The Elbert County tribune., 1909-12-23

Egyptians but they require clever man to hunt them
out, capable of getting great results from small
data"
At the period these authors wrote all
ing and science confined circle of
initiates The folks kept in strict igno-
of the true meaning of their festivals; the
teries hidden book their significance,
and only the outward visible sign the celebrations
came within their ken How far the secrets were kept
by these 1ntates-a combination compared with which
steel and sink insignifcance-
is we'll known every Thus many cases
1t is impossible trace definitely the actual basis of
these ancient myths and customs and attempts,
force must necessarily remain much In the
patchwork quilt gathered here and there
the ancient writings helps work up quilt
ultimate stage has somewhat crazy appearance.
1t is all the exasperating. because many these
early writer's such Herodotus, Plutarch others
stopped short in their screeds Just when few ex
ira words would have eased the knots that
from unraveling the skein They initiates
thus silence. Their oaths however: did pre-
vent them whetting curiosity and leaving
ston where Putarch cynically remarks it would
deed be clever task to get great results from small
data"
Athenaeus another the old Greek gossipers in
speaking of the policy OF the adopting
toms of peoples whom they had conquered For it
the conduct of prudent to abide by those ancient
institutions under which they and their ancestors
lived, and made and subdued the of the
world yet at same time were any use
full honorable Institutions among the peoples
they have subdued those they imitation
the same time as they take their prisoners And this was
the conduct of the Romans in oden ime for they
tanning their national customs. at the time intro
duced from the nations they had subdued every
measure. the policy the early adapt
heather easts and sacrifices to the festivals OF
church. With them however, 1t rather a
adaptation than of adoption, believing that the
der of things would easier to the converts to the
Christian religion If The changes not made
sweeping too harsh Thus 1t is that many
customs connected with festivals have down
from time long prior to the birth of the Saviour.
Unlike the many customs connected with the ceebra-
tion Christmas those of the beginning of the New
Year to bear of the stamp of paganism.
the time such customs show rather close
In N a bOth can
the celebrations round the ancient
Saturnalia and winter sostice, when the year
went the in; period of general
jocing and 1t must be admitted of degree
dyism noise and license which all the fulminations
church the Middle Ages city ordinances
of chiefs of police in these later days
been unable suppress The youngster to-day
his horn just prominent in creating a
his prototype of couple of thousand years ago.
OF late years this period largely re-
the of Christmas and New
merly period closely following Christmas day
and villages and the Lord of Msrule,
Abbot of Unreason the Abbas Stutorum held
sway "Fete of Fools" celebrated the three
days following Christmas eliminating Holy
day in a general jamboree in which the
spared Young people dressed themselves
up great dgntaries of the church. and the
very Offices have been paradied and dances held
in the The Of the Council
1260 under pain of accommodation all
masqueraded bishops. etc. At the councils
held Nantes in 143 and at Bourges in 143S fulmina
tons against the "Fete of Fools" while
early celebration abolished by the council
Paris. Yet the custom of masquerading the
days following Christmas is not extinct in dis
of France and elsewhere but the celebration has
shorn of much of its picturesqueness and the
tmeo ftq