1185 Veth, _Java_, i. 524-526. 1186 Homer, _Od._ v. 125 _sqq._; Hesiod, _Theog._ 969 _sqq._ 1187 See above, p. 343 _sq._ 1188 It is possible that a ceremony performed in a Cyprian worship of Ariadne may have been of this nature. Plutarch, _Theseus_, 20, ἐν δὴ τῇ θυσίᾳ τοῦ Γορπιαίου μηνὸς ἱσταμένου δευτέρα κατακλινόμενον τινα τῶν νεανίσκων φθέγγεσθαι καὶ ποιεῖν ἄπερ ὠδινοῦσαι γυναῖκες. We have already seen grounds for regarding Ariadne as a goddess or spirit of vegetation (above, p. 104). If, however, the reference is to the Syro-Macedonian calendar, in which Gorpiaeus corresponds to September (Daremberg et Saglio, i. 831), the ceremony could not have been a harvest celebration, but may have been a vintage one. Amongst the Minnitarees in North America, the Prince of Neuwied saw a tall strong woman pretend to bring up a stalk of maize out of her stomach; the object of the ceremony was to secure a good crop of maize in the following year. Maximilian, Prinz zu Wied, _Reise in das innere Nord-Amerika_, ii. 269. 1189 W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 468 _sq._, 480 _sqq._; _id._, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 288 _sq._; _id._, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 146 _sqq._, 340 _sqq._; Van Hoëvell, _Ambon en de Oeliasers_, p. 62 _sq._; Wilken, in _Indische Gids_, June 1884, pp. 958, 963 _sq._ Cp. Marco Polo, trans. Yule,2 i. 212 _sq._ 1190 See above, p. 335 _sq._ 1191 Cp. Preller, _Griech. Mythol._3 i. 628, _note 3_. In Greece the annual descent of Proserpine appears to have taken place at the Great Eleusinian Mysteries and at the Thesmophoria, that is, about the time of the autumn sowing. But in Sicily her descent seems to have been celebrated when the corn was fully ripe (Diodorus, v. 4), that is, in summer. 1192 Homer, _Hymn to Demeter_, 401 _sqq._; Preller, _l.c._ 1193 In some places it was customary to kneel down before the last sheaf, in others to kiss it. W. Mannhardt, _Korndämonen_, 26; _id._, _Mytholog. Forschungen_, p. 339; _Folk-lore Journal_, vi. 270. 1194 Above, p. 332 _sq._ 1195 In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, she is represented as controlling the growth of the corn. See above, p. 331. 1196 See above, pp. 305 _sqq._, 309 _sqq._ 1197 Pauly, _Real-Encyclopadie der class_. _Alterthumswiss._ v. 1011. 1198 Above, p. 105 _sq._ 1199 Diodorus, i. 14, ἔτι γὰρ καὶ νῦν κατὰ τὸν θερισμόν τούς πρώτους ἀμηθέντας στάχυς θέντας τοὺς ἀνθρώπους κόπτεσθαι πλησίον τοῦ δράγματοσ κ.τ.λ. For θέντας we should perhaps read σύνθεντας, which is supported by the following δράγματος. 1200 Herodotus, ii. 79; Pollux, iv. 54; Pausanias, ix. 29; Athenaeus, 620 A. 1201 Brugsch, _Adonisklage und Linoslied_, p. 24. 1202 Above, p. 355. 1203 Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 249 _sq._