[529]. S. I. Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, pp. 116 sq.; Mrs. H. H. Spoer, “The Powers of Evil in Jerusalem,” Folk-lore, xviii. (1907) p. 55; A. Jaussen, Coutumes des Arabes au pays de Moab (Paris, 1908), p. 360.
[530]. J. M. Mackinlay, Folk-lore of Scottish Lochs and Springs (Glasgow, 1893), p. 112.
[531]. A. C. Haddon and C. R. Browne, “The Ethnography of the Aran Islands,” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, ii. (1893), p. 819.
[532]. R. C. Hope, The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England (London, 1893), p. 122.
[533]. R. C. Hope, op. cit. pp. 107 sq.
[534]. See, for example, Pausanias, ii. 15. 5, v. 7. 2 sq., vi. 22. 9, vii. 23. 1 sq., viii. 43. 1, ix. 1. 1 sq., ix. 34. 6 and 9.
[535]. Sophocles, Trachiniae, 6 sqq. The combat of Hercules with the bull-shaped river-god in presence of Dejanira is the subject of a red-figured vase painting. See Miss J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion 2nd Ed., (Cambridge, 1908), Fig. 133, p. 434.
[536]. Aeschines, Epist. x. The letters of Aeschines are spurious, but there is no reason to doubt that the custom here described was actually observed.
[537]. See the evidence collected by Mr. Floyd G. Ballentine, “Some Phases of the Cult of the Nymphs,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, xv. (1904) pp. 97 sqq.
[538]. F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, i. 107-110, ii. 550. At Ragusa in Sicily an enormous effigy of a dragon, with movable tail and eyes, is carried in procession on St. George’s Day (April 23rd); and along with it two huge sugar loaves, decorated with flowers, figure in the procession. At the end of the festival these loaves are broken into little bits, and every farmer puts one of the pieces in his sowed fields to ensure a good crop. See G. Pitrè, Feste patronali in Sicilia (Turin and Palermo, 1900), pp. 323 sq. In this custom the fertility charm remains, though the marriage ceremony appears to be absent. As to the mummers’ play of St. George, see E. K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage (Oxford, 1903), i. 205 sqq.; A. Beatty, “The St. George, or Mummers’, Plays,” Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, xv. part ii. (October, 1906) pp. 273-324. A separate copy of the latter work was kindly sent to me by the author.