[1070]. Mannhardt has not suggested what seems not impossible, that the horse represented Mars himself—in which case we might allow that Mars was, among other things, a vegetation deity.
[1071]. See his language at the top of p. 164.
[1072]. He ingeniously suggests that these cases of decapitation may be explained by the old custom of cutting off the corn-ears so as to leave almost the whole of the stalk. (See his Korndämonen, p. 35.) That this method existed in Latium seems proved by a passage in Livy, 22. 1 ‘Antii metentibus cruentas in corbem spicas cecidisse.’
[1073]. Dion. Hal. i. 33, who compares an Arcadian Hippokrateia.
[1074]. Op. cit. p. 182.
[1075]. See Golden Bough, i. 68 foll., and Mannhardt, A. W. F. 214 foll.
[1076]. Mannhardt, A. W. F. l. c.
[1077]. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, 167.
[1078]. p. 185 foll. The tail in Roman ritual was ‘offa penita.’ Marq. 335, note 1.
[1079]. In Silesia, &c., the word is Zâl, Zôl, which I suppose = tail.