Studies in the Psychology of Sex Volume I Part 12

[130]

This primitive aspect of the festival is well shown by the human sacrifices which the ancient Mexicans offered at this time, in order to enable the sun to recuperate his strength. The custom survives in a symbolical form among the Mokis, who observe the festivals of the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. ("Aspects of Sun-worship among the Moki Indians," Nature, July 28, 1898.) The Walpi, a Tusayan people, hold a similar great sun-festival at the winter solstice, and December is with them a sacred month, in which there is no work and little play. This festival, in which there is a dance dramatizing the fructification of the earth and the imparting of virility to the seeds of corn, is fully described by J. Walter Fewkes (American Anthropologist, March, 1898). That these solemn annual dances and festivals of North America frequently merge into "a lecherous saturnalia" when "all is joy and happiness," is stated by H. H. Bancroft (Native Races of Pacific States, vol. i, p. 352).

[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 Inst.i.tute, Jan.-June, 1901, p. 96.)

[132]

R. E. Guise, Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute, 1899, pp. 214-216.

[133]

Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 196 et seq. W. Crooke (Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute, p. 243, 1899) also refers to the annual harvest-tree dance and saturnalia, and its a.s.sociation 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 s.e.xes, 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 s.e.xual orgie." (W. W. Skeat, "The Wild Tribes of the Malay Peninsula," Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute, 1902, p. 133.)

[134]

Fielding Hall, The Soul of a People, 1898, Chapter XIII.

[135]

See e.g., L. Dyer, Studies of the G.o.ds in Greece, 1891, pp. 86-89, 375, etc.

[136]

For a popular account of the Feast of Fools, see Loliee, "La Fete 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 fur 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 a.s.sociated, 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 gaugottinnen, 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 s.e.x-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 a.s.sociated 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." ???pt?d?a, 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 a.s.serting that the Germanic division of the year (like the Egyptian) was tripart.i.te: winter, spring, and summer.

[144]

Grimm, Teutonic Mythology (English translation by Stallybra.s.s), pp. 612-630, 779, 788.

[145]

Wellhausen, Reste Arabischen Heidentums, 1897, p. 98.

[146]

See, e.g., the chapter on ritual in Gerard-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 prost.i.tutes 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 merged into the Guy Fawkes celebrations. In the East, the great primitive autumn festivals seem to have fallen somewhat earlier. In Babylonia, the seventh month (roughly corresponding to September) was specially sacred, though nothing is known of its festivals, and this also was the sacred festival month of the Hebrews, and originally of the Arabs. In Europe, among the southern Slavs, the Reigen, or Kolo-wild dances by girls, adorned with flowers, and with skirts girt high, followed by s.e.xual intercourse-take place in autumn, during the nights following harvest time.

[150]

A. Tille, Yule and Christmas, p. 21, etc.

[151]

Long before Wargentin, however, Rabelais had shown some interest in this question, and had found that there were most christenings in October and November, this showing, he pointed out, that the early warmth of spring influenced the number of conceptions (Pantagruel, liv. v, Ch. XXIX). The spring maximum of conceptions is not now so early in France.

[152]

Villerme, "De la Distribution par mois des conceptions," Annales d'Hygiene Publique, tome v, 1831, pp. 55-155.

[153]

Sormani, Giornale di Medicina Militare, 1870.

[154]

Throughout Europe, it may be said, marriages tend to take place either in spring or autumn (Oettinger Moralstatistik, p. 181, gives details). That is to say, that there is a tendency for marriages to take place at the season of the great public festivals, during which s.e.xual intercourse was prevalent in more primitive times.

[155]

Hill, Nature, July 12, 1888.

[156]

G. Mayr, Die Gesetzma.s.sigkeit im Gesellschaftsleben, 1877, p. 240.

[157]

Edward Smith (Health and Disease), who attributes this to the lessened vitality of offspring at that season. Beukemann also states that children born in September have most vitality.

[158]

Westermarck has even suggested that the December maximum of conceptions may be due to better chance of survival for September offspring (Human Marriage, Chapter II). It may be noted that though the maximum of conceptions is in May, relatively the smallest proportion of boys is conceived at that time. (Rauber, Der Ueberschuss an Knabengeburten, p. 39.)

[159]

Krieger found that the great majority of German women investigated by him menstruated for the first time in September, October, or November. In America, Bowditch states that the first menstruation of country girls more often occurs in spring than at any other season.

[160]

Women's Medical Journal, 1894.

[161]

It is, perhaps, worth while noting that the wisdom of the mediaeval Church found an outlet for this "spring fever" in pilgrimages to remote shrines. As Chaucer wrote, in the Canterbury Tales:-

"Whane that Aprille with his showers sote The droughts of March hath pierced to the root, Thaen longen folk to gon on pilgrimages, And palmers for to seeken strange stronds."

[162]

L. W. Kline, "The Migratory Impulse," American Journal of Psychology, 1898, vol. x, especially pp. 21-24.