Part 13
‘He would by no means omit the customary time of procession, persuading all, both rich and poor, if they desired the preservation of Love, and their Parish rights and liberties, to accompany him in his Perambulation—and most did so; in which Perambulation he would usually express more pleasant Discourse than at other times, and would then always drop some loving and facetious Observations, to be remembered against the next year, especially by the Boys and young people; still inclining them, and all his present Parishioners, to meekness and mutual Kindnesses and Love.’
At Charlton-on-Otmoor, near Oxford, there was a survival of the ‘agri lustratio’ until recent years. On the beautiful rood-screen of the parish church there is a cross, which was carried in procession through the parish[503], freshly decorated with flowers, on May-day; it was then restored to its place on the screen, and remained there until the May-day of the next year. It may still be seen there, but it is no longer carried round, and its decoration seems to have been transferred from May-day to the harvest-festival[504].
Footnote 363:
Sat. 1. 12. 16.
Footnote 364:
See above, Introduction, p. 11.
Footnote 365:
So Varro also (_L. L._ 6. 33). But Censorinus (_De die natali_, 20. 2) expressly ascribes to Varro the derivation from Maia; the great scholar apparently changed his view.
Footnote 366:
For Iup. Maius see Aust, in _Myth. Lex._ s. v. Iuppiter, p. 650.
Footnote 367:
This was probably not the early historian Cincius Alimentus, but a contemporary of Augustus, Teuffel, _Hist. of Roman Literature_, sec. 106. For the flamen Volcanalis see on Aug 23.
Footnote 368:
i. e. on the Ides: see below, p. 120. The connexion between Mercurius and Maia seems to arise simply from the fact that the dedication of the temple of the former was on the Ides of this month.
Footnote 369:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 6. 59 foll.; Mommsen, _Chron._ 218.
Footnote 370:
The etymology was defended by Roscher in Fleckeisen’s _Jahrbuch_ for 1875, and in his _Iuno und Hera_, p. 105.
Footnote 371:
_Fasti_, 5. 129 foll. For the doubtful reading _Curibus_ in 131 see Peter, ad loc.; Preller-Jordan, ii. 114.
Footnote 372:
_Fasti_, 5. 143; Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 51.
Footnote 373:
This appears on coins of the gens Caesia: Cohen, _Méd. Cons._ pl. viii. Wissowa, in _Myth. Lex._, s. v. Lares, gives a cut of the coin, on which the Lares are represented sitting with a dog between them. See note at the end of this work (Note B) on the further interpretation of these coins.
Footnote 374:
See Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, 414 foll.
Footnote 375:
Farnell, _Cults_, ii. 515. Hekate was certainly a deity of the earth. Cf. Plut. _Q. R._ 68.
Footnote 376:
See on Robigalia, April 25.
Footnote 377:
_Quaest. Rom._ 52 and 111; cf. _Romulus_ 21.
Footnote 378:
So Jevons, _Roman Questions_, Introduction, xli.
Footnote 379:
De-Marchi, _La Religione nella vita domestica_, 48. Wissowa (_Myth. Lex._, s. v. Lares, p. 1872) prefers the old interpretation, much as Plutarch gives it.
Footnote 380:
_Fasti_, 5. 149 foll.
Footnote 381:
Aust, _De Aedibus sacris_, p. 27. It was apparently before 123 B.C., when a Vestal Virgin, Licinia, added an _aedicula_, _pulvinar_, and _ara_ to it (Cic. _de Domo_, 136).
Footnote 382:
Wissowa, in Pauly’s _Real-Encyclopädie_, s. v. Bona Dea, 690. See above, p. 69.
Footnote 383:
See below, under Dec. 3. There can be hardly a doubt that this December rite was the one famous for the _sacrilegium_ of Clodius in 62 B.C., though Prof. Beesly rashly assumed the contrary in his essay on Clodius (_Catiline, Clodius, and Tiberius_, p. 45 note). Plutarch, _Cic._ 19 and 20; Dio Cass. 37. 35.
Footnote 384:
Ovid, l. c. ‘oculos exosa viriles.’ Cp. _Ars Amat._ 3. 637. On this and other points in the cult see R. Peter in _Myth. Lex._, and Wissowa, l. c. The latter seems to refer most of them to the December rite; but Ovid and Macrobius expressly connect them with the _temple_. Macr. 1. 12. 25 foll.
Footnote 385:
Propert. 4. 9; Macr. 1. 12. 28.
Footnote 386:
Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 245 foll.
Footnote 387:
See below, p. 143. _Lex. Myth._ s. v. Hercules, 2258.
Footnote 388:
Macr. l. c. Plutarch also knew of this (_Quaest. Rom._ 20).
Footnote 389:
Otherwise in Lactantius, 1. 22. 11, and Arnob. 5. 18, where Fauna is said to have been beaten because she drank wine; no doubt a later version. Lactantius quotes Sext. Clodius, a contemporary of Cicero.
Footnote 390:
_H. N._ 14. 88. See above on feriae Latinae, p. 97. Virg. _Ecl._ 5. 66; _Georg._ 1. 344; _Aen._ 5. 77. In the last passage milk is offered to the _inferiae_ of Anchises: we may note the similarity of the cult of Earth-deities and of the dead.
Footnote 391:
Plut. _Q. R._ 20; Macrob. l. c.; Lactant. l. c. The myth has been explained as Greek (Wissowa, in Pauly, 688), but its peculiar feature, the whipping, could hardly have become attached to a Roman cult unless there were something in the cult to attach it to, or unless the cult itself were borrowed from the Greek. That the latter was the case it is impossible to prove; and I prefer to believe that both cult and myth were Roman.
Footnote 392:
_Mythologische Forschungen_, 115 foll. Cp. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii. 213 foll.
Footnote 393:
Below, p. 320. See also on July 7 (Nonae Caprotinae).
Footnote 394:
Macrob. l. c. ‘Quidam Medeam putant, quod in aede eius omne genus herbarum sit ex quibus antistites dant plerumque medicinas.’
Footnote 395:
_C. I. L._ vi. 54 foll.
Footnote 396:
This no doubt gave rise to the myth that Faunus ‘coisse cum filia’ in the form of a snake. Here again the myth may possibly be Greek, but we have no right to deny that it may have had a Roman basis. Snakes were kept in great numbers both in temples and houses in Italy (Preller-Jordan, i. 87, 385).
Footnote 397:
Plin. _H. N._ 29 _passim_, especially 14, &c., where Cato is quoted as detesting the new Greek art, and urging his son to stick to the old simples; some of which, with their absurd charms, are given in Cato, R. R. 156 foll.
Footnote 398:
Macrob. l. c.; Juv. _Sat._ 2. 86.
Footnote 399:
Marq. 173. Gilbert (_Gesch. und Topogr._ ii. 159, note) has some impossible combinations on this subject, and concludes that the Bona Dea was a moon-goddess.
Footnote 400:
See above, p. 72 foll.
Footnote 401:
Paulus, 68 ‘Damium sacrificium, quod fiebat in operto in honorem Bonae deae, ... dea quoque ipsa Damia et sacerdos eius damiatrix appellabatur.’
Footnote 402:
R. Peter in _Myth. Lex._, s. v. Damia; Wissowa, l. c.
Footnote 403:
Paulus, l. c.
Footnote 404:
Lactantius, 1. 22; Serv. _Aen._ 8. 314.
Footnote 405:
Preuner, _Hestia-Vesta_, 407 foll. For Lucina, Gilbert, l. c.
Footnote 406:
The combination of the idea of female fecundity with that of the earth is of course common enough. Here is a good example from Abyssinia: ‘She (Atetie) is the goddess of fecundity, and women are her principal votaries; but, as she can also make the earth prolific, offerings are made to her for that purpose’ (Macdonald, _Religion and Myth_, p. 42).
Footnote 407:
_Fasti_, 5. 421 foll.
Footnote 408:
See Introduction, p. 15.
Footnote 409:
Huschke (_Röm. Jahr_, 17) tried to prove that the Lemuria was the ‘Todtenfest’ of the Sabine city, the Feralia that of the Latin; but his arguments have convinced no one.
Footnote 410:
_Fasti_, 5. 423.
Footnote 411:
_G. B._ ii. 157 foll.; Macdonald, _Religion and Myth_, ch. vi.
Footnote 412:
Introduction, p. 10.
Footnote 413:
Tylor, _Prim. Cult._ ii. 24. The friendly attitude is well illustrated in F. de Coulanges’ _La Cité antique_, ch. ii.
Footnote 414:
On Hor. _Ep._ 2. 2. 209.
Footnote 415:
Non. p. 135. Cp. Festus, s. v. faba: ‘Lemuralibus iacitur larvis,’ i. e. ‘the bean is thrown to _larvae_ at the Lemuralia.’ Serv. _Aen._ 3. 63.
Footnote 416:
_de Genio Socratis_, 15. The passage is interesting, but historically worthless, as is that of Martianus Capella, 2. 162.
Footnote 417:
_Fasti_, 5. 451 foll.; Porph. l. c. Remus, as one dead before his time, would not lie quiet: ‘Umbra cruenta Remi visa est adsistere lecto,’ &c.
Footnote 418:
See e. g. Von Duhn’s paper on Italian excavations, translated in the _Journal of Hellenic Studies_ for 1897.
Footnote 419:
‘Habent vincula nulla pedes’ (_Fasti_, 5. 432). In performing sacred rites a man must be free; e. g. the Flamen Dialis might not wear a ring, or anything binding, and a fettered prisoner had to be loosed in his house (Plut. _Q. R._ 111). Cp. Numa in his interview with Faunus (Ov. _Fasti_, 4. 658), ‘Nec digitis annulus ullus inest.’ Serv. _Aen._ 4. 518; Hor. _Sat._ 1. 8. 24.
Footnote 420:
_Manes_ must be here used, either loosely by the poet, or euphemistically by the house-father.
Footnote 421:
It is curious to find them used for the very same purpose of ghost-ridding as far away as Japan (Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii. 176). For their antiquity as food, Hehn, _Kulturpflanzen_, 459; Schrader, _Sprachvergleichung_, 362.
Footnote 422:
A. Lang, _Myth_, &c., ii. 265; Jevons, _Roman Questions_, Introd. p. lxxxvi; O. Crusius, _Rhein. Mus._ xxxix. 164 foll.; and especially Lobeck, _Aglaoph._ 251 foll. For superstitions of a similar kind attached to the mandrake and other plants see Sir T. Browne’s _Vulgar Errors_, bk. ii. ch. 6; Rhys, _Celtic Mythology_, p. 356 (the berries of the rowan).
Footnote 423:
There was a notion that beans sown in a manure-heap produced men. Cp. Plin. _H. N._ 18. 118 ‘quoniam mortuorum animae sint in ea.’
Footnote 424:
Gell. 10. 15. 2 (from Fabius Pictor).
Footnote 425:
Serv. _Ecl._ 8. 82; Marq. 343 note. Mannhardt, _A. W. F._ 269, attempts an explanation of the difficulty arising here from the fact that in historical times the calendar was some weeks in advance of the seasons, but without much success.
Footnote 426:
This note is wrongly entered in the Fasti Venusini, under May 16.
Footnote 427:
Festus, 245, s. v. Publica sacra. Cp. Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, iii. 123. Festus distinguishes _pagi_, _montes_, _sacella_, of which the festivals would seem to be the Paganalia, Septimontium, and sacra Argeorum, respectively.
Footnote 428:
See under March 17. We arrive at the procession by comparing the Varronian extracts from the sacra Argeorum (_L. L._ 545) with Gellius, 10. 15.30, and Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 791. See a restoration of the itinerary of the procession in Jordan, _Topogr._ ii. 603.
Footnote 429:
Sacella in Varro (_L. L._ 545); sacraria, ib. 548; Argea in Festus, 334, where the word seems to be an adjective; Argei in Liv. 1. 24 ‘loca sacris faciendis, quae Argeos pontifices vocant.’ The number depends on the reading of Varro, 7. 44, xxiv or xxvii; Jordan decided for xxiv: but see Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, iii. 123.
Footnote 430:
_Fasti_, 3. 791.
Footnote 431:
Jordan, _Topogr._ ii. 271 foll.
Footnote 432:
Dionysius, 1. 38; Ovid, _Fasti_, 5. 621 foll.; Festus, p. 334, s. v. Sexagenarii; Plutarch, _Q. R._ 32 and 86.
Footnote 433:
Dionysius says there were thirty; he had probably seen the ceremony, but may have only made a rough guess at the number or have thought of the thirty Curiae. Ovid writes of two: ‘Falcifero libata seni duo corpora gentis Mittite,’ &c. (Jordan proposed to read ‘senilia’ for ‘seni duo.’)
Footnote 434:
Festus, 334.
Footnote 435:
Festus, l. c.; Cicero, _pro Roscio Amerino_, 35. 100. _Sexagenarios de ponte_ was apparently an old saying (cp. ‘depontani,’ Festus, 75); the earliest notice we have of it, which comes from the poet Afranius, seems to connect it with the pons sublicius.
Footnote 436:
‘The etymology will of course explain a word, but only if it happens to be right; the history of the word is a surer guide’ (Skeat). In this case we have not even the history.
Footnote 437:
See Schwegler, i 383. note; Marq. 183. Mommsen (_Staatsrecht_, iii. 123) reverts to the opinion that Argei is simply Ἀργεῖοι, and preserves a reminiscence of Greek captives. Nettleship, in his _Notes in Latin Lexicography_, p. 271, is inclined to connect the word with ‘arcere’, in the sense of confining prisoners. More fanciful developments in a paper by O. Keller, in Fleckeisen’s _Jahrbuch_, cxxxiii. 845 foll.
Footnote 438:
The puppets may have been made in March, and then hung in the sacella till May: so Jordan, _Topogr._ l. c. The writer in _Myth. Lex._ thinks that human victims were originally kept in these sacella, for whom the puppets were surrogates.
Footnote 439:
There is an interesting modern parallel in Mannhardt, _A. W. F._ 178.
Footnote 440:
Varro, _L. L._ 5. 83, and Jordan, _Topogr._ i. 398. The general opinion seems now to favour the view that there was an original connexion between the _pontifices_ and the _pons sublicius_.
Footnote 441:
Varro, _L. L._ 5. 83; Dionys. 2. 73, 3. 45.
Footnote 442:
This was the suggestion of Mr. Frazer in a note in the _Journal of Philology_, vol. xiv. p. 156. The late Prof. Nettleship once expressed this view to me.
Footnote 443:
Paulus, p. 15 ‘per Virgines Vestales’; Ovid, _Fasti_, 5. 621.
Footnote 444:
See below, p. 149.
Footnote 445:
Plut. _Quaest. Rom._ 86; Gell. 10. 15; Marq. 318. Her usual head-dress was the _flammeum_, or bride’s veil. No mention is made of the Flamen her husband; the prominence of women in all these rites is noticeable.
Footnote 446:
_Baumkultus_, 155, 411, 416. The cult of Adonis has some features like that of the Argei: e. g. the puppet, the immersion in water and the mourning (see _Lex._ s. v. Adonis, p. 73; Mannhardt, _A. W. F._ 276).
Footnote 447:
i. e. ‘old men must go over the bridge.’ See Cic. _pro Roscio Amerino_, 35, where the old edition of Osenbrüggen has a useful note. Also Varro, apud Lactant. _Inst._ 1. 21. 6. Ovid alludes to the proverb (5. 623 foll.) ‘Corpora post decies senos qui credidit annos Missa neci, sceleris crimine damnat avos.’
Footnote 448:
Dionys. 1. 38. But he may have been deceived simply by the appearance of the bindings of the sheaves or bundles, especially if he had been told beforehand of the proverb.
Footnote 449:
The best known instances of human sacrifice at Rome are collected in a note to Merivale’s _History_ (vol. iii. 35); and by Sachse, _Die Argeer_, p. 17. O. Müller thought that it came to Rome from Etruria (_Etrusker_, ii. 20). For Greece, see Hermann, _Griech. Alt._ ii. sec. 27; Strabo. 10. 8. See also some valuable remarks in Tylor, _Prim. Cult._ ii. 362, on substitution in sacrifice.
Footnote 450:
Caesar, _B. G._ 6. 16; Tac. _Germ._ 9 and 39. Strabo, 10. 8, is interesting, as giving an example of the dropping out of the actual killing, while the form survived. See below on Lupercalia, p. 315.
Footnote 451:
A point suggested to me some years ago by Mr. A. J. Evans.
Footnote 452:
Sir A. Lyall (_Asiatic Studies_, p. 19) writes of human sacrifice as having been common in India as a last resort for appeasing divine wrath when manifested in some strange manner; i. e. it was never regular. So Procopius, _Bell. Goth._ 3. 13. Tacitus, indeed, writes of ‘certis diebus’ (_Germ._ 9), but it is not clear that he meant fixed recurring days. As a rule in human sacrifice and cannibalism the victims are captives, who would not be always at hand.
Footnote 453:
Dionysius (1. 38) speaks of sacrifice _before_ the immersion of the puppets: προθύσαντες ἱερὰ τὰ κατὰ τοὺς νόμους.
Footnote 454:
The βούλιμος and φαρμακός, Mannhardt, _Myth. Forsch._ 129 foll.
Footnote 455:
_Germania_, 40: Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, 567 foll. The evidence is perhaps hardly adequate as to detail.
Footnote 456:
_Baumkultus_, chapters 3, 4, and 5, which should be used by all who wish to form some idea of the amount of evidence collected on this one head.
Footnote 457:
Our Jack-in-the-Green is probably a survival of this kind of rite.
Footnote 458:
Nearly all these customs occur either at Whitsuntide or harvest. Mannhardt conjectured that the Argei-rite was originally a harvest custom (_A. W. F._ 269); quite needlessly, I think.
Footnote 459:
_Baumkultus_, 331.
Footnote 460:
Mannhardt allows this, _Baumkultus_, 336 note.
Footnote 461:
_Baumkultus_, 358 foll. His theory is expressed in judicious and by no means dogmatic language. It may be that he runs his Vegetation-spirit somewhat too hard—and no mythologist is free from the error of seeing his own discovery exemplified wherever he turns. But the spirit of vegetation had been found at Rome long before Mannhardt’s time (see e. g. Preller’s account of Mars and the deities related to him).
Footnote 462:
_Baumkultus_, 359, 420; _Korndämonen_, 24.
Footnote 463:
_Baumkultus_, 349 foll., 365, 414.
Footnote 464:
Cp. the root _cas-_, which (according to Corssen, _Aussprache_, i. 652 note), appears both in _canus_ and _cascus_, and also in the Oscan _casnar_ = ‘an old man.’ The word _casnar_ is used by Varro (ap. Nonium, 86) for _sexagenarius_, or possibly _argeus_: ‘Vix ecfatus erat cum more maiorum carnales (= casnales) arripiunt et de ponte deturbant.’ Cf. Varro, _L. L._ 7. 73; Mommsen, _Unteritalische Dialekten_, p. 268. The root _arg_ may perhaps have meant _holy_ as well as old or white, like the Welsh _gwen_ (Rhys, _Celtic Mythology_, 527 note).
Footnote 465:
_Baumkultus_, 214-16, 355, &c. On p. 356 is a valuable note giving examples from America, India, &c. For a remarkable case from ancient Egypt, of which the object is not rain, but inundation, see Tylor, _Prim. Cult._ ii. 368. See also Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_ (E. T.), p. 593 foll.
Footnote 466:
_Quaest. Rom._ 86. This work is undoubtedly drawn chiefly from Varro’s writings, but largely through the medium of those of Juba the king of Mauretania, who wrote in Greek (Barth de Jubae Ὁμοιότησιν in Plutarcho expressis: Göttingen, 1876).
Footnote 467:
Parallels in _Baumkultus_, pp. 170, 178, 211, 409. These are examples of May-trees and other objects, sometimes decked out as human beings, which are hung up in the homestead for a certain time—e. g. in Austria from May-day to St. John Baptist’s day, a period closely corresponding both in length and season to that at Rome, from March 15 to May 15. In the church of Charlton-on-Otmoor, near Oxford, it is hung on the rood-screen from May 1 onwards.
Footnote 468:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 5. 627; Dionys. 1. 38.
Footnote 469:
See Macrob. 1. 7. 28. In Dionysius’ version, however, of the line it is Ἅιδης to whom the sacrifice is offered.
Footnote 470:
Festus, 334.
Footnote 471:
_Topogr._ ii. 285.
Footnote 472:
_Lex._ s. v. Mercurius, p. 2804.
Footnote 473:
Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 5.
Footnote 474:
It seems to me probable that there was a Mercurius at Rome before the introduction of Hermes; but this cannot be proved. It seems likely that the temple-cult established in 495 B.C. was really that of Hermes under an Italian name, as in the parallel case of Ceres. This was one year later than the date of the Ceres-temple (above, p. 74).
Footnote 475:
Mercuriales, or Mercatores (Jordan, _Topogr._ i. 1. 278). They belonged to the collegia of the pagi.
Footnote 476:
See on March 17 and January 9.
Footnote 477:
i. 262 foll.; Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 445; Gell. _N. A._ 5. 12.
Footnote 478:
_C. I. L._ i. 807; the dedication of an altar (Vediovei Patrei genteiles Iuliei) found at Bovillae.
Footnote 479:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 429; Gell. 5. 12. It was this temple which had May 21 as its ‘dies natalis.’
Footnote 480:
Liv. 31. 21. 12 (reading Vediovi for deo Iovi, with Merkel and Jordan).
Footnote 481:
Gell. l. c.; Preller, i. 264, and Jordan’s note.
Footnote 482:
Gell. 5. 12. The meaning of the expression is not clear. Paulus (165) writes: ‘Humanum sacrificium dicebant quod mortui causa fiebat’—which does not greatly help us. Preller reasonably suggested that the goat might be a substitutory victim in place of a ‘homo sacer’ or criminal (i. 265).
Footnote 483:
Above, p. 63.
Footnote 484:
_Fasti_, 5. 725.
Footnote 485:
_de Feriis_, xv.
Footnote 486:
Gell. 13. 23.
Footnote 487:
The Hephaestus-myth has been treated on the comparative method by F. von Schröder (_Griech. Götter u. Heroen_, i. 79 foll.), and by Rapp in _Myth. Lex._ It is of course possible that it may have been known to the early Italians, but what we know of Volcanus does not favour this.
Footnote 488:
Vitruvius, 3. 2. 2; it was ‘proxime portam Collinam.’
Footnote 489:
See below, pp. 165, 223.
Footnote 490:
Liv. 34. 53; Aust, _de Aedibus_, p. 20.
Footnote 491:
This seems to have been the date among the Anauni of N. Italy as late as 393 A.D.: see the _Acta Martyrum_, p. 536 (Verona, 1731). (For the Anauni, Rushforth, _Latin Historical Inscriptions_, p. 99 foll.)
Footnote 492:
_Chron._ 70 foll.: a difficult bit of calculation.
Footnote 493:
Mommsen, l. c. Henzen, _Acta Fr. Arv._ xlvi-xlviii; Jordan on Preller, i. 420, and _Topogr._ i. 289, ii. 236. The latter would also identify Ambarvalia and Amburbium; but the two seem clearly distinguished by Servius (_Ecl._ 3.77).
Footnote 494:
p. 200. Huschke, _Röm. Jahr_, 63.
Footnote 495:
p. 5. See Jordan on Preller, i. 420, note 2; Marq. 200, note 3.
Footnote 496:
_Georg._ 1. 338 foll.
Footnote 497:
‘Extremae sub casum hiemis’ might possibly suit the Italian April, but certainly not the Italian May. May 1 is the earliest date we have for an agri lustratio, i. e. in Campania (_C. I. L._ x. 3792). ‘Tunc mollissima vina’ may contain a reference to the Vinalia of April 23, when the new wine was first drunk; and if that were so, the general reference might be to the Cerialia or its rustic equivalent.
Footnote 498:
_R. R._ 141. Cp. Siculus Flaccus in _Gromatici Veteres_, p. 164. The lustratio should be celebrated before even the earliest crops (e. g. beans) were cut.
Footnote 499:
Henzen, _Acta Fr. Arv._ xlviii.
Footnote 500:
Cato, _R. R._ 141. I have availed myself of the Italian translation and commentary of Prof. De Marchi in his work on the domestic religion of the Romans, p. 128 foll.
Footnote 501:
Bücheler, _Umbrica_; Bréal, _Les Tables Eugubines_.
Footnote 502:
Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, p. 292.
Footnote 503:
I am informed that it visited one hamlet, Horton, which is not at present in the parish of Charlton; of this there should be some topographical explanation.
Footnote 504:
The cross is very commonly carried about on the continent, and in Holland the week is called cross-week for this reason. But at Charlton there seems to have been a confusion between this cross and the May-queen or May-doll; for on May-day, 1898, the old woman who decked it called it ‘my lady,’ and spoke of ‘her waist,’ &c. I am indebted to the Rev. C. E. Prior, the present incumbent, for information about this interesting survival.
MENSIS IUNIUS.
KAL. IUN. (JUNE 1). N.
IUNONI MONETAE (VEN.)
FABARICI C[IRCENSES] M[ISSUS]. (PHILOC.)