The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

136 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[112]by the cultivation of manioc, dances or rather pantomimes areperformed by masked men, who represent spirits or demons offertility, and by imitating the act of procreation are believedto stimulate the growth of plants as well as to quicken thewombs of women and to promote the multiplication of animals.Coarse and grotesque as these dramatic performances may seemto us, they convey no suggestion of indecency to the mindseither of the actors or of the spectators, who regard them in allseriousness as rites destined to confer the blessing of fruitfulnesson the inhabitants of the village, on their plantations, and on thewhole realm of nature. 354 However, we possess so little exactinformation as to the rites of Eleusis that all attempts to elucidatethem by the ritual of savages must necessarily be conjectural.Yet the candid reader may be willing to grant that conjecturessupported by analogies like the foregoing do not exceed the limitsof a reasonable hypothesis.[113]354 Th. Koch-Grünberg, Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern (Berlin, 1909-1910),i. 137-140, ii. 193-196. As to the cultivation of manioc among these Indianssee id. ii. 202 sqq.