PLAY 



67 



dressing the corpse, putting an inscription on the place where it is 

 laid, and singing the dirge are indicated in some of the numerous 

 variants of this popular game. ^ 



Our marriage ceremony, all-necessary as it is to preserve our 

 social institutions and a high morality, is oftentimes but a merry 

 festival. The "best man" in the village was once needed to effect the 

 capture of a bride, who was one of the most useful and valuable chat- 

 tels a father possessed. The throwing of rice at a wedding was 

 originally throwing of all sorts of missiles by the enraged relatives of 

 the bride at the successful bridegroom as he carried off his prize. 



Grimm informs us that divinities form the core of many of our 

 games and pastimes. The goddess Ostara, or Eastre (Easter), is pre- 

 served to us in the name of our Easter festival. Our festivals and 

 games at Easter are probably in their origin rites pertaining to the 

 goddess Ostara. Christianity was wise in grafting on the newer doc- 

 trines to the well-established heathen customs and practices. These 

 Easter games came down from dark and remote ages. Easter eggs 

 and the Easter tale, which preachers told from the pulpit for the 

 people's amusement, are old heathen rites. ^ So with the heathen Yule 

 festivities and many other rites. 



Fairy tales, with their frequent metamorphoses, may be traced 

 back to god-myths, and even to the earlier stage of the animal-epos. 

 In the myths of primitive America the methods of primitive thought 

 are perhaps better illustrated than in the myths of other countries. 

 Curtin^ divides the myths of primitive America into two groups, 

 creation myths and action myths. According to the first class there 

 existed at first a world of primitive people or gods, who were different 

 from us entirely. These people were almost innumerable, dwelling 

 together in perfect harmony for an indefinite length of time. The 

 minds of these people, with but a few exceptions, changed, however. 

 Discord broke out, one wanting one thing and another another thing. 

 Conflict set in and the consequence was that in the struggle some 

 were changed into plants, some into animals, others into minerals and 



'Ibid. 



'Grimm, German Mythology, 



^Curtin. Creation Myths of Primitive America, p. xx. 



