[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).
[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.’
[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.
[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.
[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].
[451]. A point suggested to me some years ago by Mr. A. J. Evans.
[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.
[453]. Dionysius (1. 38) speaks of sacrifice before the immersion of the puppets: προθύσαντες ἱερὰ τὰ κατὰ τοὺς νόμους.
[454]. The βούλιμος and φαρμακός, Mannhardt, Myth. Forsch. 129 foll.
[455]. Germania, 40: Mannhardt, Baumkultus, 567 foll. The evidence is perhaps hardly adequate as to detail.