no KINDRED GROUP-MARRIAGE 



in honour of the great goddess Mylitta essentially a 

 mother-goddess of fertility. The festival lasted for five 

 days from the ninth of July, during which time complete 

 license ruled among the people. The festival was presided 

 over by the richly -clad priestess of the goddess, the 

 Biblical woman in scarlet, " the mistress of witchcrafts," 

 who represented the goddess herself. She sat enthroned 

 on the mound which for the time was the sanctuary 

 of the deity, with the altar with oil and incense 

 before her. To her came the hero-lover represented 

 by a slave, and made homage and worshipped. From 

 her he received the symbols of kingly power, and she 

 raised him to the throne ,at her side. As her accepted 

 lover and lord of the sex-revels, he remained for the 

 five days during which the law of the goddess prevailed. 

 On the fifth day, the hero -lover is sacrificed on the 

 pyre. The male element had performed its function, 

 and, like Heracles, passed away in fire. 1 



Every stage of this far less connectedly and less 

 elaborately, it is true finds its parallel in Teutonic 

 witch -gatherings, and down to the derivation of the 

 kingly power from the woman can be traced in Ger- 

 manic custom and folklore. Our fossil reconstruction 

 is not peculiar to one narrow field of civilisation ; the 

 strongest evidence for it is to be found throughout 

 oriental myth and tradition. I have spent consider- 

 able time in describing these phases of mother -age 

 civilisation, because they will be less familiar than 

 the patriarchal to many of my readers ; and without 



1 The whole inner meaning of the festival is well illustrated by Bachofen 

 in Die Sage von Tanaquil, especially in relation to the mother-age among the 

 Eastern nations. 



