Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/243

* MAY DAY. tUe contiuuauco of an ancient pagan ceremony; and there seems to be good reason tor regarding it us a survival of rites originally olVered to the Komaii gt}ildess ilaia, who was evidently wor- shiped as the principle and cause of fertility. Although recorded testimony does not enable us to reconstruct the details of her ceremony, it is probable that one essential feature was a ritual marriage to a partner wlio represented the male element of growth, w hence arose habitual acts of license, which were not repugnant to early moral sentiment, but which under a stricter ethical code gave occasion for scandal. Songs and dances, which were usual on similar occa- sions, and are reminiscent of the same spirit, have continued in popular use to our own day, as the familiar English game of children, "Here oats. peas, beans, and barley grows." The actual basis of May Day seems to have been the Roman Fluralia, celebrated April 28, and instituted at Home, in the J'ear B.C. 241, on account of a bad liarvest. Flora (q.v.), to whom the feast was con.secrated, was likewise a fertility goddess, and it may be taUen for granted that the ele- ments of her rite were similar to customs which had previously been associated with ilaia. Among observances of the Floralia are mentioned gay costumes, dramatic performances, and dances de- scribed as frequently indecent. In the niediieval May festival an important feature consisted in a nocturnal e.vpedition to the forest, whence branches were brought and afterwards attached to doors. The bushes brought home were planted in the streets, and a lover might thus honor the residence of his mistress. Corresponding to this act of 'bringing in the May,' it was usual for the young men of the village to fetch from the wood a tree, the tallest and straiglitest which could be procured. This was stripped of its boughs, planted in the public green, decorated with garlands and ribands, painted with gay stripes, and became the centre of dances and games having for the most part an amatory char- acter. The tree thus obtained, as well as the branches of individual celebrants, were called simply 'the May;' in England the white-flower- ing hawtliorn, especially, received this title. A 'May-pole,' once introduced, might remain for many years, and annually be made the focus of popular amusements. With the season continued to be associated theatrical perforipances. These were freqviently of a comic nature, and might be crowded with local jests and personal allu- sions often of a scurrilous sort, as may be seen from the pastoral of Adam de la Halle, Lc jru de Robin et de Marion, composed in the thir- teenth century for use on such an occasion. In England the story of Roliin Hood was connected with the ilay-games, and the personages of his cycle were introduced into the performances of co.stumed or masked actors, called 'Morris dan- cers.' In the Highlands of Scotland and Ire- land (lie first of May received the name of Bel- tan (q.v.), and was originally, no doubt, an inde- pendent ceremony. Customs analogous to May Day are widespread. Among the Russians there is a spring festival, celebrated by the boys and girls with a choral dance called Khorovod. (See Slavonic ilfsic. ) The Eurojiean spring-tide feast sccnis to have come from the Orient, where orgiastic merriment was cnmmon in the spring. So in modern India the Holi festival is celebrated in Jlarch or April, with the singing of songs 215 MAYER. generally obscene, and with the sprinkling with red powder and water or with tilth. The nat- uralistic basis of the custom is joy at the cre- ative impulses felt in the spring and manifested both in the vegetable and animal world. Hence comes the erotic character of the songs and dances, while the ilay-pole itself is probably jihallic in origin. See Piiallicism. MAYEN, mi'en. A town in the Prussian Rhine Province, Germany, on the Nette, 15 miles west of Coblcnz (ilap: Prussia, B 3). It lias a late Gothic church and a partly preserved castle of the Jliddle Ages. Cloth, tobacco, wool yarn, and leather are manufactured, and there is Vrade in millstones. Population, in 1900, 11,961. MAYENCE, ina'yaNs'. A town of Germany. See .Iai.z. MAYENNE, ma'en'. A northwestern depart- ment of France, traversed by the River Mayenne, a tributary of the Loire (Map: France, F 3). It was formerly part of the Province of Jlaine. Area, 1906 square miles. Its surface is mostly level, becoming hilly toward the northeast. Its fertile soil produces grain, llax, hemp, and apples; there are deposits of coal, iron, marble, and slate. A large number of cattle and fine horses are reared. Population, in 1896, 321,187; in 1901, 313,103. Capital, Laval. MAYENNE. The cajiital of an arrondisse- nieiit in the Department of JIayenne, in the northwest of France (Map: France, F 3). It is ]ileasantly situated on (lie Mayenne, a tribu- tary of the Loire, Its streets are steep, nar- row, and winding. It has manufactures of iron, calico, and linen, and trades chiefly in horses and grain. Population, in 1901, 10,125. MAYENNE, Duke of. See Guise. MAY'ER, Alfred M.rsiiall (1830-97). An American physicist. He was born atBaltimore and was educated at Saint Mary's College, Baltimore. In 1856 he was ajipoinled professor of physics and chemistry in the University of Maryland, and subsequently held positions in the Westminster College in Missouri, in Pennsylvania State Col- lege, in Lehigh University, and in the Stevens Institute of Technology. In 1863 he went to Paris, where he spent two years in study and research, working under the famous physicist Regnault. He was for a time one of the editors of the Atnericun Journal of Science, and con- tributed a number of papers to its pages. In 1872 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. After assuming the pro- fessorship of physics at Stevens Institute (1871) he devoted himself to acoustics, in which field he ])erformed many new and interesting experi- ments, and made some valuable discoveries. His most important work in acoustics, perhaps, was the determination of the law connecting the pitch of a sound with tlic duration of the residual sensation in the ear. To Professor Mayer is also due a method of determining the comparative intensity of sounds with the same ]iitcli, and the location of the organs of hearing in Ihe mosquito. He developed new methods for analyzing sound, and he made researches into the nature of elec- tricity, besides being the first to give accurately the temperature correction for tuning-forks. . early paper on the Tlicrmodi/namics of Water- faUs (1869) arouseil considerable interest, and one on the variation of the elasticity of metals