VIII. 
286 RHODES. 
CHAP, fat old man, attended with great pomp. We 
unfortunately missed the opportunity of bearing 
testimony to this remarkable example of the 
existence of Pagan rites in remaining popular 
superstitions'. Mr. Spurring, a naval architect, 
who resided at Rhodes, and Mr. Cope, a com- 
missary belonging to the British army, informed 
us of the fact ; both of whom had seen the 
procession. The same ceremony also takes place 
in the Island of Scio. 
(l) Even in the town of Cambridge, and centre of cur University, 
many curious remains of very antient customs may be noticed, in dif- 
ferent seasons of the year, which have passed without observation. 
The custom of blowing horns upon the first of May {Old Style) is 
derived from a festival in honour of Diana. At the J/awkie, as it is 
called, or Harvest- Home, may be seen a clown dressed in female apparel, 
having his face painted, and his head decorated with ears of corn, and 
bearing about him other symbols of Ceres, the while he is carried in a 
waggon, with great pomp and loud shouts, through the streets ; the 
horses being covered with white sheets. When we have asked the 
meaning of this ceremony, the people answer, that they are drawing 
MoRGAY (MHTHP th) or Harvest Queen." These antient customs of 
the countrj' did not escape the notice of Erasmus, when he was in 
England. He had observed them, both at Cambridge and in London; 
and particularly mentions the Mowing of hxrrns, and the ceremony of 
depositing a deer's head upon the altar of St. Paul's Church, which 
was built upon the site of a temple of Diana, by Ethelhcrt king of 
Kent, in the time of I\lelitus first Bishop of London, as appears from 
a manusciipt in the Cottonian Collection. " ^pvd ^4nglos," says 
Erasmus, " mos est Londini, ut certo die populus in summum tem- 
plum Paulo sacrum inducat longo hastili inipositum caput ferse, cum 
inamceno sonitu coknuum veNatoriobuim. H&c pomp4 proceditur ad 
summum altare ; dicas omncs afflatos furore Deli*." Erasmi Et- 
<ksiast(P, lib. i. Op. tnni. V. p, 701. 'icQ dho KniglW s Life of Erasmus , 
Canib. 1726. p. 237. 
