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CHILDREN'S GAMES 525
This may have been said only to amuse us, but it may also have been the remains of an old festival dance. I believe there were more words, but I cannot remember them. Hemp seed is associated with ceremonies of magical nature, being one of those used by maidens as a charm to enable them to see a future husband.
Representation in pantomime of the different actions used in the ceremonies of sowing the grain, its growth, and the consequent reaping, binding, and carrying the grain, are practised in different parts of the globe. This is brought down to later times by the custom noted on p. 319, vol. i., where from Long Ago and Best's Rural Economy of Yorkshire (1641), instances are given of it being customary, at harvest-homes, to give representations of " hirings " of farm-servants. The hiring of a farm labourer, the work he had to do, his terms of service, and the food to be supplied him, were dramatically performed, showing clearly that it had been customary to go through this sort of thing, in earnest of what was expected—in fact, a sort of oral contract, in presence of witnesses.
I will conclude this part of my evidence by a summary of the conclusions arrived at by anthropological authorities.
Sir John Lubbock, in Origins of Civilisation (fifth ed., p. 257), says, " Dancing among savages is no mere amusement." He quotes from Robertson's America (iv. p. 133) as follows : " It is an important occupation, which mingles in every occurrence of public or private life. If any intercourse be necessary between two American tribes, the ambassadors of the one approach in a solemn dance, and present the calumets or emblem of peace; the sachems of the other receives it with the same ceremony. If war is denounced against an enemy, it is by a dance expressive of the resentment which they feel, and of the vengeance which they meditate. If the wrath of their gods is to be appeased, or their beneficence to be celebrated; if they rejoice at the birth of a child, or mourn the death of a friend—they have dances appropriate to each of these situations, and suited to the different sentiments with which they are animated. If a person is indisposed, a dance is prescribed as the most |
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