representatives of some of the sacred things' taken out of the box and placed in the basket in antiquity. For the rest, these wreaths find their prototype in the wreaths worn by the ancient mystae. Now as to the sacred things' of the Mysteries: the pomegranate, the sesame cake, and the salt. (9) To begin with the pomegranate. Besides figuring among the 'sacred things,' this fruit is in another way connected with the ancient Demeter myth, for we find that Pluto, on surrendering Persephone to her mother, in order to compel her to live with him part of the year, secretly gave her the pip of a pomegranate. In the modern marriage celebrations the pomegranate occurs at least twice: first, the bridegroom on nearing the bride's house throws a pomegranate over her roof; secondly, when, after the ceremony at church, the bride enters her new home, she is made to crush under her foot a pomegranate. In both cases the underlying idea, no doubt, is to attract the bride to the bridegroom, as Persephone was to be attracted by Pluto. As to the sesame cake. A cake smeared with honey and sprinkled with sesame is one of the modern consecrated things,' as it was among the ancient sacred things.' This cake is prepared with great solemnity by the bride's kinswomen, and, together with a cup of wine, is placed on a small table before the pair when the ceremony is being performed at church. The priest uses that cake and the wine for the preparation of the Holy Communion partaken of by the pair-thus consecrating' the cake which the bride and bridegroom 'taste (cp. ¿yevσáμnv in the ancient formula quoted above). Furthermore, the ancient mystae, we are told, partook of a cake made of sesame and honey—an extraordinarily close analogy to the modern cake— in the evening of the third day after a fast; precisely as the bride and bridegroom do, for Holy Communion is, of course, preceded by a fast. Lastly, in this connexion the mystae used the expression (Tiov TÒV Kukɛŵva) ‘I have drunk the mixture,' and this 'mixture' partook of the nature of both food and drink, just as the Host does in the Greek Church. But a further echo of the formula is also supplied by the expression' We eat the mixture' (тpáryovμe Tò μício) used by the bridesmaids when they eat buns and honey solemnly on the day on which the bridal cake is prepared. As regards the salt, this article also occurs in the wedding celebrations. When the bride, having entered her new home, is stepping to the corner allotted to her, one of her sisters-in-law holds over her head a loaf of bread with a salt cellar on the top of it. Other details offering a suggestive parallelism are not wanting. (10) The KUKEÓv, or mixture' already mentioned as partaken of by the initiates, consisted of barley-meal and water. Ears of barley were also the prize awarded to the victors in the games which formed part of the programme of the Eleusinian festivities. Now, 6 in the island of Thasos, and, of course, most likely elsewhere also, the bride, when, after the ceremony at church, she enters the bridegroom's house, is made to upset with her foot a tray containing barley and water. Barley also figures among the offerings made by the bride in Macedonia to the fountain-nymph at a ceremony which will be noted in the sequel. (11) In the ancient Mysteries, on the way to Eleusis, the descendants of the hero Crocon, who once reigned over the Thriasian Plain, fastened on to the right arm and left foot of the mystae a saffron band. In the modern wedding celebrations such bindings are extremely common. On the morning of the last day one of the bride's brothers binds a sash round her waist with three knots. When the bridegroom has come to fetch her, the bride's sister ties a handkerchief round his neck, while the bride herself ties another round the best man's' neck. (12) Another suggestive point is presented by an incident which occurs on the very last (eighth) day of the wedding celebrations. After the return from church a cock is offered to the bridegroom by the bride's kinsmen. Further, in the midst of the uproarious banquet which follows, someone rushes down into the poultry yard, catches the biggest cock he can find, and whirls it round twice. Then he flings it loose and all the guests run after it. Now, the last act of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which took place on the eighth day, was a sacrifice to Asklepios, and we know that a cock was the bird sacrificed to Asklepios. Of course this cock episode may have a closer connexion with an agricultural superstition than with a survival of the sacrifice to Askle pios. We know, for example, that the corn-spirit often assumes the form of a cock, and in some Slavonic countries, when the last sheaf of corn is about to be bound, the master lets loose a cock and all the harvesters chase it till they catch it. But even so, the incident is significant, for the Eleusinian Mysteries in their primitive form were essentially agricultural. In this connexion some other points of interest are worth noting. 8 (13) According to legend, Triptolemos was instructed by Demeter in the use of corn and its cultivation. The same hero is credited with the invention of the plough. Now, Triptolemos was closely associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries, and if the modern marriage ceremonies bear a real analogy to those celebrations we may look for some tangible reminders of the gifts of Demeter to Triptolemos. As a matter of fact we have such a reminder. The bride on entering her new home is obliged to set her right foot upon a ploughshare. • This note on the marriage customs in Thasos was taken by me at the same time, but through an oversight was not embodied in my book on Macedonian Folklore. * Ε.g. τῷ Ασκληπιῷ ὀφείλομεν ἀλεκτρυόνα. Pl. Phaed. lxvi. See J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. i. pp. 7 foll. (1st ed.). (14) Another feature of the ancient Mysteries were the plemochoae. Two earthen vessels were filled with water or wine and broken on the ninth day. Also the initiates, during the last act of the proceedings, 'carried a vessel' (èkepvoþópnσa) to the temple of Demeter. Three points are here to be noted: (1) the breaking,' (2) the pouring out of water or wine, and (3) the vessel-carrying.' As to the 'breaking' the nearest parallel offered by the peasant wedding is the following: In some districts of Macedonia two big ring-cakes are made, and the bride wears them round her arms on the wedding-day. During the procession to the bridegroom's house, after the ceremony at church, she breaks one of them half-way to the house, and the other at the entrance, and scatters the pieces to right and left among the crowd. In parts where the two ring-cakes are not in use, she breaks upon her head one cake and throws the pieces over her shoulder. As to the pouring out of water or wine, when the bride mounts the steps of her new home a ewer is handed to her, and she pours out the water, or an earthen jug filled with water is placed in her way, and she upsets it with a vigorous kick. The vessel-carrying,' however, survives in all its antique picturesqueness. On the Wednesday following the ceremony at church the bride, arrayed in her second best apparel and accompanied by two of her husband's nearest kinswomen, or by her own mother and her mother-in-law, goes to the village fountain, carrying thither a new pitcher upon her shoulder. Similar vessels are borne by her companions. Into these vessels are thrown cloves, flowers, coins and wheat and barley, which are then poured out into the fountain, as propitiatory offerings to the presiding nymph. The vessels are then washed, filled with water, and emptied outside the entrance of the house. The offerings of wheat and barley, it will be observed, are peculiarly appropriate to Demeter, and if they are made to the nymph of the fountain, that is simply because the worship of Demeter has been superseded by that of the lesser deities of paganism-as has been the case with many of the other great gods and goddesses of the Greek pantheon. It is also worthy of note that this modern rite, like the ancient Keρvodopía, takes place when the 'initiation' is complete. Hitherto the points to which attention has been drawn represent the bride and, in a much smaller degree; the bridegroom mostly in the character of mystae. Some other points, not less noteworthy, seem to present them in the light of Persephone and her abductor Pluto. (15) The bride in the wedding songs is frequently referred to as Kópn. The word, of course, means in modern Greek nothing more than 'girl' or 'daughter,' just as it meant in antiquity. Yet, the frequent use of it in this connexion lends some colour, if nothing more, to the analogy between the marriage celebrations and the myth of Demeter and her Kópn. This analogy, however, is more vividly illustrated by the semblance of abduction of the bride by the bridegroom of which the Macedonian wedding contains many examples, by the bride's conventional reluctance to be led away from her maternal home, and by the generally mournful character of the wedding-songs-a character which contrasts strangely with the name 'Joy' (xapá) by which the wedding itself is called. In these songs, it must be noted, the father does not appear, the laments on both sides being restricted to mother and daughter. In one of them the latter, allegorised into a bird, is represented as wandering over the laurel groves and wailing: Ah me, how shall I cross these three seas And three more, in order to get to my mother? Persephone might have so wailed and longed for the mother from whom she had been torn by Pluto. The modern mother, on her part, like Demeter, laments the loss of her daughter at great length and with considerable bitterness. In one of the songs she says: O thou fellow-mother-in-law, what harm have I done to thee To snatch away my dear bird And rob my courtyard of its beauty? (16) In this connexion we have to note a very striking parallel to Persephone's return to her mother. On the Friday after the marriage the bride goes back to her mother's home, where she stays till Sunday, and there has her hair washed by her with water medicated with yellow flowers gathered and dried for the purpose. This visit is, most suggestively, called 'return' ('Eπioтpópia or’πiσтpoḍíxia). In some districts it is known as 'counter-wedding' ('Avriyapos), (Αντίγαμος), presumably in allusion to the second going of the bride to her husband. Both terms and practice fit in with the myth according to which the Kópn was carried off by Pluto, returned to her mother, and then went back to Pluto for part of the year. Many of the points enumerated above, taken each by itself, could, perhaps, be traced to other sources; but, if considered as a whole, they constitute, I think, a fairly striking analogy to the Demeter and Persephone legend as expounded in the Eleusinian Mysteries. G. F. ABBOTT. THE IMPOTENCE OF SOCIALISM A REJOINDER It is with interest that I have read the reply which Mr. Ramsay Macdonald has made in these columns to an article on Socialism which appeared in the February number of this Review. In now offering some rejoinder to what my critic has to say it may save trouble if I begin by briefly summarising the main points with which in the article in question I was attempting to deal. (1) Seeing, then, in the first place, that certain well-known Liberal statesmen had recently advanced the view that Socialism should be treated as a mere 'bogey,' I ventured to demur to this view and to bring forward evidence that Socialism, on the contrary, was a wellorganised political movement, full of life and energy, and of steadily increasing importance. (2) Secondly, it was my contention that those who saw in Socialism a real danger to the prosperity of the State ought to unite in endeavouring to avert this danger, and that the Socialistic campaign in the constituencies could only be met successfully by a countercampaign conducted with equal vigour and equal thoroughness. I advocated perseverance in useful elementary spade work, and I pleaded for the wide diffusion of such light on the many and complex questions at issue as might render possible an intelligent understanding of the ideals and aims of Socialism. (3) In the third place an endeavour was made to give some general idea of what the Co-operative Commonwealth of the Socialist might be like when, through gradual and progressive stages,' it had at length attained maturity. It was assumed, too, that this gradual transformation must logically involve various important changes, both economic and political, and some of these changes were conjecturally enumerated by way of illustration. (4) Assuming the New Republic to have arrived, and to have got itself into working order, there followed next a brief review of what would probably turn out to be its weak points, and also of what appeared to be some of its more objectionable features. (5) And, in conclusion, a glance was given at the alternative VOL. LXIII-No. 374 661 X X |