn in a house for three days

after a death, and according to Bastian the reason is the one given in

the text, to wit, a fear that the ghost might fall into it and hurt

himself (A. Bastian, _Indonesien_, ii. 60). For more evidence, see my

article “On certain Burial Customs,” _Journal of the Anthropological

Institute_, xv. (1886) p. 90.

Footnote 872:

For the list of the Alban kings see Livy, i. 3. 5-11; Ovid, _Fasti_,

iv. 39-56; _id._, _Metam._ xiv. 609 _sqq._; Dionysius Halicarnasensis,

_Antiquit. Rom._ i. 70 _sq._; Eusebius, _Chronic._ bk. i. vol. i.

coll. 273, 275, 285, 287, 289, 291, ed. A. Schoene; Diodorus Siculus,

vii. 3rd ed. L. Dindorf; Sextus Aurelius Victor, _Origo gentis

Romanae_, 17-19; Zonaras, _Annales_, vii. 1.

Footnote 873:

See B. G. Niebuhr, _History of Rome_, i. 205-207; A. Schwegler,

_Römische Geschichte_, i. 339, 342-345. However, Niebuhr admits that

some of the names may have been taken from older legends.

Footnote 874:

H. M. Stanley, _Through the Dark Continent_ (London, 1878), i. 380; C.

T. Wilson and R. W. Felkin, _Uganda and the Egyptian Soudan_ (London,

1882), i. 197; Fr. Stuhlman, _Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika_

(Berlin, 1894), pp. 192 _sq._; J. Roscoe, “Farther Notes on the

Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” _Journal of the Anthropological

Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 25, with plates i. and ii.; Sir Harry

Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_, ii. 681 _sq._

Footnote 875:

Romulus and Tatius reigned for a time together; after Romulus the

kings were, in order of succession, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius,

Ancus Marcius, the elder Tarquin, Servius Tullius, and Tarquin the

Proud.

Footnote 876:

See A. Schwegler, _Römische Geschichte_, i. 579 _sq._

Footnote 877:

According to one account, Romulus had a son and a daughter (Plutarch,

_Romulus_, 14). Some held that Numa had four sons (Plutarch, _Numa_,

21). Ancus Marcius left two sons (Livy, i. 35. 1, i. 40; Dionysius

Halicarnasensis, _Ant. Rom._ iii. 72 _sq._, iv. 34. 3). Tarquin the

Elder left two sons or grandsons (Livy, i. 46; Dionysius Halic., _Ant.

Rom._ iv. 6 _sq._ iv. 28).

Footnote 878:

Pompilia, the mother of Ancus Marcius, was a daughter of Numa. See

Cicero, _De re publica_, ii. 18. 33; Livy, i. 32. 1; Dionysius

Halicarnasensis, _Ant. Rom._ ii. 76. 5, iii. 35. 3, iii. 36. 2;

Plutarch, _Numa_, 21.

Footnote 879:

Numa married Tatia, the daughter of Tatius (Plutarch, _Numa_, 3 and

21); Servius Tullius married the daughter of the elder Tarquin (Livy,

i. 39. 4); and Tarquin the Proud married Tullia the daughter of

Servius Tullius (Livy, i. 42. 1, i. 46. 5).

Footnote 880:

Numa was a Sabine from Cures (Livy, i. 18; Plutarch, _Numa_, 3;

Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Ant. Rom._ ii. 58); Servius Tullius,

according to the common account, was the son of Ocrisia, a slave woman

of Corniculum (Livy, i. 39. 5; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Ant. Rom._

iv. 1.), but according to another account he was an Etruscan (see

above, p. 196 note); and Tarquin the Proud was a son of the elder

Tarquin, who was an Etruscan from Tarquinii (Livy, i. 34; Cicero, _De

re publica_, ii. 19 _sq._, §§ 34 _sq._). The foreign birth of their

kings naturally struck the Romans themselves. See the speech put by

Livy (i. 35. 3), in the mouth of the elder Tarquin: _“Se non rem novam

petere, quippe qui non primus, quod quisquam indignari mirarive

posset, sed tertius Romae peregrinus regnum adfectet; et Tatium non ex

peregrino solum sed etiam ex hoste regem factum, et Numam ignarum

urbis non petentem in regnum ultro accitum: se, ex quo sui potens

fuerit, Romam cum conjuge ac fortunis omnibus commigrasse._” And see a

passage in a speech actually spoken by the Emperor Claudius: “_Quondam

reges hanc tenuere urbem, nec tamen domesticis successoribus eam

tradere contigit. Supervenere alieni et quidem externi, ut Numa Romulo

successerit ex Sabinis veniens, vicinus quidem sed tunec externus_,”

etc. The speech is engraved on bronze tablets found at Lyons. See

Tacitus, ed. Baiter and Orelli, i. 2nd Ed., p. 342.

Footnote 881:

“In Ceylon, where the higher and lower polyandry co-exist, marriage is

of two sorts—Deega or Beena—according as the wife goes to live in the

house and village of her husbands, or as the husband or husbands come

to live with her in or near the house of her birth” (J. F. McLennan,

_Studies in Ancient History_ (London, 1886), p. 101).

Footnote 882:

The system of mother-kin, that is, of tracing descent through females

instead of through males, is often called the matriarchate. But this

term is inappropriate and misleading, as it implies that under the

system in question the women govern the men. Even when the so-called

matriarchate regulates the descent of the kingdom, this does not mean

that the women of the royal family reign; it only means that they are

the channel through which the kingship is transmitted to their

husbands or sons.

Footnote 883:

Ancient writers repeatedly speak of the uncertainty as to the fathers

of the Roman kings. See Livy, i. 4. 2; Dionysius Halicarnasensis,

_Ant. Rom._ ii. 2. 3; Cicero, _De re publica_, ii. 18. 33; Seneca,

_Epist._ cviii. 30; Aelian, _Var. Hist._ xiv. 36.

Footnote 884:

Ovid, _Fasti_, vi. 773-784; Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi. 17. Compare

L. Preller, _Römische Mythologie_, 3rd Ed., ii. 180 _sq._

Footnote 885:

See _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, iii. 266 _sqq._, 328 _sqq._

Footnote 886:

See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 203 _sqq._; _The

Golden Bough_, Second Edition, iii. 318 _sq._

Footnote 887:

Plutarch, _Numa_, 3.

Footnote 888:

T. E. Bowdich, _Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee_, New

Edition (London, 1873), pp. 185, 204 _sq._; A. B. Ellis, _The

Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, pp. 287, 297 _sq._; _id._,

_The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, p. 187.

Footnote 889:

J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,”

_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) pp. 36, 67.

In Benin “the legitimate daughters of a king did not _marry_ any one,

but bestowed their favours as they pleased.” (Mr. C. Punch, in H. Ling

Roth’s _Great Benin_ (Halifax, England, 1903), p. 37).

Footnote 890:

C. T. Wilson and R. W. Felkin, _Uganda and the Egyptian Soudan_

(London, 1882), i. 200; J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and

Customs of the Baganda,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,

xxxii. (1902) p. 67.

Footnote 891:

J. Roscoe, _op. cit._ pp. 27, 62. Mr. Roscoe says: “The royal family

traces its pedigree through the maternal clan, but the nation through

the paternal clan.” But he here refers to the descent of the totem

only. That the throne descends from father to son is proved by the

genealogical tables which he gives (Plates I. and II.).

Footnote 892:

Proyart’s “History of Loango,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_,

xvi. 570, 579 _sq._; L. Degrandpré, _Voyage à la côte occidentale

d’Afrique_ (Paris, 1801), pp. 110-114; A. Bastian, _Die deutsche

Expedition an der Loango Küste_, i. 197 _sqq._ Time seems not to have

mitigated the lot of these unhappy prince consorts. See R. E. Dennett,

_At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_ (London, 1906), pp. 36 _sq._,

134. Mr. Dennett says that the husband of a princess is virtually her

slave and may be put to death by her. All the sisters of the King of

Loango enjoy these arbitrary rights over their husbands, and the

offspring of any of them may become king.

Footnote 893:

Father Guillemé, “Au Bengouéolo,” _Missions Catholiques_, xxxiv.

(1902) p. 16. The writer visited the state and had an interview with

the queen, a woman of gigantic stature, wearing many amulets.

Footnote 894:

Pausanias, i. 2. 6.

Footnote 895:

Pausanias, ii. 29. 4. I have to thank Mr. H. M. Chadwick for pointing

out the following Greek and Swedish parallels to what I conceive to

have been the Latin practice.

Footnote 896:

Diodorus Siculus, iv. 72. 7. According to Apollodorus (iii. 12. 7),

Cychreus, King of Salamis, died childless, and bequeathed his kingdom

to Telamon.

Footnote 897:

J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on Lycophron_, 450. Compare Pausanias, ii. 29. 4.

Footnote 898:

Apollodorus, iii. 13. 1. According to Diodorus Siculus (iv. 72. 6),

the king of Phthia was childless, and bequeathed his kingdom to

Peleus.

Footnote 899:

Apollodorus, iii. 13. 8; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 96.

Footnote 900:

Pausanias, i. 11. 1 _sq._; Justin, xvii. 3.

Footnote 901:

Apollodorus, i. 8. 5.

Footnote 902:

Antoninus Liberalis, _Transform._ 37; Ovid, _Metam._ xiv. 459 _sq._,

510 _sq._ Compare Virgil, _Aen._ xi. 243 _sqq._

Footnote 903:

Diodorus, iv. 73; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 82-84; Servius, on Virgil,

_Georg._ iii. 7.

Footnote 904:

Thucydides, i. 9; Strabo, viii. 6. 19, p. 377.

Footnote 905:

Apollodorus, iii. 10. 8.

Footnote 906:

Schol. on Euripides, _Orestes_, 46; Pindar, _Pyth._ xi. 31 _sq._;

Pausanias, iii. 19. 6.

Footnote 907:

H. M. Chadwick, _The Origin of the English Nation_ (Cambridge, 1907),

pp. 332 _sq._ In treating of the succession to the kingdom in

Scandinavia, the late K. Maurer, one of the highest authorities on old

Norse law, also remarked that “some ancient authorities

(_Quellenberichte_) profess to know of a certain right of succession

accorded to women, in virtue of which under certain circumstances,

though they could not themselves succeed to the kingdom, they

nevertheless could convey it to their husbands.” And he cites a number

of instances, how one king (Eysteinn Halfdanarson) succeeded his

father-in-law (Eirikr Agnarsson) on the throne; how another (Gudrodr

Halfdanarson) received with his wife Alfhildr a portion of her

father’s kingdom; and so on. See K. Maurer, _Vorlesungen über

altnordische Rechtsgeschichte_, i. (Leipsic, 1907) pp. 233 _sq._

Footnote 908:

G. W. Dasent, _Popular Tales from the Norse_, pp. 131 _sqq._; S.

Grundtvig, _Dänische Volksmärchen_, First Series (Leipsic, 1878), pp.

285 _sqq._ (Leo’s German translation); Cavallius und Stephens,

_Schwedische Volkssagen und Märchen_, No. 4, pp. 62 _sqq._

(Oberleitner’s German translation); Grimm, _Household Tales_, No. 60;

Kuhn und Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_, pp.

340 _sqq._; J. W. Wolf, _Deutsche Hausmärchen_, pp. 372 _sqq._; Philo

vom Walde, _Schlesien in Sage und Brauch_, pp. 81 _sqq._; I. V.

Zingerle, _Kinder- und Hausmärchen aus Tirol_, No. 8, pp. 35 _sqq._

No. 35, pp. 178 _sqq._; J. Haltrich, _Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem

Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen_, 4th ed., No. 15, pp. 103 _sqq._; J. F.

Campbell, _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_, No. 4, vol. i. pp. 77

_sqq._; A. Schleicher, _Litauische Märchen, Sprichwörte, Rätsel und

Lieder_, pp. 57 _sqq._; A. Leskien und K. Brugmann, _Litauische

Volkslieder und Märchen_, No. 14, pp. 404 _sqq._; Basile,

_Pentamerone_, First day, seventh tale, vol. i. pp. 97 _sqq._

(Liebrecht’s German translation); E. Legrand, _Contes populaires

grecques_, pp. 169 _sqq._; J. G. von Hahn, _Griechische und

albanesische Märchen_, No. 98, vol. ii. pp. 114 _sq._; A. und A.

Schott, _Walachische Maehrchen_, No. 10, pp. 140 _sqq._; W. Webster,

_Basque Legends_, pp. 36-38; A. Schiefner, _Awarische Texte_ (St.

Petersburg, 1873), No. 2, pp. 21 _sqq._; J. Rivière, _Contes

populaires de la Kabylie_, pp. 195-197.

Footnote 909:

Saxo Grammaticus, _Historia Danica_, bk. iv. p. 126 (Elton’s

translation). The passage occurs on p. 158 of P. E. Müller’s edition

of Saxo.

Footnote 910:

The story of Hamlet (Amleth) is told, in a striking form, by Saxo

Grammaticus in the third and fourth books of his history. Mr. H. M.

Chadwick tells me that Hamlet stands on the border-line between legend

and history. Hence the main outlines of his story may be correct.

Footnote 911:

Herodotus, i. 7-13.

Footnote 912:

Nicolaus Damascenus, vi. frag. 49, in _Fragmenta Historicorum

Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iii. 380.

Footnote 913:

Athenaeus, xii. 11, pp. 515 F-516 B; Apollodorus, ii. 6. 3; Diodorus

Siculus, iv. 31; Joannes Lydus, _De magistratibus_, iii. 64; Lucian,

_Dialogi deorum_, xiii. 2; Ovid, _Heroides_, ix. 55 _sqq._; Statius,

_Theb._ x. 646-649.

Footnote 914:

Athenaeus, _l.c._

Footnote 915:

Herodotus, i. 93; Clearchus, quoted by Athenaeus, xii. 11, p. 516 A B.

The Armenians also prostituted their daughters before marriage,

dedicating them for a long time to the profligate worship of the

goddess Anaitis (Strabo, xi. 14. 16, p. 532 _sq._). The custom was

probably practised as a charm to secure the fertility of the earth as

well as of man and beast. See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition,

pp. 32 _sqq._

Footnote 916:

Herodotus, i. 7.

Footnote 917:

Clearchus, quoted by Athenaeus, xiii. 31, p. 573 A B.

Footnote 918:

See E. A. Freeman, _History of the Norman Conquest of England_, i. 3rd

Ed., 410-412, 733-737. I am indebted to my friend Mr. H. M. Chadwick

both for the fact and its explanation.

Footnote 919:

Procopius, _De bello Gothico_, iv. 20 (vol. ii. p. 593, ed. J. Haury).

This and the following cases of marriage with a stepmother are cited

by K. Weinhold, _Deutsche Frauen_ 2nd Ed., (Vienna, 1882), ii. 359

_sq._

Footnote 920:

Bede, _Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum_, ii. 5. 102; compare i.

27. 63.

Footnote 921:

Prudentius Trecensis, “Annales,” anno 858, in Pertz’s _Monumenta

Germaniae historica_, i. 451; Ingulfus, _Historia_, quoted _ibid._

Footnote 922:

This is in substance the view of Dr. W. E. Hearn (_The Aryan

House-hold_, pp. 150-155) and of Prof. B. Delbrück (“Das Mutterrecht

bei den Indogermanen,” _Preussische Jahrbücher_, lxxix. (1895) pp.

14-27).

Footnote 923:

Clearchus of Soli, quoted by Athenaeus, xiii. 2. p. 555 D; John of

Antioch, in _Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iv.

547; Charax of Pergamus _ib._ iii. 638; J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on

Lycophron_, 111; _id._, _Chiliades_, v. 650-665; Suidas, _s.v._

Κέκροψ; Justin, ii. 6. 7.

Footnote 924:

Ὁ μὲν οὖν ἀθηναῖος Σόλων ὁμοπατρίους ἐφεὶς ἄγεσθαι, τὰς ὁμομητρίους

ἐκώλυσεν, ὁ δὲ Λακεδαιμονίων νομοθέτης ἔμπαλιν, τὸν ἐπὶ ταῖς

ὁμογαστρίοις γάμον ἐπιτρέψας, τὸν πρὸς τὰς ὁμοπατρίους ἀπεῖπεν, Philo

Judaeus, _De specialibus legibus_, vol. ii. p. 303, ed. Th. Mangey.

See also Plutarch, _Themistocles_, 32; Cornelius Nepos, _Cimon_, 1;

Schol. on Aristophanes, _Clouds_, 1371; L. Beauchet, _Histoire du

droit privé de la République Athénienne_, i. (Paris, 1897) pp. 165

_sqq._ Compare Minucius Felix, _Octavius_, 31.

Footnote 925:

Polybius, xii. 5.

Footnote 926:

Strabo, xiii. 1. 40, pp. 600 _sq._; Plutarch, _De sera numinis

vindicta_, 12; and especially Lycophron, _Cassandra_, 1141 _sqq._,

with the scholia of J. Tzetzes, who refers to Timaeus and Callimachus

as his authorities.

Footnote 927:

Justin, xxi. 3. 1-6.

Footnote 928:

Strabo, iii. 4. 18.

Footnote 929:

Tacitus, _Germania_, 20. Compare L. Dargun, _Mutterrecht und Raubehe

und ihre Reste im germanischen Recht und Leben_ (Breslau, 1883), pp.

21 _sq._

Footnote 930:

A. Giraud-Teulon, _Les Origines du mariage et de la famille_, pp. 206

_sqq._; A. H. Post, _Afrikanische Jurisprudenz_, i. 13 _sqq._; Sir

Harry H. Johnston, _British Central Africa_, p. 471; A. B. Ellis, _The

Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, pp. 297 _sq._; _id._, _The

Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, pp. 207 _sqq._ Much more

evidence will be found in my _Totemism and Exogamy_.

Footnote 931:

R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 50, note 2.

Footnote 932:

Tacitus, _Germania_, 20.

Footnote 933:

A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, pp. 286 _sqq._

The _reipus_ or payment made on the remarriage of a widow is discussed

by L. Dargun, _op. cit._ pp. 141-152.

Footnote 934:

W. F. Skene held that the Picts were Celts. See his _Celtic Scotland_,

i. 194-227. On the other hand, H. Zimmer supposes them to have been

the pre-Celtic inhabitants of the British Islands. See his paper “Das

Mutterrecht der Pikten,” _Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für

Rechtsgeschichte_, xv. (1894) Romanistische Abtheilung, pp. 209 _sqq._

Footnote 935:

“_Cumque uxores Picti non habentes peterent a Scottis, ea solum

conditione dare consenserunt, ut ubi res perveniret in dubium, magis

de feminea regum prosapia quam de masculina regem sibi eligerent; quod

usque hodie apud Pictos constat esse servatum_,” Bede, _Historia

ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum_, ii. 1. 7.

Footnote 936:

W. F. Skene, _Celtic Scotland_, i. 232-235; J. F. McLennan, _Studies

in Ancient History_ (London, 1886), pp. 68-70; H. Zimmer, _loc. cit._

Footnote 937:

K. O. Müller, _Die Etrusker_ (Stuttgart, 1877), ii. 376 _sq._; J. J.

Bachofen, _Die Sage von Tanaquil_ (Heidelberg, 1870), pp. 282-290.

Footnote 938:

Θεόπομπος δ’ ἐν τῇ τεσσαρακοστῇ τρίτῃ τῶν ἱστοριῶν καὶ νόμον εἶναί

φησι παρὰ τοῖς Τυρρηνοῖς κοινὰς ὑπάρχειν τὰς γυναῖκας ... τρέφειν δὲ

τοὺς Τυρρηνοὺς πάντα τὰ γινόμενα παιδία, οὐκ εἰδότας ὅτου πάτρος ἐστὶν

ἕκαστον, Athenaeus, xii. 14, p. 517 D E.

Footnote 939:

“_Non enim hic, ubi ex Tusco modo Tute tibi indigne dotem quaeras

corpore_” (Plautus, _Cistellaria_, ii. 3. 20 _sq._).

Footnote 940:

Herodotus, i. 94; Strabo, v. 2. 2, p. 219; Tacitus, _Annals_, iv. 55;

Timaeus, cited by Tertullian, _De spectaculis_, 5; Festus, _s.v._

“Turannos,” p. 355, ed. C. O. Müller; Plutarch, _Romulus_, 2; Velleius

Paterculus, i. 1. 4; Justin, xx. 1. 7; Valerius Maximus, ii. 4. 4;

Servius, on Virgil, _Aen._ i. 67. On the other hand, Dionysius of

Halicarnassus held that the Etruscans were an indigenous Italian race,

differing from all other known peoples in language and customs (_Ant.

Rom._ i. 26-30). On this much-vexed question, see K. O. Müller, _Die

Etrusker_ (Stuttgart, 1877), i. 65 _sqq._; G. Dennis, _Cities and

Cemeteries of Etruria_, 3rd Ed., i. pp. xxxiii. _sqq._; F. Hommel,

_Grundriss der Geographie und Geschichte des Alten Orients_, 2nd Ed.,

pp. 63 _sqq._ (in Iwan von Müller’s _Handbuch der klassischen

Altertumswissenschaft_, vol. iii.).

Footnote 941:

It is doubtful whether Servius Tullius was a Latin or an Etruscan. See

above, p. 195, note 1.

Footnote 942:

“All over India the hedge-priest is very often an autochthon, his long

residence in the land being supposed to confer upon him the knowledge

of the character and peculiarities of the local gods, and to teach him

the proper mode in which they may be conciliated. Thus the Doms

preserve to the present day the animistic and demonistic beliefs of

the aboriginal races, which the Khasiyas, who have succeeded them,

temper with the worship of the village deities, the named and

localised divine entities, with the occasional languid cult of the

greater Hindu gods. The propitiation of the vague spirits of wood, or

cliff, river or lake, they are satisfied to leave in charge of their

serfs” (W. Crooke, _Natives of Northern India_, London, 1907, pp. 104

_sq._). When the Israelites had been carried away captives into

Assyria, the new settlers in the desolate land of Israel were attacked

by lions, which they supposed to be sent against them by the god of

the country because, as strangers, they did not know how to propitiate

him. So they petitioned the king of Assyria and he sent them a native

Israelitish priest, who taught them how to worship the God of Israel.

See 2 Kings xvii. 24-28.

Footnote 943:

H. Jordan, _Die Könige im alten Italien_ (Berlin, 1884), pp. 15-25.

Footnote 944:

Livy, i. 56. 7; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Ant. Rom._ iv. 68. 1.

Footnote 945:

Livy, i. 34. 2 _sq._, i. 38. 1, i. 57. 6; Dionysius Halicarnasensis,

_Ant. Rom._ iv. 64.

Footnote 946:

I owe to Mr. A. B. Cook the interesting suggestion that the double

consulship was a revival of a double kingship.

Footnote 947:

As to the _Regifugium_ see below, pp. 308-310.

Footnote 948:

Pausanias, iv. 5. 10; G. Gilbert, _Handbuch der griech.

Staatsalterthümer_, i. 2nd Ed., 122 _sq._

Footnote 949:

The two supreme magistrates who replaced the kings were at first

called praetors. See Livy, iii. 55. 12; B. G. Niebuhr, _History of

Rome_, 3rd Ed., i. 520 _sq._; Th. Mommsen, _Römisches Staatsrecht_,

ii. 3rd Ed., 74 _sqq._ That the power of the first consuls was, with

the limitations indicated in the text, that of the old kings is fully

recognised by Livy (ii. 1. 7 _sq._).

Footnote 950:

It was a disputed point whether Tarquin the Proud was the son or

grandson of Tarquin the Elder. Most writers, and Livy (i. 46. 4) among

them, held that he was a son. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, on the other

hand, argued that he must have been a grandson; he insists strongly on

the chronological difficulties to which the ordinary hypothesis is

exposed if Servius Tullius reigned, as he is said to have reigned,

forty-four years. See Dionysius Halic. _Ant. Rom._ iv. 6 _sq._

Footnote 951:

Livy, i. 48. 2; Dionysius Halic. _Ant. Rom._ iv. 31 _sq._ and 46.

Footnote 952:

Livy, i. 56; Dionysius Halic. _Ant. Rom._ iv. 67-69, 77; Valerius

Maximus, vii. 3. 2; Aurelius Victor, _De viris illustribus_, x. The

murder of Brutus’s father and brother is recorded by Dionysius; the

other writers mention the assassination of his brother only. The

resemblance between Brutus and Hamlet has been pointed out before. See

F. York Powell, in Elton’s translation of Saxo Grammaticus’s _Danish

History_ (London, 1894), pp. 405-410.

Footnote 953:

D. Livingstone, _Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa_,

pp. 617 _sq._ Many more examples are given by A. H. Post,

_Afrikanische Jurisprudenz_ (Oldenburg and Leipsic), i. 134 _sqq._

Footnote 954:

D. Livingstone, _op. cit._ p. 434.

Footnote 955:

H. Hecquard, _Reise an die Küste und in das Innere von West-Afrika_

(Leipsic, 1854), p. 104. This and the preceding example are cited by

A. H. Post, _l.c._

Footnote 956:

J. A. Chisholm, “Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Winamwanga

and Wiwa,” _Journal of the African Society_, No. 36 (July 1910), p.

384.

Footnote 957:

J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (Berlin, 1906), pp. 784 _sq._

Footnote 958:

Sir William MacGregor, “Lagos, Abeokuta, and the Alake,” _Journal of

the African Society_, No. 12 (July 1904), pp. 470 _sq._

Footnote 959:

C. Partridge, “The Burial of the Atta of Igaraland, and the

‘Coronation’ of his Successor,” _Blackwood’s Magazine_, September

1904, pp. 329 _sq._ Mr. Partridge kindly gave me some details as to

the election of the king in a letter dated 24th October 1904. He is

Assistant District Commissioner in Southern Nigeria.

Footnote 960:

Major P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_ (London, 1907), pp. 66-75.

Footnote 961:

Livy, i. 17; Cicero, _De re publica_, ii. 17. 31.

Footnote 962:

As to the nomination of the King of the Sacred Rites see Livy, xl. 42;

Dionysius Halic. _Ant. Rom._ v. 1. 4. The latter writer says that the

augurs co-operated with the pontiff in the nomination.

Footnote 963:

Th. Mommsen, _Römisches Staatsrecht_, ii. 3rd Ed., 6-8; A. H. J.

Greenidge, _Roman Public Life_, pp. 45 _sqq._ Mr. Greenidge thinks

that the king was regularly nominated by his predecessor and only

occasionally by an interim king. Mommsen holds that he was always

nominated by the latter.

Footnote 964:

Compare Lucretius, v. 1108 _sqq._:

“_Condere coeperunt urbis arcemque locare

Praesidium reges ipsi sibi perfugiumque,

Et pecus atque agros divisere atque dedere

Pro facie cujusque et viribus ingenioque;

Nam facies multum valuit viresque vigentes._”

Footnote 965:

Nicolaus Damascenus, in Stobaeus, _Florilegium_, xliv. 41 (_Frag.

Histor. Graec._ ed. C. Müller, iii. 463). Other writers say simply

that the tallest, strongest, or handsomest man was chosen king. See

Herodotus, iii. 20; Aristotle, _Politics_, iv. 4; Athenaeus, xiii. 20,

p. 566 c.

Footnote 966:

Zenobius, _Cent._ v. 25.

Footnote 967:

J. Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal_, pp. 4 _sq._ Compare D. Livingstone,

_Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa_, p. 186; W. Max

Müller, _Asien und Europa_ (Leipsic, 1893), p. 110.

Footnote 968:

Zenobius, _Cent._ v. 25.

Footnote 969:

Strabo, xi. 21, p. 492.

Footnote 970:

Hippocrates, _De aere locis et aquis_ (vol. i. pp. 550 _sq._ ed.

Kühn).

Footnote 971:

Captain Guy Burrows, _The Land of the Pigmies_ (London, 1898), p. 95.

Speaking of this tribe, Emin Pasha observes: “The most curious custom,

however, and one which is particularly observed in the ruling

families, is bandaging the heads of infants. By means of these

bandages a lengthening of the head along its horizontal axis is

produced; and whereas the ordinary Monbutto people have rather round

heads, the form of the head in the better classes shows an

extraordinary increase in length, which certainly very well suits

their style of hair and of hats.” See _Emin Pasha in Central Africa,

being a Collection of Letters and Journals_ (London, 1888), p. 212.

Footnote 972:

Lewis and Clark, _Expedition to the Sources of the Missouri_, ch. 23,

vol. ii. 327 _sq._ (reprinted at London, 1905); D. W. Harmon, quoted

by Rev. J. Morse, _Report to the Secretary of War of the United States

on Indian Affairs_ (Newhaven, 1822), Appendix, p. 346; H. R.

Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, ii. 325 _sq._; R. C. Mayne, _Four Years

in British Columbia_, p. 277; G. M. Sproat, _Scenes and Studies of

Savage Life_, pp. 28-30; H. H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific

States_, i. 180.

Footnote 973:

C. Hill-Tout, _The Far West, the Home of the Salish and Déné_ (London,

1907), p. 40. As to the custom in general among these tribes, see

_ibid._ pp. 38-41. In Melanesia the practice of artificially

lengthening the head into a cone by means of bandages applied in

infancy is observed by the natives of Malikolo (Malekula) in the New

Hebrides and also by the natives of the south coast of New Britain,

from Cape Roebuck to Cape Bedder. See Beatrice Grimshaw, _From Fiji to

the Cannibal Islands_ (London, 1907), pp. 258-260; R. Parkinson,

_Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee_ (Stuttgart, 1907), pp. 204-206.

Footnote 974:

V. Fric and P. Radin, “Contributions to the Study of the Bororo

Indians,” _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxvi. (1906)

pp. 388 _sq._

Footnote 975:

See _The Spectator_, Nos. 18 and 20.

Footnote 976:

Nicolaus Damascenus, in Stobaeus, _Florilegium_, xliv. 41 (_Fragmenta

Historic. Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iii. 463).

Footnote 977:

Simon Grunau, _Preussische Chronik_, Tract. ii. cap. iii. § 2, p. 66,

ed. M. Perlbach. This passage was pointed out to me by Mr. H. M.

Chadwick.

Footnote 978:

Pausanias, v. 1. 4, vi. 20. 9.

Footnote 979:

Apollodorus, _Epitoma_, ii. 4-9, ed. R. Wagner (Apollodorus,

_Bibliotheca_, ed. R. Wagner, pp. 183 _sq._); Diodorus Siculus, iv.

73; Pausanias, v. 1. 6 _sq._, v. 10. 6 _sq._, v. 14. 7, v. 17. 7

_sq._, v. 20. 6 _sq._, vi. 21. 7-11.

Footnote 980:

Pausanias, vi. 21. 3.

Footnote 981:

Pausanias, v. 13. 1-6, vi. 20. 7.

Footnote 982:

Pausanias, iii. 12. 1, 20. 10 _sq._

Footnote 983:

Pindar, _Pyth._ ix. 181-220, with the Scholia.

Footnote 984:

Pindar, _Pyth._ ix. 195 _sqq._; Pausanias, iii. 12. 2.

Footnote 985:

Apollodorus, iii. 9. 2; Hyginus, _Fab._ 185; Ovid, _Metam._ x. 560

_sqq._

Footnote 986:

E. Schuyler, _Turkistan_ (London, 1876), i. 42 _sq._ This and the four

following examples of the bride-race have been already cited by J. F.

McLennan, _Studies in Ancient History_ (London, 1886), pp. 15 _sq._,

181-184. He supposes them to be relics of a custom of capturing women

from another community.

Footnote 987:

E. D. Clarke, _Travels in Various Countries_, i. (London, 1810), p.

333. In the fourth octavo edition of Clarke’s _Travels_ (vol. i.,

London, 1816), from which McLennan seems to have quoted, there are a

few verbal changes.

Footnote 988:

J. McLennan, _op. cit._ pp. 183 _sq._, referring to Kennan’s _Tent

Life in Siberia_ (1870), which I have not seen. Compare W. Jochelson,

“The Koryak” (Leyden and New York, 1908), p. 742 (_Memoir of the

American Museum of Natural History, The Jesup North Pacific

Expedition_, vol. vi.).

Footnote 989:

Letter of the missionary Bigandet, dated March 1847, in _Annales de la

Propagation de la Foi_, xx. (1848) p. 431. A similar account of the

ceremony is given by M. Bourien, “Wild Tribes of the Malay Peninsula,”

_Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London_, N.S. iii. (1865)

p. 81. See further W. W. Skeat and C.O. Blagden, _Pagan Races of the

Malay Peninsula_ (London, 1906), ii. 68, 77 _sq._, 79 _sq._, 82 _sq._

Footnote 990:

J. Cameron, _Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India_ (London,

1865), pp. 116 _sq._

Footnote 991:

Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), p. 219.

Footnote 992:

Middle High German _brûtlouf_, modern German _Brautlauf_, Anglo-Saxon

_brydhléap_, old Norse _brudhlaup_, modern Norse _bryllup_. See Grimm,

_Deutsches Wörterbuch_, _s.v._ “Brautlauf”; K. Weinhold, _Deutsche

Frauen_, 2nd Ed., i. 407. The latter writer supposes the word to refer

merely to the procession from the house of the bride to the house of

the bridegroom. But Grimm is most probably right in holding that

originally it applied to a real race for the bride. This is the view

also of K. Simrock (_Deutsche Mythologie_, 5th Ed. pp. 598 _sq._).

Another writer sees in it a trace of marriage by capture (L. Dargun,

_Mutterrecht und Raubehe_ (Breslau, 1883), p. 130). Compare K.

Schmidt, _Jus primae noctis_ (Freiburg i. B. 1881), p. 129.

Footnote 993:

A. Kuhn, _Märkische Sagen und Märchen_ (Berlin, 1843), p. 358.

Footnote 994:

W. Kolbe, _Hessische Volks-sitten und Gebräuche_ (Marburg, 1888), pp.

150 _sq._

Footnote 995:

Lentner and Dahn, in _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs

Bayern_, i. (Munich, 1860) pp. 398 _sq._

Footnote 996:

J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 153-155 (Bohn’s edition); J.

Jamieson, _Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, _s.v._ “Broose.”

Footnote 997:

E. Herrmann, “Über Lieder und Bräuche bei Hochzeiten in Kärnten,”

_Archiv für Anthropologie_, xix. (1891) p. 169.

Footnote 998:

Nicolaus Damascenus, quoted by Stobaeus, _Florilegium_, xliv. 41;

_Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iii. 457.

Footnote 999:

Strabo, v. 4. 12, p. 250.

Footnote 1000:

Arthur Young, “Tour in Ireland,” in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_,

iii. 860.

Footnote 1001:

_Mahabharata_, condensed into English by Romesch Dutt (London, 1898),

pp. 15 _sqq._; J. C. Oman, _The Great Indian Epics_, pp. 109 _sqq._

Footnote 1002:

J. D. Mayne, _A Treatise on Hindu Law and Usage_ 3rd Ed., (Madras and

London, 1883), p. 56; _The Vikramânkadevacharita_, edited by G. Bühler

(Bombay, 1875), pp. 38-40; A. Holtzmann, _Das Mahābharata und seine

Theile_, i. (Kiel, 1895), pp. 21 _sq._; J. Jolly, _Recht und Sitte_,

pp. 50 _sq._ (in G. Bühler’s _Grundriss der indo-arischen

Philologie_).

Footnote 1003:

_The Book of Ser Marco Polo._, Yule’s translation, 2nd Ed., bk. iv.

ch. 4, vol. ii. pp. 461-463.

Footnote 1004:

_The Lay of the Nibelungs_, translated by Alice Horton (London, 1898),

Adventures vi. and vii.

Footnote 1005:

Parthenius, _Narrat. Amat._ vi. This passage was pointed out to me by

Mr. A. B. Cook, who has himself discussed the contest for the

kingship. See his article, “The European Sky-god,” _Folk-lore_, xv.

(1904) pp. 376 _sqq._

Footnote 1006:

Herodotus, vi. 126-130. It is to be observed that in this and other of

the examples cited above the succession to the kingdom did not pass

with the hand of the princess.

Footnote 1007:

See above, pp. 69, 84, 90 _sq._ These customs were observed at

Whitsuntide, not on May Day. But the Whitsuntide king and queen are

obviously equivalent to the King and Queen of May. Hence I allow

myself to use the latter and more familiar titles so as to include the

former.

Footnote 1008:

Ovid, _Fasti_, ii. 685 _sqq._; Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 63; J.

Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii. 2nd Ed., 323 _sq._; W.

Warde Fowler, _Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic_, pp. 327

_sqq._

Footnote 1009:

Another proposed explanation of the _regifugium_ is that the king fled

because at the sacrifice he had incurred the guilt of slaying a sacred

animal. See W. Warde Fowler, _Roman Festivals of the Period of the

Republic_, pp. 328 _sqq._ The best-known example of such a ritual

flight is that of the men who slew the ox at the Athenian festival of

the _Bouphonia_. See _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, ii. 294.

Amongst the Pawnees the four men who assisted at the sacrifice of a

girl to Ti-ra’-wa used to run away very fast after the deed was done

and wash themselves in the river. See G. B. Grinnell, _Pawnee Hero

Stories and Folk-Tales_ (New York, 1889), pp. 365 _sq._ Among the

ancient Egyptians the man whose duty it was to slit open a corpse for

the purpose of embalming it fled as soon as he had done his part,

pursued by all the persons present, who pelted him with stones and

cursed him, “turning as it were the pollution on him; for they suppose

that any one who violates or wounds or does any harm to the person of

a fellow-tribesman is hateful” (Diodorus Siculus, i. 91. 4). Similarly

in the western islands of Torres Straits the man whose duty it was to

decapitate a corpse for the purpose of preserving the skull was shot

at with arrows by the relatives of the deceased as an expiation for

the injury he had done to the corpse of their kinsman. See _Reports of

the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, v.

(Cambridge, 1904) pp. 249, 251. This explanation of the _regifugium_

certainly deserves to be considered. But on this as on so many other

points of ancient ritual we can hardly hope ever to attain to

certainty.

Footnote 1010:

F. Cumont, “Les Actes de S. Dasius,” _Analecta Bollandiana_, xvi.

(1897) pp. 5-16. See further Messrs. Parmentier and Cumont, “Le Roi

des Saturnales,” _Revue de Philologie_, xxi. (1897) pp. 143-153; _The

Golden Bough_, Second Edition, iii. 138 _sqq._ The tomb of St. Dasius,

a Christian soldier who was put to death at Durostorum in 303 A.D.

after refusing to play the part of Saturn at the festival, has since

been discovered at Ancona. A Greek inscription on the tomb records

that the martyr’s remains were brought thither from Durostorum. See F.

Cumont, “Le Tombeau de S. Dasius de Durostorum,” _Analecta

Bollandiana_, xxvii. (1908) pp. 369-372. Professor A. Erhard of

Strasburg, who has been engaged for years in preparing an edition of

the _Acta Martyrum_ for the Berlin Corpus of Greek Fathers, informed

me in conversation at Cambridge in the summer of 1910 that he ranks

the Acts of St. Dasius among the authentic documents of their class.

The plain unvarnished narrative bears indeed the stamp of truth on its

face.

Footnote 1011:

Tacitus, _Annals_, xiii. 15; Arrian, _Epicteti dissert._ i. 25. 8;

Lucian, _Saturnalia_, 4.

Footnote 1012:

As to these temporary kings see _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition,

ii. 24 _sqq._

Footnote 1013:

Varro, _Rerum rusticarum_, iii. 1. 5; Virgil, _Aen._ viii. 324;

Tibullus, i. 3. 35; Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vii. 19. Compare

Wissowa, in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_,

iv. 433 _sq._

Footnote 1014:

On Saturn as the god of sowing and the derivation of his name from a

root meaning “to sow,” from which comes _satus_ “sowing,” see Varro,

_De lingua Latina_, v. 64; Festus, _s.v._ “Opima spolia,” p. 186, ed.

C. O. Müller; Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vii. 2, 3. 13, 15;

Wissowa, in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_,

iv. 428. The derivation is confirmed by the form Saeturnus which

occurs in an inscription (_Saeturni pocolom_, H. Dessau, _Inscript.

Latinae selectae_, No. 2966). As to the Saturnalia see L. Preller,

_Römische Mythologie_, 3rd Ed., ii. 15 _sqq._; J. Marquardt, _Römische

Staatsverwaltung_, 2nd Ed., pp. 586 _sqq._; Dezobry, _Rome au siècle

d’Auguste_, iii. 143 _sqq._; W. Warde Fowler, _Roman Festivals of the

Period of the Republic_, pp. 268 _sqq._ The festival was held from the

seventeenth to the twenty-third of December. I formerly argued that in

the old days, when the Roman year began with March instead of with

January, the Saturnalia may have been held from the seventeenth to the

twenty-third of February, in which case the festival must have

immediately preceded the Flight of the King, which fell on February

the twenty-fourth. See _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, iii. 144

_sqq._; _Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship_, p. 266. But

this attempt to bring the ancient Saturnalia into immediate

juxtaposition to the King’s Flight breaks down when we observe, as my

friend Mr. W. Warde Fowler has pointed out to me, that the Saturnalia

fell in December under the Republic, long before Caesar, in his reform

of the calendar, had shifted the commencement of the year from March

to January. See Livy, xxii. 1. 19 _sq._

Footnote 1015:

Roman farmers sowed wheat, spelt, and barley in December, flax up to

the seventh of that month, and beans up to the eleventh (the festival

of Septimontium). See Palladius, _De re rustica_, xiii. 1. In the

lowlands of Sicily at the present day November and December are the

months of sowing, but in the highlands August and September. See G.

Pitrè, _Usi e costumi, credenze e pregiudizi del popolo siciliano_,

iii. (Palermo, 1889) pp. 132 _sqq._ Hence we may suppose that in the

Roman Campagna of old the last sowing of autumn was over before the

middle of December, when the Saturnalia began.

Footnote 1016:

This temporary liberty accorded to slaves was one of the most

remarkable features of the Saturnalia and kindred festivals in

antiquity. See _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, iii. 139 _sqq._

Footnote 1017:

The learned Swiss scholar, J. J. Bachofen long ago drew out in minute

detail the parallel between these birth legends of the Roman kings and

licentious festivals like the Roman Saturnalia and the Babylonian

Sacaea. See his book _Die Sage von Tanaquil_ (Heidelberg, 1870), pp.

133 _sqq._ To be frank, I have not had the patience to read through

his long dissertation.

Footnote 1018:

Livy, i. 16; Dionysius Halic. _Ant. Rom._ ii. 56; Plutarch, _Romulus_,

27; Florus, i. 1. 16 _sq._ See above, pp. 181 _sq._

Footnote 1019:

Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi. 18; Plutarch, _Romulus_, 29; _id._,

_Camillus_, 33; Macrobius, _Saturn._ i. 11. 36-40. The analogy of this

festival to the Babylonian Sacaea was long ago pointed out by J. J.

Bachofen. See his book _Die Sage von Tanaquil_ (Heidelberg, 1870), pp.

172 _sqq._

Footnote 1020:

Aristotle, _Hist. anim._ v. 32, p. 557_b_, ed. Bekker; Theophrastus,

_Hist. Plant._ ii. 8; _id._, _De causis plantarum_, ii. 9; Plutarch,

_Quaest. conviv._ vii. 2. 2; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xv. 79-81, xvi. 114,

xvii. 256; Palladius, iv. 10. 28, vii. 5. 2; Columella, xi. 2. 56;

_Geoponica_, iii. 6, x. 48. As to the practice in modern Greece and

the fig-growing districts of Asia Minor, see P. de Tournefort,

_Relation d’un voyage du Levant_ (Amsterdam, 1718), i. 130; W. R.

Paton, “The _Pharmakoi_ and the Story of the Fall,” _Revue

archéologique_, IVème Série, ix. (1907) p. 51. For an elaborate

examination of the process and its relation to the domestication and

spread of the fig-tree, see Graf zu Solms-Laubach, “Die Herkunft,

Domestication und Verbreitung des gewöhnlichen Feigenbaums (_Ficus

Carica_, L.),” _Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der

Wissenschaften zu Göttingen_, xxviii. (1882) pp. 1-106. This last

writer thinks that the operation was not practised by Italian

husbandmen, because it is not mentioned by Cato and Varro. But their

silence can hardly outweigh the express mention and recommendation of

it by Palladius and Columella. Theophrastus, it is true, says that the

process was not in use in Italy (_Hist. Plantarum_, ii. 8. 1), but he

can scarcely have had exact information on this subject.

_Caprificatio_, as this artificial fertilisation of fig-trees is

called, is still employed by the Neapolitan peasantry, though it seems

to be unknown in northern Italy. Pliny’s account has no independent

value, as he merely copies from Theophrastus. The name “goat-fig”

(_caprificus_) applied to the wild fig-tree may be derived from the

notion that the tree is a male who mounts the female as the he-goat

mounts the she-goat. Similarly the Messenians called the tree simply

“he-goat” (τράγος). See Pausanias, iv. 20. 1-3.

Footnote 1021:

G. Pitrè, _Usi e costumi, credenze e pregiudizi del popolo siciliano_,

iii. 113.

Footnote 1022:

Budgett Meakin, _The Moors_ (London, 1902), p. 258; E. Doutté, _Magie

et religion dans l’Afrique du Nord_ (Algiers, 1908), p. 568.

Footnote 1023:

A. Engler, in V. Hehn’s _Kulturpflanzen und Hausthiere_, 7th Ed.,

(Berlin, 1902), p. 99. Compare Graf zu Solms-Laubach, _op. cit._;

_Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Fig-tree,” vol. iv. 1519. The

ancients were well aware of the production of these insects in the

wild fig-tree and their transference to the cultivated fig-tree.

Sometimes instead of fertilising the trees by hand they contented

themselves with planting wild fig-trees near cultivated fig-trees, so

that the fertilisation was effected by the wind, which blew the

insects from the male to the female trees. See Aristotle, _l.c._;

Theophrastus, _De causis plantarum_, ii. 9; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xv.

79-81; Palladius, iv. 10. 28. On subject of the fertilisation of the

fig the late Professor H. Marshall Ward of Cambridge kindly furnished

me with the following note, which will serve to supplement and correct

the brief account in the text:—“The fig is a hollow case full of

flowers. In the wild fig a small gall wasp (_Cynips psenes_) lays its

eggs: this kind of fig is still called _Caprificus_. The eggs hatch in

the female flowers at the base of the hollow fig: at the top, near the

ostiole observable on any ripe fig, are the male flowers. When the

eggs hatch, and the little insects creep through the ostiole, the male

flowers dust the wasp with pollen, and the insect flies to another

flower (to lay its eggs), and so fertilises many of the female flowers

in return for the nursery afforded its eggs. Now, the cultivated fig

is apt to be barren of male flowers. Hence the hanging of branches

bearing wild figs enables the escaping wasps to do the trick. The

ancients knew the fact that the propinquity of the _Caprificus_ helped

the fertility of the cultivated fig, but, of course, they did not know

the details of the process. The further complexities are, chiefly,

that the fig bears two kinds of female flowers: one especially fitted

for the wasp’s convenience, the other not. The _Caprificus_ figs are

inedible. In Naples three crops of them are borne every year, viz.

_Mamme_ (in April), _Profichi_ (in June), and _Mammoni_ (in August).

It is the June crop that bears most male flowers and is most useful.”

The suggestion that the festival of the seventh of July was connected

with this horticultural operation is due to L. Preller (_Römische

Mythologie_, 3rd Ed., i. 287).

Footnote 1024:

See above, pp. 24 _sq._

Footnote 1025:

1 Kings iv. 25; 2 Kings xviii. 31; Isaiah xxxvi. 16; Micah iv. 4;

Zechariah iii. 10; Judges ix. 10 _sq._; H. B. Tristram, _The Natural

History of the Bible_ 9th Ed. (London, 1898), pp. 350 _sqq._;

_Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Fig Tree,” vol. ii. 1519 _sq._

Footnote 1026:

Herodotus, i. 71.

Footnote 1027:

Zamachschar, cited by Graf zu Solms-Laubach, _op. cit._ p. 82. For

more evidence as to the fig in antiquity see V. Hehn, _Kulturpflanzen

und Hausthiere_, 7th Ed., pp. 94 _sqq._

Footnote 1028:

Letter of Mr. C. W. Hobley to me, dated Nairobi, British East Africa,

July 27th, 1910. This interesting information was given spontaneously

and not in answer to any questions of mine.

Footnote 1029:

C. W. Hobley, _The Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes_

(Cambridge, 1910), pp. 85, 89 _sq._ In British Central Africa “every

village has its ‘prayer-tree,’ under which the sacrifices are offered.

It stands (usually) in the _bwalo_, the open space which Mr. Macdonald

calls the ‘forum,’ and is, sometimes, at any rate, a wild fig-tree.”

“This is the principal tree used for making bark-cloth. Livingstone

says, ‘It is a sacred tree all over Africa and India’; and I learn

from M. Auguste Chevalier that it is found in every village of Senegal

and French Guinea, and looked on as ‘a fetich-tree’” (Miss A. Werner,

_The Natives of British Central Africa_, pp. 62 _sq._).

Footnote 1030:

From the unpublished papers of the Rev. John Roscoe, which he has

kindly placed at my disposal.

Footnote 1031:

Varro, _De lingua Latina_, v. 54; Livy, i. 4. 5; Ovid, _Fasti_, ii.

411 _sq._; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xv. 77; Festus, pp. 266, 270, 271, ed.

C. O. Müller; Tacitus, _Annals_, xiii. 58; Servius on Virgil, _Aen._

viii. 90; Plutarch, _Romulus_, 4; _id._, _Quaestiones Romanae_, 57;

Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Antiquitates Romanae_, iii. 71. 5. All the

Roman writers speak of the tree as a cultivated fig (_ficus_), not a

wild fig (_caprificus_), and Dionysius agrees with them. Plutarch

alone (_Romulus_, 4) describes it as a wild fig-tree (ἐρινεός). See

also above, p. 10.

Footnote 1032:

Festus, p. 266, ed. C. O. Müller; Ettore Pais, _Ancient Legends of

Roman History_ (London, 1906), pp. 55 _sqq._ Festus indeed treats the

derivation as an absurdity, and many people will be inclined to agree

with him.

Footnote 1033:

On the fifth of July a ceremony called the Flight of the People was

performed at Rome. Some ancient writers thought that it commemorated

the dispersal of the people after the disappearance of Romulus. But

this is to confuse the dates; for, according to tradition, the death

of Romulus took place on the seventh, not the fifth of July, and

therefore after instead of before the Flight of the People. See Varro,

_De lingua Latina_, vi. 18; Macrobius, _Sat._ iii. 2. 14; Dionysius

Halicarn. _Ant. Rom._ ii. 56. 5; Plutarch, _Romulus_, 29; _id._,

_Camillus_, 33; W. Warde Fowler, _Roman Festivals of the Period of the

Republic_, pp. 174 _sqq._ Mr. Warde Fowler may be right in thinking

that some connexion perhaps existed between the ceremonies of the two

days, the fifth and the seventh; and I agree with his suggestion that

“the story itself of the death of Romulus had grown out of some

religious rite performed at this time of year.” I note as a curious

coincidence, for it can hardly be more, that at Bodmin in Cornwall a

festival was held on the seventh of July, when a Lord of Misrule was

appointed, who tried people for imaginary crimes and sentenced them to

be ducked in a quagmire called Halgaver, which is explained to mean

“the goat’s moor.” See T. F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular

Customs_, p. 339. The “goat’s moor” is an odd echo of the “goat’s

marsh” at which Romulus disappeared on the same day of the year (Livy,

i. 16. 1; Plutarch, _Romulus_, 29; _id._, _Camillus_, 33).

Footnote 1034:

Livy, i. 14. 1 _sq._; Dionysius Halicarn. _Ant. Rom._ ii. 52. 3;

Plutarch, _Romulus_, 23.

Footnote 1035:

Dionysius Halicarn. _Ant. Rom._ iii. 35; Zonaras, _Annales_, vii. 6.

As to his reported death by lightning, see above, p. 181.

Footnote 1036:

Plutarch, _Numa_, 22. I have pruned the luxuriant periods in which

Plutarch dwells, with edifying unction, on the righteous visitation of

God which overtook that early agnostic Tullus Hostilius.

Footnote 1037:

Aurelius Victor, _De viris illustribus_, v. 5.

Footnote 1038:

Livy, i. 40; Dionysius Halicarn. _Ant. Rom._ iii. 73.

Footnote 1039:

Livy, i. 48; Dionysius Halicarn. _Ant. Rom._ iv. 38 _sq._; Solinus, i.

25. The reading _Virbium clivum_ (“the slope of Virbius”) occurs only

in the more recent manuscripts of Livy: the better-attested reading

both of Livy and Solinus is _Urbium_. But the obscure _Virbium_ would

easily and naturally be altered into _Urbium_, whereas the reverse

change is very improbable. See Mr. A. B. Cook, in _Classical Review_,

xvi. (1902) p. 380, note 3. In this passage Mr. Cook was the first to

call attention to the analogy between the murder of the slave-born

king, Servius Tullius, and the slaughter of the slave-king by his

successor at Nemi. As to the oak-woods of the Esquiline see above, p.

185.

Footnote 1040:

Nicolaus Damascenus, in Stobaeus, _Florilegium_, x. 70. _Fragmenta

Historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iii. 457.

Footnote 1041:

H. Jordan, _Die Könige im alten Italien_ (Berlin, 1887), pp. 44 _sq._

In this his last work Jordan argues that the Umbrian practice,

combined with the rule of the Arician priesthood, throws light on the

existence and nature of the kingship among the ancient Latins. On this

subject I am happy to be at one with so learned and judicious a

scholar.

Footnote 1042:

R. E. Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind_ (London, 1906),

pp. 11 _sq._, 111, 131 _sq._, 135. The word translated “sacred ground”

(_xibila_, plural _bibila_) means properly “sacred grove.” Such

“sacred groves” are common in this part of Africa, but in the “sacred

grove” of the king of Loango the tree beside which the monarch takes

post to fight for the crown appears to stand solitary in a grassy

plain. See R. E. Dennett, _op. cit._ pp. 11 _sq._, 25, 96 _sqq._, 110

_sqq._ We have seen that the right of succession to the throne of

Loango descends in the female line (above, pp. 276 _sq._), which

furnishes another point of resemblance between Loango and Rome, if my

theory of the Roman kingship is correct.

Footnote 1043:

J. G. Frazer, _Totemism and Exogamy_, ii. 530. My authority is the

Rev. John Roscoe, formerly of the Church Missionary Society in Uganda.

Footnote 1044:

_Memoirs of Samuel Pepys_, edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke, Second

Edition (London, 1828), i. 193 _sq._ (under April 23rd, 1661).

CHAPTER XIX

ST. GEORGE AND THE PARILIA

[Sidenote: The early Italians were as much a pastoral as an agricultural

people, and their kings would be expected to ensure the safety and

fecundity of the flocks and herds.] In the course of the preceding

investigation we found reason to assume that the old Latin kings, like

their brethren in many parts of the world, were charged with certain

religious duties or magical functions, amongst which the maintenance of

the fertility of the earth held a principal place. By this I do not mean

that they had to see to it only that the rain fell, and that the corn

grew and trees put forth their fruit in due season. In those early days

it is probable that the Italians were quite as much a pastoral as an

agricultural people, or, in other words, that they depended for their

subsistence no less on their flocks and herds than on their fields and

orchards. To provide their cattle with grass and water, to ensure their

fecundity and the abundance of their milk, and to guard them from the

depredations of wild beasts, would be objects of the first importance

with the shepherds and herdsmen who, according to tradition, founded

Rome;[1045] and the king, as the representative or embodiment of the

deity, would be expected to do his part towards procuring these

blessings for his people by the performance of sacred rites. The Greeks

of the Homeric age, as we have seen, thought that the reign of a good

king not only made the land to bear wheat and barley, but also caused

the flocks to multiply and the sea to yield fish.[1046]

[Sidenote: Numa is said to have been born and Rome to have been founded

on the shepherds’ festival of the Parilia, the twenty-first of April.]

In this connexion, accordingly, it can be no mere accident that Rome is

said to have been founded and the pious king Numa to have been born on

the twenty-first of April, the day of the great shepherds’ festival of

the Parilia.[1047] It is very unlikely that the real day either of the

foundation of the city or of Numa’s birth should have been remembered,

even if we suppose Numa to have been an historical personage rather than

a mythical type; it is far more probable that both events were

arbitrarily assigned to this date by the speculative antiquaries of a

later age on the ground of some assumed fitness or propriety. In what

did this fitness or propriety consist? The belief that the first Romans

were shepherds and herdsmen would be reason enough for supposing that

Rome was founded on the day of the shepherds’ festival, or even that the

festival was instituted to commemorate the event.[1048] But why should

Numa be thought to have been born on that day of all days? Perhaps it

was because the old sacred kings, of whom he was the model, had to play

an important part in the ceremonies of the day. The birthdays of the

gods were celebrated by festivals;[1049] the kings were divine or

semi-divine; it would be natural, therefore, that their birthdays should

be identified with high feasts and holidays. Whether this was so or not,

the festival of the Parilia presents so many points of resemblance to

some of the popular customs discussed in these volumes that a brief

examination of it may not be inappropriate in this place.[1050]

[Sidenote: The Parilia, a festival celebrated by shepherds and herdsmen

in honour of Pales, for the safety and increase of their flocks and

herds.] The spring festival of the twenty-first of April, known as the

birthday of Rome,[1051] was deemed second in importance to none in the

calendar.[1052] It was held by shepherds and herdsmen for the welfare

and increase of their flocks and herds.[1053] The pastoral deity to whom

they paid their devotions was Pales, as to whose sex the ancients

themselves were not at one. In later times they commonly spoke of her as

a goddess; but Varro regarded Pales as masculine,[1054] and we may

follow his high authority. The day was celebrated with similar rites

both in the town and the country, but in its origin it must have been a

strictly rural festival. Indeed, it could hardly be carried out in full

except among the sheepfolds and cattle-pens. At some time of the day,

probably in the morning, the people repaired to the temple of Vesta,

where they received from the Vestal Virgins ashes, blood, and bean-straw

to be used in fumigating themselves and probably their beasts. The ashes

were those of the unborn calves which had been torn from their mothers’

wombs on the fifteenth of April; the blood was that which had dripped

from the tail of a horse sacrificed in October.[1055] Both were probably

supposed to exercise a fertilising as well as a cleansing influence on

the people and on the cattle;[1056] for apparently one effect of the

ceremonies, in the popular opinion, was to quicken the wombs of women no

less than of cows and ewes.[1057] At break of day the shepherd purified

his sheep, after sprinkling and sweeping the ground. The fold was decked

with leafy boughs, and a great wreath was hung on the door.[1058] The

purification of the flocks apparently consisted in driving them over

burning heaps of grass, pine-wood, laurel, and branches of the male

olive-tree.[1059] Certainly at some time of [Sidenote: The flocks

purified by being driven through fire.] the day the sheep were compelled

to scamper over a fire.[1060] Moreover, the bleating flocks were touched

with burning sulphur and fumigated with its blue smoke.[1061] Then the

shepherd offered to Pales baskets of millet, cakes of millet, and pails

of warm milk. Next he prayed to the god that he would guard the fold

from the evil powers, including probably witchcraft;[1062] that the

flocks, the men, and the dogs might be hale and free from disease; that

the sheep might not fall a prey to wolves; that grass and leaves might

abound; that water might be plentiful; that the udders of the dams might

be full of milk; that the rams might be lusty, and the ewes prolific;

that many lambs might be born; and that there might be much wool at

shearing.[1063] This prayer the shepherd had to repeat four times,

looking to the east; then he washed his hands in the morning dew. After

that he drank a bowl of milk and wine, and, warmed with the liquor,

leaped ever burning heaps of crackling straw. This practice of jumping

over a straw fire would seem to have been a principal part of the

ceremonies: at least it struck the ancients themselves, for they often

refer to it.[1064]

[Sidenote: The shepherd’s prayer.] The shepherd’s prayer at the Parilia

is instructive, because it gives us in short a view of the chief wants

of [Sidenote: The shepherd has to propitiate the tree-spirits and

water-spirits.] the pastoral life. The supplication for grass and leaves

and water reminds us that the herdsman no less than the husbandman

depends ultimately on vegetation and rain; so that the same divine

powers which cover the fields of the one with yellow corn may be

conceived to carpet the meadows of the other with green grass, and to

diversify them with pools and rivers for the refreshment of the thirsty

cattle. And it is to be borne in mind that in countries where grass is

less plentiful than under the rainy skies of northern Europe, sheep,

goats, and cattle still subsist in great measure on the leaves and juicy

twigs of trees.[1065] Hence in these lands the pious shepherd and

goatherd cannot afford to ignore or to offend the tree-spirits, on whose

favour and bounty his flocks are dependent for much of their fodder.

Indeed, at the Parilia the shepherd made elaborate excuses to these

divine beings for any trespass he might unwittingly have committed on

their hallowed domain by entering a sacred grove, sitting in the shadow

of a holy tree, or lopping leafy branches from it with which to feed a

sickly sheep.[1066] In like manner he craved pardon of the water-nymphs,

if the hoofs of his cattle had stirred up the mud in their clear pools;

and he implored Pales to intercede for him with the divinities of

springs “and the gods dispersed through every woodland glade.”[1067]

[Sidenote: The Parilia was perhaps the time when the flocks and herds

were turned out for the first time in spring to graze in the open.] The

Parilia was generally considered to be the best time for coupling the

rams and the ewes;[1068] and it has been suggested that it was also the

season when the flocks and herds, after being folded and stalled

throughout the winter, were turned out for the first time to pasture in

spring.[1069] The occasion is an anxious one for the shepherd,

especially in countries which are infested with wolves, as ancient Italy

was.[1070] Accordingly the Italian shepherd propitiated Pales with a

slaughtered victim before he drove his flocks afield in spring;[1071]

but it is doubtful whether this sacrifice formed part of the Parilia.

None of the ancient authors who expressly describe the Parilia mention

the slaughter of a victim; and in Plutarch’s day a tradition ran that of

old no blood was shed at the festival.[1072] But such a tradition seems

to point to a contrary practice in after-times. In the absence of

decisive evidence the question must be left open; but modern analogy, as

we shall see, strongly supports the opinion that immediately at the

close of the Parilia the flocks and herds were driven out to graze in

the open pastures for the first time after their long winter

confinement. On this view a special significance is seen to attach to

some of the features of the festival, such as the prayer for protection

against the wolf; for the brute could hardly do the sheep and kine much

harm so long as they were safely pent within the walls of the sheepcote

and the cattle-stall.

[Sidenote: The Roman kings had perhaps to discharge some important

religious function at the Parilia.] As the Parilia is said to have been

celebrated by Romulus, who sacrificed to the gods and caused the people

to purify themselves by leaping over flames,[1073] some scholars have

inferred that it was customary for the king, and afterwards for his

successor, the chief pontiff, or the King of the Sacred Rites, to offer

sacrifices for the people at the Parilia.[1074] The inference is

reasonable and receives some confirmation, as we shall see presently,

from the analogy of modern custom. Further, the tradition that Numa was

born on the day of the Parilia may be thought to point in the same way,

since it is most naturally explicable on the hypothesis that the king

had to discharge some important function at the festival. Still, it must

be confessed that the positive evidence for connecting the Roman kings

with the celebration of the twenty-first of April is slight and dubious.

[Sidenote: The Parilia intended to ensure the welfare of the cattle and

to guard them against witches and wolves.] On the whole the festival of

the Parilia, which probably fell at or near the time of turning out the

cattle to pasture in spring, was designed to ensure their welfare and

increase, and to guard them from the insidious machinations or the open

attacks of their various enemies, among whom witches and wolves were

perhaps the most dreaded.

[Sidenote: A celebration of the same sort is still held in eastern

Europe on the twenty-third of April, the festival of St. George, the

patron saint of cattle, horses, and wolves.] Now it can hardly be a mere

coincidence that down to modern times a great popular festival of this

sort has been celebrated only two days later by the herdsmen and

shepherds of eastern Europe, who still cherish a profound belief in

witchcraft, and still fear, with far better reason, the raids of wolves

on their flocks and herds. The festival falls on the twenty-third of

April and is dedicated to St. George, the patron saint of cattle,

horses, and wolves. The Esthonians say that on St. George’s morning the

wolf gets a ring round his snout and a halter about his neck, whereby he

is rendered less dangerous till Michaelmas. But if the day should chance

to be a Friday at full moon, or if before the day came round any person

should have been so rash as to thump the dirty linen in the wash-tub

with two beetles, the cattle will run a serious risk of being devoured

by wolves. Many are the precautions taken by the anxious Esthonians

[Sidenote: Precautions taken by the Esthonians against wolves and

witches on St. George’s Day.] on this day to guard their herds from the

ravening beasts. Thus some people gather wolf’s dung on the preceding

night, burn it, and fumigate the cattle with it in the morning. Or they

collect bones from the pastures and burn them at a cross-road, which

serves as a charm against sickness, sorcery, and demons quite as well as

against wolves. Others smoke the cattle with _asa foetida_ or sulphur to

protect them against witchcraft and noxious exhalations. They think,

too, that if you sew stitches on St. George’s morning the cubs of the

wolves will be blind, no doubt because their eyes are sewed up by the

needle and thread. In order to forecast the fate of their herds the

peasants put eggs or a sharp weapon, such as an axe or a scythe, before

the doors of the stalls, and the animal which crushes an egg or wounds

itself will surely be rent by a wolf or will perish in some other

fashion before the year is out. So certain is its fate that many a man

prefers to slaughter the doomed beast out of hand for the sake of saving

at least the beef.

[Sidenote: The Esthonians generally drive their cattle out to pasture

for the first time on St. George’s Day.] As a rule the Esthonians drive

their cattle out to pasture for the first time on St. George’s Day, and

the herdsman’s duties begin from then. If, however, the herds should

have been sent out to graze before that day, the boys who look after

them must eat neither flesh nor butter while they are on duty; else the

wolves will destroy many sheep, and the cream will not turn to butter in

the churn. Further, the boys may not kindle a fire in the wood, or the

wolf’s tooth would be fiery and he would bite viciously. By St. George’s

Day, the twenty-third of April, there is commonly fresh grass in the

meadows. But even if the spring should be late and the cattle should

have to return to their stalls hungrier than they went forth, many

Esthonian farmers insist on turning out the poor beasts on St. George’s

Day in order that the saint may guard them against his creatures the

wolves. On this morning the farmer treats the herdsman to a dram of

brandy, and gives him two copper kopecks as “tail-money” for every cow

in the herd. This money the giver first passes thrice round his head and

then lays it on the dunghill; for if the herdsman took it from his hand,

it would in some way injure the herd. Were this ceremony omitted, the

wolves would prove very destructive, because they had not been appeased

on St. George’s Day. After receiving the “tail-money” some herdsmen are

wont to collect the herd on the village common. Here they set up their

crook in the ground, place their hat on it, and walk thrice round the

cattle, muttering spells or the Lord’s Prayer as they do so. The

pastoral crook should be cut from the rowan or mountain-ash and

consecrated by a wise man, who carves mystic signs on it. Sometimes the

upper end of the crook is hollowed out and filled with quicksilver and

_asa foetida_, the aperture being stopped up with resin. Some Esthonians

cut a cross with a scythe under the door through which the herd is to be

driven, and fill the furrows of the cross with salt to prevent certain

evil beings from harming the cattle. Further, it is an almost universal

custom in Esthonia not to hang bells on the necks of the kine till St.

George’s Day; the few who can give a reason for the rule say that the

chiming of the bells before that season would attract the wild

beasts.[1075]

[Sidenote: Sacrifices for horses offered on St. George’s Day by the

Esthonians of Dago.] In the island of Dago down to the early part of the

nineteenth century there were certain holy trees from which no one dared

to break a bough; in spite of the lack of wood in the island the fallen

branches were allowed to rot in heaps on the ground. Under such trees

the Esthonians used to offer sacrifices on St. George’s Day for the

safety and welfare of their horses. The offerings, which consist of an

egg, a piece of money, and a bunch of horse-hair tied up with a red

thread, were buried in the earth.[1076] The custom is interesting

because it exhibits St. George in the two-fold character of a patron of

horses and of trees. In the latter capacity he has already met us more

than once under the name of Green George.[1077]

[Sidenote: St. George as the patron of wolves and cattle in Russia; the

herds are driven out to pasture for the first time on his day.] In

Russia the saint is known as Yegory or Yury, and here, as in Esthonia,

he is a patron of wolves as well as of flocks and herds. Many legends

speak of the connexion which exists between St. George and the wolf. In

Little Russia the beast is known as “St. George’s Dog,” and the carcases

of sheep which wolves have killed are not eaten, it being held that they

have been made over by divine command to the beasts of the field.[1078]

The festival of St. George on the twenty-third of April has a national

as well as an ecclesiastical character in Russia, and the mythical

features of the songs which are devoted to the day prove that the saint

has supplanted some old Slavonian deity who used to be honoured at this

season in heathen times. It is not as a slayer of dragons and a champion

of forlorn damsels that St. George figures in these songs, but as a

patron of farmers and herdsmen who preserves cattle from harm, and on

whose day accordingly the flocks and herds are driven out to browse the

fresh pastures for the first time after their confinement through the

long Russian winter. “What the wolf holds in its teeth, that Yegory has

given,” is a proverb which shews how completely he is thought to rule

over the fold and the stall. Here is one of the songs:—

“_We have gone around the field,

We have called Yegory ...

‘O thou, our brave Yegory,

Save our cattle,

In the field, and beyond the field,

In the forest, and beyond the forest,

Under the bright moon,

Under the red sun,

From the rapacious wolf,

From the cruel bear,

From the cunning beast.’_”

A White-Russian song represents St. George as opening with golden keys,

probably the sunbeams, the soil which has been frost-bound all the

winter:—

“_Holy Jury, the divine envoy,

Has gone to God,

And having taken the golden keys,

Has unlocked the moist earth,

Having scattered the clinging dew

Over White-Russia and all the world._”

In Moravia they “meet the Spring” with a song in which they ask Green

Thursday, that is, the day before Good Friday, what he has done with the

keys, and he answers: “I gave them to St. George. St. George arose and

unlocked the earth, so that the grass grew—the green grass.” In White

Russia it is customary on St. George’s Day to drive the cattle afield

through the morning dew, and in Little Russia and Bulgaria young folk go

out early and roll themselves in it.[1079] In the Smolensk Government on

this day the cattle are driven out first to the rye-fields and then to

the pastures. A religious service is held in the stalls before the

departure of the herd and afterwards in the field, where the stool which

supported the holy picture is allowed to stand for several weeks till

the next procession with the pictures of the saints takes place. St.

George’s Day in this government is the herdsmen’s festival, and it is

the term from which their engagements are dated.[1080] And in the

Smolensk Government, when the herds are being sent out to graze on St.

George’s Day, the following spell is uttered:—

“_Deaf man, deaf man, dost thou hear us?_”

“_I hear not._”

“_God grant that the wolf may not hear our cattle!_”

“_Cripple, cripple, canst thou catch us?_”

“_I cannot catch._”

“_God grant that the wolf may not catch our cattle!_”

“_Blind man, blind man, dost thou see us?_”

“_I see not._”

“_God grant that the wolf may not see our cattle!_”[1081]

[Sidenote: In Russia witches try to steal the milk of the cattle on the

eve of St. George.] But in the opinion of the Russian peasant wolves are

not the only foes of cattle at this season. On the eve of St. George’s

Day, as well as on the night before Whitsunday and on Midsummer Eve,

witches go out naked in the dark and cut chips from the doors and gates

of farmyards. These they boil in a milk-pail, and thus charm away the

milk from the farms. Hence careful housewives examine their doors and

smear mud in any fresh gashes they may find in them, which frustrates

the knavish tricks of the milk-stealing witch. Not to be baffled,

however, the witches climb the wooden crosses by the wayside and chip

splinters from them, or lay their hands on stray wooden wedges. These

they stick into a post in the cattle-shed and squeeze them with their

hands till milk flows from them as freely as from the dugs of a cow. At

this time also wicked people turn themselves by magic art into dogs and

black cats, and in that disguise they suck the milk of cows, mares, and

ewes, while they slaughter the bulls, horses, and rams.[1082]

[Sidenote: St. George’s Day among the Ruthenians.] The Ruthenians of

Bukowina and Galicia believe that at midnight before St. George’s Day

(the twenty-third of April) the witches come in bands of twelve to the

hills at the boundaries of the villages and there dance and play with

fire. Moreover, they cull on the mountains the herbs they need for their

infernal enchantments. Like the Esthonians and the Russians, the

Ruthenians drive their cattle out to pasture for the first time on St.

George’s Day; hence during the preceding night the witches are very busy

casting their spells on the cows; and the farmer is at great pains to

defeat their fell purpose. With this intent many people catch a snake,

skin it, and fumigate the cows with the skin on the eve of the saint’s

day. To rub the udders and horns of the cows with serpent’s fat is

equally effective. Others strew meal about the animals, saying, “Not

till thou hast gathered up this meal, shalt thou take the milk from my

cow So-and-so.” Further, sods of turf, with thorn-branches stuck in

them, are laid on the gate-posts; and crosses are painted with tar on

the doors. These precautions keep the witches from the cows. If,

however, a beast should after all be bewitched, the farmer’s wife drags

a rope about in the dew on the morning of St. George’s Day. Then she

chops it up small, mixes salt with it, and scatters the bits among the

cow’s fodder. No sooner has the afflicted animal partaken of this

compound than the spell is broken.[1083]

[Sidenote: St. George’s Day among the Huzuls of the Carpathians.] The

Huzuls of the Carpathian Mountains believe that when a cow gives milk

tinged with blood, or no milk at all, a witch is the cause of it. These

maleficent beings play their pranks especially on the eve of St.

George’s Day and on Midsummer Eve, but they are most dangerous at the

former season, for that night they and the foul fiends hold their

greatest gathering or sabbath. To steal the cows’ milk they resort to

various devices. Sometimes they run about in the shape of dogs and smell

the cows’ udders. Sometimes they rub the udders of their own cows with

milk taken from a neighbour’s kine; then their own cows yield abundant

milk, but the udders of the neighbour’s cows shrivel up or give only

blood. Others again make a wooden cow on the spot where the real cows

are generally milked, taking care to stick into the ground the knife

they used in carving the image. Then the wooden cow yields the witch all

the milk of the cattle which are commonly milked there, while the owner

of the beasts gets nothing but blood from them.

[Sidenote: Precautions taken by the Huzuls against the witches who try

to steal milk on the eve of St. George.] Hence the Huzuls take steps to

guard their cows from the machinations of witches at this season. For

this purpose they kindle a great fire before the house on the eve of St.

George’s Day, using as fuel the dung which has accumulated during the

winter. Also they place on the gate-posts clods in which are stuck the

branches consecrated on Palm Sunday or boughs of the silver poplar, the

wood of which is deemed especially efficacious in banning fiends.

Moreover, they make crosses on the doors, sprinkle the cows with mud,

and fumigate them with incense or the skin of a snake. To tie red

woollen threads round the necks or tails of the animals is also a

safeguard against witchcraft. And in June, when the snow has melted and

the cattle are led to the high mountain pastures, the herds have no

sooner reached their summer quarters than the herdsman makes “living

fire” by the friction of wood and drives the animals over the ashes in

order to protect them against witches and other powers of evil. The fire

thus kindled is kept constantly burning in the herdsman’s hut till with

the chill of autumn the time comes to drive the herds down the mountains

again. If the fire went out in the interval, it would be an ill omen for

the owner of the pastures.[1084]

[Sidenote: Sacrifice for horses in Silesia on St. George’s Day.] In some

parts of Silesia the might of the witches is believed to be at the

highest pitch on St. George’s Day. The people deem the saint very

powerful in the matter of cattle-breeding and especially of

horse-breeding. At the Polish village of Ostroppa, not far from

Gleiwitz, a sacrifice for horses used to be offered at the little

village church. It has been described by an eye-witness. Peasants on

horseback streamed to the spot from all the neighbouring villages, not

with the staid and solemn pace of pilgrims, but with the noise and

clatter of merrymakers hastening to a revel. The sorry image of the

saint, carved in wood and about an ell high, stood in the churchyard on

a table covered with a white cloth. It represented him seated on

horseback and spearing the dragon. Beside it were two vessels to receive

offerings of money and eggs respectively. As each farmer galloped up, he

dismounted, led his horse by the bridle, knelt before the image of the

saint, and prayed. After that he made his offering of money or eggs,

according to his means, in the name of his horse. Then he led the beast

round the church and churchyard, tethered it, and went into the church

to hear mass and a sermon. Having thus paid his devotions to the saint,

every man leaped into the saddle and made for the nearest public-house

as fast as his horse could lay legs to the ground.[1085]

[Sidenote: Festival of St. George, as the patron of horses, at Ertringen

in Bavaria.] At Ertringen, in South Bavaria, there is a chapel of St.

George, where a festival of the saint used to be held on April the

twenty-fourth down to the beginning of the nineteenth century. From the

whole neighbourhood people streamed thither on horseback and in waggons

to take part in the ceremony. More than fourteen hundred riders are said

to have been present on one occasion. The foundation of the chapel was

attributed to the monastery of Holy Cross Vale (_Heiligkreuztal_), and

the abbot and prior with their suite attended the festival in state

mounted on white horses. A burgher of Ertringen had to ride as patron in

the costume of St. George, whom he represented. He alone bestrode a

fiery stallion. After the celebration of high mass the horses were

blessed at the chapel. Then the procession of men on horseback moved

round the common lands, winding up at the parish church, where it broke

up.[1086] In many villages near Freiburg in Baden St. George is the

patron of horses, and in some parts of Baden the saint’s day (April the

twenty-third) is the season when cattle are driven out to pasture for

the first time in spring.[1087]

[Sidenote: St. George’s Day among the Saxons and Roumanians of

Transylvania.] The Saxons of Transylvania think that on the eve of St.

George’s Day the witches ride on the backs of the cows into the

farmyard, if branches of wild rosebushes or other thorny shrubs are not

stuck over the gate of the yard to keep them out.[1088] Beliefs and

practices of this sort are shared by the Roumanians of Transylvania.

They hold that on St. George’s Day the witches keep their sabbath in

sequestered spots, such as woodland glades, deserted farm-steadings, and

the like. In Walachia green sods are laid on the window-sills and on the

lintels of the doors to avert the uncanny crew. But in Transylvania the

Roumanians, not content with setting a thorn-bush in the doorway of the

house, keep watch and ward all night beside the cattle or elsewhere, to

catch the witches who are at work stealing the milk from the cows. Here,

as elsewhere, the day is above all the herdsman’s festival. It marks the

beginning of spring; the shepherds are preparing to start for the

distant pastures, and they listen with all their ears to some wiseacre

who tells them how, if the milk should fail in the udders of the sheep,

they have only to thrash the shepherd’s pouch, and every stroke will

fall on the witch who is pumping the lost milk into her pails.[1089]

[Sidenote: St. George’s Day the herdsman’s festival among the

Walachians.] The Walachians look on St. George’s Day as very holy; for

they are mainly a pastoral folk, and St. George is the patron of herds

and herdsmen. On that day also, as well as on the day before and the day

after, the Walachian numbers his herd, beginning at one and counting

continuously up to the total. This he never does at any other time of

the year. On this day, too, he milks his sheep for the first time into

vessels which have been carefully scoured and are wreathed with flowers.

Then too a cake of white meal is baked in the shape of a ring, and is

rolled on the ground in sight of the herd; and from the length of its

course omens are drawn as to the good or bad luck of the cattle in their

summer pastures. If the herd is owned by several men, they afterwards

lay hold of the ring, and break it among them, and the one who gets the

largest piece will have the best luck. The milk is made into a cheese

which is divided; and the pieces of the cake are given to the shepherds.

In like manner the wreaths of flowers which crowned the pails are thrown

into the water, and from the way in which they float down-stream the

shepherds presage good or evil fortune.[1090]

[Sidenote: St. George’s Day among the Bulgarians and South Slavs.] The

Bulgarians seem to share the belief that cattle are especially exposed

to the machinations of witches at this season, for it is a rule with

them not to give away milk, butter, or cheese on the eve of St. George’s

Day; to do so, they say, would be to give away the profit of the milch

kine.[1091] They rise very early on the morning of this day, and wash

themselves in the dew, that they may be healthy.[1092] It is said, too,

that a regular sacrifice is still offered on St. George’s Day in

Bulgaria. An old man kills a ram, while girls spread grass on which the

blood is poured forth.[1093] The intention of the sacrifice may be to

make the herbage grow abundantly in the pastures. Amongst the South

Slavs the twenty-third of April, St. George’s Day, is the chief festival

of the spring. The herdsman thinks that if his cattle are well on that

day they will thrive throughout the year. As we have already seen,[1094]

he crowns the horns of his cows with garlands of flowers to guard them

against witchcraft, and in the evening the garlands are hung on the

doors of the stalls, where they remain until the next St. George’s Day.

Early in the morning of that day, when the herdsman drives the cows from

the byres, the housewife takes salt in one hand and a potsherd with

glowing coals in the other. She offers the salt to the cow, and the

beast must step over the smouldering coals, on which various kinds of

roses are smoking. This deprives the witches of all power to harm the

cow. On the eve or the morning of the day old women cut thistles and

fasten them to the doors and gates of the farm; and they make crosses

with cow’s dung on the doors of the byres to ward off the witches. Many

knock great nails into the doors, which is thought to be a surer

preventive even than thistles. In certain districts the people cut

thistles before sunrise and put some on each other’s heads, some on the

fences, the windows, the doors, and some in the shape of wreaths round

the necks of the cows, in order that the witches may be powerless to

harm man and beast, house and homestead, throughout the year. If,

nevertheless, a witch should contrive to steal through the garden fence

and into the byre, it is all over with the cows. A good housewife will

also go round her house and cattle-stalls early in the morning of the

fateful day and sprinkle them with holy water. Another approved means of

driving the witches away is furnished by the froth which is shot from

the spokes of a revolving mill-wheel; for common-sense tells us that

just as the froth flies from the wheel, so the witches will fly from our

house, if only we apply the remedy in the right way. And the right way

is this. On the eve of St. George’s Day you must send a child to fetch

froth from the mill, three stones from three cross-roads, three twigs of

a blackberry bush, three sprigs of beech, and three shoots of a wild

vine. Then you insert the plants in a buttered roll, put the stones in

the fire, boil the froth, toast the buttered roll over the glowing

stones, and speak these words: “The blackberry twigs gather together,

the beeches pull together, but the foam from the wheel shakes all evil

away.” Do this, and you may take my word for it that no witch will be

able to charm away the milk from your cows.[1095]

[Sidenote: Precautions of the same sort are taken against wolves and

witches whenever the cattle are driven out to pasture for the first time

in spring.] Thus on the whole the festival of St. George at the present

day, like the Parilia of ancient Italy, is a ceremony intended to guard

the cattle against their real and their imaginary foes, the wolves and

the witches, at the critical season when the flocks and herds are driven

out to pasture for the first time in spring. Precautions of the same

sort are naturally taken by the superstitious herdsman whenever, the

winter being over, he turns his herds out into the open for the first

time, whether it be on St. George’s Day or not. Thus in Prussia and

Lithuania, when the momentous morning broke, the herd-boy ran from house

to house in the village, knocked at the windows, and cried: “Put out the

fire, spin not, reel not, but drive the cattle out!” Meantime the

herdsman had fetched sand from the church, which he strewed on the road

by which the beasts must go from the farmyard. At the same time he laid

a woodcutter’s axe in every doorway, with the sharp edge outwards, over

which the cows had to step. Then he walked in front of them, speaking

never a word, and paying no heed to the herd, which was kept together by

the herd-boys alone. His thoughts were occupied by higher things, for he

was busy making crosses, blessing the cattle, and murmuring prayers,

till the pastures were reached. The axe in the doorway signified that

the wolf should flee from the herd as from the sharp edge of the axe:

the sand from the church betokened that the cattle should not disperse

and wander in the meadows, but should keep as close together as people

in church.[1096]

[Sidenote: Swedish observances at turning out the cattle to graze after

their winter confinement.] In Sweden the cattle are confined almost

wholly to their stalls during the long and dreary northern winter; and

the first day in spring on which they are turned out into the forest to

graze has been from time immemorial a great popular festival. The time

of its celebration depends more or less on the mildness or severity of

the season. For the most part it takes place about the middle of May. On

the preceding evening bonfires are kindled everywhere in the forest,

because so far as their flickering light extends the cattle will be safe

from the attacks of wild beasts throughout the summer. For the same

reason people go about the woods that night firing guns, blowing horns,

and making all kinds of discordant noises. The mode of celebrating the

festival, which in some places is called the feast of flowers, varies

somewhat in different provinces. In Dalsland the cattle are driven home

that day from pasture at noon instead of at evening. Early in the

morning the herd-boy repairs with the herd to the forest, where he decks

their horns with wreaths of flowers and provides himself with a wand of

the rowan or mountain-ash. During his absence the girls pluck flowers,

weave them into a garland, and hang it on the gate through which the

cattle must pass on their return from the forest. When they come back,

the herd-boy takes the garland from the gate, fastens it to the top of

his wand, and marches with it at the head of his beasts to the hamlet.

Afterwards the wand with the garland on it is set up on the muck-heap,

where it remains all the summer. The intention of these ceremonies is

not said, but on the analogy of the preceding customs we may conjecture

that both the flowers and the rowan-wand are supposed to guard the

cattle against witchcraft. A little later in the season, when the grass

is well grown in the forest, most of the cattle are sent away to the

_säter_, or summer pastures, of which every hamlet commonly has one or

more. These are clearings in the woods, and may be many miles distant

from the village. In Dalecarlia the departure usually takes place in the

first week of June. It is a great event for the pastoral folk. An

instinctive longing seems to awaken both in the people and the beasts.

The preparations of the women are accompanied by the bleating of the

sheep and goats and the lowing of the cattle, which make incessant

efforts to break through the pens near the house where they are shut up.

Two or more girls, according to the size of the herd, attend the cattle

on their migration and stay with them all the summer. Every animal as it

goes forth, whether cow, sheep, or goat, is marked on the brow with a

cross by means of a tar-brush in order to protect it against evil

spirits. But more dangerous foes lie in wait for the cattle in the

distant pastures, where bears and wolves not uncommonly rush forth on

them from the woods. On such occasions the herd-girls often display the

utmost gallantry, belabouring the ferocious beasts with sticks, and

risking their own lives in defence of the herds.[1097]

[Sidenote: These modern parallels throw light on some features of the

Parilia.] The foregoing customs, practised down to modern times by

shepherds and herdsmen with a full sense of their meaning, throw light

on some features of the Parilia which might otherwise remain obscure.

They seem to shew that when the Italian shepherd hung green boughs on

his folds, and garlands on his doors, he did so in order to keep the

witches from the ewes; and that in fumigating his flocks with sulphur

and driving them over a fire of straw he sought to interpose a fiery

barrier between them and the powers of evil, whether these were

conceived as witches or mischievous spirits.

[Sidenote: Green George a personification of a spirit of trees or of

vegetation in general.] But St. George is more than a patron of cattle.

The mummer who dresses up in green boughs on the saint’s day and goes by

the name of Green George[1098] clearly personifies the saint himself,

and such a disguise is appropriate only to a spirit of trees or of

vegetation in general. As if to make this quite clear, the Slavs of

Carinthia carry a tree decked with flowers in the procession in which

Green George figures; and the ceremonies in which the leaf-clad masker

takes a part plainly indicate that he is thought to stand in intimate

connexion with rain as well as with cattle. This counterpart of our Jack

in the Green is known in some parts of Russia, and the Slovenes call him

Green George. Dressed in leaves and flowers, he appears in public on St.

George’s Day carrying a lighted torch in one hand and a pie in the

other. Thus arrayed he goes out to the cornfields, followed by girls,

who sing appropriate songs. A circle of brushwood is then lighted, and

the pie is set in the middle of it. All who share in the ceremony sit

down around the fire, and the pie is divided among them. The observance

has perhaps a bearing on the cattle as well as on the cornfields, for in

some parts of Russia when the herds go out to graze for the first time

in spring a pie baked in the form of a sheep is cut up by the chief

herdsman, and the bits are kept as a cure for the ills to which sheep

are subject.[1099]

[Sidenote: “Ringing out the grass” on St. George’s Day.] At Schwaz, an

old Tyrolese town in the lower valley of the Inn, young lads assemble on

St. George’s Day, which is here the twenty-fourth of April, and having

provided themselves with bells, both large and small, they go in

procession ringing them to the various farms of the neighbourhood, where

they are welcomed and given milk to drink. These processions, which take

place in other parts of the Tyrol also, go by the name of “ringing out

the grass” (_Grasausläuten_), and it is believed that wherever the

bell-ringers come, there the grass grows and the crops will be abundant.

This beneficial effect appears to be ascribed to the power of the bells

to disperse the evil spirits, which are thought to be rampant on St.

George’s Day. For the same purpose of averting demoniac influence at

this time, people in Salzburg and the neighbouring districts of Upper

Austria go in procession round the fields and stick palm branches or

small crosses in them; also they fasten branches of the _Prunus Padus_,

L., at the windows of the houses and cattle-stalls.[1100] In some parts

of Germany the farmer looks to the height of his corn on St. George’s

Day, expecting that it should then be high enough to hide a crow.[1101]

[Sidenote: St. George supposed to get barren women with child.] Even

when we have said that St. George of Eastern Europe represents an old

heathen deity of sheep, cattle, horses, wolves, vegetation, and rain, we

have not exhausted all the provinces over which he is supposed to bear

sway. According to an opinion which appears to be widely spread, he has

the power of blessing barren women with offspring. This belief is

clearly at the root of the South Slavonian custom, described above,

whereby a childless woman hopes to become a mother by wearing a shirt

which has hung all night on a fruitful tree on St. George’s Eve.[1102]

Similarly, a Bulgarian wife who desires to have a child will strike off

a serpent’s head on St. George’s Day, put a bean in its mouth, and lay

the head in a hollow tree or bury it in the earth at a spot so far from

the village that the crowing of the cocks cannot be heard there. If the

bean buds, her wishes will be granted.[1103]

[Sidenote: Love-charms practised among the Slavs on St. George’s Day.]

It is natural to suppose that a saint who can bestow offspring can also

bring fond lovers together. Hence among the Slavs, with whom St. George

is so popular, his day is one of the seasons at which youths and maidens

resort to charms and divination in order to win or discover the

affections of the other sex. Thus, to take examples, a Bohemian way of

gaining a girl’s love is as follows. You catch a frog on St. George’s

Day, wrap it in a white cloth, and put it in an ant-hill after sunset or

about midnight. The creature croaks terribly while the ants are gnawing

the flesh from its bones. When silence reigns again, you will find

nothing left of the frog but one little bone in the shape of a hook and

another little bone in the shape of a shovel. Take the hook-shaped bone,

go to the girl of your choice, and hook her dress with the bone, and she

will fall over head and ears in love with you. If you afterwards tire of

her, you have only to touch her with the shovel-shaped bone, and her

affection will vanish as quickly as it came.[1104] Again, at Ceklinj, in

Crnagora, maidens go at break of day on St. George’s morning to a well

to draw water, and look down into its dark depth till tears fill their

eyes and they fancy they see in the water the image of their future

husband.[1105] At Krajina, in Servia, girls who would pry into the book

of fate gather flowers in the meadows on the eve of St. George, make

them up into nosegays, and give to the nosegays the names of the various

lads whose hearts they would win. Late at night they place the flowers

by stealth under the open sky, on the roof or elsewhere, and leave them

there till daybreak. The lad on whose nosegay most dew has fallen will

love the girl most truly throughout the year. Sometimes mischievous

young men secretly watch these doings, and steal the bunches of flowers,

which makes sore hearts among the girls.[1106] Once more, in wooded

districts of Bohemia a Czech maiden will sometimes go out on St.

George’s Eve into an oak or beech forest and catch a young wild pigeon.

It may be a ring-dove or a wood-pigeon, but it must always be a male.

She takes the bird home with her, and covers it with a sieve or shuts it

up in a box that nobody may know what she is about. Having kept and fed

it till it can fly, she rises very early in the morning, while the

household is still asleep, and goes with the dove to the hearth. Here

she presses the bird thrice to her bare breast, above her heart, and

then lets it fly away up the chimney, while she says:—

“_Out of the chimney, dove,

Fly, fly from here.

Take me, dear Hans, my love,

None, none so dear._

“_Fly to your rocks, fair dove,

Fly to your lea.

So may I get, my love,

None, none but thee._”[1107]

[Sidenote: St. George in Syria esteemed a giver of offspring to

childless women.] In the East, also, St. George is reputed to be a giver

of offspring to barren women, and in this character he is revered by

Moslems as well as Christians. His shrines may be found in all parts of

Syria; more places are associated with him than with any other saint in

the calendar. The most famous of his sanctuaries is at Kalat el Hosn, in

Northern Syria. Childless women of all sects resort to it in order that

the saint may remove their reproach. Some people shrug their shoulders

when the shrine is mentioned in this connexion. Yet many Mohammedan

women who desired offspring used to repair to it with the full consent

of their husbands. Nowadays the true character of the place is beginning

to be perceived, and many Moslems have forbidden their wives to visit

it.[1108] Such beliefs and practices [Sidenote: The Syrian St. George

may represent Tammuz.] lend some colour to the theory that in the East

the saint has taken the place of Tammuz or Adonis.[1109]

[Sidenote: In Europe St. George seems to have displaced an old Aryan god

of the spring, such as the Lithuanian Pergrubius.] But we cannot suppose

that the worship of Tammuz has been transplanted to Europe and struck

its roots deep among the Slavs and other peoples in the eastern part of

our continent. Rather amongst them we must look for a native Aryan deity

who now masquerades in the costume of the Cappadocian saint and martyr

St. George. Perhaps we may find him in the Pergrubius of the

Lithuanians, a people who retained their heathen religion later than any

other branch of the Aryan stock in Europe. This Pergrubius is described

as “the god of the spring,” as “he who makes leaves and grass to grow,”

or more fully as “the god of flowers, plants, and all buds.” On St.

George’s Day, the twenty-third of April, the heathen Prussians and

Lithuanians offered a sacrifice to Pergrubius. A priest, who bore the

title of _Wurschait_, held in his hand a mug of beer, while he thus

addressed the deity: “Thou drivest away the winter; thou bringest back

the pleasant spring. By thee the fields and gardens are green, by thee

the groves and the woods put forth leaves.” According to another

version, the prayer ran as follows: “Thou drivest the winter away, and

givest in all lands leaves and grass. We pray thee that thou wouldst

make our corn to grow and wouldst put down all weeds.” After praying

thus, the priest drank the beer, holding the mug with his teeth, but not

touching it with his hands. Then without handling it he threw the mug

backward over his head. Afterwards it was picked up and filled again,

and all present drank out of it. They also sang a hymn in praise of

Pergrubius, and then spent the whole day in feasting and dancing.[1110]

Thus it appears that Pergrubius was a Lithuanian god of the spring, who

caused the grass and the corn to grow and the trees to burst into leaf.

In this he resembles Green George, the embodiment of the fresh

vegetation of spring, whose leaf-clad representative still plays his

pranks on the very same day in some parts of Eastern Europe. Nothing,

indeed, is said of the relation of Pergrubius to cattle, and so far the

analogy between him and St. George breaks down. But our accounts of the

old Lithuanian mythology are few and scanty; if we knew more about

Pergrubius we might find that as a god or personification of spring he,

like St. George, was believed to exert all the quickening powers of that

genial season—in other words, that his beneficent activity was not

confined to clothing the bare earth with verdure, but extended to the

care of the teeming flocks and herds, as well as to the propagation of

mankind. Certainly it is not easy to draw a sharp line of division

between the god who attends to cattle and the god who provides the food

on which they subsist.

[Sidenote: The Roman equivalent of St. George was Pales, who may have

been personated by the king at the Parilia.] Thus Pergrubius may perhaps

have been the northern equivalent of the pastoral god Pales, who was

worshipped by the Romans only two days earlier at the spring festival of

the Parilia. It will be remembered that the Roman shepherds prayed to

Pales for grass and leaves, the very things which it was the part of

Pergrubius to supply. Is it too bold to conjecture that in rural

districts of Italy Pales may have been personated by a leaf-clad man,

and that in the early age of Rome the duty of thus representing the god

may have been one of the sacred functions of the king? The conjecture at

least suggests a reason for the tradition that Numa, the typical

priestly king of Rome, was born on the day of the Parilia.

Footnote 1045:

Varro, _Rerum rusticarum_, ii. 1. 9 _sq._ “_Romanorum vero populum a

pastoribus esse ortum quis non dicit?_” etc. Amongst other arguments

in favour of this view Varro refers to the Roman personal names

derived from cattle, both large and small, such as _Porcius_,

“pig-man,” _Ovinius_, “sheep-man,” _Caprilius_, “goat-man,”

_Equitius_, “horse-man,” _Taurius_, “bull-man,” and so forth. On the

importance of cattle and milk among the ancient Aryans see O.

Schrader, _Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_

(Strasburg, 1901), pp. 541 _sq._, 689 _sqq._, 913 _sqq._

Footnote 1046:

Above, vol. i. p. 366.

Footnote 1047:

As to the foundation of Rome on this date see Varro, _Rerum

rusticarum_, ii. 1. 9; Cicero, _De divinatione_, ii. 47. 98; Festus,

_s.v._ “Parilibus,” p. 236, ed. C. O. Müller; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._

xviii. 247; Propertius, v. 4. 73 _sq._; Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 801-806;

_id._, _Metam._ xiv. 774 _sq._; Velleius Paterculus, i. 8. 4;

Eutropius, i. 1; Solinus, i. 18; Censorinus, _De die natali_, xxi. 6;

Probus on Virgil, _Georg._ iii. 1; Schol. Veronens. on Virgil, _l.c._;

Dionysius Halicarnas, _Ant. Rom._ i. 88; Plutarch, _Romulus_, 12; Dio

Cassius, xliii. 42; Zonaras, _Annales_, vii. 3; Joannes Lydus, _De

mensibus_, i. 14, iv. 50. As to the birth of Numa, see Plutarch,

_Numa_, 3. The festival is variously called Parilia and Palilia by

ancient writers, but the form Parilia seems to be the better attested

of the two. See G. Wissowa, _s.v._ “Pales,” in W. H. Roscher’s

_Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, iii. 1278.

Footnote 1048:

Dionysius of Halicarnassus (_Ant. Rom._ i. 88) hesitates between these

two views. With truer historical insight Plutarch (_Romulus_, 12)

holds that the rustic festival was older than the foundation of Rome.

Footnote 1049:

See, for example, vol. i. above, p. 32.

Footnote 1050:

For modern discussions of the Parilia, see L. Preller, _Römische

Mythologie_, 3rd Ed., i. 413 _sqq._; J. Marquardt, _Römische

Staatsverwaltung_, iii. 2nd Ed., 207 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Antike

Wald- und Feldkulte_, pp. 309-317; W. Warde Fowler, _Roman Festivals_,

pp. 79-85; G. Wissowa, _s.v._ “Pales,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der

griech. u. röm. Mythologie_, iii. 1276-1280; _id._, _Religion und

Kultus der Römer_, pp. 165 _sq._

Footnote 1051:

Cicero, _De divinatione_, ii. 47. 98; Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 806; Calendar

of Philocalus, quoted by W. Warde Fowler, _op. cit._ p. 79; Probus on

Virgil, _Georg._ iii. 1; Plutarch, _Romulus_, 12; Zonaras, _Annales_,

vii. 3.

Footnote 1052:

Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Ant. Rom._ i. 88.

Footnote 1053:

Festus, _s.v._ “Pales,” p. 222, ed. C. O. Müller; Dionysius Halic.

_l.c._

Footnote 1054:

Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ iii. 1. See also Arnobius, _Adversus

nationes_, iii. 40; Martianus Capella, i. 50.

Footnote 1055:

Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 637-640, 731-734; Propertius, v. 1. 19 _sq._

Footnote 1056:

See above, p. 229. As to the sacrifice of the horse in October see

_The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, ii. 315 _sqq._

Footnote 1057:

Tibullus, ii. 5. 91 _sq._:—

“_Et fetus matrona dabit, natusque parenti

Oscula comprensis auribus cripict._”

Footnote 1058:

Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 735-738. In his account of the festival Ovid

mentions only shepherds and sheep; but since Pales was a god of cattle

as well as of sheep (Arnobius, _Adversus nationes_, iii. 23), we may

suppose that herds and herdsmen equally participated in it. Dionysius

(_l.c._) speaks of four-footed beasts in general.

Footnote 1059:

So Mr. W. Warde Fowler understands Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 735-742.

Footnote 1060:

Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 805 _sq._

Footnote 1061:

Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 739 _sq._

Footnote 1062:

Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 747 _sq._:—

“_Consule, dic, pecori pariter pecorisque magistris:

Effugiat stabulis noxa repulsa meis._”

With this sense of _noxa_ compare _id._ vi. 129 _sq._, where it is

said that buckthorn or hawthorn “_tristes pellere posset a foribus

noxas_.”

Footnote 1063:

Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 763-774. The prayer that the wolves may be kept far

from the fold is mentioned also by Tibullus (ii. 5. 88).

Footnote 1064:

Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 779-782; Tibullus, ii. 5. 89 _sq._; Propertius, v.

1. 19, v. 4. 77 sq.; Persius, i. 72; Probus on Virgil, _Georg._ iii.

1.

Footnote 1065:

I owe this observation to F. A. Paley, on Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 754. He

refers to Virgil, _Georg._ ii. 435, _Ecl._ x. 30; Theocritus, xi. 73

_sq._; to which may be added Virgil, _Georg._ iii. 300 _sq._, 320

_sq._; Horace, _Epist._ i. 14. 28; Cato, _De re rustica_, 30;

Columella, _De re rustica_, vii. 3. 21, xi. 2. 83 and 99-101. From

these passages of Cato and Columella we learn that the Italian farmer

fed his cattle on the leaves of the elm, the ash, the poplar, the oak,

the evergreen oak, the fig, and the laurel.

Footnote 1066:

Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 749-754.

Footnote 1067:

Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 757-760.

Footnote 1068:

Columella, _De re rustica_, vii. 3. 11. In this respect the practice

of ancient Italian farmers would seem to have differed from that of

modern English breeders. In a letter (dated 8th February 1908) my

friend Professor W. Somerville of Oxford writes: “It is against all

modern custom to arrange matters so that lambs are born five months

after April 21, say the end of September.” And, again, in another

letter (dated 16th February 1908) he writes to me: “The matter of

coupling ewes and rams in the end of April is very perplexing. In this

country it is only the Dorset breed of sheep that will ‘take’ the ram

at this time of the year. In the case of other breeds the ewe will

only take the ram in autumn, say from July to November, so that the

lambs are born from January to May. We consider that lambs born late

in the season, say May or June, never thrive well.”

Footnote 1069:

The suggestion was made by C. G. Heyne in his commentary on Tibullus,

i. 5. 88.

Footnote 1070:

O. Keller, _Thiere des classischen Alterthums_ (Innsbruck, 1887), pp.

158 _sqq._

Footnote 1071:

Calpurnius, _Bucol._ v. 16-28.

Footnote 1072:

Plutarch, _Romulus_, 12.

Footnote 1073:

Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Ant. Rom._ 1. 88.

Footnote 1074:

This is the view of J. Marquardt (_Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii.

2nd Ed., 207), and Mr. W. Warde Fowler (_Roman Festivals_, p. 83, note

1).

Footnote 1075:

Boecler-Kreutzwald, _Der Ehsten abergläubische Gebräuche, Weisen und

Gewohnheiten_, pp. 82-84, 116-118; F. J. Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren

und äusseren Leben der Ehsten_, pp. 332, 356-361; Holzmayer,

“Osiliana,” _Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft zu

Dorpat_, vii. (1872) p. 61.

Footnote 1076:

F. J. Wiedemann, _op. cit._ p. 413.

Footnote 1077:

See above, pp. 75 _sq._

Footnote 1078:

W. R. S. Ralston, _Russian Folk-tales_, pp. 344, 345.

Footnote 1079:

W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, pp. 229-231. In the

island of Rhodes also it is customary for people to roll themselves on

the grass for good luck on St. George’s Day. See Mary Hamilton, _Greek

Saints and their Festivals_ (Edinburgh and London, 1910), p. 166.

Footnote 1080:

Olga Bartels, “Aus dem Leben der weissrussischen Landbevölkerung,”

_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xxxv. (1903) p. 659.

Footnote 1081:

W. R. S. Ralston, _op. cit._ p. 389. French peasants of the Vosges

Mountains believe that St. George shuts the mouths of wild beasts and

prevents them from attacking the flocks which are placed under his

protection (L. F. Sauvé, _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_, p. 127).

Footnote 1082:

W. R. S. Ralston, _op. cit._ pp. 319 _sq._

Footnote 1083:

R. F. Kaindl, “Zauberglaube bei den Rutenen in der Bukowina und

Galizien,” _Globus_, lxi. (1892) p. 280.

Footnote 1084:

R. F. Kaindl, _Die Huzulen_ (Vienna, 1894), pp. 62 _sq._, 78, 88

_sq._; _id._, “Zauberglaube bei den Huzulen,” _Globus_, lxxvi. (1899)

p. 233.

Footnote 1085: