250 



NA TURE 



[January i6, 1902 



stone circle the priests, by looking along the axis in an 

 opposite direction, could note the sunsets marking the 

 completion of the half of the sun's yearly round in 

 November and February. 



Now to those who know anything of the important 

 ■contributions of (Irimm, Rhys, Kraser, and many others 

 we might name, to our knowledge of the mythology, 

 worships and customs in the Mediterranean basin and 

 western Europe, an inspection of the first columns in 

 the above tables will show that here we have a common 

 meeting ground for temple orientation, vegetation 

 and customs depending on it, religious festivals and 

 inythology. From the Egyptian times at least to 

 our own a generic sun god has been specifically com- 

 memorated in each of the named months. Generic 

 customs with specific differences are as easily traced in the 

 same months ; while generic vegetation with specific re- 

 presentatives proper to the season of the year has been 

 so carefully regarded that even December, though 

 without May flowers or .A.ugust harvests, not to be out- 

 done, brings forward its offering in the shape of the 

 berries of the mistletoe and holly. 



With regard especially to the particular time chosen 

 for sim-worship and the worship of the gods and solar 

 heroes connected with the years to which I have referred, 

 I may add that a cursory examination of Prof. Rhys' 

 book containing the Hibbert lectures of 1886, in the light 

 of these years, used as clues, suggests that in Ireland 

 the sequence was May-November (Fomori and Fir 

 Bolg), August- February (Lug and the Tuatha Dt5 

 Danann), and, lastly, June-December (Cuchulainn). 

 Should this be confirmed we see that the farmers' years 

 were the first to be established, and it is interesting to 

 note that the agricultural rent year in many parts of 

 Ireland still runs from May to November. It is well 

 also to bear in mind, if it be established that the solstitial 

 year did really arrive last, that the facts recorded by Mr. 

 Fraser in his " Golden Bough ' indicate that the custom 

 of lighting fires on hills has been in historic times most 

 prevalent at the summer solstice ; evidently maps showing 

 the geographical distribution of the May, June and 

 August fires would be of great value. 



Some customs of the May and August years are 

 common to the solstitial and e(|uinoctial years. Each was 

 ushered in by fires on hills and the like ; flowers in May 

 and the fruits of the earth in August are associated with 

 them ; there are also special customs in the case of 

 November. In western Europe, however, it does not 

 seem that such traditions exist over such a large area as 

 that over which the remnants of the solstitial practices 

 have been traced. 



I have pointed out that both the May and August 

 years began when the sun had the same declination 

 (16° N.) or thereabouts ; once, on its ascent from March 

 to the summer solstice in June, again in its decline from 

 the solstice to .September. Hence it may be more diffi- 

 cult in this case to disentangle and follow the mythology, 

 but the two years stand out here and there. 



W'ith regard to August, Mr. Penrose's orientation data 

 for the panathenioa fix the 19th day (Gregorian) for the 

 festival in the Hecatompedon ; similar celebrations were 

 not peculiar to western Europe and Greece, as a com- 

 parison of dates of worship will show. 



April 28 and August 16 



April 29 „ August 13 



May I ,, August 12 



April iS ,, August 24 



Hecatompedon 



Older Erectheum ... 



Temple of Min, Thebes ... 

 ,, Ptah, Memphis ... 

 „ ,, Annu 

 ,, Diana, Ephesus... 



April 29 ,, August 13 



In the above table I have given both the dates on 

 which the sunlight (at rising or setting) entered the 

 temple, but we do not know for certain, except in the 

 case of the Hecatompedon, on which of the two days the 



NO. 16S1, VOL. 65] 



temples were used ; it is likely they were all used on both 

 days, and that the variation from the dates proper to the 

 sun's declination of 16 indicates that they were very 

 accurately oriented to fit the local vegetation conditions 

 in the most important and extensive temple fields in the 

 world. 



This is the more probable because the Jews also after 

 they had left Egypt established their feast of Pentecost 

 fifty days after Easter=May 10,' on which day loaves 

 made of newly harvested corn formed the chief 

 offering. 



With regard to the equinoctial year, the most complete 

 account of the temple arrangements is to be found in 

 Josephus touching that at Jerusalem. The temple 

 had to be so erected that at the spring equinox the sun- 

 rise light should fall on, and be reflected to the wor- 

 shippers by, the sardonyx stones on the high priest's 

 garment. At this festival the first barley was laid upon 

 the altar. 



But this worship was in full swing in Egypt for 

 thousands of years before we hear of it in connection 

 with the Jews. It has left its temples at Ephesus, Athens 

 and other places, and with the opening of this year as 

 well as the solstitial one the custom of lighting fires is 

 associated, not only on hills, but also in churches. 



Here the sequence of cult cannot be mistaken. We 

 begin with Isis and the young sun-god, Horus, at the 

 pyramids and we end with " Lady day,' a British legal 

 date; while St. Peter's at Rome is as truly oriented to the 

 equinox as the pyramids themselves, so that we have a 

 distinct change of cult with no change of orientation. 



If such considerations as these help us to connect 

 Egyptian with Celtic worships we may hope that they will 

 be no less useful when we go further afield. I gather 

 from a study of Mr. Maudslay's admirable plans of 

 Palenque and Chichen-Itza that the solstitial and farmers' 

 years' worships were provided for there. How did these 

 worships and associated temples with naos and sphinxes 

 get from Egypt to Yucatan ? The more we know of 

 ancient travel the more we are convinced that it was 

 coastwise, that is, from one point of visible land to the 

 next. Are the cults as old as dififcrences in the coast- 

 lines which would most easily explain their wide distri- 

 bution ? NOK.M.VN LOCKYKR. 

 {To be continued.) 



HABITS OF INSECTS? 



SEVEN volumes of M. Fabre's observations on insects 

 have been published between 1879 and 1S90, under 

 the title of " Souvenirs Entomologiques," containing the 

 results of long and patient investigations into the habits 

 of insects of the south of France ; and we are glad to 

 see the first volume translated into Flnglish in its entirety. 

 It is much better to begin at the beginning, rather than 

 to issue merely a selection from the seven volumes, which 

 was what we had expected to find when we opened the 

 book. The English edition is tastefully got up, and the 

 illustrations are attractive. We may say that there are 

 none in the French except a few text-illustrations in some 

 of the later volumes of the series. The English title, 

 " Insect Life," is, however, somewhat objectionable, as 

 there are already other English and .American books 

 bearing the same title. 



The first volume, now to be noticed, includes twenty- 

 two chapters, relating to the habits of the Sacred Beetle, 



1 Compare this wilh the fifty maidens who t.an .-iway from the Ultonian 

 court (Rhy.s "Hibbert Lectures," p. 434)- ,^, „ 



-' •• Insect Life : Souvenirs of a Naturalist. By I. H. Fabre, Doctcur 

 ts Sciences. I'ranslateil frour the French by the author of " Mademoiselle 

 Mori" With a preface by David Sharp, M.A., F.R.S., and edited by 

 F. Merrificld. With illustrations by M. Prendergast Parker. Pp. xii+szo. 

 (L.ondon: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., igoi.) I'ricc 6s. 



