[651] Grimm, ii. 675, 763; Swainson, Folk-lore of British Birds (F. L. S.), 109; Hardy, Popular History of the Cuckoo, in F. L. Record, ii; Mannhardt, in Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie, iii. 209. Cf. ch. v.
[652] Aristotle, Poetics, i. 5 αὐτῷ δέ τῷ ῥυθμῷ [ποιεῖται τὴν μίμησιν] χωρὶς ἁρμονίας ἡ [τέχνη] τῶν ὀρχηστῶν, καὶ γὰρ οὗτοι διά τῶν σχηματιζομένων ῥυθμῶν μιμοῦνται καὶ ἤθη καὶ πάθη καὶ πράξεις. Cf. Lucian, de Saltatione, xv. 277. Du Méril, 65, puts the thing well: ‘La danse n’a été l’invention de personne: elle s’est produite d’elle-même le jour que le corps a subi et dû refléter un état de l’âme.... On ne tarda pas cependant à la séparer de sa cause première et à la reproduire pour elle-même ... en simulant la gaieté on parvenait réellement à la sentir.’
[653] Wallaschek, 216; Grosse, 165, 201; Hirn, 157, 182, 229, 259, 261; Du Méril, Com. 72; Haddon, 346; Grove, 52, 81; Mrs. Gomme, ii. 518; G. Catlin, On Manners ... of N. Amer. Indians (1841), i. 128, 244. Lang, M. R. R. i. 272, dwells on the representation of myths in savage mystery-dances, and points out that Lucian (loc. cit.) says that the Greeks used to ‘dance out’ (ἐξορχεῖσθαι) their mysteries.
[654] The chanson of Transformations (cf. p. 170) is sung by peasant-girls as a semi-dramatic duet (Romania, vii. 62); and that of Marion was performed ‘à deux personnages’ on Shrove Tuesday in Lorraine (Romania, ix. 568).
[655] Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerarium Cambriae, i. 2 (Opera, R.S. vi. 32) ‘Videas enim hic homines seu puellas, nunc in ecclesia, nunc in coemiterio, nunc in chorea, quae circa coemiterium cum cantilena circumfertur, subito in terram corruere, et primo tanquam in extasim ductos et quietos; deinde statim tanquam in phrenesim raptos exsilientes, opera quaecunque festis diebus illicite perpetrare consueverant, tam manibus quam pedibus, coram populo repraesentantes. videas hunc aratro manus aptare, illum quasi stimulo boves excitare; et utrumque quasi laborem mitigando solitas barbarae modulationis voces efferre. videas hunc artem sutoriam, illum pellipariam imitari. item videas hanc quasi colum baiulando, nunc filum manibus et brachiis in longum extrahere, nunc extractum occandum tanquam in fusum revocare; istam deambulando productis filis quasi telam ordiri: illam sedendo quasi iam orditam oppositis lanceolae iactibus et alternis calamistrae cominus ictibus texere mireris. Demum vero intra ecclesiam cum oblationibus ad altare perductos tanquam experrectos et ad se redeuntes obstupescas.’
[656] Cf. p. 151 with Mrs. Gomme’s Memoir (ii. 458) passim, and Haddon, 328. Parallel savage examples are in Wallaschek, 216; Hirn, 157, 259.
[657] Mrs. Gomme, ii. 399, 494 and s. vv.; Haddon, 340. Similar games are widespread on the continent; cf. the Rabelais quotation on p. 167. Haddon quotes a French formula, ending
‘Aveine, aveine, aveine,
Que le Bon Dieu t’amène.’
[658] Wallaschek, 273; Hirn, 285.