[131] As regards the northern tribes of Central Australia, Spencer and Gillen state that, during the performance of certain ceremonies which bring together a large number of natives from different parts, the ordinary marital rules are more or less set aside (Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 136). Just in the same way, among the Siberian Yakuts, according to Sieroshevski, during weddings and at the great festivals of the year, the usual oversight of maidens is largely removed. (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Jan.-June, 1901, p. 96.)
[132] R. E. Guise, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1899, pp. 214–216.
[133] Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 196 et seq. W. Crooke (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, p. 243, 1899) also refers to the annual harvest-tree dance and saturnalia, and its association with the seasonal period for marriage. We find a similar phenomenon in the Malay Peninsula: "In former days, at harvest-time, the Jakuns kept an annual festival, at which, the entire settlement having been called together, fermented liquor, brewed from jungle fruits, was drunk; and to the accompaniments of strains of their rude and incondite music, both sexes, crowning themselves with fragrant leaves and flowers, indulged in bouts of singing and dancing, which grew gradually wilder throughout the night, and terminated in a strange kind of sexual orgie." (W. W. Skeat, "The Wild Tribes of the Malay Peninsula," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1902, p. 133.)
[134] Fielding Hall, The Soul of a People, 1898, Chapter XIII.
[135] See e.g., L. Dyer, Studies of the Gods in Greece, 1891, pp. 86–89, 375, etc.
[136] For a popular account of the Feast of Fools, see Loliée, "La Fête des Fous," Revue des Revues, May 15, 1898; also, J. G. Bourke, Scatologic Rites of all Nations, pp. 11–23.
[137] J. Grimm (Teutonic Mythology, p. 615) points out that the observance of the spring or Easter bonfires marks off the Saxon from the Franconian peoples. The Easter bonfires are held in Lower Saxony, Westphalia, Lower Hesse, Geldern, Holland, Friesland, Jutland, and Zealand. The Midsummer bonfires are held on the Rhine, in Franconia, Thuringia, Swabia, Bavaria, Austria, and Silesia. Schwartz (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1896, p. 151) shows that at Lauterberg, in the Harz Mountains, the line of demarcation between these two primitive districts may still be clearly traced.
[138] Wald und Feldkulte, 1875, vol. i, pp. 422 et seq. He also mentions (p. 458) that St. Valentine's Day (14th of February)—or Ember Day, or the last day of February—when the pairing of birds was supposed to take place, was associated, especially in England, with love-making and the choice of a mate. In Lorraine, it may be added, on the 1st of May, the young girls chose young men as their valentines, a custom known by this name to Rabelais.
[139] Rochholz, Drei gaugöttinnen, p, 37.
[140] Mannhardt, ibid., pp. 466 et seq. Also J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough, vol ii, Chapter IV. For further facts and references, see K. Pearson (The Chances of Death, 1897, vol, ii, "Woman as Witch," "Kindred Group-marriage," and Appendix on "The 'Mailehn' and 'Kiltgang,'") who incidentally brings together some of the evidence concerning primitive sex-festivals in Europe. Also, E. Hahn, Demeter und Baubo, 1896, pp. 38–40; and for some modern survivals, see Deniker, Races of Man, 1900, Chapter III. On a lofty tumulus near the megalithic remains at Carnac, in Brittany, the custom still prevails of lighting a large bonfire at the time of the summer solstice; it is called Tan Heol, or Tan St. Jean. In Ireland, the bonfires also take place on St. John's Eve, and a correspondent, who has often witnessed them in County Waterford, writes that "women, with garments raised, jump through these fires, and conduct which, on ordinary occasions would be reprobated, is regarded as excusable and harmless." Outside Europe, the Berbers of Morocco still maintain this midsummer festival, and in the Rif they light bonfires; here the fires seem to be now regarded as mainly purificatory, but they are associated with eating ceremonies which are still regarded as multiplicative. (Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," Folk-Lore, March, 1905.)
[141] Mannhardt (op. cit., p. 469) quotes a description of an Ehstonian festival in the Island of Moon, when the girls dance in a circle round the fire, and one of them—to the envy of the rest, and the pride of her own family—is chosen by the young men, borne away so violently that her clothes are often torn, and thrown down by a youth, who places one leg over her body in a kind of symbolical coitus, and lies quietly by her side till morning. The spring festivals of the young people of Ukrainia, in which, also, there is singing, dancing, and sleeping together, are described in "Folk-Lore de l'Ukrainie." Κρυπτάδια, vol. v, pp. 2–6, and vol. viii, pp. 303 et seq.
[142] M. Kowalewsky, "Marriage Among the Early Slavs," Folk-Lore, December, 1890.
[143] A. Tille, however (Yule and Christmas, 1899), while admitting that the general Aryan division of the year was dual, follows Tacitus in asserting that the Germanic division of the year (like the Egyptian) was tripartite: winter, spring, and summer.
[144] Grimm, Teutonic Mythology (English translation by Stallybrass), pp. 612–630, 779, 788.
[145] Wellhausen, Reste Arabischen Heidentums, 1897, p. 98.
[146] See, e.g., the chapter on ritual in Gérard-Varet's interesting book, L'Ignorance et l'Irreflexion, 1899, for a popular account of this and allied primitive conceptions.
[147] Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia, especially pp. 485, 571; regarding the priestesses, Jastrow remarks: "Among many nations, the mysterious aspects of woman's fertility lead to rites that, by a perversion of their original import, appear to be obscene. The prostitutes were priestesses attached to the Ishtar cult, and who took part in ceremonies intended to symbolize fertility." Whether there is any significance in the fact that the first two months of the Babylonian year (roughly corresponding to our March and April), when we should expect births to be at a maximum, were dedicated to Ea and Bel, who, according to varying legends, were the creators of man, and that New Year's Day was the festival of Bau, regarded as the mother of mankind, I cannot say, but the suggestion may be put forward.
[148] Celtic Heathendom, p. 421.
[149] Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, p. 1465. In England, the November, bonfires have become