Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/271

 '' First-Foof' in the British Isles. 26

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a Kolarian festival, to propitiate the Rain goddess {Priuii- tive Folk, p. 332). — C. B.

The Kolarian festival contains a trace of the Godi\a ceremony. — C.

The Roumanians observe the ceremony in time of drought {Nineteenth Century, July 1885). — C. D.

In Pembrokeshire, people sprinkle each other on New Year's Day ; and in Siam there is a " Water Feast" on New Year's Day, when people drench each other {Church Times, ] din. 15, 1892). — C.

In India, in time of drought, women have been known to strip themselves, and men have been kept out of the way, in case they brought trouble on the village by prying {Science of Fairy Tales, p. 84). — D.

The Western Innoits, and also the Apache Indians, celebrate a hunting-festival on New Year's Day. The sexes are separated, and curiosity by the opposite sex is punishable by death {Primitive i^c/,^, pp. 92 and 138). — D. E.

The presence of women at these festivals would destroy the efficacy of the rites (FOLK-LoRE, 1 891, pp. 426 and 439). — D. E.

In the Isle of Lewis (Scotland), a woman was not per- mitted to cross the river until a man had crossed, or she would frighten away the fish. — E.

The evidence seems to point in the following directions, viz. :

A. The overlapping of the folk-lore of New Year's Day and May Day seems to show that the latter day was once the commencement of the New Year.

B. The survival of similar sacrificial rites on New Year's Day and May Day seem to show that the New Year was ushered in by a great festival, to propitiate the goddess of the Waters.

C. The identity between these survivals and existing heathen propitiatory sacrifices to the Rain goddess seem