The following description of the Salii from _The Golden Bough_ will illustrate this point:—“As priests of Mars, the god of Agriculture, the Salii probably had also certain agricultural functions. They were named from the remarkable leaps which they made. Now we have seen that dancing and leaping high are common sympathetic charms to make the crops grow high. Was it one of the functions of the Salii to dance and leap on the fields at the spring or autumn sowing, or at both? “The dancing procession of the Salii took place in October as well as in March, and the Romans sowed both in spring and autumn. The weapons borne by the Salii, while effective against demons in general, may have been especially directed against the demons who steal the seed corn in the ripe grain. In Western Africa the field labours of tilling and sowing are sometimes accompanied by dances of armed men in the fields.” In a footnote the author also throws out a suggestion that, as the Salii were said to have been founded by Morrius, King of Veii, and this seems to be etymologically the same as Mamurius and Mars, the word “Morris” may be the same. In answer to a query, however, he does not appear to take this as a really serious suggestion.[2] [2] L. von Schrœder in _Mysterium und Mimus im Rigveda_ (p. 113) suggests, following A. Kuhn, that the root of the word “Morris” is the same as that of Maruts, the band of dancing warriors attendant upon Indra. The following are some of the reasons for connecting the Morris dance with primitive religious customs:— (1) The characteristic of the processional form of the dance as performed by the living dancers to-day is a slow, dignified rhythmic movement, which is very marked in the Bampton (Oxon.) dancers, who have an unbroken tradition going back some hundreds of years. The set dances display a much more lively character and are characterised by wild leaps, twirlings round, hand-clapping, stick clashing, and the waving of handkerchiefs, so that we can easily imagine the present Morris as a descendant of the solemn processional up the mountain-side to greet the morning sun, and the scenes of wild joy on the summit at the appearance of the source of light and life to his waiting worshippers.