158 KINDRED GROUP-MARRIAGE 



German mahal, the tribal judicial assembly going on ; 

 but at the same time the winileod is heard, the dance 

 and the brands of the free Friesian brides are seen, and 

 ayopd and %o/309 unite as the Mrdt and hileih to 

 complete the picture of primitive tribe -talk, feast, and 

 kindred bridal. The association of %o/>o? with feast, 

 with religious ceremony, and with the hedged or staked 

 inclosure its root is the same as in garth, yard, and 

 hortus are all paralleled in the KW/AOS and hag concep- 

 tions, with which I have already dealt. It is further 

 noteworthy that one of the great choral festivals, that 

 of the Lenaea, took place in the month of Fa/^Xtwz/, 

 which covered the latter half of January and the first 

 half of February. This month is said to have been so 

 called because it was a fashionable time for weddings, 

 but the name much more probably arose from the old 

 sex-festivals occurring in this period. 1 It may be noted 

 that February in Germany is termed the Weibermonat, 

 since " im Februar fiihren die Frauen das Eegiment " ; 

 and I am inclined to interpret the O.H.G. name Hornung 

 in the same sense, i.e. the month of that free intercourse 

 which resulted in the offspring hornunge, children, 

 whom a later age regarded as bastard and illegitimate. 

 The Eoman Lupercalia held on February 15th was 

 essentially a worship of fertility, and the privileges 

 supposed to be attached to women in our own country 

 during this month especially on February 14th and 

 29th are probably a fossil of the same sex-freedom. 2 



1 The ancient Irish "annual marriages " were dissolved and new ones entered 

 upon on Walpurgis Day, another great sex- festival. 



2 The mysterious festival in January of the Anglo-Saxons, which Bede terms 

 " modraneht, id est matrum noctem," deserves consideration. What also was the 



