Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1: The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-ErotismEllis, Havelock
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Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1: The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-Erotism
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
[140] Mannhardt, ibid., pp. 466 et seq. Also J.G. Frazer, _Golden Bough_,
vol ii, Chapter IV. For further facts and references, see K. Pearson (_The
Chances of Death_, 1897, vol, ii, "Woman as Witch," "Kindred
Group-marriage," and Appendix on "The '_Mailehn_' and '_Kiltgang_,'") who
incidentally brings together some of the evidence concerning primitive
sex-festivals in Europe. Also, E. Hahn, _Demeter und Baubo_, 1896, pp.
38-40; and for some modern survivals, see Deniker, _Races of Man_, 1900,
Chapter III. On a lofty tumulus near the megalithic remains at Carnac, in
Brittany, the custom still prevails of lighting a large bonfire at the
time of the summer solstice; it is called Tan Heol, or Tan St. Jean. In
Ireland, the bonfires also take place on St. John's Eve, and a
correspondent, who has often witnessed them in County Waterford, writes
that "women, with garments raised, jump through these fires, and conduct
which, on ordinary occasions would be reprobated, is regarded as excusable
and harmless." Outside Europe, the Berbers of Morocco still maintain this
midsummer festival, and in the Rif they light bonfires; here the fires
seem to be now regarded as mainly purificatory, but they are associated
with eating ceremonies which are still regarded as multiplicative.
(Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-Lore_, March, 1905.)
[141] Mannhardt (op. cit., p. 469) quotes a description of an Ehstonian
festival in the Island of Moon, when the girls dance in a circle round the
fire, and one of them,--to the envy of the rest, and the pride of her own
family,--is chosen by the young men, borne away so violently that her
clothes are often torn, and thrown down by a youth, who places one leg
over her body in a kind of symbolical coitus, and lies quietly by her side
till morning. The spring festivals of the young people of Ukrainia, in
which, also, there is singing, dancing, and sleeping together, are
described in "Folk-Lore de l'Ukrainie." Kryptadia, vol. v, pp. 2-6, and
vol. viii, pp. 303 et seq.
[142] M. Kowalewsky, "Marriage Among the Early Slavs," _Folk-Lore_,
December, 1890.
[143] A. Tille, however (_Yule and Christmas_, 1899), while admitting that
the general Aryan division of the year was dual, follows Tacitus in
asserting that the Germanic division of the year (like the Egyptian) was
tripartite: winter, spring, and summer.
[144] Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_ (English translation by Stallybrass),
pp. 612-630, 779, 788.
[145] Wellhausen, _Reste Arabischen Heidentums_, 1897, p. 98.
[146] See, e.g., the chapter on ritual in Gérard-Varet's interesting book,
_L'Ignorance et l'Irreflexion_, 1899, for a popular account of this and
allied primitive conceptions.
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