BOURKE. ] CEREMONIAL CAKE AND BREAD. 545 
ing Bryant’s Analysis, derives the Good Friday bun from the sacred 
cakes which were offered at the Arkite Temples, styled Boun, and pre- 
sented every seventh day,” p. 155. A very interesting dissertation 
upon these sacred cakes as used by the Greeks, Egyptians, and Jews 
in the time of their idolatry, is to be found in Brand’s work, pp. 155- 
156.) 
Practices analogous to those referred to are to be noted among the 
Pueblo Indians. They offer not only the kunque, but bread also in their 
sacrifices. 
In the sacred rabbit hunt of the Zuni, which occurs four times a year 
and is carried on for the purpose of procuring meat for the sacred eagles 
confined in cages, a great fire was made on the crest of a hill, into 
which were thrown piles of bread crusts and in the smoke of which the 
boomerangs or rabbit sticks were held while the hunter recited in an 
audible tone and with downeast head the prayers prescribed for the 
occasion. One of the early Spanish writers informs us that the women 
of the pueblo of Santo Domingo, on the Rio Grande, offered bread on 
bended knees to their idols and then preserved it for the remainder of 
the year, and the house which did not have a supply of such blessed 
bread was regarded as unfortunate and exposed to danger. ” 
A prehistoric farinaceous food of the Romans survives in our bride- 
cake or wedding cake. It is well understood that among the Romans 
there were three kinds of marriage: that called ‘‘coemptio,” that called 
“coneubitu” or “usu,” and the highest form of all, known as ‘confar- 
ratio,” from the fact that bride and groom ate together of a kind of 
cake or bread made of the prehistoric flour, the ‘‘ far.” We have pre- 
served the custom of having bridecake, which is still served with many 
superstitious ceremonies: ‘it must be cut by the bride herself; it must 
be broken in pieces (formerly these pieces were cast over the heads of 
the bridesmaids), and, after being passed through a wedding ring a cer- 
tain number of times, it must be placed under the pillow of the anxious 
maiden to serve as a basis for her dreams.” * 
Exactly what this prehistoric food was it is now an impossibility to 
determine with exactness. Torquemada shows that long after the Ro- 
mans had obtained the use of wheat they persisted in the sacrificial use 
of the “‘nola isla,” “farro,” and “escanda,” forms of wild grain once 
roasted and ground and made into bread by their forefathers. A simi- 
lar usage prevailed among the Greeks. Pliny speaks of “ the bearded 
red wheat, named in Latin ‘far,’” and tells us that rye was called 
“secale” or “farrago.”® The radical “far” is still to be found all over 
'See also ‘* Buns” in Inman's Ancient Faiths. 
2 Ofrecian el pan al idolo, hincados de rodillas. Bendezianlo los sacerdotes, y repartian como pan 
bendito, con lo qual se acabaua la fiesta. Guardauan aquel pan todo el ano, teniendo por desdichada, y 
sugeta a muchos peligros la casa que sin el estaua.’’—Padre Fray Alonso Fernandez (Dominican). 
Historia Eclesiastica de Nuestros Tiempos, Toledo, 1611, p. 16. 
3’ Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 2, pp. 100 et seq., quoting Blount, Moffet, and Moresin. 
4Toryuemada, Monarchia Indiana, vol. 2, lib. 7, cap. 9, p. 100. 
®Nat. Hist., lib. xviii, caps 10 et seq. and 39. 
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