Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/272

 264 '' First-FooC in the British Isles.

to show that the New Year's festival contained similar rites and sacrifices.

D. The traces in the folk-lore survivals of these cere- monies, and also in the prevailing heathen rites of a procession of women in a state of nudity, give evidence of the separation of sexes at this New Year's festival.

E. The existence of certain New Year's hunting- festivals, at which the presence of women would reiider nugatory the efficacy of the rites, and also the fact that it is considered that men prying at the women's proces- sions before referred to would bring evil upon the village, are evidence to show that the presence of the opposite sex has been considered unlucky on New Year's Day.

T. W. E. HiGGENS.