The Virginia enterprise., 1909-12-31
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THE 0RCAARD

Egyptians but they require clever man to hunt them
out capable of getting great results from small
data"
At the period when these two authors wrote all learn
ing and science confined avery circle
initiates The common folks were kept in strict igno
of the true meaning Of their festivals: the mys
teres hidden book to their significance,
only the sign the celebrations
within their KEN How far the secrets kept
by these intates-a combination compared with which
steel and trusts sink into insigncance-
too well known to student Thus in many
is impossible to trace definitely the actual basis of
these ancient myths and customs and attempts
force must necessarily remain much In the
patchwork quilt scrap gathered here and there
the ancient writings helps work up quilt
ultimate stage has somewhat crazy appearance.
1t is all the exasperating. because many
early WRITER'S such Herodotus Plutarch others
have stopped short in their screeds just when
ira words would have eased the knots that
from unraveing the skein They initiates and
thus to silence Their oaths however, not pre-
vent them whettng curiosity and leaving in po
son where, Pluarch cynically remarks it would
deed be clever task to get great results from small
data"
Athenaeus, another Of the old Greek gossipers in
speaking of the policy of the Romans adopting the
of peoples whom they had conquered says:
is the conduct of prudent to abide by those ancient
institutions under which they and their ancestors have
lived, and made upon and subdued the rest Of the
world: yet the time, if there any use
full honorable institutions among the peoples whom
they have subdued those they take for their imitation
the time they take their prisoners And this
tanning their national CUSTOMS at the time intro
duced from the nations whom they had subdued every
relic of desirable practices which they found" This in
measure, the policy of the early fathers
ing heather easts and sacrifices to the festivals
church. With them however. it rather case Of
adaptation than of adoption, believing that
der Of things would easier to the
Christian religion if the changes not made too
sweeping too harsh Thus it is that many the
customs connected with festivals have come down to
from time long prior to the birth of the Saviour
Unlike the many customs with the celebra
ton Christmas, those Of the beginning of the New
Year to bear of the stamp of paganism At
the time such customs show rather close resem
bance due in large to the fact that both
be traced to the round the ancient
the Saurnaa and winter solstice when the old year
oicing and must be admitted Of degree
dysm, noise and license which all the fuminations of
and orders of chiefs of police in these later days have
unable to SUPPRESS The youngster to-day with
his horn is just prominent creating racket as was
his prototype Of couple Of thousand years ago.
years this period has been largely re-
strcted the Christmas and New Year but for.
mery the period closely following Christmas day
of continuous jollifcaton Mummers perambulated the
strees of the towns and villages and the Lord Msrue
the Abbot of Unreason or the Abbas stultorum held
sway The Fete OF Fools was celebrated the three
days following Christmas eliminating Holy 1nnocents
day in general jamboree, in which even the
churches spared Young people dressed themselves
up the great dignaries of the church. the
very Offices have been paradied dances held
in churches The second Council OF Cog
nac held in 1860 under pain of accommodation all
such n,asqueraded bishops, etc. At the councils
held at Nantes in 1431 and at Bourges in 1885,
tions hurled against the "Fete of Fools"
early the celebration abolished by the council
held at Paris. Yet the custom of masqueradng the
days following Christmas is not yet extinct in many dis
trcts and elsewhere but the celebration
shorn of much of its pcturesqueness and at the
same time of its extreme license.