The Eleusinian mysteries & rites. - The Masonic Trowel

PROGRAMME OF GREATER MYSTERIES 57
pilgrimages, when the inhabitants also fell temporarily
into line with the procession. For those who remained
behind at Eleusis the time was devoted to sports,
the combatants appearing naked, and the victors
were rewarded with a measure of barley, it being a
tradition that that grain was first sown in Eleusis.
It was also regarded as a day of solemn preparation
by those who were to be initiated on the following
night. The return journey was conducted with
the same splendour as the outward journey. It
comprised comic incidents, the same as on the
previous day. Those who awaited the procession
at the bridge over the Athenian river Cephisson
exchanged all kinds of chaff and buffoonery with
those who were in the procession, indulging in what
was termed " bridge fooling." These jests, it is
said, were to recall the tactful measures employed
by a maidservant named lambe to rouse Demeter
from her prolonged sorrowing. There is a strange
contradiction in the various statements made by
the ancient writers as to what was permissible and
what was forbidden during the ceremonies. Demeter,
when in search of her daughter, broke down with
fatigue at Eleusis, where she sat down on a well,
overwhelmed with grief. It was strictly forbidden
to any of the initiated to sit down on this well lest
it should appear that they were mimicking the
weeping goddess. Yet the mimicking of the jests
of lambe were part of the ceremonial of the