SACRED BREADS AND CAKES. 541 



The people living- on the coast of (Jorainaudel have an ordeal con 

 sisting- in the chewing- of unboiled rice. So harm will attach to him 

 who tells the truth, but the perjurer is threatened with condign pun 

 ishment in this world and in that to come. 1 Bread is bitten when the 

 Ostaaks of Siberia take a solemn oath, such as one of fealty to the. Czar. 2 



SACRED. BREADS AND CAKES. 



Since the employment of hoddentin, or tule pollen, as a sacred com 

 memorative food would seem to have been fairly demonstrated, before 

 closing- this section I wish to add a few paragraphs upon the very gen 

 eral existence of ritualistic farinaceous foods in all parts of the world. 

 They can be detected most frequently in the ceremonial reversion to a 

 grain or seed which has passed or is passing out of everyday use in 

 some particular form given to the cake or bread or some circumstance 

 of time, place, and mode of manufacture and consumption which stamps 

 it as a &quot; survival. So deeply impressed was Grimm 3 with the wide hori 

 zon spreading around the consideration of this topic that he observed : 

 &quot;Our knowledge of heathen antiquities will gain both by the study of 

 these drinking usages which have lasted into later limes and also of 

 the shapes given to baked meats, which either retained the actual forms 

 of ancient idols or were accompanied by sacrificial observances. A 

 history of German cakes and bread rolls might contain some unexpected 

 disclosures. . . . Even the shape of cakes is a reminiscence of the 

 sacrifices of heathenism.&quot; 



The first bread or cake to be mentioned in this part of the subject is 

 the pancake, still so frequently used on the evening of Shrove Tuesday. 

 In antiquity it can be traced back before the Reformation, before the 

 Crusades were dreamed of, before the Barbarians had subverted Rome, 

 before Rome itself had fairly taken shape. 



There seems to have been a very decided religious significance in the 

 preparation of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. In Leicestershire, &quot;On 

 Shrove Tuesday a bell rings at noon, which is meant as a signal for the 

 people to begin frying their pancakes.&quot; 4 



&quot; The Norman Crinpella (Dn Cange) arc evidently taken from the 

 FornacaUn, on the 18th of February, in memory of the method of mak- 

 ing- bread, before the Goddess For tin x invented ovens.&quot; 5 



Under &quot;Crispelhe,&quot; Du Cange says: &quot; Rustici apud Nonnaiinos vocant 

 Crespes, ova pauca inixta cum farina, et in sartagine frixa,&quot; and says 

 , that they are &quot;ex herba, farina et oleo.&quot;&quot; These same Crispella: are to 

 be seen on the Rio Grande during Christmas week. 



In the Greek Church and throughout Russia there is to the present 

 time a &quot; pancake feast&quot; at Shrovetide. 7 



1 Voyage of Caiit. Amasa Delano, Boston, 1847. p. 2:10. Compare with the ordeal of Scotch cousnir 

 atdrs, who ate a fragment of harley bread together. 



Gauthier de la Peyron 

 Teutonic Mythology, 

 4 Macaulay quoled in B 

 5 Foshrooke, British M&amp;lt; 

 &quot; l)u C angi . fJlossarim: 



e, Voyages de Pallas. Paris. 170:t, vol.4, p. 75.. 

 ol. 1. p. 0:(. 



and, Pop. All!., vol. 1. p. 85. 

 nachisin. p. 83. 

 articles &quot; Orispelhe &quot; and Oespella-.&quot; 



7 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 1, p. ( 



