Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/468

 438 Notes from Armenia.

belonging to the New Year or other leading festivals, and with the customs of carrying out Death, or carrying out Winter. (See Golden Bough, i., 208 ; ii., 70 sqq., for the custom of carrying out Death, &c.)

There is one other fire-festival traces of which 1 came across. In the Syrian Church at Ourfa, on the night of the Nativitv, they make a bonfire of vine stems in the middle of the church ; the explanation which they give is that the fire is kindled in honour of the Magi, who were cold with their journey. This is quite an inadequate explanation of the cult. I do not, however, know the real explanation. It does not seem to be the same as the Candlemas fire.

Animal Sacrifices.

I now pass on to report a few noticeable survivals of animal sacrifice amongst the Armenians.

Mr. Conybeare, whose acquaintance with Armenian history and literature is of the first order, had advised me that such sacrifices were still extant amongst the Armenians, and I was interested to verify the matter for myself. In his Key of Truth, p. 115, note 4, he tells us that "the custom of offering victims in church and eating their flesh continues in Armenia and Georgia until to-day. Thus Gregory of Dathev, c. 1375, in his manual condemns the Mahometans because they refused to eat of the Armenian victims." In the same work, p. 134, note i., there is a long passage from Nerses ShnorhaH, born c. iioo, and Armenian catholicos 1165, in defence of the custom of sacrificing animals in church in expiation of the sins of the dead. This sacrifice was called Matab, and was said to be for the repose of the dead. If I understand Nerses rightly, the sacrifice was to take place at the door of the church, the body of the animal being divided in the following order : (i.) the priests, (ii.) the poor and needy, (iii.) the friends of the offerer.

From a canon of St. Isaac (saec. iv.), quoted by Cony-