Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/55

 Rh those who had taken the consecrated elements to sing 'Thou art in us now,' and those who had not, to sing 'Thou art with us now.'"

Whether, therefore, the cult be barbaric or civilized, we find theory and practice identical. The god is eaten so that the communicant thereby becomes a "partaker of the divine nature." Upon this, even did time permit, there is no need to enlarge. There is only the need to point out that the inclusion of the rite within the province of folklore is warranted by its identity with barbaric rites.

Turning to Mr. Hartland's book, although the concluding section has not yet appeared, the drift of the work is clear, and, in fact, has been indicated in the preface. "The figure of Perseus, the god-begotten, the dragon-slayer, became very early a type of the Saviour of the world, while the conception underlying the Life-token obtained its ultimate expression in the most sacred rite of Christian worship." It is thus evident that Mr. Hartland's survey overlaps the ground taken by Mr. Frazer. He has collected a large number of variants of legends of miraculous conceptions and virgin births, the existence of which demands, for purposes of inquiry and comparison, the inclusion of every story of corresponding character. Credo quia ineptum, the barbarian may say with his betters, for the examples cited by Mr. Hartland shew that, certain savage creation-myths perhaps excepted, into no other group do the grotesque and fantastic so largely enter. Fecundation is believed to be caused by eating and drinking certain things; by the scent of flowers, or by touching them or anything else which is thought to have magic properties; by holy water, or the unconsecrated rain; by sunrays and the wind; by a glance; by helpful beasts and birds; and so forth. The agency of the flower is probably an explanation of the lily held towards the Virgin by the angel in pictures of the Annunciation, although a later and loftier idea sees in the white blossom the symbol of purity. But that the grosser notions obtained for centuries is shewn in the medieval belief in conception by the ear.